Chapter 20.

  Travel plans.

  It was hours since Theodren had started digging. By now his back should have been aching and stiff from the labor, but the vitae he had pulled from the guards rejuvenated the muscles as he worked, and planned his next move. Three years ago, Theodren had sworn a duty to the people of this village, but once the last grave was dug and prayer was said. The people would have no further need of him, ever again.

  Theodren looked to the last surviving member of his flock. Theviana remained asleep in Reina’s equally still arms. Theodren had placed Reina and the baby against a tree beside Eleina’s home. While not expecting her to run away with the child in her battered state, Theodren took the precaution of blanketing the pair in roots that would certainly keep them warm, but also prevent a sudden escape.

  Their chests rising and falling in unison, he struggled to find a solution to the woman. Every attempt to remove Eleina’s daughter from the woman resulted in the same thing.

  A river of cold energy flooded the space around the babe’s Vitae, threatening to smother it out of existence like a candle dropped in a pond. It was only Reina’s touch that seemed to keep the ethereal water’s at bay. Something had happened to bring Theviana back to the world of the living. Reina had moved several feet in the blink of an eye, and was suddenly holding a living baby that was dead in the arms of her mother only a second before.

  There was only one conclusion he could come to. A god had intervened, and it was not his. Yggdrazil had remained absent or at least, quiet, for some time now. Theodren could think of one god and one god only that could open the black door and bring Theviana back, and he shuddered at the thought.

  Theodren placed Pieter’s mostly flattened shovel beside the final grave as he lowered Lester’s frail and crooked frame into the hole. “A child unwanted by the village will burn it down just to feel its warmth.” was an old adage a wise woman from his father’s lands had told him once. Lost on him as it was then, it was a stark wording of his failure towards Lester now.

  The boy was sly, disrespectful, conniving and illformed. But he was also an unwanted child, who wandered into town, alone and neglected, to fend for himself. Lester had lied, stolen and manipulated in order to make his way through life in the village. In the end he had made a truly terrible mistake in service to a petty vendetta that could have been avoided if Theodren had properly cared for the boy as he had the other townspeople. In the end, It was Lester that had stopped the blood shed, late as it may have been.

  Theodren said a prayer for the boy as he had the others, wishing him a better life on the other side of the Black Door as he began shoveling the dirt back over the last body. His service had ended.

  Theodren had scoured the village for survivors but there were none to be found. Reina had done brutal and efficient work while in Hardwrights’ thrall. With the last of his flock buried, his thoughts turned to the journey ahead of him. Theviana would not be safe in the lands of Grandia. Born only two weeks and already death and destruction had found the babe.

  No, There was only one place where he would find refuge for the girl. His father’s lands to the north was a cold place that bred a hardy people with no time for a church full of rules and dogma. They lived according to their own Order. Where might was right and strength was a requirement of life. In the Nordlands, The people were as warm as the land was frigid, and he would need that hospitality when he returned to his father’s hall.

  Their parting five years ago had not been a pleasant one. In his excitement to see the larger world beyond the fjords and mountain tops of his homeland, he had left without his father’s blessing. The two had fought, with words and with fists as was their way in the north. All told, Theodren left for the Conclave’s academy, with a cracked rib and a split lip on his smiling face as he headed south with his mother’s tales of grandeur and greatness filling his head.

  A frustrated sigh left Theodren as he got to work laying stones at the head of the many graves he had dug. No one had been more excited about Theodren’s Thread than his mother Sigrid. She was the only Priestess in the whole of the north and she had been ecstatic at her only child’s embrace of her faith as he discovered his Thread.

  He was not sure if, or how he would tell her his tale, but he would have a month to think about it. He scratched at the stubble forming on his chin, as the first fingers of dawn poked at the retreating darkness. He would need to move fast. The Cardinal had escaped, and when the young priestess fails to return to him, he would send scouts, and when the scouts see the graves, they would know that he survived.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Theodren pinched at the headache forming behind his eyes. He had no time. There was no time to search for survivors, certainly not enough time to bury the seventy eight men women and children Theodren had pulled from the wreckage of this tiny town. But he would not allow expediency to excuse him from his final duty to these people.

  “So…” Theodren jumped. Just feet behind him stood Reina, holding the gently sleeping babe in her arms. “What now, Big Bear?” Theodren’s brow furrowed at the new moniker. “Don’t call me that.” He turned away, caught in his surprise, he was unsure of how to deal with the pale woman.

