“Yeah?”
“Can we talk?” She nodded to those still on the bench. “In private?”
Chloe followed Veronica to her bedroom. Once she was inside, Veronica closed the door and offered Chloe a seat on the ottoman at the bottom of the bed.
Chloe accepted.
“What is it?” Chloe asked.
“So, I found something out today. Something pretty big that might be of some use to your mission.”
“Our mission.”
Veronica tilted her head. “Come on, we might all get the experience, but we know it’s your mission. You were the one who kicked it all off, the one who united us all. Just admit it’s yours.”
“What did you discover?”
“Yeah,” KieraFreya said, “stop beating around the bush. We’re all pretty tired, here. Aren’t we?”
KieraFreya’s words had the opposite of the desired effect on Veronica, who was still not used to the enchanted armor talking to her.
“Well?” Chloe encouraged.
Veronica took a breath, then told Chloe about her visit to the temple. Told her of her experience with Elisia, and the information she had received about KieraFreya’s parentage.
Chloe gasped.
“My…mother?” KieraFreya wondered. “I can’t believe I forgot who my own mother was!”
“Come on, KF,” Chloe reassured her. “We’re piecing you back together. We’ll get there, I promise. Don’t take it personally that you forgot something like that.”
“Would you forget your mother?” KieraFreya asked.
Chloe considered. On some level, she would rather forget the woman who had turned cold and discordant during her lifetime. Maybe then she could imagine a warmer and more nurturing upbringing.
But would she truly like to forget her? Probably not.
“No,” she said quietly.
“Exactly,” For the first time, they could hear genuine frustration in KieraFreya’s voice. “I can’t even remember her right now. I can’t picture her face. I can’t imagine what my upbringing must have been like. I try and try, and all I see are dark clouds.”
Chloe nodded. “I can confirm that.”
“Well, you’re in luck, because I think I can fill in some of the blanks,” Veronica said.
“Are you telling us that you managed to patch through to Oweylo?”
“Oella.”
“Sure, her too.”
Veronica nodded. “I did.”
“Well?” Chloe rose to her feet, her armor pushing her forward excitedly. “What happened? What did she say?”
Veronica went into the story, describing her experience of prayer in the temple. After fifteen minutes of silence, Veronica had been about to give up trying, but just as she was about to leave, Oella answered her calls.
“Her voice was kind and sweet. Husky and nurturing. Every syllable filled my heart with a warmth I’ve never felt. A love that only a parent could give.”
“Lucky for you.” KieraFreya sneered.
Oella spoke to Veronica, asking what questions she had to ask and how she could help within her limitations. Veronica mentioned Chloe’s and KieraFreya’s quest, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from Oella. The goddess was elated at the news of her attempted reassembly and offered encouragement and luck to bring her home to her family.
“I asked her if she could help. If she had any knowledge of the location of your horse or the reason for your banishment.”
“And?” KieraFreya urged. “What did she say?”
Veronica sighed. “She said that knowledge remained locked away with your father and that she was bound not to divulge any information that could either jeopardize or further the quest. She told me that as much as she loves and misses you, she could not violate what has already been signed and sealed.”
“’Signed and sealed?’” Chloe mused. “Do you think that has something to do with the agreement you made with Fukmos?”
KieraFreya shrugged Chloe’s shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“Was that it? Was there anything more…helpful?”
Veronica gave a small nod. “She said that while she was unable to help us find what has been lost, she could confirm that you are on the right path.”
“Useful,” KieraFreya grumbled.
“She also said that as long as you believe in the nine, your mission will be successful, and you will find your way home.”
“The nine? What the hell are the nine?”
Veronica shrugged.
Chloe sighed. “Well, thanks, Veronica. At least we made some kind of contact with the almighty beings above.”
“Yeah,” KieraFreya whined. “Great use that is.”
