Chapter 5

Brena waited out the night away from the burning house in case even the smallest trace of the mold should have escaped. By mornings light she hadn’t found a single trace of the evil mold. Even so, she stayed clear of the burned out hut. Tired but afraid to sleep yet, she gathered both her own and Mira’s bags. She wanted to get away from the woodsman’s place in case somebody came out to find out why he hadn’t been to town to sell wood for several days. As a warning to any such visitors, she made a sign from planks taken from the barn and wrote a warning of the mold possibly being in the burned remains of the house. This done, she hurried as well as she could with her load back to the river. She noted the direction of the flow and turned to continue following it downstream.

By noon she was stumbling from the lack of food and sleep. She was almost ready to set up a camp right where she was when she saw the remains of a broken and rotted dock a little further downstream. ‘Great, another dead farm to deal with,’ she thought, ‘ I had better check it out in case it has something that wants to eat me as well,’ she thought. She first checked the small wood portage dock and saw it hadn’t been used in quite some time, hence it’s ruined condition. An examination of the surrounding area showed no human tracks or recent presence. There was some small animal path and tracks, but no sign human activity. She could just make out the remains of an overgrown footpath leading into the woods not far from the dock. This improved her hopes that nothing would be an immediate threat to her if she followed it. She didn’t have to go far. She came to an overgrown clearing that used to be a barnyard and she could see the collapsed ruins of an old wood barn and the partial remains of an old stone and wood hut. The roof was gone but the stonewalls and framing still stood.

Brena was wary of a possible threat of smaller animals now, but didn’t think a human or a large creature was going to be an issue here. She pushed through the brush and soon was able to see into where a door had once covered the entry to the hut. The foundation and walls were actually fairly intact due to the way they had been constructed. Bricks and a hard mortar had been used in the construction so the weather hadn’t been able to destroy it completely. She did see some cracking near the base and one section by a window had fallen in, but the rest was intact. One thing did worry her though, no plants had moved into the remains. The hard dirt floor, or what looked like dirt was clear of all plant life. Rather than risk whatever kept the floor clear, she went to look over the collapsed barns remains. Here the woods had fully taken over and in a few more years, even this much of the old barn would be gone. The trees and vines would consume the remains of the structure. One section nearest the house had managed to hold together better than the rest though. As she peered into the darker opening, she could tell that animals had sheltered here at various times. She pulled a glow stone from the pouch she had it stored in and lit it so she could get a better look at what she hoped would be a good shelter for a day or two.

Not seeing any eyes glowing back at her, she ducked down and entered the shaded ruins. Nothing jumped out, creaked, cracked or groaned at her. She unshipped her packs and sat them along the lower side of the small space so she could rest in here now. A full examination showed the space to be about six feet wide most of the way to the back to where the roof had fallen in. It was a low but useable five feet high, sloping down in the last few feet to the dirt floor. She carefully pulled out her sleeping roll and a larger cloth that she put down over the floor to keep the roll from getting any dirtier than it already was. Looking over her food situation, she found she had a few sticks of dried jerked meat left and some dried berries to eat. After eating these, she left her hide and moved off to one side of the barn and found what she wanted now. A Clump of weeds that seemed healthier than the rest in the area told her she had found what used to be the privy. She cleared away the weeds from the hole and was able to straddle the partially filled pit and take care of her business.

She returned to her hide in the old barn and used a few rotting boards to block the entrance a little bit, lay down and closed her eyes. She was asleep in a second.

The Blood Queen was in a rage. Her Master informed her that the agents had failed to recover the needed shards from one of the locations and now he was unable to locate them. They had been shielded and hidden away once more. She now had a new agent in charge of her intel group since the failure of his predecessor could not be tolerated. “How long will it take you to get a new team in place to track down the stones,” she demanded.

“Your Majesty, the sea trip alone takes two months, then from what we learned of the locations, another two to four months depending on the time of year.” He stepped back half a step in a futile attempt to try and stay out of arms reach of the mad woman before him. She was no longer a fifteen year old girl, she was a harsh and evil looking forty. The years and power had not been kind the her at all. “A new team was dispatched as soon as word came back, It just takes time to travel is all Your Majesty.”

