B3 Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

Lucan and Lord Ravencroft met, hidden by night and branch. The lord gripped Lucan’s arm firmly after he dismounted and met him with a grin. “You look hale, Lord Zesh. It seems marriage has done you well.”

Lucan smiled. “You are as courteous as you are shrewd, your lordship. You have my thanks and my apology for urging you to come out at such an hour.”

Lord Ravencroft waved his words away. “Think nothing of it. I am curious, however, why I am here. Pray, tell.”

“It is regarding the matter for which I journey today.”

“The trade route?”

“Indeed.”

The lord rubbed his cheek thoughtfully. “It seems to me that you are still at the beginning of that journey. What matter would demand my attention at this time?”

“It is a matter yet to be,” Lucan said with an apologetic smile. “But I believe it best discussed now, before those who would divide us stand in between.”

Again, the lord rubbed his cheek. “You stoke my curiosity further. Go on, then.”

“Should this route through the canal come to be,” Lucan said, “we will have to build docks for the boats.”

At that, the lord nodded, and Lucan continued, “Of course, such docks "would demand dues from those who would make use of them.”

Realization dawned on the lord, and he nodded slowly, sparing Lucan from continuing. “You fear that our interests would clash.”

“I do.”

“Perhaps it is a reasonable concern,” the lord said, sighing. “What do you propose?”

“We keep our dues even,” Lucan said.

“An interesting proposition,” Lord Ravencroft said with a smile. “Yet, it would serve you more than it would serve me.”

“I would contend that it serves both of us.”

“I did not doubt that,” Lord Ravencroft said. “I only doubt that it serves us equally.”

“It does, your lordship,” Lucan said. “For it prevents a contention that would harm both of us should we not be in agreement.”

“It would serve me more to keep my dues low so that I may get more merchants at my docks,” Lord Ravencroft said simply.

Lucan gave him a sharp look. “And that may harm my estate.”

“Needs must.”

“Then you will forgive me if I bring my dues so low that merchants would hesitate to even halt for a time at your estate,” Lucan countered.

“Then I would lower mine further.”

“So would we,” Lucan said. “Then, at such a time that we both fail to find an accord, matters would be that both of our estates receive nothing for boats occupying our docks. Do you see, Lord Ravencroft, what I fear? This would only serve the merchants, and they would happily stoke the fires of conflict.”

“Indeed,” Lord Ravencroft said. “Yet you must give me some leeway here. You have come to me, after all.”

Lucan hummed for a moment, eventually shrugging. “What do you propose?”

“My dues could be lower than yours, enough that merchants would not see it fit to pass my estate by to reach your town,” the lord said. “But not so low that they would land at my estate to avoid your docks. I reckon our stewards can find a reasonable ground that serves both of our houses.”

“Then we are in accord,” Lucan said, extending an arm.

Lord Ravencroft took it. “We are.”

They sealed their agreement, and Lucan was glad that he didn’t have to resort to more insidious threats. He’d intended to keep those up his sleeve for as long as he could, considering he didn’t want to build enmity with the lord who owned such a vital territory. He could’ve threatened the man with a lopsided agreement with the Unioners that would favor his estate over the lord’s. Another arrangement with the big merchants could also have been wrought.

“May your fortunes be plentiful, and may your travels fare well,” Lord Ravencroft said after their arms separated.

“My thanks, your lordship. Fare well.”

With an exchange of nods, they each went their own way, followed by their men. Lucan and his men returned to their camp. A watch was set, and they slept as well as they could through the night. 

The next day, they moved with the sunrise, cutting east through the forest. They had to march a bit after sunset to cross into the Union, but Lucan knew they were there when Tomis ascertained for him that he’d seen the border stones at the end of Lord Ravencroft’s territory.

They set camp for the last time in the woods. Tomorrow, they would slip onto the road east of the forest, pretending to be ordinary travellers.

Once the sun began filtering through the trees, they continued their journey, breaking out of the forest as the sun rose. They found a dirt road nearby and quickly took to it. It appeared that the border road was rarely trodden. Considering its heading, Lucan imagined that it began somewhere in the Shattered Kingdom before cutting into Union lands, which may explain the disuse.

They strolled the road through the early morn, trying to appear as anything but fighting men, even if they were armed. Most travellers were armed, after all.