“There was one last thing,” Veronica said, stopping Chloe from leaving the room mid-turn. “She said that as long as you keep your courage, your mission will be successful, and you will find the home you seek.”
“Gee.” KieraFreya snorted. “Thanks, Mom.”
Veronica shook her head, staring into Chloe’s eyes. “She wasn’t talking about you, KF.”
Chapter Five
Ben took a deep lungful of fresh, clean air.
The forest was peaceful, calm hanging across the leafy canopy. All around them were the sounds of birdsong as they trod silently through the undergrowth.
There was a flicker of movement. Ben looked beside him, where Anok, a fellow ranger of the guild, motioned him over with a series of complex hand signals. He nodded, following his gestures to where three more blurs of green moved stealthily ahead.
Ben’s smile grew wider. He loved the outdoors, and as much as it pained him to admit it, he preferred traversing the forests to trundling around stone cities for days on end. Give him his bow, the fresh, clean air, and the sounds of nature any day of the week.
The rest of the party could explore and hunt for answers in Hammersworth. Ben was where rangers belonged.
A bird call reached his ears, musical and rich in tone—the leopard-spotted warbler. Not from a real bird, no. It was the agreed-upon signal of Rogan, the head of the party, as he led the others ever deeper ahead.
The rangers were a complicated class. Often, they enjoyed solo exploration, roaming the land and communing with nature. The rangers of Obsidian were the guardians of the natural world and took their cues from the animals and plants that inhabited the earth.
Yet, occasionally, the guild would come together on group missions. They were the best when it came to hunting, able to take down their targets with minimal damage to the carcasses. When they worked together, they could bring down even the largest, most fearsome predators.
That worked out very well for the stomachs of the city’s monarchs, who had acquired a certain taste for the unusual and exotic.
Anok offered another signal. Without a sound, Ben ducked behind a tree, mimicking the signals to the rangers following behind, a mixture of NPCs and blessed. The most experienced were at the front and back, with those who were in need of additional support and training in the middle.
Ben was near the front of the party, having gained several ranks within the last twenty-four hours.
With a nod, the rangers obeyed Ben’s signal, blending perfectly with the trees.
The call of the warbler again. Ben closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the forest. The whispering call of the wind, the utterances of the leaves in the trees.
A twig broke nearby, and he knew they’d found their target. The bulky creature was somewhere ahead. Maybe fifty feet, if he had to guess.
The party of rangers remained still. Ben chanced a peek past the bough and saw a shadow moving some distance ahead.
The call of the warbler was replaced by another sound—sharp, shrill tweeting. Ben watched as several rangers began to shinny up the trees, the only indication of their presence the blur of their cloaks as they ascended.
Ben’s adrenaline began to kick in, his battle instincts already psyching him up for the struggle.
Another tweet.
The sound of a body fa
lling.
“Ooof!” came the exhalation of a ranger behind him. The sound echoed loudly around them.
Ben turned and saw the blur of green as the young ranger scrambled to his feet, the expression on his pale pink face one of embarrassment and shock. Ben recognized him as one of the newbies to Obsidian. Kurt, if he remembered correctly. The kid hadn’t even specialized yet, but he was putting in the time to learn the craft and improve over his level 10.
Kurt’s lips spoke a silent, “I’m sorry,” and he began to clamber up the tree again.
But it was too late. A second later, a large blur of dark fur sprinted past Ben, finding its way toward Kurt and leaping up the tree. Kurt cried out as several rows of small but sharp teeth found the flesh of his leg and tugged him down.
“Now!” Rogan shouted.
The creature’s eyes grew wide as arrows rained down from the canopy. Ben stepped out into firing range, loosing his arrow and marveling at the creature, which was now thrashing around on the spot, kicking its legs and snapping its jaws at every ranger it caught sight of.
It was large, about twice the size of a horse. It stomped and pivoted on four canine-like legs, its neck longer than it should have been. Across its spine, thick, bristling fur made its way toward a ravenous maw, its jaws dripping saliva as it tried to get its bearings.
