Chapter 44

Morg complained the entire time, but never lifted a finger to help break down camp. Even so, we were on the road in less than an hour.

Ashlara moved ahead of us as she always did, a quiet shadow at the edge of sight. Jess and I walked the center, while Morg trailed behind, sword loose at her side and attitude even looser.

Jess, at least, was easy to talk to. She’d worked her way north from the capital, mostly guarding caravans and taking odd commissions as they came. Ranks didn’t carry over between cities, so she’d ended up repeating a lot of F- through D-rank work despite her experience. She’d completed one C-rank commission so far - just one - and from the way she spoke about it, that had been more than enough.

She’d also worked with Morg once before on a D-rank job. She didn’t say much about it, but it didn’t sound like it had gone well.

The C-rank job had been worse. Six of them had gone after a necromancer who’d raised an army from an old graveyard outside a village. By the time they arrived, the village was gone - everyone dead and walking. A hundred corpses, maybe more. The fight had been a slaughter. Three of her teammates died. One was crippled badly enough to retire. Jess herself had nearly been killed. The last member of the team ran.

After that, she stuck to lower-ranked work.

I didn’t blame her. Just hearing it made my stomach twist.

It also made me think, uncomfortably, about our own experiences. Ashlara killing Mother Hunger had to be at least a B-rank, I figured. The necromancer who’d trapped Serah - anyone who could steal dragonfire had to be dangerous, but how dangerous? The matrons basically sent us on a suicide mission with the trolls. Was that a C rank quest? I didn’t know. And the cultists - racists, zealots, whatever they were - hadn’t exactly been amateurs. As for Hek… Ashlara said he was a big deal. I still didn’t know what that meant in terms of rank.

I kept most of it to myself. When Jess asked about our past work, I told her about “a fight with wolves” and left it at that. Ashlara had done almost everything in the encounter with Mother Hunger anyway. It felt safer to sound competent without overselling things I didn’t yet understand.

We caught up to Ashlara in the early afternoon. She was crouched low, studying the ground at the edge of the plains where the land began to give way to scattered trees. The undergrowth was thin, but the ground was cluttered with leaves, grass, and forest debris.

“Fight here,” she said as we approached. “Not long ago.”

“Doesn’t look like anyone died,” I said, noting the faint smears of blood. “They took a wagon that way.” I pointed to a set of tracks leading into the trees.

Ashlara nodded. “Four people on the wagon, maybe. Less than a dozen attackers.” She moved a few paces farther and scanned the area. “This is an ambush spot they’ve used a few times.”

Morg snorted. “You’re giving them too much credit. These are bandits, not strategists.”

“How do you know they’ve used this place before?” Jess asked.

Ashlara knelt and lifted the edge of what looked like nothing more than forest floor. Beneath it was a shallow dugout - space enough for several people to wait. The top was layered with sod and leaves, blended so perfectly it vanished when she let it fall back into place.

“Alright,” I said. “Four possible hostages. Around a dozen bandits, familiar with the terrain. Wagon, two horses. We move carefully, keep quiet, and see what we’re dealing with.”

“Or,” Morg shot back, “we stop skulking around and just go in and break some skulls.”

“Then go do that,” I snapped. “I’m sure you’ll be excellent at getting someone killed.”

We locked eyes for a long moment. Then she turned and stalked off in the direction I’d indicated earlier.

When she was out of earshot, I exhaled slowly. “She’s going to get herself killed,” I muttered. “If she’s lucky, she’ll be the only one. Is she always like this?”

Jess scrunched up her face and shrugged. “Maybe?”

* * *

A few hours before sunset, Ashlara let us know she’d found the bandit camp. We still hadn’t seen Morg since she’d stormed off, and I wasn’t sure whether that was a blessing or a looming problem.

Ashlara led us to what looked like an old, abandoned mine - a dark mouth yawning open at the base of a rocky hill. A few crude fortifications had been thrown together nearby. An empty wagon sat off to one side, one horse was tethered nearby, and two human men stood watch at the entrance.

“What do you think?” I asked Ashlara quietly.

“Not much to go on,” she said. “We watch. Wait for dark. Drop the guards. Then move inside. It’s probably not very large.”

“How do you know it’s not a big mine?” Jess asked.

Ashlara gestured toward the hill. “It’s abandoned and the hill isn’t very big, so they didn’t go up. Water table’s high here - fifty, maybe sixty feet down. You go any deeper, you hit water. No one’s digging, so no one’s pumping water out.”

“Huh,” was all Jess said to that.

* * *

So we watched.

The guards changed shifts at sundown. Once it got dark, they lit torches. That meant one of two things - they either weren’t worried about being found, or they no longer cared about hiding. I wasn’t sure which it was.

There was another shift change about four hours later. That’s when we moved.

Ashlara would circle wide. I’d come in from this side. Jess would hang back and provide support if things got loud.

I crept up behind the guard nearest me and brought him down with a sharp blow to the head. I tackled him as he fell, clamping a hand over his mouth and nose before he could make a sound. I held him there, counting the seconds as his struggles weakened. After a few long minutes, he went still.

When I looked up, Ashlara was watching me from the shadows. The guard near her lay unmoving at her feet.

We dragged both men a good hundred feet away, gagged them, and locked the manacles in place. Then we headed into the mine.

Ashlara took point, as always. I stayed just behind her. Jess brought up the rear - her job was simple - when we found the hostages, get them out as fast as possible.

