Chapter 2
TROUBLE IS FREE
He turned back to face the vehicle, which had ended his life once already, then strained his neck to look at the wisp.
Devon nodded.
she replied.
Jet let out a loud whinny which sounded a lot like laughter.
Izzy sighed. Be nice to him.
Stunned, Devon thought on that for a moment. Like everything else so far, he’d just done it without thinking. This will all make sense someday, he surmised, so ride with it for now.
Devon ventured towards the abandoned van. He noticed he was walking on the verge of a broad, concrete road, clearly in a state of disrepair as cracks and blemishes riddled the surface. The larger cracks had grass growing up through them, and the edges of the concrete were crumbling badly.
Isabelle was a feminine name. Devon wondered how she could designate herself female when she was a blob of luminescent attitude. She just doesn’t have the necessary equipment for the gender.
Devon shook his head. He didn’t like somebody being able to read his every thought. It was invasive.
He reached the van and investigated the cab but saw nothing of interest amongst the rubbish and grime. The vehicle had once been white, but it was so old and rusty that the original colour was hard to find. Its better days had seen better days.
He carried on toward the back and was shocked to see a sizeable metal cage roped down on the van’s flatbed. In contrast to the dirt and grime that clung to the van’s exterior, it shone with a clean, steely gleam.
Devon realised that, even though it was night-time, he could see perfectly well. Colours were a little harder to distinguish, but apart from that, it was just as clear as day. He looked up and saw that the moon was almost full. Its radiance reflected off the metal bars of the cage. The smell of blood from the two dead men still filled his nostrils, but he could also smell something living nearby. He didn’t even understand how he knew that.
He leaned over the side of the van’s cargo area and peered into the cage. He wasn’t too surprised when he saw a female dressed in jeans and a leather top curled up on the cage floor.
“Hey! You in the cage!” Devon shouted. He appeared to have no issues switching between mental and physical speech now, which was a bonus. “Are you okay?”
He smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand – what a supremely dumb thing to say. Too late, Devon wondered what the best way to address someone locked in a cage was. ‘Are you okay?’ probably wasn’t it.
The lady in the cage lifted her head and swept her long, matted hair away from her face. She peered down at him. Her eyes were tear-streaked and her face puffy. She’d obviously been crying for a while. She was quiet, though, her eyes blinking in confusion.
“Hang on a second. I’ll be right up,” he said, trying to make the smile he gave her as reassuring as possible. It dawned on him that he didn’t have anything he could use to open the cage. He thought for a second, then remembered the two corpses lying on the floor nearby. He bent down and started searching them. The prospect of harvesting the possessions of the dead didn’t bother him in the slightest. That surprised him. After a lot of rummaging, he’d managed to loot a poorly maintained long-knife, some small amounts of cash, a black, plastic card with some sort of logo printed in the centre of it, and a hip flask containing some potent, evil-smelling liquid.
The man who’d had the crossbow also had a quiver containing more quarrels, strapped to his right thigh. Usefully, it also had a thin sheath stitched to its outer face that held a long survival knife. Its blade was robust, sharp, and curved on one side, serrated on the other. Devon liberated that too.
Finally, he found what he’d been searching for; a key. He grabbed it in triumph. He left the other items in a pile next to the bodies, but he took the survival-knife with him, just in case. Devon carefully tucked the blade into his belt, diligently trying not to slice through it as he did so. He’d grab the other things on his way back to Jet.
Devon spluttered at Izzy’s comment. He walked over to the side of the van and hopped up easily into the back. He marvelled at how his jump had effortlessly cleared the side of the vehicle. From a standing start too. He wondered what he could be capable of; perhaps Izzy would be kind enough to explain how he’d acquired such physical prowess.
The woman in the cage watched him intently, like a mouse eyeing a cat about to pounce.
“Don’t worry,” Devon tried to assure her. “I’m not going to harm you. I promise.” The lady was unlikely to trust him, which was understandable given her current predicament. His words hadn’t assuaged her fears.
Devon nodded sadly. The cage’s door was facing the rear of the vehicle, so he stepped around to examine it. The cage was secured by a sturdy mechanism built into the door. He fished out the newly liberated key and inserted it into the lock. The key turned smoothly, and the door swung open.
