“What are you doing here?” asked Nerdraaage.
“I came to harvest some gravewhisper.”
“I didn’t think there was a human who could harvest gravewhisper,” said Dangalf.
“Let me rephrase that,” said Icil. “I came to harvest those who harvest gravewhisper.” Nerdraaage laughed and patted his trainer on the back. Icil removed a package from his satchel and carefully unwrapped the white flower. “I watched that troll bitch for hours while she talked the plant into giving up a blossom. And when she snatched the flower, I snatched her head.”
“Sweet!” cheered Nerdraaage. “How’s your vendetta?”
“Things are afoot,” said Icil. “I may be ready to strike soon. That’s why I needed the gravewhisper, having given my last one away.”
Icil looted his kills and told the Keepers to take what they liked. He removed each corpse’s signet and copied the identifying marks onto a scroll. He then dispatched a pigeon to Vinland so that the sages could close the books on three more enemies. Icil gave a warrior signet each to Doppelganger and Nerdraaage.
“White School,” he called to Dangalf. “You take the witch’s ring. Do not wear it. And sell it only to someone who can disenchant evil things.”
Dangalf handled the ring with supreme care. He read the engraving with his limited Trollish. Narrarkbringa. That made no sense, and he figured that was her name. He was pleasantly surprised to read another word as “house.” Trolls identified themselves by houses as did elves. It was not unlike the dwarven clan. The third word would be the name of her house, which had entirely too many consonants in it to pronounce.
“Where is your mount?” asked Nerdraaage.
“She is nearby,” said Icil. “I would call her, but I am not ready to draw attention to our presence.”
“Wait till you see her,” Nerdraaage promised his friends.
Icil kicked the corpses and the severed head to the wall of gravewhisper vines. The bodies disappeared in a cocoon of living red vines.
“Need some help with your vendetta?” asked Nerdraaage.
“But you are all too inexperienced to go where I need to go,” said Icil. “Even as a group. I might even suggest that you are too unskilled yet to be loitering at the Crimson Wall. Why are you here?”
They looked to Doppelganger to answer. “I don’t know,” he said.
“I know sure enough,” said Icil. “You are a warrior, and you thirst for blood. And not that of a dumb beast. Have any of you slain a sapien?” Their silence answered his question. “Then it is high time,” said Icil. “I will take you to our enemies, and you shall have your blood. You do not know true killing until you kill something that is begging for its life.”
“But the Legion doesn’t speak our tongue,” said Dangalf.
“Begging for one’s life sounds the same in all tongues.” To varying degrees they all desired to strike at the enemy. Even Dangalf was ready to use his fire and ice on sapiens. Weyd had spent no little time on instructing Dangalf on the enemy’s history of atrocity and incorrigible wickedness. Weyd even presented him one last time before his commissioning with the choice between aspiring to the pacifistic sages or the martial mages, and Dangalf had chosen combat, just like the wizened wizard had done many decades before. Weyd had reassured him that when he actually encountered the unrighteous sapiens in combat, Dangalf would know what to do.
Icil led them away with the promise that they would that day send many Legion scum to their daevas. He examined Nerdraaage’s commission and was distressed to see that Nerdraaage had not completed any of the steps required for further training. Nerdraaage explained the Keepers had an agreement to stay together during their initial training, and now they awaited Ashlyn to complete hers. “I cannot blame you for waiting on that one,” agreed Icil. “But nonetheless, today we will attack a troll camp, and I will be able to sign off on many of your requirements.”
Icil sprinkled the Crimson Wall with liquid from a small bottle, and the wall shrieked and retreated, creating a human-size gap. Icil ducked through. “Quickly now,” he urged. And they followed apprehensively through the dripping and moaning arch.
Dangalf knew that gravewhisper was impervious even to flame. “What is that mixture?” he asked of the bottle.
“Ah,” said Icil. “It is a forbidden potion.” And he placed it back into his murder kit.
“Forbidden?” asked Dangalf. And then he remembered: “It is made of unicorn blood.”
