Tales of Vyscher Book 2

Chapter 12

Two seasons! Vic was beyond frustrated. They had been in South Lake for what seemed like an eternity and found nothing of interest other than a single cave to the east that may or may not have been a staging area. No clues to a mastermind, no battles, no other ogres, just endless drilling with Lieutenant Allyan and her troops to keep up their standards. They had been receiving endless reports from Gyrtek about everything else doing on. Ewalt and Nilva had recovered and were holding down any missions alongside Drem and Lornk, so she was jealous of their opportunities.

"You think we'll be pulled back soon?" Rek asked as they looked over a map of the southern valley while down in the inn's common room.

"We have to be, right? We've accomplished nothing since we've been here. They could have just been patrolling with the Sky Knights and accomplished the same amount. They don't need us," Vic complained.

"Oh, I don't know about that," interrupted Torple, putting an end to their complaining.

"You find something?" Vic asked hopefully.

"Well, we had found a cave that had a few nests in it, that could have been used by ogres, but we never had anything that was sized for the cyclops, so we dismissed it. I just went back to double check it and found a concealed room there. You may want to come check it out," he explained.

And so, they did.

The cave was large, it had to be for the size of the creatures that had been staying there, and over time the stench of the place had faded to be merely unpleasant. Vic could see that the cave had been searched before, the sleeping furs had been tossed aside in case anything had been covered by them, and previously they had been found to contain nothing. But Torple led them to the back recessed of the cave, where a large opening had been uncovered.

"There was a hidden lever here, it dropped a stone wall down into the floor revealing a new room," Torple explained. "We missed it the first time because ogres aren't normally known for being bright. But now that we've gone back to double check caves, we got lucky and found this."

Vic stepped through the new doorway and examined the recently discovered room. It was large, almost as large as the entire outer cave, and much taller. This could have been the cyclops' room, with the ceiling that tall she thought. "Has anyone searched in here?" she asked Torple.

"No, we were waiting on you two."

A crude desk, made of two barrels and several planks across the top, was set in the corner nearest the door, and a large nest of furs sat in the far corner. A small circle of stone in the middle of the room obviously had held a fire, with a cookpot suspended over it by a chain. The smell of whatever was cooking still lingered, but thankfully only close to the pot. The room must have reeked while it was cooking though.

Vic noticed a hole in the top of the barrel, and when looking down into it was surprised to see a pile of crumpled scrolls. The cyclops must have used this as his trash, perhaps there was something in there though. Reaching in, she started removing the scrolls, passing them over to Rek who tucked them away for later examination as they were written in some strange language. These would have to go to Jondure, perhaps he could decipher them.

There didn't seem to be much else of interest in the cave, and the musty air didn't make either of the ladies want to stick around any longer than necessary. Having the scrolls should help though. If they could find the people that sent that cyclops after Fehrys and Luce, then Rek and Vic wanted to be assigned to taking them out.

"If we ever go back home, I have to talk to my father about hiring dragons to teach magic there," Fehrys mumbled around a mouthful of spicy sausage and potato. "I think the magisters are wasting their time teaching the way they do, and never doing anything different." He didn't even notice the grin on Alia's face as he ranted and complained. Over the past two seasons, Fehrys' magical abilities had blossomed. He was still learning the finer nuances of some aspects, but from a power standpoint he had no equal. The mixing of the gold and silver energy somehow magnified his abilities.