jdhmnovel Chapter 122 The oriole is behind
Chapter 122 The oriole is behind
Helgi held down his thick felt hat with his left hand and held Agis's arm with his right hand. The two little girls lowered their heads, struggling against the biting cold wind, trying to catch up with Hayu. I followed at the end of the team to prevent anyone from falling behind.
After I concluded that Lord Skade was about to do something big, I immediately led everyone through the Windward Ruins and plunged into the coniferous forest in the south of the Cangyuan Territory, hoping to penetrate into the hinterland of the Yar Border Territory before the war broke out. However, the weather was much worse than I expected. We hadn't seen the sun for three consecutive days. The strong wind generously picked up the snowflakes and stuffed them into everyone's collars, not allowing any refusal.
The northern part of Snowrun Territory, the southern part of Cangyuan Territory and Yar Border Territory, is a large stretch of mountains. The mountains block the cold wind from the Ghost Sea, creating a thousand miles of fertile land in Snowrun Territory. Unfortunately, we are walking on the northern foot of the mountains. The damp and cold north wind hits the steep cliffs, turning into ice and snow, burying the official road that is already sparsely populated. And we must move along the official road in order to reach the scheduled supply point - Shishan Town before the food runs out.
Helgi and Aigis have calmed down from the excitement of playing in the snow and started to face the situation seriously. The night in the forest comes very early. We must carefully choose the place to camp, set traps, and try to catch the few unlucky prey as much as possible. The time for traveling every day should not exceed four hours. In addition to the bad weather, we are also against the hungry beasts. After participating in the blood moon hunting, Aigis has post-traumatic stress disorder with the wolf pack. The little cat girl has been tortured by the wolf's howling and has become more and more mentally confused. Helgi tried some illusion and healing magic, but with little effect.
I am very worried about this. The test has just begun, and the road ahead will be even more difficult.
According to the game settings, under the ground we are currently in is a huge underground world spanning several territories in the north - Blackfall. The deep elves, known as dwarves, once built a magnificent city there and even created an artificial sun underground. However, with the mysterious disappearance of the entire dwarf race, Blackfall was occupied by the dwarfs' slaves, the real natives of Skyrim - the snow elves. The dwarves once built many elevators to connect Blackfall with the ground world, and also built towns near some elevators. Now these towns have become dens of robbers. If I remember correctly, the one closest to us should be called the Jincha Ruins.
Maybe in a day or two, we will have to avoid wild beasts and guard against attacks by bandits. The scale of those dwarven towns is much larger than the pinewood watchtower. Rigel can gather half a hundred people, so the bandit group here must have two or three hundred people? This is the scale of a small tribe of Reachmen. Hayou and I didn't come up with a very good countermeasure. All we can do is prepare white coats made of direwolf skin for the two girls to help them hide their whereabouts during the battle. The rest is just to deal with it as it happens.
"Wow! Brother, look over there! Is that the town we are going to?"
I was very sure that the big guy with obvious dwarven architectural style would not be our destination. Under the shade of the pine forest, the towering boulders were looming. Hayou and I made a gesture of silence at the same time, and then pouted at Babas. The dog looked contemptuous, raised his head proudly, swaggered his tail, and walked around the dwarven building.
"Come here. There are no people, no beasts, and not even an entrance."
We all gathered together. Just as Babas said, this building has no entrance, or rather, the entrance is blocked. More than 20 metal pillars as thick as forearms stood side by side, with a gap of no more than 15 centimeters between them, and the main entrance, which was more than 3 meters wide, was completely blocked. The interior of the building was an empty stone chamber, about 10 square meters, and it was so dark that it was hard to see what was inside. Agis tried to get in sideways, but found that he couldn't get in, so he had to give up.
It was getting late, so we decided to camp behind the dwarven ruins and use it to block the official road. Hayou set two traps on the left and right of the camp, covered them with snow, and inserted a few branches as marks to prevent our own people from stepping on them. Helgi, Agis and Babas went to the nearby woods to hunt. I was responsible for lighting the campfire and boiling a pot of pine needle tea with snow water.
"Hayou, there is something I am curious about. Can you tell me how you came to Skyrim from Cyrodiil?"
