Chapter 19 — Loss

She was right in a way. The trip back wasn't as bad, but that didn't mean it wasn't terrible!

Jarrel even had them stop for a mid-afternoon lunch of roasted bird, but now evening had arrived, and her legs still felt like jelly. And judging by the pain, her shoulders were little more than a big strap-shaped bruise. Ugh.

Again, focusing on putting one foot in front of the next, Ria missed that Jarrel had stopped and pulled up short at the last second just to lose her footing and fall on her butt.

Normally, Jarrel would have laughed at her, but his serious expression and finger over his lips indicating silence sent a spike of fear through her heart.

Something was wrong.

Quietly crawling up beside Jarrel, she peeked out in the direction Jarrel was looking only to suppress a gasp.

Torches!

And, the men carrying them didn’t look like soldiers.

As she watched, a pair of men came running back to the group after checking one of the village’s houses, and annoyed sounding voices reported their findings. Ria thought she heard something like: “Again, no food!”

Ugh. Her house was the only one with food. Once they discovered that… the thought of abandoning her house and everything in it to these strangers… it rankled. She knew that would happen eventually, but knowing that something would happen was one thing, actually being faced with it was another.

There were a few other places in the village that still had food, and one of them was the Martins’ farm where Ranger was. Ria was worried about Ranger. These guys were likely bandits, and Ria didn’t want to abandon Ranger to bandits.

After the men disappeared further into the village, Ria tugged on Jarrel’s pants and motioned for him to follow her deeper into the woods. He nodded his understanding.

When they reached a safe distance, she whispered, “We need to rescue Ranger!”

Jarrel rolled his eyes. “If they haven’t killed him already, don’t you think these guys will want to keep him around to protect the chickens? Just like we did.”

Ria shook her head. “That’s not it. He has already been abandoned by his first family, and he was devastated by it. I don’t want to do that to him again.”

“He’s not a trained hunting dog. How are we even supposed to get him to follow us around?” Jarrel asked.

“There is a way,” Ria said quietly and then took a deep breath. “I can make him my familiar.”

Jarrel was really surprised and stared at her for a while before sighing. “Do you really want to go so far just for an old farm dog?”

Ria hesitated then nodded. “Yes. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and I’ve been preparing the spell.”

“Alright, let’s sneak over toward the Martins’ farm and see what the situation is,” Jarrel allowed.

“Thank you, Mr. Jarrel.”

Jarrel snorted dismissively. “Don’t thank me. I think this is a reckless and terrible decision. We should be trying to get as far away as possible, not risking discovery, or worse, confrontation. If they have anyone who can track, getting away will be very difficult while we’re weighed down by these packs.”

She understood that from a logical standpoint he was right, but she also knew that if, yet again, she did nothing, leaving another friend to their fate… Ranger was here now, and she had the means to save him. She had to at least try.

When she and Jarrel reached where they could see the farm, Ria caught sight of a light in the barn’s loft before it was put out.

“There’s at least one man guarding the Martins’ farm from the barn loft. There might be more. Do you have a plan, Ria?” Jarrel asked her.

“Yeah,” Ria confirmed. “I’ve got wands for sleeping winds and air shield. If I can sneak close enough, I can put Ranger and whoever is in the loft to sleep. If they start shooting, then I’ll use an air shield to get close, and you can back me up. Once I give the signal, you dash in and grab Ranger.”

Jarrel gave her an appraising look. “That’s… actually not a bad plan. You gonna be okay sneaking around wearing that pack?”

“No, not hardly.” Ria shook her head. “I think we should set up a temporary camp in the forest on the south side and leave the packs there. That way we can be light and fast.”

“Gonna be hard to find the camp again in the dark, and sneaking will be harder after moonrise. We should leave our packs here on the north side and circle around the east side of the village to head south. That way, when their hunters track us, they will think we headed north instead of south,” Jarrel countered.

“Alright,” Ria agreed, lowering her pack to the ground and stretching her shoulders.

Jarrel followed suit and readied Jeni’s grandfather’s bow.

The bow was a sign of how serious the situation was. They could have just walked away, but Ria was choosing Ranger over the lives of whoever was in the loft. If her plan failed, most likely someone was going to die.

Ria took a deep breath. She was scared, terrified really, but this was her first chance to do something that mattered, and she was desperate to strike out against the helplessness that was suffocating her.

“I’m heading out,” Ria whispered and darted out into the shadows.

Without the heavy pack, her feet felt so much lighter than usual. She was still fatigued, but the fear was giving her a strength that she didn’t normally possess.

Keeping to the shadows as much as possible, Ria worked her way past the already harvested fields of the Dolmens’ farm and approached the road at a place that should be hard to see from the loft.

Not seeing or hearing anyone around, Ria darted across the main road as quietly as she could. Ranger had noticed her though, and let out a warning growl at first, but then seemed to recognize her and perked up interestedly.

Ria cursed inwardly. This was the weak point in her plan. She hurried to the chicken-wire fence at an area that was hidden from view by the long side of the barn and used the wand to put Ranger asleep when he happily trotted over.

