The Daylight War

3

333 AR Summer

27 Dawns Before New Moon

They said little the next day as they raced down an ill-used Messenger road. Arlen’s hood was drawn against the sun, but Renna knew the look of frustration it hid.

What business does Arlen have in Deliverer’s Hollow that’s so all-fired important?

It had to do with a girl, she knew. Leesha Paper. The name itched at her like a chigger. Arlen was evasive the first time Renna tried to ask who Leesha was to him, but they hadn’t been promised then, and she’d no right to insist.

Reckon it’s time to ask again, she thought.

‘Look out!’ Arlen cried as they turned a tight bend. Right in front of them, a cart was turned across the road, thick bushes to either side making it impossible to ride around. Renna dug her knees into Promise and pulled hard on her mane. The giant horse reared, whinnying and kicking wildly, and it was all Renna could do to keep her seat. Arlen watched, amused, from atop Twilight Dancer, who had already pulled up short and composed himself.

‘Promised you no halter,’ Renna said to the mare when she finally calmed. ‘Din’t say nothin’ about no saddle. You think on that.’ Promise snorted.

‘Ay, Tender! We could use a hand!’ a grey-bearded man called, waving at them with a worn and beaten hat. He and another man stood behind the cart, pushing as the skinny nag in front pulled.

‘Let me handle this, Ren,’ Arlen murmured, edging Twilight Dancer ahead of Promise. ‘What happened?’ he called.

The man came over to them, taking off his hat again to wipe the sweat from his brow with the back of his dirty hand. His hair and beard were mostly grey, the deep lines of his face streaked with dirt. ‘Stuck in the rottin’ mud. Think you might lend us one o’ them big horses long enough to break free?’

‘Sorry, can’t help,’ Arlen said, his eyes scanning the area.

The man’s eyes gogged at him. ‘Whaddaya mean, you can’t help? What kind of Tender are you?’

Renna looked at Arlen, surprised he would be so rude to a greybeard in need. ‘Dancer could pull them free in no time.’

Arlen shook his head. ‘Cart ent stuck, Ren. This is the oldest trick in the bandit handbook.’ He snorted. ‘Didn’t think folk still did this one.’

‘Bandits? Honest word?’ Renna looked around again, this time with her night eyes. She and Arlen were cut off in the middle of nowhere, in daylight when they were weakest. The mud wasn’t even up to the ankles of the men, and the bushes on either side of the road could easily conceal more men. Her fingers drifted towards her knife, but Arlen whisked a hand at her and she left it in its sheath.

‘Bad enough we got demons at night,’ Arlen said. ‘Now folk turn on each other in the day.’

‘That’s ridiculous!’ the greybeard cried, but he was stepping back, and Renna could see the lie in his eyes now, so clear that she wondered why she hadn’t seen it before. That day folk, even elders, could be just as bad as demons was no new lesson to her. Harl had been grey, and Raddock Lawry.

The man standing behind the cart ducked out of sight a moment, and then reappeared holding a crank bow. Two men came from the bushes, aiming drawn hunting bows at them. From around the bend behind them came three more men with spears, blocking their retreat. All were gaunt, with dark circles under their eyes and ragged, patched clothing.

Only the greybeard was unarmed. ‘Ent looking to hurt anyone, Tender,’ he said, putting his hat back on, ‘but these are desperate times, and you’re carrying an awful heavy load for a Tender and his …’ He squinted at Renna. She was dappled in shadows, obscuring the wards on her skin, but there was no missing the scandalous cut of her clothes. The man with the crank bow let out a low whistle, moving forward for a closer look.

‘Don’t go gettin’ any ideas, Donn,’ the greybeard warned, and the crank bowman checked himself.

The greybeard flicked his eyes back to Arlen. ‘In any event, we’ll be taking any food, blankets, or medicine you got, not to mention those big horses.’

Renna gripped her knife, but Arlen only chuckled. ‘Trust me, you wouldn’t want the horses.’

‘You don’t get to tell me what I want, Tender,’ the greybeard snapped. ‘Creator abandoned us a long time ago. Now you two get down off those horses or my men will fill you full of holes.’

Arlen was off Twilight Dancer in an instant. Renna barely saw him move as he closed the distance to the greybeard, catching him in a sharusahk choke hold and twisting the old man between him and the bowmen.

‘Like you said,’ Arlen said, ‘ent looking to hurt anyone. Just looking to be on my way. So why don’t you tell your men to …’

He was cut off as one of the bowmen let fly. Renna gasped, but Arlen snatched the arrow out of the air the way a quick man might snatch a horsefly.

