After some time, I was finally done with tending to the Lycan guard’s wounds, and rested against a nearby tree with a weary sigh. Ethan had thankfully been conscious when I saw to him, so was able to drink his tea on his own. I’d added some feverfew to his cup to help him recover from his fever faster. Jayce had been hovering near him the whole time I was with Ethan, looking like a worried mother fussing over her child.
Footsteps approaching made me look up, and I saw the Captain was coming towards me holding a bowl of something steaming in each hand. He sat carefully next to me, handing me one of the bowls once he was settled. I saw it was a hearty stew one of the guards had made, and thanked him before beginning to eat.
“Thank you for agreeing to help my guards,” Captain Strykar said after a few minutes of silence. “I know it comes at some risk to you and your family, so I’ll be doing everything I can to make sure you won’t regret it.”
I looked over at the Captain and saw that his face looked sincere. During this journey I’d come to realise that he genuinely cared for the men and women of the Lycan guard that were under his command. Not just from the stories that the guards had told me, but also from how he interacted with them when setting up camp. I’d seen him have conversations at length with different guards, and had heard him checking on the ones that had injuries from previous skirmishes to ensure they were travelling well. Honestly, it had made me respect him, and had swayed me more into helping with the guards injuries when he’d asked.
I smiled at him. “I’m glad I was able to help, the Lycan Guard are good people.”
Captain Strykar chuckled, setting aside his empty bowl to lean back against the tree. “I’m glad you think so, ‘cos I dare say you’ll have a hard time getting rid of them now.”
I raised an eyebrow and quickly swallowed some more food. “How do you mean?” I asked.
He scratched his beard and pulled a face. “Hmm, how should I put it. Knowing what they’re all like, they’ll want to adopt you into the group as their official healer or some such.” He gave me a crooked smile. “Plus they’ve all acknowledged that you can be terrifying when crossed. The scouts I sent out after we found you spotted the tree ornament you’d made out of that Tarnished.”
I almost choked on the food I’d just put in my mouth, and had to spit it back into my bowl so I could cough. The image of the Tarnished man strung up in the tree I’d grown and covered in gore rose up in my mind despite my efforts to push it back down, and turned the food I had in my stomach sour.
“They saw that?” I asked once I got my coughing under control.
“They did,” the Captain replied, the humour in his voice dropping away. His face looked concerned as he watched me set my bowl aside. “Was that the first time you’d killed someone?”
I put the back of my hand against my mouth to try and quell the rising bile in my throat. I could still see the Tarnished man’s face so clearly, one eye bulged and staring lifelessly while the other oozed chunks of something bloody around a tree branch. “Mmhmm,” was the only answer I could manage.
Captain Strykar sighed and patted me on the shoulder. “I’m sorry. This may be of little comfort to you at the moment, but just know that if you hadn’t killed him he would have killed you without regrets,” he said, his face sympathetic.
I nodded, the nausea fading enough for me to take away my hand from my mouth. “I’m aware,” I said after swallowing hard. “It doesn’t make it any easier though.”
We lapsed back into silence for a while, watching the other guards joke and chat as they ate their meal. I felt more comfortable with the Captain than I ever had so far.
Maybe my healing him and the Lycan guards was a kind of bonding experience?
“There’s something I’ve wanted to ask,” the Captain said, still looking towards the guards. “You were able to locate the herbs you needed today using your magic, and you told me you used the same method to find where Jayce and myself were yesterday,” he glanced over at me and waited until I nodded. “Why weren’t you able to sense the Tarnished before they ambushed us?”
I didn’t hear any suspicion in his voice, but I still chose my words carefully to make sure he wouldn’t misunderstand me. “That would be because I didn’t have my magic activated or looking for anything then,” I explained to him. “It takes a lot of concentration to keep a broad magical sense like that active, and it burns through magical energy pretty quickly. If I’m tracking one particular target, it’s usually easier depending on the distance.”
“Hmm,” Captain Strykar tapped a finger against one of his knees. “How long can you keep a broad sense active?”
I clicked my tongue as I thought. “If I’m doing a broad general search of about 200m around myself, and if the plant life is fairly dense, at most I can keep it up for about two hours, although I’ll start getting a headache around half an hour in,” I replied.
“And how about if you’re not around dense plant life? Say if we’re in an area with mainly grass?” he asked.
“Ah,” I scratched my neck. “That’s a bit harder. It works better with plants with thicker roots, since they’re able to pass on information at further distances. If I’m only around grass, I could only sense a few metres around myself before the image becomes too distorted to know what’s around.”
“What about areas with little visibility, say in a forest, would you be able to find your way through?”
I frowned. “Yes, I could, if I had a landmark I could look for.”
The Captain hummed and seemed to think for a while. I got the impression he had been hoping I’d be able to act as a sentry for the group, but my magical limitations meant I wouldn’t be able to keep a constant eye out.
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“Sorry,” I said to him after he’d been quiet for a while. “I know it probably isn’t as useful as you’d hoped.”
“No no, don’t be sorry,” he said, standing and brushing the grass and dirt from his pants. He looked down at me and shot me another crooked smile. “You’ve given me an idea.”
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I sat amongst the Lycan guards in our camp, checking on the wounds that I’d tended to a few hours earlier. Captain Strykar and the Duke were stood a bit of a distance away from us all, far enough that we couldn’t hear them, and appeared to be in the middle of an argument. The Duke was gesturing wildly, thick eyebrows furrowed and his black hair that had been pulled back into a rough ponytail almost coming loose from how much he was shaking his head. The Captain mostly stood with his arms folded, his own frown aimed at his father, and seemed to be much calmer in comparison.
