Something Impossible
The next morning, I was already regretting asking for Winona’s help.
She pounded on our bedroom door in the tavern, jolting Finn, Toni, and me awake before the sun had even come up. “Unlock the cursed door,” she growled when she heard Finn’s frightened squeak.
“Well, first you have to tell us the password,” Toni mumbled sleepily, slowly rolling from his bed, his normally slicked back hair actually mussed up from slumber. The banging on the door stopped.
Password? “What password?” I whispered as quietly as I could. Toni turned to wink at me from the door.
Oh, there was no password. Winona must have figured it out at the same time because her fist slammed on the aged door again. It groaned against the abuse.
“Toni, if you don’t let me in, I’ll have to find my own way in and you’ll have to deal with the consequences of however I do that,” she snarled through the door, her hand jiggling the lock.
Toni smoothed his hair down and said, “Well, I suppose that’s a better password than the one I just thought of.”
“Violence?” Finn responded, sitting up in his bed, his curly hair a fuzzy, tangled mess.
I chuckled. “Maybe we do have an applicable password for Winona, after all.”
Toni undid the locks and the door swung open before he had time to get out of the way, so it thudded into his shoulder with a crack.
Winona looked around the dingy tavern room. I was still securely under my covers, Finn was only sitting up, and Toni rubbed his shoulder as we walked back to his bed. “Why are you not prepared to leave yet?” Winona asked, pointing at all of our stuff that was still scattered around the room.
“It’ll take like five minutes to do,” I mumbled, turning over in my bed and pulling my brown, wool blanket up around my neck, fully intent on going back to sleep.
The next thing I knew, my covers were ripped off my bed, the accumulated warmth sapped from my body. “Well, that’s about the rudest thing you could do to a person before the sun is even up,” I scolded, sitting up with the slight chill. Winona held my blanket in her hand and glared menacingly.
“Foolish people lose their blanket privileges,” she said, marching over to the room’s window and opening the curtain. The sky had started to lighten a little.
“But we agreed on leaving after a late breakfast,” Finn said. “After all, even though Toni’s magic has helped a great deal in helping us heal, I’m definitely still recovering from almost dying. I’m not sure how you are already feeling fine. You took so many hits, even with my help.”
“Maybe it’s because I’m not a weakling like yourself,” she said, pulling his blanket from his bed, too. She tossed them both to the center of the room, and turned to glare at Toni, who was starting to settle back into bed. “You all apparently didn’t have anyone on lookout last night. News is spreading about the Reanault clan. Authorities are looking for information.”
“We were careful not to be seen on the way there, though,” Toni said, scratching his stubbly chin.
Winona let out a frustrated groan. “Careful doesn’t correlate directly to unseen. There’s no promise that we weren’t seen by someone. And anyone from the tavern the night that Emilee died could put two and two together pretty easily.”
I wrapped my arms around myself, adjusting to the lack of warmth of my blanket. “This is a big leap for a small chance,” I said.
“You say that until you see someone pointing at you and whispering on the streets, like what happened with me this morning,” Winona said, throwing her hands up in frustration. “Either way, if you’re not ready to leave in the next thirty minutes, I’m leaving. With or without you.”
Why doesn’t she just go off on her own then if she was going to have an attitude like that?
“I suppose we don’t want to really risk the possibility that someone reported us,” Finn said, not moving from his bed. It was like we were all waiting for another person still in bed to make the final decision. Winona growled in frustration and stormed out of the room. Her growl of disapproval continued down the hall, until we couldn’t hear it anymore.
Toni sighed loudly. At least he still had his blanket. He groaned, throwing his feet to the floor from under his covers. “Let’s get a move on, then,” he said, starting to roll up his blanket to pack it in his bag. I jumped out of bed, feeling a vague sense of annoyance dancing around in the back of my head.
“I don’t understand why we’re just following her orders like she’s in charge or something,” I grumbled under my breath, grabbing my blanket from the floor and tossing Finn’s over at him. “If she’s in trouble, it’s not our problem if we don’t want it to be. It’s not like she was some saint before we met.”
“What?” Toni asked over his shoulder.
“She’s complaining under her breath,” Finn responded, shoving his balled up blanket into his pack. “It’s best to ignore her and let her get it out of her system, or she’ll spend the rest of the day in a bad mood.”
I huffed. “I will not,” I grumbled.
Finnan cleared his throat, but said nothing else to me. I grabbed my scimitar from the ground and clipped it to my belt. I forced a large smile and turned to my companions. “Alrighty, let’s go on an adventure,” I said.
Finn shook his head slowly and Toni cocked an eyebrow at me. “She doesn’t seem to be in a foul mood at all,” he said, poking Finn’s shoulder. “You should really work on your judgement of other’s emotions cause it seems to be broken.”
