Alma’s eyes sharpened and grew more intent after their Psi Bond was deepened. When she had first come into The Land, she had been little more than a feral animal: intelligent, but savage. Each new level she reached in Psi Bond had increased her awareness of the world and her place in it. Now she was smarter than most people he had met.
That thought made Richter chuckle a bit, but his levity was short-lived. He had taken his time debating Alma’s enhancements and several hours had passed since the koolari attack. According to his map, they were now only two miles from the entrance to the valley. He waved Yoshi over and told him. The sword adept just nodded and quietly passed an order. The warband came to a halt.
“Are you sure you want to come with us?” Yoshi asked the chaos seed.
“Let’s go,” was Richter’s only response.
Sion had walked up when the stop was called. Yoshi turned his attention to him, “And you are up for this as well? You never liked this part of your training.”
The meidon sprite nodded solemnly.
“Fine,” Yoshi curtly. “We leave in two minutes.”
Yoshi walked off again, leaving the two friends standing there. Sion checked to make sure his new elementum blade was clear in its scabbard and adjusted the position of his bow on his shoulder.
“What did he mean?” Richter asked.
His Companion was silent for a moment, then he sniffed harshly and cleared his throat. “You know about the hatred I felt for humans when we first met. I could have killed a human every day in open battle and never been bothered by it. There was one thing that I could not bring myself to do, however, despite the loathing I had for your race.” Sion looked him in the eye and said a single word, “Murder.”
Yoshi beckoned to the two of them, and then he turned and walked deeper into the forest. Ten other sprites followed him. Sion and Richter nodded to each other and started forward as well. Alma flew above, and Richter’s shale adder slithered along beside them.
The time for talk was done.
They left all light behind. Every member of Yoshi’s elite squad had enchanted strips of cloth with eyeholes that they wrapped around their faces that let them see in the dark. Coupled with their cloaks of concealment, it really nailed the whole ninja theme in Richter’s mind, but he kept that thought to himself. More important than their look, each and every one of the sprites was a Professional. The squad was comprised of Warriors, Rogues, and even one Mage. Yoshi offered Richter a strip of cloth, but the chaos seed simply cast Night Vision on himself, Alma and Sion. The three-hour duration of the Dark spell should be more than long enough for the dark deeds ahead.
Quietly, they ran through the forest. There was no talking. Just soft breathing and the softer sounds of their magically muffled footfalls. Richter was no sprite and did not possess the Woodcraft ability that gave his allies a supernatural connection to the forest, but he had his own powers. Between his months of training in the forest, his high Agility and Dexterity, and his Bracelet of Smooth Movement, he was a far cry from the noob that had crashed through trees only five months ago. Sion himself had said he was no longer a “stomper.” He moved at a slow run with the sprites, sliding through the thick trees, leaping over crevasses and smoothly avoiding brambles that would have snared him.
The squad covered the last two miles in just over ten minutes despite the difficulty of the terrain. Richter’s breathing was coming somewhat ragged, and his stamina had taken a serious hit, but it started refilling when they stopped. He regulated his breathing, and it started refilling a bit faster. Yoshi had held up one arm with a closed fist. All of the sprites had immediately stopped moving and had drawn and nocked arrows. None imbued their shots, however. This was a group trained to kill, not engage in battle.
Richter had followed their example and had an arrow at the ready, though he did not see what had caused Yoshi to halt their progress. The half-sprite cocked his head, listening intently. Almost faster than Richter could see, Yoshi moved to a tree and climbed into its canopy. Everyone waited quietly.
A few minutes later, the sword adept dropped back down to the forest floor. Barely a leaf rustled. He turned his body so that all of his men could see him, then moved his hands in a quick series of hand gestures. No glow surrounded his fingers. It wasn’t a spell. At, first, Richter was confused, but then to his shock and surprise, he understood what Yoshi was doing. It was sign language.
^Goblins. I see eleven sentries. Eight scout station. Three fighter station. Silent kills only. Be alert for unseen enemies.^
Congratulations! Your Gift of Tongues ability has unlocked a secret language: Sprite Hand Speak.
Richter’s eyes widened. His ability to speak, understand and write almost any language had come in handy time and again, though it required that he be exposed to that language first. It was one of the reasons he was eager to start seeing more of The Land, so that his ability could unlock more languages. He had never thought his ability might extend to forms of sign language, though.
Yoshi motioned for Richter and Sion to stay where they were. He started to turn to leave, and Richter was faced with a choice. He wanted to help, but the prompt had said that hand speak was a “secret” language. The adept was not the kind of person to look kindly on breaches of security. True, the Mist Village and the Hearth Tree were allies, but that might not mean too much to the half-sprite.
Richter also had to admit that it was tempting to keep his knowledge of the language to himself. It was the kind of knowledge that might come in handy in the future, even though the sprites were currently allies. On the other hand, Yoshi and his men were about to try and silently take out goblin sentries, and they were outnumbered. If even one of those goblins raised an alarm, the entire mission could fail. That meant the army wouldn’t get through the heavily guarded gap, let alone be able to attack the encampment itself.
To make matters worse, Yoshi didn’t even seem completely sure that he had spotted all of the sentries. Even if he had spotted all of the enemies, a third of the goblins were fighter station. Richter didn’t completely understand the differences in the goblin caste system, but one thing he did understand was that scouts were the weakest of the goblins, and that the stations got almost exponentially more dangerous after that. It wasn’t just scrubs that the sprites were about to go up against. The chaos seed knew that he could increase the strike team’s chances for success, but he would have to reveal that he had learned the secret language. The stakes were real, and the Richter only had a split second to decide what he would stand for.
He chose.