by E. A. James
Leonie frowned, doubt flickered within her mind. Still, if it was her family and kingdom in danger... Her neck stiff, she nodded. “I suppose if you’re polite toward me, I could use the company.”
“You could use the company regardless. You fight well, but you cannot match my strength.”
She scoffed, lips curling upward. “I don’t think I’ll be needing any kind of brute force, but that’s good to know, Mr.…?”
He took off his hat, his scalp made of thousands of tiny spikes pointed behind him. Pressing the hat against his chest, he used his free hand to reach for her own. “You may call me Adrik Shabalin.”
She shook his hand—cold, rough, though his grip was rather gentle. “Leonie Dupont.”
“The Young Duchess of Asawiss?” He smirked as if joking.
“One of them.” She shrugged, releasing his hand before she walked away—Adrik walking right beside her with his head canted to the side. “We’re smaller than Maylorn, you know. At least half of our citizens have some kind of royal title.”
He hummed in stoic acknowledgment, his eyes aimed forward and his hat held by his side.
She eyed him. He said nothing as they continued onward, the birds fluttering wings and soft chirps the only sounds disrupting the silence between herself and this Adrik. He blinked slowly, gaze distant as thoughts—perhaps utterly boring thoughts—clouded his expression.
She glanced between him and the trees ahead of them. The back of her mind tickle, an aching sensation, really. “So…that’s it?”
“What’s it?”
“You don’t have any questions—or better yet, any apologies you wish to speak?”
“No.”
She balked. “The god of fate told me to stop a war between your land and another, and you have no questions?”
He glanced at her, his frown deepening. “It probably wasn’t a literal god who came to you. Perhaps it was someone who knew something of value—something that would compel Sallimor and Maylorn to war with one another.”
“What?!”
He flinched. “Why are you shrieking at me?”
“You’re—you—you’re unbelievable.” She pressed her hand against her forehead, the tip of her hood being pushed back a bit. She forced herself to breathe slowly—to calm the waves of hot anger crashing upon her chest. “You witnessed the Fader read my mind and go into hysterics. It said ‘Mathsus’ like ten times, at least.”
“I don’t think it was that many times.”
“But the Fader said it!”
“That proves nothing.” Adrik held his head high, not looking at her. “Seeing and hearing the Fader proves its existence, but hearing it mention a god? That doesn’t prove the god’s existence.”
She growled and pressed her palms against her face. Never before had she dealt with such a stubborn and blind skeptic, and it forced pain to bloom from various points beneath her skull.
She tripped over a tree root, hands flying out and heart leaping out of her flesh.
Adrik snorted, not slowing.
She glared at his back and swore as she trudged on.
CHAPTER THREE
The shops and houses of Narma Village were wide cone shapes, most of which didn’t contain any windows. They were all clustered together—no fences, but the metal doors were covered in various kinds of locks. Vines wrapped around some of the houses while leaving the shops unbothered.
Remarkably, the village hadn’t removed any of the trees or other foliage around it. Trees cluttered the area—the shops—but the citizens appeared unhindered by it as they walked about, talking, purchasing goods, playing with their children—
Adrik tugged on Leonie’s sleeve, so she slowed her step and turned to him. “What?”
“I need to go to the guards’ station and hand in my resignation.”
“Oh. Um, alright.”
As her led down a few dirt paths—weaving around various shops—her eyes wandered over the citizens. Elves, humans, Gargans, Elven humans—there were all kinds here, and no one appeared bothered by it. There were polite conversations and polite smiles.
Leonie’s heart swelled as curiosity brushed over her mind. Oh, she had so many questions to ask these people. What was like to not notice one another’s race? Or did they notice it and honor it? How did—?
Adrik shoved the heel of his hand against her shoulder.
Her hands snapped to her sore shoulder. “Ow! What?”
“Wait here.” He entered the building to their left—the tallest building in the entire village, its pointed tip a few meters higher than the surrounding trees.
She massaged her shoulder, her pack nearly sliding down her arm as she did so. She clenched her teeth and waited—like he had so kindly ordered—before her heart started thudding a little too hard.
Swearing, she stormed into the guards’ station.
Her eyes snapped to the floor—the forest floor, no manmade covering keeping her boots off the grass and dirt. Her lips quirked upward, and she walked in a small circle indoors.
How…odd.
“Adrik, you’re of the medium caste. You’re expected to be better than this.”
Leonie turned and looked at the front desk, an incredibly long and tall thing made out of rough wood. Adrik stood before it, a couple of meters from herself, as he spoke with another Gargan in a border patrol uniform behind the desk.
Adrik sighed but otherwise remained silent.
