The low rolling foothills leading away from the Grand Mountains made it easy to travel unseen. After escaping the guards at the Wall, I took Camellia off the main road, and we proceeded slowly west, using the hills for cover.
I didn't expect Albanth to send anyone after us. It was too risky, and he'd probably be just as mad at his soldiers as he was with me anyway. Despite the state of the Wall, the senior captain was a logical man with a level head.
But that didn't mean I was going to wait around to find out for sure what my punishment for killing a soldier of the Bulwark Division would be.
Had we stayed on the main road, the walk to Greengate—the nearest town—would have been less than a day, but our meandering path through the rugged foothills meant we spent a night camping in the wilderness. The sun was high in the sky the next day before the hills flattened out into wide fields surrounding a village of a couple thousand people.
Although I didn't have any particular destination in mind, it made sense to stop in the rural farming village and get a feel for the situation in Sapin. With the mana beast parts still stored in my dimension ring, I was hoping to barter for some food and traveling supplies as well.
It was unlikely we'd find news of the Twin Horns there, but I figured it was too risky to ask such pointed questions anyway.
"But if you're sure there won't be any Alacryans here, why do we need to pretend to be other people?" Camellia asked after I finished explaining my plan.
"It's safer that way. I'm just a lowly sellsword, and you're my useless elven servant." "Hey!"
I smiled at the girl's indignation. It felt...weird, and I realized I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt so much like myself. I had a mission to occupy my mind, a client—even if it is a non-paying one—to protect, and was surrounded by enemies who were trying to kill me.
This was what it had been like with the Twin Horns all those years, and with Arthur in the Beast Glades.
But Arthur was gone, and the Twin Horns were underground... "Jasmine?" Camellia was staring at me with her oversized eyes.
"Better call me...Note," I said after a pause. It was the first name that came to my head. "Note?" Camellia giggled. "That's a funny name."
I looked carefully in both directions to make sure no one was watching before we stepped back out onto the road leading to the village. "And you'll be Skunk."
Camellia's mouth fell open and she stopped walking. "No, I am not letting you call me that." "Sorry, Skunk. Master Note's orders. Now get moving, or it'll be three lashes for disobedience."
The look on the elven girl's face almost made all the trouble she'd caused me up until then worth it.
***
I hadn't been entirely sure what to expect when we walked into Greengate. Had the Alacryans sent soldiers to these smaller towns already? Greengate was close enough to the Wall—one of the last Dicathian occupied fortifications on the continent outside of Darv—that it would make sense to have a couple of spies there at least.
The only villagers we saw gave us nervous looks and took off in the other direction. One woman, after opening her front door and taking a step outside, saw us, gasped, and rushed back into her home before slamming the door and bolting it shut.
"These people aren't very friendly," Camellia said softly, staring around.
We found out why once we reached the square at the center of the village. The cobblestones were cracked and blackened in a dozen different places, and I could see the clear signs where earthen columns had burst out of the ground, destroying the carefully laid road. A couple of the buildings around the edge of the square had been smashed by large rocks, and all of the windows facing the plaza were boarded up.
"Some really strong mages must have fought here," I told Camellia as I bent to examine a patch of stone that had shattered like glass. "See this? Stone breaks like this when frozen by an ice-deviant mage."
"Jasmine," Camellia whispered as she bent down next to me to look. "There is someone watching us."
Careful to keep my movements natural, I feigned scanning the other signs of magical damage until I found him.
A young man, perhaps nineteen or twenty, was crouched down in front of a small shop, frozen in the act of pulling weeds—or pretending to pull weeds—from the small patch of garden out front of the building.
He was staring at both of us, his face contorted into a worried frown.
Turning back to Camellia and pointing at a place where the cobblestones had been crushed in a perfect rectangle, I said, "If he's a spy, he's a pretty bad one. Let's go see." Since he was the only person in town who hadn't immediately scurried away from us, I hoped he might be able to fill us in on what happened there.
No longer hiding my intentions, I spun on my heel and marched straight toward him. He flinched and busied himself ripping out a couple handfuls of dandelions.
"Hey." I put one leg up on the short rail fence that separated the garden from the rest of the road and stared down at the young man. Although his blond hair had grown a little wild, and his cheeks were gaunt, he looked more like a noble than a rural farmer. I gestured over my shoulder with a thumb. "What happened here?"
