Chapter
1 - Stepping Through the Door
Stepping through a door when one
doesn’t know what waits on the other side is foolhardy. Idiotic,
even. But then, Everfrost did grip a magical sword in her hand and
she had just put an end to a vicious werewolf hybrid, so a random
door didn’t seem to pose much of a threat. What did it matter what
was on the other side? Even if an unknown foe awaited her, they
couldn’t be worse than what she’d already faced. She’d be ready
for anything anyway, especially with Absolution firmly lodged in her
grip. She was a Monster Hunter now; brave and unstoppable.
Leaving the forest behind,
Everfrost and her trusty dire-hog companion Hero, prepared to step
through the mystery door. Aside from the fact it appeared slap bang
in the middle of Taun Grove and didn’t seem to be attached to
anything, the door looked the same as just about every door Everfrost
had ever encountered. She supposed it was its absolute mundane
normalness that made it seem all the more enticing as she’d been
walking through a forest full of creatures that wanted to eat her.
Not that she had much to fear in that regard, not with Absolution in
her hands. It was still unclear if the sword had chosen her, or if
she had chosen it, but holding the blade in her grip just felt right.
Holding her breath as if she was
about to dive into a pool of water, she stepped through with Hero at
her side.
The world closed in on her. Or,
at least, that’s how it felt. An invisible force seemed determined
to press against her in all directions. It pressed against her chest
and face, making it difficult to breathe. Panic set in. Everfrost
looked to Hero for reassurance, but she couldn’t see him.
She couldn’t see anything.
Fear tightened her throat,
stopping any air that had made it through the invisible force.
Oblivion was going to take her at any moment.
But then she felt Hero at her
side. And her knapsack containing her precious, if macabre, cargo on
her back. Both things reminded her of who she was, who she had
become, and what she had accomplished.
Determination flooded her
arteries, but still the invisible force pressed against her.
‘Just my luck,’
Everfrost thought. ‘After
all I’ve been through, I’m going to die because I walked through
a stupid door.’
Then, just as soon as the
sensation had begun, it stopped. The invisible force pulled away, but
slowly, slithering away from her skin, leaving her body. Dragging
itself away, the strange force reminded Everfrost of the snot that
had filled her when she’d last had a cold. Repulsed, she grimaced
before taking a deep breath. She could breathe again. She was out on
the other side. The world on the other side of the door was very
different to the world of Taun Grove and, as Hero snorted beside her,
she knew she’d made the right decision in coming through the door.
At sixteen years old, Everfrost
wasn’t in the habit of walking through random doors that appeared
to lead to nowhere, but that was what she’d done. Then again, she
doubted that most people, no matter what their age, would wander
through such a door, let alone believe where the door took them. She
was struggling to believe it herself. The door had brought her all
the way to the place she’d been intending to travel to, anyway. In
front of her stood a gigantic wall and a sleeping guard.
Red Fern was in reach. Everfrost
had arrived.
“We made it,” she said to
the dire-hog. Hero simply snuffled in reply. The creature had only
been in her life for a few weeks, but she already felt she could
understand what he was trying to tell her. Right now, his snuffle
suggested he wanted to explore his new surroundings and Everfrost
found she agreed. She turned her attention to the guard.
Snoring softly, the guard slept
on, unaware he was being watched. A substantial trail of dribble
slithered out the corner of his mouth and crawled down his chin.
Having decided not to bother with stealth, Everfrost stalked over to
the guard and gently tapped his boot with her own. The guard snored
again, muttered something unintelligible, but remained sleeping.
Realising the sleeping chap wasn’t a threat, Everfrost placed
Absolution back in its scabbard.
“I don’t think he’s going
to welcome us to this fine city,” Everfrost said. Hero grunted.
“Some guard, right? Absolutely useless... let’s hope the fate of
the realm doesn’t rest in his hands.” Taking another step closer,
Everfrost bent over to study the guard some more. He was unshaven,
and his armour was dull and dented. Her experience with the Queen’s
Guard was limited, but when thinking of the three she’d met, this
man was more of a Burwood than a Gretel or Grub. He certainly wasn’t
a member of the Knights of the Green Fire. As if reading her
thoughts, Hero snorted and shook his enormous head.
“Definitely not the finest
example of a guard,” Everfrost agreed.
“Nnyeah...” the guard
mumbled in his sleep as if in protest. “Got... to...” A snore
completed the sentence.
