by Juniper King
But now, after meeting beings like Raen, Sera, and Kue, and seeing how they interact among themselves with no humans around, I wasn’t even sure how such a place could exist. It was clear that they weren’t all bad, but even Aksel and Ayre could kill someone without a second thought.
One thing was for certain though; this world of bounty hunters, and cruelty, and blood, this was part of my life now. Even if we did figure out what was happening in Ilonvale and I eventually did go back to Woodburne, now that I knew I was a daemon… everything had changed. Just my presence in town could be dangerous for everyone if someone decided to come after me again.
“Hey baby, what room you in?”
The loud voice startled me out of my thoughts. I looked down and immediately regretted it. Two drunk humans shouted up at me from the street. I shook my head and ignored them, my attention going back to the clear sky and thousands of stars overhead.
“You look lonely, hot stuff. Come on, we’ll show you a good time.” The second one could barely even hold himself up, let alone show anyone a ‘good time’.
I heard the door click open and shut behind me. Before I could turn around, a body moved into place against my back, arms coming around to rest beside my hands on the railing. Even the possessiveness of his gesture wasn’t enough to faze me right now.
Under the light from the street lamps, I could see the two men blanche before hurriedly walking away.
Once the two had shuffled off, Aksel pulled away from my back and came to lean beside me. The balcony was so small there was barely any space between us.
When I didn’t say anything, he spoke up. “Sorry, I figured you could use some help.”
“I appreciate it. Saved me the trouble.” I said in a monotone.
We stood in amicable silence watching the creatures milling about below.
“I’m sorry,” Aksel started. “I was so sure he would know more. That was kind of a bust, huh?”
I couldn’t exactly disagree. “When you told me about him you made it seem like he was near omniscient.”
“He’s always had the information we’ve needed. We haven’t seen him more than a handful of times, but every time his information has been damn near perfect. If nothing else I thought he might at least know who your father was.”
I turned to look at him properly. “You brought us to Kue to find out who my parents were?”
Aksel scratched his head, still looking over the cityscape. “Not exactly. We did need to get information, but I was hoping if he saw you…” He trailed off. “Everything we’ve done, we’ve tried our best to help you, but we always seem to end up hurting you.” He finally peeled his eyes away from the streets and met my gaze. “I figured this was the least I could do.”
My eyelids fluttered in surprise. I don’t think I’d ever seen such a timid look on Aksel’s face before.
“Aksel…” I slid my hand over his. “Thank you. I know you’re always looking out for me, even if our ideas don’t exactly match up.”
His fingers wrapped around mine, a heartwarming smile stretching across his lips.
“It was a good plan, but I wonder how often he’s seen other daemons since leaving Kimyr, other than his own bodyguards. And based on what he said, the only person he’s met from Ilonvale seemed completely focused on getting his blood, he wasn’t thinking about my father or anything else. It would have been impossible for Kue to know more,” I mused.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t think Kue is omniscient, I think his magic revolves around telepathy. I don’t think he knew everything about us but knew just what to say to make it look that way. Being back in Korinth… I couldn’t help but think about being taken by Raen, and he used those thoughts against us. He seemed to know everything that we knew about our current situation, but had no new information because he’s never met anyone with any information about Ilonvale.”
“Telepathy?” Aksel breathed out a laugh and shook his head. “That makes a lot of sense, actually. He’s so involved in the underworld of mercs and bounty hunters he would have seen all of them through his door at some point, which means he would have information about any job, any rival, anything. Not to mention his lackeys getting any information he couldn’t get himself. No one would have questioned his omnipotence.”
I hadn’t been exactly sure, but Aksel seemed to agree with my assessment. If it really was telepathy…
“Was it true what Kue said? What you think about humans? I know we’ve touched on the subject before, and you have every reason to hate them, but…” I don’t know why the thought of Aksel hating humans bothered me so much. I understood his reasoning, I did, but if he did hate humans, did that mean he held some unconscious hatred for me as well?
Aksel stared silently over the streets for a moment before turning to meet my eyes. “For a long time that’s what I thought. I might still think that way if I’d never met you.”
I hoped it was too dark outside for Aksel to notice the slight blush painting my cheeks. I was about to reply when I heard a sudden scuffing sound and the din of the crowd below getting quieter. My attention was drawn back down to the streets. It looked like people were parting to let someone through the main street.
“Isn’t that one of Kue’s bodyguards?” The large frame was easy to identify.
“Jerik. Looks like he’s on a mission,” Aksel answered.
We let the unspoken thought hang in the air between us. He was walking with such purpose… right towards our inn.
Aksel and I looked at each other, his expression grim. “Hurry.” He grasped my wrist and pulled me back inside the room where he grabbed a bag and shoved it at me, “Put this on.”
“What’s going on?” Ayre asked. With no shirt on, it looked like he’d been about to hop in the shower.
“Jerik is going to burst through that door any second. Selynna, you’ll need to distract him.”
Ayre flew into motion, grabbing his belt of knives off the floor and tossing Aksel his sheathed sword.
