A Soldier's Life - 224 - (Patreon)

Chapter 224

I blended into the morning crowd and paced myself back to the barracks. I would have liked to spend the remainder of my day inside the dreamscape training and reading, but that would not be safe unless I rented a room elsewhere in the city again. Cato fell in step beside me, and I figured my indecision had taken me on the obvious route to the barracks, giving him a chance to catch up.

“If you are the first one back, you will be able to keep the blood compass.” I looked over, surprised. “We only have six to give out.”

“Six? Konstantin only gave out five.” I said, doing the math.

Cato chuckled, “Yeah, Konstantin has one with Castian’s blood in it. He made sure the pup would be following him today. A blood compass can be used to know where your enemy is as well as to avoid them.” I nodded in understanding, and it had me thinking as we walked.

“It works on animals as well?” I inquired.

Cato nodded, “I have tracked injured creatures before. The problem is making sure you clean it between samples. If they are not cleaned well the signal is much weaker.” He handed me a vial of clear liquid. “Alchemist distilled alcohol, it never spoils. You will get one from Konstantin but you can have mine. I have a few stashed away.”

I took it and sniffed it before storing it. There was no smell, and it could be mistaken for water. A few alchemy recipes also used this. “Thank you. I am going to retire to the barracks.” My hope was that Cato had to be elsewhere and wasn’t planning to stick with me.

“I am going to help Hearne frustrate the pups following him. Don’t forget you need to be first to claim the blood compass.” Cato continued off toward the lower city. I didn’t rush as I walked through the back alleys and explored the city a little on my way back.

A rat scurried away from rotting vegetables, and I snagged it into my dimensional space. Even though the creature was small, it still bottomed out my aether. Shaking my head, I wondered how much I would have to increase my aether pool for that not to happen.

I eventually found myself in the barracks before lunch. No one else had returned yet, so I had time to experiment.  I heated the blood compass and cleaned it with alcohol. I summoned my rat and restrained it, cutting it with my dagger and soaking a small piece of cloth. The feisty rat tried to bite me but couldn’t penetrate my spider silk gloves. I sent the rat back to my dimensional space.

I dried the cloth on the thermal stone and activated the compass with the new sample. I frowned when the compass pulled strongly in my grasp. Then I realized I had gotten some rat blood on the floor, and it was reacting to that. I walked away, and the compass pointed to the blood on the floor, not my dimensional space as I had feared. I poured a little distilled alcohol over the blood marks on the wooden floor, and the compass calmed and was silent. So, yes, I could hide a person in my dimensional space to cheat the blood compass.

My last test was killing the rat and tossing it out the window. The compass still pulled toward the corpse of the dead rat, so I assumed you could find recently dead people as well until their blood dried. It really was an incredible artifact.

I spent my afternoon training in the small yard leading to the barracks. Val was the first person to return, but two city guards ushered him to the barracks in manacles. With his head hung low, he told me his fate. “Got caught tacking a decoy. Been locked up all day.” The guards released him with good humor and left.

The others returned one by one, dirty, smelly, and hanging their heads soon after. The smug Hounds stood before us, Konstantin in the center. He looked exhausted as well but wore a smirk. “Does anyone have the yellow scarf?”

I produced mine and held it up. This got me envious and angry glances from the others. Cato admitted my victory, “The pup successfully infiltrated a merchant’s villa and caught me off guard with a ruse. For being the first and only pup to find success with the compass, you can keep it. The rest of you…” Cato walked among them and collected the other four compasses.

Konstantin grunted, “Only one of five. Horrendous success rate. The worst part of today was the city guard stopped every one of you.” I remained silent as none had accosted me. “The first stage of your training will be how to remain unseen.”

For the next two weeks, we practiced blending in with locals, city stealth, tracking with the blood compass, entering buildings, and surprising our targets. The Hounds ran the training in two seven-hour shifts, a day shift, and a night shift. During this time, it became a game with the local guards to catch us. If they caught one of the pups breaking the law and apprehended them, Konstantin gave them a silver for each pup. Since they only made four silver a week, they were highly motivated. It was actually an ingenious plot on Konstantin’s part, as there were normally a lot more Hounds involved in the training process.

Several pups were stupid enough to fight back against the pups and were subdued by guards with force. I wasn’t perfect in my training. I got caught sneaking into a warehouse, scaling the city wall, and spying on a woman’s bathhouse. The last was Konstantin giving me a blood sample of one of the women, not that I minded after the fact. The lesson was never to assume anything. I replied with, “Yeah, when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.” Which, of course, didn’t translate well into Latin.

It also didn’t help that the Hounds and city guards always knew we were coming, putting us at a huge disadvantage. It helped us learn the craft of disguise. Using clothes that could be turned inside out, simple charcoal makeup, interchangeable hats, and wigs. Bacchus took the best to disguising himself and even went as far as to have a quick change into a believable woman. His spell form allowed him to leave behind an image of himself, so he honed his skill by changing his appearance, creating an image, and then changing again.

Hearne also continued creature lessons, focusing on those that frequently infiltrated cities. The things that went bump in the night could also devour you in seconds. Thankfully, I didn’t need much sleep because the few hours that I did get were filled with nightmares.

After two weeks, we moved on to skills that could only be described as assassination training under the guise of killing your enemy before they can react. It was, of course, turned into a game as Konstantin had six pairs of Hounds boots to hand out for the best of us. These Hound boots required the wearer to be able to channel aether into the feet to activate them. The boots eliminated all sound in a small radius. Only the right boot had the runic workings in it. Two of the pups who won the right to boots couldn’t channel their aether effectively, so Konstantin awarded them others who could.

