Pancras backed away from the grove and trotted toward the campsite. He kept his pace steady but somewhat faster than normal. When he arrived, he found Delilah studying her language book while her brother examined his puzzle box. Edric skinned the second of the two rabbits, having completed his preparation of the first one.
"Here's all the wood I could gather." The minotaur dropped the bundle of sticks and branches in a pile near the area Edric cleared for use as a fire pit. "I couldn't find anything usable as a skewer without cutting it from a live tree, and I didn't have an axe."
Edric grunted and wiped his knife on his trousers before yanking the rest of the skin off the rabbit. He tossed the furry bundle onto the pile with the rest of the leavings. He waved his knife at Kale. "Put the box down, and go find me some good sized rocks, why don't you?"
The drak's mouth formed a thin line. "Go find your own rocks. I've almost got this first layer figured out."
Delilah snapped her book shut and shoved it back in her pack. "Come on, Kale. I'll help you. Besides, I want to talk to you in private." She grabbed Kale's arm and pulled him to his feet. He scowled and tossed the puzzle box on top of his pack.
Pancras knelt and examined the rabbit skins and entrails. "Can we do anything with these?" He lifted one of the pelts, its fur scorched in patches where Delilah had attacked it.
Shaking his head, Edric hacked at one of the rabbits, cutting into pieces. "If the drak hadn't burned it to a crisp, we might be able to sell the pelts, but they're not worth anything now. Can you use the entrails to tell our futures?"
Lifting a rope-like loop of intestine, Pancras shook his head. "I know the techniques, but they're not accurate. Most divinations are little more than educated guesses, anyway." He tossed the bloody bit back into the pile. "Besides, I don't need a rabbit's guts to tell me we're in for a lot of discomfort and misery on this journey."
* * *
"What's this about, Deli? That fuzz-faced dwarf can find his own rocks!"
Delilah ignored her brother's complaints until the tall grasses hid the campsite from their view. She picked up a fist-sized rock and looked around for more like it. "I want to talk to you." She picked up a second rock slightly larger than the first. It was flatter on one side. "Without them around."
Kale knelt down and scratched around a large rock protruding from the ground. "Fine, what?"
Delilah knelt beside him and grabbed his chin, raising his head to look into his eyes. "How are you feeling? Really, Kale. No bravado this time."
Jerking his head away, Kale narrowed his eyes and glared at her. "I'm fine. Honestly, today I feel fine. My back is still sore, but not like it was the other night."
Delilah moved his cloak aside to look at the lumps on his back. She thought they looked slightly larger than they did before, but they did not look inflamed. She put her hand on his head, prompting him to fall back away from her. He was warm, but not feverish.
"You're not cold? Too hot?"
"No! Well, I think I'm warmer than I should be, but it's not uncomfortable, especially if I leave my hood down." Kale returned to his knees and continued scratching at the ground around the rock. He cleared away enough to free it from the ground. Fat, pink worms wriggled and fell off the bottom of it. He stuck his tongue out in disgust and brushed them off.
Delilah grabbed one of the worms. It wriggled between her fingers. She and Kale used to find them in Drak-Anor when they were hatchlings, scratching up the dirt in the caves looking for sustenance. That was a long time ago. She popped it in her mouth.
"Ugh. Still tastes like dirt." She chewed it and swallowed.
Kale nodded. He moved over to another spot and picked up a couple more rocks.
"You're really okay? You'll tell me if you start feeling worse, right?" Delilah stood up and meandered to where he worked.
"It won't do any good if I do. We don't have a healer with us, and Pancras doesn't know what's wrong with me."
"Yeah, well, I want to know so I can worry properly." Delilah picked up another rock. "Think we have enough?"
"Probably. What does he want with these anyway?" Kale gathered his rocks and cradled them in his arms as they trekked toward the camp.
"I bet he misses home. Dwarves probably use them as pillows." Delilah laughed. She imagined Edric cradling the dirty rocks they found like precious gems. The image of the dwarf sleeping on and around the rocks made her giggle all the way back to camp.
