Just as I had thought, the supplies we received were tainted and unusable. I would have to have a pointed conversation with Wilbur when we returned. One that ended with a dagger in his ear. Or maybe just shoot him from afar. Slowly burning him alive also sounded rather cathartic. Or maybe capture him alive and sell him to the orcs. So many possibilities.

With few extra supplies available to be scrounged up from the other squadrons, Ballard did not even want to try, and just told me I was no longer needed for the defence. Of course, they would not open a portal for me and my men to get back. I had suggested just going through the portal when it opened to bring in new supplies. However, it turned out that the portals were one-way. You could only enter the portal that initiated the connection. If tried from the other side, you would be fried alive.

That left me with just a few things to ponder while waiting for nightfall. Should I let some of the less combat-oriented mages stay and subsist on the few rations we had left and the roof-top garden? Or should I take them all with me? In the end, I decided to take them all with me, because if there were another incursion into the barracks, they would have no one there to protect them.

The next thing to decide on was whether I would take Anders with me or not. He could be a valuable ally despite being on the other side of the kingdom from me. However, I was also loath to trust him. He was still obnoxious about the whole serf thing, but he was trying to act like he was okay with the way I did things. As he put it, I “wasn’t abusing them the way Adam did his.”. Something smelled off about his attitude change, but I could not put my finger on it.

Nevertheless, I decided to inform him of me leaving, so I made my way down the corridor and knocked on the door to his quarters. A minute later I was ensconced in the largest of the bed chambers, together with Anders and the beautiful, mysterious woman that seemed to follow him around.

“You being here means that you’ve made a decision with regards to my request,” he said, not asked.

“Indeed,” I replied with a wry smile. “However, before I ratify my decision, we need to cover some ground rules.”

“Big words, thrown around by a barbarian,” the woman muttered, so low that I was not sure I heard her right.

“If I was really a barbarian, I would tell you to shut up. that women should be seen not heard, and ask where the fuck is my sandwich,” I retorted with a glare. Anders looked like he was about to say something, but I turned my glare to him, making him shut up. Her cheeks reddened, and she looked like she was about to explode.

Before she could, I continued, “However, I’m not that way. So instead of trading insults and making me decide not to grant your lord’s request, why don’t you introduce yourself? You’ve me at a disadvantage. All I know about you is that you’re incredibly beautiful.”

“Don’t you dare—” she started to rant, but was interrupted by Anders holding up his hand.

“This lovely woman is Chione, she’s a gelumancer,” he introduced. He must have seen my confused look, because he added, “She can summon and control ice.”

“Explains her frosty attitude,” I said with a smile. Earning a glare from the woman in question, while Anders coughed loudly, several times into his hand. I was pretty sure he was trying to cover up a smile and a chuckle.

“So, what ground rules did you have in mind?” he finally asked.

“First I need to know how many men you’re bringing.”

“None,” he answered. My eyes narrowed, but I listened to the rest of his explanation, “I still have a duty to defend this position. Well, my men have. I actually brought over a few extra men. My commander will just tell everyone I’ve ensconced myself here. Since I’ve brought extra men to what was commanded, I’m not in dereliction of duty.”

“Always covering your ass,” I muttered. He just shrugged in response. I asked, “So you just want me to take you with me?”

“Well, and Chione of course.”

I nodded. There seemed to be something going on between them. Not sure what, but pretty sure it was not a romantic or sexual connection, but what it was, I could not put my finger on. It was the way their eyes sought each other out, silent communication. Something.

“Okay, so just the two of you. That’s not very helpful,” I commented.

“But it’s an opportunity, it gets us out of this wretched hole, we can talk unencumbered, and we can work out a partnership,” he said. “I’ve gathered a bit of information from the other squadrons provided by your High Lord. It seems that you were screwed over, and they gave you a very poor Hold. I got a rather wealthy one, lots of industry, not enough agriculture. We could become trade partners.”

“That’s a long way to transport food,” I observed.

“Not if you employ the right mancers. A few gelumancers to freeze everything, maybe even a cariomancer if you’re lucky to find one, and the food will arrive just as fresh as it left,” Anders said. “Cariomancers can suspend or accelerate decay and rot.”

“You’ve learned a lot,” I commented.

“Something I think you haven’t had the time or luxury to do, am I right?” Anders asked.

I nodded reluctantly, I did not like to admit that glaring weakness. “I’ve been busy with fighting and training my men.”

“I saw them fight, you as well, you were quite destructive,” he said. “I thought you were lying when you said you could control fire. Alfred even insinuated that your power was linking, yet I saw you use fire magic.”

“I’ve my secrets,” I said with a shrug, trying to appear nonchalant. “Anyway, back to the ground rules.”

