Chapter 218: Disturbing Report

 

  Lord Marek’s council had gathered in the command tent to discuss the recent ongoings of Dusk Valley and to receive the latest reports of the scouts who had only arrived this morning. 

  Nokti glanced at the men and women sitting across the table from her. Marek seemed tired, dark bags hung under his eyes. It had been a long autumn for the tribe, and the first winter snows had only made everything worse. She felt a pang in her heart, a part of her wanted to hug Marek and comfort him. But she buried that piece of her deep inside, she had a purpose now, a duty; the safety of the Ebon Realm was more important than her feelings for a past love.

  Grim seemed... well, grim she supposed. After the axlean had lost an arm to the lamia traitor, the elemental mage had never been the same. Grim had always been a bit of recluse, but now any hint of warmth was gone from his milky-white eyes.

  The elf, Kyriil seemed bored. He fiddled with his fingers as they waited for the scout to arrive. Dawn and Vaughn were expressionless as always, Nokti still felt unnerved by the creepy twins every time she looked at them. 

  Caligo, or Crow, as the others knew him, sat next to her, sleeping it seemed. His avian skull mask covered his entire head, hiding his silver hair and child-like face. No one could see what he was ever thinking, but then again, even without the mask Nokti doubted anyone knew what he was thinking except for, perhaps, Lin Lu. The snow-white fox was curled up in Crow’s lap, sleeping peacefully. The fact that no one else could see the fox still boggled Nokti.

  The tent flaps flipped open, a woman dressed in a pale green garment ran into the tent and stumbled to a halt in front of the council. 

  She immediately turned to Marek and bowed low, “My lord. Captain Mabel reporting for duty!”

  “Forget the formalities,” Marek waved his hand weakly.

  He’s more tired than I thought, Nokti noted to herself.

  “You are in charge of all our scouts in the North and West of Dusk Valley, yes?” Marek asked.

  “Yes, my lord,” Mabel nodded. “I came as soon as I gathered all the reports from my scouts.”

  “Then what are you waiting for? On with it,” Marek tapped the table.

  “Yes, my lord,” Mabel pulled out a long roll of paper and laid it flat across the table.

  Nokti stared at the map of Dusk Valley with wide eyes. “Is that…?”

  Mabel nodded glumly, “The yellow markings are where the armies of Hollow Shade attacked a Valley tribe. The orange markings are where they attacked outposts of our own Cairn Tribe.”

  “Holy shit, the entire West and North sections are covered in orange and yellow!” Kyriil exclaimed.

  “Hollow Shade’s armies have tripled since spring and they are only growing by the day,” Mabel said.

  Marek ran his hands through his golden hair, “Dammit…”

  Grim pointed a long grey finger at the dozens of red circles on the map. “What are the red markings?”

  Mabel took a shaky breath, “The red circles are where a Valley tribe’s outpost was completely wiped out, no survivors…”

  Dawn whistled, “That’s a lot of people.”

  “A lot of dead,” Vaughn muttered.

  “Several of the Northern Valley tribes have already been wiped out,” Mabel said quietly.

  “Our Valley has been plunged into a bloodbath,” Nokti clenched her teeth.

  “We need to group up, all the tribes,” Marek said. “It’s the only chance we have to survive Hollow Shade’s armies.” 

  “Except none of the other chieftains want to meet with us,” Vaughn said.

  “It’s understandable,” Nokti sighed. “They blame us for this entire war. I wouldn’t want to meet with us either.”

  “Stingy bastards,” Kyriil cursed.

  “Why do we need to parley with them in the first place?” Grim asked. “Can’t we just keep attacking the tribes into submission? Absorb their remnants into our own army? We’re already the strongest tribe in the Valley.”

  “It wouldn’t work,” Marek shook his head. “We can’t fight the other tribes and Hollow Shade both. We’ll lose. We need the tribes to join us willingly.”

  “And how are we supposed to do that?” Grim asked.

  “We need the Adder Tribe,” Dawn said. “They are the most respected of the tribes. If we get their endorsement the other tribes will rally to us. If all the Valley tribes gather together, we’ll have the largest army in the entire Ebon Realm.”

  “Except the Adder Tribe refuses to meet with us,” Marek sighed. “After we failed to show up and meet with them on the Summer Solstice, they have cut off all communication with us. No envoys, no messenger birds, nothing.”

  “Right, I almost forgot,” Grim glanced at Kyriil and the sleeping Crow, “You two fucked up the meeting.”

  “Hey, we got fucking attacked by a group of master mages!” Kyriil yelled. “At least I didn’t get my ass whooped by one snake girl!”

  “You piece of shit!” Grim roared and stood to his feet. He towered over the rest by several feet.

  “Enough!” Vaughn raised his voice.

  Grim and Kyriil froze. The hybrid arch-mage never shouted. Grim sat down and mumbled something under his breath.

