The Safer Route

Our destination was set and our objective clear. We would leave for the Avium as soon as possible, which meant as soon as Crispin had prepared breakfast.

He really did seem to be taking his time. Crispin stirred a fragrant broth in his battered pot over the hearth.

“Any time today,” I muttered. I had been packed for almost an hour.

Crispin tasted the soup, shook his head, and sprinkled in another pinch of salt.

“No need to rush, Plume,” said Crispin. “We’ve got three days journey before we reach the Avium.”

“Three days?” I asked in surprise. “The forest route will take us at most two days, even with you slowing us down. I’ll take the lead.”

It was Crispin’s turn to look surprised. “The forest route? Didn’t you hear what they said about Forest Prowlers? I thought we were going to take the safer route along the road.”

I looked to Olive for support but she was tuning her lute and trying obviously not to get involved.

“We’ll see what the bones have to say about this,” said Crispin. He scooped his ladle into the broth and fished out a handful of bones. With a flick of his wrist he launched them into the air and appealed to the gods for their wisdom.

The bones landed wetly on the floor in a tight clump. I blinked. They were clearly in the shape of a skull.

Crispin coughed. “I have reason to believe we should take the road.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “That’s not a portent. That’s just chance. I bet that if you throw them again you’ll get a different shape. Because it’s just dumb luck!”

Crispin raised an eyebrow. He dragged the ladle across the dusty floor, gathering the bones. He dipped the ladle, bones and all, back into the soup pot. He stirred a few times, and then with the same flick of the wrist he tossed the bones into the air and appealed to the gods once more.

The bones scattered across the floor in no discernible pattern.

“Hah,” I clucked. “To think we almost trusted you.”

“If you just take a step back…” said Crispin, tilting his head to one side.

I sighed. “You have the deciding vote, Olive. What do you think?”

“I trust you, Plume,” said Olive, “but the bones were pretty clear the first time.”

I glared my disappointment at them both. We would take the safer route.

---

The Perch Guard stationed outside Alderheart waved us off as we set out toward the Avium. The sunlight filtered gently through the leaves and we were all prepared for a good day of hiking.

It took less than an hour for us to run into trouble.

A tall and bulky Mapach was waiting at the side of the road, picking his teeth with a wicked dagger. My hand itched to reach for my axe as we approached, but he hadn’t yet given me an excuse to draw it.

“Well what do we ’ave ’ere?” asked the Mapach, lumbering to his feet. “It’s Alderheart’s Lackeys.”

“It’s ‘The Defenders of Alderheart’, actually,” said Crispin.

The Mapach spat on the ground and then whistled. Other bandits appeared from the woods on either side of the road. I spotted two Jerbeen thieves and two Mapach bruisers. Near the back lurked a Vulpin wearing cleric’s robes.

“You thought Benna Seridan was tough, huh?” The bandit leader drew his rapier with a flash and leered at us. “Well, I’m gonna show everyone you’re ’armless.”

Then everything happened at once.

I drew my axe and charged toward the Jerbeen thieves. I slashed out with two furious blows, cutting the first deeply across the chest. It felt good to see the blood of my enemies again.

The bandit leader reached me faster than I expected and lashed out with rapier and knives. The first glanced off my armour and I didn’t even feel the pain as the others scraped across my wings.

From behind me I heard a strange whining noise, high in pitch and rising higher until it became excruciating. The sound was coming from Olive. It seemed that while I was on the edge of the spell the Jerbeen thieves were receiving the full force of the spell. Blood spurted from the ears of the first and it collapsed to the ground. The other clutched at its head in pain but stayed on its feet.

“Make them bleed,” screeched Olive to Crispin encouragingly.

The Vulpin cleric stepped forward and gestured toward Crispin. The ground beneath his feet began to glow and he smiled as he stepped to one side.

“Ah,” said Crispin. “A blessing!”

The Vulpin growled and snapped her jaw in reply.

Crispin raised his hand and summoned his spiritual weapon to the battlefield. A familiar heavy and glowing ladle burst forth out of thin air and clonked the Vulpin on the head.

Crispin winked at the Vulpin and growled back at her.

I exchanged blows with the remaining Jerbeen, spinning my axe with both hands to try to hold off the bandit leader. I felt their blades make contact and blood run down my face but I didn’t care.

One of the smaller Mapach ran past the melee and stabbed Olive in the face. She shrugged off the wound and began her shattering cry again. The rising pitch and pain returned and both a Mapach bruiser and the other Jerbeen convulsed and collapsed.

“Stop stealing my kills!” I shouted.

The Vulpin cleric held up her paws and the bandit leader glowed with a holy light that knitted his gaping wounds neatly into new scars. Then she turned tail and ran as fast as she could toward the woods.

Crispin, trying not to look like he was copying the Vulpin cleric, stepped into combat just long enough to heal some of my more impressive wounds. He clanged his spiritual weapon against the bandit leader’s head and, after considering their difference in size, made a quick tactical retreat.

I shoved the bandit leader to the ground but I couldn’t hold him for long. He jumped back up and slashed back at me with renewed strength.

The remaining bandits were fleeing now. Olive tried unsuccessfully to stop the last Mapach bruiser from escaping using a clever combination of her mage hand and a spare hat. The Mapach fled into the woods, shortly followed by the Vulpin cleric.

Crispin sighed as he saw her go. He melted part of the bandit leader’s armour with a powerful blast of necrotic energy, but I could tell his heart wasn’t really in it anymore.

We tried to hold him in place but the bandit leader was just too strong. He pushed past us and ran for the woods in the other direction.

“You’ve not seen the last of Krall!” he shouted as he reached the treeline.

Olive tried her high-pitched squeak again and Crispin lit up the target with a well-aimed Guiding Bolt. I knew there was only one last option for me.

I channelled the power of the Feathered Helm and called for the first time on the power of Tevor’s feather. The Luma feather glowed softly and I felt a sudden connection to the woods wash over me and the scent of cherry blossom. A fizzle of magical energy surged down from the helm and out of my outstretched hand toward the retreating Krall.

The spell hit its target. I felt it. But by the time we reached the woods on the other side of the road Krall was nowhere to be found.

---

While I finished searching the woods, Crispin was setting up a large amount of incense sticks around the corpse of one of the smaller Mapach bandits. He made several complicated gestures with his arms and then placed both hands on the chest of the corpse.

To my astonishment, the corpse took a shuddering breath in. Its eyes opened, struggling to break free of the dried blood encrusted on its head.

“Okay,” murmured Crispin. “Five questions.”

Olive and I stood by and watched this creepy seance.

“Firstly, who was that enchanting Vulpin?”

“Whaat?” The corpse turned its bloodied ears closer to Crispin.

“Okay. Secondly, what happens after death?”

“I’ve not really had long to find out.”

“Thirdly, where would Krall go?”

“To the hospital?”

“Fourthly, where would he hide out if he was injured?”

“In the hideout.”

Crispin grimaced. “Err. Fifthly, are there more than 40 of you bandits?”

The corpse rotated its head awkwardly to look straight up into Crispin’s eyes. It pulled its lips back into a ghoulish smile.

“There are as many of us as there are the downtrodden.”

The magic faded and the corpse returned to being nothing but a corpse.

“Shame,” said Crispin. “I never got her name.”

I chuckled as I cleaned bandit innards off my axe. “Thank goodness we took the safer route.”