Chapter 16: Clubs and Potions
With two borrowed mounts – Ada and Violet shared – the group made good time through the city to the western gate. If anyone thought it odd to see two fully armored Harpers traveling with the scholarly priest and two women, they didn't show it. A few called out greetings to either the priest or the Harpers.
As soon as they left Highmoon, Nori appeared with a merrrow of delight and curled into a purple purring ball in front of Violet on her saddle. The only member of the group that reacted was Milya, who raised a questioning eyebrow to which Violet gave a slight shake of her head. They would talk about the fae later. None of the others saw her familiar. Surreptitiously, Violet petted her as they rode. She had missed her presence while she had been at the temple.
Once out the gate, it was a quick ride to Hilde's home, a quaint cottage in a clearing at the end of a trail that wound through the trees so that it could not be seen from the road. The group stopped to assess the farm. The clearing was quiet, and nothing was out of place. Violet breathed a sigh of relief and made to dismount.
"Not so fast," Milya halted her, speaking softly to keep her voice from carrying.
"What?" Violet paused with one foot already out of the stirrup. "What do you see?"
Milya didn't reply immediately, instead she cocked her head slightly, listening. After a bit she looked at Ada.
"How many animals are on this farm?"
"Two milk cows and some chickens," the girl replied. She paused and frowned, "I don't hear any of them."
"Exactly," Milya nodded, then exchanged a look with Vorn. "What do you think?"
"If a raiding party had come through, this place would be burning," he answered. "Unless they didn't want to be detected…,"
"Or it's a trap," she finished.
Ada made a strangled sound.
"Shush," Jael reached over from his saddle and patted her hand, "we don't know that for sure yet."
"Only one way to find out," Milya told the group then dismounted.
The rest followed suit, trying to be as quiet as possible about it.
"Ada, go over there with the horses," Jael pointed to a shaded area partially hidden by an ancient Maple. "Keep an eye open and be ready to mount and leave quickly," he said as the others followed Milya towards the cottage.
The frightened girl didn't argue as she led the four horses towards the tree.
Violet and the others approached the cottage carefully, watching for anything out of the ordinary as they went. The two windows, were dark providing no clue to what lay behind them. Vorn hugged the wall to the right of the door with Violet behind him and Milya and Jael on the left. Both the Harpers had their weapons out. Vorn held a nasty looking axe with a curved blade and a foot-long spike that stuck straight out from the thick handle in his right hand, a small, battered shield in his left. Milya held a pair of gracefully curved swords in each hand. Both wore the light chainmail they had been wearing for travel.
Jael and Violet, in comparison, looked woefully ill-prepared. Violet was still dressed in the light pink blouse and bright purple and pink floral skirt she had worn to meet Jael earlier. Apart from the two daggers now clenched in her fists and the leather bracers hastily laced on, she had nothing to speak of for weapons or armor. Jael was even less prepared with just a staff and his priestly robes.
Violet prayed silently to her goddess that they wouldn't encounter anything dangerous.
At Vorn's nod, Milya pushed the door open slowly and crouched back out of the way. When nothing came barreling through the opening, Vorn stepped through the doorway, his axe at the ready. Right on his heels, Milya followed with Jael and Violet bringing up the rear.
As her eyes adjusted to the low light, Violet gasped. Unlike the clearing outside, the inside of the cottage was demolished. The long table where the family once dined, laid upended and missing a leg; pots and pans strewn across the floor like discarded children's toys; the mantle over the hearth half collapsed and blocking the opening; chairs broken into bits. Blood, gore, and other foul matter was splattered or smeared on almost every surface. Breathing through her mouth, Violet walked around the table to get a better look at the destruction in the kitchen. On the other side, she stumbled on something. Looking down, she struggled to make sense of what she saw, unwilling to accept that she had tripped over a severed human arm. Before she could scream, an arm wrapped around her waist and a cool hand clamped over her mouth.