Finn smacked a hand to his forehead before pulling his pack onto his back. He strapped a nondescript dagger we’d taken from the Reanault hideout to his belt and walked out of the room and turned down the hallway.
“It seems like he’s the one in a bad mood,” Toni said out of the side of his mouth to me.
I shrugged at him. “Finny’s mood is like the wind — always has been that way as long as I’ve known him. I’m surprised you just noticed, quite frankly.”
“I’m on high alert from now on,” Toni said, ruffling my hair and walking out of the room.
I looked back at my bed before following him. We’d likely be sleeping on the ground for the next couple of nights, at the very least. I thought of my bed at home, my siblings all snuggled in with me in the early mornings when we weren’t fighting over honey cakes. I missed my bed. I missed them. I missed home.
But I’d chosen this adventure, without any influence or input from Ma and Da. This had been my own doing. This was going to help my family and my village. No matter how much I missed them and the comforts of home, I needed to remember that this was for the good of the shire.
Not to mention, I was going to meet my hero, the Dragon’s Head Warrior. I was going to learn from them. I’d maybe even be able to fight as well as them someday, if I kept moving forward. I left the room without another glance back. It was time to move forward.
Winona slunk through the morning crowds of Shallow Tides Bay several feet ahead of our group, her head swiveling between people as they passed. She was making sure we didn’t run across any trouble.
We’d made it to the wealthier section of the city, and the crowds on the streets were a little thinner. Less businesses were in this area, and some of the largest homes extended along an entire block of a street.
I tried to stop myself from gawking up at the fancy architecture on the roofs and only peeked in a couple of large windows to spy on how the top echelon of society lived.
I mostly saw a bunch of stuffy rooms that looked like no one had dared to go into them. The fresh, colorful bouquets of flowers on tables said otherwise, but if having a bunch of money meant not fully living in your home, I had no interest in it. Oak home was well loved, if not a little overrun with small feet romping around. But it was real. Not this picturesque image.
Ahead, a group of about eight officers turned the corner onto the street. Winona’s sure steps faltered when she spotted them walking in our direction.
Swords were clipped to each of their sides and every one of them held small batons, which they were using to inspect nearby shrubs as they passed.
“We’re fine,” Finn whispered next to me. I’d tensed up in seeing Winona lose a fraction of her cool. “We’re tourist. That’s all.”
There were little-to-no small-folk in this area of town. I had seen one elderly gnomish man a couple blocks back, playing a lute lazily in a patch of shade. Finn and I stuck out like sore thumbs in the small sea of tall-folks.
The officers walked past Winona without a second glance. Her hood was up, and she stuck to the shadows, her weapons skillfully tucked under her cloak.
One human officer’s pale-blue gaze locked on us and she turned to an elven officer next to her and said something in his pointed ear. His dark gaze fell on us too. They broke off from the group and approached us with all the authority their role afforded them.
“You were saying?” I whispered back to Finn. Toni slowed down, clocking the officer’s approaching us and stood between us and the officers.
“Good morning,” Toni said, nodding to them with a confident tone in his voice.
“It looks like one of your friends there has run into some trouble,” the female officer said, pointing at Finn’s forehead. While Toni’s magic had helped him heal fast, he still had a couple of yellowing bruises and a large cut on his forehead from the fight with the Reanaults.
I pushed Finn as hard as I could, trying my best to act like it was a friendly pat. He stumbled forward, and turned on me with wide eyes. “Oh, Finny here is just a little clumsy. We were practicing different fighting stances and I bested him a little too good,” I said, smiling at the officers. They looked at Finn, unimpressed. “He’s more of a bookish type, so I don’t know what I was thinking asking him to practice with me,” I followed up, chuckling nervously.
The elven officer scoffed and rejoined the group of officers as they passed by. The female officer looked over us all once more, noting the scimitar at my side. “Maybe you should think about joining the Shallow Tides officers, then,” she said, softening a little in her posture.
“I’ll think about it,” I said, hooking my arm through Finnan’s. “We’re on our way to Skai City to visit a friend now though.”
The officer nodded. “Safe travels to you,” she said, nodding at Toni and leaving us, jogging a little to catch up with her group.
Winona was leaned against a wall ahead of us, watching the interaction closely. She stood up straight when the second officer left us, turning to continue up the street. Toni released a huge breath. “Let’s get out of here. I’m ready for some mountain air at this point.”
“How long has it been since you’ve been anywhere other than a ship or port city?” I asked, looking up at our friend with raised eyebrows.
He frowned, mouthing numbers silently as he thought about my question. The longer he took counting told me that the number was going to be higher than I would have originally guessed. Toni looked young enough, but sometimes tall-folk aged differently. Toni wasn’t an elf though…
“It’s been eleven years,” Toni said, smiling for a moment before a deep frown formed under his flushed cheeks. “I hadn’t realized it had been that long, actually.”
