54 – Suspicions

  Andy watched as his friends chatted with Enthian, the Lurikeen. The little guy seemed extremely friendly and gregarious, but Andy felt like there was something off about him. For starters, he thought it was odd that none of his “clan” had made an appearance yet. The way Enthian had hidden from him and been able to see through his cloaking spell was also troublesome. For all Andy knew, there were a dozen Lurikeen surrounding them as they spoke. It made him nervous, and he could tell he wasn’t the only one. Bella kept sending him glances, her brows drawn down and her lips pressed together in a thin line.

  “…would love to exchange recipes if you’re interested,” Bea said, having just listened to Enthian describe a stew he’d cooked up earlier that day.

  “Um, Andy, I think Violet was expecting you, right?” Bella said. “Maybe we should get going.”

  Andy took the opening and nodded. “Yeah. Enthian, I’d like to get out of this rain if you don’t mind. We can talk more after the storm dies down.”

  The little man nodded, tilting his hat up as he looked at Andy. “Well, I couldn’t help noticing how you parlayed successfully with those harpies. Did you arrange some sort of truce?”

  “Yeah, you could say that. They shouldn’t give you any trouble, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

  “Excellent. Well, do you have any objection to our taking one of these trees while you’re sheltering below? We’d like to begin work on some new wings and hull repairs.”

  The question struck Andy as almost offensive, and his face must have shown his feelings because he saw the frustration in the Lurikeen’s eyes. Before he could object, though, Bella growled and leaned close to the child-sized man.

  “Don’t even think about cutting down one of these trees!”

  Enthian backed away from her vehemence, but he didn’t exactly look cowed. His back stiffened, and he reached up to square his hat. “Well, listen, this is something we can surely talk about—perhaps over a meal and a cup of ale. We’d love to share some of our rations with your leadership.”

  “You mean Andy?” Bella asked, glancing at Andy again, clearly trying to convey something with her eye contact.

  “Oh, Andy, are you the leader of this settlement? I don’t think I realized.” Enthian bowed as though it was time to show some respect he’d earlier held back.

  “I am, but we’ve got a council. Tell you what, Enthian, when the storm passes, I’ll talk to you about the repairs you need. There are plenty of options for wood other than the trees on our mesa.”

  “But these trees, Andy, are quite special. Their wood—”

  “He said no,” Jace growled, moving to stand beside Bella.

  Andy hadn’t said that—not exactly—but he tended to agree with Bella. The trees, in his opinion, were worth protecting, at least until they’d figured out exactly what they were. He didn’t think that going around chopping down giant magical trees as soon as your settlement was gifted with them would be a wise move. “We’ll talk, Enthian. It was good to meet you, but yeah, until we make an agreement, please don’t chop down any of our trees.” When the Lurikeen only nodded slightly, he asked, “Do I need to station a guard out here in the rain?”

  “Don’t worry, Andy,” Bella said, folding her arms. “I’m sure the Lurikeens don’t want to declare war on us.”

  That got the Enthian’s attention, and he quickly sputtered, “No, no! Nothing of the sort. I’m sure we can come to an agreement.” He glanced up at the cloud-filled sky. “When the storm passes.”

  Andy nodded. “Until then.”

  Enthian bowed again, then doffed his hat and waved to everyone, his eyes especially lingering on Bea as he said, “It was truly a pleasure to meet you all. I look forward to hosting you for a banquet—we’ll set up a table on the grass near our ship when the weather turns!”

  While Bea smiled and nodded, Andy saw Lucy frown and take a step back, gripping her pale bow rather tightly. She’d felt something was off, too.

  As Enthian turned and strolled away, careless of the rain that didn’t seem to stick to him, Omar said, “Not sure I like—”

  Andy cut him off, gesturing toward the nearby trees. “Let’s get the node and make our way back to the underground.”

  “Right.” The stocky man thumped his mace into his palm and looked at the floating orb, not ten feet away. “How?”

  “I’ll get it. Just walk with me and keep your eyes open. Bea, stick close, please.”

