Delver Magic: Book 05 - Chain of Bargains (6 page)

They moved warily, despite the
urgency of the cry. They knew one of their own was being attacked and they
understood the need to stick together to fight off the enemy, but they were not
soldiers. They were farmers, merchants, and laborers. They lacked training and
experience.

While many were accustomed to
guarding flocks and herds, or dealing with ruffians and thieves, they had moved
on from their fields, shops and homes. They made temporary camps in the most
secure areas they could find. The predators that hunted them were beyond wild
beasts hungering for their flock or men with devious desires. They knew the
scream in the distance warned of more than just thievery or assault. The shriek
kindled thoughts of monsters and mayhem, nightmare's they were hoping to
escape.

At one of the gates, the town
guard acted in a much more methodical manner. They immediately followed their
standard procedure for responding to such incidents. Whereas the refugees
outside the wall lacked experience, Burbon's guard faced various confrontations
on numerous occasions and they had trained vigorously in dealing with such
threats. They acted without hesitation, and with great reliance on each other.

Four soldiers on horseback and
eight on foot bolted from their stations. They moved orderly through the
western gate, which was then secured behind them. Additional guards waited in
reserve by the entrance as they signaled their status to the tower guards that
watched over the town.

Outside the gate, those on
horseback broke into two separate pairs. Each pair moved in opposite
directions, urging their mounts beyond the edge of the campsites that bordered
the exterior wall. Once in the clear, the riders pressed their horses into a
full gallop as they circled Burbon's borders until they met at the opposite end
of the town to exchange reports.

The eight soldiers on foot
proceeded immediately to the site of the disturbance. Two in the front moved
with spears as they shouted for the civilians to clear a path. Tents, small
fires, wagons, and bundles of various goods littered the way, but the guards
had become used to navigating such obstacles. Four soldiers following just
behind the trail blazers carried sabers in one hand and torches in the other to
light the way. The final two soldiers brought up the rear with crossbows ready
to fire.

Another shout for help—a man's
voice and clearly different from the high pitched shriek—added to the
confusion. The soldiers forced their way through the crowd of both curious
onlookers and armed individuals. They reached a young girl masked in terror.
She couldn't speak once her shrieks ceased. All she could muster were hollow
sobs as she pointed to the shadowed opening of an isolated tent.

A farmer had a hold of the girl
and tried to calm her. He passed the girl to his wife as the soldier
approached.

"You called for help?"
one of the guards asked as he moved toward the farmer.

"Yeah, she was just standing
there screaming. She kept pointing at the tent."

"Did you see anything?"

"Nothing."

The soldier in charge stepped up
to the girl as the remaining guards took defensive positions around him.

"What's wrong?" the
guard asked with a tone of calm authority.

She said nothing as she clung to
the woman who held her. Her eyes remained fixed on the darkened tent, wide in
horror with tears streaming down her cheeks.
The soldier wasted no further time. He motioned for the guards to circle the
tent. Two soldiers with torches moved carefully to the entrance. Before they
could inspect the inside, one of the guards from the back of the tent called
out.

"It's tore open in the
back!"

Another solider carefully placed
his torch through the ripped section of canvas. The light shattered the
darkness as the flames forged dancing shadows within the shelter. The tent was
empty.

Sy Fenden charged up a ladder to
the platform of the western guard tower. Before he completed his climb, he
demanded information from the tower guard who watched the commotion at the
wall.

"Report!"

"All gates secure. No reports
of any interior breach. All other towers have reported in. One apparent
incident outside the wall at the southwestern edge, directly between the
western gate and the south road. Foot patrol is at the site. No indication of
immediate hostilities. Investigation is continuing."

"Mounted patrol?"

"They've already completed
their round. No signals of additional threats. They're moving back to the site
of the incident to add support."

Sy had reached the platform and
looked down at the throng of tents. Despite the number of people outside the
wall, the area in question immediately caught his attention. A large group of
citizens had gathered around the soldiers that had encircled a single tent.
Upon reviewing the situation, Sy immediately issued new orders.

"Signal the reserves at the
gate to assist. Tell them to disburse the crowd around our soldiers."

The tower guard followed the
command without hesitation as Sy monitored all the activity near the wall. When
the soldier completed the signal, Burbon's captain pressed for more details.

"Any casualties?"

"None that I can see from
here. One girl screaming. A man reached the scene and called for help."

"What was it?"

"No report yet from the
field."

"Any ideas?"

"Guards are inspecting the
back of the tent. Something probably broke in and scared the girl."

"Did you notice any
movement?"

"Sir, people are moving
around the wall all the time. It's impossible to keep track of all of
them."

Sy let out a heavy breath.

"I know. What about beyond
the tents... the clearings further out. Did you see anything near the
hills?"

"You can barely make them out
from up here. Blasted campfires all around the walls. You can't see past them
into the dark."

Sy tried to focus into the
clearing, but he already knew the guard was right. He had been up in the towers
many times at night reviewing the grounds. He ordered small campfires to be
kept to a minimum, but there were so many that they created a radiant glow that
made it near impossible to distinguish anything in the distance.

"Signal from the patrol,
sir," the tower guard interrupted Sy's inspection. "Something ripped
into the tent, but the area is clear. No hostiles found. They're going to
question the girl."

"What do you think it was?
Best guess."

"Could be a rogue coming down
the river, but more likely goblins. A rogue would have attacked the girl.
Goblins would run for it."

"You're probably right.
Signal the western gate. I'm going out there and I want Sergeant Klusac with
me."

