Of Gryphons and Other Monsters (Taryn's Journey Book 1)

by Shannon McGee

  Nai stood and joined us. “Are you ready to plan out this party?”

  My shift in the field had breezed by as Aella, Nai, and I plotted out our plan for the evening. Aella had easier access to alcohol than Nai or myself, and so she would be bringing enough for the rest of us. Nai and Aella would meet by the inn and slip out together. If Claire could get away, she would be with them. Claire was Nai’s friend, not necessarily mine. Still, I didn’t want to be a spoilsport, so I refused to complain. They would meet me a half-mile from my home, and together we would continue to Nai’s hideaway.

  At home, I completed my chores quickly. I listened with one ear as I worked, as Father told us of the days hunt.

  “We searched until an hour before dusk,” he said. “We found no trace of a gryphon, mad or otherwise.”

  “No one spotted any trails at all?” Michael asked.

  Father shook his head. “Besides the markings that Glenn found already, there weren’t any others.”

  Michael made a noise of acknowledgment, and returned to his own chores without another word. Father’s pithy recount did not include how the mercenaries behaved, and I didn’t want to be the one to ask. I’d hoped Michael would think of more questions, but he seemed almost uninterested in the hunt after that.

  Father did tell us that they had swept the woods adjacent to our field and Glenn’s, for several miles. It was a lot of ground, and for them to have found nothing boded well. Perhaps the gryphon had receded back into the mountains. I mused later as I scrubbed the day’s dishes, muttering noncommittal replies to my brother as he asked about my time in the field.

  When that task was finished Michael went to his room to read, and I went to bed early as well, feigning a headache. My parents, though concerned, were distracted, discussing the gryphon, as well as Beth. Mother spared me an inquiring look, maybe wondering if Michael and I had fought again, and I shook my head with a soft smile. The crack under Michael’s door glowed with candlelight, and I thought about asking him along, but before my hand touched his door knob I turned away and continued to my room.

  A few hours later, when the hatch for the other side of the fireplace clunked shut, I felt my stomach dance. My mother and father made their way to bed not long after. When their door clicked shut I swung my feet off the bed into the boots that lay waiting. I paused, and slipped them back off, to carry them instead. I was no expert at sneaking about like Nai, but I knew my stockinged feet were a fair bit less clunky than my boots on the hardwood floors of the house.

  The hallway was already chilly with the fireplace closed off. The other two doors at the end of the hallway were shut to contain the heat from their own small hearths. Already wrapped in my wool cloak I didn’t mind it.

  I’d chosen the kitchen door to make my exit through, since the draft wouldn’t be as noticeable from the bedrooms. Outside, I shod my feet once more, and took off at a light jog to the barn. We were almost at a half moon, so I didn’t feel afraid that I would trip over an errant stick or mole hill. The sheep, skittish beasts that they were, bleated at me when I pulled the small side door open to slip inside. I hushed them, my heart pounding giddily. They knew me, even if they didn’t approve of how late I had chosen to visit. With the exception of the few more gluttonous of the flock who followed me around the perimeter of their pen, begging for food, they quieted.

  Hale was another matter entirely. She sensed my pounding heart, and her excited responding energy made it a chore to saddle her. I fumbled in the dimness of the barn, swearing as I failed to hitch her harness twice before finally managing it. She especially objected to the cloths I tied over each hoof. Those had been a suggestion from Aella, which had delighted Nai. They would muffle the sound of her hooves on the ground.

  “Easy,” I murmured. “It’s only until we get out of earshot from my parents. We don’t want to wake them, do we?” She snorted, and fidgeted.

  With as long as it took for her to be ready to go, I feared Aella and Nai might have assumed I had been caught or chickened out, and gone on without me. As I turned out of our property a bobbing light down the road allayed that fear. Aella carried a small lantern that cast a warm relief on her, Nai, and Claire. I mustered up a nervous smile for the lot of them

  Aella hefted a burlap sack with her free hand, and inside, bottles clinked as they knocked together. “You ready farm girl?”

