“Your family? If the knights can identify you, looking into your family will be one of the first things they do. I’m not sure that would be a very good idea, Vetica,” Merlin said.
Vetica stared at the wooden floor of the wagon. Her entire demeanor had changed since she first posed the idea. “They won’t be able to identify me. Even if they could, the knights aren’t going to get involved with my family. We’ll be safe there. We can lie low, like you said, and I can gather some information.”
Orb dislodged himself from Merlin’s shoe and floated over to her. “Wait, are you from a noble family or something? I can’t imagine there being someone the knights were too afraid to get involved with. So, you’ve got to be nobility, right?” the dungeon core asked.
Vetica ignored him. She stood and walked to the front of the wagon, stepping over the back of the driver’s bench and taking a seat. “I’ll drive for a bit,” she said. It was clear she didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
Merlin looked like he wanted to ask something but gave in and handed her the reins. He moved to the back of the wagon to hang out with Charlie. “Well, that gives me time to look over the new upgrades some more. What do you say, Charlie? Want to see the new features?” he asked.
Charlie perked up. “Yeah!”
Orb floated closer to look, and Boop followed him as usual. Mousifer and Bleedy also lifted their heads to watch. Seeing the new upgrades to their traveling arrangement was worth waking up from their naps. Bleedy yawned.
Merlin messed around with the wooden panel on the far side of the wagon. At first glance, it looked just like the old panel. But Canano had rigged the outer walls of the wagon, so they slide up now, as Merlin had showed earlier.
The panel slid up two or three times its usual height. Merlin knocked on it. “This here is a triple-layered panel. The outer two layers are made of wood, to maintain appearances. But inside there’s a sheet of magically reinforced metal. Both sides and the back of the wagon all have a panel just like this. If we get into trouble and need some cover, well, here we go.”
The top of the panel was wider than the rest of it to hide the fact that the space where the panel normally sat could accommodate additional storage. There were a series of hooks built on the panel so that they could hang stuff from it. It looked perfect for knives and—well, Charlie wasn’t sure what else they’d use it for. He was certain Vetica would use it for knives, though.
It was just like Merlin said. They had a lot more space to hide things now.
Merlin closed the panel and stood up, as much as he could at least with the canvas of the wagon forcing him to bend a bit. Merlin pointed toward it. “And see this? Well, this fabric is completely new as well. It’s a cheaper version of the material that was used to make my cloak and your onesie. If something damages it, it will fix itself. To an extent, at least. There are some limitations, but it’s certainly an upgrade compared to before. It’ll be even better at resisting the elements as well. So, we don’t have to worry about rain trickling through or anything.”
Marvin neighed up front.
Merlin sighed. “I know you wanted a raincoat. I meant to ask, but I didn’t expect to get run out of there by a giant bone worm. My bad.”
The two of them, Marvin, and Merlin, were back to normal. At least, for the most part. But Vetica had told Charlie that Merlin had visited Marvin every day they were in the dungeon to spend time with him. So, Marvin had come around and forgiven him for leaving him behind so long in Sange. Charlie was glad. He didn’t like when Marvin was upset with Merlin.
Charlie blinked. “Wait, Canano was able to make this?” he asked, reaching up to feel the fabric. It was extremely soft to the touch, but he could tell it was tough as well. It didn’t seem like it would tear easily.
“No. He didn’t make it himself. He’d planned to make a few tents out of it but thought we could use it more. So, he let us have it. It was nice of him,” Merlin said.
Charlie nodded. It was nice. But now he was thinking about his other friends. Would they be okay? Themis had been really confident that things would be alright. But Charlie couldn’t help but worry. Apparently, his frown didn’t go unnoticed.
“Ah, not a fabric man, huh?” Merlin asked.
“Squeak!” Mousifer said, scurrying over to Charlie.
“It’s not that. The wagon is nice. I’m just worried about everyone. Do you think Themis and the others are going to be alright?” Charlie asked.
Merlin sighed. He sat down and crossed his legs. “Well, Themis and Brandt knew each other. So, I’m sure they’ll treat him well, even if he’s in trouble with the law. Plus, we saw that not all the knights are unreasonable. I’m sure Talmot will keep an eye on him as well. Geby and Canano will be fine, too. That’s one tough caldurra, and Canano’s a genius. A combination like that? They’re probably safer than we are.”
