Shadows over Nothross | Page 7

alive once we get in", Aleln said.
"After all, that's where the creatures are staying, judging from all
signals." Realn said. "And, judging from the show of lights the wizard
has put forth every time we've sent someone there, he's never been idle
himself either when someone invades the fortress... he often has some
interesting spells to offer once he finds out what is afoot. I once
witnessed that far away. Oh, those fireballs were quite mean."
Facyr grinned. "I wouldn't worry about that. We're not exactly rookies
what comes to dodging fireballs, anyone can do that these days", he
said.
Faira's grin seemed as cunning as Facyr's. "Correct you are, Facyr. I'd
say this will definitely turn out interesting."
"I'd surmise you are accepting this task, then?" Aleln asked.
"Of course," Facyr said. "It's not like there's much else to do in
Anchorfall these days either. I'll rather go teaching evil wizards a good
lesson rather than patrol around in a city where absolutely nothing of
interest is happening. Besides, this is supposed to be Jenyr's company,
and as you heard, he was keen to help you even without hearing the
details personally. So yes, we're going." He turned to his friends.
"You'd better get packing!"
"Well, this is just as we hoped", Aleln said with a smile. "Uh, so Jenyr
won't be coming himself?"
"No, he's got hands full with his duties with the City Guard." Facyr
assumed an expression that could only be though of as bitter-sweet.
"He's rarely of use to us as mercenaries, I'm afraid, but I suppose his
greatest use is to unleash a horde of constables on unsuspecting crooks
just at the moment we have found them and think there's nothing we
can do to stop them from escaping. He has a lot of respect in the Guard,
but I can't just imagine him going personally fight a huge band of orcs."

He smiled.
"So, when are you ready to leave?"
"As soon as we're done packing, which is fairly soon, because knowing
how much interesting little trivial things we have at hands here," Facyr
said with a slight sigh, "we haven't yet got around unpacking the things
from our last journey."
Chapter 3
The journey had started right that same afternoon without incidents,
which was always reassuring. Aleln and Realn had prepared the
journey back home in detail, and all the friends needed to do was to
hoist their travel packs on the backs of their horses. They didn't need
much travel gear, and the only person to really slow down their pace
was the resident bookworm of the group, who didn't prefer to move too
far without quite a few books.
Gnedrnygr spent most of the pauses in the journey studying his books,
mostly ones concerning history of Colemia. He tried his best to keep
others from reading the tomes in question. He even decided to
specifically tell Faira to focus on her spell book rather than these
fascinating tomes, knowing his trunk's lock had been picked before
when he had specifically told her not to read something. And this time,
he didn't even have a trunk to keep the books in.
The travellers proceeded along the eastern highway toward Bergluchia,
then north toward Nothross as they passed the border and eventually
reached River Furin. The road to Furinel was kept in good condition
and was frequently watched over by Varmhjelmian and Furinelian
patrols. The road was easy to travel, though the whole journey still took
over three weeks - the distances in northern Furinel were astounding.
But the weather was on their side; only in a few occasions they were
bothered by light rain, but mostly, the skies kept clear and the warm
summer weather only cheered them to go on. During the travel, Aleln
and Realn led the way, and Facyr eyed around to keep the possible
trouble from surprising them.

They camped along the road, and talked about mundane matters around
the camp fire; Aleln and Realn were relaxed and friendly, and even
when there was no longer the need to hush like in the city, they insisted
the adventurers forgot the titles and call each other by first name, just
like, as they explained, they did with all of their closest underlings
anyway. This move was particularly welcomed by Facyr, who had,
during his entire life, shown an unnerving tendency to descend to such
friendly terms in any and all situations.
The night was falling once again upon the travellers. They set up their
camp in one of the gorges by the road that passed through the hilly
forests. Climbing on top of one of the hills, they could see, far in the
distance, the mountains rising above the woods. The evening sun
coloured the leaves of the woods