‘This was apt to hit you more than me,’ Arlen noted, holding up the arrow in front of the greybeard. He tossed it aside.

‘Corespawn it, Brice!’ the greybeard shouted. ‘You trying to kill me?!’

‘Sorry!’ Brice cried. ‘Slipped!’

‘Slipped, he says,’ the greybeard muttered. ‘Creator help us.’

While all the attention was on the bowman, one of the spearmen took the opportunity to quietly move up behind Arlen. He was sneaky enough by day folk standards, but Renna didn’t cry an alarm. She could tell just from Arlen’s stance that he knew the man was coming. Was baiting it, even.

Just as the spearman lunged, Arlen shoved the greybeard away. The man put his spear horizontally over Arlen’s head, meaning to come up under his chin in a choke. Arlen grabbed the shaft, bending forward with a twist that turned all the man’s momentum against him, flipping him over to land heavily on his back. Arlen, now holding the spear in one hand, put his foot on the man’s chest and looked at the others.

In the struggle, his hood had come down, and the men gaped at the sight. ‘The Painted Man,’ Brice said, and all the bandits began to mutter among themselves.

After a moment, the greybeard remembered himself. ‘So you’re the one everyone says is the Deliverer.’ He squinted. ‘You don’t look like the Deliverer to me.’

‘Never said I was,’ Arlen said. ‘I’m Arlen Bales out of Tibbet’s Brook, and I ent gonna deliver anything but a whipping to anyone doesn’t start acting neighbourly right quick.’

The greybeard looked at him, and then around at his men. He waved a hand and they put their weapons up, all staring at Arlen, who glared back at them like Renna’s mam when she’d caught the girls at mischief and was readying a scolding.

Even the greybeard couldn’t weather that stare for long. He wiped the sweat from his weathered brow again, wringing his hat in his hands. ‘Ent gonna apologize,’ he said. ‘I got mouths to feed, and folk in need of proper succour. Done some things I’m not proud of to get by, but it ent from greed or malice. A man tends to forget himself when he’s been on the road a long time with nowhere to go.’

Arlen nodded. ‘Know what that’s like. What’s your name?’

‘Varley Oat,’ the greybeard said.

Arlen nodded at the surname. ‘You’re out of Oating, then? Three days’ north of Fort Rizon, past the Yellow Orchards?’

Varley’s eyes widened, but he nodded. ‘You come a long way from Oating, Varley,’ Arlen said. ‘How long you been on the road?’

‘Nigh three seasons. Since the Krasians took Fort Rizon,’ Varley said. ‘Knew the desert rats would come for us next, so I told folk to pack up everything they owned and set off right away.’

‘You Town Speaker?’ Arlen asked.

Varley laughed. ‘I was the Tender.’ He shrugged. ‘Guess I still am, after a fashion, though I been doubting there’s anyone watching from above.’

‘Know that feeling, too,’ Arlen said.

‘Whole village of Oating left together,’ Varley went on. ‘Six hundred of us. We had Herb Gatherers, Warders, even a retired Messenger to guide us. Plenty of supplies. Honest word, we started with more than we could carry. But that changed quick.’

‘Always does,’ Arlen said.

‘Desert rats came quickly,’ Varley said, ‘and their scouts were everywhere. Lost a lot of folk to the running, and a lot more to the winter. Krasians stopped chasing us eventually, but no one felt safe until we got to Lakton.’

‘But Lakton wouldn’t have you,’ Arlen guessed.

Varley shook his head. ‘We were looking a bit shabby by then. Folk would look the other way for a bit if we camped for a week in a fallow field or fished a bit in their pond, but no one was looking to take five hundred new folk into their town. Someone would accuse us of stealing something, and before you know it, whole town comes out with rakes and hoes to run us out.

‘Went on from there to the Hollow, where they’re taking in Rizonans by the thousand, but folk there were chewing bark and digging bugs just to fill their bellies, and the Cutters roam the refugee camps, looking for recruits to get themselves killed in the naked night. Some of us lost everything to the Krasians, and they want us to start fightin’ demons? Won’t be no one left.’

‘So you set off north,’ Arlen said.

Varley shrugged. ‘Seemed like the wisest course. I still had nigh three hundred folk to look after. Hollowers gave us a couple of warded spears and what help they could. Farmer’s Stump wasn’t half so kind, and the bastards in Fort Angiers turned us away at spearpoint. Heard there might be work up Riverbridge way, but that place was no better. Packed full. So now we’re here, and got nowhere else.’

