“I understand we have our orders, but we’ve made too much noise.” Una was concerned, “We already had a hard time leaving Rukla – do you think they won’t know of our operation when we arrive twenty days later to Kinta?”
“I understand that well. It’s extremely dangerous.” Lana sternly nodded, “But the queen explicitly requested to bring detailed reports on all the cities in the region.”
“Exactly! We know very well what’s going on!” Tia was as upset as Una, “Someone has disclosed both our plan and the route and now the empress has sent her forces to capture us and probably the other scout groups as well. After we survived the first ambush we began to hunt them and at this point it’s impossible for them to not be on their guard. Taking on troops around Rukla was already not worth the risk! The only one who’s uninjured is Anna and only because she has a special role.”
“Lana. You know we all deeply respect you.” Vida joined in, “Why would you think there is a chance for any of us to return from Kinta alive? Especially considering it’s geographical position … it’s a suicide mission … and the girls have only regular arrows left ...”
“I know … “ Lana was clearly torn, “But we are soldiers and have our orders! … Why are you smiling, Ruta?”
“I’m sorry, I was just waiting for any of you to remember what our actual orders were.” Ruta said with a smile and immediately the faces of the rest went through a myriad of emotions – from amusement and delight to anger and annoyance.
“F*ck!” Lana punched the ground, “We … I got carried away.”
“Exactly!” Ruta nodded.
Silence enveloped the camp and Leo who sat further to the side was the only one who didn’t know what they were talking about. But his masters were mostly upset with the brief success that blinded them – they never really needed to attack anyone in the first place!
Their job was only to contact the local warlords and verify where their loyalties lie and whether there was a chance to pull them to the Southern queen’s side. But even if it was the case they didn’t need to personally engage in further discussions and precisely because Lana tried it in Seda the two-faced warlord reported them to the empress, or at least this was Lana’s theory about what happened.
“My bad.” She said after a moment, “Then we’ll do it like this – I’ll infiltrate the city while you …”
“No, it won’t work.” Una shook her head, “Even if you go in alone the moment you’ll show up in Kinta with that sword of yours on the back you’ll get captured. After what we did during the past five days our description definitely has spread through the northern cities – at least three people got away and we don’t know if anyone observed the fights unnoticed. Our operation around Rukla was way too sloppy.”
“Do we have any other options?” Lana asked with a sad smile.
Already before Una’s explanation she was well aware of her chances, but was unwilling to let anyone else to take the risk. These girls were her family even though she was blood related only to Anna.
“Actually there is one.” Ruta said, “Everyone will expect a group of strong warriors to try to sneak in the city either together or by themselves or attack the imperial troops like we did in the past days. But what if a lone wandering hunter with her male-slave arrived? Of course, it’s still incredibly risky, but I doubt anyone who escaped our attacks recognized Leo being a male.”
Hearing her words all heads turned towards the boy who for some reason instantly got a bad premonition. Indeed, in Ruta’s crafted leather armor he looked like a young warrior, well, female warrior that is. If he took off his leather cap, his unkempt hair fell down to the shoulders, making his facial features relatively pleasant to the eye. He wasn’t of a particularly burly build, but during the past months he had eaten and trained well thus growing a bit of a muscle and his cheeks were without those disgusting facial hair males got when they got older. He did somewhat resemble a young, strong woman and it was very likely people previously could’ve recognized him as their eight squad member.
“Good idea! Then we’ll do it like this.” Lana said wrapping up the discussion, “Me and our male-slave will go to Kinta while you’ll take our things and go south. We’ll catch up to you no later than two months from now where Musana and Nemula rivers meet. If anything happ … if we don’t show up, you’ll go back without us.”
Leo didn’t know what they talked about, but when the discussion was over Anna hugged Lana with a bitter face, then walked over and slapped him on the back of his head. Then she snorted and ran off somewhere only to come back after a while carrying two large deer.
No one said or explained anything and Leo prepared the meal in silence during which no one spoke as well. When they were done, Lana took off most of her gear and together with weapons passed over to Ruta. Leo was ordered to do the same except he was left only in linen shirt and trousers without a footwear to not speak about a weapon or a knife.
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Afterwards Lana grabbed the small sack she prepared earlier, quickly said goodbyes to her sister, nodded towards the rest and pulled Leo away.
When the sun set he was still in daze not understanding what was going on with the two of them continuously running the whole day. Without the Cleaver on his back it was not tiring at all and, in fact, they only stopped for Lana to catch a breath from time to time since she had suffered some injuries during the previous skirmishes and was not fully recovered yet.