“Distract him how?” Unlike Ayre, I hadn’t been around Aksel long enough to read his mind. Before he could give me proper instructions, the door lock flicked and the door swung open, bouncing off the opposite wall with a clattering bang. Jerik stood in the doorframe, blocking off our exit. The air was thick with tension, but no one said a word. Aksel swept me behind him.
“I’m here for the half-blood, Kue would like a word,” Jerik said without preamble.
None of the Supers had their weapons in their hands, but they were all poised to change that.
“Is that why you came here armed?” Aksel asked.
Jerik’s hand was resting on the hilt of his sword. “I do not wish to hurt her, but it is not a request. She is not to leave Korinth.”
Aksel’s words kept running through my head. Distract him, distract him. How was I supposed to distract him? What was I distracting him from? Was I supposed to do it now?
Aksel and Ayre were standing still, the entirety of their attention on Jerik. Their hands were already hovering over their weapons, any movement, even a twitch from them would probably start an all-out clash of blades.
But… I could distract him without even moving! That was it, that’s what Aksel had wanted me to do.
Okay, here goes nothing. I did the only thing I could think of on such short notice. I grabbed the door with my magic and swung it as hard as I could into Jerik’s side. It wasn’t enough to properly injure him, but he let out a surprised squawk as the door crashed against his elbow.
In the second of time I had given us, Aksel wrapped his arm around me and Ayre grabbed one of the packs from the floor, vaulted over the bed and reached for Aksel’s outstretched arm.
I heard Jerik’s shout echo through my brain as we misted away.
24
For five days we pushed ourselves to our absolute limits. If Kue had been dead set on my not leaving Korinth, then his cronies would probably be out looking for us. Daemons had the inherent abilit
y to blink, a form of travel much like Aksel’s misting, so there was a high likelihood that they would be hot on our tails. Luck was on our side however, as they knew where we were headed, but didn’t know which path we were taking. They knew that our destination was Deramore, but they didn’t know that we were set to meet the man several kilometers outside of the city. Even if they blinked into Deramore and waited for us to show up, they would be waiting for a long time.
In our rush to leave the inn, we had only grabbed two of our packs, unfortunately, neither of which contained the tent. Fortunately, we still had our sleeping rolls and a one or two changes of clothes.
For the first time since we’d left Woodburne, I actually felt like we were on the run. We no longer had the luxury of sleeping through the night, instead, we only slept a couple of hours so Aksel could recover enough strength to mist again.
I was convinced for the first two nights of travel, Ayre hadn’t gotten any sleep. Aksel had all but passed out immediately after misting us, his body completely giving out after he pushed himself to get those extra kilometers of teleportation. Ayre had stayed up to keep a lookout. By the third night, I’d nagged him until he finally let up and let me keep a lookout, though he refused to let me do it alone for more than two hours. I’d stupidly made a comment that I would tie him down in his bedroll if I had to, and that only excited him.
What should have taken us about eight days of travel we managed to do in about six. And by the morning of the seventh day, we were exhausted, filthy, and ready to collapse.
“There’s no set time we have to meet this man, right?”
“He said he would wait outside the city from sun up to sun down, retiring into Deramore to spend the night,” Ayre said through a yawn.
“You two need to get some rest. Once I go with him, there won’t be any down time.” Aksel had already nodded off, and I had no intentions on waking him. Ayre was about to cut me off when I beat him to it. “I’m going to keep an eye out. It’s broad daylight, I got a good sleep last night, now it’s time for you two to do the same. For at least a couple of hours.”
Ayre finally relented with a nod, looking like he was about ready to collapse anyway, and curled up close to Aksel.
I took off my pack and made myself comfortable against a tree, making sure I had good visibility in most directions.
Realistically, even though I said I’d keep watch, if anyone set foot in our campsite Aksel and Ayre would be awake in seconds. But I wanted them to at least try to get some rest.
It was hard to believe we were so close to our destination. After all these weeks. When I thought about how close we were to getting answers, how close we were to possible trouble, anxiety started eating away at me. I pulled my knees in, wrapped my arms tightly around them and tried my damndest not to think of every possible thing that could go wrong.
After the boys woke up a few hours later, we walked for about twenty minutes before the trees began to peter out around us and the forest opened up into a rolling field. I was reminded of the fields we had crossed when we’d walked from Woodburne to Rochdale and how exciting it had been to see the stretch of green all around me for the first time. That excitement was long gone now.
On the horizon I saw what must have been the city of Deramore.
“Is there a landmark we’re supposed to find?” I asked.
“He said he would be waiting on the eastern side of the city, close to the edge of the forest. He said something about an old house he would be waiting in.”
I looked around the expanse of green but didn’t see a single house. We continued walking until we reached the top of the closest hill. Nestled at the bottom and obscured from our earlier view was something that looked like a broken down stable, rather than a house. It was made of stone, but the roof was partially missing and the walls were beginning to collapse in places. It was definitely an inconspicuous place to meet someone as no one would think a human would be living in there. The only indication of a person being inside was the horse tied up outside, quietly grazing.
“I guess that’s the place.” Aksel said as he took the first steps down the hill.
