Lost Bloodline 5 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“You don’t all have to come with me,” Koda insisted for the third time as his group jogged over the road that led through the mountain pass and down into the plains once more.

The spring morning was beginning to warm, but there was still a crispness to the air that said winter wasn’t quite done yet with the world. Still, it was comfortable enough that none of his mates had decided to bring their heavy bison-hide cloaks with them.

“And miss out on a chance to run across the plains freely once more?” Arthene teased him cheekily from her spot to his right and slightly behind. “Not on your tight little ass, my mate.”

“ ‘Thene is right,” Sienna added from a bit further back, her words coming easily despite the rapid pace they were setting. “There is a lot to get done, but our place is at your side.”

“Especially with those rumors from the merchants,” grumbled Calandra at the back of their formation.

The dwarven woman was the loudest of their group, her combination chain-and-scale armor rattling as she bounded along. Amongst Koda’s wives, Calandra was the best equipped of them all, wearing full armor and even carrying a rounded steel helmet on her pack. The dwarven woman also was responsible for the magic that allowed Koda’s mortal mates to keep up with him and the incarnate spirits. This resulted in a steady wind pressing at their backs and helped to keep them cool.

“Cal is right,” Samira added from her spot next to the dwarven woman. “The merchants were happy to talk and brag about the strength of the baron’s forces, but I still doubt that there are that many fighters all camped together. Wouldn’t they require a ridiculous amount of food?”

“Armies march on their stomachs,” Finna replied with a laugh on the far left of their formation. “At least that is the saying. Without a strong supply line, then the baron is going to have issues. But that’s the point of the army, isn’t it?”

Koda only nodded as he remembered the handful of conversations that he’d had with the group of merchants over the previous days.

Their assumptions had been partially correct, at least based on what the merchants had observed and happily spread as rumors over some ale at Banno’s.

The smudge that the hunters had spotted was indeed a rather massive army camp wrapping around the edge of Amberpost. According to one of the merchants, they were ‘making use of’ the fields that had been ravaged the previous year by the Crooked for their camps. The fact that the owners of those fields were trying to recover from the same ravaging still didn’t seem to matter.

Koda had made it a point to ask some of the village hunters to head down and check on those people while he was gone, as there was still plenty of land in the Silverstone valley that could be developed for farming if they had more bodies. Or the families might want to change careers.

Whether the council of Amberpost would complain about the loss of laborers and thus taxes to Silverstone, Koda wasn’t sure. But as far as he could tell, the people weren’t bound to their land like ancient serfs were on Earth. They could just up and move, it was just difficult if they were established in one place already.

Hannah, Netta, and a few of the regular hunters had promised to make a trip down to both scout Amberpost out as innocently as possible and confirm the presence of the army and its intent, as well as speak to those potentially dispossessed farmers and offer them a new home.

Honestly, everyone who came before and during winter has slotted in without an issue, Koda thought as they came up and over the last ridge of the pass and the path began to take them downwards. I would have thought that some of the non-believers in Thera might have raised a fuss, but with the exception of a handful of the dwarves like Cal who follow Chandra, they’ve either remained silent or converted. At least that’s what Kris keeps telling me.

It made Koda infinitely more comfortable with his job that he wasn’t expected to proselytize or seek out followers for Thera. As a champion, it was his duty to protect the faithful, and apparently that was enough to encourage many to join the members of the Ivory Spear tribe in the quiet and simple worship that they participated in. And those who followed Chandra were more than happy to hear that some still believed and hoped that Thera was alive.

His thoughts were interrupted by sighting the smear that had been mentioned before. It was now quite obviously a camp of some kind, nearly the same size as the town of Amberpost.

That means there has to be thousands of troops in there, Koda thought grimly. Trouble if they decide to sweep the border to ‘enforce discipline’ or something equally stupid, but the merchants made it sound like they were campaigning south. Did the attack of the Crooked last season make them decide to pacify that direction? That this is another front that they might have spent too long ignoring?

There were far too many questions that Koda had, and he desperately needed those answers, which was the reason he and his mates were heading out once more.

Everything that they’d heard from the merchants said that the baron’s forces were heading south into the plains. And with the threats of the elves—confirmed by Pippin’s earlier testimony—Koda was willing to believe that the army would head south rather than come hound Silverstone. Which was why he was heading out now.

With the smaller group, Koda was sure that they’d be able to get ahead of the baron’s forces and scout around to get more information. With all the envoys that had come to visit Silverstone from the other tribes, he knew there were multiple beastfolk tribes that lived in that direction, and he planned to visit as many as possible to alert them of the oncoming army.

Just have to hope none of them have villages in the army’s path, Koda thought grimly as he listened to his wives converse around him without really paying attention to what they were saying. Plus if it wouldn’t hurt to have an idea if there is actually a threat to the south. I would imagine there has to be something, otherwise the baron wouldn’t be acting. Putting together an expeditionary force like this can’t be cheap. Unless he’s still basing it off the fact the Crooked came up from the south.

