The wounded goblin warriors had been trussed up by Xia Ya with rope and strung along in a line like grasshoppers.
Oakes had gone from being a captive to being Xia Ya's companion—a promotion won by the sympathy it had stirred in him—and along with the new rank it took on the job of driving the captives along.
Mr. Wife propped itself on a short spear some goblin warrior had thrown away, using it as a walking stick, while with its other hand it brandished a broken saber and drove the long line of prisoners forward. It was plain enough that, thanks to its own wretched fate, Oakes harbored a deep hatred for every goblin in that tribe, and the goblin warriors took a good deal of abuse at its hands.
Xia Ya and the wretch brought up the rear, the wretch still sitting on the shield while Xia Ya carried her along on his shoulder.
"Hey, bumpkin..." The wretch seemed a little ashamed. "You... you saved me again today. That's the third time you've saved me. Um... thank you."
Xia Ya's answer was blunt. "What good is thanks? Can you give me anything for it?"
The wretch opened her mouth, then said quietly, "You've already taken all the money I had on me..." But then she rallied her courage. "If—if we get back safely this time, I promise I can give you a very large sum of money!"
Xia Ya said nothing, as if he did not believe a word of it.
The wretch was quiet for a while, then suddenly asked, "Hey, is your name really Xia Ya? I heard you tell the goblin that just now."
"Hmph," said Xia Ya.
"You know so many things." The wretch frowned; when she frowned, her brows curved in a way that was quite distinctive. "You know all about the Wildfire Plain, and you know a great deal about goblins, and you can even speak a little of their language. None of that is anything I've ever heard of. Were you born on the Wildfire Plain? Is your name really Xia Ya? Is that your full name?"
"Mm," said Xia Ya.
"And also—could we... could we please not go any further?" Pitifully, the wretch came out with her real purpose. "Let's go back. If it's money you want, I can give you lots and lots of money. You... whatever you want, you can have it."
"Hmph," said Xia Ya.
"..." At last the wretch could not hold back. "Don't you know it's very dangerous to keep going? And... if anything happened to me, my... my family would never let you off."
Xia Ya did not catch the concern in her voice; he only lifted his head, his face full of contempt. "Do you have any idea how stupid you sound saying that?"
"Huh?" The wretch was struck dumb.
Xia Ya's tone was perfectly serious. "You're telling me now that you're somebody grand, thinking you can scare me off? But think about it—the more you tell me that, the less I can let you go. Because I'd be afraid that once you got back, you'd bring men to come take revenge on me, and the best way to handle that is to kill you right here and bury you in whatever pit is handy."
He paused, a touch of mountain-folk cunning on his face. "Doesn't it strike you as odd? Two days now, and I haven't asked you a single question."
"Did I ever ask you why a useless thing like you was wandering the Wildfire Plain alone?"
"Did I ever ask you how you managed to step in a game trap?"
"Did I ever ask you who you are, carrying that much gold on you?"
The wretch had nothing left to say.
"Because I know that if I did ask, and you told me you were some grand personage, so what? So there's no point asking at all. I'm not letting you go now no matter what; all I can do is wait till we find the dragon's treasure, and once I've got it and I'm long gone with the loot, maybe then there's a chance I'll let you go. But for now... heh heh."
Seeing that this bumpkin was still dreaming of getting rich, the wretch cried out in agitation, "But you're already hurt! The wound on your back hasn't healed! And today, with those goblins, you took a hurt on your leg too! I know you're a formidable warrior, but... that's a dragon! Even at your very best you couldn't possibly beat a dragon, never mind after being wounded! I even doubt you can cross this goblin territory in one piece! Both of us are going to die out here!"
"You've got that right." Xia Ya chuckled, then lowered his voice. "My skills are good for a few dozen goblin warriors at most. Any more than that and I'm done for. But my life isn't worth much anyway. If I don't take a gamble now, I'm nothing but a broke nobody; if I win, I'm rich beyond my dreams. So why not gamble?"
Anxious, the wretch said hastily, "I'm not asking you to let me go... as long as—as long as we get out of the Wildfire Plain, I can find a way to pay you a great deal, and besides..."
