Novel Full 358 358 New Target
Once they finished breakfast, Wolfe led the Witches out of town again, but the patrol guards stopped them at the gate.
“If you happen to be hunting in the area, we don’t mind if you bring it back here. They used to give tokens to trusted travellers, but they were too easy to steal, and we will remember you.
“For now, we’re going to keep looking for a spot of our own, but if it doesn’t pan out, we will come back bearing gifts for certain.” Wolfe agreed with a smile.
“That’s good enough for me. We just didn’t want to let you leave without knowing you’re welcome back anytime. But seriously, if you want to hunt another one of those beasts before the end of summer, we’d all appreciate it. None of us likes looking for them on purpose, even if we have a Witch with us for armour.” The guard laughed before waving them through.
They walked for a few hours through the woods, headed west for the swamps before Christa turned to look at Wolfe with concern on her face.
“Are the bad guys supposed to be so relatable? It’s not right that they should be so friendly and welcoming when they’re supposed to be the invading enemy.” She asked.
“That’s the thing. Even when we’re on different sides, there are usually some decent people in both forces. The trick to getting through life is to determine which of those people can be worked with and whose views are so opposed to yours that it’s better to kill them than to attempt to compromise.”
“So if we find a village keeping captured soldiers as prisoners or slaves?” She asked, letting the question trail off.
“We will rescue the prisoners, and I will kill everyone else,” Wolfe confirmed.
That gave her a lot to think about, and Christa idly ran her finger over the Servant Bond marking on her neck until Grok distracted her.
“Look at it this way. By default, every Witch with a Servant Bond has a choice in how she repays her debts. The Demon who made it will certainly have some ideas, but he can deal with the situation in two ways. He can either force his way, or he can let the Witch pick her own path.
Wolfe let you pick your way, and you could have stayed at the Academy if you wanted. He could have demanded you do as he said, but he didn’t, and that’s the difference between the guys in that village working with them and the ones we’re out here to hunt.”
Christa sighed at the Goblin, who implied that they were all forced into the situation, and perhaps the small Paladin was correct, but it still didn’t sit well with her sense of morality to see invaders happily living on the Morgana Coven territory.
Her family had raised her all her life to believe that Coven Lands belonged to the Witches and the Witches alone. It was a favour from them even to let the humans continue living in the city, but to allow them to take over villages in the woods was too far for the morals she was raised with.
By her Family’s standards, she was still the softhearted one. Enough so that they had tried to kill her for it and had killed Grok once already, so she had a unique insight into the way that the former Coven Heir and her senior minions would be thinking.
“I think that we should turn south toward the coast. The villages around here are all working with Gormana, and the locals aren’t really on the side of the City Witches. They’re only along for the ride to gain self-determination.
If we find the real bad guys, I think we need to get away from the rural forests and look for Witches where Witches don’t belong. Inside fortresses, caves and military facilities.”
The others stopped to hear her out, and Christa stopped to gather her thoughts.
“My Family, the Abilene Coven Council Family, was adamant that Witch Lands were for Witches. So were most of the others. They would never agree to have an occupying force of humans living among them, which means it’s a local decision.
That village was integrated like the Fortress City, with witches and humans living and eating together. That was exactly what the Council Rebels killed their counterparts to end. So, we need to find places where the humans aren’t allowed to wander the land and where the Witches don’t live among them but separately near them.
I think that’s where we’re going to find the Grand Dutchies armies and, with them, the traitors who tore apart the Morgana Coven.”
Ella nodded. “That makes a lot of sense. Wolfe, do you have a map of likely spots for a port? I know the Headmistress marked a lot of things on the map. If they’re keeping witches prisoner and haven’t moved them yet, they will likely be near the coast, so they can move out what they are producing.”
Wolfe brought out the map and showed the Witches where they were now.
“The Fortress City is near the eastern coast, and there are a lot of patrols in that area, so we can assume that they’re not going to be there. South of us, there is mostly what is marked as a submerged former mountain range, which looks quite dangerous, but there is a large open area here and a sheltered bay with no village marked.
That might be a good spot to hide military ships. I’m sure the Coven knows that as well, but they’ve got their hands full at home, so they won’t be going out too far looking for trouble.
We can start our search in the grasslands near the coast there, and if we find signs of the missing Witches from Myrrh and Sylvan, we can decide what to do about it.”
Grok looked overjoyed at the news. He would finally get to smite evildoers, not just any evildoers, the same group who murdered him last winter. That was the perfect plan in his small goblin mind.