The next day, Egea and Ouzo left the inn to go and purchase the party some cold-weather gear. The air had been getting colder and colder the further North they had come, lately beginning to bite into their bones, so they would need some warmer coats. Egea had said that, being a trading post this far north, Vishay was bound to have some to sell somewhere.

When Horatio came downstairs to the inn’s common room, a poky little affair with a few battered tables and chairs and a grumpy innkeeper serving fried fish on brown bread, only Primus and Olivia were yet awake and at breakfast.

‘...no Grandfather,’ Olivia was in the middle of saying in a low voice. She paused and looked over at Horatio as he arrived, then continued. ‘They are both safe, as far as I can tell.’

‘Well, if you are sure…’ said Primus. ‘I neither can discern any malicious aura on either of them with my Awareness, but we should be careful, nonetheless.

‘Who are both safe? Who are you talking about?’ asked Horatio as he sat down and waved at the innkeeper for some food, though he had a good idea already.

‘The two travellers,’ confirmed Primus. ‘Speak a bit more quietly, please, Horatio. Neither Olivia nor I can sense anything Braxian about them, but…they are strange. Just keep an eye on them, would you, Horatio?’

‘Of course,’ the sellsword nodded.

They continued eating in silence, and soon enough the rest of the party, and the two strangers, joined them, and the talk turned to practical matters of how long the journey to the Wastes might take and where they might sleep on the ship and, where the party were concerned, just how irritating the captain Antonio had been to make them fight him before he granted them passage.

Halfway through the meal, Egea burst in through the front door, followed by Ouzo, his face hidden by the massive stack of fur coats and cloaks .

‘Presents!’ said Egea with a toothy smile. ‘I got us some great deals with the local merchants. Well, I got you some great deals, Gramps,’ she said to Primus, ‘seeing as it’s your coin. Also made myself a bit of coin on the side selling on some things we didn’t need. Anyway, here you go, guys, don’t be shy.’

The trader started grabbing items of clothing off the top of Ouzo’s stack and chucking them at different members of the party. She seemed to be in some kind of euphoric frenzy from having just done so much shopping. ‘For you, Gramps, I got a nice long ermine-lined cloak with a pointy hood, to make sure you stay looking all magician-like. A lovely warm coat for you to wrap around over your priesty-robes, Ceres. This furry number is for you, Wyvera, because, well, bits of you will freeze if you travel into the North dressed like that. These smart matching coats are for you, Silivia and Olivia (hey, did you ever notice how your names end the same way? From now I’m going to call you the ‘ias’!). Helen, I didn’t get you anything because being a ranger you’re already pretty well-dressed for all weathers and I didn’t want to waste money, hope you don’t mind. And Ouzo doesn’t need a coat because, you know, he has his own fur. Oh, and this for you, hero-boy.’

Horatio caught the item Egea threw him and examined it. The pelt of a white werewolf, complete with its staring yellow eyes and glistening fangs on the still-intact head, which fit snugly over his own .

‘I love it,’ he said. ‘Thanks, Egea!’

‘A pleasure,’ said the trader, and winked at him. There were still two items left at the bottom of Ouzo’s stack. ‘Oh yeah, and I got a couple of warm cloaks for you two as well.’ She threw them to Ross and Owen.

‘Gadzooks!’ said Ross as he removed the cloak from his face, where it had landed, dislodging his turban and revealing some purple hair underneath. ‘This is most kind of you!’

‘Thanks,’ said Owen. ‘You shouldn’t have.’

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

‘Well, actually, I didn’t,’ said Egea. ‘Those are on rental. You each need to pay a gold piece for every day you wear them, and you give them back to me when we get back.’

‘Well done, Egea,’ said Primus before either of the newcomers could protest this. ‘Now take some fish for you to eat on the way, and let us depart. The sea captain will be waiting for us, and I want to get this journey over with as quickly as possible.’

Back at the Wandering Heart, Antonio was indeed waiting for them at the end of the gangplank, his arms crossed and a broad smile spread on his once more clean-shaven face. He seemed to have completely resumed the manner of the cocksure captain, his defeat at the hands of the party yesterday and subsequent sheepishness entirely forgotten.

