Chapter 1 – Vale #2
More promising than Anna, however, was a trio of people.
They were novice hunters and all three had brought down birds and hares during their time at Gersemi Mine.
While I remained with the other five, giving them tips to hone their skill, Caelo had taken the three best hunters deeper into the woods to look for small game.
Secretly, I hope for a boar too, which Caelo possessed the skill to bring down.
Unfortunately, during our travels, not a single one had crossed our path.
I’d wondered if, as winter deepened, the game would start moving south to the Autumn Court.
It had been far too long since the land was bare of snow. That limited what grew without the aid of an earth fae or the magic of a holy Drassil tree in the area.
“Very nice, Samantha,” I said to a young woman when she struck the dead center of her target, the ultimate goal of the exercise. “Try to hit that same place three more times.”
Samantha beamed at me, her cheekbones protruding so much that it looked painful. She looked to be around my squire Filip’s age. In the stage of life where she was growing a lot. The lack of food always hits the youngest ones the hardest.
I smiled back and tilted my head toward the makeshift target. The young woman turned back around and nocked another arrow. It flew, hit near her other arrow, and warmth stirred inside me.
There was hope for these people yet. A small bit, but it was there. And hope, no matter how little, was never mere.
If these humans could hunt, and if the stronghold in the mountain was enchanted with the ability to grow food as it was said to have been way back when the area was bustling with dwarves, the humans could make a home there. We only needed to make it to Dergia without incident or additional deaths.
Crack!
I turned to see Neve, still hard at work. Beneath her power, the lake ice buckled and broke. My shoulders loosened as I watched her, hands shaking as she pressed her magic into the thick ice covering the lake and shifted the loose slab up and over the rest of the ice.
Since we’d arrived at the lake, she’d divided her attention between building compacted snow and ice domes for the humans to take shelter in during the night and cracking the lake ice that repeatedly froze.
Fifty domes were already up, and though they were misshapen and often used trees for support on one side, each had enough space to house three to four humans.
That much effort, over many hours, would have drained most fae, but not my wife. Since we’d been on the move, I’d helped Neve practice her magic daily. As a result, her already prodigious power had only grown.
She possessed the rawest winter magic I’d ever seen. What Neve lacked, however, was in her finesse, as evident by the clunky shapes of the shelters she created. Not that anyone cared when the domes protected them each night.
Give her time. She’s only had full rein of her winter magic for a little over two weeks.
For their part, the rest of the humans fished, gathered water and wood, or remained on the lookout for fae—whether they be malicious like orcs or ogres or simply passing by. To us, both posed a threat.
Until darkness fell, there would be no rest for our weary group.
Footsteps crunched through the snow within the woods. Ever on alert, I twisted to find the humans I’d sent hunting with Caelo had returned.
Ronaldo, a man of about twenty turns, beamed. He had three white hares gripped in his scarred hands. “Look at what we got!”
One was of decent size, sure to have some meat on its bones. Of the other two, one was average size, while the last was small, so small, I suspected they’d killed a mother and a baby that had not yet left her side.
“Nice work,” I said, aware that in our situation, we could not afford to be picky. Out here, a small meal might be the difference between life and death. “See anything else out there?”
“Foxes. We didn’t get any of those, though,” Ronaldo shrugged. The young man had been unwillingly working in Roar Lisika’s mines for most of his life, and yet, he still managed a positive attitude. “Sir Caelo said he thought he heard something larger too. He’s still looking.”
Maybe my hope for a boar was not too far-fetched after all? If Caelo caught one, it would go a long way in feeding these people.
“I heard it too,” the huntress of the trio piped up.
“Sure you did.” Ronaldo rolled his eyes. “Your hearing is worse than mine.”
“Because I’m older?” She scowled.
Age did not dull fae senses, not until we were many centuries old, which this woman was nowhere near.
“Things go at forty,” Ronaldo teased.
The huntress’s scowl only deepened. “Anyway, someone was playing a fiddle. Is there a home nearby?”
We’d spent the first two hours scouting around the lake and found no structure in sight, and on a fast horse we were four hours from the nearest town.
Perhaps she’d heard a wanderer or bard going down the road we’d been avoiding.
I prayed to the stars that it was not a violent fae or creatures who might want to hunt us.
Like the orc tribes I’d often battled. They weren’t known to play music; however, a minority of them might. Perhaps those who did not seek out food or land for their tribes.
“We’ll see what Caelo finds,” I replied, not about to strike fear in their hearts when I had no bleeding idea what might be out there. “For now, let’s skin the hares and prepare them to roast.”