It was shortly after dawn, and we had the tower completely under our control. I had made a deal with my three elves that one of them would be on guard at the top of the tower. We had crammed as many people as possible into the tower to rest, but the rest had to put up some tents, camouflaged by the shrubbery and trees.

I had taken the officer’s room for my own and was currently sitting across from the elven prisoner I had taken. Yathanae and Ilmadia were in the room as well, to help with the interrogation. Mina and Justine, the other truth mage I had included in the expedition, were there to verify if the prisoner was telling the truth.

The prisoner in question was staring hatefully at me and once in a while sending frightful glances at her bow, which was on the desk. I knew why she was nervous about her bow. For dryads, the bow was their soul. Sort of like the samurai viewed their sword as an extension of their soul, so did the dryad with regards to their bows.

Yathanae had taken a look at the bow, and said it was a third-generation bow, meaning that two of the prisoner’s forebearers had used the bow during their life as well. So a family heritage. It gave me a bargaining chip.

“Let’s start with introductions. I’m Lord Karth, one of those summoned by the bastards that leads the human race. This is Yathanae and Ilmadia. Two serfs, I bought because I wanted someone knowledgeable about herbs and a translator,” I started and pointed at the women in turn as I introduced them.

The prisoner just stared at me. If stares could kill, I would be dead. I continued unaffected, “I’ve in no way forced myself on them, and they’ll truthfully tell you what life in my service is like. Mina and Justine here are fideomancer, here to ascertain whether you’re telling the truth. Let’s start with something easy. What’s your name?”

For a minute she said nothing, just stared at me. I could see in her eyes she had steeled herself for torture. Torture never really worked. Fear worked better but not always, but I had people who could tell if someone told the truth, so I had something else I wanted to try. I caressed the wood of the bow. It was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, almost a piece of art. The decoration that adorned it, the glistening sheen of the polished wood.

Seeing me touch the bow definitely got a reaction from her, as I knew it would. It was just minor, but her eyes lost some of the hardness and anger and became a little fearful. I spoke up, “This is a beautiful bow. Yathanae has told me that you’re the third of your family that uses this bow.”

The prisoner sent a baleful stare at Yathanae but did not reply, so I continued, “At the end of this conversation, I’ll give you two choices. I can either make you a serf or I’ll give you a quick death. Either way, you’ll be considered lost to your family, and no matter which choice you make, I promise I will return the bow to your family. However, for me to do that, I need a name. Will you give me that?”

“How do I know you’ll do what you say? Your race abandoned your Goddess of Truth,” she spat.

“Interesting point. As I said, I’m not from here. I was summoned from the origin planet of the human race. Against my will. I’ve no love for the human kings and Church, but I do love my life, which I will do everything in my power to keep,” I said. “But how do you know I’ll do what I say? You don’t. I’ll not lie to you about that. You’ll just have to make a decision whether you want a sliver of a chance for the bow to return to your family.”

I stared at her for a minute, with her staring back. Finally, she relented and answered, “My name is Isilynor Keadithas, I’m from Ine Shaeras.”

Justine who was reading her confirmed the truthfulness of her words, so I turned my attention to Yathanae, who immediately answered my unspoken question, “It’s a city far to the east. It’ll take several moons on foot to get there.”

I turned back to my prisoner. “Thank you, despite the circumstances, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Isilynor.”

“Can’t say the same for you,” she snapped.

“I can imagine why. So, I only have a few questions. Are there any forces guarding the way off the mountain?”

“No,” she said after a while. Truthful, but I saw something in her eyes that made me realize the gaff in the question.

“Is there a force stationed near the end of the path leading down from the mountain?”

“No,” she lied immediately. I shook my head in disappointment.

“How far from where the path ends is this force stationed?” I asked.

She turned around to stare daggers at Justine, but finally relented and answered, “Less than a kilometre.”

“Is there a procedure for checking in?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Was one of the dead ones a priest that had to send a message every once in a while?”

“Yes, we’re sitting in her office, she had to report to the main base every few days,” she finally answered.

“Do you know when she was supposed to report next time?”

“Yes.”

“When?” I prompted.

“When we arrived back at base.”

My eyes narrowed at hearing that. “Replacements are on the way?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Should arrive tomorrow morning,” she said with a vicious smile.

I stood up. “Thank you for answering my questions. As promised I would let you choose, but first, let these two tell you what life as a serf for me includes.”

I walked out of the office, running into a fuming Anders. The first thing he said as I stepped out was, “Why wasn’t I included?”

