They were quickly passed through with the most cursory of inspections, the guardsmen not suspecting them of being anything other than the young nobles they claimed to be.
Jess traveled silently on as Malek regaled her with his thoughts and reflections on their short time as adventurers, shared misadventures at Highrock, and of course, the many escapades he and Jacob got into on a fairly regular basis. Jess always flashed a smile or softly laughed at the appropriate spots, but in the end couldn't help but gently squeeze her shieldbrother's shoulder. “If you want to talk about it, you know where to find me,” she teased.
Malek grinned. “Traveling right beside me, as always.” Jess smiled and nodded, her shieldbrother's own grin turning melancholy. “Unlike Jacob, who has neither the stomach for high adventure nor the wherewithal to survive even the most modest of engagements, sad to say.”
Malek chuckled softly. “For all that my love has spent years attempting to learn the elementalist's arts, he froze up utterly when he actually witnessed live battle. I mean, bloody hells, Jess, both of us are too skilled at measuring the worth of the soldiers under our care to even consider him as anything more than a liability.” He grimaced. “Poor Jera. It wasn't easy for her to freeze up in battle either, but I know she did her best, and damn it, she stood ready. Had any of those bastards actually broken through Alex's wall of wind, I have no doubt she would have let loose with lightning. With Jacob, though, it wasn't even a consideration.”
Jess quickly glanced behind them, Alex and Jera appearing lost in their own quiet conversation. She turned back to Malek. “You and I both know that Jacob, despite what talents he has in the magic arts, was never cut out to be a battlemage. Come now, shieldbrother. You know that's not what's really troubling you.”
Malek spent some moments adjusting a loose strap on his saddle before at last looking at Jess with haunted eyes.
“Duke diOnni was good enough to send a man he trusted to find out his location.” He broke gazes with Jess, staring down the endless high road ahead. “Jacob's safe, thank the gods, making use of the family suite at the inn they own in the capital.” He gave a sad shake of his head. “After yelling at the man who had tracked him down for some minutes, he then bade him wait as he wrote me a note.”
Jess gazed at her beloved companion whose eyes looked of a sudden so terribly heavy. She was almost afraid to hear what Malek would say.
“He said that he knew he was nothing more than a dead-weight, dragging me down. He said that he knew he had no business berating you, Jess, that it was not your fault that he was an utter failure, and that maybe I shouldn't have... rescued him when he was about to do something... stupid, last year, after his father's visit."
Jess grimaced, knowing all too well what that stupid thing poor Jacob was referring to. "Well I, for one, am glad you were there for him when he needed you, Malek. And you will be there for him again, when all this is said and done. I hope that he can understand that."
Malek ventured a sad smile. “Well, at least Raphael was nice enough to promise to keep an eye on our Jacob, he and Josie both were going to entice him to visit their manor as an honored guest, and explore the capital together.” He chuckled softly. “With warm friends and an unstinting purse, there really is no limit to the good times to be had, if he could just shake off those damn sorrows that are always affecting him." Malek sighed. "If he would just believe that his martial prowess, or lack thereof, never had any bearing on what I feel for him, any more than the feelings you and I share, Jess, detract from how much he means to me.”
Jess nodded solemnly, kneeing her horse beside his own restive destrier, giving Malek a gentle squeeze before allowing Mercy to step away from the suddenly too curious stallion. "No worries, brother. Jacob couldn't ask for better friends than those two. He's going to have a great time, not even remember what he was so upset about a week from now any more than he had those other times, and perhaps Josie can whip up something to cure those foul humors filling his head with sorrow!" She flashed a teasing grin and Malek chuckled, and everything was all right again, at least for the moment.
They journeyed on sedately for the rest of the day, stopping at a traveler's inn along the high road as nightfall approached, a smiling Jess allowing that they did not need to spend every night sleeping under the stars. Alex paid for their rooms and board with a minimum of haggling, and after simple but filling fare they went up early for a good night's rest.
