Scourge Twenty-Six - Troublesome

I watch as Esteban and Rafael move off to the side. They talk in quick, hushed whispered for a moment before Rafael steps away and gestures to the carts. “Boys, help them unload. Be quick about it, our lions here have a long road ahead of them.”

Glancing up, I try to guess at the time, but it’s hard to tell. The fort’s walls are too tall to see the sun, but I know that its on its way down. It’ll be nightfall in maybe three hours or so. Assuming that it takes an hour to pitch camp, that’s only one or two hours of riding.

I’m not entirely sure if it’s the best idea to head out.

I’m also a little worried that Esteban might decide to kick us out here instead of at the next village. The fort doesn’t look like it has an inn or any shops that we can grab camping supplies from. Also, I don’t feel like walking all the way over to the capital.

There are other solutions. I can summon a few monsters that can fly us to the capital. If you have giant eagles, you’d need to be pretty dumb not to use them.

“Hey! Girl!”

Esteban’s wave one arm over his head, eyes locked right onto me. I look behind me, just in case, but there’s no one there. “I’m coming,” I say before I jog over. I only pause for a moment as a couple of guards pass by, carrying a large crate between them. “What’s up?” I ask when I get closer.

Esteban nods to me, then turns back to Rafael, the rotund... is he a general? He certainly has enough spangles and plumes on his hat to pass off as one, but I think he might just be some sort of older officer. “This girl might know a little more. She’s a cultivator, better than most of mine.”

“Oh, uh, thanks,” I say. Compliments, from Esteban? This is weird.

“She can’t follow orders, she’s loud-mouthed, and she and her friends have been nothing but trouble, but I won’t deny someone the knowledge they might have.”

Right, that makes more sense. I’m not even sure if I’m angry at him or not.

“I just need all the details,” Rafael says. “As much as you can afford.”

Esteban grunts. “I left a report at the last outpost, I bet you’ll be seeing it soon, gods willing. To make a short story of it, we’ve been encountering priests of Altum all down the route from Vizeda.”

“And all that right after Vizeda was attacked by the Dark Goddess,” Rafael says.

“Uh, no,” I say.

They both glance at me.

“That wasn’t an attack from the Dark Goddess. I was there, I saw it. Those monsters that attacked the city were all weak, they were following normal dogs, and the walls were sabotaged to explode. Monsters don’t use explosives that way. That was a human-led attack that was trying to look like a monster attack.”

“That’s quite the story,” Rafael says.

“For what it’s worth, I think she might be right,” Esteban says. His hand grabs onto the pommel of his sword. An idle, dangerous gesture. “This entire situation is a mess.”

“So, you keep meeting Altum’s people on the roads,” Rafael says. “And that’s why your carts look like you’ve been riding them through a battlefield?”

“We were ambushed by a necromancer,” Esteban says.

One of Rafael’s eyebrows perk up. “That’s also a hard tale to swallow.”

Esteban nods, and I think he’s expecting the maybe-general not to believe him. “If you want witnesses, you have my whole crew.”

“Don’t forget Inigo,” I say. “They tried to assassinate him at that last outpost.”

“I hadn’t forgotten,” Esteban says. He lets out a long sigh. “We’re going about this story in the wrong order.”

“I’ve parsed my share of wild reports,” Rafael says. “Though it’s been a while since I’ve gotten so many that are so wild.”

“So many?” I ask.

He looks down at me before replying. “You’re not the first ones to make it here with stories of necromancers and undead. There have been strange movements with the local monsters too. I got wind that there’s a squad of Heroe’s Templars to the south-east investigating things as well. Something’s strange and it’s not limited to around Vizeda.”

“Bianca didn’t mention anything too weird going on around her home,” I say.

“Who?”

I gesture back towards my friends. “Bianca Malicieux. Her family’s supposed to be important around here, I think. She came to Vizeda to meet me and my friends, and now we’re travelling to the capital. Anyway, point is, she travelled to Vizeda and didn’t mention seeing or hearing about anything weird.”

Rafael sniffs. “So, you’ve gone from carrying salted fish to carrying salty noblewomen, Esteban? Regardless, you’re right, I haven’t heard much until the past few days. Whatever’s happening it’s new.”

“Or it’s just starting now,” I say. “It could be something that’s been planned for a long time too.”

“That would only be more worrying,” Esteban says. “Either way, it’s out of my hands now. You’ll be taking him in?”

“Him?” I ask.

“Inigo,” Esteban says. “We can’t keep carrying around the injured.”

“I’ll watch over him,” Rafael says. “Your hurt boys too. I can tell some of your animals are in a bad way too. I’ll have to bother my quartermaster, but I think I can loan you a few, keep yours here in the meantime. It’ll give them some time to heal up.”

“We’ll be reaching Castanda’s Stop by tomorrow morning,” Esteban says. “And should be back here by the day after. It’s not a big rest.”

“Two days can make a difference,” Rafael says. “Bah, the work’s nearly done, you need to get ready to head out again. I’ll talk to the quartermaster.”

The two shake hands, with a lot of manly grunting and taut muscles and all that stuff that boys do to make themselves feel pretty.

Esteban starts back towards the caravan, a shouted order to Ran enough to get the big driver moving towards the donkeys they’ll be trading out. “Why’d you ask me over?” I ask as I run to keep up with him.

“You’re halfway clever,” he says.

“Aww, thanks.”

“That cleverness makes you a good deal dumber than you ought to be, but it’s still something I can put to good use.”

“Huh?”

He shakes his head. “You think I’m blind? Four girls, at least two of which are obviously noble, the other two might as well be. Cultivators, all four, and not the petty sort who knows one trick they can use when they’re in the right mood. Proper emotional artists. If you four used different elements I’d guess you were running from one of those mountain sects. But you’re all over the place. Not used to following orders, not used to common sense. And you look like you’ve dipped deeper into the Dark arts than anyone I’ve ever seen before.”

I blink. “The Dark arts?” I ask.

“Don’t play innocent. I have eyes and you’re barely disguising your skin or magics. I don’t care that you use magic that some would find abhorrent. To each his, or her, own. But you’re trouble, and I want you off my caravan as soon as I can manage it.”

“We’re not that troublesome,” I protest.

He actually considers it, I can see him thinking before he replies. “You’re right. I’ve escorted worse, and you’re somewhat competent in a fight. You might even have earned your keep. But these are dangerous times, and in those times a wise man sheds anything that can cause him issues.”

I cross my arms. “Fine. We don’t need the Big Hill Lions. Just get us to Castaneda’s Stop and we’ll be done with each other, alright?”

“That I can very much agree with,” he says. Then he starts screaming at a guard that dropped a crate onto his own foot.

I watch him go for a moment before heading over to my friends. They’ve found a quieter corner to stand in, out of everyone’s way.

“What’s up?” Felix asks.

“Esteban is... a bit of a jerk,” I say. “And also I got a tiny bit of news, maybe?”

“Maybe?” Esme repeats.

“The Altum stuff isn’t just happening around here and Vizeda. I think it’s happening all over, or at least everywhere that news can reach here in a couple of day’s time. That, and Rafael mentioned that there’s a group of Heroe’s templars around.”

Bianca shifts. “Templars? Here? There’s a temple in the capital, and a few others here and there, but Heroe’s worship isn’t as great here as it’s supposed to be in his own kingdom.”

“Yeah, that might be trouble,” I say. “But that’ll be trouble for tomorrow. For now, we’re going to ride out with the lions and hopefully make it to Castaneda’s Stop without meeting any more zombies.”

“Let’s hope,” Esme agreed.

***