Koda continued to follow that thought back and forth in circles as his party rapidly raced down the mountain. The wind in his hair and the comforting presence of his mates made this day already a pleasant one for him. With the enhancements to his strength and endurance, both from the goddess and the feat of the troll-slayer, it made such exertions almost effortless, even more so with Calandra’s magic helping them. But there was something so freeing about racing over the prairie under the open sky.

Arthene mentioning his name brought Koda out of his reverie as the road leveled out.

“Koda has been doing his best, and his seed will catch one of these days. I just hope it’s in me, I hunger to bear cubs soon,” Arthene was saying wistfully, soft puffs of dirt rising from her steps as she raced in his wake, one hand stroking her muscled stomach.

“Soon enough, my sister,” Finna reassured the other woman with a smile that only grew wider when she noticed Koda’s stumble. “Your mate is so focused on ensuring that your world is safe enough for children, that he sometimes forgets that nothing is truly safe.”

“That’s not it,” Koda protested, but that was as far as he got because the girls all erupted into laughter.

“We know, Koda,” Calandra chuckled from the back of the formation. “You certainly work your hardest to sow your seeds!”

“Thera mentioned that it would take time, given how distant Koda’s bloodline is to our own and the power inherent in it,” Sienna reminded gently, her crystalline blue-green eyes twinkling in amusement as she watched Koda lovingly.

“Not that we don’t appreciate the ‘work’ he puts in though,” Calandra chuckled lewdly.

It was a mark of how far all of his mates had come that none of them blushed at the crude joke. The wicked grins on each woman’s face, coupled with a look of longing on a few of them, told Koda that they certainly were not about to object to his ‘work’—as Calandra had put it.

“And Thera herself has confirmed that he’s virile,” Finna added while Koda was still trying to get his head in order. The statement almost made Koda trip again.

After catching himself from the stumble, Koda turned to stare over his shoulder at the lapine spirit woman.

Finna’s eyes were shimmering with amusement as she looked back, a grin twisting her lips.

“You didn’t know that, did you, Koda?” Finna asked, her amusement growing with every second that passed. “That Thera checked to ensure her champion would be able to spread the bloodline she needs out?”

“No, I certainly did not!” Koda said with a sharp huff, which got giggles from most of the girls with him. “When did she do this?”

“The first night,” Sienna replied immediately. “When you and I came together in the spring. She told me later in a vision, so I would not worry if it took time for your efforts to succeed.”

“Same, actually,” Calandra said, drawing Koda’s attention to the shorter woman.

Despite the fact Calandra was wearing her chain-and-scale tunic currently, she had left off her helmet at the moment. So the running allowed her thick trio of braids to bounce along behind her with each stride, a bounce that was echoed in the dwarven woman’s curvy form.

“The night that you railed me into unconsciousness for the first time, I had a vision of Thera advising me to be patient, but that I would one day carry your child if I was able to keep you from doing something dumb and getting yourself killed.”

“Same,” Samira interjected with a grin and a bounce of her fluff-tipped ears.

Koda turned to Arthene, whom he had expected to be one of the first to chime in. The tall, thickly figured bear woman just shrugged with a broad smile.

“I didn’t need my Lady’s reassurance. I knew you were virile the second we met. There was no way my instincts would have screamed so loudly to take you and give you cubs if you weren’t,” Arthene said simply, her love glowing in her eyes as she gestured to the road in front of them. “But cub-making is for later, my mate. I wouldn’t mind at all if you were to take me right here by the roadside, but we’ve barely set out and I would hate for you to pull a muscle or something.”

“Pull a muscle,” Koda growled, immediately seeing Arthene’s teasing for what it was but he was unable to not fire back then. “I’ll show you pull a muscle. I bet I could put a limp in your stride well before I pulled a muscle, Arthene.”

“And what a delicious limp it would be,” Arthene chuckled, a rosy glow surfacing on her cheeks to show just how much she wanted that.

“Ah ah, no!” Sienna interjected before it could go any further. “We have ground to cover today. The last thing we need is for the baron’s army to depart soon and find someone to cause trouble with. We also need to scout for more of the sites of power for Thera.”

“Thank you, Sienna,” Koda said, turning a loving smile to his wolfish mate. “You have no idea how much I appreciate you keeping us on track.”

“I hate myself for it sometimes,” Sienna grumbled, her nose wrinkling in irritation. “Because I would love to have you just chase me across the plains and throw me down in the grass.”

“We can make that happen,” Calandra teased, increasing her pace enough that she came up to Sienna and smacked her on the back encouragingly. “You put in enough work as the first-wife that you should get a treat occasionally. Or get treated, if you prefer.”

“What if she wants to be treated like a treat?” Samira added, her eyebrows wiggling suggestively.

