A Tune of Demons Box Set: The Complete Fantasy Series

by J E Mueller

  Taking a deep breath, I refocused myself. Fine, my touch wouldn’t kill him. He was lucky his overly friendly attitude wouldn’t get him charred. That was not the most important thing right now. Tella was.

  I headed east.

  There wasn’t an easy way to breach the wall without being seen and I wondered if she lived outside of the village. That seemed more likely. With the town on high alert, everyone was jumpy at the sight of a new face. A stranger couldn’t have walked in and walked back out with someone.

  At this point, no one was outside of the village. As I approached the surrounding woods, I knew I was very visible. It would actually make finding Tella easier if there was someone waiting just inside the woods, but it was unlikely. Instead, I started with the basics. Carefully, I walked along the entrance to the woods looking for other signs of a struggle - dragging or any obvious damage to the plants not related to a normal occurrence.

  Thankfully, luck was on my side and there was some recent activity in the wood. Heavy footprints and signs of something being dragged led me through part of the forest before heading north and disappearing. My guess was that Tella struggled, and her attacker had to knock her out before being able to carry her. The trail was obvious since they hadn’t tried to cover any of their mess. Maybe they heard of the ongoing preparations and rushed ahead with their plan. The thought worried me. Hopefully, that would mean Tella would be left unguarded and safe, but it could just as easily mean the opposite.

  The woods sounded normal. Birds happily chirped to one another signaling all was clear over here. It was calming and reassuring to know danger wasn’t a breath away, but I needed a plan.

  Stealthily, I walked alongside the trail they had created. It seemed to go on and on, and twist oddly as if they had forgotten where they were heading. The further I traveled the quieter the forest became until finally after maybe twenty minutes of searching a crude hut appeared. It was covered with vines and moss. There was no glass in the windows, and a rough-hewn door marked the entranceway.

  A figure emerged from the hut. A tall and lanky man did a slow walk around the crude building. I didn’t dare move a muscle. No magic was coming from him, but I could sense something in the hut. Tella? I was going to assume it was her since the magic felt slightly familiar. She was alive, and I needed a plan.

  Not wanting to do anything drastic, I watched and listened. Every so often the guy would appear in the front window and look out. After ten minutes he walked in his careful circle around the outside of the hut. What could I do? Sprinting in when he was out wouldn’t be hard, but then I’d be trapped with him and possibly others inside. If luck was on my side it would only be him. If Tella wasn’t harmed I’d make sure not to kill her captor.

  I waited and listened. Carefully grabbing a rock, I tossed it as far from myself as I could when he made his next round outside. He reacted unexpectedly, running back inside and rushing back out with a crossbow.

  That did change the game a bit. He had some weapons, and if I was being honest, I had no idea how to get around that one. If he had it in his hands, I could be dead. I might have one shot to knock it out of his hands, but that would likely be it - and I had no such skills.

  A strange feeling overcame me and I felt an odd tendril of magic reaching out to me. Frozen in hiding, I tried to recognize it. the Order had taught those they could how to tell whose magic was whose, but I rarely practiced it seeing as I tried to keep mine hidden and to myself. I knew this one though, soft and warm, reminding me of a quiet night. Someone with strength and an abundance of kindness. Minutes passed as I thought on it. Lee. There was no other who I had even tried connecting magic with outside of practice. It felt odd, but I was glad to know I’d have help with saving Tella.

  Another minute later and he was behind me. Ducking down and out of sight, I carefully moved down to his level.

  “She’s alive but guarded,” I said barely, above a whisper.

  He nodded. “How many?” His voice was as soft as mine.

  “I’ve only seen one. He’s always watching and does circles around the hut. He’s got a crossbow.”

  Lee nodded. “Makes sense that they have weapons. This would be a great time to have fireballs or magic to make objects move. I’d even take illusions.”

  “Can’t you trip him?” I asked, “If we time it right we can knock him out.”

  Lee shook his head. “There's a chance he’d catch himself.”

