Chapter 9.1: Last Leg

In the first fifteen minutes after finding the asura beaten, shot, and left for dead on the side of the road, the group had done what they could to address his immediate needs. Jindel had cleaned away as much of the blood as she could from his numerous cuts and gaping bullet wound, while Minkus had worked to ensure all the wounds were fully clotted, so at least he wouldn’t lose any more blood. They provided him food and water from one of their skins and stepped a few paces away to determine what to do next.

As the others started to talk, Minkus missed a few remarks, gazing back instead at Skixx, who lay still against the wall of the bridge. There had been too much suffering on this short journey.

“What do you mean ‘we have to keep moving’?” Penny asked, snapping Minkus’ attention back to his companions. Arms crossed she glared openly at Ventyr. “Even I know we can’t just leave this guy here. Isn’t it your Vigil duty to care for the weak or something?”

“No, of course,” Ventyr replied in a flat tone, “I’m not proposing we leave him here. But a full heal will take hours, hours we can’t spend right now.”

“According to this, we’re less than a day’s journey from the keep,” Jindel said with the map in her hand. “If we continue into the night instead of resting, we would likely make it by the second watch.”

Ventyr nodded. “And if we don’t, not only will we delay the mission further, but we’ll be forced to camp along a shore where pirates are active. We must press on.”

Minkus stared off in the distance, mulling it over. “Well, what about that?” he asked.

Everyone else followed his pointing finger, directing their attention to a building probably a mile south of the road, beyond a series of sandy beaches crawling with river drakes. It sat on a hill, overlooking Lake Bounty, and though it appeared large enough at that distance to be a small keep, it seemed to be only a single house, obviously belonging to someone wealthy.

“It’s not as far out of the way as Applenook,” Minkus reasoned. “Maybe someone there could care for him?”

A thin voice spoke up behind them: “Pardon me.”  They all turned to see the dark-red-haired asura approaching them. Holding his left arm close to his body, he moved slowly, though limping only a little. At full height, he didn’t even reach Ventyr’s belt. “I couldn’t help but overhear your discussion,” he said, “I appreciate your consideration, but I wouldn’t go that way.”

“No?” Ventyr asked, fingering the grain of his chin.

“No,” Skixx repeated, hunched over a little. “That’s where the pirates ran to when they’d finished with me,” he lied. “I’d rather not go a second round with them if you don’t mind.”

“That’s where they went? They swept in off the water and ran away to a mansion?” Penny asked. She stopped to acknowledge the manor on the hill again. “Seems a bit fancy for pirates, doesn’t it?”

Skixx shrugged, more with his eyes than his shoulders. “You can go if you like, but I’d sooner stay here and wait for other help.”

“I too would like to avoid unnecessary entanglements,” Ventyr replied somberly. He looked like his mind was elsewhere.

“Minkus,” Jindel spoke up, “how quickly could you get him in shape to go back to Applenook?”

“On his own?”

“Yeah,” she affirmed. “We could send him back to Applenook with some supplies and money for a stay at the inn.”

Minkus began counting on his fingers, and the new asura gave him a strange look as Minkus thought out loud. “The deeper cuts in his left leg would need to be addressed— Some work on his head— I’d want to heal most of the gunshot wound. Traveling alone apparently isn’t safe around here, even when well—” He opened his eyes and squinted at her. “Ventyr’s right: a couple hours? Maybe a little less if I was focused. Very focused.”

“That’s too long,” Ventyr said.

Skixx nodded his agreement. “Yes, I’d say so. I heard those bookah pirates talk about going to that house and then returning up to their ship before nightfall.” He pointed off to the north, where a mast could barely be seen creeping up over the top of a rocky island out in the lake. The daunting sight added validity to his story. “It would be undesirable that we all be caught here when they return this way.”

Minkus held his face, deep in thought. “So we won’t leave him, we can’t take him back to Applenook, pirates are in that big house, and we can’t stay here to heal him.” He paused. “So what do we do?”

“Yeah,” Penny echoed, hands on her hips, directing her attention at Ventyr. “What do you want to do? Take him with us?”

Ventyr’s head tilted ever so slightly, and his brow rose with a nearly inaudible creak as he considered the idea. “Actually, Penny, that might work.”

