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Book Four — Chapter One
Azeroth
Luvztospoon folded the paper along the same crease, carefully enough that the worn edge would hold.
Beyond the trees, the road carried the first wagons of morning toward a country still learning what peace was supposed to look like. One axle complained at every turn. A raven followed the convoy from branch to branch, waiting for something to fall. Luvz listened until the wheels faded. He had spent too many years following orders to mistake the quiet for safety.
The fire had settled into a bed of red coals. Beyond it, Vegetaone slept with one hand outside his blanket, close to the greatswords laid beside him. Supervillain had pulled his cloak over his face. Envy occupied more of it than he did.
War sat against the tree where she had spent the night.
Her eyes were closed.
Luvz no longer trusted that as evidence.
He tucked the note inside his armor and reached for his pack.
Envy lifted her head.
Of course she did.
“Quiet,” he murmured.
She stood.
Crossed the camp.
Put one heavy paw on his pack.
Luvz looked at her.
“That is not quiet.”
Her tail moved once.
Behind him, Vegeta said, “She disagrees.”
The orc had not opened his eyes.
Luvz let go of the strap.
“I was going to wake you.”
“Good.”
Vegeta sat up, rubbing one hand across his face.
“Because she was going to wake everyone.”
Super’s voice emerged from beneath the cloak.
“She already has.”
War opened her eyes.
Nobody looked surprised.
Vegeta made the fire larger than breakfast required.
Luvz watched him add another piece of wood.
“Are we cooking something enormous?”
“No.”
“Then the tree offended you.”
Vegeta pushed the wood deeper into the coals.
Super shook out his cloak. Envy returned to Luvz’s pack and sat beside it.
War stretched one leg, then the other. She gave the road a brief glance before turning toward the fire.
Luvz took out the folded paper.
“I am going to find Deren.”
Vegeta stopped moving the wood.
Super looked up.
The note seemed smaller in daylight.
A guard’s name. An inn. Directions from a crossroads. A few words about a woman who might be Seven.
“Today?” Super asked.
“Yes.”
Vegeta sat back on his heels.
“How far?”
“The road into Hillsbrad. Far enough that the guard could move on before I reach him.”
“He could have moved already,” Super said.
“I know.”
“What if he has?”
“Someone hired him. Someone paid him. I start there.”
Super held out a hand.
Luvz gave him the paper.
He read the directions, tracing one line with his thumb.
“Ask the innkeeper when he left. Not just where. If you follow an old route because someone remembers a familiar destination, you can lose days.”
Luvz nodded.
“And ask about the driver separately. Deren may remember the woman badly. The driver may remember her well.”
“I will.”
Vegeta stared into the fire.
“We can go.”
Luvz had expected it.
It still made answering harder.
Their next job waited in town.
Two wagons carrying flour and seed to an outlying Horde settlement. A damaged bridge had forced the drivers onto a longer road, and the last caravan on that road had arrived missing a wagon and three people.
Super had spoken to one of the survivors the afternoon before.
Vegeta had promised to inspect the wagons this morning.
The quartermaster had paid them part of their fee already.
“We said we would be there,” Luvz said.
Vegeta looked at him.
“We can find someone else.”
“Someone the drivers do not know.”
“Then we go afterward.”
“And Deren may be gone.”
Vegeta’s jaw tightened.
Luvz leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees.
“I want to find out whether this is a trail before I ask everyone to follow it.”
“You would not have to ask.”
“I know.”
That quieted Vegeta more effectively than an argument would have.
Luvz looked around the fire.
“I am not leaving because I think you cannot help.”
Super gave the paper back.
“We know.”
War watched Luvz put it away.
“And when the trail becomes something you can follow?” she asked.
He met her gaze.
“I will send word when I can.”
“That was not the question.”
“No.”
The flames caught the new wood with a low crack.
Luvz looked down at his hands.
“If he tells me where she went, I do not think I could turn away from it.”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Envy pressed her shoulder against his knee.
Vegeta reached for a cooking pan.
“Then eat first.”
Luvz looked at him.
“That is your answer?”
“For now.”
Breakfast became an argument over supplies.
Luvz wanted less.
Super disagreed.
Vegeta added things whenever Luvz looked away.