Hayou's cat smiled playfully. He stroked his whiskers pretentiously and took a sip of pine needle tea. After whetting my appetite, he asked, "I see you're not curious about the Akali caravan, right?"
"Okay, I admit, I suspect there's more to the Jerrol Mountains than just the Pale Passage."
"Then you are probably right."
Hayou blinked and raised his hand to stop me from speaking.
"I can only say that I believe there is at least one smuggling route that connects Skyrim and Cyrodiil. But I don't know the exact location of this route. Akari originally took a detour through Morrowind Province to reach Riften. As far as I know, Madelan departed from Elsweyr and took a boat directly to Solitude."
"So, Resard is the only one who might know this route?"
"Maybe. There's another possibility, that Resard doesn't know either."
This doesn't make sense. I used my analysis with Lydia to refute Hayou, saying that Resard would not set up a trading post in the Blood Throne without knowing how to escape.
"What you said makes sense. But have you ever thought that the person who really controls this line doesn't want too many people to know about its existence? Maybe, I mean maybe, Resard and I are not very familiar with each other, so I can't vouch for him..."
"Can you please say something useful?"
Hayou shrugged.
"Perhaps Resard only knew about the existence of this line through an intermediary, and the other party promised him that he could use this line in an emergency?"
"Since the other party is so cautious, how did you know that such a route exists?"
Hayou looked in the direction of the pine forest and lowered his voice.
"You have to promise not to tell Lachlan and Ajith."
"I promise."
"you swear."
"I swear I won't tell them."
"By Talos."
I was quite impatient, so I swore in the name of the nine holy spirits. The young man was still too young, how could he not know the fart of King Sima Xuan of Luoshui? Besides, my oath was only not to tell Lahlan and Agis. If they beat around the bush and found out something from others, it would not be my business.
"You know that our caravan is selling Skooma, right? This thing is a refined product of Moon Sugar, and whether it is Moon Sugar or Skooma, the production process is mastered by the Tiger People. So you can certainly draw a conclusion that all the Skooma in Skyrim, no matter where it is eventually sold, originally comes from Elsweyr."
"Can't you tell your cousins about this well-known nonsense?"
"Please be patient. I don't want you to tell me because Lachlan was addicted to moon candy for a while. Although he rarely touches it later, you know that addiction is not easy to get rid of. If he knew that there were people selling this nearby, I'm afraid he would fall into it again."
"That's not right. The fastest way to get from Elsweyr to Skyrim is by ship. Even if you go by land, you don't have to go to Mount Jerrol, right?"
I took the opportunity to pour tea for Hayou and sat down opposite him, wanting to observe his expression in the light of the campfire, but unexpectedly this guy just got up and left.
Helgi and Agis each carried a rabbit and came out of the woods towards the camp. The two little girls were drinking hot tea and warming themselves by the fire. I had to give up the topic and busy myself with Hayu preparing dinner. Babas yawned and lay down at Helgi's feet with his eyes closed.
After dinner, Helgi and Aigis tried to open the door of the dwarven building again. They found a metal wrench on the wall inside the stone chamber, but they were too far away to operate it. Helgi's fireball and lightning spells were ineffective against it. Aigis tried to use a branch to poke it. After breaking five sticks of varying thicknesses in a row, the two finally accepted the result of failure. To be honest, I was very worried that they would be able to open the door successfully, which meant that the two curious babies were very likely to drag us into the largest, most complex and most dangerous maze in Skyrim. In any case, a group of snow elves are always more terrifying than imperial soldiers. After all, the latter can at least use human language to communicate and negotiate.
Perhaps because there was a solid stone wall behind him, Aigis slept very soundly that night. Hayou was on duty for the first half of the night. When he changed his shift, he woke me up, but he didn't rush to sleep. Instead, he took me to the edge of the woods and whispered to me about the topic we had been talking about during the day. Babas just looked up and glanced at us, but didn't follow.
"Akari had problems with several previous batches of goods, so she once took me to negotiate with the supplier. The other party explained that the town of Helgen was attacked by a dragon, which caused their supply to be cut off, and they could only add water to the inventory. If these skooma must pass through Helgen, then can we guess that they entered Skyrim from Mount Jerrol?"
