The Maiden of Moonfane Forge

*

Darkness closed in much faster than Lily had anticipated. The innumerous tree branches interwoven overhead left the area under something of a constant twilight by day. Once the sun had dipped below the tree canopy, night fell like a trap sprung. Lily had been so preoccupied with trying to make a fire that when she finally looked up from her fruitless work, she was startled to discover that she could hardly see any further than the reach of her own hands. Beside her, Fae was a ghostly apparition of pale fur against black forest, munching on the food Lily had shaken out for her.

With the shroud of darkness came a steady awakening of night sounds, clicks and hoots and screeches that put tremors of fear through Lily. She shivered both from the cold and from her imaginings of what terrible things were out there that could see in the dark, while she could not.

“I don’t like this, Fae.” She uttered the tremulous words as she went back to work on the fire, striking her bit of steel down the flint and watching sparks repeatedly fail to catch on her meager tinder. She had lost track of how long she had been at it. It seemed that every time she managed to produce some bit of smoldering flame in her tinder that she wasn’t fast enough with feeding smaller sticks into it for a proper fire to catch. A few times, she had tried to find different materials to use for her tinder, and dryer sticks to heap upon a flame, but with no better results until, at length, it became too dark for her to feel safe wandering off the road for more. “You’re not even afraid, are you?” Lily asked Fae through gritted teeth. She glanced up to see the panthegrunn lounging comfortably like a satiated lioness. She turned her head toward a few of the stranger sounds issuing from the night, but appeared entirely unconcerned about them. “No, of course you’re not,” Lily muttered. Once more, she struck the flint and this time her fingers slipped and the bit of steel jabbed her palm, tearing open one of the blisters the work had raised there. Lily winced and took in a sharp intake of breath at the sudden pain. “Damn it!” she exclaimed, throwing the flint and steel down in frustration.

She brought the stinging wound to her lips. It was right between the base of her forefinger and her thumb. Right where Fae’s reins would be rubbing on it all the next day. The moment Lily divined that, the last shred of her composure crumbled, and tears of frustration began to slide down her cheeks. She sat down in the middle of the road and put her head in her hands. The promise of a hot meal and warmth flitted away on the cold night wind, and along with it, the hope of having a little bit of light to hold back the strangeness of the woods.

As if sensing Lily’s sadness and fear, Fae roused herself. The big panthegrunn nosed her broad snout into Lily’s face, pushing at her hands and washing her face in warm-aired chuffs until Lily couldn’t help but laugh and push her away. Fae only pushed her shaggy head against Lily’s face again, grunting softly. Lily sniffled and threw her arms around Fae’s broad neck, finding herself feeling better.

“I know. I know, Fae. You’ll always protect me.” She scratched behind Fae’s ears and about the roots of her horns and into her shaggy hair, then she took her by the horns and gave her great head a playful shake. Fae grunted again, licked her face, and then settled herself back down on the road again at Lily’s side. With a sigh, Lily patted Fae’s muscled shoulder and levered herself up onto her feet. “But, still, just to be safe ...” Lily took a few calming breaths and raised both her arms up before her, palms outward. She judged a small circle that would encapsulate both she and Fae. Then, relaxing her body and lidding her eyes, she began to move her hands. Against the black of night, shimmering gold appeared. Then ... “No,” Lily whispered and dropped her arms. The golden beginnings of the Barrier dissipated like steam. “Not without Mari here to watch over me.”

She wanted there to be something she could do, something that would make her feel completely safe and secure falling asleep in such a strange and forbidding place. It struck her suddenly how easy it was to rely on the security of a Barrier to make one feel safe, even back in the once-peaceful town that was her home.

“I guess we’re going to have to get accustomed to this, aren’t we, Fae?” she said quietly. She sat back down on the cold road and resigned herself to a dinner of more salt meat and water. Following her paltry meal, she wrapped herself in her blanket and, hoping that morning would not take too long in arriving, snuggled in close against Fae’s warmth and fell into a fitful and dream-filled sleep.

