Chapter 13 — Anxiety

The day was rapidly heading toward evening, and now that Ria had a firestone, she wanted to try cooking with it.

Putting on an apron to protect her dress, she cleaned out the ashes from the stove into one of the dirty pots and placed the firestone where the wood normally went.

The pot of fox stew on the grill, Ria touched the stone and pushed energy in.

Nothing happened.

Did she do it wrong? Was it not enough energy? Shaking off the doubting worries, Ria took a deep breath, moving energy from all around her body into her hand and then into the stone.

Whoosh!

“Eeeek! Oww, oww, owww!” Ria cried out as she jerked her burned fingers back and dunked them in the water bucket.

A nice hot flame was shooting up from the firestone, and the amount of heat seemed like it would be adequate to heat the stew.

The burns on her fingers were just a little red, so it would heal overnight. Ria felt rather stupid for having lit a firestone with her bare hand. Apparently, the normal method probably used a focus tool or some other way to fill the stone from a safe distance. Unfortunately, Ria’s only focus tool was her very flammable-looking staff.

Though, if she pushed all her energy into the staff, then pushed it into the stone all at once and jerked the staff back when the stone ignited, the staff shouldn’t take any damage—at least judging by her fingers.

Ria went to her mother’s room and dabbed some burn cream on, then rubbed the excess on her face and the back of her hands. She returned to the kitchen just in time to see the fire fade out.

“No way…”

Ria couldn’t believe it. If that much energy only powered the firestone for little more than five minutes… she’d have to fill up her staff with energy all day long, just to have enough energy stored up to run the firestone for an hour!

Sighing, her shoulders drooped. Was the icestone the same way? Ria shook her head in disbelief.

After toweling herself off, Ria dropped the damp cloth next to the water bucket.

Jarrel hadn’t returned, so she was changing into her nightgown and getting ready for bed. With her energy mostly used up, there wasn’t really any point to staying up to practice her magic.

Her room was still dark when she awoke. The only light was the faint starlight gently cast through her window and the bluish light from the glowstone showing through the gap around her desk drawer.

Listening carefully, Ria heard barking. Ranger definitely sounded upset about something.

A quick peek into the gloom outside didn’t reveal anything, but Ranger’s farm wasn’t visible from her window even on well-lit nights.

Worried about what was going on, Ria hopped back onto her bed and assumed the Outwardly Focused pose. She had to take a few extra breaths to calm herself before gaining the benefits of the meditation.

The insect noises had largely quieted due to whatever was going on, and after a few minutes, Ria was able to make out yips and growls that sounded different from Ranger but still dog-like. Whatever was out there certainly sounded a lot larger than the usual foxes that Ranger dealt with, and there was more than one—maybe a lot of them.

When a howl sounded out, Ria had a good idea of what woke her up. She darted across the room and started loading her crossbow.

Ria’s mind was racing. The shutters were all closed and latched downstairs, so she would be safe staying in her house. The question was whether she should go protect Ranger.

The meat and pelts would be useful. She did have a crossbow and a lightning wand. If she was lucky, killing two from a distance might scare away the others. But if the whole pack came for her, she wasn’t confident that a magic dagger would be enough to fend them off.

If there was a nearby house she could shoot from, then it might be possible. The danger was getting there without getting attacked.

Reluctantly, she decided attacking the wolves was too risky. If Jarrel was here, it would be different.

There was a fence, and there weren’t any sounds of actual fighting. Ria reassured herself that Ranger would be safe. She would check the fence for damage in the morning.

A tense hour or so passed before the wolves gave up interest. Ria suspected they would be back, and there was nothing keeping them from showing up during the day either.

The next morning, Ria was fully equipped for battle as she brought Ranger his food.

The farm looked as usual, and Ranger greeted her at the gate. When she checked around the fence there were a few spots where the wolves had tried to dig their way in. The size of the holes was worrisome. Ranger chomping at them from the inside must’ve kept them from getting through.

She would have to do something to scare the wolves off.

The farmhouses were much further apart from the rest of the village houses because of their fields, so the best vantage point for her crossbow would be the barn’s loft or the farmhouse’s roof. Trying to shoot the wolves from one of the neighboring houses would only have worked if the wolves were on the near side of the fence. Unfortunately, two of the dug-out areas were on the far side.

A rabbit wandering around caught Ria’s attention, drawing her out of her thoughts on how to deal with the problem.

Guided by new worries, she arrived at the rabbit farm, and her worries were confirmed. The rabbit field was a scene of slaughter, rabbit remains scattered all over, and crows gathered around cleaning up any leftover fleshy bits.

Ugh. She should try to at least salvage the pelts but might as well let the birds finish cleaning them up at this point.

Turning away, Ria headed back.

If dangerous animals were already encroaching on the village, there was a task she needed to finish. Going house to house, she finished closing up her neighbors’ window shutters and doors. The only scare was when she spooked a raccoon, and it scurried past her, hissing and spitting.