When they returned, Edric had finished butchering the rabbits and was talking to a seated Pancras, who held his lodestone in front of him, gesturing toward the south.
"We got your rocks!" Kale and Delilah dumped them in a pile near the center of camp. Edric approached them and sorted through the rocks, humming and nodding.
"Okay, you've earned your dinners. These will work perfectly!" Edric arranged the roundest rocks in a circle and placed the flatter rocks on the inside. He then proceeded to stack up the wood, first the smallest twigs for kindling and then the larger branches. When he was finished, he stepped aside and gestured to Delilah. The drak grabbed her staff and pointed at the fire pit.
"Aktina tees pyrkagias!" A thin finger of fire shot forth from Delilah's staff and set the kindling alight.
"She's handy to have around, huh?" Kale helped Edric carry the rabbit pieces and arrange them on the flat rocks.
"I guess you're both useful at times."
Delilah stuck out her tongue at Edric.
Pancras gathered everyone around the fire. Already the rabbits sizzled and hissed, and the campsite filled with the aroma of roasting meat. "I've been trying to keep track of how far we've come and how far we've yet to go. The inn was about halfway to Almeria. Obviously, it would've been faster to cut overland as soon as we emerged from the mountains, but I hoped for a warmer reception at Bramblevale Keep."
Smelling the aroma of roasting rabbits, Delilah's stomach knotted up in anticipation. She smacked her lips and looked over at the sizzling pieces of meat. Edric stooped down to flip them over and move them around to keep them from burning.
"Do you think someone will sell us horses in Almeria?" His hands resting on his belly, Kale watched Edric work. Delilah figured he must be hungry since recently he drastically reduced how much he ate at each meal.
"I hope so."
Edric snorted and stood up. "More likely than not, they'll run us off just like those idiots at the keep."
Pancras shook his head. "I don't think so. When I passed through there last time, minotaurs and draks lived there. Not many, mind you, but it didn't strike me as a particularly xenophobic town."
"Times change." Edric returned his attention to tending the meat.
Delilah glanced at her brother. Engrossed in watching Edric cook dinner, Kale was oblivious to his sister’s anxieties. She couldn't help but worry about their fates if Almeria turned them away before winter arrived.
* * *
Kale's stomach rumbled. He pressed his hands against it and hoped it would quiet down. He was hungry enough that he wanted to snatch up the still-cooking rabbits and eat all of them, but his experience in the inn made him wary of indulging in that fashion. He returned to his bedroll and picked up the puzzle box from where he left it.
He turned it over in his hands, trying to find the side he examined before their rock-hunting expedition. Every side was almost identical. The subtle differences were all but invisible except to the trained eye. He noticed a tiny lever on the side facing him and with the greatest of care, stuck a claw through the gold lattice and moved it. With an audible click, the gears sprung to life and turned and then stopped with another click.
"What was that?" Pancras looked up from his pack.
"My puzzle box. I found a lever!" Kale brought the box over to Pancras. "It made the gears on this side move a little but didn't do anything else."
"What does that thing do anyway?" Edric poked one of the large pieces of rabbit with his knife. "What's it for?"
"I don't know." Kale shru
gged and looked back down at the box. "Terrakaptis gave it to me. He said the reward was in figuring out how to open it."
"Looks like you solved a piece of that puzzle." Pancras smiled at Kale.
"Yeah…" Kale wandered back to his bedroll and peered at the puzzle box as if staring at it hard enough would unlock its secrets.
"The rabbits are roasted. Let's eat!" Edric whistled and beckoned everyone over. He held up a steaming piece of meat impaled on his dagger.
Edric distributed the rabbit, and they all sat around the fire tearing into the hot, sinewy meat. The dwarf didn't have much with which to season it as it cooked, but the hot meal helped lessen the weariness of the day. Kale fought the urge to wolf it down and forced himself to take small bites and chew them thoroughly before he swallowed. The last thing he wanted to do vomit it all up again as occurred at the inn. Kale was adapting to the heat he seemed to generate, but the pain in his shoulders irritated him. It wasn't too severe while he was just strolling around, but he feared it would limit him if they encountered any situations requiring quick movements or outright fighting.