“Yes, the ground rules,” he said, a bit snarky, but let the matter drop, even though my changing of the subject was quite obvious.

I held one finger up. “First and most important rule, I’m in charge. What I say goes, no discussion.”

“Figured as much,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll retain the right to object though.”

“I reckoned that you would, so I’ll accept that with the adage that if you object I will leave you behind to fend for yourself.”

Chione looked like she was going to explode. Anders just looked resigned. Taking the lack of protest as a sign of agreement, I went on, “Next rule is one you’re going to like. There’ll be no raping, pillaging, or murdering of civilians and innocents unless they force our hand. We’ll acquire some of their wealth and supplies, but not so much that they feel fighting us is better than handing it over.”

Anders immediately added, “No taking of slaves.”

“I didn't really intend to, but I won’t say I won’t do it if the circumstances force me,” I replied.

He did not look happy. “Then I’m not going.”

“Fine, I guess we’re done here,” I said and rose.

I was placing my hand on the door, when I heard Chione say, “Wait a moment.”

“Yes?” I asked with my back to them.

“What circumstances would you consider taking a slave necessary?” she asked.

“It wouldn’t be a slave, but a prisoner of war. And I really can’t say until I’m standing in the situation,” I said with a shrug. “Maybe if I’m in a situation where our security will be severely compromised if we don’t do it. Heck, even the threat of enslaving an elf will most likely be enough to get them to talk and cooperate.”

“Why?” Anders asked.

“Why would the threat of enslavement be enough?”

“Yes.”

I turned around to look at him. “Because the elves have a fucked up system in place. The harpies hold family members accountable for the crimes of other family members. Cooperating with humans even unwillingly is treason. The dryads are not considered people any longer if they don’t possess a hundred percent free will. Even if we freed the elves, set them up with a binding stone so they could go home, they would not be welcomed home.”

“How do you know that?” he asked after a minute of thoughtfulness.

“I talked with my people, offered to set them free because they saved my life, but they refused. They might be serfs, but I try to treat them well, which means they have a better life as my serfs than someone else’s. It helps that I speak Elvish,” I answered with a shrug at the end.

I wondered for a moment if I should have kept silent about my attempt to free them, but decided it was worth the risk. If he knew that I was willing to free my serfs, then he would maybe trust me more. Even if he went squealing about it, I could always lie my way out of it.

“You wanted to set your serfs free?” he asked incredulously.

“Some of them yes. But should also warn you that I’ve made someone wear the collars.”

His face darkened. “I knew it. You’re as bad as them.”

“Before you get all sanctimonious, the elves were raiding my Hold, they killed innocents, so I tracked them down. I gave them a choice, death or serfdom. They chose to live,” I said.

“A life in captivity,” he spat.

“Yes, not so different from what you did in your former life,” I pointed out.

“I’m not some sick bastard that robs people of their freedom,” he snarled.

I could not help but chuckle at that. I only said one word in response, “Prison.”

He looked confused for a moment. “It’s not the same thing. That’s punishing people for breaking the law.”

“Then see it as me punishing the elves for killing innocent people.”

“It’s not the same thing, you force them to work. They’ll never get out,” he protested.

“Life sentences, prison labour. You call it something different, but it’s the exact same thing.”

He shook his head, having a slightly scared look in his eyes. “No, it’s not! Slavery is immoral. Punishing those who break the law is just, it’s not the same thing.”

I just arched an eyebrow and stared at him. He started fuming and ranting for several minutes about how what I had done was not the same as what he had done. I just yawned several times, which infuriated him even more.

If I did not wish for cooperation after we were done in this hellhole, I would have punched him already. In fact, I was mightily tempted. Nevertheless, I withstood the temptation to do so. I might have overreacted with Nerd, but he was pushing all the wrong buttons. The buttons Anders was pushing barely got a rise out of me.

Finally, it was Chione that stopped Anders. “Enough Anders.”

Anders looked at her, with a slightly wounded look in his eyes. I hid a smile. I knew it, there had been something weird in their chemistry. It was clear from her tone that she was not his serf, but at least an equal. I narrowed my eyes and sent out a pulse of mana. My eyes widened when I did not get any sense of wrongness from her collar.

I quickly schooled my expression, hoping that they had not noticed. It did not look like they had, because they were still locked in a staring contest. My mind was reeling from the revelation. She was a female, a mancer even, or at least introduced as one. She should be wearing a collar, she did wear a collar, but it was not active. Of that I was certain.

The staring contest ended with Anders looking away. He turned to me and gave a poor imitation of an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, I get riled up over this sometimes.”

“Apology accepted if you’re good with the ground rule that started all this,” I said with obviously feigned forgiveness.