Making our way down, the horse pulled up from grazing, whinnying and shuffling its hooves in agitation as we approached, no doubt put off by Aksel. I was surprised Aksel wasn’t using his shimmer to meet with the messenger, but when I’d asked about it, he’d said he hadn’t been in his shimmer when they’d first met, so there was no point in using it now.
A slender man dressed in deep purple came out of the crumbled building to attend to the frightened animal. He stroked the horse’s mane, working to calm it down before his gaze flicked over to see what had set it off in the first place. The man’s eyes widened as if he were surprised to see us.
“Ah, Mr. Deydre, Mr. Satyr, you have finally arrived.”
If I hadn’t been so nervous, I might have laughed out loud at the idea of the boys being addressed as ‘Mister’.
The man’s eyes landed on me in between the two Supers and they grew even wider before he quickly regained his composure. “I hope your travels were not too treacherous,” he added in an attempt to make polite conversation. The horse behind him still pawed at the ground and tossed its head uncomfortably. The man inattentively stoked its neck.
Aksel shrugged. “No more than usual. Forced to travel on foot while attending to a frail little human tends to slow anyone down.” His voice was harsher than usual and devoid of so much of the emotion I had seen from him over the past few weeks.
Hurt automatically flared in my chest. Even though I knew this was just a persona he put on, it was still painful to hear.
I wasn’t sure what kind of relationship I should feign after over a month together in the forests. After his show, it didn’t seem like it would have been a friendly relationship. I just kept quiet, going for a ‘docile human’ approach. This man had no idea the kind of personality I had, may as well let him think I would be submissive. I might be able to get more information out of him that way.
All the thoughts in my head imploded when Ayre suddenly pinched my ass. “Was fun while it lasted, Scarlet.”
I flinched sharply and almost turned around to smack him, before catching myself. A woman alone in the woods with a satyr? Highly likely something would have transpired during the trek. He grinned at me, almost daring me to call him out on his stupid little prank. But he knew I wouldn’t, and he was loving it.
The man in front of us was even more embarrassed than I was, shuffling around and averting his gaze. “Yes, of course, quite,” he staggered, scratching at his balding head. If I was still under the impression that this man was bringing me home to my father, and knew him personally, I would have been mortified. “One moment please, I will get your payment.” He rounded the building to go inside.
I took the opportunity to punch Ayre in the shoulder and he snickered, “Sorry, Sel, I couldn’t resist.”
The man returned with a sizable pouch full of what I could only assume was full of gold coins and deposited it in Aksel’s outstretched hand. He weighed the pouch in his hand, before nodding as if it were acceptable.
“Thank you for bringing me home.” I tried to make it sound as if we weren’t close, but still companionable after travelling together for so long.
Aksel flipped a dismissive hand like he was glad to finally be rid of me, while Ayre gave a wink. “Anytime, lover.”
Uhg, I think I preferred ‘Scarlet’. He was definitely enjoying this way too much.
“I think we’ve earned a pint. Let’s head back to Road’s End,” Aksel announced without any final words to me or the man standing next to me.
I watched as they walked a few yards away before Aksel put his hand on Ayre’s shoulder and they vanished into a mist. A cold spot formed in my stomach as I watched them disappear without even a backwards glance.
Calm down, this is all part of the plan. They’re not really leaving you.
“Are you ready to depart, Miss Scarlet?” t
he man asked.
I held up a hand before this went any further. “My name is actually Selynna.”
“Yes, of course, Miss Selynna.” I was about to object again, but I just sighed and held my tongue. Docile and agreeable, remember?
“My name is Gamel,” he continued, “I will be your chaperone for the last leg of the journey.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Gamel. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful; I appreciate your companionship along this journey, but wouldn’t it have been more efficient for them to have dropped me off closer to the edge of Deramore?”
Gamel blinked, “I’m afraid you misunderstand, Miss Selynna, we are not going to Deramore, it was simply an agreeable meeting location. You see, we are from a rather private village and prefer to keep outsiders from coming in. It is better if they do not know about us. Our village is over those mountains, about five hours on horseback.”
Five hours on Horseback? I stood next to the beast towering over me. I’ve never stood so close to one before. Its teeth were really big…
“I’ve never ridden a horse before.” I didn’t even think I could get up by myself.
“It’s quite simple. I will be leading the horse and you merely have to hold on to me so as not to fall.”
“Great.” I put my foot in the stirrup, I think that was what it was called, and Gamel helped to steady me. I felt like a child as he helped me get settled on the horse.
After he gathered his few belongings from the house and put them in the saddle bags, he climbed up in front of me with much more grace than I had shown. “Shall we depart?”
I looked over my shoulder, wishing I could see where Aksel and Ayre were hiding.
“I’m ready.”
The muscles in my legs were beginning to ache from strain. Not wanting to clutch on to Gamel’s waist, I had been holding myself in place mostly with my thighs so as not to fall backwards off the horse as it walked up the steady incline. Every step and bump reverberated through my butt and lower back. I was just about ready to hop off this thing and walk on my own two feet, but the trek up this mountain path was far too treacherous for that. It was becoming easier and easier to believe that no outsiders had ever come to this town.
