Chapter Nineteen

Asymmetric Warfare

As the companions traveled through the Yatil Mountains’ foothills for the second time in as many weeks, Luna was reminded of their exploration of the Glimmering Hall. The humans of Wearith pretended to be the Hall dwarves’ allies, only to betray them to an orcish invasion. As she looked at Airk and Ma’non’go, she remembered how they’d suffered the treachery of men they called friends, and the scars that treachery inflicted on them.

Luna felt discouraged and ill at ease thinking about it, and felt even worse thinking about Hurrarin. Shaking her head, she tried to take her mind off it.

“How exactly are we going to break into the Spine Breakers’ camp?” she said as the companions took a midday meal at the edge of a small pond. “If they’re traveling underground, we’ll have to find caves and tunnels that can reach them.”

“That’s the easy part,” Airk said, the corner of his mouth turning up in a half smile.

“Yes it is,” Luna said, “but what I mean is, how are we going to find the information we need?”

The companions thought about that for several minutes as they ate, before Revafour’s eyes gleamed. The Knights of the Hart started mobilizing after they learned of Hurarrin’s and Ugtharn’s plans, and they’d requested aid from Furyondy and Veluna.

“The Knights will need time to prepare their defenses,” he said, as he started packing up his things.

“Let’s see if we can help them with that.”

“Hackers still don’t know their place,” one of the hobgoblins said, causing several of his fellows to mutter in agreement.

Bagorkik turned to glare at his patrol, raising his spear threateningly. The tension was almost palpable among the Spine Breaker hobgoblins over the disrespect the Hackers and Heart Piercers continued to show them. Despite executing the other clans’ leaders and beating many of their members to make them fall in line, the Spine Breakers still faced dissent from their new supposed allies. Spine Breaker captains like Bagorkik repeatedly had to remind their troops the Hackers and Heart Piercers were to be treated as fellow soldiers.

Despite that, they heard their troops’ grumblings every time they turned their backs.

The patrol continued walking along the mountain path for several moments. They’d come to the surface to watch for any potential attack by the Highfolk, but they’d seen nothing of interest so far.

“What’s that smell?” one of the other hobgoblins said, sniffing the air. Bagorkik and several other hobgoblins smelled the air and noticed the smell of smoke. They saw a trail of smoke coming from over the next hill, rising in short clouds.

“Sounds like prey,” one of the hobgoblins said, leering wickedly.

“An attack, more like,” Bagorkik said. “Those are smoke signals! Form up, all of ya, and-“

Bagorkik never got to finish his order, as an arrow tore through his throat. The hobgoblins cried out in alarm as a second arrow flew in from another direction, piercing through the back of one hobgoblin’s head.

More arrows came from either side, as the hobgoblins moved back to back and raised their shields.

All of a sudden, the arrows suddenly stopped.

“Find ‘n kill whoever did that!” the largest of the hobgoblins ordered, as his fellows scrambled to obey him.

The hobgoblins reassembled after several minutes of searching.

“None of ya found anything?” the largest hobgoblin said, glaring at his kin.

“Whoever they was, they’s long gone,” one of the other hobgoblins said, his expression visibly nervous.

The largest hobgoblin raised his mace as if to strike the smaller hobgoblin down, but another of their fellows intervened.

“We didn’t find who did it, but we found what they were carryin’,” he said, holding up a set of arrows.

The largest hobgoblin took a close look at them, and screamed in rage as he recognized the clan markings on the arrows as being those of the Heart Piercers.

“What in the Nine Hells is going on?” one of the hobgoblins said.

“Some of those damn Heart Piercers don’t know when they’re beaten,” the largest hobgoblin said. “They were usin’ smoke signals to let each other know when to shoot!”

“The cowards ran away before we could catch ‘em,” another one of the hobgoblins said. “We oughta flay ‘em alive!”

“When I have a word with the Council,” the largest hobgoblin said, “we’ll do just that.”

The rest of the Spine Breakers returned his smile, determined to teach the Heart Piercers some respect.

How does it feel? Ma’non’go said, using the sign language he used to communicate with his friends before he regained his voice. It’s strange, isn’t it?

