A Soldiers Life - 220 - Practical Training

Chapter 220: Practical Training

I lay in my cell, ogre skunked. Not as bad as Mateo had been in Macha, but persistent enough that it was irritating to my eyes in the small room. The tide was up, and the surf was crashing against the bluff below the window but not circulating the air. I made sure my door was secure before entering the dreamscape. I was going to spend a little longer inside than normal tonight. After adding to the library, I researched ogres in my bestiaries.

Everything Hearne had noted was true. I also learned that ogre stench not only came from ogres hating to bathe but also from special glands. It was a defense mechanism to turn off larger predators. Whatever predators would target a ten-foot, seven-hundred-pound ogre was not noted in the text—not that I wanted to know.

I found what I was looking for. A recipe for eliminating the scent. It was a simple alchemy recipe: vinegar, ash from the birch tree, and powdered lilac stamens. The lilac stamens were used as the catalyst for the aether and sapphire dust. Then you add it to boiling water with clothes.

For a skunked person, you could use a tub of warm water and add the potion to it. The result was removing all scents from the clothes and the person. Unfortunately, lilacs were out of season, and there were no herbalists at the castle. According to the text, I would have to deal with the stink for one to two weeks.

I switched books to review and spell form for purify self. I was on the precipice of learning the void affinity spell form. It had been a slower process than I would have liked. After twenty minutes of studying the text, I exited the dreamscape. I touched the wall and sent out an earth pulse. I was immediately on alert as two men were outside my door, peering through the cracks in the aged and rotting door into my dark cell.

It was a bit harder to discern their identities with earth speak, but after scrutiny, I was certain it was Gaius and Castian. Gaius could see in the dark, and I was certain Castian had recruited him to see if I was using the amulet. If they had forced open the door, the string on the pulley I had set up would have pulled it from my grasp, waking me. It was also concealed on the far side of my body. I sent the amulet to my space and pretended to roll over facing away from the door while I watched the two using earth speak.

As I moved, they slipped away like peeping toms on the verge of being caught. It confirmed that Konstantin was right. I tracked their retreat to their rooms and planned to be a bit tougher on the two during weapons practice.

Four days later, those who had kept their distance from Konstantin and me started to interact with us normally as the ogre scent had diminished. We had assembled in the bailey, Cato announcing today’s lesson, “It’s time to give you your two poisons for your arrows.” On a table in front of him were neat rows of three jars. Each jar was made of a different colored glass. One was black, one was red, and one was clear. To his right, there was also a pile of flat, circular stones.

“Now you will notice you have three different color fletchings on your arrows: black, dark gray, and crimson red. You have a Fletcher’s kit in your pack, so you can change them if you want. Now most Hounds follow the standard; the red fletching goes with bleeding poison.” He held up the red jar. “For the paralytic poison, the black fletchings.” He held up a black vial. “The dark gray fletchings indicate no poison.

I looked at my quiver: five black, five red, and three gray arrows. Cato continued, “Adding poison to an arrowhead is done in the following manner. First, heat the sealant wax.” He took the clear vial and added it to the top of a thermal stone. You could see the white opaque wax quickly melt and turn clear. He took an arrow with a black fletching and touched it to the stone, heating the silver head. “With the arrowhead heated, you place three drops on each side of the central groove. It will pool and dry in the grooves quickly on the heated arrowhead. Then dip the head into the wax.” He did the procedure as he spoke.

Hearne added from over Cato’s shoulder, “Make sure you go straight down and up in the wax. I know too many Hounds who have spilled their wax on assignment. It is not candling wax but alchemy sealant wax. Very difficult to get outside of cities. Without it, the dried poison will flake off. Regular candle wax will bind to the poison making it useless.” Cato grunted at Hearne’s addition. The two trainers constantly corrected each other in a contest of who knew more.

Cato continued the lesson. “I suggest you replace the sponge moss at the bottom of your quiver if you have the opportunity to do so when coating your arrows. A few Hounds,” his eyes pointed at Hearne, “don’t do it often enough, and their arrowheads rattle in their quiver, removing the wax and poison. You also cannot use normal fire to heat the silver arrowheads; it will get them too hot and burn out the poison’s efficacy. So don’t lose your lesser thermal stones; replacements will come from your own coin.”

Konstantin stepped up to finish the lesson, “A waxed poison-tipped arrow will be viable for three days. If you cut yourself with the bleeding poison, drink your lesser healing potion immediately. Otherwise, all wounds on your body will bleed freely for three hours.” I nodded as I realized the ogre we had killed days ago had been poisoned. He looked to make sure everyone understood. “If you don’t have a healing potion, wrap the wounds tightly to prevent blood loss until they clot normally.”

Then, it was time for us to do our own arrows. The thermal stones were extremely warm to the touch—a low-grade stone, but it was still our first artifact as a Hound. I quickly completed my arrows and carefully placed them in my quiver.

