by Sever Bronny
“Hey, when did we last check on the orb?” Augum whispered after throwing a deer bone into the fire. He had traded a fish for its weight in venison. It was a worthwhile and tasty exchange.
“Oh, I completely forgot about that,” Leera said, digging in her robe.
“Wait, not here,” Bridget whispered. “Let’s finish eating then go round back.”
As a murky sunset graced the horizon and everyone relaxed around the fire, talking in low voices and nursing their full stomachs, the trio, one by one, disappeared behind the house.
“I think we’re clear,” Leera said, peeking around the corner.
“Wait, let me just check the window here.” Augum peeked in through the gray shutters. The interior of the kitchen was quiet and dark. “All right.”
Leera raised a finger to her lips and dug out the engraved pearl, their only possession besides the clothes on their backs. She closed her eyes and concentrated. “Nothing,” she reported eventually.
“Here, let me see.”
Leera handed the pearl over to Bridget.
“They must be mid-journey or something. What do you think?” She passed it on to Augum, who closed his eyes and saw darkness, but heard muted sounds. By the rhythms, he guessed the orb was in a horse’s pack.
“What’s that there magic you got goin’ on?” asked a voice from the shutters.
The trio jumped. The pearl skipped out of Augum’s hand and dropped to the snow.
“Mind your business, Buck,” Augum said, trying to discretely figure out where the pearl had gone.
The shutter opened wide. “My pappy would still be here if it weren’t for you, you hell-worshipping gutterborn.”
“How so? I haven’t been here in years.”
“You done bring a curse on us. Now that you a witch, now we know it was your fault they took him.”
“I’m a warlock, not a witch.”
“You is a witch.”
“And you’re a gnat,” Leera said.
Bridget rolled her eyes. “Leera, don’t antagonize.”
Wyza’s head soon popped out the shutter. “What them witches be up to, Buck?”
“They is up to no good. They know it and I knows it. I see them looks of guilt leagues away.” He turned to his sister. “Remember how we used to chase him up the tree and throw crab apples at him?”
Wyza cackled. “Yeah, he done right pooped himself, didn’t he?”
Augum used Telekinesis to slam the shutter closed. “Oops, sorry about that!”
Leera laughed.
Bridget shook her head. “Really, you two, that was unnecessary.”
“Couldn’t help it,” he said.
“Neither could I,” Leera added. “Oh, come on, Bridge, it was funny—he did it without a gesture too. It was good training.”
“Watch out!” Bridget pushed Augum out of the way just in time as a frying pan smacked the side of the house.
“HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY CHILDREN—” Mrs. Penderson screamed, picking up the frying pan and aiming for Augum’s head. He instinctively raised his arm and the pan bounced off a shield made of hard lightning. The shield disappeared as fast as it had zipped into existence.
“Mrs. Penderson, stop—!” Bridget shouted, but the pan smacked her on the forehead. She keeled over, clutching her face.
The shutters opened and out spilled the Penderson brats, grasping at Leera and Augum. Next thing they knew, Mr. Goss had whipped around the corner of the house.
“Now Mrs. Penderson, this is no way to—” he stopped to duck the frying pan. “Be reasonable, Mrs. Penderson—”
Wyza wrestled with Leera while Buck tussled with Augum. The boy was stronger but not as dexterous. Augum managed to get behind him and put him in a chokehold, before something hard clanged against his head.
He blacked out instantly.
Missing Artifact
“Never in all my years have I seen such a display,” Mr. Goss was saying quietly, applying a damp cloth to Augum’s head.
“Ugh, what happened?” Augum asked, trying to sit up, head throbbing.
“Just lay still. You took a hard knock.”
He lay back down, staring at the ceiling. “Where’s Leera and Bridge?”
“We’re right here,” Leera answered, tending to Bridget’s forehead beside the bed.
Bridget only moaned.
He bolted upright. “The pearl—”
Leera’s face went ashen. “Wait, you don’t have it—?”
“No, don’t you—?”
