Orion and Bas were led into the fortress of the Baroness Chihua by the guards past a few buildings. The inside of the fortress was just as old as the outside. Most of the buildings were old stone, cut sharply and over time rounded down. Any new buildings were obvious, being constructed with wood and shined mud bricks.
The courtyard was made of a reddish stone with a clear protective covering and gray grout. Vines climbed over the shady areas. There were no lush hedges on the few grassy squares and Bas commented quietly on how unusual that was; apparently gardens were really in fashion for nobles to show off their wealth.
Starting from a door in the side of the courtyard and ending halfway across, there was a line of people. Most of them appeared to have jobs as foragers, merchants, and other professions that would require traveling. Some of them had baskets of vegetables or oddities, and they continued to hawk some of their wares to the others in line.
All of the guards they had met—except for the Vice Captain—did not enter the courtyard. One or two gave their goodbyes to Orion and Bas before they rode off to somewhere else. The Vice Captain Aleh got off her horse, tied it to a post along with Orion and Bas’ horses, then went over to talk to the two guards stationed by the door that seemed to be the end of the line.
“Are we getting any instructions, or?” Orion muttered. She followed after Bas and joined the line of people. “No, I guess not.”
Bas drank some of the water from his bottle and passed it to Orion. “She’s an interesting one.”
Orion had some of the water. She knew that was just his way of meaning that the Vice Captain Aleh was weird. To be fair, everyone in their party was also weird. They just weren’t warmongers. They were trying to carry out a coup against the king because of personal grievances or friends having said grievances, but they didn’t want to pull the whole country into a war for personal entertainment. That was definitely more normal in Orion’s opinion.
The three people in the line ahead of them were talking. One was a forager that Bas bought some berries from. Whether they were a man or woman wasn’t easy to tell. Regardless, the forager seemed to be full of energy and was tapping a shoe against the ground. There were two merchants. The first was a large, broad lady in a purple dress. She had a mole on her left cheek. The second was a man in a straw hat. Strands of white stood out among his otherwise dark brown hair.
Orion wasn’t sure exactly what they were discussing, but she remembered the third person. “You’re that guy that sold us vegetables.”
“I am.” The merchant tipped his hat. “I hope you gave them to the inn?”
“We did?” Orion was pretty sure they did. She just wasn’t sure how the merchant knew. She had also forgotten that this guy had an Australian accent.
“I think we have a mutual friend?” Bas said as he pulled out a wood carving.
Orion wasn’t sure about the significance of the carving, but it led to Bas and the merchant talking for a while. She gave some water to Sirius since the creature kept staring at the bottle. Sirius had kept pace with their horses easily, but that didn’t mean Sirius wasn’t tired and thirsty.
Orion looked at the courtyard around them, then the slow moving line, and had had enough of waiting. “Why are we here, again?
“They fucking explained it,” Bas responded in disbelief.
“Some tragedy happened.” Peter took his hat off briefly and put it against his heart. “To make sure that they know who lived and whether it was a purposeful case of arson, they brought everyone traveling in the territory at night here.”
The female merchant frowned. Her long eyelashes painted in white fluttered. She spoke in a low, raspy voice. “I could see the smoke from my hotel. I heard that a town in the territory burned down. How dreadful. Yet, how fortunate that some of the people in the nearby towns left to go help them fight the fire that night.” Her eyes slid over to the forager.
The forager didn’t say anything. They stayed quiet. They weren’t moving their feet anymore. A heavy curtain of hair fell over their face.
Now that Orion was closer, she could see that the forager was carrying more than just fruit and berries. There were basic utility tools, but also clothes. A pair of shoes had been tied by the shoelaces and hung off the side of their pack.
She turned to the merchants and thanked them roughly, then looked at Bas. “And yeah, I completely didn’t notice. I figured you had that covered with all the politics stuff.” She shrugged.
“If I wasn’t paying attention either, we could have been stuck in a bad situation without knowing it. I do…appreciate the trust.” There was an odd expression on Bas’ face. Something a bit vulnerable. It looked strange and Orion was thankful that it quickly disappeared.
The line moved rather slowly, so the two started an argument about responsibility to help pass the time.
Eventually Bas and Orion got through the door. They passed by the guards and the Vice Captain, still chatting.
Inside, they were registered and interrogated by the steward and stewardess of the castle. The old couple had many books open on lecterns, listing the genealogies of the families in the territory. It was a bright, well light room and well cleaned. The steward was dusting as his wife, the stewardess, wrote down information. They both had a pair of glasses on their face.
Bas explained that they are mercenaries and what they had seen related to the smoke coming from the town.
“And why are there mercenaries here?” The steward had pulled out a different piece of paper.
Orion looked back at the door and saw that the guards and vice captain were peeking inside now.
“Passing by. We came back to visit with our families and stayed a few months. Now we’re off to join with the rest of our band.”
