Chapter 38: A Sorry State of Affairs
We travel down the path and across to the town, thankfully avoiding any encounters with monsters on our way. As we reach the outskirts of town, Jack hobbles out to meet us, leaning heavily on a cane as he comes.
“Dex!” He shouts, his face twisting in pain. “Did you find – Oh, god.” His face falls, staring at his son’s bloody body in shock and despair.
“He needs help. Where do we go?” I shout back to him.
“Follow me!” Jack turns around to start hobbling into town, but the sharp movement unbalances him, and he topples over, shouting in pain.
I move to help him up, but he pushes my hands away, groaning, “Don’t worry about me. Get Dex to the center of town. Someone should be there. Quickly, please!”
We hurry down the road, enquiring with the first person we come across as to where we should go. The town is quiet and contained, absent of its usual steady bustle and conversation. Even the ever-present interruption of Ren’s explosions has stopped. Windows and doors have been hastily reinforced with wooden boards, and the few people we come across, without fail, glance fearfully towards the mountain every now and again. Heather gets constant odd looks from people we pass, but nobody says anything, perhaps because she’s with us.
After what felt like an age but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, we find the place. We knock urgently on the door, and after a few moments it opens. The face of the gnome at the door falls. “Another one. Just what I needed. Well, follow me, and try not to tread on anyone.” He turns and shouts into the building, “We have another one! Someone find me a place for another bed!”
Before we head in, I turn to Heather. I have difficulty going under these doors, so Heather has no chance. “Sorry, but it looks like you’ll have to wait out here for a while. If anyone asks, just say you’re with Aaron. You should be fine.”
Heather nods absentmindedly, looking around with interest. I shrug, and duck under the doorway. Every piece of furniture and most of the floor space is occupied by injured gnomes, which we have to carefully step between as we navigate through the building.
“There’s a space here!” A voice calls out from another room.
“Well, that’s something.” The gnome in front of us mutters, before heading in that direction and calling back, “Try and make some more room, if you can! It’s a bad one!”
He ushers us into the room and points to a vacant stretch of fabric. “Set him down there, please. And carefully does it!”
Xiltroth slowly lays Dex down on the bed, and the gnome waves us out. “Now out! There’s little enough room without you four in here!”
“Will he be –” I try to say, but the gnome cuts me off.
“I’ll do my best, now out!”
We file back out. To my surprise, Len, the keeper of records, is outside and is peppering Heather with questions. She seems distinctly uncomfortable with the entire situation.
“Is everything all right?” I call out to him.
He looks up to see me ducking back through the doorway. “Aaron! So you are here. Excellent, excellent. I was just asking your friend here about the current culture of centaurs. As you know, we haven’t seen their people for two hundred and sixty-four years. Quite a lot is bound to have changed in that space of time, so I was hoping to update our records, but she isn’t being very cooperative.”
“Now’s not really a good time to update the records. How’s the town?” I reply.
“Not good, not good.” He shakes his head sadly. “Quite a few people were badly injured. They clearly weren’t here to kill us all, but most people took offense to their belongings being taken, unsurprisingly. Fortunate that you came here now, we could certainly use the assistance.”
“That’s why we came.” I nod. “We took down seven on our way here, and I interrogated one of them – if the information I got was correct, there should be eighteen of them left. And if we’re really lucky… Well, it sounded like they were experimenting with Ren’s research and created an explosion. Some of them might have died in it, but it’s impossible to say for sure.”
He nods with a slight smile that quickly turns into a frown. “That is good, but the real problem is those weapons they have – they are too accurate and powerful. Our guards couldn’t get in range before getting shot down.”
“Actually, that advantage is on our side, now.” I smile. “They had eight crossbows. Now we have six, and one of theirs is broken. Who knows where that last one was – might have been caught in the blast. Worst case scenario, they have a single functioning crossbow, and that’s hardly an advantage.”
“Excellent!” Len exclaims. “With that and you being here, we shouldn’t have any trouble fending off further attacks.”
“Problem is, that’s not enough.” Boaz interjects. “We dwarves aren’t famous for our fortresses fer no reason; almost every dwarf alive has tried or succeeded in becoming a blacksmith, architect or stonemason in the past. I guarantee yeh that in that group up there, they have more knowledge about how to defend and fortify a position than this entire village put together. The longer we wait, the more they’ll reinforce and the harder it’ll be to assault their position.”
Len nods slowly. “That is a problem. And they won’t run out of food or supplies?”
