Chapter 1 #2
With a sigh, I hefted my satchel over my shoulder, gripped my staff, and headed back to the market in the hopes that one of the merchants was only here for a day’s trading and would need a trailfinder out of the town back home or onto the next market.
I avoided the old bastard I came in with this morning. One more day on the road with him, and the soldiers would have cause to look for me, because I’d have slit his throat.
At the corner of a stall filled with wooden utensils and bowls, I tried to catch the merchant’s eye, but he was too busy watching the Darysian soldiers as if he’d never seen them before.
“Sir?” I asked him, keeping my voice low.
He turned with that hopeful gleam in his eye that all merchants had, which quickly faded when he saw it was only me.
“I’m here for a few days,” he told me immediately.
I gave a slight nod, ready to move away, when he caught my sleeve. “They’re looking for a trailfinder.”
I looked past him to the group of soldiers. “I wish them luck.” I moved away, bypassed the next stall that sold fancy-smelling soaps, which did nothing but make my head hurt, and edged closer to the metal merchant.
Sometimes he used me, but most times, he had an armed guard. Metal was a rarity up here. You needed to have a heavy purse to buy from him.
I cleared my throat, and he turned, expecting a sale, and met my small smile with a similar expression of disappointment as the last merchant.
“Heading south to Florlunia after this, Amarya,” he told me gruffly.
Florlunia. They didn’t need my skills to head to the lands of spring.
He looked toward the soldiers. “They’re heading north.”
Why?
I shook my head slightly, and he nodded knowingly. “I won’t mention you when they ask.”
“They’re asking everyone?”
“Aye, looking for a guide,” he clarified.
I turned and headed back toward the south gate, hoping the soldiers there had moved down up from there.
They hadn’t.
The snow was falling more heavily, and the cold had sneaked in under my heavy cloak and was once more nipping at my bones.
With a sigh, I made my way around the back of the old wooden houses to the last house before the church of the gods. Snow lay over it in a heavy blanket. There were no footprints from or to the door, and it looked like there hadn’t been in some time.
I heard the low call of the old cow in the barn, and with careful steps, I crept around to the back of the barn, lifted the loose timber, and sneaked into the cattle shed, coming face-to-face with the cow.
“Hey girl,” I greeted. “Miss me?”
The cow gave a low moo in answer, and I took it for the invitation it wasn’t.
Once I’d checked that the door was secure, I settled into the one bale of hay and looked up at the weathered roof with missing timbers. How the cow and the hay stayed warm and dry was a mystery I never investigated. But it was a roof, or part of one, over my head, and that was all I needed.
After four days on the trail, I had food in my belly and a place to rest, so I closed my eyes and welcomed sleep.
The hard nudge into my side was enough to make me grumble, “Stop it.”
The yank on my cloak was enough to make me say, “Fuck off,” louder.
The warm hand on my shoulder made me sit bolt upright, my knife in hand, ready to defend myself.
I looked into the face of a Darysian soldier.
“What?” I demanded, then remembered who I was talking to and dropped my head. “Sir?”
“I’m no sir,” he said with a dry voice, but there was warmth in his tone. “I was told you’re a trailfinder.”
“You were told wrong, sir.”
How the heck had he found me? I glared at the cow that was trying to eat my temporary bed.
“We’re rounding up all the trailfinders in the square.”
“Why?”
He grinned. “Got a job for one of them. The captain said we’ve to get them all. They told me you were one.”
Who did?
“I was sleeping.”
He nodded. “Yeah, the old woman who lives here said you weren’t supposed to be using her barn as your bed.”
I was going to argue, but his amused smile had slipped a bit. “Do I have a choice?” I stood, brushing hay and some snow from my cloak, ensuring my blade was where it was supposed to be, and picked up my satchel and staff.
“There’s always a choice,” he told me, his cheerful demeanor returning.
“For me?” I asked as we walked to the front of the barn.
“Oh no, your choice was either come peacefully or by force.”
“Not much of a choice.”
“But it is a choice.”
We passed the front of the house, and I glared at it, knowing the old bitch would see me and not giving a damn that she’d probably curse me for it. She’d already brought trouble to my door when she told them I was in her barn.
“What do you need a trailfinder for?” I asked the soldier as we headed back to the town square.
“To find a trail.”
I waited for more, and when he didn’t elaborate, I decided it was in my best interest to wait until I was in the town square.
I saw the merchant I came in with earlier that morning, and by the shit-eating grin he gave me, I knew exactly who had told them about me.
I hoped he got run over by his own wagon next time he left town.
“Is this them all?” a stern-looking soldier asked when he saw me.
“Last one,” the one who found me said.
“Right.” The stern-looking one looked me and three others over. “We’ll hire two of you to take us north.”
Two? I dipped my head into the warmth of my cloak to hide my smile.
I was perfectly safe here. The other three knew me well.
One I’d punched, one I’d taken his fee last time he was on a trail and got lost, and the third one favored his right leg from where I’d stabbed the bastard the night he hadn’t understood “fuck off” meant fuck off.
Not one of them asked where they were going. One immediately volunteered, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. He got lost going back to his own village, for the gods’ sake. Limp-a-lot sniffed and stepped forward.
“How much are you paying?”
“Enough,” the soldier growled.
Limp-a-lot shrugged. “Aye, I’ll go.”
Perfect. I waited to be dismissed.
The officer started to talk when a cold, clear voice rang out over the square.
“We’ll take the girl.”
The officer who’d spoken turned and looked at the three soldiers who’d arrived, wrapped in heavy cloaks.
“The girl?”
He pushed his dark cloak back, and light blue eyes met mine. “Yeah, that one.”