The old couple squinted at Orion and Bas. They made a noise of realization and swapped glasses.
“Yes. There is some muscle there. Armor as well. Is that dragonhide young man?” The stewardess asked.
“It’s not dragon. I killed a big snake in one of the swamps to the East,” Bas said. His gloves and belt were made of the same purple, scaled material. The belt was broad and double sided.
Orion was definitely sure that Bas was lying. Sometime, she had heard about the dragon hunting done by the royals a few years ago and she was sure Bas had participated somehow.
“A snake that big?”
“Yes. You would be surprised at how big the snakes get in the swamps. This was one of the kinds that strangles their prey.”
There was an awkward silence.
“I’m telling the truth,” Bas lied.
The stewards let the matter go, but the Vice Captain didn’t. She came forward, holding a belt made of scaled leather in her hands. “This was made from the largest snake that the Captain killed.” It was a decently wide, stiff leather belt and wrapped around the Vice Captain’s waist three times; however, it was half as wide as Bas’ belt. “I would believe that you killed a lizard, but not a snake that wide.”
Bas spread his hands out wide. “I’m not lying.”
“Prove it. Fight me.” The Vice Captain was grinning.
Orion elbowed Bas in the ribs and stepped forward. “I’ll fight you instead.” Although Bas is a decent archer he would be beaten up easily at close range. Usually Tam would be the one to step in as Bas’ proxy, but Tam isn’t here. And, Orion promised. She let all of those thoughts drift through her mind and settle into her usual confidence.
Sirius let out a low growl, standing at Orion’s back. The furr was spiked up along her back.
Bas turned back to the steward couple. “We’re mercenaries and this battle can show further proof, but I don’t think it’s needed to confirm our identities.”
The steward and stewardess agreed and wrote down some information about the visitors and the fire in the town. It was almost all fake, but they didn’t know that.
Bas and Orion stepped back out into the courtyard.
“We’re still going to fight though,” the Vice Captain Aleh insisted.
Bas’ smile didn’t slip, but it wasn’t as effortless as before. “What do we get out of it?”
“A cool fight?”
“A cool fight would be nice.” Orion paused and saw the look that Bas gave her from the corner of her eye. “Okay, maybe something more than a cool fight. Let’s bet money or items.”
“My belt for his,” Aleh suggested.
Orion nodded. “Sure.”
“Follow me then.”
The guards, those in the line for the stewards, and passerbys started taking their own bets. As a result, the onlookers trailed after the competitors to the training plaza.
Bas threw his arm over Orion’s shoulders and leaned into talk quietly. “That’s my stuff on the line. You better fucking win. This actually is dragon hide.”
“You are a liar.”
“So are you.” Bas smirked. “They didn’t ban magic, so screw with her.”
Orion’s expression was the same. “I plan to.” She told Sirius to stay with Bas and walked out into the training arena.
It was a flat area with sparse patches of grass and weeds—the rest was likely killed through the many feet that had walked over it. Around the edges, many people clustered to see the results of their bets.
Orion was asked if she needed a weapon and she said no. She watched the Vice Captain go over to the racks of weapons and choose a mace. She waited.
“Glad you didn’t leave when I turned my back. Usually when I do this, the guard runs away,” Aleh admitted. The mace in her hands was heavy and spiked with rounded nubs. It was made for breaking armor and bone. “I’m ready.”
“I’m not really scared,” Orion responded. “Ready as well.” She mimicked drawing a bow string and formed icicles in a vertical line, then let them go.
“You didn’t say you were a mage!” The ice scored shallow cuts along the Vice Captain’s unprotected hands.
Orion took three steps back to avoid the swing of the heavy mace. Her daggers of ice formed in her hands. She waited for one more attack to dodge, then jumped in close and swung. Her blades cut shallowly. She was now realizing that they also hadn’t negotiated when the fight would be over. First blood apparently wasn’t it. Until one of them gave up, it seemed right considering her opponent’s beliefs about war.
She slid back out of range.
Orion dodged a few more times.
Aleh was surprisingly fast with that mace, but it was a simply heavier weapon.
Orion held her hand out and lifted her hand up. She pictured the ground underneath the Vice Captain’s left feet suddenly rising.
As the Vice Captain moved to attack, she stumbled. She used the force of her swing to avoid falling and twisted her feet in a move that required agility and strength to pull off.
However, Orion had used that time well. She stuck her daggers together and made an ice replica of the mace, then smacked it against her opponent’s fingers. The ice mace shattered and reformed into daggers.
The metal mace fell from Vice Captain Aleh’s hands. It hit the ground with a heavy thud. She growled something crass as she fell to the ground.
A/N
We’re back in time for Christmas! I finally finished this mini-arc I wanted to add and you get all 5k of it today (chapters 21, 22, 23). The rest of the novel is written and edited already so there will be no stopping in the posting of the last few chapters.
