Illnyea was tired, wet, and cold, panting hard as she hid her body underneath a large heart shaped leaf, her back pressed up against a tree. She peeked around the edge to check her surroundings. Her head throbbed at the movement. It had been aching since she was thrown off Sunshine’s back and Illnyea wasn’t sure if she should be worried. She chose not to worry because there wouldn’t be anything she could do even if it was a sign of a larger problem.

  Healing magic had never been Illnyea’s forte, unfortunately, as when she drew on her magic, she often ended up putting more mana into it than was strictly necessary. It was a problem she had been working to fix but it took a lot of slow, dedicated practice and the results were slow coming. It meant that there was no way she was going to try to mess around with her head, no matter how much it hurt – she’d as soon as fry her brain then fix whatever problem she had.

  Food and clean water had run out yesterday even though she rationed best she could, as Illnyea hadn’t packed much in her pack since she was being fed regularly by the caravan.

  (foolish mistake, Sulaiman would have said.)

  Illnyea agreed, but, once again, there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  Her sword was gone, stuck in the claws of the giant crab creature that had ambushed her when she walked past what she thought was a normal, shallow pond thirty, forty minutes ago. Illnyea wasn’t sure. Time was hard to track when the trees blocked out the sky and fog made it difficult to tell when the sun rose and set as everything was cast into a perpetual hazy gray. It was ethereal and almost beautiful in the way dreams sometimes were.

  Almost.

  Everything around her was far too deadly to let Illnyea appreciate anything other than being alive.

  Her shield was a half melted thing Illnyea couldn’t get off her arm anymore after encountering two toads twice her size that spat a nasty poison at her while she was stunned at their arrival. When Illnyea felt the poison corroding through the metal, it had already been too late for her to take it off. There had been a marshy area nearby, so Illnyea had dived into it in the hopes of getting the poison off and putting enough distance between her and the monstrous toads so she had enough time to cobble together a plan.

  The plan she threw together worked, as it let her get away from the toads by letting her hide the earthen spikes so they jumped right on them, so that was a positive, but the poison had gotten through to her skin as it mixed with the swampy water and WOW did that hurt so much more than she thought it would.

  Precious clean water had been used to clean the wound, and she still had her sword then, so she cut off a strip of her water resistant cloak to tie around the entire mess in hopes to keep it clean.

  (sloppy work, her father would have said with a frown.)

  True, but it was the best Illnyea could do at the moment. It seemed to work well enough to keep the bugs away, and at this point, that was a huge win in Illnyea’s book. Her arm had a constant dull ache since then, but there was nothing she could do, and it barely registered as pain now since she was used to its constant presence. Her head hurt so much worse.

  Unless Illnyea had to actually use her arm.

  Now that was an entirely different story and the shield would rub against the burned skin and made Illnyea hiss like an alleycat. So Illnyea tried not to use her left arm unless it was absolutely necessary, which was unfortunately more often than she would like since everything in the fens was out to kill her.

  It was a lucky thing that Illnyea’s boots were made from an Oliphant hide that was difficult for even the sharpest swords to pierce. Otherwise, she would have been dealing with an open wound on her leg.

  A pack of wolf creatures had attacked her, going for her ankles and biting down fiercely but failing to pierce the leather, though it did leave nasty bruises that hurt just to think about. They also spat fire, which was so unfair, but Illnyea remembered enough of Sulaiman’s teachings to redirect the flames long enough to send off a wave of earth spikes as she scrambled ungracefully up a tree. She didn’t know how many she killed, just that it was enough to make the wolves stop pestering her.

  When she rested in that tree with earth spikes surrounding it to ward off predators, Illnyea felt the safest she had since the caravan was attacked.

  And, of course, Illnyea was awoken by a swarm of birds that seemed intent on pecking her eyes out. Illnyea was tired, so tired that when she fell to the ground, she curled into the fetal position and summoned an earth dome to protect her until the birds left her alone. She laid there for a long while, crying from pain, frustration, and a million other emotions that swirled and mixed together like the world’s worst cocktail.

  Illnyea didn’t want to leave that protective bubble of dirt and even considered just falling asleep there. But then she heard croaking in the distance and Illnyea forced herself to keep moving so she didn’t have to deal with giant toads again.

  That had been yesterday, or at least what Illnyea thought was yesterday. Like she said, time was a tricky thing. Everything ran together in her mind, like a watercolor picture whose colors bled into one another, making everything muddy and indistinct.

  Illnyea was running off fumes for energy, magic, and brain power.

  Manipulating the earth in the fens was so much harder than it had ever been, like the water had soaked so far into it that it was more mud than anything. Even when Illnyea poured mana into the ground, commanding it to obey, it moved slower than she wanted it to, so there had been some close calls already. With how little mana she had left within her, Illnyea didn’t know how many more times she could rely on magic to save her.

