Decision Made Read online

  The sorcerer shouted in some other language and the billowing froze. He reappeared, breathing harshly and grimacing. Blood streaked down the front of his leg and his face was twisted into a mask of hatred.

  “Who the hell are you two?” he demanded.

  “No one important.” Taigan mocked him with a smirk.

  And while he screwed his face up and pulled his hands back to throw a spell at her, Jamie thrust with all his might and ran him through with his sword.

  The sorcerer stumbled back. His hand went to the hilt of the sword and the spreading stain around it and he stared at the boy in disbelief. “Who are you?” he whispered again. He fell to his knees and swayed before he collapsed on his front. The breaths seemed to drag on and on as he died but finally, he lay still.

  The last bottle exploded. The billows of light turned into people—men and women, their eyes filled with hopelessness that faded as they looked at the man on the floor.

  “He’s…” A woman closed her eyes with a satisfied smile. “He’s dead. Thank all the gods.”

  The others crowded forward to look. Some came to take the twins’ hands and thank them profusely.

  “It was nothing,” Jamie said.

  “No,” an older man said, “no, you fought him. You appealed to his pride and his greed. We saw.”

  “He’s held some of us for decades,” one woman said. “Some for years or months. One was new.” She looked around. “Where is he? Esak?”

  “Esak?” the two siblings demanded in unison.

  They looked around in time to see a boy with brown hair slip out the door.

  “Esak!” Taigan called. She followed him at a run and Jamie pulled himself away from the others to go as well.

  The storm had, if anything, increased. It was almost impossible to see anything, even with the flashes of lightning. Jamie held a hand over his eyes and looked around. There was no way to tell where Esak had gone.

  “Taigan!”

  “We have to find him!” Her call came immediately, the words half-obscured by the thunder and the rain.

  “We can’t!” he shouted. “Not in this! There’s no way to know where he went!”

  “You look that way, I’ll look the other!” She had to put her mouth next to his head for him to hear her.

  They waited for the next flash of lightning, but when it came, they could see no one on the road. Esak was gone.

  Inside, one of the former captives was sweeping the glass up and another used the bedding to create several beds on the floor. They all looked up as Jamie and Taigan returned.

  “He’ll turn up,” one of them said comfortingly. “He’s a good boy, merely impulsive. He said he wanted to travel beyond the world.”

  “Like the man in Insea,” Jamie said. “We know. His father sent us to find him.”

  “And already, you’ve done more than most would be able to,” an old man pointed out. “Sit. Take your wet clothes off. Have a meal and wait out the rain.”

  He sighed and sat. It had been a very strange night.

  “How did you kill him?” one of the men asked. “Was it really as simple as stabbing him?”

  “Yep,” Taigan said. “Sometimes, you only have to be willing to try stabbing someone.”

  “Huh,” the man said thoughtfully.

  As the others talked, she leaned her head back and her eyes drifted closed. Jamie felt tired as well, but he realized he couldn’t sleep. One thing still nagged at him, and it wasn’t Esak.

  His sister hadn’t been lying when she said she wanted to be cured but what was the other part? What was it that had enabled her to evade the spell?

  He knew better than to ask.

  After all, she might answer.

  Chapter Nine

  It didn’t take long to reach the next town and they didn’t even go into it. The market was outside the settlement, far too big to fit within narrow streets. The entire rocky field was covered in stalls and tents, with more smells than Taigan knew what to do with. Some were very good, some were very bad, and the combination was deeply confusing.

  Each of the former captives disappeared into the crush in turn with a last thank you to the twins. She had given all of them two pieces of gold—more than enough to get lodging and food and make their way home.

  A woman named Marianna was the last to leave. She had been one of the more recent captives but she seemed also to have become a mother-figure to them despite her youthful appearance. There was something a little elven about her, perhaps in the exact shade of her black hair or the way she smiled.

