by Rosie Scott
Thornwell. It sounded so familiar. “Thornwell...” I trailed off, tilting my head in confusion.
“That healer you had the hots for in school. The one who disappeared. You said he was from Thornwell, correct? The fishing village?”
My mind cleared. Cerin. “Yes,” I said, beginning to understand.
“We're taking the time to go out to Whispermere. Let's stop here on the way and pick up his fine ass.”
I couldn't help but burst into a fit of chuckles at her enthusiasm. When they died down, I admitted, “I don't know if he'll be there. I don't know if he's even alive. And if he is, he probably doesn't remember me.”
Cerin Heliot would probably forever be a mystery to me. He was the one and only classmate I'd attempted to befriend, and I had gotten quite close to succeeding before he disappeared without a trace. One day, he wasn't in class. Thinking him to simply be ill, I tried to think nothing of it, despite knowing he was skilled enough to heal himself if it was anything less than serious. Days went by, and with no one else even acknowledging his absence, I had gone to my professors about it, asking them for information. I was told a variety of things, all of them concerning. Some professors refused to admit they even knew who I spoke of, while others told me they had no idea what had happened to him. One in particular said he'd left the college, as if after a few years of very expensive schooling, that was something a skilled mage would just do. I had even gone so far as to mention him to my father, and after a steady and firm stream of dismissiveness from him, he'd finally gotten angry with me. I eventually stopped asking, and had never heard from or of Cerin again.
“It couldn't hurt to try,” Nyx said, bringing my thoughts back to the present. “Besides, Thornwell is one of the last villages before the mountain. It wouldn't hurt to get a last night of sleep in an inn before we have to camp in bad weather for weeks.”
I nodded. “You're right.” Nyx had never met Cerin. He'd come and gone before I had ever met her. So the fact she was mentioning him at all reminded me she had her mind on looking out for me. She had always been angry with Silas for breaking up what we'd had. She was of the belief that if my life was going to be short, I might as well have as much fun as I could with it. And her idea of fun usually revolved around bedroom behaviors, so she was constantly thinking of setting me up with men.
“Speaking of hot guys, that Theron's a piece of work, isn't he?”
“Nyx,” I breathed, before a restrained laugh. “Please don't hit on our mercenary.”
“Aww, why not?” She chuckled.
“He's going to be with us for a long time,” I reasoned, patiently. “The last thing we need is hard feelings between everyone. He's human. Some humans actually want relationships.”
“I'd be upfront with him,” Nyx offered.
“Nyx.”
“All right, I'll keep my dirty paws off of him.” She huffed, displeased.
“We'll find plenty of men out there for you. I'm sure there are plenty hotter than Theron.”
“I don't know, have you seen him?” She teased.
Silas and Theron returned to us a few conversations later, carrying with them a small doe. I knew Silas had already said his prayers over it in the woods. Theron began to butcher the small animal, and when he'd retrieved what was edible, Silas took over, gathering the remaining materials in the ways he knew how. Silas was a very good materials maker; with bone and leather, he could make many things, from sheaths to pieces of armor and even small daggers made of bone. It was mesmerizing to watch him work.
When Theron was done cooking the venison over the campfire, Silas quickly cleaned up what materials he'd gathered and prepared to break for eating. The mercenary was a fantastic cook. The venison seemed to melt in my mouth.
“This is delicious, Theron,” I commented. I wanted to open up the mercenary to conversation. If we were all going to be together for awhile, it would be best to get along.
“Thank you.” He nodded toward me.
“Are you from Sera?” I asked him next, watching him from across the campfire.
Theron glanced up, his rough face seeming surprised that my question was directed at him. “No. I am from a village called French, a couple of days west in the Hydrin Forests.”
“I haven't heard of it,” Silas commented, curiously.
“That's because it no longer exists,” the ranger replied, taking another bite of venison.
“What happened to it?” asked Nyx.
“It was a small community nestled in the most perfect of locales. In the forest, but near a variety of fruit trees, and a beautiful waterfall. There was an opening in the earth nearby, where we found gemstone in the caves when I was a lad. It proved too tempting for the orcs.” Theron took another bite of meat.
“They raided the village?” Silas asked.
Theron nodded. “Raided it and attempted to build their own stronghold right on top of the corpses of the people I knew.”
“Attempted?” Nyx prodded.
He shrugged, as if unconcerned. “Well, I put a stop to that.”
“Weren't you just a boy?” I asked for clarification.
“I was when they raided it. I trained for a few years. Went back on my sixteenth birthday and extinguished the fuckers. Burnt the stronghold, too, and then pissed on their shrine to Malgor.” He spoke of the warmonger god of the orcs.
My eyes widened, and I nodded, pleased with that image. “Sounds like a fun time.”
The hints of a smile teased at the edges of his lips. “That it was.” Taking a moment to lick his fingers clean of venison juices, he then directed a question at me. “So, is it true what they say about you?”
“What do they say about me?” I retorted, more playfully than anything else.
“They say you defy the gods. That you have more power than any mortal.” His deep brown eyes were on mine, searching, testing.
“I suppose, if it is possible to defy the gods simply by having an excess of power.”
