Thelonious looked at the deer and shrugged. ‘Wolf, probably. Herd left it behind,’ he told her.
Syline felt a pang of sympathy for the deer. Had she not been found by Thelonious, there was a good chance she’d have been picked apart by a different kind of wolf. She pushed that sympathy aside; she couldn’t keep sniffling for every animal in her path. It was hardly fair for all the animals she’d eaten at a dinner table, far removed from the wild and the actual impact of killing them. Thelonious pulled a knife from his belt, ready to start preparing the deer, but Syline sat up and held out an arm.
‘Stop, I can do that. I, er, I found a special trick for preparing animals. I should do something useful.’
Thelonious looked from her to the deer, considering it a few moments. ‘Are you sure? Wouldn’t want you to get your hands all bloodied,’ he said, looking at her a little incredulously, his brow furrowing softly.
Syline winced ever so slightly, eyes darting to her duelling sword.
‘It’s fine, Thelonious. You’ve done plenty for me tonight, sit down and let your feet rest.’
The hellblooded relented with a shrug and sat down on the opposite side of the flames. He pulled out a metal flask and had a draught from it as he watched her.
Before she really got started however, he paused her to ask, ‘So, er, about my pay?’
Syline stopped in place. Of course, they hadn’t actually discussed that yet, and he was a mercenary. She turned to him with a little bashful grin.
‘Ah, right, well, I have a good bit of coin on me, my mother thought it was always important to carry enough to get you into or out of trouble.’ She let out a tiny, limp giggle as she said that, reaching into her satchel to pull out, hidden beneath her books, a velvet coin purse, filled with gold and silver coins, a veritable fortune to many less fortunate than her.
‘I can pay you as we go if you would like, but my family can offer you a lot more if we manage to sort this out and get back to them.’ It was only as she began to speak, she realised she might have overplayed her hand, revealing to this mercenary that she had a pouch full of gold. His for the taking, with the pair of them alone out in the wilds like this. But somehow, she didn’t feel like that was something she needed to worry about with him.
Thelonious didn’t reply at first, taking the time to consider what she’d said, stroking his clean-shaven chin before giving a small, brusque nod. ‘Right, sounds good to me, no need for tapping you for all you got when we’re still on the run. Hang onto your coin, we’ll worry about pay when I get you home safe.’
Syline lit up with a smile at that, heartened by his apparent kindness. After all, she was sure he could be doing more profitable things if he’d stayed in that town. Instead, he was going out of his way to help save her.
‘Well, we have a deal then?’
‘Deal’s a deal. Consider me officially your bodyguard.’
He let out a small chuckle, taking her tiny hand in his powerful, gauntleted one when she offered it and giving it a demure little shake.
With that settled, and a pleasant buzz about her for how well this was going so far, Syline crawled over to the doe, bringing her satchel with her. She brought forth her spell-book and scanned through it until she found that same spell of corpse sculpting. It was a grim spell to be sure, but she felt this was a better use for it than anything a real necromancer might do with such a power. She set to it, incanting the spell and working the animal’s body with the skill of a master, cleaner than any blade could manage. The skin was cleanly removed, guts and bile set in a pile out of their camp and each section of meat and muscle cleanly stripped from the bone and placed down in the snow.
Thelonious watched in silent amazement. It was only when she was finished did he speak, letting out an impressed grunt before saying, ‘Could make your way easy with that spell.’
She felt her cheeks flush red as she finished her labours. She’d kept the spell going a lot longer and used it a lot more precisely than she had with the rabbit. She didn’t feel particularly tired though and that sent a flush of pride through her breast. She was growing stronger as a mage. It was always adventurers who became famous archwizards, not archivists who spent their time organising shelves.
‘I could but, to be honest, I don’t think I’d really want to. It’s definitely a useful trick out here – especially since I have no clue how to do that without magic – but it’s not something I’d like to use every day. Like you said, it’s bloody work. Do you… you probably have more experience cooking than I do Thelonious, so would you mind taking it from here?’
‘Sure,’ he said, giving her a soft smile as he rose from where he’d been sitting, guiding her back so that he could work on the meat. Thelonious set to cooking the meal, the smell of it enough to rouse Corax and have the raven sitting excitedly on Syline’s lap, watching the meat roasting over the fire.
‘So,’ Thelonious said as the meal cooked, ‘who’re you running from? Promise I won’t turn you in or nothing; my word’s good. You’re a noble girl, right? Petranski’s the name of the king’s border guard. Are you his daughter?’
Syline was quite certain Thelonious had asked more questions in that one statement than he had since he’d met her. She took a few moments to work through what he had said, working through her response, as much of a one as she was willing to give him, at least.
She sighed.
‘Yes… yes, I’m a noblewoman. This really isn’t the sort of place I belong. I’d barely left the city in my life until two nights ago when everything went wrong. I found something that people didn’t want me to find.’
She pulled out from her satchel the great spell-book, the source of all this trouble.
‘This spell-book is full of all sorts of dangerous and illegal magic, the sort the king would have someone’s head for and I found it in the Petrov’s section of the grand library. Lady Jane caught me and tried to attack me when I cast some kind of lightning teleportation spell. I know she’s sent hunters after me. People who aren’t trying to catch me but trying to kill me.’ She took a breath.
Thelonious was silent but moved around the fire to offer his flask to her. She held it in her hands but just kept talking. It was nice for someone other than her diary and her raven to be privy to all this stress. To share it with someone.
‘That’s why I want to stay off the main roads. I need to find somewhere safe and secure, a way to send a message to the king, or anyone in charge, to stop Lady Jane. I can’t go to the guards because I know she has plenty of them in her pocket. I’ve already killed one who attacked me when I woke up outside the city…’
He let out a stunned chuckle. ‘I’d heard the Petranski women were tough, but…’ He trailed off, seeing her downcast expression. He reached to pat her on the shoulder, paused, and pulled his hand back. ‘I’m sure you did what you had to. But you don’t have to worry ’bout that no more. I’m here now. You can take a load off.’ He sighed as she stared into the fire. ‘Looks like you could use some of that, too.’ He nodded for her to drink from the flask.
‘What is it? It’s not alcohol, is it? My mother only lets me drink wine,’ Syline said, leaning down to sniff at the flask curiously.
The hellblooded chuckled. ‘Mother ain’t here, is she?’
‘But…’ Syline trailed off. She had no real excuse.
She gave the hellblooded a grin and undid the top of the flask. It smelled acrid and very strongly of apples. She had an experimental sip and very nearly coughed her lungs out. Thelonious slapped his knee with a hearty chortle.
‘What is that?!’ Syline squealed, thrusting the flask away as if it had attacked her.
‘Applejack, pour a little on the meat. A bit hard to drink if you ain’t used to it, but it tastes great used right.’
Syline did as he suggested. She’d no intent on drinking anymore of that stuff. It smelled like apples, but she swore it tasted like nothing but death. Still, she’d had plenty of meals that were cooked in wine, so she knew at least that it might well improve the meal. She drizzled the applejack over the meat, about a quarter of the flask, before handing it back to her new friend.
‘What about you?’ she asked him, settling in and running her hand down Corax’s spine. The raven, however, only had time for staring at the meat, expectantly.
‘Mmm?’ Thelonious looked over.
‘Well, tell me about yourself. All I know is you’re a kind, strong hellblooded who decided to save me when I needed someone most.’
