CHAPTER 3
“Cedrick Beringer, from Rheinguard,” Cedrick said as he dismounted. “Who are you?”
“Zedrina, from Seidr.”
“Seidr? I’ve never heard of it, is it a village nearby? I’ve just come from Larkridge, and no one mentioned another settlement here in the swamp. I would very much like to ask you...”
“Shh,” she shushed him, holding her hand up.
Cedrick shut his jaw with a click, taken aback by her rudeness. He was just about to ask what her problem was, when she shouted, “Get your horse into the river. Now! Hurry!”
“What?” Cedrick demanded, not moving.
The woman picked up her skirts and waded into the water. “Hurry, follow me,” she shouted over her shoulder.
Cedrick took Maurice’s reins and pulled his steed forward. “What’s going on?” he asked, attempting to make a mountain horse enter the warm green water of the flowing river.
“It’s one of the lizards,” said the woman. She looked back and saw Cedrick struggling, then ran back toward him, splashing loudly. “You must hurry,” she said, “it’s very near. Don’t look at it, whatever you do.”
Crashing sounded behind them as something big approached. It certainly didn’t sound like a lizard to Cedrick, unless lizards grew to unimaginable proportions in the swamp. Following her instructions, he pulled Maurice into the water, the woman helping him tug the big horse along.
“Hurry now,” she insisted. “Just keep moving. It won’t cross the river, they can’t swim.”
Maurice tossed his head, his eyes wide with fright. Cedrick pulled hard, but Maurice was hard to control, fear driving a thousand pounds of muscle, and instinct taking over. Cedrick lost his footing and gasped as water filled his nose and eyes. Zedrina reached for him and tugged hard on the back of his shirt, pulling him up. As Cedrick grasped around for the reins, Zedrina covered his face with wet cloth, slapping him with it. His face stinging, Cedrick clawed at the cloth, and tore it away.
“Don’t look at it!” she screamed. A split-second later, the beautiful white horse crashed into the river, never to rise again. He gave only one feeble kick before he went still, the green water rushing over his white coat.
“Maurice!” Cedrick shouted.
“We have to cross now,” Zedrina said, pulling at Cedrick’s elbow. “He’s dead. Hurry or you’ll join him.” With strength belying her slender frame, she wrenched Cedrick’s arm away from the fallen animal. “Don’t look behind us,” she cried, which he found strange, because wasn’t she looking past him? Cedrick gave Maurice one last pat on his shoulder then fell in line, behind Zedrina.
Through knee-deep water they ran, until they came to where the river deepened. Fighting the current, they headed upriver until it again became shallow.
“We need to put some distance between it and us before we leave the water,” she said, panting to catch her breath beside Cedrick. “The larger ones can outrun a man over short distances on land, but they cannot swim. If we stay in the water for now, we should be fine.”
“What is it?” Cedrick asked, fighting a stitch in his side.
“My ancestors called it death lizard.”
Clasping left hand on right forearm Cedrick rested his arms on his head, labored breathing making him light-headed. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. What did it do to Maurice?”
“If you look at it, meet its gaze, you can die. Some have survived an attack, usually because they ran into a young lizard. Those who do live get very ill or can be paralyzed forevermore, but most often, seeing such a creature is fatal.”
“You said they live in the swamp. How many are there?”
“I have been traveling three days through the swamp, and met with four others.”
“So many? How did you survive them?”
“Just as you have,” she said evenly. “I ran and entered the moving water where they could not follow. There is nothing else one can do.”
Cedrick studied the mysterious woman. The steel helmet covering all but her mouth and chin was detailed with flourishes he didn’t recognize. Wherever she obtained it, it was not military issue from Andruain, Rheinguard, or Adelmoor.
She turned north, for the bank, her waterlogged dress dragging behind her. “It’s probably safe to return to the land.”
Cedrick nodded as he puffed and wheezed. Wading through the water was hard work. He needed to rest and a shady bank was as good a place as any.
Sitting on a fallen log, Zedrina wrung the water out of her cloak and the dirty white cotton frock under it while Cedrick dumped out his boots and squeezed his socks. “Damn it,” he said. “These won’t be dry for hours, and I haven’t any spares.”
“It doesn’t get cold here even at night,” Zedrina said. “You can sleep barefoot if your socks are wet.”
He was about to voice his unwillingness to expose even one more inch of skin for the insects of the marshland to feast upon, but then he glanced at her bare feet, and decided to keep silent.
