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Race: Draconian

Bloodline Powers: Improved Strength+, Rending, Firebreath+

Greater Mysteries: Fire (Noble) 5, Wind (Noble) 3, Sound (Advanced) 2

Lesser Mysteries: Heat 4, Oxygen 4, Embers 4, Pressure 4, Current/Flow 4

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The Knights were impressive, Samazzar had to give them that. One hundred men and women in gleaming steel armor atop war horses that were almost as big as Dussok. There were probably ten times as many members of the guard stretching back out of sight on the forest path, but the cavalry were a much more intimidating sight.

Of course, that was simply based upon their size and polished armor alone. Samazzar knew that each and every one of the Knights assigned to the mission had trained their abilities to the fullest, taken an elixir and trained themselves to a superhuman level again. Moreover, all of them had attended the Academy in between their martial lessons for between six months and a year, long enough to add at least a common mystery to their repertoire. In short, the elite soldiers were stronger, faster, and could take more damage than a normal warrior on top having one or more abilities that would aid their combat effectiveness.

Adam had been modest about his unit’s abilities, apparently every civilized nation had some variant of the Knights, but it was more than enough to draw a wistful sigh from Sam. Elixirs were rare in the mountains. A couple of the more dominant races were as strong as a human that had used an elixir and trained themselves to the limit, but by and large alchemy and the mysteries were sorely underdeveloped, the domain of small circles of elders and wise men rather than systemic learning like in Vereton.

The difference was staggering. A single knight could wipe out his entire tribe, and if one failed two wouldn’t leave any doubt. Even Greentoe goblins likely wouldn’t have put up much of a fight against a squad of five knights.

Working with a talented individual like Adam was acceptable. He was like Samazzar’s peers at the Academy, someone with the potential for true power. Accepting the fact that Vereton had an entire army of soldiers that were only a step or so behind him was an entirely separate matter. He’d never felt any sort of pride or connection to his old tribe, they had cut ties with him when they sold him into slavery after all, but at the same time it was hard to stomach how outclassed they were.

Even casting magic and military prowess aside, the food, medicine and craftsmanship available to the average human was stunning. Vereton was in the middle of a siege, and almost every citizen lived better than the kobolds in their caves. Beggars and unemployed laborers went hungry, but at the end of the day they still had a small amount of bread from the public dole and flophouses with fires in their hearths.

“Sam,” Adam called out, knocking him out of his contemplation as the Knight spurred his horse over toward him. “I know I thanked you once for getting food to the miners, but I wanted to make sure to do it again. Those men were hungry and I gave them my word that we would help them. A man’s word might not be worth as much as it used to around Vereton, but at least to me, being able to keep it means a lot. Thank you for following through where I could not.”

“Of course Lieu-Captain.” Samazzar caught himself, taking note of the brief smile that flashed over Adam’s face. “You’re my friend. The parros were nice, but it only makes sense that I would help out a friend. After all, you would do the same for me.”

“Absolutely,” the knight replied firmly. “If anyone in your group runs into trouble with any of the soldiers just let me know. Even if they’re racist, they should know better than to bother practitioners. After all, that’s a great way to wake up with crickets crawling out of every orifice. That said, the soldiers are on edge after months of siege, and you never tell what someone will do when the stress gets to them.”

“I’ll tell Dussok not to eat them,” Samazzar said dryly. “Honestly, other than a couple of the more powerful knights and the magi, I don’t think that anyone can really put up a proper fight against the three of us. I can understand bigotry when we were smaller, but to hurl curses and slurs at something that can snap you in half with a single punch? That’s a level of foolishness that I hope you’ve managed to train out of your warriors.”

Adam grimaced, glancing back at the column of infantry and archers that followed the horse-mounted knights.

“I would hope so too, especially with your evolution. I keep forgetting how much bigger the three of you are. Probably a side effect of me being too busy to actually sit down with you for a beer or a cider or something.”

“By the thousand and one mysteries,” Adam continued, shaking his head. “I’ve missed those dumb little talks of ours. I don’t think I’ve gotten a good night’s sleep in a week, what with pushing the Patrician’s council to approve the attack followed by actually putting together the squadron and the logistics needed.”

“I missed them too,” Samazzar replied, somewhat surprised to find he truly meant it. “You’re a strange human Captain Joosen, but I’m a strange draconian so our friendship only makes sense.”

“Oh,” he perked up, expression turning sheepish. “Congratulations on the promotion to captain by the way. I don’t know a lot about Vereton’s military ranks, but I’ve been led to believe that becoming a captain is a fairly big achievement, especially at your young age.”

