It turned out to be a caravan of sorts with carts that doubled as homes. They were painted with strange, geometric designs, and the people who drove and walked alongside them wore clothing of only one color, each outfit made from the same piece of dyed cloth.
It would have been frightening if they hadn’t been singing. The songs were the same as those they had heard in the village. Some made you want to dance simply by hearing them and others were sad, but over the sound of the songs, there was always talk and laughter.
“I think they’re safe,” he whispered to her.
She nodded.
The caravan stopped when they stepped out onto the road. Each cart ground to a halt and the clopping of hooves and squeaking of wheels faded until all that remained was the shifting of bodies and the birdsong.
“We don’t mean any harm,” Taigan said. She held her hands up and hoped that this world had the same gesture for safety. “We encountered bandits on the road the other day, so we were hiding until we could see who you were.” They looked at her, still waiting, so she added, “They were elves and they said they were collecting what was owed to their king.”
The driver of the lead caravan, a woman with gray hair and a weary smile, jumped down to approach them. She was smiling somewhat. “We met them, too,” she said. “They decided they didn’t want our dried fish or our cloth but they took all our coin.”
“We have some of it,” Taigan said. “We took two of their horses and their saddlebags.”
The woman smiled at her. “And what are you doing now? Running away?” Her eyes narrowed and she came to look at the necklace. “Now, this is strange.”
She swallowed. “It’s a fallen star.”
“Oh?” She looked amused. “And a spell, isn’t it?”
“Is it?” She looked down at it.
Beside her, Jamie sighed.
“Yes,” the stranger said. “Although I couldn’t tell you what it does. It’s not harm, that much I can say, and it’s not power. It looks like a ward, but I’ve never seen anything like it.” She looked at the two of them. “You never did say what you were doing out here.”
“Looking for a boy,” Taigan said. “A young man our age named Esak. He’s making for the Rylkor Mountains. Brown hair. Hooked nose. Have you seen him?”
“No.” She turned to look at the others in the caravan. Word rippled through like a rustle of wind amongst leaves, but all that returned were headshakes. “If he’s traveling that far, he’d likely have gone to the next town. Many caravans stop there, making for all over. It might be someone remembers him.”
She nodded. “Thank you. We’ll look for him there. How far is it?”
“A day and a half on foot, at least. There’s a forest that could serve as a shelter in the night. Other than that, there’s not much else between here and there.” She frowned curiously. “Why does a boy make for the Rylkor Mountains and why do you go after him?”
“He sees no place for him in the world,” Taigan explained. “But his parents miss him.”
“Not everyone is born in the right place,” the woman said peaceably. “I wish you luck, nevertheless.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at her. “Your gold—”
“Ah. Yes.”
“Um. If I could have some privacy…” She looked around. The woman’s facial expression was carefully blank.
Jamie leaned closer. “They one hundred percent think you’re hiding that gold like someone smuggling cocaine.”
“What? Oh.” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, no. It’s not in my…oh, dear. No, it’s perfectly clean, I assure you. It’s merely some…magic…to get it back.”
“Hahahahahaha,” Prima commented. “Oh, man, if I’d known your talent would bring us to this moment, I would never have objected.”
Taigan glared. When let inside one of the wagons, she went quickly into the other world and scooped up as much gold as she could carry in the hollow of her shirt.
“Do you even know how much was theirs?”
“No,” she said. “But what will we use it for?”
“I thought humans were very motivated by potential future scarcity.”
“I don’t know what that means.” She shifted back and stepped out the door to give the gold to the woman. “How much of what they took is that?”
“More than all.” She sighed. “Maybe half of that is ours.”
“Keep it all.” Taigan shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll ever find everyone they stole from and we only had two saddlebags of the six.”
“What are you?” the woman asked suspiciously. “Who are you that you fought six elven warriors and emerged alive, are searching for a boy going to one of the most dangerous places in the world, and you don’t want gold?”
She thought about it for a moment. “I’m someone who doesn’t belong here either,” she said finally. “I can’t take this with me when I go home. It can’t help my life but it can help yours.”
With that, she left before the woman could say anything else. She heard Jamie make his goodbyes and he followed her along the edge of the column. They walked with their heads down.
“You’ll be okay,” he said.
“You don’t know that. You don’t know that I’ll ever get better.” She continued to walk and wanted to shove her hands into her coat pockets, but she didn’t have either a coat or pockets. Instead, she merely power-walked with a large backpack, and she couldn’t help the feeling that she probably looked ridiculous.
It was more than an hour before she stopped and looked at Jamie. Some things had become clear all at once.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“You came in here to get me and I haven’t been very…” She shook her head. “I don’t like not knowing what’s coming. Funny, isn’t it? I never know what’s coming. So I told myself it would always be this way—me falling into comas, never able to do anything normally. Now that there’s a chance of stepping out into a world I’ve never thought about, it’s terrifying.”
“Would you…uh, rather stay here?”
“Part of me, yeah.” She didn’t try to hide it.
He didn’t hide how much the words hurt him either. Despite that, he looked down and forced a smile. “Then we’ll come to visit you.”