Everything Merlin said made sense. It made Charlie feel a little better, but his worries still ate at him a bit.
Merlin rubbed the back of his head. He leaned forward to unlatch the hidden compartment in the middle of the wagon. “Oh! You have to see how big this space is now. Canano really maximized just how much we can—” Merlin paused. The hidden compartment opened up on the side Merlin was on, so unless Charlie crawled around, he couldn’t see inside. The door to the compartment was only partially open, so even though Merlin could see inside, Charlie could only see Merlin’s face. Something inside the compartment had gotten his attention.
“Is that—” Merlin started to say something.
Vetica realized what he was doing and turned around. Her eyes were wide, and she yelled at Merlin. “Merlin no!”
Merlin’s jaw dropped, and he turned to look at her. “Oh...”
“What is it?” Charlie asked. He crawled so he could get a better look. He was curious now. But Merlin suddenly slammed the compartment shut.
“It’s nothing! Don’t worry about it,” Merlin said. He was unusually flustered. It wasn’t like him to be so caught off guard by something.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“You saw something! What is it?” Charlie asked. Something weird was going on.
Vetica glared at Merlin. He shrank away. “It’s uh—” Merlin paused for a moment. “It’s my dirty underwear!”
Orb sank in the air. “Really? That’s the best you got? Cough up the goods!”
“Your dirty underwear?” Charlie asked, tilting his head. “I don’t understand. Why would Vetica be so upset over that?” he asked.
Merlin glanced at Vetica, but realized he wasn’t getting any help from her. She turned to face back toward the front and lifted her head up. Merlin was clearly on his own here. “Well, because I’m such a slob and don’t clean up after myself that she got angry.” Merlin’s cheeks flushed. “I’ll clean up later. For now, how about we play a game?”
Charlie had the feeling there was more going on, but for now, he was willing to accept Merlin’s distraction. He enjoyed playing games.
***
When they’d left Arcadeya, it’d been night. Now, night was quickly approaching again. They decided it was time to let Marvin rest. It was nice out, and the sky wasn’t very cloudy at all. So, Charlie suggested they sleep outside the wagon tonight. Normally, Merlin would sleep on the driver’s bench while the others curled up in the back of the wagon. But tonight, Charlie wanted to sleep under the stars. Vetica got a fire going while Merlin and Bleedy collected firewood. Charlie summoned a few scalers to watch the surrounding area. He was careful to keep count of how many he summoned. The incident with Bonehead being outside of his dungeon when he’d thought he’d put all the scalers back earlier had made him paranoid. So, he’d made Merlin count every scaler that came out. Six scalers later, he closed the portal and curled up in a much too large sleeping bag. Bleedy and Mousifer cuddled up against him.
Vetica said she wasn’t tired yet, so she stayed up to keep watch with the scalers for a bit. Charlie got the feeling she was tired but didn’t trust the scalers to keep watch. She’d come around in time, but Charlie didn’t push the situation. He knew she could nap in the wagon during the day tomorrow if she needed to. Plus, they were supposed to reach her family’s home soon, according to her. She’d probably be a lot more comfortable once they got there.
After a while, he drifted off to sleep.
***
Vetica
The bark of the tree she was leaning on was too uncomfortable, no matter how she adjusted her back. Eventually, she gave up and looked around for a place to sit. She liked to stay on her feet while keeping watch, but it couldn’t be helped. Her feet were tired. Charlie seemed like he was getting the best sleep of his life. Bleedy was snoring beside him, and Mousifer was squeaking in his sleep. It was kind of cute. She wondered what kind of dreams the little black mouse was having.
She looked over her shoulder. Merlin had tossed and turned for a while earlier. Eventually, he’d gotten up and said he needed some alone time. Boop had followed him, much to Merlin’s annoyance, but eventually he relented and allowed the dungeon core to come with him as long as it promised not to talk. That wasn’t a problem, considering Boop couldn’t talk.
She wasn’t sure if it was because she was nervous about what was in store for them the next day, or if she was feeling nosy. But when the quiet of the forest allowed Merlin’s whispers to just barely reach her, she decided she couldn’t resist investigating. She found one of the scalers. It was perched in a tree nearby. Vetica pointed it toward Charlie. Luckily, it understood. It leapt down and took her place in the clearing. It would roar if it saw anything suspicious and the other scalers would come running. Vetica wasn’t going far. She wasn’t going to trust Charlie’s safety to the lizards alone. But based on Merlin’s whispers, he hadn’t gone too far from camp either. She wouldn’t need to go that far to hear what he was saying.
