He looked to Saala first. A second swordsman, though just as obviously not the leader of their small band. His head was shaved bald, he wore loose clothing that was unusual in central Alcott, and he had a heavy-bladed falchion resting beside him. He kept his lips pressed tightly shut and only offered a polite nod to the innkeeper before the rotund man’s wandering gaze moved on.
Two young women were at the table as well. Amelie and Meredith, the youngest of the party, but dressed the finest. An experienced innkeeper would notice the fine cut of their travel attire and their smooth skin, unmarred by the burdens of hard labor. These girls were no pot scrubbers or chambermaids. The innkeeper must have wondered whether they were highborn, traveling with hired swords, but in the end, he turned back to Lady Towaal.
She smiled humorlessly at him.
“M’lady . . .” he said, a question in his tone.
She didn’t confirm or deny the honorific. Instead, she stated, “Your food and rooms are quite agreeable, innkeeper. We need nothing further this evening.”
The man swallowed and shifted nervously. “Ah . . .” he glanced at the men and then back to her. “I don’t know if your men are proper hunters, but there’s a town nearby that has a sore need of some skilled blades. There’s a reward.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Farview,” continued the innkeeper, “up in the mountains about two days from here. A small place, not equipped to deal with . . . with what they’re facing.”
“And what is that?” she asked, exasperated by the man’s slow explanation.
“A demon, m’lady,” he responded, his voice a quiet whisper, barely audible in the crowded common room.
She frowned. “A demon, near here?”
The innkeeper nodded. “The village council sent a delegation to my way station to find a hunter, m’lady. I was told the creature was first spotted several weeks ago, and the village assembled a posse to face it. It slayed two of them and escaped. They told me that since then, it’s been taking livestock and scaring the people witless. Farview is a peaceful place, m’lady; they have no soldiers or militia. Why, I doubt they’ve even seen a delegation from Issen in our time. Even if they were to send a messenger to our liege, by the time help arrived . . . You are travelers, people of the world. You must understand how quickly a demon can grow. A hunter is the only solution. These are innocent, simple people, m’lady.”
She nodded impatiently.
“They take care of themselves in Farview, and do a good job of it,” the innkeeper added. “We rarely hear a fuss from them, but they’ve no skill to deal with something like this. They’ve offered ten gold coins to any hunter who can bring the demon’s horns to the village council.”
“A loose demon is unfortunate,” she replied, “but we’ve a tight schedule to keep. We can’t afford to deviate—”
“Lady Towaal,” interjected one of the girls. “These people need us.”
She turned and frowned at the interruption. “Amelie, I am tasked with escorting you to . . . escorting you to your destination. I will not be distracted from that charge. We continue on to Fabrizo, and from there we’ll catch a ship across the Blood Bay. Any delays and we may miss important deadlines. That is not something I am willing to risk.”
The girl shook her head. “I’m not yet a part of your order, Lady Towaal, and we are still within my lands. We cannot let these people suffer when we could so easily address this problem. It’s only a small delay on a long journey. I’m certain we can make up the time elsewhere.”
“We?” questioned Lady Towaal sternly. “You plan to face this demon yourself?”
“Not I,” replied Amelie. She glanced between the two swordsmen, Saala and Rhys. “I believe they’d have little trouble with a solitary demon.”
Lady Towaal snorted and sat back, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Could you?” asked Amelie, looking to Saala. “My father said you were a bladem—”
“A lone demon is little bother,” interjected Saala, “but Lady Towaal is right. We have a long journey ahead of us, and even a few days—”
“We will go to Farview,” declared Amelie, cutting off the blademaster. “We will take care of this demon.” She looked to the innkeeper. “Can you tell us the way?”
Lady Karina Towaal sat back and studied her charge. The girl, the woman, as she supposed she should think of her, was headstrong and impetuous. It’d serve her well after initiation when she became a full mage, but it would make her training unnecessarily difficult. The instructors in the Sanctuary would break her if she resisted their tutelage. Those women had overseen generations of strong-willed initiates, and they wouldn’t be intimidated by the girl’s pedigree. Lady Amelie would be broken and reduced until the Sanctuary could mold her into the form that they desired. In Lady Towaal’s experience, strength was only an asset for an initiate when it was malleable.
Brittle will was of little use to the mages of the Sanctuary.
Perhaps Amelie was strong enough to retain some of herself through the decades of intense training, and wise enough to bow her head when necessary to avoid angering her superiors. The potential was there. Lady Towaal could feel it seeping from the girl like the light from a shuttered lamp. Amelie could reach greatness given time, but in the current climate, they had little of that. All too soon, the pressures of the world would wrap around the girl. Lady Towaal frowned, studying Amelie, watching as the girl felt the mage’s eyes on her and cringed. But Amelie did not turn from the innkeeper to look back at the mage. She’d made her decision.
Lady Towaal sighed. The girl may be broken one day, but she was not yet. There was still some time before she must face the horrors of the future, before she learned the truth of what was happening in the world. No, it was not yet time for Amelie to be bowed before the magnitude of what was coming. Perhaps she would survive the rigors of the Sanctuary, perhaps she would not. Whatever the girl’s future, Lady Towaal decided it would remain in the future.
She knew Amelie thought she was doing right, taking them into the mountains to save her people from a demon. It wasn’t an awful notion, but it would delay their party’s travel. Sometimes, to achieve a greater goal, small sacrifices must be made. It was a lesson learned through rough experience.
Lady Towaal shifted, her eyes still on the girl’s back. Rhys and Saala both looked to her. Lady Towaal nodded to them slightly, and the swordsmen grinned.
When the innkeeper left, Lady Towaal addressed Amelie. “We will follow your lead on this, girl, but we will finish the task and then leave. No more delays. You are a lady of Issen, the daughter of the rulers of this land, but soon we will pass from the reach of your father and mother, and you will become a daughter of the Sanctuary. An initiate and no more. Do you understand the difference, what that means? Soon, girl, your birth will not matter. Highborn, common, it means little to a mage. You will be the lowest rank in our order, and you should learn to act as such, even if you think it just an act.”
Amelie nodded. “You are right. Soon, I will be an initiate only. But while we are here, we will do what we can.”
“Knowledge and will,” said Lady Towaal.
She was sitting across a low fire from Amelie, cross-legged, speaking in a hushed tone. It was unnecessary. No one was within leagues of them on the deserted road between Murdoch’s Waystation and the small mountain village of Farview. But even though there was no reason for secrecy, she thought the drama of the fire lighting the underside of her face and the low tones, as if sharing whispers of dangerous secrets, would help catch the girl’s interest.