“Do you speak Elvish?”

“No. You know that.”

“Exactly,” I said and started walking downstairs, with Anders following behind me. Still complaining. I found Hrothgar and Alan and started to fill all three of them in on what I had found out. What followed was a long conversation on how to proceed.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” I asked a third and final time. Isilynor nodded her head, and though she had a bit of fear in them I also saw a certainty and conviction about her choice. “Okay, I will respect your wishes and make sure your family gets your bow and letter. Please drink up.”

I indicated a cup on the table. She looked at it. “Why? Just get it over with, a dagger to my heart or something.”

“It contains a powerful sedative. You’ll be unconscious in a little while, you’ll go to sleep and never feel the blade taking your life,” I said.

She eyed the cup but shook her head. “No, I’ll face my death with eyes open.”

I moved around to stand next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Please reconsider, it’ll make it easier for both of us.”

“You’ll just have to suffer through the indignity of killing a helpless woman who can look you in the eyes,” she said venomously, staring straight ahead. Unbeknownst to her, or at least she did not give any sign of noticing, I had channelled my healing magic to deaden her nerves.

With my left hand, I had drawn a stiletto one of the elves had been carrying. With a swift motion, I plunged it into the side of her head and into her brain. She was dead almost instantly, hopefully, unaware of it happening. I had kept my promise, she could choose her fate, and I would accept it.

After burning the body, and putting the ashes in an urn I had Gudrun fashion, it was time to deal with getting off the top of the mountain. Food was also becoming an issue. We had a few rations left, and we found a bit in the tower. However, that was meant to feed less than a dozen people, and we were more than ten times that number.

It was shortly after dusk that we set off down the path of the mountain. I was in the lead with my bodyguards and 5th Platoon following right behind me. There was enough light that you could see where you put your feet, but not a lot more than that. Hopefully, it meant we would be able to get down the mountain without being spotted.

The trip down the mountain took a while, especially because we could not move too quickly, or it would become even more hazardous for my men. We had a few incidents, but nothing serious. As we were approaching the end of the path, I observed the small fort in the distance. Even with the spyglass and shifted eyes, I could not make out a lot of details because of the distance. All I could see was a wooden palisade and a wooden tower with two guards in it.

According to Isilynor, it was a waystation originally, just a place to rest and drop of supplies for the guards at the tower. There was also a single farmstead nearby. Because of the raid earlier, the elves had put up a hasty wooden palisade around the waystation and stationed more men. How many, she was not sure, but she thought at least a score. Which was not a problem, not even if the replacements were there. It would be less than a dozen more people.

Nevertheless, I would prefer to go about it stealthily, so as not to give the priest or priests there a chance to send out a warning. I would prefer to be able to set out before our inevitable pursuers.

The guards in the tower were a real problem. I could easily take them out with a rifle, but that would alert the rest of the waystation to our attack. That would be less than optimal. I had thought about using 5th Platoon’s crossbows and my ability to link the bolts to a target. However, even with my magic, it was a plan that relied on luck and skills.

To be honest that was the same for all the plans I mulled over. In the end, I had decided on infiltration during the night. It also meant I got to play with a new form of magic. Something that I found exciting. All magic was similar, yet distinct. They had specific patterns and ways to utilize them. The principle for manifesting magic was the same in all cases, but how to shape it was a new challenge every time.

Under the cover of darkness, we spread out and surrounded the waystation. We kept at a good distance of five hundred metres while moving into position. After that, we slowly started crawling closer, stopping two hundred metres out.

I had my bodyguards and 1st Platoon with me, we were the only ones moving closer. We had also chosen the route where a field of corn would provide us cover most of the way. It stopped fifty metres from the wall.

In preparations for the night’s raid, I had connected to the mana pool of Simone, the wood mage I had with me on the expedition. I had not expected her powers to be of much use, but I had thought it better to bring a wood mage and not have use of her than to need one and not have brought one. That philosophy was paying off.

For a few minutes after reaching the edge of the field, I observed the two guards in the tower. I waited until both of them were walking to the opposite side of us. Immediately, I started running to the wall, followed by my bodyguards. Alrik and his platoon would wait.

At the wall, I started using the magic the way Simone had instructed me. First was finding the right place to infiltrate. I made a hole in a log large enough for me to see what was beyond. Directly behind the wall where we stood there was a wide-open spot. It was not until I spotted the archery targets I understood why.

