Chapter 201: Old Quarry Roads

Tuesday morning, Arthur drew Whisperwind. The ache in his left wrist sharpened near the end of the draw, and he eased off without meaning to.

Selene stopped behind him.

"You’re protecting the wrist."

Arthur glanced at it. "Still works."

"Then shoot properly. Fewer arrows if you have to."

Arthur reset and drew again, slower this time. The wrist still hurt, but he reached his normal draw and released. The arrow hit the center of the far target.

His second landed an inch from it.

Selene nodded once and moved to the next student.

When morning classes ended, Arthur checked the time. There was enough daylight left for a look around the quarry roads. Not enough for anything stupid if they actually found Kaelen.

He pulled out his phone and sent a short message to the Obsidian Hand office.

Get the original Kaelen reports ready. Exact locations, dates, stolen cargo lists, and which direction the survivors saw them leave.

Warehouse 9 was busy. Two guild hands were hauling cracked crates away from the loading doors while Sylvia argued with a merchant over who was paying for them. Mira crossed the floor with a coil of rope over one shoulder and disappeared through the side doors with two other hunters.

Sophia had pulled a large table away from the wall and covered it in scattered parchment reports. Garrick stood next to her, tracing a line on a regional map.

Arthur walked over. "You dragged Garrick into this?"

"He’s a scout," Sophia said, not looking up from the report in front of her. "You’re looking for a camp."

Arthur looked at the map. He pointed to a red circle Sophia had drawn near the main quarry junction.

"What about here?" Arthur asked.

"Not there," Garrick said.

Arthur looked at him. "Why?"

"Too open. No water close enough, nowhere to hide the horses, and anyone on the quarry road would see a fire."

"Right."

The heavy warehouse doors rolled open. Emily came in wearing her reinforced field jacket and heavy gauntlets, one elbow held slightly closer to her bruised side.

Arthur looked at her.

"They’re bruised," Emily said.

"I know."

"Then stop staring." Emily walked up to the table and looked at the map. "We going?"

"Recon only," Arthur said. "We aren’t clearing a camp today."

Sophia glanced around the table. "Felix?"

"Not today," Arthur said.

"Chloe?"

"Infirmary until tonight."

Garrick rolled up the reports. "Three is already plenty if we’re trying not to be seen."

They took city transport as far east as the regular route ran, hired three horses near the last stop, and continued toward the quarry roads. The polished stone of the inner districts gradually gave way to packed dirt and heavy ruts.

"Why Kaelen?" Garrick asked, keeping his horse at a steady trot beside Arthur.

"If he’s really active again, Sylvia can get the bounty reopened," Arthur said.

Garrick looked at him. "That’s why you’re doing this?"

"Money’s nice."

Garrick stared at him for a second.

"What?" Arthur asked.

Emily caught Arthur’s eye and almost smiled.

Garrick led them first to the most recent robbery site.

A deep wagon rut cut through the dirt along the wooded incline. Discarded packing straw was scattered in the brush, alongside a snapped wooden wheel spoke and a patch of dried, dark blood baking in the sun.

New wagon wheels had chewed through most of the old tracks, and windblown dirt filled whatever remained.

Arthur dismounted, activated Eagle Eye, and focused on the damaged shoulder of the road.

The roadside snapped into detail. Crushed grass. Scuffed dirt. Several deep gouges climbed away from the road and disappeared into the brush.

"They dragged something up there," Arthur said.

Garrick crouched beside one of the marks and brushed loose dirt away with two fingers.

"Horses."

Arthur looked again.

A partial horseshoe print sat beside the gouge.

Garrick pointed farther uphill. "Loaded ones. They were slipping in the soft ground."

"Shit. Yeah."

Emily nudged a torn roll of cheap cloth with her boot. "They left this."

Arthur had seen the cargo list. "Left the cheap iron too. Took the medicine, reagents, and good weapons."

Garrick looked back toward the road. "Food?"

"A lot," Arthur said.

Emily frowned. "Too much for a handful of men."

The game version of Kaelen’s Company had never needed this much food. Either Kaelen had more people now, or he was stockpiling for something.

