A/N: Ta-dah! I'm back from the dead! For now. You all will be happy, or at least indifferent, to hear that I've passed my most recent finals, and other classes are going well. Plus, I think my depression is on its way out. Also a good thing.
My deepest, most humble, apologetic, over the top, dramatic, I'm-sorry-I-suck, I-really-didn't-forget, sorrowful apologies for the horrendous wait on this. But at long last (over a year), the next chapter of The Long Road Home is here! Enjoy!
Red eyes glared down at Matt, flashing against a backdrop of twisting, glowing lights. A large crystal set in a mound of twisted, rotting flesh gave a dull flash just before the ground rumbled. Off to Matt's right, Natalie and Lance were already scrambling back, preemptively dodging whatever was coming, and he found himself doing the same, though he didn't know why.
Then the ground erupted into a wave of razor-sharp spires of bleached bones that glowed with a sickly green light. One scraped past Matt's leg with a burning sensation that told him the green light was a venom of some sort. Natalie was luckier, just managing to dodge the spears that stabbed at her. Lance, however, gave a choked cry as one stabbed straight through his abdomen, and he crumpled to the ground with a groan. His friends called his name and Natalie was already channeling her healing magic to pick him back up. Lance staggered back to his feet with a pale face, and spat out a mouthful of blood before glaring at their foe as he wiped an arm across his mouth, smearing red over his chin.
Ancient, evil laughter echoed through it all before everything went black and bloody eyes opened all around him.
Matt jerked awake with a gasp and panted as he wildly stared around himself. Wood slats, hanging lanterns, tall windows, and uncomfortable benches—he was still seated in the magistrate's office.
Across the room, Natalie and Lance were quietly conversing with an old man dressed in long, black robes holding onto a scepter made of some kind of metal. Iron, he guessed, by the reddish dust he could see in the detail work. The man was almost entirely bald aside from a few wispy tufts of white hair above his ears, and his eyes were steel gray. His back was hunched slightly from age, but he still carried himself with a dignified sort of air. Matt could only assume he was the magistrate for the village.
"If Lance is a demon, then why would he help us take out another demon?" Natalie was demanding with a hint of exasperation to her voice.
"The workings of the demonic mind are twisted and often filled with inexplicable thoughts," the man rasped back in a patient voice. "Perhaps it believed it could benefit in some way by offering its aid."
"I've been fighting beside him for years now, and while he has some questionable hobbies, he's never done anything that makes me think he's a demon," Natalie shot back flatly. "You've known him for all of ten minutes and all you have to claim that he's a demon is his eye color and the fact that your guard is terrible at fighting."
"This village has always been able to tell demon from human."
Lance snorted. "So, basically, you admit that you know nothing about demons, yet you will still claim you know one when you see one. Lovely. Why are we wasting our time here again?" He glanced around when Matt stepped up beside him and nodded a greeting before turning back to the magistrate. "Look, we just want some information on Matias and then we'll be on our way. Can you tell us anything about him or not?"
The magistrate folded his arms into his sleeve and shook his head. "I will tell nothing to a demon."
"For the love of," Lance growled. He turned on his heel and strode for the door, calling back over his shoulder. "I'll be outside. Good luck with the brick."
"Excuse him," Natalie apologized through gritted teeth. "He can be a bit irritating sometimes, but he's a good person." Clearly, she was at the end of her rope with the magistrate, too.
"Mostly a good person, anyway," Matt agreed. "Why don't you go escort the... demon... elsewhere, and I'll talk things out here?"
Natalie arched a brow at that, but nodded and left. Matt waited until the door had closed behind her and then turned to the magistrate and held out his hand to shake.
"I don't know if they introduced me, but my name's Matt. I'm a swordsman."
The magistrate shook his hand as he replied, "You may call me Arnold. I am the magistrate for this humble town."
"Pleased to meet you, and sorry for my friends' irritability. We had a long walk today."
"Your accent is strange," the magistrate noted mildly. "From what village or town do you hail?"