Hearne was over my shoulder, “Seal your vials with the wax. It will help extend the life of the poison.” I sealed the vials, noting the poisons only had a three-month expiration date. I sent all three and my new lesser thermal stone to storage. He patted my shoulder realizing I actually didn’t need to seal my vials. He offered some other advice. “The thermal stone will be your best friend on cold nights. Wrap it in some spare clothes as it is just hot enough to burn the skin if it is applied for a long time.”

Val and Savino did spill their wax even though they had been warned, coating their thermal stone and making a mess of their table. They were given new wax vials and got chastising comments from our trainers. Each vial was good for about thirty arrows. Once everyone was finished practicing, Konstantin stood in front of us, hand on his hips. He shook his head disapprovingly like he didn’t like what he saw—or we didn’t match his expectations of being a Hound.

“I hope you enjoyed your luxury accommodations. It is time for you to put your skills to use. There are eighteen of you. You are going to be divided into three teams of six. Hearne and Cato will go with one team. David and Jansen will go with the other team, and I will supervise the third team.”

I heard Malcum whispering to himself, “Please not Konstantin,” over and over.

I was already certain he would be selecting me. Konstantin announced the teams, “Castian, Hadris, Savino, Val, Dirk, and Malcum are with Hearne and Cato.” Malcum let out a relieved “yes.” I noted my three conspirators were placed in the same group.

“Gaius, Eryk, Kasper, Bacchus, Sigma, and Moxie are with me,” Konstantin announced. Kasper hissed in disappointment, which just made Konstantin smile. “The rest of you are with David and Jansen. Depending on how you do well on the foray will determine which artifacts you will be given, so show your best skills.” Everyone started to murmur in excitement like kids before Christmas. Konstantin barked over the noise, “My group has fifteen minutes to grab your things. Stacks of thirty ration bars are in the common room for each of you.”

Bacchus asked in disbelief, “How long are we going for?”

“As long as it takes,” Konstantin said with a satisfied grin.

I knew Konstantin meant we only had fifteen minutes and not a minute longer, and I rushed down to my room to grab my pack. The summoner’s belt was still curled inside. I rushed up to the kitchen, and Egg pointed at one stack of ration bars that looked like there was an extra row in the stack. I nodded my thanks and swept 36 ration bars into my dimensional space.

Soon, my group was chasing Konstantin through the woods. “Gaius and Moxie, left flank. Bacchus and Kasper, right flank. Eryk and Sigma with me in the center.” We fanned out according to Konstantin’s orders. We jogged until sunset, heading far to the south.

Konstantin had us make camp inside a deep cave. It wasn’t long before a freezing rain began to fall outside. As we made camp, Bacchus broke the silence, “What are we hunting?”

Konstantin grunted, “Goblins and whatever else we can find.”

“What does that mean?” Gaius asked pleadingly. He always looked constipated during Hearne’s lectures, clearly regretting joining the Hounds.

“Exactly what it means. Get some rest. Eryk and I will split the watch.” All eyes turned to me, thinking Konstantin was punishing me again for some unknown slight, but I just shrugged.

I took the first watch, looked over the group, and noted their spell forms. Gaius could see in the dark and had been spying on me a few days ago. Kasper had flaming hands, and the lighten self spell forms. The latter allowed him to reduce his body weight and do impressive acrobatics.

Sigma was the quietest person I had ever met. I don’t think he had said a single word in the last five weeks. He had also never demonstrated his spell form, but I knew it was discern truth according to the sheet I copied from the Truthseeker. To his credit, I never felt my bone inscriptions itch in his presence. In my opinion, he was just an average soldier, despite coming from the legion.

Bacchus had the spell form for duplicate image. It was a low-tier illusion spell, leaving a man-sized illusion behind. He liked to leave copies of himself behind as a joke, but since they were not animated, it was easy to tell they were fake.

Moxie had a lightning bolt spell form. Well, lightning bolt was too strong a word for it. It was more of a lightning dart. He also only had enough aether to use it twice. It was effective as it burned and did briefly stun an opponent, as Castian had found out in weapons practice after irritating Moxie one too many times.

Konstantin came in the middle of the night to relieve me. The rain was still falling heavily and freezing on the ground. He sat next to me, “You are going to be asked to do things you may not agree with.”

I turned to face him. “Like what?”

He sighed heavily, “When Centurion Sergius takes you, he will test you. I can’t prepare you for it, do it and don’t argue. Silence your conscience.” He pulled a stone from his pocket and handed it to me. I turned it in my hand in the limited light seeing reflections of runic writing.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Store it. It is an anchor stone paired with another. With it, Zyna will be able to send you messages. Only check it one hour after sunset,” he said heavily.

I got a little excited, “She will send me a message every night?”

Konstantin hissed, “No, fool. She might not send you a message for a year. It will be only one-way communication and she will relay what you need to do in Sergius’ service.”

