Memoirs 494 - Stepping beyond the wall (Patreon)

Kat watched the clouds drift across the sky, her thoughts doing much the same as she half-listened to the surrounding conversation.

Birds called somewhere in the distance. Wagon wheels creaked and bumped over the uneven road beneath them, while bursts of laughter and conversation carried from the rest of the expedition strung out ahead and behind.

“—said it was some sort of squid monster or the like,” Patten was saying. “I’m thinking, if those kinds of things can start popping up now as well, what’s even the point of killing them? They don’t leave bodies, and even if they did, I hate fish.”

“Hah!” Andres barked out a laugh. “You hate everything as long as it gives you a chance to complain. Next you’ll be saying you’re quitting the Guild.”

The corners of Kat’s mouth curled up slightly.

She’d worked with Andres and Patten before. Both of them could put on the air of seasoned A-rank Shielders well enough when the situation called for it, but whenever they were actually out on a job together, they had a habit of bickering like an old married couple who’d forgotten why they were arguing in the first place.

“Maybe I will quit,” Patten said with an offended scoff.

“Yeah, sure you will.” Something scraped softly against wood as Andres replied. “That’s why you were thick enough to think coming along on this job was a good idea.”

“I'm just saying…”

“Yeah, yeah. I get you. I’m not exactly excited about all the talk coming in from the capital either.” Andres paused. “But hey, at least there was that fancy new ‘hero’.”

“Ah, you mean that Hartford lady? You read the last Chronicle on her? It couldn’t stop singing her praises.”

“Don’t bother with the Chronicle most weeks. As if I’ve got the time when I’m stuck killing monsters all day.”

“Well, should’ve read it. Apparently that lady killed the Dragon of Devastation.”

“What? Are you pulling my leg?”

“No. Dead serious. That’s what it said.”

“Blazes.” Andres sounded genuinely impressed now. “That’s insane. Actually, her name’s familiar, now that I’m thinking about it. What else did she do?”

“Not sure, honestly.” Patten shifted somewhere to Kat’s left, making the wagon boards groan beneath him. “Why don’t you ask Breeden? She came straight from Elystead.”

“That’s true. Hey, Breeden! You know anything?”

Kat sighed at the pair. She’d been trying not to get caught up in their talks.

There went the clouds.

She lowered her gaze and looked at the two older Shielders riding with her.

“Know anything about what, specifically?” she asked.

“The Elystead stuff,” Andres said.

The man was perched on a small barrel near the rear of the wagon, a faded red strip of cloth tied around his head and a knife in one hand. He’d been spending the last couple of hours carving a figure out of a pale chunk of wood.

A very naked figure.

Kat eyed it for a few seconds.

“Yeah, sure,” she eventually said. “I’ve kept abreast of some of it. Hard not to.”

Andres gave her a funny look.

“Abreast? Whose breasts are you keeping?”

He glanced down at the figure in his hands and ran his thumb thoughtfully over its chest.

“Don’t think she meant those kinds of breasts,” Patten said, though the lanky man didn’t sound too sure.

Kat rolled her eyes.

“It means she’s been keeping informed,” a mature voice said from the front of the wagon. “You two really ought to read something besides the Chronicle once in a while.”

Kat turned towards the woman stretched out on her back atop a bundle of folded canvas, one knee raised and a worn book splayed open across her face.

“Thank you, Silka.”

The woman raised a thumb. “I’m just happy there aren’t only meatheads in this wagon.”

One hand came up to lift the book slightly, revealing a pair of clear green eyes beneath it.

“That said, I had you pegged as more of the rough-and-tumble sort yourself. Did I misread you?”

Kat chuckled and scratched at her cheek, her fingers brushing the rough edge of the scar there. “I’ve actually been working on expanding my vocabulary. Been reading more books this last year than I probably did the rest of my life combined.”

“That so?” Silka studied her with mild curiosity. “You were working for some noble, weren’t you? Pick that up from them?”

“Yep. She had a very…” Kat pursed her lips, searching for the right word. “Painstaking way of speaking, let’s put it like that.”

“You saying she was a pompous ass?” Andres cut in.

Kat looked over.

He flashed her a broad grin, showing off a set of teeth that had seen better days.

She laughed.

“Your life. Not mine.”

He blinked. “Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Kat waved a hand. “Anyway, your question was?”

