Warden's Path

by Heath Pfaff

  His phrasing caught in my mind. “Out here?” I emphasized the words. “These appear in the city as well.”

  Arthos nodded. “Frequently, actually. We hire men to clean them up with shovel and bucket, and then the black stuff is disposed of. If you get them quickly it’s easy enough to do from what I understand. I’ve never done it myself.”

  That was alarming. I’d lived in the city my entire life and had never heard about this at all. Still, Arthos seemed uninterested in the topic, and pressing further might draw his attention to the fact that my curiosity was a bit beyond the normal. I couldn't tell him what I’d seen beneath the school, what Ghoul had shown me in the catacombs This black muck was bad, though. I knew it. Whatever it was, it was spreading, and though it wasn’t showing itself to be a threat yet, it might become one soon enough.

  As we passed the pool my kea shied away from the strange liquid, a low hiss rumbling through her chest. Arthos’ mount didn't do the same. I wondered if the beast was responding to my feelings, or simply perceiving something his hadn’t. I reached out and stroked Zara’s neck soothingly and the hiss quieted, though I could still feel the tension in her body until we were well past the foulness.

  “We’ll reach Camiden soon. They’re used to us passing through so you can expect a warm enough greeting there.” Arthos said, tearing my thoughts away from my concerns over the black sludge for a welcome moment.

  It occurred to me that this would be the first time anyone outside of the school had seen my face and the skull tattoo that I wore as a mark of shame. I reached up and touched it, a self conscious gesture that I didn’t really think about. Arthos, however, seemed to notice.

  “They will think it strange, but they don’t know the laws of the city, at least most of them. I imagine everyone who sees you will find that of interest the first few times. It caught my eye and I knew to expect it. Inkings are uncommon already, and more so when they are done any place visible. I doubt anyone beyond the city will have seen someone with a marked face, and none will know what it was supposed to mean.” He gave a shrug. “If you think it will be a problem we could get you a veil or something.”

  I shook my head, my mouth setting in a line. “No, this is a reminder, and an important one.” I knew that everyone who looked at me would have that little bit of discomfort in their eyes, and that reflection of myself was a constant reminder that I couldn’t be the person who had gotten myself into this situation to begin with. Having Will was one thing, but hurting people for my own benefit was something I would never do again. The guilt of my crime had never gone away. I might not have thought about it as much, but it was still upon my shoulders every day.

  “Honestly remorseful?” Arthos asked, seeming a bit surprised. “I assumed that you’d be best served by pretending the past hadn’t happened.”

  “Perhaps I’d sleep better, but I’ll never forget what brought me here. I’m not the girl I was then. I won’t be.” I spoke firmly, my heart beating a bit fast in my chest.

  Arthos considered me for a moment and then nodded. “Good. That’s very good, Lillin.”

  I let out a sigh and rolled my shoulders, trying to work out some of the tension that had been building in me since the last tranquil pool. “What happened to the others from my class?” I asked, wanting a subject change. “I thought I’d be spending more time with them, continuing my training.”

  Arthos hesitated a moment. “They are still training together, but those in charge wanted your education to move forward more quickly. Normally there would be another two months before we left the city, but it was decided you should get into the field faster.”

  I frowned at that. “Am I ready for this, then?” I was a bit angry that the others were still learning while I was being pushed headlong into danger. It seemed that I was still an exception to them, not to be treated as most of the others. “Two months of lost training seems like an awful lot to just miss out on.” Besides, in the time I’d spent with the others I’d grown to consider them good acquaintances, if not friends. I missed them.

  “Do you feel like you’re not ready?” Arthos asked. “There are two days of training on how to mount a kea, but you did that with just a demonstration. There is a full day of training on protocol regarding passage through the walls, but we made that just fine.”

  My frown only deepened. “There is normally training for handling a kea?”

  “Oh, yes, it’s quite dangerous.” He declared with a nod. “You did fine though.” He added, that somewhat mischievous grin he had a habit of adopting falling into place.

  “You’re an ass for not telling me that ahead of time.” I snapped angrily.

  “Would it have made things easier for you if you’d known that most people get two days of training on doing what you were going to do with one example?” He asked, laughing as he spoke. “No, it would have just made you nervous about it all. You did fine. They coddle the trainees too much. It’s far better to learn out here anyway.”

  I was still shooting him what I hoped was a withering look. “Good, when I’m killed out here you can let everyone know that I died from a lack of coddling.”

  “Oh, Lillin, that is not a pretty face on you. With the skull it makes you look positively frightening. Aren’t women supposed to smile and try to dazzle men?” He joked, his mood surprisingly light.

  “I’ve never been the dazzling type.” I replied, stubbornly insistent upon being angry despite his good mood. I was distressed that I wouldn’t see any of the people I’d known from the school again. I felt as though I was being quarantined lest someone else catch whatever it was about me that was so strange.

