I woke at a very early hour the next morning and saw the Carriage driver eating. I asked if he minded company and we had a nice conversation over our breakfast. I told him that I would like to hire him to take Marcurio and I to Riften. He said he had already been paid for another party to go there, but had informed them that he wasn't a private conveyance. If we paid, we had a ride, so I paid right then. I had two hours to get Marcurio up and ready to go. I first asked Hulda if she would fix two lunch meals and a small light breakfast for Marcurio.
I went to the back room where Marcurio and his companion were sleeping or rather he was sleeping. As soon as I walked through the door the Lady sat up, it wasn't the little blonde but a rather fierce looking redhead. I quirked my lip's sideways and told her that Marcurio needed to be at the carriage in two hours.
I took our stuff to the carriage, Marcurio liked to wear an old robe when traveling by carriage, so his armor was packed away. He really didn't need to wear it as neither spell nor arrow ever got through his wards. But he did like to wear the Eleven warhammer that he had gotten off a bandit, said with the armor it looked dashing to the ladies. The Lady he was with last night was a real warrior and would never be fooled, but at a distance it would fool bandits.
As it looked like rain I bought two waxed and oiled cloaks from the general store. I left it hanging on the room door for Marcurio, not wanting to interrupt. I walked out and talked again with the carriage driver and put the Elder Scroll under his bench seat, asked him if Marcurio could ride up their with him as he would get motion sick otherwise. He and his lady friend walked out, I had judged her correctly, the armor and her weapons screamed warrior and a competent one at that. We talked quietly next to the driver, who commented here and there and watched our fellow travelers come out.
The first group was obviously rich, male and female alike their armor, clothing and weapon's screamed of money, but not a great deal of use. Cloak's of velvet with spells to ward off the rain and probably mud as well, spoke of more than just money. This was going to be an interesting trip. Marcurio took one look at them, then the group coming up behind them and started cussing up a storm. They weren't to hard to size up, either mercenaries or bandit's, possibly both. The carriage driver got a tight look to his mouth and Marcurio's lady friend, put her hand on the hilt of her sword.
As the two groups got closer, I climbed into the carriage and sat right behind where Marcurio would be sitting. I hooked the Dwemer sword on the back of the seat and put my crossbow across my lap, with our lunch basket sitting at my side. Their was more than enough room for all of us to be spread out and I didn't want to be squeezed in. Sitting this way I could watch Marcurio's back. Marcurio gave his lady one last kiss and climbed onto the seat the driver. One of the bandit/mercenary looking fellows had walked up and from the look on his face had expected to ride up front. Another got in the carriage and walked to the front and sat across from me but slightly back, putting his backpack against the front of the carriage.
The well to do passengers got in next, followed by two more ruff looking characters. It wasn't adding up to a trip that would end well. With everyone at last settled into a seat the driver took off. I had ridden with him several times and Bjorlam didn't look happy and the tension in his back was almost painful to me. I slouched down and pulled the hood almost over my eye's and relaxed into the sway of the carriage. I watched the other passengers from under the hood. It wasn't so much that I could see their faces, but I didn't need to, I could see their bodies and most specially the tension in them or how relaxed they were.
A couple hundred years and I considered myself a very good judge at reading people, not everyone's body language was making sense. The bandit/mercenary across from me was wearing an excellent quality plate steel, but it had seen a lot of use and even more abuse from swords and other weapons. He was relaxed to the point of almost being asleep. Three of the four well to do youngsters were relaxed and jovial, the third nervous , but by the fingernails bitten to the quick, it was normal for him. The last two of our party, looked pretty rough on the surface, but as I looked more at their armor and weapons, I noticed that both were of the finest quality, so more than likely mercenaries over common bandit's at least. They were nervous to the point of being unable to sit still. Not the excited nervous that anticipated an upcoming raid or swindle, they were both tense nervous that could speak of so many things.
