Chapter Ten
While the bell still rang in my ears, I looked around and realized we were back at the beginning of the day. We’d covered a lot of ground before we got ambushed, but I wasn’t frustrated. It would be worth it to surprise the bandit assholes who thought they could get the jump on the God of Time.
“What’s wrong, Bash?” Eva asked with a worried frown.
“Is it that obvious?” I chuckled. “It’s nothing, my love. Just some bandits who think they can ambush us later tonight.”
“It always amazes me how you somehow seem to know before we’re ever attacked,” Caelia murmured as she shook her head in awe. “What do we do?”
“Flip the situation around on them,” Eva informed her with a sly smile. “Like Bash always does. Those who would harm others get punished for their crimes.”
“Damn straight,” I agreed.
“But… W-W-What about me?” Caelia stuttered. “I don’t want to get in the way.”
“Don’t you worry about a thing, doll face,” I assured the shopkeeper as I flashed her a confident grin. “I got you.”
“Alright,” Caelia breathed, but she bit her lip with a worried expression. “I would feel awful if anything bad happened because of--”
“Caels,” I cut her off in a hard tone. “I wouldn’t have let you come with me if I thought your presence would jeopardize anything. I’m the God of Time, remember? I know all things, and I know you’re going to go into this fight with your head held high because you’re not just a total babe, you’re my babe. Got it?”
“I-I do not really understand your words,” Caelia replied, and her chocolate gaze filled with confusion.
“He means you’re going to kick ass,” Eva explained.
We rode for the rest of the day at a quick pace, and I insisted we still set up camp and go hunting. This time, however, I was able to lead my women straight to the rabbits, and we were back at the campsite quicker than you could say ‘hop.’ Once we were back to the fire with our freshly hunted game, I began to get anxious for the bandits’ arrival.
Why had they been foolish enough to attack us?
I glanced around at my wife, my lover, and the three fine horses hobbled nearby. Our tent was made of thick, well-made fabric, and all of our clothes were of high quality, so we probably resembled unarmed nobles, and therefore, easy pickings.
Little did the idiots know they’d just signed their own death warrants.
I was ready for the bandits to appear at any moment, so I instructed Caelia and Eva to climb into the trees around the edge of the small clearing. I wanted the fearful shopkeeper out of harm’s way before any assholes showed up, but I knew she would only go if the duke’s daughter went as well.
“I’ll need you to take a bow and arrows with you,” I instructed the dark-skinned goddess. “You’ll be able to take your time aiming from up there.”
“I’ve got my throwing stars handy,” Eva reminded me. “And I’ll keep an eye out for Caelia.”
“Awesome.” I grinned. “Ready to teach some no-good heathens some manners they won’t forget?”
“As long as that means they’re going to die,” the duke’s daughter replied in a cool tone.
“That’s my girl.” I tweaked her nose affectionately, and she wrinkled her nose in response.
I was beyond ready to sink my blade into some bandit flesh, and it had been a while since I had a good fight. The last people I’d fought against were pretentious lords, and it just wasn’t the same since I was more focused on form than finishing them off.
“Wait for my signal,” I instructed. “I’m going to make it look like I’m alone. Then, when they let their guards down, rain death from above.”
Once my women were in place with their ranged weapons, I checked over my person. I had the two daggers I’d recently enchanted with the griffon feather and talon, my feather sword, and my obsidian bow on hand. I could easily take on more than twenty men on my own at this point, so I was looking forward to the fight.
Then I heard the rustling in the overgrowth, and I tensed in preparation for my first attack. The bandits burst from the bushes with murderous intent, but I was crouched near the fire with the hood of my cloak pulled down over my head. When I sensed them draw near, I leapt up with my sword extended, and I caught the closest one’s blade against mine.
“Fancy yourself a hero, huh?” the bandit jeered.
“Something like that,” I snickered as I pushed him back, but I twisted my blade in my grip until his was forced from his hand.
Then I drove my blade into the opening he gave me on his other side, and his warm blood splashed across my wrist, but I didn’t linger over my victory. There were still close to twenty men surrounding me, so I lunged for the next one with a deadly glare.
I parried a blow with one hand while I unsheathed a dagger with my other, and I knocked aside my opponent’s blade with my feather sword before I jabbed my dagger into his eyeball to the hilt. Then I yanked my dagger free and let the dying man fall while I looked for another target.
