Branded (Master of All Book 1)

by Simon Archer

  As I rose up, eager to make up for my past failures, I found that my grief was not entirely gone… how could it be without forgetting my dear Siri’s memory?... but it had been greatly lessened. The gap that now freed in my heart was replaced by the kindling of a new hope, the chance to not only redeem myself but to save my people.

  “Come, my friends!” I called out as I rose swiftly to my feet, much of my old spirit returning to me. “We have much to do!”

  14

  Despite our enthusiasm to get underway immediately after our talking with Sullah, it took us most of the rest of the afternoon to get everything squared away for the trip. The reinvigorated headman was insistent we have mounts, supplies, and everything he could provide to make the trip as swift as possible, so I was going to trust his knowledge in that regard, especially with the potential dangers Wodag had told me of. Meanwhile, I decided to take advantage of the delay to bring Reggie up to speed and see just how far along the rebuilding was. It had only been one day, sure, but Sir Thorpe was an amazing organizer and motivator, and the people of Kaulda were hard-working to the extreme.

  Even with all that, I could not have been prepared for what I found as Petra and I walked to the west, where Kaulda had been burned practically to the ground. Except that wasn’t the case any longer.

  Somehow, most of the buildings had already been rebuilt, including the great granary that had been the heart of Kaulda’s commerce. I gaped for a few moments as we kept walking to where the sounds of work were coming from… then I turned to see Petra blushing beside me.

  “I’m going to hazard a guess that this,” I thumbed at the granary as we passed it, “is one of the reasons you over-extended yourself.”

  “That is part of it, yes,” the dryad admitted. “I… well… I also mostly restocked it.” She raised a finger. “And I also tried to, well… you’ll see in a moment.”

  I grinned at her and nodded as we walked past the last few finished cottages to where the Kauldans were hard at work. “I can’t wait to see the rest.”

  “That sounds as if you’re encouraging her, my boy,” Reggie called out from ahead, and I looked up to see the prim British explorer smoothing out his mustache. His clothes were dusty from the day’s work. “While I am very much a proponent of hard work, as you well know, there is such a thing as overexertion, such as what our dear Petra attempted.”

  I grinned at my old friend as I crossed the last few steps to shake his hand. “Well, you know that I’m the kind of guy to keep going well beyond the time I should have just taken a fall.” He laughed at that, and we shared a brief hug. “So, Reg, why don’t you show me what Petra here almost fell over to do?”

  Petra giggled as she covered her blushing face with a fan of leaves that sprouted from her fingers as Sir Thorpe nodded and gestured behind himself grandly. He didn’t need to say anything, and he didn’t have to.

  Though it was far from complete, laid out before me was the first wall Kaulda had likely ever seen. Thick posts of polished bronzewood had already been planted in an arc that would serve as the line of the wall while the archway that would hold the west gate had already been formed by two living trees shaped by Petra’s magic. In some places where the first sections of the wall were mostly raised, wicked sharp thorn vines twined around the tops like natural barbed wire.

  To match that impressive feat, several of the burned down lots had been cleared and turned into space for building materials, and that was abundant indeed. While a fraction of it was clearly salvaged from the destroyed buildings, much of it was newly grown and cut, yet another thing we had to thank Petra for. Now, I was no civil engineer, but I knew enough to figure that if this wasn’t all that was needed to finish the wall around the small village, it would be most of it.

  “Deuce it all, you can see what I meant,” Reggie playfully scolded. “The fool girl almost made herself sick with exhaustion with all this.” He settled his hand on the handle of his Webley revolver as he pointed out where villagers were taking shifts putting more and more of the wall up. “Still, despite my concern, I think we have an excellent chance of finishing the main wall within a week.” He shrugged. “It would be less, but we cannot overwork the people, not when they must also be trained to fight.”

  I flashed Petra a smile. “So, while I don’t want you to overwork yourself again, I’m really impressed. Thank you for all your hard work, Petra.”

