15 #2
Their descent from the ridge to the outer edge of the mining camp was slow and careful, with the virkin helpfully scouting ahead.
Malea kept one hand on her dagger as she moved as stealthily as possible.
The lessons in moving soundlessly that had been such a game among Isolde’s apprentices were coming in handy.
The virkin were aloft, circling just high enough to avoid notice, their minds alert and watchful, their magic shielding their party from detection.
Snow muffled their steps, and the bitter wind cloaked their scent—small blessings in enemy territory.
Kurt stopped, crouching behind a boulder as he scanned the nearest part of the camp.
There was a watch, though it was poorly manned, and most of the men in the camp were asleep or drunk by this time of night.
Kurt and Malea had waited deliberately for the darkest part of the night to make their run on the camp. They had a lot to do before the sun rose again, and it would take all their skill and stealth to accomplish their goals.
They crept forward, weaving between scattered rocks and stacked firewood until they reached the far edge of the encampment. A tall pile of flawed crystal lay just ahead, mounded with rubble and discarded stone. It was the tailings pile. Up close, it was even more telling.
Malea dropped to one knee and sifted through the debris, her gloved hands careful but practiced. She pulled free a small, jagged shard that caught the meager light and flared cold fire. It was definitely diamond.
Not cut, but clearly grown. Crystalline, translucent...and terribly flawed. She held it up and frowned. A long fracture line marred the interior. The angles were slightly warped, like it had tried to grow in two directions at once.
“There are dozens like this,” she whispered to Kurt, who kept watch while she verified the find. “They’re discarding anything with structural imperfections.”
“Which means they’re getting enough yield that they can afford to throw these away.” Kurt frowned.
“Even these flawed stones would be worth a huge amount in any market town. Good cutters could work around the problem areas and still come up with passable stones for lower-level clientele. Yet, here, they’re treating them like gravel.”
“We need to learn as much as we can tonight so our allies can come up with a plan,” Kurt reminded her. “Let’s move on. There’s a lot of ground to cover.”
Malea agreed, straightening just a bit to a crouch so they could move unseen.
As they skulked around the edges of the dark camp, they made note of the buildings and their uses.
The workshop she’d assumed was for sharpening the diamonds into blades was indeed full of the diamond-dust encrusted wheels of polishing machines and the other tools diamond cutters everywhere used to cut and polish them.
A quick peek inside showed at least five stations for skilled workers, which gave her pause.
That was a lot of craftsmen to all be working on the same task.
Then again, the tailings pile indicated a large-scale mining operation, so it made sense.
It also sent shivers down her spine. The number of blades she’d estimated being made here doubled, at the very least. And she’d already thought she’d been overestimating.
The true scale of the operation was much worse than she’d thought.
The largest building turned out to be a barracks.
Dozens of men slept there, near the stockpile of giant crossbows and the finished diamond-tipped bolts.
Kurt went about taking a rough inventory while Malea kept watch.
Then, they skirted around the rest of the camp, trying to get a better idea of where the mage might be located and who else might be in the hierarchy of those in charge of the others.
Arch flew off on his own while Keera hovered nearby, keeping an eye on Kurt and Malea. She warned them when a patrol moved closer and they took cover under a tarp together, waiting breathlessly until Keera gave the all-clear.
They stayed as long as they could, taking note of everything that might help in planning how to shut down this operation forever.
They were about to leave when Malea got a glimpse of a man in tattered robes leaving the mine.
He looked angry, and his eyes were wild as he stalked through the camp without regard for the noise he made.
Malea noticed that everyone gave him a wide berth as he went into a small building at the center of the camp and slammed the door. He hadn’t looked like a soldier. He was too small and pale for that. But his robes, had they been clean and in good repair, would have been expensive.
“I think that was the mage,” Kurt whispered to her, his mouth near her ear since they were closer inside the camp than they had yet dared.
She nodded, even as shivers went down her spine at Kurt’s nearness. He was very distracting, but she couldn’t afford that right now.
“I think we’ve learned all we can for now,” Malea said, noticing the slightest lightening of the sky to the east over the ridgeline.
“Agreed. Let’s go back to the cave.” Kurt motioned for her to go first as they crept out of the mining camp with the same practiced stealth they’d used to get in.
It didn’t take too much longer before they were within the trees and could move a bit more freely. They made it back to the cave where they’d left their horses and supplies to find nothing disturbed, and the virkin came back shortly thereafter.
“Was that the mage? The pale man in the stained robes?” Malea asked Keera.
The pretty female virkin nodded her small head. “That was him. He rests now to replenish his energies. He was using lots of magic earlier to make the crystals grow. They will be busy harvesting and processing them tomorrow.”
“His magic smells bad,” Arch put in, shaking his head as if to rid it of the sensory input.
“Can you relay our findings to the ice dragons?” Kurt asked his virkin friend.
“Yes,” Arch replied, refocusing on the task at hand.
“What did you discover?” Keera asked, sounding eager to learn all they had uncovered.
They spent the next half hour relaying everything they’d seen and surmised to the virkin, who passed on their information to the ice dragons and, much to Malea and Kurt’s surprise, to General Brighton, who was ready for action, already stationed in the north of Valdis with his dragon companion and a battalion of soldiers.
As the General learned what they had to report, he relayed instructions through the virkin, who also discussed the human plans with the ice dragons.
The General’s bonded dragon partner was also in on the conversation and planning session, according to the virkin, who acted as go-betweens, as well as supplying their own opinions and observations.
It was a fascinating few hours for Kurt and Malea.
They were both exhausted, but they ate cold rations while they were involved in the long-distance discussions and otherwise set up their little camp for maximum comfort.
At length, the virkin told them the General had ordered them to rest while the soldiers moved and repositioned themselves.
He would have more instructions for them later, but for now, he complimented them on their good work and bade them rest for more action to come.
Kurt sighed as the virkin decided to sleep in shifts. One would stay on guard just outside the cave entrance while the other kept a closer eye on the mining camp. They would reverse roles in a couple of hours, and they assured the humans that they should rest while they could.