Breaker (Monster Tamer Book 1)

by Isaac Hooke

  He smiled when she pressed against him.

  That never gets old.

  7

  Malem led Bounder through the trees, mirroring the road. He had the animal move at about half the rate he would have ordinarily instructed the iguanid to travel on the road, so that its advance through the undergrowth was stealthier and not the crashing din it would have been otherwise.

  Despite the slower speed, branches still occasionally clawed and whipped at his neck; he got sick of the feeling, and wrapped his face with a scarf from his saddlebags. There was nothing he could do about his exposed arms, unfortunately.

  He didn’t detect any further monsters out there. He did sense animals, some of them large, though the latter bounded away before he could spot them.

  He considered releasing Felipe to take control of a bird to act as a forward scout, but decided against it: even though Felipe was well-trained, there was a chance the monkey would run away, especially given the fear Malem detected from the animal. No, he’d just have to rely on his beast sense.

  The terrain sloped upward subtly, and Bounder began to pant ever so slightly. He could tell from his link that the iguanid was growing quite hungry, which negatively influenced its stamina.

  Malem began to spot different marshland birds, such as a Calico Pecker, and he knew there was a bog nearby. He could summon those birds to give Bounder a quick snack, but why bother when the animal’s favorite food was near.

  He swerved to the right.

  “Where are we going?” Abigail asked.

  “Food stop,” he replied.

  In a few minutes the forest opened into a marsh. He sensed a baleful presence in a nearby tree. Twisted, like all the dark things that came from the underworld to feed upon the energy of this world.

  The trunk was of the right size and shape, and had a little crevice in the bottom where the occupant had killed the tree and hollowed out its insides.

  “Get down.” Malem and Abigail dismounted, and let Bounder set to work.

  The bog spider inside was technically considered a monster, so while extremely low level, Malem couldn’t force it to emerge. The most he could manage was temporarily freezing it in place like he had done to the dire wolf.

  That didn’t stop Bounder from spending the next five minutes pounding on the tree until finally the tormented spider emerged from the crevice at the bottom and made a run for it.

  Bounder pounced and bit down, then scooped up the spider in its maw. It chewed on the abdomen and thorax while the legs twisted around outside its mouth.

  “That’s disgusting,” Abigail said.

  Malem shrugged. As usual, Felipe snuck a piece from one of the spider’s toes before Bounder could stop him.

  With Bounder sated, Malem and Abigail remounted, and returned close to the road. The animal climbed the sloping ground with renewed vigor.

  As the party neared the next scheduled village, a place called Durnwald—if Malem remembered correctly—a strange stench floated on the air.

  “Do you smell that?” Abigail said from behind him, her hot breath in his ear.

  He wrinkled his nose. “That’s not good.”

  He hurried Bounder onward through the sloping undergrowth and eventually emerged in a broad clearing.

  There was an overgrown estate here. The farmhouse at its center had been recently burned down. Thankfully, it looked like it was uninhabited.

  The stench grew stronger as the party continued, passing more such farmhouses. Like the first, all the estates proved vacant. That was good.

  Finally, the last of the farms fell away and the smoldering ruins of Durnwald arose before him.

  He lowered the scarf from his face as he directed Bounder to advance down the former main street between the burned-out skeletons of the buildings. Unfortunately, the village had not been abandoned. Charred bodies lay on the bare earth, their limbs arranged in different postures of flight, the black, leather features of those skulls that still had some skin were twisted into paroxysms of pain and fear.

  Felipe clutched tightly to Malem’s shoulder.

  “The oraks did this,” Abigail declared angrily. “We should have attacked that war party and wiped them from the face of the earth.”

  Malem didn’t answer. He felt the same rage, though he was less optimistic than she was about their chances. Maybe they could have bested the party, especially if Abigail managed to get in the opening strike, taking down one or both of the orak mages. But more likely if they had attacked he and Abigail would be stewing at the bottom of an orak cooking pot right now.