“Well, it’s a good thing we’re going to the mountains now, before eleven becomes twelve,” Finn said, finally recovering from the light act of humiliation when I pushed him. He wouldn’t meet my gaze.
I squeezed his arm in mine for a moment, feeling a small crack starting to form in our friendship. I had to fix this. “I promise I don’t think you’re weak,” I whispered to him. “Just because you’re better at the book stuff doesn’t mean that you can’t also be strong. You just set a high level for excellence with your smarts.”
“I am a bit of a perfectionist,” he whispered back to me, his taupe skin darkening from his neck up to the tips of his ears.
I snickered. “A bit is an understatement.” We walked in silence for a few streets. He’d look me in the eyes now, but Finnan’s mouth formed a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. I’d really hurt his feelings.
“But I am sorry if I embarrassed you or anything. I just wanted to get away from those officers’ questions as quickly as I could,” I said. “I should have thought of another way to do that.”
Toni picked up his pace, now walking a couple feet in front of us like he was trying to give us some space.
“I know you didn’t mean it,” Finn said. “I just hate feeling weak. Winona was hit way harder than me in that fight and was still standing at the end, unlike me.”
This is what he was worried about? “Finnan Windwick, the only reason why Winona was still standing at the end of that fight is because you were using your magic to help her and not yourself. You were selfless. That’s the opposite of weak, if you ask me.”
Finn’s pointed ears tinged a berry color again. “Thanks, Kit,” he said, squeezing my arm back with his arm.
“Whenever you need reminding, let me know and I’ll be sure to do it,” I responded, pinching his shoulder before running off to catch up with Toni. The sound of Finn’s feet smacking into the cobbled road followed behind me and I ran past Toni, with my eyes set on Winona.
I reached out to tag her and run past, but as my fingers brushed the middle of her back, her leg shot out in front of me and tripped me before I could run past her. I toppled forward, but tucked my head and rolled into a somersault to pop back up on my feet in front of her. “Well that was rude,” I said. “I just was going to tag you.”
“Never try to sneak up on a trained assassin,” Winona responded tartly and then resumed walking. I looked back to see both Toni and Finnan giggling as they walked up to join us.
This trip was going to be no fun, was it? I pouted, following Winona with a sluggish gait.
“No pouting now,” Toni said from behind me. “She caught you fair and square. That just means you’ll have to learn to be sneakier.”
Winona turned her head just slightly to show us a scowl. It’s not that I wanted to annoy her, or even bother her. But I knew she was keeping more secrets from us. I could just feel it in my gut, and the only time I’d seen her open up was when she was frustrated or angry. With enough heat, that kettle would boil.
I tried to sneak up on her two more times as we ventured through the furthest inland parts of the city of Shallow Tides Bay. Houses grew smaller — though they stayed expensive-looking — because the slant of the city tilted upward with the hill and large, old trees of every kind started to speckle the open land between homes. Toni panted as the hill got steeper.
“Don’t worry about me, guys. Just adjusting to my land-legs still, I guess,” he said, sounding like he was trying to sound normal.
One thing I hadn’t considered when asking Toni to join us was the difference living years at sea-level could make on a person. I turned and looked down at the sparkling waters of the Golden Sea. We were so far above them now.
“The gate is just a few more blocks up,” Winona said, not looking back and not slowing her pace. Toni waved her on, puffing a couple times and then taking a few hesitant steps up.
“There will be some time to adjust between here and Skai City,” Finnan said, looking at his map of Roahdhan and pointing out a city high in the mountains at the center of the continent.
“I wonder if anyone could teach either of you a spell that can help… alleviate some of the strain,” I said. There were plenty of cities on the route we were taking.
Toni puffed past us. “Come on, slow pokes,” he rattled as he spoke.
“Maybe he doesn’t need any magical assistance after all,” Finn said out of the side of his mouth with a grin. We walked behind Toni, keeping an eye on him as he swayed and staggered his way to the northwest gate of the city. Once outside of the walls, Toni collapsed against the tall, rocking side with a groan.
“Don’t be such a baby,” Winona snapped, crossing her arms and looking down her nose at Toni.
“I–” Toni strained to sit up and flopped back to the ground with another groan. “I have no arguments. I am a baby. Someone carry me.”
Finn and I put our fingers to our noses without a word, staring up at Winona until she noticed us. It took a second but her gaze landed on the two of us and she rolled her eyes. “What is this? Some game of not it? We’ll just rest for a few minutes and give the man a break and an orange slice or something.”
“No need for the hurry anymore?” I asked. What was with the rush to get out of the tavern this morning if we were going to sit outside of Shallow Tides for someone to find us?
“We’re not inside the city, so no,” Winona responded, pulling her bag off her back and setting in on the ground in front of her feet. She dug through it for a moment and then pulled out a bright, plump orange.
