I had gone back to the camp that I had left my men at hoping to increase the strength of our party northward, but the camp had been deserted with castoff supplies and clothes laying around like my friends had left in hurry without time to pack. I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to cause them to leave one of our most secure camps so hastily. Perhaps it hadn't been so secure given that the Valley Lander had found us. Just how had he been able to do that? Blind luck I guess.
I had been looking out for my friends for so long now that I felt like I was somehow at fault for the hard times that seemed to have befallen them in my absence. They would have to make do for themselves from now on, because I wasn't going back to the life of a bandit. My responsibility was to get the boy to safety as I had promised his father that I would and then get the reports to the high council of the Valley Lands. Then other things would occur. What they might be I wasn't sure, I'd just have to discover them along the way. I was anxious to meet this grandfather who had been searching for me for so long. Maybe when I was in the land of my father my purpose in life would be clearer to me. I hoped so.
I parted the heavy knot of reeds in front of me slightly to glance through towards the boats pulled up in the sand across from us. The water was up to my waist and it was surprisingly cold for this time of year.
I watched as the Kawnia Lake fishermen finished hauling the day's catch in from their fishing boats. Having finished their task they started off towards the sleepy village in the distance. I waited until the sun had almost disappeared over the horizon before I felt it was safe for us to move from the heavy reeds we were hidden in.
We had run straight into a Zoarinian patrol two nights ago. It had been a unexpected surprise for both parties. In the chase that followed we'd had to practically run our horses into the ground to avoid capture. Last night I had released the horses so that they would lay down a false trail for our pursuers to follow and we had set off on foot towards the lake hoping that the patrol would take the bait and follow our worn out mounts instead of us.
It seemed to have worked out so far in our favor, but there was nothing favorable about our current circumstances. The water we stood in was dark and it stank. Dead fish and lake debris swirled around us in the murky water, but that wasn't the worst of it. Leeches! I could feel them sliding along my flesh and then the sudden pinch of pain when they bit on and started to suck my blood.