‘Show me your camp,’ Arlen said. The bandit looked at him for a moment, then nodded and turned to his men. The cart was out of the mud in an instant, and they were soon travelling off road through a narrow pass in the trees. Arlen dismounted, leading Twilight Dancer by the reins. Renna did the same, laying a hand on Promise’s strong neck to guide her. The mare stomped and snorted when any of the men drew near, but she was growing used to Renna’s touch.

It was over an hour before the Oatingers’ camp came in sight, hidden well away from the road. Renna’s eyes widened at the ragtag collection of crudely patched tents and covered wagons, thick with the stench of sweat and human waste. Perhaps two hundred souls were gathered there. Varley’s men, ragged themselves, were the pick of the lot.

Women, children, and elderly stumbled about the camp, exhausted, filthy, and half starved. Many wore bandages, and most feet were wrapped in rags. Everyone was working — repairing and warding tattered and meagre shelters, tending gruel pots, airing laundry and scraping dishes, gathering firewood, preparing wardposts, tending scrawny livestock. The only idle were the sick and the wounded, housed under a poorly constructed rain shelter. Their moans of pain could be heard clear across the camp.

Arlen led Twilight Dancer through the camp, his back stiff as he looked in the lost and tired eyes of the people. They started when they caught sight of his warded face, and began to whisper among themselves, but none had the courage to approach him as he passed.

They came to the shelter for the sick, and Renna choked on the sight like it was demon meat. Almost two dozen folk spread out on narrow cots, covered in bloody bandages, filthy and reeking. Two of the patients had soiled themselves, and another was covered in her own sick. None of them looked apt to recover.

One frazzled woman attempted vainly to tend them all. Her grey hair was pulled in a tight bun, and her narrow face pinched. She wore no pocketed apron on her worn dress.

‘Creator, they don’t even have a proper Gatherer,’ Arlen whispered.

‘My wife, Evey,’ Varley grunted. ‘She ent an Herb Gatherer, but serves as one, for those in need.’ Evey looked up, and her eyes widened in shock as she took in Arlen’s and Renna’s warded skin.

Arlen went to his saddlebag and fetched his herb pouch. ‘I’ve some Gatherer’s art, particularly when it comes to coreling wounds. Like to help if I might.’

Evey fell to her knees. ‘Oh, please, Deliverer! We’ll do anything!’

Arlen’s brows knit in sudden anger. ‘You can start by not acting the fool!’ he snapped. ‘I ent no Deliverer. I’m Arlen Bales out of Tibbet’s Brook, and I’m just looking to help as I can.’

Evey looked as if he had slapped her. Her pale cheeks grew a bright red, and she got quickly to her feet. ‘I’m sorry … I don’t know what came over me …’

Arlen reached out, squeezing her shoulder. ‘You don’t have to explain. Know the ale stories the Jongleurs spin about me. But I’m here to tell you I’m a man like any other. Just learned some old world tricks folk these days have forgotten.’

Evey nodded, finally looking him in the eye and relaxing.

‘’Bout sixty miles north of here is the village of Deadwell,’ Arlen told Varley. ‘I can draw you a good map, with places you can camp along the way marked off.’

‘Why should they want us at Deadwell more’n anywhere else?’ Varley asked.

‘’Cause there ent no one in Deadwell any more,’ Arlen said. ‘Corelings got in and killed every man, woman, and child there. But we just been there, and swept the place good. Might be cramped at first, but it’s got everything you need to start a new life. Just make sure you brick up the well, and dig a fresh one.’

Varley gaped at him. ‘You’re just … giving us a village?’

Arlen nodded. ‘Used to go there a lot. Place was special to me. I’d like it to be a home to good folk again.’ He gave Varley a pointed look. ‘Folk that take a dim view of banditry.’

Varley seemed unconvinced. ‘Canon says, Trust not the man who offers all you desire just when you need it most.’

Arlen smiled. ‘Creator abandoned you, but Tender Varley can’t stop quoting Canon?’

Varley chuckled. ‘World’s full of contradictions.’

‘Deadwell ent gonna do you any worse than you already are,’ Arlen said. ‘Your wards are weak. Could see that just passing through.’

Varley nodded and spat. ‘Ent got so much as a Hedge Warder outside a hospit cot. Folk are just warding their carts and tents as best they can.’

