Harbinger: Fate's Forsaken: Book One (14 page)

Fortunately, a large nettle bush
saved him from falling to his death. Though when he tried to get up, it clung
very stubbornly onto his clothes. He’d been stuck for several minutes before
Kyleigh stopped laughing long enough to pull him free. She’d helped him limp
down the road for another mile or so before they came to a small inn called
The Jackrabbit
.

The innkeeper was a jumpy man. When
they knocked on the door, he’d peered out at them through a crack before he
swung it open. He had short hair and a wild mess of a beard. In his hand, he’d
clutched a woodcutter’s axe.

“It was one of
them monsters again, wasn’t it?” he said, his eyes on Kael’s wounds. “I’ve seen
them out in the paddock late at night — horrible wolves the height of
men! The goats start bleating and I run out there to try and scare them off,
but …” He shook his head. “I haven’t ever been fast enough. Took my Nancy last
night, they did.”

Kael couldn’t be
sure, but he thought he saw the innkeeper’s eyes well up a bit.

“No monsters,”
Kyleigh assured him. “Just a rather nasty fall. Might we come in?”

“Of course you
can, Miss. We don’t call it an inn for nothing,” he said as he let them by.
After he found them a table, he’d gotten a fresh bowl of warm water and several
rags for them to clean up with.

Now Kael
scrubbed his limbs while Kyleigh worked on his face and neck — and she
was being far from gentle. “Would you stop that?” he said, jerking his head out
of her reach. “I’d like to keep some of my skin, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh, don’t be
such a fawn about it — I haven’t even got down to the skin.” She twisted
the cloth over the bowl and a large amount of murky brown water came out of it.
“See?”

He tugged a
thorn from his elbow and pressed a cloth over the dot of fresh blood. “This is
just for show, anyhow. I’ll fix it myself later,” he muttered.

She looked over
his shoulder at the kitchen door, where they could hear the innkeeper cursing
and clanging pots together. “Just keep it subtle, will you? We don’t want
anyone to start asking questions.”

“I’m not a
child. I’ve managed to keep it a secret this far. I know what I’m doing.” He
threw his cloth down on the table, where it stuck.

“Dinner’s
served!” The innkeeper pushed through the doors and made his way to their
table, balancing a plate in either hand. “We’ve got roasted turkey legs, bread
and cheese. And if you don’t mind, I think I’ll sit with you for a bit.
Business is a little, ah, slow tonight.”

It was indeed.
Of the dozen or so tables before the hearth, theirs was the only one with
anyone in it. They had the whole inn to themselves.

The innkeeper
lit up a pipe and took several quick puffs. “I tell you, I think I’ve got the
only grass-eating cat in the whole Kingdom. Those rats will skip right past
him, so fat that their little bellies drag on the ground. But he just watches
them go by. You ever heard of anything worse?”

“Worse than a
cat? I don’t think so,” Kyleigh said with a grin. “Tell me — do you feed
it off the table?”

“I don’t, but
my wife sure might …”

While they
worked to solve the mystery of the cat, Kael dug in. He tore off a huge chunk
of the turkey leg and swallowed it without chewing. Then he turned on the bread
and cheese.

He’d never had
them before: there were no farms in Tinnark and even if there had been, he
suspected the villagers couldn’t have stopped eating their animals long enough
to let them make cheese. All he knew was that anytime the heroes in the
Atlas
sat down for a great feast, there
was always bread and cheese.

He tore off a
chunk of the roll, topped it with a pinch of cheese and stuffed the whole thing
into his mouth. The bread was thick and rich, like stew broth, and the cheese
melted into it. He was sure he’d never tasted anything so delicious.

His turkey leg
was down to the bone when a chorus of howls interrupted their dinner. Three
scruffy dogs bounded in from outside, cornering them at the table. Their barks
pierced the sensitive parts of Kael’s ears, and he thought very seriously about
giving the nearest one a sharp kick.

“Oh hush now,
you mutts!” the innkeeper bellowed over their protests. “Can’t you see we’ve
got company?”

An ear-splitting
whistle from Kyleigh finally silenced them all. They cocked their furry heads
at her and their tails stood straight. “Come here, you lot,” she said, slapping
her knees.

