The Diary of Mikola Ludmilova

Part 2

In which our heroines struggle down a mountain, dealing with an ambush on the way; as they set out across the flat lands, the competition with their peers grows more intense.

Windsnight, Harmonyweek, Earthseason

The outer side of Trudnozod Proyti looks very steep going down, especially in the first stage. It has dried out overday but it still looks chary to me. It zigzags down the slope in a series of traverses.

The best way to tackle the first traverse is to offload as much of the pack beetles’ loads as possible onto trollkin, then Zod, Najinski and I will each ride the pack beetles. We accomplish this with no disasters then Lessi and Shep together herd the fourth beetle while I shoe the ham beetles down the slope, all for no losses. Then we load everything back on the beetles. So far so good but we’re still a long way from down.

The second traverse is relatively easy – the biggest problem is avoiding overconfidence. Then we face the third traverse. In broad terms it’s slightly trickier than the second stage because the mountainside is steeper and covered with loose scree, some of which litters the road. The scree includes some sizeable boulders and the rains will have loosened the substrate.

But here the others show some concern, not for the road, but that it looks perfect for an ambush – especially if the ambushers can bring that scree down on us. Honestly, I have my doubts – anyone who starts an avalanche in these conditions is asking to become part of that avalanche, but Tatiana, Najinski and Zod pick their way above the scree to try and spot any would-be ambushers.

It takes a good fifteen minutes for them to get into position. We can see them peering from behind a boulder, pointing and talking to each other. Then Tatiana points at us, at which Najinski writes something on a scrap of parchment, wraps it round a stone and flings it in our direction using his sling. Splitz picks it up but he can’t read the words, neither can Irina. I volunteer to have a try and I find it’s been damaged by its landing and, of course, it’s written by a Great Troll, but I manage to make out, “3 cave trolls, 12 trollkin – ambush”!

So, we’re looking at a trap but what can we do? Irina says she’s not confident at planning violence. Me, I’d love to lead a charge of beetle cavalry, but our beetles aren’t trained to combat. What bothers me are the numbers – Cave Trolls are berserkers, they don’t have staying power but they can do a lot of damage before they go down and I do not like the idea of taking on fifteen berserkers, even if most of them are trollkin.

We need more people – people used to violence and happy to fight Chaos berserkers – so I suggest calling in the Typhonians. Of course, the tricky bit is making contact – none of us fancy climbing back up the mountain.

But Splitz calls on his familiar, which is a sort of magical stone bird that he can animate and direct. He sends it up the mountain where it attracts the attention of two storm crows. They follow it as it turns back to us. One of the crows turns back but the other follows it over the ambush site and alights when it sees us. It toks and caws a few times before flying back up the mountain.

A few minutes later three very large ravens (ravens, not storm crows – they’re easy to confuse but close up ravens are black where storm crows are grey) swoop down the pass. When they land they change into humans, two Typhonians and a were-raven barbarian. They saw the problem as they flew down – they send their familiars over to Tatiana to sort tactics. They choose not to give names – don’t know why.

Basically, Irina and I must stay with the kine to keep them safe while Splitz and the Typhonians join Tatiana, Najinski and Zod in attacking the ambushers. Someone mentions runemagic… The were-raven will stay with us. They’re pretty confident of surprise because the ambushers are watching the road and haven’t once looked up the mountain. Apparently we’re allowed to use our slings.

As the Typhonians make their way over a wind picks up, blowing down the mountainside. It builds steadily to the point where I think it will impair slingshots but, of course, it will help Tatiana and the others because they’re upwind.

There’s a brief pause, then a lightning bolt lances down from the clouds to hit something just off the road. Immediately we see the ambushers break their cover. I climb on a pack beetle for a little extra altitude and ready my sling. I can see the injured Cave Troll as Najinski leads the charge down the hill. I cast Speedart but my slingshot just rattles off the Cave Troll’s armour. My second shot misses narrowly but I see him go down to a Typhonian javelin.

I can hear the battlecries of our sisters and brothers. The craven Chaos trollkin break and flee across the road, leaving their Cave Trolls to fight alone. I pick off one trollkin but as I draw a bead on another the beetle shifts, I lose my footing and fall to the ground. I’m unhurt but by the time I pick myself up the trollkin are out of range and the big fight is already over.

Suddenly there’s a loud bang and dust is thrown in the air – are we being attacked by Dwarves? No, it seems one Cave Troll had an explosive Chaos feature. They chase the trollkin, catching three, including the one I hit. Irina has to treat Najinski for a wound but apparently she’s used to that. Later I learn that the last Cave Troll shattered Najinski’s maul and hit him with a spiked and slimed heavy mace, but the Typhonians had cast Counter Chaos on him, which saved him from the slime.

After we’ve regrouped and the Typhonians gone back up the mountain, it’s back to marching. It’s hard work moving the beetles – I think the kine are distracted by all the gore (the exploding Cave Troll has left a patch of gore fifty yards across, twice that downwind) and aggression pheromones, but they move.

The fourth traverse passes by a bit of marsh, we have to pick our way very carefully and Splitz slips and hurts himself, but not seriously. By midnight we’re down. Normally we’d stop for a bite and a rest but we can’t afford the time and press on through the night.