“Now!” I shouted to the girls, and the next thing I knew, there were throwing stars and arrows flying through the air. I watched while one of the small blades landed in the back of a bandit’s skull, but Caelia’s projectiles were still landing harmlessly without reaching their targets.
She’d get there.
In the meantime, I didn’t have to look very far to find a new enemy, and I was quickly embroiled with the man carrying the giant warhammer. I was surprised bandits could afford such a nice weapon, but then again, they’d probably stolen it from some poor sap.
“Get back here, you bastard!” the warhammer swinging goon cursed.
I ducked beneath the swing of his hammer, and I hurried forward while he was still gaining momentum in his comeback swing. Then I stepped inside his circle of reach, and I slashed my dagger across his throat with my left hand.
Three of the bastards had fallen already, but we were still surrounded and outnumbered. It was nothing compared to the fights I’d won in the past, though, so I wasn’t worried about their numbers.
Worst case scenario, I could always chime back to the beginning of the day and try again, but I was determined to kill every single one of these assholes without my women or me getting a scratch on us.
I heard the zip of an arrow past my ear, and then Caelia’s voice called out over the battlefield that used to be our campsite. “Sorry!”
“It’s alright!” I called back to her, but I was already blocking the blow of a short-handled axe.
With a toss of my dagger, a flick of my blade, and the assistance of a throwing star from Eva, I managed to kill two more of the bastards, and the more their numbers dwindled, the more hesitant they became to attack.
I dashed forward, clashed blades with the bandit closest to me, and then swiveled to block the attack from one of his comrades. I danced in a circle between them, and I easily dodged their blows with my footwork. I kept myself moving, and the instant I saw an opening, I took it and threw one of my daggers end over end at one of the assholes’ faces. The short blade slid into the bandit’s throat, and blood gurgled out around the hilt.
“Behind you, Bash!” Eva’s voice cut through the din of battle, and I spun around to find one of our enemies charging toward me.
An arrow suddenly jutted from his eye, and he skidded across the dirt of the campsite as he fell. I shot Caelia a grateful smile, and then I jumped over the corpse to attack the asshole coming at me from the other side of the dead man’s body.
That was the dark-skinned beauty’s first kill, and I made a mental note to check in on how she felt about it after the fight. I didn’t have time to touch base with my lover at the moment, though, since there were still a handful of the assholes remaining alive.
I charged forward with a fierce roar, and I lopped the head off the next man who came at me without even pausing to look back as his body fell. Then I was parrying a blow from another goon who leapt into the headless man’s place.
I heard the pained cries as more of the bandits fell to throwing stars and arrows that found purchase in flesh, and I scanned the battlefield to see how many of the assholes remained. There were still at least ten of the men surrounding me, but their eyes were flicking toward the trees as projectiles continued to rain down upon them from the branches where my women hid.
I’d lost both of my daggers in the skulls of bandits, but I still had my curved blade I’d stolen from the sorcerer Raijin Thornheart, so I ripped it free from its sheath before I slashed it across my opponent’s throat.
My enemy brought his blade up to block the slash of my dagger, but that left him open for my feather sword to slide in between his fur-covered ribs. Blood erupted from between his lips, and his blue eyes widened in shock as the life spilled from him.
“Who’s next?” I asked as I yanked my feather sword free and spun around.
The remaining nine bandits hesitated, and their eyes flicked to the forest they’d emerged from, but I wasn’t about to let them get away with their lives. The closest man was over ten paces away from me, but my curved blade didn’t work very well as a projectile, so I dashed forward with a stomp of my foot.
The fleetness ability of my griffon feather boots was activated, and I sped across the short distance, leapt, and buried my dagger’s blade in the clavicle of the bandit closest to me. We both fell to the ground with a heavy thud, but I jumped to my feet and chased after the next one. My target saw me coming, though, and he swiveled around and darted toward the trees.
Eight left.
Before I could tackle the man running away from me, an arrow zipped through the air to plunge into his retreating back, and a whoop of victory echoed from the tree branches above my head.
“Good job, Caels!” I shouted. “Get ‘em!”
“Thanks!” came the squeaky-voiced response.