  The older woman nodded, walking beside Andy as they all went to the node. Andy accessed the menu, selecting the option to move the System device, and then he put a hand on it and, just as he’d guessed it would work, pushed it through the air beside him as they walked. Something sizzled and hissed, and Andy jerked his gaze toward the sound only to see Lucy staring into the distance with a flaming arrow on her bowstring. She didn’t shoot, and Andy hoped she was just being cautious or maybe trying to intimidate would-be attackers.

  When they reached the hatch leading to the tunnels, he was relieved to see Tucker there, holding the door up a few inches to peer through. “Were you here the whole time?” Andy asked.

  Tucker nodded. “Yeah. Was keeping an eye out for you…in case.”

  “You go down first, Andy,” Bella said, holding her sword and shield ready as she scanned the dark, rainy mesa.

  Andy grabbed hold of the node and, as soon as Tucker cleared the way, dropped into the tunnel below. The node moved easily, and when he’d pushed it a short way into the tunnel, the system hit him with a message:

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  ***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve moved your System node to a more secure location! In the process, you’ve earned another Boon point. Note: Andy, you’re accumulating Boon Points! They won’t do you any good in the bank!***

  Andy pushed the node further into the tunnel, making room for the others, and when they were all down, away from the now-closed hatch, he said, “I don’t trust that guy.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that!” Bella cried. “You can’t trust the Fae!”

  “But we are trusting them,” Lucy said, looking back toward the closed trapdoor.

  “Yeah! What if they cut a tree down?” Jace asked, his fist audibly tightening on his spear haft.

  “Well,” Andy said, looking at Bella, “I have a feeling you hit a nerve with that war comment.”

  She grinned, tapping the side of her skull. “I wanted him to understand our position; the Fae are more into trickery than outright violence, at least in the stories. I even remember reading that they can’t directly lie, but they tell half-truths and can lie by omission. Oh, and we definitely don’t want to eat any food they prepare.”

  Bea’s smile grew broad as she put her arm over the younger woman’s shoulders. “You’re a smarty, you know that?”

  Bella snorted. “Now you’re complimenting me? What about when I saved you from that giant rat?”

  Bea just grinned, leaning her cheek against Bella’s dark hair.

  “Well, don’t worry; I’m going to patrol regularly, regardless of what he promised,” Andy said, trying to steer the conversation back on track. “We should keep a guard at both entrances to the tunnels, too.”

  “I’ll set it up,” Omar said. “Someone should already be standing guard at the waterfall tunnel.”

  “Yep,” Tucker said, “Mari was there when I headed this way.”

  “Cool, thanks, guys.” Andy gestured to the node. “I’ll take this into the main cavern, but we should get together soon and come up with a plan for dealing with the Lurikeens. I’d rather not have to fight them, but I know they’re going to push hard for one of those trees.”

  “And we don’t want that, right?” Lucy asked, looking from Andy to Bella, then to the others.

  “No! I think they’re special,” Bella said immediately.

  “I got that feeling too, young lady,” Bea said. “Nothing certain—not like I get with water—but there was something about them.”

  Andy confirmed the sentiment: “I think it would be a bad move to start cutting them down. Whatever caused the stroke of luck that made them grow on our mesa…” He trailed off for a moment, considering his words, then shrugged. “I don’t want to insult fate or karma or some weird force of nature that we used to think wasn’t real. I mean, mana coming to our world changed things.”

  Jace laughed, holding up a red-tinted arm and wiggling his pointy black nails. “No shit.”

  “If they need lumber, then we can give them some from Construction City,” Omar said.

  Bella smiled crookedly and nudged him in the ribs. “Grace Refuge.”

  Andy put a hand on the node and started walking. “Think about it, everyone—arguments we can use against them if they try to get tricky.” Glancing at Bella, another thought occurred to him, and he added, “Oh, and spread the word: nobody is to enter into any sort of agreement with the Lurikeens, and nobody is to accept any gifts, especially food.”

  Jace turned off at the waterfall, and Omar said something about checking things out down by the lake. The others walked with Andy to the main cavern. Standing there, looking at all the tents and piles of salvaged belongings and equipment, he shrugged and walked the node toward the corner of the cavern where he and Lucy had set up camp. “Might as well put it somewhere I can keep an eye on it when I’m resting.”

