Chapter Twelve - "You Have Got to be Kidding Me"

“So, what's this guy’s name?” Sari asked. She was laying with her feet on the bed, her back on the floor and had to be seeing me upside down. She was barefoot, pretty much just in her top and panties for the moment. Cameron was sitting cross-legged by the head end of the bed, just off the pillows. I couldn’t tell if she was asleep or not, but her eyes were closed.

The room was tiny. It was just the bed, a table with a lamp and a single, broken window that looked out on the town outside. There was room for one sleeping bag, which was laid out on the floor just far enough away from the door that I wouldn’t be hit by it whenever somebody opened it. Wasn’t even a fucking bathroom. The town looked so much better than this place suggested.

I briefly wondered if there was room to sleep in the town square. Or that bar.

I ignored the room for the time being. Sari had asked me a question, and I was likely looking like an idiot just standing there.

“Trafus Moor, he said. Though, I doubt he was telling the truth.”

She looked comical asking me serious questions in her position, but she kept things pretty much all business. “Do you trust him?”

I shook my head. “Of course not. He’s a headhunter.”

Cameron asked, “A what?” proving she was awake.

Sari answered, “The worst kind of bounty hunter, they don’t take capture jobs, just kills, and they prove it by taking off the target’s head and bringing it back to the one who hired them.”

I nodded. “Usually, they keep a trophy. Trafus has a Qinatan sword similar to mine and several Plains Tribe tattoos that clearly weren’t his own.”

Cameron’s eyes shot open. “He cut off somebody’s tattoos?!”

Sari giggled. “No, sweetie, he probably cut off the dude’s arms and had some back alley slob copy them. You can tell by the ink; the Plains Tribe uses the inky blood of a darkwolf, it looks much different than regular tattoo ink.”

“That… doesn’t sound much better.”

I nodded. “It’s really not. Regardless, we’re not gonna trust this guy, but we’ll use him as long as necessary and we’ll keep an eye on him at alltimes. If necessary…” I took a few steps closer to the bed. “You know any spells to jack his life up?”

Cameron shrugged. “A couple. I turned the neighbor girl into a boy once while she was kissing her boyfriend.”

Well, it was creative, but I didn’t think just turning the guy into a woman would actually deter him. I’d keep it in mind, though. If nothing else, it was a solid Plan B. Hopefully it’d be easier to deal with him any other way, or just easy enough to let him disappear. I didn’t want to kill him, and I wouldn’t if I could help it.

I sat down on the disgusting floor and rested my feet. If the cockroaches didn’t tear this place apart in the next few weeks, it would be because it was too dirty for them. How the hell this place stayed in business was beyond me.

“So, back to Trafus,” Sari said, “how far will he take us?”

“No idea. As long as we’re not a problem, I guess.”

“A problem? Us? Please, we’re sweethearts.”

I rolled my eyes at that. I knew she was joking, but that didn’t make it funny. I sighed and leaned my head back on the windowsill. The ceiling looked just as bad as the floor. I said, “We need to have a destination. If we have a destination, our deal with Trafus has an expiration date. What’s a town you know where we can get better transport?”

Sari shrugged. “Nowhere in the Empire. Kepton’s the largest town I know, and I can’t go back there. On account of the thievery I pulled.”

Cameron asked, “Thievery?”

Sari turned to her. “Oh, yeah, I forgot you didn’t know. I’m a thief.”

I laughed. “Not a good one.”

“I was a great one before you came along.”

Cameron edged closer to Sari. “Ya gotta tell me about this.”

“When you’re older. When’s your thirteenth birthday?”

“In a few months.”

“Remind me then.”

All I could do was keep laughing.

---

The town was quiet when daybreak came. I stood outside the inn and waited for Trafus to finally show up. Sari and Cameron were both still inside, doing… something. I wasn’t entirely sure what, it was probably some girl thing I’d never understand. Regardless, Trafus was late and the girls were late and I didn’t have anything to do.

I leaned against the inn door. I drew my pocket knife and spent a few seconds using it to pick my teeth after whatever the hell the inn believed counted as breakfast. It was just as disgusting as the building, and how I’d managed to keep it down was beyond me. I could barely stomach thinking about it, honestly.

I caught something out of the corner of my eye. It darted between buildings, between shadows. It didn’t take long to move, nor did it seem to stop. Whatever it was, it was fast. I could barely keep up with watching it.

If it had speed on its side, that meant I needed to make this end up on my terms. I studied its movements, watched it go from building to building throughout the town. So help me, I hadn’t noticed so many buildings before then.

