The Plague of Stormhope

[Hysteria]

To my delight we got underway without too much fuss. I had quite a number of dealings with mercenaries, and I found them to generally be belligerent and greedy. I’d have wagered that most of this group saw themselves as heroes rather than mercenaries given the way they accepted the coin without too much fuss. As the thought ran through my head and a cold pit of dread burst in my stomach… am I paying too much…?

“What's in the bag?” asked Celeste.

I snapped back into the present and turned to smile at the girl. I reminded myself that I needed to focus on the here and now. I could recalculate the wage at another time.

“I don’t normally lead groups of mercenaries across the countryside. I'm a tinkerer by trade, a pauper profession, but one I enjoy,” I said, reaching around and fishing a small ball out of the bag behind me and holding it out for Celeste to take.

“Is that a flame?” Celeste squealed as the small blue flame danced within the glass ball.

I thought I saw William open an eye at the mention of fire, but when I glanced at him he seemed steadfast in the dozing stupor. There was something about the man that made me think of him as a soldier. He didn’t smell of liquor, but he seemed to have the ability to fall asleep on cue. That was a soldier’s trait. The captain was humming a tune, something I didn’t recognise, but seemed to change slightly every time he repeated it. I turned back to the road and flicked the reins to keep the horse moving as a decent pace.

“Yes it is, you select the dial on the side for the release time, then boom! Flames enough for most purposes,” I said.

I gestured to the bag.

“Would you mind taking out the large box and pass it to me?”

The countryside had slowly changed as we had been travelling. Around Radasanth was mostly farms. The soil wasn’t great, but the city needed food enough that quality wasn’t an issue. Plus you throw in some resourceful waste management services in the city and you’re able to grow some rather good potatoes. The last farm however had passed some time ago. There were mostly trees now, with the odd patch of grass here and there. The road had forked a few times and we had stayed on our course to Stormhope. Some of the roads had gone north towards the tip of Corone. Others had branched south-east and towards the fishing villages of the east coast. We were now off any sort of main road, the only place this road led to was Stormhope.

If we were going to ambushed, this next stretch of road was going to be it. As I showed Celeste the Blue Blaze Bomb© I was watching the tree line. There had been a movement of black, the sort of thing you might catch out of the corner of your eye.

“Ugh, this is heavy!” whined Celeste, “what is it?”

She hauled the box onto the seat next to me and flopped back down into the wagon. I saw another flash of black and knew something was about to happen.

“Captain, William, do you know what it is?” I asked, more loudly than needed, “Perhaps our knight Hawkes would take a guess?”

I pulled the reins of the horse slightly, taking us to the side of the road and opening up a decent amount of road for Josette. The beast snorted and huffed at the sudden change. I wasn’t sure how observant my hired swords would be, at least I knew that Celeste was ignorant of the impending attack. I reached to the bottom of the box and pulled out a small square device and placed it next to me.

Perhaps I was too overt in my actions, or perhaps the place was right for the attack. Either way, the assailants darted from the tree line. They moved quickly, faster than the wind and even more silent. There were, half a dozen or so darting forwards, dressed head to toe in black except for the fabric mask pulled across their faces. There was a distinctive white skull pattern that fitted over their faces.

“Time to earn your coin!” I shouted as I grabbed the zap pistol off my waist.