The next couple of days were spent with the travel preparations. As always, it fell to me to do everything related to the logistics of it, since letting Uther deal with detail-oriented boring work was a recipe for disaster.

  It takes five days by horse to reach the forest. Although I greatly prefer using a carriage, it would take us more time than we could afford, so we needed to travel lightly.

  I was not a bad rider, but riding five days straight was not something I was looking forward to. I was not fond of wearing men’s attire, but they were more adequate to riding horses than my regular dresses were, so I ended up wearing those. Not exactly a big concern, but it annoyed me. Also, to avoid identification, I was not using my slave collar, what felt a little strange to me, like I was exposed.

  Accompanying us were a squad of ten of the army scouts, wearing regular clothes with some pieces of armor instead of uniforms to draw less attention. They would protect us during the trip, but also assess the terrain in case the frontal assault option was necessary.

  Commanding them was Captain Ectar. It was obvious that his blood came from the frozen wastelands to the North, with a muscular frame, blue eyes, dirty-blond hair, and an unkempt beard. He wore a brown hooded cape over his armor that did a good job in disguising his features and body type, and that would be necessary if he had any hope with that not drawing attention thing.

  The concept of any form of peace with the monsters would be considered preposterous by many, with the wounds of the war still unhealed, so this was a secret mission. Even the scouts had only the most basic idea of the plan.

  Our first leg got us close to Ravenwood, but we avoided the village because there was a great risk that someone would recognize us. The rest of the trip was uneventful, the road to Silver Lake Forest was important for the commerce between Central and the western kingdoms, especially Nariel and Stormfront, so it was well maintained.

  By the end of the fifth day, we arrived at the huge body of water that gave the forest its name, Silver Lake. If one was caught unaware, he could mistake it for the ocean. It was the kind of lake it would take days to circumvent.

  The forest would still be some distance down the road, but there was a fishing village before that which was used as a resting place for merchant caravans, or at least it was before the roads had closed.

  Captain Ectar suggested that we sent two men to gather information in the village and we would make camp near the entrance of the forest.

  The first day was spent gathering basic intelligence about the surroundings, and that was where the scouts excelled. At night, we consolidate all that was discovered.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  The monsters that came from the Armored Sorcerer's army had not attacked the village, what kind of explained why there was still a village in the first place, and just settled in a ruin a couple of days into the forest. The outskirts were mostly plagued by wargs, that had been a problem way before the Armored Sorcerer was even born.

  But, since it would be too much for fate to give us a break, the most concerning part of the report was that there was some big creature that recently moved to this region of the forest. The scouts could not determine the type of the monster, only that it was humanoid. It would fall to luck if we would run into it.

  And finally, we got to the difficult part, explaining to a group of professional soldiers why two people entering alone a forest full of monsters was a good idea.

  “Your Highness, with all due respect, are you out of your mind?” sensibly inquired Captain Ectar.

  “We want to avoid escalating a conflict with the monsters, so a smaller group would be better” tried to explain Uther with dubious conviction.

  Ectar put the hand on his face like an adult trying to not lose patience with the bogus explanations of an unruly child.

  “Two person is not a small group; it is a ticket to an early grave! And why the lass? She looks like she will snap with a strong breeze ... no offence.” I just made an appeasing gesture; he was not too far off. “Take some of my men!”

  But then ... he stopped arguing. There was a slight change in his expression that I did not give much thought at the time.

  “Fine!” Ectar raised his arms in exasperation and let them drop. “You are the commander here; I suppose you know what you are doing ... Your Highness.” He added as an afterthought.

  To be honest, I was expecting more opposition. During the journey it became clear that Ectar’s respect for authority was somewhat erratic, and he had no quarrels in speaking his mind. Well, I was not going to complain about things going our way for once.”

  We separated the supplies we would need for our trip, what was not problematic, at least until we got to the healing potions.

  Before the war, me and Uther had always travelled with a good stock, I usually carried at least two on my bag and Uther kept one with him. But that was before the siege and the defenders drinking it like it was lemonade on a hot summer day.

  Healing potions were one of the most precious strategic resources. In a protracted battle, each potion was equivalent to one extra soldier in reserve, so the kingdom maintaining an ample reserve was crucial.

  I was camouflaged among the furniture during a meeting between members of the guild and ministers from the government and heard that the best, most optimistic estimate was that it would take at least a decade for the stocks to return to prewar levels.

  At that moment, availability plummeted, and prices skyrocketed. The remaining stock from the capital had to be carefully managed between monster hunting parties from the army, civilian emergencies, and special missions like ours.

  In summary, we only had three potions for the entire group, half of what would be the minimum recommended.

  The mission for the scouts was to map all they could from the forest, so they would also be at great risk.

  It ended with Me and Uther taking one, the other two would be kept in the camp and the scouts could take them during their missions and, if all went well, return them after. It was important to store the potions in a place everybody knew because you only have a one-hour window after the injury to administer the potion or it would not work.

  With that resolved, by dawn, me and Uther entered the trail that would lead us to the ruins settled by the monsters.