Chapter 77: That Can’t be Good
“Hey look, Saph, they have little figurines,” Balethon said from one of the market-stands. The three of them had been browsing around for a bit looking for anything interesting. Sapphire didn’t know if she had been spoiled by Tom, but she couldn’t find much she wanted and what she did want was way too expensive. The figurines Balethon had found were rather cute though. There were dragons, unicorns, even vargulfs and a pjeltor.
Sapphire picked up the disgusting looking thing. ‘why does it have to have that many eyes? and all those legs are just unnecessary.’ All in all it gave her the creeps as she put it back. No way that thing was going on a shelf in her room.
She had settled on wanting that small painting though, but as of yet hadn’t found someone who had one she liked. She was also yet to find any books, though the lack of them at the marketplace would suggest they were well out of her price range, just as she had feared.
They had already swung by the academy to see about getting that appointment. Sapphire had been a little surprised Lady Ishani couldn't squeeze them in for another four days, but that at least gave the scouting team plenty of time to make it back.
“What about a hunting knife for Tom?” Balethon asked, having already moved on to the next stand where Dakota was, as Sapphire stood admiring the figures.
Dakota picked up one of the merchant's blades to inspect. “Shiva can make it better and cheaper,” she went, not paying the offended looking merchant any mind. “Might be back later for that though, very nice engraving,” she continued, pointing to a halberd hanging on the rear wall of the stall.
Sapphire moved over for a look. It was definitely a finely made weapon. “Think Tom could swing it?” Dakota questioned looking to Sapphire.
“Sure, he could, but would he like it?”
“Like it?!” The merchant broke out, clearly fed up with them insulting his stuff. “This here is no mere lump of metal, it’s the finest steel money can buy. No self-respecting individual wouldn’t want this by his side.”
“Still only steel though,” Dakota replied. Sapphire wasn’t sure irritating the merchant was the best strategy if Dakota wanted it, but what did she know?
“You ain’t gonna find mithril out here lassy. That stuff is locked away where it’s nice and safe. Not that you could afford such a weapon.”
“Out of curiosity, what would such a fine weapon cost me?” Okay, Sapphire guessed Dakota was actually bartering rather than just insulting the man then.
“I take twenty-five gold for a mithril blade.”
“Good to know. I might be in touch,” she went, walking off. Sapphire and Balethon turning to follow.
“What was that about?” Sapphire asked as they walked.
“We might be doing some heavy shopping. I wanna know where the good stuff is, of course, and he didn't have it.”
“What are we looking for?” Balaton asked.
“A proper mithril smith, Tom wanted some ingots for a project. And a proper mithril sword is at least fifty, and that's not even a great one.”
Sapphire and Balethon just looked at each other for a second. ‘I guess she's expecting a lot from those drawings then,’ Sapphire concluded to herself.
“Now let's have a look at the list. We need an alchemist, an inventor, quotations mark ‘not the crazy kind,’ whatever that means… paper... linseed oil, okay that should be easy… Sapphire, can you remember why he wanted porcelain clay… where do you even get that?”
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Kalestine had been given some time to come to her senses, the bleeding having been staunched and her thirst slaked. She was still clearly incredibly weak though.
“Mind telling us what’s going on?” Tom tried again.
“Went to help the cutest little deer,” Kalestine finally replied, though she appeared to be struggling quite a bit. “It was hurt and left behind… I called him Bemy. When I arrived… some big bastard thing hit me in the face and broke my beautiful horn!” She descended back into the distressed whinnying, which Tom guessed was either crying or some kind of tantrum.
“Broke your horn? Just like that?” Tom questioned incredulously. The dragonettes had told him stories of just how powerful a unicorn was supposed to be. And something just fucking broke her horn like that?!
“It’s slapped me through a tree damn you.” Yeah okay that sounded bad. “Such a fine oak too.” She continued.
‘Da fuck is wrong with you?’ Tom thought to himself. Slapped through a tree and she was more worried about the tree. Her head turned towards him as she let out a snort. ‘Oh right, sorry’
“What of the keep? Do you know if they are okay?” Zarko tried, crouching down in front of Kalestine.
“I don’t know… I can’t hear it… my beautiful forest… so silent.” god good she sounded miserable.
Tom poked Unkai and tried to convey, “The fuck does that mean?” through facial expressions. Unkai responded with a distressed-looking shrug and shake of the head.
“I think it’s the horn,” Jackalope stated, looking at the two of them. “No need to be sneaky, she can hear your thoughts.” Right, he really needed to get used to this.