  Conscious of how Claire raised her eyebrows at this nickname, I lit my own lantern, pilfered from the barn, so that the four of us were surrounded in a shuddering circle of light.

  My reply was full of more bravado than I felt. “As easy as breathing.”

  Collectively we turned our mounts in the proper direction, as Nai relayed their escape from town. “I had to convince Thomas that it was just Claire and I and that it would be all right for us to go. He was worried about the gryphon, of course, and the attack on Beth. He heard the hunters found nothing though, and I reminded him that only town folks know the secret way out. No one would expect us to be running amuck in the woods right now. I convinced him in the end. Everyone is saying that maybe this gryphon was gorging. Maybe it was with child or something and retreated with all the fuss.”

  “My papa says the mercenaries are stalling so that they get paid more,” Claire said snidely, then she seemed to recall Aella’s presence, “Not that I’d blame them.”

  Aella rolled her eyes, and chose not to comment. Pursing my lips, I cast a subtle glare at Nai, who missed it. She was riding with Aella again, behind her this time, and reaching for the bag of alcohol.

  “Is this place we’re going far?” I asked.

  “No, not at all,” Claire said. “It’s actually along the river, right up here.” She pointed to the point that I normally crossed on my way to the field. “I haven’t been here yet this fall but Beth…” she faltered.

  Nai passed her the flask that Aella had given her, after she tired of my friend rooting through her sack. “Here, take a drink.”

  Gratefully Claire took a delicate sip, then she continued, her voice a little rough. “Beth said someone she knew was out here a few weeks ago and there’s a mass of bluebells blooming.”

  “This late in the season?” I asked.

  “Yeah, she said she heard they cover the whole forest floor. That’s what we’re looking for.”

  “If she didn’t hear if from you two, who did she hear it from?” Aella asked shrewdly.

  Nai and Claire exchanged a look, and I sighed in exasperation. “My brother. Right?” Did everyone know about this affair but me?

  Claire nodded. “Beth said he gave her a bluebell, and then invited her out for a ride. He told her he wanted to show her a whole field of them. She was very impressed. It’s a shame she never got a chance. I don’t know why she’d pass up someone like your brother—or even Corey, to mix with riffraff.”

  “Enough Claire,” Nai said firmly. “You’ve made your sentiments about our guests abundantly clear. You’re not exactly subtle.”

  I bit my lip. That was what I had wanted to say.

  “Oh, don’t stop on my account,” Aella said coolly. “You might as well get it all out now before I get drunk. Let’s see, you’ve called us cheats and riffraff. Anything else?”

  Claire rolled her eyes. “Some people are so touchy. You act like you don’t know what folks say about you people.”

  “People say you’re a stuck-up brat, but you don’t see us bringing it up every time you’re about,” I muttered. The words came out too loudly in the night.

  “What was that?” Claire asked, her voice sharp, the whites showing around her green eyes. “Didn’t she call you a farm girl? Why is that ok, but I can’t call her for what she is?”

  “Because she wasn’t saying it to be nasty,” Nai said before Aella or I could form our own replies. “You are. Now stop. I wouldn’t have invited you if I knew you were going to be such a rain cloud.”

  “I’m not—” Claire pouted.

  “You are,” Nai insisted. “Now stop i
t. Aella is good people. If she is a mercenary so what? We don’t hold your merchant’s blood against you.” That got the laugh she had been garnering for, and the tension between us all eased slightly.

  There was a small game trail that followed the river in both directions. It saw enough use from fishers and hunters that we could ride for most of the way. Eventually though it narrowed and we all dismounted and led them the rest of the way. About a mile in Claire stopped us and gestured towards the trees.

  “The bluebells ought to be this way. It’s too tight to bring the horses, but there’s still a trail to follow. We could tie them up out here?” The questioning tone in Claire’s voice bordered on uneasy, but I couldn’t blame her.

  I swallowed, the back of my neck prickling. Taking a breath, I closed my eyes, gaining my bearings. The forest wasn’t unduly quiet. Now that we were paused, I could hear small animals moving off in the trees, cracking through the undergrowth. Those noises comforted me more than they didn’t. They meant the prey animals didn’t sense anything to fear. Still, I didn’t like the idea of leaving the horses any farther away from us than necessary. Together we looked at Nai, who typically made decisions like this.

