Shadowguard

Everna knew there was something amiss about Inverness's weather.

Five miles west of the safe house, the snow stopped. As if the gods had drawn an invisible boundary between the seasons, the air warmed at once, the crispness of fall returning with a suddenness so startling it may as well have slapped her in the face. The trees held their leaves, a canopy of brilliant red and gold stretching overhead. In place of icicles, coils of spindly green moss created a living curtain across the boughs. Radiant mushrooms, their golden caps seeming to glow beneath the rays of sunlight pouring through the gaps in the leaves above, dotted the forest floor. Birds sang in their roosts. Deer bounded across their path, which was nothing but a meandering spit of packed dirt and trampled vegetation that wove between the dense clusters of trees and through babbling brooks.

The sudden change in seasons brought the need for a change of clothes. Everna shed her coat, the brushed fur much too thick now, and allowed the gentle autumn breeze to cool her sweat-slicked skin. Vina and Lisette followed suit, their woolen cloaks stashed inside their saddle bags. None of them expected the drastic difference in the weather when they departed that morning. Yet, with the forest bustling with life around them, Everna found it almost hard to believe winter took hold only a mile behind.

The Nivfell Woods began at the base of the Scintillating Peaks and spread north, ending just ten miles outside of Inverness's northern border and treaded west for nearly fifteen miles before ending at a sharp northern turn in the mountains. She couldn't remember what lay west of it; Trellan was a massive region and most Invernessian maps extended a mile or two beyond the kingdom’s borders.

Windhollow, if she remembered correctly, was some miles west of the forests’s edge.

Osain hadn't left them a map. They only had Vina, who hailed from Anwell, and had traveled the road often during her trips home. To know Vina was in charge of their route wasn't a comforting thought. Everna doubted she could find her way out of a wet bag with a rope to guide her to the exit. Vina had barged into her room the night prior, thinking it was her own.

The trip so far was blissfully quiet. Vina and Lisette kept ahead of her, just far enough to be out of earshot. They spoke amongst themselves, their lips moving and Vina motioning wildly in her direction. Everna paid them no mind; to be spared Vina's shrill voice was a blessing.

Few things that infuriated her, but every word that left Vina's mouth burrowed beneath her skin and struck at her nerves. There was nothing she hated more than conceit, and it oozed from Vina’s every pore. Were she a little less restrained, she'd stick her in the jaw, just for a few moments of peace. But Vina, annoying as she was on the best of days (if such a thing existed with her), wasn't worth the pain of split knuckles.

The best way to deal with people like her, Everna found, was with a smidgen of snarky intolerance and a generous helping of disinterest; nothing infuriated a narcissist more than defiance and disregard.

Vina turned to point an accusatory finger in her direction, and Everna set her attention on the forest once more. Her thumb fumbled with the ring wrapped snuggly around her index finger, her skin tingling with the thrum of magic. The safe house boasted a small selection of artifacts for general use among its members. Vina and Lisette had plundered the collection of anything useful long before she arrived to take her pick.

"You wouldn't know how to use these," Vina had said with a haughty heft of her chin. "Country bumpkins wouldn't know anything but dented copper and false silver, after all."

Everna had thoroughly enjoyed Vina's momentary disbelief when she informed her she was very familiar with artifacts; her parents had enough stashed away to put an enchanter out of business. Vina had nearly choked on her shock when Everna unsheathed her sword and waved it in her face. It was worth a small fortune in the right circles, and several shifty halflings and pawnbrokers had tried to con her out of it on many an occasion.

It was petty, but Everna never claimed not to be. Vina made it all too easy to get under her skin. It wasn't as if she didn't deserve a healthy dose of her own medicine, either.

The invisibility ring perched on her finger, however, was one of Leah's personal items — a precaution, she'd said. If they were to run into trouble, she was to activate it and flee. Vina and Lisette could handle themselves.

Lisette, she didn't doubt. Despite her small build and quiet nature, she carried herself with an aura that promised trouble for anyone who dared to cause it. In some ways, she reminded Everna of her mother, only more paranoid and less dramatic. Lisette was as expressionless as the porcelain dolls she resembled.

Vina, with her flat, up-turned nose, looked like she'd already lost one fight with a window. If she fought as well as she played the lyre hung from her saddle, it wouldn't surprise Everna if she had. Just the sight of it was enough to leave her cringing with anticipation.

"A good bard won't let you know they're a bard," her father always said.

