Stowaways and Spies

[Obelisk]

The smell was impossible not to notice but Emery acted as if it did not bother him at all. He, like Tai, was wondering just what exactly made it down to the sewers. Given the nature of Caedere and the citizens’ habits of suddenly vanishing, Emery wagered there was a fare amount of corpses left to rot in the water. Silvereye was beautiful until you started to peel her layers away and look at her true face.

Had Emery been a bird, his feathers would have been hilariously ruffled. He shot Tai a scathing glance, which from Emery was more a semi-annoyed glare, and tried to keep the blush from creeping onto his cheeks. He failed and hoped that the lack of light would disguise just how flustered he was.

“No. I didn’t.” He schooled his voice into something toneless and without emotion. “And I’m not a ‘sir’ any longer.” Emery did well in keeping the calm act up but his next word held a hit of petulance. “Boy.” Two could play the title game, though Emery was far outclassed in the imagination department.

“She’s at that tower in the woods.” He had no reason to share information regarding Gina’s whereabouts, but somehow speaking of her washed away some of the pain and exertion afforded by a decidedly awful day. Tai had been quick to assume the nature of his connection to Gina and this only fed Emery’s ridiculous suspicion that he was a mind reader.

Blue eyes were wary in the ghoulish glow of Tai’s conjured light.

“There’s a number in my head. What’s your best guess?”

[Rip]

Tai’s ribs almost cracked from holding back the barks of laughter gurgling in his gut. If he let out those shrieks of amusement, Em would probably reward him with a punch to the jaw. But was it ever hard. Boy. That just iced the cake, man. Boy.

“Okay okay, I’m sorry,” he said, just managing to keep his voice steady. It was cheerful and grinning in pitch, but no laughing at the funny stranger.

Then the grin faded.

Tower in the woods? He couldn’t mean Bastion Tower. There was just no way. Determined to prove himself right, that Em was just bluffing, Tai tried to remember if he ever heard of anyone mention a crazy knight killing their pursuers. Not one of the teachers, for sure (he’d remember THEM alright). Could she be one of the witches who lived there for safety? Or a help hand?

Agghh. There was no way to tell if Em was shitting around. Tai bit his lowerlip, testing the thin flesh with his teeth. Em no doubt figured he was a rogue by now, but Tai had no interest on indulging him on Bastion Tower info. That wasn’t something strangers were privy about.

Luckily, Emery’s weirdness was a good distraction. Tai blinked. “Not as much as it’d be if they knew you you knew about the tower, man. That’d jack it up just fine. They’d probably be a little more ravenous about finding you too. Better keep that info to yourself from here on out, for your own sake. Buuttt, as you are,” he paused, thinking. “a witch hunter killer… 200 gold pieces easy.”

[Obelisk]

Emery was still on edge from Tai’s invasive questioning. He tried not to think about Gina for the same reason all those who suffered from a case of unrequited affection did. Pining for someone he could not have did not fit his image or perhaps it did. He was weird after all.

The frequent ping of drops of water splashing against puddles and the main stream accentuated any bout of silence that settled between them. It grew annoying, the dripping, to the point that Emery felt the need to keep talking, as if staying quiet too long would see them swallowed into the darkness.
“Odd.” The darkness felt like a tangible being, a fiend waiting for the light to extinguish so it might strike out.

He had the weirdest feeling that they were being watched.

His eyes moved to Tai. “You don’t seem to mind, though that may be out of necessity.” Emery had a way of talking that could leave people confused over exactly what he was referring to. He assumed knowledge and expected people to be able to follow his train of thought. “Do you throw in your lot with murderers often?” He possessed no guilt over the killing. The man had deserved his fate. Any ill-will he had towards the experience was derived from the ripple-effect of consequences that had touched facets of his life he had never expected.

“You could turn me in. They’d likely excuse you if you did. Perhaps even reward you with a bounty.” He was testing the water, prodding around to try and grasp a hint towards Tai’s intentions. Emery still refused to believe that the lure of adventure had been the boy’s only incentive. It wasn’t practical. Emery couldn’t understand things that weren’t practical.

