We headed up the mountain early the next day. Of course, given that we were the only ones that knew where to go, we were in the lead. Caider and Tikter embedded themselves snugly right in the middle of the column. I assume they thought it was the safest spot.
While we walked, I had a lot of thoughts floating through my mind. It seems like ever since we had made it to the island that was always the case. Getting the gold was a priority. Not being screwed out of our share of the gold was a bigger priority. I wouldn’t put it past Caider and Tikter to get more than a little creative with their accounting. I had formed an opinion about the character of both of them, and if I was asked to describe them the first word that would come out of my mouth would be lazy. That would be immediately followed by greedy. I would find myself pretty deep on the list before I got to anything that resembled a compliment. Frankly, I think we all would have been better off if we had come without them. Honestly, though, many members of the company didn’t seem to be very detail oriented people. Maybe leadership and organization was worth something, but it wasn’t worth whatever they were paying themselves.
The concerns about the gold were fairly transient for me, however. I had bigger concerns and they all related to how we were going to keep all of Segerick’s people alive until I could make it back with a ship. I had made certain representations to them that were going to come back and bite me in the ass. The first was that we were going to find some companies to ambush to get them provisioned and armed. The idea had been fairly obvious and straightforward at the time, but now time was running out. I had no idea how we were going to separate ourselves from the company long enough to get that done. I also had been toying around with sabotaging the portal that the army was building down in the port. Surprisingly, they had not decided to build the portal behind the stout walls of their military base. Instead, they must have envisioned the usage to include both civilian and military units. After all, they would need a support infrastructure of some sort if they wanted to avoid a bunch of bored, angry and fractious soldiers. They had decided, instead, to build it in the middle of town not far from where we had sold our feathers at the market. I didn’t know what transporting things cost in terms of magical energy but somehow I didn’t think it would be very inexpensive. If it was cheap, I would have expected portals linking each of the major settlements belonging to Clan Galwick but as far as I knew there were none. If they did exist, they must have been closely guarded and only used for emergencies. Being stationed on the island was not likely to be a commuter job, that’s for certain.
I needed some sort of excuse to get the three of us away for a day or so if I was going to be a man of my word instead of a windbag full of hot air. I had no idea how I was going to make that happen. I would need to look for opportunities and seize them if they showed themselves.
We passed several other expeditions on our way up the mountain, both departing and returning. We were a large enough force, though, that nobody wanted to have anything to do with us. Nobody even spoke to us. They just moved to the side of the path and let us pass. That was the case until the morning was drawing to a close and we were just about to leave the main path. Then we heard the sound of booted feet marching down the trail ahead of us.
“We’re about to have company,” I called back down the column. “They seem to be well disciplined.”
“I hope its not a unit from the Gremmans Confederation,” Caider said. “That could be big trouble for us.”
Way to keep morale high, you asshole. After his pronouncement, half the company appeared ready to drop what they were holding and flee back down the mountain for their lives.
When the first people marched into view from above us, I breathed a sigh of relief. The troops were orcs and not humans. That meant they were from Galwick or one of the allied forces. Even though they were ostensibly on our side, it didn’t mean that they were necessarily friendly. After my initial experiences in this world, I honestly never thought seeing a troop of orcs march into view would make me relax, even a little bit.
The troops had obviously seen combat. Whether it was against the denizens of the island, another army unit, or both I couldn’t tell. As more and more of them marched past us, I could see that many bore injuries of one sort or another. I studied them to try to determine the answer. Many of them looked like they had been injured by weapons of one sort or another but several bore the telltale signs of bites or of claws. Eventually, one of the orcs who must have been an officer of some sort, reached me and decided to speak with us.
“Who is your leader,” he asked me, since I was in the front.
“That would be Caider,” I said, pointing him out to the orc.
The officer went stomping down the trail to talk to Caider. They were far enough away that I only caught snatched of their conversation, even though I was listening hard. The sound of booted feet crunching down the trail and the rattling of weapons and packs against armor made it difficult to hear.
I was able to gather that the unit, which numbered in the thirties, had fought a battle with a rival human unit farther up the mountain. They had clearly suffered some casualties. Not only were several orcs being carried on litters, but when I saw army units drilling outside of Shroud Hallow they usually numbered around sixty orcs. Math was a little strange on this world. Instead of using base ten like we did on Earth, they seemed to use a duodecimal, base twelve, system. I didn’t have to worry that much about it because of the gift of tongues but the whole idea of learning a new system of mathematics at my age was pretty daunting to me. I wonder if we had just decided to use a base ten system because we had ten fingers and they chose differently because they had more? I know that when I received change for my purchases back on the continent, I was getting screwed most times without realizing it. Maybe there was some sort of customary fee for making change in this world that I hadn’t bothered to learn about. I tried to put that in my list of questions to ask someone about later once we got home.
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From what I could gather listening to the snippets of conversation I was able to overhear, the unit had fought a battle against another military unit sometime in the last couple of days. If these orcs were the winners, I would have hated to see the losers. I wasn’t certain, however, that the orcs had won. Whatever the officer was saying to Caider was clearly making him nervous and causing him to reconsider his life choices. Finally, the conversation concluded and the rest of the unit marched off.
