Chapter Seventy-eight

Krissintha Arlonet Dar Ghelain had given up hope. There was nothing she could do against the onslaught of team after team. Not that she was supposed to, that was Kevin’s job, but her familiar was simply overwhelmed by the stealth, speed and numbers of the rangers. Sure, he was managing to fend off a few of them here and there, tapping them out of the fight, but he was unable to claim any of them as hosts, and each practice-assault ended the same way: Krissintha dead, Kevin immobilised, rangers victorious. The elves were truly getting the hang of fighting an evil spirit.

Judging by her frequent sighs, Kiwa never had any hope to give up to begin with, and even Tilry’s occasional comments had stopped after the second day of the exercise. After that, it was just plain boring, sitting all day in the stupid wheelchair, watching elves whooshing past, listening to Kevin swearing, and hoping his Mana Armour wouldn’t fail — getting hit by a blunt arrow or a wooden sword by accident was not something she wanted to experience.

Luckily, their long string of losses came to an end when the last of the participating teams claimed the win — as she had expected — and the four-day exercise was finally over. Despite having done nothing but sitting, Krissintha couldn’t recall the last time she’d been this tired and apathetic. A full day of rest was in order, and she was more than happy that Fenar had excluded her and her weird little team from the after-exercise meeting.

She was less happy that her presence was requested for another meeting the day after, but after giving it some thought, she decided that it was probably going to be better than what she had had to endure for the past four days. At the very least it would be a more comfortable affair overall, and she was sure there’d be plenty of tea and snacks, and that tilted the scale in favour of attendance.

Krissintha had never been a tea drinker — for those in Thyssa who could afford it, freshly squeezed fruit juice used to be the beverage of choice, and she wondered if that was still the case back home. She blamed the elves as well as Kevin — but mostly just Kevin — for instilling this new preference for tea in her. Oh well, it wasn’t the end of the world, was it? Tea wasn’t bad, and it had turned out to be a good business as well. Then she silently lamented that even though she was a part of said business, she really wasn’t. Perhaps she should get more involved in it, but she wasn’t sure how, and it had to wait anyway. She had some more resting to do before that meeting.

***

Krissintha felt refreshed as she woke up the next morning, ready to face the meeting that was to take place. The cast on her left arm was an annoyance, but her twisted ankle was improving, almost to the point she felt tempted to try walking without her crutch. Unfortunately, she wasn’t quite there yet, so after a bath, breakfast and some awkward limping later, she and her self-appointed bodyguard arrived at the meeting room in the administrative building of Fifth Rangers’ compound.

It was the same meeting room as before, and just like last time, everyone who mattered was here: the masters of Third and Fifth Rangers, the five members of the defense committee, including Councilwoman Komi and her young and irritating arch-nemesis, Krisoret Itani —also known as Fake Krisi — sitting around a table, ready to start discussing important things. There were two more elves there, sitting in the illustrious company, but Krissintha didn’t recognise them. They offered her and Kiwa seats at the table, on which a large map lay spread out. They took the chairs, and Krissintha looked around again while waiting for the proceedings to begin.

Unlike the last time she’d been here, this wasn’t a large, almost public hearing. This was a war council or something similar.

After a brief introduction it turned out the older of the two unknown men was the Master of the Fleet, Ketaven Arte, and the slightly younger looking one was a Marine Commandant. Or “the” Marine Commandant. His name was Terana Kolt. Krissintha found the man’s title unusual — elves seemed to prefer to call people “master of” whatever they were in charge of, and she wasn’t sure why the marines would have such a continental, human-sounding title for their highest-ranking officer instead. Maybe marines just wanted to stand out in some way? That was plausible, as she was sure they wouldn’t be able to stand out in terms of fighting ability, not with rangers around.

