Sword of Justice Part 8

Day 8 of the 10k a day challenge.  The mind is willing but the flesh is weak.  Lefty, the hand I use for all my T's and Q's is starting to cramp up.  Going to muscle through tomorrow.  Note, I'm an author in editing, which translates to I'm the kind of author who gets something down and fixes it later... cough.  Or this might be a slowing action before the climax.  One of the two.  

Chapter 31: Northward ho

It took longer for an army to start moving after a battle than I would have expected.  There were scores of minor wounds to tend, and then soldiers to bury.  Meanwhile Bella was working on repairing and replacing equipment to the point that the general ordered her to rest.

Bella was dozing in her wagon after I had helped repack the thing as one of the few trained smiths who knew where everything went.  Of course, I had a real idea it was just that Justice had scanned the wagon earlier and could recall it with perfect clarity.

“Get up in the hammock,” said Bella sleepily as I finished packing the last object.  The wagon and the hammock were both orc sized, so technically I’d fit if were were both friendly, and Bella was very friendly.

“You need to rest,” I said.

“I need lots of things,” she mumbled, and I considered it.  But it would have been really obvious and by the time I made up my mind she was already out.

“You have got to work on your hesitation.  When an opportunity presents itself, you need to pounce, like a vicious puma!” said Justice.

“Vicious puma,” I asked, hopping off the wage.

“They are unpleasant creatures, I’ve been told.  Never spent much time around them myself, they lack hands you see,” said Justice.

“Of course,” I replied and found Elana riding her horse next to me.  One thing to be said for having a lame leg, if only until it healed, was that it really made your horse riding skills improve.

She didn’t quite glower at me, but it was a close thing.  I hopped up on Gringer and we kept on moving.

“You are going to give Knights a bad reputation,” said Elana as we rode.

I waved at several of the soldiers as they thumped their fists to their chest, “I doubt that.”

Elana sighed as we continued up to her mother, who looked at me appraisingly.  “We will arrive at a defensible location by the end of the day.  What are your thoughts on Nordrim?”

“Nice town, bit a of a spider problem,” I replied.

“The people, will they fight,” Zahir continued.

I considered for a brief moment, “Yes, they fought with me against orcs before, I see no reason they would suddenly stop.  Would you like me to ask them?”

“No, I sent Eldron back at the crossroads, he knows the Princess as well as several people in town.  He should be able to talk them into joining up if anyone can,” said Zahir.  “My plan for you is more ambitious, good Sir Knight.”

She dismissed everyone but me and Elana.

“Color me intrigued,” I said.

“As you know, Kenin has tunnels underneath it that can be invaded through, however that vast network of caves is difficult to navigate and there are many dead end passages that do not turn up in the city,” stated Zahir in a hushed tone, gesturing to a map.

I nodded, so she continued, “What I want you to do is break into the city, and then find a tunnel there and follow it back to the river here.”

“So the tunnels from the river might go anywhere, but all the tunnels down end up at the river,” I asked.

“Correct, that is how the fortress fell initially, a spy entered the town and found a passage to the river,” said Zahir.

“Isn’t the city fortified,” I asked.

“A fortification is to keep armies out, it does little to stop individuals especially when the fortress is not preparing for siege,” said Zahir.  “The walls are broad enough that a small town exists inside and the humans there travel in and out of the fortress constantly.”

“And we aren’t placing the fortress under siege, are we,” I asked.

“No, it would take thousands, and more siege equipment than we could build in two years,” said Zahir.  “You will mark a path through the tunnels, we will follow it up and start in the middle of the fortress when they aren’t expecting us.  With the element of surprise and a Knight on our side, we should be able to win assuming we can slay Corgo.”

“Corgo, one of the sons of Grimdar?” I asked.

“Yes, Grimdar has many sons, so claiming him as a parent is not overly unique though only members of his bloodline are in contention for the Orc leader at the moment.”

“At the moment,” I asked.

“Grimdar was an abnormality, humans fought orcs ever since they appeared on our shores,” said Zahir.  “Hundreds of years of fighting, and we’d never lost more than a few cities and then only temporarily.  Grimdar and the red eyed orcs showed up and broke the back of the king’s army in under five years.”

“Your army,” I asked, with curiousity not hostility.

“I was a general in the Kings armies, I was the Grand General of all the armies, but yes he broke my army, and every other army the king possessed.  We had skill users, wizards, and in one case a person who claimed to have come from outer space.  The red eyed orcs were simply too powerful.”

“How can we challenge them now,” I asked.

“Because we did,” said Zahir.  “The orcs we fought were tough, but not nearly on the scale of the warbands that destroyed the kings armies.  Had we fought one of those fists, we would have been utterly destroyed with the possible exception of yourself.”