  “Esak is a good boy,” she told them. “Remember, if you see him, that he didn’t leave his family because he didn’t love them. He does love them and he loves his home. He merely believes he’s meant to be somewhere else.”

  “Do you truly believe he can go to another world, though?” Jamie asked skeptically. He and his sister had, in whispers, decided to treat the whole story as something impossible. “It doesn’t worry you that he would hurt himself badly while trying to chase a story that can’t possibly be true?”

  “Who can say what’s true?” Marianna asked with a shrug. “I would never have thought that a sorcerer could steal my soul and keep it in a glass bottle while he forced my body to labor in a mine, digging for ancient crystals for his spells. There are more things in this world than we can know. Perhaps Esak is called to the artifact he speaks of.”

  Taigan nodded.

  “Remember, the choice is his to make,” the woman told them both seriously. “Thank you again. Be safe, and may your good deeds be returned to you tenfold.”

  She vanished into the crowd and the girl looked around with a sigh. “Okay, so we need to find caravans going west, right?”

  “Right.” Jamie scanned their surroundings. “Do you have any idea where all those people hang out? Is there a sign or—”

  “You know, in movies, no one ever seems to have this problem,” his sister commented. “They simply find the mysterious looking person, or the mysterious looking person calls out to them or something, you know? Prima? Could you arrange that?”

  “Nope. It goes against my world programming.”

  “You could override that if you wanted to,” he told her.

  “I could. It’s more fun this way.”

  “Fine,” Taigan said with a groan. “Let’s go find some people and ask directions.”

  “I bet we could find it on our own,” he said at once.

  “You try it your way, I’ll try it mine and we’ll see who wins, okay?”

  “No, no, we’ll do it your boring way.”

  She rolled her eyes and set off into the crowd. The woman at a food stand was more than willing to give them directions, especially after they bought a hand pie of some kind. They traded it between them for quick bites, trying to savor the taste and not look at the contents in case they saw something they didn’t want to know about.

  On the vendor’s instructions, they wandered to the western side of the big market. As she had said, the area was full of carts and makeshift stables. Horses stamped and snorted and merchants bargained with a dizzying array of people. It wasn’t only the usual array of peaches and browns and different outfits either. No, there were elves with blue and green skin, dwarves with their stocky statures, and even someone who could only be an orc—a head again taller than anyone else and broad-shouldered enough to pick up one of the horses without breaking a sweat.

  Taigan gave the orc a wide berth.

  “We’re looking for someone,” she told a merchant. “A boy a little shorter than me with brown hair and blue eyes. His name is Esak and he’s trying to get passage to the west to get to the Rylkor Mountains.”

  “Aye, I saw him.” The merchant, a dwarf with reddish-blond hair and a long pipe nodded. “I don’t run any caravans west so I sent him to talk to Jonas. He’s the one with the orc on his crew.”

  “Oh, good,” she muttered.

  “They’re not so bad, orcs.” The dwarf nodded. “Ther
e’s no reason to fear. But…try not to breathe through your nose.”

  “He’s giving you very good advice,” Prima interjected. “Pay attention.”

  All the warnings in the world, however, could not prepare them for the stench. Even when they breathed through their mouths, the smell seemed to worm its way into their nose and set up camp. It took everything Taigan had to keep her face straight, and Jamie stared into the middle distance with an expression of queasy determination.

  The merchant remembered Esak, although he hadn’t ended up renting a berth to him. The boy had insisted on leaving immediately and Jonas didn’t plan to go until the caravan was full.

  Jonas had sent him to Harald, who dealt in grain and vegetables and thus sent caravans out every day.

  With thanks—and increasing oxygen deprivation—the twins said goodbye to the caravan leader and his orc friend and stumbled away.

  “I didn’t think I would make it,” Jamie said weakly.

  “Neither did I,” Taigan agreed. “You know, when Gwyna turned into a demon? That was still not as bad as this.”

  “Agreed,” he said.

