Taste of Darkness

“Grieve-ee? Is that even a word?” Belen asked.

“Yes.”

“So sayeth the death magician?” Belen teased.

“Yes.”

Belen chuckled. “We’ll have no more presumed dead. We confirm with our very own eyes from now on. Otherwise, we assume the best. Got it?”

“The death magician agree-eth.”

Kerrick tried being optimistic. Avry could have just gone into a cave. Despite her aversion to them, she was smart enough to realize they made a safe place to overnight in. Taking Flea’s advice to act now, worry later, Kerrick checked Hux’s saddle, ensuring the girth straps hadn’t loosened. “Let’s go.”

They mounted and continued, closing in on the infirmary just as he’d estimated, sixteen days after leaving. He slowed the horses. Soldiers patrolled around the entrance, doing wide sweeps. Once he confirmed they were friendlies, Kerrick approached the closest.

The man relaxed as he recognized Kerrick.

“What’s going on?” Kerrick asked the guard.

“Too much for me to explain, sir. Sergeant Odd’s in charge, he’ll fill you in.”

“Where’s Healer Avry?” he demanded.

Shaking his head, the man waved him off. Kerrick debated between grabbing the man and forcing him to talk, or... Hell. He spurred Huxley toward the cave’s entrance.

Flea jumped down from Coffee. “I’ll fetch them.”

Kerrick helped Mom dismount. “Go on inside, Mom, I’m sure there’s a warm fire and food.”

“Oh, no, dearie. Not until I hear what happened to Avry.”

Belen removed the tack from Tea, then moved on to Coffee’s. Flea returned with Odd, Loren, and Quain. No Avry. Her absence was a red-hot poker right through his heart. The monkeys tackled Belen, whooping and teasing him.

Kerrick endured the moment of levity as he braced for the bad news. Odd waited, studying him with a hostile expression. Odd’s going to blame me.

When the monkeys settled, Odd asked him, “What took you so long?”

In no mood to defend his actions, Kerrick ignored the question. “Where’s Avry?”

Odd crossed his arms. “She’s alive. The traitor Wynn took her south with a large company of soldiers as backup. They want her to assassinate Tohon.”

So many things jumped out at Kerrick. First, Avry was alive, the best news. But... “Tohon?”

“Back in the king business, according to the traitor. Whether or not you can believe her...” Odd shrugged.

“Why didn’t you chase after them?” Flea asked.

“They had approximately one hundred and fifty soldiers, Flea. We have twenty.” Odd looked at Kerrick. Accusation blazed in his gaze. “We would have had more, except they got the drop on us and killed my men, Lieutenant Macon, and all of his squad.”

Ah. “And if I’d been here, they wouldn’t have died? I’d have made a difference against one hundred and fifty soldiers?”

“We would have had more warning.”

“You did have warning,” Loren said. “Remember, Sergeant Gylon encountered the enemy two days south of us. We sent a message to Prince Ryne.”

“But we’d assumed it was just a patrol. Kerrick would have been able to determine how many soldiers.”

“And then what would we have done?” Kerrick asked. “Ryne’s main forces are too far north.”

“We could have evacuated.”

True. But would they have caught up to them in the end? Kerrick refrained from mentioning that. Instead, he asked Odd to explain everything from the beginning. “But first tell me how they cured Tohon.”

Odd reported the events as if talking to a superior officer—concise and emotionless. Kerrick wished he could say he listened to Odd with the same detachment. His emotions twisted into a tight knot over Zila’s capture and the unknown fate of his brother and Great-Aunt Yasmin.

* * *

“...we sent another messenger to Prince Ryne and have been waiting for instructions from the prince,” Odd concluded.

“Danny?” Kerrick asked.

“Inside. I wouldn’t let him come out until I knew it was safe.”

Another bit of good news.

“When are we going after Avry?” Quain asked.

“We?” Kerrick gave him his flat stare.

“Yes, we,” Belen said. “We’re stronger together than apart.”

“And with your tree mojo, we can slip in, grab Avry, and sneak out with no one the wiser.” Quain dipped his hand as if sliding it under a door.

Loren grinned, looking years younger. “We need to rescue our healer. Just like old times.”

An enthusiastic chorus of agreement sounded. Kerrick knew it would be a waste of energy to argue. Nor was it the time to tell them his suspicions about his waning tree mojo. Every day it grew harder to access his connection to the living green.

“All right, get a good night’s sleep, gentlemen, we leave at dawn.”

The monkeys pulled Belen with them inside the cave. Flea helped remove Mom’s bundles from Hux’s saddle. He carried them into the infirmary.

Mom patted Kerrick on the arm. “Be careful, dearie. That King Tohon’s a nasty man.”

“Hopefully, we’ll free her before we encounter Tohon.”

“If you do see him, take that big old sword of yours and chop his head right off!” Mom grabbed her bag of teapots and headed for the cave.