“I don’t mean to hinder your continuing your journey, but it’s unwise to stand in one place for long here.”
Cedrick threw his boots down into the mud. “How can I continue without a horse or my supplies?” Cedrick’s voice came out more forceful than he intended, but the woman didn’t seem to notice.
“We can find food...”
“Where are you going, exactly?” he asked, trying to control his disappointment and rising frustration.
“Away from death lizards right now,” she replied, “out of the swamp.”
“But, I’ve come to the swamp looking for something. I’m not ready to leave yet.”
She sighed, pulling a sandal off to remove a leech off her left ankle. “There is nothing here except lizards and decay. The water is not healthy to drink, insects swarm and carry disease, and the entire place is filled with rot. You will find nothing here except death, Cedrick.”
“I appreciate your concern...”
“You are ill-prepared for this environment,” she said.
“I’m ill-prepared?” He could scarcely believe his ears. “What makes you more capable than me? You haven’t even got a weapon.”
“Neither have you,” she pointed out.
Cedrick reached for his hip, and felt air. “Damn. My sword was hung on my saddle.”
“I meant no insult, I’m only trying to help you,” she said, dabbing at the blood running down her foot. “If not for my dragging you into the river, you’d be a limp corpse right now, and that monster would have more than horseflesh to sate itself on this evening.”
Cedrick’s stomach turned at the thought of his beautiful friend feeding the denizens of the swamp.
Zedrina sat up straight on her fungus-bedecked log. “This place is full of dangerous creatures. Whatever you’ve come here in search of, is it worth dying for?”
Cedrick considered a moment. He was many miles from home and without money or his horse, he could not possibly continue. He needed to turn back. “No,” he said finally. “But, I’m rather in the shit right now. I lost my supplies and Maurice. I’m not sure how I’m going to get home.”
“To Rheinguard?”
“Yes.”
“How far is it?”
He looked questioningly at her. How could she not know how far the mountain kingdom was, he wondered. “Many days’ travel by horse and without money, I’ll not be able to buy a ride back. I guess I’ll be heading for Mist.”
“Mist?” Her voice had an innocent curiosity to it.
“Don’t you know anything about the area?” While Rheinguard was certainly a goodly distance, Mist should have been a recognizable name to anyone from the south or even Andruain.
“No,” she said.
“It’s a small town east of here, on a lake. I have friends there who should be able to help me, maybe even borrow me a horse so I can get home.”
“Why is the town called Mist?”
“Because of the fog. It settles often, especially in winter.”
“It sounds beautiful.”
“It is, but it can be dangerous as well,” said Cedrick. “Sometimes the boats must wait out the mist, and the fishermen can be stuck on the lake for days, unable to safely return to shore. I’ve even heard of
people working out in the fields that were so blinded by the fog, they could not find their way home.”
“May I come with you?”
Her question took Cedrick by surprise.
“Would it be a bother if I traveled with you?”
“But, you don’t know me,” he protested, and then realized how stupid he sounded.
She smiled. “I know you don’t mean me any harm. What else does one need to know about a person to travel with them?”
Cedrick shrugged. He’d had one of the worst days of his life, and wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about traveling with the strange woman, but he could hardly abandon someone asking for an escort to safety. What kind of knight would he make if he so easily turned his back on a woman in need? “I guess I don’t mind escorting you to Mist,” he said. “I would be happy....”
A loud crashing sounded in the trees west of where they sat, halting Cedrick in mid-sentence. “What was that?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Is it another lizard?”
“It’s possible, of course. Let’s keep moving.”
They made haste, never catching sight of the source of the crashing, but happy enough for that. Cedrick led the way through some tall grasses growing out of knee-high water, the mud beneath, sucking at his boots, threatening to pull them off.
If he’d known the first thing about fire-building, he’d have stopped to dry his feet, but as it was, Cedrick was no woodsman. The rubbing of leather through his soaked socks was unbearably painful. How was Zedrina faring in her sandals, he wondered.
A splash sounded behind him. He turned just in time to see Zedrina go under the water. Instinct kicking in, Cedrick reached under and grabbed her arm. He pulled hard, and she came up sputtering and gasping.
“Are you all right?” Cedrick asked, helping her to steady herself.
“I think so,” she said as she spit and coughed.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I tripped over a root or something, and twisted my ankle when I fell.”
“Can you walk?”
“I think so.” She took a few steps, but as soon as Cedrick let go of her arm, she fell back into the water. “I guess not,” she said as he pulled her to standing again. “Let’s get to dry land and I’ll wrap it so I can continue on.”