  “I made a vow, William,” she said simply. “I won’t let you or the people down.” I took her hand and gave it a squeeze before turning back to Reg.

  “And speaking of fighting, we’ve made some breakthroughs,” I began before bringing Reggie up to speed on what all I had discovered from Wodag and how we managed to bring Sullah around to accepting any help we could get from the north. Reggie listened carefully as the gears in his head turned, processing all this new information and how it might help us in the battle ahead.

  “Well, as much as I remain opposed to your excessive overworking, Petra, it may have worked out for the better this one time. We can continue our fine work with the supplies we have while she journeys with you. Anyway, why are we still talking about it?” The old explorer grinned at us. “You should be off!” Sir Thorpe drew his revolver from his belt as his free hand fished in his pocket for the extra rounds. “Though you should take my Webley, considering you will be in more danger than I.”

  Before he could hand the pistol to me, I raised a hand to cut him off. “No, Reg. If we’re wrong about the Weaver’s plans and he comes early, Petra, Lib, and I could still be in the north. I know you’re tougher than beef jerky, but I think you’ll be a lot more help if things go bad if you have your gun.”

  “Besides, good sir knight,” Petra added, “not only will he have his own strength, but William also has the Brand of Freedom to protect him, as well as my command of nature. He will not come to harm.”

  Reggie let out a huff that made his whiskers flutter as he holstered the revolver. “Very well, very well. Well said, my young friends.” He suddenly stood bolt straight and snapped the smartest salute a member of Her Majesty’s armed forces could muster. “I shall whip these simple farmers into a fighting force that will be able to hold these walls for a fortnight, Master William. You can count on that.”

  My answering salute was a bit more informal as I smiled at my friend. “I know I can. Hell, we might not even need wyrm-fire and orcs with you on the job.”

  “Quite right,” he agreed, “but all the same, don’t dally. I’d prefer not to risk these peoples’ lives by putting that to the test.”

  We made our goodbyes then. I gave Reg a brief embrace while Petra gave him a longer one, like a granddaughter parting from a beloved grandfather, and then we left him to go back to supervising the wall. From there, we returned to the village square where Sullah had promised our traveling supplies would be ready by the time we returned.

  True to his word, the barrel-chested ferynx was waiting for us with the reins of two strange-looking beasts in his paws. I figured they were, in fact, mammals of some kind, simply because there was a very stubby mane up the long necks, but otherwise, the six-legged creatures had a leathery hide without a speck of fur on it. Though their necks were longer than a horse’s, their actual bodies were wide and squat, more like a rhino than anything else I could think of, with short, powerful legs that ended in hooves. Their heads contrasted every other part of them, definitely more canine than anything else though still quite hairless, with pointed and rather bright-looking brown eyes.

  Judging from the saddles and packs strapped to them, these were no doubt our mounts.

  “My friends!” Sullah called out in his usual boisterous fashion as he led the beasts towards us. “As I swore, I have readied two karushes for your journey.”

  “Karushes?” I arched an eyebrow as I approached the right beast calmly. That was almost always the best way to approach a domesticated animal on Earth, so I figured it was a good rule of thumb here. “Like… the meat we’ve
been eating our entire time here?”

  Petra skipped past me to take the reins of the other karush from Sullah. “Oh, yes, William.” She stroked the long neck of the beast, her vines following her fingers like an extra hand. “Karushes are one of the mainstays of Solanna. The people here ride them, eat them, use them for beasts of burden.”

  Petra’s karush let out a huffing bark before bending its head down to lick her face like a giant puppy… which it kind of was if you squinted. I chuckled as she scritched its ears before taking the reins of the other. Mine regarded me for a moment before lowering its head down to me as well. Not wanting it to feel left out, I treated it as I would any of my dogs back home and gave it a good bit of pampering.

  “Well, how about I promise you that I won’t eat you, huh?” I said as I gave it a good scratch right between the eyes. I cast a sidelong glance to Sullah. “Thanks, Sullah. With these, I’m sure we’ll make it to Wyrmtooth country and back in no time.”