“You know many things, White School,” said Icil. “As you should. But be assured that the wall will heal itself before our enemies find the gap.” As if on cue, the Crimson Wall began to grow into its hole. “And there you go,” said Icil. “Now you see why the less reverent among us call it the Crimson Weed.”
“Crimson Weed,” said Nerdraaage with a chuckle.
And they moved on. Dangalf noticed that as soon as they entered the lost lands, the sky was darker, it was cooler, and the natural forest colors were muted. Perhaps it was just the passing of day, he thought. “What is that smell?” he asked.
“Fires,” said Icil. “The smell of the bestial orcs perhaps.”
“I thought we were fighting trolls,” said Doppelganger.
“I thought we were fighting sapiens,” said Nerdraaage.
“We’re all sapiens,” said Dangalf.
“The camp flies a troll banner, but the guards will be orcs,” said Icil. “The officers, trolls. Ready your ranged attacks. We may meet patrols, and we will want to silence them quickly.” The smell grew stronger as they crept through the woods, and the glow of fire and the howl of wicked tongues joined it. Icil stopped them and kneeled in the woods just before a clearing that surrounded the camp. There were many wood buildings, the largest of which appeared to be a barracks. They were all one story but for the tower near the center of the camp, which was at least three stories high. From that hung a troll banner (a gravewhisper flower and a skull, an orc skull according to Icil, separated by a gold stripe, a bend sinister, on a black background). A circle of fire burned around the camp even in daylight.
“See how the wood of the buildings warp?” asked Icil. “How shabby they look? These were sacred elven groves. The trees even in death defy this black occupation.”
Two guards lazily walked the inside of the circle of flame. Orcs. The first enemy sapiens they had seen. There were two of them, red as blistering sunburns, as boiled lobsters. They had an animal gait and seemed as strong as bulls. Orcs were the most mesomorphic of the Legion’s races. Their mouths protruded from the rest of their faces to hold large, sharp teeth. As they drew closer, the Keepers could see black veins swelling under the orcs’ skin. Dangalf had not seen Doppelganger’s bloodwarp, but he had read about it and recognized it in these orcs. Orcs were thought to be the only sapiens devoid of the white bile of reason and serenity. What a cursed race they must be to live in a constant state of the bloodwarp, he thought.
The Keepers knew to be quiet as the guards passed near their position during their circle around the perimeter. One guard howled at the other, who grunted in return. It did not even seem a language to Dangalf. Dangalf hated them for how they looked and was somewhat surprised at his eagerness to kill them. Orc hatred must be a race memory in humans, he supposed. He remembered Earc, the victim of the Legion battlepig, and he found he had no mercy for these red wretches. If he felt this way, he wondered what sort of bloodlust burned inside of his Red School comrades.
Doppelganger was eager to have at the bipedal beasts. He was excited and not intimidated by the fierce-looking orcs. He knew he would be just as fierce looking to them when the bloodwarp took him. But for now he waited until Icil gave the command.
Icil instructed Nerdraaage to complete many of the tasks required for him to promote. He was to stealthily enter the camp and proceed to the tower. There he would quietly kill the tower guard, who would normally be a good archer and as such posed significant risk to the rest of them when they attacked the camp. After this h
e was to find and enter the headquarters building, where he was to retrieve correspondence, maps, keys, and other items of import as he had been previously trained. When he collected all that he could reasonably steal without detection, he was to return to Icil at this same spot. “Do you have any questions?” asked Icil.
“You want me to go in there?” asked Nerdraaage.
“Yes.”
“Are you coming with me?”
“No. You must complete these tasks with knowledge that failure can lead to death. You would not have such concern with me along, and your mettle would not be tested. What is the first rule of the blackguard?”
“There are no rules?”
“No. That’s the first rule of combat. The first rule of the blackguard is ‘I know I cannot be killed and therefore I cannot be killed.’” And turning to Doppelganger and Dangalf, he said, “You two didn’t hear that.”
They helped Nerdraaage take off his buckskin pants and jacket so he was in his blacks only. He had worn them and slept in them constantly, and they no longer squeaked. “You have your tools?” asked Icil.