Now, even fewer bandits stood between me and total victory, so I turned back to the campfire to find the remaining enemies narrowing in on Eva’s hiding place. Throwing stars rained down from the foliage, but the men were dodging them successfully, and they continued to cross the distance to her tree.
I had to do something.
I stomped my foot again to activate the fleetness ability of my griffon feather boots, and I took off at top speeds toward the assholes threatening my wife. I was on their backs a moment later, and we all fell to the ground in a tumble of limbs and weapons, but I quickly rolled up onto my feet. Then I swiveled, slashed my sword down across one bandit’s gut, and turned around to face the other six men.
“Let’s get out of here!” one of the men suggested.
“Yeah, run!” another agreed, and the handful of bandits turned tail to take off running into the trees.
I stomped my foot once more, but I spotted my obsidian bow where I’d laid it on the ground beside the fire, and I veered ever so slightly so I could scoop up my ranged weapon and quiver. I notched an arrow mid-run, and I let it loose as I exhaled. The projectile spiraled through the air, and it quickly crossed the distance to the retreating bandits.
My arrow landed in the back of the slowest asshole, but the others only glanced over their shoulders at their fallen comrade without slowing down, so I chased after them at lightning speed. I managed to let loose another arrow, and this one buried itself in the back of the neck of the next closest bastard.
There were only four of the fuckers left for me to kill, and that would be easy as pie. I gained on them more and more with each breath I took, and then I was close enough to grab two of the men by the backs of their tunics. I hauled them off their feet and skidded to a halt, but it was a simple task to ram my blade into the hollows of their throats.
Two more.
While I had an unlimited supply of griffon feathers, they weren’t exactly the easiest thing to acquire, but the assholes were getting away, so I ended up saying fuck it and stomped my foot yet again.
One of the bandits looked over his shoulder at me as I approached, and the look of utter terror on his face made my heart sing. His horrified death cry was music to my ears as I slammed my dagger through his spine, and I made sure to twist the blade.
“That’s what you get for trying to run away from the God of Time,” I informed him as I yanked my blade free.
I heard feet pattering behind me, and I turned to see Eva and Caelia running through the forest toward me. My head swiveled between the two beauties and the bandit on the run, and I waved over my head for them to hurry up before I returned to the chase.
It only took me a matter of moments to catch up to the slimebag, and I slammed into the man’s back and knocked him to the ground, but he struggled against me while he growled under his breath. My weapon was flung from my grasp, so I balled up my fist and pounded it into his ugly face.
Blood spewed from the bandit’s nose to drip into my eyes, and I grimaced in disgust as I shook my head to clear my vision.
“Hold him still, Bash!” Caelia urged.
I managed to grapple the stinky bandit into a hold, and I clenched my teeth as I wrapped my arm around his neck. Then I rolled onto my back, and I took the asshole in my arms with me. His breath was rank in my face, but I ignored it as I squeezed my forearm tightly against his jugular. It would only take a few moments of the move to snap his neck, so I tightened my hold on his throat.
The bandit’s eyes bulged as he gurgled out a pained cry, but then I heard a thud, and the life slowly faded from his gaze. I heaved him off me with a loud grunt, but when I stood up, I spotted two throwing stars jutting from the dead bandit’s back.
“I got him!” Eva cheered as she did a little victory dance.
“That was the last of them!” an out of breath Caelia exclaimed with bright, happy chocolate eyes.
“Assholes,” I cursed as I kicked the dead man. Now, my clothes were all dirty, but at least I hadn’t been injured. “Are you both okay?”
“Yes, Bash.” Eva rolled her eyes. “We’d call for you right away if one of us got hurt.”
“She’s right.” Caelia nodded. “We didn’t take a single hit.”
“Good.” I grinned. “Let’s loot the bodies, and then we can find a new camping spot. I don’t really want to sleep around the smell of death.”
“Alright,” Eva agreed in a cheerful tone. “I wonder if they’ll have anything of value.”
“Probably not on their persons,” I said. “But they likely have a chest full of stolen goods back at their hideout.”
“Ooh, that would be wonderful!” Caelia giggled. “We could bring a gift to the new Duke of Mistvale Keep.”
“Now, there’s a good idea.” I squatted beside the dead bandit at my feet, and I searched his fur tunic and reached inside his boots. All I found were a few gold coins and a turkey leg, but he was only one of many, so I continued my search.
