Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 7

The shouts of men drilling in the mustering yard woke Liam several times over the course of the day. He walked out, cranky-eyed, from his tent in the evening. It didn’t help that he had spent the whole morning carting food to Raquel’s shop.

“Good morning, dear,” Nat rose from her seat at the workshop table with a smile.

“Morning, Nat.”

“I got you your food,” Nat went over to uncover a plate. “It went cold, though. I’m sorry.”

“No, that’s fine,” Liam shuffled over to the dining table. “It’s my fault for sleeping in…thanks for grabbing breakfast for me.”

Nat’s smile returned. She sat down across from him as he ate. Liam tried to be quick about it to make up for lost time, but it was awkward with a person sitting a metre away just watching him chew.

“So…how was today?”

“Busy,” Nat said. “Lots of people from A and B Company asked me to make sure their stuff was fixed up nice. And the men training today…does that mean the rumours are true?”

“That an army of Rogues attacked B Company last night and they made a big pile of corpses in an alley. Everyone in the market was talking about it.”

How the…

He knew rumours could grow out of hand, but he didn’t expect them to get that bad within the span of a few hours.

“It was just six guys that fought a patrol,” Liam told her. “Well, only two of them fought. One was killed.”

“Did you fight, as well?”

“Sort of. I took care of two guys just before the fight started. They never knew I was there.”

Nat’s big brown eyes sparkled at his words. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what she was thinking.

“I should get more of your equipment made,” she said. “That will help you do more, right?”

“You fixed up the bracers already?”

“Yup! It was easier than I expected. By the way, dear…”

“Hm?”

“Where did you get that ring from?”

He raised his left hand from the table.

“This one? It’s from Raquel.”

Nat’s smile turned to ice. Liam frowned at her reaction.

“It has a Darkvision enchantment,” he said. “Erm, Darkvision lets you see without light, so it’s invaluable for my work.”

The girl’s smile only grew more dire. She was just talking about how more equipment would help him, so he wasn’t sure what the problem was.

“Since the bracers are ready,” he continued, “I should go and see her again.”

“May I come with you?”

“Sure,” Liam replied. “Even if there was a fight last night, it’s not dangerous or anything in the city. Actually, it’d help me out a ton. Literally.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. The best way to pay for her enchantments is with food. A lot of food. If you could hire a couple of labourers and organise the deliveries, it’d save me the trouble. I spent all morning pushing a cart back and forth from the camp market to her place.”

Nat gasped and stood up.

“Y-You can’t do that!” She told him.

“I can’t?”

“You need to think of your position! Someone of your status shouldn’t be doing menial labour.”

“I-Is that so?”

“It is,” Nat nodded firmly. “The workshop’s built up enough inventory to open a stall in the camp market. I’ll hire some staff and they can do that stuff for you.”

Liam glanced at the workshop. The part of the big table facing the lane was full of Nat’s goods, but he didn’t realise that she was doing so well that she could hire employees.

“I’d appreciate that,” he said. “This evening’s briefing will probably be longer than usual, so I’m going to head over early. I’ll meet you outside of Rimun Gate.”

“Got it!”

Nat's not-ice smile returned and she departed for the market with a spring in her step. Liam dropped his dishes off at the kitchen before joining the men gathered around the mustering yard. Those within it practised under the stern eye of Sir Luis.

“If they’re here,” Liam said, “then where do we go?”

“Here, as far as I know,” Marim said. “You missed the drills this morning.”

“I don’t think they’d do me much good,” Liam replied. “At least if it’s this.”

Marim and his men straightened as the shadow of Sir Luis fell upon them.

“Hoh…” the towering Knight said, “so you think you’re too good for my drills?”

“I think they’re useful for the street patrols, sir,” Liam replied, “but I won’t get many chances to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with them.”

As far as he could tell, they were infantry drills modified from ones meant to fight Demihumans. Pairs of men with shields focused on defence while three or four others attacked their target with spears from the flanks.

“Actually,” Liam said, “isn’t this overkill against Human opponents, sir?”

“If you somehow forgot,” Marim said, “I got a dagger in the gut last night with a whole squad behind me.”

“Yeah, but that was almost an accident. You came around the corner and ran right into their ambush. Unless you’re in a defensive formation all the time, that’s going to always happen in that situation. Since we’re talking about fighting Rogues…”

He pointed to one of the wide lanes going through the tents.