“Yes,” Nerdraaage said softly.
“Packed to be silent?”
“Yes.”
“Move slowly. What do we know about the type of ground in the camp?”
“Footprints.”
“Only incidental. What is the bigger concern?”
“Dust.”
Icil nodded. “Then go to it.”
Nerdraaage unappeared, and the three watched his footprints as he left the grassy ground of the tree line and crossed the fifty feet or so to the ring of fire. Nerdraaage had vanished completely and at will. Doppelganger felt a flash of jealousy as he could still not summon his bloodwarp at will. He had experienced it only involuntarily after being struck in combat. But as Alfred had warned him, the bloodwarp must be summoned before your opponent’s first blow because the first one could be the killing blow. He wondered if he could summon it by punching himself in the face, but he decided that would look bad in front of the others.
“When he has returned, we will attack the camp,” said Icil. Icil watched Nerdraaage with an eye that easily picked up the unappeared mercenary. Nerdraaage walked slowly. Too slowly. Icil regretted emphasizing to Nerdraaage to move slowly. Too slowly also posed risks.
Nerdraaage wished he didn’t have to do this until he had mastered walk without footprints, but he would have to wait until his next training for that feat. He quickly crossed the fire barrier, where motion or burning smell could betray him.
The two guards in the lazy circle approached his direction, and he began to sweat. Damn! Why did he not wait until the guards were passed before he approached the circle of fire. Now he did not know what to do. If he moved quickly, dust or sound could give him away. If he remained still, one of them could easily step wide and walk right into him. The guards continued toward him, and their approach made his decision for him. They were too close not to notice his movement, so he stayed in place. He hoped the herb he had added to his diet was up to the task of masking his body odor even under his present duress.
The red monsters approached Nerdraaage. Now they did not even speak, denying him the cover of their own noise. Instead, they sniffed at the air with flared, bull nostrils. He put his hands to daggers, held his breath, and remained motionless as they approached. They passed so closely that Nerdraaage could see the color of their irises. They were red.
When the orcs were well ahead, Nerdraaage continued toward the camp. He strained to remember his training and Icil’s stories of death-defying experiences. He looked for traps, both blue and white, that the enemy would set for blackguards. He looked nervously for beasts that were sensitive to unappear, especially a lowly mercenary such as himself. And then he saw it, his worst fear in its armored flesh: an orc walked a five-hundred-pound battlepig on a ten-foot pole. Its sensitive nose was no match for Nerdraaage’s rudimentary unappear. The guard walked the pig away from Nerdraaage, but its very presence worried him and jeopardized everything he wanted to do.
Nerdraaage made it to the center of the camp but in surrounding himself with buildings, he had lost sight of the pig. He pressed on to the nearby tower. He climbed the tower ladder halfway, high enough to see over the other buildings, until he caught sight of the battlepig again. It was near the two perimeter guards who were having an animated discussion with the pigmaster. Had the guards sensed his presence and called for the battlepig? Had his poor timing in crossing the ring of fire turned an hourglass on his own life? How many times as a lonely, bullied youth had he had the fantasy of being able to turn invisible? But this world had taught him that invisibility alone was not enough! He continued his climb up the tower.
Near the top, Nerdraaage looked up and over the floor of the tower. There was the sentry, bow in hand. He stood opposite and looked out into the woods. Nerdraaage did not move. He stood on the ladder and thought back to Icil’s lectures on the discipline and patience of the blackguard. And while he waited patiently, he hoped that no one would come up or down the ladder. Most of all he hoped that battlepigs could not climb ladders.
Nerdraaage studied the floor of the tower. He observed the grain of the wood and where the nails were placed and picked a landing spot that would least announce him when he moved into the tower from the ladder. He recalled his instruction on unappear: breathing, joint creaking, heartbeat, body odors, body heat, and even blinking were clues to the unappeared body’s presence. And it was known that these otherwise barely discernible traits became magnified, sometimes three hundred fold, even to the untrained, when there was apparently no body present to produce them.