The other Gargan glared with disgust. “You’re serious? You’re just…you’re just going to quit after working here for a couple of weeks? That’s pathetic and unworthy of you.”
“I’ll go to my assigned room, change, and give you back this uniform. You just get my last payment ready.”
The other Gargan cackled, eyes wide and dulled. “Oh, no, no, no! Why in the great world of Olnorma would I allow payment to go through to a man that quits his post. We don’t allow that of the lower castes, so we can’t allow it to the likes of you.”
Adrik pressed his hands against the desk and leaned forward, growling something that Leonie couldn’t hear.
The other Gargan smirked. “You quit, and I can say and do whatever I want. Quitting makes you nothing more than rumnern.”
Leonie gasped, horror freezing her blood. Rumnern was such an ugly word to call a Gargan—even from one Gargan to another. Before she knew it, the ice had melted beneath a flash of fiery rage, squeezing her lungs and clawing into her head.
Adrik backed away, his entire posture rigid. He breathed heavily like he was choking on each inhale.
Leonie stormed forward and slammed her hands on the desk. “How dare you!”
The other Gargan blinked at her. “Excuse me?”
“You’re disgusting, you know that! No one deserves to be called that word. It’s based out of idiocy and insecurity of other races!”
“Your race, specifically,” he said with a blunt chortle. He shook his head and gave her a toothy smile. “You don’t even have a caste to your person. My acknowledgment of your presence is a gift you’ll never deserve.”
Other employees walked about and started to glance in her direction.
Leonie’s chest burned, her facial muscles twitching as anger swallowed her whole. She was well aware of Sasawa’s caste system, a pointless societal way of giving the privileged more rights than the unfortunate. In her case, an outsider wouldn’t receive the honor of a label.
She cracked her jaw and stared at him hard. “I know my worth.”
The Gargan huffed. “I doubt that.”
“The god of fate visited me just the night before, and requested that I accomplish an important task for me.”
Adrik groaned behind her.
The Gargan before her laughed, the sound light and joyous. “What?!”
The other guards laughed, as well, stopping from their short ventures to turn toward her and laugh harder.
She ground her teeth together, face reddening despite the truth of her words. She spoke her claim loud
er—over their laughter—and with more detail. She told them about the Mathsus’s starlight, the Fader attacking her—
One elven guard tripped and fell to the ground, cackles bursting out of him as he rolled around.
Adrik grabbed her arm and gently tugged her back. “Come now before you make this situation worse.”
She followed him, her steps awkward as her pride clutched her chest. “But—but what about your payment? And what about the truth?”
He pulled her out of the building and led her toward the other end of the village. “This uniform will be my payment, and no one else needs to hear this ‘truth’ of yours.”
She yanked herself free from his grip, but both of them kept their pace. Not knowing what to say—blood searing, as it was—she pressed her lips together and trekked onward.
Remarkably, in the hour it took the two of them to exit Narma and enter another forest, most of the citizens had heard of her claims in regards to Mathsus and the Fader. A few daring people even pointed at her and excitedly yelled, “There she is! The mad duchess of Asawiss!”
Some laughed.
Others gasped in awe as if witnessing something amazingly wretched.
Leonie clenched her hands into tight fists. “Disrespectful louts. All of them.”
Adrik didn’t agree or disagree with her. He just bowed his head and sighed, his hand pressing against his forehead.
CHAPTER FOUR
“You must keep quiet about this supposed vision of yours. It’s only bringing us trouble.”
Leonie kept her gaze forward, her boots stomping against the forest floor. Frowning, she cracked her knuckles and shifted her pack a bit. “I don’t like keeping things to myself, and this—this is important. This is probably the most important thing I’ll ever do in my life.”
Adrik shook his head. “You’ve become the Mad Duchess of Asawiss in less than a day because of your rantings. People will only see your madness when they look at you, and they won’t help. Some things must be kept secret.”
“Must they?” She cocked an eyebrow at him. “What secrets are you keeping from me?”
He glowered.
“We’re traveling together,” she said. “If I’m to trust you, I should know you.”
“You know enough.”
“I don’t know anything about you!”
“You know that I was a guard, a position given to those of honor.”
“I also know you just quit as a guard.”
“I resigned to prevent a war in my homeland.” He smiled, smugness marring his expression. “As I’ve said, you know enough. And others certainly know enough about you.”
She opened her mouth to argue once more, but there was rationality in his words. Her pride withering, she closed her mouth and huffed through her nose.
They made the mistake of entering another village—Kallal Village, a place made out of reds and pinks more than any other color, though a few aspects of lavender were painted into some of the shops’ framework.