“So there are bad guys around, you are very injured, and we have two keeps to scout, both quite likely in trouble. Where were you attacked?” Zarko tried again, clearly getting a little irritated by the lack of a useful response.
“I don’t know. I went blindly.”
“Like a blind jump?” Tom questioned. “You didn’t know where you were going?”
“Didn’t go far, I can’t hear the forest. I didn't know where to go.”
“Right, so they are around here somewhere. Either we hide her or we bring her, your call,” Tom went, looking to Zarko and Jarix, who had trotted up behind her.
“She needs to rest,” Unkai interjected. “I say we hide her.”
“Well, they do like to run,” Jarix added, looking down at them. Tom felt a little bit of cold indignation in the back of his mind. Kalestine didn’t say anything though.
“So do we if we find anything today, big boy,” Zarko responded. “We have work to do. Me, Tom and Jackalope will go to the keep. You two stay here with her, make her a hiding place.”
“Right let’s go then,” Jackalope went, sounding enthusiastic, though she was looking rather worriedly at Kalestine.
They had taken to the wing, Tom being juggled back and forth as per usual and ending up on Jackalope’s back as they made for the keep through the trees. It shouldn’t be far despite their unexpected early stop.
“We stick to the plan,” Tom went as they weaved effortlessly through the large trees.
“Yup. Go in on foot, let you get close enough to see things, then run like hell if they see us.”
“Right on.”
It was a few minutes before the trees began thinning out and Jackalope went in to land. Tom jumped off, giving her a knuckle knock on the shoulder for good luck. Zarko putting down beside them.
“Right then, you stay behind me 10 meters minimum but keep an eye on me. If I run, wait for me to catch up,” Tom went, looking at the two of them unslinging his rifle and making sure it was loaded. “Here we go.”
He changed his cape to get as close to the forest floor as he could get and moved crouched down low. He could hear the two dragonettes following behind him, making a lot more noise than he would have liked. He guessed they weren't really used to this sneaky thing yet. It was still a minute or two on foot to the edge of the trees where he could see through into open terrain. In front of him was a small valley. On the far side, a fair way to his left, stood a small keep.
More precisely, the ruins of a small keep. ‘Fuck me,’ he thought to himself, bringing up the rifle to have a closer look. It was a bit squatter than Bizmati Keep and slightly smaller, but definitely a keep. It looked like the walls still stood like nothing was wrong, but the stone was scorched and most of the woodwork was either gone or charred to oblivion.
As he scanned around there was no sign of life. The animal pens were empty, though most of the exterior buildings appeared unharmed. The smoke they had thought was from a chimney was trailing up from the keep itself, so something was still smoldering inside.
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He sat there scanning for a minute or two without spotting anything before he brought up his hand, gesturing the girls forward. Both of them slowly making their way up to him.
“Holy shit,” Jackalope let out, trying to be hushed but failing, quite badly. Not that it mattered at this range, nor did Tom blame her.
“Not much to save there,” Zarko added, sounding a bit too indifferent for Tom's taste. That had been the home of around twenty people and kids, if Nunuk was right.
“No, there isn’t,” he retorted, in a dark tone. “There's still smoke, so it happened recently. Can’t see anything moving, so I want a closer look.”
“What if they are hiding like last time?” Jackalope questioned, clearly not too thrilled with the prospect of going inside.
“Then we flush them out. You got that grenade for a reason.” Tom went patting her on the hip.
“Let’s go get the boys, then I say we start with a fly-by, they might just come crawling out of there.” Tom didn’t like the mental picture of darklings crawling out of the burnt down keep. He had to agree that a fly-by was probably a better idea than simply walking over there though.
They had returned in silence. This was the worst-case scenario pretty much. Now only the possibility of survivors remained. Jackalope was quite on the way back, Tom did his best to give her a hug as they flew. This was bound to hit very close to home for her after all. “You okay?”
“I'm fine... this happens” Yeah she wasn’t
“It really shouldn’t”
“No, but it does” She responded coldly. Tom elected to not pursue it any further. Instead trying to imitate that nuzzling thing they did, Which did get him a sad chuckle from her as they flew.
Unkai and Jarix had managed to put together a small shelter by propping up some large branches against a tree. Kalestine had barely been able to get to her feet to walk over there, even with all of them helping her stay on her feet. She had refused the offer to have Jarix just pick her up though, so some pride remained.
“You will be okay, right?” Unkai questioned worriedly. He had asked to be left behind being denied by both Tom and Zarko. Tom was hoping Kalestine wouldn’t be his last patient today, and Zarko was worried about leading the darklings back here if they returned.
