In the end it took another week before they left Gairin, and when they arrived at the Wari domain they were close to fifty people with a wagon train of two dozen worming its way through roads and villages. They loaded goods from warehouses onto the wagons, spent a few more days on the road and repeated the procedure at the Terendala castle. From there they drove south for a couple of weeks, leaving the federation and entering a large kingdom, leaving it and entering another. They traded along the way until they finally arrived at a port.

  Ioha felt a scent and filled with primitive joy. A few hours later, he had sold all the goods recommended for him by Almina before they left the capital. Ships from a continent south of them carried coffee, a drink only enjoyed by the local sailors. Ioha bought every barrel he could lay his hands on, and when they returned north, he carried none of the items Almina had recommended for the north-westerly trek ahead of them. He didn’t need to. Isjase would turn his barrels into a fortune when the opportunity to drink coffee this side of the gate became reality.

  They didn’t really return north but rather picked a more western route that allowed the Wari siblings to better understand what sold where, and what was produced. They traded as the caravan kept going but Ioha didn’t participate any longer. He had to buy two extra wagons and two draft-horses and hire two drivers who were curious enough about the Isekai from modern legends to leave their homes for an uncertain future. Some of the other merchants got wind of what he had done and followed his example extending their northbound caravan by a dozen more wagons. Harvali grimaced when he saw their oversized caravan and sent a message north by carrier pigeons who had their destination imprinted by magic.

  Inn after inn, sometimes roadhouses, and always with barns nearby, they put days behind them as the wagons creaked and rolled north. Instead of two large kingdoms they passed through a scattering of poor principalities too small for anyone to muster the energy to conquer them. There were more forest than fields. Wagons broke, were repaired, and they lost a day, and then another. One afternoon, two or maybe three days before they planned to meet the additional Terendala knights to pad out their by now understrength escort, they reached a river splitting the dense forest in two, with only a small ferry to get them across, one wagon at a time.

  It wasn’t an especially wide river, and nor was the current violent, or the ferry wouldn’t have been there in the first place. It just locked them in one place for hours, and that’s when they ran out of luck.

  Almina and two of her friends made it across in the second carriage. The first, meant for Derina, his manservant and maid, had already made the crossing together with two of the Wari knights. Before them half a dozen wagons and two knights were ferried over. The last two knights were assigned as a rearguard, which left Harvali, Derina and Ioha by the river where they helped with making a wagon ready for the crossing.

  Ioha noticed a movement from the other side. His vision might border on the superhuman, but he couldn’t see through trees. One moment two of the knights marched forward to take up positions as the vanguard. The next one of them clutched his throat and fell to the ground.

  “Ambush!”

  A flicker from the corner of his eyes told Ioha Derina extended aura to his legs and jumped across the river. “Careful!”

  Almina threw open the door to her carriage, sword in hand and rushed to the fallen knight.

  “Harvali, after me!” Now was not the time for decorum. He threw a line of hard shields across the river with fireworks added for vision. They would hold for both him and Harvali, but driving the wagons across was too risky. Shit! While he ran across Ioha extended shields to make up for the armour that still lay in his wagon. Shield and partisan were there as well.

  “Archers!”

  Shit shit shit shit! He got across, extended aura to his feet and legs and sprinted to where two of their knights lay prone. A barrier, and they were safe from more arrows. Where the hell did they go? Both siblings and the two knights who were unharmed had gone in pursuit of whoever laid out the ambush.

  “Get a medic to the knights,” he shouted before he rushed to the second carriage. Damn! Both doors were open. It was empty. Almina hadn’t jumped out to attack, she had escaped from whoever tore the other door open and dragged her guests out. “Harvali, they took the girls.”

  Another volley of arrows arched over him, and Ioha threw up a few shields to stop them from reaching their target. He ran to the first carriage and motioned to the scared girls inside to stay low. After that, he encased the entire carriage in shields and barriers.

  “Get the wagons across!” Harvali’s voice boomed across what had now become a small battlefield.

  “The girls?”

  “I heard you. Get the wagons across!” Harvali looked at Ioha. “I need you to get everyone across the river fast.”

  Not the time to question orders. If Harvali wanted to speed up the crossing, even with people missing, then that was what he would get. Ioha cast a series of hard shields with fireworks for visibility across the river. It would do as a footbridge.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “People only in groups. It’ll hold for one person leading a horse as well.”

  The drivers started to walk across his temporary bridge, and Ioha directed them to the barriers he threw up for protection. There were more arrows coming in their direction, but a vertical layer of shields prevented them from hitting anyone.

