Empire of Man

Lyla was studying to be a healer. She had to be proper in all things. That was what everyone expected. But the ember that Lan had ignited in her was searing a pit in her stomach and there was only one thing that would ever quench the flames if they started up again.

For the first time doing the right thing, the expected thing, the thing that everyone else wanted, wasn’t what Lyla wanted to do anymore.

There was a whole world outside the walls of this valley, and she intended to see it all. Turning in her seat, Lyla looked up the trail behind her at the column of warriors following. They stretched up the side of the mountain zigzagging carefully along the frosty slopes. Behind that, muddy furrows of their passing froze stiffly held hoof prints.

Yet it was the way she would soon leave this place again and already her heart was back among the bustle and grandeur of the port town she had left only a few days past. The great buildings of towering stone, three and more stories high. The paved streets where wagon, after cart after person moved the wares of trade caravans that were to come into the high passes and beyond. She’d been there, in the place of her yearning, only to be brought all the way back here.

Lyla sighed. She had to be patient. It wasn’t time yet. But soon. Soon she could return to Balast and begin her real training to become an adventurer, one of the roving bands of minor magic users and warriors that explored the countryside dealing with the things that were too small or isolated for the Mages or the Imperial Army to deal with. Creatures terrorizing herds, goblins, the odd troll, privately hired security for caravans and ships, those were the kinds of things adventurers took care of. The healer contented herself with fuzzy ambitions of the future as she traveled further and further away from her goals.

By the time the track had leveled into the rolling hill of the valley, there was a collection of people gathered to meet their party. Lan pulled off to the side and let Wroth and his immediate subordinates go ahead to greet the village elders. Those worthless snakes who had sent Lyla blindly into danger knowing what had awaited her. Lyla saw that he was there among them. Not an elder but held to their esteem.

Son of a Necromantic whore! Of course, he would be here. The wretch who was supposed to have been with the caravan. The only person she couldn’t verify was among the dead because the face of the body had been so badly mutilated. But she’d found his new too-young wife among the bodies.

Beneath the cover of her cloak, Lyla placed her hand on Lan’s around her waist, tensing it tightly. In response, Lan tightened his arm around her and laced his fingers with hers. The reassurance that the simple act brought to Lyla was unspeakable. The lips which had been resting beside her ear all this while slid behind her head and landed a gentle kiss in Lyla’s hair.

“Who?” It was one word, murmured behind the cover of her head so no one would see his lips moving, but she knew in an instant that Lan realized she’d seen someone who wasn’t supposed to be here.

“Healer, Nathaniel Mayard.” Lyla whispered back to the man behind her. The soldier who protected her. The soldier who was among a group of soldiers that had come to her village to protect it and therefore she would be safe even if Nathaniel the monster of her every nightmare was back. “He was meant to be with the caravan. His wife was dead and there was a male body of the same look as him dressed in the coat he received as a wedding gift last summer beside her body, but the face had been too badly damaged to verify his identity for certain.”

“I see.” Lyla could almost hear Lan’s eyes narrowing as the words came out of his mouth with slow thoughtful precision. “And now he’s here. There’s no way you could have passed him on the trail? Or he could have come through the way we did?”

“No. He would have had to pass the same men who attacked me to reach the game trail we just widened. He couldn't have come back this way, not unless he came through the forest, and it would have taken days climbing through crevices among the trees. More days than I was gone. The walls of the pass are too steep and high to be climbed with the ice that forms on them at night this time of year. Not without specialized gear. And why would he have faked his death by putting his coat on another man’s body beside his dead wife?”

“Hmmm.” Lyla felt the displeasure that coursed through her soldier as he thought about that. “Wroth will want to talk to him.”

“Whatever. As long as I don’t have to talk to him. As long as I don’t have to be anywhere near him. I knew him being dead was too good to be true.” Unconsciously, Lyla shuddered as Nathaniel’s malevolent creepy aura seemed to reach toward her. Even from a distance, he skived her out.

Again, Lan’s arms tightened around her, and he kissed her head beside the ear he whispered into.

“Never my love. You never have to talk to him again.”