The end of pleasantries and the actual start of the meeting pulled Krissintha back from her own, meandering thoughts. She listened carefully as plans were presented and discussed, partly because Master Fenar had succeeded in hammering that kind of discipline into her, and partly because as it turned out the two spiritualists present were quite the important part of the plans. And since that was the case, she was rather annoyed that Kevin didn’t even pretend to pay attention.

Kevin! Are you even listening? They’re talking about what we’ll be doing! She sent her complaints to the spirit through the voice-chat.

What? Yeah. Of course. He replied with as much conviction as a thief who knew had got caught but still trying to deny being a thief.

Kevin! She thought-screeched at him.

Uhm, sorry. My mind is elsewhere.

Where is more important for your mind to be than here? She demanded.

You’ll catch me up later, right? He asked instead of answering.

Krissintha sighed almost audibly, sensing that arguing with her familiar about this would be a fruitless effort, and it would distract her from the meeting as well. Why Kevin seemed so inattentive today she couldn’t guess. It was unusual. The spirit had always been observant, watching and listening even when he was quiet, so whatever was on his mind must have been either very important or very stupid. She sighed again and turned her attention back to the meeting.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

***

‘Is this really where you want your rangers to land?’ Ketaven Arte put a finger on the map, squinting at Master Fenar. ‘Isn’t it a bit too far from the town with the docks?’

Krissintha was looking at the map on the table from the top, so it was all upside down to her, but she could more or less decipher why the Master of the Fleet seemed to disagree with the Master of Third Rangers. The place Master Fenar had chosen was at least twenty miles away from the town home to the only port the orks supposedly had. According to the late Orkuz Graal.

‘Absolutely. There’s nothing there, so we can land unnoticed. From there we can trek to the town quickly and scout the place,’ Master Fenar said, drawing a circle around the harbour town with his finger. ‘We’ll split our forces. Twenty or so teams will participate in the assault on the docks and the town, coordinating with your ships and marines through Misery’s familiar. The rest will form a perimeter, preventing messengers leaving to take the news of our arrival to the rest of the ork clan, or failing that, making it difficult for any reinforcements to approach.’

‘Alright, that makes sense,’ Ketaven Arte conceded. ‘What then?’

‘We take the harbour, destroy any ships and shipbuilding facilities they have there,’ Fenar explained, then looked at the Commandant. ‘Once that’s done, your marines will hold the town, and the rangers will move further inland, to … what was the name of that fucking place?’

‘Vraath,’ his wife, Komi, offered the name, scowling at her husband. ‘The settlement is called Vraath. About six miles inland. That’s where not only the leadership of the Vraathkill clan is located, it’s where they’re likely still keeping our people. According to the ork galley’s captain, most of them will still be there, waiting to be sold as slaves to merchants from other clans.’

The Master of the Fleet let out a sigh.

‘Are you sure we can trust information coming from a barbarian? Extracted by a god?’ he asked, looking at Komi.

‘I think we can,’ Komi replied, smiling at the man. ‘Gods do come in handy every once in a while, and I happen to know this one.’

‘Hm,’ Ketaven Arte hummed, considering this, then he looked at the other members of the defense committee.

‘As a rule, I don’t trust gods or barbarians,’ Krisoret Itani said. Everyone looked at her, and Krissintha immediately expected her to try to undermine Komi’s statements, just like she had been trying to at the last meeting. ‘But I witnessed the interrogation, and I can say it was thorough, and I have no reason to doubt the results,’ she said, and all the other members of the committee were nodding in agreement.

Hearing this from the young councilwoman surprised Krissintha, and by the look of it some others in the room as well. But it seemed to be enough to put both the older fleetmaster’s and the younger marine officer’s mind at ease. Krissintha was a little bit impressed by the woman not pushing her own agendas when the fate of over a hundred of her people were at stake — an unusual thing for someone in position of power to do, at least among humans.

‘Very good.’ Ketaven Arte nodded, then looked at Fenar and Sivaren Rols. ‘What’s your time estimate for liberating our people and bringing them to the ships?’

