by J E Mueller
SHAUDREY: BOOK TWO
SPIRIT’S LULLABY
J.E.Mueller
Published 2018 by J.E.Mueller
Cover by Ravenborn
Book formatting by Lia at Free Your Words
Contents
Title Page
Publishing Info
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About The Author
This novel is dedicated to Aud:
Your constant support and hilarious insight
made this book what it is.
The story would be lifeless without you.
Thank you for your constant inspiration.
And puns.
Chapter 1
I watched as Lydia pulled the sword from the final demon’s gut. It vanished in a less than exciting puff of smoke, and she limped her way across the small clearing to me. Covered in blood and sweat, we both looked a weary mess – not as the bards we were pretending to be. Thankfully, the density of the forest would protect us from view from any other traveling souls. Or so we hoped.
“What kind of fight was that?” I teased from where I sat. I tried to wipe the sweat from my brow but it seemed to only instantly reappear. “I’ve seen better footing from a drunk, you useless cucumber.” After the last fews days, some humor was needed.
“Says the one who can’t...” Lydia raised her eyebrow at me. Unable to finish her retort, she waved me off. Her short, black curls were a matted mess from all the recent combat, and I didn’t even want to know how my longer brown hair looked. It would likely be easier to chop it off than untangle the mess it surely was. Ponytails only did so much to help.
“I’m not the ‘best dodger this side of the Order of the Black Lillies.’” I mimicked her the best I could.
With a huff, Lydia dropped to the ground next to me. “I was until you showed up.”
“Uhuh.” I didn’t buy it.
We sat silently for a moment while a nice breeze picked up. Everything ached from the last few weeks of traveling, and I was starting to want a real bed. Adventuring had sounded so much more fun hearing it from Key’s perspective. I now knew too well it was a few good stories and several weeks of dullness mixed together.
Still, a lot had been going on recently and I wondered what was the turning point in my life. It was Key. Five years ago she happened to wander into our village just as chaos struck. In a few short weeks I went from being bored because my best friend was out of town to being kidnapped, rescued, having my aunt kidnapped by demons, to finally revealing my own odd magic abilities. For the most part I still ignored those.
“Come on Tella,” Lydia groaned, pulling me from my thoughts with a jolt. “Just get yourself a contract and you could slay demons easily by my side!”
Being Blessed was an interesting concept. It was essentially the same as being Cursed, only in a more positive manner. A formal contract was involved, along with angels, and from what I understood some form of ceremony. Through this, the Blessed gained extra magically enhanced talents of varying degrees and qualities. The common abilities for everyone were quicker self-healing, the ability to heal others even faster than healing themselves, being able to slay demons, and being able to actually see angels when they are in hiding. The price for these talents was simple: protect the world from demons for a set amount of years.
“You mean heal you after every battle?” I replied instead, once more brushing off the subject. It’s not like we hadn’t discussed it before. It was just more complicated than signing on the dotted line.
“That would be so great, thanks!” Lydia rolled on the ground in exaggerated pain. “Self-healing is so stupidly slow.”
“It’s still a faster pace than normal healing,” I said, getting up. “That’s what now, nine demons slain in two days? I think we should get back.” Normally we didn’t run into any trouble after a mission. That was the down side of having a Blessed best friend. The Blessed were like a magnet for demons. They were always trying to catch each other unaware. It caused an endless cycle of fighting for control of this plane of existance.
“But we didn’t complete the mission!” Lydia groaned loudly. She accepted my hand up after a moment of pouting.
“Only because someone beat us to it. The mission is done. Let’s get back to real beds, and food that doesn’t taste like mud.” I carefully moved Lydia’s arm over my shoulder to give her extra support. Staying in the vicinity of a recent demon fight always attracted more demons, and we didn’t have the strength for that.
“Why won’t you join us?” Lydia asked for probably the fifth time this month. It was very uncommon for someone not Blessed to accompany one on a mission. Even less common for someone considered normal to know about the Blessed.
It was a long decision, and one she knew the answer to.
It wasn’t my path.
While it was harder to explain why, she knew the reason. There were layers of complications and I wasn’t sure what to say about them. Overall, I was just happy we were on the same journey, even if our paths may eventually lead in different directions. Lydia had signed a pact ages ago, exchanging her soul for gifts from divine beings. They called them angels. Others preferred to call them the Divine’s Chosen.
I simply called them by their names. For some reason that often irritated them.
Smirking at the thought, I glanced over at Lydia. “Because someone’s got to stand at your side and make you look good.” With only my normal magic, Lydia was the strength of our party. My gifts were very limited in usefulness. I was fast. I had super speed, and I could learn extra quickly. I ignored my other gifts. They had caused enough headaches, and I planned on fully diving into that quest again soon.
But first, dreams of a warm bed and a proper meal called me.
“Guess you’re right. A combo of your magic and Blessed magic would show me up at times. Only at times, though.” Her sassy smile was replaced with a grimace of pain.