[Rip]

“Do you often ask thieving boys for breaking and entering advice?” Tai said, kicking a rock into the murky water. The stone tumbled over the edge and made a thick clunk in the sewage. A rotting rat bobbed along the rim, keeping pace with the two wanted men as they trekked down the tunnels.

In truth, he didn’t have qualms for answering Emery’s questions. Problem was that Em didn’t ask. Not directly. Instead of just flat out saying ‘hey, Tai, why the hell did you follow me after you stole all my goddamn money already?’, which he would’ve been more than happy to indulge, he asked some sneaky little scheme to try and weasel out information. Why? Who cared? Maybe Emery was suspicious of him. Whatever though. Tai could play that game just fine, thank you very much. Arms behind his head and tail arching in the air, the boy wandered with lazy legs after mr. pouty face.

The air felt close in that tunnel. Like gravity was sucking in towards them. He felt like he was still in the light of that doorway, the ogre eye. That room filled with sorcery and science and halfbomb worship. He felt eyes on the back of his neck, on his throat, pecking at the vital points in his body. Were they being watched? Tai slouched to hide his anxiety, the grin still on his face.

“I could also push you in the water, and I’m thinking about it too if you don’t let it drop. I’m trying to figure out how to leave this city. Kinda hungry. I think I’ll lift some dinner before getting your sorry ass to Carden.”

[Obelisk]

“You could try.” He warned, shooting Tai an even glance before turning his attention ahead. The light didn’t extend far enough for him to see more than a few yards ahead of them. They could walk straight into some sort of horrible sewer beast and end up eaten.

Not that he believed in those sorts of things.

“How could you possibly have an appetite with that smell wafting around.” He remarked bemusedly. Tai really was an odd person – and this was coming from a man who had spent the better part of a decade dressed as a bird in the woods. “I’ll help you get to Carden.” Emery did not need an escort and he was getting the sense that Tai felt as if he needed to be babysat.

The sound of water grew louder and there was a break in the darkness. His immediate response was to follow the faint light and it revealed that the tunnel they were following opened into a main chamber. The room was large and the ceiling was very high, and it was from there that light trickled in. Emery surmised that the gutters that lined the street were by which natural light made it into the room. There was a ghoulish color to the room, dim and greenish. The atmosphere felt sickly and suddenly Emery was not sure that following the water out had been such a good idea.

In the middle of the room was a square pool. This was where the various trails of water met and dumped their contents before merging into one stream. The single stream led out of the pool and down another tunnel. It would have been the obvious choice to follow that single stream and see where it led, but there was an issue. Over the entrance to the tunnel that the water fed into were rusty iron bars.

“Damn.” It was then a giggle, feminine and so out of place, gripped Emery’s attention. His head snapped towards the pool where a woman looked back at him. Her complexion was very pale and her hair black and long, falling over her pretty features. His eyes met hers and he was entranced. She seemed so inviting, so kind. Maybe there weren’t monsters in the waterway, but mermaids. Sewer mermaids. Why not?

He could not look away. He didn’t want to look away. The only thing that mattered was getting closer and if Tai tried to stop him, he would find himself shoved away with uncaring violence. Emery knelt towards the edge of the pool and the woman smiled invitingly at him. He smiled back, smitten. Her smile turned into a grin and her head started to fall back, as if she was looking towards the ceiling. It kept moving back, unnaturally. Farther and farther until a second head rose out of the water; the woman’s head was attached to the back, a decoy. This face looked like that of a horse but the similarities ended there.

The spell over him was iron in its strength. He did not react as slimy, clawed fingers danced over his face then settled onto his shoulders. Sharps nails snapped down suddenly, gripping the fabric of his shirt. The water crashed and down went the creature with Emery in its clutches. The inability to breath and the shock of the water was enough to shake him from his trance. He struggled, he lashed out. He managed to break through the surface to steal a much needed air of breath before being tugged under again.

