Crossing the border from the flatlands into what was now the New Adderwood Republic was remarkably easy. The territory was made up of large swathes of untouched wilderness with a handful of settlements scattered haphazardly along the map, connected by a single road. What few patrols Daana and Ashwyn happened across weren’t all that concerned with two lowly travelers. The majority of the territory’s forces were assembled along the southern border, which, consequently, just happened to be where the celebrated traitor to the realm, Oralia Dawnsight, was last seen. Following the single road, the journey from the north into Adderwood’s southernmost settlement, Fairguard, took only three days and passed smoothly.
“Oi! Look at the size of that wall, would ya?” a reedy voice called out behind them. “What are they trying to keep out? Giants?”
Relatively smoothly, Daana conceded. The part of the journey where she and Ashwyn unknowingly picked up three teenage tagalongs had not gone down quite as swimmingly as the rest. Daana whipped her head over her shoulder in time to see a set of long, goblin ears disappear into the brush alongside the road at their backs.
“How are they still here?” Daana hissed to Ashwyn. “I thought we lost them at the river.”
“Because they’re demons, Peaches, not gobbies.”
No matter how many times Ashwyn had taken it upon herself to chase the trio off, the goblins always came back again. The physical toll it had taken on the orc was almost as severe as the mental one. Ashwyn hadn’t had a decent sleep in the past three days, not since waking up in the middle of the night to discover the first snow had fallen and blanketed their makeshift camp in a layer of frozen death. The snow, admittedly, hadn’t bothered Ashwyn nearly as much as the three shivering bodies that’d burrowed underneath her bedding for warmth.
Daana’s stare swept from the surrounding brush back to the settlement. Fairguard wasn’t particularly impressive, not compared to the realm’s capital city, anyway. But to a goblin who’d spent their life in a burrow underground, she could see how the settlement’s rugged palisade walls might have been awe-inspiring. Maybe even enough to dissuade their goblin entourage from sneaking inside.
“Alright, end of the line.” Daana spun her shaggy steed about-face with a press of her right knee. The dirt road behind them stretched into the surrounding trees until it was swallowed by darkness. She saw no signs of the goblins, but she knew they were there. They were always there, lurking just out of sight. “You’ve had your adventure. Go home. This is no place for children.”
“Who are you calling children?” Spoon Ear’s incensed squeak erupted from the bushes to the right.
Smiley and Twig’s replies echoed their companion’s sentiment from various parts of the undergrowth.
“Go home,” Daana repeated.
“No!”
“We’re gonna make names for ourselves!”
Fat chance of that. Daana didn’t even know what their real names were. There wasn’t any point in making the official introductions now, anyway. Not when the oversized brats should have been on their way home. Asking their names would only encourage them to stick around some more.
“Come on, Peaches.” Ashwyn spurred her horse forward with a click of her tongue, shaking her head from side to side in disbelief. “If it didn’t work the first hundred times you told them to get lost, I don’t see why it’d work now. If they’re lucky, they’ll figure it out on their own before the cold kills ‘em.”
The guard manning the front gates barred them from entering longer than necessary. Not out of malice, either. He reminded Daana of an over-energetic puppy who’d been left out in the yard with no one to play with. Poor thing was practically starved for company. So much so, that he missed all of the not-so-subtle social cues from Ashwyn that she didn’t have the time nor mental energy for meaningless chit-chat. Feigning her best smile, Daana grudgingly picked up Ashwyn’s slack and obliged him. Eventually, when the guard had had his fill, he let them in, passing along a recommendation for the Copperstone Inn in case they needed lodging.
Somehow Daana had ended up with a strip of parchment containing the guard’s name and apartment number, as well. She gave her thanks as she and Ashwyn slipped through the gates, fighting the urge to throw the paper over her shoulder.
“What was that about?” Daana asked once certain they were safely out of hearing.
“How sheltered did you grow up again?” Ashwyn took in Daana’s scowl and came to her own conclusion rather quickly. “Extremely sheltered, that’s right. Probably didn’t see anything outside those palace walls until you were half-grown.”
“I was allowed outside the palace!”
“Allowed?” Ashwyn repeated. “You hear yourself, right?”
“Okay, fine. I was sheltered. What does that have to do with the guard at the gate? I was just doing what you normally do.”
“Yeah? And what is it I normally do?”
“You’re polite and friendly, and you smile a lot.”
“Exactly. And when I do it, it comes across as mildly threatening. From someone with a pretty face like you, it looks like flirting.” Ashwyn glanced at Daana to catch her reaction. The abject horror stretched across Daana’s face, unfortunately, only convinced her to keep the explanation coming. “As far as that bloke at the gate is concerned, you just threw yourself at him.”
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Daana made a fist, crumpling the strip of paper in her hand as the heat on her face spread to her ears.
Ashwyn’s laugh echoed along the fronts of the rickety buildings as the pair plodded their way through the settlement on horseback. Fairguard wasn’t large by any stretch of the imagination. The majority of its buildings were made up of wooden structures crammed together, with rickety walkways crisscrossing between them. Rain had transformed the dirt streets to mud as the pair moved deeper into the settlement. Daana could see the top of the Copperstone Inn rising above the rickety thatch roofs up ahead. The inn was an impressive feat of architectural ingenuity that, nestled amongst the rest of the ramshackle town, looked as out of place as a diamond-encrusted tiara on a donkey.
