Missteps Book Two

Chapter Eleven – Snow, Ice, and a Little Fun

Just as Lia and Carric had predicated, the snowfall that night was quick, but heavy. It was another three days before the roads were clear enough for their cart to safely travel away from Aleton.

It was a tense three days as M.A. sat on their hands and waited back at their lodgings in the brewhouse.

Ander spent the majority of that time at the Chapterhouse, putting the final touches on his latest reports to Sageburrow under Bymer's watchful gaze.

Elaine took the opportunity to spend some time mending the group's clothing, with Lia and Carric's help. With the payday they'd gotten from Bymer, she floated the idea of purchasing new winter clothing for them all in Silverbank. No one complained.

That left Iados to keep Jun busy. It was becoming increasingly obvious to everyone that the berserker's mood was growing sourer all the time. It seemed that the fuse on his temper grew shorter every day, and it didn't take much to light it.

On the second day, Iados convinced the larger man to go into the snow with him, and help him hone up on his hand-to-hand combat. That turned out to be a mistake. After Iados escaped his grapple for the third time, Jun entered a verta-kochen and chased the akudaem around the large yard of the brewery.

For the first time since the akudaem had met the large human, he was truly afraid of the man. Usually when Jun looked at him with the red-eyed gaze of the verta-kochen, the akudaem could still see a measure of control. Through the haze and the rippling muscles, there was a deliberateness to the man's movements.

That day, none of that control was there.

With a deep growl in the back of his throat, the berserker lunged forward and caught Iados's ankle as he moved to jump out of the way. With a single swing, the dark violet form was thrown across the yard, scraping against the packed snow as he came to a stop.

"Alright big guy, I've had enough." Iados said through gritted teeth as he shakily came to his feet. His right arm burned from the rough abrasion of the snow.

Jun didn't stop. With a single-minded focus, the larger man stomped towards the akudaem.

Iados backed up till he hit the cold stone of the outer wall. His eyes flicked towards the two-story dormitory house. Should he call out for help? Could he make it if he ran? His eyes flicked back to the menacing form of his friend.

Could he take Jun out on his own?

With wide eyes, the former pirate watched as Jun wrenched a broken length of wood out from the snow, and continue his advance. Iados grimaced, and put his fists up in front of him.

Before the two could collide, a voice rang out behind Jun.

"What are you two doing out here in the cold?"

Iados leaned around, and saw Ander, bundled up in a thick cloak, hands on hips as he stared at the two of them.

His attention diverted, Jun turned his red-eyed gaze towards Ander as he faced him. The akudaem saw more than heard the large gulp from Ander as the full-force of the verta-kochen came upon him.

"Get out of here!" Iados yelled out towards the halfling.

Ander didn't move. He shook his head, narrowed his eyes, and seemed to curse under his breath. In one move, the small halfling picked up a handful of snow, and pitched it towards the berserker. Amazingly, the impromptu snow ball landed right in Jun's face.

The human took a step back in surprise. When he went up to wipe the snow from his eyes, Iados was relieved to see the red ring dissipate from his irises.

"What the hell was that?" Jun growled as he angrily wiped his damp hands on his trousers.

The halfling crossed his arms. "Bringing you back to your senses. For a moment there I saw Bidrek's ugly mug instead of yours."

The akudaem cocked a blond eyebrow, wondering what one of the other Tribe champions had to do with the current situation.

It seemed to mean something to Jun, as his shoulders stiffened and he took a menacing step towards the small wizard.

"You take that back." He growled.

Ander shook his head. "All I did was call it like I saw it." He pointed towards the door of the perimeter wall. "Why don't you go take a walk in the snow and calm down, before you hurt anyone else. Or are you looking to recreate that red battlefield you told us about?"

Jun's eyes widened just as if the small man had slapped him across the face. He glanced over his shoulder, and saw how Iados cradled his arm. With a look of horror, Jun stumbled away from the two of them, and out the door.

Ander gestured for Iados to come closer. He took a look at the former pirate's skinned arm. "Does it hurt?"

The akudaem shook his head. "I'm betting Jun's hurting a lot more." His mind flashed back to the night in the cave that the group had played 'Truth or Pay' all those months ago. "You had to throw that story in his face?"

"He told us for a reason." The halfling scooped up a handful of snow and rubbed it on the dark arm. "What do you say we keep this incident between just the two of us for now?"