War removed a bent iron bracket from the growing pile.
“What is this for?”
“Repairs,” Vegeta said.
“To what?”
“Things.”
Luvz looked at the bracket.
“You expect me to break a wagon.”
“I expect you to find one.”
Super took it from War and set it beside Vegeta’s pack.
“He can ask for a bracket.”
“He could have this bracket.”
“He could also carry your entire bag.”
Vegeta considered that.
“No,” Luvz said.
War hid a smile behind her cup.
They settled on bandages, a whetstone, spare leather for straps, food that would keep, and enough water for the first stretch of road.
Super split their coin carefully.
Luvz pushed part of his share back.
“The settlement job needs—”
“Already accounted for.”
“Super.”
“You may need to hire a ride. Or pay someone who thinks his memory becomes clearer when he sees silver.”
Vegeta frowned.
“I dislike those people.”
“You dislike paying anyone,” Super said.
“That too.”
Luvz put the coins away.
War rose and walked to the edge of the camp.
She stood there while the others packed.
Vegeta caught him alone beside the tree.
Luvz was checking the fastening on his runeblade.
The orc held out a strip of leather.
“One more.”
“You already packed three.”
“This is better.”
Luvz took it.
It was better.
He suspected Vegeta had cut it from something he needed himself.
For a while, the two of them stood beneath the branches while Super argued with Envy about ownership of the bedroll.
Then Vegeta said, “She asked if you laughed.”
Luvz’s fingers stopped on the buckle.
“Yes.”
“That is a strange thing to ask about someone you do not know.”
“It is.”
“Do you think—”
Vegeta stopped.
Luvz waited.
The orc shook his head.
“I was going to ask something you cannot answer.”
“Those are most of the questions lately.”
Vegeta rubbed a thumb over a nick in his own gauntlet.
“I hope it is her.”
Luvz looked at him.
The answer caught behind his teeth.
So he nodded.
Vegeta let that be enough.
They walked with him as far as the road split beyond town.
The wagons waited inside the walls. By midday, Vegeta, Super, and Envy would be moving with them.
Luvz’s road ran away from that work.
He stopped beside the marker.
Super inspected the fastening on his pack, tightened one strap, then stood back.
“When you send word, leave it with a Horde quartermaster. Use all our names. The guild name alone may make them throw it away.”
Vegeta looked offended.
“It is memorable.”
“So is food poisoning.”
Luvz laughed.
Briefly.
Super clasped his forearm.
“Ask twice when someone sounds certain.”
“I will.”
“And listen when the answers differ.”
Luvz held his gaze.
Then nodded.
Vegeta stepped forward.
He appeared to have prepared a speech.
Luvz could almost see the words becoming less useful as he approached.
Finally the orc gripped his arm and pulled him into an embrace.
Hard enough to make the pack straps creak.
Luvz returned it.
When Vegeta stepped away, he looked down at the road.
“You come back.”
Luvz glanced toward the branch he would be taking.
“I intend to.”
“That was not a request for your intentions.”
The Death Knight’s mouth lifted.
“No. I noticed.”
Envy had positioned herself across the road.
Luvz crouched.
She came close enough to put her forehead against his chest.
His gauntlet settled into the thick fur at the back of her neck.
Behind him, Super said nothing.
Luvz stayed there longer than he had meant to.
“You have to keep them out of trouble.”
Vegeta folded his arms.
“She has a difficult job,” War said.
Envy’s ears moved toward her voice.
Luvz rubbed the lioness’s neck.
“Especially that one.”
“Which one?” Vegeta asked.
Nobody answered.
Envy followed Luvz when he stood.
One step.
Then another.
Super came beside her and put a hand between her shoulders.
For a moment she resisted.
Then she stopped.
Luvz looked back at her.
“I will miss you too.”
War waited until the others gave them a little space.
She looked at the fastening beneath his shoulder, where he had tucked the paper.
“Keep it dry.”
“I can manage a piece of paper.”
“You read it enough last night to wear it through.”
He looked at her.
“You were awake.”
“Sometimes.”
“Convenient.”
She shrugged.
For a moment he thought she would ask him to stay.
Instead she said, “If a witness changes his story, find out why before deciding which version you want.”
