Lazybones
Adventurer
Chapter 89
As he stared down the slope at the remains of Camber’s Rise, Bredan didn’t feel especially lucky.
The place had been tiny, just half a dozen wooden structures around a larger stone building, not quite a tower, in the center. The latter was the only place left standing, and even then there wasn’t much left but a hollow shell.
He could smell the acrid stink of char on the air, but he guessed this was old, maybe a week, maybe more.
“A good thing they evacuated,” Glori said. Bredan almost jumped; he hadn’t heard her approach.
“Yeah,” he said. “Look, Gilanis is coming back, let’s see what he has to say.”
Quellan and Kosk joined them as they headed over to where Haran was waiting for the scout. The drivers and the rest of the soldiers had remained with the wagons, a bowshot back along the road. Kosk looked sour, as though he’d expected to see something like this all along. Quellan looked concerned, though he’d agreed to wait for the elf’s report on Haran’s assurance that there hadn’t been anyone here when trouble had arrived.
The adventurers reached Haran just as the scout did, but the expedition leader didn’t seem to mind them hearing Gilanis’s report. The elf had his short bow strung but he had tucked his arrow back into the quiver on his hip.
“This happened six or seven days past,” he said. “A small group. They came from the east and returned that way after they were done. They stayed long enough to be thorough, but it doesn’t look like there was much left worth taking.”
“Goblins?” Bredan asked.
“Difficult to be sure,” Gilanis said. “That squall that blew through a few days back made a mess of the tracks. Definitely humanoid, but I cannot be more specific.”
Haran looked thoughtful. “All right,” he said. “We’ll bivouac next to the stone structure tonight, that’ll offer some shelter should our friends decide to stage an encore. But I’m sure they’re far away by now.”
“Will you send word back to Adelar?” Quellan asked.
Haran shook his head. “I can’t spare anyone,” he said. “We’ll watch in double shifts tonight. Gil, take a circuit around the area, see if you can find anything else.” The elf nodded and ran over to where he’d left his horse. “I’ll go tell the others, and then we can start setting up camp,” Haran added, then trudged back up the rise to the line of wagons.
“I guess we might not be as far away from the war as we thought,” Glori said.
* * *
Even with worries of waking to rampaging goblins rushing through the camp, Bredan dropped off into a hard sleep as soon as he finished his shift on watch and didn’t stir until Willem shook his shoulder roughly the next morning. For a moment he was still caught in the edges of whatever dream he’d been having, then it faded as his aches and weariness rushed back in. With a groan he pulled himself up out of his bedroll and began putting on his armor.
The members of the expedition were well used to working together by now, and the caravan rumbled its way back onto the road even before the sun had fully crested the uneven line of hills to the east. Maybe they were even a bit faster than usual; all of them seemed eager to leave the wreckage of the burned settlement behind them.
At first the road leading up from Camber’s Rise was barely more difficult than the one winding through the foothills, but by midmorning the ascent grew steeper, the surrounding terrain more challenging. The road was obviously not traveled frequently, and as the day grew older they had to pause more frequently to clear away obstacles. Most of the time that was fallen rocks that could hazard the wagons, but in one case an entire tree had slumped over to block the road and had to be cleared with axes and ropes before they could proceed. Fortunately they had brought everything needed with them, including spare wheels for the wagons and an assortment of tools, but Haran still had them be careful with their resources.
The road frequently bent back upon itself as it gained altitude, and at one such bend Bredan paused and looked down over the edge to see the ruined tower of Camber’s Rise in the distance below. It didn’t look all that far away for the hours they’d already put in.
Occasionally the road widened as it passed along a level stretch or made its way through a broad gap between peaks. At one such spot they paused for lunch, to tend to the horses, and stretch their legs. Given how slow their progress had been thus far, Bredan wondered if they would make it to the Silverpeak Valley within the time that Haran had predicted. Given the nature of the trip, he wondered why anyone would bother to come this way at all. There had been silver, thus the name, but Bredan thought it would take more than money to make him want to come all the way out here to live. And now there wasn’t even the silver, and yet people remained.