“It is,” Adam responded, a hint of pride mixing with worry in his voice, “but it’s an honor that has become much more common lately. The guard has been expanding, so Vereton needs more officers. I probably didn’t have enough seniority to make captain on my own through the Knights, but given my role in discovering the bandit encampment, command of the punitive expedition was handed over to me. The attack force was too large for a mere Lieutenant so I was promoted. Not exactly a tale of honor and valor, but at the end of the day it placed me in charge of almost a third of the CIty’s Knights and about ten percent of its guards. Enough soldiers for me to actually go out and make a difference.”

“But they still sent Captain Jamise,” Samazzar observed. The Knight’s face dropped, as if he had bit into something sour. He pursed his lips for a handful of seconds, searching for the right words before he replied.

“In light of my accomplishments I was put in overall control of the expedition, but ordinarily a captain is in charge of a hundred knights or a thousand guardsmen, not both. It makes sense that the council would send an experienced deputy to help me with the mission.”

“Deputy?” Sam asked, flexing his wings slightly. “He’s spent the last day and a half of our march barking orders at everyone. If he’s your deputy and not a co-commander, someone should probably inform him of that.”

Adam bit his lip, struggling to find a diplomatic answer to Samazzar’s comment. Sam didn’t interject. He probably shouldn’t have teased the man, but social niceties were one of the parts of human society that seemed most alien to him. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand them. Maybe that was true for his first couple of weeks in Vereton, but he’d been around long enough to more or less understand what he should and shouldn’t say. It was more that the idea that someone should censor themselves because an unspoken set of rules proclaimed a statement ‘rude’ was beyond amusing. In front of a dragon, there was no rude or polite. If you annoyed someone drastically stronger than you, you became a snack. It was a much simpler and easier to understand system.

A man shouted something from the front of the column and Adam winced. Samazzar cocked his head to the side, an unspoken question on his face. The knight held up a single hand to forestall any communication as the sound of a horse galloping stood out over the usual noise of the moving column.

Seconds later, a courier appeared by a copse of trees, rounding a bend in the path as he pushed his horse. The woman glanced up, sighting Adam and redirecting her animal over toward him.

“Captain!” She called out, bringing her horse to a stop. She cast a quick glance in Sam’s direction, drawing a nod from Adam before continuing. “Knight Sandra Matthews reporting, Lieutenant Billings sends his regards, but a couple of the scouts have found a watch post. It looks like it has been recently abandoned and he is requesting further orders.”

Adam frowned. His horse snorted, shifting slightly under his gleaming body before leaning down to eat a mouthful of grass. Quietly, Samazzar pulled a carrot out of his traveling satchel and offered it to the eager animal.

“Bandits I presume?” Adam asked, his forehead still furrowed as he stared at his animals’ mane.

“It looks like it sir,” Sandra replied. “We obviously can’t tell for sure, but it doesn’t look like a professional operation, and we’re barely an hour out from where your map said the enemy camp would be. It’s either bandits or someone else keeping an eye on them.”

“Sam,” Adam said finally, “stop feeding Deidre. You’re ruining her supper.”

Samazzar grinned sheepishly, stealing the half-eaten end of the carrot back from the man’s horse and tossing it into the woods. The action earned him a stomp of the animal’s foot and an impatient snort, but before she could throw a tantrum, Adam reached down to pat her on the side of the neck while he continued speaking.

“If you wouldn’t mind gathering your siblings Sam, this seems like the sort of investigation that the three of you would be helpful in. I will ride ahead to have a look at this outpost while Knight Matthews tries to gather up the rest of the practitioners and Captain Jamise. I don’t know what I’m looking for, but proficiency in the mysteries lets a magus see things that ordinary people cannot. It’s almost time for us to organize an attack on the camp anyway, it would be best for us to have the nucleus of the army in one place regardless of what is happening.”

With a flick of his reigns and a tap of his stirrups, Adam pushed Deidre into motion, leaving the female Knight and Samazzar alone by the side of the road. Near them another line of mounted knights continued past.

“Well,” Sammazar said with a shrug. “You heard the captain. It sounds like we’re all meeting up at this abandoned lookout post.”

The woman nodded once before setting out on her own. Sam set out on his own. Humans really were a mystery sometimes. He couldn’t tell whether Sandra liked or disliked him. She clearly felt uncomfortable talking in his presence, but that could have easily been a factor associated with the fact that he was a member of Vereton’s Academy rather than a sworn warrior in its army. It also could have been simple and straightforward racism. She was too polite to tip her hand one way or another, leaving him in a quandary where he could never know for sure.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter. He had a job to do, and so did she. Sam might not have a terrible amount of loyalty to Vereton itself, but Pothas, Adam, Harris, Henry, and Rose? All four of those individuals had been terribly kind to him and his siblings when it would have been easier for them to brush him aside. A dragon didn’t forget its friends, and regardless of the other unpleasantness, Samazzar would make sure that a favor was repaid with a favor.

Fifteen minutes later, Takkla, Dussok and Samazzar pushed aside a fern and stepped into the clearing where the outpost was located. A trio of small wooden buildings sat at the center of a circular wooden wall that was about as tall as Dussok. Another four or five canvas tents clustered around the interior of the small fort providing extra housing for bandits that weren’t there.

