The next two days passed with slow progress. I could move a little, but I didn’t have full control. The pain felt like it had not gotten better at all; I was so worried that last night I checked with Milo twice to make sure.
Today I was in the back of the wagon, seated on the wooden bench, trying to move my legs properly while reading through Char’s book on runes. I didn’t have enough control in my hands and arms to do any practice yet — I made that mistake yesterday.
I was confident I could do the cold rune once I had my movement back to full. The question was: could I do it on the barrel? Would that count as a food item?
Then that brought up the question: if it works on the barrel, would I be able to enchant knives? Pans? I was full of questions, but Milo didn’t really have the answers for me when I asked.
Today I was alone in the wagon. I still had not seen Lily — maybe it was because I wasn’t cooking yet, but I thought for sure she’d at least show up to check. I was feeling worried.
Liane appeared next to me, causing me to jump as she appeared. “What ya doing?” She asked, a smirk plastered on her face.
Shrugging and putting the book to the side, “Just reading the runescribe notebook. I can’t do much else at the moment. Uh… did anything happen before Lily left the last time?”
“No, nothing. She was on the roof of the wagon as we left town. She stayed there for a few hours before she checked on you and vanished. I think Crisplet spoke with her? Or had some interaction with her.” She gestured to Crisplet in the brazier, who just let off a burst of embers.
I was curious about something, so I decided to check. “Crisplet, is Lily okay? Did she tell you she’ll be back?” I asked, and at the same time I reached out to the mana surrounding Crisplet. There was a burst of sparks, but as soon as the mana sensed me there, there was a rush of different emotions — happiness, excitement — then an overwhelming confidence.
“Thanks, Crisplet,” I said, nodding. “I was worried, that’s all.”
Liane chuckled a little. “I don’t think you need to be worried about Lily. I think she’s a lot stronger than we even know.”
There was a whistle from outside the wagon, and Liane vanished in a second, after whispering, “Stay low, stay safe.”
I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I was not about to question her — or poke my head out when told to stay low. It took only a couple of minutes before I heard more horses and what sounded like heavy armour.
“Greetings, travellers,” a gruff male voice sounded.
I heard what must have been Hari dismounting his own horse before responding. “Greetings, Sir. How may we assist you?”
“Come now, none of that formality — we’re in the middle of nowhere on the road. My name is Victor, of the Royal Guard. Did you come from Grey Rock by chance?” Victor asked.
“Yes, sir, we did. We’re just escorting this wagon, the merchant Micca Carlye and her two guards, to the capital. My name is Hari, and this is my adventure group, The Polite Company,” Hari answered, sounding very stiff and formal.
Crisplet moved out of the brazier, and I gestured for him to stay where he was, before whispering, “Crisplet, stay hidden for now.”
The conversation outside carried on.
“Were there any strange rumours down there? Perhaps any strange sightings?” Victor casually asked. I was curious how Hari was going to respond to this, because it’s not like they wouldn’t be able to take two steps into the town without being bombarded with all the details.
Hari responded in kind. “There was certainly a buzz of activity over something while we were there. We try to stay out of the affairs and political scene of the city — especially after our trouble on the road to Grey Rock,” Hari said, sounding sad?.
“Trouble on the road, you say? May I ask what occurred?”
Hari then recounted a very dramatised encounter with the army, even mentioning the execution of the colonel — minus the involvement of Lily — to Victor, who listened in silence.
“That’s regrettable. It’s certainly not how they should be behaving. And you mentioned that the guards of the merchant here were in fact two of the soldiers who were part of that group?” Victor asked before continuing, “Would you mind if I spoke with them for a moment?”
A moment later I heard two people dismount: one from the bench on the wagon where Darren was sitting and one from the horse outside. A moment later, Victor continued, asking several questions of them, including where they were collected from, what occurred, and what led up to George in particular being thrown into the wagon to die.
“Thank you, lads — that’s all. It seems we need to make a detour past Portland before we carry on to Grey Rock. I was hoping to skip it if possible, but this cannot be ignored. I thank you all for honesty today. Rest assured, we will get to the bottom of it, and the actions taken by those soldiers are unacceptable. For now, I will make my way there immediately. Have a great day and stay safe.” There was a mix of urgency and annoyance in Victor’s voice before I heard him remounting his horse.
A moment later, the sound of six or seven horses went past. I stayed low as instructed. I soon heard Hari, Darren, and George all getting back on their respective mounts before we started moving again. Nobody said anything, which was odd.
It was not long after that Liane reappeared again.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Everything alright?” I asked before she could say anything.
“Yeah, I think so. That was strange. We’ll probably talk more about this later, but you don’t see Royal Guards coming this far south without reason,” she responded, before leaning back and putting her feet up on the other side.
“Do you think it was because of us attacking the army? Is that why Hari mentioned it?”
Liane shook her head. “It’s most likely why Hari mentioned it — but the look of shock and anger on his face when he was told made it very clear he had not heard about it until now.”
“So what would cause the Royal Guards to come this far, then?” I asked, confused by it all.
“Can you think of nothing? Perhaps maybe a teenager walking around with a city-destroyer-level creature — at minimum. As a companion?” Liane smirked.
“Wait?! You think they are looking for me?” I asked, shocked.
“Trev, how long do you think it would have taken for word to spread about Boltron, or — even more so — your visit from a dragon in Forest’s Edge? There is no world where the royals have not heard word of you. Why they’d be looking for you I do not know, but knowing about you is a certainty by now,” she said.