As he watched she seemed to sag a bit. “I know and you’re right, it just takes too damned long to travel on this world. The mage wars stripped this world of, or blocked it from the power. Which we may never know as it takes power to access the power, and there isn’t enough power to do what needs to be done.” She sat on her throne and glowered at the man then with a wave of her hand, “On your way, get me those gems.” He fled the chambers at a run. The Blood Queen heard a faint chuckle in the back of her mind as her Master looked on at her failures with mild amusement.

When Brena awoke from a deep sleep it took her a moment to remember where it was she had camped. First she looked outside through the small opening she had left in her hide the day before. It was mostly still dark, but from the faint light growing in the eastern sky and the screaming from her bladder, she knew morning had arrived. She grabbed her boots and slid one on, then yanked it off hurriedly and shook it out to oust the intruding bug from it. She repeated the shaking out of the other boot and was rewarded with a small group of bugs falling out. “Note to self, check footwear every morning before putting it on.” She muttered. This done, she crawled over to the entry and removed the planks she had placed, noting that they hadn’t been disturbed during her long sleep. When she crawled out, the air was cool and slightly damp, but pleasant after the heat of the day before. She made her way to the old privy and relieved herself again then returned to her hiding place. She pulled everything out and started over on the sorting of Mira’s bags and gear, along with her own now that she could see better in the improving light.

She pulled everything out of the normal bags and sorted it into piles of what she would keep, what could stay and what she would sell at the first opportunity. Then she pulled out everything she knew about in the magical pack. This proved to be very little, yet from the heft of the pack, there still had to be far more in it. She couldn’t find anything by touch no matter how far she could reach in, so she pushed up on the bottom of the pack to see if she could turn it inside out. Just as the bottom of the pack reached the top ring, items started pouring out of the pack. She continued this evolution until the bag was completely turned inside out. She looked at the pile in amazement. Books, rods, clothes, and what appeared to be wands. Jars still sealed but labeled with markings and runes she couldn’t make out. One stack of books was bound together by a heavy leather belt. The cover of the top most and a symbol that she could see was of fire. Rather than undo this stack, she set it aside for later study. The wands had markings on them, but she couldn’t make out what they meant, so they to went with the books. One small book though turned out to be a journal. It was hand written and in markings she couldn’t understand in the early parts. As she flipped the pages, the writing changed and before the end, she had no trouble reading the script. She looked at the last page and saw that it had been written by her own father explaining what the bag was and how it had been handed down for untold generations. The last line read, “I hope to one day pass this on to my daughter when she is ready to strike out on her own. I don’t see her as the leader of the Thieves Guild here in Plains Guard. Maybe she will lead elsewhere, but not here, or not yet anyways.” The date of the entry was only a year old.

Careful examination of one of the sealed jugs proved to be food. Fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts and jerky. She had a full meal from this, resealed the jug and set it aside for later use. If it had kept the food fresh for untold ages, then maybe refilling it would prove a boon for later when food was short. Another jug had a water sign on it. This had fresh water in it, cool and sweet to taste. She resealed this one for later reuse as well. Now she took time to look at the clothing that had come from the bag. A pair of fine boots, well made and sound. They had no signs of scuffing or wear on them at all. She could see by looking at them they would be too big for her feet. She wondered how it would feel, so pulled off her left boot and slid her foot into one anyways. She almost panicked as the boot suddenly shrank to fit on her foot perfectly. She pulled on it and it came off her foot with no resistance. She looked at the other boot of the pair and saw it had shrunk to match it’s mate. She set them aside for later as well. Magic of this sort was never to be wasted. The cloak she found fit her perfectly and seemed to mold itself to her body. Whatever the enchantments on these were, they did not come this world. They were just too powerful and complex to have been created here on Gardallen. She set the cloak with the boots and started looking through the papers that had fallen out with the rest. Most she couldn’t read, a few she was able to make out the script, all neatly hand written. All proved to be notes to any who might find them in the future. She learned that the jugs would refill over time, a day or so at the most. The boots would allow her to walk and make no sound as she moved. The cloak would help her blend into the surroundings, making her harder to detect. All admitted the wands and tomes wouldn’t work, but held onto them in case someday somebody would figure out how to use them.