WitchHunter ✔️

One Less Lochri

Cozen

The rain stops just after midday, revealing cold sunshine. Candor and I stroll through the upper town, collecting supplies for the girls. I miss Avenna. I haven't seen my little niece much since we returned to the Ridge.

Candor has made it clear that we need to be hyper vigilant that we aren't caught, especially after his close call just a few nights ago. I feel for my brother. What would have happened had Velius found out? Would Hale have taken the fall for it too? Would I have lost all of them on the same day? I love Candor's little family, and I would fight for them to the death.

"That's an odd sight, isn't it?" Candor mumbles, his eyes on the main road.

I peek around him. There aren't many people out and about today, most sheltering inside in case the rain returns. Three people on two horses walk briskly down the cobbled main road. Hale leads on his horse, Taz, and the Ace rides behind him on Crow, a passenger riding behind her. I squint.

"Is that..."

"The stable boy?" Candor finishes my sentence.

"Why is the stable boy riding with Hale and the Raven? And where are they going?" I ask, watching them get smaller as they get further away.

"Wanna go find out?"

I look at Candor. He's grinning mischievously, a look I don't see on my brother often, not since we were children. It's normally me getting us into trouble; it's refreshing to see that little glimmer in his eyes.

"Of course."

Candor takes off in a dead sprint up the road, back toward the stables. The bag of groceries swings wildly behind him, clasped tightly in his grasp. I run after him, not quite keeping pace. He's more nimble than I am. A laugh bubbles up inside me. I don't get to have these moments with Candor often.

My feet pound hard against the cobbles, and then across the wet grass up toward the stables. Candor disappears inside in front of me, and by the time I make it in after him, he has already opened the stall doors for Danny and Riley. He sets down the groceries, and swings up onto Riley bareback. I follow suit, giving Danny a good shoulder pat before urging him forward.

Riding bareback isn't my favorite thing. My thighs squeeze tightly against Danny's flanks and I lean down low over his shoulderblades. Of course we were trained for this, but the way my breath leaves my body every time my balls mash themselves upon the back of my steed makes me wish I was running alongside my beast. I tuck a leg up behind me, resting my weight partially on it instead of my sensitive nether regions. Candor rides ahead of me as we exit town, following the fresh hoofprints left by the two horses that came before us. Candor is a tracker, his eyes sharper than mine could ever dream of being. As long as I follow him, it doesn't matter how far behind we are, he will find them for us.

What could they be doing out here anyway? What could Hale and the Ace be doing out here with the stable boy? Has the stable boy ever even left the Ridge? I feel like he never leaves the stables, much less the town. Not that I make a habit of paying much attention to him, anyway. What does the stable boy matter to me?

Candor's hand stretches out behind him, signaling for me to slow Danny. I do as he says, Danny responding to my light touch just as easily as he would if he were in a saddle and bridle.

Candor dismounts in front of me, and I follow suit. I rub Danny's nose. "Stay here with Riley." I whisper to him.

Candor gives me a nod, stepping into the brush at the side of the road. I follow behind him, stepping in his footsteps so as not to disturb the undergrowth any more than necessary. A few paces into the treeline, I catch sight of the horses. Crow and Taz stand still between the trees, both their heads up and looking at us. They recognize us, so they haven't raised alert yet.

"Be still, Taz. Be still, Crow." Candor says, his voice low.

Taz takes the command, but Crow continues watching us. He takes different commands, Par'ki words that we don't know, to keep the Ace safe.

Thankfully, he seems to recognize us as Hunters, and the Ace didn't put him on alert, so he merely watches us as we sneak past him. I can hear yelling now. The Ace, though I can't make out the words she says. With the cover of sound, Candor moves faster, and I after him, until we can see them through the trees. The crackling sound of fire reaches my ears just as my eyes find the orangey glow. Fire.

The grass is on fire. The grass, which should have been soaked from the thunderstorm this morning, is ablaze. The Ace shoves Hale back from it. Not again. Why is it always fire?

Lead tries to set in my bones. I'm not even near it, and it has no chance of spreading here, what with how damp everything is. Even so, my joints threaten to freeze on me just as they did in Farren.

"Stable boy." The Ace says.

Suddenly, water picks itself up from all around us, and I watch in shocked horror as it gathers in the air, just in front of the small, thin form of the stable boy. The water spirals there for a moment, suspended in the air. A lochri.

The puny stable boy is an aquaous lochri. No. This can't be. That boy. I liked him. He can't be a monster. He can't be.

The rage builds up inside me like a fire. How could he do this? He's been hiding in the Ridge for years. How could a dirty lochri be here, all this time, caring for my horse? He protected the Ace, but he was an abomination. Something dangerously close to hurt rears up inside me. I'm going to kill him. How could he lie to us like this?

I stand, but Candor's hand is fast, yanking me back down. "Don't even think about it." His words are sharp. He doesn't use this tone often. No arguments. This Candor is dangerous.

"Hale and the Ace are out there. Becoming hostile puts not only our lives at risk, but theirs as well. We have no weapons to fight him. We are defenseless."

He has a point. The lochri could kill all four of us with a single wave of his hand. "Then we go back. We tell Velius, and we take him into Vjengardta tonight. Then Hale and the Ace will be safe."

The water crashes down onto the fire in an explosion of steam. The sound and sudden heat hit us like a wave. Candor waves me backward, and using the sizzling of the steam as cover, we dash back to the horses.

Tonight, there will be one less lochri in Kindleridge.