Chapter 40

From fifteen feet away, the unicorn stared at them. He held his head high, his coat glowed in the growing dusk, and from the center of his forehead, his horn shone. There was no mistaking him.

“I just looked, and he was there,” Yula said. The unicorn seemed curious about the two women. Naomi wondered if maybe all the virgin business with unicorns was nonsense. This unicorn didn’t seem skittish. Naomi cautiously approached the beast with her hand raised. The unicorn bowed his head and pawed at the ground. Naomi halted her approach.

“It’s okay, big guy. I won’t hurt you, just want to make some travel arrangements,” Naomi cooed.

The unicorn backed away with horn lowered.

“Be careful, Lady Naomi. Unicorns have gouged men through the heart in full armor. He will skewer you for sure if you’re not careful.” Naomi thought Yula might have a point, or rather the unicorn had a point, a sharp point which was aimed at her. Naomi put her hands up and backed off. The unicorn watched them start back across the plateau to the cottage. She glanced back frequently at him.

“Is he following us?” Yula asked.

“I think so. Maybe he’s hungry. Not a whole lot to eat up here,” Naomi said. The unicorn stayed well back but kept pace with the two women. Naomi couldn’t wait to get Tavik out there to help with the unicorn. They jogged back to cottage in high spirits, but when they were close enough to make the inside of the cottage, they looked back, and the unicorn was gone.

Naomi stomped her cold feet. “I knew that was too easy.”

“Well, at least, we’re sure unicorns do roam this plateau,” Yula offered. Naomi nodded her head.

“Let’s go get warmed up,” Naomi said pushing on to the house. They hustled into the warm cozy cottage.

Agatha stood over a pot bubbling in the fire. Naomi raised an eyebrow. “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”

“What?” Agatha asked looking up from the pot.

“Nothing.”

“Did you find anything?”

Both women nodded their heads, and their eyes danced. “It practically followed us home,” Yula gushed. Agatha made hushing motions as her eyes darted to Tavik. Tavik stood by a window looking out. It was on the opposite side of the way they came. He cast them a bored look and went back to the window. Naomi watched him for a second. He didn’t seem any worse for wear after his isolation with Agatha. She had half expected to come back and find him singed and drowned.

“What’s that you’re cooking?” Yula asked walking over to the pot.

“Stew seemed like the perfect thing for a night like this.” Yula picked up the large wooden spoon sitting across the top and stirred the contents up. “Don’t worry. I didn’t put any carrots in it. Tavik watched me the whole time. Didn’t you?” Tavik didn’t respond.

He was being super quiet. It was making Naomi nervous. She sidled over to him. “Hey.”

He looked over at her. “You’re cheeks are rosy.”

Reflectively, Naomi put her fingers to her cheeks to feel them. “Yeah, it’s getting really cold out there.”

“You should be careful. There are dangerous beasts in this area.”

“They seem to be everywhere,” she said a touch wryly.

Tavik nodded and looked back out the window. Naomi watched him for a few seconds more, then wandered away. Maybe he just wanted some peace.

The women set the table for dinner and chatted amicably. The cottage had a palpable cozy feel to it. As they puttered around the room, Naomi smiled.

“It’s nice having company again,” Mr. Squibbles murmured to her from a shelf.

“Was Agatha alone much?”

The mouse nodded his head. “There were years where we did not have a single soul grace our doorstep. It was a lonely time. We used to have visitors regularly, villagers who would need a charm or some scrying done, then they stopped coming.”

“Why?”

“Tavik forbade it.”

Her eyes darted to Tavik and then back to Mr. Squibbles. “Why?” she whispered.

Mr. Squibbles dropped his head. “I shouldn’t say. It’s a bad business.”

Naomi absorbed this information with concern. What could the bad blood be between the witch and the war lord? The group settled around the table for dinner. Agatha ladled out the stew and passed the bowls around. Naomi once again sat beside Tavik to feed him. She stirred the stew and found herself making sure there were no carrots in the bowl. She loaded a spoon and brought it to Tavik’s mouth while her other hand hovered underneath to catch any drips. Tavik gave her a wry look and took the spoonful. Naomi knew he was thinking about their switch in roles and how much Naomi had protested it when she had been the one tied and fed, but then again, he wasn’t blindfolded.

