The Foolhardies 128 Omen

"It's a good plan… seems like you're finally starting to think first before you act!" Darah's voice came out loud and clear from the mouth of the burly sprite sitting opposite me inside the wagon I'd just appeared in. "I may be able to get you reinforcements in the area in case you need it but don't count on my help, Dean."

Darah praising me was a very rare thing so I was pleasantly surprised. But, to be honest, I was even more surprised by the sudden change in the tone of her next sentence. She almost sounded like she cared.

"You better come back alive from this latest fiasco… and, Dean, if you're going to fight against the slave trade then give them h.e.l.l," she instructed. "Oh, and you can keep Vans in your unit for now. He's one of my top spies in that area."

"Yes, ma'am," I whispered, more out of habit. Then I spared a glance at the sprite who'd given me the message. "Why do you look so familiar?"

The foot-tall, blonde creature, his golden gossamer wings flapping behind him, bowed his head at me in such a regal way that I remembered where I'd seen him before.

"You played Garm in that play I saw back in Jester's Court," I realized.

Vans raised his head and looked back at me with glittering, amber eyes. Then he patted his own chest with one of his tiny hands. "I am humbled that you remembered my performance, Commander Dapper."

"Yeah… well, that's because that show was really bad… no offense."

"None taken, sir. But I hope you do not judge me on just that as you will find I can be useful," he explained. "People only really notice us, performers, when we're on stage. Once in a while, I get invited into the best parties where a little charm and a gla.s.s or two of spirits help loosen lips."

I nodded in agreement. This little sprite might be useful in getting us information later on.

"Alright, I want you to attach yourself to a theatre troupe when we get to the Undercroft and get me intel on the city's movers and shakers," I ordered.

"Ah, I'm already in contact with a group based in that city. I will join them as soon as we arrive," he answered, bowing again.

"Cool, rest here for now," I said, right before I pulled open the wagon's flap and jumped out of it.

The sight that greeted me brought a smile to my face.

A caravan stretching back as far as my eyes could see was steadily making its way forward through dunes that were the size of small hills. On the outside, it looked like a group of merchants coming to trade in the Undercroft, but my soldiers were disguised and spread out across the column, some acting as merchants while others were mercenary guards.

The desert wind arrived just then and sent a chilly touch to my face.

"Guess I should find the others now…" I whispered.

The other members of my main party were riding their swiftharts at the front of the column, pretty close to the caravan where my anchor was kept. And I arrived just in time to hear them discussing the Night of Samhain.

"What's that about the moon?" I asked as I climbed up Myth Chaser's back.

Ashley, who was riding opposite Aura on my left, raised a finger to the sky.

I looked up and noticed for the first time that Idunn was nowhere to be found.

"Idunn's light hastens away as the Darkness returns, bringing with him the arrival of the long night," she rhymed.

"Happens every year in the week preceding Samhain," Aura added. "Idunn vanishes from the sky and the nights grow darker and longer in the Fayne as winter draws near."

"Doesn't the same thing happen on Mudgard?" Luca asked. "Halloween marks the beginning of winter too. At least it used to before they turned it into the best holiday ever."

I nodded in agreement. "It was a festival even when they called it Samhain, Luca… but I wasn't aware that fairies celebrated it too."

"We don't," answered the gruff voice of Shanks.

I glanced behind me.

The troll merchant was seated on the pa.s.senger's side of the lead wagon. Pike sat beside him with her hands holding onto the reins.

"Most fairies consider the nights without Idunn's light a bad omen," he added. "Especially this week... on the eve of Samhain's return."

"You make it sound like Samhain is an actual person," Luca said.

"He is… at least the legends claim he is," Ashley answered.

Of course, a s.h.i.+eldmaiden would be familiar with the fairy legends. Even one who wasn't born in the Fayne would have been grilled to remember the lore.

"Samhain was an ancient fairy king who loved Idunn, but did not want to share her light with other fairies," Ashley repeated the lines she'd been taught. "So he stole her from the sky and kept her imprisoned for seven whole nights. But on the night Samhain planned to wed her, a human visere who worked for him pitied Idunn and set her free which is why she returned to the sky the night after Samhain."

"From then on Samhain would be called the Lord of Darkness, and the time he stole Idunn would be known as a time of ill omens," Aura finished.

"Sounds bleak," I said, glancing up at the sky. "Not fun at all like Halloween is supposed to be."

The moonless sky that night didn't seem like a place of omens. In fact, I'd never seen the Fayne's stars s.h.i.+ne so brightly as Idunn had always stolen the spotlight. But now they were a canvas of twinkling stars that made my chest beat with wonder.

As I continued to watch the sky on that second night of our journey across the Westersand Desert, not for the first time did I think that the Fayne was a beautiful place full of wonder.

"Well, let's just hope the omen thing is just part of the fairy tale," Luca said.

His comment caused me to shut my eyes in frustration because I knew better than to tempt fate in this G.o.dforsaken world.

And as if right on cue, the ground beneath us began to rumble.

I didn't need Qwipps riding to the front of the column to tell me what I already knew was coming—trouble. In what form trouble would appear, well, we'd learn that bit in a minute later.

A short distance away to the left of us, one of the sand dunes began to sink as something very large seemed to be moving underneath it.

"Please do not be a giant worm," I hissed right before I gave out my orders. "Qwipps, you and Pike take to the air and support us from there. Luca, you're with me. Ashley, I want your unit protecting the caravan, but keep them moving forward. Aura, have your unit support us with buffs."

As I pushed Myth Chaser toward to intercept the thing coming our way, I heard Aura begin the chant for Fiery Blessing.

"Oh spirits of the sacred flame, I call on you to ignite the fire inside these warriors!" she yelled. "Lend them your will of fire and send them your Fiery Blessing!"

With Aura's talent, she could enchant at least four people. Based on the vicinity, these were me, Luca, Qwipps, and Pike.

I felt my body go hot as I rode Myth Chaser forward. So hot, in fact, that the desert's chilly air barely cooled my skin as it pa.s.sed me.

"Luca, your Ravagers better be following us!" I yelled.

"We're here, Dean!" he yelled back. "What do you think it is?"

He'd asked that question because we were about twenty yards away from it now and whatever it was had disappeared behind the sand dune in front of us. No doubt it would burst out just before we reached it.

Then there came a second and even stronger rumbling than the previous one.

I hated it when I was right.

"What do you think it is?!" I yelled at the same time as I drew my falchion from its sheathe strapped to my belt.

Next, I closed my eyes and once more summoned my fairy gift to waking.

"Whatever it is, I hope it's not an Ashworm," Qwipps piped in from above me.

"Geez, tempt fate more, why don't you!" I screamed.

With Fool's Insight activated, I opened my eyes again at exactly the same moment as the sand dune ahead of me burst upward, and a long snaking form rose up from out of the chaos.

It was ma.s.sive. A sh.e.l.l of dark gray scales covering its back while its inner side was like the surface of molten rock. The head was that of a cobra's, with an open mouth that was layered with rows upon rows of shark-like teeth.

"Yup, it's an Ashworm alright," Qwipps noted. "Muddamit, what rotten luck."

What rotten luck indeed. Maybe there was something to this whole omen business.

The ashworm shrieked a mighty roar that made Myth Chaser falter in its steps.

But as if in defiance of the fate that greeted me, I roared back at the creature, "Prepare for battle!"