Thomas glanced between the two women, before timidly asking, “Feat?” causing Claire to grin toothily.
“For your feat, Thomas, you have to kiss Taryn—on the lips, obviously.”
My eyes widened. Thomas had turned as red as a radish. Nai tossed her head back and laughed. “Oh, perfect!”
Thomas cleared his throat, and I stiffly turned to face him. “Is that … I mean, I can take a drink if you want?”
I didn’t want to kiss Thomas. I also didn’t want to embarrass him by saying no or be the first one not to participate in the game. “Sure—no, it’s fine.” My smile felt too thin.
Thomas leaned forward. I knew I was meant to lean forward too; I did so, feeling awkward and like I didn’t know what to do with my limbs and my nose. Our lips met, but as he kissed me, I realized that I was not swept up in the moment. I was aware of everyone watching and laughing. I was aware of his hands gripping my shoulders. I was aware of just how much of a lump I must have looked like, hands limp in my lap. I pulled back, breaking the kiss. He opened his eyes as I moved back to my original position. I stopped myself from wiping my lips on the back of my hand.
“Um, truth or feat Taryn?” His voice was rough.
“Truth,” I said quickly. I was not ready to be part of another feat.
“Do you like anyone in town?”
This was what came from drinking with boys, I thought, frustration making my back tight. I wanted to take a drink, just to get a little more drunk, but I knew the others would take that as an indication of forfeit, unless I waited until after I had answered my question. Twisting a braid, I sighed gustily. “Yeah.”
“Who?” Claire exclaimed. “Is it Thomas?”
I saw Martin beam at Thomas, giving him a thumbs-up. Thomas grinned back. Chris seemed amused, but not invested.
Nai beckoned at me. “Well?”
I glanced at Aella, briefly. She was looking at me like the rest of them, but her face was impossible to read. I didn’t dare let my gaze rest on her longer than that. “That was not the question.” I cleared my throat. “Aella, truth or feat?”
The circle erupted in groans and more laughter. Claire, Nai, and Martin attempted to get me to fess up for a few more moments. They cajoled, threatened, and bargained, but I remained immovable.
Eventually Chris put his foot down. “She got around the question, fair and square. If you want to ask her again properly you’ll have to wait till it’s your turn again.”
“We ought to have had it so you could ask anyone you wanted,” Claire pointed out.
“I thought it would be more fair this way,” Nai muttered. “I didn’t know Taryn was going to be so particular.”
I smiled cheekily at her and motioned for Aella to pass me her flask, which I sipped from victoriously. “Aella?”
She nodded. “How about this, me and,” she paused, looking at to her left.
“Chris,” he helpfully supplied.
“Me and Chris take our turns, and then we open it up so that anyone can ask anyone?” When everyone agreed to that—however reluctantly, in my case—Aella inclined her head. “Ok, then I pick truth.”
I was a little surprised. I had expected a mercenary to pick feat. Maybe show off a little. I had to think about a question for her for a moment.
“Maybe you could ask her if that Lucas person was the one who attacked Beth,” Thomas murmured into the quiet.
I gasped, shocked. “Thomas!”
“Thomas we’re all out here trying not to think about that,” Nai chided at the same time.
He ducked his head. “Sorry—”
“He has a point,” Chris said. “They are her people, and she is the captain’s daughter. If anyone would know, she would.”
Everyone stared at Aella. She closed her eyes, as though gathering strength. When she opened them, she spoke. “What I know is that Luke is my friend, and I don’t think he hurt anybody.” Aella’s voice was even, but it was then I realized that unlike the rest of us. Aella was not seated cross-legged or with legs curled to the side as Claire did. She sat with one leg tucked under her, and the other bent. It was the perfect position to spring to her feet from, if the mood turned sour. Her eyes were deadly serious when she continued. “Beyond that? I can’t tell you. I’m not responsible for him, but if it turns out he did it then I’d welcome your punishment of him. A man like that, I would not fight beside. I wouldn’t be able to trust him. I’d kill him myself if he tried to run from your justice. Are we good?”