Arlen nodded to Renna. ‘This here’s Renna Tanner, my intended. She’s a fair hand at warding. I’d like you and your men to take her around the camp. Help her see if she can’t grant you more succour.’

Evey bowed to Renna. ‘It’s a real blessing, you doing this for us.’

Renna smiled and grabbed Arlen’s arm. ‘Excuse us a minute.’ She turned and dragged Arlen back between the horses.

‘What are you playing at, Arlen Bales?’ she demanded. ‘Had to fight tooth and nail for you to let me ward my own backside, and now you trust me to ward this whole camp?’

Arlen looked at her. ‘Saying you ent up to it? I shouldn’t trust you?’

Renna put her hands on her hips. ‘Din’t say any such thing.’

‘Then why we talkin’ about this?’ Arlen asked. ‘Light’s wastin’, and you need to shore up them wards any way you can. Bully folk and slap the fool out of them if you have to, but get it done. Take a few spears and some warded arrows, to give to those as can use them.’

Renna blinked. No one had ever trusted her to ward more than the barn before. Or given her any responsibility, really, beyond milking the cow and making supper. Now, without a wave, Arlen was trusting her to be Selia Barren to these people.

Love you, Arlen Bales.

Renna quickly saw the wards were even worse than they feared. There was no proper circle around the camp at all. The Oatingers had spread haphazardly through the clearing, each of their carts, wagons, and tents individually warded, with varying levels of skill. The best of them were barely adequate.

‘How many folk you losing every night?’ she asked.

Varley spat. ‘Too many. And more each night.’

‘Only gets worse every night you stay in one place,’ Renna said. ‘Big camp like this, smell of fear and blood in the air, will draw corelings like ants to an apple core.’

Varley swallowed. ‘Don’t like the sound of that.’

‘Shouldn’t,’ Renna said. ‘You get these people on the road to Deadwell tomorrow, whatever it takes.’ She stopped in front of one cart, surrounded by wardposts staked into the ground.

‘Been seein’ a lot of these posts,’ Renna said.

Varley nodded. ‘Our Warder made them before he was cored. Used to be enough to surround the camp, but we’ve lost a few and ent been able to replace ’em.’

Renna nodded. ‘Pull them all, if you please, and bring them over to the edge of the clearing.’ She pointed. ‘We’ll circle the biggest wagons and put the posts in the gaps in between. Whole camp needs to squeeze in tight to fit inside.’

‘Folk ent gonna take kindly to us pulling up their wards,’ Varley said.

Renna gave him a hard look. ‘Don’t care what they like, greybeard, or you. ’Less you want to lose more folk tonight, you best mind me ’tween now and sunset.’

Varley’s bushy eyebrows widened, and he took his hat off again, twisting it in his hands. ‘Ay, all right.’

‘I’ll need paint,’ Renna said. ‘Any stain will do, darker the better, and a lot of it. And posts this high.’ She held up a hand parallel to the ground. ‘Many as you can put together. Take axes to live trees if you got to. They only need to last till you make Deadwell.’

‘Donn,’ Varley said. ‘Collect posts. Anyone argues, you send ’em to me.’ Donn nodded, picked a few men, and left. ‘Brice,’ Varley said. ‘Paint. Now.’ The man ran off, and Varley turned to the rest of his men. ‘Fresh posts. Rip apart anything you need to.’ He looked back at Renna expectantly.

‘Wagons need to be in place before I start planting posts,’ Renna said, ‘and that means right now.’

Varley nodded, moving off to speak to the owner of one of the carts, pointing.

‘That will practically put us in the midden!’ she complained.

‘You want the midden, or a coreling’s belly?’ Varley replied.

It was almost dark when Renna returned to Arlen. Some of the patients in the makeshift hospit seemed to be resting more comfortably, but many still suffered horribly. Arlen knelt by a cot, holding a young girl’s hand. Her other arm ended before the elbow in a bandage soaked through with brownish yellow pus. Half her face was scabbed and oozing from firespit burns, still angry and red. Her skin had a grey pallor, and her breathing was shallow. Her eyes were closed.

‘Demon fever,’ Arlen said without looking up at her approach. ‘Flame demon bit her arm off and left an awful infection. Gave her what cures I know, but the sickness is far enough along I doubt it’ll even slow.’

The pain in his voice cut at her, but she embraced the feeling and let it pass. There was work to be done still.

Arlen looked out at the others in the sick tent. ‘Might be I saved a couple, but I’m out of herbs and most are beyond my skill in any event.’ He sighed. ‘In the sunlight, at least.’