“Remember your instructions,” Rogan shouted over the snarls and growls. “Aim for the eyes!”
Ben closed one eye and placed his focus on sending the arrow directly at the creature’s face. Arrow after arrow from his bow bounced off the creature’s tough hide, just a few burying themselves an inch or so, the arrows not quite able to pierce the warg’s body.
The shot was almost impossible, made even harder by the warg’s constant thrashing. Its thick brow hung over its eyes like a protective canopy.
Ben would have to get closer to make the shot.
Kurt cried out in fear, retreating toward the bushes, using his good leg to kick his way there. His groans attracted the attention of the warg.
The creature snarled, licking its lips. It ducked its head, its eyes now out of sight of the rangers in the canopy. It closed the gap quickly, wanting to grab its prey and disappear. Its defense mechanisms relied on dragging the broken and frail to a quiet place to dine.
Ben sprinted forward, aware of someone running beside him.
“Don’t think you’re going to get all the glory, fresh-blood.” Anok grinned, matching Ben’s stride.
“Two heads are better than one,” Ben replied, returning Anok’s smile. “It’s good to have you at my side.”
“Remember, you’re at my side.”
Ben returned his attention to the warg, distressed to see that creature had Kurt’s leg back in his mouth. With a burst of speed, he leaped, grabbed the bough of the nearest tree, shinnied rapidly higher, and kicked off with one leg, soaring through the air toward the beast.
He landed on the warg’s back, one leg half-hanging off the side. The creature noticed the new arrival and turned his head, snapping glistening jaws at Ben, who twisted, grabbed a tuft of fur, and held on for dear life.
“A little help?” Ben called as an arrow flew toward him, bouncing off the creature just a few inches away from the ranger’s hand. “Come on!”
“I got you!” Anok cried. His movements were a blur as he charged toward the warg, kicking out his legs at the last minute and sliding beneath the creature’s belly.
The warg roared in frustration, undecided who to attack first. Ben took advantage of the distraction, swinging back onto the warg until he was atop its broad back.
The creature kicked and bucked. Ben held on, unaware that beneath him, his comrade had withdrawn his elven knives and was now desperately attacking the creature’s underbelly.
The knives made slow progress. Anok had to continually take breaks to roll and slither around to stop the warg from chomping his flesh. The only real compensation at that moment was that several other rangers had rescued Kurt and dragged him away.
Ben scooted forward, working his way toward the warg’s neck. Progress was slow, but he made it. When he reached the place where the neck joined the shoulders, he clutched a large tuft of the dark hair running down the center of the beast’s neck and tugged as hard as he could.
The warg shrieked, its neck curving until it was facing the sky. At the same time, it felt the knives finally break the skin of its stomach.
“Fire at will!” Ben shouted, biceps bulging with the effort of holding the warg in place.
A volley of arrows rained from the trees, several of them finding their way into the warg’s face. Its eyes were the first to go, and a handful of arrows found their way down the creature’s throat.
The creature relaxed, its legs started to buckle.
“Anok, get out of there,” he called needlessly, discovering a second later that the blood-covered Anok stood beside the warg’s shaking body.
The monster went down with a crash, and there was a chorus of cheers from several of the newer additions to the team. Even Ben laughed, clapping his hands as he dismounted.
“Not bad,” he said to Anok.
Anok nodded. “Not bad yourself.”
“You stink.”
“I’ve smelled worse.” Anok laughed.
Ben looked at the other rangers, curious about the few who refused to clap and celebrate their kill.
“What’s with them? Don’t they know how to have fun?”
Rogan appeared from behind the trees. An ugly scar ran from his nose to his chin. His voice was deep and authoritative as he said, “Oh, they do. They celebrate when the job is done.”
“What do you mean?” Ben asked, confused. “We caught one. We took it down and can now deliver the meat to the king, right?”
