Chapter 8

Sam woke up just as the red sun broke through the horizon and lit the orange sky. She felt a little better after sleeping and stretched her arms, working out the kinks in her muscles. She had taken the first watch. She didn’t trust Ayasse not to put something in her food, so she sat far away from him and ate when he wasn’t looking.

She still couldn’t believe she had fallen for such an obvious trick back at the inn and drank that spiked ale. At least they’d been able to get out of there.

“Ayasse, where are you?” Sam glanced around the tiny shelter, but the thief wasn’t in sight. She sighed, lowering her shoulders in defeat. She couldn’t keep up this pretense any longer. It was time to accept the blame. After all, she was the one who insisted on going to that village. She couldn’t stay angry anymore for something that was her fault.

“Did you go to the stream?” She saw his horse picketed outside and covered with a bush. The saddles were on the ground, but no Ayasse. “You should be on lookout. Where did you go?” Sam stuck her head out of the shelter and scanned the stream. It was quiet. She couldn’t feel anything watching her today. “Do I have to do everything!” Sam thrust her hands on her hips. Just when she’d been ready to forgive him, he pulled this.

The shallow camp was well hidden in the black bush near the stream. There was little chance of somebody stumbling in by accident. All she could find was a small, brown-coloured, folded parchment. She picked up the paper and saw her name on the front.

She opened the parchment and saw a bunch of squiggles on the paper and nothing she recognized.

“Damn that man! He should know I can’t read,” Sam crushed the note in her hand and flung it to the ground. When she arrived in this world, she’d been able to speak with no problem beyond a slight British accent. If anything, it just placed her as a person from the countryside. The written language was another thing. The characters they used to write were a complicated mess of symbols and swirls. Just when you had one figured out, they changed one small stroke and the meaning turned on its head. She had tried to learn the words to do magic but gave up after the first week.

“Fragging bastard. Why couldn’t he say he was getting some ale,” Sam said, flopping down on the ground. She knew her name and the word for beer. Everything else was just guesswork.

She didn’t need to know what was on the note, she could manage on her own. She was alone. Again. Why did everyone leave her? Why did she always drive them away?

“Nadia.” Sam covered her face with her arm, even alone, she didn’t want to be seen crying.

“I found some signs of them downstream. They must have entered there.” A voice came from outside the shelter.

“Are you sure about that? You failed basic scout training,” a second man answered the first, chuckling.

Sam’s head shot up. She heard the voices coming from the stream. The trickling current must have disguised the noise of their arrival. She was hidden by a bush on the opposite side, so they hadn’t seen her, or the horses yet. Grabbing a branch, she crouched and waited. It was only a matter of time before they found her.

“Get the sergeant. We need to explore the north side of this area. There are too many places to hide around here and it’s close to the demon land,” the first voice said. “You don’t want to run into a monster. It’s too dangerous to go in there alone.”

Sam heard the hooves splashing in the stream. Their voices sounded closer. She needed to leave before this turned into a fight. She could take down two with no problem, but if more soldiers were waiting, it could turn into a battle she couldn’t win. Sam bit her fingernail.

“Do you think she went this way?” said the second voice. It was deeper than the first one.

“I hope so. I need that reward. I’m into Thane for three coins.”

“Idiot. I told you to stay away from her place,” the first one said as Sam could hear the voices getting fainter. They were moving away from the river. This space had been a good choice, and whatever Ayasse did to hide their presence had worked. Sam had no idea how he was able to extend his shadow power to objects and places, but it worked. He could make people ignore anything.

Sam counted to a hundred then hitched the saddles to both horses and dumped the packs. She would have to ride hard to get ahead of the soldiers. So far, she’d been able to scare them off or block their path. She didn’t want to kill anyone, even by accident if she didn’t have to. There was no getting away from death, but she couldn’t look into the face of the family of someone she killed. The village was enough.

She stuffed the note and bedding into the pack on the second horse and had it walk along with her. She needed to be quiet until she got away from the area. She could change to the second one when the first got tired, maybe get some more distance out of them.

Sam chewed on her fingernail again before slapping her hand away. It was a disgusting habit. “When I see Ayasse again I’m going to rip his head off. I should have been doing this alone in the beginning. I can get to his master by myself.”

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Sam led the horses just outside the Deadland Forest, as far away from the human kingdom as possible without crossing into the demon realm proper. To the right was a flat plain covered in rocks and sand. Growing there were some purple cactus plants. To the left, just past some small hills was the black forest. The foothills spread out into the distance and covered everything as far as she could see. The further an adventurer went from the human-controlled lands, the fewer people they saw. Mixed demon-human villages were rare this close to the desert.

She’d also run into a Blythorn. The creature was the size of a horse and looked like a rhino crossed with a bear. It usually lived in the foothills of the desert. Its hard shell was prized for decoration. Sam had heard of them, but there were none left in Relancia. It had been hunted out years ago. All that was left was a mouldy, stuffed one in the castle. She’d heard they were dangerous if provoked. Watching it, however, she was struck by how peaceful it seemed to be, grazing on the small plants that dotted the desert’s edge. She still gave it a wide birth and entered the desert.

