The Delving

by Aaron Bunce

  “Pa!” a scream sounded from just beyond the doorway. Dennah appeared, streaking into the kitchen and about knocking him over.

  The girl squeezed him tight, her hands and legs hooked clear around his body. The pressure hurt, but Thorben didn’t fight or push her away. He squeezed her right back, pulling her close so he could kiss her cheek.

  “Where’d you go, pa? Where’d you go?”

  “I…went on a little trip. I’ll tell you all about it later, Pebble.”

  “Hey, pa, you want me to help you chop firewood later?”

  “Sure, Pebble. We’ll chop a whole load together.”

  “I’m gonna go wake up the boys and tell ‘em pa is home. I’m gonna jump on ‘em,” Dennah said, flashed Dennica an excited smile, and ran out of the room.

  “And what of the girl?” Dennica asked.

  “We’ll be taking her in for a while. Her father, Iona…he’s the reason why I made it out. He asked me to look after the girl, right before…”

  “Another belly to fill. Thorben, we don’t have enough food to fill our mouths. How will we make it through the winter?”

  He reached across the table and pulled her hand out, dropping the bulging coin sack into her palm before she could pull away. Dennica met his gaze, squeezed the bag, tested its weight, and then reached down and slowly pulled it open.

  “Mani’s mercy! There’s…”

  “Enough to stock our cellar and pantry for the winter, buy Paul a new bow and take him to Klydesborough for his trials, and buy planting seed for next season.”

  “A new dress,” Dennica said.

  Thorben looked at her for a moment.

  “There are three things I need from you before I’ll even consider forgiving you for all of this. First, you get down on your knee right here in this kitchen, before me, and before your beloved goddess, and promise me that you will never run off like that again – that you will not keep me in the dark.” She eyed him expectantly, her mouth pulling tight.

  Thorben pushed away from the table and dropped painfully to a knee.

  “I swear to you that I will trust in you, and share all things.”

  “Good, because if you do, I won’t let you back into this house. Next, I want you to tell the children the truth. Tell them about your brand.”

  Thorben winced, the demand slapping across him like a hot lash. It was the thing he’d feared more than anything, save for death, his entire adult life. He wasn’t sure if he could stomach the looks in their eyes, discovering that he was a wretch, a tainted man.

  “I…”

  “No!” Dennica scolded, cutting him off. “You have let that damned scar rule your life the entire time we’ve been wed. Tis your shame, husband. You cover it, loath, and fear it. Stop giving it power over you. Tell your family the truth. They’ll still love you, and just maybe, you can stop hating yourself for a change.”

  Thorben looked down to his arm. He couldn’t see the brand, but he could feel it as keenly as if a shackle and weight were clamped in its place. He swallowed and looked up, his wife’s eye half-lidded and sharp, her head cocked at an angle.

  It made his stomach knot up to admit it, but she was right. Thorben slowly stood, and nodded his head.

  “Good, and third, I want a new dress.”

  “That sounds perfectly reasonable,” he said.

  “Good. If you can make good on those three things, I’ll consider forgiving you. But for now, go wash up for breakfast. You stink. And you best decide what you want to tell our young ones about that young woman who’s sleeping in the other room.”

  Thorben left and retreated to their room upstairs, where he slowly washed, favoring every nick and cut, scrape and bruise. The smell of cooking eggs drifted up from downstairs, a pain in his belly driving him to move faster. He pulled on some clean clothes and went back downstairs.

  Kenrick, Reginald, Darro, Tymon, Henrick, and Paul all sat around the table, talking animatedly. He patted each on the shoulder as he moved around behind them.

  Dennah sat in front of the door to the boys’ small washroom, her attention fixed on the handle.

  “What is Dennah doing?” he asked, walking into the kitchen.

  “I sent that poor girl…”

  “Jez,” Thorben said.

  “I sent her in there with a change of Darro’s clothes, some water and soap. Dennah is beside herself that there is another girl in the house right now.”

  “I pity her when she comes out,” Thorben said, and they shared a quiet laugh. It didn’t last long, but it was a start. He knew it would take time to win her favor back. He would always have her love, fortunately, but her trust would take work.