  Illnyea didn’t know where she was, hadn’t looked at a map before entering, so she didn't know how far she was from civilization. Sweet, sweet civilization that had nice warm beds and healers and fresh food to gorge upon that could be in the exact opposite direction of where Illnyea was headed.

  (a merchant always knows where they’re going, her mother would have chided)

  But Illnyea wasn’t a merchant, she had just been acting as a guard more than anything, and guards did what they were told and didn’t get to look at the fancy maps the caravan leaders refused to share. Illnyea didn’t know how to leave these wretched fens and wished she had cared more when Eileen (Illnyea flinched thinking of the woman, her mind conjuring a picture of Eileen's horrible last moments) had told her their route had changed.

  Illnyea had had a lot of time to be alone with her thoughts, and not for the first time, Illnyea found herself wondering if she would die here, if the last time she had spoken with her family and joked with Sulaiman would truly be the last memories they would have of her.

  At least she had reconciled with Priscilla, so there was one regret Illnyea wouldn’t die with, though Illnyea did regret not being able to see how their relationship might have developed if given time. Illnyea wished she had told Sulaiman how much she appreciated him, how having him as a best friend had inspired Illnyea to be better, and how she was sorry she never helped him see more of the world than just Kavendash.

  There were so many things that wanted to kill her in this swampy wasteland, and all it would take was one mistake, one moment where her magic failed her when she needed it most, one miscalculation of her current capabilities, and Illnyea would fall. Her blood would mingle with the swamp surrounding them as creatures gorged themselves upon her flesh – and it may not even be just animals that did that.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  But I don’t only have myself to worry about, Illnyea reminded herself as the other person hiding behind the leaf shivered.

  Holly was maybe thirteen and was reed thin so they both fit behind the leaf when Holly drew closer to Illnyea in an attempt to stay warm. She had a mop of muddy brown curls atop her head tied off with a ribbon, and was only dressed in a thin, tattered blue dress. Illnyea had given the girl her coat in hopes that the girl would be slightly better protected.

  If Illnyea had to, she could still draw a weapon from the earth to protect them both.

  Illnyea had encountered Holly last night (the only period of time Illnyea was sure of and that was only because Holly was sure of it).

  Illnyea had been wandering around, half-delirious and wondering if she should have tried to capture a bird to eat it, when a sound that didn’t belong to nature drifted through the air. The subtle, soft curse of a man that had the hair on the back of Illnyea’s neck rise.

  Relying on pure instinct, Illnyea dropped to the ground, raising her sword and shield as an arrow thudded into the tree behind her.

  From within the fog, a chorus of unearthly howls from human throats rose up, making Illnyea’s blood run cold.

  They had found her, the psychopaths that had killed and eaten Eileen had found Illnyea once more.

  Blind panic surged through Illnyea as she began to sprint away. She heard the sounds of people running after her and Illnyea forced her tired legs to pump faster to leave them behind.

  Then a figure burst forward from the side, a sword slicing a deadly arc Illnyea was just barely able to block with her shield arm and throw her attacker off balance. The impact reverberated painfully to her bones but Illnyea stood tall, facing down her attacker.

  It wasn’t the man with the wolf coat, but this man had a similarly unhinged smile on his face as he righted himself. She didn’t have time to deal with him, not when she could hear so many more behind her.

  Illnyea stamped her foot on the ground, channeling her anger and fear into her mana as she demanded the earth listen to her. The ground opened up and the man sank to his waist, eyes going wide in surprise.

  “I cannot wait for your talent to bloom with the starving one,” the man said though he didn't try to free himself as Illnyea began to run once more. Illnyea was not at all interested in her talents blooming in someone else and, frankly, whoever was starving should find their own talents.

  Each step she took made her head pound and vision blur but Illnyea would not let something as simple as that be the reason why she died.

  She had been running for nearly a minute, dodging arrows and focusing on staying far enough away that they couldn’t engage her in melee, when Illnyea came to skidding to a halt at an unexpected obstacle in her path. She blinked a few times and realized she really was seeing things correctly.

  It was a child sitting on the ground with her knees pulled to her chest. The girl’s face mud-streaked and her eyes were clearly full of tears as she flinched at the sight of Illnyea. Why there was a child out here in the middle of the fens, Illnyea couldn't even begin to guess.

  In that moment, with the sounds of her pursuers coming closer and a child in front of her, Illnyea had to make a choice.

  Gritting her teeth, Illnyea pulled out her sword and turned to face the people hunting her down.

  She wouldn’t run, not again.

  As the first person came into view, Illnyea hesitated for a moment as she realized she had to kill someone, something she never thought she would be capable of.