‘Your rooster strutting this afternoon was bad enough,’ Renna said. ‘You start healing folk in the night and there’ll be no end to this Deliverer business.’

Arlen looked at her, and she saw his face was streaked with tears. ‘What would you have me do? Leave these folk to die?’

Renna looked at him, and her resolve weakened. ‘Course not. Just sayin’ there’s a price.’

‘Always a price, Ren,’ Arlen said. ‘This is all my fault.’ He swept his hand out over the Oatingers’ camp. ‘Made this happen.’

Renna raised an eyebrow. ‘How’s that? You drove these people from their homes?’

Arlen shook his head. ‘Woke the demon that did. Never should have brought the spear to Krasia. Never should have trusted Jardir.’

‘What spear? Who’s Jardir?’ Renna asked.

‘Mind demon was willing to kill to answer those questions,’ Arlen said. ‘Sure you want to know?’

‘Killin’ is all demons ever do,’ Renna said, and pointed to the mind demon ward painted in blackstem on her forehead. ‘And those bigheaded bastards ent ever gettin’ inside my skull again.’

Arlen nodded. ‘Jardir is the leader of the Krasian people. Met him a long time ago, and we became friends. Night, friends don’t even cover it. Taught me half what I know, and saved my life more’n once. Couldn’t have loved him more he was my own brother.’ Arlen clenched a fist. ‘And all along, he had a ripping knife to my back.’

‘What happened?’ Renna asked.

‘Bought a black market map to a lost city in the desert, said to be the home of Kaji,’ Arlen said.

‘What’s black market?’ Renna asked. ‘They only open at night?’

Arlen smiled, but there was little humour in it. ‘Guess you could say that. Black market means the people I bought it from stole it.’

Renna frowned. ‘That don’t sound like the Arlen Bales I know.’

‘Ent proud of it,’ Arlen said, ‘but had dealings with a lot of shady folk since I left Tibbet’s Brook. Folk to make what Varley’s doin’ seem honest. When you’re out beyond the wards, sometimes shady folk are all there are.’

Renna grunted. ‘So you got a map to this Kaji place. Then what?’

‘Kaji ent a place,’ Arlen said. ‘He was a man. The last general from the demon wars. The Deliverer, if you believe such things.’

Renna laughed. ‘You, Arlen Bales, went huntin’ the Deliverer? Now I know you’re spinning an ale story.’

‘Wasn’t hunting the Deliverer,’ Arlen snapped. ‘Was hunting his wards. And I found ’em, Ren. Deliverer or no, I found Kaji’s tomb and rescued his spear. The ancient battle wards, means to fight the corelings, brought back to the world! Took it to Jardir, and he had the nerve to say I stole it. That it belonged to him. Offered to make him a copy, down to the last ward, but that wasn’t good enough.’

Arlen inhaled deeply, breathing in rhythm for a few moments as he centred himself. It was ironic that a Krasian meditation technique gave solace here, but Renna was glad for it nevertheless.

‘What’d he do?’ she asked after a moment.

‘Took the spear in the night,’ Arlen said. ‘Laid a trap and smiled as his men threw me in a demon pit to be cored. Now he’s come north, meaning to enslave us all for a new demon war.’

‘So kill him and have done,’ Renna said. ‘World’s better off without some folk.’

Arlen sighed. ‘Sometimes I think that I’m the one the world would be better off without.’

‘Say again?’ Renna asked. ‘You can’t seriously be comparing yourself to that …’

‘Ent excusing Jardir,’ Arlen said. ‘But try as I might, can’t help but think none of this would have happened, not to you, the Rizonans, or anyone, if I’d just kept our promise and stayed on the farm. Everyone’s looking to me to put things right, but how can I, when I’m the one made it all wrong?’

Renna gritted her teeth and slapped him in the face. Arlen recoiled, looking at her in shock. Evey and some of the patients looked up at the sound, but Renna ignored them.

‘Don’t you go looking surprised, Arlen Bales,’ she said. ‘You’re the one told me to slap the fool out of any not helping shore the wards, and it’s almost dark. You ent done nothing but true by anyone I seen, and we don’t got time for another lick of this nonsense.’

Arlen shook his head as if to clear it, and then suddenly he was smiling at her. ‘Love you, Renna Tanner.’

Renna felt a thrill rush through her, but embraced the feeling and let it pass. There was business to attend to. ‘Scrounged and made enough posts to go three-quarters of the way around the camp. Had to draw wards in the dirt to close the circuit.’

