“We left the town after three weeks, and we joined another mercenary company soon afterwards. We campaigned for some months, and then we returned to northeastern Selvan—and we went back to Sten’s town while we waited for the company to get hired again. We only stayed a week that time—but the next time we returned, we were there for two. Every time the company came home, Mag and I found ourselves in that town, and Mag found herself by Sten’s side.
“Now, as I have told you already, Mag was not the sort to seek out bedfellows. She had had one or two whirlwind romances while I had known her, but they never went past a certain point. But in those early days with Sten, it never even went that far. It was as though she and Sten did not even think of each other as lovers. Rather, Mag seemed to have adopted the attitude that time spent away from Sten was simply foolish. If she had to, for our duty to the company, of course she would part from him. But given the option, she would always be with him, and that was simply the way it went.
“Not long afterwards, the company went out on one of the longest campaigns I have ever seen. Almost a year we were on the road, and Mag’s mood grew more and more dour. About six months into the campaign, Mag approached the captain and requested a leave of absence. ‘To visit family,’ she told him, but I knew full well that Mag had no living family. Of course, she told me where she was really going—she was returning to northeastern Selvan for a month, to see Sten, because she was worried how he was getting on.
“The captain was loath to let her leave, but he did it anyways. Mag was gone for three weeks, and then she returned. In some ways, it seemed as though a great weight had lifted from her shoulders, and she joked more often and laughed more readily. But I could tell she was troubled, and when she thought no one was looking, I caught her staring into the distance, her expression one of deep thought.
“At last I approached her. ‘Mag,’ I said. ‘Something happened while you were gone. Would you spit it out and tell me, so that I can stop worrying about you?’
“She looked entirely confused. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked. ‘I am the same as I have always been.’
“‘May the dark take me if that is true,’ I said. ‘You seem relieved ever since you visited Sten, but it also seems as if something else troubles you. Why are you upset?’
“‘I am not upset,’ she assured me. ‘Though I suppose you are right that something has bothered me. But it is not my own sadness—it is Sten’s. He was happy to see me, of course. But something weighed on him, and no matter how I asked, he would not tell me what was wrong. There was a great sadness in his eyes when I left him, and I have not been able to stop thinking about it since.’
“Then I laughed at her, laughed long and loud. ‘Mag, you are the greatest warrior I have ever known,’ I told her. ‘And you are also the greatest idiot. Sten is troubled because he loves you with all of his heart. And judging by the fact that you took leave to go visit him—when you have never taken leave in all the years I have known you—I would guess that you love him, too, and are too stupid to realize it.’
“Mag dismissed my words as preposterous, and the conversation ended soon after. But deep down, she knew I was right, and it did not take her long to realize the truth. Over the next year, something changed within her. Battle and warfare, which she had always loved, suddenly became distasteful to her. She no longer loved to throw herself into a fight, nor to spar with me and the other sellswords. Before, she had loved to practice, no matter how easy it was for her to beat us every time. Now she could hardly be mustered to the practice yard even for mandatory drilling.
“A year later, she officially tendered her resignation, and I did the same. Our captain begged and pleaded with us to stay—Mag more than me, of course—but she would not be dissuaded. We left together, and we returned to Sten, and soon they married and moved to Northwood.
“Sten was nothing special—and I say that as one of his dearest friends. He was a farmer’s son like many others across the nine lands. But he was exactly what Mag needed, in that place, and in that time. The life of a mercenary had nothing new to offer her, but she could not see that. So she met one who would teach her the lesson, instead. The timing was too perfect to be mere luck.
“The same has always proven true, at least in my experience. Mayhap it was chance that put Dryleaf and me in that tavern together at the same time, all that long while later. But I have had my doubts, and those doubts have not slept in the many years since.”
“What else would it be, if not chance?” said Sun.
Albern leaned low in his saddle, and his voice grew somewhat hushed. “Can you look at everything that has happened across Underrealm—everything that is still happening now—and tell me you do not think there is some greater power at work? Some great force we cannot understand, pulling our strings like puppets?”
Sun frowned up at him. “I … what power? What force?”
He straightened and shrugged. “If I had the answer, I would surely sell it to a king for a wagon full of gold. But I will advise you not to be too ready to believe in chance. The smallest actions can have the most profound effects, and we can hardly guess at them. For even the most mundane of occurrences, there may be reasons we can but guess at.”
That was not an entirely pleasant thought, and it lingered in Sun’s mind. If even the ordinary choices in her life could contain some great and hidden purpose, then what of the more consequential ones? She had thought her adventure with Albern tonight was little more than a lark. She did not like to imagine what else it could be.
These thoughts troubled her more and more as they went on, and as Albern resumed his story.
I was somewhat disgruntled after my conversation with Dryleaf, but there was little I could do about it. Mag and I slept well that night, happy to have a mattress beneath us instead of a bedroll on the hard ground. The next morning, we broke our fast quickly and then returned to our room to discuss what we should do.
“I think it is clear what danger threatens the town,” she said. “The people here are frightened of the Shades. They must be terrorizing the countryside.”