“Is it sprained?”
“I will be fine, but we need to keep up our pace. The lizards aren’t far off, and at night, they will sense us before we even know they are there. We would do well to follow the river...”
“Will you be able to walk?” Cedrick wasn’t in the mood to mess about.
“Cedrick, my life depends on it. If both my ankles were broken, you could bet on my crawling out of here. I’ve spent two nights here as it is, I’ll not spend a third. We need to reach safety.”
Cedrick helped support her weight as they slowly made their way to shallower water, and then onto land, if one could call it that. The hawk-face of her helmet did not entirely conceal her pain. Cedrick noticed her grimace every time she set her left foot down, and had to push off again on her right. He tried to help ease her burden, but it was difficult given the unfavorable conditions of the swampy ground.
“There is a small house right on the banks of the river, I passed it earlier today,” he said. “We should make our way there. I know of no other settlements nearby, but we may be able to find help from whoever lives there.”
“Fine,” said Zedrina, trying to conceal her discomfort.
The sun was low, on an overcast afternoon. Soaked and in need of shelter for the night, Cedrick led Zedrina on. As much as he wanted to avoid the witch-house, he felt duty-bound to see the woman to safety. If that meant knocking the door a second time, well, he’d just have to do it, and pray the gods sent a merciful stranger to aid them.
“There,” said Cedrick, as the little cabin came into view, “that’s the house. I hope someone is home.”
Zedrina sucked in breath as she missed a step on the inclining hill, and bumped her toe into a patch of thick grass. “I think it’s empty.”
“I’ll go knock, you wait here.” He set her upon the grass and went to see if anyone would answer.
No one was home. Cedrick pounded his hand once more upon the door out of frustration, then he turned back to Zedrina. She was soaked, in pain, and exhausted. He pushed the door open.
He returned to his companion and helped her to stand. “Come on, we need shelter for tonight, and we aren’t going to find it out here. If someone lives here, they’ve not been here for days. Perhaps they won’t mind us using their roof to sleep under for one night.”
As Cedrick used a piece of flint to start a fire in the small stove, Zedrina sat on the floor, tending her ankle.
Cedrick shook his head.
“What is it?” Zedrina asked, setting aside the cloth she’d used as a bandage.
“I’ve made a fine mess of everything,” he said, poking at his infant fire. “I should be on my way home right now, but instead I’ve gone adventuring like a foolish boy. I can just hear my father scolding me for my brashness. I’ve lost Maurice, spent all my money, have a hundred insect bites...”
“And, a strange girl in tow,” she said with a smile.
He sighed. “It isn’t that I don’t want to help you, but, I’ve got nothing to help you. If I had a horse, I could get you to a physician. I can’t see a way out of this.”
“The gods will not abandon us, Cedrick,” she said.
Even having been raised in a temple it sounded hopeful and unrealistic. He doubted the gods would reward his faith with fishes that jumped into his hands, or any other miracles. “I’m going to go look around outside,” he said, standing. “If someone lives here, they must have a garden or something. Even a fruit tree would give us some nourishment, and we desperately need to eat.”
Zedrina leaned forward and grabbed the knee of his trousers. “Cedrick,” she said, the hawk-face looking eerily up at him, “the gods have a hand in all things. Perhaps you were meant to wander into the swamp, and perhaps we were meant to meet. I have a lot of faith in their will, have you?”
“Men must be worthy of the gods’ blessings,” he said as he pulled his leg free and left.
He doubted the gods cared where he was or what trouble he was in, as he walked around the small hut and searched for growing things that might be edible. Damn his impetuousness, he thought. So much for his holy mission.
If only he’d known about the terrible creatures that dwelt there, he’d never have gone into the swamp, and then Maurice would still be alive. He’d loved that horse, a gift from his father when he turned sixteen and left Rhinguard for his training in Andruain. His father was not a wealthy man. Maurice had cost more than he could afford comfortably, but he’d insisted on the gift. “I want you to have him, Ced,” Aiden had said, “I want you to have a fine horse to train with. I’ll not have you riding a battered old beast, but a horse you can be proud of.”
Cedrick wiped his eyes. His father was going to be disappointed.
“What are you doing here?” a gruff voice said from behind Cedrick, startling him nearly out of his mind. Cedrick turned to see who had spoken.
The stranger stood half in the shadows, but Cedrick could see well enough the crossbow leveled at his chest.
