by Beam, Brian
“I know,” Bill stated simply as he withdrew his blade. Blood gushed from the wound; Bill had stabbed her directly through the heart. Kait’s eyes widened in disbelief, and she slumped down to the ground. Her life pumped out in a matter of heartbeats.
I felt as if I should’ve been sadder than I was about Kait’s death. She’d been through so much. But she’d been broken by what she’d been through. She’d forced me to kill four men just because I’d brought up her past. Her mind had been twisted beyond repair. Things were better this way. I actually felt happy for her; she’d been spared any further suffering.
Bill crouched before Kait’s still body and reverently pulled her eyelids down with his fingers. He then wiped his sword clean on the grass and quietly retrieved his other sword. The rest of us slowly regained our feet, silently taking in the carnage around us. Two dead eldrhims, a dozen human bodies, and a half dozen undead littered the ground. The stench of blood and rot filled the air.
Several holes had been eaten through the chest and stomach of my leather armor from the lizardish eldrhim’s blood, but none had gotten on my skin. Briscott was coated with the mucilaginous substance that had made up the gelatinous eldrhim. Other than that, everyone seemed none the worse for wear.
“Til’, Briscott, are you guys okay?” I asked. They both nodded, though Til’s eyes were glistening with tears. I knew it tore away at him to see the deaths of so many. It was hard enough on me. I hadn’t known much about the other men Jefren had enslaved, but I knew that they’d deserved better than the deaths they received.
I knelt to give Til’ a hug which he returned fervently. “It’s so good to see you again, Til’.”
Til’ beamed through his tears. “You too,” he answered simply, wiping at his eyes.
Standing, I looked over to Bill. “And are you here to take me back to Galius?”
Bill’s mouth opened, but Til’ was already speaking before any sound came out. “You’ll never believe what happened, Korin,” he began enthusiastically, his upbeat nature breaking back through. “After I—”
“I do want to hear all about it, Til’,” I cut in. “I promise. But right now, we have to get moving. Bill, if you’re not planning on trying capture me, we need to save the explanations for later. We need to get these rocks out of me and Briscott and get away from here before more of those things are sent after us.” My stomach soured as I remembered that many of those “things” had been human and acting against their will. I couldn’t let myself dwell on it, though. Had I not acted against them, I would’ve died. I was finally beginning to understand why Max had once told me that I’d have to learn to deal with taking lives.
Bill gestured to the hulking body of the lizardish eldrhim with one hand and a beheaded undead body with the other. “And you will explain what in the gods’ blood these things are?” His tone was calm.
I was impressed by Bill’s casualness around the dead eldrhims and fallen undead creatures. If I hadn’t been given plenty of chances in recent months to grow accustomed to such Galliv-blooded monsters—Galliv’s the god of beasts . . . I can’t make this stuff up—I wouldn’t have been able to keep my own head nearly as well.
“If you really want to know,” I replied. Bill nodded, and my attention went to Briscott. “Briscott, this is Bill and Til’.” I gestured to each of them in kind.
Briscott smiled, brushing his slime-slicked hair back from his eyes. “Pleased to meet you,” he said amicably. “I’m Briscott Erlat.”
“Hey, you seem friendlier than that Kaitlyne. Are you—”
“Til’,” I interrupted, holding up a hand. “I’m sorry, but that conversation’s going to have to wait. For now, just know that Briscott’s a friend.” Looking back to Briscott, I asked, “So, what do you think about getting these things out?” I tapped the dull green rock that was visible through a hole in my armor, immediately regretting doing so as I flinched in pain.
Briscott shrugged. “I mean, the blighted rocks are basically just embedded in the bone. We should be fine, as long as we close up the wound and apply some antiseptic.” He looked sullenly at the ruined cart. “If we can find it, that is.”
“Okay, let’s see if we can get our hands on that herthil balm, get these things rocks out, and get out of here.” I turned to Bill. “I don’t know why you were still after us back in Laurlan, but I promise to help you in any way I can that doesn’t involve going to back Galius after this. I owe you my life.”