Iados winced from the pressure, but that was only for a moment as relief quickly set in. "Only if you tell me more about this Bidrek."

The halfling flicked his eyes towards the dormitory. "Deal, but let's go grab a drink somewhere. Not sure Jun would appreciate everyone knowing."

Jun didn't return to the dormitory till about midnight that night. His skin was cold and clammy, and had a slightly blue tinge to it. Elaine immediately approached him, berating him for being in the cold so long. When she tried to touch him, her hand already glowing, he grabbed her wrist.

"Leave it be," He said in a low tone. The berserker didn't look at her. He let go of her wrist, and solemnly disappeared upstairs to his room.

Elaine didn't say anything else as she watched him leave.

The next morning, Carric deemed the roads clear enough for travel, and they set off. Halfway into their two-day trek to Lorbridge, the weather took a turn for the worse. Freezing rain started just as the sun ducked behind the horizon. By morning, the entire area sparkled under a thick layer of ice. It took the combined efforts of both Jun and Carric to force open the door to their tower.

"How's it look?" Lia asked when the ranger returned from his inspection. She sat on one of the benches feeding their horse some feed. It hadn't taken too much convincing the night before to get the animal to spend the night in the magic tower instead of outside. Besides Ander, the only other one who seemed to have issue with the arrangement had been Shomma. The weasel steadfastly refused to leave the second floor so long as the horse was inside.

Carric pulled off his gloves and immediately went over to warm his hands over the warm stove. "Good news is that the cart made it through in one piece."

Iados raised an eyebrow as he tore off a chuck of bread from the morning loaf. "What's the bad news?"

"I'm not confident in the temps rising enough today to melt all the ice. We probably won't be on the road again till tomorrow afternoon." The ranger answered.

"At this rate we may as well find someplace to hole up till winter's over." Ander grumbled as he passed over a cup of warm coffee to the red-haired ranger. "We seem to be spending more time waiting for weather than actually accomplishing anything."

"If we can make it to Rocklyn, we could hole up there. That would put us at least halfway closer to the valley than we are now." Iados suggested. "Another couple of months and spring'll start making its appearance."

"Why not just stay in Lorbridge or Silverbank?" Elaine suggested. "We could even back track and hunker down in Aleton."

Lia shook her head. "I'd rather be on the road, and personally would like to spend as little time in Silverbank as possible."

"If we settle down in Lorbridge, all we're gonna do is be in Kerri's way." Carric admitted as he looked at Elaine. "At this point, I think Rocklyn is going to be our best shot. What do you say Jun?"

They all turned to look at the berserker, who sat at the desk across the room, alone. Ever since the incident in the yard with Iados, he'd preferred keeping distant from the others. He'd even gone so far as to move his mattress from the boys' room upstairs to across the room from the horse.

Jun didn't look up from his plate of food, only nodded as he stared at the large map that hung above the desk.

So another tense day was spent in the small tower. On the second day, they didn't have to wait till the afternoon to head out, and by nightfall they'd arrived in Lorbridge.

Unanimously, M.A. decided to get individual rooms for the night at one of the nicer establishments in town. The atmosphere had gotten so thick, that even Lia and Iados opted for their own rooms instead of sharing.

So-needed was a day of actual rest, that the group spent an extra day of fun in the city. First on the agenda, was to wash away the grime of the road. The establishment's concierge was more than happy to suggest a local bathhouse.

The TrimTop Bathhouse turned out to be much more than just a place to bathe. The establishment offered an entire line of beauty and therapeutic regimens. In addition to bathing, everyone jumped at the chance for a massage. For a nominal fee, the staff turned a blind-eye to the sight of the dog-sized weasel that accompanied the group.

After, the TrimTop got a chance to prove where their name came from when a trio of akudaem women approached them, hair clippers in hand. One of them, a light-purple skinned woman named Vera, recognized Iados on the spot.

"When did you get back from sea?" Vera asked as she gave the former pirate a tight hug.

"Been a few months." Iados returned the hug. "When did you leave Esterwill?"

"Couple years, you hear what happened?" The woman's voice went low. Behind her the other two women approached the rest of the group as they offered up their hairstyling services.

Iados grimaced. "You mean the wall and the racism, yeah. Your family still there?"