Elana’s eyebrows raised.

“Why do you think I was so worried about you fighting them,” said her mother.  “I expected you to be marching to your death.”

“And you didn’t try to talk me out of it,” said Elana.

“No, I very specifically did,” said the general.  “You snuck out, and took all the young fools who agreed with you.”

“We won,” said Elana.

“Yes, so I agreed to do this one last time,” said Zahir.  “But first we need the fortress.  So good sir knight, can I count on you to go forth and find us the secret passage to the heart of the enemy, or should I call this whole thing off?”

“I will find you this passage, on my honor, for Justice,” I said.

“May the stars guide you,” she replied formally, then shook her head.  “I’d say you sound ridiculous, but if I have trouble understanding you at points it utterly confounds the orcs and I’d put up with a lot to annoy those green bastards just a bit.”

Our secret mission over, I was dismissed.  Elana followed me so we went to the healer cart.  The healer took one look at Elana and forced her off her horse.  She was hammocked and an poultice was placed over the wound.

“You are sneakier than I give you credit,” said my attache.

“Rest up, when we get to the crossroads we will have several days of riding together and I’d like a moment of privacy where we are still in a military camp where I might have a touch of alone time,” I replied.

Elana tried to work up a glare, she really did.  I could edge started, but then she relaxed.  It could have been her agreeing with me, or the fact that he poultice had some chemicals on it designed to knock her right out.  In either case, she was cute when was sleeping.

I rode off on Gringer and looked over the empty fields of grass.

“So can we can scan through walls,” I asked.

“By myself, no,” said Justice cautiously.  “But there is a way, if you are willing to develop your Mana as well as your swordsmanship.”

“So I could be like a spellblade,” I asked.

“Not exactly, each magical caster has their own kind of magic,” said Justice.  “A wizard can use magical stones and their mana to blast objects.  Warlocks use the dark bonds of the wicked to cause their spells to impact the living.  As a Knight, your spells can only increase the effectiveness of your equipment.”

“That makes as much sense as anything,” I said regretting that I’d never be able to cast a fireball spell.

“The gemstones on my blade, are part of your equipment, so you can use your mana to enhance them, if you know the spell,” said Justice.

“Which you do,” I asked.

“Yes, unfortunately there are a few minor quibbles,” said Justice.

“Such as,” I groaned.

“You only can learn two spells given your mental defects,” said Justice.

“What mental defects?” I asked.

“I’m saying you are dumb, and if you understood what mental defects meant you would have understood that,” said Justice.

“Okay, sword, what do I need to do to increase the number of spells I have,” I said, trying to keep calm.

“Well, obviously you need to fix your mental faculties, however in the short term you can learn one magical skill,” said Justice.

“And you know these skills,” I asked.

“Of course not, I’m a sword, but I did find two skill books.  You can read them, and absorb the power,” said Justice.

“Which one gives me more spells,” I asked.

“Improved Spell Capacity, or just Capacity if one wasnt to use the shorthand,” said Justice.  “And I happen to have that book.”

The girthy book appeared in my hand.  It was hundreds of pages long.  I flipped it open.  No point in arguing, I would just absorb the power and learn this new skill.  Nothing happened.

“Do I have to focus on it or something,” I asked.

“No you daft fool, you need to read it,” said Justice.

“So absorb…” I began.

“With your eyes,” said Justice.

“I hate you,” I grumbled and looked at the first page.  All the glyphs got fuzzy for a moment and I could read them.  Each page was packed with technical knowledge of how the skill worked, this was going to take hours, or days.

“I shall be quiet so you can focus,” said Justice.

Part of me wanted to toss the book down and yell screw this.  Part of me expected that once I started reading it, the knowledge would fly off the page.  Neither happened, but I did learn how magical skills worked.

Half of the process was in the reading, the other half was in mental exercises designed to manipulate my mana into doing strange things it wasn’t designed to do.

Your mana is like a river, and you must control the flow of that river while at the same time understanding that you cannot control the flow of the river.

With careful concentration I could feel my mana flowing around my body.  Not inside my body, around it.  My mana actually orbited my head entirely too much like a halo for me to realy feel comfortable about it.  My halo was strong, as in two points of mana strong.  As you developed your mana, there were apparently energy levels and two points was the strongest you could get in a halo.

After that you had to form a second halo, and it could control 8 points of mana on top of the two you already had.  Apparently the third layer was even deeper with the ability to hold 18 points of mana, but only wizards who were really trying to hold mana got there.

What I had to do was cultivate my mana from a solid disk into a thinner disk so there was more rooms in my Mana for skills.  This would also allow me to open up my second halo of mana when I developed the skill sufficient.