I held off on drawing my blade just yet. I didn’t want to appear hostile if this thing wasn’t. I wanted the upper hand, not disadvantage, which meant I needed to look as though I wasn’t anticipating a threat. I didn’t even position my hands for easy access to the sword. Instead, I unenthusiastically stepped away from the inn and moved toward one of the buildings.

I found a hiding space on the side of the building I knew the creature would make its move from. I could tell from how it had moved so far that it was picking specific buildings that were out of sight from the inn door. That meant whoever it didn’t want seeing it was likely at the inn.

And the girls and I were the only guests.

I finally drew my blade just as the creature was about to sprint past me. I lunged the sword forward, toward the creature’s feet. It stumbled as it tried to pass, landing on its face. I twirled my sword for some reason that was likely my ego.

The creature in question was… Jaide? He looked worse than he had when I saw him, back in Endawa. His hair even more disheveled, his face covered in a light coating of hair that didn’t quite hide fresh scars and his body thin from starvation.

“What’re you doing here, Jaide?” I asked.

The changer’s eyes darted left and right, then locked on me. “Who… Who Jaide…” he asked, a hoarseness to his voice that suggested he hadn’t had anything to drink in days.

“You Jaide,” I said, stupidly imitating him.

Instead of responding, Jaide curled up into the fetal position and started shaking. It was both concerning and pathetic. It was an almost complete change from what he’d been back in Endawa. Had the Escorts done this to him after Sari and I escaped? What exactly had been done to him?

Trafus rolled up to the front of the inn riding a cart, drawn by large… bird… things. I was expecting horses. Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting any kind of transport at all, but horses would have been better. He looked as though he were mildly annoyed, as well.

“Looks like you caught yourself a good prize there, Kid. Guilds pay good money for changers, especially one as infamous as Jaide Redclaw.”

I sheathed my sword and walked over to him. “Not what I’m interested in. What the hell are those?”

He patted the nearest bird. “These are giant dodo, and you won’t find a faster animal. A carriage drawn by fifty horses couldn’t catch up to ten dodo.”

I glared. “I seriously doubt that.”

He laughed. “Fine then, doubt it all the way to our destination, Kid.”

I sighed. Whatever. I walked over to his cart and found a rope. Using the rope, I bound Jaide’s hands, but not his feet. He didn’t resist, barely even moved. It was almost like he was a stone or something, or a dead animal.

Sari and Cameron walked out of the inn a few moments later, both in clothes I didn’t know they had. I was still wearing the same ratty clothes I made it to town in. Sari was wearing a pair of skintight pants, a top that exposed her stomach and left arm but covered her right arm and a pair of hunting boots. Cameron was wearing a pair of shorts, a tank top and sandals.

“Is that Jaide?” Sari asked, a surprised look on her face.

“Who’s Jaide?” Cameron asked, almost as though she’d heard Jaide say exactly that five minutes ago.

“You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me, it is Jaide! Ha! What’s he doing here?”

I rolled my eyes. “He doesn’t know. He doesn’t even remember his own name.”

The two of them made it over to me. Sari looked Jaide over while Cameron decided to take a look at the dodos. “What the hell happened to him?” Sari asked.

Before I could answer, Trafus did. “He’s been touched by their mind rapers.” He dismounted from the cart and patted the dodos for comfort or something.

Cameron looked the most concerned. “Mind rapuhs?” she asked.

Trafus gave an odd glance at her. “No, rapers.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Tha’s what ah said.”

I sighed. “What are mind rapers?” I asked.

“Disgusting things,” Trafus answered, still giving Cameron that look, “they peer at you from dark holes in their heads, never seeing your physical form but looking so intently at your being. They take it, rip it apart and spit it back out.” He pointed to Jaide. “Most people end up like this poor bastard, lose their entire sense of self. Others…” he visibly shuddered, “I don’t like to think about what happens to the others.”

Sari was suddenly behind Cameron, holding onto her. “Do they ever come back?” she asked.

Trafus simply shook his head.

“The Empire does this on a regular basis?”

“You wouldn’t believe how many people, M’lady.” He took a step closer to the girls. “And the mind rapers aren’t even the worst thing they do.”

I couldn’t say I was surprised the Empire did such things. My dad used to warn Circi and me about the things the Empire liked to do to people who disagreed, to people who fought back. Most kept quiet, and said nothing. Others regretted their decisions not to. No, I wasn’t surprised, I was disgusted.