“Right, let’s see if there's any healers or Blessed nearby.”
Lydia sighed. “There’s never anyone nearby.”
“I’ve a good feeling.” I winked. A simple gift all magic users could learn was to sense another’s magic. Everyone felt a little different based on if they were a healer, fire user, and so on. If you knew a magic user well enough and they were close by, you could also locate them in the same way. It was easy enough to let my magic senses trail out as far as possible and see if there were any other magic users this way, but I didn’t need to.
I knew someone was close. A little birdy had told me so. Rather, a ghost. While I tried to ignore my other gift, it didn’t ignore me. Most my Blessed friends knew I could see spirits, angels, and demons, but it made almost all of them uncomfortable to talk about. Instead of trying to get them to face what my magic was, I sidestepped it and instead enjoyed having the advantage of knowing things only spirits could whisper. At the same time, while I could ignore spirits, once they realized I could hear them, they always had something to say.
Still, with the knowledge that s
omeone was close, the easiest way to signal to them that I was looking for help was to let my magic find them.
Letting my magic seek out help, I felt a wisp of Blessed magic I knew well, and a soft warmth of fire magic alongside it.
“This way,” I said, helping Lydia move west.
As we navigated the thick greenery around us, I felt the magic seek out mine. It was a natural response. My touch had alerted them to my presence, and I was glad. I was drained from our journey to Lemsgroove and after two days of demon fighting, I was ready to be among friends.
“Are you sure?” Lydia mumbled. I could hear the exhaustion in her voice. I knew she could feel the magic as well, but in her beaten up state she didn’t seem to recognize who was near.
“They’re of Blessed blood,” I replied with certainty, giving her a hint of who it could be.
“Let’s just rest then. They’ll come if you’ve signaled.” Lydia moved out of my hold and nearly collapsed to the ground. “Didn’t think blessing your sword and fighting demons would be so tiring. Good thing you move so fast.”
“Yes, my running magic does get put to good use.” I smiled at her, choosing to remain standing. Truthfully, being able to keep pace with a demon was the only reason I had survived these fights.
“I don’t know if I recognize this magic.” Lydia yawned again. “Feels familiar, but two? One’s not Blessed?”
Nodding, I kept an eye out for their arrival. “You’ll remember soon enough.”
A few moments later I felt the warmth of fire magic surround me. It was soft and comforting. I let the magic wrap around me as they drew closer. It was so wonderful to know friends were close by once more.
“Long time no see, Key,” I smiled as she and Lee appeared a short distance from us.
Key smiled happily. “I see you’re still getting into trouble.”
“Less trouble than you.” Lee shot her a knowing look before glancing at me. “My dearest cousin, what brings you this way?”
“Stabbing demons,” Lydia called from the ground. “How’s it going? We’re great. Can you heal me?”
Lee laughed as Lydia got to the point of the matter. “What happened this time?” he asked kindly as he knelt by her and began to try and heal her.
It felt like it had been much too long since I had seen either of them. Physically, little had changed. Key still had her dark brown hair, pulled back. Her eyes remained cautious but full of curiosity. Lee did look a bit worse for wear, but like us, I’m sure it was from all the traveling. His kindness hadn’t been dimmed from demon slaying, and his laugh was exactly how I remembered it.
Key turned to me while they chatted. “So were you on the Grove Bend demon case?”
I nodded. “Yes, how did you know?” She smiled widely. “Oh, so you’re the ones who completed it.”
“We happened to be on the way back with Emmyth when we ran into the ragtag soulless group trying to complete the master level of their demon… whatever they called it. Long story short, there was arguing, some stabbing, and no saving. It’s been a shame we haven’t been able to actually save anyone from their bad decisions lately.” Key paused her tale and called back towards Lee, “Speaking of Emmyth, he’s finally caught up.”
“How did you get separated?” I asked, surprised.
“His choice. He had a stop to make.” Key shrugged. “We all have those moments. Speaking of, how’s the spirit thing going?” She kept subject hopping quickly, but I suspected she didn’t want to tell someone else’s story.
I could only smile. Key never strayed away from the rougher topics. “Terrible. After Rania went missing I’ve no idea where to go with my training, but at least it’s given me the upper edge on information and slaying. Now, if only I could figure out how to get them to cross over.”
“Go to the Order of Reawakening,” Key said bluntly, almost like a command.
“Why there?” I asked curiously. The Blessed never bothered with that place. It was a nice neutral little community working on teaching healers their craft and giving shelter to cursed who were looking for their way in the world.
“I bet you won’t find a single ghost, demon, or Blessed soul there,” Key replied with a wink and came to stand closer to me. “So, if there are no ghosts, what’s keeping them away? Is anything? Or is someone helping them cross over?”
Her closeness and whispered words surprised me. Key, even after defeating her curse, was not a touchy person. “How do you know all of this?”
