Industry & Intrigue (47 page)

It caught her eye, it
definitely wasn’t a textbook. Too old and worn.
“What’s that?” she
asked.

He glanced up at her. He
looked like he’d
been caught doing something he shouldn’t have. “It’s…an old
souvenir,” he answered and went back to reading.

Fine
she thought.
If he doesn’t feel like sharing, his
choice.

Cassandra had lucked out. She
and several other s
tudents wanted to sit up front of the carriage, to get a
better view while they traveled. But there was only room for one.
Xerin had settled the matter by drawing straws and Cassandra picked
the short one. While the rest of the class were stuck in the back
of the carriage, with the noise from the flare-rock engine,
Cassandra was high up and able to get a view of the
journey.

The road
was only dirt, but was well
maintained. The carriage encountered minimal bumps. Along the sides
of the road stood pine trees as tall as the university
library.

The mountains looked much
larger n
ow
that they had left the town.

Nitark saw her looking at them.
“No snow on them yet
,” he said. “Too early in the year. Give it a couple a
months though. Once mid-winter hits, it’ll settle all the way down
to the forest ‘ere. You wouldnae want to come to the valley then.
Nowhere near as nice a journey. Them trees keep out the worst of
the wind, but the rain and sleet slides through. Don’t know why all
these excavator types bother coming in winter, not worth the effort
if you ask me.”

“
Because it’s their
passion,” said
Cassandra. “Like it is mine.”

The man laughed. “Fair enough.
Don’t know how you folk can get passio
nate about digging up a bunch o’ old
bones and junk, but to each his own. Course as bad as winter is, it
may have been a better time to come than now.”

“
Why? I thought the university
always sent classes this time of year.”

“
Aye lass, you’re right. This is
an annual job for me, transporting you youngsters to your digging
for a couple o’ days. I also make supply runs to the site. The last
few months though, something strange been going on at the site.”
Nitark had an odd gleam in his eyes.

“
Some of them have been saying
people go missing at night, never to be seen again. One o’ the
leaders up there told me, they found a guard dead one morning. Had
his head ripped clean off. No one knows what did it, but it has
them all scared. Last trip, I brought back eight who didn’t want to
stay any longer.”

Cassandra couldn’t work out if
the old man was serious or if he was
trying to scare her for kicks. It was
ludicrous of course, even if he did sound earnest.

Her disbelief must have shown. “Don’t
believe me aye?” he asked. “I don’t blame ya. I didnae believe it
first. Thought they was going stir crazy. Making up tales to pass
the time. Then the guards warned me carry a weapon.”

He banged on the back wall of the
compartment they were seated in and she looked back. A
long-barreled shotgun was attached to the wall.

“
It was the looks on the faces
o’ those I brought back the last time. They was terrified. Was
enough to convince me something was out there. Something nasty and
hungry, which is why I got that. They only lost people at night and
we’ll be there before then, but I ‘aint takin any
chances.”

“
Didn’t you tell my professor
about all this?” asked Cassandra. She was sta
rting to believe him
now.

“
Course I d
id. But did she listen?” He
sounded annoyed. “She was assured all was well by the head honcho
professor at the valley and that’s all she needed to hear. She
didnae care about the ravings of a northern bumpkin like meself. Do
yourself a favor lass, don’t go out at night and make sure you’re
always within site of the guards. I wouldnae want to see anything
to happen to any o’ you kids.”

Cassandra absorbed the man’s
warning and looked
along the road. Way off down the tree line she could make
out a wooden structure.

“
Doesn’t look like anyone’s at
the way station. That’s odd,” said Nitark.

As they closed the
distance
she
was able to see it better. It was a wooden fort built along the
side of the road. There was a small tower with lanterns hanging,
but they were unlit. Nitark pulled a lever and the carriage came to
a shuddering stop.

“
Wait here
,” he told her. He hopped out
of his seat and clambered to the ground.

She shuffled
over to look out
the driver’s side. Nitark knocked on the side door of the carriage
and the professor opened it. They talked for a few minutes and then
Xerin closed the door. Nitark walked back, pulling himself back up.
She quickly shuffled back to her side.

“
You
r professor wants to keep going,” he
said, and he sat back behind the controls. “Most travelers like to
stop here and rest but she wants to get there as soon as possible.
Make sure you all have as much time at the site as possible.” He
shook his head.

“
What is it?” she
asked.

“
Something ‘aint right. There’s
normally at least one guard here. Sometimes three or four. They may
have gone off to hunt or ride to the town, but I never seen them
leave it empty.”

He pushed the main lever
forward and the flare-rock engine came back to life. He pushed
a
button,
pulled another lever and the carriage moved forward
again.

Cassandra continued to
a
dmire the
forest surrounding the road, while Nitark grumbled about ‘smart-ass
university professors’. He was more agitated about the empty fort
than the rumors of death he’d been talking about. He must have only
been trying to scare her after all.

An hour later,
the trees fell away
and were replaced with scrubland. The mountains were much closer
and Cassandra had to twist her head up to see to the
tops.

“
Not much longer
now
,” said
Nitark and he pointed. Cassandra squinted and in the distance she
could make out a fort sitting at the foot of the
mountains.

It slowly became larger as they continued
along the road, until she could make out a short stone wall with
two towers rising above. Next to the wall was a single stone
building. Behind the wall she could see the tops of large
tents.