Sari and I hoisted Jaide into the cart, though I could have done it myself. He was so malnourished, he likely weighed less than a hundred pounds. Had one of those worst things Trafus had mentioned been behind how he looked like he’d been mistreated for almost a year, or had the Escorts done their damage to him right there in Endawa? I could almost imagine them taking control of that inn and destroying him in the basement, while unsuspecting visitors checked in up above, completely oblivious to it all.

I put the thought out of my mind and helped Cameron into the cart, then Sari, then hoisted myself up into it. Trafus got in last. “So, swordsman, where are we headed? West is a direction, but we need a destination.”

“Endawa. Small village out there.”

He nodded. “I know it. Irvine and I go way back, we fought in the war.”

“Friends?”

He shook his head. “Opposite sides. We fought in the war.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. That’s our destination.”

He smiled. “Fine. Endawa it is.”

---

“How much further?” Sari asked, after yawning. I immediately yawned as well, thanks to how goddamn contagious those things are. Cameron was already asleep, so she didn’t yawn, and I couldn’t tell if Trafus was yawning. Jaide was out cold, not even blabbering his gibberish.

The sun was just beginning to set as we finished crossing through a mountain range I had hoped we’d avoid. The idea of these birds on steep pathways just concerned the hell out of me, but Trafus had vouched for them and we’d actually managed to get through it all no problem. Now if only the damn birds could fly, we’d be in great traveling shape.

From what I could tell from the map I’d stolen from the inn (like the innkeeper would really miss it), we were at least two days travel from Endawa, and from there I saw at least a couple options. One was a city called Peresten, which looked to only be about a days walk from Endawa. That meant that the girls and I could dump Trafus in Endawa to hang with that Irvine guy he mentioned and we could get on to the next step of our journey.

Peresten looked like a big enough city to draw the white dragon to it. If we were lucky, we’d get there in time to stop it.

“Hey,” Sari said, a little more forceful, “how much further?”

Trafus finally looked back at her. “We’re making camp in a little bit.”

“Where are we, anyway?”

I answered, “The closest village is only about an hour or so away, from the looks of this map, on the other side of this forest.” I had to admit, I wasn’t fond of the idea of going through another forest, but a good portion of the Empire was woodlands, so I guess my fondness in the idea was irrelevant. “Called Fork.”

“Fork?”

“Fork,” I repeated. “That’s the name on the map, at least.”

“We’re not going there,” Trafus said.

“Why not?” Sari asked.

“We’re not.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Fine, just sayin’, it’d be nice to know why.”

I wouldn’t mind knowing the real reason, either, but I didn’t say anything. I could tell Trafus’ mind was made up and we’d never be getting the answer we were looking for. I had a feeling it had something to do with the man’s headhunting career. Maybe it was his greatest shame, maybe it was just a town he’d hunted too many people in. Maybe it was something altogether different.

Trafus stopped the birds just outside the forest, then tied them to the nearest tree. He then reached into a bag he had tied to the side of the cart and retrieved a relatively large double-sided axe with markings from Esosca painted on the blades. “Come with me,” he said to me.

Sari sat up. “I’ll come, too.”

Trafus shook his head. “No, M’lady, you stay with the girl. The Kid and I will be back in a short moment. We’re just going to get firewood.” He let the handle of his axe hit the ground and leaned with it. “Besides, somebody needs to stay with that one,” he said, pointing to Jaide.

She slumped back into her previous half-lying/half-sitting position. “Fine, just don’t take too long. I worry about Cres.”

I laughed. “Yeah, right. Worry.

She smiled. “Shush. Just go off, do your man work.”

I was about to say something when Trafus pushed another axe - unmarked, this time - into my hands. He jerked his thumb toward the forest, then led the way into it.

He led me deep into the forest before we actually even started chopping any wood. I would have asked why we didn’t just use the closest trees, but Trafus seemed… different than he had been back in town. I assumed it was something to do with our close proximity to Fork, whatever the hell that place was to him.

“So, do you need a nickname?” I asked him.

He stopped swinging his axe. “What?”

“You call me Kid, you call Sari M’lady. Do we need to give you a nickname?”

He swung the axe into the tree again. “The only nickname there is Kid, Kid.”

I stopped swinging now. “What?”

“You heard what I said.”

I shrugged. “Fine, whatever. What’s up with you and Fork, then?”

“No.”

“I’m not here to bond,” I assured him, “but if it’s important to this ride, I feel like we need to know.”

He shook his head. “It’s not important. We’re not going there, it’s an hour in the wrong direction and I don’t want to talk about it.” He hit the tree again. “You didn’t mention you were this chatty, Kid.”