The guards all seemed a bit on edge, and kept glancing over at the two men periodically. Jayce and Ethan were sat either side of me, their typically constant jokes and banter more subdued than I had ever heard it. Ethan had recovered from his fever, and the wound in his arm was almost completely healed.
“Do those two always get like this when they’re on a journey like this?” I asked the men once I had finished my checks.
I saw they glanced at each other quickly. “No, not typically,” Ethan answered, fiddling with a dead stick he was holding. “They normally agree with each other’s decisions, or can figure it out quickly if they don’t. It’s rare to see them argue.”
I’d figured as much after taking in everyone else’s reactions. “I wonder what they’re arguing about,” I said to no-one in particular.
“Captain wants to change our route,” Clara appeared behind us, pushing Jayce aside with her boot before taking his place to sit next to me. “He thinks the Tarnished will just keep ambushing us if we stick to the main road to the capital from here, and wants to try a different way to avoid them.”
Jayce looked at Clara sideways. “And how do you know that?”
She flicked a dead leaf at him. “I snuck close enough to overhear them a little bit,” she replied casually.
Our conversation turned to speculations on where the Captain was planning to go that made the Duke so upset. None of us could really come up with a convincing idea. The Duke and Captain Strykar’s argument was still going when I laid down in my swag for the night, arranging myself carefully to avoid tweaking what was once the wound on my back that was now mostly healed thanks to my herbal paste.
I woke again at dawn, as was now becoming my habit since setting out on this journey. The sky was just beginning to lighten, revealing the sky to be clear of yesterday’s clouds. The air still carried the coolness of rain, providing a brief respite from what would no doubt be another hot day. Around me the other Lycan guards were also beginning to stir, a couple of them sitting up already. Liam, who had been assigned with the final watch for the night, sat a little ways off near the horses.
I stood, stretching as I did and feeling the place on my back where I’d been injured now felt to be fully healed, and didn’t offer any twinges of complaint as I moved. The call of the small frogs hidden amongst the nearby trees was almost loud enough to drown out the sound of the birds already flitting about overhead in search of their next meal. I moved towards the edge of the camp, stepping carefully so I wouldn’t accidentally stand on someone, heading for the spot just through the trees where a latrine had been dug.
By the time I was coming back into the camp, the rest of the Lycan guard were awake and starting their preparations for the day. The Duke was instructing the guards to load the packs onto the horses, clearly readying to leave and continue on the journey. His face was still sullen, and it seemed to me he was still stewing on his argument the previous night. I rolled up my own swag, securing it tightly to the mare I’d been riding - Echo, I’d been told she was named. Glancing around the camp, I couldn’t spot the Captain anywhere nearby. Everyone was beginning to mount up. I was about to do the same when the Duke approached me.
“You. Come with me,” he said, voice gruff and commanding.
I was a bit startled. The Duke hadn’t acknowledged me much at all during this journey, which was to be expected since he was of higher standing than me. In fact, I think the last time he’d even spoken directly to me was when I’d last seen him in the Duchess’ office. I followed him as he strode away, not saying anything in response. The guards all watched me with curious faces.
Once we’d walked far enough away from the camp that the rest of the group wouldn’t be able to overhear us, the Duke turned to face me with an expression like he’d just eaten something sour. He looked me up and down, and apparently was not impressed with what he saw. I instantly felt myself bristle a bit.
What’s this fucking noble’s problem?
“You won’t be travelling with the rest of the group for the remainder of the journey,” the Duke said. I raised an eyebrow, which he seemed to ignore. “It’s likely the Tarnished will continue to target us until we’re close to the capital, and your presence will only further encourage this.”
Remember to be polite, he is still nobility.
“So you’re just gonna fucken throw me out on my own when you and her Grace are the ones who sent me out here?” I spat. I instantly knew I shouldn’t be speaking like this to him, but his seeming apathy over tossing me aside set my blood to nearly boiling.
Yeah, great job, swear at the noble who oversees the land your family lives on. Solid plan.
“You’re not going to be alone,” Captain Strykar walked up beside us, leading both his horse and mine. “I’ll be travelling with you as your guard.”
The Duke cracked his knuckles, jaw working as he ground his teeth together. “I still say this is a bad idea, William,” he said tightly. “If you’re so set on dividing the group, send her off with a couple of other guards, why are you the one acting as bodyguard? You’ll be too much of an easy target with just the two of you,” he looked over me once again. “Especially when one is as inexperienced in battle as she.”
Why does he keep looking at me like a cut of meat in the market?
The Captain sighed and rubbed his temples with one hand. “As I’ve already told you father, splitting up will give us the best chance of everyone else surviving until we get to the capital. The Tarnished are obviously aiming for Rowan, so if she’s not in the group they’ll have no reason to attack you once they realise.”
I scratched my neck. “Wouldn’t we still be too vulnerable travelling on our own, sir? From what I know there aren't any discreet paths we can travel to the capital,” I said. Though I hated to admit it, I was in agreement with the Duke.
The Captain gave a smile that was closer to a baring of teeth. “Ah well we won’t be taking any known path. We’ll be going through the Shadewind Forest.”
Oh, shit.
“That’s still a dangerous plan Will,” the Duke interjected. He was still scowling but it seemed to be more in concern for his son. “Almost everyone that ventures into that forest is never seen again. You’ll never find your way in there.”
“That’s where you’re wrong father,” Captain Strykar said and gestured to me. “Rowan can find her way through forests using her magic. She’ll be able to get us through without a problem.”
I gave him a sideways look. He sounded awfully confident in my abilities, which was flattering, but I’d never tracked a path in something as large as the Shadewind Forest. I had especially not tried doing so in a place constantly under fog and with a reputation for devouring people.