Chapter 30

The Fate of a Wolfhound

“The inn at Crossroads is half-decent,” Rowan said, “they’ll have a bed for him, at least. The innkeeper’s a good man. He’ll make sure this lad’s looked after.” Tanlor and Rowan gently lifted the man into his saddle—his horse had the same light grey colouring as the man’s hair. Rowan had started referring to both the man and his horse as ‘the wolfhounds’ for the way their shaggy grey hair resembled that of a wolfhound. They strapped his legs so that he wouldn’t fall.

“And what about when they ask how he got the wound?” Tanlor picking back up the argument that they had been having all morning, “he’s slowly regaining consciousness, I still propose we leave him here with a fire and enough water and logs to keep him going for a few days. He has provisions on him for at least a week.”

“I’ll not leave a man to die out here,” Rowan glowered at his little brother with obvious affront.

“He’ll be fine,” Tanlor insisted, “the wound’s not going to get infected and if we leave now he’ll not remember any of us.” Daegan understood the concern. Ultimately, Tanlor was trying to protect him as his primary objective. Daegan didn’t doubt that under normal circumstances, Tanlor wouldn’t hesitate to help the man but their mission depended on secrecy. A Reldoni man and two travelling companions saving a man’s life on the road wouldn’t go unnoticed. The story would make its way back to Rubastre which was still only less than a week's ride away.

So far, they’d done a good job of hiding Daegan’s face under a hood when they stopped in villages and keeping a generally low profile as they passed through. Keeping your face hidden and riding into town with a dying man would give an entirely wrong message and could spread even quicker back to Rubastre. It was all in efforts to keep Ferath and anyone that he had been working with off the scent of their trail. Daegan wondered on occasion if Kerala had been involved as she also hadn’t been found while the Duke’s guards had searched the palace for Ferath.

Daegan packed up his own bedroll into his saddlebag. He handed Rowan’s green cloak to him and muttered a thanks. Rowan accepted it with a nod and said nothing else about it. Daegan had woken in the early hours of the morning to damp chill. He hadn’t believed he’d ever been so cold in his life. The fire was still going and Rowan had been awake, keeping watch over both surroundings and the wounded man. Daegan had felt himself begin to shiver. Rowan calmly placed his own cloak over him and patted his shoulder.

“This hour’s always the worst,” he’d said in a hushed tone, “just before the dawn breaks.” Daegan in his half-asleep state didn’t question or refuse the offer, gladly accepting the additional warmth and comforting weight of the man’s cloak and had drifted off back to sleep.

“I’ll not leave him,” Rowan re-affirmed, “If you lads want to circle around Crossroads, I’ll catch up with you on the road tomorrow. But wolfhound here is being brought to the inn and that’s that.”

“I’ll keep my hood up,” Daegan offered to Tanlor, “and I’ll not speak to anyone.” Deep down, the main reason Daegan wanted to get to the inn was because he deeply desired a cooked meal, a glass or two of whitewhiskey and a warm bed. He didn’t like the idea of skipping around Crossroads and spending a second night sleeping out.

“That settles it so,” Rowan determined, swinging himself onto his own horse.

“No it doesn’t!” Tanlor rebuked, also mounting. Rowan held onto the grey horse's reins and led him along, “come on big wolfhound, that’s a good lad.” he said, ignoring Tanlor’s argument.

Daegan pulled himself up into his own saddle. His legs protested as they shifted back into the position they’d been forced into all week. Tanlor was waiting for Daegan to follow Rowan so he could take up his customary position at the tail.

There was a misty chill to the morning. A heavy cloud had rolled in over the woods during the night. They rode on, Tanlor and Rowan still bickering over what to do with Wolfhound. Tanlor had accepted that there would be no swaying Rowan into leaving Wolfhound on the road. But he still didn’t want any part of it, so his argument shifted to trying to convince Rowan to wait a day with the man on the road while Tanlor and Daegan passed through and Rowan could catch up. Wolfhound himself was starting to stir, mumbling things on occasion. They’d tried getting some details of what had happened during those spells of semi-consciousness but they couldn’t even get a name out of him.

“He’s trying to say ‘Crossroads’, I think” Rowan suggested and Daegan agreed, “he’s probably from there. More reason to bring him back.”

“We’re not far from Crossroads now,” Daegan offered to the wounded man, unsure of whether the man could hear him let alone be comforted by it, “right Rowan?”

“Aye,” Rowan added, “we’ll have you home soon enough, Wolfhound.” The man breathed an incoherent response, his eyelids fluttering, his head bobbing from his horse’s movements.

They stopped to check for Rowan to check on Wolfhound’s bandages and for the others to have a piss.

“His horse clearly knows where he’s going,” Tanlor said, “let’s just send him on along the road. We’ll all three of us circle the town and just be done with it.”

“I don’t want to spend a second night in the woods,” Daegan replied, “a night in an inn with some whitewhiskey. That’s what I want.”

“It’s not wise for us, My Lord.”

“Not when you keep calling me that,” Daegan reprimanded, “look where we are Tanlor. Nobody’s going to recognise me out here. I’d guess half of the people in Crossroads have never even heard of the Reldoni, let alone ever seen one… I think we’ll be fine. Rowan doesn't seem worried.” Tanlor looked at Daegan with frustration, Daegan could tell he wanted to argue further but was holding back.

