Chapter 238: Following The Trail

I was heading northwest and knew this was some of the wildest parts of the Telhian Empire. Large swaths of land the Empire claimed but had no presence in. There were no roads for hundreds of miles, and I was unsure where the blood compass was taking me. The weather remained humid as I jogged at a steady pace, pulsing earth speak infrequently.

After a full day of distancing myself from the orc invasion, I relaxed a bit less paranoid about being pursued by Pathfinders. Vartaholme, the nearest city in the direction I was headed, was 400 miles away, and according to my maps of the Telhian Empire, there was not a single settlement on my way there. Most of the land I had traversed today was lined with massive trees with impressive canopies. The buds had recently given birth to new spring leaves, and the humid air carried a wonderful scent.

Spring also meant the migration of creatures north—some of them I’d prefer not to encounter. At least I was three hundred miles north of the Dragon Spine Mountains, the impressive range that separated the northern and southern parts of the continent. Truly horrific creatures dwelled there, dragons among them.

Earth speak continued to be a blessing as I avoided several threats. What I thought might have been a basilisk burrow turned out to be the worst danger of the day. Without my night vision goggles, I would have to sleep in one of the massive trees tonight, as the moonlight wasn’t going to penetrate the spring canopy enough to allow me to continue my flight.

The bark of my selected tree resembled wrinkled skin as I climbed a trunk easily as wide as two prone men. The first decent-sized branch was fifty feet off the ground. A perturbed dark blue bird nesting nearby warbled loudly at me. It was going to draw attention, and I considered killing it, but it soon settled down and graciously decided to share the branch with me once I didn’t threaten its nest.

I tied a safety line to the branch in case I fell during the night and sprinkled some myconid powder below. The spring crickets began their song as the sun faded. I ate a hot burrito and checked the blood compass. The pull was still faint, so I was still a fair distance from Corvus. I needed to think of my own counters to the Hounds tracking me.

The undershirt I’d been wearing had been soaked in blood from my neck wound. I took out a glass alchemy jar, removed the shirt, sprinkled it with generic alchemical preservation powder, and sealed it inside. Then I wedged the jar into the fork of the tree. As long as the jar remained sealed, it should keep the blood viable for a month, confusing anyone trying to track me with a blood compass. It wouldn’t be the only false trail I planned to leave.

I pulled on one of my long-sleeved black spider-silk shirts. It stretched like spandex and was more comfortable than the standard Hound issue anyway. After I was certain Zyna would not be contacting me tonight, I pressed the anchor stone under my armor. I had hoped, with events unfolding so rapidly, that I would have received a message from her by now.

I settled in for a long night. The first disturbance was the thundering of a herd of centaurs hunting a lone elk. The chase passed a distance from my perch, but the shadowy silhouettes matched my guess. Centaurs had good night vision, so I wasn’t surprised by their nighttime hunt, only glad I wasn’t their quarry.

The second disturbance was a lumbering tortoise. At least, that’s what the shadow looked like from a hundred yards away. It didn’t match any creature I had studied under Hearne or read about in my bestiaries. The night owls had an animated conversation across the woods. My own feathery bed partner huddled tightly, guarding her clutch.

Morning couldn’t come soon enough. I thought I might take a side trip to check out one of the Hound caches. I lamented the loss of the night vision goggles, maybe the cache would have a pair. I briefly entered my dreamscape to overlay the map Corvus had shown me with the cache locations.

The cache he probably went to was near the first river I intended to cross. Unfortunately, the map lacked many terrain features, and I was unfamiliar with the region. Once I reached the river, I’d need to cross it, follow it east, and hope to stumble across the cache. Then again, he might have been lying when he claimed it was near a forked tree.

I thanked my host for the accommodations, descended, and continued northeast at first light. I paused briefly where the centaurs had passed to inspect their tracks. By my count, there were seven heading south—the opposite direction from where I was going. I continued at a brisk pace, and just after midday, I swore. The heavy forest suddenly ended, revealing vast plains spread out before me. If I continued in this direction, I’d be traveling in the open.