Andres frowned at her for another second before apparently deciding it wasn’t worth the effort. He looked back down at the wooden woman in his hands and shaved another thin curl from its side with his knife. “I was asking about that Hartford lady. What did she do?”

“Hmm.” Kat leaned back against the side of the wagon and crossed one leg over the other, resting an elbow on her knee. “Don’t think we really have the time to go over all of it. She’s been a busy bee, that one. They don’t call her the Revenant Flame for nothing.”

“Revenant?” Andres asked. “What. Is she a ghost?”

“No, but I bet she could make a lot of them real fast if she wanted to.”

“Huh.” The man scraped another sliver from the figurine. “Alright, then. So what’d she do? Give us the short version.”

“Maybe some other time,” Kat said. “Like I said, there’s a lot.”

Andres glanced up at her, then back down at his carving. “If you say so.”

It took all of a few minutes before he and Patten were arguing again, this time over whether something without a corpse properly counted as a monster kill.

Kat left them to it.

The expedition kept rolling east.

Other than the Everdust Barrier stretching across the horizon, there wasn’t much to look at yet. Dry grass, hard-packed road, and the occasional scraggly tree were about what you got.

Wildscar had never exactly been famous for its scenery.

Their little army stretched along the road in a loose line of wagons, horses, and the occasional nut who’d grown tired of sitting and decided walking was somehow better. Most of the wagons were there for passengers rather than supplies.

Water, food, tents, tools, spare weapons, and whatever odds and ends the mages coming along had decided they absolutely couldn’t live without would have to go on someone’s back or disappear into storage magic once they reached the Steppes, since most of the wagons and horses would be staying behind. Nothing with wheels—or four legs and actual sense—was getting very far through that place.

Kat had never been there herself, but from everything Arnaud had told her, travelling light was the name of the game once you crossed into the Everdust Barrier. Hard rule to argue with when half the point was being able to run away from whatever thing was trying to eat you.

Didn’t mean there weren’t exceptions.

A roar of laughter rolled up the road from behind, loud enough to drown out the wagon wheels.

Kat looked that way.

Several of the wagons farther back stood out from the rest, like someone had dumped a travelling festival into the middle of their expedition.

Wide sheets of faded canvas had been stretched over high wooden frames to keep off the sun, dyed in burnt oranges and dusty reds. Strips of patterned cloth hung from the sides alongside coils of rope, battered shields, monster horns, cooking pots, and enough assorted junk that Kat couldn’t have guessed what half of it was for if somebody paid her.

The wagons themselves were pretty strange too. Their wheels were mounted on removable frames fixed along the sides, while broad, metal-shod runners curved beneath the wagon beds.

Supposedly it was easier taking the thing along into the Steppes like that.

As for the beasts pulling them along…

They were huge, scaled things that lumbered along in the harnesses, with squat bodies and thick legs that ended in black hooked claws digging furrows into the road with every step. Strips of heavy leather covered their eyes, while iron cages had been strapped around their jaws and chained back to the harnesses over their shoulders.

Every now and then, one jerked its head hard enough to snap those chains taut.

Kat had no idea what the creatures were actually called. Most people she’d heard talk about them just called them gougers. She figured it was good enough. Wouldn’t catch her getting close to one.

The people riding in the wagons behind them didn’t seem bothered, though.

Half of them had cups or bottles in their hands despite it being the middle of the day. One group on the middle wagon had even started some sort of game involving throwing knives at a board tied to the back of the wagon ahead.

People—especially nobles—liked to call Shielders rough around the edges, but really, they didn’t hold a candle to the Vanguards.

Kat had always found it a little funny whenever people compared the two groups. Both the Shields Guild and the Vanguards took contracts. Both travelled around killing monsters. Both had more than their fair share of people who considered getting hit in the head an acceptable occupational hazard.

That was about where the similarities ended.

The Guild existed to protect people. That was the point of it.

Helping villages that couldn’t help themselves. Keeping roads safe. Dealing with monsters before somebody less capable got themselves killed trying. Making sure the strength that came with being a Shielder wasn’t something they used to push around the same people who trusted them to keep them safe.

They’d spent generations earning that trust, and Kat liked to think they deserved most of it. Enough that she was proud to wear the badge, anyway.

The Vanguards, by comparison, seemed to have two main concerns as far as she could tell.

Getting paid, and butchering just about anything that didn’t walk on two legs on either side of the Everdust Barrier.