"Someplace far from here," Matt admitted. "I'm not exactly sure where, though. I had a bit of an accident and things are still coming back to me. But I stayed for a while with a family in a small hamlet north of here. They're part of the reason we've been asking about Matias. You've probably heard about all the rotten stuff going on across the kingdom?"
"Increased taxes, forced conscriptions, imprisonment, all on the king's orders. And there has been a rise of banditry, pillaging, and raiding," the magistrate listed with an incline of his head. "Wendleton has been blessed thus far to have been spared such troubles."
Or, Matt secretly thought, they were too crazy to bother with. Outwardly, however, he nodded. "I got beaten up rather soundly not too long ago for defending the mother of the family I was staying with, and I saw the royal knights come by for collections countless times before that. But I recently heard that it's possible Matias is the one responsible for it all. Has anyone here heard the same thing?"
Arnold studied Matt for several long moments of silence. Finally, he nodded, approving of whatever he saw. "We have heard such things in recent days. Speak with the innkeeper, he tracks all passing rumors and can help you. I will overlook your... friend's... presence here for the time being, but I must insist you all leave come morning. Any trouble caused by him will result in lawful punishment for each of you. Good day."
"Thank you," Matt sighed before turning to go.
The sun was low in the sky, and the shadows of the houses and stores of the square stretched across the ground in long stripes. Lance and Natalie were waiting outside in the shadow of the magistrate's building, leaning against the wall with irritation still glinting in their eyes, and Triff lying at their feet. Matt opened his mouth to call a greeting, but paused when Lance shifted, causing a stray glint of red to bounce off his rifle. The color stood out in stark relief in the shade, and was eerily reminiscent of the blackness filled with red eyes from Matt's nightmare.
Matt froze and stared at the red for a moment as a now-familiar sense of deja vu swept over him. That nightmare had to have been a memory, but of what? When and why had he been fighting such a horrifying and powerful monstrosity, and where had Anna been? For that matter, why was Lance standing here now? He'd clearly been run clean through, but had somehow survived? Was Natalie's magic really that powerful, or was the memory mixed with a dream? It was possible, he supposed. After all, he couldn't think of any real place that had such a strange scenery in it.
"Does the triumphant warrior return from his battle with the brick with information?" Lance asked with dry amusement. When that elicited no response, he frowned and took a step forwards. "You okay, Matt?"
The call of his name and loss of the red light had Matt jolting out of his thoughts and he realized he'd been staring with his mouth hanging open. He snapped his jaw shut and shook himself with a light flush.
"Sorry, I'm fine," he mumbled before clearing his throat. "And, yes, he said to ask the innkeeper, and that we have to leave in the morning. And keep yourself out of trouble because all of us are going to get nailed for it if you step out of line."
Lance kept his eyes trained on Matt for several moments, trying to figure out what the problem was. Ultimately, however, he shrugged and decided that Matt would eventually bring it up if it was important. His attention turned to Natalie, who was talking about the sole inn on the far side of the town, near the entrance. Hopefully getting a room with him in the group wouldn't be as much of a pain as everything else in the town. The gunner gave a breathy snort at his own train of thought.
"What about Anna? She's still out at the Grove," Matt mentioned as they made their way to the inn. "Everyone's so jumpy here, and I doubt they'll tell her where to go since it means vaguely talking about Lance."
"I think Anna is a big enough of a girl to figure out where we go for beds in towns," Lance replied dryly. Then his brow furrowed, "But what about the furball and Sath? No way in hell we'll be able to get them in."
Natalie tilted her head thoughtfully before slowly saying, "Well, they could camp outside the town. I mean, both NoLegs and Sath are wild animals, capable of fending for themselves. It's not like they need us to survive, after all—they just like hanging around us."
