Rise (War Witch Book 1)

by Cain S. Latrani

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  "ALL I’M SAYING IS that we could've been there by now, if one of you two geniuses had let me buy that map," Chara grumbled.

  Ramora waved that off, pointing out that she had an innate sense of direction.

  "Yes, that's why we passed through that one town twice," Esteban groused.

  The warrior gave him a stern look, but the Cat only backed his ears. Chara sighed, burying her face in her hand. Here they went again. She was certain at this point the two couldn't go five minutes without arguing.

  "Stop, now," she demanded, before they could get warmed up. "We're lost, and it's time we all faced that fact."

  Ramora argued the point.

  "Shut it," the young woman ordered, stilling the Blessed's fingers mid-word. "We're lost. The sooner we deal with that, the better."

  "It's about time she admitted it," the big Cat rumbled.

  Chara threw him a dark look. "I don't want to hear from you, Mister Check-the-Moss-on-the-Trees."

  "That works," he blurted.

  "Hush," she snapped, leveling a finger on him.

  Ramora smirked, until Chara pointed at her as well.

  "Face it, both of you," she said, fighting the urge to scream at them. "Neither of you has the first idea how to get to Lansing."

  "I do so," Esteban huffed.

  "You've lived in a keep, in the asscrack of the world, for your entire life," Chara reminded him.

  "I read a lot of maps," he muttered.

  "And you, Miss Blessed of the High Gods, spent the last ten years in the High World," Chara snapped out, catching the grin that'd been growing on Ramora’s face. "You wouldn't know east from west if the sun didn't come up and show you!"

  Ramora sulked on her horse, pouting at that.

  "All that said, I'm taking charge of this expedition until further notice," she added. "That town had some nice people, but I'm in no hurry to visit it a third time. Anyone got a problem with that?"

  Neither of her companions said anything, both of them too busy brooding. With a world-weary sigh, she shook her head, looking at the fork in the road that had started the debate. If only someone had invested some time in a sign, she wouldn't feel like she was turning into her mother.

  "Now then," she muttered, leaning forward in the saddle a bit. "We went right last time, and we all know how that turned out, so left is our only real option. Though, that would seem to take us away from the coastline, which should be south of here."

  Ramora popped off a comment about a missed turn.

  Esteban snorted a laugh.

  Chara thought about hitting both of them.

  "There were no turns," she said slowly. "So, we go left. If that doesn't get us at least closer, then we'll know we're still going the wrong way. Any questions?"

  Neither of her companions offered anything, for which she was grateful. About two weeks out from Riskine, the two had started bickering, with it getting worse ever since. Much more, and she was simply going to have to kill them both, leave their bodies in shallow, unmarked graves, and go on a madness-induced rampage that left the Middle World in smoldering tatters.

  Not that she'd thought about it much.

  Overly much, she corrected herself as they set off again.

  Giving Esteban a snarky look, Ramora road ahead a bit, leaving her two companions behind. Falling to all fours, the big Cat gave her a menacing glare in return. It was enough to make Chara start thinking of adding the Savage Realm to her list of places to destroy when she went insane.

  "That woman vexes me greatly," her lover intoned.

  "Esteban," Chara groaned.

  "Well, she does," he insisted. "If I say we should go left, which I did say last time we were here, she insists we go right. If I say no, she says yes. I swear, if I said the sun was coming up, she would argue that it was going down!"

  "It isn't like that," she replied. "She's just got her own way of doing things. I told you this before. Sometimes, Ramora requires a little finesse to deal with."

  The Jaguar harrumphed at that. "I'll finesse her with a sledgehammer."

  "Stop it," Chara chided. "For me, at the very least, stop it, before I go nuts."

  Giving her an apologetic look, he nodded. "I'll try, beloved. I can't say the same for her."

  "I'll deal with her," Chara informed him. "You, just try to remember your good manners."

  "I've been using my good manners," he grumbled. "She isn't dead, is she?"

  Rolling her eyes, Chara shook her head. "You know, if you two weren't so much alike, this wouldn't be a problem."