  “Can you make a man sized hole for him to fall into?” I asked hopefully.

  “That’d be even better, but no. I can’t manipulate the ground that much.” Lee paused. “I don’t think I can anyway. I’ve never tried. Now doesn’t seem like a good time to experiment.”

  We stayed silent for a moment and thought.

  “Well, I’ve got a terrible plan,” I sighed. Rescue missions weren’t high on my list of things to learn and study.

  “Yeah?” Lee asked, curious.

  “If you go back a ways and start calling for Tella, I can make my way around to the other side. While he’s distracted I can grab her.”

  “That’d be okay if we knew for sure how many were inside,” He motioned to the hut. This was why I had said the plan was terrible.

  “If there are others and they don’t try to use weapons, I am my own best defense. They’d die just from grabbing my arms.” I removed my gloves and hiked up my sleeves. This was a change of events. My curse was a kind of armor. Not that I wanted to use it this way, but someone’s life was on the line.

  “I hate this plan,” Lee admitted. “I don’t want to send someone in to get hurt.”

  “Doesn't matter. The kid’s got a lot of life ahead of her. She comes first. We really don’t have time to wait for backup.” I shook my head at him. “Are you in or out?”

  He looked upset but shook it off. “In. Let’s get this over with.” He started moving back but paused to add, “You had better not get yourself killed.”

  “It takes an odd amount of effort to kill a Cursed born. I’ll be fine. You watch for the crossbow,” I replied smugly as I made my way carefully to my new spot.

  As I moved I remembered a terrible joke from the Order. Basically it was that Cursed born would be saved by demons if they were going to die from doing something righteous. Demons wanted souls for themselves and by the Cursed born doing good, the angels would get their souls instead. I didn’t want to test the joke, so I shoved the memory aside instead and concentrated on saving Tella.

  I tried remembering how to do the trick Lee had done with his magic. How to send a wisp out to seek others exactly. It was a hard thing to master, and without any recent practice, my reach was short.

  The minutes seemed to stretch on endlessly until I heard Lee start his part. He called Tella’s name in this direction and that, trying to make it look like there was a search party. My heart ached at how badly this could end. It was a terrible idea, but it was the best we had.

  The lanky man burst through the door and rushed towards the trees. His crossbow was at the ready, and he waited, watching intently. Moving as fast as I dared, I made my way to the hut and slipped inside. Tella was tied up to a chair and gagged. Fear shone in all her features, but I breathed a sigh of relief. There were cuts and bruises on her skin, but overall she appeared fine.

  I untied her quickly. “Remember not to touch me Tella,” I said as I moved, making every effort to avoid her skin. “You must wait for my signal before leaving, and then you’ll run towards the back of the house and loop around and run home. You’ve seen the crossbow. Go, and we’ll take care of this.”

  As the rope came loose she spit out the gag and cried.

  “Shhhh,” I urged her. “We’re almost out.”

  She nodded but couldn’t stop her sobs. I moved to the door and peered out. Lee was getting close, our enemy at the ready. Nodding to Tella, I motioned for her to come to the door. Slowly moving outside, I pointed and she ran.

  The sound caused the guy to turn. I lifted
my sword and gave out a battle cry so Lee would know what was about to go down. My scream was the perfect distraction for Tella to get away. The guard turned all his attention and anger on me seeing what I had done.

  I ran at him, sword raised as he aimed his crossbow at me. The man didn’t hear as Lee appeared behind him until Lee was ready to be heard. The sound of Lee crashing through the last bushes caused the guard to turn and I knocked the crossbow out of his hands. The man tried to grab me, but I jumped back just in time to avoid skin contact. Lee shoved him and the man fell to the ground. Sounds were heard coming from the forest near us. No magic. Undoubtedly backup for the guard.

  Four of them made their way within my line of sight while Lee and the guard grappled.

  I hadn’t thought of the fact that by having Lee call for someone, that it would attract other unwanted attention. Cursing, I readied myself for their next move.

  I watched them carefully, sword at the ready.

