Eldritch Assassin by Adam Witcher

Author:Adam Witcher [Witcher, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-31T22:00:00+00:00

13

Rhotha woke them at the crack of dawn. Isaac protested, unwilling to leave his comfortable paradise, but she was insistent.

“Please,” she whispered. “They’re gonna send us off with a huge breakfast feast and everyone’s gonna hover around and give us advice we don’t need. Let’s bail before they wake up.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Isaac didn’t bother to open his eyes. “Let’s sleep in and wait for it.”

“It sounds awful, let’s go.”

“Alright, alright.”

Isaac sat up and rubbed his eyes. Rhotha was already in full gear—her version of full, anyway. Light steel armor with a wolf pelt and a hammer around her shoulders. A satchel hung around her waist. She’d already retied her braids since last night’s escapades pulled them loose.

Across the tent, Aerin was robed again. She meditated silently, bag at the ready.

“Damn, when did you two get up?” Isaac asked.

“Before you did, hurry!”

He strapped on his clothes, sheathed Saldana’s dagger, and grabbed his own satchel. Aerin, sensing their departure, snapped out of her meditation. Rhotha nodded toward the hut’s entrance and they got out.

Only a hint of the sun was visible on the horizon, and nobody was awake yet in Barbaros. Rhotha rushed them to the horses, and they mounted them. Aerin and Isaac rode Moonlight, and Rhotha rode the horse they’d stolen from the bandits.

As they passed the outskirts of Barbaros, a door opened from one of the shacks, and Tonya stepped out. They locked eyes with her, but the old woman had no interest in hampering their early exit. She nodded, smiled, and waved, and that was all. They waved back.

Once the barbarian settlement was disappearing behind them, Isaac rode closer to Rhotha.

“You ought to name the horse,” he said. “Looks like you’ll be the one riding him. Besides, we named this one.”

“Moonlight, right?” She shouted over the din of clomping hooves.

Isaac nodded.

“Then he’ll be Sunfire.”

“I like it.”

Isaac felt Aerin shrug behind him. “A little hoaky, but sure.”

Soon, all traces of the Greatwood disappeared, and the group entered the rocky canyons. They stopped near the same place they’d camped before to rest the horses and give them water. Aerin found a large flat boulder, where she sat and pulled out a lunch of dried fruits, nuts, and cured meat. Isaac sat beside her, wondering what hot meal the barbarians would have cooked for them. Rhotha didn’t seem to care. She ate lunch with gusto.

“So, I have to ask,” Rhotha said. “Your father. He worships Scorpius or whatever. Why? Like, what’s he get out of it? I hardly see the guy’s appeal.”

All three silently chewed their food.

“I’m not exactly sure,” Aerin said. “My father and I weren’t close. But I assume that he feels the same compulsions toward dark magic as I do.”

“Right, but you don’t worship Scorpius,” she said, her mouth full of crunched nuts. “I know you’ve got the whole gloom and doom thing going on, and trust me, it works for you, I’m into it, but you don’t actually want to destroy our realm. So, what gives? I can’t imagine what he’s getting out of the deal.

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