Chapter 33: Ode to a Wanderer

“Do we really need this much food?”

 

Thirteen large crates filled with food and water lay stacked in the wagon in front of me, supplies Hans had kept prepared for one of his own travels. To its credit, it had quite a variety within it, with dried fish, vegetables, and only a small amount of hardtack to dread.

 

We were loading the wagon in Han’s connected stable, a commodity on houses on the lowest levels of the city. It was thankfully well shielded from the wind and snow, constructed of sturdy stone pillars and whitewood planks. Behind us, in the farthest stalls, two feathered, four-legged beasts of burden known as ‘Colgs’ waited.

 

“Not if the High Road is clear.” Breale huffed as we hauled another crate onto the wagon. “But Fredrick and Hans must want enough to redirect towards the Horn of Norni if needed.”

 

“And how far is that?”

 

Breale leaned back on the cart, watching as snow continued to drift down outside the awning.

 

“To High Road? A week. To Minua? Three.” She chuckled mirthlessly. “In good weather, of course.”

 

I glanced at the gusting wind, and then at the two inches of snow on the cobbles.

 

“This is going to be hell, isn’t it?”

 

“It’s not that bad normally.” Breale said. “But possibly.”

 

I sat down on the back of the wagon, tired beyond belief. It had been a long day already, starting as a prisoner and ending it upon the wagon, but I didn’t want to rest until we were safely out of the city. Not that I could even if I wanted to, however, not with the threat of arrest hanging above us. We were in a dubious legal state right now after all, what with being the collaborators of someone accused of treason trying to leave the city. And surprisingly enough, this was actually my first time doing something like this.

 

“I wish they’d hurry up.” Breale said. “Every minute we stay here is another minute someone is looking for us.”

 

Fredrick and Hans were both out collecting a few more supplies in the city, though I had no idea where they were getting them so late in the night. And in the middle of such a vicious storm.

 

“You think they sent people in the middle of the night? They don’t even know where we are.”

 

Hans had forbidden us from going back to our manors, promising to hand over notes after we were safely out of the city. As Fredrick, Breale, and supposedly Saphry had amples of experience with long distance travel, we were going to travel alone without any of our household. It wasn’t out of an unwise hurry that we decided this, but the Maverick’s only had maids, butlers, and a couple soldiers in the capital, and I didn’t think Marcolo would be too much help. Our primary goal was to be light and fast after all.

 

Well, as fast as you reasonably could be while travelling through mountains in winter

 

It meant I didn’t have time to say goodbye to the old geezer though, which I found I was feeling no end of guilt over. I mean, he had lost his charge for almost two weeks at this point, and now I was just going to split without saying anything? It felt cruel.

 

“Well, I’m not really worried about them finding us here.” she said.

 

“Well I’m sure Andril and Auro will be fine.”

 

“Not them.”

 

Breale looked towards the ground, and I curiously leaned closer.

 

“I’m worried for Brother, actually, with all of this fighting and politicking.” She looked away. “But don’t tell him I said that.”

 

Her face was tinged red, as if she were almost embarrassed to admit the most utterly basic of familial bonds. 

 

This was a joke, right? I stared at her for a while, waiting for the punchline, but none was forthcoming, and I soon found myself giggling and then laughing at the absurdity at it all.

 

“Hey! W-What are you laughing at! I’m serious, he’d never let me hear the end of it!”

 

“Hahaha… I’m sorry, it’s that you were just…” I gestured at the sword on her hip, faltering when memories of that grisly scene a couple hours ago came back. ”...eh, ‘fighting’ in life or death combat this morning and now you’re scared of letting your brother know you worry about him? How does that make any sense?”

 

Breale huffed.

 

“That’s… different. I trust Red in a fight like that, but he’s very selective in his apathy, so something like this is a bit…”

 

I cringed when the word ‘fight’ came up, not entirely understanding how someone could call something like that ‘a fight’. It had more in common with butcher work in my opinion.

 

“He’s kind of stupid in the worst of times.” Breale continued. “Like, he almost sounded like he believed that Andril did all that stuff. Insanity, I tell you.”