  “Looks like Jimmy made a friend,” one guy said loudly.

  Lee hit Jimmy hard enough to finally knock him out. Slowly, Lee stood and took in the situation.

  “You're outnumbered, kid,” the guy continued. “I’d say run home to mommy, but we’re not going to let you off that easy.”

  “Well, we weren’t wrong about there being more of them,” I said aloud. “Good thing we’re ready for this.” I could feel my pulse pick up as I bluffed.

  My face felt hot. The magic coursing through me screamed for release. I hoped that I wouldn’t have to kill them. Harm them sure, but death didn’t need to be on the agenda.

  Lee caught on quickly. “Really? You’re against people with magic, attacking a village with people who almost all have magic, and now you’re trying to tell two people who probably have magic you’re going to kill them? What if I shoot fireballs? This is not in your favor.”

  “You wouldn’t have swords if you could do that,” the leader replied, looking unimpressed.

  “Why would that mean anything? We’re here to defend our home, but we don’t want you dead. Justice makes no difference to a corpse. You need to be alive for that to come.” I marveled at Lee as his words began working on the men. He was certainly quick on his feet. “You can go home now,” he said with finality. Lee did a fake lunge forward. The earth shook under the men's feet. One ran off screaming. “Want to rethink your position?”

  “Oooh fancy trick. You can make a baby earthquake,” the leader snickered. His face darkened. “Let’s dance.” He raised his sword and charged at Lee, a second guy close behind. The third guy charged me, but I was ready.

  I quickly saw that he had no experience with a sword and was able to disarm him. He moved to try and hit me, but I hit him with the flat of my sword, knocking him to the ground. The second guy that was trying to fight Lee saw this and came to try and take me on. He was good, much better than me. With locked swords, I tried desperately to hold my stance, but his strength was greater than mine and I couldn’t shove him off.

  My attention was so focused on my sword and my life that I didn't see the man I had disarmed sneaking up behind me. He wrapped his arms around my face from behind.

  A moment later he dropped to the ground screaming, causing everyone to pause. Lee understood what had happened and used the unplanned distraction to disarm the leader. The second man took a step back - then another - before turning tail and running. The leader, now disarmed, dropped to the ground and swept Lee's legs out from under him. The leader rolled over, bounced back to his feet, and had his sword back in his hands.

  Not wanting this to go any more south, I jumped up to block the strike coming down.

  Lee stood up behind me and I heard him begin to chant something in a language I hadn’t heard before. Ignoring it, I tried my best to keep my sword between Lee and the leader, but I might as well have not even tried with how quickly I was disarmed. The leader laughed and pointed the blade at me.

  “I told you you couldn’t win.” He laughed again and then froze.

  His body became rigid as if he was suddenly encased in ice. I glanced back at Lee who was still chanting, eyes closed. Suddenly the leader fell to the ground.

  Lee opened his eyes and looked at me. “We need to get back. We’ll tie him up here. The hut should be fine.”

  “What did you just do?” I asked, still surprised.

  “Put him into a trance then made him go into a deep sleep. It’s hard to do. It takes a lot of energy and isn’t a quick trick. It is very very hard on the person casting the spell, but we were running out of options. Help me move him.”

  Not knowing what else to say, I put on my gloves and helped him move the leader into the hut. We tied him to the chair. I gagged him like poor Talla had been gagged. It was petty revenge, but it made me feel better.

  “By now they should have chased everyone else off. With the two we scared off I doubt they’ll come back this way,” Lee stated confidently.

  “What about the other guy you knocked out?” I asked.

  He glanced outside. “We’re out of rope, so he can stay like that. Let’s get back. We can send some people to bring in these two.”

  I could feel his energy quickly dissipating. “Let’s go then.”

  Lee led the way back, and it was surprisingly quick. Without having a need to be quiet or follow a specific path, we made it out of the woods in just over ten minutes. With the village in sight, we slowed our pace. Halfway back, a group met us and Lee quickly explained where the two enemies we had left behind were. Tella had made it back safely and had sent the group our way to help.

