"You're late," Tassot grumbled.
Mikolus pulled the reigns of his horse. "I apologize, Tassot and I appreciate you being up so early to meet me."
Tassot shrugged one shoulder. "I would be up soon anyway. What kept you?"
"The horse was nervous this morning. Not sure what has gotten into her." That was true, but he did not mention that he had slept a bit too long. Tassot did not need to know that. As he climbed off the bench that sat above his wagon, he glanced at the animal. She still seemed to be uncomfortable. Whites shone all the way around her eyes, as if she was ready to run. He patted her neck with a gloved hand. It was still dark out, though most of the night had passed, and Mitsy was accustomed to pulling the wagon in the wee hours of the morning.
"It's a full moon," Tassot said with all the certainty of a superstitions fool. "Full moons are always uncertain."
Mikolus followed his cousin's gaze. The moon was high, but he couldn't keep his eye on it. Three houses away, the faint glow of the shimmer reflected off of the lake. He shivered in the night's chill despite the heavy jacket he wore. At least the moon cast light over everything. It would make the trip to the city that much easier. It was The Shimmer that unnerved him, not the moon.
Tassot helped him stack the barrels of salted fish onto his wagon. He clasped arms with the other man. "Thank you, cousin. You save me much time, and you make more at the market than even Marta could manage."
The men clasped each other's arms. They were of a height. Many people mistook them for brothers, which was close enough to the truth. They had the same dark hair and eyes, but Tassot's face was wider and his nose a little smaller. "I am the one who should be thanking you."
His cousin sighed. "When you can buy a ship again, I will understand if you no longer want to sell my fish."
Mikolus smiled, seating himself back on the bench above the barrels of fish. He was glad to be leaving this place, if even for a day. If he ever made enough money, he would move his family to the city, away from the creepy glow. Unfortunately, the road passed very close to the shimmer before straightening out and heading away. Mitsy shook her head, her breath visible. She did not like to be near the shimmer either.
The road was painted in blue moonlight, and he squinted to make out anything. He thought he saw a shape ahead him, standing in the road. Was that a woman? He blinked and the image was gone. He breathed heavily. He was letting his imagination get ahead of him. He forced himself to calm. Mitsy would feed off of his fear. He did not want to think about what would happen to his wares if a spooked horse ran off with them.
Then he heard the crunch of someone walking through the underbrush. The trees had dropped most of their leaves and walking silently had become impossible.
"Hello?" He called out, but no one responded. He glanced behind him. The light of Tassot's home was lost in the distance. He considered turning around, but what would he tell him? That he was frightened of noises in the forest?
He rolled his shoulders to loosen the knot that had formed between them. He thought he heard breathing behind him. He turned, but nothing was in his path. His cousin's superstitions rang in his mind. Full moons are always uncertain. It was something he had heard his aunt say too many times for it not to ring in his mind now. She had always said that they would either bring someone great fortune or calamity. It was never anything in the middle.
Just to ease his mind, for he doubted very much that there was anything in this forest, he pulled the knife that he always kept on his belt and held it clutched in one fist. Behind him something yelped, and he knew for certain that he was not alone. Something was behind him. He turned and stood on the small platform above his horse.
"You!" He said, his heart racing and his small knife clutched before him. His hands trembled, and he knew the knife would do no good.
"Poor Bastard," Christian said, climbing off of his horse.
Aaron glanced down, sickened at the scene before him. A man lay in the middle of the road, his stomach sliced open. It was a foul job, but many of the people who had passed along the road to Taivalon had come to the castle with news of an attack. Some of them even wanted to know what the castle was going to do about the situation, as if they could hunt down a beast that could rip a man's stomach open without much trouble.
"What do you think happened?"
Aaron looked around the body, hoping to see the paw prints of a wolf or anything that might make this man's death make any sense. "It had to be an animal. The slash marks would not be like that if it was a sword." He climbed off of his horse, glancing around to see if there was anything nearby that might attack them too.
"I agree, but how big was it? Where did it go?" He knew the Christian was trying to help train him. He may have been promoted, but Christian had many more years of experience than Aaron did and he appreciated his expertise.
Aaron glanced up. "We have a carriage coming in from the castle." Then he looked again for footprints, for anything that would tell him what had attacked the man. All he could see was hoof prints and the long straight line of a wagon wheel mark.
"I doubt it was done by a horse, but see those prints leading off into the forest? Maybe someone killed him and tried to make it look like a wild animal had killed him."
"I'll follow the hoof prints for a while. You deal with the nobles," Christian said, climbing back onto his horse and giving Aaron the job he didn't want to do.
He grinned and waved, hurrying up to the carriage when he saw who it was that he would be dealing with. Hailey stepped out of the carriage, looking exhausted. His smile fell. Her blonde hair hung as if it had not been brushed in days and dark circles had formed underneath her usually bright blue eyes. He had not seen her in days and it looked as though she had not slept at all. The light blue dress she was wearing seemed rumpled as if she had slept in it. Over her shoulder, she had a satchel.
So she has taken to dragging the books around with her wherever she goes now, he thought. It shouldn't bother him, but he worried that she was doing nothing else. He reached out a hand to steady her as she climbed out of the carriage. "Are you well?" He asked her.
She looked at him blankly for a moment as if trying to understand what he had asked her. Then she waved a hand lazily. "I'm fine."
"You look as if you haven't slept since the last time I saw you." He could not help the concern in his voice. If she killed herself trying to wake the princess, it would do the country no good at all.
She squinted up at him, and when she spoke, her voice was airy, as if it was too much effort to try to speak louder. "I sleep, just not as much as I would like to. Don't worry, though. I think I am finally starting to make progress." She didn't sound convinced that that was true and shivered visibly against the wind that whipped at her hair and skirts.
He wanted to tell her that she had said the same thing before, and that she should get sleep, but he didn't know if she would listen. He wants things to go back to the way they were before. He missed her, even when she was right there.
"Well, let's go see what happened," she said and strode over to the man who was laying in the road.
"I'm pretty sure these are claw marks across his chest and stomach. I don't think a human did this."
Hailey sighed. "There is nothing I can do for him now." She didn't sound the least bit disgusted or concerned.
He had almost lost his breakfast looking at a man with his insides slashed open like that and he was worried about what kind of a creature had done this.
Christian came out of the trees leading a cart, his own horse tied to the back of a wagon with a few barrels still on it. "I think this belonged to him. He must have been on his way to the market."
"I need to go," Hailey said. "Here." She opened her bag and sure enough, there was a heavy tome in there, along with a few of the burnt pages. She reached into the bottom and pulled out several pouches.
"What are these?"
Christian looked annoyed that he had been completely ignored, but Aaron had precious few moments with Hailey and he was still trying to think of a way to convince her to sleep.
"If you mix these with water, you can create a bit of a healing drought. They should help for anyone who gets hurt."
He took the pouches, wondering how effective they were. "What if someone is really hurt?"
Hailey looked off into the distance, "I don't know. There is only me and I have the princess to worry about. I have to fix what is wrong with her first and if I still have magic left, I can heal whoever needs it. I'm sorry Aaron, I really do have to go."
She squeezed his arm and gave instructions to the driver, then she climbed back into the carriage and returned to the castle.
Aaron hadn't even noticed Christian coming up behind him. "If you're done staring off into the distance, I think I know where the cart came from. We can at least return the body of this man to the people who cared about him."
He nodded and turned to help Christian place the body on the cart.