The Butcher of Gadobhra

As the three Couriers mounted for the dash back to the wagon train, Harmony looked upward at Ben, then at Mudhead. She rode around and around the big roan horse who preened and flipped his main and tail, happy to be appreciated.

"This is the same horse? He's bigger, stronger, and looks faster."

Ben smiled innocently at her, "He is at that, and smarter as well. He wasn't fooled by that critter playing possum and saved my butt. Has a good kick too. And a few other surprises."

She kept staring at the magnificent stallion, sure this couldn't be the same horse Ben had ridden before. If you could call what Ben did the first time they met riding. More like 'falling off with style'. "How?"

"Would you believe it's the high-quality groats that we produce in my little village? If you fall for that, I know a Baron that will sell you a few tons. Very tasty and good for man and beast."

"I'll let you convince Harmonia of that. And no, I don't believe that for a second."

Ben shrugged, "Another story for a quieter time. It's only partly my story to tell. You should come to Sedgewick where we can drink, relax, tell stories, and relax some more. For now, I suggest we behave like adults and not Franklins, and race back to the caravan. The winner can decide what bottle we drink first after this expedition is over."

Themis was staring down the road and saw them coming. "Three Franklins riding back fast to tell me something. Ten to one it's not good news."

Claudia shook her head, "It rarely is, but at least we get the news fast."

Mudhead was in the lead, Harmony a few lengths behind, and Alan striving to catch up, a half mile to the rear. The five miles had been covered in only a few minutes, their mounts sped along by Courier enhancements, magical horseshoes, and whatever tricks the three of them knew. Ben pulled up in front of the General and saluted. Harmony did the same, noting that Ben's horse wasn't breathing hard at all. To her surprise, the roan turned his head, whinnied, winked at her, then winked at her mare. The mare chose to ignore him, for now, not happy with coming in second.

Themis said, "Let me guess, problems?"

"A couple. The main one is a lot of snow. It's thick on the road and we'll hit drifts. It will be slow going pushing through it and we'll be strung out in a long line with concealing terrain around us. This brings us to the second problem." He leaped from his horse and pulled the hide from Damien's ring, unrolling it on the cold ground. "I ran into this critter and it was a tough fight."

There were a few gasps from the cavalry officers who could see it as Ben unrolled the hide and spread it out fully. The marks of the fight were visible in many places, small slashes and punctures, many ringed by charred flesh.

Themis examined the Snarlfang, her practiced eye revealing the creature's stats and abilities. She looked up at the three Couriers and shook her head. "Three Couriers versus this monster? You're lucky you aren't all dead! Run next time and let us deal with it with more people."

Harmony corrected her with a grin on her face, "It was Ben who used up all his luck. Alan and I arrived late to the fight and cheered him on."

Themis took a deep breath, glaring at Ben, "You can't scout and bring me information if you die." Ben bowed to her, acknowledging the point.

Harmonia bent and felt the hide. "A little coarse, but this would make a wonderful cloak, maybe several. Wouldn't look too shabby as a rug in front of the grand hearth at Franklin house."

Harmony wasn't about to let her steal her hide. "That one's mine. I already managed to convince Ben of that. You'll have to wait until he kills a few more, grandmother."

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Themis considered the beast. "True, you only saw this one though? A lone scout or a patrol perhaps? No way to know. Let's get moving so we can see how deep this snow is. I was hoping that with enough Couriers we could turn an eighty-mile two-day march into a single day's travel, but that's obviously not going to happen unless we have a way to clear the snow. Get the wagons going. Couriers spread out and give us some speed. I'm going to talk to Caldrius."

As soon as they heard the order, the Contract Workers started jogging up the road at a fast pace, pulling the wagons with ease. Inside the warmth of the covered wagons, the soldiers napped, ate, and discussed politics and romance, happy to have the downtime. They knew it wouldn't last, but it was nice to not be marching for once. They ate up the five miles to where the heavy snow began in only a half hour with the bonus from the Couriers.

When asked, Caldrius considered the question. "Not without expending a great amount of mana, heat, and stamina. This isn't magical snow to be dispelled by opposing mana. Oh, clearing enough for a campsite would be easy to accomplish, but we are talking about 80 miles of snow-covered road with an accumulation of two feet of snow. I have no idea how much heat that would take to melt. And you have to consider that if I heat the road enough to melt the snow, you get a lot of water. We'd have to wait for the roadway to refreeze before traveling over it."

Rolly had been observing the caravan from the side of the road. "Bring it on in folks, we've got a job to do." His flock of wyverns squawked and gathered close to him. Each one was wearing a warm scarf wrapped around their neck to help with the cold. Adrianna had made them for him as the nights in Sedgewick got colder. "There's a lot of horses over there, but they're part of our flock now, got it? All one big flock. They'll be patrolling the area, and that will let you guys scout ahead and have some fun. We all understand?"

"Fishies?"

"Yep, lots of fishies, but not until we stop. I've got a barrel of fish in the back and more barrels in the other wagons. Lots of fishies. Remember that, and don't let any critter steal your fishies. We have to guard the flock. Lindy is in charge, follow her orders. Spread out and stay within a mile of the wagons. Do you remember how far that is, Lindy? Good girl. Head on out. Find the bad guys, but be careful, it's cold and you'll run slower. Use your wings and stay on top of the frozen snow. The flock raced off, led by Lindy wearing a sky-blue scarf.