Jess smiled the next morning upon seeing the contented look on Jera's face. She almost seemed to glow.
“Someone looks to be in good spirits this morning,” Jess teased as they tacked their horses for the day ahead.
Jera blushed and grinned. "I had Alex to myself all night. And as much as I do love the woods, it was nice having a private bed to ourselves, like we had at the diOnni manor." She sighed happily. "It always feels good, sleeping with his arms about me, not having to hide our relationship and sleep alone, as we do at the College." She grew thoughtful for a moment, her rich mahogany hair teased ever so slightly be the gentle breeze blowing through the stables, dark green eyes gazing at sights only she could see. "I could grow to like this traveling life, I think, if I have Alex by my side."
Jess grinned. “Good for you!”
"Of course, that means using inns, dearest Jess. There is a reason why not all of us were so happy with spending every single night sleeping under the stars when traveling through the Great Wood, as beautiful as it was, and none of us wanted to risk traipsing too far from you and whatever grace the forest grants you, lest we be gobbled up by savage beasts or ancient, mystical trees far too courteous to bother a nature mage herself." Jera chuckled and Jess joined her, though Jera's eyes made it clear that she meant every word she had said. Jess sincerely hoped Jera was kidding about her fear of carnivorous mystical trees. She would have sensed such, had any been near, after all.
With that they quickly readied their mounts, waiting only some final moments for a sleepy looking Malek and Alex to saddle up their horses and they were off once again, making their way westward, enjoying fair weather, a warm sun to counter the cool breeze, and reminiscing over their adventures thus far, even sharing their plans and dreams for their future as the days passed peacefully by. Yet in the back of all their minds was that niggling sense that something was wrong, Jess knew, distant storm clouds to their west still hovering as they had been since they had left the capital, right over where Jess was certain Pomell must be. Clouds that Jera could just barely make out, gaze haunted, and no innkeeper even claimed to be able to see.
At least, Jess thought, they could take comfort that there were no rumors or tales of trouble to the west according to the occasional merchant or traveler they met on the road as they continued their journey. Indeed, all seemed remarkably well, as they bedded down for the night at yet another of the well-maintained roadside inns that dotted the major trade routes throughout the kingdom, Twilight informing Jess they were but half a day out from their final destination.
Calming nerves buoyed by both dread and exhilaration, Jess closed her eyes, wondering what adventures the next day would bring.
Then the room shook with a sudden scream.
24
The young child tossed and turned, haunted by odd dreams of sorcery and swordplay, visions of knights and monsters, fierce and terrible. Eventually, she was pulled out of her restless sleep by the needs of her body. It was her own fault, she thought, she shouldn't have eaten quite so much the night before, never mind her constant hunger. Waif-thin, her belly was unusually full that eve, born into a family that had known hardship and starvation as well as bountiful years, now she lay afraid and alone on a huge bed she knew as her own. She had just turned six and had had the most wonderful of birthdays. The sweet memories of her family singing her praise and presenting her with the tenderest meats that day, a beautiful doll handmade from her grandmother, and even a warm pudding shared with her brother filled her with a warm glow that momentarily dispelled t
he terrible sense of foreboding haunting her.
But none of those warm thoughts would take care of the urgency growing ever more insistent. She had woken up having to use the chamber pot, but was now afraid even to leave her bed. The house was quiet. Gone were the normal late night voices of her parents, the creaking of their bed that sometimes emanated from their room. All was still… save for the sounds of soft footsteps.
It didn't sound like her father's hurried stamping, or her mother's gentle tread. It was a stranger's steps, and it filled her with nameless dread. She couldn't say why, but it froze her.
Shivering and terrified, hiding under the covers. She was afraid even to move, too scared to take more than the shallowest of breaths, praying it was a nightmare, but knowing with cold sick certainty that it was anything but. Then the footsteps stopped. By the door of the room she shared with her baby brother, still sleeping peacefully at that moment, blissfully unaware of the terror lurking on the far side of their flimsy bedroom door.