  “My lord, any thoughts?” Vaughn asked.

  Marek stayed quiet for a moment before answering, “We can’t fight the Adder people, they are the only tribe with an army large enough to oppose us. We need to find a diplomatic solution.”

  “Says the man who hatched a bunch of monster babies and started a war with a fucking Great City,” Kyriil muttered. “I don’t get paid enough for this.”

  “But you’re more than happy enough to fuck the woman of our tribe, huh?” Nokti sneered.

  “An elf needs his comforts, okay? What’s wrong with that?” Kyriil shrugged.

  “Does he need his balls too?” Nokti asked. “Because if you don’t stop talking I’m going to rip them right off between those skinny legs!”

  “Gods I don’t have the energy to deal with this right now,” Marek groaned.

  Mabel coughed and cleared her throat.

  “Is there something you want to add?” Marek raised an eyebrow.

  “Um, my lord. There was one more detail regarding my report. Although, it doesn’t seem very important in retrospect… It’s most likely nothing.”

  “Out with it, we don’t have time to waste,” Marek said.

  Mabel shuffled her feet and stared at the floor, “One of my scouts came across a village far out to the west, it was closer to the Rupture Mountains than Dusk Valley really.”

  “And?” Marek asked.

  “The village was utterly destroyed,” Mabel said. “Not a single building was left standing. There was only one survivor, a farmer who lived on the village outskirts. When our scout talked to the farmer, he seemed shocked, he could barely speak. Our scout managed to get one word out of the farmer, just one.”

  Mabel swallowed, “Dragons.”

  Kyriil burst into laughter, “Huh? You think dragons burned down some random village? What is this? The Amber Realm?”

  “I hate to admit it, but the stupid elf has a point,” Nokti sighed.

  Marek frowned, “Captain Mabel, you said this happened in the far west? It couldn’t have been one of the Valley tribes, they would have no reason to raid, let alone destroy an entire innocent village that pays no tribute to Hollow Shade.”

  “Wait, so you actually think it was dragons!?” Kyrill yelled.

  “I didn’t say that,” Marek rolled his eyes. “Let’s try to be productive for a moment, yeah?”

  “It was in the far west, it could have been one of Undergrowth’s armies,” Dawn said.

  “True, but Undergrowth usually doesn’t send its forces out of Glimmer Grove forest,” Vaughn said. “If that village was near the Rupture Mountains, depending on how far North, it could have been one of Frost Rim’s battalions.”

  “Or it could have been a frost giant tribe coming down from the mountains,” Grim said. “I hear they are sometimes sighted at the border between Dusky Valley and the Rupture Mountains.”

  “True,” Nokti nodded.

  “Where was this village exactly?” Crow asked.

  Everyone turned to the spymaster, it was the first time he had spoken all day.

  “Um, right about here,” Mabel pointed at the map.

  Crow stared at the map for a moment. He nodded to himself and stood up. Lin Lu jumped off his lap and clambered up to his shoulder.

  “And where are you going?” Kyriil asked.

  Crow ignored the elf and walked out.

  “What was that about?” Grim asked.

  “I honestly couldn’t care less right now,” Marek muttered.

  Nokti glanced at the twins. Dawn and Vaughn seemed just as confused.

  “Excuse me,” Nokti stood up and hurried out of the tent.