So I started doing the endless complex mental exercises that were going to cause my mana to balance and purify correctly.  The first trick I tried was separating my single easy, functional disk of mana was to break that disk into both separate pieces of mana as two smaller rings that made up the halo.

I had to keep the rings separated, but close enough together to interact.  What that meant was anyone’s guess, but I figured it meant keep it at low level headache points until the headache went away.

“You are doing it,” said Justice.  “I can already see the refinement of your mana.”

“I feel funny,” I said.  Justice cast heal on me.  I wobbled slightly, “My head still hurts.”

“That was for the bloody nose, but keep trying,” said Justice.

I wiped my hand on my face and then summoned my armor.  People were starting to stare and I needed to practice this apparently.  By the end of the trip, Justice healed me four more times, I had to wipe face twice from all the blood, and I didn’t pick up a skill.  I also had no idea how successful I’d been.

But my mana was in two disks now and the constant grinding had apparently worn both edges clean on my mana rings.  I felt terrible by the time we stopped for the night.

Zahir summoned me to her tent and I stepped in fully honored.  She raised an eyebrow at my armor as well as the lack of Elana.  I sent the armor back into storage and she whistled.

“You look terrible,” she said.  “Either you are sick or you are cultivating mana.”

“I’m cultivating mana,” I said.

“You are going to wish you were sick,” she said.  “Never saw much use for mana myself, but you are a magical sword knight.  Are you going to be able to travel tomorrow?”

I nodded, since the disks had ground themselves smooth the pain was much less intense.  I probably could get used to the low level twitch it was causing.

“Good, I wondered if you reversed the outer disk yet,” said the general.  “That’s usually when people have the worst week.”

I slumped slightly, the next exercise was spinning the inner disk faster than the outer disk, and that must be the lead up to that.  I said, “It is of no concern, as a Magical Sword Knight it is my pleasure to pay this cost, for humanity.”

Zahir nodded, “Good, then you can leave tomorrow morning.  I will ensure you have sufficient supplies, also this.”

She haded me a small metal token.  It was about the size of an cell phone tracker.  As I held it in my hand Justice vibrated.

“A mana crystal fragment, where did she find this,” asked the sword, so I asked Zahir.

“I’ve had it for a long time, in your case the stone can attune to any other magical object.  If you have a skilled user or an intelligent weapon, you can pass simple messages with it over any distance.”

“Excellent, I will attune it and give it to your daughter so I can tell her when I’m inside,” I said.  I sat the crystal on the blade and it clicked in place, after a moment it vanished into storage.

“This mission is to be conducted with the utmost security, you are to go on patrol tomorrow and simply not return.  I will move the army to the river and catch up with you in five days,” said Zahir.  “And sir knight, please bring my daughter back to me safely.”

“On my honor,” I said.

I went to visit Bella, but the camp was stopped and she was too busy to see me.  Or acknowledge me.  She looked up, saw me, looked frustrated and kept hammering on metal in her semi-portable smithy.

“How does all of that fit into one cart,” I asked.

“It is very well packed, Zahir told her what to bring,” said Justice.

I checked on Elana next, she was fine.  Annoyed, but that was fine for her.  I ended up crawling under Bella’s wagon, where the sound of constant hammering drove away the crickets and went to sleep.

Chapter 32: The scouting mission

Someone kicked my foot, and I realized Justice was missing.  I rolled out from under the cart and Elana was watching me critically.  “It is after sunrise, we should be on patrol.”

“I seem to be unprepared,” I said and Elana jerked her head towards Bella.  She was carefully polishing Justice after her nights work.  I hadn’t put any mana into him recently so I couldn’t hear.

“You seem to trust her,” said Elana walking with a slight limp.

“She is very good on my equipment,” I replied.

“I’ll get the horses, get your sword, and your armor,” stated Elana.

My armor was out, on a dummy, and from what I could see the damaged parts were already repaired.  It looks like she did that first, then got to the polishing.  I walked over and coughed.

“Oh, you are awake,” said Bella, running a leathery cloth over the tip of the blade.  “I was just about finished.”

“Don’t stop early on my account,” I said.

“You need to leave,” she said rapidly buffing the edge and and holding up the sword on the backs of her hands for me to take.  Justice sparkled.

“Cannot think, must nap,” said the sword and then he got really quiet.

“My armor,” I asked.

“I was saying that I was going to polish him really quick and then wake you up to get at your armor when it just appeared there, I tried to polish him first but started shaking.  I assumed that meant he though fixing your armor first was more important so I did that.  Afterward, I started polishing him, and frankly since I had more time I really went to town on him,” said Bella.