The two women assisted me with the task, and a short while later, we’d rejoined at the fire to share our findings. I made sure to collect and clean all my blades, and I returned them to their sheaths before I sat beside the two beauties. Eva found several gold coins and a folded-up piece of paper, Caelia discovered a gold chain necklace with a sapphire pendant, and I came back with more money, more food, and all their weapons. I started by checking the stats on everything, but every item’s durability was so low, it wouldn’t be worth it to carry it onward with us.
“What’s this?” I asked as I reached for the folded-up paper.
“I’m not sure.” Eva frowned. “It’s like a drawing, or a very bad map.”
“Hmm.” I mirrored her thoughtful expression, and I carefully unfolded the paper.
Drawn on the inside were some trees, a curved line, and a dotted line. It certainly did look like a map, but there were no labels or markers to signify what it was of. Then I saw the small X mark, and realization dawned on me.
“It’s a treasure map!” I laughed. “All we have to do is line up the dots for the road, and I’m sure we’ll be able to find it.”
“What is that squiggly line?” Caelia asked as she pointed to a part of the drawing.
“I’m not sure.” I scratched my jaw. “I think the dotted line is the road, so maybe it’s water or something.”
“Oh!” Eva gasped. “We crossed a stream yesterday, maybe that’s it!”
“Wow!” Caelia shook her head. “Can you imagine what we could find?”
“Let’s find it, then.” I grinned.
The three of us finished cleaning up after our battle, and we packed up our campsite. It was already dark, so I wasn’t sure how much distance we would cover, but I didn’t want to burn or bury the dead, nor did I wish to sleep a few feet away from their corpses.
We backtracked for a while, and I was tempted to reset back to my save point to gain some daylight, but we’d still have to fight the bandits to get the treasure map, so I let time continue for now. Once I located the goods was a different matter altogether, and then I could reset and wow the women with my vast knowledge.
My wife, my lover, and I made camp beside the stream crossing the road, but we made sure to cover our tracks as we left the dirt path. I didn’t want any other random people showing up while we were trying to get some sleep. The three of us crawled inside our tent, but by that time we were all too tired to do much more than cuddle. The next morning was a different story, though, and I made sure to give them both an orgasm before we crawled out of our temporary dwelling to face the new day.
We spent all morning poring over the woods near the stream, and I stared at the vague treasure map so much I’d memorized all the details. Not that there was much to memorize, but then I could hand it off to one of the women while I looked in a different spot.
It was around mid-day when Eva spotted a footprint in the dirt, and we all rushed over to investigate. It looked like a man’s, and given the proximity of its location to the stream crossing the road, I got excited.
“We’re getting close, I can feel it,” I proclaimed in a godly voice with my hands on my hips, and the two women giggled.
A few moments of searching through the brush and undergrowth of the forest later, I heard masculine voices echoing through the trees, and I held a finger over my lips to signal my women into silence. Then I crouched down, crept forward, and carefully parted the bushes to peer through to the other side.
A fire burned in a small clearing, and several tents were erected around it, but two men sat before the flames laughing among themselves. They wore the same fur tunics as the bandits who’d attacked us, and given the location of the campsite, I assumed we’d found the spot we were looking for.
I scanned over their campsite until my gaze landed on a wooden chest sitting beneath a humongous oak tree. Hanging from the branches above the box were what looked like windchimes made out of bones, but they were hung at haphazard angles.
Alarms.
If someone got close to the chest without the two bandits guarding the campsite noticing, then the clacking and clattering of the strings of bones would alert them to the attack.
Good thing I planned on killing them first.
My gaze flicked back to my lady companions, and Caelia was already repositioning herself into a good place to use her bow. While she was no Mahini with the ranged weapon, her skill had already gotten better just since the beginning of this quest, so I imagined confidence was her main issue.
I gestured for her to wait, and then I motioned for the dark-skinned goddess to keep her eyes on me. The shopkeeper turned archer nodded subtly in understanding, so I turned back to the two bandits sitting in front of the campfire.
These were my kills.
Then I inched forward while slowly removing my enchanted daggers from their sheaths, and I stomped my foot as I charged into the clearing. The two bandits jumped up from their seats and scrambled backward in shock at my sudden appearance, but I chased after them with my blades extended in each fist.
