Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Journey Continues
To Ancrum
They left Wedderlie early the next morning, after enjoying a meal. They hadn’t been traveling long when Elara felt the forest close around her.
The shift came quietly, a subtle thickening of the air, the way the wind threaded through the branches differently here, slower, more deliberate.
Leaves whispered against one another overhead, not restless, but watchful.
The earth beneath the horses’ hooves softened, rich and dark, holding the imprint of each step as though reluctant to let them pass too quickly.
It was not merely trees and ground, but memory layered upon memory. Roots that remembered storms. Stones that had heard vows sworn and broken. Moss that crept patiently over scars left by steel and fire.
She wished she could stop and forage, perhaps find plants unknown to her, add sketches of them to the journal in her collection pouch and to study for potential use. She missed her work as an herb-scribe, and she feared how long it might be before she was able to return to it.
“Something troubles you,” Dar said, having watched her eyes brighten with delight only to fade in sorrow.
She shared her feelings with him. “I miss my work. I so enjoy learning about the foliage and what help it cannot only offer healers but as potential food source as well.”
“Why an herb-scribe? Do you come from a family of herb-scribes?” he asked, taking advantage of the moment to learn more about her.
“Nay, my mum is a weaver and my da a record keeper.” She smiled with thoughts of them.
“Children usually follow in the steps of their parents,” Dar said, thinking of the path ordained for him since birth.
“Aye, it seems that way. But I spent a lot of time in the forest when I was young and my mum, thank goodness, realized it was where I was the happiest. She asked an herb-scribe if I could apprentice with her. It was contingent upon how I did after spending a day helping her forage.” She chuckled.
“I knew every plant she collected, pointed out a couple that had me curious, told her how the leaves tilted in the rain and how there was silence before a storm. When the day was done, she claimed me as her apprentice. She told my mum that it can take years for an herb-scribe to learn to listen to the forest and that I already possessed that ability.” She turned curious eyes on him.
“What about you? Did you ever want to be anything other than a Hunter?”
“My fate was sealed the day I was born. I trained from an early age, my duty clear. I would be prepared to lead the Hunters when the time came.”
“Is that what you want to do… lead the Hunters?”
“It is not about want. It is about duty.”
To Elara, he sounded as if he needed to defend his fate and perhaps accept it as well.
“Regina mentioned something about—”
“Nothing but old tales,” he snapped, cutting her off.
“What old tales?” she asked curiously.
“Nothing worth repeating.”
“Tales often start from a grain of truth.”
“Or from lies,” he countered, “in which case they cannot be trusted.”
She was about to tell him she would love to hear the tales anyway when she felt a shift within her and she shut her eyes as it slipped over and through her. It was a vision coming on and she had felt it before it struck like last night, and she embraced it.
The scene stirred in her mind’s eye, a man on the road ahead, traveling towards them. Unease stirred around him leaving her feeling that something was amiss with him.
“What is it?” Dar asked, watching her eyes open slowly after seeing them flutter closed to see something no one else did. A vision for sure, but a brief one.
“Ahead, a lone figure walks the road. He heads towards us, not away.” She shook her head. “There is an unease to him.”
Dar’s hand went to the hilt of his dagger. “He travels alone?”
“I saw no one with him,” she said, but something had her quickly adding, “but I cannot be sure.”
Dar turned partially in his saddle to his six Hunters traveling behind them and ordered, “Two stay here, the others spread out and see if anyone lurks nearby.”
The men followed his orders without question.
Sure enough, as they turned the slight curve in the road not too far ahead the man came into view.
He moved without haste or burden, his stride unencumbered, his cloak loose about his shoulders. No pack nor blade in hand. Nothing tied him to any place but the moment he occupied. A wanderer? Or someone with a destination?
Dar called out with authority, “You there, halt.”
The man stopped at once.
He was lean, spare as the road itself, with dark hair pulled back and eyes sharp. He didn’t fit the description Bella had given him of the wanderer this morning, short and thick.
The fellow’s gaze swept over Dar, then Elara, and he was quick to say, “I seek no trouble, Hunter.”
“Be honest with me and you’ll find none,” Dar cautioned. “Did you pass a short, rotund wanderer on the road?”
Fear flashed in the man’s eyes.
“Truth will keep you from trouble,” Dar cautioned.
“With respect, sir, I don’t always find that to be true.”
