Chapter Thirty Seven

A horse drawn cart clattered and bounced its way down the rough stone road leading out of Storrhamarr. Two horses, smelling faintly of death, pulled it along. In the front sat Cinna, holding the reins. Behind her, she knew, were perhaps the strangest combination of beings to ever ride in the back of a cart. A skeletal bear, a charred corpse, and a teenaged woman.

“My butt hurts. Why is this cart so hard? Master’s was much more comfortable,” Lilia complained after the cart struck a particularly large bump in the road.

“Did that “cart” of his happen to have plush cushions and a roof?” Cinna asked, already suspecting the answer.

“Yes.”

“That was a coach, not a cart. A coach is meant for passengers and has cushions and shock absorbent gel refined from slimes. This cart is intended for hauling cargo, not people, so it has fewer creature comforts,” Cinna explained patiently.

“Why didn’t we take a coach, then?” Lilia asked.

“You’re the one that chose a warehouse,” Cinna pointed out. Lilia could easily have asked her familiars to look for a stable with covered wagons or coaches if she’d thought of it. As for Cinna, it hadn’t made much of a difference to her in the first place so it never occurred to her to mention it.

“…is it too late to go back?” Lilia pleaded.

“I’d say so. Even once you deal with Javert Storrhamarr will likely remain too dangerous to return to. Don’t forget that just because he can’t talk to us, doesn’t mean he’s not telling some other necromancer somewhere everything he knows about us at this very moment,” Cinna replied.

“Oh. Right. But, um, why’d we bring him along then? If he’s telling people about us anyway then what’s the point in getting rid of him now?” This time Lilia’s voice came from directly behind Cinna, as if she’d left her previous position in the cart to whisper right into Cinna’s ear. Probably because she’d been spooked by the idea of Javert relaying her words to someone. Cinna laughed quietly at the thought.

“If we left him in Storrhamarr he would immediately give pursuit. In his current situation he can tell someone where we are or even lead them towards us, but that information becomes outdated constantly as we move. We need only kill him before his allies grow close enough to see us and then leave the area before they arrive,” Cinna explained.

“Huh. Should I get started on that?”

Cinna turned to look over her shoulder at Lilia, then at the city behind them. By her estimation they were still within a kilometer of the walls. She hadn’t gotten a good enough look at the ramparts to know if there were any siege weapons mounted there, but she’d certainly seen siege crossbows capable of hitting targets at this range.

“Maybe wait until we’re outside of shooting distance,” Cinna suggested, turning back to the road. “On second thought, are you still able to block his commands at this range anyway?”

“Um…no. I don’t think so. If I tried really hard and knew exactly where his draugr are, it might be possible…?” That answer seemed frustratingly vague coming from Lilia, who usually had a certain level of confidence about her own capabilities. It seemed as good as a definite no, coming from her.

“I see. Go ahead and get started, then. If we’re already at the edge of the safe range it’s best to start as soon as possible,” Cinna decided.

“Alright. This might take a while,” Lilia warned, her voice fading as she left Cinna’s side.

In a way, this would serve as a proof of concept. Already Lilia could deal with normal liches, which was a talent invaluable enough in its own right. But could she slay even the necromancer liches like Javert with full command of their faculties? Cinna couldn’t even put into words how instrumental that ability would be. At the moment, she knew of no other way of permanently eliminating those.

Granted, the undead necromancers were a relatively small threat currently. They didn’t seem to have much knowledge of tactics and not all of them seemed to possess human intelligence. The one Cinna had defeated at Saltrvatrmarr Fortress had shown no signs of having risen past the need for a soul crystal, for instance. Its command over its thralls had vanished the instant she cut it in two.

As Cinna scanned the horizon for approaching draugr, she wondered what had become of that lich. From what Lilia said about Count Keller, it had likely risen again by now. Had cutting it in twain slowed its resurrection in any way? Immobilized it, at least? She couldn’t rule out that it had simply pulled itself back together and walked away from the encounter no worse for wear using some sort of necromantic technique, unfortunately.

It made Cinna wonder if staying behind to fight it had truly been worth it. But then she remembered that Gunnarsen and the garrison had escaped with their lives thanks to her actions. Even if her own men…if Bjorn and Sylvia…hadn’t. That had to count for something.

Deep down, Cinna worried that she would make it home only to learn that her assumptions were unfounded and that Gunnarsen and his troops had fallen somewhere along the way. She pushed those fears aside, though, knowing that giving too much attention to them would only damage her resolve.

Sighing, she peeked over her shoulder to check on Lilia and look for pursuers. Sure enough, draugr were running after their cart now from the direction of the city. None were mounted. That brought her back to her point about necromancers being poor tacticians. Eventually they would learn, but Javert didn’t seem to have realized the utility of cavalry prior to being, well, kidnapped. If he had then he would have resurrected as many of Storrhamarr’s horses as possible.

