We take the dog back outside the town and bury it as best we can, using sticks to dig in the loam just past the treeline. Bull’s Tavern is surrounded by wilderness. A thin and lazy river runs past. We wash our hands in it and take a small meal on a moss covered rock, watching the water gurgle past. It’s peaceful. A fine last resting place.

We eat in silence and Caedi gets us moving soon after we’ve finished. I can tell she’s still upset about the boy but I can’t tell if she’s bothered more by the death of the dog or the curse.

“Does she talk through you like that often?” I ask. "The goddess?"

Caedi looks down at me and then looks away. “No, never.”

“Oh no,” says Wendy.

“Yes,” says Caedi. “Honestly, the only times I’ve seen or even heard about it happening is when she spoke to us the other day and… today.” She cocks her head and frowns. “It was odd. And she asked first.”

“She did?” asks Wendy.

“Yes, I felt a question,” says Caedi. “It’s the only way I could put it. I agreed and then I felt her anger. The boy didn’t just do something awful, hate-filled, and cruel. He did it as an affront to me, while I was trying to help him and the little dog. I felt her curse when she put it on him. I understood it too. That poor boy will find no one to care for him until he makes it right. If he can.”

“Not even his parents?” I ask.

“No,” says Caedi and there are tears standing in her eyes. “They’ll find him as repulsive as we did after. I’m sure they’ll do their best for him but… they won’t be able feel anything for him.”

“That’s assuming the little cretin even has parents,” says Wendy. “Maybe he can explain it to them.”

“Maybe,” says Caedi, though she doesn’t sound convinced.

“It doesn’t seem that hard,” I say. “Just show someone a little kindness, right?”

“He has to feel it too,” cautioned Caedi. “It shouldn’t be difficult, no.”

“Unless the kid’s as broken as we fear he might be,” says Wendy.

I thought we were trying to cheer Caedi up. Wendy, apparently, has other ideas.

 

 

We get the supplies Hypa wanted with little difficulty and we’re traveling back down the road, almost to the point where we turn into the woods towards the temple when we hear shouts.

Then comes the clash of weaponry and Wendy and I are running toward the sound with Caedi doing her best to keep up. Her legs are longer. Much longer. But she’s bigger and doesn't have our training. She falls behind.

Three wagons are stopped in the middle of the road. The middle one is covered in white canvas like it’s headed for the Oregon Trail. Men and women are fighting in, on, and around them, protecting them from tiny lizard people not much bigger than me and Wendy. Both the caravan guards and its attackers are well armed and armored.

I hear Caedi gasp behind us, “Kobolds!”

As I watch, I see one of the kobold bandits hamstring a guard. She cries out and falls. The bandit cuts her throat.

“Right,” I say. “Fuck the kobolds.”

Wendy nods and then we’re among them.

The wagon we’re closest to is the last one in the line and it’s the worst off with three dying guards and another badly wounded. She’s doing the best she can, holding her belly, and swinging a broken pike, but she won’t last much longer.

Wendy goes right for the wagon but I notice a line of archers on the far side of the road. I make for them and I’m on them before they know I’m there. I punch one in the neck and hear his windpipe collapse. He goes down clutching his throat. I kick the next in the side of the knee, hearing it snap. I’m past him, driving my elbow into the side of the third kobold’s head. His eyes roll back and he falls.

The fourth archer is aiming at me, but I’m too close. I snatch the arrow right off his string and ram it into his eye. Then I turn and snap the neck of the one whose leg I broke. Just like that, all the archers are down.

I see another line of them not fifty feet away, firing at the first wagon.

I look for Wendy and see her toss a kobold over the wagon. Lengthwise.

Caedi is kneeling between the two guardswomen, her eyes closed, one hand on the stomach wound, the other on the other woman's neck, chanting.

“There are too many,” I say. “And too few guards.”

Wendy nods. “Erota,” she says.

Goddammit. It’s bad enough fighting but doing so while sexually aroused is just wrong. Wrong wrong wrong.

Wendy is here. She takes me by the arm. “Focus on the love. We’re protecting people. That’s an act of love. Love, Mark. I love you.”

Her face flushes then and I know she’s started to channel it.

It’s Wendy so I do too, icky or not.

I lead Wendy to the side of the wagons so its bulk is between us and the archers. They’ll have to reposition to shoot at us.

The kobolds have all seen us now. A big one in shiny black armor is barking orders and the little lizard fucks line up. There are ten of them forming a shield wall.

Caedi steps up beside me. She’s got blood on her hands and she’s spinning her staff like Jackie Chan.

An arrow flashes out from the covered wagon and one of the kobolds in their wall goes down. Then the others charge us.

Wendy grins and charges right back, colliding with the wall with a terrific crunch that sounds more like a car crash than anything else.

The sound makes me shudder.

I run up the side of the wagon, kick off, and land behind them.

My foot catches the back of leftmost kobold’s knee, forcing the leg to bend, and down he goes.

The metal end of Caedi’s staff collapses the helm of the kobold next in line.

A dead man lies next to me, his spear in the dirt. I snatch it up, stab the one I felled, spin it, and thrust the blade into the face of the next.

A kobold flies back from the mess surrounding Wendy. He lands five feet away, his breastplate’s now concave. 

