It took the four of them five hours to climb the mountain trail up to a narrow ledge with the finger-like rock jutting up from it. It was easy enough to spot and Cari hoped that was a good sign. They hadn’t seen any evidence of Helen on their way up the trail so they hoped she was just lagging behind a bit.
The trek was challenging, especially with the few injuries she still had despite her regeneration earlier. “We’ll settle down here for a little bit and rest,” Cari said, easing herself down to sit on a small boulder by the trail. “We’ll wait for a little while and see who catches up with us.”
“Let’s hope it’s friends and not more of those marines,” Francesca said.
“Agreed. Why don’t you settle down over where the ledge opens up to the trail? You should be able to find a spot that will give you cover while you can still see down to the nearest bend in the path. That should give us some warning if any enemies come.”
“Good idea. I’m on it.”
“Where is Miss Helen?” Jaycee asked.
“She should be along in a little while,” Cari said, trying to hide the worry she felt for her friend.
“I hope so,” the little girl said. “She has my dollies in her backpack.”
Percy grinned at Cari. The little girl’s innocence was refreshing sometimes. Cari hoped their time on the trail didn’t change that as they took her back towards the capital.
Nearly an hour after they arrived on the ledge, Francesca waved Cari over. The lookout pointed down the trail. “I saw some movement down the trail where I can see some of the other twists in the pathway in between the trees. I’m not sure if they were friends or foes, though.”
“Keep your eyes open. Have you re-loaded your pistols?”
“First thing I did, ma’am.”
“Me, too.”
Cari settled down on one knee to watch the trail beside Francesca. It wasn’t long before someone came around the bend in the path below them.
Cari let out a sigh of relief. It was Helen.
She limped a little bit but didn’t appear to be too severely injured. Cari stood up and walked to the edge of the trail, waving to her first mate.
Helen spotted her and waved in return, increasing her speed a little bit as she climbed up to where they sat.
“Helen, it’s good to see you. I was beginning to worry a little bit when you weren’t here ahead of us.”
“I ran into one of the senior officers from the marine company as I broke away from the fighting. I caught him by surprise and I was able to cut him down before he called for help. I searched him and found this.” Helen held out a folded paper. There was an imperial seal on it.
Cari took the paper from Helen and unfolded it.
From The Crystal City and the Stewards of the Empire of Fantasma.
This announcement is to be posted in all corners of the Empire, as well as announced by town crier for three days following its arrival.
It is with regret that we must inform the people of the Empire of the untimely death of our Mistress and Empress, Kareena the First.
She succumbed to a sudden illness and died peacefully in her sleep. We mourn her passing. The Empress is dead. Long live the Emperor.
Cari folded the paper. This wasn’t good news. “Did you read this?”
Helen nodded. “Should we tell Jaycee?”
“We’re going to have to at some point. I’m not sure now is the time though.” Cari handed the paper off to Francesca when she looked at them both with an eyebrow raised in question. The woman unfolded the paper and read the announcement. Her face became grim.
“This kind of makes what we’re doing all that much more important, doesn’t it, Captain?”
“That’s putting it lightly, Francesca. We’ve got a lot to do if we’re going to get Jaycee to the capital before her Uncle Timron is crowned Emperor.”
“There’s no sign of any date for the coronation on the announcement,“ Helen observed. “That probably means he’s not yet reached the capital. We heard he was in hiding somewhere here in the western part of the empire. It’s likely that he will be finding out about this at the same time we do.”
“That’s assuming, this message was just brought in on the ship. There’s no telling how long that officer had it in his pocket. The announcement is dated over a month and a half ago.”
“With the number of Marines that attacked us today,” Helen said. “I’ve got to think that they are from a new contingent off a second ship. It’s many more than a normal ship’s contingent would be.”
“That makes sense,” Cari replied. “Knowing that almost makes me want to go back down there and question one of them to find out where they’re from.”
“You’re not going back down there, are you Captain?” Francesca asked.
Cari laughed. “I said ‘almost.’ I didn’t say I was going to. That would be crazy. Let’s get you seated over here, Helen, so we can see to your injured leg. Then we’ll settle down and wait a little bit longer to see if our troll friends catch up with us. Otherwise, we’re going to have to make our way up this mountain and down the other side on our own.”
