Feral Mage Book 2: Chapter 2

“Depends on the job,” Bryce answered.

Captain Taylor finished what remained of his tankard and set it down on the table.

“It’s a job for Baroness Julia, and as such, she should be the one to give you the details. I will say the pay is decent, more than what was being offered for the bandits,” Captain Taylor answered.

Nobility…

Bryce had taken jobs directly from Nobles before, but he never liked it. He always preferred the guild to act as an intermediary. The pay was good, but Nobles were usually prickly individuals and made him feel as if he was walking on eggshells to avoid breaking some etiquette. He also had some personal grudges against Nobility, but a job was a job, and they needed the coin.

“Alright, we’ll meet with the Baroness. No guarantee we’ll take the job though,” Bryce said.

“Of course,” Captain Taylor said. “When you and your girls are finished here, I’ll lead you to the Baronesse’s residence.”

Once they left the tavern, Captain Taylor led them past the small town on a well-maintained road. The low wetlands were soon replaced with forests as they made their way more and more into the hills. Bryce could already see the towerhouse on the crest of the large hill they were ascending. Once they entered through the palisade, Bryce got a closer look at the towerhouse and the small town surrounding it. The town consisted of a dozen wooden buildings in decent condition, and no doubt the homes of those who served the Baroness. The towerhouse was a large stone structure, and he could tell from the coloration of the stones that it had been added onto through the years. One side even had a new section being built, but the growth of plant life taking hold told Bryce construction on it had ended years ago.

Captain Taylor’s horse trotted through the town, and a stable boy met him as they drew near the towerhouse. He handed the reins to the lad as he climbed off his steed.

“I’ll inform Baroness Julia of your arrival. The lad here will tend to the horses while you wait,” Captain Taylor said before venturing into the keep.

Bryce watched as the stable boy fed an oat cake to one of the horses before starting to brush him down.

“It’s probably best if I go talk to the Baroness alone,” Bryce said to Janna, his eyes quickly darting to and from Vex.

Janna nodded in understanding.

“Will do, Bryce. Vex and I will stay here and guard the wagon,” Janna said, casting her own darting glance at Vex.

The wolfkin hadn’t heard their discussion. She was too busy untangling Omelet from a ball of yarn he had been playing with. The hogtied griffin just stared up at the sky as Vex worked to undo the self-imposed knots.

Captain Taylor reappeared from the towerhouse, and Bryce said a silent "thank you" to Janna before heading toward him.

“The girls will stay with the wagon. I figured this wouldn’t take long,” Bryce said to Captain Taylor.

He gestured for Bryce to follow him, and they both entered the towerhouse. An elderly woman, dressed in fine clothing, was waiting for him in a parlor. The room was much more modest than some of the homes of Nobility that he had been in, usually Barons or Counts. When they came to a stop before the Baroness, Bryce started to kneel.

“Don’t you dare kneel before me. Come, have a seat. The maids will bring you some snacks,” Baroness Julia said, waving to some plush chairs across from her.

Bryce stood and moved to the chair, taking a seat. He had barely sat down when a young woman in a black and white dress approached him, offering him one of the sweets from a platter.

“Thank you,” he said, taking a pastry shaped like a flower.

Baroness Julia smiled at him. He would guess she was in her sixties, but seemed to be in good health. He doubted she had ever done physical labor like tilling fields, or had to go nights without food in her belly. Bryce returned her smile.

“Captain Taylor said you have a job?” Bryce asked, wanting to get to the heart of the matter.

Baroness Julia was about to speak when the door swung open. Bryce turned to see a scowling Vex enter, ears flat and tail bristled. Janna followed behind her, with Omelet still partly tangled in yarn on her heels. The kitsune could do nothing as Vex made her way toward Bryce, staring hard at the maid in the black and white dress until she backed away from him. Then Vex sat down in his lap and glared at the Baroness.

Janna came over and stood beside his chair, mouthing “sorry” to him. Omelet also came over and tried to climb up into the chair also, but only fell backwards in his attempts. Bryce just sighed and waited for the Baroness to start yelling for Captain Taylor to throw them out.

“My Bryce,” Vex declared to the Baroness.

Baroness Julia burst out laughing, her hand wiping away a tear from her eye.

“My, she’s certainly smitten with you,” the Baroness said before looking at Vex. “Good. Declare to the world he’s your man.”

Vex smiled at the elderly woman as her tail wagged in response to the praise, then she turned to glare at the maid.

