Page 7 of Monster Lover

“Let’s go,” ordered Harlin.

Chapter 3:

Dawn was just kissing the horizon when they rode out of the Castle gates. Harlin hurried them through the city and then north by northeast along the road. Daemona pursed her lips, irritated by this. She expected them to turn to the south, but Harlin led them north, racing his stallion toward a thick stand of woods.

“I don’t mean to already be complaining about your great leadership, Harlin, but isn’t the Acheronian Swamp to the southwest, while we are riding in the opposite direction?”

“I’m taking us to a shortcut,” answered Harlin. “Trust me.”

That was not the answer she wanted to hear but had no choice but to urge her horse on ever faster as the limbs of spidery trees blocked what little sunlight the day had to offer.

When the road wound by a large patch of Ghostfire Berries, Harlin stopped and began collecting them in a sack. “Please, help get as many as we can in the next few minutes.”

“What for? They’re terrible,” Ghul Lykos asked. “I won’t eat them, and I’ve tasted near everything you can think of that grows, slithers, or crawls within the Swamp.” He showed his teeth. They looked a little sharp and canine.

Daemona made a face at that—she was used to good food, things other people prepared in the city; she wanted no part of this trailside grazing. Since she was sore from riding a horse rather than a man already, she took the opportunity to dismount and help gather some of the pale purple berries. When they had a large sack full, they got back on their horses and continued down the trail.

Daemona found it interesting that Harlin didn’t eat any of the berries, nor did he offer her some, but after Ghul Lykos’s comment she wasn’t sure she wanted any.

They came to a crossroads and Harlin suddenly dismounted to examine the ground. This was not a skill Daemona had by any stretch. She considered herself a city girl and wondered what the royal huntsman could learn by looking at the hard-packed earth.

Ghul Lykos helped her understand, while also raising new questions. “Ogres.” He said in disgust after also scanning the ground. “Perhaps we should go another way to your shortcut,” he suggested.

Harlin shook his head. “We go right down this fork.”

“I hope you know what you are doing,” said Ghul Lykos. “We’re a long way from friendly faces.”

“Wrong direction and ogres. What are you up to, huntsman?” snipped Daemona.

“Like I said before, trust me. This is a shortcut.”

Ghul Lykos joined in the taunt. “Maybe shortcuts mean something else up here. Down in the Swamp they mean an actual shortening of the path.”

Harlin frowned but beckoned for them to follow him as he got back on his horse, kicked his stallion’s flanks, and ventured down the gloomy road.

Daemona was unhappy. She didn’t have much energy left from her escapade with the groomsman. She would need another act of coitus to replenish her powers. As much as she hated the thought of it at the moment, she started planning on how she might seduce Harlin enough to escape both him and this Ghul Lykos.

They followed, though still dubious and wary of running smack into a troupe of ogres.

Soon the road became little more than a goat path winding through dense forest. The ground was filled with obstacles, roots and fallen logs, and it was difficult to see more than twenty feet through the mass of thick greenery. Occasionally, Daemona could see the grey faces of cliffs crowding them inside a canyon.

“You owe us an explanation,” said Ghul Lykos. “This is wasting time.”

“I already told you, this is a shortcut.”

“In the wrong direction,” griped Daemona.

Harlin looked at each of them saying, “Sometimes, the best way is not so obvious. I think we are almost there.”

They rounded a spot where the cliff walls threatened them by forcing a tight single file squeeze and Ghul Lykos looked behind them saying. “This is an excellent place for a trap.”

“It’s not a trap, just a safe place for someone who wants to be left alone,” Harlin said.

Daemona noticed a skull with antlers and feathers hanging in a tree right beside her face. “Maybe we should leave them alone then? I don’t like the look of this either.”

“It’s just a shaman’s fetish. It’s nothing to worry about.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

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