“If you want a more practical exercise for the men, sir, you can use those lanes as a street.”

“Explain,” Sir Luis said.

“You know more than me about a straight fight, sir,” Liam said, “so these exercises the men are doing right now are probably fine if you’re openly facing off against someone in the streets. But the sneaks from the other houses won’t give our men a fair fight. Rogues of that calibre get one good hit; they build all of their tactics based on landing that hit and getting away so they can strike again later. Even if they botch the attempt, they’ll try to get away because sticking around is a guaranteed loss.”

“So you want us to patrol these lanes and defend against attacks from Rogues…but we don’t have any Rogues to practise against.”

“But you do have candidates for thief-takers, right?”

Sir Luis wasn’t the only one who gave him a strange look. Liam wondered if they would ever make the connection.

"Our thief-takers have to learn how Rogues operate if we want them to be effective, sir. For now, you can try it with just me on the attacking team.”

“Jimena,” Sir Luis looked over his shoulder, “humour him.”

“Can I lead the patrol?” Sir Jimena asked.

“If you want, sir,” Liam answered with a shrug.

“Luis…”

“Don’t embarrass yourself, Jimena.”

Sir Jimena turned away with a shake of his head, picking out twelve other men for his patrol squad.

“What now?”

“We’ll make the ‘street’ about as busy as one at this time of day using the rest of the men,” Liam said. “Don’t just stand around, though. Make some traffic like a street would have. The patrol will go around to the opposite end of the street and come through in their usual formation.”

The patrol left the mustering yard and Liam went between the tents next to the lane. He hoped the ‘crowd’ wouldn’t give him away by looking straight at his location. Just in case, he concealed himself before selecting his ambush spot.

Sir Jimena’s patrol appeared a minute later. As they passed his location, Liam slipped in behind a ‘pedestrian’ walking in the same direction as the patrol to get within striking distance. An agonised cry pierced the air as he punched the rearmost patrolman in the back of the thigh, startling everyone nearby. He didn’t linger to watch what they would do next, making his getaway before the other patrolmen could finish turning to see what had happened.

“Don’t all rush to where he was, you dimwits!” Sir Jimena roared, “Cast a net!”

The patrol reacted instantly to the Knight’s orders, pushing their way through the crowd. Liam knocked out another man who had separated himself from his nearest squadmates in his overeagerness. After that, he returned to Sir Luis’ side. The Knight looked on in disgust as Sir Jimena’s patrol continued to search in vain.

“I’ve seen enough,” Sir Luis said. “We need to fix this. If it’s so damn easy to take out two men from B Company, we won’t have any men left by the end of the week.”

“I don’t see how we can stop that, sir,” Marim said. “I didn’t even notice that Liam was Liam until he hit the patrol in the rear. Then he was gone just as quick. It’s like any guy on the street could just stab you as they walk by.”

Sir Luis’ eyes went to Liam.

“You just have to learn,” Liam said. “That’s what drills are for, right? This sort of thing is new to everyone in Hoburns. They probably don’t even know that they need to figure this out yet. Whoever gets ahead will probably stay ahead for a long time – maybe forever if you keep honing your skills.”

“You certainly seem to know what you’re doing,” Sir Luis noted.

“Yes, sir,” Liam said. “I know so much that we got into that stupid fight yesterday and two of our people got stabbed. I’m not a leader. The people that are supposed to be in charge of other people need to figure out what works. Creating tactics and formations that make life hard for the enemy is a Commander’s job. Though…if all of our men get toughened up, they can get stuck like our guys did last night and just sit around waiting for a healer instead of instantly falling over dead.”

“…therefore, the one attack you mentioned that these Rogues are relying on never produces the results that they want.”

“I’m sure you’ve taken hits from a Demihuman that would’ve killed a regular trooper, sir.”

“I have,” Sir Luis said. “Since you put it that way, it does make sense. And I suppose getting stabbed by one of these Rogues isn’t anywhere near as bad as getting swatted by an Ogre with a tree trunk. If they see that their Rogues are ineffective, they may stop expending resources on their deployment altogether which would save us this huge headache. Alright, we’ll continue with regular drills for now. Practice with our thief-taker candidates will start tomorrow. Jimena, Pires is going to be wondering where the hell B Company is.”

Sir Jimena ordered the company to fall in for the evening briefing. Surprisingly, what he had to share was related to the previous night’s incident, but had little to do with enemy infiltrators.

