Hazelhearth Hires Heroes

by D. H. Willison

  “Yes. They’re big, mean, tough. A single ogre could wipe out our entire party. Except perhaps Lady Isylnoir. But if this is their main encampment, and I suspect it is, everything else will give them a wide berth. Very wide. Stay out of sight. Keep to the shadows. They’re not looking for you, and they’re not that perceptive either. You can do this.”

  “Yes.” Sam nodded, slung her crossbow on her back, and with the light javelin in her right hand, she set off parallel to the game trail.

  After a couple hundred paces she stopped, pressed herself against the twisting trunk of a helix hazel tree.

  You can do this. It’s about brains.

  She glanced ahead. This section of forest was dense, a crown high above trailing an occasional creeper. Were it not for the decidedly chilly temperature, it could have been a tropical jungle.

  She poked her head out.

  There. There they are. And being very sneaky at least as far as ogres are supposed to be. Shin was right, it was worth following them, they are definitely up to something.

  One sniffed the air and grunted at the other. The second set down a huge crate of gear.

  I’d like to get a look at that crate. Sam double-checked the ground at her feet for twigs or leaves which might give away her position before scrutinizing the ogres’ gear once again. More traps? Knowing what they look like could help keep people from stumbling into them.

  The first set the cage down next to a trap.

  A hind leg of one of the elk-like male caprids was caught in the jaws of the iron trap. The first ogre knelt and wrapped a meaty fist around the caprid’s neck, the ogre’s massive hand easily encircling the creature’s neck. With the creature restrained, the ogre snapped the trap open to free its mangled hoof. The ogre stood, lifting the bucking caprid by the neck, and snapped its antlers off at the base, the way a human might open a fortune cookie.

  It grunted to the other ogre, voice low. Sam couldn’t quite make out the words.

  They’re supposed to speak the common tongue. Maybe they speak a slang among themselves?

  The second ogre took a rolled up piece of cloth and another object from the crate and set them on the ground just behind a tree trunk. Sam would need a better vantage point to see exactly what it was.

  The first took a cask from the crate. This Sam recognized. It was one of the casks of sherry from the main encampment, probably looted from a caravan.

  The first ogre grunted again to the second, and offered it the struggling caprid.

  A vicious bite severed the creature’s head clean off. Its body spasmed twice before disappearing from sight into a greedy maw.

  Sam squeezed her eyes shut as she looked away. Perhaps she had simply stumbled upon the ogres’ lunchtime?

  The first ogre picked another object out of the crate, an object small enough to conceal within its massive hand.

  Sam glared hard at it. A weapon? A tool? Maybe the trap simply needed repairing?

  Ogre number two disappeared behind the massive trunk.

  What was it Shin said again? ‘Don’t take your eyes off a sighted foe.’

  Did they know Sam was watching?

  No, it had to be coincidence.

  Sam assessed the cover and ducked behind the shrub. She darted to a fallen log, and slunk behind it, hunched low, a needless precaution as the log was thicker than she was tall.

  The sherry. What was the sherry for? They wouldn’t need it to set traps. Unless it was bait? To lure a human into the trap?

  Her mind flashed back to the caprid, she couldn’t help but imagine a person suffering the same fate, head sliced off like a guillotine. She shivered.

  At the end of the log she scaled a split rock formation twice as tall as she was.

  Should be solid cover with a clear view of the other side of that tree.

  She took a deep breath and listened, picking up a faint grunting in the direction of the massive tree. Good. They hadn’t spotted her. She hoped. She popped her head out, mind ticking off the checklist: both ogres spotted, both in about the same position, no new threats in view.

  Good. Now, what are they up to…

  She studied them several long minutes before the grim realization hit her.

  Oh no!

  Sam squeezed her eyes shut. She ducked behind the rock, and darted back to the dry creek bed to meet Shin. The neko arrived a scant minute later, held a finger over his lips, and mounted.

