Thirteen
Ithaca
A messenger showed up just after breakfast and took us to the main town square. To either side of the square were two large and fairly nice-looking temples. We were immediately met by a priest and a priestess.
"Greetings," the priestess said, starting off. "I'm Anasa, the high priestess of Selini."
We all bowed to her.
"Greetings," the priest said next. "I'm Pietre, the high priest of Lofos."
Then they both said together, "And we bid you welcome."
"And yes, we do rehearse it," Pietre said with a wink.
"We're always afraid someone will think one of us is more in charge than the other," Anasa agreed with a smile.
"What do your respective gods say about that?" I asked.
"They laugh about it," Anasa said.
"As much as gods can laugh," Pietre agreed. "However, both our gods wish for the city and the country to be a much more enjoyable place."
Anasa nodded. "Under the old 'Sun God'—whom I understand you—" she gestured at me "—have experienced—life here was bleak and hopeless, and full of a lot of suffering."
"With Selini now back, and Lofos allied with her," Pietre said, "things are much better for everyone. We and our respective god and goddess are very grateful to Aryanna—" he motioned towards Suzona "—for her help in removing the so-called 'Sun God'."
"Aryanna is, of course, very happy that she could help you both, as well as learning that the people here now have gods worthy of worship and devotion," Suzona said and gave a short bow again. "Now, I was told there was an agreement?"
Both Anasa and Pietre nodded. "Understand that the spear, helm, and shield of the hero, E.J. Fant, are still guarded by the remaining faithful of the 'Sun God', in a cavern up in the mountains," Anasa said.
"Do you know how many there are, and if they have a champion?"
"Maybe a couple hundred? Likely not much more," Pietre replied.
"Definitely less than a thousand, and no, they lost their champion some time ago.
Our forces do not let them leave the valley and will pick off any small parties or lone members who venture far enough away from the cavern to come into range of our bowmen. "
Suzona turned to Evean and me. "Shall we head up?"
"If we could check out a weapon shop first?" I asked.
Suzona turned back to Anasa and Pietre. "Let us gather our things from our room, then if someone could take us to a weapons shop along the way, we're ready to go."
"So soon?" Anasa asked, looking surprised.
"It's been a long trip to get here," Evean said. "We're more than ready to get this done."
Anasa and Pietre exchanged looks and nodded.
"Then by all means…"
"… get it done."
With that, they both motioned to a guard who'd been standing off to the side, who came forward. "Follow me, please, and I'll take you where you need to go."
"Thank you," Suzona said, and the three of us bowed again to the priest and priestess and followed the guard off.
"That was interesting," I said once we were out of the square.
"They really don't want anyone, especially anyone who isn't from around here, thinking they can play one off against the other," our new guide said.
"Why's that?"
"Because that's what allowed the 'Sun God' to take over and push out what was here before. It ruined the city and the people. We're only now finally starting to recover."
"Well, that's a good thing," Suzona said.
It didn't take us long to pack up; it wasn't like we had much.
"So why'd you want to go to a weapon's shop?" Suzona asked when we got there.
"Firearms work here—I know that from past experience—so I want to see if we can buy some."
"Oh!"
Stepping inside, we saw quite a few weapons in racks, mainly polearms. They had a nice selection of swords, as well, though what I currently had was better.
"Do you have any firearms?" I asked the man behind the counter, who looked at me, then at the guard from the temple who'd brought us here.
"It's okay," he said.
The man behind the counter nodded. "We have a few, but they're hard to come by around here, and ammunition is even harder to get."
"Well, let's see what you've got, then."
"They're in the side room over here," the man said, getting out a key ring with rather large keys on it. I followed him to the door, and after he'd unlocked it and opened it, I stepped in.
"Anything good?" Suzona asked as I looked around.
"Some things from Earth that I would be surprised if they have ammo for, and a lot of revolvers that I guess are local manufacture." I turned to the guy, "Are those cartridge or black powder?"
"Cartridge, but you're right about the ammunition. I don't have any for sale. There are companies a great distance from here making the stuff, but it's still hard to come by."
"Well, if we can't get it, they most likely won't have it, either," Suzona said from the doorway, where she and Evean were looking in.