Hayou's eyes were calm and his tone was steady, he didn't seem to be lying. He also added that Akari's upper reaches were in the Rift Valley Territory, so he didn't know the real smuggler. I always felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't tell what it was. If the facts were as Hayou said, this secret passage was used for smuggling, then the other party must have extremely strict confidentiality measures. Hayou repeatedly emphasized that he didn't know the whole situation. Of course, there is another possibility, that is, Hayou knows more than he said, which was my usual trick: telling part of the facts, gaining people's trust, and misleading them to make wrong judgments.
"Do you think if I just ask Resard, he'll tell me?"
Hayou shook his head.
"I don't recommend you do this. If he really sees this smuggling route as a way out, he will definitely not tell you. Asking is pointless and will only make him wary of you."
I asked Helgi to get Agis to talk in Whiterun, so I was not in a hurry to squeeze out more clues from Hayou. The two little guys have been getting along very well these days and often act together, but I didn't ask about the results because Hayou was by my side. In addition, there are Jakir, who is in charge of Lund, and Lachlan, who is in charge of Lydia. When we return to the Bloodthrone, we will summarize the information of the four people and see if we can analyze any results.
Hayou and I turned around and were surprised to find that Babas had already woken up Helgi and Agis. The two sleepy little girls were holding their bows and arrows in a daze, looking confused.
"Is this how you two keep watch? Hurry up and grab your weapons, there's something going on nearby."
Hayou didn't hear anything with his cat ears, so it was even more impossible for me to find anything. But from Babas's tone, it didn't sound like he was joking. We were fully equipped and followed the dog into the woods.
As I went deeper into the pine forest, I gradually discovered something unusual. It was not because I heard anything, but on the contrary, it was because the area was too quiet. We are currently at the border of Cangyuan Territory and Yar Border Territory, where the land is barren and rarely inhabited. Along the way, every night was spent in the howling of wild beasts. But now, there is only the whistle of the wind passing through the forest, as if all the animals have deliberately concealed their whereabouts.
This is too abnormal. What else can make the wolves retreat?
Barbas walked with confidence. He must know where his destination is, but he was too lazy to explain it to us. Although it was late at night, the moonlight reflected by the snow made it impossible for us to hide. I was very worried that I would become prey before I found the enemy.
"We're here. Kitty, go up the tree and take a look."
Using her hands and feet, Aigis quickly disappeared into the tree canopy. Not long after, she reappeared, but she didn't descend from the tree as gracefully and neatly as before. Instead, she held onto the trunk and dawdled a little bit, then simply jumped down the last few meters, falling flat on her face.
"Robbers...robbers, there are so many of them, over there."
"Don't be nervous. How many of them are there? What are they doing?"
Aigis frantically wiped the snow from the corner of his mouth.
“I don’t know. Aigis didn’t count. They… they have weapons… they are all hiding behind rocks…”
I patted the little cat girl's shoulder.
"That won't do. Follow Hayou and learn from him."
The two cats did not climb the tree again. Hayou led his cousin and moved towards the direction where the robbers were found. The news he brought back was much more specific.
"Including the four sentries, there are eighteen people in total, five of whom are archers. They are wearing all kinds of clothes. They are here in the middle of the night, so they are definitely not good people. Their target should be in the south."
"Go, have a look."
We quietly retreated, away from the enemy sentinels' reconnaissance range, and soon found the enemy's target not far away. It was a rather gorgeous four-wheeled carriage, with a large compartment that could easily accommodate ten people, and painted with colorful funny patterns. Two horses were tied to a tree not far away. At least based on Locke's experience in horse trading, the price of these two beasts together would not be higher than the one I bought for my father. No one was seen near the carriage, so they should all be resting in the carriage.
"You really don't want to live! How dare you be so ostentatious in the wilderness?"
Hayou sighed softly, impressed by the other party's "courage".
"What should we do? Should we give them a warning?"
I stopped the kind-hearted tiger man. The last time I saw such a big carriage in Skyrim, the driver was a guardian of the Dark Brotherhood. God knows who is in the carriage this time. If a fight really breaks out, it's hard to say who will win.
"We'll just wait here."
No matter who is the mantis and who is the cicada between the two groups, I have made up my mind to be the oriole.