The question of the warband’s newest member felt heavy and somewhat accusing, but it was soon answered.

“We didn’t come here to trade East Fork for another besieged town,” Valerie sighed. “And besides, I doubt they would have too many left over imps to try another attack, so the locals should be fine for the time being.”

“Even if that sin-marked demon got away,” Quentin added. “Most of their forces are likely dead and once this place gets some divine protection, it would make it all the more difficult for them to try attacking again.”

“But what about the fallen,” Letty looked at the local guards. “Aren’t they still a threat?”

“Not around these parts,” Clive answered with a confident smirk. “We eradicated them when we came through here on our way to East Fork and left some of our soldiers here to aid the local guards in case any bandits or demons like these would appear.”

“In other words,” Amanda grumbled as he looked at the army mage. “You’re saying that you have everything under control.”

“Yes.” Clive nodded.

“Then that’s our cue to leave,” The paladin stated as he turned towards the dark elf. “Which direction are we heading out?”

“We’re supposed to follow the north-eastern road.” Regis pointed towards the gate the demonic distraction horde attacked.

“Figures we would go towards the path stacked with corpses.” Cruz spat on the ground as they headed over to the gate, Clive and the guard captain following along.

“Won’t you at least wait for the local mayor to arrive and pay for your services?” Clive asked after looking back at the sealed well and imp corpses that were scattered around it.

“We didn’t do it for money,” Fabien answered. “We arrived at the right time...”

“Or the wrong one,” Cruz argued. “And we did what we had to so that we could be on our way.”

“Open the gates!” The local guard captain yelled toward his men and they hastily pulled away the wooden beams that barricaded the gate before opening getting it just wide enough for a person to pass through.

“In that case,” the army mage raised his hand to shake Quentin’s. “Thank you for your aid and may the Saintess watch over you!”

“Likewise.” The paladin nodded before the warband slipped through the slightly opened gate.

They barely walked through the flesh-mongrel corpse filled area with their noses covered when golden words flared through the air in front of the dark elf’s eyes.

{Your act of aiding Rust-well Keep during its demonic siege and leaving without any reward did not go unnoticed. Your deed has been recorded and you have received 500 renown points. You have received 500 reputation points.}

{Renown necessary towards caste elevation: 78}

{You have gained a total of 500 reputation with the small town of Rust-well Keep and thus your standing was elevated from unknown to known.}

‘Another settlement that needed our help.’ Regis sighed as the stench of blood and sulphur turned his head woozy, making the golden message less spectacular than it should have been. When they were far enough to leave not only the corpses, but the prying ears behind as well, Amanda finally broke the silent atmosphere.

“Did you guys also receive a note from the Heart?”

“If it’s about us leaving without payment like a bunch of heroic Samaritans,” Valerie put some water out of her knapsack. “Then yes.”

“Must have been a team wide achievement or something,” Cruz accepted the waterskin from the infernal woman. “Still; that was a lot of corpses we left behind. We could have gotten a fair price for them if we used the ritual.”

“While the corpse sacrificial ritual is a necessary part of our rise to power, it is widely known and shunned amongst most military and religious personnel.” Osmond stated.

“It would have immediately tarnished our image in the eyes of the locals,” Regis pointed out. “Not to mention that we don’t know how Clive and his fellow soldiers would have reacted to us performing some shady ritual that turns corpses into dried up husks.”

“Torches and pitchforks.” Sophie said as a shudder ran along her spine.

“Most likely.” Letty agreed.

“Anyway,” Quentin decided to derail their conversation. “You did surprisingly well Mary.”

“Thank you,” the young woman muttered. “To be honest, I got really scared when I first saw those monsters. When I saw how those people fought them off even without any magic, it helped me calm down a little.”

“Your crowd control spells might not be lethal yet,” Fabien hummed. “But they’re quite effective against smaller creatures.”

“Yeah,” Cruz nodded along. “What was that trick you pulled?”

