Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 28 (Patreon)

Chapter 28

After eating a simple meal and double-checking everyone’s equipment, we left the inn as a group.  I was starting to feel better after getting some food in my system, and now it seemed everyone was bound and determined to ruin any positive gains by complaining about anything and everything they could come up with.

“Rust is going to set in, just you wait and see.”  Leedy kept trying to hold his waterproofed cloak over his scabbarded sword, and failing miserably.  “It’s going to take hours to clean and oil all of our equipment.”

I activated my shield bracelet and adjusted the beads holding the rune structures, causing it to function like an umbrella.  It was a terrible waste of its charge, and I would have to shut it off eventually, but I couldn’t resist.  “I don’t see what the big deal is.  You are wearing a nice, waterproof cloak thanks to Jess, remember?  And I’m perfectly dry.”

Murphy let out a snort of amusement, but when Leedy snapped his head back to glare at his subordinate he had his normal stoic look plastered on his face.  I think Murphy was my favorite Warden.

“James, why is it so important that we leave right now?  It doesn’t make sense.”  Jess had her hood back, allowing the rain to soak her hair.  “Waiting until tomorrow morning would only change our arrival at Greendown by a few hours.  At most, we’re only gaining about half a day!”

I didn’t answer, instead holding my first two fingers up like the letter ‘V’ and twisting them sharply while imbuing a tiny fraction of energy into the motion.  It caused a small tornado to form around me, quickly drying the small amount of dampness that had managed to set in before I had activated my shield.  It only made Leedy’s glare even more angry.

“Don’t bother.  I’ve seen leaders like him a thousand times.”  Cross was rubbing at his stump while he talked, the weather obviously causing it to ache.  “As long as he isn’t inconvenienced, he doesn’t care.  It’s just the kind of man he is.”

I turned my head to look at him and cocked an eyebrow.  “Oh, and you’re the master of proper leadership?  I distinctly recall you using magic to slap around your subordinates, and trying to torture and kill innocents.”  That shut him up quickly, and dropped the group into silence.  I sighed, deciding I couldn’t leave it there.  “Look, I know you don’t understand my decision, but you should have a little faith.  Half a day can be the difference between victory and defeat on the battlefield, and that’s exactly what this is.  A battle–no, a war–that we’re going to have to fight on multiple fronts.  And my intuition is telling me that we need to get to Greendown as fast as possible.”  I motioned to the four of them.  “If you weren’t here, I would have left before even eating a hot meal and had trail rations as I walked.  It may not seem like it, but I am making concessions for you.”

We rounded the corner before anyone could reply, and saw a group of villagers blocking the gate.  Standing in front of them was the mayor, who was pacing back and forth.  The moment he saw us, he started marching toward our group like he wanted to fight.  All of us tensed up before Jess held out her hands in a patting gesture.  “Calm down, everyone.  We saved some of their people, remember?  I’m sure they don’t want to fight.”  The others relaxed at the reminder.  I just changed my hand from a fireball to a sand trap formation.

“Wardens, may I speak with you?”  The mayor walked up to us, completely ignoring me and focusing on Leedy.  “I need to discuss some things.  Privately.”  He gave me some pretty serious side-eye, so I shrugged and kept walking.

“Sure mayor, we can take a few minutes to talk.”  Leedy looked my way with a frown.  “Would you mind waiting for Murphy and I by the gate?”

“I’ll walk slow until you catch up.”  The crowd parted in front of me as I kept walking.  I saw the group of punk kids that had tried to assault me at the fringes of the group, trying to keep as many people between us as possible.  I guess some people can learn.

Jess and I had to remove the crossbar and open the gate ourselves, but we managed to get out without further incident.  I had half-expected the mayor to try and stop us from leaving.  Getting to fight him a second time might have been fun.

The three of us walked for well over an hour before Leedy and Murphy finally caught up to us.  Cross and Jess had been quietly arguing the entire time about the best spices to use in this world’s version of pancakes, so I was actually happy when they finally rejoined the group.  One more comment about ‘sprinkle bark’ and I might have punched something.

I stopped for a moment to let them catch their breath, and to deactivate my bracelet.  Now that we were in the trees, the constant downpour was causing heavier drips to fall from the leaves and branches, which were managing to make it through the settings on my makeshift umbrella anyway.

“So, what did they want?”  Jess unconsciously moved to stand closer to Murphy.  “Were they trying to convince you to stay?”

