by Dave Oliver
Fierd grabbed the bow from her hands and stood up, pulling out another arrow as he rose. He drew the bow and fired it quickly. The buck took a sudden veer to the left before face-planting on the ground. Fierd slung the bow over his shoulder and smiled at Karedess.
“Not bad for your first time with a bow,” he mused. “Most people fumble the arrow completely. You had good control; you just had a bad case of nerves.”
She shook her left hand and sucked on her wrist. “I’ve read stories about heroes using bows, so I thought I could just do what they said. They never said how much it hurts your hand though.”
Fierd mussed her hair. “That’ll stop happening as you practice. Let’s go get our meat and see if we can save that arrow.”
He moved toward the deer but froze in his tracks. Before Karedess could realize anything was wrong, Fierd grabbed the cuff of her furs and pulled her down to the ground. She looked at him with an angry expression, but he raised a finger to his lips, his face a mix of sternness and fear.
He jerked his head to the right of their downed buck and whispered, “There’s a Rasend there. Wherever there’s one, there’s a dozen. Stay quiet.”
She stayed as silent as possible and listened closely. The quiet revealed the sound of feet slopping through thick mud. They caught sight of a single person, a woman, walking in a daze. She was all but naked with only a tattered sash hanging loosely from shoulder to hip, and her belly bulged, in sharp contrast to the skin-and-bone nature of the rest of her body. Nearly her entire left arm was covered in frostbite, and her left leg showed signs of it too. She looked around without aim, taking in the scenery of the forest. Her brows were upturned and a slight frown occupied her face. She caught a glimpse of the freshly downed buck. Her eyes widened, a thick tendril of reddish drool dripped from her lip, and she sprinted wildly toward the animal.
She tackled the dead flesh and began tearing into it with her hands. She bit at the hide and tore pieces of it away. Once she got at the still-warm meat underneath, she shoved her face into it and began chomping away.
“We should probably start crawling back to camp while it’s busy,” Fierd said.
Karedess nodded without taking her eyes off the Rasend woman.
They shifted backward and heard the woman moan. She stood up before falling to all fours. She screamed and thrashed, falling on her back in the process. She clutched at herself, arching her back repeatedly. Her cries lasted quite some time, during which more Rasend started showing up. Some of them came to see what was causing all the noise, but most saw the buck first and ran to get their fill.
“Shit,” Fierd muttered. “We move now, one of them’s bound to see us.” He looked around at their immediate surroundings. “Kare.”
She reluctantly tore her vision from the Rasend to look at him.
“We get spotted, I want you to bury yourself.”
She cocked her head and raised an eyebrow.
“Like before in the snow. Just get yourself covered with mud and dirt. Hide yourself.”
She nodded and returned to looking at the Rasend. The rest of them had finished most of the buck and were now standing around the thrashing woman. There were six of them watching her flail and wail. Most of them were as poorly clothed as her, though a couple had fur vests on. All of them had the early signs of frostbite all over their exposed flesh.
The woman finally calmed down and now a baby was crying. The six standing around her began drooling that disturbingly discolored liquid from their lips upon seeing the new noisy flesh lying in the mud, but the Rasend mother curled around the baby and growled at them. A few approached her but she swatted them away. When they stopped trying to get at the child, she took the time to hold it and look down upon it. She smiled. Drool formed on her lips. She sank her teeth into its stomach.
Karedess gagged, but Fierd quickly reached out and put his hand over her mouth. He shook his head, eyes wide and stern. She looked back to the Rasend to see the new mother chewing a huge mouthful.
Karedess heard the shrieking stop as tiny bones cracked, and she couldn’t keep it in any longer. She started throwing up. Her entire body heaved, only able to focus on the need to expel what it had just experienced. She kept purging until her breath was short and her eyes were wet.
When she came to her senses again, Fierd was yelling.
“For fuck’s sake, girl. Bury yourself!”