[Rip]

Tai laughed and it shuddered off the walls. “Okay, okay. We’ll help each other get to Carden.” Getting back to the lower city was going to take some major brain power. And more than a few simple tricks. Emery was avoiding re-asking his witch question, or maybe he didn’t feel the need. Either way, things were gonna get tough from here on out. He hoped he was ready for this type of adventure because now that it was staring him in the face and slobbering on his jacket, he wasn’t too sure.

They wandered down the narrow passage, guided by the little light pulsing above Tai’s palm. It haunted the walls, spawning phantoms in the cracks. Tai tried not to look at how the water reflected at his boots, tugging at him like dead children, spoiled and nagging for attention in their sopping coffins. Something was twisted about this place. The sewers had all the dirty little secrets, and the secrets were festering under Silvereye’s pretty little face. Pretty little façade.

What was wrong with him? This wasn’t like him. This suspicion and paranoia. But Tai couldn’t shake it, no matter how many jokes he told to the hardly-answering Emery. He told them until he must’ve been telling them to himself. He stopped talking all together by the time they reached the chamber.

It overwhelmed him then. While Emery approached the barred waterways and cursed their bad luck, Tai froze in the entrance way. He could hear his companion mumbling, but he couldn’t move. The walls and the ceiling and the floor swirled, and his head swam full of worms and flies and half eaten sea weed. His arms felt heavy, his legs felt hollow, and all at once he never wanted to get the hell out of somewhere so bad in his life. This was worse than the doorway to the slaughter shrine. This was not worshipping a past tragedy. This was a lair.

Who’s lair? He didn’t know. He didn’t even know how the hell he knew it was a den in the first place. But he could see it swarming in the air, like a cloud of black gnats drifting in and out of the gutter’s light. It drifted as an oder. As a gas. Tai was seeing its old, sour magic.

“Uh, hey-“ he started, then stopped. In the center of the room, in the pool of stinking water, two eyes poured into them. They were round, white sacks of flesh obscured only by tangles of hair dripping over them. They were wide and opened and staring into his face, fish-egg wads. Below the eyes and the hair was a shape he recognized as a horse or pony. A sick, long dead horse or pony that had white jelly for eyes and thick wire strands for hair. It stared at him and he couldn’t move and Emery was walking towards it.

I know what you are.said a voice in Tai’s head he didn’t recognize at first. It was his own voice, of course. How silly. But he still couldn’t move and he still couldn’t make his physical voice work.

It pulled Emery underwater. The man gasped and sputtered and then vanished beneath the surface. It looked like glass, unbroken and then shattered, only to reform again.

Tai willed himself to move. His legs felt heavy and stiff and they pricked and pinched as if asleep. He made it to the edge of the pool and the white eyes glowered at him, staring at him, and it lifted its flapping lip to reveal a mouth full of fangs instead of hammer teeth. It dared him to come closer so it could eat his heart and spit out his liver for the sewer rats.

Tai saw the beast, and his arm moved. He wasn’t even sure if he was in control anymore. Maybe his body was moving on its own. His palm laid flat on the water. It itched and stunk and hurt the burns singed into his flesh.

He made a sound. It was babbling, gibberish and baby gurgles. Tai forced his lips to form words as the horse head slid towards him, its hair waving like tape worms in the water. And before the teeth closed on his fingers, Tai broke the trance and snarled.

“I know your name, you fuck!”

The white light that bounced at his good hand extended into the burns and burst through the water. The horse brayed and lashed out it’s long, boney legs, raising high above the surface of black sludge. It was pale and dangled in loose skin rolls that bulged and swung in the air. They dripped puss and a crusty barnacles that fell into the dry ground, around Tai’s knees, but the boy didn’t move. His body shook and impossible fear snagged him at the core of his brain, but he did not move, would not move, because he knows the name, goddamnit, and it had no power over him. The light stretched across the waves and bobbing seaweed and shit filled sewers, like fingers and snakes, and when they touched the kelpie it screamed.

“EMERY GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WATER.”