"Shhh," Milya whispered.
Violet's heart thundered in her ears and she felt faint.
"Breathe," Milya commanded, still holding her close.
Violet took a shaky breath and exhaled, closing her eyes to the horror at her feet.
"You're going to get through this," the Harper said softly. "You're stronger than this."
Another breath. In. Out. Violet opened her eyes and gave a quick nod. Milya released her and stepped back.
"Ada said that Hilde lived her with just her mother and sister," she said quietly, proud that her voice quivered a bit. "And Flora came to check on her." She bent to look at the arm more closely, focusing on discrete details instead of the whole to keep her panic at bay. "This… this is from a man."
Milya came to her side and knelt by the grizzly remnant, "she's right. It looks like a young man, judging by the smoothness of the skin." She looked up at Violet.
"Ada said they were supposed to meet some boys at lunch for a date, maybe this is one of them?"
Standing, the other woman shrugged, "could be."
"Let's check the rest of the place," Vorn said.
There were only two rooms and an attic space left. Vorn opened the door to one of the rooms, then backed away.
"There are three more bodies in here," he told the others grimly. "Jael, can you come identify them?"
The priest shook his head, "I wouldn't know the girls by sight, I've been gone from the temple for a while."
Vorn looked at Violet.
She turned pale. "You…, you want me to…look?" her voice cracked at the last word.
Past him, Milya had checked the last room, "no one in there; alive or dead."
"Why do we need to identify the bodies," Jael asked. "Dead is dead. We know one woman is missing. How does knowing who change anything?"
"It may not tell us anything, but then again it might give us a hint at why this happened," Vorn answered, stepping away from the door and waving Violet over.
"I agree with Jael on this, Vorn," Milya told him. "All this will do is upset Violet even more."
Despite the hammering of her heart and her clammy hands, Violet stepped towards the door, "no, he's right. The more information we have the better prepared we will be."
She was moving past Vorn when a familar hand grabbed hers. "I'll be right here with you," Milya said, giving her an encouraging smile.
Though the woman was almost a complete stranger, having Milya at her side helped as she looked into the room. Tossed on the floor of the room like discarded rags were the mangled bodies of three women. They had been dead a while, judging from the smell and their color. Through the blood, Violet could make out long locks of honey-blonde hair.
Stepping out and turning to the others, she told them, "it has to be Hilde and her mother and sister. They've been dead too long to be Flora. Plus, they're all blond. Flora had red hair."
"Then best we check the attic and make sure she's not up there," Jael said.
Behind him, a figure dropped down from the attic access, not bothering with the ladder. Landing with a thud, it bared its teeth and snarled, before launching itself at Jael's unprotected back.
"Watch out!" Vorn yelled rushing across the room with his axe raised.
Violet couldn't believe her eyes. The creature attacking Jael was a rat, and not just any rat. It was a rat the size of a pit bull. As she watched in horror, a second rat dropped from the attic and rushed at the group.
The first rat reached Jael before he could turn and bring his staff up to fend off the fiend, leaping onto his back and sinking its teeth into his shoulder. Jael yelled and rammed an elbow into the rat, knocking it off.
Vorn reached the second rat before it could join its companion in attacking Jael, his axe coming down in a powerful chop. The axe cleaved the huge rodent in half, each side of its body falling to the floor and twitching, the toothy snout snapping and drooling.
From behind Violet and Milya came a garbled yell as the trapdoor to the basement opened and a gnarly humanoid head popped up. Milya shoved Violet aside and raced to intercept the creature before it could get all the way into the room. She reached the trapdoor as it reached the top stair and swung her right sword at it. It raised a crude club to defend itself, but Milya skillfully dodged to the side and ran the creature through. It fell face forward onto the floor.
Right behind there were two more ascending the stairs. One met Milya with a hand axe, pushing her away from the opening and allowing his companion to advance on Violet with club.
