Chapter 8
ZIG AND I WALKED IN silence back to our home, our boots kicking up dust along the well-worn path. Guilt weighed on my shoulders at the situation, almost as heavy as the fear that I would fail.
Once the town was solidly in the distance behind us, Zig glanced over his shoulder and chuckled.
“What?” I asked.
“Those suckers,” he said. “I can’t believe they fell for the old trying-to-clean-up-a-spill routine. The second rule of questing may be to never trust a mage, but the first rule of preventing pickpockets is to never allow anyone to get too close.”
I tipped my head back in exasperation and groaned. “What did you steal?” With my current luck, Zig had probably absconded with some priceless family heirloom from the innkeeper that was cursed, or a sausage that would upset his stomach later.
“Oh, only this.” Zig whipped out the scrap of cloth that the mage had tucked away in his pocket after I refused it.
Ah, that was somehow worse. The fabric now sported a blobby coffee stain, but upon close inspection, I saw it was the very same.
Zig flapped it around like it was merely a wet washcloth instead of the only hint we had to the whereabouts of the Elder Beast. “I figured, why not? They don’t need it, and I wagered that you were bluffing when you said you didn’t know any magic that could activate it.
And the reason you didn’t take it was because you didn’t want to be tempted to use it and scrub three days from the quest timeline. Am I right?”
I opened my mouth, then shut it. “You’re right. I didn’t want to be tempted. But I wasn’t bluffing. I really don’t have experience in their type of magic. I don’t like mages. I tend to avoid them. For good reason,” I added sharply.
Zig kicked a pebble from the path. “Well, who knows? Maybe we’ll get desperate enough to try to use it.”
That brought me up short. “We?” Oh no, that sentence sounded vaguely like Dave when he wanted to go on the quest.
Zig paused beside me. He pointed at me and then at his own chest. “We. As in us. As in Ellinore and Zig, brother and sister, on our first adventure together. It’ll be fun! Like best-quest-ever kind of vibe.”
I put my hands on my hips and took a centering breath.
I’d taken several of those since this whole debacle started.
“Well, first things first, Ellinore the Brave works alone. Sorry to burst whatever delusional bubble you were entertaining in that little brain of yours,” I said, making a gesture toward his head.
“But you’re not coming with me. You’re going to stay here and stay out of trouble.
But most importantly, stay alive. Second, this fun adventure has last-quest-ever vibes. Get it?”
Zig straightened and puffed out his chest. “What? You can’t make me stay home. It’s my life.”
“Exactly,” I shouted. “It’s your life. You’ll only slow me down. And if you want to live, I need to move as fast as possible. You’ll be a hindrance.”
Zig scoffed. “I wouldn’t be. I will enhance the experience.”
I laughed, loud and obnoxious. “Enhance? What do you even bring to the table?”
Zig waved the cloth in my face. “I literally just stole this off a mage without him or anyone else noticing!”
Okay. Maybe he had a point. His particular set of skills might be useful in a pinch. And he wasn’t a dragon, like Dave, who would cause a commotion; though with Zig, I could never predict if his shenanigans were to gain attention or avoid it.
“That’s what I can bring,” he continued. “You may not like it, but I’m excellent at what I do. Also, my social skills are leagues better than yours.”
It was my turn to scoff. “Better? May I remind you that I navigated the royal court for years by myself.” While lying the whole time, but he didn’t need to know that just yet, if ever. “And I didn’t make a single social faux pas.” That I knew of.
Zig laughed. He nailed me with his elbow, but it merely glanced off my armor. “You beat Princet Aven on their birthday at their own tournament in front of their entire family.”
“So?” I asked with a shrug.
“So you humiliated them. That was, like, the biggest misstep ever. Total asshole maneuver. It was talked about for weeks among the townspeople, even this far away from the castle, and let’s just say it wasn’t all good.”
Huh. I didn’t know that. No one had said anything to my face or had even hinted. But now that I thought about it, the bards hadn’t written a word about that particular adventure. Had I really messed that up?
“I give you the social skills,” I said, “but I don’t know. I have always worked alone.”
“Which is why I should come along. It will be new and different. And with both of us, I bet we cut the time of the quest in half. Like I said: Best. Quest. Ever.”
