A Weapon Too Free

Battle at the Bridge

The next time the caravan halted everyone was feeling their Fatigue. It was the bane of anyone who wanted to cover great distance at speed. Vennan was banking on the fact that Fatigue affected monsters much more than it did humanoids, thus any pursuers would be worse off. That gave the caravan time enough to get some sleep and return to top condition before any further attack.

Vennan had chosen a nicely defensible position. The road was slashed in two by a deep, rocky canyon. A heavy and broad stone bridge crossed the gap. The near side began from a sharp overhang that jutted out into the canyon. Monsters attacking across the bridge would be easily spotted and limited to fighting two or three abreast. That meant Vennan only had to worry about serious attack from the other direction, the one they had come from. With the guards and the heavy spell support from Jehhan'ni, he was quietly confident that any assault would be driven off. The guards themselves were taking few chances — they had driven sharpened stakes into the ground in a rough quarter circle and readied some pavises.

Essendra held the pavise for one of the guards as he knocked it into the ground.

"I'll be ready for some rest," he said. "Vennan's always having us run around to avoid attacks that never come."

Essendra lacked his confidence but didn't contradict him. "It'll be hard to sleep in the middle of the day, even under a wagon."

"You need Folgor's Technique."

"What?"

"Hey, Folgor!" the guard shouted. "Show her the trick you use to sleep during the day!"

Another guard tipped his sack of belongings onto the grass and then put the bag over his head. The other guards cheered. Essendra smiled.

"If you keep your stuff in the sack while you do this," Folgor said, through the cloth, "it also makes it lot harder for anyone to steal your stuff."

"Does that happen?" Essendra's heart leapt into her mouth. Her pack was still in one of the wagons.

"Sometimes," the first guard said, dropping light-hearted horseplay for a more sober tone. "It's a huge temptation for some people. What are the chances they'll run across us again, after all? But adventurers are generally trustworthy. After all, a decent suit of armour is worth more than this entire caravan. But..."

He looked over his shoulder, then lowered his voice.

"...I'd watch out for Smaragdina."

"Really?"

"She says she's an alchemist, but have you ever seen her with a potion bottle? She had no Guild papers to prove she was an adventurer. Old man Vennan told her he wouldn't take her, but she kept slipping more and more gold coins onto the table until he changed his mind."

The guard leaned in. Juicy gossip appeared to delight him.

"Now, if she has that kind of money I doubt she's going to paw through any of our things. But I do wonder why she was so insistent that she join this caravan. I reckon she's pulled off some big theft and is getting away as quickly as she can. When we get back to Paloxhal I'm going to ask around and see if there's a reward for information."

"Good luck," Essendra said. She was a bit on automatic.

Now she was really worried about her pack. A thief in the party was bad news. If Smaragdina took the mace Essendra could hardly demand the return of a weapon no-one had ever seen her with.

"Ursa!" Vennan shouted. "You and that alchemist go down to the river and fill up these waterskins. And Folgor, take that off your head!"

Essendra sensed a chance. Smaragdina had rarely left the wagon she'd been riding in. This was a golden opportunity to for Essendra to do a little snooping and maybe find out what her secret was.