“But then why would Yue let us in?” I asked.
“Mayhap they know the Shades, or know what they look like,” said Mag. “You and I are no friends of theirs, certainly. Mayhap Yue knew it when she permitted us to enter.”
I shook my head. “That seems quite a guess.”
She spread her hands. “Do you have a better one?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Then let us carry on as if I am right until proven otherwise, unless you would rather sit in this inn and wait for the weremage to come to us. Any plan of action, carried out with certainty, is better than no plan at all.”
I had to laugh at that. “Do not throw Victon’s words at me after all these years.”
“You obeyed him easily enough when we fought for him,” she said with a grin.
“And that has not been for a very long while.”
Despite my protests, I knew she was right. We had no better ideas, and even if a thorough search did not reveal the Shades themselves, it might lead us to another answer. Still, I was nervous we might draw attention to ourselves. Constable Yue had made it clear that we were not to cause trouble in her town, and we were planning to do exactly that.
For caution’s sake, we set out into the streets with our cloaks on and our hoods up, despite the heat of the day. Soon we were both drenched with sweat. I did my best to ignore it, but Mag complained mightily. We worked our way through shops, ostensibly to pick up supplies so that we could continue on our journey.
“If the Shades are indeed terrorizing this town, the people will know where they are,” said Mag. “Keep an eye out for places that the townsfolk avoid—even if they only avoid looking at them.”
We did so, but we soon realized we had a problem. The town was much the same as it had been yesterday; the people were afraid and despondent no matter where we went. It was hard to find a place they were avoiding whe
n they seemed to be avoiding going outside at all. Few townsfolk would look at us, and in every shop we visited, the owner would conduct business as quickly as possible without speaking. When we tried to make conversation, they gave short, clipped answers or simply asked us to leave. And most curiously, when we told them we were looking for supplies to leave Lan Shui and continue our journey, they looked at us with terror in their eyes.
Probably out of frustration, Mag’s course became increasingly erratic, crossing back and forth through the town on a dizzying path with no pattern that I could discern. At last, just past midday, she stopped in the middle of the street and balled her hands into fists.
“Let us get ourselves a meal and something to drink.”
“That would be a welcome relief,” I said. By now my shirt was clinging to me with sweat.
“Mm-hm,” said Mag with a nod.
Something in her manner was strange, and I grew alert at once. She seemed distracted.
“Mag?” I said in a low voice. “What is it?”
“Mayhap nothing,” she said. “I might say more when we find a place out of the sun.”
Though I was intensely curious, I followed her without further questions. She stepped into the first tavern she found and paid for a light meal of bread and cheese and ale. Leading me to a corner table, she sat facing the door with her back against the wall. I sat beside her, facing out into the rest of the room.
“Well?” I said.
“I thought I saw someone following us,” she told me. “They were being careful not to be seen, but stealth did not seem to be their strong suit. There! Look at me and pretend we are talking.”
We turned our heads towards each other. “We are talking,” I pointed out.
“Yes, good,” said Mag. “Just like that, as though we are really having a conversation.”
I laughed at the joke, but also to help the ruse. The laugh gave me an excuse to turn my head back towards the rest of the room, and I saw the person Mag must have been talking about. He was a young man with bulging eyes and short black hair, his light brown cloak thrown back over his shoulders in the heat. As soon as he had entered the room, he had gone straight to the proprietor, and was speaking with him now. Their words were inaudible from where we sat.
“The boy?” I said, turning back to Mag.
“Yes,” she said. “I kept seeing him on whichever street we were on, no matter how wildly I turned our path.”
“So that is why you took such a strange route through the streets,” I said. “I was wondering about that.”
“He is leaving,” said Mag, glancing out of the corner of her eye.
“We should go after him.”
“Do you think so?” said Mag with a smirk. “Be careful, though. Capturing him will be useless, and of course we cannot kill him. He looks young. I think he will be easily frightened. Let us spring an attack that fails. He might lead us straight back to his masters.”
“Unless he is the weremage in disguise,” I said.
Mag sighed and shook her head. “Albern, you know I love you, like one loves a helpless pet, but you can be intolerably foolish. We know the weremage can take a bird’s form. If she knew we were here, and if she were following us, she would watch us from the sky.”
She stood and made for the tavern’s front door without waiting for my answer. I lifted one finger and opened my mouth to call out a retort, but could think of nothing. Lowering my hand, I stood to follow her, grumbling many ominous things about pets and helpless and what I would show her about intolerable foolishness. I was careful Mag heard none of my words, of course.
We left the tavern and headed down the street, back the way we had come. As we did, a figure detached itself from a nearby wall and followed us, trying to stick to the sparse shadows cast by buildings. Mag had been right about one thing: the boy was about as stealthy as a troll with an arrow in each eye and a spear in its backside.
“Now,” whispered Mag, and ducked suddenly down an alley.
I dashed after her. We ran to the end of the alley and split up on the other side, each of us hiding behind a corner and waiting for the boy to follow. We heard his hurried footsteps drawing nearer. Mag gripped her spear and nodded to me from across the alley mouth.
