Distinctly Different

Chapter 30 ~ Assistance

Chapter 30

Rowan dismounted in a village he didn’t care enough to know the name of. He got weird looks from the villagers but he ignored them. He wasn’t here for them. He walked through the village while holding Pearl’s reins tightly to ensure she didn’t run.

Further into the village was a small hut that seemed like all the others around it but Rowan’s trained eye picked out the differences. There were special rocks lining the path to the hut a mixture of marble and obsidian. To an average person it looked like a typical rock. It was supposed to be protective. Carved into the door were small symbols to ward off evil. And in the tiny garden were a number of different herbs, some of which Rowan suspected to be poisonous.

He tied up Pearl’s reins to the fence and then walked up to the door. He knocked lightly on the door but when he heard no answer he pushed it open and flinched as he saw that the occupant of the hut was sitting at the table facing the door. It was almost as if they were expecting Rowan’s arrival.

“Well don’t just stand there letting all the cold air in, come in,” the shadowed figure ordered in a raspy voice. He did as he was told and as soon as the door closed the candle on the table lit, illuminating the figure. The ageless woman with black hair and a streak of silver crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “What do you want to speak to me about? I don’t have all day.”

Rowan nodded as he gathered his thoughts. “I’m trying to find someone and I was wondering if you knew where he was.”

The woman smirked. “You don’t believe in what I do so why did you come to me?” Rowan resisted the urge to sigh. He didn’t want to anger her and not get the information he sought.

“I don’t believe in what you do but I know you have connections in the outside world and so hear a lot,” Rowan replied. “I’m searching for Mason-”

“Yes, yes, I know very well who you’re searching for,” the woman interrupted impatiently. “You’re right. I do learn information from my sources but most of what I know I learn from things many people don’t believe in. Spirits and demons and whatnot, basically things that are otherworldly,” she murmured.

“If you can help me then I don’t care what your sources are,” Rowan told her seriously doubting what had made him come here in the first place. Her lips parted as she gave him a weird looking smile. She nodded her head and beckoned him closer. He stepped up to the table and pulled a stool so he could sit. She got up and started rummaging around with the various items on her desk. Papers, herbs and old looking artifacts cluttered the desk. She returned with a mortar and pestle and a few dried herbs.

“Focus your thoughts on your quest,” she ordered him in a creepy monotone voice. He internally rolled his eyes and feeling stupid closed his eyes and thought about his mission to find Arabella’s father and save her from being executed. He heard her start to crush up the herbs and opened an eye. She was looking straight at him and so when he saw he had been caught he closed his eyes again. “You can open your eyes now; you no longer have to think about your quest.”

He nodded as she started walking over the fireplace. Rowan didn’t move from his stop he just watched from afar in case this went awry, then he would have time to react. She threw the herb powder into the fire and it started smoking heavily. Rowan stared as grey smoke wafted towards him, it looked as if would fill the whole hut, creep into every corner. The pungent aroma of incense hit him before the smoke did and he began to cough as his eyes started watering.

Before he could react the woman was by his side, she took hold of his hands and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and then her lips began to move as she silently did what she was known for, probably calling the spirits. In any other situation this would be funny but too much rested on this working.