As the guard made the signal and
Sy climbed down the ladder, the soldiers outside the wall attempted to question
the young girl. She trembled and sobbed through heavy breaths. It took long
moments before she finally mouthed an answer the soldiers could understand.

"Goblins... tore into the
tent. They took our food. My father... he went after them."

"Did you see where he
went?" one of the guards asked.

"I... couldn't stay in there.
I ran out. "

She broke down into more violent
sobs.

One of the soldiers studied the
tracks at the back of the tent and quickly called out his findings.

"Maybe only two goblins.
Tracks in and out. They're gone, but it looks like they were followed to the
south toward the hills."

The guard in charge shook his
head, but then signaled to his companions. Two of the soldiers on horseback
immediately took off in the direction of the tracks. More guards appeared and
they quickly disbursed the crowd.

Sy reached the gate where he
mounted a waiting horse. Sergeant Klusac was already on his horse and had the
gate open. The captain took the lead as he trotted his mount over to the soldiers
at the tent. After receiving a concise report, Sy and the sergeant rode after
the guards on horseback that went after the missing man.

Before Sy and his companion
reached the first hillside, the two guards guided their horses toward them with
a man walking on the ground between.

"Any sign of the
goblins?" Sy asked of the soldiers.

"None."

Sy nodded.

"Leave him with us. Make a
quick patrol of the south road just to let them know we're looking for them.
Don't go into the trees. Keep a fast pace. Don't stop for anything. I don't
want you risking crossbow fire. Report back to me at the western gate when
you're done."

After the soldiers acknowledged
the order and pressed their mounts to a full gallop, Sy turned his attention to
the farmer standing in the road. The captain dismounted and stepped up to the
man. The farmer appeared slightly winded, a bit embarrassed, but mostly
annoyed. Sy didn't let that stop him from issuing his own assessment of the
matter.

"That was rather
foolish."

"Yeah, maybe... but I'm tired
of them taking everything I have."

"And you didn't want to let
them get away with it."

"No, I didn't," the
farmer responded with a sense of appreciation, as if he knew the captain
understood why he did what he did.

It was true. Sy saw the anguish in
the man's face when he said that he was tired of the goblins taking
everything
, He looked upon a farmer with
no land. The man before him had nothing but a tent and the few possessions
inside that tent. The goblins had forced him from his farm, or so that's what
most of the farmers said. The man didn't want to give up anything more. The
captain believed he understood... most of it anyway, but there were a few
things that didn't add up.

"So you were willing to chase
goblins into the dark... alone?"

"There were only two of
them."

"There could have been a
thousand behind the first hill."

The farmer looked over his
shoulder into the rolling hillsides covered in the shadows of night. He just
grunted as he turned back to face the town's captain.

Sy decided it was time to get a
few more answers, and maybe he finally found someone willing to talk.

"Why'd you leave your
farm?"

The man responded quickly, as if
the answer had been rehearsed.

"You people know that. It's
the same for everyone. The goblins..."

"You're right," Sy
interrupted. "I do know that. The goblins were all over. And you wanted to
keep your family safe. I understand that, too, but I don't understand why you'd
run after them in the dead of night if you were really afraid of them. It
wasn't just the goblins that made you leave the valleys. It was something else.
What was it?"

The man looked away from the
captain of the guard. The appreciation for finding someone that might
comprehend his desperate actions quickly evaporated.

"You wouldn't
understand," he finally offered.

Sy wouldn't allow that to stand as
the final word.

"I understood why you ran off
after the little thieves that took your food. I understand that you reached
your limit. Try me."

The farmer decided to do just
that. He had previously spoken freely of the goblins back near his home in the
valleys. He used them as the reason for the abandonment of his farm. He almost
made himself believe that was why he left. He was just protecting his daughter,
but there was indeed more than the goblins. He didn't like to speak of the
feelings that truly made him run. In a moment of pure honesty—both with himself
and to a soldier he chose to trust—the farmer said more than he ever had
before.

"Something was wrong... more
than just the goblins."

"People have said that
already. Rumblings across the land."

"That's not what I mean. You
could hear, even feel the rumblings, but you couldn't really hear or feel this.
It was something that just started rubbing you the wrong way. It's like when
you know there are wolves nearby and you haven't even heard 'em howl. And I'm
not talking about some black cloud over the land or some crazy magician casting
spells. It was something deeper. You got monsters out here. We all know that,
but there was something else back in the valley."

"I'm still listening."

"It was something with the
land. Crops just died—not of insects, disease, or draught, but something else.
That's what I meant when I said you wouldn't understand. You're not a farmer.
You think crops die all the time, and they do, but not like this. And there was
more to it than just dead crops."

"You haven't lost me
yet," Sy noted, urging the farmer to continue.

"Whatever was killing the
crops wasn't going to go away. It took hold, like a hand that makes a fist and
starts to crush the life out of you and won't let go. That's really why I came
here. You got that wizard that protects you."

Sy knew the farmer was speaking of
Enin. It was the main reason most of the refugees came to Burbon, why they
camped out under dirty canvas outside the town's wall.

"And you think he can stop
it," Sy acknowledged.

"I don't know what else
can."

"Anyone else talk about this
to you? I mean the reason behind the dying crops?"

"I don't want to speak for
anyone but me."

Sy respected that, but the anguish
he saw in the man's face, he saw it before. He saw it in many of the
expressions of the refugees when he pressed them for answers. They were afraid
of something out in the valleys, but all they seemed willing to talk about were
the goblins.

While that might have explained
why many of the refugees left the Great
Valleys, it did not go far in
alleviating Sy's true problem. The people that camped outside his wall created
danger for themselves and for Burbon as a whole.