“It sounds good, but let’s not put too many people into slavery, please,” he begged.

“It was not my intention, but I won’t make a promise that I might not be able to hold. False pretences are the best way to ruin a partnership,” I said with a shrug. “Realize that I only go because I have no other choice. My men and I will starve to death if we stay. This is not about becoming fabulously rich or getting new slaves, it’s about getting food to survive.”

“Really?” he asked, sounding a bit surprised.

“If we manage to acquire some wealth while raiding for supplies, I won’t leave it behind,” I answered with a smile.

He scoffed at that. “Of course.”

“I mean that. We do this to survive, but as I promised some of my serfs, I’m going to try to do this without bloodshed or leave the people we raid behind with nothing,” I said.

“Why not?” he asked.

“If you have got the choice between being killed or giving over half your food, and some of your wealth, what would you choose?” I asked.

“I’d fight you,” he said immediately.

“Really? Even if it meant the death of you and your whole family?”

He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Probably give you the supplies.”

“Exactly.”

“Why not take all of the supplies?” he asked.

“If I take everything, the incentive to not fight me becomes less pronounced. If I take all their supplies, I would slowly be killing them, maybe.”

“I see where you’re going,” Chione said. “If people have hope of not being completely ruined, they’re less likely to force a fatal outcome.”

“And rumours about our treatment of our victims will spread,” I said.

She immediately picked up on it. “If they know that we’re rumoured to let people live, and keep some of their supplies, they’re even less likely to fight.”

“Exactly.”

“But there’ll still be people who will fight, what happens to them?” Anders pointed out.

“They die. An example must be made.”

“You’re scum,” he snarled with narrowed eyes.

I shrugged. “I’m telling you how it’s going to be, so you go into this with open eyes. Rather have the discussion now, than later.”

“You’d murder children?” Chione asked.

I shook my head. “There’ll be no killing children or raping women. If there are children, we’ll capture them, and bring them to the next village. Only those that take up arms against us will be killed.”

“You’re despicable.”

“I’m a criminal, and I’ll take my leave now,” I said and stood up. “If you want to come with us, come to my quarters at midnight. Bring supplies for both of you for a week. Remember, you wanted to come with me, and you’re not really offering anything to the endeavour. I’d like to work out a trade deal, but if you don’t realize that your delusional moral superiority is worth nothing here, it’ll never happen.”

I could hear him fuming as I walked out the door. I shook my head. Maybe it was a bad idea to consider taking him with us.

In the end, he and Chione knocked on the door slightly before midnight. A couple of my stone mages, Nysa and Estrid, slipped out the door behind them and sealed up the corridor behind them. We had already sealed the other corridor.

“Right this way,” I said and indicated the door leading to the roof.

“How are we getting out of here?” Anders asked.

“You’ll see,” I answered with a knowing smile. I knew it would be infuriating, but after him being an asshole earlier, I was allowed to have a bit of fun. I led the way up the stairs and stepped out on to the roof. Gudrun and Alena, my two other stone mages, were waiting on the roof.

“Gudrun, are we ready?” I asked, as our two new travel mates came onto the roof as well.

“Yes, Milord. After they have gotten the light contraptions installed, they aren't sending out the sporadic lights to search inside the castle, so we don’t have to worry about being discovered,” she explained. “We’ll be ready to move in five minutes if you still want to go ahead with the plan.”

“Go ahead and do it, everyone is ready to leave,” I replied. Immediately they started creating the bridge over to our hidden stairwell.

“Are you crazy, tunnelling into your mountain is your big idea?” Chione hissed. I was pretty sure she would have shrieked if it would not have revealed what we were doing. “Don’t you know what the dwarves will do in retaliation?”

“I don’t actually, but don’t worry, I’m not tunnelling into the mountain,” I said with a shrug.

“Don’t worry? Are you insane, the last time the dwarves’ sanctity were broken, they levelled an entire city,” her voice had risen, and I considered knocking her out to keep her from alerting people on the walls.

I gave her a glare. “I’ve already arranged for permission. I have a dwarven outpost in my backyard.”

She gaped at me for a moment, before mumbling, “Permission to tunnel into their mountain? Must have cost a fortune.”

I snorted at her sudden reversal and the truth that it would only cost me some barrels of ale. I shook my head. “Nope, not permission to tunnel into their mountain. Permission to dig a way through the overhang.”

“The overhang? But how are we going to get up there?” Anders asked. Chione was just staring at me like I had grown horns and wings. Wings would be pretty cool to have actually.

“For the past two months, my stone mages have been growing an addition to the mountain. We’ve built a stairwell up to the overhang, and almost all the way to the top by now,” I said.

