Chương 428: 423. Revenge - V

Feroy grinned "You won't believe me until I show you. Come on." He led them out through the northern gate and along the outside of the compound wall. Tesyb glanced into the darkness between the trees and felt a brief twist of caution, then remembered they'd been staying under those very trees for days. The wall had made the compound feel safer than it really was. He let out a short laugh at himself, then stopped when he saw what Feroy was pointing them toward.

A few guards stood some distance away with thick cloth tied over their noses and mouths. They were using shovels to dig in the light of a torch burning nearby. As Tesyb got closer, the smell hit him hard. He turned his head and pulled his sleeve up over his nose, but it didn't help much. It was a ditch. For a communal latrine. Tesyb stared, then looked at Feroy, then looked back at the guards digging, and for a moment he couldn't make any sense of it. Had the guards gone insane?

Why were they literally digging through shit? Feroy spoke with his own cloth half covering his face.

"That's where the coin is buried." Hudan stared at him for a few seconds, holding a cloth over his own mouth and nose. He watched the guards work, eyes narrowed, then shook his head and motioned for them to move back. They walked far enough away that breathing became easier. Hudan dropped the cloth and looked at Feroy like he had gone mad.

"What the hell?" Feroy snorted.

"Yeah," he said.

"That's what I thought." He looked back toward the digging.

"Even if it's not a huge treasure, there's gold under it. I'm sure of that much. But it's going to be a long night. It wasn't easy getting volunteers for it." Tesyb's eyebrows rose.

"Volunteers?" Feroy shrugged.

"We've got another ditch to dig after this." Hudan stared.

"Another one? You mean with more gold?" Feroy's shoulders lifted slightly.

"We can only hope so." Hudan looked back toward the digging, then at Feroy.

"But how did you even figure this out?" Hudan asked.

"If the bandits knew about it, they would've taken the coin and run away long ago. Did one of the three men we captured alive tell you about it?" Feroy kept his cloth over his face and spoke through it.

"None of 'em knew any hiding place for coins," he said.

"They'd been inside Torhan's cabin plenty of times when he was away and they've done their digging. They found nothing." Feroy shifted his weight, eyes narrowing as he recalled it.

"So I asked about any changes made in the compound or nearby. The one who was delirious kept praising Torhan. He said Torhan was a good boss. That both times when the ditch for taking a dump was even half filled, Torhan made them dig a new one." Hudan blinked once.

"That doesn't make sense..." Feroy nodded.

"He even said Torhan used his own personal guards to start the digging. Like he didn't want his men doing that hard work." His eyes moved back toward the ditch.

"That gave me the idea. Torhan likely had his own men dig the pit in secret, buried his stash in the ground, then expanded the ditch into a latrine. Nobody would ever think to look for gold under that." Tesyb shook his head slowly at the incredulity of it. He couldn't decide if it was clever or sick. Probably both. And just how paranoid was this Torhan...? He had slipped away easily during both his raids on Tiranat. He hadn't been here today either.

Tesyb remembered how the guards talked about it afterward—how the man always seemed to be somewhere else when danger came. Maybe it was this paranoia keeping him alive. Or maybe he just had extraordinary luck that didn't run out. Hudan stared at Feroy for a moment, then let out a short breath that turned into a laugh.

"You really are something else!" he exclaimed.

"I would never have thought of looking for gold right under a steaming pile of shit." He started laughing louder, and Tesyb couldn't help joining. Feroy chuckled too, his shoulders lifting a few times.

"So our men have to dig through another ditch of shit?" Hudan asked, still amused. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Feroy nodded.

"Yeah. At least one more. There's an older one too, but it's been there for years and covered up long ago. I doubt Torhan left anything buried for that long. But knowing how his mind works, we'll check anyway, just in case." Tesyb looked toward the guards digging and shivered once. The smell still reached them even from here. He was just glad he wasn't holding a shovel. The captain watched the diggers for a moment, then his tone changed.

"Those men deserve extra pay," he said.

"Double pay, at least. Or maybe a share of whatever we find." Feroy nodded at once.

"I was already thinking the same. We'll take a share of the coin gained here and divide it equally among the men who did the digging. Lord Kivamus won't mind. We wouldn't get any of the gold without them."

"I'll make it happen," Hudan agreed. Feroy's eyes tightened slightly.

"But damn... Torhan's smarter than I thought." Hudan snorted.

"I'm sure you'd still beat him nine times out of ten in a game of soyent, even with bad cards." He glanced back toward the compound.

"But yeah, I agree with you. Let's just hope the haul's good enough to make it worth it." He looked toward the tree line.

