Chapter 212: The Cache

The sun was setting behind the forested hills in the distance, the subtle orange light filtering over the hilltops, made the group of raiders cast long shadows, which trailed far behind them.

At first glance, they seemed to be an ordinary group of travelers, all wearing hooded travel cloaks, but a more astute observer would notice the outline of armor beneath their cloaks, and the obvious shapes of sword hilts poking out from their cloaks.

But only the most observant would notice their horses, which had the scaled patches and irregular coloration of the finest hybrids, as well as noticing that even these hybrids were breathing hard, and their flanks were covered in sweat.

The group of riders had managed to traverse hundreds of kilometers while riding through the night and again through the day until sunset, and only now, had they slowed their horses to a trot.

"Jeremiah, are you sure the cache is here, surely this is much too far from the capital to be practical?" Simon asked the captain, who had led them on the breakneck ride for the past day.

"Scholar Piatt, this is only one of many caches, but I judged that this would be the safest for us to stop at. It is my belief that had we stopped any earlier, we would have been caught by pursuers." Jeremiah spoke softly, after they had been riding for a few hours, all of them had started to speak softly, in hushed whispers barely audible over the sound of the horses.

"Oh of course, my apologies Jeremiah, I did not mean to question your judgment. I am just concerned about having everyone disguised sooner rather than later. Remember, our safety also depends on that." Simon's voice was polite, but internally, he went over his plan once again, he would strike once they were all resting, making sure the Emperor had removed any protective armor or artifacts.

Simon was sure that after the wounds the Emperor had taken in his battle against Tam and Anteris, he wouldn't have any protective artifacts. 

This had come as a surprise to Simon, since he had learned of a few defensive artifacts in the possession of the Empire, from his research in old scrolls and documents. 

But perhaps those had been lost in the many wars since, or the Emperor preferred to only wear armor. Whatever the reason, it was a blessing for Simon and his mission. 

"Scholar Piatt, Jeremiah. I appreciate that both of you have concerns for our well being, but please, do not argue. It is enough that we have been defeated by these invaders, but we should not be divided in our flight." The Emperor tried his best to speak casually, but he still could not hide the air of command that had become second nature to him.

Both Simon and Captain Jeremiah mumbled apologies, the Emperor giving a smile of approval in response.

"Jeremiah, let me have a look at the map, another pair of eyes to find our destination cannot hurt." Simon asked, spurring his horse so that he was alongside Captain Jeremiah.

"Alright, I'll be surprised if you manage to spot it before my men, Donald over there was a scout before he joined the Palace Guard." The old man bragged, passing a piece of rolled up parchment to Simon.

Simon unrolled the scroll, which showed the southern half of the Empire, with many crosses marked on the map, each one with a small drawing beside it, showing the landmarks which would allow them to find the cache.

"It's this one." Jeremiah pointed to a cross far to the north-east of Aznur, beside it was a drawing of three hills, each with a tall tree atop it, and a line running down between the right two hills, possibly depicting a stream.

Simon furrowed his brow as he looked at the map, and then to the hills ahead of them, the hills were forested, all of them were densely carpeted with trees, with no hills in sight that had only a single tree at their peak.

They continued to ride, heading west now, along the row of hills, trying to spot the location of the cache, but they had no such luck, every single one of the hills were carpeted with trees.

The forest spread from the foot of the hills all the way to their peaks.

"So, Jeremiah, how long ago was this map drawn?" Simon asked Captain Jeremiah, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"It would be at least a few hundred years ago. My predecessor told me that it was passed down to him by his predecessor, and that even his predecessor had no idea when these caches were fist established." Captain Jeremiah's confidence was starting to fade, and the slightest hint of apprehensiveness had found its way into his voice.

"Fear not lads, worst comes to worst Scholar Piatt can ride into a village and purchase the necessities that we might need for a disguise." The Emperor piped up, and then continued on.

"Besides, we have enough of these biscuits to last us weeks, we can remain in the wilderness for as long as we need, and I'm sure that Donald over there can catch us some game with that bow of his." The Emperor wasn't able to voice his natural inclination to leadership, trying his best to reassure the uncertain Jeremiah.

"Hold on, look over there, don't those three hills vaguely resemble the shape on the map." Donald, the ex scout, spoke up, his voice was quiet and high pitched, but still had an unmistakable confidence.

All of them turned to where he pointed, and Simon recognized the silhouette of the three hills, as did the rest of them, all of them cheerfully agreeing, finally glad to see some hint of their destination.

"Over there, that gully, could that not be formed by a stream over the years." Simon pointed to the depression in the ground in the distance.

"Ah, good job Scholar Piatt, there we go gentlemen, we've found our cache." The Emperor's voice was cheerful, as if he was trying to overwrite the fact that they were on the run from an invading army.