*

Slouk chanced another glance behind him. The soldiers weren’t following. Good. Those of their horses that didn’t die would be in no condition to catch up with him again any time soon. He and the raiders would be long gone their separate ways by then. At last, his work was done. His debt was as good as repaid. He was free and clear. All he had to do now was catch up to The Lady’s men that he had previously met at the broken carriage, collect his sister, collect their pay, and then he and she could disappear. Perhaps they would flee north across the mountains, take up with their own people for a while and lay low. Or, they could go south to where the large cities were, maybe even to the capital itself, where people like them could get lost in the crowd and skim prized animals away from their unwitting, be-leisured owners. Things were about to turn around for them.

But first, they would return to Pasanhal Town, where this whole mess had begun, and pay back the money they owed to that crooked merchant whose job they had botched. The man could take his coins and choke on them for all Slouk cared, so long as he and his sister no more had to look around in fear that some petty sellsword would be haunting their tracks trying to collect the bounty on their heads.

Slouk looked back again. Still, no one. He finally reined his horse in to a leisurely canter, no longer the frantic dash that had gotten them away from those damned soldiers. If Slouk never saw another one of those black and silver uniforms again, it would be too soon. He wouldn’t wish the bloodshed that had happened in their little town upon anyone, but considering how they had treated him, well, maybe they had brought it upon themselves. At any rate, he would shed no tears over it. It wasn’t his doing, whatever trouble their ill-fated mage had gotten them all tangled up in. He had never been privy to any of that information, had not even known the scheme had involved mages until afterward. He was only a man given a simple job for simple pay. While he’d botched the first job, the raiders had given him another chance, when he’d first tried to flee and found a few of them who had stayed behind to turn one of their broken carriages into a roadblock. All he had to do was return to the soldiers, find a way to stop their pursuit, and he’d get his sister back, with their original pay. Somehow, it had all worked out.

He let himself smile. His thudding heartbeat began to settle, while his horse—the only one he’d made sure never consumed the tainted feed—caught its breath. The forest road was much easier to follow now. Even the woodland itself looked less intimidating than it had only a day’s ride back, almost enough to make for a pleasant ride. For the first time in weeks, Slouk felt something akin to optimism. Still, he would be quite happy to leave this cursed wood behind as soon as possible and never see it again. The Lady must be mad to intentionally travel by this route, mage or otherwise.

Suddenly, up ahead, a man stepped out from the cover of the trees and into the center of the road. He held up his hand, imploring Slouk to halt. Jolted at first, in the next moment, Slouk recognized the face of one of the raiders and slowed his horse.

“I did it,” Slouk said lamely.

The man scowled, put his finger to his lips and then, with insistent gestures, directed Slouk to dismount and follow him. Slouk slid from the saddle and led his horse as he followed the man off the road and through the trees. Slouk knew who he was being led to. That he had done his job successfully made him no less fearful. These people—these soldiers, or marauders, or sellswords ... whatever one called them—were The Lady’s elite guard. It was their leader who had given Slouk his original task back at the yak town. These men and women weren’t cut-and-dried criminals like Slouk and his ilk. No, these people were much worse. These people thought nothing of trampling entire villages for coin. Slouk had been made to understand that. They were not to be trifled with.

Slouk was led through a small clearing where the group of raiders had set up a hasty camp. At his approach, the commander of the raiders turned his attention to Slouk.

“Here he is, chief,” the first man said, and then he left them.

The raider with the pocked visage and long black moustache and crooked nose crossed his arms and stared down at Slouk with his dark, impassive eyes. “Have you done it?”

Slouk bobbed a nod. “Yeah ... yeah, I did it, just like you said. Poisoned their horses. They won’t be following anymore.”

