To my surprise, Korzan was already strapping on her armour by the time we arrived. She looked over at us without pausing. “So, what’s the problem?”

I blinked. “How did you know there’s a problem?”

“It was pretty obvious, why else would Lady Sarinknell rush out like that?”

Well, at least one of us was on top of things. Elmidath went over and shook the still dozing Miusin awake. Rubbing her eyes, the demon got out of bed and stared blearily at the three of us. “What’s going on?”

Elmidath went to gather her things, leaving me to explain what was happening to the others. “We don’t know exactly what it is, but there’s something seriously dangerous going on in this village. Something to do with whatever took hold of Elmidath’s father.”

Korzan whistled. “That’s quite a step up from some simple bandits, huh? No wonder Biustarn didn’t want to deal with this himself.”

Keeping most of her body hidden from the outside, Miusin peered out before turning back to us. “So we’re leaving then?”

Elmidath finished by donning her clawed gauntlet and fixed Miusin with a glare. “Of course not. This is the perfect time to strike; before they know we’re onto them.”

“Strike at what? Do you even know where the bandits are?”

“Not exactly, but I think I know who does.”

That was news to me. Concerning as our encounter with Gorus had been, he hadn’t given us much to go on. “Who?”

“Well I figure the village head must either be involved or know who is. It’s hard to imagine he could have no idea what was going on. If we confront him about it, I’m sure we can figure things out in no time.”

Thinking back to Gorus, I remembered he’d asked us to help his family. “Before that, there’s something I need to do.” I told Elmidath about the arrangement I’d made, though I had no idea how to locate his family.

“That’s not a priority right now, we’ve got much more important things to worry about.”

“I realize there’s a lot going on, but if we wait there’s a good chance his family will be in danger. For all we know, they might already be.” The darkness could very well take them as it had Gorus.

Elmidath looked like she wanted to argue, but she just sighed. “Fine, you deal with that. The rest of us will find the village elder.”

Clutching her arms to her chest, Miusin stepped closer to me, still wearing her night clothes. “I’m going with Cathal.”

For a moment I was touched, but then it occurred to me that she probably just wanted to do the less dangerous job. I suppose I could respect that; she likely wouldn’t be much use in a fight.

The four of us left the house together, only separating once we were outside. We weren’t far away from the others when I heard Elmidath’s voice in my head. “Be careful.”

“You too.”

After the short exchange, I set my mind to finding Gorus’ family. I didn’t know anything about them, which made my options somewhat limited, but the village wasn’t that big. They had to be around here somewhere.

I glanced at Miusin. “Any ideas on how we can find them?”

“You could ask someone.”

“Technically I could, but it’s the middle of the night. Do you see anyone we could ask?”

Miusin pointed off into the distance. “What about them?”

Looking over, I saw a villager carefully picking their way through the widely spaced houses. They were roughly headed in our direction, though it was hard to say why that might be. Thinking that I might be in league with whatever dark forces were at work here, I shushed Miusin and motioned for her to get down. Seemingly focused on their destination, the villager didn’t notice us and we were able to follow them without giving ourselves away.

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Only when they reached the place where I’d been staying and moved up to the window did I decide to confront them. Sword at the ready, I advanced until I was nearly within arm’s reach. “Stay where you are.”

They spun around, eyes wide, but seemed to relax when they saw me. “Where is Goros? Did you meet with him?”

“Who are you?” The voice was feminine and unfamiliar.

“Norith, I’m his wife. Please, do you know where he is?”

I grimaced, trying to think of how best to explain what happened. Much as I wanted to break things to her gently, my sense of urgency got the better of me. “He came to tell me about the bandits in exchange for protection. When he started telling us what was going on, darkness erupted from his mouth. I know this might be difficult to believe, but he’s dead.”

Norith sniffled and her voice trembled as she spoke, nearly breaking. “I believe you. I told him something like this might happen.” She took a deep breath. “You agreed to take my son and I out of here?” Though she was clearly distraught about her husband, she was holding it together admirably well given the circumstances.

“That’s right. Where is he? It’s best that we leave as soon as possible.”

“Back home. I’ll show you the way.”

Without further ado, she hurried into the night with Miusin and I close behind her. Though we were in a considerable rush, a thought occurred to me. “Your husband wasn’t able to tell us much. He said we’d already met the bandits; do you know what exactly he meant by that?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t answer that. You saw what happened to my husband when he tried to help you, there’s nothing more I can do.”

“Oh, right. Sorry I asked.” In the moment it didn’t occur to me that the same thing might happen to her, but it was rather obvious.

Her house wasn’t too far from where I was staying and we arrived without seeing another soul. Norith stopped outside and turned to us. “Do you two mind waiting out here? I won’t be long.”

It was more a command than a question. “Okay, we’ll keep watch out here.”

Standing close-by, Miusin kept glancing around. “It’s lucky that we didn’t run into anyone else.”

“Yeah.” Now that she mentioned it, it seemed almost unbelievably lucky. Were all the other villagers simply asleep? I assumed they were busy with work during the day, but the village seemed a little too quiet. “I’m not sure what I would have done otherwise.”

If the villagers attacked us that would be one thing, but if all they did was raise the alarm or something like that, then what was I supposed to do? Hacking down unarmed villagers didn’t sound too appealing, even if what they were doing might be dangerous to us.

“Why? Are you that scared?”

Despite Miusin’s bravado, she was clearly shaken. Not that I blamed her, I doubt she’d expected anything like this when she agreed to come along. “No more so than usual.” In fact, after the initial shock the whole situation hadn’t felt all that frightening. It was hardly the first time my life was at risk. Heck, it wasn’t even the first time I’d encountered the darkness that lived below.

“That’s not exactly encouraging, you know?”

“Sorry, did you need me to encourage you? I assumed you’d be fine.”

“Of course I’m fine. I just don’t want you guys to mess this up.”

It was probably a little immature of me, but teasing Miusin like this helped calm my nerves. Besides, it’s not like we had anything more productive to do while we waited. “Fair enough. I’ll do my best not to ruin things for you then. I wouldn’t want your father to get upset with us.”

She scoffed, somewhat unconvincingly. “I’m not worried about my father.”

We lapsed into silence and soon after Norith emerged carrying bags, with another similarly encumbered villager with her. I ushered them forward, already moving off into the night as I led the way. “Come on, we’ll take you out of the village but we have to move quickly.”

They followed me without comment, but before long I saw that their burdens were slowing them down. I lagged behind until I was beside them. “Here, let me help you with those.”

They looked uncertain for a moment, then handed some of the bags over. With the weight better distributed, we made good time through the village. It would be difficult to protect all three of my charges if we ran into trouble, but the night was as silent as ever.

We made it back to where the ogres were dozing and I let out a sigh of relief before turning to Miusin. “Can you watch over them from here? I need to get back.”

Miusin raised her chin haughtily. “If I must.”

Despite her posturing, she sounded relieved. Giving the three of them a final nod, I ran back towards the village.