The brighter light on the second floor faded slightly as it moved from one window to the other, and then vanished. Johan could just make out sounds coming from the bashed-open doorway. The scuffing of boots on a wooden floor, heavy footfalls. The sound of a possible struggle.
Six.
And then abruptly, all was quiet.
Three
Johan drew his sword.
Zero.
“Move!” Johan whispered to Vegard, and together they ran towards the house, up the stairs, and into the soft light of the house interior. His eyes adjusted almost immediately to the light of the house, and he saw the aftermath of what he had heard. Two men lay sprawled on the floor, lakes of pooling blood forming around them from slit throats. Garm was crouching next to one, wiping clean a thin, long-bladed knife of them as Johan came in, and he looked up at his Commander.
“It's over sir.” He looked down at the fallen men, an almost apologetic look on his face. “Uh, they were sitting next to the door sir. Didn't have a lot of time to react, they got between Alek and me. Couldn't have them slowing him down.”
“Where is Alek?”
“Next room over,” Garm said as he stood. “He's got Kian. Alive,” Garm said hurriedly, glancing at Johan.
“Gods, that was fast,” Vegard said under his breath.
“Yeah, Tiny can move pretty fast in a pinch,” Garm agreed.
“Garm, signal to the others that it's safe to come in. I'm going to go have a little talk with our new friend.” Garm saluted and stepped past Vegard and Johan as he walked out of the broken front door. Johan shared a look with the medico and they both walked into the next room.
Three lone candles provided the dim illumination in the room they walked into. But it was enough light to see Alek holding a man by the throat with one arm, pinning him against the wall. A pair of cruel daggers were on the floor to either side, discarded by the man who Alek held. Johan tried hard not to stare at the four inches that separated the man's feet from the floor of the house.
“If this is a burglary,” the man said, his voice hoarse and strained, “let me say that you guys really picked the wrong house.”
“Please set the man down,” Johan said casually, and Alek obliged. The man, red-faced, clutched his throat for a moment, coughing and gasping. “Take your time gathering yourself,” Johan said, keeping his voice conversational. “We have quite a few questions to ask of you, Mr. Kian.”
The man's eyes flashed for a fraction of a second, but he composed himself quickly. Johan was impressed. “Kian? Sorry bloke, name's Eidsel. So I take it this isn't a burglary? Don't know who this Kenya person you're looking for is, but I'm just a porter.”
“A porter. Really. Well I don't know too many porters who keep keep armed men next to his from door,” Johan said dryly.
“Those are, ah, my sister’s boys,” Kian said. “They like looking after me. On account of my bum leg here.” He gestured to his right leg.
“Oh, so you're a porter with a bad leg. Tell me, how do you carry your master's belongings with such a leg?”
“Well,” Kian said grinning, “I never said I was a good porter. Howsabout we shake hands and go our separate ways. You go find your friend elsewhere, and I continue living my life. If it sweetens the deal any, I have a purse on me. Fifty silver pennies, all yours. I won't even tell my master about this.”
“Answer some questions for us and maybe we'll consider letting you go.”
Kian's face darkened in rage. He was almost beet red now, and Johan couldn't tell if it was because Alek had been choking him or due to anger.
“Look friend,” Kian spat, “lets drop the shit. I tried to give you an out, but you had to be a smug little asshole. So here's how it is. You've already lost. You may think you know who you are piking with, but you are seriously wrong. I'm not answering shit for you, because I'm a dead man one way or another, and so are all of you now. Dead. All of you. You just haven't hit the ground yet.”
“I don't believe what I'm hearing,” Garm's voice broke in from behind Johan. “You stole my line you little punk? How many years you been saying that now that I'm gone?”
The change in Kian's face was startling. All of the red-faced anger vanished as the blood drained from his face as he heard Garm's voice. Garm’s slow, heavy footfalls preceded him as he walked into the room. As he approached, Johan watched as Kian backed up against the wall like a cornered child. All of the previous contempt and rage was gone, replaced by pure fear. Garm stood next to Johan, his arms folded.
“Kian,” he rumbled. “You’re looking well. How’s the leg?”
