Feral Mage Book 2: Chapter 38

Bryce and the girls made their way to the tavern just before sundown. Most of the other people they spoke to in the town told the same story as Cadin. A few made wild guesses at what was happening. Everything from Duchess Frozenveil was invading, the Alliance was launching an attack, and one man who reeked of wine claimed Baroness Julia was going to declare independence from the Kingdom of Brook and crown herself the Marsh Queen. Bryce was hoping Bellamy and Callie had better luck than they did.

He saw Vex’s tail wag when the aroma of hot food and ale greeted them as they entered the tavern. Bryce was sure that if he had a tail, it would be wagging as well. No matter how long or short a trip on the road was, a hot meal from a tavern always smelled wonderful. Probably because it meant they would be sleeping in a bed that night instead of on the ground.

They didn’t have to venture in far before they found Callie. The snow elf sat at a table eating a roasted chicken with a full tankard of ale, but what caught Bryce’s eye was the smashed table adjacent to hers, where an unconscious man lay.

“Making friends, Callie?” Bryce asked as he pulled out a chair at her table.

He and the girls sat down as Callie tore a bite from her roasted chicken, chewing as she turned to glare at the man.

“The bastard accused me of being Duchess Frozenveil’s spy and then stole a potato from my plate. So I bashed his head against his table until something broke. Luckily for him, it was the table,” Callie answered before taking another bite.

Vex nodded her head.

“Understandable,” she said.

Bryce sighed, looking at the man, then the rest of the tavern. The patrons inside were giving them weary glances, and he wouldn’t be surprised if someone had already alerted the guards. The chances now that anyone would be willing to talk to him and his friends were probably zero.

“Well, did you have any luck in here before that asshole showed up?” Bryce asked.

Callie wiped the grease from her mouth.

“The Baroness is acting weird, skittish. Other than that, just rumors and gossip I wouldn’t put much stock in,” she said.

Bryce heard footsteps approaching and wondered if it was the guards finally showing, only to turn and see Bellamy. She scowled at the unconscious man before pulling out her own chair and sitting down.

“What happened to him?” she asked.

Vex shook her head.

“Stole a potato,” she answered solemnly.

Bellamy arched an eyebrow at Bryce.

He sighed.

“Callie introducing herself to the locals,” he answered.

His former master smirked.

“She does have a way with people,” Bellamy said.

Callie flipped her off as she picked a piece of meat from her chicken and fed it to Omelet under the table.

“Nothing of note from the shops or craftsmen. If Thea’s in this area, she’s staying away from people,” Bellamy reported.

Bryce gave his and the girls’ findings next.

“A guard told us the priestess was doing some kind of ritual,” he said before lowering his voice. “And apparently the Baroness has not been acting like her usual self since returning from the feast where Harold was the guest of honor.”

Bellamy frowned.

“Did she order the buildup of defenses?” Bellamy asked, her voice dropping to match his.

Bryce shook his head.

“She’s building up around her towerhouse and being secretive about why. The mayor is just spooked and mimicking her,” he answered.

Callie’s brows furrowed.

“Who is this Harold?” she asked, washing down her chicken with ale.

Bellamy’s gaze rested on Callie.

“Thea’s uncle and brother to the King of Volpine,” she answered. “Also, someone I consider very dangerous.”

Callie raised an eyebrow at her.

“I’ve heard of the brother of the King of Volpine. Isn’t he just an old man who makes puppets?”

Bellamy nodded.

“He makes puppets alright. I traveled with two of them from the Kingdom of Volpine to Sentinel, never a hint that they were corpses being controlled with strange magic. At least until they crawled out of a fire to attack me. The only way I killed them was by pulling out their wooden hearts.”

Callie paused with her chicken halfway to her mouth.

“Well, shit…” she said, setting the chicken down to take a deep swig of her ale. “Do you know what kind of magic it is?”

Bellamy shook her head.

“I tried to research it, but haven’t found anything that fits. A scholar on magic might know, but I’ve been unable to find one.”

Janna let out a gasp and looked at him.

“You don’t think Baroness Julia is…”

Bryce frowned as he rubbed his chin.

“We’ll probably find out,” he said with a sigh. “Unless we find a different lead, her graveyard is our next stop.”

A grim atmosphere settled around them, only broken as the barmaid finally arrived to take their order. Her gaze nervously darted to the unconscious man nearby.

“How may I help you?” the barmaid asked nervously.

