Chapter XXI: Scouting Mission II

The Wildlands South of the Heian Kingdom, The Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 36, 172 ,328 DE

From the top of a cliff, Vorn and I stare at the mostly collapsed ruins of an old city. Lying in a valley with steep cliffs on all sides, the city once occupied the north end of the valley. Deep shadows from the eastern cliffs cover the eastern third of the city. Other than climbing over a small mountain, as we did, a narrow ravine in the southwest provides the only access to the valley.

In parts of the city, the piles of rubble demarcate where streets once existed, but most of the paving stones have long succumbed to the brush and trees filling those old streets. Ferocious Beats roam through the rubble and brush, but no signs of humans can be seen. Several Striped Forest Cats have staked out corners of the city. The normal animals and other Ferocious Beasts are nothing but prey for them.

Vorn frowns. "This is the sixth place we've checked."

I shrug. "They were only possibilities I wanted to eliminate. The three most likely places lie to the south. They're all on a spur of the Kami Kaze Mountains that runs to within about three hundred kilometers of the Eastern Escarpment."

"How long till we get there?"

"If you can pick up your speed by about fifty percent, we can reach the nearest location by mid-afternoon.

If I had time, I would hunt down the Striped Forest Cats, but unfortunately, finding the bitch princess takes priority. Holding back a frown, I head south along the cliff. "Let's go!"

* * * * *

As the sun nears the horizon, I catch the scent of humans, several dozen different humans. The second of my most likely locations for the bitch princess lies less than an hour away at our current pace.

I stop, and while frowning, I look at Vorn. I keep my voice to a low whisper. "Do you have to wear all that metal? Do you know how far away you'll be heard in that in suit?"

With an irritated expression, Vorn looks me up and down, but he keeps his voice down, as well. "What am I supposed to do? Run around barefoot in my drawers like you?"

I scoff. "It's comfortable, and I don't rattle like a create full of cheap bells."

After staring at me for a moment, Vorn grins. "You know. I finally figured out what kind of animal you remind me of. An ornery boar. You get irritated at the littlest things and mindlessly charge over and over."

I sneer. "Coming from a smug cat that's thinks it's special because it can catch a caged canary, that's almost funny."

"You know, our drinking contest was interrupted, and like you, I'm not satisfied with our brawl contest. We should really finish the fight we started."

I grin. "Yeah. We should. With all your metal clatter while I bitch-slap you, your bitch aunt's bitch dogs will probably enjoy watching the show."

"My bitch aunt's dogs?" Vorn's head snaps all around like a broken hoist cable.

After a moment, when Vorn does not see anything out of place, he narrows his eyes and stares at me. "What are you talking about?"

"Humans, a lot of them, have been through this area. Eight or ten of them have been through here in the past two or three hours."

As Vorn examines the general area, a mix of confusion and disbelief show on his face. "I don't see any tracks or other signs of anyone."

"You're just not a good enough tracker. Do something about all that metal. I'd hear you from five hundred meters out. If any of your bitch aunt's dogs have good ears, we'll never get close to them."

Vorn frowns. He takes most of his gear off his weapons belts, storing the stuff in his pack. After tightly strapping his sword's sheathe to his back, he holds his drawn sword in his right hand and a Yuan Qi gun in his left. "Let's go."

I shake my head. "We can only hope all your aunt's scouts are deaf idiots."

Without giving Vorn a chance to reply, I run in the direction of the old keep and mining compound that stands on the lower slopes of the mountain visible through the trees.

The mines in this area played out more than a couple of centuries ago, and the place was abandoned. While most of the ore was hauled out by airship, there was, still, a road that ran north to Shizukana Gake, but it was overgrown or washed out long ago. With the discovery of richer ore deposits closer to Shizukana Gake, no one ever put in the effort to find more deposits in this area. Now, Ferocious Beasts dominate the region, Beast hunters are the only humans that normally come this far south.

Luckily, the forest grows thick in this region. On the southern side of this spur of the Kami Kaze Mountains, the land consists mostly of rolling plains, but on this side, the forest runs well up the lower slopes of the mountains. The last time I came around here, brush and young trees had grown right up to the foot of the outer walls of the keep and compound. If I was alone, I would have no problem sneaking into the keep across bare stone, but with the smug cat tagging along, we will need cover to reach the keep or the compound.

After moving a hundred meters closer to the old mines, we come across the tracks of booted human feet. Looking at the tracks, the men, who left them, were wearing hobnailed boots.

After Vorn squats down and examines the tracks, he suspiciously looks at me. "How did you see these tracks from where we were?"

I shrug. "Good eyes."

With a disbelieving expression, Vorn shakes his head, but he stands up without saying anything. In silence, we continue toward the old mines. As the fresher scents of humans fill the air, I keep my speed down. This part of the forest has enough undergrowth that I do not want Vorn to make too much noise. For a human noble, he moves surprisingly well in the forest, but he still makes too much noise if he moves too quickly.

The sound of low voices mixes with the calls of birds from the forest canopy, and I halt. Crouching in a thicker section of undergrowth, I scan the forest to the west.

Vorn squats next to me. His voice comes out as barely a whisper. "What's the problem?"

Turning to glare at Vorn, I put my index finger over my lips, then point to the west. Fortunately Vorn is not stupid. He does not say anything more and looks toward the west. After a minute or so, when the volume of the voices grows louder, Vorn crouches lower and flips his cloak over his head, hiding the metallic sheen of his chainmail coif.