The gate was not thirty feet from where we stood. I could see a few people walking around, even. “We’re right outside of it though,” I said.
Finn sat on the ground, following Winona’s signal and digging through his pack for a snack. He pulled out some fish jerky triumphantly and the salty tinge wafted up to me. I looked around at the group, still confused as to what had changed in our circumstances.
“Oh, right,” Finn said between chews of his dried fish stick, finally realizing I wasn’t following. “Port cities have a city border policy here, since so many pirates come through and sell their wares… and sometime steal new wares. It’s not the most ethical thing in the world, but basically once you’re outside of the bounds of the city, you can’t get in trouble. You do have to be gone from the city for a full year if you’re caught or charged though.”
I sat on the ground, sticking my legs out long in front of me. “Do we think we’re going to be caught or charged for what happened at the abandoned mansion?” I asked. I flopped back on my pack to look up at the bright, blue mid-morning sky.
No one responded for a long moment, so I pulled my head off of my pack to look at them. Toni and Finn were staring at Winona, who was keeping her eyes lowered. I cleared my throat. “Were we charged for something?” I asked, pulling myself fully off the ground now.
Winona ripped away the final piece of skin from her orange. “No, but the guild reached out this morning and made it sound like they’d be willing to name all of us as murderers.”
“What do you mean?” Toni said, sounding coherent, and angry.
She pulled a piece of parchment out an almost invisible side pocket on her bag and handed it to Toni without meeting his narrowed glare.
“A new debt has been accrued and will be levied against you and your companions at a time we deem appropriate. Fail to comply and we will see you all charged,” he read aloud.
“What does that mean?” Finn asked.
I quickly followed Finn’s question with my own. “What new debt are they talking about? We didn’t do anything.”
Winona pulled a chain that was hanging around her neck and a black orb popped out from under her shirt. I recognized it. It was the same amulet that had been around Jace’s neck. In the daylight, I could see that it was in the shape of a human’s skull.
“You took that from Jace’s body,” I whispered and Winona nodded once. Did the guild want that thing? Why?
“What makes that amulet so special?” Finn asked, getting to the question before I could.
“The guild planned to use it to go to the capitol city of North Roahdhan, Dariat, and kill Queen Hestiana. They want to install the monarch, Mechar Thedos, into power from South Roahdhan. Mechar… is cruel. I couldn’t let the guild have this,” Winona said quietly, cradling the black skull in her hands.
I recognized the ruler names, at least. Mechar Thedos ruled from the capitol city of Guneyr, which actually wasn’t too far from where we’d be traveling. I hadn’t heard that they were cruel though. I hadn’t heard much of anything about them, actually. “Not saying I’m pro-regicide, ever. But I have to wonder how you know that Mechar Thedos is cruel? I thought you were from Shallow Tides Bay,” I said, scooting closer to Winona to get a better look at the amulet.
Finn said some words behind me under his breath. I recognized the speech pattern from the ship, in Captain Serpentis’s quarters. Finnan was reading Winona’s mind. “You need to tell us how you know that,” I said, pushing closer again.
Winona didn’t speak. Finn did, though.
“Emilee was married to him,” he said. “Emilee was married to them, the Monarch Mechar Thedos. He hurt her, and you helped her flee to Shallow Tides.”
Winona’s gaze whipped up to Finnan. “You stay out of my head, you little–” she snarled, nearly jumping over me at him.
I kicked up into her stomach and knocked her back, jumping up to stand defensively in front of Finn before she could recover and try to lunge at him again.
“I dropped the spell once I realized what–!” Finn shouted her around me, but then he yelped as she stood and marched toward us. Her breathing was heavy, angry.
“Never again,” she said, murder in her voice.
Toni’s hand clapped onto her shoulder. He was a few inches taller than her, but it was like he towered over her in that moment. She jumped away a little from him and a similarly murderous look on his face to match her voice. “Touch either them and I will end you,” he said, the palm not on Winona’s shoulder lighting up with fire. “You have kept enough secrets from us that it’s only fair he was curious enough to use magic on you. You may have done something good for the continent, but at the cost of all of our lives. I haven’t forgotten that it was a death pact the guild made with you.”
I reached back for Finn’s hand, and our fingers intertwined. I couldn’t be a part of a death pact. That thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. That was what our debt ultimately was. We’d have to do whatever the guild told us to do, or lose our lives.
“They’re going to ask us to do something awful, and we’re going to die because we won’t do whatever awful thing they’ve asked us to do,” I said, my voice faltering as fear welled in my throat.
I’d never see my family again. I’d never make it to the Dragon’s Head Warrior and learn how to protect Hill Hollow. Hellbringer was going to kill everyone I loved, and there was nothing I could do about it.
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