Free the North! (Free Trader Series Book 5) Page 15

  The Road to Jefferson City

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve traveled this road,” Braden said, thinking out loud. “It looks like it’s getting a little worn down. I think it could use some Amazonian attention.” He and Micah nodded, having seen the difference in the road after Zalastar had his people fix it.

  They’d never seen them working on it. All of a sudden, the road was repaired. Braden had never asked how. He resolved to ask Zalastar the next time he saw him.

  The others daydreamed of different pleasures as they headed north. It was a two-turn trip, so they didn’t think they needed to worry until the second turn. Plus Skirill and Zyena flew ahead, scanning the road and the road’s approaches for any signs of the enemy. They flew far ahead, not seeing anything alarming.

  Patrice and Delavigne carried on a long conversation with Nerise about the virtues of gardening. The girl’s mother had always maintained a garden and had taught her young daughter a few of her tricks. The Rabbits approved.

  Arnie bucked and bugled as two arrows embedded deep into his side. He bolted ahead, where more archers were waiting. Zeller screamed as she shared his pain.

  Micah had her blaster out first and fired indiscriminately into the trees, while Braden tried to get Arnie off the road and into cover. Brandt saw the arrows fly from the tree line and he ran straight for the spot. He plowed through the underbrush, unfazed by the small trees that snapped as he ran over them. Men darted in all directions. The King of the Aurochs ran down those who weren’t fast enough to find cover. He gored one on his horn, shaking his head and splitting the man in half as he continued his wanton destruction of the ambush site.

  Micah’s fire into the trees in front of him made him change his plan. He turned and headed back toward the road. A couple brave archers loosed arrows, but only one hit the King, in his back haunch. He probably didn’t feel it because of the adrenaline surge.

  The Wolfoids and Hillcat jumped from the moving wagon, landing in a crouch. G-War ran straight for the woods, looking like an orange flash as he disappeared into the undergrowth. Bounder and Gray Strider fired lightning bolts at the two men who’d shot at Brandt. The place they’d been flashed and smoked, but the Wolfoids couldn’t be sure they hit their target. They realized how exposed they were, so they dashed after G-War. Just in time, as a small volley of arrows came their way. They dodged and dropped to all fours to more quickly reach the shelter of the trees.

  Braden had to lean around Micah to fire, but stopped when he saw G-War disappear into his target area and the Wolfoids weren’t far away, either. “Into the trees!” Braden yelled. The Rabbits watched, but their job was to protect Nerise and the wagon. The Rabbits assumed that meant Arnie, too. He finally calmed, but he was hurt. Brandt stood between Arnie and where the archers had been, shielding the smaller Aurochs with his body.

  Seeing the arrows in Arnie’s side caused Braden physical pain as he couldn’t abide the anguish of his friends. Too many times he’d seen them hurt and bleeding. Too many times he’d sewn the rents in their flesh. He jumped from the wagon, ready to do anything to stop the attack. Micah landed on the ground next to him.

  Braden pointed while he ran. The quicker they eliminated the threat, the sooner they’d be able to attend to Arnie, help him start the healing process.

  Skirill and Zyena had flown back as soon as they heard Arnie’s anguished cry and were sharing their view of the area around the trees, but the overhead canopy was too dense. They saw men running toward horses tied to a second stand of trees, but that didn’t account for all of them. Skirill threw caution to the wind and dove into the trees, under the canopy and flew between the branches and trunks, looking to help his friends. One man this way. Another hiding beyond that tree over there.

  Zyena followed her mate in, going the other direction, flying madly between the obstacles, sometimes skimming the ground as she twisted, dodged, and dove. Two more men there, and the enemy was running, trying to get away from what they thought were eagles. One risked firing an arrow at Zyena. She was too fast for him, but he was too slow for Gray Strider’s lightning bolt. It blew the man backward into a charred heap. Micah finished one man with a shot from her blaster, Braden another.