[Obelisk]

He fought furiously but to no avail. The creature’s grip was impossible to break and there was something, a slimy, wispy substance that kept him glued to its pallid, scaly skin. Every survival class he had ever taken had stressed the need not to panic once under water but he couldn’t stop. He flailed, he punched, kicked and grappled at the fiend. Water started to fill his lungs because he was gasping and screaming, but the noise was muffled. It felt as if he was trapped in a cage, hidden from view. Tai could do nothing. Emery hoped the boy would be smart enough to escape.

There was a flash of light then a keening yell that shook him to his core. The murky world around him shattered and he was left gasping polluted air, coughing and sputtering out the vile water of the kelpie’s pond. Sharp, sickle-shaped claws dug through the flesh of his arms and when the beast spasmed in pain, they ripped, and they shredded. Warmth spread over his skin and he knew it was blood and he knew it was bad. He was no longer the kelpie’s prize; Tai had become its target. The claws released him and he fell into the water forgotten. Confused, delirious, and bewildered, it was Tai’s shout that allowed Emery to snap out of it.

He swam towards the edge of the pool and pushed himself out. Emery wobbled to his feet, dizzy with nasty water and the last vestiges of the kelpie’s trance. He looked to Tai and then to the bars covering the tunnel. The thief would have to hold the monster at bay a little longer. Emery hoped he could manage it. He ran to the barred tunnel and ran his hands over the brick, following the circular line that formed the base for the iron rungs. The mortar was cracked and imperfect, sodden and deteriorated with age. He yanked his dagger out and plunged it into the cracks, grinding and prying. The brick started to give way and the bars fell to the ground with a clatter.

Emery was at Tai’s side in an instant. “Come on, leave it!” He shouted, eyes on the writhing creature. If need be, he would yank Tai towards him and force him to move. They raced down the tunnel and the kelpie gave a horrendous howl, chasing after them. Sounds of hooves against stone echoed off the walls and there were tendrils, like slimy pale intestines, reaching out of holes and cracks, threatening to seize hold of the pair.

A mist started to form inside the tunnel and the air started to become fresher. The creature’s cries grew more and more furious and it was a mix of braying and something chillingly human. Both of its faces were screaming. Light started to reach into the tunnel but it was faint, that of the night. There grew to be a loud roar, almost deafening and he knew what they are approaching. The tunnel cut off abruptly and the drop down into the lake below was large enough to be life-threatening.

They had no choice.

Emery would force Tai into jumping first before following after. The water was cold and shocked him upon breaking through the surface. He immediately swam towards the shore and crouched at the water’s edge, watching for Tai, hoping he was soon to follow.

[Rip]

Something was wrong. Tai’s white light bounced around the kelpie’s waterway like bugs trapped underneath a glass. The horse beast snapped its teeth and lashed out its hooves, carving deep wounds in the cement while crackling water spewed from the gutters. Droplets splashed Tai’s hair and ran down his face. He watched them roll off an invisible force surrounding the horse, and understood.

His lips moved involuntarily, mumbling a chant that steamed from instinct. He pulled back and ground his teeth, but it was too late, and the barrier around the kelpie cracked. White spider webs sprawled in a circular shape. The binding fell apart, and the horse monster was free.

It poured it’s soggy white eyes into his, and Tai put up his arms like a crossing guard, STOP screaming from his body language. The horse shrieked, the wail caterwauling through the tunnels, but would not allow the witch to restrain it. Tai felt the burns on his hand flare and itch as foul water soaked through the wounds in his flesh, and his stomach swelled.

Suddenly, Emery was there, and he was pulled. Tai was vaguely aware that he was yelling ‘no’ over and over, but the monster shrunk back as they escaped.

They ran to the edge of the world, or what might as well have been, and leapt. Wind rushed into his mouth and eyes, and then there was water. Directions mixed into each other, up devoured down and east slaughtered west. The lake shook the witch like a rag doll, and at the bottom he could see the fingernails of the dead, growing longer and longer while the bodies already cooled.