  Reina walked after him. “What? You’re too big to be people. You fight like a bear, You sound like a bear…” Theodren rounded on her nostrils flaring in irritation. “The only reason you’re still alive is because of her.” Theodren jabbed a finger at his Godchild in her arms. “For some reason Theviana withers without you, and until I figure out why that is and how to fix my Godchild, you are coming with me.” Theodren stared hard into her face waiting for a reaction. Reina only looked down at the babe in her arms, a sad smile twitched at her mouth. “Theviana.” she crooned. Theodren scoffed, storming away from the strange woman.

  Reina watched him honor the graves a final time before he stomped off toward the edge of the broken town. “An angry bear.” she muttered, padding after him silently, doing her best not to wake the child. Theodren stopped suddenly in his tracks, causing Reina to skid to a stop to avoid running into him. He turned to her. “How did you get out from under the blanket?” Reina cocked her head at the man. “What blanket?” Theodren turned, walking over to the tree he had left Reina under.

  Dry and dead was the tree, from its branches to the roots Theodren had coaxed to cover the woman and child. Theodren turned an incredulous eye to Reina who merely shrugged her shoulders. “Not my fault, it was that way when I woke up.” Theodren took a longer look at the woman beside him.

  He had not healed her when he placed her by the tree. His resentment would not allow him to. Ultimately he knew that she was not to blame, having suffered Hardwright’s assault on his own mind, he was not surprised that she had fallen victim to it. That did not mean, however, that he had to like her. Somehow she had managed to heal herself without his aid, and Thread, he knew, did not heal that fast.

  “You met a god didn’t you.” Theodren asked her suddenly. She froze, the image of Nihila smiling at her through a borrowed face filling her mind. Reina walked stiffly past the man, head held haughty and high, as she tried to feign a normalcy that she did not feel.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, nosey-bear.” she huffed, stopping short as a wall of roots erupted at her feet. She yelped in surprise as they stretched higher than her hands could reach in seconds, blocking her retreat to nowhere.

  “Rule number one.” Barked Theodren as she turned to face him, brows stuck firm to her hairline. “Don’t lie to me, whatever god you made a deal with won’t matter when The Order sends another one of your ilk, to kill us both like you did to the town.” Reina flinched. “Rule number two, you do as I say and stay by my side at all times. if you leave my side for even a moment, I will carry you in a sack on my shoulder for the entire journey, do you understand?” Reina raised a hand. “What about when I need to pee?” Theodren brushed past her question. “And thirdly, My name is Theodren. Do not call me bear.”

  Reina bobbed her head as she considered his words. “Two out of three isn’t bad Big bear.”

  She turned back back to the wall of roots blocking her path. “What is this?” She poked at the wall of roots that slapped back at her hand. “Rude!” She shook her hand as she stepped back.

  The wall of roots receded into the ground. Reina followed its path until she saw them re-emerge at Theodren’s feet. Twining together until they formed a thick staff Theodren pulled from the ground.

  “This.” Theodren answered dryly. Is Retribution, you’ve met.” Reina wrinkled her nose at it. “Well that’s just not fair.” Theodren cocked an eyebrow at her. “You orphaned my Godchild and now you’re the only person keeping her alive.” Reina was stunned into silence at that. “The only unfair thing here is that you’re alive and they’re not.” Theodren gestured to the graves behind him. “Grab what you can, we’re going north.”

  “N-north!?” Reina blurted out, jogging after Theodren’s broad back. “That’s Nordland! Those people eat people!” Theodren was stopped in his tracks by the incredible statement.

  “Why would… that doesn’t… who told you that?” Theodren managed, finally overcoming the mental stumbling block that was her statement.

  “Soldiers...” Reina quipped back. Theodren only groaned resuming his pace. There had been a war for territory between his father and the Holy Kingdom of Grandia. The Church felt that it ought to own everything on the continent, and his father was less than pleased with the notion.

  For over a decade, Thorn held the Jormungand river. Outmanned and underpowered Thorn held back the Holy Kingdom’s northern advance with horsemen and savagery. Butchering all but one enemy soldier, and leaving them maimed but alive to tell the story to whatever southern unit came to his rescue.

  Eventually the siege became so costly that the Holy Kingdom abandoned the assault in return for Thorn Stormwall, who had gained his name from his defense of the river garrison, taking a Priestess of the Royal Order as a member of his court.

  “We don’t eat people.” Grumbled Theodren as he trudged on. “Maybe that’s why he’s so big.” Mumbled Reina to the child as she followed behind him.

  As the sun finally found the horizon, Reina squinted into it as a thought occurred to her. “I beg your pardon Mr. Bear sir, but North is that way.” Reina smirked as she pointed a sarcastic finger at the horizon to their right.

  Theodren gave an exasperated sigh but did not slow down. “Church first. Then we go.