  The big Cat snorted at that. "We are nothing alike."

  "Yeah, you are," she laughed. "So much so, I want to beat you both to death some days."

  Esteban scowled. "I don't see it."

  "I bet she doesn't, either," Chara told him. "I do though. Both of you are strong-headed, strong-willed, sure of yourselves, think you're right about everything, and almost pathologically incapable of admitting to a mistake."

  He padded alongside her for a few minutes in silence, glaring off at the sparse forest they passed through. "Sounds more like you," he finally snorted.

  "Excuse me?" she barked.

  "Nothing," he offered quickly.

  "Yeah, that's what I thought," she said slowly.

  She didn't know how far they were from Lansing; she only knew it was still too damn far. If it was around the next bend, it was too damn far. She was pretty sure if they were standing in it, it would be too damn far.

  At least, she reminded herself, it wasn't Rheumer.

  After leaving Imicot's keep, they'd returned to Riskine, staying the night. Esteban had gotten a lot of strange looks from the residents there, everyone assuming for some reason that Chara was a sorcerer. Ramora had told her to just nod and smile, claiming it would be easier, but it bothered her more than a little.

  She hadn't missed how people would avoid them, or parents rush their children away from the big Cat. When she'd pressed her warrior friend about it, she'd only said it would take too long to explain. Having never really heard much about Werefolk herself, Chara decided to accept that, though the fear in people’s eyes bothered her more than a little.

  Esteban was an imposing presence, yes, but harmless as a kitten. She knew he'd never hurt anyone, and if people just took a few minutes to get to know him, they'd learn that as well. Instead, they fled from him, and though he never said anything, she could see it hurt him, making her all the angrier.

  She was glad to be away from the town, heading back into warmer climes, even though she was in no real hurry to visit her home town again. Somehow, she just knew it wasn't going to go well. Especially after the fun of Riskine with a Werejaguar in tow.

  Then, Ramora and Esteban had started their daily disagreements. A month and a half later, and Chara was almost thankful to see her home town coming into view. It meant she could lock them in a shed, have a nice bath, and have some peace and quiet for a while.

  Well, maybe not a shed. The cellar would do. Or a barn, somewhere out in the apple orchard. Far, far away. Where no one could hear them scream.

  Five minutes back, and she was the one hoping to be locked in a barn.

  Ramora was greeted as a returning hero, the townsfolk all crowding her, welcoming her back. She took it the same way she always took the attention of large numbers of people. Nervously. Chara had sat on her horse and smiled as the Blessed had tried to reach the inn, waving and shaking hands, looking like a rabbit in a trap the whole time.

  Not that she'd been ignored. With the Blessed passing them, those same townsfolk had turned to her, giving her the same treatment. She'd handled it better, she felt, but then again, after months of being away, she found she’d genuinely missed them.

  Esteban, on the other hand, had simply been stared at. Shy, he tried not to draw any attention on himself, as much as a seven foot tall Werejaguar carrying a poleaxe could, at any rate. Things had gotten even more awkward when Chara had introduced
him as her boyfriend.

  She wondered if maybe she should've kept that part to herself.

  With whispers running wild through the gathering of people, they'd pressed on and reached the inn, where her family had greeted them warmly. At first. Things went downhill pretty quick from there.

  Daniel had tried to be macho to Esteban, which hadn't worked out so well for him when the Werecat had simply looked at him like he was crazy for a moment, then smiled broadly and offered a hand. Chara was fairly certain he would stop trembling in fear, someday.

  Her mother had taken the news with tears, berating Ramora for allowing her daughter to be savaged by a wild animal, before fleeing to the kitchen wailing. It probably would've helped if Chara hadn't pointed out that at least she had a man.

  Her father handled it slightly better, glaring at the Werejaguar in disapproval. Of course, she was pretty sure that was just a dad thing to do. Or at least, she hoped it was.