Luvz looked down the road.
“You think I will hear what I need to hear.”
“I think you want this to be her.”
He turned back.
“Yes.”
War accepted the answer without softening it.
“Then take care.”
“You too.”
Her gaze moved toward the town and the waiting wagons.
Then returned to him.
Luvz adjusted his pack.
“Tell Vegeta his feet are wrong occasionally.”
“They usually are.”
“I can hear you,” Vegeta called.
Luvz smiled.
Then he stepped onto his road.
He looked back at the first bend.
All four were still beside the marker.
Super’s hand rested on Envy’s shoulders.
Vegeta lifted an arm.
War stood a little apart, her face unreadable at that distance.
Luvz raised his hand.
For one foolish moment, he wanted to return to them, unfold the paper by the fire again, and let another day pass before he learned whether it meant anything.
He could almost smell the woodsmoke.
Then the wind shifted.
He lowered his hand and continued.
War watched until the trees hid him.
Vegeta remained facing the bend.
Super gave him a little time before speaking.
“The wagons.”
“I know.”
“The drivers will be waiting.”
“I know.”
Vegeta turned.
Envy looked once more toward Luvz’s road, then followed Super.
War stayed beside the marker.
Vegeta noticed.
“Coming?”
“Not with the wagons.”
He stopped.
Super turned back too.
War kept her eyes on Vegeta.
“There is something I need to do.”
The orc looked toward the bend.
Then at her.
“He said he wanted to go alone.”
“Yes.”
“If you go after him, he should know.”
War’s hands remained still at her sides.
“I heard what he said.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No.”
Super studied her for a moment.
“We can manage the escort,” he said. “That is not what he is asking.”
“I know.”
Vegeta’s expression tightened.
“He is our friend.”
War looked down the empty road.
“I know that too.”
For a moment Vegeta seemed ready to continue the argument.
Then the distant town bell rang.
He looked back toward it, angry that the rest of the day had kept moving.
“Send word,” he said at last.
War nodded.
Super turned toward the town. Envy went with him.
Vegeta followed, then stopped once more.
“War.”
She looked at him.
“Do not make him regret trusting us.”
He did not wait for her answer.
War stood alone at the crossroads.
Luvz had a lead, a runeblade, and enough power to frighten most things that might meet him on the road.
He also had a question he had waited too long to ask.
She had seen what hope could do to someone who believed it was his last chance.
That did not give her permission.
Vegeta was right about that.
She drew her hood up anyway.
Then she waited.
Long enough for Luvz to gain ground.
Long enough for the others to reach town.
A cart approached from the opposite direction. War stepped aside and watched its wheels cross the damp verge.
When it had passed, she took the same branch Luvz had chosen.
At the first rise, she left the road.
She would have to move more slowly through the trees. Her horns caught a low branch before she had gone twenty paces.
War stopped, freed the hood, and listened.
No shout.
No sudden stillness ahead.
Only birds and the distant creak of the cart.
She found a clearer line between the trunks.
By afternoon she caught one glimpse of blue eyes beneath the shadow of the next bend.
Luvz paused to let a pair of travelers pass.
War crouched behind a fallen tree before he turned.
Waited.
He looked along the road behind him.
Then continued.
She let the distance grow again.
War knew she was not the only person on the road keeping secrets. The driver of the passing cart had looked at the crossroads marker too carefully. His wagon rode high for a load of timber, and when a wheel struck a rut she had heard metal strike metal beneath the boards. He had not looked toward Luvz once. He had looked toward the road Luvz intended to take.
She considered turning back to warn Vegeta. He would come. Super would insist on coming too, and Envy would be the first to find the wagon's tracks. But by then the driver would have reached the next crossroads, and whatever he carried would be gone.
War studied the two sets of marks. The cart's narrow wheels had cut deeply into the wet earth; the left one wobbled, leaving a small second groove. She could follow it later if she needed to. For now, she watched the road ahead and kept her distance from Luvz.
A bell rang from a farm hidden beyond the trees. Somewhere farther north, a dog answered. Nothing about the afternoon looked like the beginning of trouble. That was what troubled her most.
She loosened the strap on her blade so it would draw cleanly, then continued beneath the branches.
End of Chapter One