“Hey,” Til’ protested.
I gave Til’ a weak smile. “You too, Til’.”
Bill nodded and pointed out towards the woods. “My men are camped not half a league away. I will take you there once we are done here.”
Til’ must’ve been able to tell I was still suspicious of Bill’s motivations. “It’s okay, Korin. See, Bill—” Til’ stopped, his cheeks reddening. “Sorry, I mean, I’ll explain later when we have time.”
We were able to find the herthil balm and even some tashave leaf among the cart’s wreckage. Briscott and I took an extremely small dose of the tashave leaf, but we didn’t have time to waste in order to let it fully take effect before prying the dull rocks from each other’s chests. At least the rocks hurt a lot less coming out than going in. The skin around our wounds was too stiff to stitch up, so we had to settle for bandaging them with ripped pieces of cloth torn from one of the fallen men’s cloaks.
Though terrified of another attack, I convinced the others that we needed to gather all of the rocks. In the off chance that someone found them, that person would be in grave danger. It didn’t take long to collect the rocks from the bodies. Jefren—who’d been slain by Bill after retreating to his tent before the fight, thus breaking Jefren’s control over me—had a bag of the rocks on his person. Kait’ also had several more in her cloak. Til’ recited a brief Kolarin prayer for the souls of each body we retrieved the rocks from.
Trying to destroy the rocks yielded the same results as if they’d been Contracts; they were invulnerable against our weapons. And so, we buried them all together and set off towards Bill’s camp. Briscott, feeling that he had nowhere else to go, was happy to accompany us for the time being.
We saw no signs of anyone—or anything—else coming after the rocks. Maybe whoever created the smoky apparition just assumed we’d been defeated and had already moved on to other concerns.
I convinced myself that the apparition hadn’t come from Raijom or Prexwin. It had acknowledged Briscott’s and my arrival to the camp, indicating that it could see us. Surely if it had been Raijom or Prexwin, I would’ve been recognized. However, if it hadn’t been one of them, who was behind the cursed rocks?
Chapter 18
Bill and Til’s Exciting Travels
Having Til’ back by my side felt great. It was amazing how much I’d grown to care for him over our short time together. His constant chatter was a salve that helped soothe the pain from all I’d been through in the past week. I’m not sure that Bill found his company quite as pleasant, though. Each time Bill’s mouth opened to speak, Til’ talked right over him.
We made our way through the light wood, moldering leaves crunching under our feet. The moonlight was enough to illuminate a path through the trees. Bill moved with a deadly grace to my side, keeping me slightly on edge. Til’ seemed to trust him, though, and I trusted Til’.
Briscott had miraculously located the clothes I’d worn before being forced into the leather armor, but they provided little protection against the cold. There was a dagger tucked into my boot and a shiny shortsword that I’d taken from one of the undead hanging at my waist. It was unsettling keeping one of their weapons, but it was sharp and fit into my scabbard. The lizardish eldrhim’s blood had corroded my other sword to the point of uselessness.
“Slow down, Til’,” I laughed. “Just start from when you got away from Kait’.” I pulled my cloak tighter to hold back the chill of the night.
Til’ ran ahead of me and trotted backwards as he began explaining.
“Well, after I got away—and if I haven’t said so already, I’m sorry I left you there . . . but you had told me to do it—I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t want to get too far away, but I didn’t think Laurlan was safe. I just kept running until I was sure no one was after me. But I ended up running back into Bill while he was searching for us.” He waved enthusiastically at Bill, stumbled over something on the leaf-covered ground, and then turned to walk forward beside me.
“I started running again until I had no idea where I was. Bill was trailing me the whole time, thinking I would lead him to you.” Bill started to say something, but Til’ went right on talking and gesturing excitedly after a quick breath. “I stayed far enough ahead of him to avoid capture for a while. I found a farm—did you know that they have apple orchards out here? I bought some food and tried to get a horse, but they didn’t have one to spare. After a couple days, Bill finally caught me.”
