A Soldier's Life - 478 - Occupied Varvao (edited 11-3-25 +100 words)

Chapter 478: Occupied Varvao

“We will take the high ground over there,” I motioned to my party. “We will wait for them to come to us.” If we didn’t show aggression, then they should talk with us.

The hill I chose was made of soft earth with dense brush around the base. My earth pulse didn’t detect any hidden threats as we led the horses up a cleared trail. It provided us with a clear view of all approaches. Evie went back to scouting and found the Pathfinders had tied off their horses two miles away behind a dense thicket and spread out. Only three of them approached our hill openly. The tallest in the middle was dark-skinned with nearly black lips. His white, blue and red tattoos stood out against his skin. Two muscular women flanked him. Since the Pathfinders usually operate in family groups, I guessed they were all related in some way.

The others made to encircle our hill, but did so openly, cutting off our retreat. Maybe they thought they had the advantage here. Their numbers had grown to eleven, including the three representatives.

All the Pathfinders had strung bows, but they were slung across their backs for quick access. The leader’s eyes passed over our group, pausing on Maveith before settling on me as I had stepped forward. “I am Karkaan, patriarch of Clan Twilight Thunder. My clan is responsible for patrolling the southern border of the Caliphate,” he said formally in Elvish. “What is your business here?”

“The Caliphate has expanded greatly since I was last here,” I said deferentially in Elvish.

The older female to his right whispered in a hiss of Orcish, “He is Telhian. I can tell by his accent. We should kill them or send them back from where they came.” She probably thought none of us spoke Orcish.

“He was a Telhian,” Alhar’s voice rang from behind me in Orcish. I was about to turn on him when he continued. “He also served as your Supreme’s First in the Choosing. He requests an escort to the Telhian border.” Alhar looked at me, amused at my anger. “Sorry, I didn’t feel like listening to you banter,” he said slightly mockingly. I was going to get to that, but I had wanted to make sure Clan Twilight Thunder supported Supreme Mynasha first before letting them know of my allegiance to her.

Alhar’s statement left Karkaan confused and hesitant. “There were rumors that a human served as Mynasha’s First. I wasn’t at the Choosing, but Warlord Thrakaan was. If you are putting your honor before us, I will take you to Varvao to verify your identity.”

The same female hissed at him in Orcish. “Humans have no honor. Require that they submit their weapons.”

I knew this game and would gladly play along to speed this up. In Orcish, I challenged the female. “You insult the honor I have earned as a First. I challenge you.”

Getting over her shock of my decent Orcish, she spat at me, “Challenge me to what? I accept!”

Karkaan placed his hand on the fiery orc woman’s shoulder. “My sister is hasty and still angry that her husband was lost to the Telhians. I will test your honor in her place, if that is acceptable? First blood—your blood, and I escort you to Varvao, but hold your weapons. My blood, and you can keep your weapons, First.”

“Agreed,” I stepped forward, walking down the slope. The silence behind me was disturbing and I missed Benito’s voice organizing bets.

Rhuuk’s bastard sword appeared in my hand, and the Pathfinders went for their bows, but their leader stopped them. “The rumor is the Supreme’s First had a large space.” Karkaan drew two curved blades about twenty-four inches each—weapons designed for rapid slashing attacks. I would be at a disadvantage with a two-handed weapon, but I decided not to risk it, and a shield appeared in my right hand. A flick of the wrist and the strap was secured to my forearm.

Karkaan looked less certain now as I spun Rhuuk’s blade easily to loosen my wrist. “That blade is familiar to me,” he said, locking his eyes to mine.

I looked at the blade, feigning confusion. “Yeah, it belonged to Warlord Rhuuk. He dropped it, and I picked it up,” I said indifferently.

He sheathed his blades and gave a deferential bow, surprising his clanmates. “Your honor is intact. I know Rhuuk died during the Choosing. We will escort you.”

“Do you want to spar a little bit anyway?” I asked, feeling slightly cheated. By his expression, the answer was no. Soon, my companions were at the center of five mounted Pathfinders in a halo, while only Karkaan rode with us at the center.