“The river is a bit far, but not so far as to be an impossible source of water, if they’re determined. The local monsters are simple enough to hunt, once you figure out how to avoid the annoying ones.” I stroke my beard thoughtfully. “It’s not the best of places, but if they really want to, they could probably stay there indefinitely.”
Len frowns. “Meaning that if we want them gone, we have to get rid of them ourselves. That might be difficult - we don’t have many fighting people left in good shape.”
“Can your fighters even get through their armour?” My eyebrows furrow in concern.
“Not with conventional weaponry, no.” Len shakes his head. “But according to the records, armour isn’t exactly watertight. Now that we have advance notice, we can concoct some acids that would…”
“I don’t really need to hear the rest of that, thanks.” I shake my head. “I’d rather not resort to that, if possible. Eighteen… We’ve beaten worse odds. We’ll go in again tonight, see if we can clear them out.”
Len blinks. “If you think you can… Right then. If you need anything, just say the word. Least we can do at this point.” Nodding to us in thanks, he heads off.
“Aaron… Are yeh sure? This is eighteen armoured, trained soldiers, not some bandits. They’ll be on alert now; it won’t be as easy. And that time… That was not a good night.” Jakin says grimly. “I’d rather not do that again.”
“Acid is worse, trust me.” I grimace. “But no, I’m not planning on doing that again. In a cave like that, the smell alone would take an age to dissipate. Still, there are only eighteen of them. There’s only so many they can assign as guards – at most nine, for them to be able to switch out the guard when they get tired.”
“Nine there may be, but from a naturally defensible position like that, that’s plenty. It will be difficult to do anything if they’re determined to keep their positions.” Jakin reasons.
I nod. “True. The footing there isn’t the greatest, and a precipice not too far behind us – not the best place to make an assault from. But… What if we turned it around? If we were the ones in a defensible position, they wouldn’t be able to do anything. The cave isn’t that wide, so it would only take two of us to fend them off, leaving the other three of us to fire crossbows – and bows,” I nod to Heather, “while they have little to no ranged options available to retaliate with.”
Jakin frowns. “You might be right, but the problem is getting that position in the first place. And even if we do manage to get inside the cave, they have numbers enough that they’d be able to push us back, or just retreat out of the line of fire.”
“Getting in isn’t a problem.” I explain. “They may be armoured, but armour doesn’t help against fire. If I start throwing fire towards them, chances are they retreat, allowing us to go in. From there, I can do like I did way back with that wolf horde and set up a barrier of earthen spikes. They won’t be able to do much in terms of damage, but they should be enough to obstruct movement substantially. I think I should be able to make the spikes move forward as we go, so we’ll be able to move through the tunnels while still being defensible.”
Jakin furrows his eyebrows, considering it for a short while before nodding. “It could work. It’ll be tough, but it could work.”
“When isn’t it tough?” I sigh. “You guys should get some rest while you have the time. Xiltroth, would you mind teaching me how to use this?” I ask, tapping the crossbow poking out of my pack. “I don’t want to accidentally break it trying to load it the wrong way or something.”
Xiltroth nods. “Sure, but there might be a bit too little time to teach you how to use it effectively.”
Smiling wryly, I say, “I’m a fast learner. Besides, crossbows are designed to be easy to learn.”
Xiltroth shrugs.
“And how about you, Heather?” I turn to her. “Are you planning on fighting with us, or staying here? We won’t hold it against you if you stay.”
“I’ll fight.” She nods, surprising me with how confidant she seems to be. “The fight, earlier, it… Never mind.” She abruptly cuts herself off.
I raise an eyebrow, but don’t mention it. “Excellent. Well, the houses here are too small to allow you access, so it’s probably best if you stay with us this time, until we get the chance to introduce you around the place and explain how things work.”
Heather nods, and we all move off. The twins head to Ren’s house to rest for a while, while Heather, Xiltroth and I move out of town to find a good place to teach me how to use a crossbow. We find a copse of young trees – not the best targets, but we don’t have the time to find anything better.
I fetch the crossbow from my pack, as well as the bolts.
Xiltroth takes the crossbow, checking it over. “Before using one of these, you’ll want to check the limbs for cracks or other damage, and the cord for fraying. If either of those break in the process of firing a bolt, you could end up injuring yourself instead of your enemy. This one is in fairly good condition, considering it was probably dropped rather violently onto a stone floor.” He indicates a few dents in the handle of the crossbow.
