Descent Into Darkness (Book 2) (5 page)

"Now, just because I said--" he began, but she cut him off.

"I understand, no killing without your orders, no mistreating the imp, and I should offer my advice when you're heading into something dangerous. I can handle that, Master."

"Well, it's not that cut and dry, and you don't have to call me Master, Ean is fine, and..." His words were running together as he tried to keep up and recover at the same time, but she was good. With a pat on his cheek with one hand, she stuck a stick of jerky into his open mouth with the other.

"You should eat up then, Master, I mean Ean." Her tone had returned to its usual playful self, as if she had neither been angry or ashamed moments earlier. "I don't know about you, but I'm excited to get somewhere with more people."

She strode past him towards the exit. As she moved, her wings dipped, wrapping around her body and by the time she had reached the door, she had returned to looking human once more. Passing Zin, she reached down as if to pat him on the head, but the imp ducked past her and moved into the barn. Azalea just laughed and made to walk outside, but stopped and turned.

"Do hurry up and fetch our things. Like I said, we should be off to try and find the main road as soon as possible." She winked at Ean then and stepped out into the light.

Ean gaped, the piece of jerky hanging from his mouth. He felt like he had just been caught in a windstorm. Zin, on the other hand, looked ready to do murder as he stormed towards Ean.

"For a moment when I walked in," the imp growled through pointed teeth, "I thought you had actually listened to my advice and were taking charge. And then you go and throw it all away. You do realize she manipulated you there?"

"Mmhmm," was all Ean could say, finally closing his mouth around the jerky and beginning to chew.

"So, you realize that she in no way felt bad about what she had done or the fact that she had disappointed you?"

"Mmhmm." It seemed like the safest answer at the moment.

"AND you realize that instead of limiting her say in the group, you actually gave her more leverage to speak her mind?"

"Mmhmm."

"So then you realize you're an idiot?"

"Mmhmm... hey!" Spitting out a chunk of jerky, Ean glared at the imp. "I'm not used to dealing with manipulative people. Usually when someone wanted something from me, they would just bully me into doing it."

"I'm sure her beauty had nothing to do with your slacking on discipline either?"

Actually it hadn't. She was certainly beautiful, but Ean didn't really think about Azalea that way. Maybe it was the fact she was from the Abyss. Or more likely, maybe it was the fact that she was incredibly deadly. Whatever the reason, his letting up on her had nothing to do with her looks.

"What's done is done, Zin. No point dwelling on it. I'm sure she'll give me plenty of opportunities to dress her down." The imp looked less than convinced. He stalked out of the barn, leaving Ean standing alone.

Knowing he would never understand women, or imps for that matter, Ean headed to the stall alone. The few supplies they had left were stored there--a bag of spare clothes, medicinal herbs, the jerky the man had left, along with a few skins of water. After shoving everything into one bag, he slung it over his back and headed outside to find his companions.

He found Zin and Azalea, both avoiding looking at each other. As he exited, they both took a step towards him, saw the other mirroring their movement, and stopped, turning away from each other again. The next few days were going to be painful with those two.

"So which one of you has an idea which direction we should head to reach the main road?"

Wearing a smug expression, Azalea stepped forward. "I've scouted it out already. We just walk straight in the direction away from the back of the house. There is a tiny path worn out of the grass that should lead to the road. From there we just follow it east to the city."

"Sounds like a good enough plan to me. Let's go."

Azalea turned and stuck her tongue out at Zin. To the imp's credit, he pretended not to see it, although his face did darken slightly. Trying to ignore the exchange as well, Ean walked past both of them at a brisk pace and started off in the direction that Azalea had implied. The sooner they got to the capitol, the better.

Ean was ready to find some answers. Find out more about what he had done to himself. Most importantly, Ean was ready to get some direction back into his life.

AZALEA TOOK THE LEAD in front of Ean while Zin trailed behind as they left the farm. The path Azalea had mentioned was barely noticeable and seemed rarely used. Clearly the man had not felt the need to leave too often. The land on this side of the forest consisted of grassy mounds, so the three often found themselves trudging uphill or stumbling downhill. By the time they crested the fifth hill, the farm was gone from view.

It took them the rest of the day to climb up and down the hills, but as the sun started its decent, they had found the main road the older man had mentioned.

Ean had been expecting to find a road cut into the dirt by wagon wheels and the passage of time, just like what he was used to back in Rensen, but instead he found square slabs of white stone. A single slab was larger than a wagon rig. The spaces between them were filled with yellow sand. As his eyes watched the road stretch into the horizon, it looked more fitting for a giant then the average human.