Lance shrugged in agreement, though inwardly upset that Sath had to stay away. They were a team of their own, after all. Still, Natalie spoke logically and true, and it wasn't like he could smuggle his dragon in. Gods only knew what the village would do then. Probably demand some kind of purification rite or a bloody dismemberment. Between the nuts of Wendleton and superstitious worshippers of Swynhill, Garthram was just rich with idiots ready to jump to conclusions, he mused with a sigh. It would be nice to get back to the lazy, uninspired people back home.
The inn loomed over them with walls built of stone before being made of wood halfway up. Smoke billowed up from the chimney, and the shadows of patrons could be seen moving about inside the dingy windows. Matt pushed the door open and ducked his head to clear the low entrance with Lance and Natalie behind him. Inside was very warm with a thin veil of smoke from the cook fire hanging near the ceiling. A few people were sitting at a cluster of long tables with platters of food and drink in front of them, filling the air with a constant murmur of voices and laughs. Half of the patrons were wearing robes while the other half looked like normal townsfolk, and all of them looked up at the newcomers' entrance.
Matt's skin prickled under all the stares and at the sudden silence, and he tried to avoid showing his discomfort as he headed to speak with a reedy man bent over a ledger at a small desk not far from the door to the kitchens. Securing beds was easy, despite the number of people eating at the moment, and he figured that the inn must double as a tavern.
"Four beds?" the man repeated as he peered across the three people standing before him. Lance, wisely, kept his eyes half closed and hidden behind his bangs. "I only see three of you. The dog will have to sleep in the stable, by the way."
"Ah, our friend is out of town running errands for the herbalist and should be back later," Natalie explained.
"Gates close soon. You sure your friend will be back in time?" the man asked as he bent back over his books and began scribbling a few lines.
Matt hesitated for a moment before asking, "So she might get locked out?"
"Yes. The gates don't open after dark unless there's an emergency. Can't risk monsters coming in."
"That's probably the first rational thing I've heard since arriving," Lance muttered to himself. He shook his head at Matt's curious look and raised his voice. "Anna'll just have to camp out. If she shows up, we can buy her bed."
"Alrighty, three beds. Will you be buying supper, too?"
"Yes, please," Matt replied as he fished out some coins.
"That'll come out to thirteen silver," the innkeeper said.
"Silver?" Matt repeated. "I only have gold. Will thirteen gold work?"
Lance shoulder Matt aside. "Idiot, gold is worth a lot more than silver. Do you do exchanges, old man?" Already, he could hear whispers starting up at the revelation of how rich the visitors were, and resigned himself to sleeping lightly.
The man was staring at them with an odd look, and ignored Lance's question. "How can you be carrying that much gold around?"
When Lance merely arched an impatient brow, he shrugged and bent to get a set of scales and weights. He accepted a single gold coin from Matt and peered at it. The coin was unlike any he'd ever seen before, thicker and with no stamp he recognized, and, if he wasn't mistaken, it was pure gold, not leaf around less valuable iron or bronze. A simple bend between his fingers only furthered his assumption, and he looked up with newfound respect, assuming the visitors must be of high importance from somewhere. He set the coin on the scale and began weighing it before nodding.
"I'll take this and I'll give you seventeen silver and six copper. Does that sound reasonable?"
More whispers from the diners.
Matt glanced at Natalie, who shrugged, and he nodded. "Sounds okay to us. Thanks."
A young woman came out at the innkeeper's call, and led Natalie and Triff to where the stables were around back. A few minutes later, and the mage returned, in the middle of thanking the woman for promising to feed the dog later.
Once the money was exchanged, Lance herded the other two towards the sleeping area upstairs. Beds and bunks were clustered around the space, some obviously already claimed, while others were vacant with the sheets turned back, and he selected three by the far wall, away from the windows.
"Alright, watch your backs and your adventure pouches when we go back down there, and don't let anyone know how much money we really have," Lance sighed as soon as the helper had left. He ran his hand through his hair and muttered, "I had no idea gold was so uncommon here... Nobody else batted an eye when we paid with it... We'll need to figure out rates pretty soon."
"Think somebody would be dumb enough to attack us in plain sight?" Natalie asked as she sat on her bunk.