There was only one main
building at the excavation site
and it contained enough room for around
twenty. But since the number of visitors fluctuated, there were
usually a number of tents serving as temporary
accommodation.

They close enough that
Cassandra was able
to make out the men in the towers and two more standing in front of
the gate. They were reacting to the sight of the carriage, moving
around and talking to each other.

The carriage was only a hundred
o
r so meters
away from the gate and both of the men in front waited for them to
approach. They didn’t move to open the gate and Nitark stopped the
carriage.

“
What in the hells?” he said,
surprise in his voice. “I make the trip here often enough, they
n
ormally let
me right on. Bastards must be shitting themselves because of
everyone going missing.” He opened the door and poked his head out.
‘It’s Nitark. I’ve got the latest load of students here to visit
the excavation.” The guards made shrugging gestures and shook their
heads.

“
Creator fucking
dammit
,” he
swore and turned the carriage off. He opened the door and stepped
down. He stomped over to the nearest guard. “Are you new or
something? I’m a regular here. Open up, so I can go on
in.”

Cassandra could hear the anger
in his voice.
The guard said something but she couldn’t make it
out.

“
What?
” said Nitark. “What in the fucking
hells are you talking about?” The guard took a quick step back and
a shot rang out. Cassandra gave a small scream as Nitark fell
forward. She looked up and saw one of the tower guards with an
aimed rifle, smoke drifting from the end of the barrel.

Nitark
hit the ground and the guard next to
him focused his eyes on the carriage. He pointed his finger and
Cassandra was suddenly startled by a knock on the window next to
her face. The other guard had snuck up and had a revolver pointed
at her.

“
Open up
,” he said.

She nodded and slowly opened
the door. He grabbed her by the arm and flung her
down. He took a
quick look inside the compartment, then shut the door.

“
On your feet
!” he barked. She stood up,
brushing dirt from her face. “Move!” and he nudged her in the back
with the gun. She did as he ordered and walked towards the
gate.

It was slowly opening now and a
line of men, all
armed, walked out. They looked like mercenaries and then
Cassandra realized that the ones manning the gate must have taken
the uniforms from the real guards.

T
he men came out and surrounded the back
door of the carriage while one of them opened it up.

“
Get them out of there and put
them with the othe
rs, at least they’ll be good for labor work,” said a soft,
female voice from behind. Cassandra turned back around to see this
newcomer.

Her eyes went wide with shock as a female
tiger agorid stepped out from behind the armed men. The agorid
looked like she was in charge, the way she ordered them about. The
men near the carriage hauled the Professor Xerin and the other
students out and put them into one group. The man behind Cassandra
nudged her with his gun and forced her towards them. As she joined
them, she stood next to Reese and he gave her a reassuring squeeze
on her shoulder.

Then the
agorid tigress spoke again,
“All of you listen to me. You are now our prisoners. The Crean
Valley excavation site belongs to us. Do not resist, do as you are
told and you will not be harmed. Once we have finished what we came
here for, we will leave and you will be free.”

The tigress was speaking Alkon, but with a
slight accent. If Cassandra had to judge she would have guessed
Enz. “What in the Creator’s name is this?” she whispered to Reese.
He shook his head in confusion, and their captors ordered them to
move towards the building.

Chapter
46

A thick sea fog had fallen by
the time
the
watch assembled near the warehouse. Brenna looked at the formidable
building through the window. It was one of the largest warehouses
she had ever seen. The main section started at the waterfront and
extended out more than a hundred meters. There were two smaller
subsections to either side, each half the size of the main part.
Standing in front of the doors were four orcs, all armed with
shotguns.

All
of the officers under her command
were assembled in the building opposite, an apartment complex. They
were dressed in full armor and well-armed with their own Culsyth
1702 shotguns, the standard issue for raids of this
nature.

They would be split into two forces and
come at the orc guards from either side, outflanking and surprising
them before they could react and warn anyone inside.

She glanced over at the two
young
Scepter mages. They were identical twin boys and were so
short and skinny that Brenna had initially thought they were
teenagers, but they had assured her they were twenty three. Zuri
was not likely to send children to her, so she believed
them.

Both mages
were wearing bright yellow
robes and the she could tell them apart by their hair. Sadic had a
thick mop of brown curly hair while Andas had his shaved down to a
coarse, thin layer.

“
Are you ready for this?” she
asked Selim. She was going to lead one team, while he
commanded the other
as the second most senior officer present.

He nodded. “Whenever you want
to give the order
, sergeant.”

“
Take you
r officers to the side
building,” she said. “We’ll hit the door in five minutes. Wait for
the signal.”

“
See you on the other
side
,” he
said, smiling. He then gave orders to his officers and they moved
out. Snar stood as still as a statue, looking at the
warehouse.

“
Ready Snar?” she
asked.

“
Of course
, sergeant. I do not anticipate
this will be too difficult a task. We have a large concentration of
officers and two mages. I do not think even Mikono’s outfit can
withstand an assault of this size. But in case they do decide to
resist, well…” he lifted his double-sided axe, indicating his
preparedness.

Snar had certainly
embraced his role
as a watch officer. Brenna was glad that he was here tonight to
have her back. She turned to address the remaining
officers.