“Yes!”
If it hadn’t worked, it probably would have been the end of his rescue attempt. He simply didn’t have anything sturdy enough to break through the cage’s thick bars.
Devon had no idea how he should take the wisp’s words. He had started to feel as if she might be entertaining to have around, though.
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Ye gods! Izzy was terrible for his concentration
Izzy considered her actions. Was he changing her already? She had never been like this with anyone before. There had never been anyone to be like this with. It just was not her way. Being around him was starting to become enjoyable, though. That, too, felt strange. Men were an alien species for her, and Devon was no mere man. All gods and goddesses had a natural allure to mortals. They drew mortal devotion to them like moths to a flame. It was in their nature, but was that what this was?
Devon stepped into the cage and held his hand out toward the woman. Now that he was closer, he could see past the grime and tear streaks. She looked to be in her early twenties. Her prominent cheekbones and narrow chin gave her face a gently curved diamond shape, enhanced by the long fringe of her dark shoulder-length hair. She had wide, hazel-coloured eyes and a small, rounded nose that turned up slightly at the tip. Her lips were full but not pronounced. The lady sat up and stared at Devon’s hand, then up at him with a slightly hopeful look, liberally laced with mistrust.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you,” Devon said in as soothing a voice as he could manage.
“What happened to the slavers?” she asked him. Her voice had a gentle, west country accent.
“Uhm, I happened to them. They’re dead,” Devon answered. Her question had caught him a little off-guard. “Let’s get you out of this cage and away from here before more of those people arrive.” Devon waggled the fingers a bit on his outstretched hand to emphasise that it was still there, waiting to be accepted.
The lady eyed the waggling fingers with distaste and then sighed. She took Devon’s hand and hauled herself up. She gave him a curious look when, despite leveraging her full weight against him, he hadn’t moved at all.
“Nice outfit. Is that some sort of fashion statement?” she asked, her voice full of sarcasm.
Devon blushed. “Uh! I’m in a bit of a transitional period.” Her comment struck him as an odd thing to say. He’d expected at least a thank you. Now that she was standing, he guessed that she was about five and a half feet in height. Although maybe his assessment of her size was a little skewed. His height felt wrong, and so it was challenging to judge hers fairly.
“Would you like me to carry you out?” he offered.
“No, I definitely wouldn’t,” she snapped at him. “I’m neither injured nor crippled. Keep your hands to yourself.” The woman dropped his hand as if it had scalded her, then with a few easy steps and a light jump, she was over the edge of the van and standing on the ground.
Hell! That didn’t go as I’d planned. I guess rescuing somebody doesn’t guarantee they’ll be polite. Devon chided himself. Stupid!
Devon stood in the cage, looking down at her, feeling awkward and a little silly, while fighting the urge to snicker from Izzy’s words. The woman reached out to him and waggled her fingers.
“Would you like me to jump back up there and carry you down?” she said. Then her face lit up with a radiant grin. She stuck her thumb on her nose and wriggled her fingers.
You try and be nice, and this is what you get. Now I’ve got two females pulling my chains, Devon thought to himself.
“You can keep their stuff, but I’m taking my gear back,” she retorted.
Devon shook his head. Why is this woman so hostile? What did I do wrong? More confusion was the last thing he needed in his life. He had no issue with her taking whatever she needed from the rubbish pile, and he’d done his good deed. It was time to get out of here. This woman could go her own way, and may she have all the luck in the world.
Devon ignored the wisp. She was probably right, but he was damned if he was going to admit it.
“The least you can do is tell me your name,” he said to the woman.
She stood up and turned on him. She held her hand out. “Knife?”
“Knife’s a strange name,” Devon said. He thought he was being funny, but the woman just glared at him. He sighed and gave up. “You know what? It has been a real displeasure to meet you. I should have left you in the bloody cage.”
He could see that she already had the crossbow and its quiver, so he knew which knife she meant. It was a shame, though; he’d wanted to keep it. He carefully withdrew the blade, flipped it around, and handed it to her, handle first.