She shook her head and looked around in a daze for mud to cover herself with. One of the Rasend was already towering over her, smiling wide with pieces of deer flesh still hanging from his teeth. Fierd swung a hatchet into the creature’s head, cleaving it apart. Then he turned and charged at the remaining Rasend. Karedess quickly grabbed at any and all nearby mud and began scooping it up. She lay down in it and started covering herself.
She got herself covered and remained as still as possible. The muffled sound of fighting continued around her. Rasend screamed, Fierd grunted and growled, and hatchet met flesh. It didn’t last long, maybe half a minute, but Karedess stayed hidden awhile even after all the noises stopped.
She peeked out from under her muddy sanctuary and saw Fierd standing there looking at his arm, his longcoat lying in the mud. She rose from her hiding spot and approached him. He was staring at a scratch. It was hardly more than that, just a small scratch with blood, but Fierd was looking at it intently. It was as though he’d never seen his own blood before.
She crept up to him. She couldn’t see any other wounds on him, but she felt a thick warmth exuding from his skin, causing him to steam lightly in the brisk air. A breeze blew and they both shivered.
“Is that scratch bad?” Karedess asked. “Are you going to turn into one of them now?”
Fierd snapped out of his daze and grinned wide. “Girl, you’ve been reading too many stories.” He slapped her on the shoulder so hard she nearly fell.
“I thought we were done with ‘girl.’”
“Oh, right. Sorry. Anyway, seen plenty of folk bitten or scratched by Rasend in Camston. Worst case is that they get an infection. Though to tell the truth, that could get pretty bad out here with nobody who can do medicine.” Fierd turned from Karedess. “You’d best look away.”
“Why? What are you… Are you taking your pants off?”
“Look away! I need to piss on this scratch.”
“Weirdo.”
After a minute, Fierd finished his disinfectant treatment and walked over to where Karedess was waiting impatiently. “I’ll still need to tend to this as we go,” he said. “But it should be in good shape. Seeing what those things get into, can’t imagine it’d be too tough to get sick from even the smallest scratch.”
“We’re not far from the river. Why don’t we go back so you can wash that and I can un-mud myself?”
Fierd nodded. “Fine idea. It’ll set us back an hour or two, but I’d say it’s worth it. Let’s head there.”
Fierd picked up his longcoat and threw it over his shoulder, and they set off to where they’d left their supplies.
***
They trudged north through the muddy hills, and Karedess was much quieter than usual. She wasn’t nagging Fierd with questions or desperately trying to make conversation. She just rode along, staring off into nature.
“You want to talk about it?” Fierd asked.
Karedess shrugged.
“Easiest to think of them as animals. Plenty of animals eat their own young, right?”
“Some.”
“Well, you can see why I’m heading south now. Those things are dangerous, and I got a head full of memories just like what we saw back there that I can’t get rid of.”
Karedess nodded. She was clearly in the thick of processing everything she’d seen. He knew the feeling. After seeing something like that, you ran it over and over in your head to water it down. You reduced it until you could cope with it and still feel like a normal human being. At least she was young. Young folk could bounce back quicker than old ones.
They c
ame to the river and Fierd set down their equipment. “Make sure to dry those boots and wash and dry your feet,” he called to Karedess as she walked down to the riverbank.
“I know, I know,” she called back, rolling her eyes.
“You say that like it ain’t a big deal,” he called, while Karedess perfectly mouthed his next words, “but we’ll see how big a deal it is when your feet fall off.” She smiled.
She was getting a little too used to his speeches on surviving the wild. As much as she whined and protested, she listened really well. He had a feeling she didn’t hate it as much as she let on. She took off her boots and tied them to a tree branch to dry. She walked down to the river, dipped her feet in, and started to give them a deep scrub with her hands.
Fierd knelt down in the river and dipped his arm into the water where the current was strongest. He closed his eyes and smiled as the rejuvenating cold water ran hard against his skin. If it wasn’t such a terrible idea, he might have been tempted to take a full bath.
Karedess was nearly done washing her right foot when she heard horse hooves clomping in the mud. She looked up to see a man dressed in what looked like a military uniform made up of dull blues and grays. In the center of his chest was a sigil of a mountain.
