"Aye, sir," Adyan replied and moved to do Vambran's bidding.
"Grolo, Horial, help the two of them," Vambran said, indicating the wounded pair. "You get moving northeast, back toward the coast. I'm going to try to mislead our pursuers a little bit by laying a false trail to the south." The other two nodded, and everyone sprang into action at once. Vambran moved to a position in the midst of the snake carcasses and set off through the trees southward, deeper into the forest, doing his best to stir up leaves, snap fallen branches, and scuff his feet into the dirt. After he had progressed in such a fashion for a couple of hundred paces, he stopped near the base of a tree.
It was almost too dark to see anything, so he drew forth his pendant and uttered a soft prayer of light. The resulting glow that sprang from the coin was gentle, like moonlight, and Vambran cupped the symbol in his hand to keep it from shining out in all directions.
Using the magical light to aid him, Vambran knelt down at the base of the tree and began hunting for another spider. He spotted one quickly enough, and he went through the motions of casting the spell again that he had used to climb with before. When he knew the magic had manifested, Vambran willed the soft light to wink out, waited a moment for his eyes to adjust, and scurried up the tree.
Near the top, Vambran began to move out along the limbs of the shadowtop, navigating the narrow branch with ease, thanks to his magical ability. As he neared the end of the branch and felt it begin to sag dangerously low, he transferred his weight to another branch, which happened to protrude from a neighboring tree. Then he scurried across the expanse of that tree's cover and moved on to the next tree.
Vambran continued to maneuver through the forest that way, crossing from tree to tree by means of the climbing spell, never leaving a trail upon the ground. After he had progressed quite a distance and was certain the magic would fade soon, he hurried down. Sure enough, when he was perhaps ten feet from the ground, he felt the spell dissipate, and he half jumped and half fell the rest of the way to the forest floor.
Better not wait so long next time, he thought, dusting himself off. Then he set off in the general direction he had sent his companions, expecting to catch up to them after a little while. Part of his plan also took into account the possibility of his little trick failing to mislead the trackers.
If they don't fall for it, I want them to catch up to me, first, he thought. I can give the others a fair chance to escape by myself.
But his fears did not come to that, and after perhaps an hour of walking, Vambran began to detect motion through the trees ahead. Picking up his pace, the lieutenant issued his telltale bird call. Soon enough, the whistled reply echoed back. Vambran caught up to the rest of the group a short time later.
"Well, we'll see how much we managed to delay them," he said as the six of them settled down to rest for a few moments. "I doubt it will hold them up for long, but every few minutes of time we bought is worth it."
"We tried to tread lightly, sir," Horial said as he began to pass around some hunks of hard bread and some slices of thick, dried meat. "Don't know how good of a job we did, though. We're soldiers, not thieves."
"Don't worry about it," Vambran replied, noticing the ache in his legs for the first time all night. "If we can stay ahead of them, that's good enough." He bit into a slice of meat and tore the mouthful free. His stomach rumbled with appreciation, and Vambran realized he hadn't eaten since before noon that day, when they had all still been aboard Lady's Favor. That seemed like such a very long time ago.
Kovrim, where are you? the lieutenant wondered. What happened to everyone?
In the darkness, he could more than see the rest of the group busily consuming the small repast that Horial had doled out. No one said anything, but Vambran could sense the courage and determination from each of them. He could judge it by the carriage of each soldier's silhouette, hear it in the way they ate their food. They were professionals, and he was proud of the way they were handling the bizarre and unnerving circumstances of the day.
"Any idea where we're headed?" Burtis asked between bites.
Vambran shook his head then realized the other soldiers most likely could not see his gesture. "None at all," he admitted, "though I know that Reth lies ahead of us. We keep walking the way we're going right now, we'll wind up hitting either the coast or the road that runs south out of Reth and circles around the Nunwood back toward Hlath. One way or the other, we'll wind up in the city."
"Assuming we can get there before our pursuit catches up," Filana said, her mouth full of bread.
"Well, if you're so worried about that," Vambran replied, rising, "then break time is over. Let's get marching, soldier."
Filana groaned but did not question her superior. As a team, the six gathered up everything they had and set out again.
As they walked, Vambran took the time to listen to the surroundings. Other than the snakes, they had not been visited by any predators, which surprised him.
Don't go looking for more trouble, soldier, he told himself. Be glad the denizens have left you alone.
Vambran recalled then some of the stories of the Nunwood, of how most of the more dangerous creatures had been run off or slain. The forest had been heavily logged for many centuries before the druids of the Emerald Enclave had stepped in and begun making trouble for the folk who lived along its edge. Lumber processing had slowed down considerably once the druids began pushing everyone around, but it had not died off completely. Regardless, both the logging operations-or rather the mercenaries hired by the loggers-and the druids had managed to make the Nunwood a much safer place than other forests in the region.
Of course, that was a relative thing, Vambran realized. Even a safe forest still remained shrouded in mystery and harbored danger. Though the snakes had been unfortunate, he still considered the group lucky to that point not to have encountered more dangerous creatures during their trek.
Vambran's musings were interrupted by the appearance of a glow from ahead. The others saw the emanations about the same time he did, and the whole group drew to a halt. Though they were still too far removed to be certain, to Vambran's eyes, the glow seemed to be the remnants of some dying fires, barely visible through the trees ahead of them. Almost as one, the five other mercenaries crouched down and huddled together, waiting to see what their leader ordered.
Vambran leaned in and whispered, "stay here while I move ahead to see what's what. Don't make any sounds because whoever this is might have sentries posted in this direction."
Though he could not see the other mercenaries' responses, he could sense that they understood. Quietly as he could, Vambran rose to his feet and began to creep forward, noting a few conspicuous trees that he could use to navigate back in that direction once he was finished scouting. As he drew closer to the glow, he became more and more certain that it was from multiple campfires, and they were all positioned in a clearing ahead. The lieutenant stopped at one point and peered around, searching for telltale signs that guards stood watch there in the edge of the woods, but he did not see anything, so he began to move forward again.
When Vambran reached the underbrush that marked the edge of the clearing, he saw that it was a military camp. Tents were clustered in orderly groups around the fires, and there were indeed sentries positioned around the perimeter of the encampment, but none of them was stationed very close to the edge of the woods. The lieutenant did notice, however, that several of the guards were standing watch over an old barn near where Vambran crouched. He could see that a fresh door had been built into the side of the barn, and a log was used to bar it shut. The mercenary officer had a pretty good idea that prisoners were inside. He wondered if they were Sapphire Crescents.