After hearing the two soldiers in the forest, Sam spent the next two days moving back and forth through the trees, staying several steps ahead of King Eon’s soldiers. She hadn’t seen them since that morning, but she could smell their desperation on the two by the river. The bounty on her was too high.

“It’s your fault, you know,” Nadia said, riding Ayasse’s horse side saddle.

Nadia would always say to Sam, “A lady has to stay proper at all times”, and then proceeded to ignore that once she was out of her father’s sight. She always pushed the boundaries of what she could do, even while accepting the limits. Sam hated her for that. Lord Robert knew his daughter was rebelling, but he would never actually bring himself to punish her. Sam, on the other hand, as her guardian, Lord Robert would punish her for the slightest infraction. She always enjoyed any victory she could get over him and threatened to turn him in for tax fraud on several occasions.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked, confused.

“Ayasse left because you were an evil witch to him. Why do you always have to try to control people, Sam? You should use sugar and honey. You’ll get much further. Next time try being polite. Tell them you love them and show it.”

“Shut up, Nadia. You have no idea what I’m going through.” Sam wiped her forehead. This place was like sticking your hand in a fast-burning fire. The heat invaded your bones but gave nothing back. Deserts back home were something only found in picture books. Here the heat rising from the sand in waves was beautiful but deadly.

“Then tell me.” Nadia’s long, raven-coloured hair stuck to her cheek as she tossed it over her shoulder. She was sipping tea. The visions of Nadia had been getting stronger and Sam had given up fighting them.

She was ready to break. It had been two days since Ayasse left, and she’d been unable to think straight. Even an hour of sleep at a time was a luxury. In addition, the horses were exhausted. Anything faster than a walk would probably kill them at this point.

If the poison didn’t do it to her first.

“Everyone leaves me. First my parents,” Sam paused, “then you, now him. There’s something wrong with me. I know I can’t remember everything, but what I can remember scares me. I’m missing something, something important.” Sam punted a rock and it sailed into the desert. She watched it strike one of the cacti and shatter with a boom, startling her.

Rage seeped through her voice. She clenched her hands into fists and stalked toward another cactus. “I know when I remember what it is, I won’t like it. It’s a feeling. If I don’t control the situation, I’ll hurt more. I need to be ready for it. To ease the pain.” She pulverized the purple cactus into a yellow pulp. The fruit dripped from her hand.

“Poor Sam. Boohoo. Let me join your pity party.” Nadia ate a piece of lemon cake and moaned with pleasure. The cream on the top flowed over the yellow filling. Sam could smell the lemon tart and she felt her stomach grumbling for it. It was fake and it was controlling her. Sam hated it when the real Nadia did that. She wasn’t going to stand for it with an illusion.

“How dare you mock my pain? It’s real.” Sam took a deep breath. She crossed her arms across her body to hold herself in. She knew this Nadia couldn’t say anything that Sam didn’t believe. If she lashed out at Nadia, what did that say about her?

“Yes, I know it is.” Nadia scoffed. “To us, our pain is the most important thing in the whole wide world. We wrap it around ourselves, nurture it, and help it grow. It is the main character in our story.” She paused and gave a sardonic smile. “But have you ever listened to how silly it sounds?”

Silent, Sam pondered Nadia’s question. What Nadia said seemed so real, so right, but if she accepted it then it would mean letting go.

“I mean you spend all your time trying to control the world and force it to go along with your plan, that you never really enjoy yourself. The world isn’t fair my dear, however adults get to decide how they’ll respond to it. You, on the other hand, just barrel through like a gorilla, no matter who you hurt.” Nadia was now standing on the stirrups looking behind them.

“How else are we going to control what happens?” Sam bit her fingernail again and spit out the cactus pulp. It was a sour wet mess and better water than what she found on this side of the Deadland forest. She lapped it up.

“Why are you here, Nadia?” She croaked.

“You dreamed me up, you tell me.” Nadia shrugged.

Sam scoffed. She pulled her finger from her mouth and wiped it on her tunic. “I’ve only been here a little over a year. It’s the other place I’m still forgetting. What happened to me over there? What did they do to me? Why was I brought here?”

“How should I know? Maybe you gorillaed yourself into a mess over there as well.” Nadia was no longer standing on the horse. Her entire body was gone and her head had replaced the horses. “It wouldn’t be the first time.” Sam shook her head to clear the image and urged the horses to move a little faster.

“I’m dying here,” she announced to the sky, “and there’s nothing I can do about it. Ayasse left me to rot. If I ever see that bastard again, I’m going to kill him.”

If I’m still alive.

Sam sighed and headed toward the forest. About a half day’s ride from here, she’d run into one of the Demon King’s patrols and had left the forest to avoid them, but they may be her last hope. She had a general idea of where the Demon Castle was and could follow Kale’s patrol if she found them again. She prayed that Ayasse had been wrong and the Demon King wasn’t dead. If he had died, then it would be better to go out fighting something than dying here of thirst in this wasteland.