We’re now in the wild lands. We pass some farms and see dry-stone walls with Wind and Disorder runes. We can smell sheep but I remember Mother saying we must not live off the land.

We find a place to camp before dawn. Tatiana cooks a trollkin captive. I don’t like trollkin, their meat’s all stringy and they taste like mud, but Tatiana makes even Chaos trollkin taste appetising.

We set watches: first are Tatiana and McGonagall; then Splitz and Najinski, then Irina and Zod and finally me and Gogol. Of course we have trollkin on watch too but you can’t rely on them.

Firenight, Harmonyweek, Earthseason

It’s nearly dusk when Gogol turns to me and asks if I can hear singing – I say no, which is the truth. But he wakes Tatiana and she agrees that she can hear it too. Actually, I can hear something now – someone is singing in Stormspeech, and someone else is playing the flute. And since it is getting louder, they must be getting closer.

Well dusk is falling so we wake everyone up. As everyone pulls on their armour, two people approach the camp, dressed in gaudy clothes and pulling a handcart. We challenge them but there’s some confusion due to language. But then I hear one say ‘singer’ in Lunatic and communication is achieved. Mother’s wisdom in having me learn the tongue of the Selenites is revealed.

They’re wandering minstrels, of course. I offer them some of our breakfast of cold trollkin but they say no. I offer them our campsite since we’re about to leave and for this they’re grateful. In return they give us local news, which is that we can expect little trouble for a couple of days. This is good to know but I suspect they’re Selenites so we mustn’t be complacent. Selenites lie even worse than Trolls.

An hour after breaking camp we pass the junction with the road from the other pass. Judging from the tracks another caravan – just the one – is ahead of us, by a few hours or so. Nothing to do but grit our mandibles and press on.

Some hours later, after midnight, I catch a whiff of what smells like mushroom stew, and not just any mushroom, Najinski thinks it’s puff-mushroom – puff-mushrooms are really toxic but a superb cook can counter the poison to create a nourishing broth that’s fantastically nutritious with an amazing taste. It’s very odd because they don’t grow around here – so I’m told.

We start looking around but it’s Irina who spots them first – puff mushrooms, preserved for cooking (or for making poison if you’re that way inclined) just strewn about. I try to keep the kine from eating them but some beetles have already grubbed them up and we catch a couple of trollkin eating them. Thankfully, none of the six gift trollkin have downed any.

Irina realises these must have been dropped by our competitors ahead of us and says, “This is war!” She starts treating the trollkin with an emetic. I beg the use of some of the emetic to dose the beetles. We gather the uneaten mushrooms to reuse ourselves and Irina says she’s going to look for wild soporific mushrooms, which I suppose must grow round here.

That was a nasty surprise – the competition has suddenly got a lot more serious and behind us we see another caravan coming up behind. We must keep moving!

We reach the edge of the farmlands. About an hour before dawn we smell smoke on the air, carrying the smell of burning people. We can’t tell where it’s coming from but later, as the Great Fart rises, we spy a burning tower behind us to the right. It’s about five stories high, on a low hill. The fire’s all but out now but it’s still smoking.

We carry on for another half-hour and set camp. I set about corralling the kine and feeding them (they seem none the worse for the puff-mushrooms) but Najinski and Tatiana have some sort of argument and he wanders off to go look at the tower. Great Trolls – huh!

It’s Zod’s turn to cook and seems to be trying to outdo Tatiana in rendering trollkin palatable. While we’re eating more Trolls arrive – it seems the expedition behind us have marched in sunlight to catch us up. The principals are three male Stygian Dark Trolls led by a female Argan-Argari. They are very polite and ask to join our camp. They are Budylinas and evidently regard us as friends for some service Tatiana and the others did for them recently. They produce kykeon and narcotic mushrooms from their supplies to add to ours. The Budylinas say another clan is behind them.

Tatiana wants to know where the other camp is so asks Splitz to send up his familiar but it doesn’t find them.

One of the Dark Trolls, calling himself Divan, comes over – he’s his lady’s herder in chief but I’m not sure he’s a Dorob-Drobor. But he’s got kykeon and just wants some company so we sit down and talk beetles. He says his lady has strong links with the Gribnoi-Urozhoi temple so they’re carrying some silks but a lot of hallucinogens, narcotics and kykeon. (He doesn’t say as much but I suspect they’re carrying Soma as well.)

Their lady reads out four generations of her lineage and looks at Tatiana, Irina and me but none of us can do more than three – I can only go back a couple of centuries. Irina doesn’t think their kine and trollkin are as well cared for as ours.

Najinski comes back with three mounted men and Tatiana and Zod go out to meet them. We later learn that somehow Najinski made them believe it wasn’t him who burned the tower and killed lots of humans. He even managed to save two humans. Their leader is Sir Seldon, a local Azraelite noble. He seems to believe us that it was the lead party that burned his tower. He says he’ll be sending men to ride with us as escorts through the lands of whoever rules here and will give a good report to his lord. I’m certain Tatiana hopes the lord will attack our rivals ahead of us.

All this sunlight is giving me a headache – I want to sleep.