Anyway, I looked around at the buildings inside. There were three of them, plus the guard tower. One was clearly a stable, one was a barracks, and the last one was a storehouse. There were actually a good ten metres or more between the walls and the buildings, which was less than optimal for us. In the end, I picked the spot I thought would give us the best cover while getting through the wall.

When we got to the chosen spot, the first thing I did was to fuse five of the logs together. It took almost thirty minutes to do that and cost me almost seventy percent of my mana pool. I was still unused to wood magic, which increased the cost. With the logs securely fused, I started making a hole in the wall while absorbing mana from some crystals.

The hole would only be big enough for a single person to crawl through, at least until we had dealt with the guards in the tower. I also created another spyhole nearby, so one of us could observe when it would be safe to go through the hole.

With Nishka as the lookout, I went through first when she gave the all-clear. As soon as I was through, Alan pushed his musket and one of my shorter rifles through. I grabbed them and made a beeline to the backside of the barracks. The stable was too dangerous because the horses might kick up a fuss, and the storehouse was just a bunch of pillars with a roof slapped on top of them. There were no walls, and the few crates and barrels there would provide poor cover.

It took another twenty minutes before all three of them had joined me. It took another five minutes before I could make my way underneath the tower. The bodyguards stayed, taking up positions so they could shoot at the tower if it became necessary.

The tower was one that fortuitously favoured me, as long as I remained undetected. It was a platform with a roof and low walls, placed on top of some very tall wooden logs. I would estimate it to be about four by four metres. The ladder up was in two parts, the first part coming up halfway, where there was a small platform where the second part of the ladder started. The ladder ended up on the main platform, in the middle of it, which meant that unless they were looking down the hole, they would not be able to see me.

I left my rifle, sabre, and shortsword at the bottom of the tower, they would just get in the way of silently trying to climb the ladder. Also in the cramped space of the tower, the long reach of those weapons would be more of a hindrance than a benefit.

Slowly I made my way up the ladder, letting my magic flow in the wood ahead of me, seeing if I could spot any weak spots that would creak a lot and give me away. When I found them, I managed to strengthen them, making my ascent as silent as possible. The ladder still creaked and groaned, but it was no more than the tower already did from the wind and temperature changes.

Most of the noise I did make was drowned out by their conversation. It seemed like they were talking in detail about some hot young priestess who had just arrived. Which meant that the reinforcement had arrived. I wanted to snort when I heard their conversation. Men would be men, no matter what their race was. Something did catch my attention though.

“I heard the older priestess pissed off Vulan,” one of them said when I was just a couple of metres from reaching the platform.

“Oh?” the other one asked disinterestedly. Clearly he was not as interested in the conversation after it moved away from the hot priestess.

“You know Gorluin, the one who delivers—”

“Of course I know Gorluin, everyone knows Gorluin, you nitwit,” the other one said irritatedly.

“I just wanted to be sure, you spent so much time with the horses I was not sure you knew who he was.”

“Whatever. Just get on with what you were saying,” the disinterested one grumbled.

“So, anyway, Gorluin said he had heard from quartermaster Wynwarin, who had heard it from a whore at the Red Leaf, who had heard it from a trooper, who had heard it from his brother that is Vulan’s secretary,” the elf stopped after that long recitation, probably to take a deep breath.

“What did Gorluin hear about the undying priestess?” the other one said irritatedly. I had made my way to just a few rungs from being able to view the platform. The word undying caught my attention. Was one of the immortals at the waystation?

“So this Axina, apparently she led a raiding party to the northern human kingdom, and she got herself and almost four hundred harpies killed,” the elf said solemnly. The word struck a chord, and I stopped my progress completely, listening intently. “You can imagine how pissed Vulan is.”

The other elf snorted. “I had wondered why one of the undying would be stationed at the watchtower. But why’s the younger one here?”

There was no answer, so maybe the elf had just shrugged in reply. They turned their conversation back to the hotness of the younger priestess. Seeing as I would win nothing by delaying any further, From what I could hear, they would be on my left when I came up.

I drew my hatchets. It would be difficult climbing the last few steps with them in my hands, but it should be doable. My luck did not hold, when my head cleared the hole, I saw that one of the elves was looking directly at me.

His eyes went comically wide, and I lifted an arm to throw a hatchet after forming a link. His mouth opened as I the hatchet left my hand, “Huma—”

“What was that?” the other asked, looking over at his friend who was staring dumbly at the axe that was planted in his chest. The uninjured elf looked around wildly, just to be met by a hatchet to the sternum as well. Both of them fell to the ground, gasping for air and coughing up blood.