Shortly after their break the road turned deeper into the range and they left their view of the foothills behind. They were now within the forest of peaks that they’d seen approaching since leaving Adelar, but every time they passed one there were other, taller ones ahead to greet them. Haran had them remain closer together now, the outriders and wagon crews alike alert to any signs of danger. They remained well below the bare granite summits of those mountains, but even in the vales between them there were plenty of hazards to navigate. The road wound through dense forests and rocky dells, and at several places they had to ford streams where the fast-moving water came up to their horses’ knees and the wagons’ axles. They took those crossings slowly; that was not a place where one wanted to foul a wheel. But they made their way across safely, pausing only to top off their water barrels before moving on.
They were making their way up yet another slow ascent—thankfully, none of them had been as steep as the initial climb that morning—when they came to another obstacle. The sun was almost touching the tallest of the peaks to the west and Bredan was thinking of dinner when they came around a bend to see a boulder the size of a cottage blocking the road ahead.
Haran immediately called a halt, and the wagons ground to a stop about thirty paces behind the lead riders. They were at an exposed but not particularly difficult spot, with a steep but manageable slope rising fifty paces to a boulder-encrusted crest on their left and a somewhat sharper descent into a densely wooded dell to their right. Both sides of the road were overgrown with dense tangles of brush, but there were only a few trees nearby, struggling to find purchase in the stony soil.
Haran signaled to two of his men. “Gilanis, Kors, check ahead a bit. Make sure there aren’t any surprises.” The elf and the big human soldier offered salutes and nudged their horses forward.
“We’re not moving that,” Bredan said. He glanced back and saw that the wagon crews were watching. Some of the guards had dismounted, but they would stay with the wagons until Haran signaled them forward. He caught a glimpse of Glori, standing on the bed of the rearmost wagon.
“No,” Haran agreed. “We’ll have to cut a bypass. Easier on the right, but only if there’s enough clearance.”
“Yeah, if a wheel slips, it’s a long way down,” Bredan said, peering over the drop a few paces beyond the edge of the road.
“We’d better start breaking out the shovels and axes,” Haran said. He turned to gesture toward the wagons, but hesitated as a shout of alarm came from around the boulder, accompanied by a loud whinny that was abruptly cut off.
The riders reached for their weapons even as Haran opened his mouth to shout a warning, but before he could speak a loud rumbling cut him off. The sound came from a torrent of rocks that was pouring down the slope. The riders and their animals flinched in reflexive alarm, but the focus of the slide was behind them, back toward the wagons. The crews took cover as the bouncing rocks reached them. The teams looked to be in more danger, with no room for the horses to evade, but the collapse wasn’t as bad as it had looked. By the time it reached the road most of its force was spent, and only the rearmost wagon was damaged as a boulder the size of a man’s torso slammed hard into one of its front wheels.
Bredan had pulled his horse around to go help them when another shout had him turning back toward the huge boulder ahead. A projectile came flying over the giant stone. It twisted awkwardly in the air before plummeting down toward the riders. Bredan barely had a chance to tug his horse aside before it slammed down into the packed surface of the road. He stared down at it in surprise.
It was Gilanis, his neck obviously snapped. The elf’s face was frozen in a look of surprise.
“Enemies!” Haran was yelling, yanking Bredan’s attention back up. The expedition leader was pointing with his spear up the slope, where the source of the rockslide had revealed itself. Bredan had never before seen the three hulking forms that emerged from positions of cover atop the ridge, but he had heard enough stories to be able to identify them. From the cries of alarm among the riders and the wagon crews, he wasn’t the only one.
“Ogres!” he breathed. The three brutes immediately started down the slope toward the wagons, launching fresh tumbles of rocks ahead of them with each step.
Bredan’s wild tugging on his reins had spun him and the animal completely around, so he was still facing the boulder when the full nature of their situation became apparent a moment later. Another foe came into view, one that made the ogres seem a meager threat by comparison. For a moment Bredan had a wild flash that somehow it was the cyclops returned, but this creature had two eyes, dark beads under a protruding brow.
The hill giant was holding Kors in his hands. The human warrior looked like a child’s doll in its grasp. The ground shook as it trudged around the massive boulder, which barely came to its shoulder. Haran was shouting something, no doubt issuing orders, but all Bredan could hear was the pounding of his heart. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the giant as it fixed its stare on him, then almost casually snapped Kors’s back and tossed him out over the chasm. The broken man seemed to hang in the air for a split second and then dropped out of view.