The rest of the evening passed without trouble from Kale's stomach or curious animals wandering into the camp. As they ate, the King and Queen, Calliome's twin moons, shone down brightly from the sky but by the time they turned in for the night were obscured by clouds. No rain came, though, and save for the morning dew, everyone was dry, well rested, and ready to resume their journey.
Pleasant, though more temperate, weather accompanied them for the next few days. Cool autumn winds blew puffy clouds across the sky and created patches of shadow that kept the sun off their backs. A grazing herd of animals with which Kale was unfamiliar, but which Edric and Pancras called blackbucks, paralleled their course for an afternoon. Delilah wanted to hunt one down, but they had no means to preserve the excess meat.
After traveling a few more days, evidence of civilization appeared in the distance across the fields. They noticed what appeared to be several farms and homesteads, the smoke from their chimneys wafting up into the sky in lazy columns. The road widened, and wheel ruts from caravan wagons became more prominent.
"Do you think we should move off the road, Pancras?" Kale was concerned about the reactions of passersby, should they encounter any.
"You're worried they might attack us?"
Delilah tapped the butt of her staff on the ground. "They'll be sorry if they do!"
Pancras frowned and shook his head. "We should try not to antagonize anyone right now. I think if they see us traveling along the road, just the four of us taking our time, they may not assume we mean to harm them. After all, if we really wanted a fight, hiding in the grasses would be smarter. Out here, in the open? I think we'll be better off."
"I agree." Edric nodded. "At worst, they'll just ignore us or give us the cold shoulder. Hopefully."
It was the "hopefully" that worried Kale. If what Pancras told them about Almeria was true, they could expect a somewhat tepid welcome, but not a hostile one. If Pancras was wrong, however, an encounter with a guard patrol might prove disastrous. His fears were unfounded, however. Over the next few days, the patrols and traders they came across either ignored them or offered greetings as they passed.
As road traffic increased, so did their proximity to Almeria. The plains became hilly near the city, and as they crested the rise, Almeria, capital of Etrunia came into view.
Chapter 6
A dark-grey stone wall surrounded the city, punctuated at regular intervals with towers. From their vantage on top of the hill, Pancras spotted streets winding through cramped, half-timbered buildings. Lower walls separated sections of the city, and at its center stood a gleaming-white, crenelated wall, which surrounded a multi-spired palace. Outside the main gates stood fenced-off fields, wooden buildings, and a makeshift marketplace where caravans made camp and sold their wares without entering the city proper.
Almeria appeared larger than Pancras remembered it, yet with the passing decades, he supposed his memory to be faulty. He led Edric and the drak twins down the hill toward the city. As they approached the main gates, Kale and Delilah gaped at the stables and trading posts flanking the road. Pancras sniffed the air. All the familiar stenches of city life hung thick in the breeze and mingled with the fresh fragrances of harvest crops for sale in the makeshift market ahead.
Most of the merchants they encountered had little interest in engaging a traveling group of draks, a minotaur, and a dwarf. One drak proved the exception. "Hey! Hey! You’ve come far? We don't see your kind here much, unless you're from here. Did you just leave from another gate and circle around? Hey! You two have stripes! You must be important!" The drak had scales of sunset orange, a circlet of tiny horns upon the crown of his head, and wore a simple brown leather jerkin cinched around his waist with a braided belt.
Pancras held up a hand to silence the drak. "We're not from here but would appreciate anything you can tell us about the city."
The drak grinned, still staring at the striped drak twins. "It's Almeria! Capital of Etrunia—"
"We know that much." Pancras gritted his teeth and willed himself to be patient. "We need lodging for the night, and we'll want to buy mounts that can carry us to Muncifer before the winter snows fall."
Laughing, the drak beckoned them to follow him. He led them to a cart overflowing with textiles. "Lodging, mounts, yes! Get to Muncifer before it snows? Not even if you cut across the country. You'll be snowed in before you reach Ice Crown." The highest peak in an eastern-jutting spur of the mountains, the base of Ice Crown was the halfway point, and a common landmark for cross-country travelers who preferred the difficult overland route to the easier circuitous trade road. Pancras knew it would likely be impossible to arrive in Muncifer before snowfall, but he inquired anyway.