“Sir,” Jindel interjected, folding the map and returning it to the pocket inside her jacket, “he’s not exactly in the best shape.”

Penny raised an eyebrow at the crusader. “You’re one to talk.”

Jindel was about to snap back at her when Skixx interrupted, “Where exactly are you headed?”

“The Vigil Keep,” Minkus quickly offered. Ventyr’s expression barely changed, but Minkus could feel the sylvari’s eyes and immediately knew he’d spoken out of turn.

“Oh,” Skixx said. “I was headed east into Lornar’s Pass. Not quite that far north, but—” he stopped suddenly. “No. You’ve already been exceptionally generous.” He smiled, albeit wanly. “I couldn’t inconvenience you further. You seem like fine people, and I’d only slow you down.”

Minkus waited for Ventyr to respond, but a thought came to him, and he couldn’t contain it.  “I think I could lend him strength as we go,” he said, looking around at the others.

“You could what?” Penny asked, suddenly turning to him.

The attention slowed his words a little. “Well—” he stammered, “I mean, that is, if what I think happened out of the bandit cave really did happen.”

Ventyr was now looking at him too. “That was you, wasn’t it? The sudden rush of strength?”

Sheepish, Minkus nodded. “Yes— I mean, I think so.”

“Rush of strength? Bandits?” Penny interjected. “What in Torment are you two wizards jabbering about now?”

Ventyr kept his thoughtful gaze on Minkus as he spoke to Penny. “When we escaped from that cave, didn’t you wonder how we all had such a rush of energy to flee? I certainly wasn’t strong enough for it, but we were able to keep up our speed because Minkus gave his strength to the rest of us. It’s why he was the first to fall.”

Squinting in confusion, Penny opened her mouth to speak, but Jindel interrupted. “Sir, the problem at hand?”

“Minkus,” Ventyr asked, “can you really sustain him for the rest of the day?”

Minkus shrugged, his shoulders rising to touch his large ears. “I— think so? I don’t really know how I did it the first time, but I’m not sure we have another option.” He looked at Skixx, at his arm, at the slouch in his shoulders, and Minkus felt the gnaw of compassion. His own shoulders slumped, and something sparked in Skixx’s eye. “Yes,” he said, a little slower, “I can at least try.”

Ventyr nodded, turning his attention to Skixx. “It would be our honor if you would travel with us. Our food and water are yours, and Minkus here will do what he can for you while we walk.” He turned to Jindel. “Crusader, use what we have to make him a sling. I want to be moving as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied, nodding. With a soft smile, Minkus nodded as well.

“Really?” Skixx asked. “I don’t want to be a bother.”

“It’s no bother,” Minkus reassured. He placed a thick hand gently on Skixx’s uncut shoulder. “We’re happy to help.”

Half an hour later, they’d gotten everything together and were moving again, not quite as fast as before, but they were still moving. With Minkus focused on channeling his own health into Skixx, one was empowered while the other was weakened, balancing their paces somewhere in the middle. It was a common speed the others in the party could follow.

They followed the road north, running parallel with the eastern shore of Lake Gendarr. Were it not for the black shapes of pirate vessels anchored out in the depths, it would have been a beautiful view. The sky now clear, sunlight danced and leapt off the water in long, glistening snakes that rode the crest of every ripple. Not a quarter mile off the shoreline, a huge, rocky island stood forty feet straight out of the water, sheltering one of the ships. No beaches, no inlets, and nothing but walls perpendicular to the water’s surface, it appeared as an impenetrable fortress of stone amid an edgeless moat.

The weather warmed significantly as the day pressed on. By mid afternoon, everyone’s coats were open or off. The sudden arrival of actual springtime weather could not have been more perfectly timed. Among other things, their new travel-mate’s earlier misfortune had resulted in substantial damage to his black, woolen coat. It wasn’t likely to keep him all that warm, and according to his telling, the additional clothing he was carrying had been taken by his attackers, along with everything else in his possession.

Were he not focused so intently on channeling his restoration magic to Skixx, Minkus would have been working to make him feel welcome among them. It was a mantle that no one else had really taken on yet, until curiosity got the better of Penny.