  They darted off, following the creek bed for a quarter of an hour before he spoke. “The two I followed were headed toward our meeting point. Just a coincidence, I’m certain, but we had to move quickly to stay out of sight. Let us report our findings to the others.”

  Lady Isylnoir had a map laid atop the folding table, and was hard at work referencing locations on the map with notes in a leather-bound notebook. She glanced up at the approach of Shin and Sam.

  “Lee and Gnebnik have not yet returned, I take it?” said Shin.

  “They have not. Were you able to ascertain the activities of the four we suspected to be a trapping party?”

  “We did indeed,” replied Shin. “The group split and we did likewise. The pair I followed collected prey from a series of six traps. Mostly boar. I spotted three different trap types including snares and cage traps.”

  “Fine.” Lady Isylnoir made a series of notes, finally making eye contact with Sam. “And you?”

  “I… yes. The two I followed were also checking on traps. Just a single trap that I saw. And… that was it.”

  “That was it? It doesn’t take two of them for a single trap.”

  “Hey Sam, good to see you made it back.” It was Lee. “See anything interesting?”

  “No. Nothing really.” Sam turned back toward Lady Isylnoir. “And it didn’t take two to check a single trap. They were… look, you reaally don’t want to know.”

  “Of course I want to know, I wouldn’t have asked otherwise. Out with it!”

  “They were having sex, OK?” Sam shook her head. “They probably used the whole trap checking thing as a pretext to sneak off and have sex.”

  “No need to be prudish about it,” said Lady Isylnoir. “It was a simple scouting expedition.”

  “You didn’t see what I did! I can’t unsee it. You know the worst part? I couldn’t figure out exactly what they were doing, so I watched for several minutes.” Sam put a hand over her face as she shook her head. “Ogre mating practices are very, very…”

  Shin cracked a little smile, and put a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “It’s OK. It’s nature. Sometimes I think city folk think mythic creatures just spring out of the ground.”

  Lady Isylnoir busied herself scrawling in a notebook with a silver fountain pen, while Sam went to sulk behind a mossy stump.

  They exchanged notes more rapidly that afternoon as the former day’s ogre naming discussion was unnecessary. Shin refined his topographic sketch, with Sam and Lee attempting to estimate the size of the trebuchets and siege ladders.

  Lee again set his faux fire, wresting the bag of glow stones from Lady Isylnoir with slightly less resistance than the night before.

  “So how much intel do we need,” said Lee. “I mean, how will we know we’re done?”

  “When gathering intelligence there must be a balance,” said Lady Isylnoir. “The longer we stay, the better informed we are. Yet the possibility of being discovered increases.”

  Lee grumbled, held his hands over a pair of glow stones with a warm orange hue, pulling back and rubbing them together when remembering the stones weren’t actually generating any heat.

  “However,” said Lady Isylnoir. “I believe we are getting close.”

  “You must be looking forward to getting back to the city,” said Lee. “Cooked food and baths and all.”

  “I am not unaccustomed to a life in the wilderness,” said Lady Isylnoir. “It was required while on campaign. We would have porters and assistants to take care of more mundane tasks, but in comparison to the life of a noble, months in th
e field is quite a hardship. However, when we advance a level, we return to the arcane academy to learn new spells. That is the trade-off of the life of a battlemage: hardship in the field, followed by studies in relative comfort.”

  “Relative?” said Sam.

  “I suppose by your standards it would seem like luxury. But that is not the intent of the academy. It is designed to facilitate efficient learning.”

  “And you were supposed to be sent there?” said Lee.

  “Correct. But there appear to be staffing shortages everywhere. It was thought that with an elementary administrative assignment in a secondary theater of operation, I could do both at once.”

  “Which turned out less elementary than you were led to believe,” said Sam.

  “Correct.”

  “And?” said Lee.

  “And what?”

  “Was that the new spell you were working on?” said Lee. “It certainly looked impressive to me. Was it as good as if you had learned at the arcane academy?”

  “It is far from perfected. But I believe I am making sufficient progress.” Lady Isylnoir grumbled and took a long sip of cold tea. “Which makes me rather cross. Could my success set a precedent?”