  Marek glared at her retreating figure with a mixture of pain and bitterness. He sighed, “Let’s continue shall we?”

~~~

  Crow was gone by the time Nokti had left the meeting. She searched for him throughout the camp and eventually found him in his tent.

  She cleared her throat and bowed, “May I come in?”

  “Mm,” Crow mumbled.

  Nokti stepped inside his tent and glanced around. She spotted a packed leather bag resting beside his cot. Crow still wore his black-feather cloak, but his skull-mask was on the floor. Lin Lun sat on his head, nestled between his long silver hair.

  Crow didn’t bother to look up at Nokti as she walked in. Instead, he was rummaging through the single chest that sat at the center of his tent.

  “Um, Lord Caligo? Did something happen?” Nokti asked.

  She had never seen him so distracted, nor had she ever seen him open the gigantic chest before.

  “Yes, actually,” Caligo chuckled to himself. “Something interesting, I hope.”

  Lin Lu squeaked a little angry noise.

  “Yes, yes, I know, best not to get my hopes up,” Caligo said. 

  Nokti glanced behind her, “Does it have something to do with the meeting? The scouting reports about, uh, dragons?”

  “Ah, here we are, just as perfect as ever,” Caligo smiled. 

  He reached into the chest and pulled out a giant sword. The blade was a pure glossy black, almost like glass. The hilt was wrapped in silver string and its pommel capped with a diamond. A single sigil was etched into the base of the blade.

  Nokti’s eyes widened, “Is that whole sword orichalcum?”

  Caligo ran his hand across the sharp, fine edge, “Yes. Its name is Honorem and it is not a sword.”

  Nokti marveled at the beautiful weapon. How could anyone afford that much orichalcum? She remembered the stories of Bellum’s flaming ebon sword. It made sense now, she supposed; if anyone could afford a weapon of pure orichalcum it would be the gods.

  She furrowed her brow. “Wait. What do you mean not a sword?” 

  “Honorem is a twin dagger,” Caligo sheathed the blade over his back.

  “A dagger? For whom? A giant?” she asked skeptically.

  “Everything must seem so gigantic in the eyes of your little species,” he teased.

  Nokti simply nodded, she was getting used to him saying things that made no sense. 

  “You said Honorem was a twin dagger?” she glanced at the large wooden chest.

  “Votum isn’t in that chest.” Caligo picked up the leather pack and threw it over his other shoulder.

  “Are you leaving the camp?” she asked anxiously.

  “For now.”

  “To find your other swo- dagger?”

  “No. That will have to wait for some other time.”

  She bit her lip, “When will you be back? The tribe will be in danger if you’re not here.”

  “I’ve made arrangements, the tribe will survive. I’ll be back before anything momentously stupid happens.”

  “Can I come with you?” she whispered.

  Caligo looked up at the fox on his head.

  Lin Lu squeaked. Caligo nodded.

  “She says you don’t look heavy, so that’s a yes,” he said.

  “Oh,” Nokti blinked. “Great?”

  Caligo pulled back the tent’s flap, stopped, and looked back at Nokti, “A word of caution. If you come along, I may not be able to keep you safe.”

  Nokti felt a shiver run down her spine. What’s so dangerous that a god can’t keep someone safe? Dragons? Really? She suddenly felt a lot less certain about this trip.

  She shook her head, straightened her back, and nodded, “I can handle myself.”

  “...Follow me,” Caligo threw his hood over his head and Lin Lu, then walked out.

~~~

  Nokti trailed behind the snowy footsteps of Caligo until they reached the outskirts of the camp. Unfortunately, she hadn’t gotten a chance to stop by her tent, she didn’t even have a change of clothes, let alone her favorite fur cloak.

  Nokti sighed, she could see her warm breath turn into a cold wisp in the evening moonlight. 

  Caligo looked up, a small sliver of the moon floated in the night sky. He smirked, “We’re in luck, it’s a waxing crescent.”

  “What does that mean?” she asked.

  “It means Lunae’s visual prowess is very weak right now. Once the new moon arrives, she’ll have no way of finding us.”

  Nokti glanced up at the moon and simply nodded. She was really getting used to Caligo saying things that made little sense.

  Dawn and Vaughn stood waiting for them beyond a hill nearby the camp. Nokti sighed in relief, Dawn held a traveling pack and a fur cloak in her hands. She handed them to Nokti without a word.

  “Thanks,” Nokti smiled.

  “Stay safe,” Dawn said curtly. She turned to Caligo and kneeled in the snow, “We will keep the tribe safe while you are gone, Master.”

  “That job will be left to only you,” Caligo said. “Vaughn, I have a different task for you.”

  “Just say the word, Master,” Vaughn kneeled.

  “Go to the Adder Tribe, ensure that a meeting between the Cairn and the Adder happens. Feel free to use whatever means necessary.”

  “As you wish, Master,” Vaughn said.

  Lin Lu jumped out from under Caligo’s hood and fell into the deep snow. Her white fur and body disappeared among the snow.

  “Is she okay?” Nokti asked, a tad worried.

  The snow shifted apart, an enormous snow-white fox rose from the ground, reaching thrice the height of any centaur Nokti had ever seen. 

  “She can grow big!?” Nokti gasped.

  Lin Lu looked down at the small people beneath her, her amber eyes alight with smugness.

  “Lady Lin Lu is a shapeshifter,” Dawn said respectfully.

  “So she’s like Lord Caligo?” Nokti glanced between the two of them.

  “Not even close,” Caligo winked.

  “Our Master is unique,” Dawn glared at the vampiress.

  “Sorry,” Nokti winced. Dammit, that was stupid of me. He’s a god. Of course he isn’t like others.

  Lin Lu’s black lips curled back in a high pitch chuckle.

  “I hear you, let’s get going,” Caligo smiled half-heartedly.

  He wrapped his arm around Nokti’s waist and jumped a dozen feet in the air. They landed softly on Lin Lu’s back. Caligo nestled himself between the giant fox’s shoulders, Nokti sat behind him. 

  She wrapped her arms around Caligo. “I’m ready… I think?” 

  Lin Lu bent her legs and narrowed her amber eyes. In one fluid motion, she vaulted off the ground and soared a hundred feet up. Small puffs of clouds formed beneath Lin Lu’s paws and crystalized, shattering into dust as she kicked off them and flew higher into the sky in a whirlwind of speed. Nokti screamed, Lin Lu laughed.