"Yes, my lord. But, I want to note right away, the essence of my report is a compilation of the information that we managed to collect with the help of intelligence and reading the minds of the caravaners, after which your faithful servant allowed himself to process and re-comprehend the collected information. Based on the above, I want to ask if this information passed through me, Your Grace, is suitable.
"Don't worry, Kaisar, I trust your ability to collect and analyze information. Report.
- Thanks to! Then, maybe I'll start.
"Firstly, the area of the desert of death in which we are located is one and a half million square miles, and in all this area there is not a single source of water or food. The only animals living in it are carnivorous worms, the mode of survival of which we have not yet fully understood. From which it follows that our underground country-pyramid, located near the center of the desert, is the only inhabited building with intelligent life.
"Secondly, the areas surrounding the desert are inhabited by sentient beings. At the moment, we have information about four places in which, according to our intelligence, there is intelligent life. The first such place is the mountain range to the north of us. According to the information that we were able to get from the caravaners, we know about the name of this place: the Kingdom of the stone giants. People consider this area very dangerous and have absolutely no contact with the creatures living there, so it was not possible to find out anything detailed, but I sent shadows there for reconnaissance.
"The next place is the city-state of Hordnock, from where the caravan is heading. The city itself is located south-southwest of us and is human. As for the final destination of the caravan, it lies in the city-state of Tai-Lon, which is located to the east of here. He is also human. Naturally, shadows have already been sent to both cities.
"Good," Vladyka said, still emotionlessly, "but what about the ambush on the caravan?"
- I just wanted to report to you, - Kaisar fell silent for a second, gathering his courage, - the fact is that some unknown person got ahead of us and destroyed all the assassins sitting in an ambush. The shadows that were with them recorded an unprecedented surge of mental power emanating from the attackers, because of this very power, the shadow spirits could not even see them. They say that the unknowns burst in like a whirlwind, and this whirlwind was not only physical, but also duplicated by mental barriers through which the shadows could not pass. Everything happened instantly, sitting in ambush did not have time to do anything. When the shadow spirits realized that they were not able to penetrate the numerous mental barriers, and thereby find out the identity of the assailants, they, having increased their disguise, decided to follow the whirlwind itself, and they succeeded.
The unknowns went to the "Secret Garden", this is the fourth place that I wanted to report to you. People know almost nothing about this place except that some forest dwellers live there. Our scouts have also found it, but they can't get any further due to the multiple barriers. The secret garden is located in the southeast, unfortunately, I can't say anything more about it ... Please forgive me, Vladyka.
— Forgive? For what? Your failure is due to the inaccessibility of information, so it can't even be counted as an error, everything is fine. As for the Secret Garden," Inmir smiled, "it interested me. Tell Sen and Leiko to go there and try to make contact with the locals. Do not engage in battle, try to solve everything peacefully. If they attack first, let them just push the enemy back and retreat, and then immediately contact us. All clear?
- Yes my Lord! Everything will be performed in the best possible way!
- Do it.
- I'm listening!
* * *
The two elves trudged slowly on their lizards through the desert, no face on them. They couldn't believe they had managed to fail such an easy mission. And even if bad luck was not connected with them personally, they were still depressed, their chance to rise in the eyes of the Lord, having successfully completed this mission, sailed away from under their very noses.
"These damned nonentities, how dare they steal our prey," Sen was clearly angry, "I would have killed everyone with my bare hands, creatures!"
"Calm down brother, don't lose your cool, do you remember our father's instruction?" Only a cold mind is capable of making the right decisions!
Sen took a deep breath.
- You're right, I lost my temper, everything just somehow fell on me, at first this snake set us up before the Lord, now some bastards have stolen our prey ... It pisses me off terribly ...
- Me too, but this is not a reason to lose composure. O! It looks like the shadows want to give us a message from the Master.