It was noon when they saw another soul, not on the road, however, but rather along the treeline. Tomis was the first to call their eyes to the sight.

One man, half-armored, ran through the shrubbery, stumbling and falling twice before getting to his feet and dashing again. After him, chased a beast on four legs, a lizard of a sort. Instead of being round, its head was flared out like an open, thorny leaf, and it charged after him with no small amount of fury.

The unfastened clasps of the man’s armor slapped against him as he ran. Before Lucan could command his men to step in, however, another three men broke out of the trees, chasing after the beast. Lucan now didn’t know now whether the beast was chasing the first man or fleeing the other three. He looked at Tomis, who seemed as perplexed, then at Ryder, who was tilting his head as though it would give him a better look at the transpiring affair.

“What in the abyss…?” The man-at-arms muttered at last.

Before they could unentangle themselves from the trance of confusion, a shaking tree demanded their attention. Before long, another lizard beast dashed out of the shrubbery, stopping and looking left and right, as though having just escaped certain death.

Before Lucan could draw his sword, a fireball came through the trees, bursting and enveloping the beast’s head in a small inferno. The creature collapsed, and a mage strolled out of the trees, accompanied by an armed man. The pair watched the fallen beast carefully before the mage noticed them on the road, eying them quizzically, and then disregarding them once they made no move to approach.

“Adventurers?” Ryder wondered.

Lucan gave his two men another incredulous look, shrugging before urging them on. They had to keep going if they wanted to avoid undue attention. Marching on, they kept the pace until sunset, picking a cleared spot for a roadside camp and settling in for the night.

The next day, they were once again on the road. That was, until they realized that a dirt road could so easily scatter and stop being a road halfway through its journey. They stood at the broken end of the road at noon, eying the grass that spread out where it should be.

With an exasperated sigh, Lucan urged his men to follow the path the road would have taken, knowing the direction of the city. Tomis was a good enough scout that they wouldn’t veer too far off their route.

They continued down into lowlands that quickly proved wetter than expected, and soon enough, their boots were squelching in the mud. With slower, heavier steps, they marched on, watching the rising earth ahead like a distant hope.

Midway through the muddy patch of land, Ryder stumbled, and Lucan’s eyes followed odd movement at the man-at-arms’ feet. A black hand burst out of the mud and locked Ryder’s foot in a vice grip.

“What in the fucking hells!” Ryder cried.

“By the Elders,” Lucan grinded out, his sword clearing its sheath and cutting through the wrist of whatever abyssal creature that had been. A moment later, he saw Tomis hopping out of a pit of mud, avoiding another hand. Then he had to use the Star to avoid a pair of hands coming for him. Straining the Skill with his Spirit, he forced it to impose itself on the unreliable mud, and he moved, cutting off the hands coming for Tomis where the man-at-arms landed.

By the time he was done, however, they were surrounded. A dozen hunched dark forms encircled them, or rather, they had walked into their midst unknowingly. The creatures stood on two feet with some difficulty, but little else of them could be seen, with mud covering their bodies from head to toe.

Faces grim with determination, the three of them formed up, back to back, facing the beasts. As the first one loped through the mud towards him, Lucan swung hard, easily lopping off its arm, and with a simple kick, he threw the beast several yards back, suffering nothing but a line of mud whipped onto his chest.

“They’re weak,” he yelled.

“And slow,” Ryder added. Lucan spared him a glance and saw him easily slipping under the swipes of two of the beasts who’d closed in. He didn’t watch for long enough to see him dismember them, but he could imagine it.

Lucan turned to face two approaching lopers of his own, stepping closer to one of them and keeping them apart. He then swung hard, a slanted slash before the first creature could swipe at him. As expected, his sword cut the beast in half. It seemed that their foes were only possessed of one talent, hiding in the muck, and not too well, since it wasn’t deep enough to allow them much more than tying down those above.

They cut through them like a scythe through ripe wheat, without preamble and without hesitation. Then they were standing there, panting after the slaughter was through, only for an ominous sound to interrupt them.

Lucan looked around them and saw mud moving and rippling in the distance, rippling towards them. “Run!”

And so, with the next hill as their destination, they ran for the sake of their health, or perhaps for the sake of their garments.