The woman snatched the knife and quickly tucked it back into the quiver. She then started strapping the quiver to her thigh. “I have to travel on, to their camp, and rescue my friends,” she said, indicating the dead slavers. Her voice sounded tired. “Come the morning, they’ll be taken away to one of the prison compounds. Once that happens, I might never find them.”
“Not sure why you’re bothering to tell me but good luck with that.” Devon wasn’t having a good day and was tired of her aggressive attitude. He turned his back on her and made to walk back to Jet.
The woman scowled. “If you wanted to be gallant, you could help me retrieve them.”
Devon spun back around to face her with a look of incredulity on his face. “What? Seriously?” He was confused. She obviously disliked him yet was still asking for his help. “Maybe you think your radiant personality has won me over?”
Devon was trying to be angry, and so he suppressed the smile that threatened his face. Izzy could read minds, and she’d evidently been rooting around in this woman’s head.
“I suppose I could help you, Elizabeth, but could you try and be a little less hostile perhaps?”
She looked at him with shock and suspicion. “I don’t know how the hell you know my name, but if you must use it, please just call me Beth,” she said, “and thank you.” Her face softened. “Thank you for getting me out of that cage. Also, thank you for being willing to help my friends even though I was horrible to you.” She gave Devon her best attempt at a smile, despite her anxiousness for her friends.
Devon’s attitude toward her thawed a little when she smiled at him. What the hell’s wrong with me? I’m not a smitten teenager. It was a gorgeous smile, though.
“What should I call you?” Beth asked him.
“You can call me Devon.” He felt himself blush a little and gave himself a mental slap.
She arched her eyebrow at him. “That’s a coincidence. Real name?”
That caught him by surprise. “I’ve no idea,” he replied. “It’ll do for now.”
Beth tilted her head at him. “You can explain that another time perhaps. For now, Devon it is.”
“How far away are your friends?”
“Their holding camp is about a mile further down the road,” she replied, pointing down the road in the direction that the thugs’ van was facing. “These bastards were taking me there.” At that point, she gave the corpse nearest to her a hard kick.
“How do you know that your friends are already there?” Thus far, Devon didn’t have any cause to believe what Beth had told him, but he felt it wise to learn as much as he could about her situation. As far as he knew, these men had just been thugs who’d tried to kill him. Slavers? Did those even exist? What sort of world had he woken up in?
“I was on my way back from scouting the holding camp when they caught me.” She gave the nearest corpse another kick. “I killed one of them but got jumped by this one. The other one is just the driver.” Another kick landed on the body. “You can guess the rest.” Beth gestured to the cage. She walked around the van to the passenger door and reached in through the open window. After some rummaging, she pulled out a small rucksack. “By the way, you need to work on your looting skills, Devon. All the best stuff is in here.” She raised the rucksack she was holding and smirked.
Devon wondered about the term of endearment. Was she being sarcastic or genuinely friendly? Considering everything he’d heard from her so far, it was most likely sarcasm.
the wisp said.
After all the insults the wisp had thrown at him, he still doubted Izzy’s true intentions, but he’d take friendship if it were offered.
Well, well! That’s the most helpful Izzy has been so far, Devon thought.
“What are you so happy about?” Beth asked.
Oh crap! Devon hadn’t considered the issues he’d have to face, trying to maintain an internal and external dialogue at the same time. “Just thoughts. Nothing special,” he replied, still trying to stay distant from this woman. Something was telling him that she was trouble.
Beth eyed him suspiciously. After a moment, she just shrugged. “Whatever.”
“Do you want to drive the van while I follow with Jet?” he asked. Devon wasn’t sure whether he even knew how to ride. Furthermore, would he be able to get up on the horse’s back? She was an enormous creature.
“Jet being your horse over there?” She indicated the place where his horse waited patiently.
Devon didn’t have time to consider the moral implications of what the wisp had just told him. “Yes. That’s her,” he responded to Beth.
“Not a bad plan. However, I’ll stop the truck about half a mile up the road; then we can ride nearer to the camp together.” Beth paused thoughtfully and then nodded to herself. “It’ll be a lot quieter if we approach on horseback.”
“Okay. Give me a few minutes and then lead on,” Devon said. He turned quickly and strode back to Jet.