"I think somebody would be greedy enough to attack us wherever," Lance corrected. "And since we're already under watch, I'd rather not cause a scene. So let's get our food, get the info, and get some sleep. We should leave early tomorrow. Matt, you seem to be having luck with talking to people, see what you can learn from the innkeeper. Keep your adventure pouch out of sight, and your sword on you—that might dissuade potential thieves."
"Gotcha. Grab me some food, too, and I'll come find you. Lots of meat. And bread. Bread is good."
Natalie laughed and promised to get him plenty of both as she stood and followed Lance downstairs again. On the main floor, Matt split from the others and headed to where the innkeeper was now nibbling on a roll with a bowl of stew nearby. He drew up a chair beside the man with a friendly smile, explained that the magistrate and said to speak with him, and began asking his questions.
Across the room, Lance and Natalie picked a table in the corner to sit down at with their and Matt's food, and both could see the frequent glances being sent their way. Most were curious, others were calculating. Conversations seemed over-loud and exaggerated as people pretended to not be interested in the visitors. Fifteen minutes after sitting down, Matt joined them with a scrap of paper in hand and a frown on his face.
"Innkeep says the attacks have been following a pattern, according to some travelers' gossip," he murmured to the others. One of his hands spread the paper he'd brought on the table while the other began picking up food to stuff in his mouth. "He gave me a list of names of villages that have been attacked and roughly when Matias' men stopped by after to give support," he mumbled around a mouthful of pork.
Lance peered at the names with a furrowed brow. "Did he say which of these were first? We can compare them with locations on our map. Maybe we can figure out where will be hit next?"
"I asked him about that, and he said the earliest one he'd heard of was a place called Helton's Reach—some kind of small town by the coast. Of course, who knows if there was actually first..."
"Rumors can take awhile to spread," Natalie agreed thoughtfully as she leaned over the map Lance folded out beside the list.
The three silently searched the papers to locate the villages the innkeeper had given, which Lance then circled with a pencil stub. Twenty minutes later, and they had found all but two, which they eventually figured must not have been significant enough to map out, or were newer villages than their map could show.
"Interesting," Lance mused under his breath as his sharp eyes stared at the trail of attacked villages. "If we assume Helton's Reach was first, then the attacks started right next to the capital..."
"But then they seem to just make a giant loop back, and they've hit even tiny fishing towns," Natalie noted in a baffled voice. "What's the point? Wouldn't it make more sense to hit the major cities and cut off trade?"
"Mm... He couldn't do that and sustain it," Lance countered. "He doesn't actually have any real authority beyond being the King's champion. It's not like he could just waltz up to the man and say, 'hey, mind if I borrow the army to conquer your kingdom?' I hope, anyway."
"Doesn't seem to stop him from ordering the detainment of any and all mages, and insane collections," Matt pointed out sourly. "Those were done with royal decree."
"But it wasn't done with royal decree—at least, not according to Matias," Lance corrected mildly. "Remember? He said there was a group of renegade knights acting on their own. If you were a random townsperson and a knight knocked on your door supposedly on orders from the king, would you demand to see the written decree? No one would think to question it, or at least they wouldn't be brave and stupid enough to question it—not against a fully armored man. It's a brilliantly simple and effective strategy since their king is super paranoid of assassination. The bum is probably too scared to hold normal audiences, which is only exacerbating the issues."
"Careful, you're starting to sound like you admire the man," Natalie snorted as she sat back and sipped on the last of her watered ale.
"I respect his strategy, at least," Lance agreed, rolling the papers up again to stuff them away. "We'll head northwest tomorrow. If we can head off and capture some of the marauders, then I bet we can make them squeal."
Matt nodded with his mouth full of bread. He swallowed the food before letting out a belch loud enough to silence the chatter of the room around them. Somebody across the space applauded the noise, which Matt waved in acknowledgement to while Natalie rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Come on, if Anna hasn't shown up yet, then she's probably stuck outside. Let's go to bed."