She closed her eyes tight, wishing she had the strength to save herself, to save her brother, but paralyzed in place by the overwhelming terror only a child could feel.
And slowly, her bedroom door creaked open. And she heard breathing, from under her covers. Breathing. Harsh, ragged. She couldn’t help it, she choked back a whimper, unable even to lift up the covers and see what was there. Too terrified to move.
And that hideous, rasping sound slowly approached.
Creaking footsteps sliding hideously across the hardwood floor. As if whatever approached carried a hideous weight.
She shuddered at the horror of whatever it was, imagining its cold gaze piercing her too thin covers. Grinning covetously at her very soul.
It was coming closer.
She shuddered in utter terror. Petrified, whimpering so loudly she knew she could be heard, but too terrified to stop.
She could feel the hot tears of terror prickling her eyes and she wanted to scream so terribly she wanted to scream but she couldn't let loose a single word… she realized her lungs were clamping down and she heard the faintest of whimpers, before realizing it was her own.
And her covers were slowly, inexorably, lifted from her bed.
Her eyes, squinched tight, she was forced to open.
And she saw the face. That terrible face, stinking of rot and worms and hideous delights too horrific to fathom, looking down upon her.
Diseased, film covered eyes. Bone white teeth. Perfect porcelain skin. And its cheeks stretched into an awful rictus of a smile.
It was her mother.
Heart hammering with unspeakable horror, at last the scream she thought forever trapped in her throat tore out of her. The last sound she was ever to make, as unspeakable darkness consumed her.
And that had been when Jess woke up, choking out the last of that lost scream.
“By Justice," Malek shook his head sympathetically when a pale-faced Jess recounted the horrors of that nightmare, Jera and Alex also looking on with heartfelt sympathy. “That was a horrible dream, Jess," Malek said. "I don't blame you for waking me up anymore.”
“Jess, do you think your dream has any… meaning?” Alex tentatively asked.
Jess shuddered and looked to her cat, even at that moment curled up quietly on the bed. His enigmatic eyes refused to reveal anything, and she instinctively knew that this was one of those subjects for which her beloved familiar would remain silent, however much she poked and prodded. He had never ventured an opinion on her nightmares, no matter how frequent or how terrible they had been when she had been growing up, only counseling her to lose herself in the peace of planting and growing things, or embrace the pleasures of fishing. With him, of course.
She shook her head. “I have no idea. But I had the sense that, wherever this happened, assuming it wasn't just a crazy dream, the sky was overcast, almost like twilight, even at midday. And the farmers were worried. Everyone was worried." Jess grimaced. "Yes, I know. Where we're headed, it's been overcast for days. But whether my dream is resonating with something... terrible, or my nightmare is just the distillation of my fears of what is to come? I really don't know."
Alex and Jera exchanged a glance. “What is it?” Jess asked.
“Probably nothing," Jera soothed. "It's just that, well, Alex and I were having trouble sleeping, so we went down just to socialize and chat for a bit, and we made the acquaintance of a trader heading east."
Alex nodded. “Heading east with all his wares, bodyguards locked up in his room guarding his property while the merchant stopped only long enough to buy a flask of brandy and head back up. He wouldn’t say much, just that something was off in the town he had just left. The people were turning… grim. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the missing folk. He didn’t know. But the night before he left, his guards alerted him that not one but a handful of people could be seen just staring at his store, and he suddenly became so terrified they were going to break in and rob everything that he demanded his guards show their arms, let those townsmen know they'd be paying in blood if they dared break in. It didn’t stop them or get them off the street, but no one broke in.” Alex shrugged. “Whatever happened, even if it was just a few drunken villagers messing with a jumpy merchant, it was enough to send him packing.”
Malek grimaced. “I’d bet copper feathers to silver talons that this is a lot bigger than a few drunken villagers. Sounds like we are getting close, if you ask me.”