Caider walked up to me. “Major Vargan let me know that they fought a battle against an oversized unit of troops from Gremmans yesterday higher up the mountain,” he said. “His unit is currently retreating to go get reinforcements to put the curs in their place. He told us to be on guard, though, because there are many of them still up there.”
“We are nearly at our turnoff,” I said. “After that, we will not be of the main trails. Could we encounter their units? We could, but on the trails we will be on there won’t be anyone marching in formation anywhere. They will be all strung out because most of the smaller trails will only allow people to walk in single file. Army units are noisy and typically heavily laden and don’t move very fast from what I have seen. If we hear them we should be either able to hide or retreat but we probably need to keep the chatter to a minimum while we make our way up that mountain. We likely should do that anyway so we can detect any of the other, more mundane, threats that the island has to offer.”
“You make good points.” he said. “I am just starting to wonder if this is all worth it.”
“Well, do we want to get rich or not?” I responded. “It is all about risk versus reward and I think our reward is pretty damn solid. I am in favor of continuing. I mean, we had to fight a wyvern to find the place the first time. We have already risked ourselves. I think its time for everyone else to get some skin in the game.”
Several other members of our company had overheard the conversation and I heard angry mutters erupting from among them. Of the others, almost every single one of them had risked themselves one more than one expedition to enrich the company. Now that they had a goal in sight with a guarantee of some profit, nobody seemed very inclined to let that slip through our fingers. Finally, of all people, it was Yahg who decided to step forward and insert himself into our conference.
“Let me get this straight,” Yahg said. “You have been down in camp this whole time while the rest of us have been exploring this island. You sit down there eating and drinking and counting money while the rest of us are up here fighting and bleeding and making that money. And the first time your own hide is under the slightest risk, you want to turn tail and run? What, exactly, are you good for?”
Wow, I thought. You go, Yahg. The resentment among other members of the company had obviously been brewing for quite awhile and now it was boiling over.
“You wouldn’t have even been invited if it wasn’t for me,” Caider spat back. “The only reason you were asked to come was because of our family connections.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Dregu said, stepping forward. “I remember seeing Yahg take many turns at the pumps to keep us afloat but I never saw either of you pitch in once. Since we have been here, the farthest you have been up the mountain is our camp until today. We have lost good people on this trip, good friends of mine. And now, when your own precious little ass is at risk you want to run away? We all contributed money to this venture, well all of us except for James and his friends. But they more than made up for it with their efforts. The whole idea behind coming here was risking our lives for a big reward. All you have been doing is sitting back at camp while our numbers dwindle and your share of the reward increases. I want one thing to be clear. After this trip, neither my brother or I want anything to do with either one of you. We are going to continue onward. And if you don’t want to come, then you may as well retreat to the ship right away. If you don’t come along, if you don’t actually work, then you aren’t going to get the smallest flake of the gold we mine. I am sick and tired of you profiting off the efforts of others.”
“Wait,” Caider said. “Somebody has to lead. Somebody has to organize. Without all of my efforts, not one of you would be here.”
“What’s that worth,” Yahg said. “You tell us what that’s worth and we’ll pay you out now and you can be on your way. You can keep everything we’ve harvested so far for your payment. That should be more than enough for a profit on your investment. But if you don’t want to come along and actually work, there isn’t one of us here who is inclined to share any more of the fruits of our labor. Did you see that major? He was marching with his troops and suffering right along side of them. That’s what leadership looks like. Not hiding behind the work of others.”
“Do you all feel that way,” Caider called out.
There was a veritable wave of assent from the other members of the company. As it petered out, I heard a feeble no come from the mouth of Tikter.
Caider and Tikter slinked off to the side of the trail to have a conference. I walked over to Yahg.
“I am glad you finally had the courage to put into words what the rest of us have been thinking for awhile,” I said.
“It needed to be said,” he responded. “I still don’t like you very much, but I am coming to like you more because you are going to make me rich.”
“I’m not in love with you either,” I replied. “But getting rich is something I think we can all get behind.”
Tikter and Caider had obviously come to a conclusion and Caider once again stepped forward to address the group.
“We accept your offer,” he said. “We will take all the profit we have made so far as our own and will be returning to the ship.” The two of them then turned and hurried down the trail before anyone could fashion a response.
I turned to the rest of the company that was left. “I have two things on my mind,” I said. “The deal I had with Caider was that we got to keep a quarter of the gold since we found it. Is everyone still good with that?”
“I am,” Pregu said with a wink. “At least I know you all will work hard to make us all rich.” Soon, everyone else had expressed their agreement.
“Second, I think that Caider and Tikter are going to head to port and spread some sort of tale about us being wiped out and then try to sail without us, leaving us stranded here. Either that or they will sell the information about what we will be carrying to other companies and we will get ambushed on our way back.”
There was silence for a second as my pronouncement sunk in. Then, Yahg and a couple of others of the more hot blooded members of the company turned and went sprinting back down the trail. I thought that Caider and Tikter were about to have a very bad day.