Chapter 146: The Stupid Map

Chapter 146: 146: The Stupid Map

A few moments later...

The owner returned with three rolled maps under his arm.

He placed them on the table one by one and weighed the corners down with empty cups. The first map was clean, with thick lines and clear marks. The second was older and carried more warnings near the hills. The third was almost ugly. It had stains, scratched marks, crossed-out paths, and notes written by different hands over many years.

Lucard looked at the third map first.

The owner noticed and sighed. "Of course."

Lucard tapped the stained map. "Explain this one."

"That is the stupid map," the owner said. "It shows routes that men should not take unless they have no family waiting for them. Old caves. Broken watchtowers. Beast nests that move every season. Ravines where sound travels strangely. Places where hunting groups vanish and other fools go searching for their bags."

"That sounds useful."

"It sounds deadly."

"Same direction sometimes."

The owner stared at him for a moment, then pointed at the eastern part of the map. "The outer forest is safe enough. Rank One and Rank Two hunters earn coin there. If you want blood stags, bone rabbits, gray tusk boars, and iron-claw wolves, stay near these marked paths. Do not leave the river road before the third stone bridge."

Lucard looked at the marks. "Rank Three beasts?"

The owner moved his finger deeper. "Here. Black Teeth Path. Boneback bears, red-eyed cave lizards, some ash wolves, and sometimes corpse-eating birds. The place changes after heavy rain. Paths break. Holes open. Men fall into old tunnels. If you want stronger beasts, you go there with a group."

"I do not have a group."

"That is why I am telling you not to go."

Lucard ignored that and pointed toward a faded drawing of a small fort near the broken hills. "This place."

The owner’s face changed. "Old Border Fort. Stay away from it."

"Why?"

"Because people who go there give me good business once and no business after that."

"That is not an answer."

"It is the answer people should need." The owner leaned closer and lowered his voice. "The fort was abandoned long ago. Hunters use the outer wall sometimes when weather turns bad, but no one sensible sleeps inside the inner yard. There are caves under it. Some say smugglers used them. Some say old soldiers buried cursed supplies there. Some say monsters nest below the stones. I do not care which story is true. Too many people disappear around that place."

Lucard listened quietly.

The owner continued, "Three days ago, a group found blood dragged toward the rocks near there. No bodies. No bones. No tools left behind. Just blood lines going into cracks. That means something is taking prey underground."

Lucard’s eyes became calmer. "Good."

The owner leaned back. "That is not good."

"It means the prey is not wasted."

"You are a strange young man."

"I have been told worse."

The owner gave him all three maps after taking the gold coins. Then he added two small pieces of advice without asking for payment. First, do not trust anyone offering to guide him for cheap. Cheap guides in Stoneford either ran first or sold travelers to bandits. Second, if he saw red cloth tied to branches outside the eastern road, he should turn away because Red Hook used those marks when they searched an area.

Lucard remembered that.

A mark used by the city lord’s people could become useful later.

He ate quickly, drank water, and asked three more questions about beast blood prices, medicine shops, and hunters who had returned with unusual wounds. The owner answered some and avoided others. That was fine. Avoided answers were also answers if a person knew how to read fear.

By the time Lucard left the tavern, the sun had moved lower.

The eastern gate was still busy, but the earlier chase had already become only a whisper. Two guards stood near the side opening where the girl had escaped. One of them was laughing with a Red Hook man. That told Lucard enough. The city lord’s hand reached the gate openly, but not so openly that people could speak against it.

Lucard passed through without stopping.

No guard asked where he was going.

Outside Stoneford, the road became rough within a short distance. Farm fields covered the first stretch, then gave way to scrubland, scattered trees, and broken stone. The Broken Maw Range waited farther ahead like a line of cracked teeth against the afternoon sky.

Lucard walked until the city sounds faded behind him.

Then he left the main road.

The clean map would have kept him on safe hunting paths. The risky map would have brought him to areas used by experienced groups. Lucard chose the stained map and followed a thin line that curved toward the Black Teeth Path before turning toward the old border fort.

He did not hurry.

A careless man rushed into danger and called it courage. Lucard preferred to let danger show its teeth first.

After half an hour, he found the first sign of the chase.

A torn piece of brown cloth hung on a thorn bush. There was a small smear of blood on one edge. The blood had already darkened, but it was fresh enough for him to read. It belonged to the girl. Young, weak, frightened, and carrying that same faint hidden difference he had sensed when she brushed past him.

Lucard touched the cloth with two fingers.

The blood told him little.

No poison.

No strong bloodline awakening.

No obvious curse.

But the hidden difference remained. It was buried too deep to understand from a smear.

He let the cloth fall.

The girl had gone this way.

So had the Red Hook men.

That was not important by itself. What mattered was that this was also the path to the old border fort. Either the girl had chosen a dangerous road by accident, or she knew the area better than she looked.

Lucard continued walking.

Near sunset, the first beast attacked.