“The neighbouring houses have doubled their patrols and their men are getting more brazen with their numerical advantage. Nothing but common thugs, I tell you.”

“Have they gotten into any fights with our people?” Diogo asked.

“No,” Sir Jimena replied, “but they’re talking plenty of shit. First to strike loses in this game; I trust that no one here will fuck things up for us.”

“The Royal Army might not be around,” Liam said, “but the Holy Order is. Why not bring them in to shut the other houses up?”

“I never said that this situation is undesirable,” Sir Jimena told him. “The other houses reacted to last night by rushing extra men in, but it looks like their officers can’t keep the newcomers from acting up. Every day that this goes on is another day that tarnishes their image even further. And, if they attack us openly, they’ll be kissing their authority in Hoburns goodbye.”

When they arrived at Rimun Gate, they found far less traffic going in and out compared to the previous evening.

“What happened here?” Liam asked.

“The other houses are so scared of us now that they refuse to enter the city through Rimun Gate,” Sir Jimena answered.

“…that’s stupid.”

“You don’t have to tell me. The upside’s that we can move people and cargo in and out of our jurisdiction without anyone watching. The downside’s that…well, there aren’t any. Our enemies are paying extra just to move things the extra kilometre or two to the other gates.”

“How about the citizens? Are they avoiding our jurisdiction, as well?”

“Unfortunately, yes. The other houses’ slander isn’t just directed at us – they’re also using it to deter the city folk from entering our jurisdiction.”

“What are they saying?”

“Oh, you know. That we’re murdering people and skinning them for leather. Oh, we’re selling Human meat now, too, apparently.”

“That sounds like something that the Holy Order would be dispatched to investigate.”

“And I hope that never happens,” Sir Jimena said. “The last thing we need is Remedios Custodio turning our jurisdiction inside out looking for ‘evidence’.”

Remedios didn’t seem that bad to Liam, though he could see how she could be misled into believing ridiculous things. He would have to preempt that, just in case.

“Liam!”

Nat waved at him from where she was standing by the gate. Sir Jimena gave him a pointed look.

“We don’t pay you to have an evening stroll with your wife.”

“It’s work-related, sir,” Liam replied. “House Restelo wants the camp to start trading with the citizens in our jurisdiction, right? Nat’s hiring a shopkeeper and she wants some things from the city that we can’t get in the camp.”

“An ambitious wife, huh,” Sir Jimena pursed his lips. “I hope you don’t get in over your head with her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Women like that can be dangerous, especially to men like you and me. We’re always out on patrols or seeing to house business away from home. When we return, we find out that the wife’s taken everything over and transformed it to her liking.”

Liam hoped that would happen. He wouldn’t be around forever and would prefer to leave Nat capable of caring for herself.

“I’ve seen it happen a few times,” Sir Jimena continued, “and it isn’t pretty. Make sure you discipline her whenever you think she’s going out of line. It’s for her own good.”

Nat came up to join them as Sir Jimena went on about how a man should manage his wife. Or wives, in his case. He was as close to an expert as one got, given he had four of them.

“Good evening, Sir Jimena,” Nat lowered her head in a simple curtsey.

“I hear you’re going shopping.”

“Yup!” Nat beamed, “I hear that people are making trouble for us, though.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Sir Jimena told her. “We’ve got everything under control. If you speak with anyone worried about it, make sure you tell them as much.”

Sir Jimena left to see Sir Pires in the gatehouse office. As Liam and Nat entered the city, Nat eyed the sentries curiously.

“I’ve been wondering about this for a while now…”

“What is it?” Liam asked.

“Why aren’t the wares entering the city being taxed?”

Liam looked over his shoulder. She was right. The trickle of traffic passing through the gate wasn’t being stopped by the customs officers.

No, there are a few Merchant wagons parked there…

Neither the wagons nor the caravaneers bore any livery, so they were probably independent traders. Could it be that House Restelo wasn’t taxing its own trade?

No, they’d be collecting trade taxes on behalf of the Crown, so…huh? Doesn’t that mean we’re smuggling?

He tilted his head back and forth as he tried to figure out what was going on.

“I think we’re treating our jurisdiction in Hoburns as an extension of House Restelo’s territory,” Liam said. “Just like the labour camp. I’m not sure whether it’s supposed to work that way, but, since the goods aren’t leaving our ‘territory’, they don’t have to go through customs.”