Torches burned inside at uneven intervals, their light flickering across rough stone and leaving deep pockets of darkness between. Low voices echoed faintly from deeper within. The air smelled of smoke and roasting meat.

“Jess,” I whispered. “I should’ve asked earlier. What kind of magic do you have?”

“I studied Umbrance and Entropy at the University,” she murmured.

“What does that mean, practically?” I asked.

“Umbrance is darkness,” she said. “Illusions, concealment, that sort of thing. Entropy’s chaos. I’m good at breaking things. And winning dice games.”

“Illusions,” I said. “Can you make someone invisible?”

“For a short time,” she replied. “Maybe a minute.”

Ashlara shot me a look that clearly said this is not the time.

I ignored it. “Make Ashlara invisible. Ashie, push forward as far as you can. These guys are too quiet for people who aren’t worried about being found.”

Jess nodded, closed her eyes, and traced quick, precise motions with her hands.

Ashlara vanished.

“Go,” I whispered to the empty space.

I counted under my breath. When I reached fifty-two, a dull thump echoed from ahead.

Jess and I moved forward, slow and quiet, until we found Ashlara crouched over another **** guard. We gagged him, locked him up, and pressed on.

The voices were clearer now - low, casual conversation. Not whispers. Comfortable.

Ahead and to the left, the tunnel opened into a brighter space. To the right was an unlit passage. We froze as a man walked across our view and disappeared into the darkness.

Ashlara slipped into the dark passage. A long, tense minute passed before she returned and gave us a nod.

We edged forward.

The chamber beyond was larger than I’d expected, lit by torches and a cooking fire at its center. A massive slab of meat turned slowly on a spit. Five armed men sat on logs nearby, talking and eating.

Against the far wall were five more figures - tied, huddled, and badly beaten. A man, woman, boy, and girl.

And Morg.

She looked worse than the others. Much worse.

She was topless, her skin a mess of red and purple welts across her chest and face. One lip was split. A deep gash along her side oozed blood. Her sword was nowhere in sight. Neither was her shirt.

“We stick to the plan,” I whispered. “I go first. Then you, Ashie. Once they’re focused on us, Jess, you get to the others.”

They nodded.

I stood, flipped Adhaneth in my grip until it rested like a javelin, stepped into the chamber, and hurled it.

I missed my target’s head and caught him in the neck instead. The effect was the same. Despite being wood, the staff’s impossible weight drove him down like a hammer. He collapsed without a sound.

The others were on their feet instantly, weapons in hand.

Ashlara roared and smashed her shield into the nearest man, hurling him backward into the cooking fire. He screamed as he scrambled up, his clothes ablaze. Another swung at her - she blocked, then crushed his face with a bare-handed strike. Blood sprayed as his head snapped back.

A man came at me. I rolled under his swing, came up, and called Adhaneth back. It cracked into the back of his skull on its way to my hand. I finished the job with a second blow. He went down hard and didn’t move.

Another lunged for Jess.

She thrust her hand toward his face. He recoiled, screaming. I didn’t know if she actually struck him, but blood poured through his fingers as he dropped to his knees.

A crossbow bolt slammed into Ashlara’s shoulder as she finished off the man I’d first struck. Any higher and it would’ve taken her in the head.

Across the chamber, two more men stood at the mouth of a tunnel we hadn’t seen before, weapons already raised.

Something in me snapped.

I vaulted the cooking fire and roared - a deep, inhuman sound layered over my normal voice, rattling my throat and the walls around me. Red-hot flames burst from my mouth, washing over the two men and flooding the tunnel behind them.

I shut my mouth in shock.

The men were already dead, their bodies smoking where they stood.

I stared at them, heart pounding, trying to understand what I’d just done. Then I saw Ashlara clutching at the bolt and everything else fell away.

I dropped my pack, tore out the bandages Mirri had packed, and helped her sit. She met my eyes and nodded once. I braced myself and pulled.

The bolt resisted - caught on bone - but I **** it free. Ashlara grimaced through her teeth but didn’t make a sound. I packed the wound as best I could, hands shaking despite myself.

Jess had freed the captives by the time I finished. I cleaned and bandaged the gash in Morg’s side while she complained, hissed, and glared at me the entire time. The others were battered, but alive.

We manacled the remaining bandits and took a moment to breathe.

The family were merchants from a town called Riverston, bound for Northgate when they’d been ambushed. Their goods - and the bandits’ other spoils - were stored in the tunnel we hadn’t seen earlier. Most of it had survived my… outburst.

I retrieved the guards we’d left outside and dragged them into the chamber. We spent the night there, taking turns keeping watch.

In the morning, I loaded what we could onto the wagon. Ashlara helped despite my protests. She said she felt fine. The wound wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t healed either. I’d expected it to be a lot worse.

We used salvaged rope to leash the bandits to the wagon, stuffed the heads of the dead into a sack, and escorted the family back to Northgate.

We handed everything over to the guards - despite my feelings about them - and reported to the castle.

The commissioner accepted the heads and paid us fifty-five gold. Anything stolen that couldn’t be returned to its owners would be released to us after a few days. That came out to thirteen gold apiece, plus change - enough to restock properly.

I thanked Jess and told her I’d gladly work with her again. I didn’t say a word to Morg.

Ashlara and I bought supplies - about twenty gold worth - and I stored them in my demesne because there was too much to carry. Then we left town and set up camp somewhere new, just in case.

I delivered everything home and told Mirri we’d be back in a few days, once the bandit business was fully settled. She came back with me briefly to tend Ashlara’s wound, then we were alone again.