  “Oh, it could have been worse. At least you didn’t have to be a monster voyeur!”

  “Lee, you jerk!” Sam shot him a furious glare, wishing she had Shin’s fangs to make her expression more severe. “I didn’t want to see that. I can’t unsee that.”

  Lady Isylnoir cocked her head. “The culture of your world seems oddly abashed over such a simple thing.”

  Lee snorted. “Ha! The prissy elf calls us prudish! I love it!”

  “It’s not funny,” said Sam. She paused a moment, turning to Lady Isylnoir. “Say, you can do magic! Can you cast some kind of memory wipe spell on me?”

  “I’m afraid that’s not the type of magic I do,” said Lady Isylnoir. “But perhaps when we return to town, I can offer you a goblet of sherry.”

  Chapter 23

  Lee pushed open the town hall’s double door and poked his head inside. The small vestibule was empty, save for a coat rack, three pegs of which were occupied.

  “Sam? You here?”

  A faint voice echoed from above. “In the greenhouse. Center door, up the stairs, then the door on the right.”

  Lee hung his cloak on a peg, proceeded through the first door into a long hall which was, in comparison to the outdoors, pleasantly warm. He had made great efforts since their return to Hazelhearth not to let the phrase ‘ogre voyeur’ escape his lips, yet Sam had remained distant, frequently disappearing in the morning and not returning until well past sunset.

  There were two flights of stairs to ascend, followed by a corridor, which was warmer still, and carried the faint scent of sphagnum moss.

  He opened the last door and was hit with a blast of humid air. He stepped through, shutting it behind him. The greenhouse was positively steamy compared with the corridor. It was two stories tall, filled with ferns, rows of tropical trees, and flowering plants which made even the rhododendrons of the surrounding countryside pale in comparison.

  “I guess you repaired the heating system,” he said.

  “Yup. Still needs a few adjustments, but this place really sprang back to life. All this in less than two weeks, can you believe it? It’s like being in the tropics.”

  Lee looked for the source of Sam’s voice, but could not see her through the dense foliage.

  “This place looks bigger on the inside than it did from the outside.” He took a few steps along a narrow, meandering path between trees twice his height with turquoise leaves the size of serving platters. “Where are you?”

  “Over here. It’s no magic: the greenhouse wraps around the back of the building, that’s all. Oh, if you see a giant fuchsia flower with tentacles in the center, don’t touch it.”

  “I’m not a complete idiot, you know. If I see a strange flower—” He stopped himself. Actually it was the sort of thing he might do.

  Lee turned a corner to find Sam and Shin trimming back some dead vines.

  “Don’t move,” said Shin.

  He felt a sharp pressure atop his head, like the tips of six tiny daggers poking his scalp, and froze in place. “Sam, I’m happy to see you’ve brought this place back to life. But I do have two questions.”

  “Which are?”

  “Why is there a dragonfly the size of a bald eagle on my head? And do they bite?”

  “So long as they are handled with respect, they generally do not bite people,” said Shin.

  “It must be attracted to your animal magnetism,” said Sam.

  Shin uttered a pair of sharp whistles and held out his arm. The droning buzz of paddle-sized wings sounded over Lee’s head and six spiky limbs released their grasp on his skull. The dragonfly flew the short distance to land on Shin’s leather-clad arm like a trained falcon. “They emerged from their larval stage nicely. The greenhouse is quite well-suited to housing them.”

  “If they need warm temperatures to survive, how are they gonna help us send messages? In case you haven’t noticed, it’s winter outside this greenhouse.”

  “The dragonflies are actually quite robust,” said Shin. “They just need encouragement to emerge from their larval state.”

  “So aside from my serving as a dragonfly landing pad, why did you send for me?”

  “I could use a hand with the lightning thrower. But honestly, I thought you’d enjoy spending time someplace warm.”

  “Thanks.”

  Sam led Lee to an adjacent room with a pair of workbenches and the lightning thrower, which was mounted on a rolling wooden platform. The device had a brass frame with hundreds of prisms, each the size of a deck of cards.