After he got over his initial amazement of the construction of the road, Ean decided it was a good point in the day to stop and set up camp for the night. The sun was still between the halfway point in the sky and the mountains to the west, but they had kept up a fast pace as they traveled, not taking a single break, and Ean was fairly tired. And hungry too, certainly hungry. They picked a flat spot a bit off the road and settled in.

For a while, they sat in silence, simply letting their bodies rest from the long journey. Ean had gotten out a few pieces of jerky and offered them to his companions. Zin had taken one with a grin, wasting no time in biting off a large piece easily with his sharp teeth. Azalea declined, but did smile slightly at the offer. It was a small smile, but it was something. Maybe Ean could figure her out yet. He chose a particularly large piece of jerky that fit the size of his hunger and sat back chewing slowly, occasionally taking a swig from one of their water skins to relieve his thirst.

Ean found the entire experience to be quite peaceful. His companions seemed to be lost in their own thoughts, which was fine with him since it meant they weren't shooting daggers at each other with their eyes. The day had been warm, but a slight breeze moved through the hills, strong enough to keep Ean cool. He watched the grass around him constantly change direction with the wind. All around him, besides the road, was green as far as the eye could see. It was all a pleasant change from the dampness of his home and the darkness of the forest.

It wasn't until the sun was just beginning to touch the peaks of the mountains to the west and the wind began to have a bit of a bite to it, that Azalea broke the silence.

"We really should come up with a plan of what we're going to do once we reach the city. I'm sure it's going to be difficult to find any kind of record of Zin's former master, and even more so about the location of where he called home."

"What?" Ean was sure he hadn't heard correctly. "The reason that we're going to the city is to find a way to kill the creature that has made its home in the mines of my village. What does Zin's former master have anything to do with that?"

He directed the question at both the imp and Yulari, but his eyes were on Zin. The imp looked at the ground, flicking at a pebble with one clawed finger. Azalea of course grinned at the imp's discomfort before continuing to speak.

"Oh, the imp didn't tell you, my mistake. I thought he had. Zin seems to think that it would be a smart idea to travel to his former master's lair."

"What? How could that be a good idea?"

"Well...the way I see it, if you were to gain even a fraction of the powers my former master had, you would have no trouble killing that creature in Rottwealth."

"You mean the same powers that made him into a power hungry tyrant? The ones that led him to try to enslave the entire world?"

"Yes, those powers, but only enough so that you could better control the creatures you summon."

"I certainly like the sound of enslaving the world," Azalea cut in. "You never mentioned that part before, Zin. If you were hoping to leave that tidbit out of our little arrangement, you've made a big mistake. I would be quite content to follow this one if that was the plan all along."

"No, it's certainly not the plan," Zin replied, while Ean responded just as quickly,

"I would never want to be that kind of a monster!"

"Mmhmm, I see," was the only answer they both got from the Yulari. She was looking at Ean now the same way Zin looked at a fat rat. It sent a shiver down Ean's spine.

"My plan," Zin said, "was just to find out how he could control so many creatures from the Abyss. Ean could use that to summon a handful of Hounds or other minor creatures to take down the beast terrorizing his village. That's it. I have no intention of turning him into anything remotely resembling my former master."

Shrugging, Azalea leaned back onto her elbows and looked off into the distance, as if no longer interested in the conversation. But if Ean had learnt anything about the Yulari in the few days they had been together, he was sure she hadn't let the idea drop from her mind.

"That's good to hear, Zin, because I certainly have no intention of becoming any kind of tyrant." Ean said, directing his words at Zin while at the same time staring at Azalea, hoping that she got the point. For his troubles, he got a small smile and a wink as she looked at him for a moment before turning her gaze back to the countryside.

"Good, that's exactly what I wanted to hear." Zin tore his worried gaze from Azalea to address Ean. "We both want the same thing--to enjoy our lives in peace and comfort--so trust me when I say that the last thing I want you to do is repeat the mistakes of my former master."

"Good, because a peaceful life IS exactly what I want. A simple healer's life. Up until I helped the wounded in Rensen, I looked at healing as a way to make money. But now I know I can get so much more from it. Being a healer gives me a purpose. All I want to do is set up a healer's shop of my own."

"That's all well and good," Azalea cut in. "But you should know we're about to have company. And a lot of it."

Raising a hand to shield his eyes, it took Ean a few moments to follow Azalea's gaze to the west to see what she was talking about.

He spied five, large horse-drawn covered wagons, each a different color, approaching from the west. Following behind the wagons were teams of oxen hitched to open bed wagons stacked with various goods. One was heaping full of gray roundish balls. Another was hauling blocks made from the same material as the balls. There seemed to be no end to the slow-moving convoy. By the time the last one crested the hill, Ean had counted twenty-six wagons in all.

"Zin, you should certainly disappear," Ean said, but the tell-tale shimmering of the already invisible imp was the only thing Ean could see. Azalea was walking towards the road.