I studied my map and guessed the river crossing was about sixty or so miles away. The terrain type wasn’t clearly marked on my Hound map. Rivers, mountains, roads, and settlements—yes—but how far would I have to travel in the open? Would I have any cover at night? If these were open plains, then the primary predators were bulettes, axe beaks, wolves, boars, and centaurs, according to Hearne. I could handle one or two, but if I were outnumbered, I would be in serious trouble with nowhere to hide.

I considered trying to convince one of my passengers to help. After all, it wasn’t fair they were getting a free ride. Only the First Citizen Mage might be useful, but she probably couldn’t keep up with my pace. I stared at the grasslands ahead, indecisive. The spring grass was just starting to grow. There was nowhere to hide, and only a twisted, leafless tree appeared every few hundred yards.

I sighed and started a quick-tempo jog with long strides, checking the skies intermittently. The danger in these wilds could come from both above and below, and I no longer had the cover of the trees. I started to ration earth speak and only pulsed it when something looked suspicious to conserve aether. For much of the run, the only dangers were irate prairie dogs. The lack of a real threat unnerved me even more.

I only stopped to drink, and when the sun began to fade, I excavated a hole to spend the night in. The rich, rock-free soil would likely make excellent farmland, and the earth speak pulses had revealed ancient structures long buried with time, hinting that these lands had once been cultivated. There were too many flying predators at night to risk continuing. I felt vulnerable on the plains and didn’t sleep at all. Neptune’s Tear was exceedingly bright tonight, and it felt like it was spotlighting me.

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A muffled voice sent a surge of adrenaline through me. It took a moment to realize it was the anchor stone—not a threat. I pulled it from the crook in my armor. Zyna’s voice echoed softly from the air around the stone. I had missed the beginning of the message, but caught a few words:

“…finds you safe. I miss your touch and the care you gave to me. Centurion Sergius just informed me you were being assigned to Varvao’s defense. Be wary of the dangers the orc clerics pose.

It is with sorrow I tell you Mage Aspirant Livia has been lost to us. Her entire expedition perished while being escorted through the Dragon Spine Mountains by one of Centurion Sergius’s Hounds.

The situation in the Eastern Empire is tenuous. I have engaged the Esenhem Elves at the Emperor’s side, and we are now moving south to confront the Bartiradian army that has crossed the border. Your old mage commander is with us. It is expected to be a bloody conflict.

I will not be able to send another message anytime soon. If we never reunite, take care of yourself.”

The soft hum in the air went silent as the message ended, and I cursed that it was only one-way communication.

My blood had chilled as I listened. Livia’s face flashed in my mind, her lively green eyes as she wolfed down a monstrous portion I had cooked for her. Livia was dead—an innocent young woman used for her gifts by the Empire. Her smiling face would no longer grace this world—no chance for a normal life or a family. The mission had been orchestrated by Antonia, but it was to gain military support for the Emperor. My anger flared at the injustice.

When my temper cooled, I considered the rest of the message. It was clear Zyna had been cautious with her words in case someone was listening—or if my anchor stone had been stolen. Her voice had come through as clearly as if she were standing beside me. She had alluded to a romantic connection between us as cover, but it was her intonations that carried the real message.

I was certain the attempt on the Emperor’s life would happen during this next battle. I believed her final words advised me to abandon my mission and flee the Empire. But she didn’t know how close I was to the Archives.

I slept in short bursts, disturbed and angry. When morning came, I welcomed it and continued on my determined course. The least I could do for Castile was try to infiltrate the Archives and destroy her sample.