You’re telling me, Weimar said, signing back. Is it like this for Luna and Seline all the time?

So they’ve said, Ma’non’go said.

Along with Revafour and Airk, Weimar had located the hobgoblins’ main encampment. Now, he and Ma’non’go were sneaking through it to assess the hobgoblins’ strength. They also had another goal, one that made Luna use a special clerical spell to transfer some of her magic to them. Weimar and Ma’non’go felt the strange sensation of having some of Pelor’s divine spells seared into their memories, spells that would vanish once the two men cast them. The feeling wasn’t unpleasant, but it was unlike anything they’d ever experienced.

The first thing Weimar and Ma’non’go noticed was how easily they managed to sneak into and through the hobgoblins’ encampment. The air was thick with tension and hostility. Arguments continually erupted between groups of hobgoblins, bursting into full-on fistfights before other hobgoblins broke them up. The Hackers and Heart Piercers didn’t take their defeats gracefully, and it was all the Spine Breakers’ leaders could do to keep all their troops in line. The hobgoblins were more interested in their own vendettas than they were in keeping a vigilant watch.

That made it easy for Ma’non’go and Weimar to reach the hobgoblins’ main food store, as well as a large portion of their liquor supplies. Chanting quietly under their breath, they cast the spells Luna gave them on the hobgoblins’ supplies.

A disgusting scent started to fill the air as the hobgoblins’ meat began to rot, their wine turned to vinegar and their bread became moldy. Normally, the magic Luna imbued Weimar and Ma’non’go with purified rotten or spoiled food and drink, but it could be reversed to putrefy them instead.

Weimar and Ma’non’go could only ruin so much of the hobgoblins’ supplies, but finding their food rotten and their drink spoiled would do nothing good for their morale.

The Hacker hobgoblin patrol was not in a good mood as it emerged from the cave. A Spine Breaker patrol accused the Hacker patrol of attacking them, leading to a violent brawl between the two groups. It was just one of several brawls between the different hobgoblin clans, who accused each other of attacking their patrols. Many hobgoblins sported bruises from these fights, and they all seethed with resentment at the accusations they’d faced.

The stars turned the night sky above them into a breathtaking ocean of silver and black, but the hobgoblins hardly noticed it. They held their weapons tightly, ready to lash out at the slightest provocation.

A series of lights appeared in the distance, spinning in circles. The hobgoblins stared at them warily, as they flashed from one color to the next. First they were blue, then white, then green, and then red. The hobgoblins, their nerves already strained, strung their bows and started firing at the lights.

As if in response, a series of bloodcurdling screams and howls filled the air. Some of them were shrieks of agony, others were screams of hatred and rage. Some of the cries were sobs of despair, and others were whispered words repeated over and over. The hobgoblins looked around, shouting challenges to whoever was out there. Even with their infravision, which allowed them to see clearly in the darkness, they couldn’t see anyone.

The hobgoblins suddenly saw the lights streaking towards them. As the lights winked out, several of the hobgoblins themselves started to glow with greenish fire. The flames didn’t burn the hobgoblins, but they screamed in horror, wondering if the lights had possessed or cursed them somehow. The glowing fires and the endless screaming all around them caused many of the hobgoblins’ nerves to break. Several of them raised their weapons in a panic and lashed out at each other.

Their death cries mingled with the screams all around them.

The sounds of cracking whips and pained screams filled the air as the Spine Breaker officers ruthlessly enforced discipline on their men. The disruptions of the last two days had only worsened the resentments and loathing between the hobgoblin clans. It was all the Council of Crippled Helplessness could do to keep the three clans in line, and Ugtharn finally had enough. At his suggestion, the Council ordered a brutal disciplinary crackdown using brute force, the universal language all hobgoblins understood.

Amyalla felt her skin crawl at the brutality she saw and heard as she snuck through the hobgoblins’ camp. From what Airk and Weimar said, the tribes that made up hobgoblin clans were fiercely competitive. They often competed against each other to shake up the clan’s pecking order. That became even worse when one clan tried to absorb another one after besting it in war. The hatred between clan tribes was nothing compared to the hatred between clans themselves, as Amyalla was seeing firsthand.