  He pulled up short.

  “What is it?” Abigail said from behind him.

  “There’s someone here,” he murmured. “I sense him.”

  She tightened her grip around his waist. “Are you sure it’s a man?”

  “Well, it’s definitely not an animal,” Malem said. “The emotions and thought patterns are too complex.”

  “It could be a monster,” she said.

  “Well if it is, it’s like no monster I’ve ever encountered before.” He paused. “It’s coming closer.” He turned his head to the side. “It’s in that building.”

  He was looking at a large, partially burned building on his right. An anvil on the sign told him it was once a forge. The upper level would have held the sleeping quarters of the owner, while the first floor contained the kiln.

  There was a small window with the glass knocked out in front. He thought he saw a shadowy head peeking from the lower lintel, but when his gaze touched it the shape dropped from view.

  “Definitely someone there,” Malem said. “I don’t think it’s a monster. A refugee from the village, probably.” He called out: “Hello. Come out. We mean you no harm.”

  No answer.

  Abigail leaped down and her right arm lit up with fire from the elbow to the hand.

  “Hang on,” Malem said. “Let’s not go in there with fireballs blazing.”

  “Just in case you’re wrong about it not being a monster...” she said.

  Malem dismounted and ordered Felipe to stay with Bounder on the saddle. He reached out toward the presence he felt, wondering if he could seize control, but just like with higher level monsters, he was unable to firmly wrap his will around it.

  In the room beyond the window, he saw the shadows shift on the far side.

  He took a step forward but an arrow slammed into the ground directly in front of his sandal. He froze.

  “Piss off,” a woman’s voice came from the ruined house.

  And then suddenly all sense of the refugee vanished and he received that familiar slap in the face feeling as his severed connection boomeranged. Instinctively she had known how to block him, just like Abigail had. He had thought the fire mage had done it with magic, but apparently for those particular humans he could sense, all it took was a strong will to deny him, just like the tougher animals could do, beasts that had to be physically subdued before he could Break them.

  Malem glanced at Abigail. “Whoops.”

  “What did you do?” Abigail asked.

  “Tried to get in her head,” he explained.

  “Nicely done,” she said.

  “Take your looting, mind-assaulting ass out of here!” the hidden woman shouted. “I’m warning you.”

  “We’re not looters,” Malem said. “We’re here to help you.”

  “Help me?” she said. “You ride a monster, you tried to invade my mind, and you say you’re here to help me?”

  “It’s not a monster,” he said. “It’s an iguanid. They’re common in the south. And I wasn’t trying to invade your mind, I was only trying to... communicate.” That was the best lie he could come up with.

  “Well, I don’t care,” she said. “If you really mean no harm, then you’ll leave my village right now and never look back.”

  “Yes, we’ll do that,” he agreed. “But I have to warn you, don’t stay here. The forest is teeming with oraks. A lone woman won’t be safe.”
<
br />   “I don’t plan to stay here,” she said. “I’m going out into the forest to hunt them all down. Just as soon as I’ve gathered my wits. And I’m not just some mere lone woman as you called me. I’m an archer. I hunt oraks for sport.”

  “You’ve never seen any before today, have you?” Abigail asked, her voice skeptical.

  The hidden woman didn’t answer for several moments. Then: “No,” she admitted. “But I plan to make hunting them my life’s goal. As payback for what they did to my village.”

  “All right, well, good luck to you.” Malem pulled himself back into the saddle. Abigail doused the flames in her arm and then mounted behind him.

  He turned to go.

  “Wait!” the hidden woman said. “You’re going to leave me, just like that?”

  Malem glanced toward the ruined house. “It’s what you wanted.”

  “I uh, er, well, yes,” she said. “But, I…” She paused. “Okay, I admit it. I don’t know what to do. I just lost the people that were closer to me than any family. And I—” It sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

  “Your parents lived here?” Malem asked.