Bill grunted, though I’m not sure if it was from impatience, annoyance, or pure embarrassment for how much trouble he’d had in catching Til’.
“So, Bill tried to get me to tell him how to get around Contracts—don’t worry, I told him I didn’t know anything about it—”
Bill let out a growl. “And that was a lie, wasn’t it?” He shook his tattooed head. “I should’ve known. First Galius, then that sorceress, and now you. I am greatly losing my touch.”
“You still would’ve helped if you knew, right?” Til’ asked somewhat timidly. Bill growled again. “Yeah, I’m sure you would’ve,” he continued with a resolute nod of his head. “Anyway, Korin, I told him about what happened to you and that if he wanted answers, he’d have to get you away from Kait’ and her men.”
“Ahem,” Bill cut in. “Shut your Cragron-blooded mouth for a moment, Kolarin.” Cragron’s the god of voice. Til’ thrust out his jaw petulantly and turned his face from Bill, his raven hair whipping behind him.
“Korin, it is true that I first sought you with the sole purpose of obtaining your knowledge of Contracts. The situation with Galius made me realize how beneficial having a safety net that could protect me from being taken by bastards like that count would be. I would have wrenched it out of Galius himself, but that Julan Bertal got him locked away for a month.”
The thought of the self-important count stewing in a prison cell for a whole month brought a smile to my face. Served him right.
“Then your little friend, here, made me realize that I owed you. If you had not advised Julan to make Galius release me from our Activated Contract, well, I would be as much of a slave as you were with that group right now. For that, I thank you.” He gave me a slight bow of his head.
It was strange to have Bill thanking me. His voice didn’t seem suited to affable conversation. The rough bass seemed more suited for threats and snappy one-liners. Part of me wondered if it was just an act to lure me into a trap. Hey, I think I was rightly afforded a measure of paranoia after being enslaved by the last person who claimed to be helping me.
“See, Bill’s actually pretty nice once you get to know him.” Til’ beamed up at me, already moved past his feelings of affrontedness from moments before.
“Yeah, I see that,” I said, arching an eyebrow skeptically. “I mean, his men were kind enough to beat us senseless for Galius. Shows they’re willing to go the extra mile for their benevolent leader.” Again, my mouth has a mind of its own much too frequently. I gripped my sword hilt just in case Bill decided to take offense to my words.
“Listen, Korin,” Bill began, sounding more patient than I would’ve expected, “I had just recently hired those men for that particular job, and Galius had us convinced that you were the bad guy. My judgment has been sorely lacking recently, it seems.” His eyes narrowed above his dark tattoos. “Besides, would you have not done the same thing in our place?”
“All right, you got me there,” I answered, relaxing. I’d had a scrap of my own with the men who’d originally taken the “gem” from Galius. Short of killing them, I would’ve done anything necessary to prevent myself from becoming Galius’s slave.
“What would it take to get you to reveal your secrets?” Bill questioned, his inquiring eyes standing out starkly above his dark tattoos.
“Ask me again once we’re safe at your camp,” I replied, wondering if Bill realized that I was basically saying, “once you prove I can trust you.” The fact that he didn’t act as if I owed him the answer was a mark in his favor, though.
“Fair enough,” Bill responded, pursing his lips. He clearly caught the implication of my words.
“All right, Til’, continue,” I ugred.
Til’ puffed out his chest in pride and set back into his breathless explanation. “So Bill took us back to where you’d been taken and started tracking you guys. We caught up a day ago, but Bill said we couldn’t go running after you without him knowing what we were up against. We spied on your camp last night, and Bill kind of figured out what was going on and who was in charge. He believed the only way to get you out was to . . .” Til’ trailed off.
Bill cleared his throat again. “In all fairness, my plan had been to sequester the man who was controlling you from the others and force him to release you himself. However, the situation with the . . . attackers . . . forced my hand in the matter. I gave him a chance to surrender, and yet, he attacked me. Then with that woman . . .” Bill exhaled loudly and shook his head. “She would have tried to kill me otherwise and probably would have succeeded.”
