Part 6

Jankin had returned to me a few minutes after the sunset. Finishing the packing of a few clean shirts into a sac for me, likely along with his own more mortal needs as I took care of my own dressing. He had a scabbard slung across his left hip and I could see the dull bronze gleam of the quillion, tang and grip. It seemed he did have a weapon, and one that looked as old, though finer than my own.

"May I?" I asked, completely absorbed in my curiosity as to the type of blade a half-fairy would have at his side. It was a welcome distraction from a day of forced sleep and anxiety that poked at me even through the veil. There was pride when Jankin drew it from the black scabbard, not that you would have seen it on his face. It was in the heft of his shoulders and back. He presented it for my inspection at what seemed an odd angle, balanced on the widest of a pair of flat sides. I had never seen construction like it.

"It is very sharp Eric." He warned me, and so I took it by the hilt only, his right hand relinquishing the warm metal to me. As I let my eyes run across the blade I could see that it most certainly was.

The blade was four sided, like a diamond, tapered from the base to the tip so that it ended almost like a rapier. Each point of the diamond was honed to a perfect edge with the facets flat, a fuller struck into the same wider flat portions that he had laid it out on. It seemed a solid piece of metal, which I had believed impossible, but yet the tang and grip blended to the blade and guard seamlessly. I turned it over and then tested its flexibility with a sharp flick of my wrist. The lower end flowed like a sharpened whip and I could not help but grin at the genius of its construction. It was a slashing weapon, a stabbing weapon and a flexible foil all at once. I handed it back to him in just as careful a manner.

"It meets your approval?" He asked, looking into my face.

"More than that Jankin. It is an exquisite weapon." I could not help but smile because of its beauty.

"It was my father's." He had never spoken of his family before. I wondered if his father then had been the Fairy of the pair, and his mother the mortal.

"A proud legacy then." I offered; understanding then that the man he referred to was dead. "Pray that it serves you well on this adventure, and that you cleave the heads of many enemies with it."

He nodded, eyes bright. It seemed that he had a specific enemy in mind just then, and I was certain, as I had been the evening before, that he knew far more about what lay beyond the gorge than anyone else did.

"You will tell me his story one day, I hope?" I meant his father, but I was curious about the suspected 'other'.

"I will Eric."

I believed him. And part of me knew that the tale was going to come sooner rather that later. I girded on my own sword and tucked a pair of deerskin gloves into my belt. Jankin had a cloak of his own over his left arm, and added mine to it. With only a serious glance passing between us we left my room and found the others waiting for us at the portcullis.

Alcide eyed Jankin from the corner of his eyes as we approached. I could hear some amongst the others whispering that I was such a pampered lot that I needed to bring a servant along with myself since I surely wasn't capable of managing in the woods on my own. Biting back my anger at the mostly silent accusations I took the cloak Jankin offered (knowing the gesture did nothing to dispel their assumptions). It did, however, offer me the chance to adjust my own longsword, and Jankin his own, shorter but no less lethal blade. Its appearance quieted some of the muttering. It was certainly obvious that it was no practice blade borrowed from the armory.

"Good to have another arm with us." Alcide declared for all his men to hear as he slung on his pack. He had no intention of being divided so early on in our journey. (Alcide always did choose to see the best in people I had noticed. For better, and more often for worse.) He led the way from the castle; the guard at the gate shut it behind us. The hollow sound as the bars collided with the dirt caused some of the Weres to glance back, others to start in their leather boots, but not myself, or Alcide, or Jankin I noticed. We three, Jankin pulling his cloak over his head, were set on our way.

ooOOoo

We walked in silence most of the night, conversation often distracted, and masked the sounds in the darkness that we needed to be aware of: those of the shambling walkers. We ran across a small band of them, though none of us even had to draw a blade to dispatch them. Some of the younger Weres who had chosen to travel in their four-legged form took them down with glee, if a wolf could be said to have a gleeful appearance under all that fur and behind those teeth. There was no safe place to burn them without setting a forest fire, so I dug a pit and they were tossed inside. The scent of rot alone would keep any true animal scavengers away, and the villagers knew better than to dig up any mounds they discovered. Our journey continued.

About two hours before reaching the gorge proper, and an hour before sunrise our groups split off from each other. Three Weres heading to the North, three to the South and our group, now hobbled because of me, sought out a place with appropriate shelter from the approaching daylight. (Though I suspected the Weres would be searching likewise, even if they weren't going to be spending as many hours there as we were). They would also need to hunt, and the large game had all but fled our lands in the past weeks. Whether it was a direct effect of the zombies, or simply the fact of their presence, only small game like rabbits and other ground dwellers remained. And that was another reason for putting an end to this. The Weres required meat, and livestock would only last so long, especially with a human population to feed as well. Yet another reason our prudent Queen had authorized such an excursion, her Queendom's wealth was being decimated.

We set ourselves to sorting out our own needs. The sound of our companions dying away quickly: I might have thought they were pleased to be rid of me, had I bothered to grant them that much of my mind's time. The truth was, I had far more pressing concerns than their comfort or discomfort. Something was coming, a battle, a war, at the very least something bloody and Jankin, Alcide and I were walking straight into it.

After only a little searching, Jankin discovered an earthen cave, and I stowed myself away in it as he and Alcide scouted the perimeter. Alcide went in search of something to sate his own hunger, his provisions safely set back with me against a leaner day. I could feel the approaching daylight as I did every morning. Weariness began to set into my bones, and I crept into the farthest niche I could find away from the light. In the stillness I had a moment to think, about how fortunate it was that Jankin had found the place so quickly, and how it had suited my very specific needs. There was an air about it, almost like Jankin himself, one of comfort. I let it envelop me as I drew my cloak over my body, laying my sword at my right arm. My eyes closed and I felt warm, familiar fingers caress my hair in his benediction again.

"Alcide will take the first watch." I felt, more than saw his body curl into the ground in front of me, wrapping himself in his own cloak, his head resting on his pack. "Sleep well Eric," was the slight whisper I heard as I did begin to fall into the Vampire oblivion. "In this place you will be safe." I knew it to be the truth, and so I let the day take me.