Adventuresome

Chapter 24

Leaving the boy behind with the marsh spirit felt like a bad idea to Perrin. She supposed Lilliana had some kind of good reason behind it and all but it still felt wrong to leave him there basically alone.

She thought about suggesting they take him with them and they could drop him off with old man Hannery, but she knew that would probably kill the soft emperor's son. Only the strong survived old man Hannery and his Rats. And unless the emperor's family was a lot stronger than they seemed Perrin could only see that ending poorly.

At least they would be leaving him with humans and not spirits though.

Having crossed the chest high pond once again, Perrin, Lilliana, and Dominick were heading back towards the soldiers and Captain Rill. Perrin thought it had been idiotic to run away from the battle to see the emperor's kid just to run back into battle but Lilliana assured her they would not be "fighting" but rather finding some way to force them to leave peacefully.

She doubted it would be so simple.

The marsh spirit was weak, and no one had explained to her why. She assumed the fires that the soldiers had been lighting had injured the land and that somehow injured the spirit. She was unclear on the details though. Shaking her head, she wished things were more simple. If all were steel and fists there would be no need to worry about spirits or their power.

They crouched down when they saw the soldiers up ahead. They looked skittish, and Perrin smiled. The wind blowing out their fires may have confused them but seeing a desert warrior with a huge sword running at them and then disappearing had to have been unsettling for them.

She itched to just run out there again but Lilliana gave her a warning look that clearly said "Don't you dare."

The crystal on Lilliana's staff glowed blue and a wind picked up. It swirled close to the marsh water. To Perrin's awe, the water was pulled into the air.

"Look there!" One of the men shouted, "It's the marsh spirit!"

"This task is madness," another said, "The wreck didn't kill them, they must be long gone by now."

All of the soldiers now were backing away from the wind and water that was moving towards them. Perrin noticed Lilliana looked just as surprised and that Dominick was doing all of this work, Lilliana was not speaking words of power.

Captain Rill was looking particularly murderous. Perrin saw he had an angry welt across his face, as if he had been badly burned.

I bet that was from that bastard Tancred. He had that fancy knife and had control of that fire.

Unsure if she understood Lilliana's sudden change of decicion, Perrin was simply glad that the mage still intended to go north first. All she knew was that Lilliana had blathered half out loud and half inside her head with her creepy mind connection for a good ten minutes. She had gotten the feel that Tancred was to blame for all of the wrongs, the empire was deathly corrupt, and Tancred was trying to find and control a lot of fancy spirits. Oh, and that Lilliana felt as if it were entirely up to her to fix it all and so wanted to go and find all of the spirits in the empire...or something.

"Come on." Captain Rill said at last, "They must have left the marsh by now."

The soldiers gladly turned back.

Perrin doubted that would be the last they saw of Captain Rill. She hoped Lilliana and Dominick also saw that. That they would understand that this was not a victory but merely a delay.

It would have been better if they had let me attack earlier.

The best way to protect oneself was to attack after all. And with a powerful sword like Galandat, her odds were pretty good in a fight.

With a sigh, she stood and stretched. It was a long walk back to the outskirts of the marsh. The whole event felt like a dream, and it had made about as much sense to Perrin as just that. She almost wished she knew more about spirits so that it would make sense. But that was a bizarre thing to think. She had a feeling all of this nonsense with the marsh spirit and with Tancred and the controlling of the four ancient elemental spirits was far more complex than even she knew, and that it was confusing even for someone who knew all there was to know of spirits.

So she shrugged her shoulders and decided to forget about it. None of it was her problem anyway. She would travel with Lilliana and Dominick until they reached Litem-Ferro. From there, she had no idea what those two were planning to do.

She gulped. But from there she would turn east.

Old man Hannery was waiting, and he was not one to care for waiting. He had been waiting for Perrin to return for over six years. The longer she waited to return the worse it was going to be. So she knew she had to go back at last.

The idea of sticking with Lilliana and Dominick sounded like a piece of cake compared to what she feared she would be facing with old man Hannery. Strange spirits? Bloodthirsty bastard sons of the emperor? Weirdly placed legitimate sons? Incredibly powerful spirits that were rude and annoying?

Even that had to be better than the wrath of old man Hannery.

Well, it was a few days journey to Litem-Ferro. She could decide what she did when they got there. If she got a little distracted and followed Lilliana and Dominick for a while...what was another six years anyway? Maybe if she waited old man Hannery would forget about her.

Galandat rested comfortably on her back. Old man Hannery was hardly worthy of holding a sword like Galandat anyway.