I jumped over the fire in a blur of motion, but I didn’t have time to process how awesome it was before I landed with my daggers in each man’s neck. I fell to my knees from the sudden stop, and I brought both bodies down to the ground with me.
It was some epic movie level shit.
“Wow!” Caelia gasped as she shot to her feet. “That was amazing!”
“You’ll never get used to it, either,” Eva said with awe in her voice as she also rose to her full height.
“Thanks.” I grinned sheepishly at my wife and lover as they stood in the middle of a bush gawking at me, but then I gestured to the chest, and they quickly crossed the distance to me.
The three of us kneeled down in the dirt in front of the chest, and I smacked the old, rusted lock with my dagger’s hilt until the metal shattered. I knocked aside the pieces, and then we worked together to push the heavy lid open. Inside were heaps of gold, copper, and silver coins, jewelry, gems, and who knew what else was buried beneath the valuables.
“Fuck, yeah!” I whooped, and laughter bubbled from my throat. “This is awesome! We will have our choice of gifts to bring to the new duke.”
Caelia’s idea was a good one, and it was likely to bring me more favor in this new duke’s eyes. I just had to narrow it down from a chest full of options.
“Should we really use it as a gift?” Eva asked as her smoky-gray eyes reflected the shimmering metals. “Couldn’t we keep it all for ourselves? We have two babies on the way, after all.”
“We’ll give him one of these pieces of jewelry,” I suggested, and I squeezed her shoulders. “It’s so pretty.”
I peered around at some of the jewelry, but then a ring with a small purple gem caught my eye, and I withdrew it carefully. The rock caught the firelight and glimmered, but then I noticed the look of longing in Caelia’s eyes.
“Caels,” I murmured as I took her hand in mine. “Where I come from, men give women rings as a promise to marry them one day. Will you accept this ring from me as a token of my love, and a symbol of our relationship?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Caelia squealed and threw her arms around my neck, but then she was smearing kisses all over my face.
“You’re so adorable, Caelia,” Eva said with a twinkle in her gray eyes. “I’m so happy for you both!”
“I’m pretty happy myself,” I said over Caelia’s shoulder.
The three of us finished scouring the campsite, but we didn’t find anything else of value, and the two bandits I’d killed were only carrying crude daggers. When we’d finished our search, the two girls looked at me expectantly, but I wasn’t ready to let time continue forward just yet. I had the opportunity to reset, go straight to the bandits’ campsite, kill them all, and take their treasure before dark the previous day, and I wasn’t going to waste it.
Chime.
“What’s wrong, Bash?” Eva asked with a worried frown.
“Absolutely nothing is wrong, my beloved wife.” I flashed my darling a broad smile. “I know of a bandit hideout nearby, and I think we should go make sure they don’t hurt or steal from anyone else ever again.”
“The people who travel this road would be grateful, I’m sure,” Caelia said. “Mistvale’s territory has always had an issue with bandits since the big cities are the only ones with guards, and the roads between towns here stretch far.”
“Don’t worry,” I assured the duke’s daughter with a wink. “We’ll be well-compensated for our efforts.”
“I like the sound of that,” my wife replied as a smile tugged on the corners of her lips.
We rode down the road a ways, but when we came to the stream, I called for a halt. I explained where the bandit hideout was, and we tied the horses to a tree within the shadows of the forest. Then the three of us continued onward on foot, and we all withdrew our weapons in preparation for a fight.
I wasn’t sure if the majority of the bandits I’d killed would still be at their campsite or not, but I was hoping they were. It would be much easier to kill all the assholes in one place, and then make off with the gold like a badass.
When we heard the masculine voices through the brushes, I pressed my finger against my lips to signal for silence, and my two women nodded in response. Then I gripped my dagger in one hand and my feather sword in the other, and I burst from the bushes with my two women at my side.
The campsite was full of men in fur tunics, but many of them were unarmed. If they weren’t thieving assholes I might have felt bad about killing them without a weapon in their hands, but these guys deserved whatever dirty dealings they received.
None of the bandits had noticed our arrival yet, so I marched up to a man standing with his back to me, and I reached around to slice his throat with my dagger. He fell with a thud, and all eyes turned toward me.