 

“No, insanity was what you did to those guards.” I said. “You practically turned them into bloody mist!”

 

“That was a good plan, wasn’t it?” Breale smiled psychotically. “I didn’t actually think Silst's smoke would get past their shields.”

 

“Good plan…?” I gulped as the scene ran through my mind again. “Breale, that was horrific. I’d have nightmares for months if that was possible.”

 

I had the normal nightmares to occupy my dreams, but that scene was high up there on ‘things I regret’. It was almost as horrific as the first period.

 

“Possible?” She looked at me strangely. “Wait, what do you think we should’ve done?”

 

“I don’t know, just disabled them? Practically anything besides murder would’ve been better.”

 

I knew, logically, that I was being a little unreasonable here, but what could I really say? Murder didn’t turn acceptable just because you were killing a ‘bad guy’, nor was it moral to me. Perhaps it was just the modern citizen in me, but the finality of death still seemed like the job of the courts, not vigilantes and nobles.

 

Who were we, if not civilised?

 

“Disabled them? Did you want us to cut off their hands and feet?” Breale looked horrified at her own words. “That’s barbaric!”

 

“No! But like, could we not just have run away? Was fighting necessary at all? They weren’t going anywhere with that alchemical gas anyway.”

 

Breale, however, was not swayed.

 

“And what would we’ve done once they’d recovered? It probably only would’ve been a few more seconds before they thought up a counterward to clear it, and then we’d be running away with three experienced battlemages behind us. I mean, come on Saphry, we barely got away as it was!”

 

I opened my mouth and closed it, unable to think up a valid response for that.

 

“I know you’re sheltered and all, and I apologise for making you see all that, but sometimes you have to kill people, Saphry.” She pat me on the head. “Even Hans would’ve done that.”

 

“It still seems wrong.” I said. “Especially when it was so fast.”

 

“That’s just how battle is sometimes. You’ll get used to it.”

 

[Christ], I could only hope I wouldn’t. That sounded like a bad road to go down, especially for when I finally got back to Earth.

 

“You know, I was the same way once.” She continued, her fiery eyes looking into the stable wall. “I hated the very thought of killing. A right, proper lady, Mother used to call me.”

 

I snorted. It almost wasn’t possible to imagine Breale as ‘right’ or ‘proper’ after I had seen her covered in the viscera of those guards. Let alone all her other behaviour.

 

“No, really! If you had watched me the night of the gala-” Breale grimaced. “Well, during the gala specifically, you would’ve seen it.”

 

“I seem to remember that you had a knife under your skirts.”

 

“Because I told you!” She huffed. “To everyone else, the perfect lady.”

 

Yep, sure. 

 

“And what changed?”

 

“Andril, mostly.” Breale grinned. “It was from him that I learned the beauty of duelling. Everything else sort of collapsed from there. Mother still hates him for it.”

 

“Andril?” I raised an eyebrow. “How the hell did that happen?”

 

There was no way in hell I’d believe that he’d willingly teach a girl to swordfight. He didn’t even want me participating in our damned conspiracy, and she was expecting me to believe he’d gone a step further and broken societal code to cross swords with Breale? He struck me as a little too proud for something like that.

 

“Well, he didn’t really try to per say. He just…” Breale looked away, a tinge of red coming to her cheeks again. “Well, I’d never seen many people up in the castle above Cice, besides family and servants of course. Mother didn’t really allow me to leave the upper floors of the castle much, so the most interesting thing I could do was watch Fredrick training in the courtyard. But then he arrived.”

 

Cripes, that sounded boring as hell. Was that a normal life for noble girls in Summark? Maybe Saphry’s behaviour made a bit more sense, or at least was understandable. She wasn’t expected to do anything else.

 

“I was only allowed to meet him once before I was thrust back into my room. Not that I would’ve talked to him, though.” She laughed softly. “I was pretty timid back then.”

 

“Timid, you? Now I know you’re lying.” I joked.

 

This did mesh up with how Andirl and Fredrick had described it, though it didn’t really seem to be her fault. 