I was up the ladder and planted a dagger in their neck just as they started screaming for help. I listened for any movement. The horses were a bit restless. Probably from smelling the blood and hearing the noise. I picked up one of their bows and stood up.

A door opened, and I saw that the doors to the barracks had been opened. Someone was looking out, a woman highlighted by a bit of light coming from inside. She looked almost suspiciously around. When she looked up at me, I waved at her casually, hoping she would not notice that my muscular build was out of place from the slender elves.

She kept looking around for another moment, before closing the door again. I spent ten minutes acting as if I was the guards in the tower, talking lowly in Elvish about the hot priestess. Walking around, keeping watch. When I felt that the danger of our infiltration being blown had passed, I hurried down the ladder.

After picking up my weapons, I made my way over to my bodyguards. With a few gestures, I sent Nishka and Charles to the tower, while Alan would stay with me. Next on the program was getting 1st Platoon inside. While they were crossing the open ground between the field and the wall, I spent some magic on enlarging the hole.

When everyone was inside the wall, we discarded our long weapons. They would be a hindrance inside the barracks. For the platoon, it was their bows, for me and Alan it was sabre and gun. I still kept my two pistols, Dragons, according to Anders who I had found out was a firearms collector. He wanted one for himself, but I declined.

Before we headed inside, I whispered to Alan. “There are at least two priestesses in there that we need alive.”

He nodded and gestured for one of my hatchets. I gave him one. The backside would work fine as a hammer for knocking them out. As long as we did not instantly kill them, I could always heal them.

The door squeaked a bit when we opened it, making me cringe, but I heard no shouts of alarm. I found myself looking at a corridor. About eight metres long, a lit candle immediately to the right, and one at the end of the corridor. Less than a metre down the corridor was the first sets of doors. Or more precisely door openings, there were no doors in the frames. Further down there were four actual doors, two on each side.

Creeping forward, I peeked left than right. Both rooms were common sleeping quarters. A quick headcount showed that there were fourteen in the room to the left and eight in the room to the right.

I motioned for Alrik to send First Squad into the room on the left, Second Squad to the right, while he followed me and Alan down the corridor. First door on the left revealed a male, weapons and armour indicated a soldier. Alrik was assigned to him. Next on the right, there was another male, this one only had a bow and a short one at that, making me suspect that it might be the guy delivering the goods the guards had talked about.

I decided to leave him for now, and we snuck down to the last rooms, just as the last of 2nd Squad had filed into the bunkroom. Before I could open the door on the left, a muffled shout went out. We had been discovered.

Alan leapt through the door to the right, while I went through the door on the left. As I barged into the room, screams of pain, shouting in both human and Elvish went out. The noise of struggles filled the dead of night.

The occupant of the room I barged into was a beautiful young elven woman, no doubt about it. She looked up at me with clear blue eyes, filled with surprise and fear. The hatchet in my left hand flashed out, as I struck her in the temple with the backside of the axehead.

She crumpled without a sound. I did not dare to hit again and hoped she was not playing possum. I ran back into the corridor, just as Alrik flashed across the corridor to the next door. A shout of fright in Elvish erupted from the room. Alan opened the door just as I reached it. He gave me a nod, and I hurried down to the bunkrooms.

There was still a bit of struggle when I arrived in the left bunkroom, but before I could do anything, the last of the elves had been killed. Immediately I called out, “Casualties?”

“One of the bastards managed to kill Moras,” I heard from the other room.

“Light wounds, Milord,” the squad leader of 1st Squad replied.

“Any serious injuries?” I demanded to know.

“No, Milord,” was the reply from both.

“Okay, get the gates opened and the rest of the squadron in here,” I demanded and left the barracks. My backpack outside was the goal. In it, I had a few sets of collars and manacles that Ethan had managed to produce for me. I grabbed two and made my way into the room to enslave two women.

I was not especially keen on having to drag two uncooperative serfs around behind enemy lines, but if what the guards had said was true, then it meant the lampad I had killed somehow had gotten back from the dead. I needed to get to the bottom of this.

I would also need to find out exactly what the powers of the different elven priests were, I had just thought they were tied to one of each of the four basic elements. It was not something I had paid attention to before. However, if they could somehow come back to life, I would need to know.

The older priestess, the one called Axina, who I supposedly killed in the mountains had a nasty bump on her head, bleeding profusely. Alan shrugged. “She put up a hell of a fight, had to hit her twice.”

I shrugged back and went about enslaving the first of two women.