Page 4 of A Curse So Vile

“What’s his name?”

“Yer goin’ ta sleep now. The potion I gave ye, it’s tuned to yer blood. Very interesting blood, I might add. .”

“What does that mean?”

The crone rose, and Brenna reached up to grab her, but she felt nothing. All she saw was blackness—deep, never-ending blackness.

2

BRENNA

Brenna woke to a throbbing headache.

Where am I?

She lay confused, pressing her fists to her eyes to rub the sleep from them.

Seven! I have to remember seven!

She rolled onto her side and felt the ground shift beneath her. Her gut roiled, threatening to expel its contents. What little there was.

She craned her neck so she could look around and saw that she was on a wooden raft, water lapping at her with every shift.

Seven! But what about seven? What makes seven so special?

It was day, though the Dusklands were rarely bright. She tried to think of where she might be. She’d been traveling the swamps around Bloodmoor the previous day, so it made sense that she was at its port. She looked around, clutching her throbbing head. A small boy walked along the pier, staring at her.

Seven people! The seventh person I come across will be the person to break my curse!

As she scrambled to get up, the wooden raft shifted violently beneath her, threatening to cast her into the blood-red waters.

“Would ya like some help?” a voice rasped, and she looked up to see an aged man missing half his teeth smiling at her.

Two! He’s number two.

“I got it,” she said, but as she reached for the dock, she fell waist deep in water.

“Best be careful,” the man said. “Leeches and the like are apt ta git ya if ya linger.”

I don’t care about your stupid leeches,she thought, but smiled nonetheless as she pulled herself onto the dock.

She walked past the child and the man, her head hung low, worrying she would spot a gathered crowd. She adjusted the satchel hanging at her side and stomped her feet, shaking off the water. A layer of fog shrouded the area, making it hard to see well.

I just need to find the seventh person, annul the curse, and then I can go back to the Den, back to Icaries,she told herself, but worried it wouldn’t be so easy.

She was so distracted, she stumbled, flailing her arms to catch herself.

“Would ya look where yer going!” a plump fishwife said.

Three.

She walked further inland, thankful it was still early, and the pier wasn’t crowded. Two able-bodied men walked past.

Four, five!

“Excuse me, miss!”

Brenna stood face to face with a tall, gangly man, gray of skin with a putrid smell. She skirted around him, careful to avoid his touch, and continued on.