  Lee stood atop a footstool to peer into the central column, a fat brass tube with a series of lenses in it. He bit back a clever remark about the device being the offspring of a telescope, a lighthouse, and a chandelier, instead simply saying, “Interesting.”

  “I had to build the platform so I could get at it from all sides,” said Sam.

  Lee glanced around Sam’s new workshop. “Almost as big as Gnebnik’s shop, but with the greenhouse next door, it’s a nice cozy temperature in here. I guess working for Lady Isylnoir has its perks.”

  “I think working for her would be a nightmare,” said Sam. “I’ve made it clear that I will work with her, and we seem to have found détente.”

  “You’d know better than I. I can’t get a read on her.”

  “Anyway, could you help me remove these arms? I want to see if I can rework them so they’re adjustable on two axes.”

  “Sure.”

  Six brass arms, each holding a couple dozen prisms, radiated from the base of the device like the spokes of a wheel. Lee supported one of them, while Sam loosened a series of bolts attaching it to the central spindle. With the last bolt free, the arm dropped into Lee’s arms. The four-foot-long arm was more awkward than heavy, but a handful nonetheless.

  “Why are you repairing this thing? Didn’t you say it won’t work without those power crystals?” said Lee.

  “It won’t work as intended, as an autonomous device. But Lady Isylnoir thinks she can still use it as a sort of amplifier. Basically she would serve as the energy source.”

  “So if she’s going to be acting as a sort of living battery… will it hurt her?”

  “Do I sense concern, Leander?” Lady Isylnoir strode into the room.

  Lee nodded at her. “Of course. If you are our last line of defense against an ogre attack, then it’s only natural I show concern.”

  “The optimal solution would of course be to procure proper power crystals.” Lady Isylnoir pulled a thick tome from a shelf, set it on the workbench, and leafed through the pages.

  “Apparently the Empire has standards for grading the various crystals and gems that are used in magical devices and equipment,” said Sam.

  “Ohh, like how interchangeable parts allowed mass production.”<
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  “Yes.”

  “Regrettably, I believe it is unlikely we will be able to procure any properly graded crystals,” said Lady Isylnoir. “However your colleague believes she can modify the mechanical components to allow for the device to function at some level with substandard gems.”

  “Better a poorly-working device than nothing at all, eh?” said Lee.

  “We still need crystals, though,” said Sam. “But we’re hoping one of the nearby cities might be more willing to part with ungraded gems or crystals. The dragonflies are almost strong enough to let us send word.”

  “What about the local mines? Any chance of finding these magic crystals there?”

  “I don’t know,” said Sam. She loosened the first bolt of the next arm. “They mine various metals on a small scale. I’m not a geologist. Maybe we should ask Gnebnik.”

  Lady Isylnoir glanced up from her tome. “There has never been mention of discoveries of that sort in any imperial reports.”

  “Hmm…” Lee bit his lip. “Hypothetically. What would have happened if there had been discoveries?”

  “Crystals are far more valuable than any of the metals they extract at the moment. Mining efforts would have been refocused toward crystals. Resources must be allocated toward the greatest need.”

  Sam removed the last bolt, Lee caught the metallic arm as it dropped free and set it on the workbench next to the first.

  “There are some tools at Gnebnik’s workshop we need. Let’s go back there.”

  Sam furrowed her brow, staring at him a moment long. “You don’t need me for that.”

  “Yes I do. It’s about lunchtime anyway. Tilly has something special today.”

  “Tilly never…” Sam cocked her head. “Ohhh, yes, of course.” She turned to Lady Isylnoir to excuse herself, joining Lee in the hall.

  The town hall’s front door thudded behind them, Sam practically at a jog to keep up with Lee’s long strides.

  “Took you long enough,” said Lee.

  “Subterfuge coming from you? Surprised me is all. So what did you not want Lady Isylnoir to hear?”

  “First let’s confirm my theory, second figure out what to do about it.”