Darkness had yet fallen over the woods and a considerable wind was blowing down the remaining leafes from the tall trees when the riders from Uhlheim arove at the ruins of Auenfries. Although the fires had yet consumed everything that would feed their appetite large wooden pillars, broad planks and the trees in Auenfries were still smouldering and the sharp stench of burned wood and flesh hang over the once busy village. Rittmaster Mera of Riverbanks signaled her troops to slow down to trot and with unsheathed weapons they entered the village. There may still be enemies left plundering or ordered to kill investigating people.
But this place was quiet. There was no sound and no movement. It was a just recently setup graveyard where corpses were not buried. The knights stoped their horses at the center place and Mera ordered groups of three to search the village for survivors and remaining enemies. She herself, the priest Wainan and the two battle mages Svaina and Lurian remained at the central place which was inhabited by a lot of corpses and burned stalls. Svaina summoned 3 large globes of blue light which slowly circulated around her in a wide radius. The Rittmeister went down to her knees and investigated the ground. There were a lot of signs of horse hooves. Then she inspected one hoof imprint very carefully. The horse which left this imprint had been wearing horseshoes. The imprint of these horseshoes told that they were made in Kenzobaran. It was the design of desert cavalry warriors. Generally the nomads didn´t put shoes on the horse hooves. But cavalry regiments who need to fight from their horses and also left the desert from time to time had horseshoes on their horses with exactly this imprint.
Lurian kneeled down beside her. "Bring us one of the heathens. We will talk with his ghost to learn more about the enemies." Mera looked suspiciously at him. "We do not need such a ritual here. They may be heathens yes. And I know you are allowed to summon ghosts of dead heathens and demon worshippers if it is NECESSARY. But it is not. I yet know who attacked Auenfries" Lurian looked at her: "Yes slave hunters. But we need to know their numbers and how well they were equipped." He made a large gesture showing the village. "This is not a ranch or landlords estate. Maybe 1000 people lived here. They would not kill and enslave them with 20 men on horses. You know colonel Stormrock is in Uhlheim with an even more important task. We will not get supportive troops soon. We need to bring an end to this on our own. Thus we need as much information as possible." "Someone attacked the empire and the sword of mahjagoth is here. We will not fail. Torqua will lead us to victory in such a noble cause. It is not important how many they are." Lurian looked at her and and nodded slowly, saying:" Of course he will. I never doubted that. But would you prefer to lead 40 knights back to Uhlheim or is you plan for tomorrow to visit 10 women and tell them their husbands died? Rittmaster we need your courage yes but we also need our minds. Bring a corpse of a heathen so we can prepare properly for the battle." With these words Lurian rose and walked away to the other battlemage Svaina. Mera heard him telling her if she can not just talk with her and make her to give a dead heathen for interrogation. Maybe he was right. It was the fast way to gain all kind of information about the attacking troops. But Mera also knew that Torqua generally disgusted summoning of any kind. If they loose his favor in the endeavor to rescue the enslaved villiagers they might fail at all and die tomorrow.
Since the caravan had some hundred slaves and about a day time in advance they should be able to reach them tomorrow at noon. Maybe they could prepare an ambush. If the caravan has entered the desert by that time it would be much more difficult. The knights horses are more heavy due to their armor and the knights. They would be less nimble on the battlefield and galopping would mean much more strain for the horses. Gernerally they would be tired earlier. Also it was almost impossible to ambush the raiders. For the sake of the innocent and tortured villagers Mera decided to give in to Lurians request and let them summon the ghost of a dead heathen. She checked the corpses of the dead slavers for any sign of a dead leader but they did not wear uniforms at all and looked very diffrent. She then decided for one who was wearing an expensive looking silk sash by his side and whose beard was properly cut. That dead heathen had been rich while he was living so maybe he had also some leading authority within the raiders troops.
The priest Wainan rose from his prayer with keen eyes. Lurian and Svaina walked up to him without a word. Wainan pulled his plate gloves over his left hand and looked at them with a grim smile. "Torqua showed me the direction they left. He also ordered me to take no prisoners but crucify them living at the border to the desert. The raiders have seperated in 2 groups and the caravan is resting on the hils above the desert. We will go on immidiately."
Lurian was looking satisfied:"We want to summon a ghost from a raider to learn more about their army."
Wainan answered:"No it takes to much time, we have to take the momentum. If we go on now we will reach them before dawn in the hills and they will be easy prey. Svaina I want you to fly in advance and check the area for us. The ghost can not tell how they seperated their group and who is actually protecting the caravan. Also we need to know when the second group returns. Additionally I want to tell you that these raiders were lead by a Djinn Master with 2 asissting mages, most certainly also Djinn Masters from Kenzobaran. Do not tread them lightly. The Djinns may not be able to appear and attack our forces, but the can cause mayor natural phenomena like a stone avalanche or a desert storm. We can not ban these happenings because once the Djinn has evocted them they will be natural by all means."
Svaina answered:"We fought Djinn Masters in the past. They are dangerous. We will concentrate on keeping them busy and to hold their havoc from our knights."
"Just keep them at bay and make sure Mera will not die in the first minutes. She is a raging avatar. Her faith must be so strong. It is one of the most precious and powerful miracles Torqua gives to his devout followers. She will become stronger with every second and with each heathen she cuts down her power will increase. Lurian, while the knights get the horses ready, please scan the viliage for us. Now that we know there were mages on this invasion we need to make sure they did not leave something here to spy on us. Please check the viliage for activated clarevoyance spells or any other magic remains. Maybe they enchanted an animal or set up some alarm spell. Find it. Make sure we can proceed unnoticed." Lurian nodded knightly and then moved away to do his work.
Lurian went over to Mera:"We do not need the corpse. Wainan got detailed information from Torqua. Svaina will scout in advance as a bird and get us knowledge about the area and the enemies. But he want to follow them immidiately to catch them before dawn. Get ready to move out soon once I have searched the villiage for magical means which might betray us to the enemy."
"Happy to hear that. We will be ready to follow the raiders in 10 minutes." Mera ordered some of the knights to gather their fellows and to get the horses ready to leave. Many of them had a sack of food in front of them and the saddle was loosened. Most certainly they would have to ride 3 or 4 hours until they reach a place where to leave the horses. Svaina would guide them like she always does. Those battlemages were a great addition, even more since the forces of evil often had magical powers inherent or they were evil sorcerors, summoners or wizard. Even though the knights could suppress their magic and could shield against magick spells, there were diffrent kind of tricks, like traps, like spells against structure or movement and clarevoyance which could help them to get an advantage. Those battlemages were of course very proficient with destruction spells, but their education was also about how to overcome forces of evil generally, not only by means of stronger spells.