“He is fond of being polished,” I said.

Bella smiled, “I’m glad to be of help.  Hope he enjoys it.”

I nodded supportively at that statement which was true and did so in an entirely non-suspicious manner that no one could have accused me of anything for.  Bella gave me an odd look anyway, so I summoned my armor back onto myself and said, “Patol, leaving now.  Must go.”

“I’ll have some time tonight,” said Bella.

“When I get back,” I replied.  That was a true statement too, just a total lie.

I went over to the horses and found Gringer, he was ready to go.  He seemed eager for his secret mission, even if he didn’t know he was going on one.  Elana was adjusting her saddle and checking her blanked, like you were supposed to.

Justice could handle that for me, sort of.  “The saddle is on  correctly, needs tightened before you start riding.  I have enough feed for the horses and I even brought some water.”

“How much can you hold,” I asked.

“More than you’d think, less than you’d like.” said Justice.  “A lot of what I can carry has to do with what it is.  I can carry more metal than anything else due to the fact that I’m metal.  I have several water gems which expand my storage for water from almost nothing to a few gallons, at most, and that is at the expense of other things.”

“Other things,” I asked.

“I gave almost all of the armor and weapons to Bella,” said Justice.

I started to count to ten, “Why did you give away all of our loot?”

“Because you couldn’t use it and she can, to salvage for parts as well as to produce new and improve weapons, besides you are going where there is better loot to be found,” said Justice.

“You didn’t give away my bow,” I asked.

“No, I only gave away the stuff you would not want,” said Justice.  “So I also retained that heavy suit of armor that was enchanted with actual magics.”

“Which I can’t do anything with,” I said.

“Nope, so it seemed stupid but I figured you wouldn't whine as long as I kept that,” said Justice.

“You do know me,” I muttered and we started off on our routine patrol.  Elana followed after me, and we both rode quietly off into the distance.  Where we promptly went back over to the road and started going north.

The road was better here than it was down south.  The path to Drek was at least maintained somewhat so instead of mud and wagonruts we had mud covered cobble stones, and wagon ruts.  Still, the cobbles made the road much firmer and there were actually a few signs here and there.

“So there are more villages up this way,” I asked.

“Yes, the orcs are pretty straightforward for the most part, if you do your work, they kind of just ignore you,” said Elana.  “I’ve only been up this far once or twice, there should be more orcs around if we look.”

“Hmm,” I ‘said’.

“No, if you kill them, other orcs will start watching out  for us, we should be doing as much as possible to not be noticed until we get to the river,” said Elana.

“In three days,” I said.

“Yes, after we get there and scout, you can head over to the fort,” she said flustered.  I handed her the mana shard.

“That is attuned to Justice, I will be able to find you easily using that rock,” I said.

“That’s so much better, I thought I was waiting uselessly at the entrance of the caves while y ou did the important work, I didn’t realize I was holding a rock,” she said.

“To each according to their ability,” I said.

She hit me with her bow.

We continued down the road mostly.  When Justice saw anyone, something he was able to do up to two miles away presently, we got off the road and kept going that way for a time.  Two miles on horse was far different than two miles by car, especially when we weren't trying to go overly fast.

Still, we were faster than the army.  This coupled with Justice’s ability to see two miles distant allowed us to push much more effectively than otherwise.  We were nearly to the midway point in our journey when we ran into the first significant issue.

“It is raining,” I said, as water poured down everywhere.  The stome had come suddenly and Justice’s scan spell did not include a weather forecast.  I mean, it was kind of obvious from the clouds, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that, so I didnt’ worry about them.  I should have.

The problems as that we were still in a grassland, which was similar to a plain but just had more grass and even few trees.  There was nothing around that we could use for shelter, except a small village.  The village was well lit, and close enough that I’d started trotting over when the rain went from bad to ‘looking up was a potential source of drowning’.

Elana yelled something, I couldn’t hear her over the rain.  I brought Ginger over to her, she screamed something that sounded like shelter.

I gestured to the town.

“Stay there,” she said.  There were some more words, but the rain was ice cold and that was impacting my hearing.  I gave her the thumbs up and started towards the village, and hopefully an inn or something.

There were no guards, though there was a post for them, and I found a large building with warm lighting inside of it.  It sounded like it wasn’t raining there, and I was a hopeful chap.

I left Elana with the horses because she apparently thought being out there was preferable.  I was honestly more concerned about the horses than either of us.  There was a stable in the back, so hopefully that wouldn’t be a problem.

Walking in, i surveyed the room and was disappointed.  It was only mostly dry in here, the roof had several leaks.  This was making the locals upset, because they all glared at me.

“I don’t recognize you,” said a man behind the counter.