Lance and Matt followed the mage upstairs where they quickly sorted out who was going to be in which bed, and dropped off to sleep. A few patrons came up after to claim their own beds, and didn't disturb the trio. Soon all noise from below faded and the innkeeper barred and locked the doors for the night.
Hours passed in darkness filled with the sound of light snores and rustles of sheets. Then a floorboard creaked under a boot, and Lance opened his eyes, having feigned sleep. As he'd suspected, three men were attempting to creep stealthily towards were Matt was sleeping spread eagle on a bed, their eyes fixed on where the swordsman had left his adventure pouch dangling off the hilt of his sword. Lance silently snorted at the complete lack of care for valuables. If it weren't for the fact that it would be nuisance and setback for the team if Matt got robbed, he would have let the men take the stuff, if only as a lesson to his careless friend. Instead, he sat up and silently stood off his bed.
"Hands off," he warned in a low voice to keep from waking anyone.
Instantly, the men froze, their fingers flinching inches away from the valuable pouch. Each of them drew long knives as they rounded on the gunner. Unseen in the shadows, Lance rolled his eyes at the bravado. Their forms were awful, and their heavy breathing betrayed their nerves with facing down the possibility of having to actually attack another human.
"It's three on one, boy, stay out of it," one of the men whispered harshly.
"Three on one, until someone makes too much noise," Lance agreed quietly. "What are your chances of actually making it three steps before a thump wakes someone else?"
"Jerry, I think he's the one with the blood-eyes," a second man murmured nervously. "I ain't fightin' no blood-suckers."
"If he's trying to talk us down, then he isn't a threat," the first man, presumably Jerry, snorted. "You two, keep your knives on him. The window isn't too high, we can easily make the jump."
"You won't be able to get anything out of that bag," Lance warned off-handedly as two of the men stepped a little closer to him. His lips curled in a smirk as he suddenly had a brilliant idea—a god one day, a demon the next. "I've cursed it to drain the life out of anyone who tries to use it. Poor sot on the bed has no idea."
All three men froze, and Lance patted himself on the back, thinking about what fun it was to mess with the superstitious.
"I'll remove the curse, if you can catch me," he offered a split second before bolting.
His bare feet were silent on the wooden stairs, and he snickered to himself as he heard muffled curses from the three would-be robbers followed by less-than-silent thumps. The noise was too quiet to really disturb anyone, but far from being stealthy. Luckily, in their failed efforts to be silent, they took a long time to reach the bottom floor, giving Lance plenty of time to undo the door-bar and chain latch. He waited just until the first man reached the empty main room before darting out the door.
The chase continued down the empty, moonlit street, with Lance tauntingly remaining just far enough ahead to make them think they had a chance of catching him. In reality, he was in far better shape than any of his pursuers, and he knew he could take all three of them down, even without his weapons. It was just a matter of time and finding an abandoned space.
"Bingo," Lance murmured as they came out into the square containing the stockade.
The gunner skidded to a halt, grimacing at the grit against his bare feet. Behind him, the three robbers gasped and wheezed as they also skidded to stops. He decided to make a show of being badly winded, even if he'd barely begun breathing heavily, and leaned over to place his hands on his knees. As he'd hoped, one of them lunged forwards with a dagger raised and glinting in the moonlight. In a blur of motion, Lance ducked even lower under the swing and slammed his palm into the man's wrist, stunning his hand into dropping the knife, and followed up with a swift uppercut to the jaw, knocking the robber out cold.
Fearing him grabbing their comrade's fallen knife, the other two robbers pressed forwards on the attack instead of running or crying out for help. If they had raised a ruckus, then they would have had the defense of a demon attacking them. Instead, they were both taken down and knocked out by Lance, who then stood straight dusting his hands and rolling his shoulders.
"Ah... I've missed beating up imbeciles," he sighed in content.
He stepped forwards to tie the three robbers together by their wrists using a combination of one of their belts and strips of fabric from one of their shirts. More strips were used as gags, and as a final measure, he tied all of their bootlaces together in a tangled knot so bad it would make a fisherman cry. With them taken care of, he turned to head back for the inn at a leisurely stroll.