The girls exchanged a horrified look.
Mr. Goss’ brows rose. “I do not understand—”
“We've got to go, Mr. Goss—” Leera said, scampering out the door, Bridget and Augum in hot pursuit. They bolted around the corner of the house, ignoring the looks on the faces of the Henawa, and ran to the scene of the altercation, where they immediately began digging through the snow.
“I don’t understand it, I saw it fall right around here,” Augum said, pawing like a frenzied dog.
“This is so bad, this is so bad—” Leera kept saying.
They dug up every foot of that area, shoveling the snow aside, freezing themselves to the bone in the process.
Augum, knees soaked, suddenly stopped, out of breath. “Buck must have it …”
The girls stared at him gravely.
“Well we just have to get it back, that’s all,” Leera said.
Bridget got up, forehead still bleeding. “Let’s go find them.”
The trio marched back around the house, eyeing the camp. Sitting at the fire were Buck, Wyza and Mrs. Penderson, minding a plank of salmon.
Augum marched up to them. “Where is it?”
Buck‘s face scrunched as if something foul was in the air. “Where’s what?”
“You know what I’m talking about. You took it.”
Mrs. Penderson stood up to her full height, jabbing a finger into Augum’s face. “You dare come accusing us of thievin’ after what you done to my children?” Her voice was an angry hiss, a viper about to strike.
He had to resist the urge to back away from her reach. “We need it back. It’s extremely important we get it—”
“—I don’t give a cow’s hoof what you want, you degenerate. It only serves you right to lose something of yours. You be the reason for all this here misery. Now I suggest you go on and leave us be right now lest there be a scene. And I don’t care if all these savages witness it, for woe be the ire of a mother wronged.” She glared at the trio.
“Come on, Aug,” Bridget said quietly. “This is pointless.”
“You’re darn right it is, you little hussy. Now scoot!”
Bridget reddened but yanked on Augum and Leera’s sleeve. “How rude,” she muttered when they had walked a distance away.
“We’re not sleeping in the same room with her,” Leera said. “I might wake up with my hands around her throat.”
Bridget dabbed a cloth to her forehead. “I think we have more important things to worry about.”
Leera grimaced. “So what do we do now?”
They stood pondering a moment.
“I got it—Unconceal.” Augum didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of the spell earlier.
“Might work,” Bridget said. “We’ll have to be careful, do it in such a way so it doesn’t raise too much suspicion.”
Augum rubbed his aching head. “Let’s just hope that when we do find it, it won’t already be too late.” The Legion could be on their way right now. He pushed the thought aside, trying to assure himself that whoever had it probably had no idea what it was or how to use it.
The trio split up, Bridget to the fire, Leera out back.
Augum took the house. He splayed out his hand and tried to calm his thundering heart. “Un vun deo.” He focused on that very subtle emanation in the arcane ether, a force pulling him in the direction of something purposefully hidden. But after a solid hour of looking, having drained his arcane energies, he came up with nothing other
than a small carved horse hidden by one of the brats who knew when. Bridget and Leera came up empty-handed, trouncing into the house, hair askew, eyes puffy.
They moved to the pantry and spoke in whispers.
“I don’t understand why it didn’t work,” Leera said, searching her robes for the umpteenth time.
Augum unconsciously did the same even though he had pawed through his pockets more times than was good for his sanity. “Me neither …”
Bridget, who had been staring at her shoes, suddenly looked up. “I know why it didn’t work … it must have been hidden arcanely!”
He groaned. She had to be right. Only the 11th degree spell, Reveal, could find arcanely hidden objects.
“Wait, that makes no sense,” he blurted. “No one here knows arcanery.”
They exchanged looks. The mystery had deepened.
Leera crinkled her nose. “What if they hid it somewhere further?”
“Then it could be anywhere,” he replied. “The fences—”
“—the river,” Bridget threw in.
“The barn …” Leera said with a sigh. “Ugh, we’re in trouble.”
Bridget peeked out the door, making sure no one was listening in. “We need to tell Mrs. Stone.”
