I began to feel my heart beating rapidly, my hands started to tremble slightly, but this was no time to hesitate. I tried to ignore it as best I could and took my guard stance.
From the corner of my eye I could see Serin slowly drawing a dagger from her waist, I also felt how a great amount of pulsar began flowing toward her. She was preparing to attack.
Six against three, they outnumbered us, but maybe they don't have a shocker among them…
"What do you want?" Serin asked.
"Drop your weapons," said one of the masked men with a hoarse voice.
"Seriously? Tsk," she frowned, "Do bandits really have to sink that low to rob refugees?"
"Refugees?" the man shook his head in confusion, "we are not bandits."
None of us responded.
After a few seconds of silence, the man with the hoarse voice spoke again. "You… aren't soldiers?"
"No, do we look like soldiers to you?" This time it was Rowan who answered.
"Oh…" the man sighed, "lower your weapons, boys."
After his order, the other five men surrounding us slowly lowered their weapons.
"Sorry for the confusion…" he coughed falsely as he approached, "we are mercenaries hired by the imperial army, we thought… you were enemies."
"We have nothing with us, just clothes and they're all in terrible shape," Serin replied defensively.
"We still haven't seen soldiers up close, only from afar… we simply knew they wore dark clothing," he said in an apologetic tone this time.
I agreed with her, until I looked at us more carefully and realized the three of us were wearing dark clothes. Rowan and I hadn't even returned from the forest to change, and Serin… well, I honestly don't know about her.
I looked at Rowan to see what he thought, but he was focused on the two archers still above us, though their bows were no longer drawn.
Serin hesitated for a few more seconds, but finally lowered her guard and shook the man's hand.
"My name is Serin, they are Rowan and Luke."
"Pleased to meet you, milady, my name is Hugh," he said while making a slight bow.
Rowan stepped forward. "What is happening?"
Hugh looked at him with a strange expression. "What, you really know nothing?"
We shook our heads, but Serin was the one who answered. "About two weeks ago, a large number of soldiers and beasts attacked and destroyed our village, we… barely escaped," her voice grew weaker and weaker as she spoke.
"I see… well, let's go to a small fissure in the mountain a few hundred meters from here to take shelter. We'll be able to talk more comfortably there," he said while pointing down the path.
The three of us looked at each other doubtfully, but in the end we agreed.
We walked no more than fifty minutes, although it was not night yet, it had already grown considerably dark, because of what seemed to be a great storm approaching.
The six mercenaries walked spread out around us, attentive to the road and the surroundings. They no longer pointed their weapons at us, but they did not fully lower their guard either. We did the same; I did not trust them.
We finally arrived at the place he mentioned. It was a narrow opening between two rock walls, barely visible from the main path. Upon entering, the space widened enough to shelter several people from the wind. In one corner there were already remains of an old campfire and some sacks leaning against the wall.
Apparently, they had already camped here before.
"Make yourselves comfortable," Hugh said while removing the cloth covering part of his face. He was a man with a short beard, a broad nose, and several small scars spread across his face. "We don't have much, but at least the storm won't blow us away here."
One of the other men quickly began lighting a fire, another went to the back of the fissure to check some bundles covered with canvas.
Rowan remained standing, with his hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword.
Serin looked at him intently, urging him to speak.
Hugh noticed and let out a small nasal laugh. "Straight to the point, I like that." He sat on a rock and rested his arms on his knees. "A little over two weeks ago, an invasion began in the south. An army came from the sea and advanced with absurd speed."
"What army?" Serin asked.
Hugh shook his head. "We do not know for certain, but we believe they are a gathering of the families from the neighboring continent."
"And the empire's army, what happened?" Rowan spoke while sitting down.
"The vast majority of our army is in the north, the southern region was practically defenseless, that is why they took everything so easily," he thought for a second, "you should have seen the battle of the wall… it was devastating."
The three of us were instantly shocked.
"What?" Serin stood up. "How is that possible? They only arrived two weeks ago."
The man leaned back and stretched. "Like I told you, there were barely any soldiers on this side, most were at the wall, but… then the wyverns arrived."
"The?" I asked incredulously.
He looked at me. "Yes, thousands of soldiers and around a hundred wyverns with their riders besieged the wall. I wouldn't even call it a siege, it was a massacre. In less than three hours they had already taken it."
I felt my jaw slacken hearing his words, a hundred… it sounded impossible to me. I knew most noble houses in the world had some riders with their respective wyverns, but only a few.
The only ones with power of that magnitude are House Wyrmsten, but they are under Corantio's control…
"That's not what you're thinking, boy," Hugh said while looking at me. "They did not belong to Wyrmsten."
I felt quick relief. Knowing that at least we had a similar force calmed me. "And where are they?"
He shook his head again. "Like I said before, we don't know much. We simply received orders a little over a week ago to guard this route."
Rowan looked at Serin. "And now what will we do, the wall has fallen?"
"I don't know… the wall is the only access to the northern side, the mountains separating us are impossible to cross on foot."
Hugh interrupted them with a playful smile. "Don't worry so much, kids, for a good price I can take care of that."
The three of us looked at him at the same time.