  They sat down and ate then, Jez squeezing in on the end between Dennica and Kenrick. Dennah sat across the table, watching eagerly. They ate – the clatter of dishes and silverware, tankards, and the boisterous conversation one of the most beautiful things he’d ever heard. Thorben savored it, eating slowly, listening and watching. Plates started to clear and the boys grew restless. Dennica gave him a look, and he knew it was time.

  “Everyone, I have a few things I would like to say,” he said, standing up and smacking his tankard against the table.

  The conversations died away, Dennah and all six boys turning his way. Jez seemed to understand what would happen next and seemed to shrink in her chair.

  “Everyone this is Jez…”

  “Jezebel. I’m Jezebel,” she said, suddenly.

  Thorben smiled. “Jezebel is going to be staying with us. Her father and I were…close when we were younger. Unfortunately, he passed recently, so she is going to live with us. Jez…ebel,” he stuttered, correcting himself. “This is Dennah, Paul, Darro, Reginald, Tymon, Henrick, Kenrick, and my wife, Dennica. Everyone welcome her to our home, please.”

  The room filled with noise as they all spoke at once, welcoming and shouting greetings across the table. Dennah slapped her palms down and hopped in her seat, barely containing her enthusiasm.

  “There is something else I need to tell you,” he said, and paused, rearranging his fork and knife next to his plate, allowing him a few extra moments to consider what he would say. And before he could lose his confidence, Thorben pulled his sleeve up and held it up for everyone to see. He told them all about his arrest for delving, his stay at the Council’s prison mine, and what the brand meant. He didn’t want to cry, but a single tear found its way down his cheek. One became two, and then more.

  Thorben tried not to look at them all, at their eyes. He didn’t want to see the disappointment, the disgust that he saw in everyone else. It was natural.

  The room went quiet after he’d finished, but he refused to sit. He wanted to stand before them and accept any punishment, any anger they felt the need to throw his way. He was done hiding his brand. The silence stretched out for another couple long moments, and he reached up to wipe the tears away.

  Paul pushed his chair back and stood, the other boys following suit. He watched them, terrified that they would leave in silence…that they would reject him. He could handle shouting and screaming, but the idea of angry silence and disappointment was unbearable.

  The boys moved around the table, Paul reaching him first. His eldest didn’t walk by, however. He wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into a suffocating hug.

  “That brand isn’t who you are, father. It is not who you are to us,” Paul said, as the other boys crowded in, wrapping their arms around him.

  “You’re a good man, father. Always have been, always will be,” Kenrick said, the other boys echoing similar sentiments.

  Thorben squeezed them all in, his tears flowing and breath catching in his throat. They were crying, too, all of them. Dennah dove into their midst, pulling away arms and burrowing until she was at his legs. She hugged him and cried. He wasn’t sure if she understood why, or if she was crying because everyone else was, but that didn’t matter.

  * * * *

  Thorben spent the next moon cycle working his ha
nds to the bone, helping Dennah chop firewood, rooting out the burrowing hedge rats, and restocking their cellar. He struggled sleeping at night, but found a single burning candle helped.

  Dennica awoke often and asked him if anything was wrong, but he struggled telling her the real reason why he couldn’t sleep. The dreygur haunted his dreams, the visions of pale, mottled flesh, torn bodies, and red blood not so easily banished from memory.

  Thorben also found himself hovering before the windows, watching the lengthening shadows between trees. They celebrated Paul’s name day with a raucous party, a goodly population of Yarborough’s youths filling their yard to help his eldest celebrate. He noticed Kenrick and Jez spending more time together, the quiet young woman and his middle son taking long walks together, or climbing the old oak across the way to sit in the shade.

  Dennah haunted the older girl’s footsteps. He walked into the sitting room the night before they were to leave for Paul’s trials and discovered the two girls whispering before the fire, taking turns playing with each other’s hair. He stood in the doorway for a long while and watched, laughing quietly to himself.

  They set out on wagons the next morning, carting the whole family through the boroughs. They stopped in Laneborough to buy treats. Thorben took Paul to a sweet shop and helped him pick out a gift to give his proctor. He pointed out the maple candies, and purchased a few extra for the ride back.

  Klydesborough was a mass of street vendors, performers, and criers. They visited a fletcher’s shop and purchased Paul a new bow and forearm guard. His eldest hugged him and cried a little when the fletcher strung the bow for him. Thorben cried a little, too. He wasn’t ashamed of it anymore. It felt good to let his emotions show.

