But when I looked over at Delph, he was grinning broadly. And when I focused on Harry Two’s features, I could see the mirth in his mismatched eyes.
“We did it, Vega Jane,” exulted Delph. “We made it through the First Circle.”
Suddenly, my wand was snatched from me.
“But it’ll be the last thing you do,” said a deep voice. “Or me name’s not Lackland Cyphers.”
Triginta tres: Captaining the Furinas
The large bloke who had taken my wand was holding an old rusted but still deadly sword. His companion, a female, held a crossbow loaded with an arrow pointed at us.
Lackland Cyphers had a short black beard and long hair the same color, but his eyes were a bewitching shade of green. He was dressed in old clothes and a pair of dirty, calf-high boots. His features were handsome, but also haggard. He looked to be about twenty sessions old.
The female was around Delph’s age. Like me, she was tall and thin, with wiry forearms revealed because her shirtsleeves were short and ragged. Her face was lovely but dirty. She had on muddy canvas trousers and lumpy, torn boots that were near the end of their useful life. Her hair was the color of corn and wildly pitched in the swirling wind. She held her wooden crossbow with a practiced hand.
“Who are you?” I asked, eyeing my wand in Lackland’s hand.
“Now, I should be asking you that,” he blustered.
“I’m Vega Jane. This is Delph and my canine, Harry Two.”
Lackland nodded in turn at the other two and then looked back at me.
“Now tell me who you are,” I said.
“I told you me name, Lackland Cyphers.” He pointed to the female and said, “And this is me fellow Furina, Petra Sonnet.”
Delph said, “What’s a Furina?”
“I just told you,” said Lackland sharply. “Us. Where do you come from? Another part of this place, no doubt? Eh?”
“You mean the Quag?” I said, mostly to get his reaction to the term.
“Where else?” He held up my wand. “What is this thing?”
“What does it look like? It’s a stick.”
“Liar!” snarled Petra.
I glanced at her curiously. She seemed awfully sure of herself. But maybe she was always so disagreeable.
Lackland barked, “And does this stick allow you to fly, then? Eh? Because we saw you up there.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“What, then?”
“I just can. Can’t you?”
Petra said, “Lack, we shouldn’t be out in the open this long. Let’s just take what we can and get on.”
“Did you see the wendigo?” I asked.
Both of them stiffened. Lackland said, “A bloody wendigo?”
“It was after us. We had to kill it.”
“You... you killed a wendigo?” said Petra. Her hands trembled.
“It was either kill it or let it kill us,” I said. I looked around. “This is the Withering Heath, the Second Circle.”
“Heaths and circles? Gibberish,” said Lackland.
“Maybe to you, but not to us,” barked Delph.
“Where are you headed, then?” he asked.
“Out of here,” Delph said back.
Lackland looked at him cross-eyed. “Er you daft? There’s no such thing.”
“There is such a thing and we intend to find it,” I chimed in.
When I glanced at Delph, he was staring fixedly at the pretty Petra.
I felt my face instantly flush.
Petra looked at our tucks on the ground. “What do you have in there? Food?” She took a step toward them.
In a flash, Harry Two leapt in front of our tucks and started growling, his long fangs bared.
“Call that thing off,” ordered Lackland.
“Why, so you can nick our stuff?” I shot back.
“We’re Furinas; that’s what we do, steal,” said Lackland.
“Why?” Delph asked.
Lackland looked him up and down. “Why do we steal? Well, it’s a bit of a bloody nightmare surviving round here, mate, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“How did you get here?” I asked.
“Born to it,” said Petra.
“Don’t tell ’em nothin’,” snapped Lackland.
“Why? Are you ashamed or something, Lack?” she retorted.
Before Lackland could reply, Delph said in a calm voice, “We were born in Wormwood, which is surrounded by this place. It’s a little village. Very poor. I worked at the Mill lifting stuff. Vega Jane worked at Stacks making things.”
Petra scoffed, “Poor, eh? You look fed and cleaned proper to me.” She wasn’t looking at Delph when she said this. She was gazing directly at me!
I stared right back and said icily, “That’s because we spent time with Astrea Prine at her cottage back there.” I added in a more neutral tone, “Do you know her?”
They both shook their heads, and I believed them.
“Are there others like you?” Delph asked.
Lackland’s gaze fell, but Petra said sternly, “Used to be. We’re all that’s left.”
I said, “But you’re not that old. Where are your parents?”
“Dead,” barked Lackland. “Dead and gone.”
“It was beasts,” said Petra. “A while back. We lived in a village too, a proper one, not that far from here. Furinas have lived here for, well, forever, I guess. Used to be a lot more of us. A lot more. But over time, the beasts round here just... just...”
“I’m sorry, Petra,” said Delph earnestly. This drew a surprised glance from Petra. I think she might have even blushed! For some reason, my hand curled to a fist.
Petra continued. “The last time they attacked us, they killed everyone. Except us. We’ve been on our own since then.”
“Petra,” snapped Lackland. “What did I say about telling her stuff?”
“She’s not a beast, Lack! Does she look like a lycan to you? Use your eyes. They’re like us.” She gave me a withering look. “Well, in looks maybe. Can’t speak to how tough she is.”
I felt my face burn before glancing away. I looked in the near distance and saw confronting us a vast forest of dense, towering trees. The Withering Heath, as Astrea had called it. A place full of depression. We had barely survived the First Circle and Delph and Harry Two had been injured. We needed a place to rest and feel safe for a while, if there was such a place to be had in here.
“We need to find shelter,” I said, turning back to them.
“You’re not giving orders,” said Lackland. “And who says we want you coming with us anyway? I say we take what you got in them bags and then you can be on your way. How’s that for a plan, eh?”
Right at that moment, the ground shook under our feet.
“Bloody Hel!” cried out Petra and Delph together.
We could see the thick trees shake. And then the trees on the fringe burst apart. And there it stood.
I whirled around and looked at Lackland. “You have colossals here?”
His face was pale, but I saw determination in his green eyes.
“We got lots of things here. But they’re slow, so’s we can get away from ’em. We just have—”
“A colossal?” exclaimed Delph. I’d forgotten he had never seen one.
I had confronted one of these giants on the battlefield in the past. It had almost crushed me then. I hoped never to face another. But this colossal was only about half the size of the ones I had seen before, about thirty feet tall and broad as a cottage. Which, to my mind, was plenty huge enough!
“Lack!” screamed Petra. “Behind us.”
We all turned to see another colossal within twenty yards of us. How a creature that enormous was able to get that close without us knowing was unthinkable.