As far as the letter of the law went, that probably wasn’t how it was supposed to work. Trade taxes, however, were supposed to go toward infrastructure, security, and all of the other things that facilitated trade. Since the Nobles had essentially taken over everything that the Crown was supposed to handle, it potentially served as justification for the Nobles to avoid paying taxes on their own freight.

Well, it’s not as if anyone under the Nobles has coin to pay taxes with, anyway. They all use camp scrip now.

Raquel’s shop was near the centre of House Restelo’s jurisdiction, so they didn’t see or hear any of the reported confrontations with the neighbouring houses. They entered the shop to find the mage behind a ledger opened over the counter. Liam didn’t see any of the food he had delivered in the morning.

“Hey, Raquel.”

“Mm.”

“What happened to all the food?”

“Gone,” Raquel looked up from the counter. “It didn’t even last an hour. Makes me think hard about whether magic item production was the correct career choice.”

“Who bought it?”

“One of the local Merchants working in the western plaza. He came in to restock on conjured stuff and saw that I had ‘real food’. The guy brought in a wagon to carry it all off…but he didn’t get far.”

“Did those troublemakers that started popping up today stop him?”

“Nah, just the residents. They swarmed him while he was loading his cargo, so he sold everything right off the back of his wagon in front of my shop. That pissed me off just a bit. They wouldn’t touch anything that I was selling.”

At least it sounded like he wouldn’t have any issues buying enchantments and magic items from Raquel. He was worried that he would have to wait until she cleared her inventory before delivering more stuff. Liam unbuckled his new bracers, placing them on the counter.

“Nat’s done fixing these up,” he said. “Can you enchant them now?”

“Did she get her certification from the Leatherworker Guild?”

Nat pulled a crisp roll of paper from a belt pouch.

“Here’s one for the workshop,” she said.

“The workshop?” Raquel arched an eyebrow, “Hmm…I guess that would be the best way to do it.”

“That’s what my uncle said. What’s important is that the work meets guild standards.”

“And the rest is politics,” Raquel nodded. “They won’t question the work of a woman if it’s the ‘workshop’ making it. The Guild will also be happy about someone on the Nobles’ side recognising the Guild’s authority in the city. At the same time, they don’t want the Nobles sticking their noses in guild business, so they’ll look the other way about your workshop not attending guild meetings.”

“If the camp wants anything,” Nat added, “Uncle said to just have them tell me and I can tell him.”

“Shrewd guy.”

Liam imagined the seizure that an Elder Lich in the Sorcerous Kingdom would have after hearing all of that. Or maybe they would just Fireball the Leatherworker Guild.

“Do enchanters have a guild in Hoburns?” Liam asked.

“It’s the same split you’d see in other cities, I think,” Raquel answered. “We’re all under the Merchant Guild and the Magician Guild for their respective aspects of our operations. Then, if there are enough specialists around, you’d get ones like the Pharmacist Guild or the Artificer Guild. Jaldabaoth’s invasion basically destroyed everything from the Magician Guild down, though.”

“So you just answer to the Merchant Guild now?”

“They’re the only thing that’s left, which is a real shame. All of the magical knowledge of the Magician Guild and its affiliates was lost in the war. I hear the Temples got ransacked, too. Our country’s always been at the bottom when it comes to magical integration, but now we’re setting new standards for how far down the bottom is.”

“I guess you fought in the war, too…wait a second, were you always a mage?”

“Yup, I apprenticed under my mother as a kid.”

“But I’ve never heard of any mages serving in the Royal Army,” Liam said.

No one in House Restelo’s companies seemed to know much about magic and they certainly never gave a thought to magic casters in their training or tactical planning. There wasn’t a single magic caster in the entire labour camp, either, and that included divine casters. The houses had no countermeasures against magic, which made mages with divination magic even more problematic than Rogues.

“Oh, they’re there,” Raquel told him. “Unless you’re a Noble or with the Temples, you get a spear and bow – or crossbow – plopped in your hands and you’re put through the same drills as everyone else.”

“So even if you tell them that you’re a magic caster…”

“They won’t have any of it,” the mage shrugged. “Once, I popped a few Magic Arrows into a Demihuman and my platoon sergeant yelled at me for not ‘sticking ‘em proper’. Well, I guess I didn’t do too badly with a spear…or maybe it was because I enchanted all of my own equipment and used all of my mana on defensive spells when the Sergeant wasn’t looking.”