Vera nodded and sighed. Behind her, her thin tail swished along the floor forlornly. "Last I heard, there were talks of letting a select few out of the city, in a kind of voluntary exile. Problem is, thanks to Tordess and her cronies, it's hard to distinguish the bad apples from the rest of the barrel."

"I was rather hoping someone had put that bitch in her place by now." Lia piped up. She stepped up next to her boyfriend and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Lia."

"I'm guessing you're his latest fling?" Vera smirked as she shook the hand. "I and he fooled around a bit before he choose the sea."

Iados reached up and scratched the back of his head. "Actually, she's more than a fling."

The hairdresser's eyes widened as she looked at Lia anew. "How in the world did you get him to commit?"

"Compromise and patience." Lia laughed. "Don't worry, we're still figuring it out. So, how good of a hairdresser are you?"

Vera crossed her arms. "Good enough to land a job in this place. What are you in the mood for?"

Besides Lia, both Elaine and Carric chose to get their hair done. The other three, and Shomma, took the opportunity to swing by the entertainer's guild.

Elaine jumped at the chance to get her hair cleaned and groomed. It'd been far too long since her hair had been properly conditioned, and her scalp oiled. She'd done what she could on the road, but this wasn't an opportunity she could pass up. Afterwards, her hair was braided in a plethora of box braids that ended just past her shoulder.

The stylist who worked on Carric nearly cried when the half-elf had her cut off nearly all his hair. The sides and back of his head were neatly shaved down to barely half an inch. The hair on the top of his head was cut to only two to three inches in length, before being swooped back to the back of his head. His one strand of white hair was pushed back with the rest.

Lia didn't go as drastic as Carric with her cut, though she did have Vera cut her long blonde hair into a messy bob that parted along the side.

Throughout the style, Vera kept up a litany of short stories of a teenaged Iados, running through the streets of Esterwill like he owned them. From petty theft and vandalism, to the more serious offences of providing false alibis for his not-as-nimble friends. Many of the stories ended with his mother invoking some sort of community service punishment for not only her son, but for any misbehaving children (akudaem or not) that she caught. When Tordess began causing trouble in the neighborhood, it surprised no one when Criella stepped up against her.

With their hair done, the trio went over to the entertainer's guild to meet up with the others. They were all dismayed to learn that Kerri had already left town, and hadn't bothered to leave her next destination behind.

Elaine and Lia were excited to learn that the guild was putting on a show that night, and wasted no time securing seats. Carric and Ander quickly bowed out of the gathering, opting instead to spend the evening in a pub attached to their lodgings.

Both Jun and Iados joined the girls, but bailed before half-time. What had started as a typical love story, had quickly devolved into a very dramatic tale of missed connections, half-truths, and too many twists.

While both girls stayed for the entirety of the performance, neither of them paid much attention. Elaine struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to her, while Shomma dozed in her lap. Lia faded in and out of sleep, slumped down in her chair.

Jun headed back over to the inn to join Carric and Ander in the pub. Iados took the opportunity to wander about the guild campus. At one point he found himself in the library, wandering about the shelves and observing the items within their glass prisons.

One case held the broken remains of a lute, the small placard naming it as 'The Lute that Calmed a Thousand Ships'. In a second case was a wood-carved vase, which had been made to look like a mess of swirling vines. In the vase were five glass tulips, each of them painted a different color.

Iados looked around the case, looking for its placard, but it was nowhere to be seen. After he'd knelt down and checked behind the case, he plucked the eyepatch out of a pants pocket, put it over his eye, and attempted to see into the case.

"Are you defecating in my library?" A sharp voice rang out above him.

A startled Iados jumped slightly and landed on his butt from his kneeling position. When he looked up, there was a dark-skinned woman on a second story landing he hadn't seen before, glaring daggers at him.

"No," The akudaem said as he scrambled to his feet. "I was actually looking for the placard for these flowers." He motioned towards the case in question.

The woman narrowed her eyes. She made a motion with her hand, and the section of landing that she stood upon, suddenly began to drop. Within a few moments, it had reached Iados's floor, and she began to stride towards him. The former pirate could not read her face enough to decide whether he should be scared or not.

She approached the case, and did a quick scan of it herself. "Hmm, the placard does seem to be missing. I'll have someone replace it tomorrow."

Iados nodded. "What are they called?"