Bill was continually surprising me. Not only was he not the iniquitous man I’d pegged him as back at Galius’s manor, but he was actually remorseful for Kait’s and Jefren’s deaths. I took a step towards him and put a hand to his shoulder. “It’s okay, Bill,” I assured him. “I’d probably be dead now if you hadn’t intervened.”
“Trust me, they’re better off this way,” Briscott added. I couldn’t help but wonder if I sounded as weary as he did. If so, it was a miracle either of us was still standing. Actually, given what we’d been through, it was a miracle anyway. “They’re with Loranis now. They’re back with the loved ones that those monsters took away from them.”
At Briscott’s words, I remembered his past with Jefren. I felt a catch in my throat. “Briscott, about Jefren . . . I . . .”
Briscott held up a hand to silence me. “I meant what I said about him being better off,” Briscott spoke solemnly. “I’ve had plenty of time to mourn the loss of my friend. I’ve been doing it for months. If anything, his death is a blessing.”
We all continued in reverent silence for a moment. “So, tell me,” Bill began, breaking the silence, “what is the story with the green gems and those monsters back there? And please tell me the Kolarin was just trying to scare me with his talk of eldrhims.”
Til’ scrunched up his face and snorted derisively. “First, my name’s Tilrook. Second, I was serious about the eldrhims. See, Korin, we came back tonight to save you. Bill wanted to scout your camp alone, devise a plan of attack, and come back with his men to execute it. I made him take me,” Til’ explained. Bill grunted and rolled his eyes.
“Hey, it’s a good thing I did! When we got there, everyone was running around like crazy, packing up your camp. Then, I started to get that same feeling that we’d had when we were attacked by eldrhims before. I told Bill about the eldrhims and that we had to stay and fight. He didn’t believe me. Can you believe that?” Til’ raised his eyebrows and held both hands, palms up, out to his sides.
Again, I found myself grinning. I really had missed the little guy. I only wished that his company didn’t make me think about Sal’ so much. “Sorry to break it to you, Bill, but yes, the huge lizard-faced, bear-legged aberration and the jelly beast were eldrhims.”
Bill’s lips were pressed tightly and pulled to the side, his eyebrows drawn. He rubbed a hand over his shaved head, looking bemused. “Forgive my skepticism, but I find it hard to believe that eldrhims truly exist. I am not sure I believe that they are any more than just fiction
al monsters used in stories to scare children. Besides, how is it that you two have encountered such creatures before?”
“You don’t have to believe us,” I replied. “I first encountered the Rizear-blooded things when I was trying to get the gem for Galius. I was traveling with a wizard at the time who knew about them.”
Bill seemed to ponder my words for a moment before continuing. “Those. . . those . . .” Bill twirled a hand before him as he searched for a word. “Those walking dead. I suppose you are going to tell me that they were eldrhims, too?”
Til’ jumped in before I could answer. “No. Eldrhims all look different; those things were pretty much the same.” Til’ was referring to the lore that eldrhims were tortured souls whose forms differed based on what sins they’d committed in life.
I started talking over Til’ as he continued his rant. “Bill, again, I’d rather wait until we’re resting at your camp. I’m doing all I can to even stay on my feet right now, let alone keep up a conversation.” I really was exhausted, but I was also still sizing Bill up. I didn’t want to tell him any more than I had to until I was more certain of his trustworthiness. Bill nodded his agreement and thankfully dropped the subject, though Til’ continued on.
Before long, the aroma of freshly cooking stew assaulted my nose, and I found myself salivating. Jefren had kept me fed, but not as well as I would’ve liked. A nice cooked meal sounded divine at this point.
Bill and his men had made camp in a rock shelter cut into the side of a small hill. We approached it from the back, so I didn’t even see it until Bill brought us around its side. Under the rock overhang, Bill’s three men sat around a fire, rocks and logs used for their seats. Not far away, their four horses were tethered to trees, nibbling the plants at their feet. Over the fire was a large kettle that gave off the delectable scent of stew. Seeing the men—Crooked Nose, Lily Pants, and Niliv—I was impressed.