“I’m a trader, and I have silver,” I said.

One of the men chuckled at that and I turned just my head to face him and smiled. Whatever the joke was, he must not have liked it because he stopped smiling as he looked at me.  There were several other people with him, and all five looked between each other.

Finally the largest one stood up, he was nearly my size, and they walked over in unison.

“I think you got a problem,” he said.

“Friend, you are mistaken, I don’t have any problems, only solutions.  My traveling companion will be coming in this room shortly, and I assured her this was a safe tavern,” I said before lowering my tone, “I assure it will be by the time she steps in here.”

He pulled out a dagger, so I rabbit punched him in the face.  He stood for one moment while his brain finished rattling, then collapsed.

“Are there any more problems that need solving?” I asked.

A minute later Elana stepped into the bar and I was discussing things with the local farmers.  She looked around and then sat next to me.  “A ferrier came out for the horses.”

“Yes, this is old Thomas, he runs a tight ship,” I said.  Thomas nodded fiercely.

Ma’am,” said the innkeeper as he sat two bowls of porridge in front of us, “Your room is being prepared, I have some mulled wine warming up.”

“Thank you,” said Elana.

“So these gentlemen were talking about the river,” I said.

“Yes, the river,” said the first one.

“What happened to your face,” asked Elana.

“He tripped in the rain,” I said.

“Yup, very tough times, I’m clumsy,” said the man.

“Mee too,” said the second.

“Yup,” said the third.

“What about those two in the corner,” asked Elana.

“Drunks,” I said, “Old Thomas is nice to allow them to stay.”

“Yes, I am,” said Old Thomas as he poured two warm glasses of wine.

“Anyway, they were telling me about an old trail to the river,” I said conversationally.

“Yes, sir, um, the trail, it is hard to spot, but if you go west from here past the sign posts,” began the farmer.  People could be good or bad, but sometimes they were only bad because no one had punched out all of their friends' teeth so fast they couldn’t even see it.  As soon as something like that happened, they realized the error of their ways and straightened up.

The next morning was great.  Our room had been of amazing quality in that it wasn’t raining on us and our horses were both fine.  Which was to be expected, because three men watched out for them all night.

“Those two drunks must have gone,” said Elana.

“Yup, they woke up and I shooed them right out for you Ma’am,” said Old Thomas who’s name I’d never caught.

“Why thank you,” said Elana, accepting her food and wine.

I ate as well, the fare was better than last night, and left enough silver to cover everything and for the damages.  Chair’s weren’t free.

Old Thomas tried to refuse until he saw one of the coins and whistled, “Old Imperial silver?”

I didn’t say anything and got back on my horse.  Elana brought Gringer around and the stallion was angrily looking around.  In the light, this place might not have been a farming village, or if it was it was a bad one.  We trotted out and went towards the signposts and the river.

“So bandits,” said Elana.

“Yup,” I replied.

“Think you corrected them long term,” she asked.

“Nope.”

“Think they’ll follow us,” she asked.

Justice watched the village for a mile, then two.  They didn’t.  The two most likely to chase after us weren’t in the walking mood today.  They should recover in a few days, but I didn’t really care.  Who tries to attack a Knight with a chair, it is just bad manners.

We found the river before noon and the path that went up it.  You couldn’t call that path a road, but it was at least a solid direction that we would never have come up with on our own.  Upriver just seemed such a washed out idea.

“How’s the headache,” asked Elana.

“It is much better now,” I replied.  “I think I’m close to a breakthrough!”

“Really,” she asked.

“No, I haven’t reversed the disks yet but I’m getting close,” I said.

“I could tell,” said Elana.  “You look like you are having a seizure whenever you try.”

“Well, that is what it feels like,” I replied.  Elana snorted and continued riding.  This was actually pretty countryside.  We were by a river, and there were birds just about everywhere.  The grass was green, and there were wildflowers.

The local bandits tended to stay hidden in the flowers when you glared at them like you were having a seizure.

“Seriously, how many has that been,” asked Elana as we continued riding.

“At least four,” I said, “and they aren’t from the town.  I think they are just local toughs.”

“I think we should shoot them,” said Elana as we continued riding.

I considered that and shrugged.  “They don’t seem interested in actually doing anything, so we’d be killing people who might be bad guys.”

“When you put it like that,” said Elana as she spotted another person hiding by the road, surely in a non-suspicious manner.

“I guess we could ask,” I offered, stopping under a tree and looking up.

Elana glanced up and pulled her bow out of her saddle.

“So, why are there so many people hanging out around this road,” I said to the tree.

“I’m not hiding,’ replied the tree.

“I wood like to believe you, I’m a big fan of sappy stories, but you guys won’t leaf us alone,” I said.