  Harald turned out to be exactly like Taigan imagined Vikings. He was tall and blond, with his beard and hair braided and blue tattoos over one half of his face, dressed in leather and with a shocking assortment of weapons. He was deep in conversation with several elves, all of whom had shaved heads and tattoos. The four of them seemed to be furious—each of them with every other one in the group—and the yelling shifted between languages at lightning speed.

  Whether this was normal in the marketplace or normal for Harald, she did not know. All she knew was that no one else seemed to pay any attention to the commotion at all, even when everyone drew weapons.

  Judging by what happened next, the weapons were used to provide emphasis. Any particularly relevant points seemed to be accompanied by slamming one’s weapon into the dirt. Finally, with a yell, Harald brandished a battle-ax under one elf’s nose and stalked to the twins.

  “Yes?” he asked brusquely.

  “Um.” Taigan swallowed and stared at him. He was almost as tall as the orc and he smelled worse than any human she had ever smelled.

  Better than the orc, thankfully.

  “I don’t have all day, girl.” Harald folded his arms over his chest.

  “Right. I, uh—Jonas sent us. We’re looking for a boy named Esak.”

  “The mayor’s son?” Harald laughed. “That boy won’t make it half the way to the Rylkor Mountains, you mark my words.”

  “Well, do you have any idea where he is now?”

  “’Course I do. He’s on one of my caravans, heading west.”

  Jamie frowned. “But you said—”

  “I said he’d never make it but his coin was good.” The man shrugged. “I don’t waste my time trying to talk people out of doing stupid things.”

  Taigan fought the urge to scream. She could take a smarmy wizard in a fight but probably not this guy. “How long ago did they leave?” she asked as nicely as she could.

  “Oh, not long. They may not even be gone yet. They’re headed out through the bribe line now.”

  “The…I’m sorry?”

  “You know, where you bribe the gate guards to let you out?” Harald shook his head at them. “Where are you two from?”

  She decided not to answer that. “What direction is that in?”

  He pointed behind him. “You’re looking for the caravan with the blue flag on the front carriage. Govorn runs it. The ugliest bastard you ever saw.” He looked from one to the other. “Are we done here?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” She caught Jamie’s hand and ran as Harald yanked his battle-ax out again and returned to the elves, bellowing something. “That man is terrifying.”

  “You think?” her brother responded with evident relief.

  They pushed between the carts and people waiting in the bribe line. Shouts went up behind them—annoyance at them cutting in line—and Taigan took to calling, “I’m not cutting in line. I’m looking for someone!” as she ran.

  She gave it even odds that someone would try to shank her anyway and increased speed accordingly.

  The front of the line was fast approaching, and she saw nothing that matched Harald’s description. No blue flags were anywhere.

  “Govorn!” she called finally in desperation. She spun and put her hands to her mouth to amplify the sound. “Govorn!”

  “Govorn?” One of the gate guards looked up and smirked. “That ugly bastard? What’s he done to get two pretty youths chasing after him?”

  “Ew,” said both twins at once.

  “Jes’ joking.” His tone said he wasn’t. “His caravan left a few minutes back. You could probably catch them if you run.”

  “Thanks!” Taigan sprinted away before he could ask what they would do to pay for that information and dragged her brother behind her.

  “That was creepy!” he called to her as they ran.

  “Welcome to my world.”

  “Gross. I’m sorry. You know—” He gasped for breath. “I’m a little out of breath now.”

  “There’s no time for that!” she retorted.

  “I don’t think it’s about not having time—”

  “What did I say?” She was getting winded too but she wouldn’t stop running. By now, it felt like her body was a perpetual motion machine. She could barely feel her feet striking the ground but she knew that everything was settling into a beautiful stride.

  She loved this.

  Jamie began to fall behind her. Well, she couldn’t worry about that right now. She pushed up a hill with the sound of her heart beating in her ears and crested it to see a caravan ahead—one with a blue flag fluttering on the front carriage.

