“THATCH!”

  The man stepped in looking furious. Behind him were a handful of armed guards. Saarsken had a fire in his eyes, but he looked the same as he did when they first met in the canyon. The green light was gone. He was Saarsken, not the Firstborn. He locked onto Thatch,

  “You dare to take my mind. You assault my guards. You break our deal. Do you honestly expect me to let that happen without recompense?!”

  “Saarsken, listen to me-” Thatch started

  “I WILL NOT!” Saarsken barked

  Diago stepped up, “Hey, jynx breath! You’ve got the wrong idea!”

  Saarsken scowled at the young man before him, “Well if it isn’t the Shadow of Tunaan, you are supposed to be dead. Wrayden will not be happy to hear otherwise. Step aside, boy. I have plenty in store for you. First, the traitor.”

  Saarsken stepped forward, gripping tightly to his sword. Aylah stepped in front of Thatch. She said nothing, rather she whipped out her bow, unfolded it, and notched an arrow in one fluid motion. With an arrow pointed directly between his eyes, one might expect Saarsken to falter, but one would be wrong. He laughed at the display,

  “When you have crossed a line, you tend to recognize those who have done the same” He began slowly walking forward, fingers twitching their grip on his sword handle. He smiled, “you have not. Do you have the strength to cross, Onterrin?”

  Aylah was keeping her face cold an stony, but Diago noticed a slight tremor in her legs. She was scared.

  “You can’t” he continued to walk forward and his voice got lower and more menacing, “that will cost you.”

  The world closed in around Saarsken’s face for Aylah. Her breathing constricted. Saarsken’s killer intent beamed on his face, showing a sinister joy for the action he was about to take. His hand was just beginning to rise to strike Aylah when a metal ball tied to a cord of rope smashed into Saarsken’s head, knocking him down hard.

  Simultaneously, two guards directly behind the now limp aggressor, fell just as

  Saarsken had, though for no apparent reason.

  Aylah whipped around to see a smug Diago and Thatch looking satisfied with himself. Before any snide comments from Diago could come, Saaraken, who was somehow still conscious, though in great pain, cried out,

  “GET THEM!”

  Chaos insued. There were more guards begind Saarsken than was orionally assumed. After five or six had barreled in, with more on the way, Diago decided that if they were going to make it out of this, they were going to need help. He rushed for the first guard, taking him by surprise and threw him into a table of burly looking men.

  “Hey!”

  It would seem every occupant of the tavern, which had been content to simply watch the happenings take place, decided to join the fray. Tankards were thrown. Tables were smashed. Faces bloodied. Bodies slid across the bar top. Diago told himself to apologize to Hult at some point. Thatch grabbed a sword from one of the men he knocked out and took on a guard rushing for him. Aylah, deciding that using her bow in this setting would be a bad idea, flung it across her shoulders and took out the knife in her boot. She sidestepped a blade and ran her own across nonvital spots on the assailant, downing him quickly. Diago was having fun. The benefit of having a bludgeoner, or any weapon for that matter, connected to the Kurigan was the constant reuses. The guards carrying swords quickly discovered that Diago’s reach was greater than theirs, though too late. Three fell quickly before the others could learn to be cautious. However enjoyable the fray might have been, a half dozen more guards came in. Given the size of this scuffle, it would be moments before the Honor Guard came and that would be problematic.

  “Diago! Aylah! We need to get out of here!” Cried Thatch as he sent a pommel directly into a guard’s nose.

  “Busy!” Replied Aylah who was fighting off two guards at once, a knife in one hand and a broken chair in the other.

  “Just a few more seconds!” Said Diago. A guard had slipped past his defenses and had him in a chokehold.

  Diago was struggling, but wasn’t getting anywhere. Then, the guards grip released and he fell to the ground. Diago coughed and wheezed and then looked around to see Hult with a leg of a broken table which he had just used to free Diago.

  “Get out of here while you can boy!” He said rushing toward a large group.

  Diago didn’t have time to thank him, instead, he ran forward and tackled one of the guards giving Aylah a hard time.

  “You owe me again Tantoos!” Diago said as Aylah knocked out the remaining guard.

  “Come on!” Thatch yelled by the door. He had fought his way there and was now waiting for them. Aylah and Diago pushed and shoved and ran their way to the door and the three of them left the tavern together.

  Outside there were a few guards still waiting for orders, about six. That wouldn’t have been so bad on its own. No, what was bad was the dozen or so Honor Guard heading their way.

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  “We need a way out of here!” Warned Thatch as the guards began approaching with brandished swords.

  Almost like an answer to a prayer, an old man came rushing up riding a talard and pulling three more behind. He crashed into the first few guards, causing the rest to stumble backward.

  “Get on quickly!” He said

  The moment was far too intense to ask questions, the three of them climbed onto the backs of the talards and rushed away, leaving the Honor Guard to deal with the mess behind.

  They pushed the talards until they were outside the town limit. Diago lagged behind, looking around. He was happy to find that Saama had indeed followed them and was now close behind. The group kept pressing onward until they found cover in the closest forest.

  As they came to a stop, the talards became very skittish in Saama’s presence. Diago hopped off his talard before it threw him off. Saama came to Diago’s side and gave a ferocious growl toward the man who had helped them. Diago finally got the chance to get a good look at him as he and the others were dismounting. He was shorter and a bit frail-looking. He was bald and had a scraggly-looking white beard. At his side was a sword with a chipped blade. The rest dismounted.