Something slimy and wet coiled around his foot and pulled, and then he realized which way was up and which way was hell, and Tai fought. His lungs throbbed and his hand felt bloated, but he wouldn’t be taken by a lesser water demon. The water rippled around his good hand like heat in the road, and a stream of heat erupted at his fingertips. The slimy dead thing coward away and Tai rushed to the surface. He broke through it, gasped and bobbed, and clawed his way to the shore, where he laid panting.

“Fuck your city.” He groaned, refusing to look at his hand as it burned for attention. “Do you have any idea what that was? Because I do.”

[Obelisk]

“A monster.” He kneeled at Tai’s side, knees pressing into the wet mud surrounding the lake. It had been a monster unlike any Emery had ever seen before. The beasts that stalked Brumeveil were massive and dangerous, but he had never sensed evil from them. That creature had been something else entirely, something Emery could not identify by name. “Get up. We need to go now. There’s no time to talk.” They were exhausted and injured but Emery would allow no reprieve. Warning bells continued to ring and his instincts were alive, demanding they outpace the enemy.

The guards of Silvereye would be looking for them and so would mercenaries and bounty hunters. After Tai’s stunt in his father’s study, witch hunters might also be called to join the chase. Demons in sewers, beasts stalking the night – Emery knew the odds were against them. Fortunately, Emery functioned at his best when there was a slim margin for error.

His thoughts were still inside the hidden room of his family’s manor. Though retreating to the forest and collapsing until all was forgotten was tempting, he knew what he had to do. There was a riddle that needed an answer and Emery would pursue all options, and as of now, returning to the life of a hermit was not among those options.

If Tai needed the help or if he chose to lay there in the mud, Emery would drag him to his feet. “We need to go. Somewhere. Somewhere…” Where did people go when they needed to vanish besides the woods? “Carden.” His eyes dropped to the murky face of the lake and something inside his chest unsettled. As he turned around, his eyes remained on the water until they were unable.

“We should head into the woods for tonight and find somewhere to make camp.” He would push but not to the extent of putting them at risk to extreme fatigue. It did not cross his mind that Tai might refuse. Emery had fallen to old habits and had started to make plans and orders. He treated Tai as a soldier under his command and therefore as a responsibility.

[Rip]

“Oh yeah sure, monster, sure. Okay,” Tai said, fumbling with his bandana. The red cloth tumbled from his fingers, but he snatched it before it touched the mud. With his teeth, he tied it about his wounded hand. Tightening the makeshift bandage hurt. The burns ached with rolls of pain and pricked in direction of the water. Mist rolled over the surface. White specters in the fog.

“Talk! You want to talk?” Never mind what Emery really said. “That was a Kelpie, you goddamn bastard! Do you know what that is? Do you know what it was doing there? It was trapped! And I, oh shit, I let it go.” He ran his fingers through his hair, walking backwards from the lake’s edge. Kelpie, kelpie. A horse ghost, rotten and sticky and hungry all the time. And the smell coming from his burns, like dead fish, he knew what that was too.

Water wasn’t safe. Things in the water weren’t safe. He was cursed.

“Forest! You’re crazy. I’m not going anywhere near there!” If Emery grabbed him, Tai would fight. He’d squirm and punch and, if he had to, bite. To hell with sneaky antics and sarcastic backlash. Things just got a whole lot more complicated. He’d never been hunted before.

“Things will come after me! See this?” He shook his hand in front of the man’s face. Stray beads of blood scattered. “This is as good as your stupid bounty! No pit stops! I go straight to Carden!”

If he managed to get away from Emery, he’d start running, keeping full distance from the lake. If the stranger wanted to follow, it was his own will. But it was twenty minutes before the boy with the tail slowed down ,leaning against the tree, panting and cussing.

“Aw, fuck.”

[Obelisk]

Emery’s immense patience was worn thin and near breaking point. He was silent through Tai’s tirade, waiting in idle annoyance for him to run out of steam. He understood the fear-induced anger, he understood the guilt. Emery, however, did not understand the biting. He rubbed at the juncture of his thumb and index finger, where the impression of Tai’s teeth indented his skin. He was scowling when Tai finally relented.