“Got to do what?” Everfrost
asked. “Do your job? Guard the door? Stop me from just wandering in
and doing whatever the gods I wanted?”
The guard said nothing in
response, but something had changed. Any relief Everfrost had felt
after walking through the door had dissipated. She looked over at
Hero to see if he looked as uncomfortable as she felt. The animal
shifted nervously from foot to foot, looking like he’d rather be
anywhere else than here. In a way, she was glad Hero seemed uneasy;
misery really does like company.
For the first time since she’d
arrived, she focused her attention on that which was beyond the
guard, the door, and the wall. If she was to walk forwards, she’d
find herself at the gates to Red Fern. If she was to bypass the
mysterious door and walk backwards, she’d end up in the woodland.
All around her, shadows moved with malice, her marble-white eye
picking up every shift. This was what she had, in the last few hours,
taken to calling her ‘Shadowsight’, the result of a particularly
unpleasant incident involving the pus of a pre-change-werewolf.
Whatever was in that goop enabled her to see shadows that had been
invisible to her before. Those shadows acted as a warning system,
alerting her to Venari’s monsters before pretty much anyone else
could see or hear them. Right now, they were telling her that danger
lurked in the woods. ‘Just our luck,’ she thought, ‘and I
thought Taun Grove was bad. This place is crawling with
Abyssus-knows-what.’
“It’s probably best to stick
with our plan, anyway,” she said to Hero. “Red Fern awaits.”
Everfrost held out her hand, gesturing for the dire-hog to take the
lead. The animal did just that. Everfrost followed, and to her
relief, the menacing shadows stayed where they were. She signalled to
Hero to stop and then turned to watch the treeline. The shadows
didn’t move past it, seemingly unable to move any closer. Something
held them at bay.
“Coulda done with that in
Elkbury,” she said, trying not to think about how many lives could
have been saved if her village had possessed defenses like that.
Would her mother still be alive? Her friend Fenla? How many had died
needlessly in the Banishment ritual? When she had lived in Elkbury,
all she’d wanted to do was escape and see the world. So far, the
world had just done everything it could to tear her apart. Deciding
she’d stared into the shadows enough, she turned back and walked
towards the large closed gates. The gates loomed over her, denying
her access. It was easy to imagine guards on top of the wall, looking
down at her. She wondered if they were as incompetent as their
sleeping colleague.
Just as she was about to call
out and demand to be let in, a strange smell caught her attention.
All along the wall, small red toadstools grew, their tiny heads
resplendent in the moonlight. The smell was repugnant, but there was
something about it that drew her towards it. It was the same pull
that had led her to her sword. Finding Absolution had been one of the
best things Everfrost had ever done; it stood to reason these tiny
toadstools would take her on a similar path.
“I wouldn’t touch them if I
were you,” a voice said. The words floated towards her, almost
dreamlike.
Everfrost looked up to the top
of the wall, but could see no-one.
“Over here,” the voice said.
Everfrost sighed as she realised where it was coming from. With her
hand on Absolution’s hilt, she turned back towards the woodland.
Just as before, at the forest’s edge, countless shadows waited. One
of those shadows moved more frantically than the others, as if trying
to get her attention.
“Come closer,” the shadow
said, “please.”
“You’d best leave me alone,”
Everfrost replied. Hero whimpered slightly at her side. “I’m a
monster slayer.” Despite having slain a few monsters so far,
Everfrost’s voice remained light and unthreatening, reminding her
she was still a teenage girl and not an invincible being sent from
the gods to rid Venari of monstrous creatures.
“A monster slayer, eh?” the
voice said, seeming to think it over. “Well, I suppose you’re in
the right place. You’ll find plenty of monsters here, both in and
outside those walls.... but things are never quite what they seem.
Why don’t you come closer? I think we can help each other.”
“You want me to come closer?
No chance.” Everfrost drew Absolution from its scabbard to show she
meant business. The young girl of only a few weeks ago probably would
have spoken to the voice without question, but Everfrost had learnt
that trust was a valuable thing. One that had too high a price when
given away to the wrong person. “I won’t fall for your dirty
tricks.”
“There are no tricks here, I
promise you.” To its credit, the dreamy voice did sound sincere,
but then again, that was exactly the way someone who was trying to
trick you would sound. Everfrost squinted into the shadow, trying to
make out details, but there were none to be found. “Please come
closer,” the voice tried again.
“No. You’re wasting your
time.”
“You’re probably right to be
wary,” the voice said. “It’s not wise to trust strangers in
these parts. So, I’ll do my best to stop being a stranger and to
earn your trust. My name is Mildred Rutland.”
