Guild Of Zeroes

Chapter 16

We threw the doors of the map room open and found Stargazer sitting in front of a map of the Tower and the surrounding countryside. From the look on his face he was trying to scowl and answer out of the ancient scroll. Behind him Mouse sat by a low table, scribbling notes like a madman on whatever parchment he could find, and when he ran out, he started writing on the table itself. His eyes glowed with violet light.

"How long has he been like that?" I asked, pointing to our manic wizard friend.

"Not long," said Stargazer with a shrug. "He should be done soon."

Quin paced around the map table slowly, studying every inch of it. "What are these marks?" they asked, tapping the random assortment of red crosses we had added to the map.

"Those are places my Rangers have found more of Wraith's corpses. Some dead. Some just standing. Waiting."

"It's been a huge pain in the ass," I said. "There's no reason for them to be there. Or at least there's nothing important in those places. It doesn't make any sense to waste troops just standing there."

Quin did another lap around the table. "Do you have a map of Imperial Ruins in the area?"

Hawk was about to answer when Mouse's head snapped up from his table. "Boats," he interrupted.

A collection of blank stares answered him.

"Boats," he repeated. "They're using boats."

Stargazer stood and ambled over to him, examining the untidy scrawl of notes he's made. "I agree," he said. "They're using boats, or going to use boats. Possibly the apprentices have already escaped on boats but that seems less than likely."

"And that helps us how?" asked Hawk.

I groaned and shared a knowing look with Mouse before turning my attention to the winding river on the map. "It helps us, because wherever they're going by boat, we can get there faster than they can. But you aren't going to be happy about it."

"No," said Mouse. "I'm not going past him again. Once was enough."

Quin opened a cupboard and started leafing through the rolled up maps stored there. "Going past who?" they asked.

"The Big One," I answered.

Quin found the map they were looking for and spread it over top of the map on the table. "Who the hell is that? The Guildsman with the worst name I've ever heard?"

"It's not a who," said Mouse. "The Big One was what we called a particularly nasty Serpent we met when we were putting our book together. It's large."

"You don't say?" said Quin, rolling their eyes and shooting Mouse a crooked half smile. "And here I thought you had named it ironically."

"I wish," I said. "He damn near ate our whole boat, but he did teach us that Storm Serpents live in family groups."

"And that helps us how?" asked Hawk.

"Because he lives just past Dead Man's Fork." I pushed Quin's map aside and pointed to the river that ran past the Tower. It split a ways past our group's hiding spot with one fork making a wide loop around a crest of rocky terrain and the other continuing on straight. "If we go through him, we can avoid rowing through Iron Riders Loop and I can guarantee that we catch up to those apprentices."

Stargazer peered down at the map and rubbed his chin. "Could work, but they do call it Dead Man's fork for a reason."

Mouse shuddered. "Don't you worry about that, ser. Snip and I can get us through."