‘I can’t say.’ Fenar shook his head. ‘There are still a lot of unknowns. I’d say at least a full day and night for scouting that sodding place, and then we’ll need to be quick to plan and to carry out the assault and rescue. I’d like to say two days at most, but …’

‘… but when does anything ever go according to plan.’ The Marine Commandant finished the sentence for him.

‘Exactly.’ Fenar nodded again, a dark look settling on his face.

‘So, two and a half day if you’re optimistic?’ Levoten Armat, member of the Defense Committee and liaison to the rangers, asked.

‘If I’m optimistic,’ Fenar said.

‘And if you’re not?’ the man asked.

‘We’ll fail and most of us will be killed,’ Fenar said. Almost everyone at the table exhaled sharply. They didn’t like hearing that, and Krissintha wasn’t an exception. Fenar continued before the inevitable protests to his statement could come. ‘That town, Vraath, is where Sivera’s spiritualists live and control the damned ork clan. Even our prisoners didn’t know how many of them there are, except for the two leaders, the fucking shamans or whatever they’re called. They’re powerful spiritualists, and they’re a problem, even without the clan’s warriors. They also said to expect merchants from other clans to be present, and due to barbarian business negotiations regularly ending in fistfights, we can expect them to be dangerous fighters as well. Not to mention an army of human and elven slaves. It’s not going to be easy, so we’ll be relying heavily on our own spiritualists.’ Fenar explained, nodding his head towards Krissintha and Kiwa. ‘You have all heard what they can do.’

Everyone looked at Krissintha and Kiwa, but mostly at Krissintha. Toven hadn’t been lying when he said the news of Misery the Ork Slayer had spread, and she felt an unpleasant pressure bearing down on her under the gazes of the elves.

‘We’ll do our best,’ Krissintha said, managing to sound somewhat confident.

‘Damn right we will, boss.’ Kiwa agreed, nodding her head enthusiastically.

Krissintha wanted to give the woman a disapproving look, but she held herself back. She had seen Kiwa fight, and knew she would gleefully throw herself into the thick of it and probably slaughter any ork foolish enough not to run from her. But two ork shamans, who were the equivalent of monks, paired with powerful familiars? She had a feeling Kevin might be the only one up to the task, which meant she would need to be the one standing before Sivera’s emissaries, if it came to that. It wasn’t a thrilling thought.

Kevin, are you listening to this? What do you think? Can we manage that? She asked through the voice-chat.

Why wouldn’t we manage it? Kitala Iwani answered instead of the spirit.

What do you mean why? This will be the most dangerous thing we’d ever done.

Oh? Speak for yourself, boss! Kiwa sent her thoughts, and her mouth was curling up into a grin.

Oh? Have you fought ork shamans before? Krissintha inquired.

Always a first time for everything, right? Kiwa thought and shrugged.

We’ll be fine. I’m working on it. Kevin’s thought-voice came, echoing in Krissintha’s mind. We’ll be fine.

Krissintha locked eyes with Kiwa, and it seemed she had noticed the uneasiness in the spirit’s tone of thought-voice as well. She wasn’t sure what to make of this. Kevin was usually rather nonchalant about things, especially when it came to fights, which to him meant eating souls.

What is up with you today? She asked.

Me? Nothing. I’m preparing. Kevin replied, but once again, he didn’t sound like his usual self.

Krissintha considered pushing it a little, to try to get some explanation out of her familiar, but she decided it could wait. If in a day or two the spirit was still so preoccupied with whatever he was preoccupied with, she could deal with it then. The meeting wasn’t over yet, and if she was to stay alive for long enough to be able to go to the Fentys Alliance, as Wensah had decreed she would, then she had to pay attention to the plan.

Alright, just make sure you’re ready for this. She said to the spirit.

Oh, I will be. The reply came, filling Krissintha with a distinct sense of unease.