Time froze for a moment while the bandits slowly began to comprehend my sudden appearance in their midst, and then the campsite was thrown into utter chaos. Men charged toward me from all directions, but a few ran the opposite way. The bandits fleeing the scene nearly fell into the fire, and the large pot hanging over the flames teetered sideways to spill across the ground.
Throwing stars and arrows zipped through the air from behind me, and two men fell before I could reach them, but there were still plenty of assholes left for me. I tossed my dagger at a bandit’s retreating back, and a cloud of dust flew up around his body as it fell.
Three men came at me at once, and I ducked below the swing of the first man’s sword before I swiped at the bandit to my left’s leg. Blood sprayed in my blade’s wake, and the man keeled over with a loud cry of pain, but as he leaned forward, I met his face with the fist still clenching my dagger’s hilt.
The injured bandit flew backward, but I didn’t pause in my attack on the dirty bastards who’d attempted to ambush me. I recognized several of their faces from my first fight with them, so I was confident we’d managed to catch all of them at their base of operations.
Then the two men on either side of me lunged at the same time, and I dropped into another squat as their faces smashed into each other. They flew backward, which gave me the perfect opening to lunge upward with both my blades extended. My weapons buried themselves in the soft flesh under the men’s chins, and I ripped them free as I spun around to find another asshole charging toward me.
I danced through the campsite like a harbinger of death, and I left a trail of bodies in my wake as I sliced through the dirty bastards. I didn’t pause my assault until sweat began to drip into my eyes, and I only hesitated long enough to swipe the back of my hand across my forehead before my gaze landed on my next target.
My two women stayed on the perimeter of the campsite, but they held their own with their ranged weapons. I kept a close eye on them to make sure none of the bandits got anywhere close to them, and any who attempted to head in their direction met their fates by my hand.
It felt like only a few moments had passed when I had to stop to search for a new target again, but I couldn’t see any of the bandits still standing. Moans of pain echoed from all around the clearing, so I knew there were still a few of them alive, but for the moment, no one was attacking me.
I let out a deep exhale and flicked the blood and gore from my weapons, and then I went to finish off the bastards who’d survived the fight. After I killed the poor saps who’d been less than fatally wounded, I signaled for my women to come closer. Then the three of us approached the chest once more.
“How did you know this was all here?” Caelia asked with an awed shake of her head. “I can hardly believe I just killed a man.”
“Just god things,” I chuckled. “It’s a good thing you did, Caelia. Those assholes were going to try to ambush us when we made camp for the night.”
“We probably appear to be easy pickings,” Eva mused. “We are obviously wealthy by the quality of our clothes and horses, but there are only three of us, two being women. It would stand to reason that bandits wouldn’t be able to resist us.”
“We’re just irresistible like that,” I agreed.
“You are, most assuredly.” Caelia nodded emphatically.
“I have a surprise for you.” I winked at the dark-skinned goddess. “Inside this chest is a ring that will be perfect for you.”
“W-What do you mean?” The shopkeeper blushed. “I don’t need any jewelry…”
“Need or want?” I arched one eyebrow. “I want to show my intentions with you are completely out of love. I intend to marry you soon, Caelia Stone, and wearing this ring upon your finger will show the world you’re mine.”
“Oh! Yes, please, please!” Caelia gasped, and she threw her arms around my neck to pepper me with kisses. “Thank you, Bash! I’ll wear it all the time!”
“You haven’t even seen it yet,” I teased.
Caelia tucked a curl behind her ear, and a demure smile pulled on her lips. “I am excited, I’m sorry.”
“No apologies needed,” I assured her, but then I aimed the hilt of my dagger at the rusted lock again. It only took a moment to bust it open, and I immediately withdrew the purple-stoned ring I’d spotted on my previous attempt. “Here.”
Then I noticed Eva eyeing the necklace with the sapphire in it we’d gotten from a bandit’s pockets previously, and I instantly reached for it.
“This one’s for you, Evangeline, my dear,” I said as I unhooked the clasp and gestured for her to lean forward. The duke’s daughter dipped her head while I fastened the chain around her neck, but I couldn’t resist planting a kiss against her cheek before I leaned back once more. “Now, we’re fit to meet the new duke.”
“Not like we weren’t before,” Eva countered with a sassy look. “You’re the Archduke of Bastianville. You could be covered in mud, and everyone would still insist you were the best-dressed man in the room.”