“What good would that do?” he asked. “It’d only make her worry and she’s already very weak.”
“Does Mrs. Stone even worry about anything?” Leera asked.
He gave her a look.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“Let’s just find the pearl,” Augum said. “I’ll walk the fences, see if I can find tracks or something.”
“I’ll take the river,” Bridget said.
Leera gave an assertive nod. “Guess I got the barn. Good luck everyone.”
They split up for a second round of searching. The sun had set by then, though snow continued to fall. Lazy snowflakes swirled in a gentle breeze, dimming the already hazy light of dusk. The children had gone to bed but the youths stuck around, watching from a distance. Augum’s search at the old wooden fence was fruitless. Bridget and Leera’s efforts also turned up nothing. Tired, cold and out of ideas, the trio decided to head in.
“Should we tell Mr. Goss at least?” Augum asked as they strolled over the well-worn ground near the fire, kept alight by a woman and man team who would routinely journey to the barn, stripping it of its planks one by one like carrion birds feasting on a carcass.
“Might as well,” Bridget said. “He’ll find out eventually anyway.”
Mr. Goss was in the servant’s room with Mrs. Stone and Leland rather than in the bedroom with the Pendersons. The trio exchanged relieved looks.
The room was dark and cold, the air stale. Three cots lined the walls. Mrs. Stone occupied one, staff at her side. Mr. Goss fed her fish soup, one spoonful at a time. Leland sat in the corner, back against the wall, humming a gurgling melody to himself.
Augum checked the Pendersons were nowhere near before clearing his throat. “Um, Mr. Goss, we have something to—”
“—I am afraid she is not doing so well,” Mr. Goss said, putting aside the soup.
“What do you mean?”
Mr. Goss shook his head. “I wish I knew.”
“Mrs. Stone’s lips are moving!” Bridget said. “I think she’s trying to say something.” She placed her ear close to Mrs. Stone’s mouth. “She's saying, ‘Arcane Fever’.”
Mr. Goss frowned. “I am afraid that is unfamiliar to me.”
The trio exchanged worried looks. It was evident now, more than ever, they needed an arcane healer.
Mr. Goss adjusted his spectacles. “What were you saying, Augum?”
“Oh, uh … nothing.” He couldn’t bring himself to compound the problem. “Excuse me.” He left the room and pondered what to do in the corridor.
“Found it yet?” Buck asked in a sneering voice. He was leaning against the far wall, arms crossed.
Augum walked over. “Where is it? You don’t understand, we need it back.”
Buck glared down at him. “Oh, I’m too dumb to understand, that it? Well I don’t even know what you be talkin’ about, and I don’t rightly care either. I hope you never find it, and I hope you get in all sorts of trouble for losing it.”
Augum wanted to say something spiteful, but it’d only make things worse. Wyza schlepped out of the bedroom, wiping her nose with the sleeve of her muddy dress. She stopped upon spying Augum. “Ma, that gutterborn hell child is here again causin’ trouble!”
The old instincts took over. “I wasn’t causin’—” he began, but Mrs. Penderson was already in the hall, glaring. “You is lucky Mr. Penderson ain’t here to give you the whippin’ you deserve, boy.” She brought Wyza close to her chest with one hand and waved him off with the other. “I reckon I prefer any beast to come a visitin’ at Endyear other than you. Go on now, scoot! Don’t you be talking to my children no more. They ain’t got nothing to say to you anyhow.”
The scars on Augum’s back tingled as he bit his tongue and turned away, only to spot Leera standing in the hallway with a hard look on her face. He gave her a gentle tug on the elbow.
“Come on …”
She let herself be guided back to the servant room.
“I used to sleep here when they’d let me,” he said, sliding to the floor against the far wall, absently picking at his fingers. “Wasn’t allowed to use the cots though.”
“You slept on the floor even though there were empty cots in the room?” Leera asked.
He nodded. It was hard talking about his past. Really hard, actually. But part of him was also tired of holding it in for so long, of carrying that weight around all his life. Maybe it was time he let go of some of it.