“I’d make sure you had friends,” Prima said softly. “You’d help the people here.”
“Thank you, Prima.” She drew a deep breath and looped her arm through her brother’s. “We don’t have to decide right now, right?”
“Of course not.” He held her hand close. “And if I know you, you’ll be running this place within a month.”
“Hey!”
They shared a satisfied smile.
The clouds rolled in slowly as they walked and they weren’t even close to the forest when the storm was unleashed. The sun was going down by now and Taigan swore as she draped her waterproof cloak over herself and her pack. There didn’t seem to be a way to do it that didn’t result in water running down her nose.
It grew dark quickly after that and the rain increased. The wind whistled past them and lightning crackled overhead. It was the kind of storm she had loved when she was little, but it turned out it was much scarier to be out in a storm when you didn’t know whether you could find shelter or not.
Were there tornados there? She had no idea.
“Taigan!” Jamie’s voice barely carried over the wind. It took a crack of lightning to illuminate where he pointed.
She brushed the hair out of her eyes and squinted. It took some time to be sure of what she saw but eventually, she was certain. Light beamed from the window of a cottage ahead of them.
They struggled along the muddy road together. Taigan’s socks were soaked, her toes squelched with each step, and she hadn’t gotten used to the drip of water onto the back of her neck. It was twenty minutes at most before they reached the cabin but it felt like hours, and she continued to look obsessively over her shoulder for monsters.
&
nbsp; After all, the last time they’d been in a rainstorm, they’d been attacked by a magical beast that almost killed Jamie.
They stumbled through the gate and looked at each other before knocking on the door. They had no right to ask for shelter, but what else could they do?
A warm glow came from inside the windows, and she even thought she smelled fresh bread.
She knocked again but there was still no answer. In desperation, she tried the door and found it open. “Hello?”
When they again received no answer, they practically fell into the house. A fire crackled in the hearth with a pot of stew over it. Two beds were at the back of the single room, each covered with a quilt. Herbs and onions hung from the eaves, and shelves held food and clean dishes. It was everything you could want in a cottage.
There was no one there, though. No one tended the fire or ate the stew.
“I don’t like this,” Jamie said.
“Neither do I.” She nodded. “Let’s go.”
But, as they turned, the door slammed shut behind them.
Chapter Eight
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Taigan said, annoyed.
Jamie grinned at her.
“What?” She frowned.
“I like who you are in here.” He shrugged. “Outside, you’re all respectful, you do the right thing, and you raise your hand in class. Here, you...have opinions.”
“People hate when girls have opinions.”
“See, that’s why you have the stick.”
She grinned at him and looked around. With a sigh, she went to check on the door. It didn’t budge. “It was worth a shot. Okay, who the fuck are you, trapping us in here?”
“Finally.” The disembodied voice was languid. “Someone with sense. I’m no one of consequence.”
Taigan rolled her eyes. “Are you sure? This seems like a fairly big magical working.”
“Of course it’s a big magical working.” The voice sounded smug. “But I’ve expended a great deal of effort to make sure I’m not known. It’s best to not be noteworthy, you know.”
She merely rolled her eyes again.
Jamie decided to use the opposite tactic. He decided they could play good cop, bad cop.
Or…snarky captive, ass-kissing captive.
“You’ve brought us here for a reason,” he said. “What is it? How may we help you?”
“Oh, it’s not only my purpose.” The voice was very smug. “I’m prepared to give you whatever you desire.”
Something flared at the corner of the room—a row of bottles that he had mistaken for wine bottles. Whatever was in them, however, was most certainly not wine. He exchanged a look with his sister.
“Whatever we desire?” he asked.
He had a very bad feeling about this.
“Anything,” the voice said.
The man who appeared in front of them was completely unremarkable in most ways. He was neither short nor tall, his hair fell halfway between blond and brown, and his face was the type you would never pick out of a crowd—not because of his features but because there was nothing noteworthy behind his eyes.
There was, of course, but he had spent a long time making sure it looked as though there wasn’t. And, like all self-absorbed assholes, he had made sure he was covered in ostentatious clothing—silk robes, gold embroidery, rings and necklaces, and a staff that glittered.
Jamie wondered if a big staff with a crystal ball on top was the wizard equivalent of a Rolex.
“If you could truly give us anything we desire,” Taigan pointed out, “you’d hardly have to trap us in a cottage to make us listen to you.”
“You think so?” The sorcerer shook his head. “So many run when I try to offer them this.”
“Yeah, I think it might be because you’re super-creepy about it.”
“Taigan,” Jamie said. “Don’t be rude.” He hoped she would understand what he was doing.
Instead, she gave him a sharp look. “Don’t be rude? This guy basically kidnapped us.”
“And he’s trying to offer us something,” he said. “I think we should hear him out.”
“I cannot believe this.” She blew her breath out sharply and went to sit on the stoop at the door. “Fine. You talk to him if you want to. I don’t want anything to do with it.”