‘Hurry up then, landlubbers!’ he called to them. ‘We haven’t got all day! I want to get this ridiculous voyage to the Frozen Waste over with so I can get paid by you! All of the merchants in Vishay have taken their cargo off my ship, since none of them believe that I will come back, but your payment will more than make up for what I have lost from them.’

Once they were aboard and standing on deck, feeling the gentle motion of the ship as it bobbed gently on the sea against its moorings, Antonio asked them ‘So then, lunatics, are we aiming for anywhere in particular in the Frozen Wastes? The western side? The eastern side?’

Primus looked over at Olivia, deferring to her.

‘Nowhere in particular,’ said the seer girl. ‘Just the Frozen Waste in general. The fastest route to it possible, please.’

‘Due north, then,’ Antonio said, nodding. He raised his voice all of a sudden, shouting to his crew: ‘Weigh anchor! Set sail for the Waste! Let’s be off, damn you all!’

His crew, as far as Horatio could see, consisted entirely of men, in various states of dishevelment, mostly wearing tight-fitting sailors’ clothing and brightly coloured bandanas, set to work about the ship, getting it ready for departure, hoisting the sails, pulling up the anchor and detaching the moorings.

In mere moments they were setting out from Vishay, the unfurled sails catching the morning breeze and pulling them north, out into the open sea, towards the Waste.

It took them three days’ sailing to reach their destination.

The voyage was almost entirely uneventful. Horatio spent most of his time feeling seasick and trying not to vomit, having never been on a boat before. Ceres periodically cast cure spells on him to help him feel better, and spent much of her own time getting to know some of the sailors and finding out about their lives, which Horatio didn’t like. Egea counted the coins she had made from her business in Vishay, and earlier on the journey, and made a few more by making some sales and trades with the sailors. Wyvera turned a couple of tricks with some of them, apparently happy to make use of her skills from her previous profession to make a bit of extra coin herself, though Horatio only found this out by overhearing the gossip among the crew on the mornings after. Ouzo seemed just as sea-sick as Horatio and spent the voyage curled up at the prow of the ship, whimpering whenever anyone said anything too loudly or the ship rocked too violently. Silvia complained almost from the first minute of their journey that she was bored of sea-travel, and skulked around the main deck, trying to entice the sailors to exchange their knife-tricks with her. Helen watched for fish from the rail of the ship and threw her spear into the water to skewer them, then dived in to retrieve her catches before climbing back on board and sharing them out. Ross and Owen kept to themselves, not even sharing conversation between each other, let alone anyone else, gazing out wistfully at the sea or reclining in their hammocks. And Olivia…well, Primus and Olivia spent the daytimes huddled in conspiratorial conversation that nobody else could hear, and the nighttimes gazing up at the stars together and pointing at them, plotting something or other, before they joined the others in retiring to their hammocks for the night.

So, all in all, not a lot happened.

But then, late in the morning of their third day on the sea, they sighted the Frozen Waste: A far-off smudge of white on the horizon which had a solidity to it that suggested it was more than just a fog or a belt of low-hanging crowd.

‘Land ho!’ a sailor called down from the crow’s nest at the top of the main mast to alert them to it.

And sure enough, no sooner had they sighted the Waste than they were set upon by a group of monsters.

The monsters literally rose up out of the sea and jumped aboard to attack them. Antonio’s crew panicked and rushed about in a fearful frenzy, shouting and screaming that the worst had happened and that this fool voyage would see them all killed.

But Horatio and the others were ready. They had been ever since the Waste had been sighted. They assembled together on the deck and drew their weapons.

Only, this time there was an extra person among them.

Horatio was surprised to see that Ross, the flamboyantly dressed traveler, stood alongside them too, a sword with a long, curved blade that glowed a faint blue in his hand.

*Rossalento Qumbrick Macventa IV joined the party!*

But there was no time to be surprised now. It was time to fight.

Battle1