267. TOO SMART: TABITHA

It wasn’t that hard to drag Wiremu away for a few hours. He gets a bit stir-crazy being cooped up too long. He would be out hunting if Nelson and his crew were not here.

The night was overcast, which dimmed the light of the half-moon. The big one. I could probably drag its name from my memory if I cared. The small one was probably about to rise. This meant it was nice and dark. I was following Wiremu as we made our way to the slave camp. It was about an hour and a half from the trading post. We were swinging around to come from another direction, so it was about two hours for us.

We were close, and Wiremu wanted me to stay close and shroud us both in my Shadows Embrace. He is a smart lad. It hadn’t occurred to me that Slaves had enhanced Physical Attributes, which included enhanced Physical Perception. It should have.

We crested the small rise, squatted down below the crest and observed the camp. It was a simple camp. Four bedrolls, an extinguished cooking fire, and four packs. There were no riding animals. No animals at all. Not even a fox. I expected the fox to be here.

Three of the bed rolls were occupied while the fourth was on watch. The one on watch was a female Lizardkin. Two of the others were Human, one male and one female. The fourth was a surprise as it was a male Avion, one of the smaller sub-species. It was about the height of a dwarf but built much lighter. That wouldn’t be sneaking in and out of camp, but it might travel long-range, guiding the incoming bond to him.

Their equipment was good quality but well-worn. The short bow was almost certainly the Avions, and my Spatial Awareness sensed the knives handily tucked into his bedroll. The Lizardkin was armed with a short spear, and a small round shield was sitting near her. The human male was a large man. There was plate armour stacked next to his bedroll, and a heavy shield and mace were nearby.

The human female… wait a minute, she is not human. She’s an elf. She was almost as tall as the human but thin and wiry. There was an elven-made bow nearby and twin swords. It is a very strange collection of slaves. They were all certainly warriors and would be very hard to take down with their enhanced attributes. The trick would be to do the unexpected and take advantage of their Mental weaknesses.

“They are all slaves, right?” I whispered the question, barely breathing the words. Wiremu was right next to me, and his Hearing Aid was Master Level.

Wiremu nodded.

We stayed and watched for a while, but nothing happened. I had seen enough and signalled Wiremu that it was time to go, but he signalled to wait longer. Why does he want to watch these people sleep? Nothing is happening. There is nothing here except the slaves we expected to see. Another fifteen minutes went by. I was starting to get annoyed now. I signalled to go, but again, Wiremu signalled to wait.

Wiremu could tell I was starting to get grumpy. Does he expect something to happen? Wiremu held up a finger indicating to wait more, and then gave the signal to scan the area again. I did and did so carefully, as Wiremu was not usually wrong. Nothing had changed. I signalled, “What?” I might have done it a bit aggressively, showing my annoyance.

Wiremu signalled back, “Something is not right.”

It was fairly obvious that he thought something was wrong; otherwise, we would be back at the camp by now. I carefully scanned again. Nothing.

I signalled, “You can wait. I will head back.”

Wiremu shook his head. “Stay together.”

I will admit if the four there attacked one of us, it would be a difficult fight. Wiremu could possibly prevail, but it is not guaranteed. I should be able to run, although the Avion would also make that hard. It is best we stay together.

I don’t understand what he senses. My Spatial Awareness might barely reach the camp from here, but it will sense anything in range, especially as I have concentrated on using it to examine the area several times. I don’t see the point in staying.

Wiremu is being unreasonable now. I tugged at his sleeve to indicate my annoyance, and I still got the wait signal. Why? Surely, he would want to get back to his enchanting.

We had been here for over an hour, and we had watched three people sleep, and the Lizardkin on watch would do normal things, like get a drink, walk a perimeter, etc. What is Wiremu’s problem?

Suddenly, I sensed the muscles in Wiremu change as if he finally understood something. His head came up, and he looked around again, I did another scan to be sure, but nothing had changed. Maybe it is finally time to go.

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The Wiremu signalled to me two words I had never seen combined. “Mental Attack.”

What the fuck? Has he lost it? I should just leave him here. I put some Mental energy into my Shadow Mind Skill just because it was Wiremu, and my desire to leave the area went away. What the fuck? A mental skill was making us want to leave? Who did that? Was it the Lizardkin on Watch? I scanned the area again, still only sensing the four bodies. It must be her, although she seemed oblivious to our presence.