“It was a combination of quicksand and earthen shackles,” Mary explained. “As the name suggests, the first one creates quicksand that would make people sink and lose their balance. The second one creates chains made out of dirt and sand to tie the enemy down, but they’re too weak to hold down anything bigger then a child for long.”

“It worked well against the imps,” Quentin praised her. “Did you manage to finish off at least a couple of them?”

“I,” she mumbled awkwardly. “I managed to summon a few stone spikes to finish the job and got at least five or six of them.”

“Nice work,” Amanda patted the new girl on the back. “Did you gather your Amaranth as well?”

She only received a slight nod as an answer, but that was more than enough.

“I guess you found a good enough spell combination for starters,” Osmond added. “We’ll leave the small fries to you you later on, so that you could gather enough Amaranth to increase your attributes and get a couple of feats.”

“Hmm… thank you?” The young woman nodded awkwardly at the pale youth’s remark.

“So what’s the plan now?” Cruz turned toward the dark elf and the paladin.

“The plan is to head straight forward, following this road until we reach the next settlement,” Regis explained. “Once we’re there, we’ll take a right turn to east. We’ll cross a bridge and not long after that there’s supposed to be a small road to the left which would lead us along the north-eastern direction once again.”

“I doubt it will be a smooth walk,” Quentin sighed. “Thorn Vale was abandoned almost two centuries ago. Whatever road lead there was likely overgrown, so we’ll have to travel through rough terrain.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just follow along the river?” Sophie asked. “I remember the map showing that Thorn Vale had a small river running through it that would later become one of the forks that converged at East Fork.”

“Not exactly,” the spell weaver shook his head. “The branch you’re talking about splits once along the way. We could follow the river, but we’d have to cross the bridge either way to be on the right side of it. Once on the other side, we can follow it to the point where it splits.”

“And then we’ll have to follow the right branch.” Osmond finished the road plan.

“How long will it take to get there?”

“Judging by the distance on the map of the library, it’s twice as far from the bridge we have to cross than East Fork was from Hunor.”

“That’s a lot of ground to cover,” Cruz sighed. “It took us three days to reach East Fork and we used the most direct route. Even if we follow along the river, it would still take us about a week on foot.”

“It would have taken us three weeks if Clive didn’t give us a magical bus ride.” Osmond mentioned the slight detail.

“Do we even have enough supplies for the journey?” Amanda asked the important question.

“We don’t,” Regis shook his head. “But there’s a small outpost right where the river splits.”

“There is?” Letty looked at him surprised. “I don’t remember seeing it marked on the map.”

“Because there was no giant ‘X’ on it like the ones we were specifically looking for. It’s supposed to be an active fishing community that also serves as a forward outpost for the local lord.”

“Do you think that there are still living people there?” Quentin turned morose after hearing the spell weaver’s explanation.

“If there are,” Valerie packed away her waterskin after everyone got their turn to take a swig. “They might be willing to trade for some smoked fish or something. If it’s like anywhere else, then we clear it out of the fallen and take whatever non-perishables we find.”

“I guess we have our plan down.” Amanda sighed as she switched her hammer from her right shoulder onto her left.

“How far is is the next settlement?”

“It should take about half a day on foot.”

“I bloody hate hiking.” Fabien cursed as he trudged through the slight mud.

“At least the weather is nice,” Sophie noted with a smile. “I can’t see any rain clouds on the sky.”

“Let’s just hope it stays that way for the next couple of days.” Cruz sighed as the group continued on.

Hours of monotone and silent walking later they came across a somewhat unpleasant sight when they reached what seemed to be the remains of a destroyed caravan. Three broken wagons took up half of the road with rotting horse corpses in front of them.

“See anything?” Quentin asked as everyone drew their weapons, taking up a formation.

“Only corpses.” Valerie said as they walked closer while searching for any sign of enemies both on the road and in the forest.

“It doesn’t seems like the work of bandits,” Osmond stated as he took a closer look at the horse carcasses. “Judging by the black goo near their ripped out necks and innards, they were likely attacked by some kind of large creatures.”

“As in more than one?” Fabien bent closer to have a look.

