64. Swords
Swords
The morning came in cool enough that Kain walked the property line before he saddled Roan.
A section of the stone wall along the east plots had tilted under the first frost-heave.
He reset the top stone, wedged a smaller one underneath it, and pressed it square with both hands.
Ghost came up to the wall, looked at the work, and went off into the brush on its own business.
The next group arrived in two days. Their horses came in lathered and heaving. Kain and Carol were at the boardwalk by the Kettle when they came up the road. Carol shook her head.
"Look at those poor horses."
The riders wore green and red armor with the crest of a bear over crossed swords. Kain thought he recognized the crest from the mercenary work. He wasn't sure. He'd bumped shoulders with a lot of folks across the years and he didn't remember every banner.
The horses were good warhorses by build. Even Kain could see they had been overworked. Thinner than they ought to have been, manes snarled and matted. As their hooves came up he could see the shoes caked with mud and stones, and some of the shoes were loose.
"It makes me want to cry. Kain. I'm going to break them out of the stable tonight."
"They'll kill you before you got them back to your farm."
"I wouldn't take them to my farm. I'd take them down to yours so you could fight them and kill them.
" Carol closed her eyes. "I've heard of warriors like that.
They ride their horses to death and buy new ones because they can afford it.
Easier than taking care of them. Look at the dappled mare.
She should have her head high. Proud. Strong. She looks broken."
The warrior on the mare turned and shot a hard look at Carol and dug his heels in. The horse picked up the pace under the spurs.
There were eight new warriors. The total in Tillamore was past a hundred now. A few left every week. The number was going one way faster than the other.
"Wrong of them," Kain said.
"Not your fault. Annoys me. The horses didn't ask for it. They try to be good. They'll work themselves to death trying. Then they get kicked to the side. Makes me love them all the more, if that makes sense."
"It does."
He watched as the new warriors got turned away from the stable and took the horses down toward the camp.
"They'll be at the Kettle in a beat. Sasha'll be calling me."
"Say no more. Go work the bar." Carol batted her eyes at him and started up the road. "I'm supposed to be helping my father build a new chicken coop. See you up at the Kettle."
Kain waved and went back inside.
The group came out of the tents and into the tavern to order drinks. Kain spent the next several hours serving, explaining the road to the dungeon, and frying onions.
He was starting to hate the smell of fried onions.
By the time the evening rush was over he was emptied out. He had been at the Kettle since six that morning. He started to mop up the floor at the end of the night and Sasha came up beside him and set a hand on his shoulder.
"I've got this." She gave him a small smile. "Go home. Get some rest."
"I can make it."
"I know you can. I'm not saying you can't." She took the broom out of his hand.
"You spent a lot of sleepless nights watching Matthew for me when he was new.
I want to do the same for you. You've gone above what you owed me on this.
I can see it on you. I need you alert if a thing happens here.
You have to be able to take care of business if it goes south. "
Kain nodded. She wasn't wrong. The new group made him uneasy in a way he hadn't worked out yet.
"All right. I won't fight you on it." He passed her the broom. "There's a new shipment of onions coming in tomorrow. I scheduled it with Sam this afternoon."
"I'll watch for it. You go."
He felt the work hit him all at once. He turned at the door.
"One more thing. That new group. I heard them talking at dinner. They're called the Bear Swords."
"Silly name."
"I think it's just the best translation.
In their own tongue it might be a pun. I don't know.
They come from down south. I'm trying to remember half a conversation I had with somebody seven or eight years ago.
" Kain shrugged. "They're B-ranked. Strong.
They mean to push the dungeon in the next few days. See how far it's grown."
"Has nobody done that yet."
"Most of the warriors so far are farming the first floor. One or two have set foot on the second. The ones who say they did don't always have consistent stories."
"You think they're blowing smoke."
"They want to sound impressive. Maybe one or two peeked through a doorway. The Bear Swords will actually go. When they come back there'll be disruptions."
"Like what."
"Hard to say. Just be alert. I'll do my best to be here when it happens."
"Good. Get home."
Kain set his jaw. He didn't have the strength to fight her anymore.
He walked the road back down the long lane to the house. The night air was cool and crisp. Fall was rolling on toward winter.
A dark form rose up at the front gate as he came in.
"Hey, Ghost. Just me."
He walked past the wolf and up to the house. The hearth was cold. He lit the kindling and set a fire. It would be a stretch before the house was warm. He went back out onto the porch and sat down. He heard the fire catch behind him.
Ghost rose from where it had been sitting and started to pace back and forth along the property line. The one eye on the road. A low growl out of the throat. Then it came up and lay down at Kain's feet.
Ghost had been a piece more antsy since the adventurers had come. The wolf didn't like it.
Kain didn't know if it was the wolf's own unease or the unease the wolf had picked up off the man. The two unease were one unease either way. Ghost lay there a stretch with the ears flicking back and forth.
Then it rose.
He padded down the steps and out to the road and almost vanished into the grass next to the wall. He went down the length toward Jeremiah's farm and stopped, watching into the dark, a silent thing. Kain looked in that direction.
Booted feet came up the road. Two warriors. Laughing. Elbowing each other.
"Did you see the look on that guy's face. I can't believe you beat him."
"They don't call me the Chess Warrior for nothing. That'll teach him to go around challenging random folk at chess."
Kain held back a smile. He'd have to ask Jeremiah for his interpretation of how that match had gone. The warriors clearly believed they had won.
As they came abreast of the fence Ghost started to pace them. It walked along the inside of the wall watching them with the one eye.
The wolf didn't leave the warriors. It stared them down. They had just made it past Kain's position when one of them noticed and elbowed the other.
"Hey."
The second glanced at Ghost. Glanced at his companion.
"Is that a wolf."
"Guarding that guy's property."
"Maybe he's the Wyvern Slayer."
"Not wyvern. Gryphon."
"Whatever. Keep walking."
Both of them picked up the pace and went down the road into the dark.
Ghost walked up to the corner and made sure they kept going, then turned and padded back up to the porch. It lay down at Kain's feet. It gave a small huff.
"Good job, boy."
Ghost's ear flicked once.
"Sorry. You're not a dog. Good wolf."
Ghost gave another huff and closed its good eye.
Kain leaned back in the chair.
Ghost carried its own weight in the country. Anyone who saw it knew as much. A wolf in the prime of its life staring a man down wasn't a thing a man shrugged off. Ghost was built to kill and looked every inch of it.
Kain sat on the porch a stretch. Once, a shout from town brought Ghost up.
It went to the property line a beat, walked the corner, came back to the porch.
Another time something crackled out in the trees behind the house.
Ghost went to investigate. Kain heard a sharp yip and the sound of something heavy crashing through brush.
A deer, by the sound. Ghost's growl wasn't the one it used on a man.
Ghost was bothered enough to chase off anything it marked as a threat.
The farm was in good hands.
Kain knew the town needed someone who could do the same for it.