"I'll send some more guards to keep an eye on the surroundings." Tesyb nodded.

"I'll go and check the wagons," he said.

"Make sure they're ready to leave by morning. And I'll get the men to start loading up whatever loot we have." He glanced back into the compound yard, where the slaves were gathered in a tight cluster.

"We've got nearly 60 slaves though. We can't fit all of them on the wagons." Feroy's reply was immediate.

"That's fine. Most of them are fit and motivated enough to walk for weeks to gain their freedom. We'll reach Tiranat long before that." Tesyb hesitated, then asked the next thought that had been sitting in his head.

"Should we take some clay too? We don't have a way to carry much, but maybe we tell the slaves to walk and fill the wagons with clay..." Feroy shook his head.

"No. It'll slow us down. It's not worth it. There's no big need for clay in the village right now, and the small pits in the eastern hills still give enough for regular use. We just need everyone back in Tiranat as soon as possible. The village barely has any defense to speak of while we all are out here." Hudan grinned confidently.

"Don't worry, we'll make it through. So will Tiranat. We outnumbered these bandits badly, and with our crossbows, we barely got injured. We will return well on time—assuming the slaves keep up." His grin faded.

"Although food could become a problem until we reach back. We didn't bring enough to feed this many people for days. We'll probably have to hunt on the way." Feroy shrugged.

"With this many crossbows, we can take small game easily enough. We'll set traps whenever we stop for the night. That'll help us stretch what we have until we reach back home." Tesyb looked between them.

"What about the second compound though? We got out without losses. Shouldn't we try to hit it too?" Feroy shook his head.

"I talked with the slaves. One of them went to the northern compound in the past. He said it's more than a day from here, and the trail is hard to follow without someone who knows it. The forest gets much denser in the north. We could get lost and waste days we can't afford." He continued, "And we don't know their strengths and defenses. That slave went there a year ago. Even then, it was far better protected than this one. A small watch platform at each gate. We don't have the gear to take them on." Hudan nodded.

"You're right. Joric told us this place had flimsy defenses. That's why we came here first. This compound didn't even have real archers for goddess' sake!" He spat to the side.

"But the other compound is probably where they process veydril. That's far more profitable than clay. Torhan could be using seasoned mercenaries to defend it." He glanced toward the darkness around them.

"We don't have the supplies to scout for a week and then attack without knowing everything or having insider knowledge." Tesyb tried again, thinking out loud.

"Then can't we split our forces? Half escort the slaves back. The other half goes north." Hudan's answer was quick.

"That divides us and makes us weaker. We can't know if even our full force of 34 men is going to be enough for that compound without us taking big losses. That's if it's just regular bandits up there. If it's a couple dozen trained mercenaries protecting the place, we'd need a much bigger numbers' advantage. We just don't have it." Feroy nodded.

"Mercenaries won't go down as easily as the ones we killed today. Our orders were to destroy and liberate this compound and only consider the second one if there was an excellent chance of winning. There isn't. And we can't leave our home undefended for that long." He looked toward the compound.

"So we'll consolidate our gains and leave at first light. We can't use the southern trail either. Taking wagons through the forest will be slower, but we've done it before when bringing slaves from the limestone quarry of Nokozal." Feroy's voice stayed even.

"So let's make sure we take out all the loot we can find, and get ready to leave at dawn. Come on! We have a lot to do and no time to waste." Tesyb and the captain nodded, and they started walking back toward the compound's gate. As they reached inside, he saw the faint light of the cooking fire and its smoke drifting thinly between the cabins. Guards moved in and out of shadows, taking positions, checking ropes, checking wheels on wagons.

The slaves were still huddling together, talking amongst themselves in a low voice. As the captain and the ex-mercenary walked away to their own tasks, Tesyb looked around and felt a great deal of satisfaction, even with the decision to leave the second compound alone. They had killed the bandits here without losses on their side—thanks to the crossbows and the goddess' blessings. They had freed the slaves, or at least given them a real offer to come with them.

And if Feroy's hunch was right about the coin, they'd be leaving with more than wagons and weapons. Even if this wasn't the final blow against Torhan, it would still deal a mighty setback to that bastard. The sheer cost of buying that many new slaves to continue his clay mining operation would probably be enough to make him reconsider the whole business altogether. Well, perhaps not that much, but if he had any sense, it would surely make him balk at even the thought of harming Tiranat in the future.

Tesyb found himself thinking of Savomi as he walked to the wagons to talk with the men working on them. He pictured her happy and excited face when he told her what had happened here, and he started smiling before he noticed it. Today was a good day for Tiranat! Even if the village didn't know about it yet...