Realms of Shadow - Lizz Baldwin [57]
This whole adventure was proving a little more complicated than she had bargained for. Perhaps it was time she took the notes and left.
But she couldn't stop worrying at the situation. It didn't make any sense! How could the man feel betrayed? Had she not done something he himself must have wished he could do many times-if not to the peddler, then to some other annoyance or enemy?
Not sure whether she planned to leave alone or with the man, she began to pack her things.
4
"It comes and says I say what? i don't understand? And i wish I it hadn't asked…"
–Chever’s last notes
The man's greeting, when he returned, was flat and pained, the result of an hour's soul-searching.
"I can't stand to be apart from you." He saw that the cow had gone, but he suppressed the urge to ask whence. "I couldn't stand to have you out there in the world without knowing whether you lived or died, whether you loved or hated me. I can't allow this to end bitterly."
He noticed her mountain gear, packed and almost ready to go. She had not yet added Chever's notes.
"I'll come with you," he said. "You're going home?"
"Yes, but first I'm going to try to find one of those creatures you told me about. The ones that live higher up in the mountains. "
It had occurred to her that it might be nice to bring home a little something for herself, an addition to her collection.
"Then I'll go home," she said after a while. "If you really want to honor our love that far, you should bring anything you wouldn't want to lose."
She nodded meaningfully toward the back door-the rose.
The man nodded, tucked the notes into a pack, and took a shovel and a large pot through the back door.
The druid-wizard removed one of the spellbooks from her pack and studied it idly. She had time to wait. Her only imperative was that she return when the Shadovar summoned her, and that wouldn't be for a while yet. She would sense it when that time drew near.
After an hour or so, the man reentered carrying the newly potted rose plant and a leather sling he had fashioned for carrying it mounted upon his pack. The rose had flinched as he had cut it from the ground, as though the unavoidable loss of some of its roots brought it conscious pain. It had wilted in his garden the past few tendays, largely neglected for the company of a flesh-and-blood lover. Its leaves had yellowed, and some of its petals drifted to the floor.
“I’m ready," the man said.
He eased into his pack and rose-carrying contraption, and the druid-wizard closed and repacked her book.
5
"… Shapes and sizes, things make no sense yet all make together fit AAARGH! Can't think in two places at once. Can't lose either one, either."
–Chever's last notes
They found one of the horrors they sought during the third day out. They watched the beast for a while, and the druid-wizard remembered when she had crouched as a wolf to watch the man in much the same way, not so long ago. She would not lose him now.
She directed the man to a position opposite her in the undergrowth, so that the creature's path would lead it directly between them. She imbued her arms with a spell of strength, removed her boots, and formed her feet into panther claws.
After a few minutes, the creature emerged and shambled down the path.
One of its heads swung from side to side, on the lookout for food. The other head lay at an unnatural angle off of its shoulder, bobbing limply whenever the creature took a lurching step with a clubfoot. It already looked as though it had spent several sessions in the druid-wizard's spell-testing chamber-its creator, whether it had been evil magic or nature, had done much of the druid-wizard's work for her. She particularly appreciated the lolling second head-the irony of death in such close proximity to life. Many of her own creatures possessed similar features. It was almost as though she had been destined to capture this very beast-but she saw destiny everywhere now, ever since she had met the man.
The druid-wizard tensed as the creature's live head swiveled to peer her way, but then a crackle sounded