“I’d be careful,
Miss,” the innkeeper warned, but it was clear by the way the dogs covered her
face in wet kisses that they meant her no harm.

She led them to
the hearth and got them to sit quietly while she scratched their ears. She
spoke sweetly to them, and their tongues lolled out between their pointed teeth
as they hung on her every word.

“Those mongrels
nearly took the hand off of one of my guests last week. Now look at them.” The
innkeeper shook his head and chuckled. “Where’d you find that girl, anyhow?”

Kael realized
that he would now have to be the one to answer the innkeeper’s many nosy
questions. So he took a leaf out of Kyleigh’s book: “She found me, more like.”

“She just found
you, eh?” the innkeeper said with a grin. “Well that don’t surprise me. That’s
the way it always happens … when you meet that special lady.”

Kael nearly
choked on his bread.

“I know
exactly
what you mean, boy,” he
continued, a knowing twinkle in his eye. “You’re just going about your business
one day and,” he clapped his hands together, “it’s like a slap around the ears,
like the first time you ever felt something. Leastways, that’s how it was when
I found my darling.” He glanced at the hearth, where Kyleigh and the dogs had
settled down for a nap, and lowered his voice. “Do you know how to catch a
woman’s heart?”

No, he didn’t
have the slightest clue. And he certainly didn’t want to hear the innkeeper’s
advice. But he could only manage an “Uh —” before he pounded his rough
hand on the table and declared:

“You tell her.
You get off your rump and you let her know that she’s the prettiest, most
wonderful —”

“Sir —”

“— amazing
woman you ever laid eyes on! Then you just scoop her up in your arms and give
her a kiss, real passionate-like.”

“I don’t think
—”

“Well of
course
you can, boy! Sure it takes a bit
of courage. But it’s worth it, ain’t it? And,” he dropped his voice again, “a
girl as pretty as yours isn’t going to wait around forever. There’s plenty of
boys out there — handsome boys — who’d be happy to take her off
your hands. Men like you and me, well, we’ve got to work a little faster than
the rest.”

At this point
Kael wasn’t sure which was burning hotter: his face or the hearth fire. But at
that moment the innkeeper’s wife appeared, saving him.

She was a small,
dainty woman, and when the innkeeper saw her, he smiled. “Well, speaking of
lovely ladies.”

She blushed
under his look. “I’ve drawn up the baths, whenever our guests are ready.”

Kael practically
jumped to his feet.

She frowned at
Kyleigh’s empty chair. “And where has the lady wandered off to?”

“Ah, she’s
somewhere under there, love.” The innkeeper gestured to the snoring pile of fur
next to the fire. “I’ll wake her and send her up.”

“All right. But
you be careful not to disturb those dogs,” she called as she led Kael to his
room. “Remember what happened last time.”

He grumbled in
reply. Apparently, the memory was still very fresh.

The rooms at
The Jack Rabbit
were small and tidy. But
all Kael really cared about was the bed. “Your bath is over here, sir,” the
innkeeper’s wife said quickly, before he could dirty up her sheets.

She pointed to
what looked like an oversized barrel that had been turned on its side and cut
in half. Steam rose from the water and when he dipped his fingers into it, he
thought it felt like a warm bowl of stew. Because she seemed to think that he
knew how to work a bath, the innkeeper’s wife bowed out the door and left him
to his own devices.

He’d had only a
few past experiences with bathing. Usually, they involved a simple bucket-full
of cold river water. But the night air was chilly, and he was filthy enough to
strip off his clothes and give the bath a try.

The water was
surprisingly pleasant — the problem was that it only reached halfway up
his thighs. A shelf that held all sorts of odd things covered one half of the
bath, leaving him with only a small portion to bathe in.

At first he
tried to sit down, but his legs were far too long and he ended up feeling like
a turkey that wouldn’t quite fit in the pot. Then he accidentally lost his footing
and discovered that the space beneath the shelf was hollow. His rump was sore
and a good bit of the water sloshed out on the ground, but the warmth felt
fantastic.        

