195) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 28 -- The tale of a dying town

The next morning, everybody woke up at different times, but eventually all found their way to the dining room for breakfast, the smell of yak-bacon reeling them in by the nose. Gorb and Dominic were there first. Lenny came in last, mumbling something about coffee.

         The day passed uneventfully, at least as far as Kohra was concerned. The others were eager to explore the town, and she was just as eager to have time to herself. So while they went out, she sat on Juanita’s back porch, drinking delicious jasmine tea and practicing Shaping with a candle, like she’d seen Lenny do the other day. She wasn’t nearly as good; it took almost an hour before she was able to light it even once. And she had no idea how Lenny was able to snuff it out without touching it; Kohra had to use her fingers, licking them and pinching the wick.

         She sniffed, smiling. She had always liked that burnt-waxy smell on her fingers.

         It was glorious, just sitting, talking to nobody, letting her mind wander and feeling the stress dissipate, bit by bit, from her body. 

         Dinner that night was as raucous as their annual party at Ms B’s, everyone trying to outcompete each other with their stories and jokes and clever observations. Kohra just listened, taking it all in. It sounded like they’d had a lot of fun in town, but she wasn’t envious in the slightest. Although it might sound boring to some people, sitting on the porch and drinking tea for the day had been perfect.

         The others were having some sort of argument. Or maybe it was just Reilly; she tended to yell most of her sentences. Were kids always like this?

         “No, saunas are amazing!” Reilly shouted to Lenny, who was sitting right beside her. “They’re good for people! And good for animals! And good for everything!”

         “How are they good for animals exactly?” Lenny asked. “Take a squirrel, for example. Walk me through it, squirrel-expert.”

         Reilly growled, crossing her arms defiantly and pouting.

         Kohra nudged Lenny with her elbow, intending it to be a “subtle cue.” She really didn’t want to hear an argument right now. Couldn’t everyone just relax and have dinner?

         “What?” Lenny asked. Kohra made eyes at her, trying to communicate something like “Just drop it Lenny; it’s not that important; don’t get Reilly worked up.” But whatever she thought she was getting across with her oh-so-expressive eyes, Lenny clearly didn’t understand.

         “Do you have something in your eye? Are you asking me for help?” Lenny looked annoyed. “Just ask for help then!”

         Reilly climbed onto her lap and started looking in her eye, along with Lenny. Kohra stammered, “No, no, thanks! There’s nothing in my eye! Ha, no, I was just trying to…oh forget it. It’s okay.”

         Lenny pulled back, looking miffed. “We were just trying to help.”

         Kohra grimaced in frustration. “Look, I was just trying to help too…but it’s just…auggghhhh! It’s like one tiny misunderstanding leads to another misunderstanding, and then another and then it’s almost impossible to remember everything and explain everything so it will all make sense. Anyway, thanks, yeah, it’s fine. Really.”

         Lenny nodded. She had no idea what Kohra was rambling on about, but at least her eye seemed fine now. Good enough.

         “I still say saunas are weird.” Lenny grinned evilly as she and Reilly jumped right back into the fray.

         When the argument finally subsided, again, Dominic tried to regain control of the conversation. “So yes! There’s a bathhouse. And personally, in my own opinion,” he grinned, “it was awesome.” (He went to give Reilly a high-five; she just scowled. Lenny gave him one instead, smirking). “Gorb, we’ve got to thank you for leading us here to Annuvin. I still don’t know why you’re doing this for us or, well, I don’t understand anything that’s going on, really. But, you’re, we had, um, Gorb, you’re great.”

         Gorb raised his glass for a toast, then emptied it and slammed it down on the table. Dominic paused for a few seconds, wondering if Gorb was going to actually make a toast. But, no. Just drinking.

         He continued. “So yeah, Kohra, we checked out tons of the shops. The apothecary was incredible! They actually have potions for sale! Real ones! There’s a bunch of healing potions, one that’ll make you grow super-strong. They even had one that will turn you invisible! Can you imagine how cool that would be? They’re expensive though.” He paused for a breath.         

         “Weapons!” Reilly shouted. It seemed she had recovered. “Inventions!”