Agatha was telling Yula about the finding spell. Once they were done with dinner, they would scrub out the pot, melt some snow, and use the plants they had gathered during the pit stop that afternoon. Naomi hoped the spell would work.

“You shouldn’t trust her. She only has her own interests at heart,” he said softly.

Naomi swallowed her mouthful of stew to answer. She loaded a spoon for Tavik and kept her voice low like him to answer. “She’s the only one who seems to know how to get me home, and though ditching me at the castle for you to find, didn’t seem like the best move on my behalf at the time, it has worked out all right, and she sent Mr. Squibbles to me and now I’m here. I think she can get me home.”

“How did you end up in Harold’s Pass?”

Naomi knew she still couldn’t tell. She shook her head. “It was very bad luck.”

“Was it bad luck?”

Naomi paused. She knew he meant to insinuate that Agatha had a hand in her arrival, which really was impossible, but she was loathe to say it was bad luck to end up there. She looked around the table. She liked and cared about Yula, Mr. Squibbles, and Agatha. She didn’t regret meeting them. She turned back to Tavik. She didn’t regret meeting him either.

“What are you two whispering about?” Agatha asked.

Naomi blushed. “Nothing important,” she answered. Agatha gave them an appraising look, Yula hid her smile by taking a bite of stew, and Mr. Squibbles didn’t pay them any mind. The mouse was paws deep in broth and happily nibbling on a potato the size of himself.

Naomi cleared the table while Agatha set up for the spell with Yula’s help. Once the dishes were clean, Naomi took a seat by Tavik to let the older women work and because she wanted to ask Tavik some questions of her own.

“Why did you forbid the villagers from going to Agatha?”

Tavik had tilted his head down to hear her and kept it bent as he thought about his answer. She thought that he deliberated too long for his response to be completely truthful. “I didn’t want her causing trouble.”

Naomi glanced at Agatha and smiled a little. “Agatha is very capable of causing trouble, but she can help people too. Why prevent her from doing that?”

“Agatha is not interested in helping anyone other than herself.”

She really didn’t understand why he kept harping back to that. “How is helping me self-serving?

He turned and looked at the witch bent over the once more bubbling pot. “It will become apparent soon enough.”

Naomi’s eyebrows scrunched together at his vague assurance. She decided to switch the topic of questions. “Tell me about this god you serve. Yula and Agatha seemed really upset by your tattoo.”

Tavik rolled his shoulders and stretched his back as he thought about his answer. Naomi realized guiltily that Tavik’s hands had been tied behind his back for over forty-eight hours now. They were probably killing him, if he could feel them at all. She rose from her seat and moved behind him. She began rubbing his shoulders. Tavik released a grateful sigh and relaxed under her hands.

“Errilol is not a god openly worshipped any longer. He is a god of war but not a god of victory. He loves the strife and chaos of battle and the pain and despair of bloodshed. All of his temples have been destroyed or abandoned. People stopped worshipping him when they realized that he did not care about them. He only cares for conflict. He does not protect his devoted. He couldn't care less if they died in battle.”

“Why have you sworn yourself to him? He sounds more like a demon than a god.”

“Because unlike other gods, he makes himself known. He imbues me with his power so that I may kill my adversaries. Even if he does not care about me, he does answer me when I call on him. It is with his might that I have survived. Other gods promise salvation and refuge but do not always deliver. Errilol promises neither but is a reliable source of strength.”

Naomi shook her head. “I don’t think the fact that he’s dependable is enough to sell him to me. The fact that he’s so eager to answer your prayers is scarier than not answering them.”

Tavik shrugged under her hands. “I cannot justify my reasons any better than what I have said.”

“The fact that you would scrape your knee to that fiend is horrifying. Errilol is a god to stand against not with,” Agatha said, revealing she had been eavesdropping on the two’s conversation.

Continue to Chapter 41.