Plight of an Empire

Chapter Fifteen- part 2: Jyrik

The caravan had left the town almost as soon as they had arrived. The people of Frostfall cheered them on as they left, shouting curses and spurns at the twins inside the cages. Jyrik had made promises that he would return within a week's time with any information he could find on the missing hunting parties. They blessed him and his men as they rode by. This was what it felt like to be a hero.

For two days, Jyrik's caravan pushed further into the mountains towards the Tundra. Somehow, it grew colder with every step despite Jyrik's disbelief that it could have become much colder beyond the gates of Frostfall. Still they pushed onwards.

Yesterday, a man riding fell off his horse. When Morven went to check him, he found him dead. He had frozen in place. It was no telling how long he had been dead. They merely took his horse and pressed forward. That night, Jyrik tasted horse meat for the first time.

"Milord", one of the men called as he approached Jyrik and Morven. He called himself Brom. A commonman's name Jyrik had figured. "The rest of the men are nervous about pushing this far north", he said through the chattering of his teeth. The man's nose had a blue tone to it, Jyrik realized. He would probably lose it by the time they returned to Mynoa. "They say that we will freeze on our horses like Cade did."

"Morven says that the Drop Off is only two more days away", Jyrik replied as he pulled his furs over his nose in an attempt to protect it from the frost.

"Your Grace, with all due respect, we will not make it to the Drop Off if we push on", Brom said. "We are in winter in the middle of the Black Rocks. We will freeze to death before we arrive to the Drop Off."

Morven spat out a seed husk. The saliva froze before it hit the ground, landing with an audible thunk. "I would have to go with the men on this one, Jyrik", he said. "It's only going to get colder from here and these horses will likely freeze before we do. They ain't Frostfall horses. That's for damn sure." He shoved another handful of seeds in his mouth.

Jyrik pursed his lips as he contemplated what his course of action should be. On one hand, he wanted to watch the twins die as they stepped over the Drop Off into the Tundra. But on the other, he actually wanted for him and his men to return home alive. To witness the death of the twins was not more important than ensuring his men's safety. As well as his own.

"Fine", he said. "We will release them atop the next ridge." He pointed his hand to a ridge just ahead of them. It was tall, but not tall enough that the horses could not carry the cages up. Perhaps he could push them off the other side.

The men behind him started cheering as the doubled their efforts to reach the ridge. They were ready to return home. Many had left their wives and children to volunteer for Jyrik. Nearly all had survival and fighting experience from working as mercenaries or sellswords. A couple claimed to have been brigands working for the Bloody Baron before their conscious caught up with them and forced them into retirement. One man swore to the gods, named and unnamed, that he was Chief Blackfoot's second-in-command before the bandit chief was captured and beheaded ten years ago.

Jyrik remembered reading about Blackfoot in the books at home. He was a great and vicious bandit leader who operated in Didaan and Rundil. He grew his own empire within the empire by savagely killing off those who opposed him and enslaving those who relinquished themselves to him. He was the most vicious bandit the empire had ever seen. The Brigand King, the Lord of Rape, the Man Who Made an Empire Bow. These were all names that he had been given during his reign over the criminals in the empire. He was not caught until his own lover poisoned him and turned him in for the bounty. She only got to enjoy that bounty for a day before Blackfoot's men tortured and killed her.

Jyrik and Morven reached the crest of the ridge first, before the cages did. They surveyed the area and what they saw brought bile to Jyrik's throat. A sea of snow painted red from the bodies of fallen men was laid out before them. Every man was torn to shreds. Many of them did not even look human anymore from the massive damage done to their bodies.