Chapter

Six

“Ah, he’s up,” said Galan.

Brin squinted into the light. It was well into the morning, and the sun was bright. He was lying on a bedroll, and someone had placed a blanket over him at some point.

“Told you,” said Hogg. “Nary’s the growing boy who can sleep through the sound of sizzling bacon.”

He was right. From the campfire came the most wonderful aroma in the world. He burst out of bed, and Lurilan handed him a plate with sliced bread, fried with the grease, and two fat slices of bacon, still sizzling from the pan.

He ate so quickly he burned his tongue, but he didn’t care. This was the life.

The others chuckled at him, but couldn’t hide the fact that they enjoyed the breakfast at least as much as he did.

“You know, I was wondering,” said Brin. “I was wondering… well, it sounded like when you got the Quest, you all just dropped everything and came straight away. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you did, but…”

“But little boys get eaten by scary monsters every day, and no one comes to save them. So why did we bother for you? Is that what you’re getting at?” Hogg said. Galan and Lumina frowned at him, but Brin nodded.

“Frankly,” said Lumina, “we were honored to be asked. Quests from the System aren’t at all common.”

“Even for you?” asked Brin.

Lumina giggled. “Is this what my reputation has become? Yes. Even for me. This is my first time.”

“Let me put it this way,” said Hogg. “I was an adventurer for twenty-five years before I retired. A good one, too. And this is my first one. Which leads to something we were going to ask. Why you? Why did the System choose to save you?”

He didn’t want to say it was because he was an Otherworlder. That would just lead to more questions, and there was no reason for them to believe him in the first place. And besides, for all he knew, his Otherworlder status wasn’t even the deciding factor.

“I got a notification saying the goddess Solia had taken notice of me, and that my experience was confiscated, but it wasn’t because I was in trouble. It was right after I killed a few of the undead soldiers.”

“After you did what?” Hogg asked. The black-clad man seemed disinterested, half turned away, but [Know What’s Real] told Brin that was a lie. The man wasn’t really even there at all; the entire figure was an illusion, even the sound of his voice.

Brin carefully turned his head to the side, to look at Lumina. He carefully didn’t look back behind himself, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw nothing there. That was an illusion as well; someone was standing directly behind him. So [Know What’s Real] could tell him if something invisible was there, as long as he was looking for it.

That seemed academic, now. More important was figuring out what he’d done to set Hogg off. From the looks of things, none of the others could tell that Hogg was using illusions. He needed to play this carefully.

Lumina wrinkled her brow in concern. “What’s wrong?”

The ghostly figure retreated, quickly stepped around the campfire, and merged with Hogg again.

“Nothing,” said Brin. “It’s gone now. I just had a strange feeling there for a second. Like someone was holding a knife to my throat.”

Hogg became an illusion again.

Brin broke out in a cold sweat. “I can explain!”

“Brin. I think I speak for everyone present when I say that we only have your best interest at heart,” Galan said carefully. “Why don’t you tell us how you killed those soldiers?”

“Traps! I laid traps. I watched them every night, staring at them through the cracks of the cellar doors. Eventually I figured out that the fire wasn’t real. It didn’t act like fire. It was an illusion. They wanted people to think they were strong against fire, since that’s actually their weakness. So I dug a pit trap, put all sorts of burnable stuff inside and… look, I could just show you.”

“I would love to see it,” said Lurilan.

The [Hunter] was a man of few words, but not the rough-looking sort that Brin imagined a lone-wolf forester would be like. He was clean-shaven, with short hair combed in a part, and his green clothes were elegant and spotless. He had a genteel air and a cultured voice. Brin had to wonder what his story was; he probably would already know if he hadn’t fallen asleep so early last night.

Galan and Lumina stayed at the camp, starting to pack up their supplies. To all appearances, Hogg stayed behind as well, but Brin knew that wasn’t true.

Brin had set the Rogue off when he’d mentioned killing the undead soldiers. He’d snuck up on him, and none of the rest of the Heroes had even noticed. It wouldn’t be a far stretch to assume that Hogg would be able to take him out and escape without any of the others catching him. He needed to assuage Hogg’s fears, prove that he wasn’t hiding anything, that he was harmless. Mostly he needed to stop freaking out and act normal. A normal twelve-year-old boy of this world would still be starstruck from meeting these Heroes. None of this cloak-and-dagger stuff would’ve even occurred to him.

He focused on keeping his breathing under control as they walked back into town, and Brin showed Lurilan the first pitfall trap he had made. The three undead soldiers lay in the pit, right where he’d left them. He couldn’t help but feel a little proud, seeing his handiwork.

“Sawdust? An odd choice. Where did you find it?” asked Lurilan.

“I ground it myself at the mill. I don’t know how much it helped, though. The torches they held lit the stuff I left down there, but the splinters I carved worked just as well as the sawdust.”

“Clever,” said Lurilan. “It’s an awfully deep pit. How long would you say it took you to dig?”

“There was already a cellar here, so I mostly just had to dig through the roof so it would collapse when the soldiers stood on it. It still took me three days, though.”

