Duskbound

Book 2, Chapter 26

By the time Velik and Torwin returned to Cravel, everything else had been taken care of. Supplies had been purchased, paperwork had been obtained, and horses had been rented for the group. Velik had declined his, not having the slightest bit of experience with riding one of the animals. Torwin likewise preferred to run on his own two feet, and as the beasts were barely past level 10, could easily keep up with them.

They met up on the east road leading out of the city. Velik was the first one there, arriving some few hours before dawn and settling in to wait. Though the gate guards didn't give him any grief now that he had a gold pin on his collar, he'd been warned more than once that the guild itself might try to interfere. He figured that, if they were going to do anything, it would be when he tried to leave. So he left while it was still dark and he was at his strongest.

It seemed his fears were misplaced, as Torwin arrived an hour before dawn and Jensen showed up with Sildra and Giller in tow about two hours later. Sildra was sitting on a horse and looking uncomfortable about the whole thing while Giller rode next to her. The older woman gave her advice on proper riding technique in a low voice, too muffled for Velik to make out from a distance. Three more riderless horses followed along behind the group on a long lead.

"No Aria," Torwin observed. "Too bad. I wanted to see some fireworks."

"Fireworks?" Velik asked.

"Didn't you know? Aria and Giller are cousins, and they do not get along. I cannot imagine what Jensen had to promise them to get both of them on the same team, and I'm more than half convinced they don't know about each other yet. I'm looking forward to seeing the show."

Velik didn't share Torwin's apparent glee as the upcoming confrontation. He didn't particularly care if one or both of them dropped out of the team, except that without Aria, they'd need to fund the spatial storage rental somehow, and without Giller, they'd lose access to her boss as both a backer and possibly the source of their border passes. If Jensen already had those passes, then it didn't matter, but if Blendstin could somehow invalidate them or had arranged for them to be picked up on the journey, it was going to be a problem.

"You know that if what you're hoping ends up happening, Jensen is going to want you to help him smooth things over, right?" Velik asked.

"I know he'll be out of luck if he tries," Torwin shot back. "I'm happy to enjoy the show, but I'm not here for the clean up after the party's over."

And he's the oldest person in this group. We're doomed.

"Velik!" Sildra called when the two groups spotted each other.

He'd been somewhat dreading this meeting, Sildra being someone he'd known back as a child before the class orb—or dungeon seed, if it really was that—had turned him into [The Black Fang] and his best friend into a living monster factory. He'd left the frontier region on the north end of Ghestal specifically to get away from his past.

Having Sildra here was uncomfortable for Velik, but he hadn't protested when Jensen had brought up including the woman. She'd been the one who'd been blessed with a new class by a god and given a system-backed quest to remove the corruption that was slowly infesting the frontier towns. She had as much of a right as he did to be part of this.

On the other hand, [Apex Hunter] sized her up and immediately dismissed her as a threat. If she was higher than level 16 or 17, he'd be surprised. Worse, her class was focused on mystic and maybe mental, if he had to guess. Physically, she was no stronger than any teenager who hadn't gained their class yet. Keeping up was going to be difficult, even with a horse to ride.

"Hello, Sildra," he said, keeping his voice carefully neutral.

Giller looked back and forth between the two, snorted, and shook her head. "Puppy love," she muttered, completely oblivious to the true nature of their relationship.

"No, it's not—" Sildra cut herself off and took a breath. "He's a friend from back home I haven't talked to in a long time. Don't make assumptions about things you know nothing about."

Giller, who'd been lurking in the background with Jensen while they waited for their last arrival, started laughing. "It's an old fairy tale. There's never been any such tree that fruits monsters in its bough. Everyone knows monsters come from dungeons or mutated animals that stumble into magically charged locations."

"Oh, well if everyone knows it," a new voice broke in, "then it certainly must be true."

Aria walked out of a patch of starry night that folded closed behind her and shot Giller a waspish look. "After all, the wisdom of the masses far outstrips the learnings of the greatest sages."

"Spare me," Giller replied acidly.

"Good, that's everyone," Jensen said as he stepped between the two women. Velik wasn't sure if that was a good idea to defuse the sudden tension or a good way to get shot when the fighting started, but Jensen played it off coolly. "Our first destination is King's Crossroad, then south toward Ashala. From there, we'll head straight for the border and be inside Slokara within the next two weeks."

"It would be faster to go cross country," Velik said.

"For you alone, maybe. With the horses, we'll stick to the roads," Torwin told him. "Besides, I understand we have some business in Ashala."

"Exactly right," Jensen said. "Our financier has promised the paperwork needed to make the border crossing will be waiting for us at the capital next week, so even if we were to go afield, we'd still have to wait once we got there. There's not much point to making a harder journey just to save a bit of time if we'd just end up waiting longer at the end anyway."

"Enjoy the fresh air and the chance to stretch your legs," Torwin advised. "Won't be long before we're in the next loud, stinky town anyway."

"Like you're one to talk, you old drunkard," Aria said, but there was a friendliness to her voice that had been entirely absent when she'd spoken to Giller. "You just want to hit every inn and roadside tavern on the way."

"A man's got to have his hobbies!" Torwin said.

This is going to be a long trip. Maybe I'll just meet them at the border in a few weeks. It'd be nice to have some time alone.

"Don't even think about it," Torwin whispered, pulling Velik closer. "I see that look in your eyes. You're sticking with the rest of us. Think of it as a training exercise in team dynamics."

"You know I don't really want to be a guild hunter, right?" Velik asked.

"Nonsense! The guild does a lot of good, and membership opens a lot of doors."

So far, Velik had seen a lot of drawbacks and very few benefits, but he gave up his ideas of solo traveling with a sigh. It was too bad the rest of the world operated on daylight hours. He preferred a nocturnal schedule, but it looked like he'd have another month of sleeping at night. It wouldn't matter until he started hunting powerful monsters, he supposed.

Once they got there, though, all bets were off. He'd be doing what he did best, what [Duskbound] was made for.