  “Ioha, will it hold for everyone?”

  “It’ll hold. But not for wagons.”

  One of those rolled off the ferry, and it returned across the water.

  “I’ll make a protected tunnel.”

  He moved along the road creating barriers and shields as he walked. Another arrow bounced off the barrier he just placed, and with anger and irritation competing in him Ioha created his spinning shield above his head. Stop shooting you suckers! And another arrow. He released the shield. Without fireworks anyone wanting to avoid it only had the humming sound as a warning, and the archer hid behind a tree Ioha had already seen.

  The sound from a sawmill. A screech cut short by gurgling sounds. The tree fell. No more arrows came from that direction.

  Should I go and look? Ioha shook his head and added another barrier. Deep within himself he understood what he would find. They weren’t monsters. Even if they tried to kill him, they were still humans. But… they did try to kill him. He added aura to vision and hearing. Between creating his tunnel and advancing he found three more archers. Another three spinning shields later the underbrush further into the forest exploded with activity, and half a dozen men fled away from him.

  That took less than a quarter of an hour, barely enough time to get two wagons across.

  Behind him drivers drove the wagons into his tunnel to make room for those crossing. They wielded daggers and knives. Even the servants were armed now. Lying by the road near where the carriage had been ambushed one of the knights was receiving treatment. The other someone had moved away. It was the one who clutched his throat earlier.

  Ioha chewed on his own teeth, spat once and cast more barriers so they could move their wagons further along the road. He wasn’t too afraid of more attacks now. Even with enhanced vision he felt no presence around him apart from those who were supposed to be there. It was enough for him to release the cage he made around the carriage with Derina’s manservant and maid inside.

  When three more wagons had made it across Harvali called for him.

  “I’m sending the rearguard over now,” Harvali said. “The two of us have to get to the other side and protect the wagons waiting to cross.”

  “Why?”

  “The first ambush was bait. They wanted us to stop crossing. The real attack is coming soon.”

  Ioha stared at him. “And the two of us are going to stop it?”

  With a nod Harvali pointed at the forest. “They are hungry farmers given to banditry. You saw the villages. I guess thirty or forty of them to attack very soon.” His eyes spoke of sadness. “Ioha, I need your help. But I understand we’re killing people and not monsters. Can you do it?”

  “Event rank?” Ioha asked rather than answering the question.

  “D-rank. It will be like defending against a lot of E-ranks.”

  Ioha stared at his shoes. He wouldn’t need Harvali at all. “I don’t want you to watch. OK?”

  “I’ll help get the wagons across.”

  Ioha crossed the river the same way he’d done before. His stomach churned. As soon as he reached the last wagon he set up his grids, prepared his spinning shield, planted the battle standard and called upon divine protection.

  The attack came less than half an hour later, long enough for him to recast a few of his abilities. One roar of challenge and three penalising mass-taunts. Two attackers bled to death with rotting innards before they reached the wagons. Ioha could hear their bones shatter when they tried to attack one of the remaining drivers. The rest he funnelled into his killing zone with razor-storm and flaming inferno waiting. His world went red before the flames boiled the redness away. It was over in a few minutes. Half a dozen never even reached his close range defences. Valkyries speared them.

  Ioha released all his effects. Around him, the forest was still again, and he leaned against a tree and heaved until there was nothing left in his stomach.

  He reeled, spat and got to his feet. When he passed his wagon, he grabbed his brigandine and put it on. After that, the rest of his armour. Last, he grabbed his partisan. He led both riding horse and packhorse across the river to where Harvali stood waiting.

  “I’m sorry,” Harvali said when he arrived.

  “Don’t talk about it. There won’t be any more attacks. What now?”

  “Now? Now I get all wagons across, continue along the road and do what Terendala must do. You ride in pursuit.”

  “You don’t need me with you?”

  “Ioha, you are a good man. I want you to stay one. I am the firstborn and heir to the house. What I am going to do is for my house. We will visit the villages where those farmers came from. I don’t want you to take any part in it.”

  “So I try to catch up with the kidnappers?”

  “And find the Wari siblings while you are at it.”

  Ioha slapped a hand to Harvali’s shoulder. “I’m an outworlder. I can’t agree with what I believe you will do, but this is your world, and I’m not going to hold it against you. I consider you a friend.”

  Harvali clasped Ioha’s hand. “You are a friend of mine as well. Good hunting!”

  “Get my stuff to my town house, will you?”

  “You have my word. I will make sure your staff is properly paid as well.”

  Ioha sat up and rode away. What Harvali chose not to say worked as absolution of sorts.