"'The Wives of the Damned'." The woman clicked her tongue forlornly. "Supposedly each flower represents a woman who agreed to marry a great demon. He crafted each one a tulip as a wedding present, and when the wife would inevitably die either by suicide, murder, or other, he'd add the flower to the vase he kept next to his throne."

The former pirate arched an eyebrow. "How'd it get here?"

The woman smiled. "His final wife brought it to our realm after she slew her demonic husband, and released the souls of her predecessors." She turned to face him. "What is your name anyhow, and why are you in the library? I know you're not a guild member."

"Name's Iados," he stuck out his hand. "I got bored of the production and just started walking. You?"

She shook his hand. "My name is Xayoe Recklenton, I'm a master here. Is there anything in particular you're looking for?"

He shrugged. "Got anything on sea witches?"

Xayoe laughed. "I'm afraid you're going to have to be more specific than that. The term 'sea witch' is kind of a catch-all."

"How about one in the Sapphire Ocean or Parting Strait?"

She tapped a finger to her chin. "Currently, or in the past?"

Iados's eyes widened slightly. "You got anything on the current one?"

The smile grew on the master's face as she gestured with her finger for the akudaem to follow her. They clambered back onto the platform, and with another gesture it began to ascend and rejoin the rest of the second floor balcony.

Up top, was a long table with various pieces of paper held down by small stones, and connected by a myriad of colored threads. As Xayoe led the way to the head of the table, Iados peered down at the information. Most of it was dated recently, or not at all, and seemed to be eyewitness accounts of the terrible events at sea. A few of the accounts included drawings of swirling masses of water that attacked their ships.

With a sense of dread, Iados recognized those swirling masses as the same kind that the witch had not only summoned under the sea, but had also tried to nab him at the bridge in Osthom.

"This particular sea witch showed up this year, though it is difficult to nail down an exact time." Xayoe began as she pulled out a half-buried piece of long parchment. A timeline was in the process of being recorded upon it. "Every day more accounts arrive, and it seems that whoever this witch is, she's just getting started." The older woman pulled out another sheaf of parchment and handed it to him. "This is the best sketch we've gotten of her so far, she mostly sends her minions to do her work."

As Iados stared down at the image of a plain woman in a simple skirt and vest. He shook his head. "This is wrong. First off, she has blue skin. There were these fins and spikes that came out of her head, but they twisted around and formed a crown on top of her head. She also wore a lot of jewelry, like an obnoxious amount."

"Do you mean to tell me that you've met her?" Xayoe asked, her mouth slightly ajar as she stared at him.

He nodded. "I haven't just met her, I was there when she was released. She killed my captain, most of my crew, and I'm pretty sure she's still after me." He held up his right hand, and pointed out the small, black dot in the middle of his palm.

The dark-skinned woman grabbed his hand and lightly prodded the dot. "Does it hurt?"

"No, it's just an ugly reminder." He looked back over the table. "So why are you collecting all of this? Just information, or a hunting trip?"

"Bit of both," Xayoe said as she let go of his hand. "This sea witch seems to be hitting boats indiscriminately. Pirate, merchant, leisure, Marblebrooke, Lirathan, it doesn't matter. The ship is pulled into the sea, and the crew is never seen again, except for the odd survivor here or there." She pulled out a chair and gestured for him to sit as she settled herself in another chair and pulled a blank piece of parchment and a quill closer to her. "Now, I'm going to need you to tell me the entire story, from the beginning. Don't leave out any details, no matter how small you may think it is."

Iados leaned forward. "I'll do it one condition."

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. "And what condition would that be?"

"Refund my friends and I for that terrible show."

Xayoe laughed out loud. "That can be done easily enough. Now, where was she imprisoned?"

The former pirate shook his head. "If you want the entire story, then before I tell you about the final adventure of The Howling King, we have to start with Captain Eldon, and his search for the jade key."

It took most of the night before Master Xayoe was satisfied enough to allow Iados to go back to his lodgings. Even though he could see the beginnings of dawn on the horizon as he settled into his bed, the former pirate felt more at peace with his past than he'd ever been. Finally, his crew's tale had been told. It wasn't just the crew's tale either, it was the sea witch's, and soon there would be nowhere in the ocean for her to hide.

He only hoped he'd be there when she died. Better yet, he wanted to be the one to do it.