Page 21

It was quiet as Ena and the daemons walked along the barely there road, the only sounds the clomping of their horses’ hooves on the packed earth.

The road was clearly not frequented by travelers; they didn’t see a single person or horse track the entire time.

After about an hour, Steig signaled something to the others and they came to a stop.

At first, Ena questioned why they were stopping.

She almost missed seeing the path; it was so hidden by the trees and undergrowth that it wasn’t until Ty’s horse turned off onto it that she realized it was a path.

They walked single file down the path through the woods for a few more miles until the small clearing of a village became just visible through the trees.

Ty signaled to the others to stop as they dismounted one by one, readying to walk their horses the rest of the way into the village.

Ty offered her his hand to help dismount, but Ena ignored it and swung her leg over the tall horse herself, nearly losing her balance as her short legs reached for the ground.

As soon as she righted herself, Ty grabbed her shoulders and spun her to face him.

The men and their horses surrounded her.

“Okay, witch, here’s what’s gonna happen,” Ty said.

“We’re metalworks traders here on a scouting visit.

We’ll go together to the village’s guesthouse, where you’ll sit at a table with Turner while I talk to the villagers.

” He gestured to the younger daemon. “You won’t speak unless spoken to, and you won’t leave Turner’s side.

When I create the distraction, Steig will slip into their kitchen and get what we need.

On my cue, we’ll leave quickly and quietly and meet Steig back here in the woods. ”

“Wait a second,” Ena said, putting two and two together and feeling pissed at the result. “You’re gonna steal the ingredients? Why don’t you just trade for them?” she asked incredulously.

It made sense that they were posing as metalworks traders, just as Ty had all those years ago.

She’d glimpsed one of their saddlebags filled to the brim with various metal goods, including knives, daggers, hatchets, ornate goblets, and silverware.

She knew they could easily trade some of those items for what they needed.

Ty looked at her the way one might look at a confused child.

“We don’t want to alert them to the fact that we have a witch with us, or tip them off to what we’re doing by revealing the ingredients we need.

So,” Ty said, invading her personal space, and looking down at her.

Gaia, he was still so tall. Ena hated the way that, despite everything, her stomach still flipped at his nearness, just as it had all those years ago.

“If you so much as breathe a word about who we are, or who you are, people will get hurt. Do you understand?”

Ena ground her teeth together, and stared into his green eyes with all the venom she could muster.

Truthfully, she was appalled that these men would choose to steal from these villagers, but she wasn’t really that shocked—they were daemons after all.

Still, a mounting feeling of guilt built inside her, knowing it was her supplies, and her spell, that was the cause of this.

But she would cooperate, and let them think she was obedient, if only to lure them into a false sense of security.

The more they underestimated her, the easier it would be to get the information she needed and escape.

Shoving down her indignation, she took a deep breath and plastered on a saccharine smile. “Yes, Master,” she said.

Something flared in Ty’s eyes at that, something more than the satisfaction she’d caught last time, something that looked almost…hungry, but before she could fully parse it out, he turned away from her and began to lead his horse directly into the village, forcing her and the others to follow.

As they entered the clearing of the village, Ena was now certain that it was not one of the villages along the Chasm Road, and that therefore they had indeed traveled west, because she didn’t recognize it at all.

The village was small—tiny, really. Maybe ten worn-down stone houses sat clustered around a crumbling well.

Their thatched roofs were clearly old and needed replacing, as significant patches of rot were visible on some of them.

Towards the edge of the settlement was a large stable, and it was probably the best-kept building in the village.

It was big enough to house probably twenty horses—far more than this village could need.

Across from it was an extremely run-down guesthouse.

Ena could tell it was a guesthouse because it was bigger than the other single-story stone houses, and had a dilapidated second story that Ena desperately hoped did not collapse while they were inside.

Past the houses, deeper into the forest, she also glimpsed a second clearing in the trees and what looked to be an agricultural field.

She couldn’t say for sure, but from this distance, she guessed it to be a field of recently threshed hay and a small orchard of what looked like apples and other tree fruits.

Since the villages this side of the Chasm Mountains thrived due to prolific trade routes, most were accustomed to visitors and travelers, providing hospitality for them as a way to create mutually beneficial trade relationships.

The more relationships and ties a village had to others, the more security they had.

That way, if one village was impacted by bad weather or misfortune affecting their crops or trade goods, they could rely on their trade relationships, and oftentimes the goodwill from previous trades, to get them through the hard time.

This village, given what Ena could see, likely raised orchard fruit and horses, and used those resources to trade for other things they needed, just as her Coven traded their potions and spells.

Ty strode confidently through the village and up to the stables just as a young stable boy emerged. He jovially greeted the boy, handing him the reins to his horse, before confidently explaining that they were metalworks traders scouting for new trade relationships.

The boy’s eyes widened in excitement. While many villages had their own blacksmiths and could make some metal goods, the most significant deposits of metal ore were located near the Chasm Mountains, and thus metal goods were harder to come by the further west the village was.

The high-quality metal goods these daemons carried were likely highly coveted by most of the mortal villages, and for that fact alone, they were probably welcomed with open arms at most places they went.

Ena had to admit, it was an ingenious cover for their true purposes.

After handing their horses off to the stable boy to be fed and watered, they made their way over to the dilapidated guesthouse.

The off-kilter door creaked as they walked inside to find a cozy, albeit slightly crooked, room, almost as if the foundation had sunk on one side, causing the whole room to tilt.

Five or six small tables with mismatched chairs and one very old-looking couch were scattered around, and at the far end was a decent-sized hearth with a roaring fire that was putting off more than enough heat to make the room comfortable.

To their immediate left was a short bar with two stools, where a burly, middle-aged man was wiping down mugs with a stained cloth.

Only a handful of patrons filled the space, but Ena couldn’t tell if they were visitors, like her, or if they lived here.

Three older men were playing cards in the corner, each with a cup of what looked like brown ale, and a couple, a man and a woman aged somewhere in their forties, were huddled together at a table eating bowls of something soup-like.

Placing his hand on the small of her back, Ty guided her towards a table near the back of the room.

The sudden intimacy and gentleness of the gesture made Ena flinch, and Ty, clearly having noticed, rescinded his hand as if she’d burned him.

But Ena took the hint and followed him and Turner over to an unoccupied table, while Steig went to the bar.

She sat down in the old wooden chair that Ty pointedly pulled out for her next to where Turner sat, then watched as Ty went to converse casually with the bartender.

She couldn’t help but shift uncomfortably in her seat.

She’d never been undercover before and didn’t quite know what to do with herself.

Was she pretending to be with one of them?

Was that why Ty had touched her like that?

Should she make small talk with Turner? Luckily, Ty returned a few minutes later carrying two mugs of ale for her and Turner, giving her something to do other than fidget nervously.

Looking suspiciously at the thick brown beer, Ena cautiously took a sip.

Looks were certainly deceiving because it was delicious.

After not consuming anything but apples, a hunk of cheese, hard jerky, and water for the last two days, the beer filled her stomach wonderfully.

She chugged half of it before consciously making herself slow down. She needed to keep her wits.

While Steig remained sitting lonesome at the bar, Ty sat down with her and Turner, his own mug of ale untouched in front of him.

Before Ena could fret over having to awkwardly make fake conversation with these daemons, the bartender approached them.

He was balding on his head, most of his hair having migrated to his face, where his thick beard and mustache nearly covered his mouth.

He rubbed his hands together in front of his large, rounded stomach as he greeted them. “Welcome, welcome to Tritam, travelers,” he said jovially. “How is the ale treating you?”