There was silence. Everyone had felt the heat of her statement, as she fixed each of us solidly in her gaze throughout it. Finally, Martin took a chug from the bottle of whiskey he had brought along. He hacked when he pulled in too much, and Nai pounded him on the back.
When he had caught his breath he said, “You heard her lads. Can we get on with the game?”
“I think that makes it my turn to ask truth or feat.” Aella said through a razorblade of a smile. “Chris?”
Chris did not meet her eyes. “Feat.”
“Try and do a hand-stand, please.”
He did try, and he failed. Several times. He had been quietly sipping away at his bottle throughout the first part of the evening, and it did not make for good balance. His persistence and comical toppling all over the clearing garnered a few laughs and helped to break the tension that had ghosted over the gathering.
After that the game opened so that anyone could ask anyone. Claire got dared to hike up her skirts and wade into the river—she took a drink instead. Chris then kissed her on a dare. Nai admitted to skipping temple one week a few months prior to spend time with a bard who had passed through. Martin drank to avoid a feat that called for him to lick his horse’s muzzle.
It was Martin who brought it back to me. “So,” he said, pointing, the alcohol making his gaze waver slightly, “is it my boy Thomas that you fancy?”
Thomas chuckled and tossed a pebble at his friend, but I could tell he was excited. He took a small drink from the bottle of mead, pointedly not looking at me.
I rolled my shoulders, trying to loosen them. There was no use dragging it out, it would only make him feel worse. “No. I’m sorry Thomas,” I said as gently as possible. His smile vanished, making my heart hurt. I didn’t want to cause him pain. I liked Thomas, just not in that way.
Hastily he took another drink from the bottle of mead. “Nothing to be sorry for, Taryn. I was pretty sure you didn’t.”
“You’re like Michael, right? A little too clever for anyone in town.” Martin asked. His tone was light, but his lips were curled in a sneer. He had meant it to sting, and it had. I bit my lip against a hasty reply. His friend’s pride was hurt. I could let it slide.
“Alcohol makes you a bit deaf Martin.” Nai, it seemed, could not let the comment pass. “She said she likes someone in town. She just doesn’t like your friend.”
“Nai.” I groaned.
“So, who is it? Why the secrecy?” Claire asked, clearly exasperated. “Is he married or something?”
“No, they are not married! And who cares who I like?” I exclaimed. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing is going to come of it, and I am sick of being asked about it!”
“Gods, Taryn, it’s the game.” Claire rolled her eyes, and smirked at Martin. He shrugged in return with one shoulder.
“Well no one is asking who anyone else likes,” I said lamely.
“Well I’m sick of this game anyway,” Nai said when no one else replied to my outburst. Who wants to go with me to check out the bluebells?”
Now that everyone was drunk, they were fearless enough to enter the pitch-black woods. Weaving, and stumbling slightly, they gathered the lanterns that had been brought. I volunteered to stay with the horses and the fire. The truth was, I was embarrassed. I knew I was right. It wasn’t anyone’s business, but it felt like I had spoiled the mood, and Nai was covering for me.
“I’ll stay with you,” Aella said.
I tugged at my braid. “You don’t hav
e to do that.”
“Yes, I do. You shouldn’t be here by yourself,” she said firmly.
“Ok, that’s fine,” Nai said agreeably. She squeezed my shoulder as she passed me. “You’ll be ok?”
I fluttered my hand at her. “Go. Stick together. No wandering off into a secluded glen with anybody.”
When the last lantern in their line had shrunk to a pinprick, I turned to Aella. “I’m sorry that this night has been so weird. I mean, I think it’s weird. Maybe it isn’t?”
Aella crooked a smile at me. “It’s definitely not the least awkward gathering I’ve been to.”
“Sorry,” I said again. It was a little colder without someone on both sides of me. I chafed my arms.
“You don’t need to be sorry,” Aella said as she stood. She moved around the fire to grab another few logs for the flames, building it back up. “I think it’d be stranger if they didn’t say anything. Besides, it’s not like I was ever in any danger.”