“This bit at the front is called the stirrup. You put your foot through it and use both hands to pull the cord back until it locks into place.” As he explains, Xiltroth demonstrates with the crossbow. “After that, you just slot in the bolt, pulling it back to the string, like so. A crossbow can be kept loaded for a while, hours even, but it’s not a good idea to leave it loaded for too long, as it can cause the cord to stretch and the limbs to bend. One last thing – after loading a crossbow, don’t try to unload it, just fire it. A lot of things can go wrong otherwise, and it’s a lot easier and safer to just fire it at something.”
I nod. “Makes sense.”
Xiltroth turns and aims the crossbow at one of the trees. “After you’ve done that, all you have to do is aim, then you pull the lever towards the body of the crossbow.” The bolt shoots out from the crossbow, the tip embedding itself in the tree.
Handing the crossbow back to me, Xiltroth says, “Try it out.”
Nodding, I put my foot through the stirrup, planting it firmly on the ground before lifting the cord up into position. It’s hard to pull back, but not so much that it’s a problem for me. After feeling it lock into place, I ease my hands back away from the cord, take my foot out of the stirrup and lift it up. I slip a bolt from the pouch at my waist and slot it into place, pulling it back along the groove to the string. Lifting the crossbow, I take aim at the tree. There’s no scope or any indication of where the centre of the front of the crossbow is, so I have to roughly guess it.
Just before I lift the lever, a flicker of movement catches my eye, and I rapidly adjust my aim before loosing the bolt. After a moment, I say with a hint of disbelief, “I think I hit it.”
We head over to check it out, and sure enough, we find a rabbit lying dead with a bolt through its flank.
“That’s some beginner’s luck.” Xiltroth says with raised eyebrows. “That crossbow was made a bit shoddily, and the bolt drifts a bit to the left from where you aim. Difficult to hit a small target at range with it, especially on the first shot.”
“Yeah.” I say wryly. “Well, I think I understand how to load and fire it pretty well now. I’ll probably stay here for a while and practice. Feel free to head back to Ren’s to rest.”
“Sure.” Xiltroth waves and heads back to town.
Silently, I cock the crossbow, slip in another bolt, head back to my original position, aim, and fire.
The bolt hits near the center of the trunk of the tree I was aiming at.
Sighing, I cock the crossbow again, load, aim, and fire. I accurately hit a thin branch, breaking it.
“It wasn’t beginner’s luck, was it?” Heather asks in amazement.
“No.” I reply in resignation.
“You have experience with this… Crossbow, before today?” She asks.
“Never in my life.” I shrug.
She looks at me with confusion. “Then how?”
I reply with a question. “Have you ever found something that just… Comes naturally to you? You just start doing it for the first time, but somehow you already understand what you should and shouldn’t do? You don’t make the rookie mistakes, and you instinctively know how to improve? Something where if you close your eyes, you can imagine it, down to the last detail?”
Heather thinks for a moment. “Once.”
Smiling wryly, I shrug. “Well, I haven’t once found something that isn’t like that for me. I’m cursed with both enough talent to become the best at anything without trying and the willpower to become the best without it.”
“That doesn’t sound like a curse.” Heather notes. “If it’s true, you could become the most powerful person in the world.”
“And then what?” I shake my head. “Once you’re at the top, there’s nowhere to go but down… Power doesn’t give you happiness. You know what does? Friendship. Peace. Triumph over adversity. And just sometimes… Losing. At least, for me it can.”
“I… I’m not sure I understand.” Heather says in some confusion. “Most everyone in the tribe wanted to be the best hunter there ever was.”
I nod. “It’s not unusual, but that was likely one of the largest problems about your tribe. Everyone was only concerned about themselves. The only thing that keeps a community together in that case are the traditions, the laws, and that’s not what they’re there for. They’re there to protect the people who would have followed the laws even if they weren’t spoken or written down, from the ones who don’t. When the group of people who disobey or dislike the law outgrows the group of people who follow it, then the community is liable to crumble, and the laws themselves will become corrupted, no longer serving their original purpose.”
Heather shakes her head. “I’m not following you at all. I don’t understand.”
Shrugging, I say, “That’s alright. Maybe it doesn’t mean anything, anyway. Maybe I’m just a madman spouting nonsense. Maybe it doesn’t matter even if I am. What I’m trying to say… I don’t know. Look, it’s all well and good if people just focus on themselves. Most people do, at least to some degree. A selfish person can accomplish a lot – they can build a kingdom, a city, a fortune. But once they’re gone, all that’s left is people that fight over what they’ve left behind. The best of people are the ones that truly sustain a community, give it life. They’re the people who don’t just focus on themselves. They look around, see a problem and set off to fix it. They don’t just want better lives for themselves, but everyone around them, as well.”