“I finally went back for a visit last year. There’s a lot of interesting new faces there. Some old friends and I caught up a bit. One conversation led to another, and that’s the path you need to be on.” Key took a step back, resuming her normal distance from people.
“I owe you one.” I nodded my thanks. “After we get this mission turned in and debriefed I’ll head there.”
“Head where?” Lee asked as he and Lydia joined us.
Lydia looked tired, but ten times better than she had moments ago. “You’re making plans without me?”
“I could never!” I gasped dramatically before laughing. “Just talking about my crazy magic stuff. Mostly its lack of progress.”
Lee glanced over at Key suspiciously.
In turn, Key smiled and began to hum a tune. She didn’t know the words or the name. It was always the same one. Soft, sweet, and sad...
“What trouble are you getting Tells into now?” Lee asked tiredly.
“Key, get someone into trouble?” Emmyth asked, joining the group. “Never heard of such a thing! She’s a fine young princess.” I loved his way of entering a room, or clearing in this case. His ease of sliding into the conversation was unmatched.
“Now you’re overdoing it.” Key crossed her arms but laughed at the joke. “I just am helping my awesome little friend out. Information that can benefit one's learning is always best shared.”
Lee looked over my way. “What trouble is she getting you into?”
I laughed, skipped over the few steps between us, and hugged Key. “My favorite cousin was telling me about some ghost stuff.” Key never hesitated to tell me things. More times than not she referred to me as her shadow. That was before we were both traveling so much.
“Oh from Reawakening?” Emmyth asked knowingly.
Lee glanced at him. “Am I the only one not in on this?”
Lydia raised her hand. “I for one am not in on this either. Explain, people.”
Key laughed and stepped back away from my hug. “I heard of a person with a special gift. One that allows them to see spirits and help them pass, and on top of that is said to keep demons away. Reawakening has always had its unique residents. Why not let Tella visit such a well-meaning place?”
Lee was about to say something, but shook his head. “I’ve got nothing. It actually doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” Victory to Key.
“It’s not like I’ve had only bad ideas recently,” Key pointed out, arms crossed.
“You do have more than your share though,” Emmyth jested.
“Please. No one’s been stabbed recently. Minus the demons.” Key waved off his comment.
Lee snickered and moved to whisper something into her ear. With a whack on his shoulder, Lee stepped back.
“That doesn’t count!” Key momentarily fumed.
“I don’t know if this is demon or person related.” Lydia glanced at me. “But it’s a three-day walk, so we should probably get started. Are you heading back home?” she asked everyone else.
“Sort of.” Lee smiled. “We’re heading to see Mom. We promised to stop by Kegan’s on the way though, so we’ll be going in the same direction.”
“Kegan’s!” Lydia’s eyes lit up. “I miss her!”
“You just miss the food,” I said picking, up the path again and letting them follow.
Lydia was close behind. “But Kegan can be fun too. Sometimes. She gets mad if you don’t practice enough forms. Dodge and stab are all you need!”
“Not true,
” I argued, “While your contract is in fact about slaying demons, there’s more than just turning them to dust involved.”
“Yeah yeah, save the people, greater good. I’ve done my healings already.” Lydia rolled her eyes.
“But have you given yourself to those in need? Truly given to someone in a way that was not expected?” I asked, knowing she hadn’t done any unscheduled service. Not that planning out your good deeds was wrong, but sometimes going the extra mile was better.
“I save your butt constantly. I think that counts.” Lydia smirked.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure you’ve got that backward.”
“Arguing, the second most popular way for a bard to travel!” Emmyth interrupted us with his laugh.
“What’s the most popular way then, smarty pants?” Lydia glanced back at him.
In one swift motion Emmyth pulled out his lute and began to sing, “Our hero, our hero claims a warrior's heart!”
With a laugh, I grabbed for my pan flute and happily joined in the tune while Lydia took up the song. Her alto voice rang out sweetly as she projected her voice throughout the woods. Her singing was always my favorite part of any long journey. While we grew up together, I had hardly heard her sing before learning of her secret life as a part-time bard, full-time demon slayer. It was great to be in on this world, and I was glad we were finally able to really be friends with no secrets. My family had had its share as well, but that didn’t matter now. Instead, I pushed the memories down as I enjoyed the group coming together to create a fun song of our own.
It was well into the night of the second day of our travels that I laid restlessly staring up at the stars. It was too loud. The pleading, the sobbing, the constant chattering…
But no one else heard a word.
This was one of those nights I hated hearing the dead. The recently departed who hadn’t moved on right away wandered around confused. They didn’t know what was happening and why no one seemed to notice them. Those souls were beyond my grasp. While I could hear them, I didn’t know how to speak with them. The souls who had adjusted to their unlife I could speak with, and I didn’t know what the difference was. It made sleeping rough some nights while we traveled. Only places far from towns seemed to be quiet enough at night lately.