“If I show myself will you stop,” asked the tree.

I nodded and a young man stepped out from behind a hidden spot in the tree and sat on a branch.  “So how did you see me?”

“She did, I’m just minding my own business with these seizures,” I said.  “So why are there so many bandits?”

“I’m not a bandit, I’m a farmer,” replied the bandit.

“Are you growing crops in a tree, some sort of tree corn?” I asked.

“Look, the orcs aren’t patrolling like they used to and they aren’t buying feed for their pigs like they used to, so you have to make do,” he said.

“Ah, that is interesting, and if the guy hiding behind that bush moves one more step I will have to put a dagger in his left eye,” I said, holding up Old Tom’s neat dagger.  “Left eye, he’s got a patch on the right so he wouldn’t miss that one.”

He stopped.

“So the orcs are leaving you to your own devices out here and their patrols have diminished significantly,” I said.  “Is something happening around Kenin?”

The bandit considered that for a moment, “Torblan?  They got attacked a few weeks back.  Some other orcs came.  They got let in and there was a huge fight.  By the time old Corgo kicked them out half the city burned down.  He’s pissed off now, and won’t deal with any of the rural settlements.”

“So you became bandits,” asked Elana.

“It isn’t like we have much of a choice, scary girl,” said the bandit.  “I have two kids and a wife, and no money coming in because I don’t own my own land.”

“Well, I’m going to have to check that out,” I said as I kicked Gringer back to moving.

“Hey, aren’t you going to give me anything for my help,” asked the Bandit.

“We didn’t kill you, but hey, I have a job for you if you want it,” I said, “Just wait here and tell the angry woman Tim sent you.”

We kept on riding and that band of bandits didn’t do anything.  They weren’t the best bandits, probably because they really weren’t desperate enough to actually start killing anyone for goods, yet.  But give them enough time and they would be.

“How do you know mom will be angry,” asked Elana.

“Your mother is always low key angry,” I replied.  “Maybe she can use them.”

Chapter 33: The cave of wonders

“The orcs aren’t morons,” I said grumpily as Justice began highlighting at least ten orcs at the entrance to the caves we were looking for.

“Did they figure out the caves lead to here,” asked Elana.  “That might mean they sealed everything up in the fort.”

The cave entrance was interesting, if nothing else.  The river had carved into side of the canyon wall here exposing a lot of rock.  Then the river had kept on going, digging out further into the rock until the river was almost entirely underneath an overhang.  On a geological timescale something like that couldn’t last very long, but not very long on a geological timescale was millenia.

“The path goes under that overhang, presumably that is where all the caves are,” I said letting Justice scan.

“That seems to be the case, all we have to do is get down there and we will be able to find the cave system,” said Justice.

I glanced over at Elana.  “You got this, or want me to help you out?”

“I can’t take on ten orcs myself,” she growled.

“Well, this is your part of the job,” I said, hopping off of Gringer.

“We both know you like killing orcs, so just go do it,” she said.  “I’ll find a spot and cover you, for all the good that will do.”

“Excellent, I will feel safer knowing that you have my back,” I said, as I guaged where all the orcs were.  More correctly, I let Justice figure out where all of them were while I crept closer at my best speed.

My best speed was pretty quick.

“There are ten, none of them appear to be elites, they are hold up in two caves with several out and about doing orc things,” said Justice.

I didn’t know what orc things were, but they sounded silly.  I crossed the red clay until I got close enough and spotted the two ‘guards’, they were just sleeping outside the cave.  The smell hit me and I realized why.  Those caves needed to be fumigated.

“Do you see any heraldry on them,” I asked as I got within throwing range and watched the orcs.  One grunted and turned over giving me a good view of everything.

“No, and they are not wearing pants either,” said Justice.

“Yeah, so everything on them is bigger,” I said, burning dexterity.  I drew Justice and closed the remaining distance, shoving the sword into both of their hearts.  There were three more in that cave.

I waited thirteen seconds, recovering my used point of stamina and stepped in.  The first orc saw me right when I crossed the threshold, but I was already burning dexterity and I threw the dagger at his throat before he even opened his mouth.  The dagger buried itself to the hilt and I moved towards his two companions.

The cave was disgusting, with filth piled in one corner and the two orcs only had a moment to realize they were doomed.  I executed both and walked back to the door, stopping only to pull my dagger from the corpses throat.

“Let me analyze this one,” said Justice.

“No, do one of the ones outside, this place is putrid,” I said, stepping out just as another orc walked up to the cave.  He looked at me.

“A human,” were his last words as an arrow slammed into his back.  The orc crumpled forward, dead.  I threw a salute towards Elana and checked to see a fishing orc with an arrow in his chest.