“You wield six elements, correct? Even the dreaded necromancy?” It was a question I wasn't used to answering. Most people didn't like to acknowledge necromancy existed, even in conversation. Theron seemed like the kind of guy who had worked on both sides of the law, so I didn't have a problem answering.
“I do,” I admitted. “Though I only know one death spell, and the only reason I know it was because I was being tested. I was supposed to forget it, but I have a penchant for memorizing spells.”
“What kind of spell was it?” He questioned, curious.
“The plague,” I replied. I could still recite the spell in my head from memory. As a fourteen-year-old girl, I had been so excited to find I was as powerful as I was. Out of all of the spells I had learned back then when they were testing me to ensure that I could, indeed, wield all six elements, the necromancy spell was the one I'd wanted to memorize the most. I knew it was the only one I would have trouble accessing ever again.
“So if you wanted to, you could kill any one of us right now with it? Just have our skin eaten alive?” Theron seemed to have a morbid fascination with this. Of course, most people did, when they felt comfortable enough to talk about it.
“I'm not sure it would work on a human, to be honest. I used mine on a plant. They wouldn't allow me to use it on a person or animal.” Since Theron still seemed intrigued, I went on, “When I used it, the plant started to wilt, then rot, then degrade. Eventually, it disintegrated into ash. It was actually really depressing to me.”
“You felt bad for the plant?” Nyx teased. I could tell this admittance amused her.
“I did,” I admitted.
“That is nothing to joke about,” Silas spoke up, his eyes on Nyx. “Plants have consciousness just like other living beings.”
“You eat them without prayer, wood elf,” Nyx retorted.
Silas visibly gritted his teeth. “Celdic elf, thank you, and yes, because that is their purpose. They give us life, and we give them life. Your body will eventually rot into
the ground and feed them, and they will offer no prayer to your corpse. It is a mutual agreement.”
“How are animals any different?”
“Guys—guys. I believe we've heard this argument a few times before,” I interjected, unwilling to hear two people I loved hash it out once again.
“I don't yet know the connection between you three,” Theron admitted, willing to be the one to lead us away from the moral argument.
“Silas is my bodyguard and friend. Nyx is a friend.”
“Attempted assassin,” she added, with a smile. After a short retelling of the tale to Theron, he was caught up to speed.
“So if you are all friends, and this is a personal mission you're on, why did you hire me?” He asked.
“None of us have really stretched our legs in quite a while,” I admitted. “It's been years since Silas or Nyx has been outside of Sera, and I've never been. We decided to hire help just in case, and since you're a ranger, you'll be particularly helpful to us. None of us has ever been to Whispermere.”
“Nor have I,” Theron admitted. “I can get you there, no worries, but I've never been there. I hope you know they're not particularly welcoming to strangers. The last thing you want to do is get there and be turned away.”
“I'm aware. My presence was requested,” I explained, though I offered little else. Theron appeared to understand my need to be vague. As much as I told him so far, I wasn't sure I wanted to tell him everything just yet.
“Good,” Theron nodded, willing to drop the subject at my reluctance to say more. “As long as you know what you're getting into.”
The group of us chatted some more until the insects around us began to compete for attention, their chirps echoing against the thick trunks of the trees of the Seran Forest just behind us. We decided to take shifts sleeping, since we were having to camp outside. Nyx offered to stay up for the next six hours, while Theron offered to get up early. In twelve, we would set off again. I knew the small amount of sleep would work fine for Nyx, who could survive on little sleep and be just as energetic. I was a little worried for Theron, but he waved away my concerns by saying he was used to this.
I was concerned I would be unable to fall asleep while under the stars. This would be my first time ever sleeping anywhere other than an inn or the university. In reality, once I was lying beneath the stars, with Silas's warm body at my side, I found it extremely peaceful. The melody of the insects was like a lullaby to my ears, and the light of the stars and double moon were like my own personal night light.
On my first night away from home, I fell asleep easily, and slept through the night.
Five
The next morning, while Nyx was still sleeping, the rest of us packed the majority of our things and put out the campfire. Theron went off into the forest for a half hour or so, coming back with a bag full of gotton berries. They weren't known for being the sweetest berries in the world, but as breakfast, it was an energizing one.
During the last hour that we let Nyx sleep from her late shift, Theron and Silas pored over the map I had to Whispermere. Eventually, I wandered over to them, to learn their plans if nothing else.
“...it's a tiny village made of nothing more than huts,” Theron was saying. “I doubt it.”
Silas glanced up as I approached. “We're trying to figure out if we should head to Amere.” He pointed on the map, where a tiny village was drawn with its name beneath it. “We'll be passing there a little before evening, so it would be ideal to stop and rest, but Theron's been there, and says they probably don't have an inn.”
“I haven't been there,” Theron corrected. “I've passed it. There's literally nothing to stay for.”
I shrugged. “It couldn't hurt to stop there and ask for shelter. Perhaps they have something they need help with that we can exchange.”
“If that's the case, I doubt they have any gold. Shelter would be the only thing they could offer,” Theron mused.
With that, we planned to stop at Amere that evening, after a full day's walk. Even if they had no shelter, staying the night near the village would be better than in the middle of wilderness.