“Straight to Carden then, no rest.” He said. If that was what Tai wanted, that was what Tai was going to get. Emery would push him until they made it to the abandoned city. No amount of moaning would cause him to give any slack. Perhaps a small, spiteful, part of Emery’s mind saw the impending trek as payback for the bite mark.

Or maybe he was taking out his recently garnered ill will on Tai.

“I assume your wild gesturing earlier was an attempt to illustrate the fact that your hand is now some sort of beacon to fiends.” Blue eyes examined Tai’s hand wonderingly. “And there’s no magic you know that might cloak the effect?” Emery had other questions on his mind but he choice to keep those to himself for now, lest he start Tai off on another tantrum.

“We can’t afford to think emotionally right now. We’ll deal with the repercussions of what happened later, on safer grounds.” This was an order, there was no mistaking the absolution in Emery’s voice. He stared at Tai hard and evenly, daring him to argue. “Do what you can with your condition, and let’s be off.” Tai worried over the forest and what it might hold. Emery worried about Silvereye’s guards and mercenaries, and their swords and guns.

“We’ll stay near the forest but won’t tread inside unless our hand is forced.” It would take far longer to go around the forest as opposed to through it, but Emery was faced with a difficult choice – deal with an extra day of travel, or risk the wrath of a scared, irate witch.

Sometimes he wondered what he did in life to deserve the things that happened to him.

[Rip]

They marched. Tai sidestepped puddles while Emery strutted like a toy soldier. The pace was relentless; the boy had to speed walk to keep up. His fear and rage and shock had worn out, slipped through the cracks this speedy journey opened up. In fact, he was careful not to mention anything resembling his little emotional outburst. Tai walked with his hands behind his head (though the hurt one tenderly), and though he walked quickly, he had a lazy gait.

For the past hour, he’d been amusing himself by making faces at the back of Emery’s head.

“Beacon?” He replied. Calm, laughing voice. No scared little boy. Anymore. “Yeah, something like that. It’s a curse. Curses caused inconvenience. It’s their nature. Some are nastier than others.” As for this curse, he wasn’t sure about its limitations. It might just attract ill tempered water and beasties, but for all he knew, it might have a few other tricks. He hoped it stopped at the water. “I might be able to break it. Dunno.”

Oh God, he hoped he could break it. How embarrassing! A white witch with a curse on his hand. The tower would never let him forget it.

“Anyway. That was a kelpie, like I said,” He continued, replacing bitterness with something almost unkind. “Demon water horse. Eats people. I’m sure the King’s dog-witches can reseal it, though, so I wouldn’t worry about your lovely little Silvereye. It took a lot to break the barrier holding it to that chamber; hope you’re grateful. Old, powerful magic. Don’t see much of it these days. Actually! That reminds me. What was up with that room, hm? With the bomb worship? It was like an altar.”

[Obelisk]

His anger was slow to boil, a feeling that ignited into a low smolder – easily forgotten until tinder was added and it caught fire. Emery’s swift pace was fueled by a need for an outlet to the anxiety burning in his veins. He spoke little, which was normal for him, but his silence appeared more deliberate and foreboding this time around. Emery did not look behind to see that Tai was following. He spared the thief only his ears, listening for his hurried footsteps.

“How delightful.” Emery deadpanned, bitter and tired but unwilling to relent in their trek. Walking on foot to Carden would take far too long considering that their pursuers had the benefit of vehicles and mounts. Emery had considered this and was, without a word to Tai, directing them a little out of the way and towards a small farm. “A curse that brings inconvenience is just what we need.” Sarcasm, as it turned out, was not one of Emery’s strong points. He sounded earnest.

“’Might’ is not a word I’m willing to deal with right now. Try to break it as soon as possible.” Blue eyes slid to watch Tai in the moonless night. “If worse comes to worse, there’s always the option of cutting it off.” Like a fox caught in a snare, survival came first. Tai steered the conversation towards dangerous ground. The air around Emery tensed and he looked away, falling to silence once again.

