[coronatiger]

I brought out the scroll when Yana and I were alone in our room again. The seal was that of the Evening Fort Alderas, indicating that Queen Isa had sent the letter, or at least knew about it. Yana was curious about the letter, since we weren’t expecting a missive from the queen, but I broke the seal myself, in case someone had hidden a poisoned needle inside it. My caution was unwarranted, and I hadn’t really expected a trap, but better safe than sorry, I thought.

I read the letter out loud for Yana. “There is no Pak or Groman here. Thank you for sending Kraa to visit. Come back any time.” It was signed by Queen Isa, politely but unnecessarily. Nobody else could have written those words. I dismantled the Biskutello disguise, washed my face and brushed my teeth, while Yana sat down with her needlework. Xipil and Grogg came knocking an hour later to remind us it was time to leave. I showed them the letter.

We ordered the wagon drivers to exit through the eastern city gate. We drove past a village, and Yana and I climbed out and walked back while the others waited out of sight. Ideally, there was an abandoned farmstead somewhere we could use as a base for our operations, but after talking to the villagers, it seemed unlikely that we’d find such a place. On the rare occasion that a family moved or died out, the buildings were seldom left unused for long, at least this close to the capital. Yana proposed that we used the place that Wolfram haunted; we wouldn’t need it long.

With Yana’s idea shared with the others, we left the main road and searched for an isolated farm. We came to a small hamlet where Yana and I got out of the wagon. After verifying that the two of us could spend the night at the tavern, we sent the others on to find a suitable farm. We hoped that the farmers that Wolfram scared away would come to the hamlet for safety, and our task was to ensure that someone reported the terror to Byblos, where Tivito would learn about it.

The villagers kept to themselves, despite our attempts at striking up conversation. Yana took out her needlework again and made a veritable field of flowers on our table as the day wore on. Since we could easily be overheard, we spoke of inconsequential things. Yana picked the topic of the current fashion in Byblos. She mentioned the guards at the Terrace of the Evening Sun and said that while she didn’t expect me to dress up in a manner that they’d approve of, she encouraged me to wear something a little more flattering than the grey rags I had taken to, lately. Yana emphasized that I was beautiful, even in the grey dress, but thought I looked even better when I wasn’t wearing pauper’s garb. She promised once more to make me something jaw-dropping. “After you’ve completed your all-the-flowers-in-the-world project?” I asked. “Yeah…” Once again, I got the impression that Yana didn’t really want to talk about that. “So, did you see that woman at the caravan market? The one who wore nothing but two scarves, one around her chest and the other wrapped like a skirt?” “Yes. You’d have killed in that outfit,” Yana opined. “Er… no pun intended.”

Suddenly, it was night-time, and the locals cleared out of the tavern. The proprietor, Ari, wished us good night and retreated to a back room. I told Yana we needed to listen for anyone approaching from the farm and offered to take the first watch. We prayed together and hugged, and then Yana lay down on one of the benches to sleep. I held her hand and watched her drift off.

After a while, I heard a deep, rumbling noise in the distance. I believed it was Wolfram, roaring to scare the farmers. I paid close attention to sounds from outside, expecting someone to come running in a few minutes, but all was quiet.

It took more than an hour before someone arrived. I first heard the clopping of hooves, and then a yell, “Monster bear!” I looked out the window. An injured man on horseback shouted that he would go on to Byblos to alert the authorities there. A frantic woman dragged a child after her. The boy looked to be around ten, and the woman barely old enough to be the mother.

Ari appeared, wielding a candle and a rolling pin, and instructed me to open the door. The rider continued along the road as I had hoped, although he didn’t seem used to riding. The woman brought the child inside, drawn by a familiar face and voice. Our host provided tea, and I got the woman to relax and tell her story. Her name was Meilan, and the boy was Narn. According to the woman, her family had woken up in a room full of ash. That should draw Tivito out, I thought. Ari didn’t seem very happy about Byblos being warned, but there was nothing he could do. I guess he’s had run-ins with Tivito before.

One sip of the tea alerted me to a mild sedative, and I signaled to Yana that she shouldn’t drink. We needed to remain vigilant. It wouldn’t do to have Tivito find us sleeping.

Ari offered to lend the terrified visitors his bed and said that he’d stay awake. “Get some sleep if you can,” he told Yana and me. When the three of them left the room, I asked Yana to take over our watch. “Wake me in two hours, or if anything happens,” I told her.

O Ashtar! We surrender our lives to Your coils. Take us while we sleep, or grant us another day in Your service, as You will.

Everything was quiet, Yana reported when she woke me with a touch on the shoulder. There had been some muted sobbing from the next room, but they had apparently found sleep eventually. I gave Yana the bench again, and we traded watches until the sky began to brighten.


18th of Ratanu, year 412

O Ashtar, Mother of Snakes, Keeper of Death’s Door, hear my confession!

Yana didn’t approve of me not changing into a nicer dress, but I said I would rather muck up one I didn’t mind throwing away if it got too dirty. I didn’t want to say outright that I anticipated violence today, but Yana understood nevertheless.

Ari emerged from the back room as soon as he heard our voices. He offered breakfast on the house because of the terror we had learned of last night. When we had nearly finished our meal, we heard horses approaching and slipped outside. The riders were two soldiers who must have set out from the larger village on the main road just as the sun peeked over the horizon. How reassuring it must be for the villagers that the king’s men waited until dawn to investigate! We passed them with polite nods.

The soldiers dismounted in front of the tavern and went inside. Yana and I sneaked around the hamlet and hid where we could see them when they headed out to check on the farm. The soldiers passed after a few minutes, accompanied by the tavernkeeper. Wolfram had done a good job of scaring poor Meilan, and she wouldn’t be a dependable guide for a while.

Yana and I followed the trio at a safe distance and remained unseen. We watched from afar as the soldiers poked around a farm. All the doors and windows at the main building were wide open. The soldiers eventually discovered that what had attacked the farm had been supernatural and told Ari that they would fetch the right people to handle this. They warned him to keep everyone away from here until help came.

When they had all left, Yana and I went up to the farm. The tavernkeeper had pointed out a smaller farm across the fields to the soldiers, and from the obvious bear and ash tracks leading between these two places, Wolfram had haunted both. We hadn’t arranged a time or place to meet the others, so the best we could do was to poke around the two farms and see if we ran into our friends. I couldn’t imagine them not keeping watch over the area. If it was just Xipil on watch, we might not find him, but he’d surely see us.

We reached the other farm after a few minutes. This place was devoid of people as well, but we spotted the top of Hylda’s head sticking up from behind a stone fence down the road. The others were sleeping, and I thought it lucky that it was Yana and I who came here, and not the soldiers, for Hylda hadn’t been paying attention at all.

Hylda woke Grogg, Wolfram and Xipil, and Yana and I told them what we had observed in the hamlet and at the other farm. Yana believed the two soldiers would be escorting Tivito here and thought we should spare them. I agreed with the sentiment, but worried that someone would decide that we could have no witnesses to what we were about to do. I predicted that we would be sending the Tivito investigators to You after we were done questioning them.

We spent some time planning. We decided we would ambush Tivito at the larger farm, since that was where the two soldiers had been, and would likely take them first. We didn’t think it likely due to the threat of the rumored monster bear, but if they did decide to split up, they would probably do it after verifying that the first farm was safe.

Finding shovels at the farm, we buried most of our equipment in the field, in case we had to flee. We wouldn’t want Tivito to get their hands on our belongings. While Grogg and Wolfram wielded the shovels, I knelt down and prayed for guidance. Should any lives be spared? Or would You unleash me upon Your enemies?