“Cedrick Beringer, from Rheinguard,” Cedrick said as he dismounted. “Who are you?”
“Zedrina, from Seidr.”
“Seidr? I’ve never heard of it, is it a village nearby? I’ve just come from Larkridge, and no one mentioned another settlement here in the swamp. I would very much like to ask you...”
“Shh,” she shushed him, holding her hand up.
Cedrick shut his jaw with a click, taken aback by her rudeness. He was just about to ask what her problem was, when she shouted, “Get your horse into the river. Now! Hurry!”
“What?” Cedrick demanded, not moving.
The woman picked up her skirts and waded into the water. “Hurry, follow me,” she shouted over her shoulder.
Cedrick took Maurice’s reins and pulled his steed forward. “What’s going on?” he asked, attempting to make a mountain horse enter the warm green water of the flowing river.
“It’s one of the lizards,” said the woman. She looked back and saw Cedrick struggling, then ran back toward him, splashing loudly. “You must hurry,” she said, “it’s very near. Don’t look at it, whatever you do.”
Crashing sounded behind them as something big approached. It certainly didn’t sound like a lizard to Cedrick, unless lizards grew to unimaginable proportions in the swamp. Following her instructions, he pulled Maurice into the water, the woman helping him tug the big horse along.
“Hurry now,” she insisted. “Just keep moving. It won’t cross the river, they can’t swim.”
Maurice tossed his head, his eyes wide with fright. Cedrick pulled hard, but Maurice was hard to control, fear driving a thousand pounds of muscle, and instinct taking over. Cedrick lost his footing and gasped as water filled his nose and eyes. Zedrina reached for him and tugged hard on the back of his shirt, pulling him up. As Cedrick grasped around for the reins, Zedrina covered his face with wet cloth, slapping him with it. His face stinging, Cedrick clawed at the cloth, and tore it away.
“Don’t look at it!” she screamed. A split-second later, the beautiful white horse crashed into the river, never to rise again. He gave only one feeble kick before he went still, the green water rushing over his white coat.
“Maurice!” Cedrick shouted.
“We have to cross now,” Zedrina said, pulling at Cedrick’s elbow. “He’s dead. Hurry or you’ll join him.” With strength belying her slender frame, she wrenched Cedrick’s arm away from the fallen animal. “Don’t look behind us,” she cried, which he found strange, because wasn’t she looking past him? Cedrick gave Maurice one last pat on his shoulder then fell in line, behind Zedrina.
Through knee-deep water they ran, until they came to where the river deepened. Fighting the current, they headed upriver until it again became shallow.
“We need to put some distance between it and us before we leave the water,” she said, panting to catch her breath beside Cedrick. “The larger ones can outrun a man over short distances on land, but they cannot swim. If we stay in the water for now, we should be fine.”
“What is it?” Cedrick asked, fighting a stitch in his side.
“My ancestors called it death lizard.”
Clasping left hand on right forearm Cedrick rested his arms on his head, labored breathing making him light-headed. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. What did it do to Maurice?”
“If you look at it, meet its gaze, you can die. Some have survived an attack, usually because they ran into a young lizard. Those who do live get very ill or can be paralyzed forevermore, but most often, seeing such a creature is fatal.”
“You said they live in the swamp. How many are there?”
“I have been traveling three days through the swamp, and met with four others.”
“So many? How did you survive them?”
“Just as you have,” she said evenly. “I ran and entered the moving water where they could not follow. There is nothing else one can do.”
Cedrick studied the mysterious woman. The steel helmet covering all but her mouth and chin was detailed with flourishes he didn’t recognize. Wherever she obtained it, it was not military issue from Andruain, Rheinguard, or Adelmoor.
She turned north, for the bank, her waterlogged dress dragging behind her. “It’s probably safe to return to the land.”
Cedrick nodded as he puffed and wheezed. Wading through the water was hard work. He needed to rest and a shady bank was as good a place as any.
Sitting on a fallen log, Zedrina wrung the water out of her cloak and the dirty white cotton frock under it while Cedrick dumped out his boots and squeezed his socks. “Damn it,” he said. “These won’t be dry for hours, and I haven’t any spares.”
“It doesn’t get cold here even at night,” Zedrina said. “You can sleep barefoot if your socks are wet.”
He was about to voice his unwillingness to expose even one more inch of skin for the insects of the marshland to feast upon, but then he glanced at her bare feet, and decided to keep silent.
