by Cebelius
Now, instead of a normal dungeon run to retrieve a mostly forgotten treasure, Yuri faced the prospect of invading a military stronghold.
He had cared for the old fillet knife, sharpened it, and fashioned a crude leather sheath for it which he sewed into the back of his belt, leaving the hilt available to him on the right side. He did not ordinarily carry knives — if he were in that close — his claws served him better, but this one he kept on his person.
Just in case.
The wagon rolled along a faded dirt track, but soon they would probably be forced to leave it behind. As they moved, occasional gaps in the trees revealed the three mountain peaks drawn for him on the note he had carefully folded and placed in his pack. They were unmistakable, a trio that lorded over the rest of the Kaldebrekka to either side. In order to reach them, they would have to traverse some lower peaks first, and the thought of an ambush in the passes already had him worrying.
I should have turned around as soon as I heard of the hobgoblins and gone back. I should be telling the herds about this. They would gather a proper horde. I am a monster hunter, not a soldier. I do not know if this is something I can handle.
Not for the first he glanced around, reassuring himself by the presence of his companions.
Euryale was unkillable, and virtually unstoppable. Twisted had limits, but would also be exceedingly hard to kill. Asturial would send a proxy in with them and so be protected should she be destroyed. Laina was the most vulnerable among them, yet she was a titan of muscle and wielded a legendary battle ax. Realistically, they presented a formidable challenge, but Yuri knew better than to trust that. Dungeons were always dangerous, even when they weren't infested with a race of fearsome warriors that could bring a new generation to bear on the world every two years instead of every twenty.
There was a very real chance he would not survive what was to come. He had always lived with that chance, but it weighed on him now more than ever. His adventures with Mila had been the fulfillment of a wish for himself, and the risks that came along with that had been easy to accept. The fact that he knew he would have to settle into the role of chieftain once his quest was accomplished had added savor to his journey.
Now he was fighting on behalf of something greater than himself, greater than his tribe. It was quite possible that the fate of Celestine rested on his success.
That was why he didn't turn around, didn't leave Svartheim's fate with the tauren herd leaders. He would not lead that horde when it came, and with it present there was little chance he would be able to find and take the sword for Terry. It would almost certainly be lost.
He would tell everyone about the hobgoblins ... but only after he personally had Tyrfing secure in his possession.
"I know this might not really be appropriate, Chief, but if you get any more gloomy it's gonna start rainin'."
Blinking, his ears perked and twisted toward Laina as he glanced at her and grinned self-consciously, his tail thumping the backboard behind him.
"Ah, sorry. There is ... a lot to think about."
Laina leaned out past the edge of the wagon, glancing back and around before looking back at him with a smirk as she said, "Maybe you should think about Twisted instead."
The insides of his ears heated up as he said, "We are ... only sleeping together. Nothing more."
"Uh huh. Only sleeping together, but every time she comes back from the hunt what's the first thing she does?"
Yuri's ears now felt hot enough to cook meat. "I am sure she would do the same thing for Boss if it were him sitting here instead of me."
Laina shrugged and looked forward again as she said, "I'm not, but it doesn't matter because Boss isn't here. You are."
She smiled and said, "I think she's sweet on you."
The fact that his tail began to weave against the boards was entirely unconscious, but he glanced around on his side of the wagon before lowering his voice to admit, "I am certainly fond of her. She smells ... amazing."
Laina chuckled and rolled her eyes skyward. "Well, whatever gets you goin'. I'm happy for you both."
"There is nothing there," he protested, though mentally he added 'yet.'
Both Laina and Yuri glanced forward in surprise as Asturial said without even looking back, "Yet."
"We are on a life-and-death quest to retrieve a sword with the fate of Celestine in the balance, and you are all thinking about my prospects?" Yuri said in exasperation.
Euryale leaned out of the wagon and wrapped her arms around Yuri's shoulders, resting on him as she said, "We all like you. It's not like we don't understand how truly unfair it is to you that all these beautiful women you're traveling with are taken. And I personally really want you to be happy."
One of her snakes pecked him on the cheek before she extricated herself, adding, "You're due."
Yuri sat still, shocked more than anything at the Madsee's casual touch, then he burst out laughing. There was no other reaction that really fit.
"Thank you," he said after taking a moment to recover. "I did not know I was held in such high regard."
Laina gave him a friendly thump on the shoulder and grinned as she said, "My family gets my milk for free. Everyone else pays full price. If that doesn't tell you how much I like you, there's not much else I can say."
Yuri couldn't help but smile at that.
Noon passed, and they came to a place where the trail bent away from their destination. Yuri asked Asturial to draw the wagon off the trail and park it. As they went about the process of unloading the gear they would carry on foot, Twisted loped up to join them, her gray fur now streaked with black highlights.
She stood up, her body rearranging itself with a speed that still caught Yuri by surprise as she strode purposefully up to him.
His ears heated a bit again as he tilted his head to one side and waited as she buried her nose in his fur. He took the opportunity to taste her scent as well, and when she backed off he commented, "Another good hunt."