Kian looked from Garm to Johan, panicking as if they were two cobras ready to strike. He licked his lips before speaking.
“Uh, hey Garm. Didn’t expect to see you. Um, ever. Thought you were in the Legions now?”
“Still am, actually,” Garm said. “Matter of fact, we’re here on Legion business. See, my Commander here is looking for Yue. And since you and I go way back, I suggested to him that you’d be the guy to talk to. Which means you’re going to tell us where he is, and when he is going to be there.”
“You know I can’t do that,” Kian whispered, despair in his voice.
Garm sighed and took a step forwards. Kian backpedaled, sliding along the wall into the corner of the room like a dog that knew he was about to be punished.
“Kian,” Garm warned, “there’s a timetable involved now. The sooner you tell my Commander what he wants to know, the sooner I leave. The sooner I leave, the sooner you can change your pants and count how many digits you have left.” He drew his long, thin stiletto knife, and Kian’s eyes bulged when he saw the blade. “Oh,” Garm said, looking at the blade as if seeing it for the first time. “Oh yeah, I kept this. Couldn’t bring myself to get rid of your farewell present, you know? “
Johan started to feel unease spreading within him. They needed Kian alive, and Garm’s tone and mannerisms were growing far more animated than he’d ever seen. There was apparently a lot of history between the two of them, and Johan knew that if the scarred man chose to go all the way and settle whatever score there was between them, none of the Outriders would be able to stop him. Except maybe Alek, but even then, Johan didn’t want to find out.
“Garm,” he said, a warning in his voice. It seemed to have some effect on Garm. Some of the tension seemed to go out of his shoulders.
“Ten years,” Garm said softly, sliding his empty hand over his bald head. “Ten years I spent in the Legions, hiding. Keeping my head down. Dreaming about…wondering when…if…I’d get a chance to see my old friends again. Don’t worry, Commander. I won’t spoil our opportunity. I know my orders. It’s too important. Bigger than what I’ve got going on inside of me. I won’t cross the line.” After those words, Something shifted in Kian’s posture and expression. Was it hope? Johan couldn’t tell. But part of Kian seemed to think he was going to get away. Garm seemed to notice it also, and there was a loaded silence for a handful of seconds as he locked eyes with Kian. Garm took a step forward. “He’ll still be able to talk when I’m done.”
Johan opened his mouth to order Garm away when Kian broke down.
“No! Wait!” Kian yelped, as tears began to flow. He had a hand extended as if to ward Garm away. “Wait gods damn you! I’ll talk! Just not to him! Please, keep him away and I’ll tell you what I know!” Kian sank to the floor and softly sobbed to himself.
Garm turned and, grinning at the Outriders, walked back into entrance as Alek and Vegard clapped softly in mock cheer.
“Alright then,” Johan said. “The Underking. I want everything. Possible locations, times, manpower. All of it.”
“Fine,” Kian whimpered. “But you’re going to have to keep me safe, you hear?”
“Garm isn’t who you should be worrying about now,” Johan replied.
“I don’t just mean him!” Kian shouted. “I’m a dead man now unless you protect me.”
Johan shrugged. “I’ll do what I can, I promise. But like
Garm said, we're on a schedule.”
Kian rose to his feet, but his shoulders were hunched. He nodded once. “Let us at least sit on the chairs. And I’ve got a bottle of wyrmsblood in the kitchen. Have one of your killers fetch it, would you? The last thing I want to do is piss away the only life I’ve ever known while stone sober.”
Kian and the Outriders had a short conversation. Short but informative. Kian told them everything he knew about the current situation, but it turned out the Underking was more suspicious and paranoid than even Garm remembered. As Kian spilled his guts, the other Outriders listened intently, occasionally asking questions. Even Garm, who had to listen in the next room. Whenever Kian saw the scarred man, he froze up and started trembling. Whatever had happened between the two of them must have been incredible, Johan thought.
“So,” Kian slurred out between drinks, “now that my life is over, just how to you plan to keeping me alive?”
“I gave you my word that I would,” Johan said. “That will have to do for now.”