  (think of them as monsters, whispered the part of her carved from broken glass, monsters who pretend to be human to hurt others more effectively)

  Illnyea’s grip tightened around her sword and she went for the woman’s throat, cutting through it as cleanly as she had the bear’s. Blood sprayed out in an arc, some even dotting the edge of Illnyea’s mouth. She wanted to gag and choke to chase away the taste, but did neither, simply readying herself for the next attacker.

  There were less people after her than she thought there were, only eight, but it didn’t mean it was easy when Illnyea was fighting by herself.

  But Illnyea couldn’t back down, drawing on her mana to soften the ground beneath her enemy’s foot even further to make them stumble into her blade. She slammed the shield over another’s head, even though it sent pangs of pain up her arm, because it meant it knocked the woman off balance enough for Illnyea to stab her in the spine.

  Illnyea fell into the rhythm of battle, her world narrowing just to just this moment, to the next person she had to cut down.

  Stab.

  Dodge.

  Thrust.

  Repeat until there were no more monsters left.

  By the time Illnyea had killed everyone of her attackers, the ground was soaked in blood and entrails and Illnyea was breathing heavily, leaning on her sword for stability before sheathing it.

  (bad weapon management, Sulaiman would have chided)

  It was, but Illnyea didn’t really care right now.

  “We have to go,” Illnyea said, voice cracking from disuse as she reached out a bloody hand to the girl on the ground. “There’s more of them out there and they eat people.”

  The girl’s eyes went wide.

  For a moment, Illnyea was afraid she painted a too horrifying picture to trust after brutally murdering people in front of the girl.

  But something hardened in the girl’s gaze and she stood, grasping Illnyea’s hand firmly.

  “Let’s go,” the girl whispered, and they were off, running in the opposite direction the psychopaths had come from.

  It wasn’t until the girl was gasping, only pulled along by Illnyea’s grip, that they stopped. Illnyea rested her hands on her knees, taking deep breaths.

  “I’m Illnyea,” she finally said when she had recovered enough to speak.

  “I’m Holly,” the girl panted, plopping onto the ground on the ground as if her legs couldn't support her.

  From there, Illnyea found them a place to rest for the night that was reasonably safe and slowly coaxed out the reason why Holly was in the fens.

  The tale of Aidais’ Lament’s corruption was hard to swallow, especially when it came from the lips of someone so young. Fear was reasonable when facing the monster called The Starving One, but a man seizing control and declaring himself the mayor in order to help the monster – that was a different story altogether. The mayor picked a family, forcing them to choose who to sacrifice, often targeting anyone who expressed any sort of negativity about how the mayor was running the town.

  Holly’s father had been one such man, as he had been caught in the middle of trying to organize an escape for his family after his wife sacrificed herself. The mayor killed all but one of Holly’s father’s horses so that plan couldn’t happen, and then declared the Collir’s would provide the next sacrifice once more.

  “I told my father I’d go instead of him,” Holly whispered, “because Nikolas would starve if it was just me and him.”

  Holly began to cry, tears cutting through the mud stained on her cheeks. “I was following the speckled stones to the lightning tree, but, but I got scared when I heard something big coming towards me. I ran away when I heard it croak and then I got lost, and then you found me.”

  Illnyea reached out and hugged Holly, clutching the girl close without a care for how it hurt her shield arm.

  “It’s okay,” Illnyea whispered, “I’m here to protect you now.”

  Holly flinched in Illnyea’s arms.

  “I don’t want to die, Miss Illnyea,” Holly whispered, “but if I don’t show up and make The Starving One angry… then the mayor will take it out on my family. If… if I have to die so Nikolas can live–”

  “Shh,” Illnyea said, petting Holly’s messy curls. “Neither of you will have to die, not if I have anything to say about it.”

  As she said the words, Illnyea realized that to keep that promise, Illnyea would have to kill The Starving One. The thought of that made Illnyea terrified, so terrified that her hands petting Holly shook.

  (you’re not expected to solve every problem you come across, Priscilla’s words echoed.)

  But the press of Holly’s thin body against Illnyea chased away her sister’s words because Illnyea knew she couldn't run, not when it meant she’d be leaving Holly behind. The only way to make sure Holly was safe was to kill The Starving One, and then toss the cannibal’s head at the mayor’s feet.

  It was a bloody solution, but it was the only one Illnyea could come up with.

  They slept that evening and then spent the next day searching for the speckled stones, and failed spectacularly. At least the only monster they encountered was the stupid crab that stole Illnyea’s sword. Holly was able to spot a few clusters of berries and mushrooms that were safe to eat, so they didn’t spend their entire day without food.

  Letting the large leaf fall back into place, Illnyea readjusted her grip around Holly, pulling the girl closer in hopes to keep her a bit warmer.

  Tomorrow, Illnyea will find the lightning tree, no matter what. It should bring Illnyea close enough to The Starving One’s camp to spot it. Holly should be able to find her way home from there, following the speckled stones back to her father.

  Tomorrow, Illnyea will keep her promise.