“I don’t mean to hinder your continuing your journey, but it’s unwise to stand in one place for long here.”
Cedrick threw his boots down into the mud. “How can I continue without a horse or my supplies?” Cedrick’s voice came out more forceful than he intended, but the woman didn’t seem to notice.
“We can find food...”
“Where are you going, exactly?” he asked, trying to control his disappointment and rising frustration.
“Away from death lizards right now,” she replied, “out of the swamp.”
“But, I’ve come to the swamp looking for something. I’m not ready to leave yet.”
She sighed, pulling a sandal off to remove a leech off her left ankle. “There is nothing here except lizards and decay. The water is not healthy to drink, insects swarm and carry disease, and the entire place is filled with rot. You will find nothing here except death, Cedrick.”
“I appreciate your concern...”
“You are ill-prepared for this environment,” she said.
“I’m ill-prepared?” He could scarcely believe his ears. “What makes you more capable than me? You haven’t even got a weapon.”
“Neither have you,” she pointed out.
Cedrick reached for his hip, and felt air. “Damn. My sword was hung on my saddle.”
“I meant no insult, I’m only trying to help you,” she said, dabbing at the blood running down her foot. “If not for my dragging you into the river, you’d be a limp corpse right now, and that monster would have more than horseflesh to sate itself on this evening.”
Cedrick’s stomach turned at the thought of his beautiful friend feeding the denizens of the swamp.
Zedrina sat up straight on her fungus-bedecked log. “This place is full of dangerous creatures. Whatever you’ve come here in search of, is it worth dying for?”
Cedrick considered a moment. He was many miles from home and without money or his horse, he could not possibly continue. He needed to turn back. “No,” he said finally. “But, I’m rather in the shit right now. I lost my supplies and Maurice. I’m not sure how I’m going to get home.”
“To Rheinguard?”
“Yes.”
“How far is it?”
He looked questioningly at her. How could she not know how far the mountain kingdom was, he wondered. “Many days’ travel by horse and without money, I’ll not be able to buy a ride back. I guess I’ll be heading for Mist.”
“Mist?” Her voice had an innocent curiosity to it.
“Don’t you know anything about the area?” While Rheinguard was certainly a goodly distance, Mist should have been a recognizable name to anyone from the south or even Andruain.
“No,” she said.
“It’s a small town east of here, on a lake. I have friends there who should be able to help me, maybe even borrow me a horse so I can get home.”
“Why is the town called Mist?”
“Because of the fog. It settles often, especially in winter.”
“It sounds beautiful.”
“It is, but it can be dangerous as well,” said Cedrick. “Sometimes the boats must wait out the mist, and the fishermen can be stuck on the lake for days, unable to safely return to shore. I’ve even heard of
people working out in the fields that were so blinded by the fog, they could not find their way home.”
“May I come with you?”
Her question took Cedrick by surprise.
“Would it be a bother if I traveled with you?”
“But, you don’t know me,” he protested, and then realized how stupid he sounded.
She smiled. “I know you don’t mean me any harm. What else does one need to know about a person to travel with them?”
Cedrick shrugged. He’d had one of the worst days of his life, and wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about traveling with the strange woman, but he could hardly abandon someone asking for an escort to safety. What kind of knight would he make if he so easily turned his back on a woman in need? “I guess I don’t mind escorting you to Mist,” he said. “I would be happy....”
A loud crashing sounded in the trees west of where they sat, halting Cedrick in mid-sentence. “What was that?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Is it another lizard?”
“It’s possible, of course. Let’s keep moving.”
They made haste, never catching sight of the source of the crashing, but happy enough for that. Cedrick led the way through some tall grasses growing out of knee-high water, the mud beneath, sucking at his boots, threatening to pull them off.
If he’d known the first thing about fire-building, he’d have stopped to dry his feet, but as it was, Cedrick was no woodsman. The rubbing of leather through his soaked socks was unbearably painful. How was Zedrina faring in her sandals, he wondered.
A splash sounded behind him. He turned just in time to see Zedrina go under the water. Instinct kicking in, Cedrick reached under and grabbed her arm. He pulled hard, and she came up sputtering and gasping.
“Are you all right?” Cedrick asked, helping her to steady herself.
“I think so,” she said as she spit and coughed.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I tripped over a root or something, and twisted my ankle when I fell.”
“Can you walk?”
“I think so.” She took a few steps, but as soon as Cedrick let go of her arm, she fell back into the water. “I guess not,” she said as he pulled her to standing again. “Let’s get to dry land and I’ll wrap it so I can continue on.”