  Arthos just laughed once more and then we rode on in what was a silence that wasn’t as uncomfortable as it might have been. We reached Camiden less than an hour later. The small village was in a valley, and was practically invisible until we crested one of the hills surrounding it. From our height we could see the entire thing spread out before us, a loose collection of homes and buildings scattered amidst the trees before us with large cleared out areas that I assumed were fields, crops most likely, spattered almost haphazardly across the space.

  As we came to a stop Zara let out a long, menacing hiss that even got Arthos’ attention. He looked at my mount, and then at me before his eyes passed back to the valley below us. I put a soothing hand on Zara’s neck, but again I could feel the tension in her body. It felt like she might spring into an attack at any moment. I looked down at the village, considering it more carefully. At first glance it looked fine to me. Quiet.

  Arthos was frowning when I brought my eyes back up to him.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, aware that something was amiss, but uncertain exactly what it was.

  “There is no smoke rising from the village. Look at the chimneys. It’s not a cold day, but people should still be baking, the smithery should be making tools for the farmers. Something isn’t right here.” Arthos spoke in a smooth soft voice, as though worried someone might overhear him. “You might be getting some serious training earlier than anticipated.”

  I took a deep breath and looked down at the little village again. Of course. I should have seen the lack of fires immediately. I’d been trained to look for such things, but all of this was so new to me that I’d fallen into a haze of bemusement at all of the new sights. I had to remember that things were still dangerous here. Things were especially dangerous here. I needed to treat this like one of our training exercises through the traveling doors.

  “That beast of yours is perceptive.” Arthos noted, adjusting the lie of his weapon as he urged his kea forward down the path.

  “She is.” I said proudly, stroking Zara’s neck again. She was tense, agitated, and not happy to be moving closer to the village. “I think she would prefer not to go investigate this.”

  Arthos gave a laugh that tried to mimic his normal levity, but I could tell he was on edge as well. “If you want to be a scout, Lillin, this is the sort of thing you need to be read
y to do. When you see a puzzle before you, you walk into it. You can’t avoid trouble. Knights, too, must be brave, face danger head on.”

  “Well, I guess Zara doesn’t want to be a Scout or a Knight then.” I answered, a small grin slipping over my face.

  “Zara? You named it?” Arthos sounded amused with a single eyebrow raised.

  “I did. It felt like the right thing to do.” I gave a nod of affirmation. I felt a little embarrassed that I’d let her name slip out loud, but at the same time, I was happy I did. I felt like I was honoring Zarkov by letting people know about her name.

  “Well, you’re not the first.” He said with a shrug. “We’ll leave the kea to wait for us outside of the village. They’ll fight if we get into trouble, but I don’t believe in intentionally dragging them into dangerous situations. Also, they tend not to like villages, towns and cities. There is too much around them, strange things that scare them.”

  Zara gave a growl and hissed again. “That sounds fair enough. She doesn’t really want to go anyway.” I probably didn’t need to point that out again. She was letting her will be known.

  We traveled most of the way down the valley in a vigilant silence after our brief discussion. When the first of the houses became visible through the trees ahead we stopped and let the kea have free reign.

  “They won’t go far. They might gather food or hunt, but they’ll come back here. As long as they’re bound to us, they won’t abandon us or run away.” Arthos told me. I was still a bit nervous as I gave one more look back at Zara.

  She was watching me too, her wide eyes following me as I walked towards the village. She made a plaintive sound as we slipped behind a turn in the road that brought us onto the main dirt road through the village.

  Arthos snorted. “She’s like a puppy with you. I’ve never seen that.”

  I looked back at him. “They’re not normally like that?” I asked feeling a small surge of pride at my bond with Zara.

  “No, certainly not. I think you broke her poor mind.” He answered, and then I felt a wash of guilt instead of the momentary pride. Arthos seemed to see this on my face and he gave me a comforting smile. “No worries, girl. Whatever you did to her, she seems to like you, and she seems happy. Sometimes they are miserable all through their service. Look at my mount. He’d rather be about anywhere than with me. There is no satisfaction in serving as my ride.”

  I still felt guilty. “Will she ever be normal again?”

  The other Warden shrugged. “It’s difficult to say. You’re a peculiar case in most ways.”

  That was the unfortunate truth of things. I took no pride in being different. It would have been much easier to be like the others, but then perhaps I would have been content to let things go as they were. I wouldn’t have been as keen on seeing the way of the Wardens changed. They needed changing.

  “Make yourself ready. I don't know what we’ll find here.” Arthos spoke, and his words helped me to refocus on the task at hand. I would find a way to change things with the Wardens, but first we had to deal with the trouble directly before us.