“I think I understand a bit of what you’re trying to say.” Heather says slowly, tilting her head slightly. “But why are you telling me all this?”
I freeze for a moment and shake my head, laughing a bit at myself. “I don’t know. A bad day I suppose. A bit tired. My mind is wandering. Forget I said anything.”
Cocking the crossbow again, I take aim and fire.
‘Miss.’ I find myself wishing that it won’t hit where I expect it to, but it does. I shake my head to myself in disappointment. When your talent is high enough, it almost begins to seem like failure is a greater accomplishment than success.
Sighing, I continue to practice. I don’t particularly enjoy this, but I suppose it is better than smoking out the entire cave.
Inevitably, night falls, a crescent moon shining in the sky above.
We venture out in the darkness, travelling quickly and quietly to the foot of the path to the tunnel through the mountain. I look up the path and see a light coming from the entrance.
“Alright, this is it. We’ll go up single file, slowly and quietly, sticking close the to the side of the mountain. The later they see us, the better. As soon as they do, we’ll need to rush to the top.” I say quietly.
The others nod, and we advance. Jakin walks up the front, then Boaz, me, Xiltroth and finally Heather. We stay as quiet as we can, but there’s only so much you can do to keep quiet while wearing full plate armour, and Heather’s hooves don’t particularly lend themselves to stealth, not to mention the ground is somewhat gravelly and prone to crunching underfoot.
We get about halfway up the path before the dwarves at the top notice us. After a moment, I hear a rumbling sound, but because of the darkness I can’t see much more than what seems like a trembling sheet of darkness descending down the path towards us.
“It’s a rockslide!” Xiltroth exclaims from behind me.
“Get behind us and stick as low and close to the mountainside as possible.” Jakin grunts before planting his shield on the ground and bracing himself. Boaz does the same right beside his, both angling their shields such that it will deflect the rocks to the side.
The rest of us huddle together against the mountainside.
A moment later a hail of clanging and pinging sounds come from the front as rocks of all sizes ricochet off the twins’ shields. Just as I think we’ll be completely fine behind their shield wall, a rock skips over their shields and ploughs right into my forehead, startling me into falling backwards.
Xiltroth manages to catch me and push me back up. “You alright?”
“Yeah, thanks.” I answer, getting my feet again. It had hurt, and I’m sure it would leave a sizeable bruise, but I couldn’t feel any wetness that might indicate bleeding. Although… There was now a rather uncomfortable dent in my helmet. “Wasn’t a big one, thankfully.”
After a little while, the rumbling of stones stops, and the twins cautiously lift their shields.
“Ow.” Jakin shakes his free arm. “Going teh feel that in the morning.”
That was surprising, but mostly ineffective. “Alright, let’s go.”
We charge up the path towards the figures of armed dwarves, outlined by the light of a fire behind them. As we draw near, they level halberds towards us. It wouldn’t be a good idea to charge that head on, but we don’t need to. Once I’m sure that we’re close enough to the dwarves that crossbow fire from their side would be likely to hit their own people, I move in front of the twins and stop a fair bit outside their range.
Lifting my left hand towards them, I channel my mana and create a blaze of fire in their direction. The sudden rush of light causes me to squint as my eyes struggle to adjust, but through the flames I can vaguely make out the dwarves staggering backwards, away from the fire. Keeping my arm aloft and the stream of fire constant, I advance forward, pushing them back, back into the entrance of the cave.
Helplessly, they keep retreating, unable to retaliate. Armour is an excellent investment… But against fire, it’ll more harm you than help, the metal absorbing the heat and potentially causing it to become hot enough to burn.
Once we have a foot in the entrance, I stop the stream of fire and let out clouds of earth mana instead, crunching and compressing them down into sturdy and sharp spikes that I line the width of the entrance with, all pointing from the ground up towards the opposing dwarves.
“We’re out in the sticks, how in earth is there a magus this powerful here!?” One of the dwarves exclaims in exasperation and fear.
“Tough luck, buttercup.” I take the crossbow from my shoulder, already cocked and loaded, briefly take aim and shoot the man in the head.
Immediately, he slumps to the ground, dead, with a bolt protruding from the upper section of his helmet.
To be particularly honest, I don’t have to aim much. There are enough of them that just shooting in their general direction would hit someone. Still, that extra moment taken to aim can mean a much more effective shot.
Then Xiltroth takes out his crossbow, and Heather her bow, and the twins move behind my spike barrier, raising their shields and weapons. The remaining five dwarves take one look at us and start running down the tunnel away from us as bolts and arrows soar towards them.