‘Never trust dirt wards,’ Arlen said.

‘Ent a fool,’ Renna said. ‘Posted guards with warded spears, but half Varley’s men are dozing like they’re playing possum on the road, and the other half are ready to piss themselves.’

Arlen nodded, and that hint of smile was back in the corner of his mouth. ‘Don’t worry. I’m getting good at this next part.’

Renna led the way to where the guards stood, and just as she’d said, there were half a dozen who gripped their new warded spears with shaking hands, and then another group, Varley’s bandits led by Donn and Brice, lounging on the ground playing Succour. Their warded weapons lay nearby, half forgotten. The wagons and warded tents were all shut, but there were plenty without such shelter that watched in fear as the sun set. Varley stood nearby, but still he held no weapon. He wrung his hat in his hands.

Everyone looked at Arlen as he passed. There were whispers from every part of the camp, and Renna even saw some of the wagon shutters and tent flaps peek open.

Arlen walked right over to Varley’s men, kicking a shaking cup of dice right from Donn’s hand.

‘Ay, what’s that about?’ the man cried.

‘The sun is setting and you’re playing at dice is what it’s about,’ Arlen snapped.

‘You crazy, Donn, talkin’ back to the Deliverer?’ Brice asked.

‘He ent the Deliverer,’ Donn said. ‘Said so himself.’ He turned to Arlen. ‘Sun ent gonna set for ten minutes, and there’s wards right there in the dirt for all to see.’

‘Can’t trust wards in the dirt,’ Arlen said.

Donn looked up. ‘Don’t look like rain to me.’

‘Ent just rain you got to worry about,’ Arlen said, going to inspect the wards. ‘Anything can scuff out a dirt ward.’ With that, he reached out with his sandalled foot and rubbed out a yard of Renna’s carefully drawn wards. She gasped, but Arlen laughed as the men scrambled to their feet, grabbing their weapons.

‘Ten minutes doesn’t feel like such a long time any more, does it?’ he called loudly, for the whole camp to hear.

‘Creator, are you cracked?’ Varley cried, but Arlen ignored him, striding back over to the dicers.

He nodded to Donn, now gripping his new warded spear tightly. The others, too, had quickly grabbed their warded weapons. ‘Now, you show respect for the coming night.’

Donn glared at him. ‘You’d best be the Deliverer now, ’cause if you ent, you are made of crazy.’

Arlen smiled and moved to face the other men, who now seemed doubly terrified — and with good reason. Already it was dark enough that Renna’s warded sight was coming to life. Luminescent wisps of magic, invisible to the others, were beginning to seep from the ground, pooling in the shadows and strengthening against the light. Soon the paths to the Core would open fully and the demons would rise.

Jered, who was barely sixteen, clutched his spear so tightly his knuckles showed white. ‘Why’d you go and do that? Don’t wanna die.’

‘Everyone dies,’ Arlen said. ‘It’s how we die that matters. Do you want to die because you were too piss-scared to defend yourself? You want your family to die because your knees buckled when you were supposed to protect them? Or do you want to take a coreling with you? Maybe more’n one?’

‘You need to let demons into our camp to make your point, boy?’ Varley demanded. He pointed as he did at the shapes of demons beginning to form just outside the clearing as full dark fell upon them.

‘Ent no demon getting in this camp,’ Arlen said, and he drew a deep breath. Renna watched as the soft glowing mist at Arlen’s feet suddenly rushed towards him like smoke sucked into a bellows. The air around him grew dark as Arlen absorbed the magic, then brightened again as the wards on his skin flared to life. Even the unwarded eyes of the Oatingers could see it, and they gasped as one.

A field demon solidified and ran towards the gap in the wards. Somewhere in the camp a woman screamed. Arlen swept a hand through the air, drawing a large ward. It flared to life as the demon struck the spot, its leap checked in mid-air with a crunch. The magic rebounded, throwing the demon back away from the camp.

‘Creator,’ Varley whispered.

‘Mind if I borrow your spear?’ Arlen asked Jered, snatching the weapon from the boy’s nerveless fingers.

Arlen stepped out beyond the ward, pointing to the recovering demon with the spear. ‘See how the field demon had to thrash to get to its feet,’ he called loudly for all to hear. ‘There ent nothing faster on four legs, and their sharp scales can blunt the attack of even a warded spear …’ The demon leapt at him, but Arlen stepped nimbly to the side, striking the demon with the butt of the spear. Impact wards flared, flipping the demon onto its back. ‘… but put it off its feet, and you expose its belly, which ent armoured for spit.’ He struck hard, putting the spear directly into the demon’s chest.

