Carmine

The trees were sparse on this land, and there was only enough vegetation to make it look like a swamp. We were not in the woods, but a savannah fading into obscurity.

The sun baked me, but it was better than the endless similarity of the tree’s wretched hands and shapes in the dusk of the never ending night. Flames crackled before me and simmered into a dull raze that barely held its bright color.

My fear was palpable and it was hard to fathom, or much less reason. Fear had that power over me, yet it had not made this situation any better. Was I mad or was this a dream?

“Thanks again, you did wonders for me,” the Terison said.

I paid no attention to him. He was badly injured from his last fight and did not even ask for my help. I washed the wound with water left from a carton, yet wine would have done the trick better, but water was what I had. After that, I patched him up with wrapped sogany bark.

A lifetime spent reading books gave me the knowledge that the liquid from that bark had good healing qualities. I realized the wood was harder to discern from other wood. Good thing, I remembered how the leaves of the sogany tree looked from the illustration in the book.

It was hard to get it off the tree, but his axe helped with that.

I pressed the broken strips on his body. The ooze pushed out from the center and I massaged the chest with it, while his under shirt; I cut that and wrapped it tight over the bark.

I honestly thought he would have died, so I prayed to Ashuor for his recovery. Maybe, I should have let him die; he was intent on acting as immaculate.

I was an idiot, but I was an empathic idiot who desired not being alone.

He slid the thick bark of dark wood in front of me. It had fried fish, some random herbs and berries I know little of.

I chanced a question. “You poison that?”

He quirked an eyebrow at me. “You were right here when I cooked this.” He rolled his eyes and twirled. “Hard for me to sneak in poison if you are here watching me. And you were watching me quite intently, I might add.”

I frowned, then looked away when he turned to me. He was so confidentm because he saved me, but I was not in his debt. I needed to escape, but I always had to escape from something.

There was this dark feeling though; that no matter where I ran, he would have found me. Someone would find me at least.

Where had that other guy come from? Why were witches interested in me? And what about this man, who did he serve?

“You know, I am trying to help you.” His eyes never wavered.

“How?” I asked.

“There are a lot of dangerous folks out to kill you. I am not one of them. I am going to protect you. I was hired for that. My job is simple, carry you to the destination. That man you were traveling with had other ideas. You would not have reached home I fear if I did not kill him.”

Fury consumed me when he said that so casually. Garth had a family, you fool! But I merely said, “You are only looking to get paid.”

He laughed to himself. “I still have to keep you alive to do that.”

I snorted when he sat on the other side of the fire. It was far from Ascus, but I never suspected that far. There were two countries between this country and Ascus.

This was going to be a long journey. To think my father was so determined to hide and lock me away from the world like that.

The idea of Garth trying to kill me was not something I wanted to swallow. Even if my belly growled for the food down in front of me, I wanted no part of it.

The appetite, I lacked it. Well, not completely, for I still desired one thing.

Knowledge.

I asked, “What is your name?”

He took two berries into his mouth. Rocking his head, he smiled at me. “Valor.”

“Your name is Valor? Your mother is quite a dramatic.”

“Nickname, people know me by that name. Considering who you are, you should already know of me.”

The cockiness of this sell sword irritated me. I sighed. “Forget that, what about who employed you.”

“Cannot say, but you will see him soon enough.”

“Are you selling me into slavery?”

“Nay, nay, no, what?” he snorted his displeasure as he smirked. “A comely lass with the title of a Princess, I would be a fool to sell you to a simple slave driver. My employer is a noble, a real true blood.”

At least Valor knew that much, but another noble? There were a number of things that could have happened to me in the hands of a noble. The things that came to my mind didn’t result in death, but they crinkled my enthusiasm.

I needed to escape or take advantage of his arrogance. My eyes widened as I leaned in. “Carry me to Ascus and I will pay you three times what he is paying you.”

He kept eating for a while and I almost wanted to ask the question again. I took the time to eat the same berries and herbs he took up. The others, I ignored.

I bit down on a hard shell that would not break.

“Bite it at the top.” His voice had me slowing my motions. “Use your teeth to break it from top to bottom, the sides are the harder part.”

I followed what he said, using my tongue to flip the hard fruit before I laid down pressure from my two front teeth.

It snapped in my mouth.

“There we go, oh and spit out the shell, eat the core,” he said.

I did that and it was creamy, soft even. Mushing into the sides of my mouth; I shook from the slight bitterness amid the sweetness.

“Oh, regarding that offer, you can’t pay that,” he said.

A dirty tinge coated me to say this, because I did not know him, but I needed him on my side. “Valor, I am a Princess about to become a Queen.”

“I do not think anyone back home wants you to return back home.”

“You do not know that Terison.”

His eyes widened at me. “Been so long since I heard a…Shyia call me that.”

He had pale skin with straight hair, I was dark brown in the skin with curly hair. The histories of our people have been told many times before. The stories of two tribes, Shyia and Terison. They warred until Shyia won the last war. There were very few Terisons left on this earth.

Though, if some Shyia had their way, it would make them and every other person that was not of Shyia blood disappear off this earth.

“Anything other than that would be an insult,” I said.

“You already did.”

I forgot about that fairy comment. Looking at him, he was quite big, so I peeked at the definition of his chest down to the legs. His light brown hair contrasted well with his wood-crested eyes.

I took up the fish.

He said, “Been watching you for a week, I could not get pass the seal set up at that castle. That encoder did a good job. I can see why nobody reached you until now. That Champion, there will be more of him.”

My throat dried once I heard all of this and a dangerous set of events got my thoughts twisted.

“Pray tell, is he gone?”

“Aye, I knocked him unconscious.”

“Wait, won’t he come back and try again?”

“No, Champions work differently than your usual assassin.”

“How the hell do you know this?”

“I used to be a Champion.”

Valor used to work with a witch?

He continued, “That is why I was hired. He said the best person to protect a woman being chased by assassins is another assassin.”

“This person is…”

He opened his mouth then he frowned at me.

“Nice try, eat up. We have to reach a town soon. I hope you will be on your best behavior there.”

I snorted and took a portion of the fish’s head in my mouth.