  Lucy refused to even speak with her, and Melanie hadn't come within twenty yards of the inn. All in all, not as warm a welcome as she'd hoped. Of course, she supposed she shouldn't be surprised. It was decidedly not within the norms and traditions of the people of Rheumer to see Werefolk as a mating option.

  They'd stayed for a week, resupplying for the trip to Lansing, where they would catch a ship to Ricmar and begin heading towards the Eastern Heights. The journey would be long, and costly, made all the more difficult by their dwindling funds.

  First things first, though, was to rest from the trip back, and Ramora, at least, had that part down cold. Chara never would've believed the warrior could be so lazy as she was during their layover in Rheumer.

  Sleeping till the morning was half gone, lazing around on the porch of the inn, and generally doing nothing in the early autumn breeze, while Kate pelted her daughter with an endless barrage of questions, comments, and motherly tears. It would’ve been enough to drive a monk to a life at the bottom of a keg of ale.

  Esteban fared little better. Diem made certain of that. While he was never out-right belligerent, he was overbearing, giving the Werecat an endless glare and questioning everything he did.

  When confronted about it, Ramora had simply shrugged, pointing out that change took time for some people to accept. She'd then proceeded to completely ignore the situation. Chara was fairly certain it was punishment.

  Had she known, she might've felt sorry for thinking that way. Ramora spent the entire week trying to figure out how to go about approaching the daunting problem that was Draco.

  Reaching him was proving tricky enough. As it stood, she knew they didn't have enough gold to afford to pay for a trip across the Yestin Sea to even reach the southern continent, much less to buy supplies to get them far enough south to deal with the Dark Blessed.

  She wasn't famous enough as a Blessed to simply barter her way there on her reputation, either. It galled her to no end that just knowing his whereabouts was proving the biggest obstacle in defeating him.

  Then there was the matter of what to do even if she did get there. He was obviously no pushover, not with the list of kills to his name, Collette among them. Defeating him would require more than just her sword and Divine Gift.

  What, she couldn't guess, which did nothing for her mood. Chara and Esteban whining that the young woman's family wasn't being nice to the Werecat irked her more than a little, as well, though she knew that was just a bit of jealousy talking.

  During the trip back from the keep, she'd more or less accepted that Chara wanted to be with him, and while it hurt, the ache in her heart had begun to subside. She missed the nights of curling up with her, listening to her breathe as she used the warrior’s shoulder for a pillow, and the closeness they'd had.

  Change took time for some people to accept, though, and she knew that better than either of her companions might've guessed. It struck at the oddest times, too. She'd be smiling, in a good mood, and would see them holding hands, throwing cold water on her lightheartedness faster than anything as the sore spot reared up.

  It made her feel bad when it happened. Chara deserved to be happy. The honorable thing to do, as Father would've said, was to be happy for them. She was, mostly, too. Just not all the time.

  She knew she shouldn't pick fights with the Cat, either. She didn't like knowing there was a petty side to her. The harder she tried to still it, though, the more it seemed to come out.

  After a week, no closer to figuring out what to do about the trip, or her own heart, she'd decided it was time to get moving. Sitting around Rheumer wasn't getting them any closer to their foe, and frankly, she was tired of Kate glaring at her.

  She didn't know what had her so upset. Her daughter was with a man. If anything, the damn woman should've been delirious to all the Hells and back.

  That thought had soured her even more. She didn't like having something in common with Chara's mother.

  As they left, Ramora decided it was time to let the past be, and support her friends.

  That ended up not going as well as she would've liked.

  "I would remind you that I'm a far superior cook, so keep your hands off the rabbit," Esteban snapped, yanking the item in question away from Ramora.

  Scowling, she made to snatch it back, only to have him keep it from her by holding it over his head. So she punched him in the gut, reclaiming it after he doubled over in pain.

  Chara sat in front of the fire, watching the two of them in a boredom that was laced with simmering outrage. She was actually hungry, and didn't feel like watching them struggle for dominance.

  "Give that back," the big Cat yowled, reaching for her as she dove away.