  We crept down the main road of the village cautiously. There was a stillness about us that I didn’t care for. The village was stagnant and silent in a way that didn’t feel natural. It was after midday. There should have been children at play, and adults about their business, putting out laundry, working the fields, heading towards the town center to shop, but though we passed fields and stores, and clothes lines with things hung and partially hung, there was no sign that anyone was around, or had been in the last hour or more. We kept moving inward.

  The blood trail started about the time we reached the densest part of the village. It was a light streak of reddish black just as the dirt road turned to rickety cobblestone, but as we followed it the amount of dried blood grew. First there were streaks, and then a dried pool, and then several large black pools. By the time we reached the well at the center of the town it looked as though someone had intentionally painted everything in blood. It was all dark red now, almost black, dried, but it covered the houses, the street and all the bricks of the well.

  “Blackened, look at this mess.” Arthos cursed as we drew nearer that well. It was like an eye at the center of a storm, and as we approached it felt like we were spiralling towards the center. “It looks like the whole town was slaughtered.”

  “Who would do this?” I asked, confused by what enemy could be so close to the city without us even knowing it was out here. “Was it bandits?” And then another thought occurred to me. “Is this the Way?” I guessed, since they were the only enemy that I knew of that posed a significant threat to us, and this seemed beyond the scope of bandits. I’d thought the Way were much farther away though.

  He shook his head. “No, this isn't like them at all. They don’t slaughter entire villages of innocent people, and they generally burn the bodies of the dead, not shove them down a well . . .” He hesitated. “There isn’t a smell of rot, though. There really should be.” He turned to the well, which is where my eyes had also fallen. It sat in the middle of this chaos and seemed strangely conspicuous. When I tried to look other places, my eyes always recentered on that simple stone structure.

  Arthos began to move in closer, his eyes also drawn to the unassuming circle. He drew his staff weapon, the two halves coming apart so he held one in each hand. I followed his example, though I left mine at full length for the time being. It was better for defense and I was less confident in my abilities than he was. He reached the well just before I did and looked over the edge.

  “It’s dark.” He said, frowning. “Do you have your striker?”

  “Yes.” I answered, removing it from a small pouch on my belt. I’d decided long ago that the ability to make fire was one of those things that I always wanted on my person.

  Arthos looked around and pointed to a house with a stack of wood at its side. “Get some of that wood and bring it here. Let’s get a fire started and get some light in this well. I want to see the bottom, but I don’t think I’m just going to jump down there. That seems unwise.”

  “Are you sure it’s safe to stay here for so long?” I asked, though a part of me wanted to know what had happened, was attracted to this mystery, and drawn to the well and whatever was at its bottom. I needed to know. The question was just the logical part of my mind looking out for me.

  “Time to prove you have what it takes to be a Scout, Lillin, if that’s really what you want. Go get that wood.” He told me, and I did as he instructed. It didn’t take me long to gather enough to light a fire that I thought would survive being dropped into the well, at least until it hit the water at the bottom. I made some tinder while I was next to the house and then brought it back to the well and worked at starting it burning. All the while I did this I could feel a pressure on my shoulders, as though the entire village was resting there heavily, waiting for me to uncover the secrets it had hidden, the secrets that were somehow buried at the bottom of this well.

  Once the fire was going well enough Arthos pulled a brand from the pile and held it over the opening of the well. The light didn't do much to penetrate the darkness below. He held it a moment, and then let it go. The flame flickered as the burning log tumbled down into the darkness below. The walls of the inner well were coated black-red just like the outer walls. It was unnerving to see. How would it be so evenly coated all the way down? The brand seemed to tumble in slow motion, the burning piece of wood casting strange shadows as it fell. Then it struck bottom.

  I knew what it had hit almost immediately, though Arthos frowned in seeming confusion as the wood hit, and then very, very slowly sank until the fire quenched with a hiss.

  “What . . . “ He began, but I cut him off. I knew what had happened. I didn’t have to guess, because suddenly it seemed perfectly clear in my mind.

  “It’s the black liquid.” I said quickly. “That harmless soothing liquid.” I fell back on sarcasm a bit more quickly than I’d meant to and Arthos shot me a s
cowl that wasn’t really angry exactly as much as it was a little annoyed.

  “You can’t know that by the little we saw.” He said, and then he was back at the fire, grabbing two more brands. He dropped one, and then the other, and we both watched them fall down into the dark below. The first hit and began to sink exactly as the prior had, and then the second hit, but there was plenty of time to see it all this time. I was right. It was the black liquid, and it was all over the bottom of the well. It was even starting to creep up the sides some, though only maybe a tenth of the way. There was no water at all that I could see.

  “Alright so it’s the black liquid.” Arthos said, not looking pleased. “But it can’t be responsible for this.” He gestured at the empty village. “It doesn’t really move of its own accord. It’s far more likely that it has just been here, or maybe it came here after all of this happened.”