He met my eyes, then quickly looked back at the ground. "I'm sorry, ma'am, I'm not supposed to..." He trailed off, his eyes flicking back to me, a spark of recognition in them. "You're an adventurer, right? I think I saw you fight at the Xyrus Adventurers Guild once."
The last thing I had expected was someone way out here to recognize me, and it took me a moment to collect my thoughts.
"I doubt it," Camellia said first. "This lowly sellsword is the adventurer Note. She hasn't done anything of note." She shot me a self-satisfied look.
"And my caddy here is Skunk," I said, frowning at her. "She was raised by wild elves deep in their cursed forest, and, between you and me, I think the mists there did something to her mind."
"Wild elves?"
"As I was asking," I went on, speaking over her, "what happened here?"
The young man had listened to our back and forth with a bemused smirk on his face, but it fell away at my question. In a low voice, he said, "Three of the Lances attacked a Vritra retainer. There was a big battle, and now the villagers are all terrified that the Alacryans are going to come here and punish them for what happened."
My heartbeat quickened at his mention of the Lances. "The Lances are alive?" He looked around, then nodded. "They were a few days ago, at least."
I'd been close enough to the Lances at the flying castle to understand that their power was on a different level. If they were still alive, and fighting back against the Alacryans, then Dicathen might actually have a chance.
The young man looked around again, growing increasingly nervous. "Listen, I'd like to speak with you more, but we should go somewhere less exposed."
I examined him again. I couldn't sense any mana signature, and it seemed unlikely that someone as young as him would be powerful enough to suppress his mana from me. Still, the Alacryans had proven to be full of surprises again and again.
"Show me your back," I said seriously. He seemed to understand my intentions, because he didn't hesitate to turn around and lift up his tunic. There were no runic tattoos along his spine, but there were several faint yellow bruises that discolored his skin from hip to shoulder.
"Okay, let's go."
He stuck his head into the shop to tell them he was leaving for a little while, then led Camellia and me through the town to a large house near where the buildings faded back into crop fields. I was surprised by the size of the place, which would have seemed more at home in Xyrus City than out here in the farmlands.
"Wow," Camellia breathed. "How many families live here?"
The young man frowned thoughtfully as he beckoned us through the front gate, which opened into a wide yard. "Just one. But there are quite a few of us."
We followed him along a gravel path up to the house. When he opened the door, the smell of cooked meat and the sound of conversation flowed out.
A deep voice came from the end of the entry hall. "Jarrod? If you're here for lunch, you better hurry before Cleo eats it all."
Our guide led us down the entry hallway, through a finely appointed sitting room, and into the dining room. Several people were sitting or standing around a long table. Most were young, between maybe eight and fourteen or so, but there were a couple around the blond young man's age.
The clamor of conversation ended when we entered the room.
A heavyset man sat at the head of the table. He had short gray hair and a beard, and dark bags under his eyes. There was something vaguely familiar about him, but I couldn't place it.
"Jasmine Flamesworth?"
Our guide—Jarrod, I assumed—looked at me with recognition. "That's right, I remember now. One of the Twin Horns, right?"
The bearded man stood and walked quickly around the table toward us. "Yes, but what are you doing here, Jasmine? Greengate isn't safe."
So much for secret identities, I thought uncomfortably. The fact that this man knew me by sight, and yet I couldn't recall him, bothered me.
"And you are...?" I prodded.
He looked surprised for an instant, then gave me a good humored chuckle. "I'm not surprised you don't remember. Helen and Adam were the talkative ones." I felt a shock go through me at his casual mention of Adam, and it must have shown on my face. "Sorry," the man added kindly. "I heard about his passing before...well, before the war went sideways."
"This is Halim Topurn," our guide said. "I'm Jarrod, these two little ones are Clara and Cleo." Jarrod went around the table, introducing the rest.
"Topurn..." I said slowly, racking my brain. "Oh, the Twin Horns used to run guard duty for some of your caravans, didn't we? That was a long time ago."
Halim laughed, a booming noise that made his large belly jiggle. "Not so long ago for one as old as me, but I'm glad you remember."
"So what's all this," I asked, gesturing to the table. It was clear most of these children weren't related to each other, or to Halim for that matter.
