“That would be greatly appreciated,” said Catherine.
“Yes,” added Ethan with barely suppressed enthusiasm. “We’ll be willing to do any menial work for as long as it takes.”
“That’s good, but I’ll try not to make it too menial for too long. We’ll need every guild member we can get if we meet any more like that arm-taking bastard.”
According to the map, the Alslana Isthmus began to rapidly narrow its land area. It had been about 350 miles wide in Qutrios’ latitude, but that shrank each day we moved farther south. By the time we reached the extreme fringes of the capital, we were on a strip of land no more than thirty-five miles wide. It was a moonless midnight, but thanks to the lit braziers on top of the six massive towers of day and night, both man and ship could make out exactly where the city lay from many miles away.
As our paths diverged from this point forward, Odet ordered her carriage to stop so that she and everyone else could say their goodbyes. She and her sister took their time saying their personal farewells to everyone.
When Odet stopped in front of me, she said, “I’ve told guild master Silver this already, but if you need aid in any honorable cause of yours, you and Clarissa can write to Silver’s guild house and ask me for whatever you need. Well, any reasonable thing you need.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. I wish you luck in your own honorable endeavors, princess.”
“You must not think us friends if you insist on being so formal.”
“I don’t.”
“Oh? So what would it take for formality to fall between us?”
“I wouldn’t wish for such a thing to occur.”
“You wish to bar friendship with me?” she asked, looking honestly confused for the first time I’ve known her.
“Yes.”
“Why the sentiment?”
“I’m of the belief that no man could befriend you and not eventually wish for something more.”
“Oh, I see, but when it comes to what men want from women, don’t they all wish for something more?”
“I would describe that as wanting something else. Understand, if I believed myself capable of withstanding your effortless wiles, I would gladly accept a connection deeper than decorum. As it stands, however, I find the idea of our friendship more cruel than satisfying.”
“Well then, in an effort not be cruel, I’ll make sure to keep any future exchanges between us as businesslike as possible.”
“I would appreciate it. Of course, if you’re ever just feel lonely one night, you can leave a note with Braden. I’ll be right over.”
“So it’s either a lifetime or a single night, huh?”
“I don’t see the point of doing anything in-between.”
“It’s good to know where we stand, then.”
Not half a minute later, we had remounted our conveyances and entered the city by following our own road.
In reality, Ecrin was comprised of three cities. The one I headed for was known as Central Ecrin. It held the main guild house, most of the lower class citizenry, and the oversized temple at its center, where one could climb to the top of any of its six monolithic towers and stare out into the Lucent Sea and Parsillion Ocean at the same time on a clear day. Western Ecrin held the Diamond Palace and most other noble houses, and thanks to its location by the sea, was a prime trading port that made many merchants wealthy. When someone mentioned “the capital” they normally meant Western Ecrin. Eastern Ecrin also enjoyed its advantage as a major port, though it had more merchants and farmers than nobility.
When one included the trading that occurred between Alslana’s northern and southern neighbors, it was easy to imagine a nation waging a war to take this strip of land. Indeed, this area hadn’t seen a peace last longer than two or three decades, or the length of time it required a new generation to replace the dead from the previous war. Still, the current family regime had not lost any significant territory in over half a century. Someone realized at one point that defending a smaller kingdom was easier than holding on to an empire, which Alslana once touted itself as over a century before. The only other Iazali nation that challenged Alslana’s wealth, with their fields of sariff and their own strategically significant ports, was Oclor.
Even at night the city was more bustling than most towns would have been at any time of day, and a consistent eastern breeze from the Parsillion Ocean blew away the humidity that would have otherwise collected in a similar environment, making the night cooler than one would think. Just about every street I saw was paved with flat stone or brick, and no structure looked debilitated. Due to the lack of quarries in the region, the vast majority of homes and shops were made of a light colored wood. As for style, many homes seemed to keep their outer segments open to the outside world, with roofed porches encircling much of the building. Also pointing to the people’s fondness for outside living were the many gazebos strewn about.
The guild house itself was a four story building of a reddish stone with three major entrances in the front. Some people greeted Braden as we placed our horses in an adjacent stable and from then on I never saw him alone. He took us to the top floor and allowed us to use a couple of unused rooms as our own for the night.
The royalty, thanks to messenger birds, or perhaps through magical means, had days before learned of what happened in Qutrios, meaning they had already paid for the services of the guild to seek out the missing valkrean and learn what they could of their unknown enemy. So with a short crew on hand, Braden, despite not having official responsibilities beyond appraising the youth, was busy helping to handle requests for the next couple of days, but I didn’t mind waiting.
One of the things I did during the delay was to buy a replacement cloak. Liking the idea of making myself hide better in shadow and night, I chose one dyed in black. The shop owner also said it wasn’t as flammable as other clothing, but since she said this soon after I mentioned my last cloak had caught fire, I knew it to be bullshit.