Apparently, news traveled speedily in the Kingdom of Sasawa.
“You’re the Mad Duchess of Asawiss!” a human boy said, running up to her the moment she and Adrik entered Kallal. He grinned up at her. “My mama says you fell off the mountain. Did you? Did it hurt?”
She fought against the glare that threatened to appear. “No.”
“It didn’t hurt?! Amazing!” He ran back in the direction he had come from, toward a small cone-shaped house. “Mama, she can’t get hurt!”
Adrik, gods bless him, said nothing about this, though his gaze twinkled with self-righteous amusement.
They hadn’t reached the village square when two human men grabbed her and threw her against the slanted wall of a nearby building.
“The Mad Duchess and her Gargan bodyguard,” one of them said, chuckling humorlessly as Leonie dusted herself off. “It’s hard enough to spread the word of Mathsus without heretics like you tainting the cause.”
She stepped up to him, her eyes narrowed and her mouth open—ready to preach that the Trilinity religion had three gods to worship, not only Mathsus. But then Adrik grabbed both men by their calves and threw them unceremoniously to the other side of the road.
They crashed on top of a large pile of garbage, in between two unkempt households.
Leonie swallowed back a giggle, her lips spreading wide on their own accord.
“Let’s go,” Adrik said, pressing his large hand against her back and guiding her down the road.
“Thanks,” she said. “I guess Gargan strength does come in handy from time to time.”
He smirked, gently pushing her as he quickened his pace.
They stayed in the forests after that, walking on the outskirts of the villages. And with Adrik’s large size, it was easy for Leonie to crouch beside him and hide from potential onlookers.
Olnorma darkened, the stark white moon casting ghostly light over the dense forest. A chilled wind caressed the foliage every so often, but for the most part, the air was still and the temperature was tolerable.
“We should camp,” Adrik said, interrupting her as she spoke of the time her younger sister broke her finger.
“Sleepy?” she asked with a smirk.
“Of course. Aren’t you?”
Her eyelids felt too weighted, her eyes aching. “I’m too excited to be sleepy.”
“Be that as it may, we should rest before continuing onward.”
“If you insist.” She suppressed a yawn and kneeled, her pack falling to the ground. As she looked through it for her blankets and pillow, she noticed Adrik simply plumped beside her and leaned back against a tree. She furrowed her brow. “You don’t have any supplies?”
He blinked. Then he motioned at himself.
“Well then why didn’t you buy anything at any of the shops?”
“I don’t need anything, except food. And I did buy that before eating it.” He stretched, rubbing his shoulders against the tree and closing his eyes. “I don’t require as much as humans do to survive. Though truly, humans don’t require their sleeping comforters.”
“Our blankets?”
“Precisely.”
She took out her blankets and laid them on the ground. “I suppose that makes life easier then.”
He said nothing.
She placed her pillow on the ground, and then she rested upon her makeshift bed. Her eyelids drooped, though curiosity spiked within her. She turned to Adrik. “I wonder if my family sent anyone after me.”
Adrik didn’t open his eyes.
She faced the sky, blocked by several tree branches and pine needles. Guilt rose within her and clawed into her heart and stomach. She shifted. “I hope they understand. I never wanted to go against them and hurt anyone. I just…this was just something I couldn’t ignore. Not that I’ve ever been able to ignore much.”
Adrik exhaled slowly.
“Asawiss is really like one big family of friends, you know? We all rely on each other to survive. Some are gatherers, some are wood-cutters, some are hunters, some are builders—everyone has a role that matters. I love it, but sometimes…okay, a lot of the time, I wanted to see something more. There’s more to life than just one culture.” She placed her hands over her stomach, churning and twisting. “I thought my first journey out of the kingdom would be as Asawiss’s first ambassador. For it to be a holy calling that compels…” She sighed. “I hope my family doesn’t think I’m crazy, at least, even if they don’t believe me.” She glanced at Adrik.
His eyes were still closed.
She rolled her eyes, though a smile graced her lips. “You know, you’re the quiet and blunt type. And those aren’t bad things to be. I’m sorry if I’ve been making your life difficult, but I do appreciate that you came along with me.” Her heart warmed, easing her tension. She closed her eyes. “It’s nice to have at least one person wanting to help me.”
She didn’t see it when Adrik peeked open one of his eyes.
CHAPTER FIVE
A
growl rumbled through the air, ghosting over her face in a taut, warm wind that smelled of rot and fish.
Leonie, half-asleep, turned away and cringed with disgust.
The second growl had her snapping her eyes open.
She rolled away just as two enormous paws smashed against her blankets, a roar bellowing above them.