Just to see what would happen, I slowly relaxed my hands so that it appeared I had fallen asleep, letting my crossbow start to slip down my lap. As it hit the floor of the carriage the bandit/merc across from me tensed, but didn't open his eyes. The well to do group stopped chattering for half a second as the young lady next to me leaned over and picked up the crossbow, she then put it on top of my pack in a way that would be handy to use, but wouldn't slip off. The oddest reaction was from the two at the rear, they just about jumped out of the carriage.
With the sun saying it was noon and more than half the trip to Riften over, we stopped for lunch. It appeared to be a place that Bjorlam stopped at often. As the carriage had stopped I sat up and looked at my crossbow. So, she was a mage and a pretty subtle one. I couldn't see what had been done, only that something had, I wouldn't count on it. It was a good thing I really didn't need it for distant targets anyway. As I stood up I put the crossbow in it's holster and grabbed the Dwemer sword and strapped it on. It wasn't the normal Dwemer sword, it's length and width said opposing things, Length said greatsword, width said one hand, I could use it either way. I grabbed the basket on the way to the back of the carriage, definitely wanting my lunch. I met Marcurio on the side of the carriage, he, Bjorlam and I took the horses down to the creek and let them drink, the men sat on a log, I sat on a stump and we ate our lunch has the horses munched on grass.
I asked Bjorlam where he thought the best place to attack the carriage would be. He got a very thoughtful look on his face, took a couple bites of his lunch, took a deep breath. " Just slightly up the road, there is a very steep grade and a switchback. The horses can't go faster than a slow walk, lot's of tree's, shrubs and rocks to hide behind." Thinking quickly, I told Bjorlam to just drive the carriage, Macurio and I would take care of his safety. We finished our lunch, helped hook the horses back up and climbed back in, the other passengers not far behind.
I didn't want to caste any spells to see if anyone was ahead, but I watched the birds and listened to the sounds of nature. The breeze was almost non-existent, so when I saw some bushes moving ahead, I bumped Marcurio's back with my elbow as I stretched my arms over my head. When they attacked I wanted out of the carriage, so I figured out how to do that by going over the side, my knee's were going to protest.
As we hit the turn in the road an arrow came at us, Marcurio must have been looking in exactly the right direction, because he slammed up a ward around Bjorlam, the horses and Himself, and helped get the horses stopped, as the couldn't keep up that large a ward up while moving. I put up a ward for myself and looked for a target, as I found my target the Lady next to me found one also and shot out an ice-spike. She wasn't the only one though, it seemed like everyone but me fired off one kind of spell or the other.
I did a detect-life spell and chuckled as their was no one else there. No one had been injured and as the two on the back of the carriage jumped down to go look at the bandit's, the older man in plate steel introduced himself as Captian Kiran of the Imperial Army. He had been instructed by the Legate to get rid of these particular bandits, who were targeting rich merchants and caravans. He had just been hoping that she and Marcurio didn't think they were the bandits, he knew her reputation and basically counted on her savvy.
Everyone but She and Marcurio, were part of his patrol unit. All battlemages or spellswords, as he figured they would be most useful. The young lady came up and asked after her crossbow, saying that the spell she used would just cause it to freeze if the trigger were pulled, but she banished it. Zyne thanked her and had the young lady show her the spell, in return the soldier wanted to know the enchantments that were on her armor. Zyne laughed and told her that the enchantments weren't just on the Armor itself, but also on the gambeson, so many mages didn't even think of that, it was after all a separate piece of clothing.
The two in badit type armor came back and one of them waved a piece of parchment at his Captain. The Captain read it and laughed. "Well it worked, they got the information that a group of rich young adventurers would be traveling from Whiterun to Riften today, now all we have to do is figure out who was giving up the information." The Captain was well pleased with the ruse and we all climbed back into the carriage to continue on our way to Riften,
I looked back and thought.... It was a very unlucky day.... for those bandits.
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