“Trust me, I am.”

He laughed. “Fine, how about you tell me a little about yourself, then? What does the great Cres Siorcas need to go west for?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Funny, I didn’t tell you my last name.”

“No, but it was easy to piece it together. The finest headhunter in all of the Empire once owned that sword you carry, and everybody knows he was killed by the white dragon.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said through gritted teeth. And I was right, he didn’t know. My dad wasn’t a headhunter, he couldn’t have been. “Whoever lied to you about my dad should have checked his facts. He wasn’t a headhunter.”

He nodded. “Fine. See it as you choose. You’ll love him more that way.” He finished up on his tree and the wood came falling down, right into the clearing we were standing at the edge of. “Now, hurry up with yours. The girls are probably getting cold.”

We finished with all the wood chopping, then carried it all out to where we were parked. In the time we took getting to know one another and chopping all the wood, Sari had set up a tent she must have found from Trafus’ stuff and was starting on another. Cameron was hugging one of the dodos and Jaide was still bound in the cart.

The sun had just dipped under the horizon when we finished setting up our little camp. We tied Jaide to one of the trees that the dodos weren’t tied to, and started the fire a few feet away from the tents. Cameron sat down to the right, beside me, which I found weird, because I thought Sari was the one she had connected to the most. Trafus was on the opposite side of the fire from me, and Sari was on the left of me, playing with one of her arrows.

From somewhere, Trafus had caught some small animals. I hadn’t seen him do it, but I assumed he’d done it while I helped Sari set up the other tents. There were three of them, one for Trafus, one for me and one for the girls. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with Jaide being left tied to that tree, but I damn sure wasn’t putting him in any of our tents.

I was still unsure what to do about Jaide. On the one hand, I didn’t want anything to do with him, but he did sacrifice himself for Sari and I to escape. He was still the direct cause for why we needed to escape anyway, but that wasn’t the point. Maybe we could dump him off somewhere along the way to Endawa. I’d have to talk about it with Sari, but I doubted she’d disagree.

I heard something out in the woods. Sari and Jaide did as well, but Cameron and Trafus didn’t even pretend to hear it. Cameron, I found out, was asleep. Trafus simply snorted, “Don’t let woodland noises scare you.” He prodded the fire with a stick. “Especially noises from these woods.”

Sari looked at me with a look of annoyance. I assumed Trafus’ demeanor was getting on her nerves, or something. She proved me right when she asked, “Are you ever gonna tell us what’s up with you and these woods?”

He glanced up at her. “Not if I never need to, M’lady.”

Her look toward him had turned to steel. “Stop calling me that.”

I asked, “Why do you call her that? You said it wasn’t a nickname.”

He shifted his glance to me. “You don’t know?” He snorted a laugh. “I don’t know how long you two have been traveling together, but the young woman beside you is High Chieftain Sarika of the Plains Tribes. The only person who can actually unite all the chieftains of the tribes and bring them together again.”

The only words that escaped my lips were, “You’ve gotta be shittin’ me…”

Sari stood up. “Shut your mouth! You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Cameron was suddenly jolted awake. “Whuh’s goin’ on?”

I answered, “Apparently Sari’s a tribe chieftain.”

“Whuh?!”

Sari shook her head. “No, I’m not.”

Trafus was full-on laughing. “On the contrary, M’lady, I know exactly what I’m talking about. You see, ten years ago, I was paid by the Emperor himself to travel to the Seles Plains and kill your father. My instructions also included you, but he’d already been long dead at that point. Instead, I set my sights on you, but no one knew where you were. I spent over a year hunting you, trying to find even the barest hint of you.

“After your parents were killed by the white dragon, I learned you were taken in by various villages, each more eager to train the future High Chieftain than the last. Then, I finally learned why I could never find you. You had never been taken in by any other villages, and were instead sheltered by a witch’s magic while you lived among only a single tribe. By the time I found out, I’d already given up hopes of finding you, and told the Emperor’s cronies that you’d been killed alongside your father in the white dragon’s assault.” He poked the fire again. “He paid me most handsomely.”

I stood up, which surprised Cameron, who also stood up. “You told me your parents died on the waters between Seles and Qinata.”

Sari looked like she was fighting back tears. “They did. I didn’t lie, I just didn’t tell you the whole truth. I’m not a High Chieftain, because I can’t be. Not while there’s still fighting going on between the Empire and Plains Tribes.”