"Just a few rabbits, nothing big enough to bring any back," she said with a shrug, looking around. "Why are we unpacking? It's early."
"We are leaving the trail. The trees will be too thick to take the wagon, so we will be leaving that as well."
Asturial, who was lazing as she watched the others unload, said, "I could carry you up and over the saddle of the mountain. Now that we know where we are going, it would certainly be faster."
"Speed is not our greatest concern," Yuri began, but as he turned to look he paused to watch Euryale pulling her bow out of the back of the wagon.
One of her snakes met his gaze and shook its head slightly, so he finished his turn and said, "I am more concerned with going as far as we possibly can without being discovered."
As he spoke, he kept an eye on Euryale, who drew an arrow from her quiver, set it to the string, and took a careful step from the back of the wagon. Her snakes were spread wide around her head. Most of them were about three feet long, and just as he realized she was using one of them to see around the edge of the wagon, she fired straight through the canvas.
Yuri followed her aim in time to see a goblin collapsing with an arrow through its throat.
"Was that the only one?" Yuri asked, eyes searching. He didn't bother to ask why Twisted hadn't warned them because the faintest traces of a breeze were at his back. They were upwind of the dying goblin.
"The only one I see," Euryale said, her snakes already fanned out as she replaced her second arrow in its quiver before settling it on her hip.
Yuri nodded and said, "Twisted."
"Okay."
Without another word she shifted in mid-run, heading out to do a wide circle around them. Her hunting had the dual purpose of sniffing out scouts or others who might be watching for travelers. She had seen and killed a few wargs and one other goblin over the course of the last several days, but it was even more important that such scouts be put down now that their destination would be increasingly obvious.
Asturial
's golden-eyed gaze was steady as she asked, "Still want to walk? The odds of our getting all the way over the mountains without being discovered are slim, Yuri."
"If you carry us, or even take to the air now, they will spot us for certain. If this were a normal dungeon run I would accept your offer, but we must reach this place without being detected. The presence of hobgoblins makes surprise essential to our success."
"Why?" Euryale asked. "I can kill them all, no matter how many there are."
He shook his head and said, "Of that I am certain, but if they realize we cannot be destroyed they will flee, and they will take all the treasures of Svartheim, including the sword we need, with them."
By the time they had their gear packed — most of it in Marcus' old bottomless bag — Twisted returned.
"There was another goblin trying to build a fire, but I killed him before he got it started. I didn't smell any others in the area."
"Goblins use smoke to signal. I think we are still in the clear. We should move quickly though, and there will be no fires unless we can be sure they won't be seen.
"Thank you, Twisted," he added, giving her a nod. "You may just have saved this entire expedition."
Euryale cleared her throat pointedly, and Yuri turned to see a blank wooden mask surrounded by a corona of black snakes staring him down.
"Ah, yes, of course. A team effort. Thank you, Euryale."
Laina started chuckling as she fixed Marcus' shield onto her shoulders and said, "Well, let's get goin', Chief."
She was also carrying her legendary ax on her back, and Yuri shouldered the bottomless bag that carried most of their gear and nodded. Twisted, Euryale, and Asturial were more than adequate to respond to any immediate threats, far more so than himself, so he took up the role set aside for him without complaint.
Pack-mule.
Yuri's paranoia served them well over the next three days, which were filled with hard travel.
Time and again his instincts, Euryale's keen eyesight, or Twisted's nose revealed scouts that they were able to dispatch before any warning could be given.
They reached the saddle of the mountains and before them lay the tripartite peak on the far side of a long, forested valley. From where they stood just below the ridge, Yuri could see a long line of chalky white that switchbacked up the slope to what appeared from their vantage to be a plateau. It was higher up than they were, so the only detail he could see of it from where they were was a pair of stone towers that flanked the top of the path.
Yuri pointed as he said, "There. It will be there."
Asturial had long since fully restored her proxy body, and she glanced at Yuri and said, "Surely now you would not object to a swift advance? We will not make it up that slope unseen."
"Actually, I believe that is exactly what will happen," Yuri said quietly. He'd had three days to think about their approach, and the fact that the dungeon had such a long, completely exposed road solidified his plan. He was not like Terry Mack. He did not have a problem killing those who stood in his way.
He turned to Euryale and said, "I believe it is time for you to use your power to its fullest potential. I want you to take off your mask, fly across the valley in plain sight, and land in front of the dungeon. Kill everything. Once it is done, stay there and slaughter any who come out before we arrive. We will cross the valley with Asturial's help, staying below the line of the plateau, and finish our ascent on foot. Once the last sliver of the sun has set beyond the mountains but before full dark, don your mask again and we will rejoin you."
Euryale's mask was fixed upon him, her snakes weaving as they gazed both at him and everything else. Finally she spoke, and there was a dark eagerness in her voice that was almost erotic in its tone.
"I think that ... is a splendid idea."
Asturial was staring at Yuri as though seeing him for the first time. When he raised an eyebrow at her, she shrugged and said, "I cannot object to this plan. I just ... suppose I had gotten used to Terrence's soft-hearted approach to life. This tactic of yours is utterly ruthless, and very likely to succeed."