The four of us set out as soon as we woke Nyx, our pace brisk with the energy of a night's sleep. With the valleys of Sera to our left and the forest to our right, we would eventually hit the village we were looking for, which sat on the edge of the Seran Forest. Today, we passed a few other travelers, some on horses and some on foot, and we offered greetings before continuing on our way.
Just as the sun was painting the sky a beautiful mirage of coral and mint green, we saw smoke rising from the distance at the edge of the wood. A few minutes after that, and a tiny, ramshackle village began to come into view, nestled at the bottom of a small hill, the backs of its huts to the forest.
“Maybe we should just pass it,” came a mumble from Theron's direction.
Amere was unimpressive overall. It was a ragtag group of houses, nothing more. The homes were made of rough stone with roofs of layered straw, giving away the fact that the village was a pretty poor one. Fields of grain swayed softly in the breeze within the confines of short, hastily built stone walls that looked as if they hadn't ever kept anything out as intended. The gray smoke that rose into the early evening sky from the village came from a small outdoor fire, where a few people clad in dirty, frail clothes huddled to cook a meal.
I heard a moo, and looked around to find a pasture of cows, most of them teetering on the edge of malnourished. Hearing the curious noises of their livestock, the villagers looked our way, their eyes following our footsteps.
This was probably a stupid idea. The group looked as if they didn't have two gold coins between all of them. I felt particularly awkward about going up to such a group of poor people and asking them for shelter.
One of the group, an older woman, stood from a roughly made bench that sat beside the fire, wiping her hands off casually on her pants. She wore a bonnet that kept her greying hair and most of her face out of the sun, and her skin held a map of wrinkles that directed toward the sun spots that were the result of years of hard labor. She watched us approach cautiously.
“Hail, travelers,” she greeted, glancing through all of us, her eyes lingering on Nyx. “Welcome to Amere. Where are you from?”
“Sera, originally,” I replied. “You have a nice little village here.”
The woman chuckled. “I appreciate your courtesy, though you are either lying or blind. We do what we can. Is there something we can do for you?”
I glanced back at my group. Everyone seemed content with at least asking. “Maybe, ma'am. We're mercenaries, and we're making our way east. We were looking for shelter and would be willing to trade a night's stay for work. Would any of you here happen to need assistance with anything?”
The woman took in my statement with curiosity, before turning back toward the group. “Hank?”
My eyes followed her gaze to a plump, middle aged man who looked perplexed. “Vilma, I ain't got nothing for them.”
“Your livestock—”
“Listen, friends, here in Amere, we got problems, but no gold.”
“We're not particularly worried about that,” I replied. “We're just looking to stay the night.”
The villagers didn't look like they fully believed that statement. Perhaps no mercenaries had ever bargained with them before.
“What kinds of problems do you speak of?” Theron finally asked the man.
“I got livestock that goes missing. One cow a week, like clockwork. Didn't know if they was gettin' out or what, until last week, when I come out one mornin' and one of my cows is eaten alive, right there in the pasture. Something's stealin' my cows, and I ain't got a clue as to what.”
Theron looked off into the forest, thinking. “We're about a day's travel from Sera. It can't be much more than wolves, goblins, or bandits. Considering they only take one, and they'd usually disappear for all but last week, I don't think it's wolves that are to blame.”
; Hank watched us for a moment, before reiterating, “I ain't got no gold.”
“What do you have to offer?” I asked him.
With a glance off toward his pasture, Hank twisted his lips, thinking. “I got cows.”
I chuckled lightly.
“If you're considering helping us, I'm sure we could scrounge up some type of reward,” the older woman interjected, a little desperately. “We owe a lot of money to Sera, and Hank's the only one here who raises livestock. His losses are making us all try to bridge the gap in profits, but grain doesn't sell for as much as beef.”
“Ma'am...we're not looking to take your gold,” I repeated, feeling like that wasn't getting through to them.
“Mercenaries never stop here. They figure we're poor, I suppose. You all are our only hope, unless we all get our weapons and try to take care of it ourselves, and we're farmers, not fighters.” The woman's voice held a tinge of desperation, as if she figured we were about to turn and leave.
“I'll tell you what, ma'am. If you can give us food and lodging for the night, we'll pull this problem of yours out by the roots.”
“By the gods, you'd have yourself a place to stay whenever you're in town if you'd do that.”
“...and the loot,” Theron hissed from behind me.
“Oh, and if the creatures that are causing this ruckus happen to have any gold on them—”
“It's all yours,” the woman replied, nodding with hope.
“You have yourself a deal, then.”
The look of absolute relief on the woman's face filled me with joy. I was also just relieved to have finally bargained with them.
The old farmer led us out to his pasture, and he showed us the location where the cow had been found gutted. By this point, the corpse was gone, so we had to rely on the farmer's memory.
“Was it just killed, or was the meat torn from its body?” Theron asked, crouching to the ground and sifting through the grasses.
“A lot of the meat was gone. Not all of it,” the farmer replied, watching Theron as he pulled something out of the grasses. It was a dark brown tuft of hair. Bringing it to his nose, the ranger looked up, and toward the woods.