“I’ll be fine at some point, not my first injury,” Kalestine replied, seemingly a lot calmer, not to mention more respectful, towards Unkai. “But it was my first horn,” She continued, her voice cracking and switching into a kid ready to bawl. Tom was perhaps being a little hard on her; she had been messed up bad after all. If she said she would be fine then that was all he needed to hear. They had shit to do after all.
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“Sure, I have made the odd useful item here and there. Mostly I make my automatic horn polishing machines. They are all the rage these days.”
As Sapphire looked around the very empty looking shop/workshop she was currently standing in she seriously doubted that. Still, this was pretty much the only guy they had found this far with a hope in hell of making Tom’s inventions, and he was a part of the city’s engineering guild. So far they had spent pretty much the whole day going from workshop to workshop. Everyone they had found had done large scale stuff like cranes, siege engines, and construction. This guy though seemed to have a knack for small stuff.
“I also made a wind-powered rotary washing line, so it will spin round when drying inside for quicker drying.”
“Why not just put the washing outside?” Dakota question, clearly not sold on the idea.
“What if it’s raining, huh? Didn’t think of that did you?” The slightly decrepit looking older man went.
Though his appearance was messy, Sapphire didn’t get the feeling he was necessarily poor. Looking around she could see plenty of expensive things, so she guessed he was the type that put it all into his work rather than himself.
“Well, mister Tink,” Sapphire shook her head a bit, she still didn’t believe that was his actual name. He had insisted though, so fuck it. “We don’t actually want you to invent anything. We want you to make our invention. Before I show you, you will have to sign here,” she went, placing the piece of parchment on the table. “This is called a nondisclosure agreement.”
“What does that do?” Tink asked, seemingly a little unwilling to sign something he didn't know what was. ‘Has some common sense then,’ Sapphire thought to herself as she watched.
“It means you can’t go blabbing about what we are about to show you. Not that you would want to of course. You will want to keep these things between us, so you get to make them. Sanctioned by the guild of course.”
Tink picked up the quill, signing the parchment “Oh sure, nobody wants my designs anyway. They say they are too complicated to build. I say polliwog to that.” Sapphire glanced at Balethon for a second, who just shrugged clearly not knowing what that was either. “What have you got in mind for little old me?”
Sapphire looked to Dakota, who cracked a bit of a smile. “Well, mister Tink. These,” she went, pulling up the satchel and taking out the designs for the lighter, pencil, and compass. “This is a fire starter; a flick of the finger and your torch, pipe, candle, or whatever is lit. That is a writing implement that doesn't need ink, doesn't dry out, and can be kept in your pocket. And that is a small dial that always points north for navigation, using something called a naggnet,” Dakota went, standing back up crossing her arms, looking very pleased with herself.
Looking back, Sapphire should maybe have been standing by to catch the inventor as he hit the floor.
“Ooh, ouch,” Balethon went as Tink’s head bounced off the table on the way down. Sapphire just grimaced.
“My bad,” Tink junior went, walking over to his old man. The young apprentice looked to be in a lot better shape than his father, though he was still covered in a disconcerting amount of black smudges and oil. Sapphire helped to drag Tink into a chair as Junior went to get some water.
“I think that’s a sell,” Sapphire went, looking back at Dakota who looked like she felt a little bad about that.
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“Do we need the flag?” Jarix questioned as they were climbing up over the forest away from the keep. If there were enemy lookouts they didn’t want to be spotted until they had a sizable speed and altitude advantage.
“Yeah, I’ll go get it out,” Zarko replied as she clambered down the harness on to Jarix’s belly. “Got it,” she went as Tom heard the weight line drop. It was a rather simple system. A lead weight on a rope with a flag attached towards the bottom. So they now had a nice big flag fluttering in the wind beneath them. If there were friendlies down there, they wanted the flag to avoid a repeat of what had nearly happened when Lady Flaxen came in.
When the altitude was deemed sufficient, Jarix swung around still climbing, heading towards the keep. They would come diving down on top of it, hopefully provoking anyone inside to give chase. They were obviously betting on the darklings being dumb enough to do so, which Zarko seemed to believe they would be. Unless someone was telling them what to do.
“What, they can’t think or what?”
“Oh, they can think alright. They just can’t disobey and order. Imagine sending a squad of soldiers out for a week with only one set of orders. You are gonna make them pretty broad, aren’t you?”
“I’m mean sure.”
“So if they have been told to defend the keep, they will come after us if they think we are a threat to the keep,” she stated, clearly finding it obvious.
“Boom time?” Jarix questioned excitedly.
“Just don’t hit the keep, go for the ground near it that should do,” Zarko responded. “And only a little one, save it for later might need it.”
