Chapter 9
The week after our second family dinner starts off with a celebration when my friend, Orim Broadedge, is promoted to a full ranger!
I’m really happy for him. Orim is actually the first person I met after waking up in a jail cell following me and my friends’ arrest, and I wasn’t exactly polite.
Despite that, the two of us got close after I started working with Khazak, and have spent the last month or so helping each other learn the other’s language, one of many things he’s been doing to prepare for the promotion.
Safe to say he’s a lot farther along than I am.
Then two days later on Aersday, things get interesting again. The morning starts off normal: a little morning sex, a quick shower, and off to work. I’m lying on the couch in Khazak’s office, nose deep in my Learning Atasi book, when a commotion in the room outside grabs both our attention.
When we walk out into the station’s main room, we see an older looking orc being helped inside, his arm thrown over the shoulder of the woman on his left.
He’s tall with white hair that I think I can see has some dried blood in it.
He’s also walking with a limp. The orc helping him inside is much younger, wearing the loose clothing of someone who spends a lot of time on a boat.
The officers in the station give the man space as he’s helped to a chair. Everyone is staring, unable to draw their attention to anything else as they wonder just what is going on. They do manage to part to make way for Khazak as he walks toward the man with me right behind him.
“Mister Stouthand, are you alright?” Khazak asks before turning to his left. “Contact a healer and get him some water.”
“Yes, sir.” Two officers scurry to take care of the orders.
“Please, can you tell me what happened?” Khazak asks after kneeling down in front of the man.
“I was... I was on the road home from Yasurdi, bringing back some supplies for the farm,” the older man starts. “It was just me and my horse, Bist. I saw the river up ahead when a black carriage pulled up alongside me.” Black carriage?
“You only made it home this morning?” Khazak sounds surprised. “You must have been traveling all night.”
“I make the trip every month. It has always been safe,” the farmer counters, shaking his head. “Before I even knew what was happening, someone from their carriage jumped onto the back of my cart! They grabbed me and threw me off, and then everything went black.”
“What?” Khazak’s eyes go wide as Mr. Stouthand recounts his attack.
“My partner and I were just coming down the river when we saw him unconscious on the bank,” the orc who brought Stouthand in tells us. “We managed to revive him and brought him here as quickly as we could.”
“When did you find him?” Khazak asks the boat captain.
“About forty-five minutes ago. We came in through the shipyard,” is her answer. She’s stout and looks older, her medium length hair just starting to grey. Her outfit says that she has been outside for a while.
“Do you know how long ago you were attacked?” This question is aimed at the farmer.
“I... I am not sure.” Stouthand shakes his head.
“It is alright. Did they identify themselves, or were you able to get a look at them?” Khazak is doing his best not to press the man, but he needs the info.
“No.” He shakes his head again. “The driver and the one who jumped onto my cart were both in black robes. Other than that, I could not see a thing.”
“What color were their horses?” I hear myself asking. Khazak turns to give me a questioning look.
“They were black as well,” he responds. That can’t be a coincidence, right?
“They might have gotten far by now. We will need to move quickly.” Khazak stands. “Ranger Deepfist, David, come with me.”
“Where are we going?” I ask as we march out the front doors to the station.
“I am going to show you where we keep the horses.”
I follow Khazak and Deepfist—Arik—west of the station to a part of the city I haven’t actually been yet. It doesn’t look like anything special, but I don’t get a chance to really look around as we head straight for a stable. A small one, but it still takes up most of the block. How did I miss this?
After walking inside the main building, the two orcs inside tending to the horses stop what they’re doing and salute Khazak.
By their uniforms, I can tell they work for or are part of the ranger force.
Khazak returns the salute quickly, then begins speaking fast, holding up three fingers.
Then he looks back at me with a question on his face. “Can you ride?”
I open my mouth to answer because yeah, horseback riding was actually something they taught at the knight academy, but then I see one of the creatures behind him he claims is a horse.
Sure, it’s horse-shaped, but it is massive.
I mean big, bigger than any horse I’ve seen in my life.