But he hadn’t, and that meant Cinna and Lilia were at little risk of having Javert’s draugr catch up to them now. Cinna hoped she’d been wrong about him having other necromancers to communicate with by proxy, though even if she’d given him the idea she’d been careful not to give him any other ideas to relay or use. Like having draugr further afield block the road ahead, for instance.

Cinna tapped her fingers restlessly against her thigh. She thought she had more patience than this, but sitting aside and waiting for Lilia to deal with Javert had her feeling like a young lieutenant delegating a task for the first time. Sometimes a commander had to be patient and allow her soldiers to do their jobs. She knew that. And yet, it made her nervous.

Storrhamarr fell into the distance and the sun drifted towards the horizon as Cinna waited for Lilia to finish. The only sounds coming from the back of the cart were Lilia’s occasional grunts of frustration. At one point she also scolded Javert for being rude again; apparently he’d attempted to attack the soul of Lilia’s bear, but she’d caught the attempt and batted his mana aside before it got far.

With only an hour or two of daylight remaining, though, Lilia finally whooped in triumph.

“I did it! I got his mind conduit! Ugh, that was so harrrrrrd! He fought me the whole time. I can’t believe he went after Mr. Bearbones, that jerk! No one’s allowed to hurt my friends!” Lilia exclaimed. When Cinna glanced her way, she found the necromancer splayed out on her back in the bed of the cart, panting hard.

“…you said you got his mind conduit, didn’t you?” Cinna questioned, catching the use of specific terminology. “Is that to say his soul conduit remains intact?”

“Um…yes,” Lilia admitted. “I needed a break.”

“If you wait too long he’s going to resurrect again,” Cinna reminded her.

“I know…but I’m so tired!” Lilia whined. Cinna sighed; sometimes managing Lilia felt like wrangling a child. She hoped Lilia’s immaturity stemmed more from a lack of life experience than a defect in personality. Spending most of her life confined to a small village with no friends and an entire year locked in a basement alone had probably stunted her growth severely.

“Would you rather repeat the entire process from the start and reach this point again well after nightfall?” Cinna asked, hoping that idea would be enough to motivate Lilia.

“Ugh…no…I’ll get back to work. Even if it’s hard...” Lilia replied, hauling herself off her back.

“Thank you. Maybe next time we find a town we can stop and look for food so that I can make you a proper meal as a reward,” Cinna offered. Mostly because she couldn’t think of anything else she could offer at the moment.

“No thanks!” Lilia shouted, suddenly spirited. Cinna blinked in confusion, then remembered that the only example of cooking Lilia had seen from her so far had been that porridge.

“I assure you I’m capable of cooking more than porridge. But I suppose until I prove that it won’t be something to look forward to. We could try finding a coach instead, I suppose, though I imagine it’ll be difficult unless it’s a town that failed to evacuate…hm. Never mind; I shouldn’t be distracting you. Let’s discuss this later,” Cinna said, shaking her head. Lilia said nothing, but that was fair enough. She was a bit preoccupied after all.

Keeping one eye on their surroundings just in case, Cinna partially unfurled the map she’d taken from Count Keller’s tower. It felt good not having to rely on memory to navigate. This map would be easier to read if she had somewhere to spread it out on, considering its size, but she really only needed the upper quarter or so anyway.

Cinna scanned the parts of Selkarc above the Stryk River carefully. She’d never needed to know the precise location of this entrance to the Warm Roads before because Selkarc didn’t typically make use of it. A more convenient entrance existed to the south. That one had a major port nearby, and Selkarc’s trade agreements with the deepfolk largely revolved around imported gems and minerals from abroad.

Once upon a time Selkarc had acquired those stones by raiding—before Selkarc acquired the Kaldarif Archipelago and its mines—then traded them to the deepfolk in exchange for gems that were more valuable to humans. Deepfolk considered some gems such as garnet and tourmaline to be delicacies, particularly those in different colors than they could acquire locally. On the other hand, they cared little for things like corundum and diamond, which they found difficult to chew.

That made the deepfolk ideal trade partners for those with access to the right gems, but there were other factors involved. Primarily the fact that the deepfolk formed certain jewels within their own bodies based on their diets, but it didn’t help that, living underground as they did, the deepfolk possessed a great deal of mineral wealth in general. Many human nations were at odds with the deepfolk clusters living beneath them as a result—easier to steal already-mined ores than to dig them out oneself.

As a seafaring nation, Selkarc had never been well-equipped for fighting the deepfolk in their own tunnels. They’d had a steady supply of gems taken from other humans, too. Ones coveted by the deepfolk. So Selkarc had, thanks to the negotiating prowess of King Edwin the Wise, entered into a long-lasting trading relationship with the deepfolk.

One that would now pay dividends in providing Cinna with a way home.

“Aha. There it is…” Cinna narrowed her eyes as she considered the routes to her destination. This entrance sat in the northeastern parts of Selkarc. At least three times as far from Storrhamarr as the Stryk had been from Saltvatrmarr. But with two immortal horses pulling the cart, Cinna thought she and Lilia could make it there in far less time.

Now she just had to hope that the deepfolk were holding their own against their own undead incursions.