“Woof, woof, woof.”
“You’ll wish you’d stayed and fought her evil.”
“I’ll be in Harthgar,” the warlock shot back. “Or in Parydon, sipping mulled wine and playing my songs for heavy-breasted, jewel-laden merchants’ wives.”
“Wait. Stop all this.” The wizard’s voice rose over the others. “Let me rest. I’ll try to take us back to Great Vale on the morrow.”
“What if the witch’s pack of beasts comes back?” the gargan woman argued. “They’ve already killed our guide and our ramma.”
“She only sent them to warn us off.” The warlock squatted down and tried to calm the dog. “We are not going into her forest now. We are going to leave this foul place. Her warning worked. Why would she send them back?”
“She doesn’t need a reason. She’s a witch, you stupid, dog-loving heathen.” The barbarian bitch threw up her empty hand and passed the torch to the wizard. She then stomped her way back to the cabin.
“In the morning, I’m off to warn the fae,” the elf snarled. His voice was shrill and raw with anger, and his little arms flailed about wildly, trying to express his feelings. “If you’ll not come help us, then I’ll go tell them the news. Though it will break their spirit, some of them might be able to escape the witch.”
“There’s nothing I can do about it.” The warlock stood and stared down at the elf. “My friend is dead. Two of my friends are dead. I didn’t ask to be called away from my music and the hearth fires and all the willing women.” Without waiting for an answer, he spun and walked back to the cabin. The dog was right on his heels.
“Like I said, I’ll try to teleport us back to Great Vale after I’ve rested,” the wizard repeated reassuringly. He followed Vanx back to the cabin carrying the torch.
A moment later, when the elf went in and slammed the door, the forested area outside was left dark.
*
When Chelda left the argument, she hadn’t gone into the cabin. She had only opened the door and snatched her bow.
A few heartbeats later, her silent arrow, a shaft with its razor-sharp tip removed so that it wouldn’t kill the target, thumped into a mismatched creature’s feathered body, sending the spy tumbling tail over wide-eyed head from its perch in the tree. Bat wings flailed uselessly, doing nothing to slow a possum body when it cracked into several branches and then thumped into a snow drift at the base of the tree.
Before the dazed sneak could recover, Chelda darted back behind the cabin and joined three other shadowy forms as they raced into the woods unseen.
*
“What happened there?” the Hoar Witch yelled. She had been lost in thought, already scheming on taking over the heart tree and contemplating all she had heard, but when the scene in her viewing pool went blank, it drew all of her attention.
By then, Flitch found a different place to hide, one closer to the cabin and away from whatever had just blasted him.
Aserica’s pool flickered back into a view, only now the cabin was far closer, and the Hoar Witch could more plainly hear the fools inside arguing and stomping about.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about thwarting the will of the dark one by letting the young warlock get away. He wouldn’t be pleased, but if she could do as the elf suggested and gain full control of the Heart Tree, then it would hardly matter what the dark one thought. The power of a fairy tree was a far greater boon than the dark one’s favor.
The Hoar Witch only had to kill off the tree’s defenders and feed her witch blood to its roots. She would be bonded with the tree, then, and could access its power. She could use the Heart Tree’s own strength to purge the good from its sap. She could make it into a cruel thing, and she could command its might with her will.
For a moment, the idea that the pixie queen had let herself be taken just so the tree would be vulnerable came to the Hoar Witch’s mind.
An elaborate trap?
No, the bane of the foolish is that they always put too much faith in others. No, the stupid pixie queen had called for a hero, and a half-craven bard had come instead.
She sat there for a long time, perfectly still, with that thought hanging in her mind. Then she slapped the surface of her pool and growled out. “It’s a trick.” She snarled as she reached for the crystal talisman hanging from her neck.
“Flitch, you watch them like a hawk,” she commanded through the shard’s power. She had to cackle at the absurdity of that comparison, but the bout of manic glee didn’t lessen her rage. “That warlock has my blood in him. He won’t give up so easily. I should have known better. Do not let them leave without your beady little eyes fixed firmly on them, Flitch, or Clytun and I will mix you into a stew.”
A moment later she was focused on Vrooch, the monstrous leader of her hybrid wolfen pack.
“Vrooch, take your pack to the Heart Tree. Kill every elf, fairy, sylph and pixie you come across. Show no mercy.” She cackled again. “I want you to feed on the fae until you’re shittin’ magic mushrooms and pissin’ rainbows.”
“You, Clytun…” She turned to face the anxious minotaur. “You go wake the witch woods. If a squirrel so much as farts in my forest, I want to know about it. And you, my young warlock…” She looked at the ceiling, as if she could see him standing there. “You will soon find out that Aserica Rime isn’t so easily fooled.”
Other titles by M. R. Mathias
Short Stories:
Crimzon & Clover I - Orphaned Dragon, Lucky Girl
Crimzon & Clover II - The Tricky Wizard
Crimzon & Clover III - The Grog
Crimzon & Clover IV - The Wrath of Crimzon
Crimzon & Clover V - Killer of Giants
Crimzon & Clover Collection One (stories 1-5)
The Saga of the Dragoneers
The First Dragoneer - Free
The Royal Dragoneers - Now Available
Cold Hearted Son of a Witch - Now Available
The Confliction - Now Available
The Emerald Rider - Now Available
The Legend of Vanx Malic
Book One – Through the Wildwood
Book Two – Dragon Isle
Book Three – Saint Elm’s Deep
Book Four – That Frigid Fargin’ Witch
And don’t miss the huge International Bestselling epic:
The Wardstone Trilogy
Book One - The Sword and the Dragon
Book Two - Kings, Queens, Heroes, & Fools
Book Three - The Wizard & the Warlord
www.mrmathias.com
Dragoneer.info
Wardstone.info
Follow M. R. Mathias @DahgMahn on twitter
Saint Elm's Deep (The Legend of Vanx Malic Book 3) Page 22