The room and its contents had been a complete surprise. Emery had no answers. “I don’t know.” He said at last, offering no thanks to Tai for saving him from the kelpie. Emery’s mood was too dour and too bitter to allow such pleasantries. “But I aim to find out. Somehow.” Frustration at a lack of understanding saw Emery cut off any other questions Tai might have at their heads. “I suggest you keep your curiosity to yourself. It serves no purpose.” I have no answers. “Concentrate on removing that curse.”

Ahead, they made it to the top of the hill. Down in a small valley sat a small house and a large barn. The lights were off. Emery started down the hill and leapt over the small wooden fencing meant to keep the livestock inside. “Find a horse, saddle it up.” He whispered as he slipped into the barn, wincing when the door hinges creaked. He paused and threw an assessing look towards Tai. “You do know how, don’t you?”

[F.S.M.]

During this trek, Tai discovered that his companion was easy to push off balance. Not a physical sense, of course—Emery looked like he could hold his own if it came to that (Knight, remember? King’s damn dog. Ex-dog, but still a dog), but emotionally. The man with a bounty on his head had an awful lot of buttons, and not only was Tai apt to push shiny red buttons… he was fantastic at finding them.

“Cut it off? I’ll keep that in mind,” he replied. That wouldn’t work, realistically. Only desperate would go that far, and only because they don’t know any better. The kelpie put a curse on Tai Archer, not the unfortunate limb of Tai Archer. His hand was just the carrier. If the hand went away, it’d move up his arm.

He imagined it creeping up his flesh. Black, rotting, like the sewer. Tai decided not to think about it. Maybe it would just stop at the water. Maybe it would just call monsters. He could deal with monsters. Enemies he couldn’t fight, now that was scary. How could you fight something that held no substance? It’d be like trying to stab a shadow. Or beam of light.

His ‘friend’s’ bickering was a good distraction to his piss poor situation.

“You should be nicer to me,” Tai said after a while. He didn’t sound angry, not really, but he was getting tired of the complaining and back handed threats. “I’m sure it’s eating you up inside, but I saved your life and helped you do whatever you wanted to do, and I’m letting you crash at my house. I didn’t even mug you. So, Em,” He smiled, walking into the darkness of the barn. “lighten the fuck up.”
Horses were not his strong point. At all. They were giant, smelly, hulking animals that could kick your head off if you even looked at them the wrong way. He moved around the stables with foreign bravery and refused to ask for help.

Fuck that. he thought, saddling a brown mare. Goddamn self-righteous prick. Didn’t pay me enough for this shit.

He swung his legs over the beast and wavered, like balancing on top of an unsteady branch. He held onto the horn of the saddle and waited. If Em looked at him at all, Tai would wave for him to lead. Go a head. Take charge. Do whatever the hell you want.

[Obelisk]

“Duly noted.” His voice was clipped as he set about preparing a horse. Feeling indebted to someone was not a burden Emery bore well. “Although the incident in the sewer could have been avoided had you left when told.” He stepped into the stirrup and threw his leg over the saddle, positioning until he was comfortable. Gale would have let Tai leave but Emery had the suspicion she would have delivered him straight to the authorities. If Tai hadn’t acted, Emery would be rotting in a prison cell in wait for execution. This was a fact he chose to ignore.

Posture perfect and radiating a sureness expected by practiced horseman, Emery nudged the animal forward and exited out the barn. Any fumbling move from Tai would be greeted with a silent raise of a single brow. “We can’t afford to tarry. Since you’re so opposed to using the woods to lose our pursuers, speed and a head start are our only weapons.” He was being exceptionally grating towards Tai and this was not really in Emery’s nature. He had never been so angry and spiteful, but recent revelations had dragged him into a dark place.

At least he had company.