He avoided their gaze as he continued. “He used to whip me in this room. Actually, in every room. And the barn … the field. Come to think of it, she had a go at me almost just as much.”
Leera squeezed his hand. “That Penderson witch? That’s … ugh, I’m going back out there—”
“No—” Bridget said. “Don’t even think about starting more trouble.”
Leera exhaled deeply before sitting down beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. “You don’t usually talk about yourself, Aug. I’m sorry you went through all that. You know we’re here for you.”
“Let me see now, what was it Mr. Penderson used to say?” He switched to his best twang. “ ‘Keep your dog close so you don’t have to go far to kick him’.”
Bridget got up off the cot and sat on his other side, drawing her knees close and placing her chin on them. “You turned out very well though. Better than most people I knew with privileged upbringings.”
He didn’t know how to reply to that.
Mr. Goss looked over and gave a pained smile. “You are lucky to have each other. I am proud of you all.”
Augum forced a smile, unable to meet Mr. Goss’ eyes. What would he say when he found out Augum had lost the control pearl to the mythic Orb of Orion?
Ettan trounced into the room. “Can Leland play?”
“I am afraid it is a bit late, my dear boy,” Mr. Goss replied. Leland moaned angrily.
“It is past your bedtime, son.”
Ettan gave a pouty look. He dug into his pocket and retrieved a candle, holding it out to Mr. Goss.
“Is this for us? Why thank you, that is very kind of you.”
Ettan left without another word.
Leera snorted. “We don’t even have our flint and steel to light it with.”
“That is quite all right. I can light it at the fire.” Mr. Goss stood up, dusting off his worn tunic. “What a nice gesture,” he said to himself as he left.
Leland sat down beside Mrs. Stone, groping for her wrinkled hand. He took it in his own and moaned quietly. Then he began slowly rocking back and forth while humming A Boy and his Cat, a familiar children’s melody.
The trio sat there letting the fragile song wash over them, Leera’s head on Augum’s shoulder, Bridget’s on her knees. Augum,
meanwhile, ruminated on their growing list of problems.
Mr. Goss soon returned cupping the lit candle. He placed it on the floor and put Leland to bed, the trio readying as well. Augum and Mr. Goss slept on the floor, Bridget and Leland on one cot, Leera the other.
Augum watched his breath fog in the cold air, wondering how he was going to go to sleep with all these turbulent thoughts running through his head.
“Good night, everyone,” Mr. Goss whispered, blowing out the candle.
Yet as tired as Augum was, he simply couldn’t sleep. The others all stirred too, probably from the bitter cold. Mrs. Stone’s breath rasped even above the wind that whistled through the shutters.
He listened, unable to quiet his tortured conscience. Where was the pearl? Was Buck talking to the Legion in that moment, huddled in one of the trio’s blankets? Were they going to wake up to an entire company of black-armored soldiers waiting outside? The thought was almost enough to make him sneak out and investigate.
As the night cooled more, his shivers worsened. He curled up in a tight ball. It barely helped.
“Aug, you awake?” Leera whispered, teeth chattering.
“Yeah …”
“I can’t sleep, too cold.”
“Me neither.”
“We need to find blankets.”
He was more than ready. “Let’s go.”
The pair of snuck out of the room.
“Shyneo,” he said, keeping his hand lit at a very dim level.
They opened the door that led outside, the hinges shrieking ghoulishly.
Augum winced, listening for the Pendersons while freezing wind and snow blasted his face.
“We’re all right,” Leera whispered. “Go.”
He could barely see past a few paces. They had to be extremely careful—it’d be all too easy to get lost in this, Shine or no Shine.
The gusts slammed into them the moment they stepped away from the shelter of the house. Both drew their hoods, but he had to keep his lit hand bare.
“I think a blizzard’s coming!” he shouted over the wind. It meant the cold would get worse, much worse. It was imperative they find blankets.
Leera grabbed him by the arm. “This way!”