“Here, take this,” said Lurilan, and gave Brin a gray iron coin. It was featureless, heavier than it looked, and cold. He held it in his hands, turning it over, confused, until Lurilan took it back.

“Well, are you satisfied? He’s not a changeling.”

Brin didn’t know how to answer that, which was fine since the question apparently wasn’t directed at him. Hogg stepped up, seeming to emerge from a small patch of shadow on the ground.

Hogg said, “I knew he wasn’t a changeling. There isn’t a changeling alive or dead that can fool my [Inspect].”

Lurilan didn’t seem surprised to see Hogg there. Did that mean that all the Heroes had seen Hogg sneak behind him earlier, and they didn’t care? More likely Lurilan had just expected Hogg to tag along, knowing that the Rogue had rogue abilities from seeing him fight. Either way, it seemed that Brin was spared for now.

Now that the danger had passed, Brin started to tremble with the panic he’d been shoving down. “How much trouble was I in?”

“Galan had it right when he said that we have your best interests at heart,” said Hogg. “Because for now, your best interests are our best interests. The danger wouldn’t have been to you, but to whatever gave you the power to kill those undead. There are many methods or monsters that can grant a child the strength you would’ve needed to fight those soldiers, and none of them are worth it in the long run. Except technology, I guess.”

“So… I’m ok?”

“You’re ok.”

With Lurilan’s back turned, Brin gave Hogg one last questioning glance. Hogg nodded and mouthed the words we’ll talk.

Back at camp, Lurilan gave the word. “There is no trace of corruption or persuasion on him. He has not eaten corpses or made Oaths. He really did kill them with pitfall traps.”

The news was met with obvious relief from the other two Heroes, though Lumina especially tried to hide it. “Well, of course not! I knew as soon as I saw him that he was a good egg. How could the System send us to rescue a demon summoner or the like? Preposterous. I could have told you.”

“That’s as may be,” said Hogg. “Now that we have that out of the way, we should decide what to do next.”

Lurilan nodded. “To that end, I have a question for Brin. While you watched and waited, night after night, did you ever see any undead soldiers that were different? Smaller or larger perhaps? Anything that could be called their leader?”

Brin didn’t have to think long. “There may have been something like that. Five days ago, the undead suddenly got really smart. They went from wandering around aimlessly to marching in ranks. They searched the town that night, really searched it, house by house, cellar by cellar. They almost found me. The next night, they were stupid again.”

Lurilan, normally reserved, began to pace in excitement. “Only five days ago? Then⁠—”

“Wait. Should we not take our charge to safety first?” said Galan.

“If we do that, we might lose our chance to find the one who started all this,” said Lurilan.

Brin asked, “How do you know the leader isn’t with all the ones you killed?”

Lurilan shook his head. “I’ve been looking over my kill notifications, and I saw nothing to suggest that any of the undead I killed were capable of casting illusions. Neither do I believe any necromancers were among them.”

“He’s right,” said Hogg. “We would’ve had a harder fight if the army were being directed. The leader is elsewhere. Question is, do you think you can find him?”

“I wouldn’t bring it up if I couldn’t. A trail only five days old? That’s positively fresh tracks compared to the sort of quarry I normally hunt. I feel like this must be why I am here. Why else would the System send for me, who is so far beneath the rest of you in level?” said Lurilan.

This was a revelation to Brin. He hadn’t really thought about how the Heroes compared to each other. They all seemed absurdly powerful to him.

“Our quest is to rescue this boy and bring him to safety,” said Galan.

“And where is that? Shall we take this boy to a new village, only to see it destroyed in three years or five, by the very same mastermind?”

“Gods forbid,” said Galan.

“What if one of us takes him away, then the other three of us track down the mastermind?” asked Lumina.

All eyes turned to Hogg, who shook his head. “That would have to be me, right? You couldn’t spare Galan or Lumina, not when for all we know the mastermind has a second army terrorizing some other poor village. Besides, where would I take him? The safest place within a hundred miles is right here with the four of us.”

The four of them waited, seeming deep in thought. What were they waiting for? Oh. Him. They wanted his permission.

A large part of Brin wanted to leave this town, to leave this whole country, to never see another undead again in his whole life.

A larger part of him, though, wanted revenge. Not just for the dead villagers and this boy’s dead family, though that was certainly part of it. More than that though, he wanted payback for himself. For all those cold nights. The terrible, lonely nights shivering in the dark. The hungry, coldly ambitious side of him wanted to see the one responsible dead.

It helped that this was also the right thing to do. He shouldn’t force the Heroes to leave a necromancer running loose just to prioritize his own safety.

“I want to come. I want to see the mastermind dead. It was hard, hiding from those undead soldiers every night. It was scary. I don’t think I’ll ever sleep peacefully again, not until I know they’ve been stopped. Please.”

“Hear, hear!” said Lurilan.

Lumina rubbed her eyes. “Oh, very well. But our first priority must remain. We protect the boy at all costs. If this foe really does have a second army roving the countryside, we will retreat immediately and come back with an army of our own. How long do you think it will take you to pick up the trail?”

“I anticipated this question, during my patrol last night. The trail leads to the north.”