During the upcoming days they barely exchanged any words and continued to run westwards. The only atypical thing Lana did was she entered a couple of smaller settlements and bought a simple bow and arrows in one and traps and a three pound heavy machete in the next. She obviously felt very uncomfortable without her beloved two handed weapon, but sadly none of the purchases made her feel better.
In order to look more like a real hunter, she began to murder all the wildlife she met. In few days Leo was already carrying a decent stack of deer, wolf and fox pelts, albeit of a poor quality. She did kill a bear as well, but used a part of its pelt to craft simple footwear for both and the rest was used to make her a hooded cloak.
At this point Leo already understood they were preparing for some kind of undercover or infiltration job, but the question was if they were going to meet up with the rest first or there was something else she had planned.
He figured out the answer around ten days later when for the first time since the arrival to Dreadlands realm he stepped on an actual road – that is if one didn’t count the streets of Seda. Lana still didn’t intend to share anything or talk to him, but from passersby chatter Leo understood they were on the way to another important city – Kinta.
In order to blend in Lana was forced to converse with the other travelers and during evenings camp at the roadside together with similarly poor hunters. She was not the only one who traveled alone and the etiquette dictated she had to hang out with her colleagues, chat, laugh and drink.
It wasn’t easy for her, but she tried to play ‘the silent type’ and apparently her acting skills were passable. Leo had an option to join the other male-slaves, but he chose to remain in Lana’s vicinity, playing a dependent and well behaved servant. He would’ve considered other options, but on the first day they stepped on the road she clearly stated that if he uttered a word to others he would simply die.
Leo was certain she was not joking therefore decided to pretend to be mute. Of course, he began to weight different options of escaping, disappearing, cross-dressing to a girl and somehow trying to get to the capital on his own, but none seemed to have a high chance of succeeding. He still knew too little about this realm and the country he was currently in, but sadly the arrogant master was not wiling to share any information. For now the best he could do was to listen and overhear what the others talked about in hopes to find out something useful.
Twenty two days later they were finally in the outskirts of Kinta, but unfortunately for both of them the city was completely different from Seda.
Lana already knew it was built on a high plateau in rocky mountainous region and her main concern was from a strategic point of view – the only routes of retreat were the two roads leading to the east and west from the city.
Leo, on the other hand, had a major inconvenience walking barefooted on the rocky road. Lana’s leatherworking skills were far from Ruta’s expertise and the sandals she made out of the bear pelt pretty soon turned into leather scraps. And while she simply bought a pair of decent boots from a traveling merchant for herself, Leo didn’t have such luxury.
Of course, the boy being barefooted and dirty was the ‘proper’ disguise and this way he was like a genuine male-slave. Even though he didn’t like it, he had to admit that now the two of them looked like a real master and slave and didn’t stand out one bit
Finally Leo appreciated how good his seven masters actually have been to him compared to how the other male-slaves were treated. Not only they were whipped and starved, many were killed on a whim and their corpses rotted on the roadside for days.
Actually Lana received quite a few offers to sell her male-slave – he was young and looked relatively strong, and even after a day of carrying the large pelt stack he didn’t even break a sweat. Because of that she also began to appreciate him a bit more.
They had been going uphill for several days, but only after arriving at the foot of a tall mountain Leo finally saw Kinta city far up, partially hidden in the clouds.
The main income of the city was generated by mines and these mountains hid a plethora of natural resources. Streams of merchants flowed here bringing food and clothing in exchange for iron, copper and silver. The most valuable products like rare minerals and gold according to the law belonged to the empire and were directly transported to the capital, but that didn’t prevent the smaller traders to grow fat around here.
Just like many others, Lana decided to camp for the night below the mountain and climb to the city in the morning. On the large field near a shallow, rocky river hundreds of travelers made campfires in preparation to spend the night with some erecting tents and some intending to sleep under the starry sky.
During the past days Lana had learned how to behave and blended in well pretending to be one of the hunters who arrived to make a quick and easy money. The fact that her male-slave was carrying a large pile of pelts of a questionable quality only signified she was a first-timer here, but since at some point everyone once started out, the other hunters and merchants gladly shared their experiences and gave tips on how to easier survive in Kinta mountains.
The next morning Lana and Leo departed before the sunrise, just like many others. The pace the regular merchants and their male-slaves climbed the rocky road was slow, but in order to not stand out the two followed one of the larger groups that had around dozen slave-pulled wagons full of wares thus the distance that could’ve been leisurely covered until noon they were forced to walk till late afternoon.
Only when they arrived at the city gate Leo realized why no one was in the rush. Every person intending to enter had to pay an entrance tax and there was a long line of the merchants already waiting on each side – people were searched both entering and leaving the city. The process was slow because the guards kept checking the wares in wagons and large baskets the male-slaves were carrying as well as the faces of the owners.