"Good point. Oh, where can we get some good bows?"
"Now that I can help you with! Follow me into the back. We keep those under lock and key, because we've had too many people mistreat them."
I had to smile at that. "Once upon a time, I sold bows for a living. Trust me, I understand."
"You used to sell bows?" Evean said, giving me a surprised look. "Was that before or after you bought the inn?"
"What was how I made the money."
"That was also how he attracted Aryanna's attention," Suzona added.
"I sense a story!" Evean said, grinning as we entered the room with the bows.
"Remind me when we have the time," I said, going through the recurve bows. I figured anyone I killed with an arrow was one less I'd have to kill with a sword.
"Think they have any priests down there?" Evean asked as she picked one up as well and started checking it.
"Guess we'll find out."
"We'd better pick up some sledgehammers, too, come to think of it," Suzona said.
"Right," Evean and I both agreed.
#
Two days later, we were up in the mountains, looking down into a box valley with a very obvious cave way off at the back.
"How long have they been here?" Suzona asked Demetry, the guard who was still acting as our guide.
"We finally pushed them back into this canyon last year.
Up until then, we weren't sure where their hideout was.
They were raiding farms down in the valleys below for food and supplies.
Once we found out where they were operating from, we killed off most of their raiding parties. We're not sure what's left in there."
"Why not?"
"Our gods have told us not to set foot in the valley or the cave. I think there is some sort of prohibition, or an old agreement that forbids it."
I nodded as I looked over the lay of the land. "Yeah, I can believe it. Let's wait until it's dark, then we can move down closer and see about picking them off with arrows for a while."
"At night?" Evean asked.
"Well, in our champion forms, we'll be able to see a lot better than they will."
"I can't," Suzona said.
"I think we'll be casting light spells once we go inside, so at that point, it won't matter. Oh, that reminds me, Demetry?"
"Yes?"
"Tell the men around here not to shoot at the two-legged, catlike people. That'll be Evean and me."
"Truly?"
"We come from a very different place. The kind of place where myths come from."
"If you say so…"
Evean smacked me on the ass, and I just smiled at her.
"Let's get some food and some sleep," Suzona said as she crawled back from the edge of the ridge. "Tonight will be busy, I'm sure."
It was long after sunset when we woke up. Demetry was shocked when I shifted, staring at me for a good minute. When Evean shifted, he stared at her for a fair bit longer. I guess finding hot catgirls enticing was just one of those universal constants.
It was dark, but there was some light. Mainly starlight, but a little from the setting moon, as well. Evean and I didn't have any issues seeing at all. Suzona had some.
"Don't you have any sort of night vision cantrip?" I asked once we were away from the others.
"Yes, I just didn't want them to know that," she confessed, then cast it, I guess, as she did a lot better after that.
I could see small patrols down in the box canyon, moving with care and doing their best to avoid being seen by the people on the ridgelines above. It looked like they were checking snares. I'm sure food was an issue, being bottled up down in the canyon.
I got my bow ready when we were almost to the canyon floor, then tapped Evean on the shoulder. We found a couple of trees to use as cover and started picking off targets one by one.
A couple of them made noise when they were hit, or when they fell, but either the others couldn't tell we were killing them, or they were just too determined about checking those snares to be dissuaded, but not a one of them ran for cover or returned to the cave.
"I've shot twenty-three," I whispered.
"Eighteen," Evean replied.
"I don't see any others."
"Me, neither."
"Let's make for the entrance," Suzona said.
With that, we slowly and quietly snuck over to the cave entrance. There were two guards, so I tapped Evean's shoulder and mimed that I'd take the one on the left. She nodded, and we got ready.
"On three," I whispered. "One, two, three."
We got them both and moved forward. The moment we stepped into the cave, the alarm went up.
It was holy ground!
Dropping our bows, we drew our swords. Suzona had already taken the heads off the two dead guards, just in case. Someone cast a massive light spell as we charged in, and the battle was joined.
We'd definitely gotten the drop on them as we moved further into the cave.
The people at the front had been waiting for the foragers to return, so they weren't in armor and were barely even armed.
We still had to make sure they were dead and couldn't be healed, as we knew once we got to where the priests were, it would get nasty.