They’d always had a reputation for being loud, rowdy, and occasionally a bit too enthusiastic about the butchering part. Kat had heard more than a few complaints from Shielders who’d spent time working around Wildscar.

That said, there was a reason the Vanguards were still around.

Marchioness Thackeray aside, there probably weren’t many people in the empire better suited to dealing with whatever crawled around beyond the Barrier. If even half the stories were true, the wastes out there were practically the Vanguards’ backyard.

You didn’t have to like them to admit they knew what they were doing.

And as unprofessional as getting drunk in the middle of an expedition to the Unresting Steppes might look, Kat knew there was a reason for that too. Arnaud had once told her that it was tradition for the Vanguards to drink before any venture into the Steppes.

‘Because it’d be a blasted shame to die dry and sober.’

Another burst of laughter rose from the wagons. Then, suddenly, it died down.

Kat’s eyes shifted towards the road behind them.

A lone figure was riding up along the expedition.

The Vanguards hadn’t gone completely quiet, but the difference was hard to miss as the woman passed them.

Kat straightened slightly without meaning to.

She’d only seen the Marchioness of Wildscar a couple of times before, but the woman wasn’t easy to forget. Even in the saddle, she looked tall, with long grey-white hair tied neatly behind her and the hilt of a sword that looked far too large to use sensibly jutting up past one shoulder. She wore a fitted coat over close-set plates of armour, the metal almost as dull as the landscape around them.

As for the thing she was riding…

Kat was still trying to decide whether it or the gougers were worse.

It was much slimmer than the gougers, but that didn’t make it look any less dangerous. It had six legs and was covered from snout to tail in rough brown scales, with front limbs thick enough to crush a man beneath them, and two long tusks curving down on either side of its jaw.

What bothered her most was how little was keeping it under control. The Vanguards’ beasts had their eyes covered and jaws muzzled, with enough chains strapped around them to make the message fairly clear. This thing had a saddle and reins, and that was all.

Kat had always heard it was impossible to tame any of the creatures that lived beyond the Everdust Barrier. Apparently the Untamed Marchioness didn’t put much stock in that. The beast moved beneath her at an easy pace, without so much as a twitch suggesting it might suddenly decide to tear apart the nearest person.

The Marchioness slowed beside the wagon at the front of the Vanguards’ section.

Sitting near its railing with a hollowed drinking horn in one hand and no shirt covering a broad, hairy chest was a man who looked almost as much like a bear as he did a person. He turned as the Marchioness drew alongside, leaning over the edge of the wagon as they exchanged a few words.

Alcot Thackeray, leader of the Vanguards, was almost as famous as the Marchioness herself. Kat wasn’t sure she believed all the rumours surrounding the man, but they said the two of them were cousins, and that much she could buy. They both had a certain air to them, even if Alcot’s felt a whole lot more rugged.

Whatever they were discussing didn’t take long.

The Marchioness urged her mount forward again, continuing along the line. Her eyes passed over the wagons and riders as she went, inspecting the expedition without making much of a show of it.

She passed the first few of the Guild’s wagons, then reached theirs. Kat expected her to keep going, but suddenly the beast beneath Marchioness Thackeray slowed until it was keeping pace alongside them.

Andres’ knife stopped moving. Patten went still, and even Silka lowered her book and pushed herself up slightly.

For several seconds, the Marchioness only looked ahead. Then her head turned, and her eyes settled directly on Kat.

Kat met them.

There wasn’t anything openly threatening about the look. It wasn’t a glare, or even particularly unfriendly. Just a steady sort of focus that made it very clear the woman was looking at Kat specifically and getting a proper measure of her while she did it.

Kat had known plenty of strong people.

She’d been mentored by one of the greatest swordsmen on the continent. She wasn’t exactly on a first-name basis with them, but Graham and Adlam were familiar enough to her. And Scarlett was…well, Scarlett, along with all the insane people and things Kat had ended up running into around her.

She’d learned well enough that, like a bad trim, strong came in all kinds.

Even then, Marchioness Thackeray had something about her that felt just a little different. There was a calm intensity to the woman that had Kat suddenly very aware of how she was sitting and what she was doing with her hands.

When the Marchioness kept studying her, Kat started wondering if she was supposed to say something.

“You’re the one who appeared at my estate,” the woman finally said.

Kat paused, then gave her a slightly awkward smile. “Yep. That was me.”