After I digested the statement, I asked, “I thought I was to stand sentry on a border?”

 Konstantin shook his head, “All instructors do evaluations of the pups. I can control what Hearne and Jansen put into their evaluation of you, but the others are outside my influence. When Sergius and Cornelius arrive, they will review the litter and take turns selecting. Most likely, there will be three packs of five and three lone wolves from your group. Cornelius has the first selection and will choose a pack instead of you. Sergius should select you next if he has half a brain.” I sat there, not moving for a time, before Konstantin told me, “Get some rest.”

Konstantin had the only map in our group, and we took turns orienteering on it. For the next two weeks, we scouted water sources for tracks and worked to track nine green goblins to their burrows. We usually waited till sunset when they emerged and killed them at range. We also found other tracks. A hill giant’s tracks, over a week old. A herd of centaur tracks—Konstantin guessed four of the horsemen were running somewhere. Large bears, elk, and boar as well, but we did not follow them. Most creatures were wisely hibernating during the cold winter.

Hearne had also been right about the thermal stone; it was most welcome during the freezing nights to warm the various parts of your body under the thin bedroll the Hounds used. We were forced to forage and hunt game as we ran out of food. I pretended to be suffering with the others but didn’t feel the pain or the hunger.

Toward the end of the fourth week, we arrived at a large foreboding cave, and Konstantin had us take cover a distance away. The entrance howled as musty smelling air escaped the cave, giving it an ominous feeling. “That is an entrance to the Endless Dark,” Konstantin announced.

Gaius asked in a confused tone, “I thought they were only in the mountains.”

Konstantin shook his head, disappointed, “Don’t believe everything you read in story books. There are four known entrances in the Telhian Empire to the depths. This is one of them. This is the reason we can’t eradicate the gnolls, ogres, and goblins. More eventually venture up from the Endless Dark.”

“Why don’t we just seal the entrances?” Moxie asked a good question.

“Another entrance would appear elsewhere in time—it always does. It is better to know where they are. The Legion used to guard them, but now the Hounds check on them intermittently and they are far from populations. Gaius, go and look for tracks.” Konstantin’s order had Gaius look like he had been stabbed in the back. Still, he obeyed and moved away from us. He slowly crept around the entrance for an hour before returning.

He was covered in sweat despite the cold temperature when he rejoined us to report. “A few goblin tracks. Only one set is fresh, though. Maybe a day old.”

Konstantin nodded, “Probably an exile. We will track it down and then head to Sierra.” Expectant and hopeful eyes turned to Konstantin. “I am tired of smelling you pups every day. You will be given leave to bathe and rest for two days to take care of your needs. The others should meet us there, and we will continue your training in the city.”

“What about the artifacts?” Sigma boldly asked.

Konstantin smiled tightly at his eagerness, “I will consult with the other Hounds, and we will decide who has earned what we have to distribute.”

It was still a week before we reached the city of Sierra, and we hunted down three more goblins; one burrow also had four goblin newborns. Moxie was tasked with handling them.

Sierra was not impressive city, and I passed through it when we returned with the alchemist to Sobral. Sobral was about 150 miles east, in fact. I wondered how Ginger was doing in my absence. I had a lot of dungeon apples for her if we ever reunited.

We moved through the gates, and the city guard gave us a wide berth due to the Hound’s uniform we wore and our smell. Even I was reluctant to bathe in an ice-cold pond. The city was mildly active, and a few vendor carts were on the streets. Instead of the legion hall, we followed Konstantin to an abandoned army barracks. “Drop your gear. We have the baths to ourselves for the next four hours.” The packs of the other pups were already here as we were the last to arrive.

Konstantin grunted on seeing the beds, “One is missing.” I counted the packs, and it was true; only eleven of the bunks had packs claiming them.

Our tired group dropped everything and made our way baths to find the other pups and Hounds already soaking. Young boys took our Hound clothing to clean, and we washed ourselves in the cold showers before joining them in the hot soaking pool. It didn’t take me long to figure out the missing man was Ryad. I heard one of the other pups telling Kasper what had happened.

“Last week, he was alone on night watch. We were a day’s travel from seeing the entrance to the Endless Dark. He screamed a warning, waking us. But when we went to reinforce him, he was gone. Nothing left but a few drops of blood.”

Jansen, on the other side of the pool, confirmed the tale and warned, “He was taken by something from the air as there were no tracks. He failed to remember not to stand sentry in the open on nights when Neptune’s Tear is absent.” The loss of one of the men we had trained with kept everyone somber as we soaked and whispered our adventures.

Konstantin had a surprise for us after the bath—non-descript commoner’s clothing. “You have two days to enjoy the offerings of the city. There are ten silver in each vest. On the morning of the third, we will resume your training with tracking in the city and the dangers that infest the shadows.”

The men scattered like leaves on the wind, and so did I. I had a few things I wanted that I hoped this small city might provide me.