That surprised a peel of laughter from me, and she jumped and raised her eyebrows at me. “You’re that strong, huh?” I asked. “Three farm boys are nothing to you?”
Her face relaxed into an amiable grin. “I might be. Plus, it wouldn’t have come to a fight, I don’t think,” she said as she returned to her place next to me. A little impressed, I noticed she was not wobbling nearly as much as my friends.
“Why’s that?”
“Well, because you like me, and maybe because of that, Nai seems to think I’m all right. You two are the ones who made them settle down, after all.”
I swallowed hard. “Who says I like you?”
Her eyes danced with withheld laughter. “I mean purely in a friendly sort of way, farm girl. Or did I get I get it wrong? Are we not friends?” She clutched over her heart, screwing up her face in a pained expression.
I shoved at her shoulder, not putting much strength into it. “Don’t tease me! Can’t you see that I get enough of it from that lot?”
She tossed her head back and laughed. Reaching out, she caught my hand before I drew it completely back and gave my fingers a squeeze, then let me go. “Poor Thomas. I don’t think he’d ever have had the guts to ask you on his own. He might have held onto his little fantasy until he fell for someone new, if it weren’t for his friends.”
I rubbed the back of my neck with the hand she had squeezed. My fingers were tingling. “You’re not wrong about that. I had hoped that I could get away with never dealing with it.”
“Well, never mind that. What’s done is done.” Slyly she inspected her finger nails. “Might I know who it is that you like? It’s not as though I’m going to be here much longer.”
My heart flipped, painfully. “It—it doesn’t matter. Honestly, I meant what I told them. Nothing is going to come of it. We don’t exactly run in the same circles. I barely even know them. It’s just—”
In the distance, someone screamed. My mind registered it as Claire as Aella surged to her feet. In a flash, she had retrieved her axe from Juniper. I was still rising clumsily to my feet when she was back by my side. With an outstretched arm, she carefully moved me behind her, placing herself solidly between myself and the trees.
I felt sweat break out on my brows. Desperately I wished for the crossbow, or even my crook which could have been used as a weapon in a pinch. In my excitement, I had forgotten both. Slack-witted. I was completely useless as I was.
“What do you think…?” I trailed off. From within the woods a racket had started as though multiple bodies crashed through the undergrowth and branches.
Soon the lights of the lanterns appeared. Then, all five of those who had gone to find the field of flowers burst through the trees in quick succession. When they saw a mercenary levering a battle axe at them, they stopped short.
“We have to go. Now.” Nai said, without preamble. “Help us douse the fire and then we’re quickly and quietly getting out of here.”
“What is going on?” I had to lean around Aella to see Nai clearly. Martin and Chris had clearly decided Aella wasn’t going to take a hack at them and were already kicking dirt over the fire, and spreading the logs apart. Claire and Thomas were readying their horses.
“There’s a kill amidst the bluebells,” Nai explained, moving to grab Juniper. The horse, for her part, refused to move until Aella clipped the axe to her belt and came to take her reins.
“As in a gryphon kill site?” I felt lightheaded. We could have been killed. It could yet be prowling outside of the firelight.
“As far as we could tell with only a few lanterns. We’re not sticking around to find out if it’s denned nearby or if it feasted over here and moved on.”
“What did you find, exactly?” Aella asked. She had grabbed Hale along with her own mount and led the pony to me. With shaking fingers, I undid the tether that had been tied around her bridle.
“It was unbelievable,” Martin said, shaking his head. The fire was out, and now only the lanterns lit the clearing, so it was hard to see his expression. “There were rabbits, squirrels—I think I saw a raccoon! All of them flayed open like we heard the livestock were. We almost stepped right on them.”
“Enough!” Claire shuddered, her whole body shaking with the movement. “I want to go. Now!”
Thomas was ghostly pale in the lantern light, his voice was hushed. “Come on. I’ll lead the way out.” From his own mount, he had retrieved a crossbow.