  “Thanks for coming to help us,” Thatch said

  “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t shown up” Said Aylah while petting the talard she had been riding.

  “It was nothing. I saw most of what happened, s’about time someone gave that

  Saarsken a good smack!” The old man began cackling.

  Saama inched closer in curiosity, but backed away again with the same firce growl. Diago couldn’t explain how, but Saama’s reaction effected him at a deep level. He was immediately on edge. The old man looked at the jynx cautiously and backed away. Diago’s instincts were on the fritz and they were telling him to stay away from the old man. However, he couldn’t explain why to his friends so he had Saama back up a ways.

  “Not every day you see a jynx as a pet. How’d ya train her I wonder?” Asked the old man.

  “She just likes me” replied Diago

  The old man seemed genuinely interested in that and considered it a moment, while eyeing Diago, before shrugging and continuing, “Well now, ‘suppose you’d be trying to get out of town for a while eh?”

  Thatch answered this time, “We’ll have to. We might head to Sulaaris, but It would take a long time on foot.”

  To Diago and Aylah it seemed far too obvious that Thatch was trying to get the old man to offer his steeds to them, but for whatever reason, the old man didn’t seem to mind, as made clear by what he said next, “well now, that is a happy happening isn’t it? I am headed that way myself. Why don’t you ride my bunch till we get there? There is one condition though, I am in a hurry and need to take the Darkened Path.”

  Diago was fond of his luck, it had followed him his whole life, but there was a difference between luck and to-good-to-be-true.

  “That path is only for the most desperate” Diago prodded

  “Eh, I am too old to be scared away by folksy tales. Besides, if we pass the tree at the right time, there shouldn’t be any problems. Every desperate traveler knows that” the old man cackled again.

  “There is a time when it’s safe?” Asked Aylah

  Diago shook his head, “it’s basically no time at all. Right as twilight ends and dark begins the creatures lurking around the tree vacate the area. That is when the place is supposed to be flooded with ghosts and strange disappearances.”

  Diago could see that both Thatch and Aylah were ready to accept the offer, but he wasn’t. He looked over to Saama and then whispered under his breath so that only Aylah could hear him,

  “I don’t like this. I don’t trust him”

  Aylah’s ears perked up when he did and he knew she had heard him, “this is the best choice Sunburn” she ventured to say out loud.

  Diago looked from face to face. Thatch nodded, agreeing with Aylah. The old man had a crooked smile widening behind his scraggly beard. When he looked back to Saama he saw a look in her eye and knew that though she didn’t like the outcome, she would follow wherever he went. Diago sighed,

  “Okay fine” Diago acquiesced.

  The old man clapped once, “Well then it's a deal! Good. Now for introductions, may as well know one another if we are going to travel together. My name is Finch” After general introductions, they decided to waste no time. If they delayed any longer they would have to wait a full day before attempting to pass by Demon Tree. Besides, they were after Trig and they had hopes that maybe he was still hanging around there and the longer they waited the less likely it was that they would find him.

  Aylah and Thatch rode on the Talards with Finch, but Diago chose to lag behind and ride with Saama. Saama was happy with that. Besides, the Talards ran faster with a jynx at their tails. As they rode, Diago began feeling a familiar itch in his mind and after some time and a few failed attempts to form a connection after Diago’s attention was snatched by something, Thatch finally was able to ask,

  “I saw your reluctance, what’s the matter?”

  “I don’t know…have you been able to gather anything?” Diago asked

  “No. I checked his mind and there were no joined threads.” Thatch assured him

  “What does that mean?”

  “There is only one mind in the man. What makes you so cautious of him? He did help us,” Diago was grateful to hear that sound like a genuine question rather than a jab, it reminded him of Sulien and that gave him a moment of homesickness.

  Before he let his thoughts stray, and so risk the connection with Thatch, he replied,

  “I don’t know. Saama doesn’t like him.”

  “Saama seems to only like you Diago” Diago could have sworn he heard a smirk in Thatch’s voice.

  “This is different. Other times, she was just being protective. This time she is against him personally”

  There was a moment of consideration on Thatch’s part before he asked, “How could you know that?”

  “I don’t know…I just know”

  “That doesn’t make sense”

  “I know!” Diago was frustrated. He had every tangible reason to trust Finch, but he couldn’t.

  “Well then…we’ll just have to keep a weather eye out, won’t we?”

  Diago sighed, but he was thankful that he wasn’t just dismissed as a crazy person. Thatch must have sensed a little of that through their connection because he then said “hey…we have to trust each other right?”

  “…Right” Diago felt a small twinge of guilt as Thatch disconnected their thoughts.

  There was a rather large piece of information he was keeping from Thatch and Aylah. No, they probably didn’t need to know. Yes, he had rejected the nature of his birth. However, the fact could never fully leave him that he had a right to the throne of Eldaren. Diago reasoned that if he never said anything about it, and if Sulien never betrayed his trust, then the matter would disappear entirely, thus rendering it unnecessary information.

  Before he let these considerations drive him nuts, he decided to focus on the path. They had left Rant and passed into the outermost forest that Diago knew of. They were on that path until the forest disappeared and became a dune lake. Diago was struck. This was the furthest he’d been from Rant…from home. It all happened without ceremony and it passed by so quickly. His life was in Rant, but now life had removed him from Rant and into the wild.

  It would be neigh impossible for Diago to describe how he felt. Was it excitement for the brave new frontier he was approaching? Was it fear? Or was it sadness? Though he couldn’t know this for sure, he felt certain that it would be a long time before he would be able to see home again.