The last house was the mayor’s house. The situation with the mayor’s house was different, and that made Ria curious. The iron gate was closed and locked, but the fence that went around the house was low and easy to climb, so she did.

The sturdy front door was also locked, and all the first-floor windows were sealed. They were glass-paned windows and didn’t budge when she pushed upward against the frames.

Normally, Ria would never dare sneak around Mayor Tellis’ house, but with all of the other villagers’ houses left abandoned and his neatly secure and locked, there might be answers to be found here. Still, she wasn’t quite ready to break the glass to get at those answers, so she continued looking around.

When she checked the stables, the horses, carriage, and wagon were all gone, as expected. The servants’ shed, though, still had tools.

Hammers, axes, hedge shears, brushes, a large washbasin. Lots of useful things. And maybe most important to her current task of getting into the mayor’s house: a ladder.

Ria dragged the heavy ladder back to the front of the house, where she propped it up against the small balcony that Mayor Tillis used to address village assemblies. Luckily, the balcony door was unlocked, and she was able to enter the house.

The first thing that struck Ria as surprising was that the curtains were missing. The bedroom closets were mostly empty of clothing. Most everything of value had been packed up.

They knew.

Ria felt a pit of cold in her stomach. Mayor Tillis knew and didn’t tell the villagers.

There was a room attached to the largest bedroom with mostly empty bookshelves and a writing desk. Ria felt drawn to that writing desk. Drawn in a way similar to how heroines were always drawn to dark cellars in horror stories. There were papers still on the desk and crumpled up in a basket below.

Her hands trembled as she reached for the half-folded letter with the fancy broken wax seal and an ornate house crest at the top.

Sir Tillis,

It is with ill tidings that I write. Due to ongoing concern over the state of the Great Barrier Wall and for the safety of the kingdom, all the common people of Shadewood have been ordered conscripted into service of the Crown. Any commoners evading conscription will be considered deserters and subject to arrest.

The King has dispatched the army to handle the relocation of all commoners residing in Shadewood. In consideration of the imminent relocation of all local population, noble personages residing in Shadewood are ordered to gather their family and belongings and report to the capital for assignment of clerical duties and new land.

The conscription order is a matter of national secrecy and is not to be revealed to anyone not authorized to know. You have been notified as a matter of courtesy. Failure to maintain secrecy in this matter will be considered treason and will be handled accordingly. Please exercise caution.

Further, it is the desire of the Crown that the harvest gathering be completed to the fullest extent possible without alerting the common people of the imminent conscription.

We embark upon dark times, but I wish you and your family good fortune in your new position of service to the Crown.

Lord Emberstill, Duke of the South

Her suspicions, they were all true, and worse than she feared. The King! The King ordered the soldiers to take everyone away. What could the King possibly want with old people and children? Why would conscripting peasants be a matter of national secrecy? And it was something secret enough that Sir Tillis wasn’t told the whole truth—that all of the nearby villages were conscripted—or even why. It just didn’t make any sense.

Seeking more clues, she emptied the nearby basket onto the desk and started uncrumpling the discarded paper.

All were hastily scrawled draft letters expressing Sir Tellis’ dismay and outrage at the order. But they were all sentiments that could never be voiced. Speaking against the King’s order was treason.

Ria could only wonder why Sir Tellis would purposefully leave evidence of treason behind? Even leaving the duke’s letter where it would easily be found could be considered treason. Did he want any villagers who escaped or returned to know his feelings on the matter?

Did Sir Tellis try to warn some of the villagers? Is that how mom knew? If so, why didn’t she try to tell anyone else? She was acting so normal before the soldiers showed up. Did she just not believe that it could be true?

The thoughts were spinning around in Ria’s head furiously, and she had to take several deep breaths to calm herself. That was the past now, and there was nothing that could change it. The present and future were what she needed to focus on.

The letter made several things clear, and Ria was worried for Jarrel. She and Jarrel were clearly deserters, and he had been gone for more than the planned three days. What if he had been arrested? In stories, weren’t deserters usually publicly executed?

She didn’t think Jarrel would tell them she was here… unless he was worried that she would die on her own… Ugh.

Rather than preparing to hunker down for the winter, she needed to be preparing to survive the wilderness. Staying in the village was risky.

Sleeping in her own bed had made her way too careless. The latches on her home’s shutters were fine to keep out animals, but they would never keep out a person who was determined to get in.

She could place wards at the windows and doors, but that would be just like announcing that someone was living inside. The only thing keeping her safe was that no one knew she was there.

But the more she thought about it, she was leaving signs everywhere. From the dumped wastewater and the wet ground around the hand pump at the well to the animal remains and the lingering smell of smoke from her evening fires—even Ranger being healthy was a sign of someone still living in the village.

Even making a mud cottage in the woods would be safer… except for the wolves. Ugh.

She didn’t want to leave Ranger to his fate either. She didn’t want to be alone, and if she could take Ranger with her, he could help keep her safe.

Ria sighed. One thing was clear. Whether she was going to stay or leave, the wolves had to die.