“I loved my Jonathan dearly, and I was just as quick to tell others he was mine. We shared many wonderful years together, but all good things must come to an end, I suppose,” the Baroness said, her gaze growing distant. “I thank Captain Taylor for bringing you here. I was about to put in an official request to your guild for someone, but I feared they would arrive too late. The Gods must be smiling upon me to send a Steel Rank mercenary to my domain during such a time.”

Bryce looked around Vex, who was still glaring at a terrified maid, to the Baroness.

 “I must admit I’m curious what kind of job you would require me for. You have Captain Taylor and other guards at your disposal. Why a merc like me?” Bryce asked.

The Baroness met his gaze.

“Because the last group of guards I sent for this task died. Captain Taylor says you’re a steel rank and should be able to handle even monsters.”

Bryce just became much more interested in this job.

“You think a monster killed your men?” Janna asked from behind him.

The Baroness sighed.

“It’s what makes sense. Something has been disturbing the graves in my family’s graveyard near the woods, even breaking into the mausoleums and removing the bones. I thought grave robbers might be the problem, so I stationed five men to guard it at night. We found their half-eaten corpses the next morning,” Baroness Julia said grimly.

“I think I’d like to take a look at this graveyard. Is it close to your towerhouse?” Bryce asked.

“Behind it. Not far from the wood line,” she answered.

***

The graveyard was closer to the woods than the towerhouse, being built on a stretch of level ground. Stone monuments, ranging from granite to marble, filled the fenced-in lot. That was the first thing he noticed about the graveyard. The fencing was intact. He had walked the perimeter when they arrived, looking for any openings or gaps something could slip through. There were none, and the gates were made of sturdy wrought iron.

“Whatever has been getting in is jumping the fence,” Bryce said after they made a complete circle.

Janna frowned.

“That fence is like eight feet high, isn’t it?”

Bryce nodded.

“High enough to deter most animals,” he said as he moved to open the iron gate, using the key the Baroness gave him.

The hinges let out a sharp squeak as he swung it open and stepped into the graveyard. Immediately, he pulled on his Manticore Aspect. His sense grew sharper, and he could smell the stale blood from where the men had died.

He walked through the rows of headstones, spotting a few whose soil looked recently disturbed. He would go back and check them later. Instead, he moved toward the mausoleum where the men had died.

“She said the guards were torn to shreds,” Bryce stated as he examined blood splatter on a headstone.

“And partly eaten,” Janna replied, her tails lashing nervously behind her. She kept looking around the graveyard with a grim expression.

Bryce raised an eyebrow at her.

“I didn’t think a monster would make you nervous, Janna. I figured you’d be excited.”

Janna blushed slightly.

“It’s not the monster. I don’t like graveyards, they’re creepy. The Horo-kitsune cremate our dead on a small boat in the river or sea. The thought that I’m standing on hundreds of corpses sends chills down my spine,” she replied.

Bryce paused and looked at the ground. He never thought of it that way, and he had to admit, it was an unsettling thought.

“Tracks!” Vex called out.

Bryce stood and moved to where Vex was kneeling, her hand holding Omelet still so the griffin chick didn’t disturb the tracks. Bryce knelt beside Vex and stared at what he thought was a wolf’s footprint in a small patch of mud. He scratched his chin in thought, then stood and went to the freshly disturbed graves.

His fingers ran along some of the deep grooves torn into the earth. They fit his hand perfectly. Then he knelt down to the ground and sniffed the soil. A faint, but putrid stench hit his nose.

“What the hell are they doing out here?” he said as he stood and looked over the graveyard.

“You know what it is?” Janna asked.

Bryce moved toward the mausoleum and climbed up onto the roof of the stone building. It gave him a view of the fence, and just past the tree tops, he could see the Winter River. The territory of the Kingdom of Deathridge lay on the far side of the river. The Kingdom had recently joined an alliance with the Kingdoms of Volpin and Graystone, uniting the Northern Human Kingdoms in what was known as the Northern Alliance.

“I believe so, but it doesn’t make sense,” Bryce answered, still staring at the far bank. “The monster I’m thinking of doesn’t live around here. They call the Dwarven Mountains home.”

He broke his gaze from the river and looked back at the graveyard, surveying it from the top of the mausoleum. His mind was working on how best to set up their ambush for the monster, or as he suspected, monsters.

“We’ll be staying in the graveyard tonight,” Bryce said.

Janna’s ears and tails dropped as she looked up at him.

“Please tell me you’re joking?” she asked.