  “I am certain you will.” Sullah set his fists on his hips, his tail lashing behind him as he nodded. “I will not delay your journey any longer.” He then tapped his chest in salute before bowing low before us both. “May the gods go with you and keep you safe where I cannot.”

  I smiled and extended my hand to the ferynx, which he took with a grin. “Stay safe yourself, Sullah.” We shook hands, and then, Petra and I mounted up and headed due north as I judged from the arc of the twin suns overhead.

  No matter how mixed up the karush was as a creature, in the end, the beasts were as easy to control as a trained horse and frankly? The ride was ten times smoother. Their six-legged gate and broad backs made it more like riding atop an elephant. In fact, I found in short order that I was actually easier to ride the flat-backed animal by sitting on top of it Indian-style instead of letting my legs dangle into the stirrups.

  Though I wouldn’t call them fast, the karush certainly had seemingly endless stamina. With a constant, steady pace, we made it out of Kaulda and past the cholla grain fields to the north of the village before full dark came upon us, and even with the suns set, the glow of the Sola crystals dotting the fields gave us a few more hours of safe travel under their light.

  That fading glow did more than light our path. It also highlighted our eventual distance, for they seemed to cover the distant foothills and mountains that loomed to the north of Kaulda. It was an amazing sight as if there were hundreds of multi-colored bonfires slowly burning out across the rolling hills and soaring peaks.

  “I have never seen the mountains before,” Petra whispered in awe as her karush kept pace beside mine. She had opted to ride sidesaddle after the first hour or so, turned so that she could keep easy conversation with me. “When I was… taken from the Treison Woods, Khaba va’Khem ferried me over the countryside on the back of his mighty sphinx, Amalthea.” Though the words sounded like it should have been a wondrous event, the deep frown and pained look in her eyes told me the truth of the situation. “... a slave as I soon became.”

  “Khaba va’Khem.” The name itself felt like a curse as it rolled off my tongue. “I’m guessing he’s one of the Black Runes?”

  The pain in Petra’s eyes passed to be replaced by a mixture of resolve and anger. “Indeed, he is their grandmaster, the head of their twisted cabal.” She cast a glance towards the mountains once more. “In time, our quest will take us into battle against him, that much is certain, but he is a coward who fights through others. He won’t make himself plain until he is forced to after we have freed his slaves and brought low his servants.”

  I nodded slowly, my jaw set with renewed purpose. “Yeah, we’ll make it happen.” Libritas hummed in agreement at my side before I took in a deep breath and forced myself to relax a little. “But that’s for the future. Right now, before we make camp, I wanted to have that talk with you I promised earlier.”

  “About… us?” There was only the faintest hesitation in the dryad’s words before she leaned forward, crossing her legs before placing both her hands on the topmost knee. If she hadn’t reshaped her leafy dress into a pair of sensible riding pants, well, I would have no doubt had an excellent show. “I would very much like that, William.”

  I didn’t need a crack team of vocal analysis experts to decipher the heat and desire dripping off every innocent word.

  “I did tell you that dryads are very primal creatures, William,” Lib sent into my mind. “Considering the fact that you saved her from such a terrible fate and the clear attraction you share, it’s a minor miracle that she hasn’t already attempted to tear your clothes off and take you in the village square.”

  I didn’t let that rather blunt assessment show in my face, though it took no small amount of willpower. Instead, I smiled and nodded to Petra. “Then let’s get down to the heart of the matter.” I took a moment to gather my thoughts before I continued. “I don’t think I need to say that we’re attracted to each other. Hell, Lib’s brought it up a few times with me as is. I’m sure Reggie’s noticed too.”