When I reached the muddy banks of the wide river, I decided to burn a large amount of aether to create air shields to cross rather than swim. The river looked shallow, and I quickly found a narrow crossing of just fifty yards. Once on the other side, I guessed the Hound cache would be east. I followed the river for a few miles before giving up—my blood compass was pointing more north than east. I’d only seen bushes growing along the shore, not a single forked tree. If the Hound caches existed, I’d have better luck finding one closer to a city with more landmarks to triangulate their position with the map.

I noticed structures in the distance and confirmed on my map there were no Telhian settlements this far out. Through the spyglass, the buildings appeared dilapidated. Maybe a failed settlement. There was no smoke, so I gave the ruins a wide berth and continued along my path.

My luck finally ended late in the day. I noticed distant movement—a shark-like dorsal fin parting the earth and heading toward me. A land shark—commonly known as a bulette. The first time I encountered one, I gutted it using my dimensional space. This time, I only had a corner of space available to slay it.

The only good news, if you could call it that, was that it appeared smaller than the one that had nearly taken my life over a year ago. I chuckled, remembering Hearne’s lecture on these monsters: “Run! Don’t engage, just run, and don’t be the slowest man in the group.”

Their exoskeleton was impervious to normal weapons, their jaws could bite through metal, they could burrow faster than a man could run, and they could leap forty feet into the air. I’d seen it before—but thought it had only cleared twenty.

If it didn’t leap, I’d never get a clear pulse or use my dimensional space. I sprinted perpendicular to its approach. It slowly veered toward me, confirming I was the target. Although Hearne said you couldn’t outrun one, I was going to try and lure it out of the ground.

My boots pounded the grass as I ran. I was slightly surprised it didn’t seem to be closing. Maybe I was outrunning it? Its fin appeared slightly smaller when I craned my neck. It was hopeful thinking, but maybe I could fatigue the bulette, and it would give up its pursuit. Of course, after forty minutes of running recklessly in the open, I attracted the attention of a pair of aurochs.

Monstrous buffalos, aurochs were domesticated by the Telhians for their hides to use in legion armor among other things. Their meat was also a common staple of the diet of nobles. These two gave me a glare. They might have thought I was challenging them in their territory. Hearne had said if you left these herbivores alone, they generally left you alone. I ran straight toward the larger one. It accepted the challenge and charged after a loud snort.

It was still confused when I used an air shield to vault over it—then the bulette reached it.

The explosive emergence of the bulette scared the other auroch into flight. The aggressive bull stood no match for the bulette as its jaws closed on its haunches, gorily cutting off the hindquarters in one bite. I couldn’t be sure the bulette wouldn’t pursue me after its entree, so I raced back while its back was turned and it was gorging on the now silent auroch. My dimensional space overlayed with the head, and I relaxed when the behemoth’s legs gave out.

My heart quickly settled to a calm rhythm, and soon, the collector was out, drawing the beasts aether to form a major earth essence. The auroch had been mostly consumed, and the collector failed to draw anything from it. I immediately consumed the earth essence, the chalky taste dissolving in my mouth. I noted it marginally increased the range of my earth-speak pulses. I rested, rehydrating as I sent thanks to Fortuna for placing the aurochs in my path. Soon after, I returned to following the compass.

The next three days proved much less exciting as I made my way northeast. Some oversized birds of prey circled me for a time. Five men were riding horses west who did not appear to be Hounds or legionnaires with the spyglass. I passed the ruins of a fort where the stone blocks appeared to be fused together with magic. And I was trailed for a day by a pack of five normal wolves who wisely found easier prey.

Finally, I reached a well-worn road of packed earth cutting across the plains. I was fairly certain that this road heading southeast would lead to Vartaholme. I didn’t know much about the city other than it had a dungeon and was relatively isolated. If I took the road northwest, it should lead to the city of Ogala.

The blood compass pulled northeast, stronger than before. Corvus was likely in the city of Sagren, less than fifty miles away. I removed the last of my Hound armor, dressed in the common clothes I had received in training, and started walking toward Ogala.

I could really use a bath before finding Corvus in Sagren.

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