 

“It’s true, unfortunately. The most I could do was peek down from my window to watch them train each other.” Breale laid her hand on her sword as she smiled. “It was the most beautiful thing, really. I’d seen Fredrick duel Father before, but Andril blended magic and sword fighting into the most wonderful display I’d ever seen! It was like Esilmor himself had descended upon the field, slashing and lunging and exploding into such beautiful twists of motion and fire! I was enchanted, for how could one make fighting look so honourable and just? It was like watching a duo dance, and that was what excited me.”

 

I leaned back, blown back by the intensity of her spiel. I’d never seen the twin so animated before, and that was saying something.

 

“So, of course, I snuck out, climbing down the tower with my father's sword in my hands.” She chuckled. “I couldn’t even carry it properly. And once I got down, I immediately challenged Andril to a duel.”

 

“Ah, that sounds more like you.” I said. “And I’m guessing he was impressed and helped teach you everything? And that sparked everything else?”

 

“The opposite. He laughed in my face and told me to go make some dwaran.” Her face darkened. “Brother told Mother too, and I was locked into my room for a week.”

 

“Oh. Eh…”

 

That sounded more in line with what I would think Andril would do. Though a fair bit more cruel. Perhaps the prince had mellowed out a bit in the following decade.

 

“That… pissed me off, as you would say. So, I did what anyone would do and trained. Every night I would steal Father’s sword and climb the lattice outside my window to the roof to practise, and every day I would challenge Andril again. I was such a pain to Mother then, though nothing she did could dissuade me from my path. And even with all that, I think it took a year before Andril finally accepted.”

 

I stared at her, trying to imagine a scrawny Breale angrily slashing at the air on a castle roof at night and ambushing the prince in the hallways with burning eyes and unkempt hair. I could almost feel the past exasperation of Mrs. Maverick.

 

“And you won, I guess?”

 

“Mhmm, no. He destroyed me. But I never stopped training. Eventually I was able to beg Brother into helping me, and he taught me the family enchants. After that, and using a ton of magic items to negate some of his fire, I was able to scrape out a lucky win after three years.”

 

“Good lord, you did that for three years?!”

 

It reminded me a lot of the months I’d spent enhancing my own magic, though on a larger scale. Even if I had been some stuck up conservative guy like the people of this world, I couldn’t imagine not being impressed with such dedication.

 

“Among other things.” Breale laughed again. “Mother was not pleased.”

 

“I’ll bet.” I said, shaking my head. “How did your father react?”

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She rolled her head around for a second.

 

“I think he secretly encouraged it, actually.” She said. “Sometimes that sword was way too easy to find, and I’m almost certain he knew where I was training and didn’t tell Mother. He never explicitly forbade me from continuing either.”

 

“And that brings us to the Breale of today then.” I finished. “It was an upgrade, I’d think.”

 

“Ha, of course it was!” Breale said. “Now all I have to do is train until I can consistently beat him. That’s one of the reasons I want to get on the road already, to find him at Minua.”

 

They’re back. In a hurry, too.

 

Gideon’s voice boomed over the telepathic link before I could respond, startling me.

 

“Fredrick and Hans are back.” I jumped to the ground, shaking the sleepiness from my limbs. “They might need help loading.”

 

“A message from Silst?” She shook her head in astonishment when I confirmed. “How much I’d give for a gift like that.”

 

“For what?” I flashed her a weak grin. “So you can check up on your brother?”

 

“I told you not to mention that!”

…

“Pitching hell, Father, do you really need to leave in the middle of this storm?”

 

Peeking around the boxes, I could just barely behold the soldier standing by the front of the wagon. Despite the cold, he only had a slimmer blue coat and a silver cloak that came down to his knees and a thick white scarf covering his neck. He wore a battle mask over his eyes, a magically warded metal mask in the shape of a bird that reached just from ear to ear like some masquerade costume, a small beak protruding from the front over his nose. From Saphry’s past experience, I knew it was far more protective than it looked, being enchanted to deflect both magic and blades alike. Like all the guards I’d seen, he wore a silvery hood over his head to shield against the snow and rain.

 

Hans and Gideon sat on the front seat of the wagon, which was made almost entirely of wood. The other three of us sat shivering in the back as we had since the wagon left Han’s stable.