“Should that mean anything to
me?” Everfrost asked.
“I very much doubt it,”
Mildred replied, the shadow the voice appeared to be coming from
stepping closer. “But I hope you understand I mean you no harm...
but I also know it’s hard to trust a ghost you’ve just met in the
Woods of Waiting.”
“You’re a ghost?”
A thin smile appeared on her
translucent face. “I thought that much would have been obvious.”
“I suppose it is... but I’ve
never seen a ghost before.”
“You’re not from around
here, are you?” Mildred asked, but she didn’t wait for an answer.
“And yet... you came through that door. I don’t see that often.
Now that I think about it, I think I’ve only ever seen one person
use that door. Everyone else acts like it’s not there.”
“What about that guard?”
Everfrost asked, glancing back over her shoulder. The guard was still
there, snoring like it was going out of fashion.
“He just sits near the door...
or, rather, where he believes the door to be. His boss just pointed
him in the right direction once and he gets into the same position
whenever he’s working. Which has been more often in the last few
weeks. It’s like he was expecting someone... you, perhaps.”
Studying her face closely, Mildred moved closer to Everfrost. “Who
are you?”
Everfrost didn’t answer,
instead choosing to look between the sleeping guard and the chatty
ghost. As far as she was concerned, neither could be trusted at all.
Beside her, Hero grunted, showing his impatience.
“If you don’t feel like
answering, that’s fine... but let me ask you something. Are you
planning on heading into Red Fern?” the ghost asked.
“Of course. What else am I
going to do here?”
The ghost sighed, and Everfrost
was sure she saw her roll her eyes. “I’d almost forgotten what
teenagers were like,” Mildred said with a small chuckle. “You
remind me of my son, but he was never quite as sassy as I think you
may be.”
“Okay...” Everfrost said,
not sure what else to say. She didn’t know Mildred or her son, so
she couldn’t really comment. And sassy? Who was she calling sassy?
“He’s still in there, you
know,” Mildred said. “He’ll be old now. Far older than he has
any right being, but he’s still there. I can tell. Or, at least, I
haven’t felt him pass on.”
“You’ll be able to feel when
he dies?”
“I expect so... You know what
it’s like, the dead sense the dead. I’ve felt every death from
within those walls for as long as I’ve been here.”
“How long’s that?”
Everfrost asked.
“Too long,” Mildred said,
simply. “Anyway, if you’re going within the walls, I’d
appreciate it if you could get a message to my son. His name is Angus
Rutland.”
Everfrost thought on this for a
moment. “But I don’t know who he is. I don’t know who anyone
here is. Why don’t you just tell him yourself? I don’t want to
get caught in any family drama. I’ve got enough of that of my own,”
she said, thinking about what she hoped to find within Red Fern’s
walls. She hadn’t planned to use the magic door to get here, but it
seemed fate was working on her side.
“Believe me, if I could get in
there to see him, I would. But, I can’t. I’m stuck here... but
that’s a story for another time. If you do happen to see him, tell
him to come here. He knows I died, but he doesn’t know what
happened to me or his father.”
Everfrost was about to ask why
Mildred didn’t write her son a letter, but thought better of it.
She didn’t want to cause offense if ghosts were unable to hold a
quill. And, as far as she knew, the woman and her son could be
illiterate. Just because she’d been lucky enough to be taught to
read and write, it didn’t mean everyone had been.
“Very well. If I find someone
called Angus Rutland, I’ll pass your message on. Is there anything
else you want me to say to him?”
“No, that will be enough. The
news I have for him is not good. Not good at all. I’d rather be
there when he received it,” Mildred replied. “He doesn’t even
know I’m out here, so I imagine that’s going to come as quite the
shock.”
Next to Everfrost, Hero gave a
loud snort.
“I think he’s eager to get
going,” Everfrost said, nodding towards the dire-hog.
“I can’t blame him. This is
no place for those such as yourselves. I know you think yourself a
monster slayer, but I imagine you’d want a rest after your journey.
The Woods of Waiting won’t let you rest; the place is crammed full
of monsters.”
Half a dozen shadows lurking in
Everfrost’s vision and the pulsing blue light of Absolution, her
sword, told her that much already. “I can tell,” she said,
holding up the weapon as if that explained everything. “It glows
and my Shadowsight kicks in when monsters are close.”
“Shadowsight?”