Leedy shook his head.  “No, they just had a bunch of letters they wanted us to deliver.  I tried telling them that the Western Wardens weren’t a messenger service, but he made some good arguments about the risks involved in them doing it themselves.”  He shrugged and held up a small messenger bag.  “I agreed to pass them on in exchange for some additional supplies.”

Frowning, I held out my hand.  “Let me see those.”  Leedy pulled the bag away, and I dropped my hand.  “I’m not going to do anything to them.  I just want to know who they are trying to contact.”

“Why do you care?  They’re just asking for help.”  Cross looked between the bag and I.  “Are you trying to learn how much political pull a small village might hold?  Because I can tell you right now, it isn’t much.”

“Just give me the bag, please.  I’m not going to keep them from asking for help.”  Leedy finally passed the bag over, and I thumbed through them quickly as we started walking again.  The wax seals all had the symbol of a bear, meaning they came directly from the mayor.  It was simple enough I knew I could reproduce it with my heat spell, so I had no problem breaking the seals.

Most of them were intended for various Guilds that would care about their plight.  From the symbols, it looked like they were for Carpenter, Hunter, Farmer, and even one for the Church of the Trinity, but it was the smallest letter that caught my attention.  A small boat meant it was intended for the Sailor’s Guild.  The mayor was trying to use his son-in-law for assistance, and I wanted to make sure it didn’t mention a certain disagreement the mayor might have had with me.

I cracked the seal and motioned Jess over.  “Do you mind reading this for me?  I still haven’t learned your written language.”

“Sure!  Although, I’m pretty sure you weren’t supposed to open it.”  She took it from me and read it silently while I watched her facial expressions.  Her eyes widened momentarily before squinting.  “Uh, James?  I think you should hear this part.”

“Just tell me what it says.  You don’t have to read the whole thing out loud.”  I started cracking the seals on all of the letters.  “And I’m going to need you to read the rest of them.”

“Well, it’s mostly about how they need help, and how he’s asking for them to speak with the Hunter’s Guild on their behalf.”  She paused, and I motioned for her to get on with it.  “The last paragraph is about you, and how you broke the law by assaulting people in the village, killed some bandits, and stole bounties for all those undead.”

“I knew it.  Petty assholes.”  It was pretty par for the course for me.  It always seemed to go this way.  People like that made it even harder to find the motivation to make their lives better.

“No, it’s not like that.”  Jess pointed to a line near the bottom.  “He’s saying it in a way that makes it seem as if you are the kind of person they might want to recruit.”

My brain did a little hiccup.  “You mean, he’s not trying to turn me in to the authorities?  Demanding some kind of bounty or something?”

Jess shook her head.  “It’s more like they want you to join them for some secret group.”  She handed the letter back to me.  “Maybe the Sailor’s Guild is looking for fighters?”

“It’s possible.”  My thoughts raced, trying to put things together.  “Or, more likely, I might have just had a stroke of luck.”  I didn’t say it out loud, but I might have just stumbled across a secret cabal of disgruntled people that weren’t happy with the way things were going.  Had I already found a resistance group?  How organized were they?  Were they merely political, or did they have a more active resistance?  If the group already had members like the second in command of a powerful organization like the Sailor’s Guild, where else had they spread?  I passed over the rest of the letters.  “Read the rest of these, please.”

She found a similar paragraph in a letter intended for the Farmer’s Guild, which made sense to me.  Farmers would be some of the worst affected people when monsters and undead went on a rampage, meaning they had a lot to lose under the current regime.  The recipient was someone called a ‘Plow Shaper’ that seemed to be highly placed as well.  It spoke to a more political leaning, which suited my purposes just fine.  If I could find a way to tap into them as a resource, I might already have more of a start than I thought.

“What is it?  Why are you smiling like you’re a fox that managed to get in the hen house?”  Leedy looked over what I was holding and came over to try and snatch the letters out of my hand.  “Give those back!  You weren’t supposed to open all of them!”

“Calm down.”  I concentrated for a moment, conjuring up an image of the bear symbol before snapping my fingers and pressing my thumb down on the seal for the Farmer’s Guild letter.  The wax softened and soon it looked like it had never been opened.  “There now, no harm done.”  I repeated the process for the rest of the letters and put all of them except the Farmer’s Guild and Sailor’s Guild back in the messenger bag.  “Here.  You can make sure those get delivered to where they need to go.”

“And what about those two?”  Leedy watched as I pulled off my rucksack and carefully tucked them away.  “Are you going to keep the villagers from getting help from those Guilds?”

“Nope.”  I got my ruck settled properly and started walking, the others hurrying to catch back up.  “Those, I’m going to deliver myself.”