We were all exhausted from the endless training, and the only reprieve was that we were given a silver a day to purchase our own food in the city. When I was alone, I was always on guard against Castian and his lackeys. From their whispered huddles and side-eyed looks, I could tell they were plotting something against me.

I always used my single silver coin at two vendors in the lower city. The two frail old women looked at orphans and abandoned babies. From my understanding of our brief conversations, they had nearly twenty children in their care. I would always order something small, such as a baked cracker with melted cheese for a copper, pay with the allotted silver, and then tell them to “keep the change.” At first, they didn’t understand the phrase, so I had to explain it.

The two old women, Cantina and Acilia, had lost their husbands to the army a long time ago. They were cousins and moved in together to support their six children together. When their children grew up, they began an orphanage, taking in abandoned and unwanted children. The Telhian culture valued women less than men unless the woman had a strong enough magic affinity. So, most of the children the women looked after were young girls.

Most of what the old women received to care for the children was donated by their grown children who still lived in the city. It was barely enough to survive, and they were stretched thin by the thin children who hovered around the cart. I figured the silver a day could feed twenty mouths. In return for my generosity, the children were willing to act as my agents in the lower city, giving me tours and letting me know when the Hounds or other pups passed. I always slipped them a copper for good information, and they were eager to help.

I was walking with a limp, a heavy cane, and had a raggy cloak pulled tightly around me as I made my way down the street in the lower city. My blood compass was concealed and I was tracking Moxie today. He was fairly terrible at hiding as he liked to find one spot and rarely moved from it. Since we had been allowed to use our spell forms, he always attacked with his lightning dart spell form when found and then ran. The compass led me to an abandoned hovel. As I passed, I activated my earth speak spell form.

I had received both pairs of new boots from the cobbler. They worked well after I cut a hole in my socks around the big toe. I had scuffed up one pair to make them look worn and aged, and the other pair of earth drake hide boots were in my dimensional space. He had done an exceptional job with sizing the boots and besides breaking in the leather, they were comfortable.

I examined the feedback from the spell form as I walked, pulsing it as I went. Moxie and Kasper were sitting together at a table across from the only entrance to the room. That meant Gaius should be showing up soon as he was tasked with tracking Kasper. I turned into the narrow alley and went to the back of the building they were hiding in. The back door was nailed shut, and they assumed they were safe.

With my dimensional space, I focused and cut each nail, one at a time, listening. There was a muffled conversation between the two quarries on the inside.

“Can’t believe I got Eryk again. Konstantin must despise me.” Moxie’s voice echoed. “Thanks for the help. Are you sure Gaius will wait till after we knock him out?”

“Paid him two silver to wait till after midday meal,” Kasper responded. Although no one had asked me, it was common for the Hound and Rabbit to agree to terms on the hunt in private. Giving the exhausted pups some rest from the grueling schedule. I shook my head; if they just found their quarry quickly and got the yellow scarf, they could rest the rest of the time.

When all the nails were removed, I pulsed Earth speak again to confirm their locations. I got lucky as Kasper got up to piss in the corner near my door. When he passed it, I slammed into it. It was slightly stuck, which gave him some warning. It still knocked him to the ground. Kasper rolled and pointed his hands at me. I pulled my cloak in front of me as the flames of his spell form washed over me.

For all the impressiveness of his flames, he could only use them in short bursts, and the only real danger was to your eyes. If you squeezed them shut, you would lose your eyebrows and hair but come out relatively unscathed. I tossed the cloak away and slammed my cane into his knee.

“Giant’s piss, Eryk,” Kasper wailed as I shattered his kneecap. He has just tried to roast me and was complaining.

A bolt of energy slammed into my hip. The charge expelled into my body, weakening my knees. I always hated getting hit by this spell form. Not only did it burn your clothes, but it also spasmed and locked your muscles. I did a better job than others in recovering quickly from the shock. I raised the cane to strike Kasper again, and he yelled, “Yield!” That was the signal the prey would be compliant. I couldn’t blame him for the quick surrender, as I was not known for being merciful.

A second bolt of energy slammed into me, and my heart raced awkwardly from the strike. With two burn marks, these clothes were ruined. Moxie was standing with his blade drawn. He only had enough aether for two bolts, so I waited till I felt in complete control of my body before having a stiletto appear in my hand.

I could read Moxie’s eyes. He knew I was a better fighter than him, and he was deciding if he wanted to put up a fight, get injured, and then healed. He tossed his weapon on the floor and gave me a conciliatory “Yield.”

I took both yellow scarves as I wasn’t going to Gaius have a chance to collect his from Kasper. Kasper took his lesser healing potion, and the two decided where to get lunch. There would be some punishment tonight from Konstantin for failing in their role, but for now, they could at least enjoy the day.

I exited the back of the building after checking with Earth pulse. Konstantin never played fair, and every once in a while, one of the hunters was also prey, so you needed to be aware of both hunting and being hunted.

To their surprise, I paused by the two old women to hand off the charred cloak and purchase another cracker today. I felt I should be doing more, but Hearne warned me that giving them large sums of coin would only make them targets. I made my way back to the barracks, thinking I would get in some spear practice later.

On reaching the barracks, I froze. Centurion Cornelius was sitting at a table with another man, going through stacks of paper. The other man was much younger, with fine clothes, greasy dark brown hair, and a pot belly. He didn’t look fit and ready for action like Cornelius. I assumed this must be Centurion Sergius, the commander responsible for the Western Hounds.

“Which one is this?” The unfamiliar man asked with derision. I could already tell I was not going to like Centurion Sergius.