No Strings Attached - Chapter Forty-Nine

Chapter Forty-Nine

56th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era

Shorefarm, Yellowfield, Draya Calyrex

The first part of their mission for the day was relatively easy. Head out past Shorefarm, along the road north, and find a place to cut the road off. Magic Nocthorn came to them, still seeming sleepy and unprepared for the day, and handed Lazur a small map within a scroll tube. It was of the area of the Yellowfields they were in.

“The road to the east of Shorefarm eventually climbs up the plateau because where else would it go? But it also follows along a river that eventually reaches Viremontis. The city is rather large and important, and there’s a highway on the other side of the river. Keep an eye out for it, in case you see anything.”

“Thank you,” Lazur said. “And where do you want the road destroyed?”

“The region should be hilly, with switch-backs along the road. Find a place not too far from the intersection between the Shorefarm road and the highway, and destroy it to make it impassable,” Nocthorn said. “Good luck. Your day seems a great deal easier than mine.”

“What are you doing today?” Viridian asked.

“Meeting with the Magus of the local tower, and leading some of our mages that way and back with the assistance of Mage-Knight Ashheel,” Nocthorn said. “We’re sending our first message off the continent today. By this time next week it’s very possible that we’ll have more folks around to help.”

Viridian wasn’t sure what to think of that. She said her goodbyes, wished Nocthorn some good luck in return, then took off with the others.

It was, on the surface, an easy enough task. “Do you think it will be trouble?” Viridian asked as she led her companions out of the oceanside village. She noted that they weren’t quite as quiet as before. They weren’t noisy, but their new clothes had cloth that rubbed together with every step. There was also a clink from Carnel, who wore her weapons on a belt that let them tap against each other with each step.

“There shouldn’t be,” Lazur said. “But this isn’t the kind of place you wander without expecting some amount of trouble. Keep your eyes open.”

Viridian nodded, even as Carnel sighed. “I wouldn’t mind a little trouble,” she said. “I want more essence. I’m still weaker than a man, I think.”

“But we don’t tire, and can’t hurt,” Viridian said. “That should count for something.”

“Hmph, maybe,” Carnel said. “Maybe if we fight someone, we can ask them how sleepy they are before we start.”

Viridian chuckled, the sound still somewhat wrong to her, but she didn’t mind quite so much anymore.

The walk to Shorefarm wasn’t all that long. She had no timepiece to give her the time, but she felt like it was less than an hour’s walk, perhaps three-quarters of an hour? As long as they kept to the main road that slid past Shorefarm and didn’t wander off a side-trail, the walking was relatively easy and quick.

When they arrived upon Shorefarm itself, it was... different, and not in a pleasant way. There were two of the baron’s men stationed outside of the village instead of the one sleepy guard, and behind them, strung up on poles for all to see, were the priests of the town, as well as a few others. Viridian thought she recognized a few faces, though she’d never gotten names to go with them.

The town itself, beyond its walls, did seem active once more, however. The fields were being tended to, at least partially. It looked as though the Baron had restored some amount of order and Shorefarm was maybe on its way to recovering with the people still left.

Lazur told Viridian that she was too optimistic for her own good. Carnel lamented the loss of essence hanging from those poles, and Viridian decided that she was going to keep being optimistic even if it meant being naive to some degree.

They continued onto the unfamiliar road past Shorefarm’s edge, heading ever eastwards. The road had a few slight curves to it, but nothing too strange. It did always rise, however, a slow, gentle slope upwards that eventually allowed them to see the wall of the plateau ahead. It was a stark wall of brownish stone rising several dozen metres up, like a mountain cut at the knees.

To their left was a wide river that snaked and twisted around the bumpy hillscape. Viridian could just about make out a road on the river’s far side. No bridges, though.

Viridian was just wondering--after all, this road and that one were parallel, and the one across the river seemed wider and better maintained than the rut-filled country road they were treading on--when Carnel hissed. “Look!” 

All three of them paused, then at Lazur’s quick urging, moved to the side of their road and hid behind a large bush.

Viridian wished she could squint, though she wasn’t sure that would do anything to help her see with her metal eyes. Across from the river, walking in a loose formation, was a small army.

“There’s your essence,” Viridian said.

“Funny,” Carnel replied. “I’m greedy, not suicidal.”

The formation was made of people walking in a slow trudge. They looked tired, their armour--mostly gambesons and scale mail--was covered in mud and blood and looked dirty even from afar. 

Some of them carried a standard. A yellow-orange banner with a bright blue triangular symbol on it that Viridian couldn’t identify, though there was a yellow dragon wrapped around the blue triangle. Or a lizard. But she suspected it was a dragon.

A few men on horseback rode throughout the army, moving at a slow, plodding pace, their horses walking with stooped necks and the riders looking half-asleep even in their grimey platemail.

“They look rough,” Carnel said.

“Don’t even think about it,” Lazur said.

“I’m not a fool,” Carnel replied. “There has to be half a thousand here, if the line stretches out far back and ahead.”

“Is that a lot, for an army?” Viridian asked. It didn’t feel like it was.

“Maybe it’s a lot for an army that was beaten,” Carnel said. “They don’t walk like they’ve won any fights.”

“They’re still going somewhere,” Lazur said. “Wait, look.”

A group rode past the others. Three large horses, covered in armour that gleamed golden. The riders were huge figures, covered in enough gold and brass to smelt a church bell, with armour that featured large scales and small, decorative wings on their backs. They thundered by the others, the armed men standing a little taller until all that was left of them was dust settling back onto the road.

“I want whatever they use to stab people,” Carnel said.

“Let’s keep moving,” Lazur said. “I see why Magus Maldrak wants us to cut the road off now. If that rode towards Shorefarm, the town would be flattened.”

They quickened their steps, though they did sometimes leave the road when it was too out in the open and when they might be within sight of the other side. 

Eventually, they reached a space where the road switched back and forth up the side of a far steeper hill. It was, in Viridian’s inexpert opinion, as good a place as any to cause a landslide and bury the road. Still, the walked all the way to the top, and from there, they could see that the road they were on only continued for another hundred paces or so before intersecting with the highway the army was trudging along.

“We’re going to catch some attention,” Lazur said.

“As long as we’re gone before they go looking, they’ll have no reason to follow,” Carnel said. “There’s just Shorefarm down this road, right? Who would want that?”

They returned down the road, only stopping when they were halfway down the switch-back path. There, Lazur pointed out a space where the rocky hillside actually overhung the road a little, a space with several large boulders sitting atop it.

It was as good as spot as any. The ground was a little wet from the morning fog and the air seemed rather damp, with clouds hanging low and fat. Viridian imagined that a thunder stike from this kind of sky wouldn’t be too unusual, so many the noise they made would be dismissed? She hoped so, at least.

“Can I do it?” Carnel asked.

“Very my twice-dead body,” Lazur replied as she pulled out the cannon spell 

She held the tube in one hand, the business end pointed towards the cliffside, then she twisted the activation knob on the rear. Immediately, a small bust of light came hurtling out of the end and smacked into the cliff only to fizzle out a moment later.

Lazur aimed the tube a little higher as a second, then a third harmless light spell came out. Each helped her guide her aim.

And then, with a roar that made the ground shake, a final spell burst out of the tube and screamed across the hillsides. It rammed into the space under the overhang, stabbed into the rock like a knife into flesh, then after a long pause where its roar turned into a high-pitched whistle, it exploded.

The three of them were running back even as small pebbles rained down around them.

***