I’m sure I look ridiculous with this seven foot spear that’s over twice my size. It’s the first time I’ve ever held a real weapon. It feels both heavier and lighter than it ought to be. The wood of the haft is black, its blade is long and sharp. I think I’m in love with it.

The kobolds, of course, feel very differently. They break and run, leaving half of their number on the ground, unmoving.

I know what’s going to happen next so I jam the spear into the dirt and pick up a couple of rocks and a loose dagger. “Get behind the wagon,” I say to Wendy and Caedi.

They look at me but then they see the kobold leader order the archers to cover their retreat.

I brain one with a rock before they can plant their feet.

Another one goes down with that dagger in his eye.

The next rock thumps into the back of the next archer as they too turn and run, their scowling commander following.

 

 

“Thank the gods,” says a voice behind us as I let my Erota go and start to calm down.

A woman leans on a broken spear. Her leg is wrapped in a bloody bandage. “They set on us just moments ago,” she says. “Ambush.”

A short human man fumbles out of the covered wagon. He’s got a crossbow in his hands. He’s wearing an expensive looking tunic and breeches. There’s a dagger sheathed on his hip. He’s maybe forty-five to fifty years old, gray haired and scowling.

“What’s the damage, captain?” he asks.

The woman grimaces. “Everybody’s hurt, Mr. Frent. We’ll have to turn around and head back.”

“Damn, damn, dammit,” says Frent. “Anybody killed?”

“Three, I think,” says the captain. “I—.”

“Actually, no,” says Caedi. “Five were near death but I was able to stabilize them. They’ll need further healing. You haven't lost anybody.”

"Oh thank the gods," breathes the captain. "Oh, thank you."

“You’re a healer?” asks the captain.

“Yes,” says Caedi. “Let me take a look at your leg.” She squats beside the other woman, puts her hands on the wounds, closes her eyes, and begins to whisper to herself.

The captain winces. She says, “Thank you again.” She looks over at me and Wendy. “And thank you! You did very well. These bandits have plagued the route to—.”

“Bandits?” I say. “They were very well equipped for bandits.”

“Yes, well—,” says the captain but my mind’s going a mile-a-minute.

“You say they’re active in the region? Well equipped and disciplined too. Don’t they seem more like mercenaries to you?” I say.

“Kobold mercenaries?” says the captain. “Not likely.”

Frent looks thoughtful. He says, “Maybe. I’ve never heard the like either, but something was strange about them. I’m Randon Frent, merchant.”

“Nice to meet you,” I say. I look at the wagons. “Setting up shop in the frontier?”

Frent purses his lips. “Yes,” he says. “Bound for Fort Reach. I’m the third merchant to fail to get there, apparently.”

“The third?” I say.

“Well, it is the the frontier,” says Frent. “Full of monsters and brigands. And we’re not twenty minutes outside of Bull’s Tavern.”

Caedi stands up from where she’s been working on the captain’s leg. She says, “You should be fine now. No one else is in danger, but those five will need rest. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you for your kindness,” says the captain. "I don't have much on me for your services, miss, but if you talk to the mayor—." 

“Nonsense,” says Frent. “I'll pay.” He hesitates a moment. “In fact, I’ll pay you even more if you escort us to Fort Reach.”

Caedi says, “I can’t. I must return to my mistress.” She looks at us and is about to say more, but she stops herself. She looks down at the road.

“Is it far?” asks Wendy.

“A day and a half by wagon,” says Frent. “Look, I’ve been asked by Mayor Thalazar himself to make the journey. They need my store. Fort Reach is growing and needs a competitive economy. I have investors from all of the Four Kingdoms and I’m duty-bound to try again and again. You two don’t look like much, if you don’t mind me saying, but you fight like twenty devils.”

Caedi says, “Hypa needs these supplies.”

Wendy nods, “And couldn’t just leave without a word anyway.”

Frent sighs and says, “I’ll pay three times the normal rate and I’ll give you each a letter recommending you to anybody for anything if you’ll help us reach our destination safely. We’ve driven off these bastards but there may be more.”

Caedi says, “I can’t—.”

“I must have the healer,” says Frent. “I’m sorry. It’s the only way this will work.” He points at the spear in my hands. “That spear you carry belongs to the one we brought with us and he's one of the ones who must go back to rest in Bull’s Tavern.”

“I can run the supplies back to Hypa and see what she says,” I say. We don’t have much money in this world at all. I don’t mind doing chores around her place to earn our keep but I’d feel a lot better if I could pay her better once we get back. Especially if we're staying.

I say, “It’s only a couple of days, right? And these people need our help.”

Caedi looks unhappy and uncertain.

Wendy squeezes her arm. “Let’s leave it up to Hypa,” she says. “You were about to head out on your own anyway. For your journeyman work, right?”

Caedi nods and sniffs.

I gather up all the things we bought for Hypa and make sure I know where I’m going. It’s pretty much a straight shot east from here. I figure I can be there and back again before they’re done cleaning up and Caedi’s done healing everybody as much as she can.

It’s determined that the last wagon will turn around with the wounded. The caravan’s healer is an older fellow, late fifties or early sixties. When I offer him back his spear, he tells me, “Keep it. I’ll get another in town. You did more with it in that fight than I’ve managed in the last ten years.”

I thank him and then I speed off into the woods to Hypa’s place.