A Mischievous Tale of Magical Mayhem

3 | A New Ally

On the road again, the party traversed the lonely path along the jagged cliffs. One wrong move would send them plummeting to their deaths, and the nearest civilization was many days' journey to the west.

The longer they traveled, the more their lack of progress irritated Tallon. They'd been moving steadily along the narrow road, with the cliff on their right and the deep valley below, but as an oddly shaped outcrop of rock appeared through the mist he could have sworn he'd seen it before.

His aching muscles contributed to his poor mood, and all day, he muttered under his breath, trying to call a stupid ball of werelight into existence, but nothing appeared in his empty palm.

As Maisie and Ben rested comfortably inside the wagon, the rain started again; this time, bombarding the group with sleet and gale force winds, rocking the wagon and washing away their tracks.

Thus, no one perceived that they traveled in a circle, and the wagon continued forward, with Starlight plodding the same path over and over again.

Squinting through the rain, Tallon spied an abandoned building a short distance from the road to their left, and guided Starlight off the trail through their mental link.

Starlight whinnied and obeyed, glad for the chance to get out of the rain and rest. The structure seemed to grow from the earth itself, disappearing inside the rain and mist. Pieces of broken stone lay scattered on the cracked ground.

When they reached the base of the building, which turned out to be a house, Tallon poked his head through the wagon's canvas to check on the two humans resting beneath. "We can't continue any further until this storm dies down. Can someone hand me the map? I swear we should have reached at least the bandit settlement by now."

Tallon's voice roused Ben from his book. With nothing better to do, he'd been re-reading the tawdry romance novel about the Duchess and her Dwarven lover, trying to discern the meaning of the passages Tallon had skipped—which were numerous, and which, he found, had a significant impact on the plot.

Blushing, Ben muttered, "Old iron-rod, indeed," and set the book aside as he searched for the hand-drawn map among his things and passed it to Tallon.

As he did, a low whimper reached his ears, and he went still.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Hear what?" Tallon frowned.

"That... sound."

The elf shook his head. "Even I can't hear anything above this blasted rain. Now, where is that map?"

"Yes, here." Ben handed it forward to him, and Tallon took it, muttering to himself under his breath.

Meanwhile, Ben held his own breath and listened. He supposed he must have imagined the noise. Tallon seemed a bit distracted and out of sorts, but surely, if there was anything to hear, he'd have heard it before Ben.

But there it was again: low whine, like the wind in a wire!

Getting to his feet, Ben jumped from the back of the cart.

"Oi!" Maisie called, snatching at his cloak and missing. "Where you goin', faeling?"

Both she and Tallon had taken to calling him that, though Ben had little idea what they meant by it.

"I heard something," he said. "I'm going to check it out."

"Ben, don't be an idjit! There could be bandits, or who knows what else out there! Ye can't just—"

Ignoring her, Ben set off towards the source of the sound.

Pulling the fine dagger Tallon had bought for him in Grenlow Harbor from its sheath, he fell into a hunter's crouch as he approached the source of the sound.