“Roger that,” Jarix responded. Jackalope poked Tom on the shoulder as she leaned over.
“What was it like to be on him when he did it last time?”
“It made the hair on my neck stand on end,” Tom responded, not figuring out the problem until he saw Jackalope's slightly confused expression. Then she grabbed him, bending him over forward to inspect the back of his neck.
“Ohhh, they’re so cute! Look Zarko, he has like little baby hairs back here.” Tom wasn’t entirely sure how best to react to this situation, so he just went with it. Her stroking the back of his neck was actually kinda nice, even if his current position was a little uncomfortable.
“Sure do,” he responded, accepting his fate. It almost reminded him of when he had first come here and they had taken turns to play with his hair.
Unkai had then come over to join in, which was a little less okay with Tom.
“What are those for?” The healer questioned. Tom sat back up. “No clue, but they can feel when there is electricity in the air, so that’s cool.”
“Wait, didn’t you say electricity was just weak lightning?” Jackalope questioned.
“Yupp.”
“You can feel lightning?” Zarko questioned. “Not just hear it?”
“Yes, I feel it all over. Neck hairs are just the most sensitive.”
“You are fucking strange you know that, right?” Zarko continued.
“He’s awesome, you’re just jealous,” Jackalope responded, clasping her arms around Tom, dragging him into an embrace.
“Nah, girl, you do you. Ready to dive yet, big boy?”
“Sure this should do, hang on.”
Well, for once Tom felt very secure as Jackalope didn’t let go of him, her feet instead clasping onto the hand… foot holds?... Handles. Clasping onto the handles. The dive wasn’t anywhere near as steep as what they had done before. Jarix did pick up a considerable amount of speed though. Tom made sure to tighten his goggles, just in case. Tom was almost worried Jackalope would let go to put her arms in the air. She held on tight though, perhaps a little too tight but he wasn’t complaining.
They eventually leveled out with the keep dead ahead. Tom felt the hairs on his neck and arms stand on end as the very recognizable whine of Jarix preparing to fire filled the air, followed by a sharp crack as the beam shot down towards the ground, impacting near the base of the keep in a shower of sparks and tendrils of lightning.
Jarix pulled up, going left of the keep, wingtip coming within a few meters of it. As they climbed away all looking back down towards the keep getting smaller behind them, but nothing happened.
“Well that is both good and bad,” Zarko then went. “I guess we are landing then. Go down and circle the keep for a bit, then come in for a landing. I’ll get the flag back in”
“Roger that,” Jarix replied, banking over to dive back down the way they came. As they circled the keep, there wasn’t a soul to be seen. Not even a scared animal fleeing. It was just dead. They kept circling for a few minutes, eventually setting down in a grassy meadow outside of all the smaller buildings.
“You stay at the edge, big guy, ready to go airborne right away. Tom, you stay up here,” Zarko ordered. Tom didn’t have a problem with that plan. If they needed to get out in a hurry the last thing they needed was to have him along to worry about.
“Yes ma’am. Remember Jacky, finger off the trigger till it’s time,” he went looking at Jackalope who was getting out the revolver.
“Locked and loaded,” She replied. Cheesy as that was Tom didn’t smile; this was not a funny situation. Instead, he just nodded at her. “Be careful okay, an arrow to the neck and you’re dead no matter how awesome you are.”
“I’ll be careful I promise,” she replied, jumping off.
“Do I get some words of encouragement?” Zarko questioned, clearly directing her question at Jarix.
“Uhhm... shoot first and don't get shot.”
“Thanks, big guy,” She replied, jumping off too.
“Well fuck me I guess” It came from Unkai after a bit of a wait, sounding like he was trying ot seem cool.
“Good luck,” Tom went without taking his eye off the keep.
Zarko was carrying one of the crossbows, Unkai a sword and shield, and Jackalope had the revolver as well as a nasty looking warhammer by her side. All in all, they were ready for a fight, even if there were just three of them.
“Looks like we are on overwatch then, Jarix,” Tom went, getting the rifle ready.
“Good, that sounds so much cooler than lookout,” Jarix responded, walking up to the edge of the buildings.
“We aren't here to be cool. This is a grave Jarix. And a lost home.” Jarix didn’t respond, but Tom did feel the dragon sag a bit. “I’m sorry, let’s just get everyone home safe okay.”
“No, you’re right, I’m here to prevent this… not clean up the mess.”
“Hey, we didn’t know, nothing we could have done. So we go one step at a time. Right now we need to know if someone made it”
“Roger that,” Jarix replied, clearly not letting go of the notion entirely. Tom couldn’t blame him for it. At least there weren't any bodies to look at.