Chapter 237: AWOL

Where there was one Pathfinder, there were guaranteed to be more. The entrance to my artificial cave would take a lot of work to find. I had dropped the clean-cut stone in the water and been cautious walking around the boulder to avoid leaving signs of my passing. That didn’t mean a lot if they had tracking magic, and my heart rate accelerated. The first Pathfinder climbed the boulder. I told myself it was the best viewpoint on this stretch of shoreline, so his action made sense.

My heart thudded louder as my adrenaline surged, and a second Pathfinder was in range when I pulsed again. It soon joined the first atop my stone domicile. They started a quiet conversation in orcish as the fleet sailed past our position a mile off the shore. The ships were cloistered together with lights on the bow and stern. I tensed when a third Pathfinder moved behind the boulder, and I suddenly felt trapped. I had thought my idea brilliant as I didn’t use aether to conceal myself, which might be visible to a mage, and the insect swarm couldn’t find me with just my narrow viewing slit.

At least I had the aether shield amulet. I reached for it around my neck and panicked when it was gone. Had I dropped it? I retraced my steps in my mind. I had given it to Corvus, but the memory was fuzzy. Had I given him the ring as well? Shit, yes, and the packs of gold.

It took me a few moments to unravel my memories. He must have used a spell form on me to make me obedient. I suddenly didn’t think there were any good Hounds in the Western Empire. I realized while he was showing me the map on his jacket, he had been worming himself into my perception of him. Maybe he had been doing it from the moment we met. I concluded that must have been it. The ogre scent was probably a distraction to overload my senses, so I wouldn’t notice his influence—strangely enough, something I learned in Hound training.

It made my current decision to abandon my mission all the easier. I just needed to escape the orc Pathfinders first. One of the orcs let out a stream of piss onto the rock, and of course, my viewport was in the path of the waterfall. I blocked the tiny splatter with my forearm and considered removing his instrument for the insult, but I restrained myself. Most likely, the Pathfinders would move away with the fleet, and I just needed to wait it out.

The water was glass tonight, and only the waves created by the passing ships a mile away rippled the surface. The fleet was painfully slow as their priests needed to produce the wind for the massive sails. One Pathfinder jumped down in front of me and walked slowly to the water. He was staring into the shallows, and I cursed my bad luck.

He must have spotted the clean-cut stone I had dropped in there, and now Neptune’s Tear reflected off the polished stone. He called the second one over, and even though I couldn’t understand their language, I could tell they were trying to puzzle out why the large, perfectly fresh-cut stone blocks were submerged just off shore.

I increased the frequency of earth speak pulses, and the third Pathfinder had moved south already. These two were not giving up as their hands became animated, and they seemed to be arguing about the stone. I had dropped four blocks in total, all mostly square, to create my six-foot cube chamber. My dimensional space was too packed to hold onto them, and I thought I had been clever about placing them there. My luck got even worse when one of them turned to face the rock. It was dark, and my viewing slit was not large, just an inch in height and six wide. He walked around the boulder, inspecting it and looking for where the quarried stone may have come from. He missed my elevated slit in the dark but stopped at the entrance.

When he called over his companion, I knew my time was limited. My ‘door’ was three inches of stone, but I had made it loose enough that I could kick it out rather than use aether to move it. With the next earth speak pulse, I could tell he had found the fine seam in the stone.

One of the two Pathfinders had pulled his skinning knife and was trying unhurriedly to get it into the seam to pry open what they must be guessing was a hidden cache. The echoing scratching of the blade on the stone was a bit unnerving as he worked. I pulsed earth speak twice more to ensure I was only dealing with two Pathfinders within the forty feet of me.

I prepared for the encounter, and when I was ready, I acted. The stone door disappeared into my dimensional space, leaving a surprised male orc to receive a lunging stabbing attack from the orcbane. I had been aiming for his throat, but he reacted quickly and stood. The blade still pierced his sternum, and he bellowed a pained cry. I scrambled out of my self-made prison and tossed all three pellets at the other Pathfinder.

My first victim was still screaming in pain, and I wouldn’t say I liked the sword effect of inflicting pain—it drew too much attention. With the night vision goggles, I could only see one other Pathfinder much further down the shore, probably the one that had passed us twenty minutes earlier. I finished the wailing orc before me by jerking the blade down, cutting his sternum open and destroying his heart and lungs.

I cursed under my breath when bright lights bloomed over the nearest ship, illuminating the sky and shoreline like it was the middle of the day. The spores had blinded the other Pathfinder, and it was time to run.

I slashed the disoriented Pathfinder in the neck and dashed into the woodlands, heading east away from the lake. I was unencumbered as I raced through the trees. Shadows danced on the trees as more ships cast their own magic flares into the sky and over the woods. I didn’t think the orc invasion would consider me much of a threat as I was just a single Hound. I was wrong.