“That’s just what I call
it...” Everfrost replied, feeling slightly embarrassed. She’d
said her made-up name for it out loud a couple of times, but she’d
only been in the company of Hero. Dire-hogs couldn’t scoff at
made-up words and, even if they could, it wouldn’t be in Hero’s
nature to do so.
“It sounds like magic to me,”
Mildred replied. “You would be wise to keep that a secret while
you’re here.”
“Why’s that?” Everfrost
asked. She was proud of her newly found abilities and the last thing
she wanted to do was shy away from using them. They’d served her
well already, and she imagined they’d come in handy when searching
for her biological father. Especially if he was as bad as Lucien, her
father in every way except blood, had led her to believe.
Before Mildred could give an
answer, a twig snapped close by. Everfrost, Hero and Mildred all
directed their attention to the place the sound had come from. There
was no-one there. Not even a shadow.
“That bloody guard...”
Mildred muttered, and Everfrost turned back to where she’d left the
guard sleeping. He was gone. Her Shadowsight was good at picking up
monsters, but useless when it came to humans.
“So, he’s awake,”
Everfrost said. “How bad can that be?”
“Devastating if he saw your
sword or heard our conversation,” Mildred replied. “They banned
magic in Red Fern for all but the Queen herself and those in her
direct employ. If that guard rouses the guards at the wall, you’re
buggered.”
“But, I didn’t know the
rule,” Everfrost said, hating the whine in her voice. “I’ve met
Knights of the Green Fire from Red Fern and they never mentioned a
thing about this... and one of them knew about my powers... well,
some of them. He knew about the sword, at least.”
Mildred raised an eyebrow.
“Hmmm... maybe they didn’t think you’d be coming here... or
maybe it slipped their minds. As Knights of the Green Fire, they’ve
got fancy licences and can use magic for just about anything.” The
ghost’s words made sense, but Everfrost didn’t think she looked
convinced.
“Do you think they could have
kept it from me intentionally?” The thought made Everfrost feel
uncomfortable, like she’d wandered into a trap that had been set
just for her. ‘I’m
such an idiot,’ she
thought.
“I wouldn’t know, dear,”
Mildred replied. “But I do know it won’t be long before that
guard returns with back up. If you’re heading into Red Fern, I’d
find a way in now. There are plenty of holes in the walls if you look
hard enough.”
Everfrost nodded. “Thank you.”
“It might be worth changing
your appearance too. You’re pretty easy to spot as you are...
especially with your companion there.”
Hero grunted at that and
Everfrost couldn’t tell if it was a happy grunt because he’d been
mentioned or an annoyed grunt because it sounded like he’d have to
hide away somewhere. Not that Hero was against hiding; that animal
was damned good at avoiding danger when he wanted to be.
“Don’t worry,” Mildred
said, noticing Everfrost’s concern. “They’re not all monsters
in there. Someone will help you. Kindness is pretty common. Just stay
away from the Queen and those close to her and you’ll be fine.”
“Thanks, any thoughts on where
I should head first?” Everfrost asked.
Mildred checked over her
shoulder before answering. Once she was sure the guard wasn’t
returning just yet, she spoke in a low whisper. “I haven’t been
inside for many years, but I do know of one kind heart. His name is
Franklin… Franklin the Unclaimed… and you’ll find him at Ickne
Noir’s Home for Lost Children. It’s in Duskwell Town. Well, they
call it a town… it’s little more than a few streets, really. The
city is full of little places like that. Places trying to rise above
their station. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone to
direct you... or just follow your nose to the farm that’s close by.
If it’s anything like it used to be, those pigs stink like a
daemon’s toilet...” The ghost looked towards the dire-hog and
then added, “no offense.”
“Thank you,” Everfrost
replied.
“You’re very welcome, young
lady. Remember, Red Fern’s a dangerous place. Whatever happens
while you’re in there, please don’t let the darkness in. There’s
too much good in you. Now, please, go. That guard may have been
sleeping when you arrived, but they’re not usually that inept.
There will be hordes of them in these woods before you know it.”
Sparing a split second to nod
her understanding, Everfrost and Hero raced away, aiming for the
wall, but far away from the gate. As they ran, they heard the fast
footsteps and eager yells of those keen to catch them. Everfrost had
no worries about letting the darkness in. She’d never let it get
close enough; her moral compass had always guided her well.
Lou
is an author. And a weirdo. She’s sorta part Deadite and part
Hobbit. Sometimes she feels like she’s four goblins in a
trench-coat masquerading as a human.
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