“Maybe,” I laughed. “But I prefer to constantly raise the bar on people’s expectations of me. After all, what else would you expect from a god?”
“How do you keep all your titles straight?” Caelia shook her head. “Dragon Slayer, God of Time, Hero of Sorreyal… Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Not in this world.” I smirked.
We finished bagging up our treasure the best we could since we didn’t want to have to haul the entire chest around with us, and Caelia fetched the horses while Eva and I pored over the bodies for anything valuable. Once our task was completed, we remounted our steeds and returned to the road.
We made camp late that night, which put us even closer to Mistvale Keep. We had less than a day’s travel left ahead of us before we’d be sleeping in real beds again, and I went to sleep eagerly with that thought. I was on my feet as soon as the sun began to rise, but I allowed the two ladies to continue their slumber for a short while. By the time they rose, I had breakfast prepared and all three of our horses saddled.
“Wow, Bash!” Eva’s eyebrows rose. “You’ve been busy!”
“Early bird gets the worm,” I teased.
“I would prefer not to ingest worms,” the duke’s daughter countered with a haughty lift of her chin, but the playful twinkle in her eyes ruined her attempt at looking snobby.
“Eat up,” I instructed. “We’ll be in Mistvale Keep before the end of the day.”
Caelia flashed me a wide-toothed smile, and Eva smirked as she hurried across the distance to the fire. We ate quickly, but they both complimented my cooking, and then we finished packing up our campsite since I couldn’t take down the tent with them sleeping inside it.
A few moments later, we were on the road once again, but this time, a warm bed awaited me at the end of the day, so I clicked my tongue to urge Goliath into a faster gait. Eva and Caelia didn’t complain, in fact their eyes were bright with joy as they galloped down the road at my sides. The forest faded slowly, and the wide expanse of open grasslands stood in stark contrast to the shadows of the trees. The terrain was rocky and uneven, and boulders dotted the landscape. I could smell salt in the air, so I knew we were getting closer to the ocean. Then we thundered down a hill and around a small slope, and the stone-walled city suddenly came into view.
And so did the ocean.
The Eastern Ocean covered the majority of the horizon to my right, and the wind gusts coming off the waves whipped my hair into my eyes. The air was chilly and damp, but tendrils of smoke rose from behind the gray stone walls of Mistvale Keep, so I clicked my tongue to Goliath, and the white warhorse trotted toward the castle.
As we drew closer to the walls, I could see men traversing the tops carrying spears, but the walls were too tall for me to make out any details of the interior. The water lapped at the stones where the wall met the waves, and algae clung to the moist surface of the rocks.
Then we approached the closed black gates.
“Ahoy!” A guard wearing a steel plate helmet and chainmail stood atop the wall and waved down to me. “What brings you to Mistvale Keep this glorious day?”
I peered up at the dark-gray storm clouds that lingered over the water, and then down at the muddy ground.
“Yeah, it’s all sunshine and rainbows around here,” I snickered to my women, and they giggled behind their hands, but then I raised my voice to address the guard on the wall. “I am here on business! I seek a ship and crew.”
“You’ve come to the right place!” the guard laughed, but then he disappeared from view.
A moment later, the gate began to open, and the ancient metal hinges creaked. Rain started to trickle from the sky as we rode beneath the stone arch of the gateway, and I laughed again and shook my head at the “lovely weather.” I imagined the salty sea air permeated everything in these parts, and I prepared myself for a wet ride through town.
I paused at the gate, made a new save point, and then flagged down a guard standing near the entrance.
“Where can I find the Duke of Mistvale Keep?” I asked.
“Why, up at the keep, my lord,” the guard answered.
“And where is that?” I pressed.
The guard merely pointed inside the walls and up a long, straight street to a giant mansion at the end of the road. The walls of the massive stone house were covered in ivy, and the windows gleamed with colorful hues, but it was hard to see much since the rain was starting to pick up. Even from this distance, though, the resemblance to a church was obvious to me, and I pictured monks or priests moving about the gardens. Then I reset back to my save point with a wave of my will, and the chime rang loudly in my ears as I trotted Goliath straight past the guard without stopping to ask for directions.
The Duke of Mistvale better be expecting company, because he was about to play host to the God of Time.