Not much else was said after that. I couldn’t help but worry that I was once again going to be in trouble — only now on a greater scale. I voiced my concerns.
“Do you think they are here to capture me and force me to work for them like Lord Falcone?” I asked.
“No. I don’t think that’s the case. If they are looking for you, they understand what Lily is, and seven guards or soldiers would never capture you against such a threat. If they are after you, I would—” Liane was interrupted as Milo climbed inside, frowning as he saw Liane.
“You haven’t been in here the whole time, have you?” he asked.
“No, I just got back after the run-in outside,” she responded, waving him off before continuing, “As I was saying, Trev — if they are after you, it would be to either size you up and check the validity of the rumours, or to pass on a message or invitation.”
“Ah, you had the same train of thought as I did, then. I was coming in here to talk to Trev about exactly this. While Victor spoke, it was clear the others were inspecting everything closely. I would say they were looking for Crisplet, or some sign of Lily, if they were indeed looking for you,” Milo added.
I just nodded. I didn’t enjoy having yet more noble people chasing me; I had just resolved the issue with Lord Falcone only a couple of weeks back.
“I wouldn’t worry. The rage he displayed when hearing about the army — I suspect he’ll be distracted there for some time before chasing after us,” Milo chuckled.
I just looked wide-eyed at Milo. “Why would they chase after us?”
“All the pieces of their puzzle will fall into place when they speak to the second-in-charge, find out that Lily was there, and then realise who we were. And if that wouldn’t do it, reaching Grey Rock and hearing the rumours — or looking at the guild report — will confirm it too,” he explained.
I was stunned… they would know; surely they’d catch up. “Wouldn’t it have been easier just to lie, then?”
“No,” Milo said simply. “It is a crime to lie to the Royal Guards, so it would have just given them grounds to arrest us once they made it to Grey Rock and quickly found out who we were. No, telling half-truths was the only option there. Plus, now that we have alerted them to the injustices faced in the army, it will hopefully delay them enough to get some distance and hit some crossroads.”
“Hit some crossroads?” I questioned before it clicked. “Oh — so they won’t know which way we went?”
“Kind of. They know where we are heading, Hari told them as much; we’re going to the capital — but there are multiple ways to get there. It buys us time. Maybe they won’t intercept us on our way to Dunhearth if they think we’re heading straight to the capital.”
We rode for a few more hours before we turned off the road, heading towards the edge of a passing river where we were to set up camp for the night. Milo set up a pretty extravagant-looking hut. It almost seemed like it had been there for years because, instead of the usual smooth-stone, almost box-like building he’d usually make, this one had the vibe of a large stone cottage, and from a quick glance all the stones looked like individual rocks.
Up close, I could see they were all fused together. The roof looked to be a clay-like material that was now shaped to appear like thatch.
“This looks just like a proper house,” I said as I approached the front door, barely having the ability to walk.
Once I sat down next to the fire, I was about to prepare dinner, but that was put on hold. As I pulled the first onion out of my storage, I was wracked with pain again. This was quickly noticed by Micca, who stormed over.
“Oh, no you don’t — you’re not cooking yet. Also, my cooking is not that bad that you need to hurt yourself more to do it yourself,” she said sternly, taking the onion from my hand.
I tried my best to save face. “I was just practising my abilities.”
She definitely didn’t buy it. Even Crisplet shot an ember at me — although I noticed it had no heat when it hit me.
“Alright, now that everyone is here, awake, and listening,” Hari said, getting everyone’s attention.
“George, Darren, this will include you too, so listen up.” He interrupted a hushed conversation off to the side. “We’re heading to Dunhearth, and I mentioned it will take a couple of weeks at the pace we’re setting — and that’s fine. The Royal Guard and soldiers today might complicate matters, but we’ll carry on.” He began; everyone was silent as they listened.
“When we get there, we can enter in two ways. The first is the same as Grey Rock, which is not hiding anything — making it clear that messing with us is dangerous — or we can try to sneak in unnoticed, do what we need to do, and leave. Personally, I am of the mind of just going in full force and making it clear to everyone to tread carefully,” Hari said, folding his arms and nodding at his own proclamation.
“The only issue I see is Lily has been gone a while now, right?” I said.
Hari nodded. “True, but we don’t need her on the roof for people to know. You might not realise this, Trev, but Crisplet — when defending you — is not the friendliest-looking companion.”
It seemed Crisplet approved of this assessment, because Hari got a burst of sparks at that, earning a couple of chuckles from everyone.
“Once we’re there, we won’t stay long — maybe a night or two at most. Just enough to catch up with old friends, settle affairs, and move on.”
I agreed it was best not to linger there when Jen spoke up. “Trev, we’ll likely have someone with you at all times there as well, just in case. I doubt the lord would be foolish enough with everything that has happened, but if I’m honest, I just don’t know how foolish he is.”
All of this sounded reasonable. Truth be told, I could likely see everyone I wanted to see in the first day anyway. I only wanted to see Geo, Larry, Peter, and Martin — maybe the matron at the medical pavilion if I got some spare time, to thank her for the cooking equipment she provided.
Micca cooked that night. I pulled a boar out of my storage — which again caused me intense pain — so she’d have plenty of meat, which she turned half of into a stew. I was going to bring out some vegetables, but I was forbidden from pushing myself that much.
Deciding to make the most of my time, I shuffled my way across to Milo, sitting next to him.
“Could you teach me what I need to do to make the sugar-reed juice?” I asked.
Milo just got a giant smile on his face and nodded before pulling out a book from his storage and opening up a page, which went into great detail on how it was made, and different flavouring options I had for it.