In a single-file line, we made our way back down the path. Thomas took point, then Martin, Claire, myself, Nai, Chris, and Aella at the rear. No one spoke. When we could ride at last, we picked up the pace only slightly, afraid to become targets of a predator.
Though it might have been from the commotion of the others running, the woods now seemed eerily quiet. I could hear the harshness of Claire’s, as well as Nai’s breathing, under the jangle of tack and the sound of hooves on pressed earth. When at last the opening to the road yawned in front of us I thought I would swoon from relief. It wasn’t real safety, but it felt a lot better than being boxed in as tightly as we had been.
“I need to tell my father about this,” I whispered abruptly as we prepared to mount up. “The hunting party needs to know of any leads, and if this is fresh…”
“No,” Aella interrupted.
“No?” I asked, bewildered.
“Why not?” Chris looked backward at her, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Aella raised an eyebrow at him. “Because then all your parents will know that you went out frolicking with a mercenary when a mad gryphon is running amok, and a girl was just bludgeoned by a yet unnamed assailant.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything, but she has a point.” Nai inclined her head. “Still, Aella, Taryn is right. The hunting party has to know about this.”
“I’m going to tell my mother that I was out scouting on my own,” Aella said grimly. “She won’t love it, but it’s not the first time I’ve gone wandering. She might even appreciate my initiative. All right? This way no one gets in trouble, and the information still gets where it needs to go.”
“That’s pretty decent of you,” Martin said, only slightly grudgingly.
“Yeah, but they’ll see the fire, and the hoof tracks,” Thomas pointed out shrewdly.
“I’ll tell her … I’ll tell her I orchestrated the get together, to try and get information from a bunch of tipsy mountain folk. To see if I could get any leads on Beth’s attacker.” She linked her fingers loosely behind her head. “Hunting parties always split up. She and some other mercenaries can go to the bluebell field, and maybe they’ll cover for me, and by extension, the rest of you lot.”
“It’s a good thought,” Nai ventured. When I glanced over my shoulder I saw she was looking back at me, concern coloring her expression.
“A very good thought—who could have guessed that you were so devious?” Claire said darkly.
They dropped me off down the road from my home. Before they left, I dismounted again and covered Hale’s hoo
ves once more. It was easier this second time. Perhaps the pony sensed that I was in no mood for antics.
“Do you want me to walk you the rest of the way?” Aella asked. “I don’t mind riding to catch up to the rest of them on my own.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’ll be fine. Thank you—and thank you Nai for putting together this little gathering. Even if it did end a little scary.”
Nai pinched my cheeks. “But what a story to tell our children, right?”
I ducked away, swatting at her. “Sure. Ride safe everyone.”
By the time I had reached the barn they had gone around a bend in the road and were out of sight. With a wistful sigh, I shook myself and used both hands to pull the barn door open wide enough for Hale and myself.
“Where have you been?”
I muffled a squeak, nearly jumping out of my boots as I did so. “Michael—by the gods! What is the matter with you?” I hissed.
He was leaning against Hale’s stall swathed in shadows. When he leaned forward into a beam of moonlight, his face was dark with anger. “Taryn, tell me you have not been off gallivanting with Nai at this hour. I thought you had more sense than that.”
I scowled, leading Hale past him and into her stall. “You’re not the boss of me. Clearly, I am fine, so what do you care what I was doing?”
He grabbed me by the shoulder, and I jerked it away from him. “Taryn, what has gotten into you? A little time spent with a mercenary, and suddenly you think you can’t be killed?”
“No.” My movements stiff, I unsaddled Hale, who shifted in place. She was as nervous here as she had been out in the woods.
“Then what? Beth gets almost killed, so you feel like you have to prove you’re alive by doing something stupid?”
“No!” I spun to face him. A sheep blatted. “I wanted to go out and have a little fun. I know this isn’t news to you Michael, but we work all the time. My best friend didn’t even think I’d be interested in spending time with other people, because you’re stuck up and because I’m so cursed boring!”
Of Gryphons and Other Monsters (Taryn's Journey Book 1) Page 23