87 The Chase - Part 2
Back at the carriage, all of the guards had awoken. They were all in much better health, and none had sustained permanent injuries, as far as they could tell. Whether the guard who had been hit in his privates would still be able to have children was still up for debate though.
After checking on them all, Ethandril returned on the horse he had borrowed, handing it back to the men and informing them of what Lord Abern had said. He had practically raced back down the road, which was how he had gotten there and back so fast.
Lord Abern didn't take the news well obviously, knowing that the, now believed to be a group of Orcs, had attacked more people. He did say however that he would send a group of soldiers from the town down the road to meet the injured guards and assist them either taking them to his town of Caldaria or Cassus where they had come from.
With the guards sorted for the time being, the mercenaries headed off to continue their journey and pursuit of this band of Orcs.
...
The journey was quiet, as they all came to terms with what had happened. To think that their mission to go after a single Orc that killed Lord Aberns son would turn into a mission where a noble lady had now been kidnapped, that it was a group of Orcs involved as well and that their intelligence exceeded that of what you would normally associate to monsters like Orcs.
It was quite a startling revelation, and all of the Mercenaries knew they needed to take it into consideration in order to stay alive and bring these Orcs down.
While this had them all coming up with battle plans, figuring out the best way to tackle these smart monsters, Stefan spoke up.
"I know how we might be able to get the people in the village talking."
...
After a short while they came across the small road that headed towards the village. It then didn't take too long to reach it, but what they saw was quite a shock.
"What happened here?" A couple of the group asked as they came up to what almost looked like an abandoned village.
It had rudimentary barricades around it, but it looked almost in disrepair. There were also only half the number of guards that there should be present given the number of walls and guard towers. It was like people had started to desert the area.
"Halt. What are you doing in our village." One of the few guards at the barricade said as he pointed his spear at Ethandril. The rest of the guards on the walls all had bows and arrows pointed at the carriage as well.
None of them were shocked by this. Given that they had unjustly sold a bunch of people, they had to be fearing some sort of retribution from whomever they sold them to, or from the ones they sold themselves.
22:02
"We are a group of Mercenaries in search of a very dangerous bunch of Orcs. They recently attacked a carriage and kidnapped a noble lady that was on her way to her marriage ceremony. We were hoping that the good people of this village may have seen these Orcs given the proximity to the road where it happened." Stefan said by shouting out of the window in the carriage.
At that, the guard blinked a few times, not sure what to do. That is until another guard came and whispered in his ear, before heading towards the town.
"We shall check with the village chief if you are allowed to enter."
This had been Stefan's plan. Rather than just bring up the bounty on Orcs and mention being after one, they figured they could use the incident with the Lady's kidnap to their advantage. Given the scarcity of Orcs and how both the murder and kidnapping had happened so close to each other, the one that killed Lord Aberns son, was more than likely a member of the group of Orcs that had kidnapped the Lady.
So, asking for help about a group of Orcs that kidnapped a noble lady, would surely get these beast-kin talking more than asking about one Orc. Especially since it was a single Orc that had been involved with them before.
Before long the beast-kin guard returned stating that they were allowed in, but that they had to leave their weapons behind. The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))
This was pretty standard. It didn't mean the village was planning to attack them and wanted them disarmed before doing so. It was more that they were afraid of this new group of strangers attacking someone in their village.
So, complying with the guard's words, they hopped out of the carriage and left with weapons inside. There was no way they would hand their weapons over to the beast-kin, so this was a compromise. They didn't however go in unarmed, all of them keeping a few concealed weapons on their persons, just to be sure.
And so now only lightly armed, they headed into the village and saw the state it was in.
...
"What happened here? Where is everyone?" Meryl couldn't help but ask.
"Who knows? Could have been fights with other beast-kin villages or maybe even monsters and animals in the surrounding lands that caused this. That may be why they got so bold as to imprison and sell those men. Desperation."
Stefan's explanation was as good as any, and it almost made sense. None of them knew if there were any fights between beast-kin, and they had hardly travelled these lands to gauge the wildlife present, but they couldn't think what else could have caused the damage in the village and the drop in population.
Well, everyone except Meryl.
After some thought, she realised that the problems this village was facing had to in some way be related to Lord Abern's son and his hunting party. She just couldn't quite see how or why they would be involved.
If they hadn't already had a bad opinion of the Beast-kin, this did not help improve it.
"So what now?" one of the group asked, speaking out loud.
They had expected a response from Stefan, but all they got was silence. Looking over at him, they saw what had caught his interest.
It was a door to the chief's house, but this one had a guard on either side of it.
It didn't take long for them to realise that this door led not to his house, but to a prison. A prison that hopefully had once held Lord Abern's son's friends.
It was the only place that they had not been to yet, and so it was the final hope they had of getting any information about where the Orcs were.
...
Several minutes were spent formulating a plan, but it mainly boiled down to most of the group being a distraction, while Stefan headed inside.
Within this plan, Meryl was selected as the lookout.
Putting it into action, it went ahead without incident. They were close enough to the guards that when they caused their distraction, which in this case was a drunken brawl between themselves about something stupid, the guards headed over to try and stop them. This left the door open for Stefan to head inside and Meryl stand nearby.
"What are you doing?"
That was until she heard a voice right behind her.
Turning around, she came face to face with a female beast-kin. She looked to be around twenty years of age, give or take, and she was just staring at her, waiting for a response.
"Err...I'm, waiting for my...friends. Yeah. What are...what are you doing here?"
"I'm here to tell you, that what your friend down in the prison will find out, is true. But that your assumptions about the 'Orcs'" she did air quotes as she said that, "Are wrong. I can't imagine any of your group will listen or believe you if you said that, but I think you understand what I'm saying, or are a least starting to. It's clear to see you have some, let's say doubts about all this. And I assure you, you are right to have them."
...
22:03
Heading away from Meryl, she had to run to catch up with Stefan as he headed towards the rest of his team who were still causing the distraction.
Meryl, was just frozen in place not sure how to react as this girl just stared at her, rattling off everything she had been worried about.
"I can't stop your group. I could give it a try, but your friend worries me a little. So the only thing I can do to help her is tell you this. When you do find her, think and talk before you rush to violence. Now I must be off. Your friend will be back soon, and I would prefer he not attack me thinking I'm a witness to his crime...just like all the others."
That part stuck with Meryl. She went to talk in order to get the girl to explain what she meant by that, but before she could, she heard footsteps coming from the door she was supposed to be watching.
Looking over she saw Stefan, and while she then went to check on the girl, she found she had disappeared.
"I got it. I know where we need to go." Stefan said with a smirk on his face.
...
Heading away from Meryl, she had to run to catch up with Stefan as he headed towards the rest of his team who were still causing the distraction.
With a fake apology, he was able to gather them up, and headed back to the carriage, before setting off again up towards the main road between the two towns.
With everyone together again and away from prying eyes and the beast-kin improved hearing, he finally told them what he had found out in the prison.
"We need to head to the village northeast of here. It's where I was told the Orc that killed Lord Aberns son would have been heading. A village under a chief Teagan."
Hi All, I hope you liked the next interlude. Things are heating up as the group are now on Olivia's tail, heading to the village she is currently in. We just have to hope that she and the girls can find a way out of this in the coming chapters.
Please let me know your thoughts on the chapter.
Braderzsz