All five women shared laughs at that statement, something that both warmed Koda’s heart to see them getting along so well, and worried him slightly as well because if the women in his life got along this well, then he was never going to win an argument.

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Moving quickly, the group traveled roughly halfway to Amberpost before diverging off the road. Koda had initially thought that it would be a good idea to swing by Amberpost and take a look himself, but that idea had been shot down before he could do more than suggest it.

Calandra, having actually lived in Amberpost for an extended period and thus would know the baron’s people the best, outright said that a force that large would be guaranteed to have at least a few champions with them. That, combined with the fact that the military camp would be on edge, meant that it was too risky to just casually wander past and see what might be seen.

“It’s not that it’s a bad idea,” Calandra had insisted, trying to reassure Koda after she’d shot him down so firmly on the initial suggestion. “But if we were going to try and sneak someone into town to get information, it’d be better if I did it. I know who to talk to in town and might still have some favors I can call in.”

“No way,” Koda had insisted right back. “I’m not going to risk your former superiors back with the city guard don’t try and pull something since you basically told them to sit and spin when you left.”

Calandra had just shot him a loving smile and nodded, clearly having known there was no way that Koda would let her go into town alone.

Now they were grouped around a low fire near a familiar wellspring to camp for the night. It was the same natural spring that Koda had sensed the elves watching him at, where he, Sienna, and Arthene had camped during their first initial chase of the Crooked to try and track that threat back to its source.

The gully had tall walls and greenery was already growing over the gap to hide their presence. The only thing that would give them away was the thin tendril of smoke and the glow of the fire, but even that would be muffled and dispersed by the undergrowth.

Given the overhead shelter and the enclosing walls to protect them from the wind, the group had opted not to bother with a tent. Instead, Arthene and Finna had gathered bundles of the fresh meadow grass to act as a cushion while they all used their lighter traveling cloaks as blankets instead.

Samira was crouched by the fire frying sausages and chopped potatoes in a pan while she talked quietly with Sienna. Calandra was over by the spring, soaking her feet in the water trickling down along the bottom of the gully with a relaxed sigh. Finna was standing over Arthene, who had flopped down on the pile of cut grass to ‘test the mattress’ and make sure it was soft enough for them. From the exasperated look on the lapine woman’s face, she was trying to get Arthene up and moving again so that they could finish the work.

Koda watched all this from his position by the small stone bowl and its accompanying animal hide. He’d been meditating on the spring and its deep-seated node of power for the last few minutes, checking it over to make sure that nothing had come along to bother it, whether that be animals or something the elves might have done.

Finding nothing other than the thick cable of power flowing through the earth and connecting through him to his goddess, Koda gave one last firm nod and turned to head over to his mates.

“—further south,” Samira was saying over the quiet sizzle of the food cooking. The caracal woman used a trimmed stick to carefully stir the pan while she held the handle with a scrap of leather to protect her hand from the hot metal. “We don’t need to worry about finding springs, since I can conjure water out of the air. I know it sounds so spoiled of me, but I miss the hot bath back at the house already.”

“Don’t feel bad,” Sienna replied with a little laugh. “I miss it as well. Who knows, maybe Koda will attract a fourth mortal mate to give him the complete set of mages for the elements.”

“I feel bad enough for making Finna wait,” Samira replied, clearly not noticing Koda’s approach. The caracal woman’s tail twitched slowly as she worked. “I appreciate being able to take my time, I almost envy the surety with which she came into the relationship.”

“It was the same with Arthene,” Sienna replied, her crystalline eyes glittering in the fire as she tended the small kettle, shifting it about on a rock closer to the flames. “But neither of our spirits has pushed too hard. Though I remember Arthene being quite… needy for a while.”

“She described it as just wanting the reassurance of touch when I talked to her,” Samira said quietly, her ears flicking rapidly and sending the tasseled tips dancing. “Which I can’t fault her. The way Arthene has told the tale of you two coming to save her soul from the Crooked’s foul ritual was so romantic.”

“I was out of it for a good part,” Sienna said dismissively.

“You did your part and far more,” Koda interjected, making both women jump now that they were aware of him. “All of which you did without the troll-slayer effect, magic, or the blessing of a goddess. You fought and held your own as a mortal woman with grit and determination. And I couldn’t be prouder of my mate.”

Koda crouched down between the two women, leaning towards Sienna and tangling right hand in her hair so he could rub the base of her pointed wolf ears. Sienna’s tail began to whip back and forth happily as she leaned into his touch while Samira watched them with a gentle smile.

“You are a good man, Koda,” Samira said while he doted on Sienna. “It renews my pride to be your mate every time I see you lavish affection on your family. I cannot wait to see you with children if you are this caring of your mates.”

“I’d die for any of you, same as I would for any kids we have,” Koda said with iron in his voice. Both women exchanged looks before leaning in to kiss Koda, one each to a cheek as the night continued to fall around them.