Before she could finish, Xia Ya abruptly cut her off, his tone mocking. "And you think I should believe you? You poor wretch—the first time I saved you, you told me you'd 'die before going back with you.' Ha. I'm sure you ran away from some rich man's house. The way you look, you're either a rich man's runaway or a criminal who made off with a pile of money. Either way, I don't believe for a second that you'd pay me anything once you got back."
Then he consoled her in all earnestness. "Don't be so gloomy. We're going after that dragon—maybe the mages have already killed it, and then there'll be no need to use you for bait. So if you believe in the gods, start praying."
This damned bumpkin has no idea what's waiting for him up ahead!
Those people... is it really them? It has to be them! They've come looking for me!
If those people find me, all that's waiting for me is to be dragged back...
But this bumpkin—he might... no, no, not 'might'! He'll be killed, for sure!
I know my uncle's character well enough. To bury this matter, he won't hesitate to kill anyone who breathes a word of the scandal! And besides, to someone of my uncle's standing, this bumpkin is less than an ant—squash him and that's that.
Then again, this bumpkin may be rough with me, but he's saved me three times now, one way or another.
Ugh... how am I ever going to talk him out of going further north...
Xia Ya needed no reminder from the wretch: by nightfall he had already realized perfectly well that he had run into trouble he had not planned for!
In fact, the whole day on the road he had been hoping that the Brokeback goblin lord by the name of "Tian Gong" would show himself—honestly, he very much wanted to meet the badass who had pioneered the way of Brokeback among goblinkind.
Pity, but Lord Tian Gong never appeared. He had taken a dozen-odd goblin warriors captive, yet for some reason the tribe had sent no more warriors after him.
The fellow he was waiting for had not come, but ahead lay a scene he had never expected!
That evening, Xia Ya and the others finally came in sight of the river Oakes had spoken of.
Since this was the dry season of winter, the riverbed had run nearly dry: a river that had once been over a hundred paces wide was now less than a third of that, and the water had dropped so low that never mind humans, even dwarves or goblins could wade across without the slightest effort—it came up to the knee at most.
Right there on the riverbank, the party came upon a camp.
It was a small goblin tribe.
Well—to be precise, this place had "once" been a goblin tribe!
From far off they caught a stench that turned the stomach, and from far off they made out a broken circle of earthen wall, most of it collapsed, with a few mutilated goblin corpses draped here and there over what was left of it, the bodies marked by the trampling of horses' hooves.
Inside the wall, not a single soul in the goblin tribe was left alive. Several of the earthen goblin huts had been smashed, and of the withered old tree trunk that had stood before the tribe, two goblin corpses now hung from it.
The two goblins hanging from the tree looked to be among the burlier, taller sort of their kind—no doubt the leaders of this tribe.
Beyond that, dozens more goblin corpses lay on the ground, sprawled every which way, and everywhere were the marks of battle: the goblins' crude weapons flung about in disarray, broken and battered blades, cracked shields and shattered scraps of shoddy leather armor.
At the sight of all that blood on the ground, the wretch's first reaction was to nearly faint. Xia Ya went dead serious at once, a strange light in his eyes. "All of you stay right here and don't move!"
He tore off a strip of cloth and stuffed it over his nose and mouth, then went alone into the slaughtered goblin tribe.
Beside one of the smashed earthen huts, Xia Ya saw a broken goblin short spear lying on the ground. He picked it up and studied the break for a while.
"What a clean cut!" Xia Ya's eyes narrowed. "What neat work!"
The longer he looked, the more a kind of fervor crept into his eyes. He drew a deep breath and, swinging his battle-axe, chopped the short spear in two.
With a crack, he bent to look at the fresh cut, studied it a while, and then said with some dejection, frowning, "No good. My cut isn't that smooth."
Thinking it over carefully, he was still unwilling to accept it. "Mm. Maybe my weapon just isn't as sharp as those people's."
Still, whoever had attacked this place either had martial skills beyond his own, or weapons and gear far finer than his...
And by the traditions of the Wildfire Plain, running into a band of your own kind in the wild who killed without blinking was never good news.