“Two of the horses have similar sized wounds on their necks, but the third one had a slightly smaller gash on its side.”

“That means at least two creatures,” Amanda noted. “What about the people?”

“No sign of them, so they either got away...”

“They didn’t,” Regis claimed as he found some torn and rotten meat scraps along with a bloodied satchel and some other cloth scraps. “At least one of them got torn apart before being devoured.”

“Not devoured,” Valerie corrected him as she stepped closer, her eyes glowing up with a bright red flare. “They were used as sacrifices to summon lesser demons.”

“What?” Mary looked at the infernal woman with visible terror on her face.

“There’s still a faint scent of sulphur near the remains and I can also sense the remains of demonic energy. Infernals are kind of good at sensing stuff like that I guess.”

“Well,” Osmond sighed. “This is the direction that horde came from.”

“Do you think that settlement ahead of us is also... gone?” Letty asked from no one in particular as she tried not stare at the disturbing sight.

“I don’t know,” Regis shook his head. “It’s still quite a bit further ahead.”

“All the more reason we should hurry on.” Quentin said as he kept his shield up and his sword at the ready.

“Do you think you can turn these into puppets as well?” The dark elf asked from the shadow touched spell caster while pointing at the horse carcasses.

“What,” Osmond stuttered in surprise. “Why would I want to do that?”

“The carts are in a relative good condition,” Regis answered. “We could fix one up with lesser mending and use it for transportation.”“It would definitely be faster than walk all the way.” Amanda and Fabien agreed near immediately.

“Wouldn’t people freak out they saw a skeletal horse pull a wagon into their settlement?” Sophie brought up her concerns.

“With how bad things were the past couple of weeks,” Cruz turned toward the sun elf. “A skeletal horse would be the least of their worries, especially if it’s pulling the wagon of a Shardwaker warband. I vote for the carriage ride as well.”

“As unsettling as the idea sounds,” Quentin sighed. “It really would make the journey faster and safer.”

“Alright,” Osmond walked over to the first rotting horse. “I’ll create the two bone puppets while you lot fix up the wagon.”

The warband spent the next couple of minutes using ‘lesser mending’ to repair the middle wagon as it was the one with the least damage done to it and it even had a canvas covered roof on the back. By the time it was ready to travel, Osmond was already done with his part, a pair of skeletal horses standing beside him.

“It might be a bad time to ask it now,” Mary cleared her throat slightly. “But does anyone here know how to drive a horse carriage?”

“It’s pretty easy,” Cruz said as she helped Osmond fasten the horses in front of the cart. “I can do it.”

“So can we, if needed.” Valerie noted as she and her brother stepped closer.

“Alright everyone,” Quentin sheathed his sword. “Let’s get out of here!”

“Hold on for a second,” Amanda stopped him. “Are we really going to leave just like that? We haven’t even searched through the other carts for anything useful.”

“Really,” Fabien sighed. “I know times are hard, but seriously?”

“She’s right,” Valerie patted her brother on the back. “Anything we leave behind will only stay here for the bandits and other scavengers.” “Five minutes.” The paladin let out a defeated sigh as he got up to the front part of the cart with Cruz.

The rest of the group speedily searched through the other two wrecked wagons, collecting an assortment of household items and material, hoarding them into the back of their own cart. By the time they were finished, there was barely any space left for the group. “Hit it girl!” Valerie called out to their wood elf coachwoman and the wagon began to roll forwards.

The cart shook on the bumpy dirt road, but they were definitely moving at the fastest pace and then before.

“How fast do you think we're going?” Quentin asked Cruz while looking at the forest on the side of the road.

“It’s hard to tell exactly, but at least four times faster than we were walking, if not more.”

“Good,” Sophie’s voice came from inside the wagon. “The faster we can reach the next settlement, the better.”“This thing shakes like crazy.” Amanda grumbled.

“Well it’s not a nobleman’s carriage, so don’t expect it to be comfortable.” Valerie noted.

“Or for it to have some actual proper suspension and springs.” Fabien added.