As he spoke, Renna moved to confront the next demon taking form. She inhaled as Arlen had, willing the ambient magic into herself. The air about her did not darken, but Renna could swear she felt something. The day’s weariness was gone. She felt strong.

The field demon swiped at her, its arm like a whip, but Renna saw the move coming and was well ahead of the flashing talons. She darted in before it could recover, whipping her beaded necklace around its throat. The wards painted on the brook stones flared to life, crushing inward. The demon tried to scream, but it came out a hoarse gasp. Renna locked her legs around it, carefully tucked in behind the claws as it rolled and thrashed about. Another moment, then a flash of magic as the beads came free with a jerk and the demon’s head fell free. She drew Harl’s knife and watched the other demons that stalked the area as Arlen continued his lesson.

It was nearly morning when Arlen approached the healing tent. All the Oatingers were asleep except for the guards patrolling the wards. Renna had finished the remaining wardposts, and Arlen had given Varley a map to Deadwell. He drew a little skull over the town well.

‘Sure you gotta do this?’ Renna asked.

Arlen nodded. ‘Can’t turn a blind eye, Ren.’

‘Don’t suppose you can,’ Renna said. ‘So do it quick, while no one’s looking.’

Arlen knelt by the young girl, armless and dying of demon fever, and drew wards in the air. The girl breathed in sharply as the magic swept through her, then relaxed again. The redness and blisters faded from her face, and a healthy pallor began to return to her skin.

‘Where’d you learn healin’ wards, anyhow?’ Renna asked. ‘You pull that from the demon’s mind?’

‘Sort of,’ Arlen said. ‘Ent exactly healing wards. Body wants to make itself well and knows what to do. The wards just give it power to do it fast.’

Arlen moved from one patient to the next, working quickly. He had charged himself with as much energy as he could hold, but it faded quickly with the healing. Soon he was swaying. Finally, his eyes half closed and he stumbled.

Renna was there in an instant to catch him. ‘That’s enough,’ she whispered. ‘Done what you could. Will you kill yourself to heal the rest?’

‘Sneaks up,’ Arlen said. ‘Feel invincible one second, and like I’m drowning the next. Need to learn my limits.’ He drew a deep breath, and again all the magic pooling across the ground like fog was drawn to him. The glow of his wards brightened, but it was nothing compared with the power he had radiated just a few minutes before. He looked haggard, and there were dark circles beneath his eyes.

‘Time to go,’ Renna said.

They galloped for several miles before Renna pulled up. Arlen wheeled Twilight Dancer around when he noticed her fall behind.

‘Go,’ Renna said.

‘Eh?’ Arlen asked.

‘Hunt something,’ Renna said. ‘Ent light yet, and you need more than just the magic in the air to get back up to speed. This ent the time to be getting sloppy.’

Arlen tilted his head, considering her, and that hint of smile crept back onto his face.

Renna was cold to it. She pointed off the Messenger road to the plains. ‘Go.’

He nodded and was off, leaping Twilight Dancer off the road and onto the grasses. Renna waited until he was out of sight, then turned Promise and galloped back the way they had come.

She didn’t have a lot of time, but Renna didn’t need a lot. The wood demon she had glimpsed a few minutes before was still lurking by the thick tree that had hidden it from Arlen’s warded eyes.

She ran Promise right up to the tree and set her kicking, warded hooves exploding into the demon like thunderbolts, hurling it twisted and broken to the ground.

Renna leapt lightly from the horse, drawing Harl’s knife. Arlen’s pushing himself hard.

The demon thrashed as she came for it. Already, its magic was healing its wounds. In moments it would be ready to attack her again, but the demon did not have moments. Wood demon armour was a thick tough skin, gnarled and knobbed, with heavy bone plates jutting from beneath. The ridges between the plates were where they were most vulnerable. Renna struck hard, prising the demon’s breast plates apart and cutting its heart out before it stopped writhing.

He’d have kept on healing folk until it killed him. Always trying to give his life for someone, Arlen Bales. That ent changed in all these years.

It almost seemed to frustrate Arlen that he could find no demon great enough to destroy him, no burden too great to bear. He would keep seeking until he found one. Always trying to die a Krasian death.

Renna bit into the demon’s heart. It was foul and bitter, slick with black ichor, slimy and tough. There was a burst as her teeth met, sending some even fouler liquid spraying in her mouth. She thought there could be no viler taste until she retched, bile flooding around the half-chewn demon heart and up into her nostrils. She longed to spit the horrid mixture on the ground and give heave to her stomach, but she ground her teeth instead.