“The innkeeper back at Applenook told us he’d seen an asura traveling alone,” she began. “I imagine that was you.”

Skixx tilted his head to look up and see her from under his wildly tousled hair. He nodded. “Most likely, yes.”

“What in Tyria brought you out here on your own?” she asked, scowling.

“Commerce,” he shrugged, looking down at his current state. “I’m selling some products to a buyer. You can see what that earned me, though.”

“What sort of business are you in?” Minkus asked with a slightly forced smile. Despite his divided focus, he could hardly miss an opportunity to acquaint himself with Skixx.

“I don’t know that I’d call it a business, precisely. More of a study.” It was an answer Minkus was familiar with. With the exception of a few merchants, asura didn’t engage in mere business; they studied, they researched, they experimented, they invented. Skixx went on, “I’m a metallurgist—a particularly adept one, if I may say so. I specialize in the development of rare and custom alloys.”

“Oh, really?” Penny asked with an arched eyebrow. “I’ve worked with a few of your type before. You said the pirates stole your bag, right?”

“That’s right,” he affirmed. “Everything I had, including my pistol. I liked that pistol.”

Penny nodded, still eying him incredulously. “Exactly how many plates of steel and iron alloys can a little person like you carry cross-country on his back?”

“No,” Skixx replied, shaking his head, “You misunderstand me, ah—”

“Penny.”

“Yes, Penny. I wasn’t carrying the metals themselves. It was the formulae I was taking to my buyer. Like I said, custom alloys.” An arrogant light filled his eye. “The sorts others can fashion but not formulate. I do the formulating, and they pay me for the right to fashion.”

“Oh no,” Minkus gasped. “The pirates stole your formulae? That’s awful.”

Skixx balled his left fist in the sling. “It most certainly is—Alchemy curse them.” With a self-satisfied grin, though, he continued, “Fortunately, I memorize every one of my formulae, so they can have the blasted papers. Bookahs won’t even know what to do with them, and I’ll still make my sale.” For a moment, his stride took on a bit of a swagger, despite the remaining limp. Minkus missed a step.

As they continued north into the Vigilant Hills, the sun sank below the western horizon and the landscape around them began to rise up. Pebbled beaches turned into thinly forested hills ending in three-hundred-foot cliffs further up the shore. Most travelers shied away from those rises along the lake, as further into them, minotaur roamed: hulking creatures capable of ripping the heads off live deer when hunger gripped them. Fortunately for the five travelers, minotaur were no issue along the road that night.

Several hours later, well after the third watch had started, they finally reached the Keep. Coming up out of the Vigilant Hills, it had been a long walk up a steady incline before they finally reached the foot of the stone ramp that led to the Keep itself.

The moonless sky cast no light on the area, making it hard to see exactly what was around them, but Minkus’ gaze went as far as the darkness would allow. Though barely still walking upright, he still couldn’t stop himself from squinting to see the massive stone complex. It would likely have appeared as little more than a stonework ramp leading straight into the mountainside, were it not for the flickers of torchlight scattered around the fortress. Those sparks cast dim glows dancing up walls of finely cut stone that sketched out a general shape and size to the structure. It was huge.

Suddenly a voice came from the shadows, “State your name and business.” It was quickly followed by the creak and clank of shifting plate armor as a figure some nine feet tall emerged into the firelight cast by a torch at the edge of the ramp. Two similar figure, though a great deal smaller, stepped out on their opposite side, and another appeared behind the large speaker. All three of the smaller ones were humans, by the look of them.

“Sergeant Ventyr,” the sylvari replied, extending his hand to show his Vigil seal. “I’ve come from the Brisban Wildlands with a message for Warmaster Efut.”

The tallest guard, clearly a norn, grabbed the torch from its stand and leaned forward, straining to view the seal through its light. He nodded. “And these others with you, Sergeant?” His thick brow seemed to shape his eyes into a perpetual scowl.

“Crusader Jindel Valliford; our friends Penny Arkayd of Divinity’s Reach and Minkus of Metrica Province; and Skixx, an injured traveler we found on our path.” He pointed to each of them as he went, and each gave a slight bow as their names were called.

