by Sam Ferguson
“Part of the agreement was for discretion,” William said. “Five thousand gold is a lot of money.”
Garrin nodded and stroked his chin. “Still, it’s a bit hard to spend coin if I am lying dead in a ruin, or broken at the bottom of a cliff somewhere.”
William eyed him with his gray-blue eyes, but his mouth remained closed.
The trapper shook his head. “Come on, haven’t I earned a bit of trust yet?”
William shook his head and sighed. “It’s complicated.”
Garrin set a larger stick into the flames, the fire reaching up and licking his mitten.
“Usually is when someone sends three wizards to kill another person. So tell me, what is it? Did you cross the king?”
William winced. The trapper almost thought he saw not only sadness, but perhaps pain in those blue eyes as the nobleman shook his head and took in a breath.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Feud between rival noble families then?” Garrin pressed.
“Why does it matter? We paid you for a job, you don’t need to know the rest.”
Just then, Kiska and Rux snarled and bounded off into the trees. Richard came to the fire and sat down upon a fallen log after brushing a bit of snow clear for a space to sit.
“What are you two talking about?” Richard asked.
“Nothing,” William said.
Garrin huffed. “I asked about the three wizards, trying to understand more about who they are,” he said honestly. William shot Garrin a deathly glare, but the trapper shrugged it off. “I’m not going to lie to the kid, that isn’t how I behave.”
“The wizards are dead now,” William said. “Let’s change the subject.”
Garrin finished stoking the fire and turned to William and Richard. “I’m going to go out after some food,” he said.
“That didn’t turn out so well last time,” William noted.
Richard, who had been sitting silently on a log near the fire, slapped his hands to his knees. “They aren’t going to stop are they?” he shouted.
Garrin stopped and looked to the young boy. “It’s all right. We beat the last of the wizards. No one else can catch us now. We are high in the mountains and all we have to do is keep putting distance behind us.”
“No,” Richard said with a shake of his head. “You don’t understand. They aren’t going to stop.”
William tucked in close to Richard and reached out for the youth. “It’s all right, we’ll get out of here.”
“Listen,” Garrin began, “I don’t care who is after you. Even if it’s the king himself, he can’t send enough men to catch us now.”
William winced at that, and Richard dropped his head into his hands, elbows resting on his knees. Garrin screwed up his face and shrugged.
“What did I say? I was only trying to cheer him up.”
William patted the air and mouthed something, but Garrin couldn’t make it out.
“You don’t understand,” Richard said, head coming up from his hands and eyes filling with tears.
Garrin went to him and placed a hand on the lad’s shoulder. “Come now, men don’t cry. Chin up. We’ll get through this and—”
“You see, that’s my point,” Richard shouted. “Nothing we have told you is true.”
Garrin narrowed his eyes on Richard and then looked to William. He was about to say something, but just then Kaspar came out from the canister and curled up on Richard’s lap.
The trapper pointed down, directing Richard’s attention to Kaspar. “Look, if he likes you, then that is good enough for me. William told me what happened back at the cabin, before the Treewalkers came. I know enough.”
Richard shook his head, exhaling through his teeth and wiping back a tear with his right hand while petting Kaspar with his left.
“Come on, men don’t cry,” Garrin said again, patting Richard on the back of the shoulder.
“I’m not a man,” Richard said.
Garrin chuckled and shook his head. “Well, young men don’t cry either, if they can help it,” he said.
Richard shrugged Garrin’s hand off his shoulder and then pulled back his hood and looked at Garrin through red, tear-filled eyes. “No, I mean I am a girl! My name isn’t Richard at all.”
“Shut your mouth!” William said as he leaned in close.
Garrin stood on his feet and his hand went down toward a knife on his belt. William stopped in his tracks and glowered at Garrin. William’s hand went down to hover over his rapier.
“What’s going on here?” Garrin asked.
Richard stood up. The sunlight hit his cropped, sand-colored hair just right and Garrin saw it for the first time. Richard was not a thin boy, but was in fact a young girl.