  She tossed her hair, imperiously, smacking Aella in the face, who grinned, used to it by now. “I’d rather not leave the horses behind. It’d be one thing in day light—I wouldn’t worry at all then, but a gryphon isn’t the only predator out here. I don’t want to spook them.”

  “I should say not,” Claire rushed to agree. “I was thinking the exact same thing. We can always run out to the field in a little while, but after we’ve made a fire.”

  We staked the horses and immediately took up the task of rooting for firewood. None of us was a stranger to searching for kindling, though I was least experienced at hunting for it at night. As a mercenary, Aella was familiar with finding wood in dark, unfamiliar territory, and both Nai and Claire had participated in several night time bonfires. Before long, we had a decent fire burning off the path on the river’s side. The trail had curved as we had gone along it, so none of us feared being seen from the road, but we kept it small so we wouldn’t burn through our fuel too quickly.

  When at last the horses were moved close enough to the water to drink and the fire was burning steadily we all settled around the flames. Everyone had brought their own blanket, which was just as well, because we hadn’t been able to find any logs big enough to sit on but small enough to move. This was nice, I realized, looking across the fire at the glowing faces of my friends. It was exciting to be out in the night, and I liked knowing that I shared a secret with these girls.

  “So,” Aella said, her smile wicked, “What would we all like to drink?” She upended the sack carefully and several glass bottles slid onto the dark earth. A couple I recognized. There was mead and whiskey, and also what I guessed was vodka in an elegant, tall bottle. There was another bottle of clear liquid that was squatter than the others. The label that wrapped around the shiny container was in a language I couldn’t read. The same went for a liquor in a brown glass bottle.

  “Vodka. Pass the bottle,” Nai said instantly, and Aella complied. Claire accepted the bottle from Nai when she offered it after a swig.

  “Taryn?” Aella asked me.

  “Do you have any of that honey whiskey? I liked that.”

  She grinned. “That’s what’s in my flask again.” She took a drink from the flask and then passed it to me. My sip was moderate. I wasn’t sure how drunk I wanted to get yet.

  “Actually ladies,” Nai said, her voice dramatically arched. “If you care to, I have a game in mind.”

  “What sort of game?” I asked suspiciously. Even sober Nai’s “games” could run the gambit from innocent to plain wild.

  “I wish the boys would get here. Your games are always so much more fun with them,” Claire sulked.

  “Boys?” I squeaked. Aella echoed the same one-word question, but her tone was much more forbidding than my own. I looked at Nai. “You never said boys were coming, I thought it was a girl’s night.”

  Nai had the decency to look at least a little sorry. “I know, but Claire suggested it, and I thought it would be a good idea.”

  “How?” I hissed, taking another drink from the flask, which Aella then delicately removed from my grasp.

  “You’ve never been able to come out on a night like this. I figured why not go a little bigger? Let you have some fun, since that’s what you’ve been missing out on. Plus, it was one of the ways we convinced Thomas to let us leave at all.”

  “It is a good idea,” Claire said firmly. “Four girls drinking in the woods is not just boring, it’s unsafe. My mama would lose her mind, and she’d be right to.”

  “Yes, because your mother would love you out in the woods at night with boys better?” I asked. “And we have Aella! She’s an actual warrior.”

  Aella put a hand on my arm, surprising me into silence. “It’ll be fine, Taryn. I’m sure we’re not the only ones who need to blow off a little steam. Nai, do you know when they’re supposed to be here?”

  “Yeah,” Nai drawled, her eyes on Aella’s hand, which she let fall away, casually. “They were going to leave about a quarter of an hour after we did. Since they didn’t have to wait for Taryn, they ought to be here any second now.”

  “How about you explain this game to us so we’ll know how to play by the time they get here.”