         Dominic nodded, “Yeah! A different shop though. I think it was attached to the blacksmith’s? Can’t remember. Anyway, they had all kinds of weapons. I mean, everything! There are some beautiful swords. And he was an inventor; he had a sniper-crossbow that could aim at multiple targets at the same time, and he had —”

         “But that’s impossible!” Devona interrupted; she hadn’t been in that shop, having lingered for a long time in the apothecary. “You cannot aim a single bow at multiple targets. It’s like using one finger to point at two things at exactly the same moment. You can’t do it.”

         “Well, HE could,” Reilly retorted. “Look, you weren’t there, Dev. So, just let us tell what happened okay?”

         Devona was about to fire back, but Dominic intervened. “Anyway, we don’t know how it worked; it’s an invention, after all. He said he’d demonstrate, but only if we were serious. And it was a lot of money.”

         “Yeah, and he was mean!” added Reilly.

         “I wouldn’t say he was mean, exactly.” Dominic tried to be diplomatic. “He was just protecting his inventions. They are one-of-a-kind, after all. He wanted to make sure we were serious.”

         “I showed him we were serious!” Reilly argued.

         “Reilly! You offered him five gold! Final offer, take it or leave it!” Dominic laughed. “The guy’s like, ‘Well, thanks young lady, but I’m asking more like 500 gold.’ And you know what Reilly says in response?” He looked over at Reilly, who was grinning, clearly enjoying this. “She says, ‘Fine! Six gold! But THAT is our final offer!’ You should’ve seen the guy. He thought….” He laughed, wiping tears from his eyes. “He thought we were idiots!”

         “He was a bully!” Reilly grumbled. “I told him we’d come back and pay the rest after we found treasure. He was just a jerk.”

         Lenny nodded vigorously. “Yes! Total jerk. Damn straight, Reilly.” Reilly looked at her suspiciously, but Lenny seemed completely sincere.

         Dominic continued. “We talked about getting a reading from the psychic lady — Madame Mystere. It’s such a cheesy name, how can we not? But Gorb wouldn’t let us.” He pretend-pouted. “Apparently, the Light doesn’t like psychics.”

         Kohra looked up, surprised. She hadn’t thought that Dom would be the fortune-telling type. You just never knew with people.

         Reilly piped up. “And we met a Druid! She was so nice! And old! She has so many animals! They’re so cuuuute! We should get one!”

         “Yeah, that lady was amazing,” Dominic agreed. “She even had a giant eagle with a broken wing. She has a whole patch of land that goes right down to the river. She told us that the forests around here have all changed in the last few years. They’ve —”

         “And nobody in town can stop it!” Reilly interrupted.

         “Yeah, because,” Dominic began again.

         “The Reaper! It’s killing everything!” Reilly was practically bouncing out of her chair. Devona started asking for clarification (having also missed whatever conversation had taught them all this), while Lenny made — comments — and Dominic and Reilly talked over each other, everyone’s voices tumbling like a gaggle of children rolling down a haystack.

         Eventually, they pieced the story together. The town was staggering under a convergence of unfortunate circumstances, combining to strangle its economic lifeblood. The first blow was about five years ago, when Anthor had withdrawn its Northern garrison from the town. Losing all those troops meant not only losing protection, but also employment for the staff required to maintain the garrison, and a steady influx of Anthorrian gold from all the soldiers.

         The second blow was the Reaper, which moved into the area shortly afterward. As Annuvin got weaker and the outlying farmers gave up their homesteads to move into town, or simply to flee for other lands, the Wild encroached on the town, getting closer every year.

         The Reaper seemed to be unstoppable. Most of the townspeople believed it couldn’t be killed, that it was some kind of Demon, possibly immortal. Many hunting parties had gone after it. The small ones were hunted down by the creature and killed. The large ones, it simply avoided until they gave up and went home.

         At one point, a collection was taken in town, raising money for a reward in the hopes of attracting professional Slayers. Surely, someone would take the creature out if the price was high enough. So far though, sitting at 4000 gold, there had been no takers.           