In addition to keeping Ranger from revealing their presence, this was an important test to see if more energy was required to make larger targets sleepy. She used double what was used on the chickens, and Ranger curled up to take a nap without any fuss.

He seemed to fall asleep even faster than the chickens did. Ria had focused on increasing the density of the ‘fairy dust’ but felt like she could have expanded the range as well. With that test, she was pretty sure that she could extend the magic far enough to reach into the loft from outside the barn, as long as she moved close enough to the opening above the barn doors.

Ria’s heart was pounding loudly as she clambered over the fence and scurried to the side of the barn. Sneaking up on these men was the scariest thing she had ever done, and she had to keep pressing forward, or the fear would paralyze her.

When Ria snuck around the front side of the barn with her back against the wood planks, she could make out the conversations of the men inside.

“Hey, Ralph, the dog noticed something and went off somewhere, should we check it out?”

“Nah. Don’t worry about it unless you see torches or something. No way some farmer is wandering around in this pitch dark without a light.”

“Yeah, guess not. This place is so quiet that it’s creepy. When I think that half of the people from this village are probably already dead, makes me worry about ghosts.”

Ria froze. Dead already? What happened?!

The second man snorted. “Just be glad you avoided the soldiers and joined up with us, newbie.”

“Seriously. But man, what the boss said, that the royal mages are using some ritual to sacrifice the women and children and anyone who can’t work to provide energy for the barrier, that’s whacked. How’d the boss even find out something like that?”

No! It’s a lie! Ria desperately told herself as she sank to the ground with her hands clamped over her mouth to cover the sound of her gasping for air.

“Heh, how else? Boss wanted to know what was going on, so we ambushed one of their couriers. ‘Course, when you kill a royal courier, best not to hang around. That’s why we’ve been heading south. Figure, we’ll take out a few of the caravans for a while, maybe torch the grain to help some of our boys get their vengeance on the city folk and that bastard king, then head south to Crysellia or west to Arangrade when things turn even more shit than they already are.”

“Man… a royal courier. Won’t they send the army after us?”

“Nah. They’re too busy with what’s going on in the North. Just a skeleton crew here in the south, mostly guarding the checkpoint against deserters. And deserters get the same fate as those who won’t work.”

Ria wanted to deny what she heard as stupid gossip by bandits, but in her heart she knew. It made too much sense and answered the questions that had been nagging at her all this time—the reason why the soldiers took the children and old people, and the reason why Sir Tellis wasn’t told the full truth.

Jeni. Mom… A sob worked its way free. Jarrel, you were wrong!

“Hey, did you hear something below?”

Knowing she had to act, mechanically Ria drew her wand. A part of her wanted to lash out and kill these men, just to mindlessly rage lightning down upon them and let out all the anguish she had been bottling up these weeks… but she knew that would only help the King that she hated. In their way, they were survivors like her.

Raising her wand, she channeled the energy and sent forth a wind dense with fairy dust into the loft. An incoherent mumbling and two thumps followed soon after.

Ria pulled her knees to her chest and cried silently. She should have never allowed herself the sliver of hope that her family would come back—that anyone would come back. And the reason that they died left her with a deep bitterness.

Heroes to the kingdom. Sacrifices so the city-folk can have one more day free of the monster horde without having to pay their own blood price. Lives wasted to maintain the illusion of safety just a day longer. If their sacrifice had meant more than that, the king wouldn’t have needed so many, and he wouldn’t be rushing so desperately to build a physical wall.

“Are you okay, Ria?” Jarrel whispered with deep concern from beside her. He must’ve come when she raised her wand, just like planned.

She nodded and motioned for him to hurry and get Ranger.

He looked at her dubiously but returned shortly with the large dog hefted over his shoulder.

Jarrel stopped in front of her. “Ria, we need to go. The other bandits could return at any moment. Whatever happened, you’ll have to work through it later, after we get out of here.”

Nodding again, still not trusting her voice, Ria forced herself up and followed Jarrel as they slipped out through the gate and back to their travel packs.

After they had moved a fair distance through the woods, Jarrel stopped. “Ria, tell me what happened back there.”

“You were wrong, Jarrel,” Ria said bitterly, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Jarrel kneeled down to be closer to her eye-level, just like he had done when he found her in the forest.

Ria met his gaze and told Jarrel the terrible truth. Jarrel wanted to disbelieve it at first as well, but his face continued to darken until he just hugged her close. She hugged him back, but her emotions just felt empty. No, not empty. A determination was growing to fill the void.

When they crossed the main road to the southern forest, Jarrel had them walk backwards to create footprints that would mislead pursuers from realizing the actual direction they were traveling. It was a good idea. The bandits would probably consider an unknown mage that had attacked them under the cover of darkness to be a serious threat.

They spent much of the night continuing to walk, putting distance between themselves and the village, and whether Jarrel arranged it to happen on purpose or not, at one point, they rested on a hill that overlooked Shadewood village.

Gazing back at the village lit by the moonlight, Ria said her goodbyes to the place that had been her home. She didn’t know when she would return to this country again, but she swore to herself that she would become powerful enough to one day enact her vengeance upon this country and its king.