  “Is there something wrong with that?” Petra’s head tilted inquisitively as the fading rainbow glow of the Sola crystals gave her form a radiance that matched her inner glow. “If you would think it improper for some reasons, I--”

  “Hold on, hold on,” I interrupted. “I didn’t say anything like that, and I certainly don’t think it’s improper at all.” The dryad’s gaze was now focused solely on me, her eyes boring right through me, so I took a quick breath and matched that heated stare. “I just want to make sure that you don’t feel pressured or pushed into this sort of thing. Uruk hurt you, this Kielbasa ba Clem character…” I could tell she was about to correct me, but I raised a hand and smiled. “I know that’s not right, but we’ve got a thing back home about being silly to cut the legs out of scary assholes.”

  I cleared my throat. “Anyway, what I’m getting at is that these Black Runes, they hurt you, enslaved you, took away your freedom, and I don’t want you to think you have to do anything you don’t want to or that you owe me or… anything like that.” My smile brightened. “If I’m loving someone, forging a relationship with them, I want it to be with a partner, someone who I feel for and feels just as strongly about me.”

  There was a long moment of silence between us, the only sounds being the constant clop of the karushes’ hooves and a faint wind rushing down from the mountains. I was beginning to get worried, that maybe I’d been too, well, something, when Petra seemed to wilt as her shoulders slumped.

  “I’m sorry, William, maybe this won’t work out after all…” I was about to cut in to try to salvage things as her voice trailed off, and that’s when I caught it, a creeping, barely restrained grin on her lips. “... because I feel I might very well feel more strongly about you than you do about me. And we can’t go into this relationship without being equals and--”

  “Okay, okay,” I said as I laughed and waved my hands defensively. “I can tell when I’m beaten.” A happy smile crept across my lips. “Good joke by the way. I was actually about to panic for a second there.”

  Petra giggled herself, her leaves and vines shaking merrily along with her. “Thank you.” She leaned forward further, to the point where she would have tipped off the back of her karush if not for her natural grace, and reached out a hand towards me. “I want to pursue the love I feel for you, and I want to do it because it is my will.”

  I shifted myself to a sidesaddle posture as well, reaching out to try to meet her halfway. “Then I think, Petra of Treison Woods, we have a clear path ahead of us.”

  When we couldn’t quite meet up due to the girth of our mounts, Petra giggled and stretched her vines to bridge the gap, twining around my hand and wrist firmly. That is how we rode the rest of the night, hand in, er, vine… but it didn’t make it any less joyful.

  While it was likely we’d be riding into danger tomorrow, for that moment, I had never been happier as I swore the platinum chain that bound Petra and me grew just a little thicker and more intricate tha
t night.

  As the evening wore on, I discovered something wondrous about the karush: They literally never slept. I didn’t think it was possible, it certainly flew in the face of everything I knew about biology, but here in Etria, it was real. They could literally march forever, day in and out, only stopping when we asked them to.

  That turned out to be not as often as I first thought we would need to. With their great broad backs, it was entirely possible to roll out a bedroll and lay atop a karush, letting the steady rhythm of their hoofbeats lull you to sleep. With the worry of the Tanglethread bandits weighing on our heads, Petra and I simply spent that first night on karush-back, still tied together by her vines.

  We’d save something more intimate for a moment when we were finally a step ahead of the Weaver.

  The next morning, as the two suns broke the horizon to light our way, we got our first good view of the mountains ahead. The grasslands broke into scrub as they rose into the foothills with the already scant trees becoming almost nonexistent. Instead, more and more Sola crystals took their place, and their radiance gave the rolling hills an almost phantasmal appearance. Past that, the mountains took over in a big way.

  If I couldn’t see the wear of wind and water on the towering peaks on the horizon, I’d have sworn that a god had torn the earth asunder in his anger to form a wall of stony swords. This first part of the range looked steep and tall, soaring over the foothills with only a few gouge-like canyons cutting between each rise. The bare stone of the cliffs was bleached white, the only color being the crystals jutting out like small studs all over them.

  They weren’t just daunting and awe-inspiring. They were desolate looking, and part of me wondered how any living creatures could live, let alone flourish enough to form a civilization of any sort in those barrier peaks. At the same time, though, life on Earth found a way, and here, and in Etria, magic could make up the difference.