Page 39 of Rune Assassin

We zoomed past him and down the road. Tegan soon took the lead and grinned at me. “That went well.”

I glared back at him. “Not. Another. Word.”

He pressed his lips together and shook his head. We strode down the road for a mile before he turned us rightward and down a narrow cart path between two fields. The crops resembled wheat but were much taller than that familiar grain. The path which we followed ended at a clump of woods some two miles further on but Tegan stopped us at a parcel on our left.

“This is it,” he announced.

I stood on my tiptoes and looked out on the vast expanse of wheat. “I don’t see any bleachers.”

He shook his head. “Nor do I, nor any other sign that there will be a trial here.”

I lifted an eyebrow at him. “You don’t think he lied to us, do you?”

Tegan folded his arms over his chest and furrowed his brow. “I’m not sure but we may as well look around while we’re here.”

We separated and Tegan strode into the field. I took the easier path and walked further down the road. The area was as quiet as it was yesterday and not a soul could be seen except Tegan’s upper body traversing the field.

I had gone about a mile and Tegan was far behind me when I stopped to turn around. That’s when I noticed something amiss in the high grain. I scurried over to the edge of the field and studied a line of broken blades that disappeared into the field.

“Tegan!” I shouted as I turned tail and hurried back to him. “Tegan!”

His head shot up from his inspection and he crashed out of the field to where we met on the road. “What is it?”

I pointed at the spot I had left. “There’s. . .there might be something over there,” I wheezed.

I took him back to the spot and pointed at the out-of-place depression in the grass. “Is that a trail?”

Tegan stooped and looked at the same spot before he frowned. “I think it is. Let’s see where it goes.”

We ventured off the beaten path and through the thick grass. The blades were so high they tickled my chin and so thick that in many places I couldn’t see through them. The trail meandered its way through the field and soon the dark woods loomed up in front of us. We stepped out of the grains and into the stubby woodland grass and weeds. Leaves littered the ground and the trees stood only twenty feet away, their thick branches almost hanging over us. A whiff of rot floated over us.

Rot, and something else.

Tegan lifted his nose and furrowed his brow. “It smells like disturbed dirt.”

I looked about our feet at the mess of grass and leaves. “But I don’t see any.”

Tegan stooped and brushed the leaves away with his hand. My eyes widened as he revealed a strange stone buried in the disturbed earth. Unfamiliar markings covered the surface. He pursed his lips and lifted his eyes to the rest of the field. “Let’s see if there are others like this one.”

“What does it even mean?” I asked him as he stood.

“They’re rune stones,” he revealed as he examined the area. “They’re used to create powerful magic.”

“For good or bad?” I wondered.

“That depends on who put it here. For now, let’s see how many of these our unknown ‘friend’ put for us to find.”

We scoured the open area in front of the woods and it didn’t take us long to find more of the stones. Tegan and I uncovered their faces and stepped back to view our work. The rune stones were twelve in total and created a circle some twelve feet in diameter.

“None of these are buried very deep,” I commented as stooped in front of one.

I wormed my fingers into the dirt and managed to grasp the bottom. Picking it up, however, was another problem altogether. Though the rock wasn’t very big it was unusually heavy as though it had partaken of a healthy diet of its own kind its entire existence.

Tegan shook his head. “Nor are they covered in grass so they must have been placed here recently.”

“For the trials?” I guessed.

“That’s hard to say,” he admitted as he walked around the perimeter of the stone circle with his eyes focused on the stone faces.

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