 

“Some things can’t wait for the sun.” The paladin replied. “Caelis’s Call can’t wait another two week.”

 

“They’re still having trouble with that? I thought your group banished that demon last spring!”

 

“We tried. It fled, and only came back a few weeks ago.”

 

“Well, can’t it wait another few days at least? Royal diviners say this should all clear up soon, and it doesn’t feel quite right to be sending a fine man like yourself into such a typhoon alone.” 

 

I heard Fredrick sigh beside me, though I couldn’t blame him. Was Hans friends with literally everybody in the city? The fear of being caught was only rising the longer we stayed at the gate.

 

“Unfortunately not. Demons rarely go away without some help, they only get worse.”

 

Hey, I was kind of in the same boat as these villagers, wasn’t I? I could only hope that my nightmares would give me some time before they manifested.

 

The soldier put his right arm behind his head, deep in thought.

 

“Can you wait a few hours then? Don’t tell anyone, but we have a company about to leave towards Belson’s Valley and the High Road a little later, the same direction as Caelis’s Call. They might be able to take you on, and I’d feel a little better about this.”

 

All of us in the back stiffened as we heard that. Was that after Andril and Auro? There was no way it wasn’t, right? And an entire company? [Christ], we’d have to hurry.

 

“Ah, you worry too much, Halme.” Somehow, Hans didn’t sound nearly as stiff as I would’ve expected, as if the news about the caravan wasn’t worrying. “I’ll be fine by myself. I’ve demonstrated my winter wards before, haven’t I?”

 

“Well yes, but do those really even work? The ones they taught us in training seem to barely hold back the wind in a normal storm, let alone something like this.”

 

“They assuredly do.” Hans gestured towards the open gate ahead of us, and Gideon huffed from on his shoulder. “Now, is that all, or…?”

 

“Aye, aye. You should be fine to go. If you have a dragon with you, some kind of good omen has to be with you, right?” The guard glanced towards the covered wagon we were in. “What’s the load for, anyway? You’re not smuggling orthungs out, are you? My captain’s had a sore spot about that recently.”

 

Again, I felt my pulse double. Did he know? He wasn’t going to insist on checking it all over, would he? I tightened my grip on my knife.

 

Hans laughed.

 

“Just food. I don’t want to take from their stores if I can help it, and I might be there for a while. We’re not under a stockpile order, are we?”

 

“Nah, the city should be fine for the winter, storm or no storm. Alright, I won’t keep you any longer. Say ‘hi’ to my uncle, will you?”

 

“Of course. May the Star bless you.”

 

“And fair skies to you. Well, fairer skies than this at least.”

 

With that Hans tugged on the reins and rolled us out of the gates. After we had been on the road for a few minutes and the city had disappeared into the storming mists, the three of us in the back finally emerged to question our chaperone.

 

“Did he really say ‘a company’?” Fredrick asked. “Didn’t you say that Andril wasn’t spotted?”

 

“By the Star, what are they even planning on doing once they get there?” Breale said. “Minua won’t like something like that…”

 

“Calm yourselves.” Hans shook his head at the road ahead, where I could barely see the road for all the snow falling. “We are still ahead of them, and Andril and Auro will be far and away by now. Instead, you must focus on learning all you can before we get to Caelis’s Call, if you are to make it to Minua.”

 

“Ha, learn what? We’ve done more than our fair share of winter trav… wait what?” Breale trailed off as the meaning of that become obvious. “What do you mean by that? Are you not coming to Minua as well?”

 

“I was not lying about the demon there, of course.” He said simply. “Lying is a sin.”

 

Breale and I stared at the paladin in shock. I had been fine with travelling light… but even he was going to be leaving us? What would we do without a proper mage if something happened?

 

“Hans…”

 

“He couldn’t be seen taking us to Minua, as you should know. The church is supposed to stay apolitical, and this is altogether such a matter.” Fredrick didn’t sound nearly as shocked as I felt, and the two of us stared at him in disbelief.

 

“You knew?” I asked. “You think we can make it all the way to Minua by ourselves?”

 

“It won’t be all by ourselves.” He said. “Caelis’s Call is just a day or two south of High Road.”

