On the road to Freeriver, I did nothing except read that little brown book Gunner had given me. Illusions had always eluded me. Changing the perception of reality was a closely guarded secret. Yet there it was written down on parchment.

Back at the fortress, Arienne had tried to help me study. Well, she did try, until she got bored asking me to change the color of things. Still, having her around was helpful enough. It gave me peace of mind. Kept me from thinking about what I had to do.

Once the illusion magic started to click in my head, I had an idea forming. It wasn’t complete, I still needed to talk with Nia and Greenspring and hear some of their ideas, but it was a start. If I was correct, we would have a way to save everyone and defeat Gunner.

The fact that the key to our success had been given freely by Gunner told me two things. He either underestimated my ability as a magician, or he underestimated illusion magic.

Most don’t understand the importance of sight until they lose it. The blind have to create new ways to see the world without their eyes. They work hard to stand at the same level as someone with sight. Much like someone who can’t hear has to work hard to be equal with those who can.

As a bard, I knew too well the importance of sound. Everyone relies on their hearing, whether they think so or not. Sight and sound, take away both and you can cripple the strongest fighter.

Illusions couldn’t make someone blind, at least not in the traditional sense. All you could do was change their perception of reality. In most cases, that was good enough.

With the book in one hand, I practiced the hand motions for a color-changing spell with the other. Damian had a permanent scowl on his face as he watched. The others didn’t seem to care. It seemed only Damian understood what Gunner had given me.

Patches peered over my shoulder. “What’s that one do?” She had made a habit of watching me read and practice. Since she couldn’t read, I had to explain every page to her. I didn’t mind, it helped carve the spells into my memory.

“This is a spell to change the color of an object. Temporarily of course,” I said, never looking up from the page.

“Why would you want to do that?” she asked.

“Well, imagine you’re trying to hide in a river. If you could change your body to match the color of the water, it would make it harder to see you.”

“You can change the color of your body?” Her eyes widened as she looked at the inked runes.

“Yes, but it takes a long time. This spell only works on a small area, so you would have to cast it in sections. I’m sure there’s a more effective spell later in the book.” I flipped through the pages to prove my point.

“Anything in there important for the mission?” asked Damian, snarkily.

“Gunner wouldn’t have given this to me if he didn’t believe so.”

“King Gunner,” said Bagheera. Since our last mission, he had started correcting me on Gunner’s title more and more. At first, it was annoying, but now I didn’t mind. He wasn’t mad that I kept messing up. It seemed like he enjoyed correcting me.

Freeriver was south of the Sapphire Mountains. It wasn’t close to Xalir, but that didn’t stop me from feeling homesick. Unlike the previous missions, we stayed on the main road. A few merchants passed us, but they didn’t give more than a passing glance. When I asked Damian about it, he shrugged. According to him, harska were more common around Freeriver. I didn’t question it further.

As we got closer to Freeriver, the unmistakable stench of rot filled the air. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until the road met the river. Bodies stuck out of the water like pieces of meat in soup. Stained red with blood, the river carried them lazily downstream. Most disconcerting of all was the lack of faces. Plenty of heads were in the water, but the faces were scratched and disfigured. The others refused to look toward the river.

“This part of the river is cursed,” said Smokey. “Been like that since Bla-”

Bagheera smacked Smokey. “Not here! Don’t say that name here.”

Drifting on the surface of the river was a body dressed like I was. I squinted my eyes to look closer, only to quickly look away. My face stared back from the water. For the next mile, I didn’t dare look at the river. As it drifted away from the road, I breathed a sigh of relief. Even the harska I was traveling with looked relieved. The next time we saw the river, it had returned to its usual blue. Not a body in sight.

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It took a few days, but our journey came to an end as we saw Freeriver’s walls appear over the horizon. They were grey stone walls with vines growing like fingers reaching toward the sky. Guards patrolled the top of the wall in pairs of two, or at least it looked like that from the ground. Built into an oxbow lake created by the river, the town was surrounded by water.

The front gate was open, so we walked freely over the wooden bridge into town. I didn’t bother with a disguise. We needed information about what kind of person Louis Korpi was first. Though I did make the harska wear robes. Even if harska were more common in Freeriver, the events with Lady Iris might have changed things.