He would have been worried but as she turned away, he saw her tap her thumb and her ring finger together twice—the gesture they had come up with years before instead of winking. Other people expected them to communicate on another level but it also seemed to piss them off so the twins had made it so no one would know when they were.
Jamie gestured to the chair by the fireplace. “Please, sir, sit.” He was careful to keep standing while the sorcerer swept to the chair and sat—and, a moment later, his respect was rewarded when the man waved a bored hand and the young man’s clothes instantly became dry. He sighed happily.
“So,” the sorcerer said, “what do you want more than anything in the world?”
The boy had been waiting for this. “To be rich,” he said fiercely. “I want to be able to buy anything I could want. I want good food and wine, and I don’t want to have to work all day.”
“How pedestrian.” The man raised one eyebrow. “You realize I could give you anything and all you’re asking for is gold coins?”
“If I have that, I don’t have to care about anything else,” he pointed out. This wasn’t his heart’s desire, of course, but who didn’t want to have enough money to be secure forever? The idea of not having to work and waking up in a mansion with breakfast already made for him wasn’t bad. Hopefully, the sincerity of that would be enough to fool the sorcerer.
It seemed important to do so because he grew increasingly sure that telling him the truth would be the worst idea ever.
The sorcerer, however, was not about to be so easily fooled. He leaned forward with his eyes narrowed and a smile on his lips. “Don’t think so small,” he said. “Everyone wants something that isn’t possible. What is it you want? Someone called back from beyond the grave? A lover’s devotion? All you have to do is tell me the truth and it will be yours.”
“I’ll go,” Taigan said from behind her brother and made him jump. She came to stand beside him with her arms folded. “I want to be cured. I want to know I’ll never get sick again.” The depth of her longing made his throat ache.
“Ah.” The man smiled at her. “Such desire—yes, you speak the truth.” He stood, impervious to Jamie’s horrified look, and advanced on her. “Shall we make a bargain, then?”
“No,” Prima said. “Don’t, Taigan.”
Jamie nodded his head in agreement as much as he dared.
“Yes,” she said. She met the sorcerer’s eyes and tapped her thumb and ring finger together again. That was the signal that she was doing something, but her sibling didn’t know what it could possibly be. “Tell me what you want.”
“Hardly anything you’ll miss,” the sorcerer said. He reached out toward her. “Only your eternal service.”
He thrust the hand at her, a terrible smile on his face. His words—in some language Jamie had never heard—were a harsh shout that emanated from a black mist shot through with lightning. Power flared around her.
“No!” Jamie screamed.
But when the power cleared, she was still there and the sorcerer stared at her in shock.
“I thought so,” Taigan said in satisfaction. She took the staff off her back in one smooth motion and whacked it on his head. “Surprise, bitch.”
He stumbled away. “But you—” His finger rose to point at her. “You told the truth. I could tell.”
“One truth,” she said grimly, “isn’t everything.”
When she launched into her attack, Jamie came with her. The two of them backed the man against the wall, only for him to melt into smoke. He appeared behind them and laughed.
“Is that all you can do?”
“You have no idea what we can do,” the boy said fiercely.
“Don’t I? Do you think you are the first ones to come through my door? The first ones who have fought?”
He didn’t bother to respond. Instead, he drew the knife the blacksmith had given him and whipped it at their adversary. His aim wasn’t spectacular but it was enough to nick the man’s arm and the steel carved through the layers of silk like butter. The sorcerer screamed, a sound that doubled when Taigan’s staff caught him on the head.
“That’s what you want?” He disappeared in a puff of smoke. “Go, then! Leave!” The door sprang open.
“Nuh-uh.” She looked up and smiled grimly. “People like you don’t get to continue your tricks. We’re going, all right, but we’re taking the rest of your slaves with us.”
The sorcerer reappeared in a flash of light. He stood in front of the row of bottles and hissed at them. “Bargains were made,” he warned them. “Don’t try to break them.”
“The fuck we won’t,” Jamie said and she took the opportunity to throw her knife. This one struck closer to home and embedded itself in the man’s leg while he screamed.
“Oh, shit,” she said. “I didn’t know I could do that. Fuck.”
Her brother laughed as he slashed with his sword. Their foe melted away and he snatched one of the bottles, only for the sorcerer to emerge from the ether and catch his hand.
“Stop that!”
“Make me,” he retorted grimly.
A gasp and a scream was his answer. Taigan had grasped the knife and yanked it out of his thigh.
“Oh, gross.” Jamie shuddered.
Then, he elbowed the man in the sternum.
Fire was the sorcerer’s answer. It sprang up in two circles around them. Her wet hair and clothes hissed and steamed, but his began to catch fire immediately.
“Jamie!”
“Fuck!” He ran to the open door and the rain, only for the door to slam shut. He beat at his hair and, a moment later, gasped when he got a bucketful of water to the face—dirty water and possibly used for washing dishes.
He hoped it was dishes, anyway.
At least his hair wasn’t on fire anymore. He wiped his eyes open in time to see Taigan throw the bucket as hard as she could at the bottles. They shattered and the light that came forth began to billow into human shapes.
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