Chapter 27

“Martina, I ought to apologize, I think. I don’t know what came over me last night.”

“Well, Ysolda, if I were to make a guess I’d say Lydia, then me, then Lydia again, and finally me.”

“You’re ... you’re not upset?”

“Love, that was just pure fun. Now, how about we get some breakfast, and talk about your new responsibilities.”

“I am hungry enough to eat a horker. Wait, what new responsibilities?”

“As my personal merchant and trader, of course. Come on, let’s go see what the Bannered Mare has on the menu this morning.” We got dressed and walked over to the inn. Hulda and Saadia were already serving food. The three of us sat at a table and I ordered enough food for all of us. While we were waiting, I explained things to Ysolda.

“You know I have the new house just outside the walls. It will need regular supplies. Elise is acting as my steward, and will come up with lists of normal things she’ll need, food, candles, firewood, just normal things. At the same time, with your contacts with the caravans, I also want you to set up deliveries of special items. Arcadia has a decent supply of alchemy ingredients, but it’s limited. I don’t have time to run around to all the holds and get some of their more exotic items. I’ll also need filled grand soul gems for enchanting. And we’ll also need a good supply of smithing materials, too. Of course, I’ll also have things for you to sell as well, to help pay for all your purchases.”

Ysolda looked at me, narrowing her eyes. “What do I get out of it, if I do all this?”

“You mean other than more nights of incredible pleasure, the likes of which you’ve never felt before? Or was my hearing faulty when you screamed that out?” I grinned. “How about being part of my family? Which, I know isn’t something you were thinking of, but you’re going to be having a lot of coin pass through your hands. I’m sure that if no more than five percent stuck as it was going through, you’d find it well worth your while.”

She started to respond, but stopped when Saadia returned with our food and drink. After the Redguard woman left, Ysolda had a thoughtful look on her face. “You know, all I thought I wanted was to become a better trader, maybe end up running an inn like this. You tempt me, Martina. I know that your house wasn’t cheap, and I saw some of the things brought in for it. You’re going to be one of the most powerful women in Skyrim, maybe even more so than Maven Black-Briar. I feel that about you. And...”

She paused for a moment. “And I feel something more. You mentioned a family, didn’t you? I’d like that. I’ll be your merchant, Martina. And for family, there’s always a discount. I promise that expenses will be minimal, and as your factor, I’ll take no more than a three percent commission.”

“Good. Get with Elise. If she’s anything like her cousin, I’m sure she has things well organized by now.”

“Oh? Who’s her cousin?”

“Irileth, housecarl to Jarl Balgruuf.”

“Two percent, then. Having those connections as a merchant and trader, especially when I can truthfully say that I’m working for the Dragonborn, are invaluable. I’ll make it up in volume, and in the meantime, we’ll both get wealthy.”

“Good. Here, I happened to have this on me. I had hoped you would accept.” I handed her an Amulet of Zenithar. “May Zenithar bless both of us, then.”

We finished breakfast and the three of us walked to my home outside the walls. I introduced Ysolda to Elise, and left the two of them to get acquainted. Lydia and I gathered our supplies, loaded up our horses, and headed out.

“Where to now, my Thane?”

“We’ll end up at Fort Dawnguard. While it’s been a week ... damn, I guess a month ... we need to check in to see what else Isran has turned up on the vampire threat.”

“I like the way you phrased that. Where are we stopping first?”

“Am I that obvious?” She nodded. “Fine. The road happens to lead right past that bandit cave Annekke mentioned. May as well do her a favor.”

“And the minor detail that she’s married?”

“So is ... or was, depending upon how you look at it ... Adrianne.”

The only thing we passed on the road was a group of soldiers, heading somewhere. I suspected the truce was starting to break down again. Before long we reached the turn off to the cave. We hobbled our horses outside, by the lake that fed into the cave system. They’d have plenty of water and grazing out here.

“Just out of curiosity, my Thane, are you going to kill everyone inside with your bow, or will I have a chance to wet my blade?”

“Let’s see. If you have to use your blade, that means we take a chance of getting hurt, possibly seriously. And that’s a chance we have to take, for both of us. But if I can kill the bandits at long range ... well, they chose their lives, after all.”

“In other words, be as quiet and stealthy as I can be, and again be amazed at your prowess with a bow.”

“Yes, I think that sums it up nicely. Seriously, do you actually enjoy getting the crap beat out of you?”

“Well, I do enjoy a good fight, but when you phrase it that way, no, not really.”

“I have a sneaking hunch that by the time we’re done with the vampires, we’ll both have plenty of chances to use our blades. Until then ... well, there is no such thing as a fair fight when you’re trying to kill someone.”

She nodded at that, and then we entered the cave. A long tunnel with a stream flowing down the middle of it led us down. When we were about halfway down the tunnel, I could hear some voices ahead, and I could make out a couple of bandits in the torchlight. Two arrows later, the voices were stilled.

We continued onward, examining what they had at their watch post. The tunnel curved and continued onward, opening into a large cavern. The stream fell into a waterfall, feeding a huge lake. An island with a rock pillar supporting the center of the cavern was in the middle of the lake, with two earth and rock bridges going to it. Two more bandits were doing something on the pillar.

It was a long shot, but I got one, then the other. As we walked into the cavern, Lydia softly commented, “Wow, this is simply amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“It’s not a common sight, that’s for sure, my sweet.”

We got to the pillar and stopped, looking all around. I realized that there was a scaffold above the entry we’d used, with bandits patrolling the top portion of this cavern. Lydia looked at me like I was crazy when I drew my bow string. I aimed high due to the fall the arrow would have over the distance, and since this was indoors, there would be no wind. Two easy shots, one of which resulted in a nice dive of about a hundred feet down into the underground lake from the now dead bandit.

