It didn’t take me long to check the wannabe hunters. They were traveling fairly light, they just had their weapons, and enough supplies for a few days in the wilderness. Nothing interesting.

  When I headed back to the others a minute or so later, the girls were still whispering loudly to each other.

  “They still haven’t decided what to do yet?” I asked Clara.

  “No, they’ve been arguing since you left. Seems like they can’t agree on what to do next.”

  I sighed loudly and stepped towards the pair. “Ladies, I hate to break this up, but we really should get moving here. Have you made a decision?”

  Mary bit her lip. “No. I want to escort Plays back to her home, but I don’t think we’re in any condition to travel all that way and she’s unwilling to wait.”

  “Well, I’m not going to force her to come with us, but it’s going to take a little time for us to get back to the creek, which is the easiest way back into the coven. You can continue discussing it until we get there.”

  The girl nodded, and almost immediately went back to conversing with her friend.

  “What should we do with the remains? Take them back with us?” Clara asked as I headed back to Nightmare.

  I paused for a moment, looked back at the corpses, and shook my head. “I wouldn’t recommend it. There’s so much Mythrite in their armor and equipment that it would affect all the magic cast within the village, and stripping them of it would only leave the corpses. We’ll leave them here, and let the guardians know. They can decide.”

  A quick, low whistle brought Nightmare walking over. I gently placed Kaylee on the saddle, before climbing up after her. “I need to ride back up the hill and collect the stuff we left up there. I’ll be right back.”

  Wheeling Nightmare about, I directed her back up the hill. It was steep, but manageable for the horse. It still took a couple minutes to make it up. I quickly stripped my scope off the rifle, and put both away, before wrapping the case back in the blanket and strapping both back to Nightmare’s saddle. As soon as I was done, I directed the horse back down.

  Half way down the hill I noticed that Clara and the girls weren’t alone anymore. There were two more cloaked figures with them. One I recognized, just from her stature. I doubted there was anyone else Thyra’s size anywhere on the west coast. I couldn’t get a good look at the other woman, she had her cowl pulled down too low, but it looked like she was talking with Plays.

  As soon as Thyra saw me her hand shot down to her waist, where there was a revolver hanging, but relaxed when she realized it was me. “You know, if you wanted to know more about the situation, you could have just waited until tomorrow,” she grunted when I got closer.

  “I didn’t come out looking for trouble, trouble came looking for me,” I replied with a shrug.

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  “Right…” she glanced back at the corpses. “Well, I appreciate you stepping in and dealing with these bastards before they became a real issue. I didn’t think they’d be brazen enough to ride our parameter looking for weaknesses. At least, not yet.”

  I let that last comment slide, for now. “Who’s your friend?”

  Thyra turned slightly, and glanced at the other woman. “Tallulah. She’s from one of the tribes we regularly trade with, but decided she wanted to stay and try and learn our ways. She’s been my partner for a year or two now.”

  I rode up next to Clara, nodded to her. A loud caw from a nearby tree informed me that her familiar Corrin had returned too.

  “Plays will come with us, but only long enough to rest for the night and get new supplies,” Tallulah announced after a few seconds, sitting up straight in her saddle. I couldn’t make out much, because she was still mostly hidden by the cloak, but I did get a look at her face. The first thing I noticed about her is that she had two different colored eyes. One light brown, the other blue. And glowing. She also had a single lock of white hair in her otherwise black hair, which fell over her blue eye.

  “I’ll make sure she gets it,” Thyra promised, before bringing her horse around. “Everyone stick close to me until we get back to the Coven. I don’t expect to run into any of those bastards on the way back, but we’re not going to take any chances. Tallulah, watch our rear please.”

  The native woman nodded silently in response.

  When Thyra spurred her horse forward we all fell into a quick, tight formation. Thyra first, followed by the girls, then Clara and me, and finally Tallulah. Thyra didn’t waste any time either, setting off at a quick gallop. She only turned around once, just to make sure we were all keeping up, before locking her eyes on the trail ahead. At full this speed it only took us about fifteen minutes to arrive back at the creek.

  We followed it back up, only slowing once we’d passed safely back into the coven grounds again.

  “Tallulah and I will escort the kids back to town. I’ll need to talk to you both, and get your side of the story, but that can wait until tomorrow. We’ll talk to the kids first. Make sure you don’t miss our appointment tomorrow,” Thyra told me, once we’d stopped. “Make sure you bring Clara with you.”

  “I don’t have a choice. I’m still on probation, remember?” I reminded her.

  “Just don’t forget. Our little talk just got a whole lot more important,” Thyra hissed. Before I could reply she wheeled her horse about, and set off back towards the village. The girls and Talullah just a few steps behind her.

  “Well, that was exciting,” Clara muttered. She was petting her oversized familiar, which had flown down and landed on her saddle once everyone else had set off. “Now what do we do?”

  I shrugged. “I’d suggest we go out hunting, like we originally planned, but that might not be the smartest idea after what we just experienced. Perhaps we should head back, stay closer to the village for now? We can alway check the perimeter another day.”

  Clara thought for a second, then nodded. “Seems sensible, given the situation. I do want to check in with Lady Dyer, see what she thinks of the situation.”

  “I guess you’ll want my weapons back then,” I grumbled.

  “Well, I trust you with them, but it’s probably best that you turn them over. You don’t want to give your detractors any reason to doubt you,” Clara replied.

  Hopping off Nightmare I carefully removed the gun case and set it on the ground. I had to unload both my pistols, carefully arranging the ammo within the case, before placing them in their respective recesses.

  Kaylee jumped down from Nightmare’s saddle and strode up to me. She glanced back at Clara before leaning forward and whispering, “Mer.”

  “I’m not going to try and smuggle one of my pistols back to the cabin,” I replied loudly. “I don’t need it.”

  Clara and Corrin both glared at my familiar, who just looked at them both and stuck out her tongue. “Mow.”

  Once my guns were properly packed away I passed the case back over to Clara. “It sounded like Thyra kind of expected Graves was going to try this. Did you really know anything about it?” I asked as I climbed back into the saddle.

  “I was Lady Dyer’s assistant for awhile, and if she knew anything about it she didn’t speak about it while I was around,” Clara replied quietly.

  “Which means she either didn’t think it was important, or it was so important she could only talk to a few people about it,” I said. “I know which one I’d like to believe is true, and which I honestly think is true.”

  “How bad do you think the situation is? Honestly?”

  “I don’t know. If the elders are keeping it from the rest of the coven it must be serious. I have my suspicions, but we’ll know more tomorrow. I doubt Thyra is going to keep it from us after what we’ve seen.”

  Clara nodded, then gently spurred her horse towards the village. “I hope you’re right.”

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