Week 11 – Berners, Grave Robber
Dear Diary,
I've been here for over a month and I don't know the name of this wretched village. They just call it the Hamlet. I don't think it has a name.
Which is really just perfect, isn't it? From sipping tea with viscountesses to sipping cheap wine in a town without a name.
One thing, though. The men are more interesting here, not to mention the women. There's less of the giggling inanities of the aristocracy and considerably more… well, never mind that.
The last few weeks have been taken up with lengthy excursions into a rotten woodland under the command of a soldier named Pevrel. He is bossy, but efficient, and I admit it is comforting to have that big shield of his between my tender flesh and the claws of the monsters.
I believe my skill with blades surprised him at first, the old warhorse. It didn't take him long to realize and make use of it, though. He's smarter than you'd think, and really quite good-looking.
Signed, Berners.
Week 12 – Dismas, Highwayman
Caught a terrible cough while retrieving medicines in the Weald. Ironic, really.
Bosc asked me if I was getting sick on purpose. I swear that gargoyle of a woman gets more mirthful about my suffering every week.
Come to think of it, I've never seen her face. I wonder what she looks like under that mask?
Hideous, I'm sure.
Berners came with us. Her, Raoullin, and Adenay.
There's something a bit off about that Vestal. She seems sweet and innocent, but she gets very odd when a fight starts. A bit fanatical, in a different way from Reynauld.
Berners is an excellent hand with those knives of hers. We should have a contest sometime.
After this cough is gone. Bosc has me inhaling some kind of herbal steam. It smells quite nice.
She really is a good doctor, damn her filthy grinning guts.
Dismas.
Week 13 – Thorel, Abomination
Going into forest again, without Pevrel this time. Nervous. It's easy to take orders from him. Helps keep it calm. But Picvini's here and he's good at distracting it.
Skinny foreign fellow named Howard leading us. He's some kind of wizard. Pevrel says he helped kill a false prophet who was leading the cultists, but there seem to be just as many of them around now so who knows.
Hard to write since it happened. Used to be so easy, writing notes in the laboratory, letters. Damned fingers keep twitching, hard to concentrate. But I'm trying.
Moon's on the rise. I have to go.
Licinius Thorel, Dr. Theol., Dr. Md.
Week 14 – Picvini, Jester
Dearest Diary,
I am running out of money. Isn't that funny?
No, I didn't think so either.
I'm not really sure where it all goes. It can't all be to replace my broken lute strings.
I do break a lot of lute strings, though. The perils of taking a fecking lute into a fecking dungeon.
All things considered, it's most likely the wine. When I was at court, bad wine was cheap. Here, it all has to be carted through the Weald. Bad wine and good wine are both expensive, so why not drink good wine?
Hence my empty purse.
Speaking of the Weald, Pevrel led us into that maze again. I've spent four of the last five weeks in that fungal nightmare. It's like a second home now. But hell, anything's better than court.
We tracked down a truly, incredibly disgusting witch. She put Somneri into a pot. A massive, bubbling cauldron. It actually smelled pretty good, but then we started cutting the hag up and by the time she fled the stench was so bad that I actually turned up my nose at dinner.
On the other hand, it was stew. I don't think Somneri was very hungry for that, either. Pevrel's soldier-grandpa humor, I guess.
Still, for a sheltered virgin, she took it pretty well. Sheltered? I don't actually know what kind of training those Vestals go through. Come to think of it, they're all pretty tough. Adenay is downright scary sometimes.
I'm rambling and running out of ink. And money. Still.
Sgd., Picvini.
Week 15 – Bosc, Plague Doctor
Short entry. Almost died.
Expedition into the Weald to destroy a brigand cannon. Had to be done, and I had ingredients to gather and poisons to test on something other than animated bones.
Possibility of being shot by cannon had not occurred to me. It did not actually hit me. Obviously. But a bursting shell feels like nothing I have ever experienced. Somneri's magic helped, but I am covered in bruises and stitches and sticky salves.
Maybe if I am lucky Dismas will get sick again and I will be able to take some of this out on him.
Bosc.