After an hour and a half long discussions, Rushdi turned to Nick.

“You both have been silent all this while. I’m sure your boss has a lot of experience, so why don’t you share some of it? Or you are thinking of abandoning us at this moment?”

In fact, they did consider this option, but they didn’t need a discussion to reject it. The weren’t half way to the west coast yet and even if their speed would have been faster all this time, the general protection and cover that this caravan convoy job provided was priceless. In addition, there was no guarantee for them to survive on their own at all.

‘The Dark road’ that was still in front of them was the most dangerous part of this trip. Those were more than five hundred kilometers without any human settlements stretching between high mountain ranges and forests which were so thick that the sunlight didn’t reach the ground. It also was the reason for the name – ‘ the Dark road’. At nights it was impossible to create large campsites in a defensive circle formation like they did now and the caravan could only stop at the roadside where ferocious beasts attacked it, even packs of rank four were not uncommon. There also were very rare occasions when a rank five beast came and wiped out tens of people. Thus being in a bigger group like this with more guards, even if only regular ones, was definitely safer.

“No, we accepted the job and intend to complete it.” Nick seriously replied, “But there are some things we would like to inform you about. But before I begin, I would like all of you to just listen to this as a simple additional intelligence report which might be related to our situation, but we are not hundred percent confident it does.”

Then he glanced around and continued, “Almost two months ago one of our teams encountered similar situation, albeit on a smaller scale. It took place in the desert between Berin and Anula. The caravan leader named Mustafa also received such notice and even tried to empower himself by absorbing additional smaller caravans before the attack, but still got destroyed. For now the only similarities is the warning of the personal vendetta and an attack of unconventional scale. Unfortunately our people were not part of the convoy and received information only after questioning the few remaining witnesses.”

“I know that Mustafa, he is a small caravan leader peddling slaves between Olava and Berin.” Qi master Hawi impatiently said, “But even if that is true, how are these things related and if they are, how does it help us?”

“That is a great question, but before I answer that I would like to ask caravan leader Solomon one thing. But please, I hope no one takes any personal offense – there is no such intention.” Nick raised his hands implying his own defenselessness, “Is there is anyone present who you do not fully trust?”

Then he saw Solomon’s face changing and added, “Hahaha, of course, besides us, that is.”

Still, Solomon seemed angry, “I’ve been working with most of the present people for years! You might even suspect me if you want to imply that any of them is involved in betrayal.”

Nick smiled and calmly replied, “Caravan leader, there is no reason for you to get furious. Wasn’t my question normal and logical?”

He glanced around and continued, “We have to make one thing clear – if you don’t trust our ‘Southern mercenary group’, you might as well instantly terminate out contract, we will not blame you or hold a grudge. But we have no prior knowledge of the present people and can only trust your judgment, because as we see it – it is your life on the line, agreed?”

“Stop the blabber! Brother was rash.” Rushdi interrupted, “Speak properly!”

“One last time, I apologize if anyone was offended. Please wait a moment.” Nick turned serious and whispered something to Clayton. The latter got up and went out of the tent, returning couple minutes later. After nodding to Nick he sat back down.

“Now that there is no one who can hear us, here is what we think.” Nick leaned closer to others and said in hushed voice, “There is no revenge or any big bandit group. There is only a rogue Qi master or two, who has gathered twenty to thirty decent warriors who are good with bows. The rest of their force is formed from escaped or freed slaves and are basically ants. They have traveled south, robbing and pillaging, but they attack only caravans and the imperial army just hasn’t gotten any wind of it yet or doesn’t care for now. Their huge forces can only instill fear from a distance and have almost no practical use. This is one of the reasons why they will attack at night, most likely before that voicing out some requests to lower our morale.”

Nick paused, looked at the serious expressions of the caravan leader and his right hand man and then continued, “The initial message is with the same intent, otherwise there would be no reason for anyone to leak it. In addition, they will attack at night instead of the day, because those slaves have no idea on how to properly ride a horse. Large scale attack would be more effective during the day for a quick and strong mounted units, but they simply can’t do it. If I am wrong or you don’t believe our boss’s judgment, we will follow your orders. Some of you have seen our skills – we will be the last seven standing anyway. But …“ Nick sternly looked around to increase the dramatic effect “… if you want a real chance not only to survive but come out unscathed, we would like to suggest the following …”

For the next hour Nick explained his ideas and tactics, answered questions and presented some items for others to inspect as well. The discussion continued long into the night and in the end his proposal was agreed to be the plan ‘b’. This was already more than he hoped for and in a good mood they returned to their group.