“What in the world are you doing this far away from civilization by yourself?” he asked.
Karedess stood and backed away slowly. “Fierd?” she yelled.
The man looked startled, and he turned at the sound of Fierd clearing his throat and walking toward him. Fierd’s knives and hatchets gleamed in the sunlight now that he was no longer wearing his longcoat. The man’s eyes widened momentarily and his head jerked backward.
“Do you two…uh…need assistance?”
Fierd trudged upriver in the shallows and gave the rider a looking over. “You from the Halefort?”
“That’s right,” he said. His entire body tensed with uncertainty. “Been patrolling the southern villages in the interest of the suzerain.”
“Well, you can tell her they’re just as fucked as everyone else.” Fierd sat down hard on the bank. “We just ran into Rasend south of the Irenic.”
“Really?” The man relaxed slightly, though his expression turned to a mixture of disbelief and terror. “We didn’t think they’d cross the bridge.”
“They don’t know much about wearing clothes, so it’s no surprise they’re headed for warmer climes. In any case, what’s the Halefort going to do to stop this? Villages like mine weren’t ready to handle the threat, and now they’re destroyed.”
The man reached into his satchel and pulled out a wrinkled slab of paper and a shard of graphite. “Where you from?”
“Camston. It’s completely destroyed now. I was the only survivor, and the structures are nearly all wrecked. My name’s Fierd, son of Caim and Eyn. What’s yours?”
“Yule, son of Bine and Ref.” He scribbled a note on his paper and looked back to Fierd. “You know of anywhere else that’s been attacked?”
“We came across a fairly big village a bit northeast of here. Had a full blacksmith and a pretty big inn.”
“Sounds like Crosshearth.”
“Gone,” Fierd said.
Yule’s shoulders sank as he made another note before putting the paper away. “Well,” he said, “as to your question, the Halefort isn’t in a position to help any but the closest villages at the moment.”
Fierd huffed. “Figures. Why is that?”
“The Halefort itself is being stalked by what must be some sort of main Rasend pack. If we send out full brigades to relieve villages, we’ll lose the capital. The suzerain has sent small, evasive scouts like myself to check on the settlements further out to see if we need to send for help from Ildia.”
“Palt’s considering help from other kingdoms? It must be worse than I thought.” Fierd took a moment to process that even the Halefort itself was in trouble. “The girl and I are traveling to Ildia. Do you want to join us?”
“Can’t do that,” he answered. “Even if she decides on outside help, I need to deliver my report back to her first. But here.” He reached into his satchel again and retrieved a leather-bound document. “I’m supposed to deliver that to King Talis or the Directorate in the event the Halefort falls. I think the suzerain’s plan might be too slow for this threat, so I want you to make sure that gets to the right people when you get there.”
Fierd took the note but gave a look of concern back to the mounted man. “Asking for help before you get the go-ahead? You could get into a lot of trouble for this.”
He shrugged. “If it ends up saving more village folk or the Halefort itself, can’t say as I give a shit.”
Fierd nodded. “We’ll make sure it gets to the right hands down there.”
“Much appreciated. You folks need anything before I report back?”
“Don’t suppose you’d have any proper shoes that’d fit her,” Fierd said as he jerked his head toward Karedess.
“Can’t say as I do,” he replied. “I got some fresh furs, though. Skinned ‘em from my dinner last night, but you can have ‘em.” He reached into his pack and retrieved a few poorly dried squares of bear hide.
“Bear?” Fierd looked uncomfortable as he accepted the furs. “Pretty dangerous game you brought down. You could sell these for a fair piece, and you’re just giving ‘em away?”
“Being fair, you saved me a trip to Crosshearth, which gets me home to my family a few days earlier. Besides,” he said as he looked north with a shiver, “can’t guarantee I’ll even make it back with as common as the Rasend are becoming.”
“Travel safe,” Karedess said. “You helped us a bunch, and I want you to make it back to your family.”
Yule gave Karedess a nod before turning his horse to the north and trotting away.