  Thorben sat next to Dennica on the back of the Bear Claw River that afternoon, surrounded by his family. They watched Paul paddle quickly against the current. His canoe looked just a little more stable, glided just a little faster than the other young men. Thorben unwrapped a maple candy and handed it to his wife, chuckling quietly.

  They cheered Paul on at the archery field, and then waited nervously outside the River Watch boathouse as he sat before the proctors for his trial of knowledge. Thorben fidgeted with the ring, noting that he could turn it all the way around now. Would it come off if he pulled on it? And if it did, what would happen to Myrddin?

  “I did it! I did it!” Paul yelled, emerging through the door a short while later. His brothers crowded around, congratulating him. Thorben approached when they had all finished.

  “Congratulations, son,” he said, shaking his hand. “What next?”

  “Training. They’ll take us all the way down the Snake…all the way to the Crystal Waters. I won’t know what my posting will be until I’m sworn in as a brother. I’m hoping for something close to home, but we’ll see.”

  Thorben chatted with Paul for a while, both surprised and impressed with how grown up he sounded. His little boy, their first born, was a man. They treated Paul to a last meal, a fish boil on the beach, and all hugged him goodbye before he reported to the boat master to begin his training.

  Dennica held a smile while he walked away, but broke into tears as soon as he was out of sight. He hugged her, and together they walked to the docks, Dennah, Jez, and the boys walking behind.

  “Are you sure you have to do this now? Winter is so close. What happens to you if you get to Madus and a cold spell moves in?”

  “Yes, I’m sure. And, no, I’ll get there and back just fine. We haven’t even had a frost yet. This is something I need to do now, or I feel I may never get the chance.”

  Dennica nodded, sniffled a bit, and wiped her eyes. He was being honest and open, just as she’d asked. She didn’t necessarily like that he was leaving already, but she seemed to understand why.

  Once at the docks, Thorben checked with the dock master about ships heading toward the lakes. The old man, salt-colored whiskers hanging down both sides of his mouth, pointed him to a slip several spaces down. They walked up to the large riverboat, its long oars stowed on deck and sticking straight up into the air.

  “Hello?” Thorben called.

  “Hello to you, sir,” a gray-haired man called back, his head popping over the side rail of the pilothouse.

  “The dock master said you were heading down river, towards the lakes. If that is the case, I would like to book passage for two.”

  “Aye. We’re taking on cargo tonight and setting off at morning tide. I have a small cabin if you don’t mind sharing.”

  “I think that sounds quite agreeable,” Thorben said, and shook the seasoned captain’s hand. He fished money out of his coin purse and dropped it in the man’s hand.

  “Welcome aboard the Kingfisher, sir. I’m Captain Tovy. Load up any time before tomorrow morning. Feel free to stay aboard tonight. If not, just make sure you’re here before sun up morrow.”

  Thorben walked Dennica and the children back to the wagons, hugging each before loading them up onto the wagons.

  “I won’t be gone long,” Thorben said, bending over to kiss his wife on the cheek.

  “That’s good, because I don’t want my bed to get cold,” she replied, throwing him a half wink. He watched the wagons rumble down the roadway, refusing to move from the spot until long after they’d disappeared around the last bend.

  “Are you ready?” he turned and asked Jezebel.

  “I think so. Are you?”

  He nodded, and together they walked back to the docks, the city glowing to life as nighttime fell.

  They walked down the dock and approached the Kingfisher. Thorben reached down and adjusted the ring on his finger. He looked up to find a ghostly dwarf standing on the prow of the ship, his gaze locked down the dark river.

  About the Author

  Aaron started his academic career in criminal justice, but eventually connected his life-long love of literature with his passion for writing. After finishing his debut novel, Within, he attended and graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with and Undergraduate degree in English and Creative Writing, with focus on Fiction. He released his first novel as The Winter of Swords, and is excited to release the next two volumes in the overthrown series, Before the Crow, and A March of Woe, in 2019. Aaron is also releasing The Delving, an all-new supplementary novel, helping to build the lore and world showcased in his six part fantasy series.

  Besides writing, Aaron is constantly searching for a portal to Middle Earth, working to keep his two daughters from taking over the world, and supports his wife’s desire to vacation in Skyrim. Check out his website www.aaronbunce.com for information on current books, series, as well as news on upcoming releases.