As he stared down the slope at the remains of Camber’s Rise, Bredan didn’t feel especially lucky.
The place had been tiny, just half a dozen wooden structures around a larger stone building, not quite a tower, in the center. The latter was the only place left standing, and even then there wasn’t much left but a hollow shell.
He could smell the acrid stink of char on the air, but he guessed this was old, maybe a week, maybe more.
“A good thing they evacuated,” Glori said. Bredan almost jumped; he hadn’t heard her approach.
“Yeah,” he said. “Look, Gilanis is coming back, let’s see what he has to say.”
Quellan and Kosk joined them as they headed over to where Haran was waiting for the scout. The drivers and the rest of the soldiers had remained with the wagons, a bowshot back along the road. Kosk looked sour, as though he’d expected to see something like this all along. Quellan looked concerned, though he’d agreed to wait for the elf’s report on Haran’s assurance that there hadn’t been anyone here when trouble had arrived.
The adventurers reached Haran just as the scout did, but the expedition leader didn’t seem to mind them hearing Gilanis’s report. The elf had his short bow strung but he had tucked his arrow back into the quiver on his hip.
“This happened six or seven days past,” he said. “A small group. They came from the east and returned that way after they were done. They stayed long enough to be thorough, but it doesn’t look like there was much left worth taking.”
“Goblins?” Bredan asked.
“Difficult to be sure,” Gilanis said. “That squall that blew through a few days back made a mess of the tracks. Definitely humanoid, but I cannot be more specific.”
Haran looked thoughtful. “All right,” he said. “We’ll bivouac next to the stone structure tonight, that’ll offer some shelter should our friends decide to stage an encore. But I’m sure they’re far away by now.”
“Will you send word back to Adelar?” Quellan asked.
Haran shook his head. “I can’t spare anyone,” he said. “We’ll watch in double shifts tonight. Gil, take a circuit around the area, see if you can find anything else.” The elf nodded and ran over to where he’d left his horse. “I’ll go tell the others, and then we can start setting up camp,” Haran added, then trudged back up the rise to the line of wagons.
“I guess we might not be as far away from the war as we thought,” Glori said.
* * *
Even with worries of waking to rampaging goblins rushing through the camp, Bredan dropped off into a hard sleep as soon as he finished his shift on watch and didn’t stir until Willem shook his shoulder roughly the next morning. For a moment he was still caught in the edges of whatever dream he’d been having, then it faded as his aches and weariness rushed back in. With a groan he pulled himself up out of his bedroll and began putting on his armor.
The members of the expedition were well used to working together by now, and the caravan rumbled its way back onto the road even before the sun had fully crested the uneven line of hills to the east. Maybe they were even a bit faster than usual; all of them seemed eager to leave the wreckage of the burned settlement behind them.
At first the road leading up from Camber’s Rise was barely more difficult than the one winding through the foothills, but by midmorning the ascent grew steeper, the surrounding terrain more challenging. The road was obviously not traveled frequently, and as the day grew older they had to pause more frequently to clear away obstacles. Most of the time that was fallen rocks that could hazard the wagons, but in one case an entire tree had slumped over to block the road and had to be cleared with axes and ropes before they could proceed. Fortunately they had brought everything needed with them, including spare wheels for the wagons and an assortment of tools, but Haran still had them be careful with their resources.
The road frequently bent back upon itself as it gained altitude, and at one such bend Bredan paused and looked down over the edge to see the ruined tower of Camber’s Rise in the distance below. It didn’t look all that far away for the hours they’d already put in.
Occasionally the road widened as it passed along a level stretch or made its way through a broad gap between peaks. At one such spot they paused for lunch, to tend to the horses, and stretch their legs. Given how slow their progress had been thus far, Bredan wondered if they would make it to the Silverpeak Valley within the time that Haran had predicted. Given the nature of the trip, he wondered why anyone would bother to come this way at all. There had been silver, thus the name, but Bredan thought it would take more than money to make him want to come all the way out here to live. And now there wasn’t even the silver, and yet people remained.