I then turned and killed the two that were on a scaffold on the other end of the cave. “Okay, now you’re just showing off,” Lydia complained. I chuckled, but kept going into the cave. We avoided a tripwire and I killed two more bandits, then we found a door into another, deeper part of the cave system.

This was a surprise. There was an old fort buried in here. I wondered if it was due to Vvardenfell exploding. We could hear some voices coming from inside the tower. A large hole in the side of a tower led into it. The room it opened into was set up as a bar. I first killed the bartender, then both patrons. We entered the tower, sneaking on through. A flight of stairs led us to a sleeping bandit. I gestured for Lydia to go ahead, kill the bandit. She did so while I shot another that was patrolling.

We left the castle portion and entered another section of cave. This large cavern was full of cages. Several bandits were sitting around what looked like an indoor arena. One of them, probably the leader, was taunting the ones outside to come face him in the arena. He sounded like he was on skooma and half out of his mind. I started shooting the ones closest to us, working my way back. I couldn’t quite get all of them, and Lydia briefly struggled with one bandit face to face.

One of the cages contained a sabre tiger. I decided to practice dual casting some destruction magic, since the tiger was stuck inside. That worked well, and I quickly had some more cat ingredients. In the meantime the bandit leader down in the arena just kept walking around, hollering for a challenger to come face him. He definitely was under the effects of skooma or some other drug, for he hadn’t even noticed us killing his followers.

In any event, I decided that he needed someone to play with. So I summoned a flame atronach in the cage with him. “He obviously doesn’t have the key to get out, and it’s not going to hurt us to have the atronach weaken him.”

“Not complaining, Martina. The one bandit that I did have to fight managed to punch me on my breasts.”

“Oh, poor baby. Want me to kiss them and make them feel better?”

“Honestly, yes.” She grinned at me. “But first, how about we kill this asshole?”

I looked back into the arena. The bandit leader looked tired, but he’d beaten my atronach. I shot him with an arrow as his reward. “Come on, let’s see what’s on the far side of this.” The pathway ended up leading us to the scaffold where I’d killed the diving bandit earlier. We hopped down to the earth bridge rather than dive into the lake. We stopped at the initial bandit lookout location. They had a spot with bedrolls already set up.

“Well, cave cleaned out of bandits. That’ll make Annekke happy. And it’s about time for a nap, and you need tended to, so strip out of that armor and let me help you with that injury issue.”

“Gladly.” Lydia pulled her armor off. Her breasts were showing a bit of a bruise. While she was doing that, I took the bandits cook pot to the stream, filled it with water, then cast flames on it. I took a rag, dipped it into the warmed water, and gently bathed her. “Ooh, that feels so good.”

“You’re welcome. I think I need to pay a bit of attention here.” I started licking around her nipples with my tongue. She reached over and pulled my helm off. “Oh, sorry, I was in such a hurry to tend your injuries, I forgot.”

Her eyes were gleaming as she quickly helped me pull the rest of my armor off. We had an impromptu session of injury healing by way of sexual satisfaction, followed by an evenings rest.

The next morning we ate, dressed, and then headed back out of the cave. We gave each horse a carrot as a treat and then headed out. It was a short ride to the turnoff for Darkwater Crossing. One of the guards told us that Annekke was still in her house.

We politely knocked, then entered. Annekke was just finishing up her breakfast. “Those bandits you were talking about recently ... they’ve been disposed of.”

“You remind me of myself a few years ago. Now I’ve got the itch to travel again. If you’re leaving town, I wouldn’t mind coming with for a while.”

“Do you feel comfortable leaving Verner to travel with me?”

“Travel has become dangerous of late. But you look like you’ve seen your share of adventure. Sure, I’d go with you. I could also do some good for a change. With the soldiers all fighting in the war, there’s nobody to hunt down the bandits.”

“I suspect there’s more to your decision than simple wanderlust.”

“We’ve got a daughter. A third generation miner. There was a horrible accident. One of the tunnels collapsed. As you can imagine, I’m worried about my daughter. This way, I can keep an eye on her, make sure she’s not getting killed traipsing around in the mine.”

“I understand. You’d like me to take you to your daughter first.”

“I’d like to make the journey together with you, yes. How about it? It’s not far. Here. This letter is the last I’ve heard of her and mentions where she is, in Shor’s Stone. All I care about is my daughter. It means more to me than you know.”

“I think we can accommodate that, especially since that also happens to be the way I was wanting to go anyway.” I chuckled. “And of course, I know how important family is and can be. Just ask anyone in my own family.” I glanced at Lydia, smiling.

“You know, I find you to be an attractive woman, Annekke, if I may be so bold.”

“And what might you be looking at? Am I that interesting? Or perhaps there are other things on your mind.”

“I admit that some thoughts of you have crossed my mind.”

“You’re a connoisseur indeed. Not many appreciate the subtle beauty of a married woman. And I appreciate it dearly. But I feel there are more important matters to attend to. I’m worried about my daughter, that’s my highest priority.”

“Then let us go find your daughter. You say she’s in Shor’s Stone? We’ve ridden past it before, never stopped. I apologize that I don’t have another horse for you to ride, but it’s not that far, and we’ll go slow so you can keep up.”

“Ha! I’m still a ranger and can easily keep up with a horse and rider. Let’s be off!”

This was not a path that Lydia and I had frequently traveled, so we hadn’t depleted the wildlife along it. Even on horseback, though, it was easy to draw my sword and kill a wolf or two ... or half a dozen. And two bears, and three frostbite spiders, for good measure. We rode into Shor’s Stone and dismounted after a good mornings ride.