 

A couple days south… Didn’t that mean we’d be travelling over the hardest parts without him? What was even the point of him coming with us if he was only going to help with the easy road?

 

“Brother, I know we’ve done this before, but isn’t that a little risky? We needed Relan to light fires the last time we went over the mountains in winter, and none of us save Hans know any thaumaturgies.”

 

I briefly locked eyes with Fredrick before looking away. Only he and Auro knew of my magic, having seen it with his own eyes back when we killed that demon. Apparently he hadn’t even said anything to his own sister, which I could only be thankful for. The fewer people who knew the better.

 

“Our forefathers managed without.” Fredrick said. “And we can too.”

 

Ah, what a good friend.

 

“Yeah, over an era ago, you dumbass.”

 

Fredrick scrowled.

 

“Now listen here, I won’t-”

 

“Now is not the time.” Hans interrupted. “I am aware the pass will prove to be the more difficult stretch, but the fact is I cannot guide you the whole way. Matters closer to Verol are just as important.”

 

“As our lives?” Breale asked.

 

“Not everything I do revolves around you four.” Hans replied. “Should I simply let the villagers of Caelis’s Call succumb to their own demons?”

 

“Surely the other paladins could…”

 

“The other paladins won’t even make it back to the city until the spring.”

 

“The spring?” I thought back to my other meetings with Hans. “I thought you said they’d be back after the solstice.”

 

“They found more trouble in Trenlend than expected.” Hans said. “And now I’m the only one in the duchy.”

 

I bit my lip in thought, only to look across the wagon to find Breale making the exact same expression.

“And we can’t just wait in Caelis until your done?” I tried.

 

Hans shook his head.

 

“It won’t be a quick hunt. I’ll need to be thorough this time lest it flee again.”

 

You should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy. Gideon finally said. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be so worried. You have me, after all.

 

I rolled my eyes. Gideon had been much quieter ever since he’d rescued me, but somehow that only seemed to concentrate his irritating qualities into fewer doses. Where was he suddenly getting this confidence from, anyway? Gideon should’ve been the most worried of everyone here, or at least irritated that we hadn’t been able to make any progress on the potion for a few weeks. He couldn’t just be saving it all to yell at me later, could he?

 

Eh, I’d have to make sure to put my full attention towards the potion when I got to Minua. There was no reason to lend any more credence to his claims of doing more work, after all.

 

“But that has been enough talking. You lot should be tired enough by now, so why don’t you get some rest? I’d like some peace while I can.” Hans said.

 

My limbs seemed to remember their own exhaustion as he spoke, and I found both Breale and Fredrick nodding in agreement. Somehow, the cold didn’t seem so biting in the light of the rune in the centre of the wagon, nor did the wind blast so loud in our ears under the cover of the thin wooden walls.

 

“I suppose you’re right, Master Paladin.” Fredrick said, suppressing a yawn.

 

“I could do with a quick nap.” Breale agreed. “But I’m gonna argue about this when I’m not so tired.”

 

“And I’ll be glad to speak.” Hans said, sounding entirely not glad to do such a thing.

 

Despite my laden limbs, a paranoia still stayed my eyelids. I glanced out the back as the others unrolled bedrolls, watching as the gates of Verol slowly faded into the swirling snow, and at our wagon trails slowly disappear behind us. 

 

Would everything truly work out here? There seemed to be a lot of unknowns ahead of us, not even to count how much time Gideon and I were wasting here. Our dream of a quick return to Earth was seemingly dead, we still didn’t know if the right materials even existed, and now we were running for our lives from some political plot. In fact, whenever I thought about it there was quite a bit too much hopelessness drifting about my mind.

 

I’ll wake you if anything happens.

 

Jostled from my train of thought by Gideon voice, I gave him a quick smile before turning over into my bedroll. I wouldn’t do any good by burdening Gideon with misgivings like that, especially not in present company. No, all I could do was wait for whatever the world decided to throw at me next, and watch for the next opportunity.

 

Who knows? Maybe whenever I next opened my eyes it wouldn’t be to a nightmare, but to my bed on Earth, wondering over what a strange dream I had.

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