Page 106 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“Sure, but rotsbane are incredibly difficult to kill.” Ferrin twirled one of his knives.
“And dangerous!” Orla interjected.
“Obviously.” I gestured at my abdomen again. “I died. Anyway, where are we now?”
Moonlight cast lines of silver across the barren forest floor, and I craned my head back to look up at the patchwork of leaves and branches overhead. An owl hooted in the distance.
“We’re properly in the Wisting Wilds now.” Ferrin stepped back and spread his arms wide to welcome me to the forest. “Four hundred years ago, when every Magician was forced into Skalterra, this is where they appeared. Now, it’s all but abandoned and near impossible to navigate.”
“Nearimpossible,” Galahad grunted. He turned his back to me and pointed deeper into the forest. “You’re on point, Ferrin. Orla, with Tiernan and Fana. Miss Warrender, you’ll be with me tonight.”
“Really?” Orla groaned. “I thought it was my turn to be with Wren again.”
“With Tiernan and Fana, Orla,” Galahad growled. Orla cast me a forlorn look and stretched her fingers out towards me in farewell.
“Tomorrow night, then,” she promised. “I want to hear more about the fight with the rotsbane.”
The trees were sparse, standing straight and stoic like lonely giants. Aside from a few ferns and the occasional glowing mushroom, the forest floor was free of undergrowth. Even split up, the others were clearly visible walking ahead of us.
Galahad limped alongside me with the aid of a silver walking stick made of Skal.
“How many lives left is that then?” he asked between heavy breaths exhaled through his nose.
I unfurled my fingers in front of me to show off the gray lines of scar.
“Two,” I admitted. He gave a grunting laugh, and I scowled. “One of them was Tiernan’s fault.”
“Then you best hope Tiernan doesn’t blow you up anymore.”
I stopped in a shaft of moonlight that cut to the forest floor, but Galahad continued his forward shuffle.
“You can take it away, you know. I don’t need…” I wrestled with my pride as it stood in the way of the words I was looking for. “I don’t need the extra motivation. I don’t want Fana to die. Or any of you. I’ll help. Just, take it away, alright?”
I held my palm out for Galahad, and he staggered to a halt. He turned back to glare at the scars he’d left on my hand.
“No.” He continued his forward march.
“No?” I repeated and rushed to catch up to him. “I’m telling you I want to help! You don’t have to put my life on the line to keep me here anymore. I’m here because I want to be.”
“You’re here because I brought you here, Wren Warrender.” He kept his goggled eyes trained on Fana’s back up ahead.
“Right! So take away the limit on how many times I can die so you cankeepbringing me here!”
“Don’t tell me you’ve grown attached to Skalterra. Is Keldori really so miserable that you’d rather have us, with our rotsbane, barons, and cruel old men?” He turned his eyes on me, and even though it was impossible to see through the opaque glass of his goggles, I knew he was glaring.
“I don’t want to die,” I said.
“Then do your job.”
“That’s gotten me killed three times already!”
“So do your job better!” He batted at my head with his walking stick. I smacked it away.
“I’m doing my best,” I grumbled.
“Then may the Three Magicians save us all.”
I balled my hands into fists as he continued ahead of me. I glared at the back of his leather duster and wrestled with my pride. There was one more thing weighing on my shoulders, but of all the people in either of my lives, Galahad was near the bottom of the list of who I wanted to dissect it with. However, as sullen and cruel as Galahad could be, he was my anchor in Skalterra. It was his magick that formed this version of me every night.
