Chapter 53: Detective Lynn
Istrad was at first not very certain, but now that he heard Lynn's warning, not only did he not feel annoyed, but also felt thrilled.
"Master, what were the traces that you saw?"
Istrad's juniors, who were still bending their heads and being sad, also swarmed over when they heard the conversation between Lynn and Istrad.
Of course, they also heard Lynn's warning to Istrad.
Therefore, they only kept at bay and watched without drawing near.
The witcher mutations gave him keen senses with which he was able to spot clues where normal people readily did not notice.
While in Kaer Morhen, Lynn was taught by Vesemir how to discern and track traces.
This mound of knotted weeds, disorderly to the naked eye, was radiant and distinct to the witcher's heightened vision.
"Horse hoof marks, many horse hoof marks. These horse hoof marks can approximately be classified into two kinds, one left behind by carriages of the caravan, and the other ridden by the bandits."
Lynn's eyes followed the hoof marks near the stable, right into the hearts of the wilderness from the avenue.
Lynn looked at Geralt.
The other party's eyes also moved over.
From Geralt's cat eyes, Lynn saw what he saw.
So he stood up, dodged the traces under his feet, and went to Istrad.
"Sir, I found it."
Istrad asked, "Found what?"
"It's the attackers. These men did not walk in here, but came on horses. And we also know what they did to the three people you left in the stable last night."
Lynn spun around, gestured to the traces behind the stable, and spoke deliberately.
"Last night, some of the attackers arrived horseback riding, disguised as tired travelers, and then the innkeeper appeared, holding two bottles of wine, for your soldiers, and the other for the attackers."
"Maybe you guessed that the wine presented to the attackers was standard, not mixed with additives, while the wine offered to your soldiers had a lot of powder of anesthetic substance in it.
"Anesthetic powder is addictive, it drives people out of their sense about the outside world and it makes people feel extremely happy."
"These attackers used the anesthetic powder to act on them and slit their throats."
"Then the attackers launched an attack at us. The rest of the attackers, when the attack turned out to be a failure, rode in haste and escaped on their horses."
Istrad was shocked for a while.
He blinked again and studied the ground Lynn was indicating.
Having trouble figuring out the information Lynn said from it.
But frustratingly, he thought he had tried hard enough.
But he could still see nothing.
But however, as a man who will take back Kovir and Poviss and be king one day, even if Istrad does not understand these things, it does not matter.
He only needed to be able to "put the right people in the right places."
"Master, can you trace these tracks and lead us to the attackers' camp?"
"We'll see."
So Lynn and Geralt led the way, and Istrad and the others followed behind far enough not to ruin the traces made by the attackers.
Since there were no horses, the carriages could not be taken away, so Istrad left some to guard the carriages.
Even if he had learned something from Vesemir, as a tracker, he was no match for the experienced old bird that Geralt was.
And so, using the acquired learning zeal for acquiring knowledge as long as life remained, Geralt turned this tracking into a formal practical tutorial session.
He taught Lynn his recon methods freely to begin with and then tried letting Lynn discover the traces for himself.
Although it would have slowed down the search, it also allowed Lynn to get extremely valuable experience.
A few hours passed.
Everyone came across a small forest.
Geralt outstretched his arm.
Istrad and the people following him froze at once, went down on one knee, and tried to get as low as possible to reduce the likelihood of being found.
From Lynn and Geralt's cat-eye sight, they had already seen the guard patrolling before the small forest in the distance.
"He hasn't seen us yet, but."
Cat eyes of the witcher not just appear menacing, but also allow the witcher to see farther than normal folks.
Lynn narrowed her eyes: "I don't count how many are in the camp within the forest."
Geralt looked around, and finally directed his eyes towards a raised platform not too distant from all of them.
"We need to go up there. The view there is nicer and it is easier for us to hide."
Geralt's suggestion was agreed upon by all.
All began to withdraw.
Then they moved towards the mound he had proposed.
The mound, much higher than the ground, was enough to hide their bodies closely.
The notion was that they all lay on the ground, not on their feet.
Someone couldn't help but ask: "What shall we do now, master?"
Geralt brushed him aside to quieten down: "We'll wait for night, and then decide."
Time passed slowly by.
Waiting was always painful.
Even Istrad himself couldn't help but get agitated.
But he kept telling himself to remain patient.
So, hours passed by.
Night eventually arrived.
Lynn came out of meditation.
He looked at Geralt.
The latter nodded and spoke to Istrad, "Sir, you'd better stay here."
Istrad talked nervously.
"Just the two of you? Do you want me to send someone along with you?"
Geralt shook his head: "The more, the more to get in the way. It's just reconnaissance, we'll cope. We'll come back to report countermeasures after we're finished with reconnaissance."
Lynn pulled out two bottles of cat potion from his traveling potion pouch and gave one to Geralt.
Though the witcher's vision is far better than ordinary folks.
But if he drank the cat potion once more, he would see at night as during the day.
Putting the use of the darkness to good use, the two slipped quietly down the hill and stumbled towards Geralt's camp in the forest.
The attackers also set up sentry posts at night, and doubled themselves.
But to no avail.
Firstly, the majority of people in this age had night blindness.
That is, they were as good as useless blind individuals at night.
Secondly, even without night blindness, people were much more confined at night than during the day.
Even with light sources in the form of torches, the radius that torches could illuminate was much smaller than one would have imagined.
Therefore, Lynn and Geralt stumbled comfortably to the edge of the forest camp.
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