  Zeller jumped from the wagon, but she couldn’t follow Braden and Micah into the trees. She had to go to her friend and trade partner. Arnie was in immense pain and it radiated through every fiber of her being.

  G-War was the first to the place where the ambushers had tied up their horses. Four men were there when he jumped to the back of one horse and ran up a man’s chest before viciously slashing his face. The man was able to push the ‘cat off, but G-War was already jumping. He leapt to a second man and raked claws across his leg, before dodging away. The other two riders spurred their horses to action. G-War bolted aside to avoid being run over. He could have caught them, but it was less effort to tell Braden and Micah where the two were headed, so they could cut them off.

  When they rode past, Braden took one and Micah took the other. The blasters were set to narrow beam which was all they needed to finish the lives of the two ambushers. They may have been good men, but during this daylight, they were fighting on the wrong side.

  Skirill and Zyena finished their aerobatic tour of the space between the tops of the trees and the ground, confirming that there were no men hiding. G-War agreed. The last two men, both injured from the ‘cat’s attack were trying to recover enough to run, but both gave up after seeing the firepower that Braden and Micah used to finish their fellow archers.

  “I have a few questions for you,” Braden said as he walked up to them, indifferent to their pain. He dragged them bodily from their horses and threw them on the ground.

  Micah ran back to the road where she could start working on the injured Aurochs. Arrows needed to be removed and numbweed applied to help stop the bleeding and ease the pain. Maybe the wounds needed stitching. She wouldn’t know until she checked.

  “How long have you been here?” They acted like they weren’t going to answer until G-War stabbed his claws into the calf of one man. He howled in pain, refusing to speak, but the other became very cooperative.

  “We arrived shortly before you. We have an outpost just up the road and received word a short while ago of strangers with strange animals who were killing anyone from the Provincial Government.”

  “Who told you this?” Braden asked pointedly. The man shook his head. He either didn’t know or wouldn’t tell. But that didn’t matter when G-War was around. The ‘cat shook his head. The man didn’t know.

  “We don’t like surprises,” Braden emphasized. He wanted to know what he was up against. If the Governor deployed archers within the city, the companions would have a difficult time. “Who’s left at the outpost and what’s it look like?”

  The man hesitated, just long enough for G-War to expose a paw full of claws and stab them into the man’s exposed arm. “Stop!” he howled. The ‘cat kept his claws embedded as an implied threat, but didn’t rake them through the man’s flesh. Not yet anyway. “It’s small. A tent with a guard shack on the road. There’s probably only two men left there. They said you killed fifty men.” The man squirmed, trying to get G-War to extract the claws from his arm. G-War stared into the man’s eyes, finally retracting his claws and jumping down.

  ‘I have it. We’ll learn nothing more from this one. Put him out of my misery and let’s go,’ G-War told Braden as the ‘cat headed toward the road.

  “C’mon, G, I can’t just kill him.” The ‘cat didn’t answer. Braden shook his head, then tied the man up, despite the fact that he was bleeding from the wounds in his leg. The other man was blind, his face shredded. Braden tied him up, too. He turned the horses loose and sent them running east, away from the road, away from Jefferson City.

  Braden took the weapons from the two survivors and gathered the bows and arrows from the dead before returning to the wagon. Micah had already removed the arrows from Arnie and Brandt. Zeller slowly rubbed nu
mbweed into Arnie’s wounds. Brandt’s muscles were so thick that his arrow hadn’t gone too deeply. With the numbweed, he insisted that it was nothing more than a bug bite.

  Arnie had never been injured before. He was afraid. One arrow hit his shoulder, stopping when it hit the bone. Since he kept running, the arrowhead did more damage, but none of it critical. The second arrow embedded in the cartilage between his ribs, making it painful for him to breathe. Micah couldn’t tell if it penetrated his lungs. The only thing they could do was hope that it hadn’t, expecting that he’d be frothing blood from his nose and mouth if there was internal damage.

  Braden took out his sewing kit to work on the damage to Arnie’s shoulder. After the numbweed, the Aurochs was more forgiving. The humans reassured him that the damage would heal, and he’d be back to his old self.