This place is hopeless.

It was as if the Holy Kingdom itself was antithetical to the tenets of his faith. They had a weird moral and cultural imperative to be dysfunctional and then panicked whenever that dysfunctionality put them in a compromising situation. How they had managed to survive for so long was a complete mystery.

“I need to get to work soon,” Liam said, “what do you recommend for the bracers?”

“That depends on what you plan to put on everything else and how quickly you’re going to do it. If you’d like a starting point, I’d appreciate it if you take some of these accessories off of my hands.”

“You mean like the Ring of Minor Protection from the other day?”

“Yeah. If you plan on doing any fighting, you’ll need it anyway.”

“Alright, that makes sense. What next?”

“It’s pretty simple,” Raquel told him. “Enchantments aren’t like layers of fabric that you can add to a gambeson to give it more protection. All you have to do is make sure you have one of everything that you want and pick a piece of equipment to put it on. Let’s see, next are necklaces…”

Raquel pulled out the jewellery case from the previous day, opening it and pointing a finger at the contents as she spoke.

“This one makes you immune to disease; this one makes you immune to poison. This shell one is from the Merfolk and lets you swim as fast as you can run. Oh, it lets you breathe underwater, as well. This one is…oh, I did have one.”

The mage plucked a driftwood amulet from its mount, dangling it in front of Liam.

“Here’s my recommendation: a Minor Amulet of Natural Armour. These things are great: if you have one equipped, you can drop a box on your bare foot and it’d be like you were wearing a sturdy pair of boots.”

“Will it change my skin?”

“Nope. Your skin will be as tough as an Ogre’s hide without changing even a little bit. Isn’t magic great?”

“But I’ll be wearing leather armour.”

“That’s covered by a different enchantment, which you won’t be getting.”

Liam equipped the ring and necklace resting on the counter. Nat poked his arm experimentally. It didn’t feel any different.

“With that,” Raquel grinned, “someone in leather armour has as much protection as they would in chainmail. Except it’s leather. Er, wait…”

“I get it,” Liam said. “What about the next piece of armour to enchant? Nat’s ready to work on something new.”

Raquel leaned over the counter, poking her head over the edge.

“Those.”

Liam looked down.

“My boots?”

“Yup! They may take the longest because it’s another one of those enchantments that need a Druid. I have a Merfolk buddy that lives about two kilometres out from Canta that can do it. Boots of Striding and Springing will make you run faster and jump farther. I figure you’d want that as a thief-taker.”

“I do,” Liam nodded. “Is there anything else that you’d need to visit your friend for?”

“Not that I can think of,” Raquel said. “I need to restock on a few things from there, so it’s more like an excuse for me to go.”

“Then we’ll pick up from here once you get back. Nat’s getting a stand and some staff for her business, so she’ll be handling deliveries from now on.”

“Got it. Should I give that list of reagents to her, as well?”

“She’s in a better position to find what you want, so yeah. Nat, can you make it back on your own?”

“Sure,” Nat replied. “I wanted to chat with Raquel about a few things, anyway.”

“Alright, thanks again for your help, Raquel.”

“Mhm.”

With that, he rushed out of the shop. Then, he nearly impaled himself on several spears.

“Oh, it’s Liam.”

Ricardo, one of B Company’s patrol sergeants, gestured for his men to stand at ease.

“We saw the door to the witch’s place open,” he said, “so we weren’t sure what sort of monster would pop out.”

“Nat’s in there as well,” Liam said. “I’d stab you if you stabbed her.”

“…is it safe to bring your wife here?”

“Her family lives right there,” Liam pointed across the street.

The patrol sergeant looked over his shoulder at the Abarca Workshop’s sign hanging over the door of their storefront.

“So they do. But what were you two doing in the witch’s place?”

“This isn’t a witch’s place. She’s just a Wizard. I was ordering some enchantments.”

“…enchantments?”

“As in…magic items?” Liam said, “With things going the way that they are, It’d be wise to invest in some extra protection.”

“Maybe if it was from the Temples, but this is a bit…”

Ricardo’s men shared uncertain looks among themselves. Liam sighed. It was a good thing that nearly everyone in Hoburns was just as fearful and superstitious as his allies were.

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