Meanwhile, Jael turned and struck the giant rat that attacked him with his staff twice in rapid succession. The creature collapsed with a groan and didn't move.
The creature that raced towards Violet was short and wiry but hunched over with badly bowed legs. Its face was twisted into a grimace of hatred as it swung its club at her head. Instinctively, she raised her arms to protect her head and ducked. The club hit her forearms painfully and brought tears to her eyes, but the braces protected them somewhat. Unfortunately, she dropped one of her daggers as her left hand went numb from the blow. Swinging the other dagger blindly, she grazed the creature across the face, leaving a long scratch that immediately beaded with blood.
The third creature that came from the basement attacked Milya with its sword, welding it effectively but without any of the grace that the half-elf displayed. It managed a chopping cut to her leg but didn't slow her down appreciably. Her pair of swords flashed, and it joined the others on the floor.
Violet's opponent swung its club at her head again and this time she wasn't able to block it, but her quick step back saved her from a potentially lethal head wound. Instead, the club slammed into her shoulder, spinning her around and into Jael, who caught her to keep her from falling.
Realizing it was alone and grossly outnumbered, her attacker turned to run back down into the basement. Right into Milya's twin swords. With a gurgle, it slid off the blades and fell to the floor.
Violet leaned heavily against the priest, shaken from the encounter.
"What in the goddess's name were those things?"
"Goblins," Jael answered, holding her at arm's length. "Are you hurt?"
She shook her head, "not really. It got me across the forearm and in the shoulder. My arm hurts, but it's not too bad." She looked at Vorn with a frown, "what is he doing?"
The Dwarf was moving from body to body, searching them. She shuddered at the thought of touching them.
"Looking for clues, I would guess," Jael shrugged.
"Aye," Vorn said, not looking up from the goblin he was patting down. When he encountered a small bag hanging from its belt, he cut it off and tossed it to Jael.
Releasing Violet, Jael opened the bag and shook its contents out into his hand. Violet leaned forward for a better look. In his hand were a few gold coins and five rocks. He counted out the coins and started to drop the rocks onto the floor.
"No," Violet grabbed his hand to stop him and took them from him.
"What?"
"These are semi-precious stones," she told him. "I can use them as components for spells."
"I thought you said you didn't use components?"
"Since I've been here, no," she said thoughtfully. "But I haven't tried any with components either. Potions and such. Maybe I should experiment a bit."
"Huh," he nodded and handed over the bag. Taking it, she put the stones back in and tied it to her belt.
Nori chose that moment to reappear and twirled around her shoulders with a concerned mEEEwr.
She patted the fae, "I'm fine, I promise."
"What?" Jael asked with a confused look.
"Sorry," Violet smiled sheepishly. "I was talking to my familiar."
"Your familiar?" he looked around.
"You can't see her unless she wants you to," Violet explained. "Fae are invisible to most humans."
"Your familiar is fae?"
"Yes."
He looked thoughtful.
"What?"
"You guys need to see this," Milya called from the trapdoor, interrupting them.
The three followed her back down into the basement.
"This isn't good," Vorn muttered.
"No, it isn't," Milya agreed.
What had once been a root cellar had been expanded to a large space that was at least thirty feet across with torches shoved into the dirt walls providing enough light to see the interior reasonably well. The space was stacked with crates, barrels, and sacks. Milya had pried the top off one crate and waved the others over to it. Inside were a dozen or so hand axes and a few daggers, most rusted and in bad shape, but still usable.
"This keeps getting worse," Vorn grunted.
"If you don't like this, then you'll hate that," Milya pointed to the far side of the space.
A tunnel taller than Jael and wide enough for three of them to walk side by side without touching sloped steeply downward and led away to the northeast.
"I hate it when you're right," Vorn growled.
"We need to let the Harpers know and get them back here," Milya told them.
"Stay here," Jael said, "I'll send Ada for them on one of the horses." He turned to look at Violet, "you should go back with her."