  ‘Zeller,’ he cried. ‘I no like hurt. I happy with braid man,’ he continued in his simple way, but his language continued to improve the more time he spent with Zeller.

  Braden talked Arnie through what he was doing as he sewed tight stitches to close the wound around the torn muscles. Braden told him about the injury from the Lizard Men, where he was out for a number of turns while Micah kept them all fed and tended to the injures of the entire caravan. The King of the Aurochs interjected with his view of that incident where he was wedged into the trees in the middle of a vicious battle. He moved in front to show some of the scars on his side, pointing out which ones were from that battle, as opposed to the ones from the Bat-Ravens, as opposed to the ones from the many attacks during his runs on the road through the Amazon. He also said how Braden and the others had always come to his rescue, throwing their small frail bodies at Brandt’s enemies.

  When Brandt finished, he looked at Braden and then bobbed his head as he laughed in his Aurochs way.

  “When we met you, I don’t think you had any scars,” Braden said, slapping the great creature on his well-muscled shoulder. Braden bared his chest and showed the angry crease to Arnie. “Welcome to the club, my friend. It may not be pretty, but it’s pretty exclusive.” Micah showed her neck and arms to the smaller Aurochs, laughing as if the pain wasn’t still fresh in her memory. It was, but the thrill of defeating their enemies far outweighed the temporary discomfort of a few scratches, she rationalized.

  Can’t Abide an Outpost

  Brandt insisted on pulling the wagon to limit the stress on Arnie’s body. Arnie insisted that he was okay and that it took no effort to pull the wagon. In the end, Braden had to step in and make the decision. Arnie would continue to pull the wagon.

  “We need you on counter-ambush duty,” Braden explained.

  ‘You just made that word up!’ Brandt argued.

  “But it doesn’t change what the rest of this trip is going to look like!” Braden replied dismissively. “That’s it. The decision’s made. We need to get going before they have an army waiting for us. That ambush was bad, but it could have been worse.” They put Arnie into the harness and he started going before they were back in the wagon. They ran to catch up, getting pulled aboard by Zeller’s helping hand.

  Brandt followed, and he wasn’t happy about it although he understood. It was better for the King to be free to attack the enemies of free trade. He agreed with Braden that trade was the life blood of their world. Without it, the people suffered and atrophied. He’d also learned to enjoy the cheerful greetings when entering a village pulling a cartload of trade goods. The people happily received them all, as equals.

  Brandt looked with pride on the caravan. How far had they come since their meeting near Westerly?

  Nerise looked out the back of the wagon at the King of the Aurochs, wondering about what he was thinking. She could see the look on his face change. She hadn’t been happy since her mother was taken away, and here she was, with a group like this, welcomed as one of their own. She was suddenly able to talk with her new friends, too, and amazed at what they had to say. She’d found a new home and was happy.

  The Hawkoids were not pleased at all as they felt they let Braden and the others down. They missed the ambush when they’d flown ahead. They’d been watching the road and its approaches, not seeing the group of horses in the open area beyond the trees. They apologized repeatedly, but Braden and Micah maintained that they had nothing to be sorry for.

  ‘The way ahead?’ Micah asked over the mindlink.

  Skirill and Zyena were flying side by side to give them the widest view of the road. The outpost was not far, as they learned. The Hawkoids flew around it and past it from different heights to determine exactly what they were up against. They found only one man in the shack on the road itself. He watched Skirill and Zyena as they flew past, ignoring them as they disappeared into the distance. Just another pair of birds, looking for a place to nest.

  They stopped the wagon well out of sight of the outpost. Braden asked Micah if he could go with G-War and the Wolfoids to take the one man prisoner. She appreciated that he asked and was good with it. The ‘cat and the Wolfoids would keep her mate from coming to harm.

  Braden ran with the Wolfoids, counting on the boost from the Old Tech boots to help him keep pace. He was still winded when they arrived east of the shack. They checked out the tent, seeing how it was set up for sleeping and eating, but no one was there. No horses were left in the corral area either.