“There are no stairs, just a mountainside,” Anders objected.

“It wouldn’t be much of an escape route if it was visible, would it?”

It finally dawned on him, I could see it in his eyes when he finally realized it. “So your lapomancers have grown a staircase, with the outside looking like it’s part of the mountain?”

“Yup, had to work at night to ensure that no one saw. It was slow going until they reached the other side of the overhang. They still worked only during the night, but they could take a few liberties with the quality of the work,” I said as my mages finished creating the bridge. Gudrun ran across to open the way in.

Alena looked back at me for orders. I cocked my head downstairs. “Go tell Hrothgar to send the men up. Have Nysa, Estrid, and Mary come up first. You can handle closing the opening, right?”

“Yes, Milord,” she said and dashed downstairs.

“So, let’s get going,” Anders said and took a few steps towards the bridge.

I grabbed his arm. “Nope, we can only go in single file, so I need my stone mages to go up first. If you want to help, great, you can replace them when they run out.”

He grumbled a bit but stepped back. Soon Nysa, Estrid, and Mary came upstairs, followed by Alan and my remaining two bodyguards. He handed me my backpack, which was mostly full of rope and pitons. It took me a minute to get it situated and make sure I could still get to all my weapons. I was carrying one of the normal rifles Nerd had made, the rest of my long guns were carried by the support squadron.

Nysa and Estrid had already joined Gudrun inside the stairwell, waiting for Mary to come over. I motioned for Mary to go first, and then followed her. Anders followed me, with Alan right behind him. Then Chione, who was followed by Nishka and Charles, my last two bodyguards. After them, I had lost track of who was next.

The stone mages led Mary up the first twenty steps through the darkness. Because of their magic, they could sense the height of the steps. After twenty steps, they had made a small platform, with a protrusion for Mary to stand in. There were also a bunch of torches. The stone mages went ahead without a torch, and I declined one as well, preferring to shapeshift my eyes instead. The light from torches behind me would be enough.

Alan had apparently not practised moving on stairs in the dark since he grabbed a torch. The next torch would not be offered for another dozen or so people. Linus and Hilda, my aeromancer, would already be hard pressed to get fresh air into the stairwell, without having to compete with a lot of sources of smoke as well.

It took some time getting all the way up to the overhang, where they had built a small platform for people to stop and take a breather. They had also made a lot of small chutes for air to get in, so the air mages had it easier replenishing the air inside the stairwell when they got to it.

I went ahead with the stone mages, but Anders decided to take a little break. Alan followed me, while my two other bodyguards stayed there because right now the only possible threat was the two unknowns. It was the first time I got a chance to see what they had built. Since there was no light source, even my shifted eyes became useless, however, I had seen how they sensed with their stone magic, so I copied it.

I had made a connection with Gudrun this time, and it seemed she trusted me more, or something like that, because the connection was stronger with her than it had been with Alena, which made it easier for me to channel stone magic.

Finally, we got to the point where they had stopped working. Gudrun said from ahead, “Milord, this is as far as we go, do you want us to open up?”

“Yeah, let’s see how far up we’ve gotten,” I said.

“Even if the moon is out, it’ll be hard to see, Milord,” Nysa said.

“I got my ways. But don’t worry if my eyes glow a bit,” I replied. My eyes were still shifted, so as soon as they removed the end, the receptors in my catlike eyes caught what little moonlight there was. I thought we were perhaps a hundred metres from the top of the mountain.

“So pretty,” Nysa mumbled. I gave her a smile, though I knew she could not see it.

“Good work girls, it seems like we're a hundred metres from the top. How long will it take you to get us there?” I asked.

Gudrun looked thoughtful for a moment. “We could be there a glass before dawn if we just make the steps. If you want us to camouflage it, it’ll be closer to midday.”

“Okay, I need you to let me and Alan pass. I’m going to start climbing. You girls start working on a stair, keep up the work on the camouflage though, this might be the only way we can get back in,” I said.

“Yes, Milord,” they replied in unison.

“Send up First and Second Platoon as well, we’ll leave ropes from here, so leave a hole for them to climb out of right here. Get someone to pass the word to Alena that she needs to close it,” I ordered. “Use as many manastones as you need. If needed, make Anders do the work on the steps, while you concentrate on the camouflage. If he complains, tell him it’s the price for continuing, and that it was me who said that.”

“Yes, Milord.”

I turned to look at Alan. I saw that there was no one behind us yet. Or at least they were so far down the slope of the roof hid them from my sight. “Well, are you up for a climb in the dark?”

“Only if you lead the way, Milord. Unlike you, I can’t see in the dark,” he replied.

“Well, it’s a good thing I brought lots of rope then,” I said and started to prepare for a night climb.