Violet shook her head, "no, I'm alright and I think you are going to need all the help you can get until the others get here."
Milya reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch, "you know it's only going to get worse from here, right?"
"I know," she took a shaky breath, "but I have magic that might be needed. I would never forgive myself if any of you didn't make it when I could have made a difference."
"We may not be able to protect you every time," Vorn pointed out.
"That's a chance I'm willing to take."
Jael hesitated, but at a nod from Vorn, he hurried up the stairs and out of the basement.
"While he's gone, let's see if there's anything here we can use," Vorn told the two women.
The three moved around the basement with Vorn and Milya prying open crates and barrels and Violet opening sacks. She found coils of rope, torches, and assorted leather armor as well as shriveled potatoes, moldy bread, and other provisions that had either gone bad or was going bad. The crates and barrels were full of poorly made and maintained weapons. Violet looked at one full of rusty swords with warped and chipped blades.
"You could get tetanus just looking at these," she joked.
"Tetanus?" Milya looked up from the crate she was opening.
"Um, lock-jaw?"
"Oh, right," the half-elf gave her a half-hearted smile before returning to her task.
Vorn stood up from yet another crate of weapons and stretched his back. "I think we're wasting our time here," he announced. "There's nothing but junk in these…,"
"Well, hello, beautiful," Milya said reaching into her crate and pulling out a small glass bottle with a cork stopper and holding it out for the other two to see. The liquid it held was an opaque red that glimmered in the torchlight.
"If I'm not mistaken, this is a potion of healing," she grinned.
"Really?" Violet hurried over to look at the bottle. "These are common here?"
Milya shrugged, handing it over to her, "yeah, I guess."
"What do they do? How do they work?"
"They heal," Milya snorted. "And I'm not the right person to ask how. You'll have to find someone that specializes in them."
"How well do they heal?"
"It depends on the potion and how much potency it was imbued with when it was created. Does your shoulder still hurt?"
"Yes?"
"Then try it and see."
When Violet hesitated, Milya pointed at the crate, "there's more. Go ahead."
Violet pulled the cork out and put the bottle to her lips. Closing her eyes, she swallowed it down in three gulps. It tasted metallic and gritty, numbing her tongue slightly. A warmth began in her stomach and spread outward swiftly. When the tide of warmth reached her shoulder, it went numb for a few seconds until the warmth faded.
She cautiously moved her left arm, her eyes wide.
"Oh wow! It worked."
Vorn snorted, "what did you expect? It's a potion of healing."
"Well, in my world, these kinds of things are definitely not common. Before I ended up here, I had spent months trying to create an artifact that would heal. Look, I even have the scars from all my failures."
She thrust out her arm and pulled up her sleeve to reveal the smooth, flawless skin of her forearm. Her mouth formed an 'O'.
"It healed my scars?"
Milya looked over at her arm and nodded, "they do that if you aren't badly injured. It's as if the magic finds anything it can if it isn't all needed for your injury."
Before she could say anything else, Jael returned.
"She's on her way. Hopefully, she'll bring back reinforcements in the next couple of hours."
"Good," Vorn announced cheerfully. "Let's go."
Violet thought he meant back upstairs, but he and Milya started towards the tunnel.
"Wait!"
Vorn stopped and looked at her questioningly.
"There's reinforcements coming," she said. "Shouldn't we wait upstairs for them?"
"And have them blunder blindly around in these tunnels? Are you daft? We need to scout them out thoroughly first." He turned back towards the tunnel, grabbing a torch from the wall.
"But…," Violet called out, stopping him again, "there's provisions and weapons here for an army. What if we meet them down there?"
The dwarf grinned, "then we have fun."
With that he stomped down the tunnel and out of sight.
On her shoulder, Nori chittered.
"No, I think you need to stay here. I'll call you if I need you, okay?"
The fae miaowed mournfully then disappeared.
"Let's hope I don't need you," Violet muttered as she followed the others after Vorn.