  When we made it back to Lee’s, Tella rushed to the door to hug us. Overall, she was unharmed. A little bruised up with some scratches, but there were no other injuries. Thankfully, Lee stepped in the way so she couldn’t touch me.

  “Great to see you’re all right Tells.” He hugged her tightly.

  Tella hugged him back with all her might, “How did you even find me? They told me they covered the trails and everything.” She sobbed.

  Lee carefully led Tella further inside, “Well, they seem to be full of lies. I actually followed Key.” He looked at me for answers.

  I took a breath. “They had left a very noticeable trail. Don’t worry Tella, they have no idea what they are doing. We’ll make sure they get taken care of.”

  “See? It’ll be okay. No more worries.” Lee sat on the sofa with her on his lap. “Now what other lies did they tell you?” He looked at the others in the room. Juni, Marc, and I assumed the other woman was Tella’s mother.

  “They were going to use me as an example.” Tella’s eyes grew wide. “I don’t even know what they meant by that.”

  “Well, good news.” Lee smiled. “They are now the example. An example of what happens when you mess with an awesome village of people who care for each other. You are safe, and they are knocked out. There’s a group bringing them to jail as we speak.”

  “Good.” Tella scooted off his lap and went to curl up with her mother.

  “Why don’t we get you back home?” Juni suggested. “I’m sure a good night’s sleep will help wonders.”

  Tella looked up at her mother, who nodded. “Home sounds like a great place. Come on, Marc.”

  Tella looked back and forth from me to Lee.

  Lee took the hint quickly. “I’ll come with you. I think Key is done with excitement for one day.”

  “Agreed. A good night's sleep is very much needed,” I said, hoping it would help Tella agree to try and sleep off her worries. I knew the memories from today would bother her for a while, but she would be okay.

  With that, they left me alone to rest. I cleaned myself up, and while everyone was still out, I decided this would be the easiest time to take my leave. The problem of the village being attacked was being handled, and the outcome was more than likely in their favor. The village would be fine, the king would send his aide, and I wanted no more part in that adventure.

  The town was far less active now. They had s
et up patrols, and there was no way I could get out without someone seeing me or knowing I had left, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t a part of this place but was overjoyed to know it was there if I wanted a place to visit. A town full of magic would be a perfect respite from my travels if I so desired.

  Heading southwest, hopefully away from the anger infused mob, I quickly found my way back into the woods. Dusk was fast falling, and the forest was coming to life with its creatures of the night. Mice were dashing about underfoot, trying to get back into the bushes before any owls saw them. Bats made their appearance as they darted here and there to catch what bugs they could find. The natural sounds of the forest were comforting after a long day.

  As the darkness spread into the woods, I continued on my way feeling more and more refreshed by the soothing environment. I could travel a reasonable distance tonight before having to get some sleep.

  After a solid forty minutes of walking in the woods, I heard voices ahead. Slowing my pace, I warily made my way towards the voices. Staying as hidden as possible, I peered at the group around a fire. Their voices were angry, swords at their sides, and ale in their hands. They talked loudly of their failed mission, the men injured and taken prisoner.

  My retreat was slow and careful. The very people I had sought to avoid were now in front of me. They seemed to have the same idea -go in the opposite direction in order to avoid being found.

  The retreat felt painful, as I knew every step now counted. Was there someone keeping watch? The thought made my heart sink. There was no way I could take on so many alone. I had seen at least eight, but there were tents. Stopping would be the worst thing I could do, so I continued to retrace my steps until I felt I was far enough away to make a wide arc around the group.

  My journey was now slow going. Unexpected sounds made me jump, hoping not to be found. I prayed that was far enough away from any watch they had set up.

  Finally, after three hours, I felt safe enough to take a break and rest. My nerves felt on fire, my brain fried. My pack had dwindling supplies and I cursed myself for not getting more before taking off. Tonight would not be a good night to hunt or make a fire. There was too much at risk. Not wanting to sit for too long, I was back up again and on my way.