Page 1 of Cruel As A Tree (Chaos God Sugar and Spice Companion Shorts #4)

Chapter

One

LILLIAN

T he flame blackened soil crunched under my feet, a brittle reflection of the slowly dying hope in my heart.

I shifted my bag over my shoulders, mentally counting the rations I had stashed away, bread, cheese, and the meat I had air dried in my dorm room, salting it heavily and hanging it up on strips in front of the window.

Luckily, or unluckily, my roommates weren't offended by my preparations nor did they snitch on me.

It wasn't like they served travel rations in the commons.

Everything there was freshly made, and anything left over was hauled in carts to be dumped in the mouth of the Dungeon.

I should know, as I was one of the students assigned to walk into the ever-changing mouth of the Dungeon and empty out the carts.

The piles from the day before were never there, even when the entrance was to the same area.

They told us we were feeding it, so it was less likely to eat the students who dove into its depths.

Not that any of that mattered anymore.

The Dungeon, my work in the kitchens, and all of that was behind me.

Literally behind me, the towering outside walls of the caldera were still visible, steep cliffs in the distance even as I walked across the blackened barren landscape.

The last time I looked back, I couldn't see the ropes I'd used to rappel down the outside, but I could see those walls that had kept me trapped.

I was no longer trapped, not by those walls anyway.

I gritted my teeth and continued walking, step after step, dead ground crunching under my boots.

Sweat dripped down my forehead, and I reached up to wipe it away.

Outside the walls were worse than I thought.

When I heard it had been magically scorched, I thought that they had just kept the vegetation down so they could see people approaching the walls.

I didn't know that the land would be still smoldering in places, that I wouldn't even be able to see the edge of life in the distance.

I thought there would be other people.

Other people meant a danger of a different sort, as this was a place I didn't know with a culture I didn't understand, but even so, there had to be someone out there who wanted to help me escape.

Someone who would be willing to get me across the boundary that separated the Magic Realm from the mundane one.

Someone who could get me back home.

My hope ached as it clung to that possibility with trembling fingers, refusing to let go and fall into despair.

I couldn't die here, alone. Not when I had so much to get back to.

I'm itchy, Veveron said in my mind from where she sat on my shoulder.

She yawned, stretching out her small emerald green wings as her front claws reached down my shirt, lifting up to stretch out her paws like a sleepy cat, her plump belly pressing up against me as she shifted to get more comfortable.

Her tail tightened around my neck as she used it to keep her balance.

"We have to get farther from the walls before I can stop and harvest you.

We don't know how long we have before they come after us," I told her, reaching up to give her little draconian nose a small scritch.

My familiar looked like a tiny, miniature dragon, but when I said that to the admissions fairy at the Order Academy, she told me in no uncertain terms I was not to say that ever again.

She said if any actual dragons overheard me, they would be offended, and I didn't want to offend an actual dragon.

An actual dragon would never agree to be a familiar, she had insisted.

Veveron was a spritekin, a lesser fae, one of the many invisible magical creatures that roamed both the mundane and magical realm.

She had entered into a familiar bond with me because it was her ticket out of the magical drought-stricken mundane and into the magical realm where she could soak in magic like sunrays.

I had gotten into the Order Academy because of her.

Because they liked spicy food.

I eyed the red strands that stuck up along her spine like grass, the little glimmering ruby seeds in them catching the first rays of the morning sun as it peeked out in the distance over the forsaken landscape.

I thought I had gotten in because I had potential, but no, it was because my familiar grew spice on her back.

They aren't coming after us, Veveron murmured.

Other people's familiars were the kind that darted this way and that, working just as hard as their chosen mundanes. Mine wasn't the running about or chatting a lot kind.

Mine ate, slept, and expected regular grooming.

"Why do you say that?" I asked. When I told Ververon what my escape plan was, she responded like she did to everything, just sleepily agreeing to it.

I thought she would argue with me. Orientation made it extremely clear that trying to run away from the school was dangerous, but after a while it also became clear that if I didn't find a way to escape, I'd never get away.

This wasn't the kind of place that just let people go.

Because the hounds are going to eat you, Veveron yawned.

"What hounds?" I hissed.

The hairs on the back of my neck raised as an eerie howl hung in the air. I stopped in my tracks, looking towards the sound. I couldn't see anything in that direction, and from the sound of the howl, it had to be a good distance away.

The wind shifted, giving me a moment of small relief from the heat wafting up from the ground.

Another howl sounded on the other side of me, closer.

The first howl called back, tense and excited. They were talking to each other, pinpointing my location.

"You could have told me about the hounds before I made it over the wall!" I said, breaking out into a jog as my head turned on swivel to look around the empty landscape. I couldn't see anything, no shapes. "They will eat you too!"

I'm too spicy, she said. Nothing will eat me.

Another howl sounded, closer, and my panic picked up.

I'd managed to steal an axe to take with me, because I wasn't going to go tromping around in some unknown wilderness without food, water, and an axe, but I was in an exposed open area.

There was nothing I could put my back to.

If these hounds were anything like wolves, all they had to do was surround me and one of them would be able to hamstring me from behind.

"You don't know that!" I said. "You've been in the magic realm the same amount of time as I have!

You don't know what is here. Maybe there is something out there that loves spicy little spritekin.

At the very least, at the first settlement you come across, they are going to pick you up and put you in a cage and never pet you or feed you treats.

If I'm around, I can protect you and make sure you get the best treats. "

What kind of treats? she asked.

"New ones you've never tasted before," I said. "The best of the best so you can find your favorite and I can get that for you forever."

That does sound nice, she mused. You will also never order me around ever again.

"When have I ever ordered you around?" I gasped, my mouth drying out as I inhaled rapidly to keep pace with my run. I needed water, but I couldn't take the time to get it out of my backpack. "You know what, never mind. I agree. I'll give you all the treats and never order you around ever again."

You will also do whatever I say, she said.

"Whatever you say!" I said. "I'm the familiar now!"

I accept the bargain, except for the familiar part. I'm not letting you drain my energy. She said as she lifted one claw off my chest and pointed off to my right. Go in there.

"In where?" I asked, even as I shifted my weight, angling my run in the exact direction that she pointed.

I heard an excited yip and I glanced over my shoulder.

Now I could see them.

They were the size of large ponies, with skin that was blackened and cracked with flame, like there was lava running underneath the surface of their mottled skin.

They ran on all fours, and had faces that could be mistaken for a serpent or a canine depending on what angle you were looking.

I caught one glimpse of sharp teeth and sped up, fear overtaking me.

"WHERE?" I screamed, seeing nothing but empty landscape.

Then I tripped and fell forward into purple.