“Pike that,” Kian shouted. “Your word isn’t shit to me, especially now you got what you want!”
“Shut up Kian,” Garm’s voice called out from the kitchen. “The Commander keeps his word.”
Just hearing Garm’s voice caused Kian to flinch down, like a dog awaiting a kick.
“Keep drinking,” Ryker told Kian. “The grownups have to go talk. Alek, keep an eye on him.”
The Outriders all walked into the kitchen where Garm was cleaning up the mess from the two thugs he had killed earlier. Alek leaned against one side of the doorway, able to see into the kitchen and watch Kian at the same time.
“Thoughts,” Johan prompted them, keeping his voice low.
“If the Underking’s manor is where I think it is,” Toma said, “we can make it there in just a few hours. We can get a bit of sleep then hit them before sunrise. If we’re going to do it, that’d probably be the best time.”
“Agreed,” Johan said, nodding. “Anyone else?”
“Going to be a little risky going with just the six of us,” Vegard said. “Do we wait for Roy’s unit? They could be here in three days.”
“If I was afraid of things being a little risky,” Ryker said, “I’d have joined the navy.”
That got a chuckle out of them. “That, and in three days the Underking will probably be gone,” Johan said. “Kian said he’s only in the area for a few business deals, then who knows where he will be.”
“I think the kid’s plan is our only real option sir,” Garm said. “We ride tonight, make camp, hit them in the morning. No use dragging this out.”
“What about our new friend in there?” Alek asked from the doorway. “Guy’s already passed out on the sofa.”
“Tie him up, gag him, and cover his face,” Johan said. “Toma? Get your running legs ready. Go to the courier post, and send their fastest man to Commander Royalt’s Outrider barracks. Give Roy the location of the Underking’s manor and tell him that we have a prisoner that needs securing here in town. Then they should link up with us at the Underking's location. At the very least they should check in on him after we remand him to the local Watch for the time being.”
“Thought you didn’t trust them,” Toma said.
“I trust Royalt and his guys. The Watch, on the other hand, I don’t. Not really. But we aren’t going to tell them who he really is, only that he’s a Legion prisoner we need them to keep an eye on for a few days while we are in the field. This kills two birds with one stone, actually. Once we take the Underking’s house, we’ll fortify it until Roy and his men show up. Then we can transport the Underking and any other prisoners back to Tethis in force. At some point we’ll send someone to pick up Kian, but he’s rather small potatoes in this game.”
“Yes sir,” Toma said. He saluted and turned and sped out of the house.
Johan turned to the rest of the Outriders, a small grin on his face. “Now, by my right as a Commander in the Legions of the Dominion, I hereby claim this fortress to be the spoils of war, won due to the hard-fought courage of mine own men.” The Outriders looked at him, confusion on their faces. Johan sighed. Sometimes his men had no flair for the dramatic. “Go,” he said, making shoo’ing motions with his hands. “Loot the gods damn place. Anything of value you can carry is yours. Anything that looks mission critical bring to me. You all have until Toma gets back.”
The Outriders grinned like schoolboys given a holiday, and scattered throughout the house with all the subtlety of a herd of cattle. Johan sat in the chair across from the sofa that Kian occupied. He listened with half an ear as his men sacked the house, but he never took his eyes off the bound, passed out man, nor did he take his hand off the hilt of his sword. After a handful of moments, Toma opened the front door breathing heavily. The young man saw Johan sitting, and cocked his head at the loud commotion the other Outriders were making.
“Sir?” he asked. “What did I miss?”
Johan simply smiled and rose to his feet. “Fall in!” he yelled, and within ten seconds the other four Outriders were lined up in front of their Commander. Judging simply from the looks on their faces, Johan could tell they didn’t find much. Alek held a simple locket in one massive hand, and a sack loaded with food from the pantry. Vegard had also helped ransack the pantry, taking the few bottles of alcohol it contained. Johan raised an eyebrow at him.
“For sterilizing wounds,” Vegard said, grinning.
Garm had scooped up Kian’s daggers, and had a journal of some kind he was stuffing into his pack.
“It’s personal sir, not of any operational value,” he said.