The commanding raider raised his thin brows. “Poisoned their horses,” he stated. He paused in his speech, just long enough to make Slouk fear more explanation was needed, but then he spoke on. “Idiot. You were supposed to kill them, slip something into their food or water and end them.”

Slouk hesitated. His horse nickered. He stroked his mount’s nose to calm it. “No, I ... no. That’s not what you told me. That wasn’t the deal. You told me to slow ‘em down, and I did,” he contended, feeling compelled to then add, “I’m a lot of things, but I’m no killer.”

“Hear that?” the raider raised his voice. “Not a killer.” This elicited some chuckles from the others loitering nearby. One of them said something in another language, prompting more laughter.

Slouk peered about him, afraid to make eye contact with any of them. “I-I-I did my job,” he stuttered. “I did what you told me to do, did I not? I earned my coin. My debt’s paid, now? For my mistake in the town?”

Again, the raider merely stared down at him. Then, with no more expression than a flaring of the nostrils as he exhaled, he waved his gloved hand. “The debt’s paid. Give him his coin.” Then he turned his back on Slouk and walked away to where the raiders’s horses stood waiting. He mounted up, while the others broke down their rough camp and went to follow his lead. As one raider walked by, he pressed a heavy bag of coins into Slouk’s hands.

For a moment, Slouk stared after them, confused. He found his voice. “And my sister? Should I follow you? Take me to her. That was the deal. Where is she?” Slouk went to follow the commander, but two large raiders put themselves in his path.

“Your sister?” one of them said, as Slouk watched the raiders’s leader ride away. “I’ll show you where to find your sister.” The man raised his hand and pointed behind Slouk.

Slouk turned his head but saw nothing. Confused, he turned back. “Where?”

The raider pointed again. “There. Back up the road. We left her back in one of those stinking yak pastures for you. If you hurry, maybe you can dig her up and take her home, before the scavengers do.”

Slouk stared at the man, stunned and befuddled. “W ... what?”

“Did you not hear me, idiot? We slit the bitch’s throat the very night you didn’t return from your task in the town, as you were supposed to. That was the deal. But don’t worry, we took your debt out of her in other ways before that, a group of us did,” he said with a lilt of amusement in his voice. “She was skilled. Earned you every last one of those coins you’re holding.”

The smirk on the raider’s face sent a burning chill down Slouk’s back. Around him, other raiders chuckled knowingly, while they mounted their horses and departed. Slouk’s breaths became short and panicked, while his vision contracted into a blood red tunnel and his ears filled with a shrill ringing.

“Nooooo! Nooooo! Nooooo!” Bellowing a guttural growl of pain and fury that rent the afternoon air, Slouk launched himself at the leader of the raiders, somehow squeezing between both the larger men blocking his path and despite their attempt to stop him. He hurled the heavy bag of coins at the raiders’s leader. The man turned just in time to lift his arm in defense. The bag struck him and came open, gold coins flying free, raining down in a shower around them both as Slouk leapt for him on his horse, thinking only to pummel him, choke him, claw his eyes out.

It wasn’t to be. Slouk managed no better than to grab and scratch at the man’s pant leg before the other raiders fell upon him. They yanked Slouk violently back and held his arms as he thrashed and screamed. Then, both of them began plunging their daggers into Slouk’s belly, chest, and ribs. He fought and shouted, until blood spewed from his mouth and choked off his wordless cries. The raiders didn’t stop with their assault until they felt his legs weaken and stop thrashing. Then, they dropped him like a sack of grain, face down in the dirt. One of them stood over his body and shoved his blade a couple more times into Slouk’s back to make certain, as the other stooped and began picking up the loose gold coins lying in the growing pool of blood.

Above them, sitting his horse as if nothing had happened, their commander cleared his throat. When the man collecting the coins looked up, he made eye contact and slowly shook his head.

The raider shrugged and dropped the bloody coins back where he’d found them. He and his cohort then mounted their horses and, as one, The Lady’s guard ghosted back through the trees to the road.