Once they were settled back near The Finger, Cari bandaged Helen’s injured leg and they sat back together against the ledge, watching the evening sky and the trail below at the same time. The view from their vantage point was spectacular, almost peaceful. It was a stark counterpoint to the desperate fighting they’d seen earlier.
About a half hour later, Chrrrak and a group of trolls came lumbering up the pathway towards the ledge. None of them were injured as far as Cari could see. If they’d sustained damage in the fighting, they’d regenerated any injuries along the way. There were a few of their number missing, though, so they’d taken some losses.
Cari stood up and raised her hand overhead, waving it so that Chrrrak could see them.
Even from a distance, Cari could see the broad grin on his face as he waved back. He didn’t appear to be in any hurry, so Cari assumed they’d either defeated the remaining marines or caused them to retreat from the fight on the trail in the forest below. Either way, Cari was happy they weren’t going to be caught in a running battle up the side of this mountain.
When the troll chief arrived at the ledge, Cari smiled up at the giant creature. “It is good to see you, Chrrrak. I see you are missing some of your number. Were they lost in the fighting below? I’m sorry if you lost more of your tribesmen.”
“The fighting was hard. New men in red brought fire. We were unable to save our friends from those wounds.”
Cari paused and offered her friend a grim smile of condolence before continuing. She pointed up the mountain. “So, where do we go from here?”
Chrrrak pointed up the trail farther into the mountains. “It long journey up and over mountains.”
“We have to go by the fastest route possible. We just discovered our time is running out.”
Chrrrak’s brow furrowed for a moment as he pondered Cari’s words. He seemed to be struggling with what he wanted to say. Finally, after nearly a minute, he shook his head and spoke. “There is shorter path through mountains, it dangerous, though, maybe too dangerous.”
Cari shrugged. “It can’t be more dangerous than staying here and waiting for those marines to catch up with us. They will come back. I think they now know for sure we have the girl with us.”
“Then I take you as far as entrance to man tunnels.”
“Man tunnels? That sounds ominous. What are they?”
“They are ancient passage. They travel through highest part of mountain. Much of it too narrow or too short for trolls. In days past, legend say men and others traveled tunnels often.”
“You said it’s dangerous. What did you mean?”
“No one travel passage for many years. It home now to many creatures. Most not friends to intruders. Plus, it haunted.”
“Great. Tunnels, monsters, and ghosts, oh my.” Cari shrugged. The decision was made for her because of the urgency of the situation. She said as much as she continued. “We don’t really have a choice. We’ll deal with any challenges as they present themselves. Let’s get going. It’s probably a good idea that we put as much distance between ourselves and those imperial troops as we can.”
Quest accepted — Find the tunnels under the mountain
Chrrrak nodded and pointed up the slope to a pair of his companions. The two trolls nodded at their chief and headed upslope at a loping run, soon disappearing around a bend in the path. “Those two will scout ahead for place to camp. I leave others here to watch behind.”
“That is a good idea,” Cari said. “I’ll get my people on their feet. We can get on the trail immediately.”
“I’ll fetch them, ma’am,” Francesca said. “Percy and the girl both fell asleep back there on the ledge. It’ll take them a few minutes to be ready to move.”
“You do that, Francesca. I’ll get Helen on her feet. She can start up the trail with Chrrrak and I’ll wait for you and the two kids.”
Cari watched as Helen joined the trolls trekking up the mountain behind their chieftain. He was surprisingly compassionate with regards to Helen given his fierce exterior appearance. He remembered his companion was wounded and stopped to let her catch up with him before he continued up the trail after his tribesmen.
The three remaining trolls were left on the ledge back at The Finger, staring down the trail and watching for signs of pursuit.
Cari nodded to them and the turned up the trail as Francesca came up with the two children. “Let’s get going. We’ve got a long way to go and I’d like to be safely away before we make camp for the night.”
Francesca took the two children by the hand and the four of them continued up the mountain trail, following after the troll chieftain.