At first, he was not very talkative, but somehow, after some prodding from Kyrenic, the patriarch was answering his questions freely. “We heard of the dungeon breaks in the southern lands, but none have happened this far north. The Dragon Spine has seen fit to challenge us frequently with trolls and hobgoblins. These lands are also cursed with flocks of axe beaks and giant fire beetles. We should have left them to the Telhians.”

I interrupted the conversation between Karkaan and Kyrenic. “I thought you were reclaiming them for the Molnemoac clans.”

“True. It would have been nice if the Molnemoacs shed some blood to reclaim their ancient homelands. Instead, we lost hundreds of warriors and some of our best warlords.” He indicated his riders. “Now the Pathfinder clans have to patrol and safeguard the settlers,” he said harshly. I nodded and rode away from the conversation. As far as I knew, the only warlord who had fallen in the annexation was Warlord Trakor, and he had been riding a roc named Chaostail. I was responsible for his death.

We paused as the sun set, and Baelira came to me as we erected tents. She whispered. “Are we going to trust these orc strangers?”

“We can trust them, but we will still keep our own watch. Stay close to Evie please,” I replied.

Once the camp was settled, I approached Alhar. He was seated and leaning against a rock, whittling a stick. “I do not require your aid when speaking for a group.”

He rested the knife and sticks on his knees and looked up at me. “You are a terrible leader and horrendous diplomat. You think and carry yourself too much like a warrior. That is fine for leading five men or even twenty, but terrible for leading a thousand or walking among kings and queens.”

“I have done alright for myself,” I replied defensively. Why was I even defending myself to the elf?

He laughed loudly. “Please. If you are carrying a mirror, look at yourself. Clalyn shaves every day, even in the middle of a campaign. He carries himself like someone who expects respect, even from his enemies. If you want the approval of Raelia’s brother, you need to carry yourself like a general. If you want the approval of her father, you need to carry yourself like a king.”

“I don’t want to be a king,” I said reflexively.

He pointed his carving knife at me. “You don’t have to be the king, but you need to act like one.” He stood and walked away from me into the dark of the night. I was confused because it sounded like he wanted to help me, but I wasn’t sure it was a genuine offer. I did pull a mirror and studied my reflection. I didn’t see anything wrong with it. I looked like a soldier in the field.

During the night, the Pathfinders dealt with a hobgoblin war party of seven. I decided not to reveal the collector to them when Karkaan walked me to the fight site. The proof of kills was his clan’s way of gaining some honor for protecting us. I meticulously studied the bodies. Poison arrows had killed all the hobgoblins from range, but they were wearing armor made from the carapaces of creatures only found in the Endless Dark.

After giving his clan sufficient praise, I stood. “Tomorrow we will be moving away from the mountains and will only have to worry about axe beaks, giant fire beetles, and if we are unlucky, a bulette,” Karkaan said, the last with a little warning in his tone.

I nodded but thought a bulette would be a fortunate encounter and might make it worth revealing the collector for the earth essence. “We can only hope luck is on our side then,” I replied with a silent prayer to Fortuna. “How many days to Varvao?”

“Five days with no rain, and if nothing dangerous crosses our path. With heavy rain, the ground becomes six inches of mud in an hour and it will be much slower travel,” the Pathfinder replied.

It ended up taking four and a half days to reach the walls of Varvao. The days had passed quickly, as there was little we had to do while in the care of the Pathfinders. They were competent scouts, and I got the opportunity to watch them coordinate and use their tattoos. Camouflage and silence were the prevalent tattoos among them, but Karkaan had limited invisibility instead of camouflage. They used a scent-masking lotion that smelled like ethanol when they applied it, but the scent quickly dispersed.

Maveith got frustrated with Evie because she seemed to best him at checkers three out of five times when we made camp. Maveith confided in me that he was not letting her win either. I didn’t have the heart to tell Maveith that Evie had recreated a book from Earth on how to win at checkers in the dreamscape.