Ugh. He was right, I guess. He did have a way with people.
If he didn’t, he’d be in the pillory more than he was out of it.
I had to admit he had a certain kind of infuriating charm that I hadn’t inherited.
And it might be nice to have my brother along with me.
Maybe I could convince him to travel to the coast when all was said and done.
If he was still alive.
“Fine,” I said as we turned the corner around the hill, our cabin coming into sight. “But you listen to me. I’m the leader. You do what I say, when I say. No questions asked.”
Zig flashed a wide grin but didn’t answer. Instead he stopped short. “Hey, who is that?”
I whipped my gaze around and my breath caught in my throat. Princet Aven stood at the fence beside our door, wrestling with one of the sheep. Their hands were wrapped around the bottom of their tunic, part of which was firmly in Rainbow’s mouth.
“Let go. You’re as stubborn as your owner, you woolly menace,” they said as they tugged to free themself.
They lifted their foot and placed it on the bottom slat of the fence and yanked.
The black fabric tore out of Rainbow’s mouth.
Aven reeled backward, their arms windmilling, before losing their balance and landing on their backside.
Rainbow bleated at them from the other side of the fence, which I completely accepted as her way of laughing at them.
In return Aven stuck out their tongue. I stifled a chuckle behind my hand, amazed that Aven would dare do something so childish, even if they thought they didn’t have an audience.
“Hey! Leave my sheep alone!” Zig yelled, breaking from my side in a run.
“I won them fair and square. If Farmer John wants them back, then he is going to have to send more than a trumped-up squire from Lord Henley’s keep to steal them.
These sheep are mine, unless you happen to have a purse full of gold tucked somewhere in all that embroidery. ”
Aven jumped to their feet and brushed off their trousers, their cheeks flushed pink.
They squared their shoulders and pulled themself to their full height.
Even with their trousers covered in hay and dirt, and their tunic disheveled and missing a chunk at the bottom hem, they were as noble and beautiful as they’d been the day I left them in the courtyard of the castle.
“Squire?” they said, voice cracking in affront. “I’m not a squire.”
“Then what are you?”
Aven puffed out their chest. “I’m a royal.”
Zig frowned and eyed Aven up and down. “Are you certain?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Zig,” I said, amused at Aven’s offended expression and Zig’s absolute confusion, “meet Princet Aven.”
Zig’s mouth dropped. “Oh shit.”
Oh shit, indeed.
Zig dropped into a hasty bow. “Um… you’re welcome to the sheep, Your… Highness? Majesty? Grace?”
“Aven is fine,” they said with a shake of their head, their glossy black hair falling perfectly across their brow, highlighting the vibrant blue of their eyes.
My stomach swooped. “What are you doing here?”
“Apparently, being accosted by a sheep,” they said, appraising the state of their tunic mournfully.
Rainbow bleated in response.
Aven narrowed their eyes. “The king isn’t overly fond of mutton chops, but I’m certain a feast could be arranged.” They yanked a dagger from the folds of their clothes. “Your owner did give permission.”
“Hey!” I squeezed between Aven and the fence, holding up my hands. “You don’t need to get all aggro toward a sheep. She’s just an ordinary being.”
“Are you certain? She could be a fauness in disguise.” Aven peered around my shoulder. “She’s quite intelligent for a sheep.”
“Takes after her owner!” Zig chirped as he leaned by the door of the house.
I rolled my eyes. “You do know how ridiculous it is to try to intimidate a sheep with verbal threats and a dagger, right?” Rainbow butted her head against the back of my leg, then proceeded to nibble on my trousers in an act of blatant betrayal.
“She’s only mildly irritating,” I said, yanking my leg away before she could bite off a chunk of the fabric.
“Which is another trait she inherited from her owner.”
Zig frowned. “Hey!”
“Anyway, sheep aside, why are you here, Aven?”
Aven tucked the dagger away. A light blush had seeped into their cheeks, and they slid their abashed glare from the paddock and locked it on me. “You lied,” they said, crossing their arms over their chest. “Lying to royalty is a criminal offense. I’m here to investigate the charges.”
Zig’s eyes widened, but he took the opportunity to bow quickly out of the conversation regarding criminality and ducked into our cabin, closing the door with a loud thud behind him. Coward.