That only left the other cave, and it was at least marginally cleaner.  I crept up to the edge of the room and listened in.

“We cannot stay here much longer,” said an orc.

“It doesn’t matter, if this continues for much longer everyone will perish,” said a second.

“The sickness is consuming more of us each year,” said a third.  “You said we would be safe if we left the fort.”

“We die from the sickness or we die from Corgo, both are just as dead.”

There was a pause as the orc’s finished yelling at each other then one said, “Where is Skul, he should have been back by now.”

“I don’t know, has Cogro found us?”

Then came the sound of multiple orcs grabbing weapons, it was my least favorite sound and all three of them rushed to the door at the same moment.

“So,” I said in orc, “Wanna talk about Corgo?”

They did not.  The first screamed and charged me.  He was slow, for an orc, which meant that I was easily able to strike him in the skull before he took two steps.  The other two orcs attempted to split up and attack me from the sides, but all that accomplished was to allow me easier targets.

Elana stepped up as I flung the last one of them into the foul smelling cave.  “They are sick, on top of everything else.”

“First I’ve heard of that,” said Elana looking up at the walls.  There were dozens of cave entrances here, each going to god knew where, and not all of them on ground level.  “I’ll find a place to hold up.  If you keep going, the fort is just a few miles east.”

I handed her a fishing rod.  “This place should be empty for a few days, if there were human bandits here the orcs ran them out first.”

“I’ll try to do an adequate job of holding the rock,” said Elana.

Nodding, I left Gringer there and continued north.  He was not happy, but I left all the feed and that should keep him satisfied for the next few days.

I left the overhang.  From this side it was more obvious that the river had eroded the massive, porous mass of rock, and then kept right on flowing.  It reminded me of a few points in the grand canyon, where a single flow of water had kept on digging, but on a much less grand scale.

Overhang was nice though.

I turned east, following the rock just as the sun began to set and spotted the fortress in the distance.  Kenin or Torblan, take your pick, was a much larger version of Kobla’s fort, but not proportionally.  It wasn’t twice as tall, for example, the towers looked to be about the same height.  The walls were vastly longer though, easily having ten times the internal space that smaller fortress.

There was a small, densely packed city in there.  Of course, outside as well.  The orcs were quite content that no one was going to attack here, because they’d let the city on the western side of the fort grow large enough that it was a serious defensive threat to the fortress if an enemy could seize it.

There was a lot of wood in that construction though, so maybe the plan was to set that part of the town ablaze if there was a serious siege.

“It is poor strategy,” complained Justice.  “At minimum they should be paying specific attention to the height of the buildings.  At least one of those buildings is tall enough to block the towers field of fire.”

“Do they not fight in sieges,” I asked.

“Possibly, orcs are not fond of hiding behind walls, though they will do a siege if pushed,” said Justice.

“Those battlements were more for elevation than protection,” I said.  The slave camp’s wall wasn’t broad enough to even cover the entire side and could have been flanked, though it did offer an excellent position for archers.

“They may be lazy because they do not feel the fortress is necessary,” said Justice.  “Do remember that in the previous war they were right.”

“Point,” I said as we continued to the fortress.  With the darkness and Justice’s scan ability, it wasn’t hard to get close to the town where I ran into the first barrier.  A short fence designed to keep cattle inside a field.  I hopped over, looking for cattle.

“There are none,” said Justice.

“Stranger and stranger,” I said as I continued towards the outskirts of the town.  When we got close I finally spotted my first orc.  There was a wooden watch tower at the edge of town and an orc was standing guard up there.  He was carefully looking around the area, searching for possible threats like I would expect a sentry.

Likewise, from here I could see the fortress was actually well manned and there were multiple orcs patrolling the well lit walls.  The switch from bleak destitution to well run military was stark.

There were no humans milling about after dark, so I had to carefully move in to avoid the sentry.  He was more diligent than most guards would have been, but he wasn’t perfect and eventually he turned and yelled something to one of the wall guards.  I snuck into the town while he was asking about relief.

Inside the town that abutted the fortress wall, everything was simple.  There was a two man orc patrol walking through but they were not superhuman, or at least not superhuman enough to post any issue with Justice’s scan ability.

Of course, getting inside the fortress was a different problem.

“The gate is closed,” I said.

“Forcing it would get us caught,” said Justice.

“Climb up the building and jump in,” I suggested, tapping at the wood and stucco building that looked like an office building of sorts.  All the buildings around here were.  While this was the tallest one, the two buildings next to it were both two stories tall and just a stupidly placed close to the wall.

