Kain smiles wistfully. “Tales of conquest and slaughter, legends of strength and vengeance.”
“I am a very good storyteller.”The flames crackle and pop with the hiss of a deep voice.
The fine hairs on Jaylie’s arms stand to attention at once. The sound is like clawed nails on metal to her ears.
“I’d be very pleased to share one with you all sometime, if you would care to listen.”
“He’s an excellent cook, too,” Kain continues. He lifts the pan from the flames and holds it out to the party for approval, leaving Maglorbizel’s face on full display. Jaylie can’t help but appreciate just how perfectly the breakfast is done. It’s even shaped into two eggy eyes and a porky smile. “He taught me how to make these.”
“From the stories I’ve heard,” Loren says, his voice tight with fear, “devils are deceivers and tricksters. Give them room to talk and you’ll find yourself unwittingly wrapped up in a deal with your soul sold and your dreams crushed, all for granting what you thought was your greatest desire.”
“That’s true in many cases,” Kain admits as the flames hiss,“Yesss…”The tiefling shakes his head, his great horns swaying from side to side as he dismisses his party’s protests. “But he’s still my father. And so far he has done right by me.”
“How did your mother get wrapped up with the likes of him?” Morgana asks eventually. By the way everyone but Kain shares a glance, it’s a question on all of their minds. Morgana is just the only one brave enough to ask.
Kain’s lips curl back into another one of his unsettling grins. “He wanted to sire a child. And Mother wanted to say that she’d survived a night with a devil.”
Jaylie puts her palm to her face. Loren can’t help but nod with grudging understanding and respect.
“Well, then,” Jaylie says after clearing her throat several times. “I wouldn’t want to come between you and your family. So long as he’s not poisoning our food or whispering into our dreams at night, I suppose he is welcome.”
“Your approval is appreciated, priestess,”the flames hiss, dripping with sarcasm and bacon fat.
Jaylie swallows. “Let’s get back on the road as soon as breakfast is finished,” she says tightly, even though she’s lost her appetite.
“Go on—EAT,”Maglorbizel crows, and the fire suddenly surges upward.“You may need your energy yet.”
The second day of traveling does not pass as uneventfully as the first.
While her party pauses for a short rest, Jaylie offers to scout ahead with Morgana, though they soon split up to cover more ground. Jaylie has traveled for the span of only five minutes when she hears a rustle.
“Wot’s a pretty thing like you travelin’ through our forest for, eh?” a voice calls from the trees.
A group of dirty humans appears from out of the forest. Their cloaks are ragged and gray-green, blending effortlessly into the foliage around them. Even their boots shuffle quietly over the earth, and Jaylie curses herself for not having sensed them earlier.
She knows Morgana is nearby, but she doesn’t want to give her presence away by looking for her.
The leader speaks again, lifting his knife to pick at his yellowing teeth. “Cat got yer tongue, priestess?” The group look young, barely adults. The speaker seems to be the oldest of them, around Jaylie’s age, with wiry ginger hair that falls messily to his shoulders.
“I wasn’t aware that these woods belonged to anyone in particular,” Jaylie says airily.
Red scowls. “Well, they belong tous,earned fair an’ square. And anyone passin’ through, priestess or not, gotta pay the donation. For forest upkeep, y’see?”
“You don’t look like druids to me.”
“Wot, we’ve gotta be druids to love our land?” The woman who speaks has her hay-colored hair braided into twin tails down her back.
“I’m not going to pay your toll. I’ll just go back the way I came.”
“ ’Fraid that’s not gonna be an option, dove. Everyone pays the toll, and if you’re not gonna give it willingly, well—then we’ll just have to take our due.” Red finishes fishing out whatever gristle was stuck between his teeth and spits noisily to the side.
He does, however, keep his knife out.
Jaylie prays that her luck is strong. Pink sparkles gather in her hands as she prepares to fling a spell of light into the face of whichever ugly bandit approaches her first.
A piercing howl rings out as a black-cloaked figure dives from above. There’s a clatter of breaking branches and rustling leaves as Morgana crashes through the trees, cushioning her fall by landing right on top of Red. Jaylie catches a glimpse of Morgana’s bared white teeth gleaming through the depths of her beard as she wraps her legs around the man’s middle from behind and buries two daggers into his shoulders.
If Morgana’s battle cry isn’t enough to summon their friends, then Red’s screech of pain certainly is.