Wiremu sensed I was alert and had, therefore, thrown off the skill and signalled, “Fifth Person.”

“Where?” I signalled back.

He shrugged his shoulders. If neither of us could sense them, that was a worry, especially as they had Mental Skills. “Nelson?” I signalled the question to Wiremu.

He shook his head. “Close but wrong feel.” Whatever that meant.

Then Wiremu did something I did not expect. He spoke. It was quiet but clear. He obviously expected this fifth person to hear him, even though my Embracing Shadows. It wasn’t loud enough for the Lizardkin to hear, so he must think they were close. I scanned the area carefully. again.

Wiremu said, “You won’t kill us both with one strike, which means you will die. This game is over. We will meet you with Nelson tomorrow at dawn. Don’t make me regret not killing everybody.”

Then Wiremu signalled to me to lead the way out. I started to move as the response to Wiremu’s speech came. It was a wave of mental pressure indicating we should leave now or very bad things would happen. At the same time, the four slaves moved, coming up armed. They did not attack but were facing us in an aggressive stance, and two bows had arrows drawn.

We were over the crest of the hill and out of sight in the time it took for them to get ready, and nobody chased us. We made our way back to the wagons silently and very tense. We alerted the others about incoming. Dawn was only a couple of hours away.

It was very unnerving to know there was someone there, but I could not sense them. I am aware this is what I do to others all the time. Being on the receiving end is not nice and something I never thought would happen. My faith in my Spatial Awareness has taken a hit. It is at level 14 and almost Master level. I really need to get it over the hump to Masters.

We alerted Rodion and Runa on guard with all the bonds. Wiremu, Ruku, Modrica and I all crowded into Mayakku’s wagon, waking her. She had fallen asleep at her enchanting table. At Wiremu’s signal, I enhanced the enchantments with my Shadow’s Embrace.

“Tell us what is going on, Wiremu,” Ruku said.

“Tabitha and I went out to check out the four slaves Nelson has trailing us. We got there, and everything was as I expected.”

“Not quite,” I said, “from his racist comments and attitude, I expected them to be human. The slaves I saw back at the original camp were human, so these are not the same slaves.”

“What are they?” Ruku asked.

“A Lizardkin, an Avion, a Human and an Elf. He has led us to wrong conclusions all along.”

“They were definitely all his slaves and were warriors.” Wiremu continued. “I had a number of questions that I couldn’t answer, Firstly, how did he communicate with them? It wasn’t with the bird. Secondly, when I saw the camp, it was a normal camp. A normal camp for people with full mental attributes, but these were slaves. They needed more direction than non-slaves. Thirdly, we have two excellent scouts in Nne and Tano. Why did they never find the slaves and inform us? I was squatting watching the camp with these questions keeping me focussed on finding answers.”

I added, “As Wiremu was watching, I kept scanning, but there was nothing there, and I was getting impatient and wanting to leave.”

“I was feeling the same,” said Wiremu, “but the questions wouldn’t go away. Eventually, it clicked, and I realised we were under a Mental Influence. I doubt I would have realised without having two levels of Mental Resistance from Harry. I gained another two levels tonight.”

I checked my status, and I had also gained two levels.

“It was very insidious,” Wiremu continued, “but once I strengthened my mental shields, the feeling went away.”

“Same,” I added.

“Was it one of the slaves?” Ruku asked.

“No, it is worse than that.” Wiremu went on. “There was a fifth person there and neither Tabitha nor I could sense them.” That got a reaction. “I got a very brief whiff of Spiritual energy, which I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t concentrating so hard. Some aspects were like Nelson but some were very different, and I am sure it is not him.”

“So,” Ruku summed up, ”Nelson has been leading us to believe he is just a retired imperial Slave Taskmaster pulled out of retirement because of the shortage, but he is nothing of the sort. Who is he?”

“I don’t know yet, but I intend to find out at our dawn meeting,” Wiremu said.

“How could they escape our senses?” I asked.

“Their Stealth type skill, or more likely several skills, must be way above our detection skills. At least five levels if I remember my reading correctly. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a skill beyond Masters Level.”

“Is that possible?”

“It is definitely possible. Why would your levelling stop at any random number? Nearly impossible? Yes, but I think we might have just met somebody. Having said that, we also know they are not infallible with their senses.”

“Oh?”

“They totally overlooked Tāoke.”