  They all knew what that meant. One of the two men had ridden to Jefferson City to inform the Governor. He’d be ready for them.

  G-War confirmed that there was only one human in the area. He also noted there were deer nearby, if anyone was interested.

  “Who wants to be the bait?” Braden asked. Bounder looked at Gray Strider and she shook her head. He conceded. Bounder would do it. While the others snuck up behind the shed, Bounder would run past, drawing the man from his post. As soon as he was outside the building, they’d disarm him and question him. With G-War’s help, it wouldn’t take long.

  They discovered that the shack had windows on all sides, a fact that the Hawkoids had shared that Braden had missed. They abandoned their plan. They used the cover of the woods to get as close as possible. When there were no trees left to hide behind, they broke from cover and ran as fast as they could to the shack.

  The man saw them coming but there was nothing he could do. He dropped his sword and held his hands up as Braden and the others slid to a stop. He walked out without any additional encouragement, much to G-War’s disappointment.

  “How long ago did the rider go to Jefferson City to tell them we were coming?” Braden asked. The man tilted his chin up in defiance while keeping a wary eye on the Wolfoids.

  ‘He left at the same time as those who ambushed us,’ G-War told them.

  “Half the morning then. He’s probably most of the way there by now. Skirill? Zyena? Can you get a look and see where he is? If he’s still far enough away, maybe you can encourage the horse to throw its rider…” The Hawkoids drove hard to fly north and catch the rider. They were like two brown and white arrows as they raced into the distance, flying for all they were worth, still looking for redemption from their earlier miscue.

  “What?” the man asked, thinking that he may have spoken out loud when he didn’t intend to.

  “What is he going to tell them when he gets there?” Braden continued. G-War nodded. “How many people will Governor Anderle bring out to fight us?” G-War shrugged.

  ‘The rider will tell them the same thing we heard from the other. The Governor can bring a rather substantial force to bear against us. This man doesn’t know how many archers there are.’

  “So, what are we going to do with you?” Braden asked. He heard the wagon approach. Arnie was running even though they told him not to. Brandt was running alongside, giving the younger Aurochs an earful. Braden shook his head as he watched the free-for-all.

  Their prisoner looked at the Aurochs and the wagon. He could see the Rabbits’ ears sticking up between the humans sitting on the front bench.

  “So it�
�s all true?” the man had the courage to ask.

  “What’s true?” Braden prodded.

  “That you and your mutants are going after the Provincial Government,” the man said simply.

  “And what else did you hear, that we were killing every representative from the government?” The man nodded. “That’s not quite true, is it? You’re not dead, and I have no intention of killing you. It doesn’t mean that I won’t let him do it, though, if you lie or stand in our way.” Braden nodded to the ‘cat who was calmly biting at the extended claws of his left paw.

  “Yes. We are going to restore trade to the good people of the north. To do that, the Provincial Government has to go. Right now, you’re the only official I see, so here’s what we’re going to do. Come with me.” Braden picked the man up roughly and guided him to a point in front of Brandt where he was forced to his knees again. The King of the Aurochs towered over their prisoner and snorted in the man’s face for effect. The man’s fear was palpable. Braden pulled his blaster, dialed the flame setting, and torched the outpost. He jogged into the trees and soon, the smoke from the burning tent rose into the air. Braden left nothing behind.

  Nerise watched with wide eyes. Pony pranced at the end of the rope tying him to the back of the wagon.

  “I ask again, what are we going to do with you?” Braden asked after returning from his government facility eradication efforts.

  “I swear allegiance to you!” the man blurted out. G-War shook his head.

  “Remember that part where I said I’d kill you if you lied to me? You just did. I don’t want to hear anything else come out of your mouth, so stand up, take off all your clothes, and then walk that way,” Braden commanded. The man stood up and tried to take a swing. Before he could even cock his arm, Bounder smacked him across the head with his spear. The man fell to the ground.