A crooked grin reached Anok’s face.
“What?” Ben asked.
Rogan indicated that Anok should speak. “You haven’t encountered wargs before, have you? Taking one warg down doesn’t do a whole lot. They’re pack hunters that work in teams. Why do you think so many of us gathered today to take them down?”
Them?
Ben heard the sinister growls of several more wargs. He could now count seven of the beasts surrounding them, each as huge and loathsome as the one they had taken down.
Rogan snorted, grimacing. “Right on cue.”
“Positions!” Anok called, and the surrounding rangers wasted no time in finding their formations. Those who were halfway down the trees scrambled back up, glad to have drawn the long straws in this fight.
Game on, Ben thought.
The wargs crept closer, clearly in no hurry to rush their prey. Their leader, a warg with night-black fur and battle scars on its flank, stood taller than the others. It sniffed the air, its maw leaking viscous fluid.
Ben slowly nocked two arrows. If he was right in his thinking, he might just be able to take out both eyes with a single shot. He’d have to time it right, knowing that they were now playing a game of chicken, each side waiting for the other to make the first move.
The dark warg crouched, its muscles tensing, ready to leap. Its tongue danced across its lips, eyes fixed on Ben’s.
Ben’s breathing was steady and calm, prepared for whatever was to come. His fingers began to relax on the string, the arrow ready to fly…
Suddenly the air was filled with the strange cry of a creature they had never heard before. The noise sounding like an elephant trumpeting, only brought down to deep bass notes, and it had the rumbling vibrato of a lion’s roar.
The wargs’ ears pricked, their heads turning toward a dark figure who stood some distance away. It looked like a man, but it was difficult to discern.
The dark warg spared a longing glance back at Ben before snapping its jaws and signaling to the others. It led the way, turning on its heels and leaping into the forest.
“What the…” was all Ben could manage.
Anok returned to Ben’s side, staring at the dark figure, who appeare
d to have morphed into the shape of a colossal bear.
“What is that?” one of the rangers asked, his voice a breathy whisper.
Ben became aware of Rogan standing beside him, eyes narrowed. “He goes by many names.” He turned back the way they had come. “Come. Pick up the carcass, and let’s return. We’ve come as far as we can today.”
The rangers wordlessly obeyed. Ben, however, couldn’t help but spare one last glance toward where the figure had stood, only to find that he was now gone.
“It had to be him.” Therese stroked her chin thoughtfully. “Who else could it have been?”
Leonie spoke up. “No one said anything about him being able to control animals. That just seems absurd.”
Ben shrugged. He took a long draught of his drink and placed it back down on the table. He had been happy with the experience he had gathered on the rangers’ expedition today, but he had to admit that he was all kinds of confused by what had happened out there.
“It’s not impossible that someone can control animals,” Gideon mused. “There are spells and incantations that can influence nature.” He glanced at Chloe. “You calmed the llamas yesterday. Do you remember reading anything in the original spell book about advanced versions of Whisper of the Wild ?”
“Llamas are slightly different than friggin’ wargs.” Talbot scoffed. “Give me a glob of spit in the face over the saliva of a hungry warg any day.”
Gideon and Chloe giggled, remembering the llama who had spat at Chloe’s face. “I’m not so sure,” the battle mage said.
“Even so.” Therese brought the conversation back around. “What does it matter? So, we know he’s in the woods? He might or might not come back to Doris’ house by the full moon? What can we do with that information? It doesn’t bring us any closer.”
Talbot raised a hand. “Not exactly true. While you’ve all been off doing…whatever you’ve been doing today, I’ve been studying. Asking questions. Trying to find out more about this city and its legends…”
“Oh, here we go.” Huk rolled his eyes. “Nerd alert.”
Talbot carried on as if he had heard nothing. “Turns out the people of the city believe a great spirit guardian looks after the forest, appearing to those who need it most and helping to control the predators who lurk in the shadows.”
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