Kyrenic and the Karkaan engaged in deep philosophical conversations while we rode, entertaining each other. Alhar kept eyeing me, seemingly waiting for me to ask him for help so I could prepare for meeting Raelia’s family—I never asked him. Baelira was mainly quiet, but I made an effort to talk with her. She was still adjusting to being away from Sanctuary and was searching for her place in the world.

We didn’t run into any bulettes, but we encountered a large flock of over thirty axe beaks. However, their attack was quickly halted when the Pathfinders took out the large alpha birds from a distance, breaking their charge and blood lust as they sought self-preservation over making us their next meal.

When we had passed the road leading to Formica, I felt the need to ask after the dungeon. “Karkaan, are your people delving the dungeon down this road?”

The Pathfinder hid his surprise well, but answered slowly. “The Adventurers Guild is constructing a town near the entrance in the mountains. It is a promising five-room dungeon with excellent rewards and steeped in my people’s history, from what I have been told. It is closer to the Dragon Spine, so progress has been slow with the recent increase in activity. How did you learn of it?” he asked curiously.

“I was in the Adventurers Guild when the legionnaires who reported it were receiving their reward,” I said simply. I didn’t say more, and Karkaan didn’t press me.

When we approached the walls of Varvao, I was actually curious about how the Telhian city fared after it was occupied. It had been three years since I was tasked with slowing the orc invasion fleet. It was the first time I had seen Mynasha, as she was the most powerful war cleric in the fleet.

I knew Varvao had fallen shortly after I fled the Empire, but that was due more to the ineptitude of the First Citizens and Centurion Sergius’s plot to place Octavian on the throne and kill Antonia Segreto. Passing through the gates, it looked like the banded wood gates was new and parts of the wall had contrasting stone, indicating recent repairs. The gates were guarded by orc elites in black scale armor. With Karkaan leading our party, we were not stopped or questioned.

The streets had less activity than I recalled, but there was an even split between human and orc peoples. The humans gave us more curious stares than the orcs as we moved through the streets. The humans we passed didn’t appear to be oppressed, and some even seemed happier than I remembered the Telhian citizenry. I estimated that two-thirds of the humans who used to live here were gone.

“Are there any slaves here?” Maveith’s deep voice rang out.

“The new Supreme has decreed that warlords cannot take new slaves.” The vocal female orc said. “Her actions will likely see her having an accident sooner rather than later.” Karkaan gave his sister a harsh look to silence her.

“There are very few slaves outside the old borders of the Caliphate, but they still exist,” Karkaan informed Maveith.

Maveith grumbled to himself but did not ask any more questions as we made our way to the Citadel. The Citadel looked like it had seen extensive repairs since the last time I had been in the city, but I had only seen it briefly before using the portal. The courtyard where the portal arch had been now only contained debris, probably destroyed by the Telhian defenders rather than allow the orcs to possess it.

The Citadel had surprisingly few defenders as we walked the halls. Karkaan knew exactly where to go, and we followed. I moved closer to Evie, and I nodded to Maveith, who moved to walk behind her. Kyrenic took the lead, while Baelira was opposite me. I didn’t think we would be received negatively, but it was better to be prepared. As long as there were no powerful clerics, I was certain we could handle ourselves if things went sideways.

Without knocking, he walked into an impressive office with wood shelves and a monstrous desk. A wrinkled orc sat behind a pile of paper, his skin loose and wrinkled, but hinting at what must have once been a large, muscular frame. “I don’t have time,” the orc growled. I didn’t recognize him, but there had been dozens of warlords at the Choosing.

“Warlord Trakaan,” Karkaan said forcefully to get his attention. “I have brought someone who claims to be the Supreme’s First.” I thought my title only lasted through the Choosing, but apparently it still held. The ancient orc looked up, seeing me and my party for the first time. He set the quill in its ink jar and tapped his fingers on his desk, studying us and thinking.

“He does look familiar, but I recall he sailed with an army of goliath slaves across the sea,” Trakaan stated. I sighed and produced the fire bear cloak from my space and whipped it in the air to settle on my shoulders. A smile formed on the old orc’s face. “Ahh, yes. It is him! What brings the mighty sword arm of the Supreme to my humble city?”

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