So he waited, and his patience was rewarded when the sentry grunted quickly to another orc below, and Nerdraaage used the moment of that utterance to climb up onto the platform. The sentry turned around quickly and looked Nerdraaage straight in the eye.
Nerdraaage flashed back to his attempt to spy on Ashlyn as she bathed alone in their room. He entered the room silently. He was sure of it. He had just bathed himself and was as unscented as any dwarf ever was. He was just inside the door and had only spotted her in the tub when she looked right at him, cocked her head, and suddenly screamed for him to get out. He immediately appeared and demanded to know how she knew he was there. “I could feel you looking at me!”
It was a real-life example of what Icil had explained to him this way: “Unappear is an unspoken agreement between the blackguard and his victim. The blackguard agrees to be unseen and the victim agrees not to see. If you look your victim in the eye, you can void that agreement.”
“So don’t look at your victim,” Nerdraaage had said.
“For fuck’s sake. You have to look at your victim! Look at his nose. If he has no nose, look at his pizzle.” And Nerdraaage stopped looking the tower orc in the eye and looked instead at his nose. When the orc turned back to his watch, Nerdraaage moved quickly. First he sapped the back of the orc’s head, and then he took his stunned victim gently to the ground. This was not compassion but for noise suppression. He looked at his vile victim now prone on his back and readied his dagger. He hesitated only slightly before striking his first-ever killing blow. He slit the monster’s throat ear to ear and restrained him until he bled out.
Nerdraaage unappeared again and lowered himself off the platform but stayed at the top of the ladder looking for the battlepig. He had orc blood on his hands now, but that should not alert a pig trained to sniff out the righteous races. Horrified, he saw the battlepig nearby sniffing the ground. It snorted on a scent it didn’t like and screamed its displeasure. Fortune smiled on him as the battlepig followed Nerdraaage’s scent back the way he had entered the camp.
Nerdraaage trusted that Icil and his friends could handle the pig and pigmaster if they made it that far, but he felt he was now pressed for time. He wished that he had not rushed off without asking Icil’s opinion on which of the buildings was the headquarters. From the ladder, he surveyed the grounds. He decided that
the building with a guard and a small troll banner was the best choice.
The guard was distracted simply enough when Nerdraaage tossed a stone at the side of the building. Icil would be proud of the simplicity. The door was open and Nerdraaage slipped into the front office. It was unoccupied. The captain’s door was ajar, and Nerdraaage passed through it without any more disturbance than a breeze would cause.
He found the troll captain sleeping at a desk. He was tall and slender, trolls being an ectomorphic race. His skin was a dark blue, and he had obvious long fangs, even with his mouth closed, and large, pointed ears that were so big as to curl down at the top. Nerdraaage knew these exaggerated features meant he was of a low caste. Icil had warned him that high-caste trolls were of such a pale blue as to be almost white and had such modest ears and fangs that they nearly resembled the elves. And they would bob their tails and wear elf scalps, the trolls being completely hairless, to complete the elf illusion.
Nerdraaage took papers from tabletops and maps posted on the wall. He picked a locked chest and took from it a coin purse and scrolls. Emboldened by his success, he even looted the desk at which the captain slept and picked his pockets. Finally he removed the captain’s sword from his scabbard and hid it behind a cabinet. He would have killed the captain but there was still the guard outside. He had killed and stolen. Now it was important that he escape.
Nerdraaage exited the door without even attempting to distract the guard. He simply stepped softly past him and looked about for the battlepig. He did not see it, and he went back to his friends in the woods.
LXVII
The battlepig departed from the camp, snorting and kicking up a dust storm. He had abandoned the faint dwarf trail for the overwhelming stench of human. The perimeter guards grunted to the pigmaster, but he was twice foolish and waved them off. (His first foolish was allowing the pig to trace Nerdraaage’s scent to where he had been instead of where he was going.)
Dangalf and Doppelganger had backed up at the approach of the battlepig, but the battlepig and pigmaster were moving forward more rapidly than they could covertly retreat. They wanted instructions from Icil, but he had unappeared soon after Nerdraaage had left.
Cronica Acadia Page 23