  Nai was more than happy to oblige, and I listened in slightly sullen silence. The game was simple enough. Everyone sat in a circle around the fire and the turn order went clockwise around it. Whoever’s turn it was, was asked by the person to their right ‘truth’ or feat?’ They would then either be asked to tell a scintillating secret, or ordered to perform a daring or embarrassing feat. The person could forfeit the turn by taking a healthy swig of alcohol. As Nai was finishing explaining one of the limitations to Aella, we were alerted to new arrivals by the sound of hooves on dirt.

  Before long Thomas, Martin, as well as a man who was a little older than Claire named Christopher had settled themselves amongst us. I was relieved that they had had the good sense not to invite Corey or my brother along. Neither were feeling exceptionally warmly towards the mercenaries, and I wanted this to be a nice time for everyone. I didn’t know Chris very well, but Martin was Thomas’s best mate, and he was alright company, even if he was Glenn’s son. He was tall and gangly, with braided blonde hair and wire rimmed glasses that glinted in the fire’s light.

  Introductions were made, and the rules were explained to the boys, who grasped the logistics quickly, having played their own version in the past. Though Chris seemed surprised to see Aella, he kept any thoughts he had about it to himself, and soon I found myself relaxing, as general banter played between everyone. To be honest, it did feel a little safer to have a larger group gathered, and some of the fear I hadn’t realized I was still hanging onto slipped away.

  “So, who is going to go first?” Martin asked, clapping his hands together and rubbing them eagerly.

  “It should be Nai, since she came up with the game,” Claire pointed out.

  Nai stuck her tongue out at the redheaded girl. “I have no problem with going first. That makes my questioner …” She turned to her right. “Christopher!”

  “All right, truth or feat?”

  “Feat,” Nai said promptly.

  Christopher looked thoughtful for a moment. His ice blue eyes glittered as he clearly came upon what he thought was a good challenge. “All right,” he drew out the words slowly. “I challenge you … to …”

  “Go on—ask me! I’m not afraid,” Nai said impatiently, bouncing in her seat.

  He shushed her. “I dare you to jump over the fire.”

  Claire crowed excitedly, clearly impressed. The boys had gathered their own wood and despite our protests, had built the flames a little higher than we had. It was now burning at least half of Nai’s respectable height.

  Nai smiled thinly and stood. “All right. Y
ou lot on the other side, clear the way. I don’t want to land on you.”

  Claire and Thomas moved apart to make room for Nai as she bound her dress up immodestly high. I blushed for her, but she didn’t seem to care. She backed up a few feet, as Martin and Chris egged her on. Thomas kept telling her she didn’t have to if she didn’t want to. Claire watched, fingers in her mouth. I leaned back. If there was one thing I knew I didn’t have to worry about, it was Nai’s ability to jump.

  As she ran and leapt over the flames, Claire squealed in fright. She needn’t have, Nai easily clearing them by a few inches, and landed to applause. She shook out her skirts and whirled to reclaim her space between Chris and Martin, looking smug.

  “Your turn Martin.”

  Martin pushed his glasses up his nose to squint through them at her. “Ok. I’ll take a truth.”

  Nai screwed up her face in disappointment. “Really?”

  “What, did you have something in mind?” he asked.

  “No, but truths are harder to think of.” She huffed and gazed thoughtfully upwards. “Honestly, where would you go if you could live anywhere else—besides the north?”

  He considered this for a moment. “The midlands, I guess. They’re still a fair bit more normal than far south.”

  If either of the southern-born girls at the fire thought anything of his opinions on what was normal, they held their tongues. Claire’s turn was next, and Martin asked her why she had gone steady with Corey the year prior, only to drop the relationship when it seemed he was getting serious.

  She shrugged, studying her fingers. “Corey is actually fairly sweet in private, but his father is a terrible boar. In the end, my aunt advised me to break it off. She has ideas about a different match for me. Someone from Forklahke.”

  “Our guild is based out of there,” Aella said, sounding surprised, but pleased.

  “Oh? Well, I doubt you’d know him. He’s a clerk, from a nice family. Truth or feat, Thomas?” Claire posed the game question coolly, before Aella could form a rebuttal. I resisted the urge to reach out and give Aella’s hand a squeeze. She was tough, but Claire was formidable in her own way.