Arlen can’t find his death here, he’s gonna look for it in the Core, and I ent letting him go alone. Promised to stay with him, and never slow him down.

Renna swallowed, letting the tears stream down her face. She embraced the nausea, riding it like she had ridden Promise that first time, forgetting all else and holding on until her stomach finally calmed. Then she took another bite.

She had collected herself when Arlen returned, his glow restored. The dark circles were gone from his eyes, his movements sharp and agile once more. And his blood was up. She could hear it in his breathing and see the magic crackling around him, bringing with it primal urges not easily suppressed.

She felt much the same. Only the utmost concentration let her keep focus on the wards she was painting onto Promise’s blotched coat. The mare swatted Renna with her tail, but didn’t nip or pull away.

‘Feeling stronger?’ she asked.

Arlen nodded. ‘Still feel off, though. Charged and exhausted at the same time. But it’ll do. We got a long way to ride, and I don’t mean to stop till we reach the Hollow.’

He pointed. ‘Path up ahead will take us east to the Old Hill Road. Fell out of use ’round ninety years ago when the corelings destroyed Fort Hill. Should give us a straight, clear run to the Hollow. We ride on through tomorrow night and we’ll be there noon the next day.’

Renna nodded. ‘Who’s Leesha Paper to you?’

Arlen breathed three times in rhythm, the surest tell he was embracing some feeling or memory, but there was no way to know what that might be. ‘Leesha Paper is Herb Gatherer of Deliverer’s Hollow, but she’s more like Selia Barren from back in the Brook. People hop when she claps. Innkeep in Riverbridge said Jardir snatched her from the Hollow and forced her to his bed. Need to see if that’s so. Pick up the trail, if I can. Find out Jardir laid a finger on her, gonna kill him.’

Renna smiled. ‘Wouldn’t be the man I love if you didn’t. What he did to you, I’m part fixin’ to kill him myself.’

‘Don’t you go tryin’ that, Ren,’ Arlen said. ‘You ent a match for him, no matter what you think you’ve learned. Jardir’s been fighting demons since before either of us was born.’

Renna shrugged. ‘Still haven’t answered my question. Din’t ask “Who’s Leesha Paper?” Asked “Who’s Leesha Paper, to you?” Hear tell the Krasians been forcing a lot of women to their beds. Why’s this the one that makes you come running?’

‘She’s my friend,’ Arlen said.

‘You don’t talk about her like a friend,’ Renna said. ‘You go all stiff. Cold. Can’t read you. Makes me think you’re hidin’ somethin’.’

Arlen looked at her and sighed. ‘What do you want me to say, Ren? You’ve got your Cobie Fishers, and I’ve got mine.’

‘Cobie Fisher is one,’ Renna said, feeling her blood pounding in her veins. ‘Da drove off any other boy who came to court more’n once. How many you got?’

Arlen shrugged. ‘Two or three.’

‘Well ent you popular.’ Renna spat. She could feel the monster raging within her, the demon essence, shrieking for violence. She gritted her teeth. It was too big to embrace. It was overwhelming. She tensed, fighting back the urge to leap at him. To kill him, even.

‘What?’ Arlen snapped, seeing the fierce look in her eyes and returning it tenfold. ‘Was I supposed to hold true because our das bartered us like cattle? I left Tibbet’s Brook and never meant to come back, Ren.’

Renna recoiled. Arlen Bales, just the idea of him and the memory of that kiss in the hayloft and her words of promise, had been Renna Tanner’s whole world when she was young. Dreams of Arlen had kept her going through hard times that would have broken other folk. That did break other folk. The thought that she had meant nothing to him back then, that she didn’t even enter into his thoughts, was too harsh to bear.

Arlen rushed at her, and instinctively she drew her knife. He was quicker, grabbing her wrists and holding them down with the strength of a rock demon. She strained against him uselessly.

‘Din’t know the girl you were then,’ Arlen said. ‘Or the woman you’d be. I had, I would have turned right around to take you away with me.’

Renna stopped struggling and looked at him. ‘You mean that?’

‘Honest word,’ Arlen said. ‘You askin’ if I got some past with women? Ay, I do. But past, as in done.’ He reached out, cupping her face and lifting it so their eyes met. ‘My future is Renna Tanner.’

Renna let her knife drop to the ground, but when he let her go, she still leapt on him.