Checking everyone’s position, I started up the building.  With power and the ring of jumping, I was able to scale the outside of the building quickly enough.  By using the wall facing away form the fort, they enemy couldn’t even see me which would was the best position to sneak over.  Everything was going well when someone yelled.

“Ahoy there.” It was the sentry.

I scurried to the side of the building like a chipmunk trying to hide from a hawk.  It was dark, but not as dark as I’d like.

“Did you see something,” yelled another orc.

“The stupid tower,” said the sentry.  “Maybe something climbing it?”

“Maybe something climbing,” said the guard.

“It was going up like a chipmunk, didn’t look natural, might have been a cloud,” said the sentry.

“And what does Cogro say about clouds,” asked the guard.

“Clouds can die, pretentious fluffy white assholes,” said the sentry, who started loudly ringing a bell.

The two guards on patrol spent the next few minutes opening up the door and then climbing up each floor looking for intruders while the wall guards formed a perimeter to ensure that no one got past them.

Which was fine by me.  I jumped across while the sentry ringing the stupid bell and landed safely inside the walls.

Chapter 34:  Impact crater

“You are a big baby,” said Justice as I looked at the stars, through the hole in the roof that I made when I jumped over the wall.  I attempted to land on the wall, but realizing the guard would see me I continued my momentum and hopped over the other side and fell two stories into a roof.

I hoped the ringing bell would mask my sound, but at this point I didnt’ care if the orcs found me.  I flicked my finger into the large chunk of wood shoved straight through my midsection.

Cracking it off was not working, so shoved Justice under my body and then used my elbow like a fulcrum with Power to lift my torso off of the spike.  Unfortunately didn’t give me enough reach to actually pull myself off of the bloody thing.

“I believe you are going to reimpale yourself,” said Justice.

Unwilling to do that I burned two points of stamina, and a point of mana.  I used dexterity and power combined with magical strike to cut off the wooden stake and then rolled onto my front.  With my last dregs of power and dexterity I found the part still sticking out of my back and pulled it free.

Now I was bleeding out with a massive wound that was far in excess of my body’s capacity to survive, for about three seconds.  Then I was… bleeding out less.

“What happened to heal,” I moaned.

“There are limits to the spell, and you are over them,” said Justice cautiously.

“So what are my options,” I groaned, and then felt the spell cast a second time.  That time it took, or finished the work form the first spell.  In either case the wound was gone and I felt like I had sufficient blood to survive.

Looking around, aside from the roof damage I made this place look like a murder scene.  I must have bled out gallons in this places and the wound splashed it everywhere when I pulled out the spike.

“They are going to have a bad day tomorrow,” I said picking up a small red doll that had just bit of white still showing.  The orc on it read, ‘baby’s naming day’.

“Yes, I believe that the pile of silk stopped your fall,” said Justice.  They were in an exquisite wooden crate that screamed special order.

“Or the teddy bears,” I continued, standing and checking to see where everything was.  I was tempted to cast magical armor to fix my shirt, but I was down one point of mana for the next hour and decided not to risk it.

I grabbed a silk garment to replace it.  It was obviously a woman’s shirt, but the orcs men’s department was way too large for me.  “You realize that shirt says Mommy knows best.”

“Yeah, I caught that,” I said.

“What are the clips on the chest for,” asked Justice.

“Making me regret life,” I replied, ensuring the nursing snaps were all snapped.  I’d have grabbed another shirt, but they were even worse.  Orcs were direct, bordering on vulgar, and shirts with messages sewn into them were apparently the vogue thing.

“Why would a mommy be for rent,” asked Justice.  “Is she renting out her services for childcare?”

“No,” I said, walking to the outside door and opening it, leaving the strange maternity shop behind.

Once I was on the streets of Kenin, everything was easier.  The inside of the town had many of the same problems as outside, but looked to be less patrolled.  It took me a moment to figure out why, but it was obvious when I saw several of the doors.

“Orcs live here,” I said as I cut down an alleyway.  “There are no humans living here so they do not expect any trouble.”  In retrospect, I could make the jump between the building and the wall.  Without power or the ring, that wouldn’t have been possible.

“I see movement,” said Justice and I stuck fast to the side of a wall as two orcs walked by talking about boats.  Both looked older, and slightly out of shape compared to the orcs I was used to seeing.

“Orc non-combatants,” I said, shaking my head.  Somehow I always pictured them as being warriors until the end, instead of seeing old orcs.  Or women and children.  “Oh this is going to be bad.”

“What do you see,” asked Justice.

“An atrocity waiting to happen,” I said.  Still I needed that potion trainer and that potion, so I was trying to make my peace with this.  It wasn’t going well.  My sister would be horrified if she realized what I did to get this cure.

So I was really going to have to not tell her what I did.