Once they were gone, Rolly cupped his hands and made loud honking noises that echoed into the sky, and earned him some odd looks from the caravan. Within minutes a flock of ducks descended from the sky. Rolly was scattering corn on the ground for them. "Eat up guys, it's from high-level plants and packed with lots of calories to keep you in the air. The mission is GO. I need eyes on the ground, wings in the air, and all the info you can get me." The ducks finished their dinner, formed ranks, and saluted him. Rolly saluted back and yelled, "Wings Up!" The flock took off, flying in formation as they circled the wagons once, and then split off on their individual missions.

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Rolly picked up his wagon and took it to the end of the line where Jon took over pulling it, nervously glancing at the cargo. Then he started walking through the Legion cavalry, introducing himself to them, squad by squad, smiling as he went. The soldiers of the Red Banner knew him already, but he made sure he met anyone new and got their names and the names of their mounts. Satisfied, he headed to where Themis was talking with Caldrius at the front of the caravan.

Themis felt something happening. She was normally aware of all the people under her command. Stronger connections to the soldiers of the Legion and the Red Banner. The Contract Workers had been a surprise, but she'd met most of them before during the crazy corporate war. Ozzy stood out as a beacon, with his own connections to the people of Sedgewick. Now there was another set of connections tying them all together, and leading to someone. She turned to see the Shepherd walking up to her, holding a staff with a formidable magical aura.

"Morning ma'am. I figured it was time for me to get to work. I'll take the lead and clear out the snow. It would help a lot if we bunched up the flock into more of a circle than a long line. The Courier magic will take hold better and if something happens we can circle the wagons quicker to protect the flock."

Without answering any questions, he walked up the road, snow and ice retreating around him and leaving a wide dirt path. He looked back at the assembled flock that was following him and whistled long and loud, then began jogging down the road and setting a pace for the wagons. The horses knew what to do, even if their riders didn't and the formation turned into a roughly circular blob, like a herd of sheep.

Themis turned to Claudia, did you get the same message I just did?"

Your troops are under the effects of Blessings of the Flock for the next 8 hours.

Pathfinding: Difficult paths are made smooth and straight, allowing the flock to travel easily.

Light Hearts make for a Fast Journey: The morale of your flock and their movement speed is increased by 50% for eight full hours, after which they must eat a full meal and rest for a night.

The Duchess nodded. "I watched him lead several villages of peasants to safety once, and two of my troopers that I personally saw die, swear he led them out of Hades' Realm along with an entire army of other shades. They showed up four days after we held their wake and demanded a party for their return."

Harmonia looked to where Rolly was running, the wagons keeping up with him. She felt the combined powers of the Couriers surrounding the caravan take hold and the landscape sped by as fast as a galloping horse. Whatever the Shepherd was doing, it was acting as a force multiplier to the Courier magic. She rode over to Themis and Claudia. "Fast enough for you? And how did you pull this stunt out of your pocket? I thought we'd be a week clearing this snow."

Themis smiled, "A good general knows how to delegate and let people be creative."

A very nervous Winter Sorceror of the second tier had drawn a short straw and volunteered to carry the messages to the High Mage commanding the army of Winter surrounding the broken citadel of the Fire Mages. He was nervous for a good reason. "We have word from a scout, lord. One of the snarlfangs encountered the empire's Couriers, moving ahead of their army."

Callendish Maer looked up from his book and smiled, his thin blue lips drawing back from his slightly pointed teeth. "Ah, finally, I was hoping they'd take a chance on rescuing those fools barricaded in their little fortress. Maybe they will come outside if we can lure their rescuers into a trap. How many of them are there, and how many mages will I need to challenge?"

"Unknown, Lord. The Beastmaster who was soul-riding was overwhelmed by the beast's fury and engaged the Couriers. He told us that there were three of them, and for some reason described the horse one was riding, as if that mattered. And then he died when the beast was slain."

"Ah, the downside of linking your soul to something you can't control. What of the other Beastmaster, the one controlling a trio of terns? What has he seen?"

"He reported that two troops of cavalry along with a long line of supply wagons were moving towards us. Less than 500 horses in all."

"Excellent. An easy force to deal with. But is it only an advanced force with more coming? That seems quite small for that many wagons. Unless the fools think they can get inside and resupply the Collegium? Warmlanders are so hard to understand. Have him use the birds to get close and find out who is commanding the forces and feel for any Fire Mages or Heroes."

"umm..."

"Oh, this is going to be bad news, isn't it? And I had just started to like you, Fabian. You have some talent in that twisted and frozen soul of yours. Tell me why my Beastmaster of Terns can't scout for me."

"Ducks, sir."

"Ducks? As in the birds, migratory species, tasty when frozen solid and sliced thin with lingonberry sauce? Those ducks?"

"Yes sir, those ducks. His terns were dive-bombed by ducks and knocked to the ground where other ducks pecked them to death. It was brutal sir, and he's curled up in a ball. Just quacks a lot when you try to talk to him."

Callendish Maer hadn't heard such a ludicrous thing in ages. It was amusing, and he started laughing, the sound like broken fingernails on a piece of slate. He waved Fabian away as he tried to get his giggling under control.