Alex nodded slowly. "And that's not all. The town the trader just left? When I asked him what it was called he looked at me like he thought I was speaking in jest, before blinking and gazing at me in sudden panicked confusion. He rushed up to his quarters, spoke in hurried whispers to his men, and Malek? None of them could even remember the name of the town they had lived in. Not a one. What's worse is that when I asked him if this was the first inn he had stopped at since he had left his home, he couldn't even recall that."
Malek grimaced. "Bloody hells. Well, we know it's close, then, whether the next village or the one after. It's Pomell. It has to be. He shook his head. "Let's agree on one thing. If the situation is truly as dire as we fear it might be, we send word to Lute's Guild contacts detailing the exact nature of the threat. That way, no matter what happens to us, assuming we're all crazy enough to still proceed, at least we've done our part to protect Erovering from whatever threat this is that she faces." He gave a mirthless chuckle. "Hopefully we will arrive just in the nick of time, free the wand from wherever it's being held, and be off before our enemies even knew we were there, the whole vile portal hopefully closing in on itself with our daring escape."
Jess grinned. "As bold a plan as any, shieldbrother, but you're right. We scout it out. If things look truly... dire, we wait for Guild Delvers to back us up. The commander in me would love to see what they are capable of in any case, and protecting Erovering goes far beyond our claiming the wand, as much as I would love to see Rens's pleased smile, should we actually manage to recover it."
Everyone nodded in agreement. “Still, it would be best if we were able to retrieve the artifact,” Alex sighed. “We’d far rather the College have it under lock and key than anyone else who might have less than benign intentions. Besides, if we succeed? You and Jess are up a thousand crowns.”
Malek gave a bemused shake of his head. “Yeah, I got that. Still, Alex, it's insane for you and Jera to be risking your necks in this when you guys weren’t promised anything.”
Alex squeezed Jera's hand gently. "Some things are more important than gold, my friend. And if this expedition will help make our kingdom just that much of a safer place, it's worth it."
“Besides," Jera chimed in, kissing her lover's cheek, "Rens promised Alex resident scholar status, and access to all his notes and equipment if my love goes through with this, a prize Rens has granted no one before. And that's about the greatest treasure any aspiring mage could ask for."
Alex blushed. “Well, there is that.”
Malek chuck
led. “Well done, my friend the future master wizard! Better make sure that includes you too, Jera. At least you guys are getting something out of this.” Malek's bemused gaze turned serious. “All right then, Jess, are you up for this? Let’s get going.”
Jess nodded solemnly, her friend's conversation serving as a soothing balm to her still frazzled nerves, even as she collected herself and donned her armaments once more, strapping everything in place with careful, methodical precision. At last she felt ready. "Okay my friends, we've dallied long enough. Let's go forth and see if we can track down this Pomell before day's end."
25
Though normally they enjoyed filling the air with benign conversation, they found themselves increasingly silent as the day progressed. Jess wasn’t the only one to note the heavy weight of the leaden gray skies now directly overhead, after having brooded at the edge of the horizon for so many days. The light steadily dimmed even as morning turned to midday, the air chillier than it had been in weeks.
“Am I the only one to note that absolutely no one has come eastward since that last town we passed?" Malek asked, his companions nodding in silent accord even as he gave vent to a wry chuckle. "Oh yes. We are definitely going in the right direction to avoid trouble, that's for sure."
Jess understood Malek's need for banter at the absurdity of their situation, and normally would have been happy to chime in, but she found herself feeling quiet, focused mainly on what was to come, her hand caressing the various hilts of her weapons; estoc, mace, saber, and javelins, all secured to sheaths and hooks upon her saddle, as was her somewhat leafy shield. Her longsword was securely strapped to her person, and the kriegmesser safely packed away upon one of the sedate supply mares Duke diOnni had presented them with, prudence forbearing any further encumbrance upon her saddle, save for those weapons she had trained for three years to use on horseback to devastating effect.
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