Ryker looked glum, his hands empty. “A few silver pennies,” the lieutenant said. “Bastard wouldn’t have been able to follow through on the bribe he promised us.”
“Wait a minute,” Toma said, “I had to go run to the courier while you guys got to loot the place? Gods damn my luck.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Vegard said, “there wasn’t much here. You have the best prize of all, actually.”
“Oh yeah?” Toma asked, disbelief in his voice. “And what was that?”
“The gift of fitness and youth,” Vegard chuckled.
Johan chuckled and pointedly ignored the obscene gesture Toma shot at the medico. He looked at Alek. “What’s the locket for?”
The large man looked down at the necklace in his hand. It looked comically small compared to the size of the hand that held it. “Oh, this?” Alek’s face flushed a little. “I, uh, was thinking about giving it to Edda. You know, next time I see her. There’s nothing fancy in it or anything, but it’s gold and girls like gold stuff for presents...I think?”
“That would be Ryker’s field of expertise, not mine,” Johan said. But it did ring a bell in his head somewhere. He should get something for Nerthus next time he saw her too. Exchanging letters was great and all, but a woman like her probably needed something a little more meaningful and exciting than just words.
“I think I’ll not pester the lieutenant with this,” Alek grinned.
“I dunno,” Toma said. “He knows quite a bit about women.”
“Why thank you,” Ryker said.
“No problem,” Toma replied, his voice helpful. “I mean, I see you giving coins to them all the time.” Toma’s face twisted in mock introspection. “Although, is it still considered a ‘gift’ if it’s payment?”
“Hey!” Ryker exclaimed. The Outriders all laughed, except for Ryker. “Zinged by Toma,” he muttered. “Gods, I’m losing my touch.”
“Alek?” Johan asked. “Would you kindly carry our new friend here?” Alek nodded and picked up the passed out man with little effort. “Garm, did you hide the bodies of those two doormen?”
“Yes sir,” Garm replied. “Stuffed them in an empty closet.”
“Good. Alright gentlemen,” Johan said. “Let’s get gone.”
After depositing Kian with the local watch and giving them one of Kian's silver pennies each to keep qui
et, Johan led the Outriders back to the Rickets. They gathered up the rest of their gear, loaded up their horses, and quietly slipped out of town. The Underking' manor was less than half a dozen miles to the west of Coula, slightly off the main road. The Outriders had actually patrolled past it quite a few times in their six months stationed in Coula, but thought little of it. The area was reserved for large plantation-like farms, and the Underking’s manor was surrounded by vegetable fields. According to Kian, it was one of many legitimate holdings the Underking owned in some way. This particular manor had, in addition to its vegetables, a small marshland where certain alchemical reagents were grown, plus a small vineyard. While the manor was at the center of the plot of land, all of the workers and craftsmen lived in small communal housing just inside the surrounding forest on the western side. The manor, for the most part, was empty save for a few stewards and a guard or two. However, with the Underking himself there, Kian warned that there would be around a dozen or so men under arms with him, plus his personal mage.
Johan’s plan was for them to take the main road most of the way to the fields, and then cut through the forest, approaching the manor from the east where it was closest to the forest. That would give them maximum cover. After that, however, was where Johan was stymied. One option was that they could straight up assault the manor house. In a straight up numbers scenario, the situation actually favored the Outriders. Granted, they had a two-to-one disadvantage, but they would have surprise on their side, they’d be attacking just before sunrise, and they had Garm and Aleksander. But they’d be attacking a highly defensible position, manned by loyal, trained men. Plus add to that the extra wild card of the Underking’s pet mage, and things seemed dicey. Toma said he and Leonid had created a means to fight mages without magic of their own, but he had also said that he was still nervous about how well it would work. If at all. Kian had had little information to offer on the subject. Kian hadn’t known just how powerful the mage was, his specialty, or even his name. It was possible that the mage wasn’t too formidable, that he was merely there to lend intimidation to the Underking’s dealings. But Johan did not want to take that chance, not with the lives of his men at stake.
Chasing Down Glory: The Outrider Legion: Book Two Page 20