Next to the doorway into the palisade was a lean-to with a pair of weapon racks. One was laying on the ground, apparently tipped over in haste, while the other stood bare. In the middle of the handful of buildings and tents sat a large fire pit, recently doused and emitting a steady trail of soot and steam.

Standing around the abandoned fort were a number of humans and an elf. Half of the humans were wearing the heavy armor of Knights, and the other half were wearing a hodgepodge of enchanted protective gear and bearing a number of staves, wands, and crystals that marked them as magi. Captain Jamise was standing closest to the fire pit, poking the still wet ashes thoughtfully with the blade of his sword.

“And you’re saying the scouts saw one or two of the enemy lookouts fleeing when they arrived?” The man asked, tip of his blade flipping over a steaming log.

“Yes sir,” a knight responded. The man’s back was stiff, his heels tight together at attention while the Captain barely acknowledged him.

“Lieu-” Jamise began, only to theatrically correct himself. “CAPTAIN Joosen, it appears that the enemy spotted us I warned. We should immediately array ourselves into a combat formation. It will slow our movements, but if we are attacked while the guard and knights are stretched out on the forest trail and separated, it would be a disaster. I doubt the bandits can defeat our men one to one, but that would let them concentrate their forces and-”

“I am well aware,” Adam replied. “On the contrary, if the enemy decides to turn and run, our only chance at catching up with them is to being marching at double time in the current formation. If we force the men to dismount and move slowly through the forest, the enemy will be entirely gone before we even see their tail end.”

Around the circle of humans, a number of people were nodding thoughtfully. It was impossible to tell which side they were taking in argument, but it was clear that a decision needed to be made one way or the other.

“Vereton has entrusted you, a newly minted Captain, with-”

Samazzar tuned Jamise out. He would worry about the politics and infighting when the humans came to a decision. Until then, something about the entire scenario seemed off. If it was the Vereton scouts that discovered the enemy outpost, its inhabitants shouldn’t have had enough warning to douse their cooking fire and escape. There should be more information that a handful of phantoms disappearing into the forest.

He turned off his hearing entirely, reaching out with the mysteries of wind, fire, and heat. The fire itself had only been started a couple of hours ago, a strange scenario as it was hard to start a proper blaze. It took the humans feeding it almost a half hour to feed steadily larger logs into it before the fire reached its final size.

His wind magic quickly located the path leading away from the outpost, a well beaten trail through the forest that left the clearing in the general direction where the enemy camp should be. The only problem with the scenario, was the heat clinging to the soil.

Samazzar shifted his attention back to the outpost, counting the number of bedrolls and pillows in the tents and cabins. Sixteen, all but two of them a dull cool violet in his heat vision. Their blankets and pillows were disturbed as if they had just been slept in, but their physical appearance was directly at odds with what his magical senses were telling him.

“How many men did the scouts spot fleeing the outpost when they arrived?” Samazzar asked, interrupting the pointless tactical argument between the humans.

“Two,” Jamise spat back. “The rest of them must have already escaped before our soldiers arrived. They’ve likely already alerted the entire bandit army, and unless we prepare for an immediate attack, we will have a thousand screaming raiders breathing down our necks in a matter of minutes.”

Samazzar shook his head, pieces clicking together.

“There were only two bandits here,” he replied. “Most of the beds are cold and the tracks on the path leading out of the clearing are old.”

“But how can you say that!” Jamise shouted, eyes burning as he glared at Samazzar. “Food is on the tables in the cabins and it's clear that the enemies had to clear out in a hurry. No, they spotted us coming and fled just ahead of our vanguard.”

Sam closed his eyes for a second before shaking his head a second time.

“The food is cold too. I bet that a decay practitioner would confirm that it has been left out for a day or two. This place might look like chaos on the surface, but everything in front of us is just a ruse. Other than the two people spotted by the scouts, it has been empty for days.”

“He’s right Captain,” one of the practitioners chimed in. “I have some skill in the advanced mystery of insects and vermin. There are maggots in that meat. It hasn’t been in its icebox for some time.”

Adam frowned, crossing his arms as he looked at the smoking firepit. The outpost descended into silence but for Jamise’s aggrieved sputtering.

“But what would be the purpose of luring us into finding an empty outpost?” Captain Joosen asked, uneasiness in his voice. “Either they just abandoned this place, or they went through a lot of effort to make us think that we surprised them, what could the bandits possibly-”

“Report!” A female’s voice shouted from outside the palisade, probably Sandra but Samazzar couldn’t see her face to confirm. “Scouts have made contact with the enemy camp. It’s empty, but they have made contact with a handful of skirmishers covering the enemy retreat. Lieutenant Billings is requesting permission to pursue.”