His heels pinched into the horse’s side and it picked up speed. “What do you expect to do in Carden, anyway?” He was starting on another rant and there was no propriety left in his demeanor to stop him. “There are mercenaries and rats there that would sell us to the authorities without giving it a moment’s thought.” Emery’s voice rose from cool to heated, an acrid and unsettling tone. “The tower would be your best bet. That’s where you belong. You are a witch after all.” Tai could continue to deny it all he wanted. Emery was done playing along. He had seen enough to be confident in his assessment of Tai’s true nature.

[Rip]

Tai chose not to answer Emery, not because he felt dignified in his silence, but because he was sitting so precariously on his horse and staring so intently at the saddle horn that he didn’t have enough attention left. Man, horses made him so nervous. One blow to the head and BAM! Brain guts all over the ground. Was that the right term? Brain guts?

“Do brains have guts?” He said, glancing up between the trees. The sky was dark and splattered with stars. He was always astounded by these things, outside of the cities. No light pollution by the farms. You could see everything for miles and miles, but Tai didn’t like star gazing, really. It made him feel cold and lonely. “Or are brains just brains?”

Traveling with Emery was a little like befriending sandpaper. He had the idea that Emery kept tossing these petty insults at him because he wanted some kind of rise out of the monkey boy. If that’s the game, Tai decided to play. It was like the quiet game. Almost. He could always knock the guy off his high horse.

Heh.

That might be necessary after all. Emery was going off about Carden. Spoken like anyone who hadn’t actually been to the city.

“To hide a leaf, you stash it in a forest,” he said, not looking at him. A twitch of irritation itched between his shoulders. “I live in Carden. I expect to keep living there. The problem is what to do with you. And I’m not a witch. I’m a warlock. Don’t call me that again, unless you want me to add ‘pretty pretty princess ballerina lady friend’ to your name. Which I will. I’ll make sure to introduce you like that to all the rats and mercenaries.”

Tai looked from the sky to the road, crossing his arms below his chest. He trusted his balance now. “I’m not going to the tower unless I have no choice.”

[Obelisk]

“I’d rather no introductions take place whatsoever, Warlock.” Emery was a murderer and a runaway, but ingrained within his personality was a knightly sense of propriety. Or maybe it was a misplaced pride. To consider his self on the same level as the thieves and criminals that infested Carden was an insult. Vestiges of his noble upbringing started to show. With the way he held himself – so primly and proper – he would stick out in Carden as if he was doused in bright neon paint.

Emery had spared Tai a few glances, assessing his balance on the horse. When Tai gave indication that he was at last comfortable on the animal, Emery took that as his cue to increase their pace. The horse whinnied plaintively but obeyed, hooves breaking into the surface of soft soil and grass. “You may not have a choice, should the curse in your hand persist.” Curses and warlocks and sewer monsters – Emery wondered if they were a punishment for the murder of the witch hunter.

His thoughts were on the Tower as he suspected that if anyone had any idea as to what was in the secret room of Redway manor, the elders there might. He had been to the tower once and had not found it on his own. There’d been a bandit, a poisoned arrow. He’d woken up to Gina’s face and foreign walls. They’d blindfolded him on the way out. Blue eyes settled on Tai and Emery wondered if he knew the way. He did not ask and instead did something horrible. He hoped that the curse was bad enough that it would force Tai into seeking aid from the tower witches.

“Gale likely has wanted posters drawn up of us already.” His eyes turned towards the horizon. “I wonder if we can beat the rumors and news.” Tai may have had faith that those in Carden would not sell him out, but Emery was a pessimist. The worst case scenario always had his attention.

[Rip]

Tai supposed, as he thought about it, that he was one of Carden’s luckier kids. He had a family and didn’t go around beating other people up. He stole, sure, and often trespassed, but that was the extent of his typical wrong doings. Breaking and entering into noble households was something new. Maybe not so new to Emery though. Who knew?

“Thanks for the sound advice,” he said. Tai looked over at the man, raising an eyebrow. “If you want to go to the tower so bad, why don’t you go yourself? It’s not like I can lead you there.”

They passed a sign post, old and hardly legible, but Tai could just make out ‘Carden’ scratched into the woodwork.

“Ah! Land ho.”

[Obelisk]

Continued Here.