"Wait a second!" Ean chased after her. "Maybe we should hide and just wait for them to pass."

"It's a bit late for that," she said, slowing down just enough for him to catch up. "Do you have any idea what they are up to?"

"No. I would guess that they are traders, but I've never seen a group this large. Besides maybe the one that was camped next to Rensen."

"Well, we have traders in the Abyss, and they are usually a sneaky lot. Best if you let me do all of the talking. Otherwise they might trick you out of what little supplies we have left."

Ean was about to object, but then changed his mind. He had been caught by surprise by the bandit at the farm. Maybe it would be better if he let her take the lead in this situation.

"Alright. Just try not to get us into any trouble."

"I would never dream of it." The smirk that touched her lips, though, said otherwise.

The two of them moved to the side of the road and waited for the wagons. The sun was halfway behind the mountains by the time the first wagon reached them. A man on the front wagon raised a single hand, and the entire caravan came to a stop. Leaping down, he walked over to them at a brisk pace, stopping right in front of the two of them and leaving little space.

Standing slightly taller than Ean, the man was as thick as Ean was lanky. He was covered from head to toe in leather and fur, which was strange for how warm it was, with the clothes sitting tight enough on his arms and body for Ean to be able to tell the man's bulk came from muscle and not fat. He wore a small hand ax at his side, the blade the same dark black color as his curly beard and short hair. A large, bulbous nose stuck out over his beard, and made his brown eyes seem sunken into his face. When he spoke, his voice sounded like rocks tumbling down the side of a mountain.

"You don't look like bandits," he said gruffly. "And I'm sure even if the two of you were, you wouldn't be stupid enough to attack a caravan the size of ours."

"No sir," Azalea replied. "We're not bandits, just simple travelers making our way to Lurthalan."

Her usual sensual and alluring voice was all innocence now with a touch of breathlessness that Ean often heard from the less intelligent girls in his village. The personality she had taken on matched her appearance, and even Ean had trouble keeping in mind that there was a Yulari underneath her illusion. He did his best to keep his face straight as she continued.

"We were traveling, and my brother got us lost in the forest to the south." Of course she would stick to that story. "We luckily made it out and found our way to the road."

"An unfortunate story," the man replied. "But thankfully you are only a three-days walk from the capitol. If you are short on supplies, I can happily trade you enough to get you there." He paused for a moment to scratch at his beard. "For the right price, of course."

"We have what I would assume are enough supplies in terms of food," Azalea said, her eyes wandering to the sky as she spoke. She really was playing up the part of a vapid hick. "But no money. What we really could use is a ride so we could rest our tired feet."

"A ride would be more expensive than the supplies, I'm afraid, lass, and you've already said you have no money. I can't see how you could go about paying for a ride on one of my wagons."

Ean watched as something about Azalea...changed. It was hard to pinpoint exactly. It wasn't anything in her appearance or the way she spoke. It was as if the air around her grew thicker, but even that wasn't a proper description of what he noticed.

"I'm sure a trader as rich and powerful as you, someone in charge of such a large group, could handle carrying us along without payment," Azalea said softly, her gaze lowering. To Ean's amazement, the man slowly began to nod as he scratched at his beard.

"I suppose for a few days journey, money wouldn't be necessary." The man's voice had changed now too. It was still rough, but the words seemed more drawn out as he spoke, like he was struggling to get them out. "You have your own supplies as you said, after all, so you won't be costing me anything. I'm sure some room can be made amongst some of the workers."

"Oh, that's ever so kind of you, but we couldn't accept your hospitality without offering you something." Placing a hand on Ean's back, Ean couldn't help but cringe as that smirk appeared on Azalea's face for an instant before disappearing. "My brother will be happy to pay you back by providing free labor. Wouldn't you, Ean?"

Ean nodded dumbly although in his mind he pictured himself throttling her.

"Well, we can always use shovelers to keep the offal from the horses and bulls off the road. The temples take great pride in their roads, and it's a trader's responsibility to keep those roads clean of their own wastes."

"That sounds like an excellent job for my brother."

"Think nothing of it," the man said and then gave a shake of his head. Whatever had changed about Azalea was suddenly gone. When the man spoke again, his voice had returned to its normal speed. "My name is Trait, Trait Deepdweller, of the Deepdweller Hawkpurses."

The way he said the last part made it sound important, but Ean and Azalea just looked at him with confused expressions as they each took his hand in turn.

"Don't tell me you've never heard of the Deepdweller Hawkpurses?"

Azalea looked at Ean and he shook his head.

"No," Azalea said.

"Unbelievable! Everyone knows the Deepdweller family name. Especially since we are Hawkpurses."