  “No,” she said. Her voice quavered for a moment, but she managed to get it under control as she continued. “Essentially the whole village were my adoptive parents. I’d spend four weeks in each household, helping out with the chores until the next month, cycling between the different professions throughout the year. You see, I wasn’t born here.”

  The shadow he saw in the back of the house slowly came forward. In moments, a woman emerged. She held a composite bow in her right hand and an arrow in her left. The toned muscles lining her bare arm, shoulder and back announced to the world that she was quite capable of using that particular class of bow.

  She had a pretty face, with firm cheeks, bright red lips, and penetrating emerald eyes. Over the remainder of her lean body she only wore a loincloth and a rather skimpy breast band. He suspected her actual clothes had burned away in the fire—she had painful-looking welts where she had obviously taken burns, and much of her skin was grimy and sooty.

  Oh and, speaking of that skin? It was completely green.

  Abigail stared at her in wonder. “You’re a gobling.”

  The woman had been wearing a hurt, helpless expression up until that point, but it changed completely upon hearing those words.

  “Don’t call me that,” the woman spat. “I’m human.”

  “Only half human,” Abigail said.

  “More,” the woman said. “The only gobling part I inherited was the green tone of my skin. The rest of me is all human. I assure you.”

  “Except maybe the temperament,” Abigail commented.

  “That explains why I can detect her,” Malem said.

  The woman shot him a scowl. “You can what me?”

  “Never mind,” Malem told her. Felipe, who had remained perched on the saddlebags all that time, chose that moment to climb onto Malem’s shoulder.

  She narrowed her eyes. “You’re a Breaker, aren’t you?”

  “That’s right,” he said.

  “I’ve met one of your kind before,” she said. “He wasn’t able to get in my head, though, like you.”

  Malem shrugged. “I’m special.” He reached into his saddlebag and tossed his healing unguent to her.

  “What’s this?” she asked.

  “For your burns,” Malem said.

  She opened the jar and flinched as she applied the unguent to her wounds.

  “What’s your name?” he pressed.

  “I’m Gwenfrieda,” she said.

  “Gwenfrieda?” he said. “Interesting name. Think I’ll call you Gwen for short.”

  “And you are?”

  “Malem and Abigail,” he said. “The monkey that just scrambled onto my shoulder is Felipe.” The monkey saluted. “And the iguanid is Bounder.” The mount burped. “What happened here?”

  “I was a coward,” Gwen said. “I hid in the forest while the oraks and their mages burned down the village. I ran here the moment they left and tried to save some of the trapped townspeople from the burning buildings, but it was too late.” She slumped. “I failed. The people that raised me deserved better than this. I can’t believe they’re gone. I just can’t. I keep expecting Marty to emerge from the blacksmith shop and shoot me his contagious grin, or Mary with her plump cheeks to offer me a piece of pie when I pass the bakery. But they’re gone. Forever. Nothing will ever be the same.”

  Seeing her like that before him, downtrodden and beaten by the world, Malem’s heart went out to her. That was why, against his better judgment, he said: “You can come with us as far as the next town, if you want.”

  Malem figured the woman would probably be safe until then. The Darkness wouldn’t come for a while, yet.

  Don’t ever become complacent, though...

  Gwen’s eyes shone with hope, and for a moment she seemed relieved.

  But then Abigail shifted in the saddle behind him, and when she spoke, her voice seemed puzzled. “I never authorized that. Last I checked, I was paying you to bring me to my destination. We don’t need a hanger-on.”

  Hearing the coldness in Abigail’s tone, the relief abruptly faded from Gwen’s face, replaced by malice.

  “Listen to your lover,” Gwen said. “I’m not interested in accompanying you to the next village anyway.”

  “We’re not lovers,” Abigail said crossly. But she gave Gwen an appraising look. “Her bow arm might be useful, I admit. Her gobling background explains why she has the strength to wield a bow like that in the first place.”

  “I told you not to call me that,” Gwen said testily.