Halim grunted and looked away. "Well, ah—"
"We're orphans," the little boy, Cleo, said defiantly. "From the war."
Halim gazed at the boy for a moment, his expression difficult to read. To me, he said, "I am simply trying to use my resources to do some good before my time is up."
I was startled by a small hand sliding into my own and looked down to see Camellia's big green eyes staring up at me.
"And is this your...?" Halim leaned down a little so he was about the same height as the elf girl.
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"This is my assistant, Skunk—"
"Jasmine!" she yelped, squeezing my hand.
I suppressed a grin. "Camellia, Halim Topurn, merchant king of western Sapin. Halim, Camellia Lehtinen, my ward. She's...an orphan of the war, too."
Somehow Halim managed to appear kind, embarrassed, and sad all at the same time. "Would you like something to eat, Camellia?"
She turned to me for reassurance. I nodded, and one of the boys pulled out a seat for her at the table.
"She'll be in good hands here if we want to go talk," he said softly.
My gaze lingered on Camellia shoving a whole buttered roll into her mouth as the other children began to pepper her with questions. Once I was certain she would be okay, I headed out into the sitting room. Halim and Jarrod followed.
"So," I started after we'd all taken a seat and Halim had given me a glass of some strong, sweet-smelling alcohol. "These aren't just orphaned children, are they?"
Halim looked embarrassed again, but Jarrod held my gaze. "We're mages. Some of us are orphans, that was true, but others are hiding from their families and the Alacryans both. Too many noble houses didn't even hesitate to throw their support behind the Vritra."
"Why risk staying out in the open then?" I asked. "Why not seek shelter in the rebellion's underground sanctuary?"
Jarrod turned to Halim to answer. The old merchant took a slow sip of his drink before replying. "All I've heard are rumors, and the rumor about those rumors is that this underground sanctuary is just a trap, bait for any Dicathians who are foolish enough to look for a way to fight back."
I drained my glass and set it aside, then stood and began to pace. "So you don't know how to get in touch with anyone from the sanctuary? Don't know where it is?"
Halim's brows rose. "Are you suggesting it's real?"
I fidgeted with my armor as I thought. "Helen and the others are already down there. Commander Virion of the Council is alive and leading their efforts alongside the Lance, General Bairon."
Both men gaped at me in surprise. Finally, Jarrod cleared his throat. "If Virion Eralith is alive, then is Tessia Eralith?"
I could only shrug. "I don't have a list. I was planning to take the girl there for safety, but..."
It would only get more dangerous as we moved farther into Sapin. We could get to Blackburn in a few more days, but a city of its size would definitely be entirely in the hands of the Alacryans by now. And what would we do once we were there?
Halim's home, I realized, would be a perfect place for Camellia to stay. He had already established an alibi for these children, even had some way to hide their mana signatures, and she would have children her own age to play with and learn alongside.
It would be a lot better than staying with me.
"You know," Halim said carefully, staring down into his drink, "Greengate could really use a talented mage around here, especially right now."
His statement caught me off guard, and I stopped pacing. "What?"
He stood, filled my glass, and gestured for me to sit back down before taking his own seat again. I did as he requested, downing the drink in one gulp.
"The people here are frightened—terrified. A quarter of the town has already left, but for the rest, their entire lives are here in Greengate, and they all seem to think the Alacryans are going to show up tomorrow and rain fire from the sky."
He gave me a warm smile. "It would make a world of difference to have someone around who could fight back, who could lead the defense of this town."
I scoffed. "So you want me to be—what exactly? The sheriff of Greengate? I'm sorry Halim, that's not my—"
"Nothing official, or permanent. But I could find you a place where you and your ward could stay, make sure you have enough to eat, and in return, you let me spread some rumors about what a talented adventurer and mage you are."
I opened my mouth to decline, but...why?
I was a fugitive at the Wall, which was less than a day's march away, but it wasn't like they were going to send soldiers out in force to arrest me.
There was also the matter of Helen and the Twin Horns. If they sought me out, like Helen promised they would, then it would be easier for them to find me if I stayed close by.
The sensation of being watched prickled at the back of my neck, and I turned to see Camellia standing in the door, staring at me hopefully. "Yes," she said firmly. "We'll definitely stay."
Clenching my teeth to suppress a smile, I turned to him and shrugged. "Well, there you go."