Page 46 of The Dark Mage
Calora
The broken magic intensified as they adjusted their packs and slipped out the back window onto the roof.Fael leapt down, landing softly like a cat.Ren’wyn couldn’t help but admire him.She shuffled out over the eave, and Fael gripped her waist, lowering her gently to the ground.
She was thankful her bleeding was over as they set off into the crisp night.Fael had her wait between two carts while he slipped the notes underneath Axel’s door.Then, they turned south and headed into the vast farmland and grasslands loosely tied to Delmor.
As they fled, they missed the arrival of the imperial regiment, who began knocking on doors.At the back of the soldiers was a familiar cart—the one from the Trisin apothecary—its foul presence flooding the streets with broken, dark power.
Ren’wyn bit her lip to stop the tears as they left the dark village behind, moving quietly through alternating fields of tall grass and harvested wheat.With every mile, the horrible magic grew quieter, and relief became a powerful antidote to grief.
They crouched and ran through open areas, the clouds masking their figures.Fael had recently surprised Ren’wyn with a new cloak—a twin to his own, dark gray and hooded.Its clasp was shaped like delicate silver ghost pipes—a custom touch he must have ordered just for her.She fingered it with gratitude—and with a growing awareness that what she felt for him waslove.
She followed Fael closely as they swept like shadows through the night.Hours passed in silence, their pace steady but desperate, knowing that by morning, they would need to assume new identities before entering anothertown.
When the birds sang before sunrise and her adrenaline gave way to stumbling exhaustion, Fael found a hedgerow and tucked them into it.
They lay back-to-back—her face pressed into the privet’s trunks, his toward the broad, empty grassland.When the sun rose fully, they woke and followed the westroad.
The first three days they spent in the open, including a miserable night when cold, steady rain soaked them both through until they managed to drape a blanket over a hastily constructed lean-to.It was so cold they lay in each other’s arms under Ren’wyn’s blanket after changing, shivering through a night of broken sleep.
On the fourth day, a village appeared on the horizon.Fael left Ren’wyn in a small copse of trees, and she waited with a lump in her throat for him to return.An hour had never passed so slowly.Blood pounded through her limbs, and her breakfast sat like a stone in her stomach.
He’s not coming back.He’s realized you’re worthless and abandonedyou.
No, he left his pack here.He’s comingback.
He died on the side of the road.The imperials will come for younext.
Fael’s broken form played over her vision, cycling with the cold voice of panic until half-formed shades pulled themselves from the dirt.Frost spread in a circle around her hiding place in the hollowoak.
When Fael appeared through the trees, she wept with relief.He sat beside her and pulled her against his solid frame.The angry shades hissed and melted away with the frost as Ren’wyn’s panic subsided into embarrassment.Fael didn’t seem to mind—he stroked her hair and tucked her cloak tighter around her shoulders until she was calm and steady.
“More travel, I’m afraid,” he said, his expression grim.“The village was full of imperial soldiers.They’re looking for us.”
Ren’wyn sighed but nodded.“Do we turn south?”
“I think so,” Fael replied.“Another two or three days should get us to the next village.We can try again.”
Frost set in that night, and Ren’wyn asked Fael to share her bedroll.He obliged, and they fought off the chill under both blankets, sleeping curled into one another.Fael rose swiftly the next morning to exercise before Ren’wyn had even brushed the sleep from hereyes.
The mornings stayed bitterly cold, and she could barely stand to wash her face when they crossed streams.They couldn’t light fires for fear of discovery.
Over the next two weeks, the weather grew worse, and town after town was occupied by imperial soldiers.
When they found a cave in a woodlot near an abandoned farm, they threw caution to the wind and set up camp.Together, they decided to wait out the regiment in the nearbytown.
After three days in the cave, Ren’wyn was sure she would never be warm again.She exercised with Fael regularly to ward off the cold and was thankful for the boots and extra socks she’d packed.Despite curling together at night, they were miserable—ill-prepared for such a long stay in the elements.
Fael woke one morning with a cough.Ren’wyn was concerned, but he insisted he was only chilled.By evening, he had a fever, and the cough had deepened.Ren’wyn mixed dried sunflower leaves into tea forhim.
He shivered and sweated through the night, and Ren’wyn couldn’t sleep—her hand stayed anxiously on his burning forehead.
Morning dawned cold and bright, and she had to fight to get Fael to wake.He murmured incoherently but drank some water and the simple broth Ren’wyn prepared using saltpork.
As the day progressed, Fael grew worse, and Ren’wyn’s concern became alarm.
She watched him mutter and shake beneath both blankets and made up her mind, holding tightly to the confidence Fael had been encouraging her to build.
To hell with the regiment.I’m getting him to safety.