Natalie was waiting for him just inside the inn door with an unamused expression.
"And a lovely lady is here to greet the heroic thief deterrer," Lance chuckled. "Come on, lay one there..."
"What did you do to them?" Natalie demanded, ignoring his silent gestures for a kiss. "I swear, if your actions end with us getting run out of town by an angry mob with pitchforks..."
"Relax, I didn't do anything that could be considered demonic," Lance promised with a roll of his eyes. "I just left them tied up by the stockade. Three stooges, and three daggers. I think even these nuts can put two and two together."
Natalie shook her head with a heavy sigh, but turned away. "Next time, just shout thief."
"Or just let Matt's stuff get stolen," Lance muttered under his breath as he re-barred and latched the door before following her. "Ingrate..."
The rest of the night passed in silence, and the three met Anna in the main room the next morning. Understandably, she had been a little confused by the sight of three men tied up in the square. Her confusion only grew when she mentioned the spectacle, and Natalie rolled her eyes with a sigh and Lance smirked; Matt was too busy scarfing down an entire platter of sausage to care.
"So, northwest, huh?" Anna asked after hearing what the three had found out. "Sounds good. I took the liberty of buying fresh supplies before coming to get you."
"Did you finish that errand you were on?" Natalie asked as Matt led the way through the crowd already bustling on the streets. Her fingers periodically snapped to keep Triff from bounding off to investigate smells.
"Yup. The lady tried to pay me in, ah... stimulants, we'll say. I took the gold at a loss, instead," Anna replied with a sigh and a light flush.
Lance choked on a laugh, "Wait, she tried to give you an aphrod-"
"Anyway," Anna interrupted, turning her eyes to Matt with burning cheeks. "If we're headed northwest, then we'll probably be near where Harold and his family live. Want to stop by and say hi? I'm sure they'd be glad to see you again."
Matt's eyes brightened, "Yeah! Only let's maybe not mention that we've been stealing and are working with the thieves guild." His hand idly rubbed his ear as he imagined Mary yanking on it in reprimand.
"Not another furball," Lance suddenly complained.
They had reached the brush patch Anna had spent the night in, and were greeted by Sath, NoLegs, and Anna's new fox friend, Silver. The gunner threw his hands into the air in frustration and disgust before turning to head northwest, ignoring the coos from Natalie behind him. Sath swooped to land on his shoulder and trilled a greeting before curling around his neck.
"A dog, a fox, and a cat," he muttered to the dragon. "Here's hoping they all eat each other."
Sath made a non-committal grumble, and Lance had to agree with the sentiment when he glanced back to see Silver cheerfully perched on Triff's shoulders. With a sigh, he turned back around to begin plotting their next move. They had a pretty solid lead, now, which hopefully meant Matias' days were numbered.
A/N: Plot has been plotted, progress has been progressed, and idiots have been trounced. A good chapter in my books. Not the most exciting one, perhaps, but important, because now we have a more direct goal for me to write towards. Leave me a review to summon me back from the dead to post the next chapter.
Also, this was written on my iPad, and while I did my very best to catch auto corrects an typos, I almost certainly have missed something(s). Please let me know if any of you see errors, and I'll be sure to fix them. ;)
Responses to Guest reviewers:
Little Follower: Don't worry too much about the typos. I'm hardly innocent of them. :P Also, please forgive me if I've responded to this review already. It's been so long, I can't remember what I have and haven't said. :/
The thief brothers will be back; probably not until the team hits the capital, though. I'm glad I've successfully hit on the mischievous twins trope well enough to make people make connections to other ones. :3
Yup, Anna got a fluffy silver fox with magical wind. As for Lance's tank, it won't be in this story, for all the reasons we've discussed before, and the fact that it's in another dimension/plane of existence/world. XD
Please keep supporting me in my horrible attempts at progress on this fic.