“Is it sprained?”
“I will be fine, but we need to keep up our pace. The lizards aren’t far off, and at night, they will sense us before we even know they are there. We would do well to follow the river...”
“Will you be able to walk?” Cedrick wasn’t in the mood to mess about.
“Cedrick, my life depends on it. If both my ankles were broken, you could bet on my crawling out of here. I’ve spent two nights here as it is, I’ll not spend a third. We need to reach safety.”
Cedrick helped support her weight as they slowly made their way to shallower water, and then onto land, if one could call it that. The hawk-face of her helmet did not entirely conceal her pain. Cedrick noticed her grimace every time she set her left foot down, and had to push off again on her right. He tried to help ease her burden, but it was difficult given the unfavorable conditions of the swampy ground.
“There is a small house right on the banks of the river, I passed it earlier today,” he said. “We should make our way there. I know of no other settlements nearby, but we may be able to find help from whoever lives there.”
“Fine,” said Zedrina, trying to conceal her discomfort.
The sun was low, on an overcast afternoon. Soaked and in need of shelter for the night, Cedrick led Zedrina on. As much as he wanted to avoid the witch-house, he felt duty-bound to see the woman to safety. If that meant knocking the door a second time, well, he’d just have to do it, and pray the gods sent a merciful stranger to aid them.
“There,” said Cedrick, as the little cabin came into view, “that’s the house. I hope someone is home.”
Zedrina sucked in breath as she missed a step on the inclining hill, and bumped her toe into a patch of thick grass. “I think it’s empty.”
“I’ll go knock, you wait here.” He set her upon the grass and went to see if anyone would answer.
No one was home. Cedrick pounded his hand once more upon the door out of frustration, then he turned back to Zedrina. She was soaked, in pain, and exhausted. He pushed the door open.
He returned to his companion and helped her to stand. “Come on, we need shelter for tonight, and we aren’t going to find it out here. If someone lives here, they’ve not been here for days. Perhaps they won’t mind us using their roof to sleep under for one night.”
As Cedrick used a piece of flint to start a fire in the small stove, Zedrina sat on the floor, tending her ankle.
Cedrick shook his head.
“What is it?” Zedrina asked, setting aside the cloth she’d used as a bandage.
“I’ve made a fine mess of everything,” he said, poking at his infant fire. “I should be on my way home right now, but instead I’ve gone adventuring like a foolish boy. I can just hear my father scolding me for my brashness. I’ve lost Maurice, spent all my money, have a hundred insect bites...”
“And, a strange girl in tow,” she said with a smile.
He sighed. “It isn’t that I don’t want to help you, but, I’ve got nothing to help you. If I had a horse, I could get you to a physician. I can’t see a way out of this.”
“The gods will not abandon us, Cedrick,” she said.
Even having been raised in a temple it sounded hopeful and unrealistic. He doubted the gods would reward his faith with fishes that jumped into his hands, or any other miracles. “I’m going to go look around outside,” he said, standing. “If someone lives here, they must have a garden or something. Even a fruit tree would give us some nourishment, and we desperately need to eat.”
Zedrina leaned forward and grabbed the knee of his trousers. “Cedrick,” she said, the hawk-face looking eerily up at him, “the gods have a hand in all things. Perhaps you were meant to wander into the swamp, and perhaps we were meant to meet. I have a lot of faith in their will, have you?”
“Men must be worthy of the gods’ blessings,” he said as he pulled his leg free and left.
He doubted the gods cared where he was or what trouble he was in, as he walked around the small hut and searched for growing things that might be edible. Damn his impetuousness, he thought. So much for his holy mission.
If only he’d known about the terrible creatures that dwelt there, he’d never have gone into the swamp, and then Maurice would still be alive. He’d loved that horse, a gift from his father when he turned sixteen and left Rhinguard for his training in Andruain. His father was not a wealthy man. Maurice had cost more than he could afford comfortably, but he’d insisted on the gift. “I want you to have him, Ced,” Aiden had said, “I want you to have a fine horse to train with. I’ll not have you riding a battered old beast, but a horse you can be proud of.”
Cedrick wiped his eyes. His father was going to be disappointed.
“What are you doing here?” a gruff voice said from behind Cedrick, startling him nearly out of his mind. Cedrick turned to see who had spoken.
The stranger stood half in the shadows, but Cedrick could see well enough the crossbow leveled at his chest.