  “Jamie! I see them! Come on!”

  The girl raced down the hill. Now, she had begun to go fast enough that she was worried her feet wouldn’t keep up. Three times, her foot slipped on a rock. Once, she tumbled with her arms over her face until gravity and chance set her back on her feet.

  People in the caravan had noticed her now and she waved her arms at them to stop. She could see them calling to one another but she couldn’t tell if the caravan was slowing at all.

  Finally, she saw him. Esak stood in the back of the last wagon, watching her. He looked curious until she got close enough for him to recognize her. Then his face went stony and he shook his head emphatically. He was not at all interested in listening to her.

  Too bad. She caught up with the caravan at last and took one worker’s hand to get pulled into the back of the wagon.

  “Thank…thank you,” she managed before she gasped a breath. She looked over her shoulder to where Jamie made his way down the hill with a limp. “I…okay, one second.” The world was spinning.

  “Sit and wait a moment,” one of the workers told her. “There’s enough time. Even that one will catch up with us sooner or later.” He chuckled and retrieved a water skin. “Here, take a drink.”

  Chapter Ten

  “You should go back,” Esak said. It was the first time Taigan had heard him speak and she was surprised by how commanding his voice was.

  “Nope.” She looked at him. “I need to talk to you. We promised…your parents.” She took another gulp of water and managed to not choke on this one.

  Jamie, meanwhile, had almost caught up with the caravan and was walking a few yards behind it while he summoned the energy to go a little faster. It didn’t look like it would happen anytime soon, and from the periodic frowns, Prima was giving him shit about it.

  When a man swung over the top of the caravan and landed next to Taigan, she jumped. She jumped again when she looked at him and saw possibly the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life. He was so handsome that she didn’t even feel attracted to him. It was as if a magnificent sunset had come to life.

  “Hello,” he said cheerfully. “I’m Govorn.”

  “Oh, you’re Govorn. Wait. You’re Govorn?” She gaped at him i
n disbelief. Either the standards for beauty were different in this world or his reputation as an ugly bastard was a joke.

  She suspected the latter.

  “Your mouth is hanging open,” Prima informed her. “Jamie, if you’d gotten here sooner, your sister wouldn’t be staring at this man like a fish.”

  That galvanized her brother into action. He sprinted closer and was hauled up onto the wagon by Govorn himself—who, to Taigan’s amusement, seemed to be so handsome that even her twin was rendered speechless.

  “So,” the man said pleasantly. “You made quite an effort to catch this caravan. What can I do for you?”

  Jamie tried to speak and nothing emerged.

  “We were looking for Esak, to be honest,” she said. “We wanted to travel with him.” Before Esak could make any objections, she said, “I don’t suppose you have space for two more.”

  If Govorn had any objections, the gleam of a gold coin in her fingers silenced them. He plucked it out of her hand and bowed. “I’m pleased to welcome you. We’ll talk later about how far you’re going.” With another blindingly handsome smile, he vaulted onto the top of the caravan and leapt away.

  “I don’t like that guy,” her brother said finally.

  “Why? Because he makes everyone else look like a pile of crap?”

  “Well…uh, yeah.” He looked at her.

  Several of the caravan workers laughed and one clapped him on the shoulder in commiseration.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “Caravan life has many opportunities—even for the likes o’ you and me.”

  “Hey,” he said and sounded deeply offended, but his sister kicked him in the shin.

  The workers laughed and returned to their work, while some climbed onto the top of the carriage to sit in the sunshine and sing.

  Which left Esak alone with the twins. The boy folded his arms and looked at them in undisguised annoyance. “What are you doing here? Who are you?”

  “Your father sent us,” Taigan said. She sat on the floor of the wagon and looked at him. “He said you were going to the Rylkor Mountains because you hoped to find the key that would take you between worlds like the man in Insea.”