Amyalla knew the companions’ efforts during the last couple of days had a lot to do with it. Weimar and Revafour tracked the hobgoblins back to the caves they used to reach the surface, found the best place for archery ambushes and used smoke signals and arrows falsely marked with the clans’ symbols to make it seem like dissident hobgoblins were targeting their fellow soldiers; Airk tracked down the location of the hobgoblins’ underground military camp; Luna imbued Weimar and Ma’non’go with magic they could use to spoil the hobgoblins’ supplies when they snuck into the camp; Luna and Seline both used various spells to terrify the hobgoblins.

Mutual accusations, fear and the loss of supplies all took their toll on the hobgoblins, prompting the Council’s crackdown. There was even less of a watch now as Amyalla sneaked through the camp, looking for the intelligence she and her friends were sent to find.

The Council’s meeting place was a large, round cavern off the main room with several smaller chambers branching off it. A large, crude wooden gate had been erected to keep the trespassers out, guarded by four hobgoblins bearing halberds.

That hardly bothered Amyalla as she approached the gate from the right. Picking up a large stone, she hurled it down past the gate’s left. As the guards turned to investigate, distracted by the loud crash, Amyalla climbed the broken, rocky cave wall and slipped over the top of the gate.

The meeting chamber was filled with large thronelike chairs surrounding a square wooden table inscribed with the Spine Breakers’ heraldry, but all Amyalla saw were the gruesome remains of the elf resting off to the side. Walking up for a closer look, she saw that the elf had sharp, hawklike features and light brown hair starting to turn grey. His hands were slender and tapered even for an elf, and from what Amyalla could tell his physique was also soft and unmuscled. She couldn’t be certain, though, given that the elf had been drawn and quartered.

Somehow managing to repress a scream, Amyalla wondered if this was Hurarrin, the elven traitor. She realized he probably fled back to the Spine Breakers after she’d exposed his attempts to undermine the Highfolk conference. The Spine Breakers’ ruling council were no doubt livid at his failure, and they showed their displeasure in the most graphic way possible.

Shaking her head, Amyalla turned away from the horrible scene and glanced again at the council members’ chambers. Fortunately, they were all lit with torches. All of the chambers were well-decorated, but only one of them had a large desk that Amyalla could see even from the meeting room.

As she walked into the chamber, Amyalla glanced at the rest of its contents. It seemed to have the finest luxuries, from the furs on the bed to the jeweled goblets and fine wines in the bar on one side of the room. Amyalla realized it probably belonged to the most powerful member of the Spine Breakers’ ruling council.

Nodding in determination, she turned back to the desk. To her surprise, it didn’t have any parchments on it, or anything else but writing materials. The desk’s two drawers were locked, and as Amyalla took a closer look she saw they were also wired with poison needle traps.

It took Amyalla several minutes to disarm the traps and open the locks. As she slid them open, she was shocked and angered to see that they were empty.

That’s impossible, Amyalla thought. Why would he trap the drawer, unless…

She wanted to slap herself upside the head when she realized the obvious answer. Instead, she lifted the false bottom in one of the drawers. It was as empty as the rest of the drawer, but Amyalla wasn’t discouraged. Instead, she checked the other drawer, lifting its false bottom to find a neatly arranged pile of parchments. Some of them were written in a script she could only assume was hobgoblin, but several of the others were written in the common tongue.

To her surprise, Amyalla saw that some of them had official-looking noble seals and calligraphy on them, signs that the writers were noble and well-educated. They didn’t seem to have the symbols of Iuz, the Horned Society or any of the Bandit Kingdoms that Amyalla knew of. Glancing through them as quickly as she dared, Amyalla saw Jolene’s name mentioned more than once, as well as the Spine Breakers and someone named “Philandis”, whoever that was.

Amyalla slipped the parchments into her pack, realizing how important they were, before she closed the drawers and rewired the traps. She contemplated searching for any potential battle maps, troop numbers or other materials, but she knew the longer she stayed the more risk she had of being caught. She was sure she had the information the companions had come to find.

As she climbed over the gate and slipped into the nearby shadows, heading for the tunnel that would take her back to the surface, Amyalla knew the companions would have to hurry.

The hobgoblins would be on the march soon.