"We will not be able to make much use of Euryale's gift once we are in the dungeon. There are too many ways for something to go wrong, but I will use all of you as best I can. We are not here to make friends."
He turned back to Euryale, who now stared hungrily at her destination, and asked, "Be slow crossing the valley. We will stay hidden for a full five minutes. Will that be enough time?"
"Certainly," she said, still with that dark smile in her voice. "I'll scream if there's trouble. In that case, stay hidden until I scream again."
Anyone else Yuri might have questioned about whether or not such a signal would be heard, but not Euryale. Her scream was both absurdly loud, and utterly unforgettable.
He turned to Twisted to warn her about Euryale, only to see that she was already hiding behind a boulder out of sight of the gorgon. He remembered that she'd already been petrified once, and shrugged as he said, "Twisted has the right idea. Everyone find a place and settle in. Once the time has elapsed, we will do whatever Asturial asks to get us across the valley. The sun will be down in half an hour. Any questions?"
There were none, and Laina joined Twisted behind her boulder with Asturial close behind. That left very little room for Yuri, so he chose another sizable rock a bit higher up on the slope.
As he settled in, Twisted scrabbled up the path and joined him, cuddling in close as she whimpered. Yuri understood completely, and wrapped an arm around her.
Euryale never screamed, and when the time was up, Asturial cast a spell and then literally leapt off the mountainside toward the valley far below. She disappeared among the trees, and even from where they were, the earth trembled subtly as she resumed a measure of her true size.
When she came for them, she was only a third as large as she could be, and her idea for carrying them involved nothing more complex than weaving her fingers together and having everyone hold on.
It was insanely dangerous, but since going into Svartheim at all was even worse, Yuri agreed and they all clambered into her palms. Laina wrapped her arms around one of Asturial's thumbs, and the rest of them straddled one or another of her fingers, their legs fitting through the gaps.
They took off with a lurch. Yuri did the sensible thing and kept his eyes closed until a second lurch announced they were on solid ground once more.
With ten minutes to spare, they had nothing to do but wait just below the crest at the top of the path. They could see most of the towers he'd spotted from across the valley, along with the top of a rough stone wall. There would be a gate there for certain, and the construction looked recent. It was also eerily silent and still, which he took for a good sign.
Asturial said, "I will go to the valley below and reassume my full size, then send a proxy in with you while I survey the mountains for a perch. I do not anticipate this delve will exceed my range."
Since this is what Yuri anticipated from her, he simply nodded and she flew away.
"So ... this place is pretty much just a labyrinth underground, right?"
"Essentially. Most of the time when I go into places like this, I have a map drawn by delvers who have gone before, not to mention a guide. This will be made more difficult for that lack. Unintelligent inhabitants do not typically lay traps, but goblins are famous for them, so we will need to be very careful."
Twisted nodded, then said, "We need to fight soon."
He blinked, glancing at her in time to see her running her fingers over her darkening fur as she said, "I really need to hear someone scream."
"You will get your chance," Yuri said quietly. "Very soon."
The sun set, and in the fading light of evening Yuri, Twisted, and Laina crested the slope onto the plateau.
The wall was about ten feet tall, the two towers were twice that. The wooden doors were not very weathered and built of pine from the forest below. Yuri glanced at Laina and said, "The Ax of the Great Plains was not made
for woodcutting ... but it will do."
"Yeah, I figure you're right," Laina said, slipping the shield from her back before hefting her ax in both hands as she advanced on the gate.
Her first swing cut through two planks entirely and bit deep into the brace holding it closed on the other side. Another two swings, and the doors of the gate shuddered and swung inward a few feet before the broken brace dragging on the ground to either side stopped them.
Yuri was impressed despite the fact that he had expected good results. He wasn't an expert at siege, but was fairly confident a battering ram couldn't have gotten through that gate any faster.
Slipping through, he pulled the splintered remains of the brace out and threw them away, then considered the gate thoughtfully a moment before he said, "Would you mind completely destroying this? I do not want it in the way if we come out here needing to make good a fast escape."
"Wouldn't Asturial be able to carry us off?" Laina asked.
"Better to have a route we do not need than need it and not have it," Yuri replied.
"Good point."
It took Laina less than five minutes to completely destroy the gate.
By then, the heavy sound of Asturial's wings announced her, and she landed with a heavy thump on the plateau between their gate and a second set of fortifications that girded the cliff about a hundred yards away. Between this wall and that there was literally nothing: no grass, no rocks, nothing. The plateau had been swept completely clean to make it a killing field with nowhere to hide.
The military efficiency of the place would have given away its inhabitants even if Yuri had no other warning.
Asturial paused only a moment before she took off again. Thankfully, she had taken the time to dress her proxy this time, and as she approached, she took the shield from Laina without a word before the four of them advanced across the field.
Once Asturial's war body was gone, the only sound was the soft crunching of their footsteps and the soulful moan of the breeze over bare rock.