Daana might have been taken aback by the inn’s grandeur had she not still been fixated on the guard at the gate. “All I did was smile!”
“Still stewing on that, are we?” Ashwyn said.
“It’s not fair. I was just copying what you do. It’s not my fault I don’t have scary-looking tusks to make my smile more menacing.”
“There’s an alternative, you know. Lean into it. Use what you got. Flirt your way into getting what you want.”
“Good gods, no. Gross. Now you’re starting to sound like Ellis—” The name quickly died on the tip of Daana’s tongue. Alas, the damage was already done. Across from her, the cheeky smile faded from Ashwyn’s face. Daana wanted to kick herself. Ashwyn hadn’t been the same since the breakup. Any mention of Ellisar was like twisting the knife already buried hilt-deep in her chest.
“Sorry,” Daana said.
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. As our dearly-departed Snaggy once said, ‘It’s what’s it’s’.”
That was all it took. A single mention of his name and Daana was the one on the verge of sliding off the horse into a puddle of sadness. She felt the familiar creeping sadness claw its way back up her throat. “Don’t say it like that,” she snapped. “It makes it sound like he’s dead.”
Snag wasn’t dead, he was just gone. Happier, probably, now that he had a real family to share his life with. Daana hardly missed his constant complaining at all. In fact, she’d gone out of her way not to think about it. It’d been working surprisingly well, too, right up until his name was mentioned and the blasted waterworks started up anew.
“Shit, my bad,” Ashwyn said with a sigh. “We’re not at the top of our game when we’re missing our people, are we?”
“You miss her?”
“Of course, I fucking miss her.”
Daana’s teary gaze dropped to the crumpled slip of parchment nestled in her hand. A terrible idea formed itself within her head. So far time and space had yet to ease her pain. Perhaps something more fleeting would help shove her grief aside, even if it was just for a night or two.
Daana’s poor idea must have shown in her face because Ashwyn was quick to shut it down. “Good goddess, girl, no. That’s not the answer. Take it from someone with experience, drowning your troubles between the sheets doesn’t hasten the healing. All it provides is a momentary distraction.”
And yet, a distraction didn’t sound too bad.
“The pain all comes flooding back the next morning, as fresh as the day it happened.” Ashwyn added with a frown, “That and sometimes a rash, too.”
The tantalizing appeal of a momentary distraction vanished from Daana’s thoughts at the mere mention of a rash. “Ew.”
“Yeah, you think heartache is bad? Wait ‘til you’ve got a broken heart and an angry quim. You’ll be crying tears of genuine sadness while scuffling around on the ground like a dog dragging its bottom, helpless against the itching.”
“We really should know less about each other.”
The street underfoot transitioned from dirt to dirt-covered cobblestone as Daana’s horse turned the corner and the front steps of the Copperstone Inn came into view. A small trickle of relief eased the suffocating sense of grief and disgust weighing her down. The small sum of money Snag had snuck into her saddlebag when she wasn’t looking meant she could afford a bath, a warm meal, and most importantly, a private room free of whatever horrific things slipped from Ashwyn’s mouth uninhibited.
A plucky stable hand darted out across the courtyard to meet them. He was only halfway when the front doors to the inn burst open at the top of the freshly-swept steps. A thunderous voice filled the crisp air, its boom echoing off the surrounding stone until it sounded as if there was an army of belligerent dwarfs stomping down the steps, and not just the one. Technically, there were two. It was easy to miss the second dwarf, however, considering he was still at the top of the stairs, attempting to realign the damaged doors.
The stable hand took one look at the angry dwarf and turned back the way he came, leaving Daana and Ashwyn to fend for themselves.
“Un-fucking-believable!” the dwarf thundered. “‘Not our concern’. We risked our necks for Adderwood and when it’s time to return the favor, suddenly it’s all about weighing risk and choosing their battles.”
The quiet dwarf was still at the top of the stairs. Having corrected the alignment of the doors, he seemed torn between following his companion or ducking back inside. Heaving a reluctant sigh, he started down the stone steps after her. “Just because you disagree with the seneschal’s decision, does not mean he is wrong.”
“Oh, look at that. You’re defending him. Again. Big surprise.” She spun around and placed her hands on her hips. “What happened to having my back, huh? You were supposed to be on my side.”
“I serve the New Adderwood Republic.” The dwarf soldier squared his shoulders as he spoke. “I said I would help you get an audience with the seneschal, which is what I did. He made the call not to get involved, Rali. And, frankly, given your lack of information regarding the conflict, I agree with his decision.”
The angry dwarf whipped back around, shouting unintelligible noises. She threw her hands in the air over her head and was about to storm off when she froze, as if only now noticing she had a bewildered audience. More noises vacated her slack-jawed mouth, but they weren’t so much angry as they were confused. Possibly relieved.
Daana lifted her hand and waved. “Hi, Rali.”
“Daana?” Some of the anger melted away as relief flooded Rali’s wide eyes. “Oh, my gods. I never thought I’d be happy to see your stupid face again.”
Caught in a constant tide of shifting principles, with the ebb and flow of time continually reshaping Daana until her former sense of self had been worn, weathered, and washed away, it was nice to see some things hadn’t changed at all. Hardship had not reshaped Rali in any significant way. The dwarf lieutenant was still as brash and insulting as ever.
Daana’s friendly wave went from four fingers and a thumb down to just one. “I missed you, too.”