She crept through the forests, constantly turning around to make sure she had a line of sight on Charlie. This resulted in a fairly slow pace. But she wasn’t in any rush, and besides, Merlin’s whispers had showed no signs of slowing down. Eventually, she reached them. She turned to make sure she could still see Charlie. The campfire was still visible, and though she couldn’t make out any features, Charlie was still where he should be. Satisfied, she turned back to see what Merlin was doing.
Merlin had left his cloak back in the wagon. It was almost odd to see him wearing a simple button-up shirt. Boop floated beside him as he talked. “It’s just…I don’t know,” Merlin said, staring up at the stars. “Charlies incredible. You know that? He’s amazing. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think I’m watching the very future of this world grow up before my own eyes. I truly think he’s going to do incredible things.”
Vetica smiled. This was sweet. She felt bad for eavesdropping all of a sudden. She started to return to camp when she heard her name.
“And then there’s Vetica. I know you can’t talk, but if you ever figure it out, and you tell her I said this, I will feed you to a caldurra. But she’s really strong too. I admire that, ya know? At first, I was against letting her come with us, but I was wrong about that. It makes me feel better knowing she’s around. I can’t protect Charlie. I’m not strong, and I don’t have any actual power. But Vetica can fight, and I know if things go bad, she’ll have his back,” Merlin said.
Boop hovered closer to Merlin and bounced against his shoulder. Boop.
He turned to look at the dungeon core. “I don’t know if that was an attempt at comfort or not, but thanks either way. Back there, in the dungeon when Charlie faced that creature, I felt so useless. I was useless. I just have a hard time feeling like I fit in with the two of them. I mean, I’m basically just a glorified wagon driver. Hell, they don’t even need me for that.” Merlin’s head fell. “I guess I worry that I’m holding them back. I just…I want to be useful. I want to be someone Charlie can rely on.”
Vetica frowned. She was an assassin. She was no stranger to listening to private conversations and spying on others to collect information. But this felt different. Maybe it was because Merlin was one of her traveling companions instead of a target. Or maybe it was something else, but she decided she would return to camp. It would be better for everyone if she just pretended she’d never heard anything.
A branch cracked under his foot. She winced. Damn it.
Merlin shot up and spun to face the noise. “Who’s there?” he called out.
Vetica hid her body behind a tree and hoped Merlin wouldn’t investigate further. They stood there, each of them frozen for a moment, until finally Merlin sighed. “Well, Boop, I guess I’m on edge. We should get back to camp. Unless you have anything you want to vent about? Girl troubles? Orb been stealing clothes from your closest? Or maybe you need help to decide which creature you’ll get eaten by next! Anything?”
Vetica smiled and carefully made her way back to camp.
When Merlin returned, she did her best to pretend she hadn’t just been eavesdropping.
“I can take a shift if you want. I’m sure you’re tired too,” he said.
Vetica acted surprised to see him. “Oh, Merlin! I wasn’t aware you’d left.”
Merlin rolled his eyes. “Ugh, you’re the worst. I literally told you I was going on a walk. Some look out you are!” he said.
Vetica smiled. “Goodnight, Merlin.”
Merlin waved her off. “Try not to stab me in my sleep when you have midnight knife practice or whatever it is you do.” She detected the hint of a smile on his face as he went and crawled into his sleeping bag.
She took a deep breath. She’d overheard Merlin saying he thought she was strong only moments ago. But if he knew how she felt now, he wouldn’t have said that. Tomorrow she was going home for the first time in a long time. She knew she had nothing to worry about. The Rawlins had lots of property. Their influence stretched all over Aysela and even beyond it. Sure, there were plenty of people she didn’t want to run into, especially after breaking a contract. But where she was taking the others was safe. No one of importance would be there. A small outpost filled with low-ranking assassins wasn’t anything she needed to concern herself with. Even if they had a problem with her bringing Charlie and Merlin there, she’d outrank all of them. She’d order them to keep it quiet until they were ready to move on. It would all be alright.
So then, why did she have such a bad feeling about it?