  “I didn’t,” Abigail clarified. “I said your gobling background.”

  Gwen rested the base of her massive bow on the ground. The top reached almost to her shoulders. “Well, as I already mentioned, I don’t want to go with you anyway.”

  Malem smiled patiently. “That’s not what you told us when you came out of the house. What were your words? ‘I don’t know what to do.’”

  “I don’t,” she admitted. “But I know I can’t stay here. Too many painful memories. I also know I won’t be coming with you. At least not while she accompanies you.”

  “That’s non-negotiable,” Malem said. “She’s paying the bills at the moment. So are you in or out.” Before Gwen could say no again, he added: “Where we go, there will be a lot of oraks.”

  Her face brightened. “Truly?”

  He nodded. That wasn’t exactly true, but Malem suspected the party hadn’t seen the last of those creatures. Besides, like Abigail had said, they could use her bow arm. And Gwen was sexy as hell, even if she was green.

  “Then I’m in!” Gwen said. “And if there are really oraks where you’re headed, maybe I’ll stay with you after the next village, too. Free of charge. My pay comes in orak blood.”

  He glanced at Abigail, but noticed she was frowning.

  “What are we going to do about a mount?” the fire mage said. “She won’t fit in the saddle with us.”

  “No...” Malem agreed.

  “I can run alongside,” Gwen said quickly. “I hunted often with the village trappers, and kept pace with them even without a horse. I won’t slow you down.”

  Abigail glanced at him. “Her gobling blood again.”

  For once, Gwen didn’t refute her.

  “All right,” Malem said. “Come then.” He glanced at the bodies sprawled across the street around him. “We should really bury them.”

  “They’re burned already,” Abigail said. “That’s good enough.”

  “You’re a cold bitch,” Gwen said, the tears welling.

  Abigail shifted behind him, and from the bundle of emotions he suddenly detected then, he knew she was sorry for her words. She had momentarily lowered her mental guard, but it didn’t last long, as all sense of her promptly vanished a moment later.

  “As I was saying, we should bury them,” Malem said. “But we don
’t have time to delay. The orak war party we encountered could be turning back at this very moment. Or more might be headed this way. It’s best if we leave now, and move on.”

  Gwen wiped away the tears and straightened. “I don’t suppose you have any spare clothes?”

  “Sorry,” Malem told her.

  “Some of these buildings are partially intact,” Abigail suggested. “Maybe you should check—”

  “I’m not a looter,” Gwen said. “And I especially won’t steal from those who gave so very much to me.”

  Abigail’s face softened. “I don’t know how to tell you this, dear, but... the truth is, they don’t need their belongings anymore. I’m so terribly sorry about your loss, I really am. But seriously, they won’t mind.”

  Gwen’s features twisted in anger, but then she looked away. She swallowed, and said: “I’ll travel like this. It suits my new persona anyway: orak hunter. Give me a moment.”

  She went back inside the forge and retrieved a sling for her bow so that she could rest it on her back. She also carried a quiver of arrows with bright red and green fletching, which she tied around the left side of her waist for easy access with her right hand.

  “These are mine,” she explained rather forcefully. “I didn’t loot them.”

  “We never said that you did,” Abigail told her.

  Gwen shot her a glare.

  Malem turned toward the western side of the village and spurred Bounder on. To Gwen’s credit, she was readily able to keep pace as his mount moved through the trees at its stealth speed. He had to wonder if she’d be able to do the same at the animal’s full speed. Probably not. Even with those sinewy legs of hers. They looked so sexy when she was standing still, but when she was in motion, her toned muscles really stood out. He wasn’t really a muscle guy, but he had to admit they suited her.

  “I never would have taken you as a man who likes gobling females,” Abigail breathed tauntingly into his ear, her voice like a whispering blade.

  He snapped his eyes back to the fore.

  They passed more burned farms along the way as they followed along the road in the wilderness, and a few miles after they left the last of the estates behind he detected a stray presence meandering nearby.