         The ultimate result of all this was that Annuvin was being run into the ground. The caravans, which used to arrive weekly, now came monthly, if at all, and when they did, they were barely profitable for the townspeople. Many thought the caravans were more trouble than they were worth, hiding so many freeloaders and thieves that any money that did come in was offset by all the goods that were stolen. At least, that’s how many in Annuvin were beginning to feel; whether it was true or not probably nobody knew. But distrust for outsiders was growing, and public opinion was shifting toward those who believed they should close the borders of their town.

         The worst-hit though, were the farmers on the outskirts. Maintaining a farm close to the Wild was becoming impossible. Farmers were spending more and more on protecting their herds, with little to show for their efforts. The Reaper seemed to take whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted. The days of a shepherd meandering about with their herd, protecting it from the odd gryphon or mountain lion, were long gone. Even foraging meant risking your life.

         In an attempt to fight back, some farm families had begun to consolidate their resources, moving in together to form larger complexes, and arming themselves to the teeth. With their own private militias patrolling their fields, and the perimeters lined with traps, they hoped to keep the beast at bay.

         So far, this strategy seemed to be successful, at least in protecting the biggest and best-organized compounds. But it was exceedingly costly to maintain, in terms of money, lives, and the sheer emotional burden of constantly living under siege. And despite even these efforts, every now and then, the creature picked off somebody anyway.

         The final insult to the once-booming town was that the Wild meat trade had almost completely dried up. Annuvin’s famous meat was becoming just like everybody else’s — cows, pigs, chickens, goats, pheasants, rabbits, and the odd varmint. But the real attractions, the roasted mountain boar, yak steaks, gryphon ribs, were long gone, and it seemed Annuvin’s last economic leg was being cut off.

         Juanita overheard them talking, and laughed, “And they always say we Hammerites hold our cards close to our chests! You found all this out in a day?” She laughed again. Kohra smiled at her appreciatively, hoping she would notice. “Is there anything else you want to know?”

         “Yes!” Dominic replied eagerly. “What does the Reaper look like? And has anybody in town fought it? Or studied it?”

         She frowned, her countenance darkening uncharacteristically. “You shouldn’t go down this road. It’s a dark one, and it only ends in death. We, I.…” She paused, took a deep breath, and looked straight at Dominic. “I don’t like to talk about it much,” she said flatly. “It’s not a light topic; that demon has caused all of us a lot of pain.”

         “Oh, I, I’m sorry, I just…,” Dominic faltered; he wasn’t as good at this as his father was. That man could make a stone speak, his mother always said. “I, my father was, no, IS an expert in rare creatures. I kind of grew up studying them. So, I do apologize; no offense intended.”

         She frowned again, muttering, “Don’t see the point of just studying things that are killing people.”

         “I agree!” Dominic responded immediately. “My dad always said, says, the more you know about your enemy, the more you know about your enemy.”

         She laughed. “He says that, does he?”

         “Oh yeah,” he grinned. “He’s full of sayings.”

         She sighed, as though for some reason this triggered a deep sadness for her, and glanced over at Reilly, “How old are you, hon?”

         “I’m 8! And a third!” Reilly held up 8 fingers, just so there was no mistake.

         “You’re missing the third,” Lenny commented drily. “Want some help with that?” She fingered her dagger hilt as though to carry out the requisite finger-shortening on the spot.

         Reilly stuck out her tongue. Lenny stuck hers out in return.

         Juanita watched this all unfold over the few seconds that it did, the banter and laughter that followed, and sighed again. “This is what life is all about,” she said to nobody in particular, unsure whether anyone was listening anyway.

          But Kohra was. She watched Juanita watching everyone else. It felt almost voyeuristic, observing the innkeeper’s obvious delight as she drank in the friendship, the taunting and jokes, the general goodwill that everybody shared. Kohra watched the woman’s eyes light up, appreciating the little hints of smiles that teased at the corners of her mouth. 

         Juanita took a deep breath, looking into the impossibly blue eyes of the little girl with tangled hair. “No sense running from the truth.”

         Spontaneously, Reilly reached out and held Juanita’s hand. She teared up instantly, wiping at her eyes with her other hand, then smoothing back the tendrils of hair that insisted on hanging down the sides of her face, as though they were framing her expressions for special emphasis. Kohra found herself wanting, so badly, to reach forward and brush them back. But she just listened.