Bryce tore his dinner roll in half, running it through the juices of the roasted beef he ordered. Omelet, of course, was sitting between his chair and Vex’s, staring up at him as the little griffin impatiently waited for some scraps.

“We’ll stay here tonight, then head to see the Baroness in the morning,” Bryce said. “Try to learn why she’s building up her defenses and scout the graveyard for signs of Thea.”

***

After their meal, they all retired to their rooms. Bryce, Vex, and Janna took one room for themselves, while Callie and Bellamy took another.

“I think Callie’s warming up to Omelet,” Janna stated as she scratched the griffin’s head.

Bryce undid his sword belt and leaned his weapon against the wall near the bed.

“She certainly fed him enough table scraps,” he replied.

Vex immediately stripped out of her clothes and rushed to the bed. Soon, a naked wolfgirl was lying facedown on it, her tail waving back and forth.

“So soft,” she mumbled with her face buried in the mattress.

“It’s just a hay one,” Bryce said. “Still better than the ground, though.”

Janna’s tails lashed nervously as she looked at Vex’s nude body, her face bright red. When Bryce caught her eye, she looked away, giving Omelet one last pet before she found a place for her naginata.

“Are we all sleeping nude?” she asked, her voice catching.

Vex’s ears perked up, and she looked at the kitsune with a smile.

“Yes!” she answered.

Bryce was about to deliver his own answer when he heard a loud thump on the wall.

“No!” Callie’s voice echoed through it. “These shit walls are too thin! I do not want to spend my night listening to you three rutting!”

Vex glared at the wall that Callie’s voice had echoed through. She stood up and stomped over to it.

“Ahhh! My Bryce!” Vex moaned before smacking the wall rhythmically with her hands.

Immediately, Callie banged on the wall again.

“Damn it, Mutt! You better be joking!” Callie growled.

Vex erupted into laughter.

“Go to bed, Grumpy Elf,” she said before returning to the bed and resuming her previous position.

Bryce sighed.

“You sleep however is comfortable for you, Janna,” he answered. “Callie is right, the walls are too thin here, and we’re heading out early tomorrow, so rest is important.”

Vex turned her head to pout at him, but he ignored the wolfgirl. He also wasn’t a shitty enough person to have sex with Bellamy right next door.

Janna pulled out a night gown made from a thin white fabric and started to undress. She did smirk at Bryce when she caught him watching her, intentionally turning toward him so he could see her body before the thin fabric covered it.

“Do you like it?” she asked. “I picked it up while we were in Witchbrook.”

Bryce’s eyes ran up and down her body. The thin fabric clung to her skin, showing the outline of her figure. Despite the fact that it covered her, he found it alluring as if it sparked his mind into imagining what she looked like underneath.

“He likes it,” Vex said, smirking.

Bryce grinned at Vex before turning back to Janna.

“It looks good on you. Really good,” he said.

Janna smiled at him.

He changed himself into just his underclothing before crawling into the bed with his girls. Vex snuggled in on his left, her nude body pressing against him and no doubt trying to tempt him into making tonight a restless one.

Janna cuddled up to him on his right, the cool fabric of her night gown a thin barrier between them. Both girls draped their tails over him.

“Bryce,” Janna said as she lay her head on his shoulder. “Do you think my weapon is strange?”

He ran his hand along her back.

“It is a weapon from a far-off land,” he answered. “I’m sure if you took a spear or sword from the continent to the Ember Islands, they would find it odd.”

Janna cuddled closer to him, and he felt her tails shift under the covers.

“I don’t mean like that. I mean… unnatural? Mother said it was made with some very strange materials.”

The weapon did feel unnatural to him.

“I get an uneasy feeling around it. I learned quickly to trust my gut as a mercenary. It’s saved my ass more than once in a fight, and what it tells me about that weapon is that it’s dangerous. By that, I don’t mean the wielder of the weapon. I mean the weapon itself.”

He almost felt like the weapon didn’t like him.

“I’ve seen several frauds trying to sell people weapons they claimed were blessed by a Divine or carried a curse. They would do a variety of things to make the weapon seem unique. Dyes that stained the steel, odd trinkets attached to them, you name it, but they never made me feel like I do around your naginata,” Bryce said.

Janna was quiet as her fingers ran along his chest, Vex fast asleep on the other side. He could tell she was lost in her thoughts.

“Why do you ask?” he prodded.

She bit her lip as her fingers absentmindedly made another circular motion on his skin.

“It’s nothing. Probably just my imagination,” she said.