  Ramora tried to sign something, but got cut off in the middle as he lunged for her, forcing her to scramble around the fire. Growling, he gave chase, but she eluded him, using her Divine Gift.

  Her Rabbit whistled about that being very immature.

  Her head throbbing, Chara finally snapped to her feet and punched Ramora in the face as she went by, taking the uncooked dinner from her with a deft hand. Esteban hovered behind her, grinning, until she hit him in the nose with it.

  "I don't care who cooks the damn dinner, just someone cook it," she snarled. "Now!"

  The two looked at her sheepishly, nodding. Handing it to Esteban, she shook her head, giving the Blessed a glare. Ramora sat there, rubbing her nose, sulking as the Cat set about fixing them their meager meal.

  "If she'd just let me do it from the start," Esteban muttered.

  "That's it!" Chara bellowed. "I've had it with the two of you! I'll see you in Lansing! Provided either of you ever figure out where it is, or manage to get there without killing each other!"

  Grabbing a blanket, she stormed off into the woods, leaving her companions staring after her in shock. For several minutes, neither of them moved, not sure how to react. When they did, a bard could've written an epic poem about the absurdity of it.

  "Tend the rabbit," Esteban said. "I'll go talk to her."

  Ramora stopped him, pointing out that sometimes, women needed to sort things out with other women.

  "Perhaps," he replied, having gotten use to her manner of communicating. "But she's my beloved. I'm the one who should speak with her."

  The Blessed rolled her eyes at that.

  "What's that supposed to mean?" he balked. "You really think you can understand her in a way I can't?"

  Ramora nodded, reminding him again that women could talk about things with each other that men simply couldn't grasp.

  "You're making that up," he said, dismissing her with a wave. "Stay here. I'll bring her back."

  Grabbing him by the tail, she told him to stay, while she went and got her.

  After that, it was a tussle, the two wrestling each other over who was going to go and tell her they were sorry for acting immature. Somewhere in the middle of it, they both realized how stupid they looked and stopped. This was followed by several minutes of not speaking.

  Yeah, Ramora thought, I'm a real
honorable warrior here. Her Rabbit hummed its agreement. That didn't help.

  Finally, taking a deep breath, she waved Esteban to go.

  "No, you were right," he sighed. "You should be the one to speak with her."

  She insisted. He deferred. This went on for a while until they realized Chara had been gone for a half an hour, and the rabbit was burned. Neither of them felt very good about that, and decided to go look for her together.

  By the time they found her, an hour later, she'd managed to catch two rabbits with the bow she'd taken from Imicot's armory, build a fire, and had cooked and eaten both. Her glare was something they both felt wary of as they approached.

  "We, um," Esteban started, rubbing at the back of his head absently. "We came to apologize."

  Ramora nodded emphatically. Her Rabbit thought it could do with more groveling, and sang a song about it she chose to ignore.

  "You should," Chara replied, not moving from where she sat. "I've taken all of this I can stand. You two get that, right?"

  "We do," Esteban assured her, the warrior nodding as well. "We completely understand."

  "I don't think you do," she sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Esteban, you're Daniel. Ramora, you're me. Me, I'm my mom. That's what you've done to me. You've made me into my mom."

  The Blessed grimaced as Esteban tried his best to look very sorry.

  "Honey, you're over forty years old, and Ramora, you're in your twenties," Chara continued, waving to them each in turn. "I turned eighteen last month. Eighteen! If anyone here should be acting like an immature brat, it's me. But, oh no, no time for that. I've got to play parent to you two."

  Her companions stood, shuffling their feet and looking anywhere but at her.

  "If you can't get along, then either fight it out, or don't talk to each other, or do whatever it is you two need to do," she told them. "But I'm done dealing with it. Enough. You're making me crazy."

  "We'll try harder to get along," the big Cat offered. Ramora nodded eagerly at his side.

  Chara shook her head. "No. I don't want you to try. I want you to do it. Starting now."

  Esteban nodded quickly. "We will. Right now. Yes, Ramora?"