As soon as we headed out, I started mentally making a list of our advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, we knew the terrain. We also were aware that there were military forces from Clan Galwick operating in the area, so if we were able to find one of them we could sic them on the Gremmans Confederation expedition and make our escape.
The list of disadvantages was quite a bit longer. Our opposition was younger than most of our people and likely more fit and better trained as well. They were also probably more rested. Although they were carrying their own gear, they weren’t weighed down by bags of refined gold. They almost certainly outnumbered us by a large margin. They would be angry because we killed one of their own. I could go on, but you get the idea.
When we headed down the trail we weren’t able to run. Our best speed was a fast walk. If we ran, the stamina of many members of our group would flag before we got very far. A small chunk of gold, one that a person could hold in the palm of their hands, weighed more than twenty pounds. Our people had been working hard for several days. We had many chunks of gold of that size. We were all burdened but if we didn’t succeed in our flight this whole trip would be a bust. Well, that and we would likely be dead.
We didn’t see any signs of pursuit during our first hour of descent. Had they decided not to chase us after all? For all they knew, we could be leading them into an ambush. I desperately hoped we were leading them into an ambush.
A part of me wanted to guide them to the system of caverns that we had explored. We could lose ourselves in those caverns. We knew about other exits and they didn’t. Of course, if I made that choice there would be a lot of explaining to do. There were clear signs of habitation there and a significant chance existed that one or more of Segerick’s people would be on this side of the mountain out hunting. I can talk my way out of some things, but talking my way out of that would stretch all credulity.
Time passed. We made it down to the slope where we fought the wyvern. Getting everyone across without an accident made us slow down quite a bit. One slip, one bad tumble, and members of our company might die. I chose to cross last. Just as I had finished crossing, I glanced back across the slope. A unit of soldiers jogged into view. Some of them carried crossbows and although the breadth of the slope was not insignificant, it also wasn’t gigantic. We were well within their effective ranges. To make matters worse, we had very few missile weapons among us, so hanging in and dueling wasn’t really an option.
“Keep moving,” I yelled. “Use cover!”
Although their bolts could reach us where we stood, the crossbows could not be fired with a lot of accuracy at that distance. Nonetheless, our opposition made a game effort. Quarrels started whistling through the air around me. I didn’t hear anyone cry out in pain, though, so none of their first volley must have found its mark. Being the farthest back, I came the closest to being hit but it still wasn’t all that close.
Just as I was turning to run, an older human, an officer by his uniform, strode into the open. He was of medium size and his dark hair was starting to go gray. I could hear him yelling at his troops and the fire suddenly cut off. Then, in a loud voice, he called out to me.
“Hold for a brief time,” he said. “I want to talk to you.”
Sure, I thought. Why the hell not. Every moment we wasted talking would get our people farther down the mountain. I also knew if they started shooting I could absorb some punishment and recover from it.
“What do you want to talk about?” I called back.
“That’s a nice little gold mine you have up there,” he said. “It would be a shame to let all that gold go to waste. It wasn’t very neighborly of you to kill one of my scouts, though. If you do something for me, I would be willing to let you go back and finish your mining.”
“We killed your scout because this far up the mountain people aren’t very friendly. We didn’t know whether you were from another company intent on ambushing us. We didn’t determine where you were from until after your scout was dead. Now you are chasing us and your men are shooting at us. That doesn’t seem very friendly either.”
“I can see your point,” he said. “Why don’t you come back over here so we can have a nice conversation and won’t have to yell at each other.”
“I think I’m good here,” I called back. “Delivering myself into your hands seems inadvisable.”
“I can see why that would be the case from your perspective,” he admitted. “How about if I come over there?”
“Sure, that would work,” I said. His men probably wouldn’t bombard me with crossbow bolts if he was on this side. He might be hit.
He quickly made his way across the slope showing a level of coordination and dexterity that was actually quite frightening to me. If he had that degree of body control, he also likely knew how to use the sword at his hip much more proficiently than I did. Aleyda and Bowen had been towards the front of the company. I wondered whether they were headed back up to reinforce me.
Finally, he had spanned the distance and stood in front of me. He introduced himself.
“I am Captain Barinov,” he said. “And who might you be.”
“James Smith,” I said. I didn’t reach out to shake his hand, though. I didn’t want to place myself at his mercy.
“Well, James,” he said. “I have a problem. As you know, this island is being contested by two governments. One of those governments, not mine, is building a portal down on the island that will allow them to easily move troops and occupy the place in short order. I am under orders not to see that happen. The problem I have is that we have been unable to fight our way down to the portal. As you might imagine, I take my orders quite seriously. That’s where you come in. You have access to the town. I need you to sabotage the portal for me. If it never goes into operation, or even if that operation is delayed, both sides will be limited by the troops they can bring in by ship. We have a lot more troops on the way. If you do this, we will allow you to mine out the rest of the gold and I will assign a small number of my people to screen the area so you are not disturbed again. What do you think?”
“So, what happens if you choose just to head back to town?” I asked.
“Then my men will run you down and kill you all,” he replied. “Unless you get extremely lucky and find one of Clan Galwick’s military units before then.”
He said it in such a matter of fact manner that it was clear that he thought that result was a foregone conclusion. Sweeping my eyes across the slope, I could see that his troops still looked fairly fresh. Maybe he had reason for his confidence.
We were far enough away from everyone else that I thought nobody was in range to overhear our conversation. The choice he offered us was really no choice at all. Either we left the island rich and alive or we didn’t leave it at all. I like option one a hell of a lot more than option two. And I didn’t want that portal to become operational anyway. Fuck it, I though, and decided to go for broke. If things went poorly, it’s not like I could end up more dead.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“What’s your attitude towards slavery?” I asked him.