My wait ended when Catherine knocked on my door and told me Braden was ready to see me. With Clarissa having just went to sleep, Ethan on an errand, and Catherine going to have some breakfast, I went alone to Braden’s office in the second floor. Covering his desk was a map a little larger than its surface. On top of the map were a pile of papers and scrolls neatly stacked in the corners.
“This is all I have on Rathmore,” said Braden. “I went through just about everything again late last night. Bad idea. I dreamed I was facing down a faceless Rathmore with only one arm attached.”
“Was the bad night worth it?”
“It will be if you find something in Gremly.” He motioned for me to get closer to his map of southern Iazali. Near the center of the inverted v-shaped subcontinent was an almost perfectly round forest located within the confines of western Oclor. Surrounding this forest were some x’s, dates, and notes written with ink. “As you can see, there’s a rough path to follow once Rathmore makes his jump from Niatrios to Iazali. He heads east until he reaches southern Gremly. Then things get quiet for a few years before towns around the forest begin reporting an abnormal amount of missing people again. I’m sure a few of these are cases unrelated to Rathmore, but no doubt most are.”
“That town northeast of Gremly…”
“Yes, Holmfirth. I remembered my prior interest in it when I saw the dates. They imply he returned there often, and was also the last place he seized victims before moving north.”
“So Holmfirth will be my first stop.”
“It’s a fairly large town, but we have no permanent guild presence there. Unfortunately, with this valkrean mess going on, I won’t be able to send any official guildsman with you, but if you wish to ask your friends to join y-”
“Their goal is here, and you need what help you can get.”
“Very well, I won’t give them the choice. However, I doubt you’ll refuse a free trip to Oclor.”
“The guild will allow you to fund a trip for a couple of strangers?”
> “Not normally, but a quick note to the royal family and I’m certain your newest acquaintance will compensate us. I’ve already sent a request and I should have everything organized in another few days.”
“This would be much simpler if you could summon me,” said Aranath with a grunt.
“I appreciate the effort,” I told the human entity. “If you don’t mind, I would then like to use the rest of my time here learning how to ride.”
“Of course. You can even use my Jasmine in the endeavor. She’s a sweet old thing that even allows hollering kids to ride her.”
“There isn’t a place I could also learn how to swim, is there?”
“There are some good public baths that are warm and deep, though it does require a few bronze standards to enter the better ones. Now, I don’t know what the latest rumors of Gremly are, but keep in mind that it holds its reputation for a reason. People have been entering that place only to never return long before Rathmore ever arrived. Not to patronize you, but approach that place with great caution. For all we know, Rathmore himself is there.”
“I pray he is.”
Much of the next three days was spent with Clarissa teaching me the fundamentals of how to ride on the easygoing Jasmine. I wasn’t planning on actually bringing or riding a horse to this leg of the journey, I simply wanted to make sure I wouldn’t need to rely on somebody else when the next opportunity arose. It was a little more painful between the legs than I thought it would be, but after already having a pretty good idea of what to do, I thought I had built a solid enough foundation to learn the finer points later.
The other half of my free time was spent in a public bath nestled inside a large stone building, its interior decorated with marble and beautiful murals depicting different landscapes. I bought a little instruction pamphlet that contained illustrations showing children how to swim. Again, a foundation formed, but it still wasn’t strong enough to stop me from fearing a sinking ship and the drowning that occurred afterward. Or did good swimmers fear that too?
Braden soon got word that our ship was ready one drizzly morning. Catherine and Ethan came to see us off. Braden didn’t show up, but he had given his farewells the day before when he gave me a rough copy of the Gremly map, which was inscribed with what he believed to be the most important notes. He couldn’t get us the fastest ship, but the two-masted Cheska looked sleek and her large sails easily gathered any errant breeze. The vessel was strictly a cargo ship, but the captain had often hired the guild to help defend against pirates and so we were able to use the quarters they would have otherwise occupied.
Even before Clarissa cleared her blurred vision, which she shared with Catherine, the anchor was aweigh.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Our destination was a ten or eleven day voyage, assuming favorable winds most of the way. As it turned out, a foul storm struck our part of the ocean three days after we set sail. One sail tore, but it didn’t take long to repair. Getting out of Alslana waters brought us into the waters of Brey Stor, a close ally of Alslana. The southern neighbor became free of Alslana’s direct rule when the empire broke apart a century before, but they still shared many cultural similarities. It likewise acted as an important buffer to the more belligerent Oclor nation.
As for the country I was heading for, the reading I did before and during the sailing told me that Oclor was ruled by two major factions. The most influential were the owners of the vast sariff fields deep within the country. While the pregnancy preventing flower could be grown in well-maintained gardens, it did not thrive as readily as it did in Oclor’s naturally rich soil and rainy environment, giving the nation a valuable monopoly on the plant. About a hundred families controlled the majority of sariff farmland and potion production, with each having a small army at their disposal. More often than not, these armies were employed to defend their territory from their fellow farmers, not invaders.