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The buzzing of insects soon followed me as I tried to open distance from Varvao Lake. My earth speak was a blessing as it framed a Pathfinder waiting to ambush me ahead. Instead, I cut around opposite the tree at the last second and attacked him from the other side before he could react. One air shield and two slashes from orcbane ended the unfortunate Pathfinder. The lake was awash with activity as the sounds of orcs echoed through the woods, and more aetheric flares appeared overhead. A wasp stung my neck, and I swatted the golf ball-sized insect in annoyance.

I quickly used purify self to eliminate the burning poison from the insect, and I was racing again into the woods. More of the aggravating insects attacked my exposed skin and tracked me as I ran. I was having a really bad night and was sweating profusely with the humid air. I didn’t understand their desire to hunt me down. Didn’t they have a city to conquer? About two hours into my frantic flight, the trees finally went silent, and I no longer heard the incessant buzzing above.

I didn’t slow down and tried to run faster, thinking I had escaped their range to control the insects. I tried to recover my aether, but still pulsed earth speak frequently. Unfortunately, earth speak couldn’t see flying creatures. I had no idea what crashed into me from above. Whatever it was, it had talons and ripped off my night vision goggles and cut deep into my neck and cheek but failed to grip my shoulder as I twisted hard away.

I supposed that grappling the goggles was better than grappling my head. I was still slammed hard into the ground from its attack, knocking the wind out of me. I was in a mostly open area and scrambled for the cover of some dead trees as I drank two of the orc lesser healing potions from my belt. Blood flowed freely down my neck, soaking my undershirt. I listened intently for the creature in the skies but only heard my heart pounding in my ears.

The rancid taste of the potions hit me and made holding back my vomit reflex difficult, but I couldn’t waste aether on healing myself with an enemy so close. Did the orcs send it, or was it just another predator? With only the light of the moon, I scanned the skies as my wounds closed. Wherever the night vision goggles were, I counted them lost. Maybe the Hound caches would have a replacement, but it was not a concern at the moment. I noticed the stars were blotted out by an avian silhouette.

I raced for the trees and checked on my aether—more than enough to eliminate this threat. I checked twice more to make sure it was diving for a second attack as the silhouette grew in size. It was difficult to get the timing, placement right, and capture enough of the beast to kill it while running. I attempted to roll away from its talons this time but still got a slash across my back, tearing my Hound armor and getting tossed away like a dirty sock. But my aether did bottom out, telling me I had some success.

The avian creature failed to come out of its dive as it crashed into the ground and continued to demolish a few trees, ending with a pained cry. I had taken a piece of the wing instead of the head as I had planned. Still, it was effective as the gargantuan bird flailed on the ground, tangled and broken in the grove of shattered trees.

I guessed it was a juvenile Roc in the moonlight, as the wingspan was not impressive at forty or so feet. From Hearne’s teachings, Rocs had wingspans over one hundred feet and nested hundreds of miles north of here.

As the raptor flailed disabled, it snapped its impressive beak toward me in anger at its predicament. It was acting like I had attacked it and not the other way around. I muttered more to myself than it, “Mess with the bull, get the horns, Tweetie.” It was still a dangerous enemy, and I didn’t need to finish it off.

I inhaled sharply. Was that a harness on its back in the moonlight? Was there a rider? Could my night get any worse? He must be dead with how hard the Roc crashed and slammed into the trees. If there was a rider, more orcs would be coming, and my aether pool was empty.

I tossed a pellet to blind the Roc and hobbled away. I was guessing the Roc belonged to the orc invasion forces and was some nightmarish pet. Either way, it was not going to follow me in its condition, and I had to hope it was the only one.

My Hound jacket was now mostly shredded, and I balled it up to dispose of when I got to safety. Without the goggles, I was limited to seeing only with my earth speak spell form. I reached the cover of dense evergreens and finally rested while I recovered aether to heal my wounds. The aether recovery ring was a huge blessing, doubling my aether recovery. My self-healing told me the damage to my shoulder was severe; I had just been in too much shock to realize it.

I remained stationary while I waited for dawn, restoring my aether and healing the damage. Without the goggles, I was worried about another attack from above in the dark.

The aftertaste of the orc potion stuck to my tongue, and water wouldn’t wash it away. The mouthwash potion was at least successful. Miles away, I could still hear the Roc bellowing angrily at its predicament of being grounded and blinded. When the gray dawn sky arrived, I was healed enough and continued my flight westward.

I hoped the Caliphate had given up on its pursuit of me. I had to be at least twenty miles from the fleet now. At least, I didn’t see anything in the skies or hear anything that made me suspect I was being followed.

I opened the message book to read it for the last time. No new orders had been written, and I would not be writing anything ever again. Hopefully, by my lack of response, they would think I had been killed or captured by the Boutan Caliphate. I sent the book back to my dimensional space for the last time. I used the blood compass to orient myself and ran in that direction, pulsing earth speak frequently.

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