  “Good idea,” Bella said. She made to follow him and Lucy, but Bea took her wrist and tugged her toward the center of the cavern.

  “You owe me a talk.”

  “Um, now?”

  “It’s been a couple of days, girl.”

  “Fine, whatever.”

  As the two of them walked away, Andy looked at Lucy and whispered, “Talk?”

  She nodded. “I think Bea’s been, like, counseling her since day one when you brought her and the other prisoners from Construction City to the trailer park.”

  Andy snapped his fingers as her words jogged his memory; he’d known that, but it was something that had slipped his mind amid a thousand other little details about the settlement and its citizenry. “Well, she’s definitely been a lot less angry.”

  “I mean, yeah, unless you’re a leprechaun trying to cut down one of our trees.” Lucy giggled, and Andy laughed.

  “I don’t think they’d like being called leprechauns.”

  “You saw him, though, right? Didn’t you think…”

  Still laughing, Andy nodded. “Yeah, I thought it.”

  He pushed the node the rest of the way to their campsite and, while he pulled up the menu, Lucy sat down and began sorting through her arrows, laying them out in piles on her blankets.

  “Are you going to spend the Boon Points?”

  “Did you get that message, too?”

  She didn’t look up, and he could tell she was trying to keep her tone neutral—nonjudgmental. “Yeah, I think everyone did. It seems like the System wants you to spend them.”

  “Yeah, that’s a nice way of putting it.” His mind made the jump to his personal Improvement Points. He needed to spend them, too, but he didn’t think he was hoarding; he’d just been damn busy. Silently, he resolved to deal with the points before he let himself get distracted and pulled away again. “First, the Boon Points,” he whispered, pulling up the available options:

  Boon Points: 3

  Boons Available:

  Hearthflame Ember

  Whisperwood Grove

  System Trade Beacon

  Deep Veins

  Fisher’s Bounty

  Deepwater Port

  Reading through them, a thought occurred to him, and he focused on the Whisperwood Grove option, reading the description:

  Whisperwood Grove: A small grove of fast-growing, magically resonant trees will begin thriving near the settlement. These trees will provide access to high-quality bow staves and specialty woods ideal for fletching, carving, or crafting light armor.

  “It doesn’t say their wood would be good for an airship, but magically resonant sounds promising…”

  “Hmm?” Lucy asked, looking up.

  “I was just thinking, if we want to get the Lurikeens off our back about cutting down one of the magical mesquites, we could offer them some wood from the—”

  “Oh! The Whisperwood Grove Boon!”

  Andy nodded. “Yeah. It says they’re ‘fast-growing,’ but I guess that could mean anything. Like, instead of decades, maybe they only take a few years…”

  “Well, judging by what we just saw outside, I think it’ll be faster than that.”

  Andy nodded. “True.”

  He focused on the other options, refreshing his memory:

  Hearthflame Ember: Your settlement has been blessed with a flame that is impossible to extinguish. It can be used for light, warmth, and even to enhance a smithy’s forge.

  System Trade Beacon: Unlocks basic System trade notifications. Once per week, the settlement will receive a Market Ping, revealing a resource that is currently in demand or surplus within nearby settlements. Enables early barter agreements and lays the groundwork for future System Market access.

  Deep Veins: The mesa holds more than hollow stone. Beneath your settlement, mana has kindled hidden channels rich with potential. Ores and minerals of worth may lie within, awaiting discovery by those with the courage to delve and the skill to harvest. Beware—the depths could hide danger as well as reward.

  Fisher’s Bounty: Some of the bodies of water in your settlement are abundant with edible fish. If you already have another bounty-type boon, this selection will be multiplicative and may result in rare specimens.

  Deepwater Port: Your settlement has access to an underground waterway. This boon will expand your access and make for easier vessel launches.

  “Damn, none of them is an obvious no—”

  “Um, Andy?” Lucy said, her voice raising an octave as she pointed. When he looked up, he saw she was staring at a cloud of black steam erupting near his sleeping bag. It sparkled with silvery motes of light, and he could see a small object taking shape at the base of the plume.

  “Oh, shit!” He moved closer to the phenomenon. “I think that’s my Codex entry.”