"Can I interest you in some fine linens? Hand woven tapestries? Bolts of silk or wool?" The drak showed them each type of material in turn as he circled his cart.
"This is really nice." Delilah rubbed a bolt of verdigris silk between her hands.
Pancras pulled her away from the cart. "Nothing right now. We've come a long way and would just like to find an accommodating inn."
The drak scratched his head, looking around in confusion. "I'm sure there are some, but I… my memory—the name was on the tip of my tongue…"
Pancras pursed his lips and snorted. He reached into one of his pockets and fished out a silver talon. He flipped it through the air toward the drak.
Snatching the spinning coin from the air, the drak grinned. "Oh yes, now I remember! The Sleeping Viper is friendly to our sort."
"Oh, and what sort do you think we are?" Delilah stepped toward the drak, pushing her snout against his.
He back-pedaled and raised his hands in submission. "No offense, of course. I simply meant us draks." He nodded toward Pancras. "And minotaurs. Most inns will happily accommodate the dwarf, but many people are not intelligent enough to appreciate what fine qualities we bring as customers, if you know what I mean."
Pancras put his hand on Delilah's shoulder and pulled her back. "We understand. Could you tell us how to get there?"
"Oooh, the memory's a little faulty there, too. I don't get to that part of town very often, you see—"
Pancras gave him another talon. "Funny how silver seems to help."
"Silver's very pure. It can drive the were- out of a werewolf, you know!" The drak took the coin and slipped it into his pocket. "Enter through the main gates, like you were. Then follow the main road until you reach the Commerce District bath house. You can't miss it. There's a fountain out front and everything. Almerian Spring Way runs right behind the bath house, so you'll want to turn there and follow that, it's a really windy street, until it reaches the Foundry gate. Go through the gate. Then go left and hug the wall until you find the Broken Tree. You can't miss that either. It really is a broken tree. There's sort of a courtyard around it, but if you go past the smithy, the blacksmith, not the armory or the minotau
r smith that only makes axes and swords, about three buildings down is The Assassin's Dagger. Right next door to that is The Sleeping Viper."
Delilah narrowed her eyes and glared at the orange drak. "You have memory problems but you can recite all that so precisely?"
He held up the silver coin and winked at Delilah. "Silver is a cure all. Say, you look like a pretty discerning female, if you fancy some company some time—"
Kale darted forward and grabbed Delilah's arm, interposing himself between his sister and the other drak. "She won't. Come on. Let's go, Deli."
Delilah pulled her arm from Kale's grasp. "I don't need you to protect me, Kale." She turned her back on the textile merchant and stomped toward the city gates.
Pancras and Edric shook their heads and followed her. Pancras grabbed Kale as he passed, and together they entered Almeria.
* * *
I can't believe Pancras let that drak scam him out of two talons! He didn't have memory problems. He just wanted to get paid to help us. The nerve of some people… She scowled as she entered the city, hoping one of the guards would challenge her. To her disappointment, they didn't even give her a second glance as she strode past them and under the open portcullis. Regularly spaced holes dotted the ceiling of the gatehouse, and featured a second open portcullis. Beyond that, the sprawl of the city beckoned.
Having spent the majority of her life in Drak-Anor, Delilah’s experience with cities was limited. In contrast to the buildings mostly carved out of the rock of the mountains in Ironkrag and Drak-Anor, all the buildings here were free-standing, mostly with two or three stories and sloped roofs. She stood gawking and started when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Come on, Delilah. Let's try to find this inn." Pancras patted her shoulder and led them down the street. Men, women, and children packed the streets in front of them, carrying tightly-wrapped bundles or otherwise going about their daily business. Towering above the crowd, a few minotaurs were easily visible, but even they stepped aside when the crowds parted to make way for a city guard on a horse or a trader's cart.
Malediction (Scars of the Sundering Book 1) Page 8