Even if Nick felt good about his ideas, the situation wasn’t good at all. The seven of them revised some strategies on how to act in different scenarios and it was almost sunrise when they finished the long planning. Nick took the ‘first’ night shift which in this case would be the last one as well and started to refine their usual drink while YunYun stood on guard. Others could at least rest few hours before merchants and servants woke up for another day of fair.

After the sunrise Clayton switched with YunYun and she finally could rest while Nick went over to Rushdi’s tent as usual, but this time Rushdi didn’t intend to fool around and directly sent him off. Nick, of course, was only glad and dropped near YunYun to catch some sleep.

The fair went as normal and the caravan packed up and left in the usual peaceful manner. Looked like the news were not leaked and only few people knew about the approaching attack.

The whole day was without any incidents except when the caravan stopped to set up the night camp a bit sooner than usual, but no one really payed any attention to it.

Another unusual thing happened when the old Qi masters went out to the regular guards who were preparing the campsite and ‘taught the younglings’ how to properly set up the camp in these parts and then joined them at the bonfires as well while telling some old adventure stories. The old experts stayed around till midnight when regular guards had to reluctantly let them go to sleep.

Night went by quickly and the next day was exactly the same as the previous one.

When at the dusk old Qi masters joined the guard squads once again, they were received with loud cheers. The evening was as exciting as the previous, except the Qi masters were continuously staring in to the darkness, seemingly reminiscing of their ‘good old days’.

Just before the midnight a short whistle broke the silence and the Qi masters at the surrounding bonfires grabbed the bows at their sides and shot several weird looking arrows one after another in the night sky. Couple of seconds later soft explosions resounded in the air and for a brief moment large area around the camp was illuminated.

To the great shock of all the guards there were hundreds of people in crouching positions trying to sneak up to the camp, obviously preparing for a surprise attack.

“Retreat to the circle! Maintain order! Remain calm!” Qi master Zaki shouted while infusing Qi in his voice.

The startled guards instantly came to their senses and left the outer circle to gather near the caravan carriages.

“Dose the torches!” Master Zaki shouted while everyone instantly complied and suddenly the whole camp was engulfed in darkness. The attacking forces could only see brightly lit huge bonfires around the perimeter, but it was hard to even discern the silhouettes of the carriages in the center.

“Nicely done.” Nick whispered to Clayton who gave the first warning.

Actually they knew about the approaching enemy for over fifteen minutes, but didn’t inform the masses, only the other Qi masters.

“Damn! I would love to be skilled with a bow at this moment.” Clayton cursed watching how Nick noticed some movement near bonfires and shot few quick arrows in succession and painful cries resounded on the other side.

Attackers could not really see the defending forces and had to come closer to put out the bonfires if they wanted to advance. But as soon as they neared, Nick and few other guards who were good with their bows immediately injured or even killed them.

There was a silence for several minutes and merchants with their servants grew increasingly nervous, but the old Qi masters quickly calmed them down. Their arguments were foolproof – there was no need to fear an enemy who can’t even see them.

“I see that our friends from the desert have joined this caravan as well!” Suddenly a Qi infused voice came over from a distance, “You can leave and we will not attack you. In fact, every innocent merchant and guard can leave, we only want the damned Solomon! He will have to pay for his crimes!”

Nick gave a quick sign to Clayton and finally everyone in this caravan could hear his voice for the first time. It was Qi infused as well, but sounded much more tyrannical and scary, “If you know who I am, then you know that you have to return where you came from or you won’t return at all! And stop the bullsh*t about leaving the innocent alive – you morons run around and kill everyone without leaving witnesses. There is no chance for anyone to stay alive if they move towards the bonfires.”

The silence enveloped surroundings once again. Then there were few noises coming from outside the camp and everything became still once again. Nick shot few illuminating arrows and it looked like the attackers have fallen back.

As per earlier arrangement, Nick met up with the Qi masters and vice caravan leader Rushdi.

“Did they leave?” Rushdi asked.

“Looks like it. But we have to check to be sure. Charge out at my signal. If there are or aren’t any enemies, reconvene back here.” Qi master Zaki said, then gave a signal and the present Qi masters as well as Nick left in a lightning speed and returned few minutes later.

This time caravan leader Solomon was present as well.

“How is it?” He asked.

“All clear.” Zaki replied, “Thanks to our Southern friends none of our people have even a scratch while we killed at least fifteen of them.”

This was what they agreed upon at the end in Rushdi’s tent back during the fair. If there is no attack during the day, at night the Qi masters would instruct guards to make bonfires further from the inner circle than usual so the camp would be covered in darkness, but they could see anyone who approaches while having a good cover behind the carriages themselves.