For a second, he was thrown by my non sequitur. I had no doubt that was not the question he expected to hear pop out of my mouth. Finally, his mind parsed my query and answered it.
“Slavery is an abhorrent practice,” he said. “We do not utilize it where I am from. Why do you ask?”
“If I do this for you, I want you to sweeten the pot a little,” I said. Then, I dropped the illusion on my hand, pulled off my glove, and wiggled five fingers at him.
“Are you an escaped slave?” he asked.
“No, I came into the world recently,” I said. “I am from another place called Earth, but then so are a lot of other people and their Earths are different than mine. I didn’t come here to get rich. I came here to rescue more people of my kind. And I found a bunch of them and stashed them away. They need a way off this island to a place they won’t immediately be thrown into bondage. If you transport them to your territory, from what you said they won’t be made slaves. I have no doubt their lives won’t be fantastic but anything is better than slavery or living on this island. If I do this for you, you will get them off the island to someplace they can start a new life.” Then, I put my glove back on and restored the illusion.
“How do you do that?” he asked.
“I have a magic ring that disguises my features,” I replied.
“That could be very handy for what I am asking you to do. How many people would you expect me to transport?” he inquired.
“Right now, there are less than thirty,” I said.
“I agree,” he said. “But only if you succeed at your task.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” I asked.
“You can’t,” he said. “Just as I don’t know if I can trust you either. I will tell you, though, that I am a man of my word. And I would expect you are as well or you wouldn’t have shared all of this with me.”
“I have no idea how to sabotage a magical portal,” I said.
“Oh, it is fairly easy,” he replied. “Magic relies on exact tolerances for a ritual to be effective. Even just knocking the portal down would force them to start over.”
“Have you seen that thing?” I asked. “It is not small and they were doing a fair job of completing it when I left town last. How am I going to knock that down?”
“You look like an industrious and ingenious fellow,” he replied. “You’ll figure something out.”
“I don’t suppose you have any gear we could use?” I said. “Maybe some sort of magic scroll or exploding potion or something?”
“Sorry,” he said. “We were just going to tear it down by hand if we took the port.”
“I don’t think they would give us enough time to get that done. Don’t worry, though. I have some ideas.”
“And what sort of cooperation do you need from me to make these ideas reality?” he asked.
“I need you to find me some sulfur,” I said. “Although you might know it as brimstone.”
We went back and forth with questions and answers clarifying what sulfur was.
“Why do you need sulfur?” he asked.
“Because on my world we manufacture an explosive compound known as gunpowder,” I said. “There are three components to it, although I will have to do some testing to figure out what an optimal ratio of those components is. Those ingredients are sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter. Charcoal is easy enough to make and I happen to know where there is a whole cave full of bat guano, so that takes care of the saltpeter. I just don’t know where to find sulfur.”
“And this gunpowder substance will bring down the portal?” he asked.
“If we make enough of it, it will make a pretty big explosion. If that explosion is at the base of a pillar, I am not certain that pillar will be standing very long.”
“That sounds promising,” he said. “You will have to show me how to make this substance.”
“You live in a world with fire magic,” I replied. “If an enemy mage ignited your gunpowder store it would blow up. Then, you would be the ones experiencing what an explosion looks like first hand.”
“I understand what you are saying,” he said. “But it would still have its uses.”
“Do we have a deal?” I asked.
“We have a deal,” he said.
“Alright, let me run down the rest of my people and get them headed back up the mountain. There won’t be any accidents that happen because we killed one of your men, will there?”
“My soldiers are more disciplined than that. Although I would admonish your people to keep to themselves.”
“Wait here,” I said. “I’ll be back soon.” Then, I dropped the gold I was carrying at his feet. “Can you watch this for me?”
“Nobody will steal it, if that’s what you are insinuating.”
Freed from the burden of the gold, I went running down the trail. Within a few steps, I was joined by Aleyda and Bowen who melted out of the trees by the side of the road.
“Did you hear?” I asked.
“We heard,” Bowen replied.
It took about ten minutes of running to catch up to the rest of our company. When I did, I called out to them.
“It’s alright, you can stop for a moment. I have something to discuss.”
They stopped walking and gathered around me, gazing expectantly towards me.
“I have worked out a deal with their captain,” I said. “We can go back and finish mining. They will even screen us so we can work without interruption.”
“You didn’t trade them our gold for this, did you?” Tikter asked.
It was amazing how quickly the gold became our gold for him.
“Nope,” I replied. “We get to keep it all. With more time to work, I expect we will all be very rich.”
“What’s the catch?” he asked.
“Oh, I just have to go back to town and destroy the magical portal they are building,” I said nonchalantly.
“And how do you expect to do that and get away afterwards?” Tikter asked.
“Don’t worry, I have a plan,” I said. “They won’t have any idea what hit them.”
“This will keep us alive?” Dregu asked.
“It will if I succeed,” I responded.
“I guess some chance is better than nothing,” he said.
“He has a plan,” I heard Bowen say to Aleyda in a low voice laden with sarcasm.
“It’s better than dying today,” I said, aiming my comment towards Bowen.
After some discussion, the company decided that leaving rich was, in fact, better than being wiped out that day. We turned and headed up the trail where I ran into the Captain just where I left him. I couldn’t help but notice that his entire force had crossed over while I was gone.
“So, you came back,” he said.
“Of course I did,” I replied. “Like I told you, I keep my word.”