“My name is Evangeline Kosvar,” she said proudly.
Garrin cocked his head to the side and looked from Evangeline to William.
William held his left hand out and the fight in him seemed to soften somewhat. “Lilly,” he said in a calm tone. “You shouldn’t say that out loud.”
“Why not?” she fired back. “If he was going to hurt us, he would have done so by now.”
Garrin was still fixed on the name. Evangeline Kosvar. It was familiar, yet, he couldn’t quite place it. He studied the two of them for a minute, not even hearing the next few words the young girl spoke. Only when she turned back to face Garrin with those green eyes did he realize where he knew the name from.
“Princess Kosvar,” Garrin said breathlessly. He turned his gaze upon William. “You kidnapped the princess?”
William took his hand away from the rapier and held both of his palms up. “I lied about our names only to protect her. I swear it. Everything else I said is true. She is my niece.”
Evangeline moved to stand between them. She wiped her tears from her eyes and spoke in a commanding voice. “He is my uncle. My father and mother were murdered, and the throne has been taken by another. Will you help us escape?”
Garrin nodded. “A deal is a deal,” he said. “I was paid to take you across the mountains, and that is what I will do, but I want no part of politics.”
“Neither do we,” William said quickly. “I can assure you, we have no plans for taking the throne back. All I want to do is get Lilly to safety. That’s it.”
“Why lie to me?” Garrin asked.
“Would you have believed me?” William asked. “More importantly, if anyone in town found out, they might have told those who hunted us where we had gone in hopes of a large reward. The men who are after Lilly are not to be taken lightly. The one who took the throne is a Kossin wizard. He will stop at nothing to crush the royal family. In this case, he wishes to take Lilly back and wed her, so he can merge the family bloodlines and create a stronger race of Kossins that have even more powerful magic. Surely you understand, I must get her to my family in Brywood.”
“What is your name?” Garrin asked.
William removed his outer cloak and rolled up his left sleeve, revealing a tattoo of a large, crimson-bladed dirk. “I am Duke Vincent Alenton, brother to the late queen, and head of the Crimson Blades, a small but effective group of spies.”
“And who is the Kossin wizard?”
“His name is Nor Vindarian, and his heart is as black as they come. He is a nationalist, and believes all who are not Kossin to be beneath him. Honestly, you may do well to stay in Brywood with us.”
Garrin looked out over the mountain. He took in a breath and shook his head. He now knew why they were being hunted. He knew he was likely in far too deep for his own good. Still, when he glanced back to Evangeline’s eyes, he knew he couldn’t walk away from her. He nodded and looked back to Vincent. “Well, let’s try and rest up properly tonight so we can get an early start tomorrow. It’s likely best if we try to move a little quicker.”
Vincent smiled wide. “Come, sit by me here at the fire. There is much I need to tell you.”
About the Author
Sam Ferguson is a fairly average guy.<
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That’s it.
No, really, that’s it.
Oh- you are actually reading this?
Well… the truth is that Sam is a very lucky guy. He juggles work in such a way that he makes sure to spend enough time with his loving wife and sons. He writes in his office with two bearded dragons for company. (His goal is to one day add a Chinese water dragon to his office…). If he can carve out an extra hour for himself during the day, he’ll hit the gym to try and regain the body he used to have in his youth (but he eats too much junk food to ever accomplish that goal).
He spent nearly five years serving as a U.S. Diplomat and absolutely loved the experience, but decided to move back home. Outside of the U.S. he has lived in Latvia, Hungary, and Armenia. He speaks Russian, Hungarian, and Armenian. (He used to speak some Latvian too, but he has no one to practice with anymore…)
He has two dogs.
He plays the Elder Scrolls series.
His favorite superhero is Wolverine, but Batman is a close second.
If the kids go to bed at a reasonable hour, he will cuddle up with his wife to watch Scrubs reruns, the Big Bang Theory, Castle, and Burn Notice.
See, really just an average guy after all.
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Table of Contents
Other Books by Sam Ferguson
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About the Author