With a swift swing, Dar was off his horse and went and stood in front of the man. He was a good head taller than the fellow and broader.
“Then perhaps a threat would work better. Tell me or you will be taken to Caerith, and you can tell the king what you refuse to tell me.”
“Nay, sir, nay.” The wanderer shifted his weight, his gaze flicking past Dar to the trees, then back again, as if fearful of being seen or heard. He lowered his voice. “I saw him and I wish I hadn’t.”
“Tell me,” Dar commanded, leaving no room for him to refuse.
The man drew a breath, then let it out slow.
“Two nights ago. There was more than a chill in the air, and I could find no place to shelter. I smelled a cook fire and hoped it was a fellow wanderer, and he would share the heat of his campfire and the fish that was cooking. But I know the dangers of traveling the road, so I kept my steps light so I could peek past the trees and make sure no trouble sat by the fire.” He paled. “I wish I hadn’t.”
Dar waited for him to continue.
“What I saw froze me for a moment. When my senses returned, I hurried away quietly and got as far away as I could.”
“What did you see that frightened you?”
The wanderer hesitated and when he spoke it was with a tremor. “Another man sat with him, his face hidden by his hood.” He swallowed hard. “And on his shoulder—” He paused swallowing hard again. “Stood a fairy, her tiny wings still, and a soft blue light glowing around her.”
Elara heard and her first thought was… Amelia? Could it have been her?
“Had you been drinking?” Dar asked, looking for a reasonable explanation.
“I wish I had been.” He shook his head. “But nay, I hadn’t a drop all day, though after seeing that I could have used a whole jug of ale.”
“Are you sure it was a fairy?” Dar asked.
“The blue light glowing around her made it hard not to see her. She was as clear to me as you are here standing in front of me.”
Elara’s fingers tightened around her cloak.
Dar had more questions for the man. “The wanderer wasn’t disturbed by the presence of the fairy?”
“He didn’t appear so, but I didn’t linger, I left in haste wanting no part of it. Please, sir, my lips are sealed. I will not say a word of this to anyone,” he pleaded. “I just want to be left alone to wander.”
“Hold your tongue and you’ll have no trouble,” Dar said.
“Aye, sir, aye. I swear, I’ll not say a word,” the wanderer promised.
“Where did you see this fairy?”
“Outside of the village of Ancrum.”
“Be on your way,” Dar said, turning and mounting his horse. “And make sure to hold your tongue.”
The man nodded as he rushed off and when he was out of sight, Dar motioned to one of his men who rode up to stop alongside him.
“Follow him and as soon as he goes to tell the tale, get hold of him and take him to my father. Explain what happened and tell him that I will find proof fae folk have left Driochmor.”
Elara realized that Hunters never spoke words that suggested they might find what they search for. It was always that they would find, would succeed in their hunt.
The Hunter rode off without question or fear and a sharpness in his eyes like an animal eager to follow and catch his prey.
“You are so sure the wanderer will not keep his word?” she asked as they followed the road ahead.
“He will not be able to resist. Such a tall tale would bring him not only food and shelter but coins as well. And it takes only one person to believe it more truth than tale to start it spreading and people becoming fearful that it could be true.”
“You don’t believe it is?” she asked, worried what might happen if she told him about Amelia.
Dar scoffed. “The fae folk were banished to Driochmor.”
“How can magic, sorcery, witchcraft, whatever name you want to give it, be banished?”
“King Halric, Dravic’s grandfather, negotiated the surrender of such creatures.
Little is known about it, but when the negotiations were done…
sorcery was seen no more in Scotara. If the wanderer’s story is true and he saw a fae folk, then it could mean that whatever agreement had been made…
has been broken.” His mind churned with possibilities of what it could mean.
“If Tharne of Drogath seeks Driochmor’s help, makes promises of freedom to them, and it is granted, it could mean Scotara’s defeat. ”
Elara sat silent in her saddle, the dire possibility frightening as well as the pledge of honesty they had shared.
She could not hold her tongue. She would have to tell him about Amelia, but first she would speak to Amelia and see if she was the one with the man.
And warn her that a fae folk had been seen.
“Stay here,” Dar ordered Elara and rode off to speak with his men.
Her thoughts remained on getting word to Amelia. But how could she do that?
She glanced around and whispered, “The forest.”
It would take her message to Amelia.