Rowan was checking Wolfhound’s injury to see if the stitching was holding up when the wounded man made a loud gasp, followed by a retching cough.

“You’re alright, you’re alright,” Rowan soothed, pushing a water flask to the man’s lips, “you coming back to the living yet?”

“Who?” Wolfhound managed to get out before another cough.

“Name’s Rowan. That’s Tanlor and Desmond. What happened?”

“What?… Where?”

“He’s still pretty out of it, I think,” Rowan said to the others, “let’s just get him up again. We’ll make it to Crossroads in less than an hour.” Wolfhound’s eyes went wide and tried to speak before being hit by another series of choking coughs.

“Help me get him up,” Rowan said to Tanlor.

“No!” Wolfhound managed to croak out, “not Crusruds… Raiders.” He let out a painful groan, letting his body slip back, easing the tension he’d put on it trying to speak.

“Did he say raiders?” Tanlor asked Rowan.

“Think so,” he replied, his eyebrows drawn down, “you still with us, lad?” Wolfhound didn’t respond. “Shit,” Tanlor spatem “if raiders have taken over Crossroads. They might be sending scouts out this far… we should loop back. The miner’s roads are patrolled and will be safer.”

“You didn’t want to take those,” Rowan accused, “we’d draw too much attention, you said.”

“That was before I knew raiders had taken over a village on this road.”

“The people of Crossroads are good folk,” Rowan replied, “and like you said, the Duke’s men don’t patrol down here. Who’s going to help ‘em?”

“Us?!” Tanlor shouted at him, “you can’t be serious. Rowan, we’ve no idea how many there are.”

“They’re probably just some bandits come down from the hills, likely seeing Crossroads as a convenient place to attack travellers passing through.”

“And we shouldn’t be walking right into that. Word will get the Duke’s authorities eventually and they’ll post a contract.”

“You know what raiders do to people,” Rowan said sternly, “those of them folk in Crossroads that are still alive. We can’t let them suffer on like that.”

“So you want to—what? The two of us ride into town and ask them nicely to leave?”

“By the time we get word out to any authorities, it could be days—even weeks—before anyone shows up here. You know how it goes, ain’t no one but us to help these people. I’ve taken plenty of contracts like that in my time, and I can tell you what’s left behind after a few weeks sometimes ain’t worth saving. If these raiders have just rolled in then we have a chance to stop this.”

Daegan watched the interaction between the brothers grow. All the while he couldn’t shake the feeling that Tanlor wouldn’t so callously abandon the people of Crossroads to their fate if it weren’t for Daegan. If he didn’t have to babysit me, make sure that I was kept out of harm's way, he’d already be halfway to Crossroads.

“Look at Wolfhound,” Tanlor pointed out, “he’s a fighting man. He had a runestone on him and he almost died fighting them.”

“He’s just a hiresword, he’s not trained like—”

“—I think we should help them,” Daegan interjected. Both Tanlor and Rowan’s heads spun to Daegan standing a few feet away. Rowan gave an approving nod and Tanlor had an incredulous look, “There is no we in this,” Tanlor pointed at him, “you’re not going to be helping anyone.”

“I can help,” Daegan spat back at him, “Rowan’s right, we can’t leave those people.”

“Why do you even care? They’re not your people!”

“Should it matter whose people they are? They’re still people.”

“I’m not arguing with you on this. I have orders to keep you safe and there’s no chance in the nine hells I’m going to let you fight.”

“You don’t exactly have authority over me,” Daegan replied snidely.

“Are you really going to pull rank on me?” Tanlor accused. Daegan hesitated, he didn’t want to be arguing with Tanlor, he thought that once he’d offered his support that Tanlor would come around. He shouldn’t have been so surprised that Tanlor wouldn’t want him fighting, but the dismissal still stung.

“I’m not a fool,” Daegan said quietly, “I can’t runewield but that doesn’t mean that I’m useless. I was still trained to fight.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Tanlor sighed, “it’s not because of that. I can’t afford to have you dying on me, do you understand? I can’t fail this mission—I won’t.” So that was it, this was just a mission for him. Daegan’s safety was his objective. He couldn’t argue with that, could he? Tanlor was tasked with keeping him safe so why was he working against that, it was in his own best interest, wasn’t it?

“I’ll scout ahead,” Rowan put forth, “get a count on the numbers. You lads hang back and watch over Wolfhound.”

“Don’t try to take them down yourself,” Tanlor warned.

“Have you ever known me to be reckless?”

“The outlaw camp in the Balfold,” Tanlor threw back quickly to which Rowan barked a laugh, “Ho ho—I got lucky there, didn’t I?”

“It wasn’t luck,” Tanlor replied, “it was Jarron’s arrow in that thug’s neck.”

“We were barely more than boys then, Tan. That was your first contract, wasn’t it? You didn’t hang around long, you went off to Hardhelm to serve with Duke Harfallow, if I recall?”

“I never worked for Harfallow, but yes. Hardhelm is where I went,” Tanlor conceded, “my point though. Don’t get any stupid ideas about charging in there. Scout ahead, and even if there’s only a handful of them, double back and we’ll make a plan of action together.”

“The Dukesguard really has changed you,” Rowan chuckled, “where’s my baby brother gone? The young man that kicked Boern’s teeth out in a duel?”

“You kicked Duke Garron’s teeth out?” Daegan laughed.

“Like you said,” Tanlor said with a small smirk, “the man’s a dick.”