Freeriver’s streets were crowded with buildings on both sides. The stone facade of the buildings was crumbling, revealing their rotting wooden frames. Most of the buildings were three stories high with some even reaching four. They leaned haphazardly over the street, challenging gravity to force them to fall.

Nobody seemed unhappy about the situation they were living in. Not a frown for the stench that permeated the town. People happily talked and walked hand-in-hand. It made me think of the early weeks of my marriage. Walking everywhere with Beth, never leaving each other’s side. That didn’t last long, but we still enjoyed spending time together.

“What’s the plan,” whispered Patches.

“We’ll find a place to stay for the night, and then we’ll spend the next day gathering information.”

“What a waste of time,” said Damian.

“I’d rather waste a day than die because we missed something obvious.” I thought about when Nia, Greenspring, and I first arrived at the mountain fortress. An extra day could have saved so much heartbreak. “Besides, this gives me more time to practice.”

“But you’ve done nothing but practice since we left. How much more could you need?” asked Bagheera, limping slightly behind the others.

“I’m trying to learn a new type of magic. I’m barely confident I can do what I need to do. If we had an extra week I doubt that would still be enough.”

The harska mumbled to themselves, but they didn’t disagree. None of them knew any magic.

We spent the night at the local inn. Unlike most inns I’d been to, this one didn’t have a name. It was only known as The Inn. I didn’t bother looking for a tavern to perform at, we didn’t have time. Instead, I bought two rooms, one for the harska and one for myself. Gunner had given me spending money before we left. With everyone settled, we said goodnight and headed to our rooms.

I didn’t bother trying to sleep. The book Gunner had given me was far too interesting. Illusion magic, as I had guessed, was based on sight. Much like the magic I used was based on sound. All you had to do was change what a person saw. To make it easier, you tried not to change something to be completely different. If you wanted an object to look like a table, you started with something that had a flat top.

Illusions of people didn’t seem that hard to make. The book said that people can recognize a humanoid shape in anything. Like a coat draped over a chair being confused for someone standing in the corner of a room. Tricking a person’s perception relied on this principle. It would be too difficult to change a house into a person, but changing a harska into a human was quite simple. Assuming you made them look like someone that fit their size.

Unfortunately, there was a fatal flaw with illusions. Physically touching it revealed it was an illusion. Something about touching an illusion made a person’s eyes see the truth. According to the book, it had to do with the five senses and how they challenged each other. But that was beyond me. I accepted it and moved on to further reading.

Placing the book on the bed, I turned to the page on changing an object into another. I used my boot as the test subject. Standing a foot away from the boot, I placed my fingers on the corner of my eyes. Pushing in slightly, I rubbed the corner up and down. My vision blurred but the boot stayed clear. Using my pinky fingers, I traced circles into the air. Slowly, the boot started to look like a piece of bread.

The more I traced the circles into the air, the more clear the image became. I could have sworn I could see steam coming off the bread. Satisfied, I dropped my hands and inspected the bread. The crust was flaking toward the sides, but it smelled like a freshly baked piece of wheat bread. I had been going for rye, but it was close enough.

Touching the bread broke the illusion. After a few seconds, it returned to being my old smelly boot. I wondered if it still looked like bread to others. The illusion spell I had used only lasted for an hour. In my head, I imagined the confusion people would have as I walked around with a piece of bread for a foot. If I hadn’t been on a serious mission I would have tried it. Instead, I was satisfied with my experiment and placed the shoe back with the other.

I read for a few more hours. Unable to keep my eyes open, I closed the book and pulled the covers up. The bed in my room was much nicer than the one in the fortress. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.

My mind refused to rest. Visions of Nia and Greenspring being tortured by the harska filled my dreams. I could hear them calling for my help.

“Save us,” said the Nia in my dreams.

“Did you forget about us?” asked the Greenspring.

Henry wasn’t there. I tried to look for him, but I hoped I wouldn’t have to see him be tortured. Not even my mind could handle seeing that.

Greenspring and Nia were soon replaced by a thick fog. Like swimming through mud, I made my way through the fog. I could see the outline of people I knew on the horizon, but as I got closer they disappeared. Only one figure allowed me to get close, a woman with curly brown hair.

“Why did you leave me?”

“Beth!” I yelled, sounding more like a whisper in the heavy fog. “I–”

I woke up in a cold sweat. Breathing hard, I opened the window and stared out at the city street below. No matter what it took, I would keep my promise.