Shortly after their break the road turned deeper into the range and they left their view of the foothills behind. They were now within the forest of peaks that they’d seen approaching since leaving Adelar, but every time they passed one there were other, taller ones ahead to greet them. Haran had them remain closer together now, the outriders and wagon crews alike alert to any signs of danger. They remained well below the bare granite summits of those mountains, but even in the vales between them there were plenty of hazards to navigate. The road wound through dense forests and rocky dells, and at several places they had to ford streams where the fast-moving water came up to their horses’ knees and the wagons’ axles. They took those crossings slowly; that was not a place where one wanted to foul a wheel. But they made their way across safely, pausing only to top off their water barrels before moving on.
They were making their way up yet another slow ascent—thankfully, none of them had been as steep as the initial climb that morning—when they came to another obstacle. The sun was almost touching the tallest of the peaks to the west and Bredan was thinking of dinner when they came around a bend to see a boulder the size of a cottage blocking the road ahead.
Haran immediately called a halt, and the wagons ground to a stop about thirty paces behind the lead riders. They were at an exposed but not particularly difficult spot, with a steep but manageable slope rising fifty paces to a boulder-encrusted crest on their left and a somewhat sharper descent into a densely wooded dell to their right. Both sides of the road were overgrown with dense tangles of brush, but there were only a few trees nearby, struggling to find purchase in the stony soil.
Haran signaled to two of his men. “Gilanis, Kors, check ahead a bit. Make sure there aren’t any surprises.” The elf and the big human soldier offered salutes and nudged their horses forward.
“We’re not moving that,” Bredan said. He glanced back and saw that the wagon crews were watching. Some of the guards had dismounted, but they would stay with the wagons until Haran signaled them forward. He caught a glimpse of Glori, standing on the bed of the rearmost wagon.
“No,” Haran agreed. “We’ll have to cut a bypass. Easier on the right, but only if there’s enough clearance.”
“Yeah, if a wheel slips, it’s a long way down,” Bredan said, peering over the drop a few paces beyond the edge of the road.
“We’d better start breaking out the shovels and axes,” Haran said. He turned to gesture toward the wagons, but hesitated as a shout of alarm came from around the boulder, accompanied by a loud whinny that was abruptly cut off.
The riders reached for their weapons even as Haran opened his mouth to shout a warning, but before he could speak a loud rumbling cut him off. The sound came from a torrent of rocks that was pouring down the slope. The riders and their animals flinched in reflexive alarm, but the focus of the slide was behind them, back toward the wagons. The crews took cover as the bouncing rocks reached them. The teams looked to be in more danger, with no room for the horses to evade, but the collapse wasn’t as bad as it had looked. By the time it reached the road most of its force was spent, and only the rearmost wagon was damaged as a boulder the size of a man’s torso slammed hard into one of its front wheels.
Bredan had pulled his horse around to go help them when another shout had him turning back toward the huge boulder ahead. A projectile came flying over the giant stone. It twisted awkwardly in the air before plummeting down toward the riders. Bredan barely had a chance to tug his horse aside before it slammed down into the packed surface of the road. He stared down at it in surprise.
It was Gilanis, his neck obviously snapped. The elf’s face was frozen in a look of surprise.
“Enemies!” Haran was yelling, yanking Bredan’s attention back up. The expedition leader was pointing with his spear up the slope, where the source of the rockslide had revealed itself. Bredan had never before seen the three hulking forms that emerged from positions of cover atop the ridge, but he had heard enough stories to be able to identify them. From the cries of alarm among the riders and the wagon crews, he wasn’t the only one.
“Ogres!” he breathed. The three brutes immediately started down the slope toward the wagons, launching fresh tumbles of rocks ahead of them with each step.
Bredan’s wild tugging on his reins had spun him and the animal completely around, so he was still facing the boulder when the full nature of their situation became apparent a moment later. Another foe came into view, one that made the ogres seem a meager threat by comparison. For a moment Bredan had a wild flash that somehow it was the cyclops returned, but this creature had two eyes, dark beads under a protruding brow.
The hill giant was holding Kors in his hands. The human warrior looked like a child’s doll in its grasp. The ground shook as it trudged around the massive boulder, which barely came to its shoulder. Haran was shouting something, no doubt issuing orders, but all Bredan could hear was the pounding of his heart. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the giant as it fixed its stare on him, then almost casually snapped Kors’s back and tossed him out over the chasm. The broken man seemed to hang in the air for a split second and then dropped out of view.