A tier below the sariff growers were the merchants who did the actual work of selling the sariff and the various byproducts it created to foreign ports. Both these groups were intermixed with the old nobility, who now acted as a glorified mouthpiece for the country. Keeping a loose hold over the lower and upper classes were the priests and priestesses serving the gods of day and night. The rulers seemed well aware that a weak sense of unity among the people would create dissatisfaction and disorder. Still, one of these factions would occasionally challenge these state of affairs, but nothing had really changed internally since the War of Dragon Fire. For now, the land was quiet. On the other hand, with its rarely unified navy, its waters were always subject to pirate attacks, hence our captain’s penchant for hiring the guild.
Speaking of the captain, he was an old sea dog who had a son and daughter among his crew. His daughter in particular was a good caster and helped direct the winds into the sails whenever they went too much against us. On the sixth evening, as the grizzled captain sat smoking a pipe on the top deck, I asked him what he knew of Gremly.
“My path will take me near there,” I answered his subsequent inquiry. “I’ve heard it’s always had an unwelcoming reputation.”
“Aye, but I suspect Oclorans takes pride in that repute. It’s like they think no other people could survive with such a terrible forest in their midst.”
“You’ve survived great storms, have you not?”
“Plenty… Ah, I see what you’re getting at. I suppose the sentiment would be comparable. Ha! Perhaps my land loving friends think me tiresome with all those tales of tempests and pirates.”
“And what of your tales about Gremly?”
“I’ve never gone in deep enough to experience any firsthand accounts, but plenty of second and third hand accounts have reached the coasts. From what I gather, that place used to be much grander. It was a forest three or four times as large as it is now.”
“What shrank it?”
“More recently it’s been farmers seeking more land or locals burning its fringes to either extend towns or simply to be rid of the ghostly place. But most of the reduction came well before the dragon war, when Oclor hardly had control of its own shores. What caused the forest to recede, if it really did at all, is what tickles the imagination of everyone.”
“The history book I read didn’t even mention that Gremly used to be larger.”
“Historians just put what they know, don’t they? Like I said, no one can say for sure the forest was even that much bigger all those years ago. I bet your history book didn’t mention why people even call it ‘Gremly.’” I shook my head. “They say ‘Gremly’ is actually the name of a town or stronghold deep inside the forest, built by the first people who arrived long before northerners ever came to southern Iazali.”
“First people? Where would have they come from?”
He shrugged. “Some say they sprouted in Gremly itself, or even came from Degosal before it became the Corrupted Island. My favorite theory is that they came from another realm altogether.”
Repeating Aranath’s words, I said, “Or they might not be human at all.”
“Ah, maybe, maybe. Whoever they were, or are, the theory goes that they feared the newcomers so much that they retreated into the deepest reaches of their forest. Without anyone to tend to those twisting trees, the forest died. Others say they warred among themselves and ended up burning everything in less than a century. Whatever you want to believe, everyone knows that some kind of ancient magic permeates that place. How else can so many people go missing? Entire armies have to avoid it, so you know even mighty generals take respectful heed of whatever’s in there.”
“And what of recent news?”
“I haven’t heard anything in particular, but I trust that you’ll satisfy your curiosity as soon as you walk a dozen steps into Oclor.”
When the ship finally docked five days later, I decided to keep my curiosity to myself until I was closer to Gremly itself. Holmfirth was five hundred miles away, which a steady pace would have me reach in about twenty days. I was tempte
d to buy a horse, but I didn’t want to take care of an animal unless I had to. Besides, as I walked away from bustling crowds for the first time since leaving Abesh, I began to feel more in my element. Nothing beat strolling wordlessly under a waning moon and a thick layer of starlight.
We did at one point hire a carriage service that conveyed us to a town twenty miles away, but we found the ride too uncomfortable to hire similar services again. The weather was too humid and hot to travel in the middle of the day, so Clarissa and I slept most of it away. By staying clear of other people as often as possible, the vampire and I made good time and didn’t become diverted by problems that were not our own.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Holmfirth became visible one sweaty midafternoon. It looked like any other typical town, but there was a mire in the air that seemed to have gotten stronger the closer I came to my aim. The outer reaches of Gremly’s trees could be seen a few miles off. As a kind of reward for reaching this place, I bought a large lunch and stuffed the entirety of the chicken, bread, fruit, and spell-cooled water down my throat in practically one gulp.
Once I ate the large sweet roll I ordered, I asked the corpulent woman behind the tavern, “What news of Gremly?”
“Most don’t need to come to my tavern to hear the most recent stories. Where do you hail from, stranger?”
“A question I would like the answer to myself, madam. If you wish to know the first place I remember, then northern Etoc is my only truthful response.”
She raised a nearly nonexistent eyebrow. “Stranger indeed. I’ve always wanted to travel beyond this land. Tell me, what is the far north like?”
“The biggest difference so far would be the lack of overbearing humidity.”
“That would do me good right about now. Unless you enjoy being constantly drenched, I can’t imagine you’ve come all the way down here because of the weather.”
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