She was still plenty grateful to Scarlett and the princess for saving her from spending half a day or more killing horses between Stagscar and Wildscar, but landing unannounced in the middle of the ruler of Wildscar’s estate hadn’t exactly made for the smoothest arrival. It had taken a fair bit of explaining before that whole mess got straightened out.

The Marchioness’s gaze stayed on her.

“How is little Hil?” she asked.

Kat blinked.

Had she heard that right?

Who was little Hil—?

Her eyes widened slightly.

Hil.

Hilde.

The Marchioness was talking about the second princess.

How did she know Kat had met her? Scarlett had made it sound like the princess had never used one of those door portals to Wildscar before. Kat certainly hadn’t told anyone around here about her connection to the girl, so how had the Marchioness figured it out?

Kat must have stayed quiet a little too long, because the woman’s eyes narrowed a fraction.

“Is something wrong?”

“No.” Kat shook her head. “No. Sorry, erm…” She scratched lightly at her cheek. “She seemed pretty good when I left. She’d made some friends.”

Marchioness Thackeray regarded her for another moment, then nodded.

“Good.”

That was apparently all she’d wanted.

She turned away, and her mount picked up its pace, carrying her onwards along the expedition and leaving their wagon behind.

Kat watched her back as she went.

“What was that about?” Andres asked.

Kat glanced at him, then at the others now looking her way.

She shrugged.

“It’s complicated.”

That earned her a few more questioning looks, but she ignored them, and eventually the others let the matter drop.

The rest of the journey passed without much excitement. The sun crept lower across the sky as the expedition continued east, and by the time the Everdust Barrier stopped looking like a line stretched across the horizon and became something Kat had to crane her neck to properly take in, afternoon was already starting to give way to evening.

Corpses littered the ground around these parts.

All of them belonged to monsters. Some were small enough that Kat could have stepped over them without breaking stride, while others were large enough that it must have taken whole teams to drag them clear of the road. The smell reached the expedition before they got there, thick and sour even with the dry wind sweeping across the plains.

It usually wasn’t this bad, but from what Kat had been told, clearing away the dead had become less and less of a priority as the pressure from beyond the Barrier grew.

The wagons rolled closer to the wall, and Kat tipped her head back.

Up close, the Everdust Barrier was actually pretty ridiculous to take in. Layer after layer of enormous stone blocks rose dozens of metres into the air, and the whole thing stretched away in both directions until distance swallowed it. It still amazed her that this was something they’d once managed to build.

Not that it was perfect, as all the corpses showed.

Farther down, she could make out a section where something had punched a ragged hole straight through part of the wall. Tiny figures moved around it on scaffolds and ropes, at work repairing the damage.

Their expedition came to a stop well short of the gate.

After that, everything turned busy.

Supplies came down from the wagons while packs went onto backs. Horses were led aside, straps tightened, weapons checked, and people started sorting themselves into their groups for the crossing. Kat gathered her own things from the wagon floor, slung her spatial pack—courtesy of a certain noblewoman—over one shoulder, then reached for the large two-handed claymore resting against the boards.

She still found it funny that Scarlett had given her a sword of all things. She wasn’t entirely sure whether carrying the thing made her look more impressive or just confused people. A few of the Shielders nearby gave her odd looks as she strapped it across her back.

Most of them knew perfectly well she was a mage.

Kat flashed them a grin and left them wondering.

Once everyone was ready, the expedition made its way towards the gate. It was built deep into the Barrier, with a long series of heavy portcullises spaced throughout a stone passage that ran through the wall’s full thickness. Soldiers manned platforms above and along either side, while others moved between the groups waiting below.

Getting through took a while.

The outer gate had to be raised first, thick chains grinding through iron mechanisms somewhere overhead as the portcullis slowly climbed. Then came the next one, and the one after that, each having to be opened in turn before the expedition could move farther in.

Finally, they were waved through, and Kat moved forward with the other Shielders.

The passage through the Barrier was longer than it looked from outside. The air inside was cooler than she would’ve expected, and the deeper they went, the more Kat found herself with a strange knot in her stomach. Like some part of her had already decided going any farther was a bad idea and was trying to get the rest of her to turn around.

Bit late for that, though.

Finally, she stepped through to the other side.

Kat looked out at the barren expanse beyond, resting one hand against the hilt of the claymore strapped behind her shoulder.

Well.

Time to explore the Unresting Steppes.