Testing by S A Maus

Author:S A Maus [Maus, S A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781708721190
Published: 2019-11-30T22:00:00+00:00

***

Omer returned to the village as the second hour of morning neared. He found Tahr standing at the entrance, his great frame casting a long shadow in the waning light of the moon. If Appledor had been dark before, it was utter blackness now. The lamps were all extinguished and every window was void. Omer could not help but chuckle at the thought of a lone villager stumbling across the hulking form of Tahr in that dark.

“Where did you go?” Tahr asked as he came near. Omer noticed he had a loaf of sweetbread sticking out of his left jacket pocket.

“Walking,” Omer answered. “There is a graveyard a ways east. Benahia was there. I spoke with her for a time.”

“Did she offer anything to help us?” Tahr raised a brow.

Omer gave a disapproving frown. “No, and I did not ask. She is heartbroken. I won’t press her any further on this matter.”

“I suppose that is wise,” Tahr nodded. “Grief rarely gives clarity. It is a shame though. If anyone in this town knows of something odd with Gaul, she would know the oddest; or she is the oddest. Maybe both?”

“Perhaps. Or perhaps she knows nothing and we would only be driving the knife deeper if we brought it up again,” Omer said. “I think it was some time between her last seeing Gaul and his death. She speaks of him at a distance, a memory of who he was. I think he was long away from Appledor before the contract. That does not answer any questions, though, only brings up more. Why would he stay away from his fiancée for so long? If he found a woman he loved so fiercely as to ignore all the traditions of Shalim, then what would keep him away? We have had no grave threats to the north for hundreds of years. Certainly nothing to keep lovers apart.”

“It is a mystery,” Tahr answered. “Many mysteries. We have only begun and there are questions still to be asked. Almost enough to bring down my spirits, but only almost. Tihm requested we stay the night and breakfast with them in the morning. I’ll never be one to turn down pastries by dawn, but it is your contract. Do you want to go on? It is still a long road to Timmelan.”

Omer frowned and pondered the offer, staring up into the fleeing moon. The cold wind was pressing down on his back now and in the east dark clouds had taken up the horizon, blotting out the high peaks of the Irgiklod and cutting away the stars, one by one, as shadows bore down on Hyrotha. It would be a cold and violent night.

“We will leave tomorrow,” Omer said at last. “I do not like the omens we have found here, but I like walking in storms even less. Perhaps we will discover more strange things in the village by morning light. At the least, we will not be wet.”

“Then we stay,” Tahr declared. “The inn is open to us.

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