"There should be an old limestone cut about a mile north," Arthur said, checking the terrain. "Good elevation."

Garrick looked at the ridge. "Makes sense."

They left the horses tied off the main road and hiked up the ridgeline. Halfway up the steep slope, Emily stepped over a dead log and briefly pressed a palm to her side. Arthur saw the movement. She shot him a warning look before he could speak, dropping her hand.

The limestone cut was exactly where Arthur remembered it.

Stonecutters had reopened the quarry road years ago. Fresh wagon tracks crossed the clearing, and the old shelter Arthur remembered was gone. Only blackened foundation stones remained beneath the thorns.

Arthur crouched beside the stones and focused his vision on the ground. Beneath the weeds, he found old charcoal and several cut roots. The exposed wood had gone gray, and new growth had curled over the scars.

Nobody had used this place in a long time.

"Fuck," Arthur muttered.

Emily looked from the ruined shelter to Arthur. "You expected something here?"

Arthur stood. "Yeah."

"Apparently not."

They hiked back down the ridge.

Halfway to the road, Garrick stopped and held up a hand.

Arthur and Emily froze.

Garrick stepped off the narrow trail and walked toward a thick cluster of heavy brush.

"Here," Garrick said quietly.

Several branches had been bent backward and woven into the surrounding brush, hiding a narrow gap. On the ground just past it, a pile of horse manure sat drying in the dirt.

Garrick inspected a low branch hanging over the gap. The bark had been rubbed bare where ropes kept dragging across it.

Arthur focused Eagle Eye through the gap. Several exposed roots were polished smooth, and loose stones had been kicked away from the same narrow line down the slope.

The trail dropped into a ravine farther south than any of Sophia’s marks.

They followed the trail on foot, moving slowly through the dense cover.

A faint voice drifted through the trees.

Garrick instantly dropped to a crouch, signaling them to stop.

Arthur and Emily dropped low. They crawled the last thirty yards, using the heavy ferns and fallen timber for cover. Arthur planted his left palm to shift his weight, felt a sharp sting shoot up his wrist, and quickly shifted onto his forearm instead.

They reached a slight rise overlooking a sharp bend in the trail.

Two men sat in the shadows of a heavy rock outcropping. Both wore dusty travel clothes and could have passed for caravan guards. One held a loaded crossbow across his knees. The other had a short sword sheathed at his hip and a small brass whistle hung around his neck.

From the rocks, they could see anyone coming up the trail long before that person saw them.

Neither face meant anything to Arthur.

A third man appeared from deeper in the ravine several minutes later. He spoke quietly with the crossbowman. The crossbowman stood, stretched his legs, and disappeared down the trail while the newcomer took his place beneath the rocks.

Garrick watched the exchange without moving.

Emily shifted beside Arthur. "We can take both."

"They rotate the post," Garrick whispered. "We clear these two and the next relief finds nobody here."

Arthur looked at the whistle hanging from the sentry’s neck. Taking two men would be easy. An empty post when the next relief arrived would be harder to explain.

"Leave them," Arthur said.

Emily exhaled sharply. "I walked through three miles of brush for nobody to punch."

Arthur sketched the split oak, the rock shelf, and the hidden branch onto the back of Sophia’s map.

Garrick kept watching the ravine. "That’s one post. Could be three more. Could be ten. And I still haven’t seen where the ravine comes out."

Before pulling back, Arthur focused Eagle Eye past the sentries.

Through a narrow break in the trees, movement flickered farther down the ravine. Another armed man crossed the trail carrying a heavy crate on one shoulder. Behind him, Arthur caught the flank of a tethered horse before the trees swallowed both.

The trail went deeper than the lookout post.

Arthur lowered his vision.

They crawled backward down the rise and hiked back to the horses.

They rode back to the eastern stable, returned the horses, and caught the evening city transport toward Lornfell. The carriage rattled loudly over the uneven stone roads.

Garrick leaned back against the wooden bench and looked at Arthur. "Tomorrow again?"

Arthur looked down at the map where he had marked the hidden trail.

"No. We found the trail. Next time I want enough people that we don’t have to turn around if we find the camp."

Emily looked at him. "Felix?"

"Definitely Felix."