I know that given the size of your average orc, they’d have to be that big, but holy shit.
“Normal, non-monster sized horses.” My eyes are wide as I stare at the behemoths in their stalls.
My answer makes Khazak laugh, and he turns back to the stable attendants, this time with only two fingers up.
Two horses are brought out, one black and one brown, and they are just..
.huge, muscled beasts. Arik climbs on the brown one and Khazak the black, then holds his hand out to help me up.
I know how to climb a horse! The saddle stirrups are just higher than usual.
“This feels embarrassing,” I grumble from my seat behind Khazak.
“How will you ever survive?” Khazak teases before sending the horse into a small gallop.
We take off from the stable toward the west gate. We’re moving fast, the city’s buildings whizzing by in a blur, but we slow down as we approach the gate so they can open it.
“Why haven’t we used these before?” I ask while I have a chance.
“We primarily use them for travel and business outside of the city.” That’s all I get because as soon as the gate is open, we’re off.
We’re moving so much faster than we did in the city. I’m a little scared at first since all we can see ahead of us is miles of trees, but I don’t need to be. Khazak and Arik, or maybe it’s their horses, have no problems weaving through the forest. They probably train for this all the time.
We ride for maybe twenty minutes before the forest starts to thin out, and I see a river on our left off in the distance.
A little farther and there’s a dirt path running along the base of the mountains on our right.
We follow the path, and as we approach the river, I see a wooden bridge set up for crossing.
It’s high enough for a decent sized boat to slip under, and (I hope) sturdy enough to support two very large horses and three men.
“Keep your eyes open for any tracks,” Khazak tells me after we cross, the path turning west with the river. “We are close.”
“Captain,” Arik draws our attention, indicating we should slow down. I see why as we approach the river—tracks on the dirt path. I can make out horse hooves and the smooth groove of wheels, but there’s only one set, mostly along the left side of the road.
We keep following the path west, guiding the horses through the grass alongside it so as not to disturb the tracks.
A little farther up and we get to a place where it looks like the tracks have moved on the path toward the center.
We stop and dismount, and I stand back as I watch the two orcs inspect the tracks.
“This must be where the carriage came in,” Arik concludes.
“How do you know that?” I look down to see if I’m missing something. “There’s only one set of tracks, right?”
“With the right spells and enchantments, it is not impossible to hide the tracks of horses or a carriage. Though not easily. When it appeared, it forced the farmer to the left.” Khazak sighs before scanning our surroundings. “Over there.”
Arik and I follow Khazak a short walk back up the way we came. Just over a small hill, he bends over and picks up a straw hat.
“I believe this belongs to Farmer Stouthand,” he comments, dusting it off. “Alright, we will follow the tracks we do have and see what we find.”
We remount the horses, walking a slow trot next to the dirt path to the city.
We get close to the bridge and see where the cart’s tracks go off the path, continuing to follow along the river.
I can’t see anything after that, but Khazak and Arik are still staring at the ground intently.
The forest gets thicker, and soon I know we’re back in orc territory.
“Captain—” Arik starts, and I look around Khazak’s torso to see what he found.
“I see it,” Khazak is already headed toward the cart in the distance.
We dismount once we’re closer. It’s just a simple wooden cart, plain as can be. A horse is even still attached. The animal seems alright, if not a little spooked. The cart is also not empty, like you would expect after a cart-jacking. Both orcs look just as puzzled as I do.
“Is it just me, or does this seem kinda...” I wave my hand in the cart’s general direction. “Full?”
“No, we will need Farmer Stouthand to confirm, but this is very odd.” He looks up from the cart and off into the distance. “I am also disturbed by how close we are to the city. Keep a distance from the cart until we can be sure no traps have been set, magical or otherwise.”
I peer off into the same direction he is, and faaaaar off in the distance, I can just barely make out the city’s wall. We are close.
“Ranger Deepfist, David, please search the area but remain nearby.” Khazak moves to mount his horse again. “I will return with reinforcements.”
“Yes, sir.” Arik salutes.
“Yes, Sir.” I try to salute.