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Chapter 26: A Place to Rest
Garrick spent the rest of that first day working the crumbled section of wall Brenric had shown him, learning stonework through trial and clumsy error, watching how the older man fitted each piece to bear weight evenly rather than simply stacking rubble into something that merely looked solid."Not like that," Brenric said, catching Garrick's third attempt at wedging a stone into place. "You're thinking about filling the gap. Think about what happens to this wall in a storm instead. Every piece needs to hold its neighbor up, not just sit there looking useful."Garrick adjusted the stone as instructed, felt it settle with a solidity the previous attempts had lacked, and looked up to find Brenric nodding, satisfied."There. You'll get faster with practice."By evening, a section of wall stood straighter than it had in years, and Garrick's hands ached with an honest kind of tiredness he found he didn't mind at all. One of the other men working alongside him, a retired soldier with a limp
Chapter 25: The Graypine Wilderness
Garrick walked through the night after leaving Ravenford, putting as much distance as his legs would allow between himself and the merchant's too-knowing smile, until exhaustion finally forced him to stop in a shallow cave carved into a hillside just before dawn.He slept poorly, waking twice at sounds that turned out to be nothing, and by the time real morning light reached the cave mouth, he was already moving again, following a trail that grew rougher and less traveled with every passing mile."Where does this lead?" he asked, when the forest around him began to thicken into something wilder than anything he'd walked through before.The Graypine Wilderness, Asterion answered. Few travelers come this way. Ancient forest, ruined watchtowers, mountain trails no merchant caravan has used in a generation. Exactly the kind of place a man wanting to disappear might choose."Is that why you're not stopping me?"I am not stopping you because it is, for now, a sound choice. Whether it remain
Chapter 24: What the Wounds Remembered
The report reached Zephar's desk a day after leaving Ravenford, carried by a raven, and by the time Kaelor himself arrived at the frontier town, the celebration over the rescued caravan had already faded into ordinary market noise.He didn't stop at the guild hall. He didn't ask questions of the townsfolk still trading stories about the mysterious young swordsman who'd found the hidden trail into the bandit camp. He rode straight through Ravenford and out the northern gate toward Blackstone Pass itself, understanding, as few others would have, that rumor told him nothing a battlefield couldn't tell him better.The pass was quiet when he reached it, the wreckage of the ambushed caravan still scattered where it had fallen, scavenging birds startling into the air as his horse picked its way through the wagons. He dismounted near the abandoned bandit camp beyond, where the real fighting had happened, and began his work with the patient, methodical attention of a man who had learned long a
Chapter 23: A Face Remembered
The walk back through Blackstone Pass took most of the following day, slowed by the youngest of the freed captives and the old man who needed frequent rest, but nobody in the party complained about the pace. Garrick found himself near the rear of the group again, matching stride with the stocky crossbowman who'd spoken to him on the way in."You did well," the man said. "For someone who volunteered on a dare, more or less.""Wasn't a dare," Garrick said. "I just couldn't walk past it.""That's usually how the good ones end up in this line of work," the man said, and left it there.Ravenford's gates came into view by late afternoon, and word of the rescue had apparently outpaced the party itself, because a crowd had already begun gathering near the entrance, drawn by rumor and hope in equal measure. When the freed captives came into view, whole and walking under their own power, the crowd erupted into a noise that Garrick hadn't heard directed at anyone in his life before, let alone hi
Chapter 22: The Rescue
Nightfall found Garrick crouched at the mouth of the hidden trail with three other fighters beside him, watching the last traces of daylight fade from the ridge above the bandit camp. Below them, firelight flickered between rough timber structures, and the murmur of voices carried faintly on the wind."Quiet from here," Ilsa had told them before they split off, and Garrick repeated it to himself now like a promise.They moved single file down the narrow path, careful of loose stone, until the trail opened onto a rough shelf overlooking the camp from behind. Below them, a crude holding pen came into view, fenced with sharpened stakes, and inside it Garrick could make out shapes huddled together in the dark. A woman rocking a small child. An old man sitting with his back against the fence, unmoving except for the slow rise and fall of his chest."Two guards on the pen," whispered one of the fighters beside Garrick, a lean woman with a short bow already strung. "I can take the near one c
Chapter 21: Blackstone Pass
Garrick was still standing at the edge of the crowd when a woman's voice cut through the noise near the guild hall entrance, sharp enough to carry."Anyone still reading that notice and not signing up, step aside. We're losing daylight."A woman emerged from the guild hall doorway, scarred along one cheek, dressed in worn leather armor that had clearly seen real use. She surveyed the gathered crowd with the flat, assessing look of someone used to sorting the genuinely useful from the merely enthusiastic.Garrick heard himself speak before he'd fully decided to. "I'll go."Several heads turned. A broad shouldered man near the front laughed outright. "How old are you," he said, not quite under his breath, "twelve?""Old enough to hold a sword," Garrick said, keeping his voice even despite the heat rising in his face."This isn't some village skirmish, boy. Whatever took that caravan didn't leave survivors." The man turned back toward the scarred woman, dismissing Garrick with his postur
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