The boy cried out in terror as we leaped upon him. Mag brought the butt of her spear around and struck him in the ribs with it. It was a light tap, but he squealed like a shot squirrel. I had already drawn back my fist to swing at him, but when he doubled over, my fist sailed over his head and into Mag’s jaw. She stumbled back, apparently stunned for a moment, and then attacked again. But she seemed to overestimate the swing of her spear this time, and the butt crashed into my shoulder instead of the boy’s face. I fell against the building beside me, grunting in pain.
The boy, who had all the wit of a bit of over-cured leather, stared at us in confusion. I growled at Mag through gritted teeth.
“Stop just standing there, or he will get away.”
As though the idea had never occurred to him before, the boy screamed and ran back through the alley the way he had come. Mag seized my shoulder and pulled me after her.
“You swung a bit harder than you needed to,” Mag remarked.
“My deepest apologies. I am only a helpless pet, and cannot always control my own strength.”
Mag snorted and redoubled her pace, for the boy had vanished around the side of the buildings up ahead. Mag and I followed him just as he had been following us, but with one important difference: we knew what we were doing. We hung back at each corner, only peeking around to make sure we saw which way the boy had gone.
It seemed to me, however, that we hardly needed to take such precautions. The boy did not glance back even once, and he did not seem to complicate his route at all, but led us straight to the heart of Lan Shui. At last he threw open the door of a ramshackle house and then slammed it shut behind him. Mag and I skidded to a halt just outside the door, looking up at the building.
“Is there any reason not to follow him straightaway?” said Mag.
“This is a large building that could contain a dozen enemies or more,” I said.
“Any good reason, I mean?”
I drew my sword. “None.”
Mag grinned as she hefted her spear. Together we launched ourselves forwards, slamming our shoulders into the front door.
It burst open, and I took in the room at a blink. Just before us stood the boy, his eyes bulging more than ever with terror at the sight of us. He stood with two others, a thin Heddish man and a fat Dorsean woman—Shades, I guessed, though they did not wear blue and grey. A fourth Shade stood in a doorway at the other end of the room. She was older, but hale, and wore her grey hair in a braid.
“Well met,” I said. “Did we see each other in Northwood? I have such a terrible memory for faces.”
“Pantu, you fool,” hissed the woman with the grey braid. Then, to the others, she cried, “Kill them!” But she did not heed her own advice, instead turning and fleeing deeper into the house.
The thin man shoved the boy out of the way and rushed us, unsheathing a sword. The woman picked up a warhammer before doing the same. I braced myself to receive the man’s first lunge, but that turned out to be unnecessary. Mag gave a savage thrust, and his sword arm was dangling useless at his side, while his blade clattered to the floor. The fat woman swung her warhammer twice, driving us both back one step, but then Mag pounced. Her spearhead pierced the woman’s gut, making her gasp, before withdrawing and striking again, this time straight into her heart.
I almost relaxed, before I saw the thin man trying to retrieve his sword with his left hand. My own sword came sweeping down, and the Shade fell to the floor.
The boy cowered in the corner of the room, his hands raised helplessly before him, terrified. Mag advanced on him, but I darted forwards and took her arm. She whirled on me, and I flinched before her dead-eyed gaze.
“Mag,” I said. “Look at him.”
She hesitated
and looked down at the boy. He looked back up at us, terrified. I felt the tension bleed from Mag’s arm.
“Run for your life,” I told the boy. “And if you know what is good for you, stop working with these Shades. They will come to ruin in the end.”
I tossed my head, and the boy bolted through the open front door.
“There will be more of them,” said Mag, her voice the emotionless monotone of her battle-trance. “Let us clear the house, and quickly.”
She started for the door to the left, but I took her arm and stopped her. When she turned on me, I tried not to flinch at her dead eyes.
“Wait,” I said. I pointed to the room’s second door on the right. “If we chase the woman, she might be able to circle through the house and come out this way. One of us should stay here to guard the exit.”
“There could be a back door, too,” she said tonelessly.
“There could be, but we know about the front door,” I said. “Go after her before we waste too much time.”
She nodded and darted through the left-hand door. I felt a twinge of shame at how easily I had let her go off on her own. But both of us knew that, if one of us should go alone into the house, it should be her. I could be overwhelmed if more foes waited within. Mag could not.
I took a stance by the front door, sword ready in my hand. After the first few moments, the house was silent; not even Mag’s footfalls could be heard. My pulse thudded loud in my ears, but it was thick and muddy. I shook my head, trying to clear it.
What was wrong with this place? The air was heavy with more than the midday heat. I could feel an evil energy seeping from the very walls. I had heard wizards talk of sensing magic at work. This felt like what they described, but of course I was no wizard. Even if there was magic here, I would never have been able to sense it. Yet I could sense … something.
Footsteps came pounding from behind the left-hand door. I tensed, raising my sword—and then I realized that it had to be Mag. No foe could have gotten past her to flee here.
The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) Page 16