Karedess turned to Fierd. “Do you think he’ll make it back?”
Fierd shrugged. “Hard to tell. He’ll be fine so long as he’s riding. Rasend may be dangerous, but they’re just people. Ain’t no outrunning a horse. It’s when he sleeps he’s got to be careful.” He turned to Karedess. “That goes double for us. From now until we leave the woods, we should sleep in the trees.”
“In the trees?” She couldn’t tell if he was being honest or joking around.
“Yup. We’d have done it earlier, but the branches further north are too brittle.” He looked up and surveyed the scene around him. “These are healthy enough, though. Best way to avoid wildman and bear alike.”
***
Karedess crept low to the ground, just like before. She watched her feet to make sure she didn’t step on any twigs or anything that could make any noise, just like before. She crouched next to a tree and slotted an arrow onto the bowstring, just like before. She pulled back the string, took a few deep breaths, and carefully aimed. She remembered how the bow had pulled left when she released last time, so she tried to compensate for that. After a few more moments, she loosed the arrow.
It made purchase firmly in the elk’s ass, causing it to buck and reel in fright and fury.
“Shit,” Fierd uttered. He stood and grunted as he threw one of his small knives at the flailing beast. It gave a resounding thunk and the animal dropped. “Sorry. I couldn’t let the thing flail around and run off. We’d never have found it again, and that wound would’ve had it in pain for days or weeks.”
“No,” she said. “No, that’s good. I’m glad I hit it that time, but I felt bad that it hurt so much.”
He motioned for her to follow and started walking toward the kill. “Well, keep at it. Nobody ever did anything halfway decent the first thirty tries or so.”
She smiled as she stepped in line with him. “I’m getting there.”
He grunted. “You’re a fast learner too. Doubt archery will do you much good in a big civilized city though.”
“I don’t care,” she said. “I want to learn everything there is. I’ve always liked reading books with things that are useful and real.” She looked at the bow i
n her hands. “Besides, I might really like whatever I try to do. How will I know if I don’t give it a shot?”
“True enough.” He knelt down and pulled his knife from the deer’s skull. “Well, want to learn something new now?”
She nodded.
“We need to skin this and clean the meat.”
“Is it going to be gross?”
“Yup, really gross,” Fierd admitted. “But you get used to it. Besides, if we don’t use as much of the animal as we can, then it died for no reason. Can’t imagine something so sad as being hunted for sport.”
She nodded. “Okay. Teach me to skin.”
He smiled and handed her a knife. “All right. Let’s get started.”
CHAPTER NINE
Merrik arrived at Lady Asra’s estate shortly before dark. Alregon had procured something a bit dressier than his usual garb for tonight—a modest gray doublet and some pressed black slacks. He brought his nicer cane with an intricately carved spiral design on the grip. It’d been so long since he’d donned any semiformal clothes that Alregon had spent an absurd amount of time fretting over finding just the right outfit. It didn’t feel particularly great to be wearing them either. Memories of growing up in the patronage came rushing back to him. They’d have disgusted them if they didn’t bore him so much. He used the large brass ring on the oversized door to knock repeatedly until it swung open.
“Good evening, Seigneur Severil,” the attendant said from the threshold. “Do come in. The lady will receive you in the parlor.” He stepped back and waved to his left.
Merrik rolled his eyes and strolled in. If Al talked like that, Merrik would’ve smothered him in his sleep long ago. Stuffy personalities were always insufferable, which was the part of the patronage he missed the least.
He wandered through the foyer toward the eastern wing, where the parlor was. He hadn’t been to this estate in years, but little had changed. The same ridiculously gargantuan family portraits still hung like vain ghosts sizing up guests. There were still tables lining the walls with priceless trinkets and baubles on them to impress any guests with just how wealthy the family was. It still smelled old and stale. The imported stone they used to build these old manors was supposed to distinguish the wealthy homes of the families that made up the Conclave, but they left some weird sort of smell in the air. Merrik had always wondered what it’d be like to live in one of the standard adobe structures of Ryten plebeians.