He grabbed a
knife off the shelf and scraped at the bit of stubble that’d grown on his face
over the past few days. He never could grow a full beard. And the few times
he’d tried, the Tinnarkians hailed him as
Patches
for weeks after.

Though he
couldn’t see the wounds on his face, there were plenty more he could see well
enough to heal. But he only managed to get a few sealed before a headache
started to build up in the back of his skull. He didn’t want to pass out again,
so he decided to clean his wounds the long way.

One of the items
on the shelf looked like it might be helpful: it was a yellow lump that smelled
a bit like flowers. But when he went to scrub with it, the lump shot out of his
hand and escaped into the depths of the bath water. Every time he grabbed it,
it leapt away.

He was in the
middle of a very intense wrestling match when Kyleigh’s voice stopped him
short: “Is everything all right in there?”

What in
Kingdom’s name was she doing in his room? He spun around and tried to cover
himself, but only managed to slam his knee into the side of the bath —
which knocked several things off the shelf. He grimaced as a painted dish hit
the ground and shattered neatly to pieces.

“I’d appreciate
it if you kept the damage to a minimum, seeing as how I’m the one paying for
all this,” she said dryly.

He realized that
her voice was not coming from in his room, but from behind the wall next to
him. “Sorry, but I can’t get a hold of this yellow stuff,” he said as he coaxed
the lump towards him with his toe.

There was a long
pause. “Surely you’ve used soap before.”

He didn’t know
why she sounded so incredulous. “No, we didn’t have the luxury of
soap
in Tinnark.”

Her laughter
rang out clearly, burning him. “Well that certainly explains a lot. And to
think — I’ve been blaming the smell on rotting animals.”

“Very funny. Are
you going to tell me how to use soap or not?”

“You can start
by picking it up gently. Don’t strangle it, or it’ll just fly out of your
hand.”

Once again, she
was right. If he held it loosely, he found he could wield it without losing it.
He scrubbed until the soap was reduced to hardly the size of a pebble, and
couldn’t believe the amount of dirt that came off of him. It was like magic.

When the
innkeeper’s wife came by to pick up his dirty clothes, he couldn’t help but
notice that she held them as far away as possible — like she thought his
tunic might very well bite her if she got too close. Maybe he really
did
smell horrible.

As soon as he
climbed into bed, he found he didn’t care if he stunk or not: his eyes slammed
shut and the world went quiet.

Even after she
paid for the broken dish, Kyleigh had enough coin left to buy some salted meat
for their rucksacks. The round bits of copper she traded for it had no value to
Kael, but the innkeeper seemed pleased.

“You’re always
welcome at
The Jackrabbit
,” he said
cheerfully. “You stop by here anytime.”

After she bid
the dogs farewell, they were off. When he looked back to wave goodbye, the
innkeeper gave him a gesture that clearly meant he approved of Kyleigh’s
physique, and Kael should get on with it, already.

“Why does your
face look like it’s ripe to be picked?” Kyleigh asked when he spun back around.

“Nothing. It’s
warm out here, is all,” he said, just as his boot crunched some frost-covered
weeds.

The further into
the Valley they walked, the more beautiful it became. Green grass waved
playfully around their boots and the breeze was heavy with the scent of
flowers. Here, the trees reclined like lazy men after dinner, their gentle
curves the opposite of the mountain pine’s rigid stand.

When the afternoon
sun bordered on becoming hot, they stopped under a large tree for lunch. Kael
rolled up his sleeves and sat in the thickest patch of shade he could find,
while Kyleigh sprawled out in the sunlight. He didn’t see how she could stand
the heat, covered in black armor. But she seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself.

While she
napped, he flipped through the
Atlas
.
He thought he might find some useful information on bandits — like how to
avoid them. But there was only a basic outline of their history, which was
something he’d already read. He tossed the book on the ground and let out a
frustrated sigh.

“Trouble, my
book-loving friend?” Kyleigh said. She had an arm draped over her head and
watched him through one eye.

He frowned at
her. “It’s nothing.”

She turned her
face back to the sun and grinned. “Sure it’s not. I imagine it’s not
frustrating at all to be able to remember every word you’ve ever read.”