“Whu’d he mean ‘bout you bein’ hidden by a witch’s magic?” Cameron asked.

Sari sighed. “This old witch promised my uncle that she’d keep me hidden from - ” she almost shouted “ - guys like him!” She returned to her normal volume. “But, I couldn’t return to the capital for a long time. My uncle left me with his tribe while he went to the capital to try and broker peace between the tribes. That’s why I’m such a good thief, because his tribe specializes in that sort of thing. He was always the black sheep of the family before he ended up being my only family.”

Trafus laughed again. “The forgotten monarch and the headhunter’s son. You two make quite the pair.”

Sari looked at me with a confused eye. “Headhunter’s son?”

“He really doesn’t know what he’s talking about there,” I said, with an almost angered tone. “My dad was never a headhunter.”

“Tell me, Cres, what did your father do?”

I kept quiet because I honestly couldn’t answer that question. I knew so very little about my father, other than his skill in combat and that his sword was a priceless family heirloom, passed on from the days before the family left Qinata to come to the Empire. For all I knew, Trafus was right and my dad was the best headhunter in the business, except that I couldn’t think that way. I wouldn’t sully my memory of my father by giving in to that.

Sari folded her arms over her chest. “Fine, Trafus Moor, since you seem to know so much about us, why don’t you tell us something about you?Why don’t you wanna go to Spork? Why does that place seem to be the one thing you’re afraid of?”

“Fork,” I corrected her. She glared at me.

Trafus’ previous smile from shitting all over our secrecy suddenly turned into a death glare. “I fear nothing from Fork. And make no mistake, M’lady, though I have revealed your secrets, I maintain my own because people like you could never understand them.”

“Really? You know I’m a professional thief, right?” she asked.

“A thief, yes. Hardly a professional. But that is not the point. You’ll learn nothing about me because you don’t need to know. Your own belief is that you’ll leave me in Endawa when we arrive there, that our relationship is kept on a leash that you hold.”

My hand drifted to my blade. “Are you suggesting otherwise?” I asked.

“As a matter of fact, I am.” He stood up, now. “It wasn’t coincidence that we met in that pissant bar, Cres. I’m a headhunter, and you know exactlywhat that means.”

I growled, “You gotta be kiddin’ me!”

He shook his head. “No. I was hired to kill you three. Seventy thousand gold apiece for you and the High Chieftain, and twenty-five thousand for the mage.”

“Why am I so damn cheap?” Cameron asked, her voice suggesting she’d just been insulted.

Trafus ignored her, however. “So, Cres, if you think you’ll even make it to Endawa, you’re wrong.”

“Who the hell hired you to kill us?” Sari demanded.

“The Emperor himself. You see, that little stunt you pulled in Kepton with Redclaw brought this about. When the Escorts couldn’t capture you in Endawa, they hired me. When their spies found that you’d joined forces with this girl, they added her bounty into the mix.”

I drew my sword. “You’re outta your goddamn mind if you think you’ll actually kill us,” I exclaimed.

“Long have I dreamt of adding your father’s sword to my collection.” He drew his own Qinatan sword. “Today will be the day the dream becomes reality.”

Just before we were allowed to have our fight, arrows were fired from the woods, all of them missing us just enough to make it seem as though they were merely firing warning shots. Sari had drawn her bow and was ready to loose an arrow of her own when some dog… wolf… thing jumped out at her and took the bow. She was left with a large bite mark on her left arm. She jammed her knife in its neck and made it run off.

Trafus and I both readied ourselves to fight whoever it was attacking us. I was certain we’d be ready to kill each other again right as soon as this was dealt with, but he clearly wanted to preserve his kill. The longer we stood there, however, the longer we simply waited. The threat didn’t seem eager to leave the woods.

“Oh, come the fuck on!” Sari shouted.

Whoever was out there started laughing, loudly. It was a man, I could tell, but their age was impossible to determine. I dug my feet into the ground and waited for whoever they were to make their appearance.

The man who stepped out from the woods was not what I expected. Relatively slight, with stark white hair. His face was completely hairless, even lacking eyebrows. He was dressed even more unexpectedly, wearing armor plating on his legs and arms, but a simple vest and shirt on his torso. A very large, impractical looking broadsword was sheathed on his back, and a pair of long knives were strapped to each leg. The vest was buttoned up, but I could see a little bit of an image on his shirt.

What surprised me most about this guy was that Trafus looked like he was about to shit his pants.

“You have got to be kidding me…” he breathed.

“It’s been a few years, Trafus,” the man said, “Mother sends her regards."