“Manifred,” the norn said to one of the guards opposite him, “you and Kip escort these folks to the barracks.” He turned back to Ventyr. “Apologies Sergeant, but shy of a dragon-spawn assault on the Keep itself, no one sees the warmasters at this time of night. Rest the night, you and your companions, and you can deliver your message in the morning.”

“Understood,” Ventyr replied with a slight nod.

Minkus, weary-eyed, tugged at the edge of Ventyr’s coat and gestured slightly to Skixx. “Yes, of course. Thank you, Minkus,” he said. The sylvari quickly returned his attention to the lead guard, saying, “Our friend Skixx here is in need of immediate medical attention. Are there healers on duty?”

“This isn’t an active war zone, sir. No healers are kept at the ready. However, it should be possible to rouse one for an immediate need. Manifred will see to that.”

“Thank you very much, Crusader—”

The large norn stood erect. “Arron, sir. Arron Bjornsson.”

“Thank you, Crusader Arron,” Ventyr responded. The two pressed their fists to their chests in salute, and Manifred and his partner stepped forward up the ramp to lead the party into the Keep. Minkus followed slowly behind Skixx. Each step was one closer to rest.

The smooth, stone incline was long, and eerily quiet. Once the party was too far away to hear the two guards remaining at the bottom, there wasn’t a sound to be heard, aside from the clanking of plate armor, the gentle creak of leather bags and shoes, and a distant wind sweeping through the alders in the valley below. Even up ahead, on the upper deck of the keep, the only visible signs of life were a few moving points of light that disappeared and reappeared as they moved: sentries, carrying their torches, as they passed behind each parapet on their patrols.

“Only four of you guard the entrance to this place?” Penny asked, hefting her smartpack into a more comfortable position.

The one called Manifred turned to address her over his shoulder. In the dim light of his torch, it seemed he was young, dark-haired and fair-skinned, built like a blacksmith in the prime of his life, but he’d lost the weightlessness of youth. “We’re stretched very thin these days. With so many fighting the undead in the south, the Keep is mostly just manned by new recruits, those recovering from serious injury, and some between assignments.” He stopped, then added, “And top leadership and tactical advisors, of course.”

“Plus,” Jindel added with an unmistakable pride, “no one’s been crazy enough to attack the Keep, ever.”

“She’s right,” the guard went on. “Even with as few as we currently have, this position could be held for months on end against the dragon itself. That’s well long enough for reinforcements to arrive.”

“If you say so,” Penny replied flippantly.

The two guards led them through the courtyard at the end of the ramp. Unlike most keeps, this one had the primary courtyard built four-hundred feet up, at the top of the first wall. From there, they would be able to access anything else in the keep, from the taller towers to the armories, barracks, and engineering stations built down inside the fortress. The group wasn’t headed to any of those places, though. Hanging a right in the center of the courtyard, they ascended another ramp between a pair of walls, which led them up to the next courtyard.

At the top of the ramp and off to the left were a series of tents, crafted of thick canvas and anchored permanently into the very mortar of the keep. They passed several before Manifred finally stopped, lifting the flap of the one in front of him and gesturing inward with his torch-bearing hands. “This one will be your bunk for the night,” he said in hushed tones. “Depending on how long you’re here, the warmasters might move you inside, but for now, I hope this suffices.”

“What about Skixx?” Minkus asked, more of Ventyr than the guard. Even his tongue was heavy now.

Nodding his assent, Manifred spoke before Ventyr needed to. “Not to worry. I’m heading to wake a healer now. I’ll point her back here, and she’ll see to your friend. In the morning, someone will come get you for your audience with the warmaster.”

“Thank you, Crusader,” Ventyr said, reaching out to touch the soldier’s arm. “Carry on, and we’ll settle in for the night.”

Manifred and Kip saluted; turned; and parted ways, one going on to find the healer and the other returning to the entry ramp of the fortress. Ventyr held the tent flap open, ushering the others one-by-one into the shelter. Minkus was the last to enter, stopping as he passed under Ventyr’s arm and into the tent. “You’re here,” he said, looking up at the sylvari with a weak smile. “I’m sure someone will have the answers.”

Ventyr nodded. “I do hope so.”