When the figures near us, they become visible between the trees. As I knew from their scents, the patrol comprises five men: three obvious gaijin and two men that would not look entirely out of place in the Heian Kingdom.

The native people of the Heian Kingdom and Sengoku Empire all originate from the same ancestry. The two not-so-obvious gaijin in the patrol bear facial features with similarities to the people of the Heian Kingdom, but after living in the Heian Kingdom for so long, their clothing aside, they do not like natives to me. The two men do not stand more than one hundred and sixty centimeters in height. They have wide stocky bodies and walk with bowlegged strides. Unlike the other three, who wear chainmail nearly identical to Vorn's, these two wear boiled leather armor trimmed with the fur of Beasts. Curved swords hang from their hips and short rifles rest on their backs. From the smell, they are using fire-powder guns, not Mana guns.

"We should be patrolling mounted. How will we ever run down anyone on foot?." The younger, leather-clad man looks at the older with an irritated expression. The language he uses is common among three of the four Central Empires of the Great Plateau and two of the Jeweled Kingdoms. More than half of the Cultivation texts that I have seen were written using it.

The older, leather-clad man sighs. "We have guns. Unlike these Bjornsonner dogs, we hit what we aim at."

Two of the chainmail-clad men glare over their shoulders at the leather-clad men.

"Keep it down!" Without looking back, the man in the middle of the patrol, snaps out a quiet order.

"Think we'll get a shot at killing that Bjornsonner brat?"

"You've asked that a hundred times, at least, in the past two days. Just shut up, already."

The younger man looks like a dog that was denied a treat. "I just want a shot at him. He's a weak Amberite that spent his life hiding behind castle walls. We're Sons of the Great Stallion. We should be the ones to kill him."

Sons of the Great Stallion? Hearing the man's words, I frown. Are they from the Kingdom of Diamond?

Next to me, Vorn tenses up, and odors of range and hate fill his scent. The smug cat is getting pissed. He must be the "Bjornsonner brat". The Royal House of Amber is also known as the Clan of Bjornsonner.

As the two chainmail-clad Amberites in the lead bristle, the Amberite leader looks over his shoulder. "Act like men and shut up! If your gossiping gives us away, I'll use a mace to fuck you like women."

The younger leather-clad man grabs the hilt of his curved sword, but the older leather-clad man grabs his wrist. "Forget about it!"

Silence settles on the patrol, and they disappear into the trees an undergrowth. As the patrol moves farther away, the two Sons of the Stallion keep arguing. They almost seem like the argument is nothing more than a way to pass the time. Walking a patrol route must be boring for them. They do not take the job seriously.

"You mad, Bjornsonner kitty?"

Vorn glares at me. "Go fuck yourself!"

The anger in Vorn's voice almost makes me laugh, but I put on a mocking smirk instead. "They really don't seem to like or respect you much."

Vorn spits. His whisper comes out like an angry hiss. "Damn Sons of the Horse. They sold out to Great Tang ten thousand years ago. Even if they're a Jeweled Kingdom in name, they serve the interests of the Central Empires, not the Jeweled Kingdoms. Those bastards should all be crucified and castrated."

Crucifixion and castration. That is the most common fate for traitors in the Jeweled Kingdoms. The second most common is probably being staked out live for Ferocious Beasts to feed on them.

"Do you want to kill them after we scout out the old mine compound?" I do not bother pointing out that Vorn's own aunt and other Amberites are looking to kill him.

Vorn smiles coldly. "If we have a chance afterward, we kill them!"

I chuckle. "Great way to deal with people who don't like you."

Vorn puts on a mocking smile. "If that's how you think people that hate you should be dealt with, why haven't you killed all of Shizukana Gake?"

I shrug. "If I kill them, I can't make them suffer."

"You ready to get rid of your metal, kitty fur? Or do you want to stay here so the jangling or light reflecting off it doesn't give me away?"

Vorn frowns. "I don't jangle."

"You just have bad hearing. You can't hear yourself jangling. Look how long it took you to hear those horse fuckers jabbering away."

"What's with your eyesight and hearing? Are you half hawk, half dog, and three-quarters hog?"

I narrow my eyes, but since Vorn is already taking off chainmail, I do not comment.

* * * * *

The sun has almost set by the time we come in sight of the old mine compound. The closer we came, the thicker the patrols. We spent more time hiding in brush or up in the trees than walking.

A stretch of around one hundred and fifty meters of cleared land stretches out between us and the mine compound's outer wall. The bitch princess' men repaired the damage to the compound's walls and cut down all the trees and brush. Three newly constructed guard towers stand inside the compound's wall. While nothing more than wooden platforms, supported on four poles each, a group of four guards stands on each platform.

Tied down by mooring ropes, the superstructures of two large airships rise above the compound. Both appear to be of the same class of airship, but I do not know what the class or its purpose might be. I am not an expert on airships. If Hoshi were here, he could probably rattle off every detail about them.

Built on a plateau directly to the east of the compound, a small stone keep backs up to the stone mountain cliff behind it. Like the compound's wall, the keep shows signs of recent repair. The chainmail covered heads of ten to fifteen men can be seen behind the parapets, as they patrol or stand guard on the top of the keep's curtain wall.

Getting in will not be as easy as I expected. After carefully examining the compound and the cliffs behind it, I tap Vorn on the shoulder and slink back into the deeper undergrowth.

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