Reaching their destination

As the party left the road behind them, Riolta and the others remained in the wagon.

Soon, it became clear to the archeress why catching those bandits had been such a problem for such a long time, as the terrain was composed to a large part of either rock or tightly packed dirt, ensuring that any tracks that they left behind would be more or less completely erased after just a few hours. Hopefully, Ojo, Vaino and Tanya would have no problems shadowing them to wherever it was that they were going.

As for the reason why they were there, posing as prisoners to the bandits, that was a bit more complex. As the Widow Duchess had explained the previous day, her neighbour, Count Dohar, was not a particularly pleasant man, and had made no attempts to conceal his opinion that he ought to be running the province of Qir
instead of some “trashy slut and her bastard son”.

It was the Duchess’ firm belief that Dohar was the man behind the persistent and unusually organized bandits which had been harassing the trade routes to the city for so long, but that was not something which she could present to the Jadhi emperor without the proof to back up her claims, and she couldn’t keep any large amount of her ducal guards away from the palace for the time it would take to carry out any large-scale searches for the bandits’ hide-out, nor did she believe the other troops at her disposal to be up to the task.

And that was how Riolta and her motley band of friends came into the picture, providing the duchess with people whom she could use to trap and expose her unfriendly neighbour as the chieftain of a clan of bandits. Naturally, Riolta suspected that the Duchess would stand to benefit when Dohar’s lands were confiscated and redistributed after his arrest, conviction and execution, but neither of the two sluts had brought that matter up for discussion.

Nor had they mentioned the fact that through employing the diplomatic mission on that mission, the Duchess only risked losing two of her guards, rather than six. Which would require the recruitment of fewer replacements, should the shit hit the windmill.

So, their task was to be captured by the bandits and then to obtain the proof which the Duchess so urgently required. Exactly how that was less of a task than giving her well-hung son a thorough sexual education was beyond Riolta, but the first part of the task which the Duchess had given them had now been successfully carried out, which only left the hard part. And that was made harder still by the fact that they would be going up six against a dozen or more bandits, with Raya being less than a stellar asset in a pitched battle when one considered that she was a sex-mage, and a magically enhanced cock might be nice but it didn’t ensure victory in a fight, and that she was currently using her magical potential to mask her abilities, an act which couldn’t be reversed with the mere stroke of a wand.

The journey lasted for hours, and didn’t involve the bandits gang-banging Riolta, Raya and Aysha, which seemed a little strange. Every last one of the bandits seemed to be utterly fascinated by the voluptuous threesome, and Riolta could hear them discuss her and the two others’ appearance and personality, but nothing came of it, which did seem to suggest that they did have a boss which they were taking the women to, no doubt holding themselves back from fucking them in order to not upset their master.

Travelling half a mile behind the party were Ojo, Vaino and Tanya, with she leading the way and keeping them on the right track while the two men scanned their surroundings to ensure that they weren’t walking into an ambush.

As the journey came to an end, Riolta was somewhat surprised to see that their destination was not the typical bandits den. Instead, the place which they were now only a few hundred feet away from consisted of a walled-in compound of large, sturdy stone buildings located on the top of a hill, overlooking an oasis and looking like it had required an awful lot of work to build.

What more, located at the gates to the compound were two guards, both of them dressed in a uniform which consisted of a spiked helmet with a chainmail neck guard, a simple shirt, a metal breastplate with straps of leather hanging from it to protect its wearer’s stomach and a heraldic symbol painted onto it, and a pair of baggy trousers, and neither of them looked particularly upset at the sight of a dozen bandits coming towards them, instead paying much more attention to the women in the wagon.

“What is that place?” Ojo asked as he and his two comrades came within sight of the buildings which the people that they were tracking was now about to enter.

“That’s one of Count Dohar’s hunting lodges,” Tanya replied, and then dropped down onto her stomach to avoid contrasting herself against the horizon, with Ojo and Vaino following her example.

“Should I signal the others?” Vaino asked, reaching for the enchanted staff which he carried in his satchel, which was to be broken in half when the time came to give their location to the Duchess’ wizards, who in turn would alert the rest of her guard.

“No, wait until we’re in a better position,” Ojo ordered him, noticing that they wouldn’t be able to use the spyglass from their current position without risking the sun reflecting off of its glass.

“Nice place, is it yours?” Raya asked the leader of the bandits, whose name apparently was Hasar.

“Oh no, this belongs to a very good friend of mine, a very rich and noble man. You will soon get to meet him.” Hasar replied, not knowing that him saying so made Riolta and Raya very excited about the prospects of their mission.