Vina had never gotten the memo, it seemed.

She bore an uncanny resemblance to the third-rate hacks; the flashy wanna-bes that weren't good for anything but measly party tricks and stealing credit for everyone else's accomplishments. They flooded the tavern when the season allowed, spinning tales of their heroic deeds throughout the region — of slain dragons and daring escapes from the clutches of the carraig and their subterranean societies. They never realized the man whom they claimed to be handed them their drink not a few minutes prior.

Several miles later, strange tracks in the dirt pulled Everna from her thoughts. She leaned over in her saddle, her eyes narrowed. Gnarled and slightly misshapen, they were too small to belong to a human, but too human to belong to an animal. The tracks lacked uniformity, shooting off in every direction, then doubling back and crossing over, as if a great abundance of creatures ran in aimless circles. Faded reds and greens dotted the tree trunks, old paint splattered across the bark as if it exploded upon impact. Crude arrows with gnarled shafts, flint heads, and scraggly feathers blanketed the forest floor, snapping and popping beneath their horses' hooves.

Small bodies, disproportionate and decidedly green, soon appeared along the path. At first, there were only a scattered few, but as they continued onward, they grew in number. Goblins, Everna realized, upon glimpsing one's face.

If Vina and Lisette thought anything of it, they kept it to themselves

Before long, the signs of the goblin's presence faded and the forest floor became dirt and decaying leaves once more. The sun had waned, the golden rays now gone as thick clouds appeared between the gaps in the dense canopy. Humidity saturated the air. A peal of thunder shattered the quiet of the forest, and with it came a burst of wind that tore at the leaves.

Everna cursed.

With but a single drop of warning, which struck the bridge of her nose, the sky opened up. The rain came hard and fast, dousing the three of them within seconds. Even the forest's dense canopy couldn't stop the downpour, water rapidly filling the dips and grooves in the path and turning the packed earth into muddy sludge. Lightning flashed, bathing the forest with a momentary burst of purplish light, and another clap of thunder rippled through the trees. Her horse startled but, thankfully, kept its pace.

Ahead of her, Vina threaded her fingers through her hair and flung it away from her head in a dampened mess, her shriek of "Oh, great! Just great!" audible even above the noise of the rain.

Everna pushed her soggy bangs from her face and sighed. Water seeped into her leathers — an old set Lisette reluctantly donated when she first arrived with Wil — the interior padding adhering to her body like a second skin. The deluge left no chance of remaining dry. It soaked her boots through, her feet sliding about the water pooling inside as she readjusted her footing and urged her horse forward.

"There's a cave two miles ahead," Vina said, shouting to be heard above the cacophony of the storm. "Just outside of the forest. Not that it matters! My hair's already ruined!"

Everna rolled her eyes. There were more important things, like their rations, to worry about.

"I'll fall back and let Everna know," Lisette said.

Vina scoffed, almost sounding like she'd choked on her own saliva. "I say let that rat stay outside. It's likely the closest thing to a bath she's ever had. Might do something about that horrendous stench she has."

"Pretty sure that's coming from between your legs," Everna jeered. She steered her horse between the two of them, forcing Vina to pull her reins to the left to avoid her. Lisette nearly jumped out of her saddle. "I get that being loose is your only redeeming quality, but you don't need to announce it to the rest of us."

"How dare you, compare yourself to me, an Anwellian noble!"

Everna knew she was Anwellian, but she hadn't expected nobility. Vina was far too unrefined and too undignified, her gaudy attire more benefiting a lowly maid running about in stolen dresses and trinkets. Perhaps that's what she was: a lowborn servant with delusions of grandeur. Though she very well could be some Lord's spoiled daughter.

Anwell was infamous for its appalling social structure. The wealthy likened themselves to gods, hoarding the kingdom's resources for their own, while the common person lived in utter destitution. The academy used its political ideology as an example of what happened when a royal family had far too much power and the people had no recourse. Every law Anwell's king passed meant to subjugate and enslave the people further, while the wealthy did as they pleased.

The historical texts claimed Queen Everna hailed from Anwell, that Inverness's unique political structure existed because of all she suffered before she made her own way in the world. Everna wasn't sure she believed it. Anwell kept its people locked behind their iron walls and those who defected did so at the threat of not only their lives, but their family's as well.

She could only wonder how Vina found her way into Shadowguard.

"I would never," Everna called over her shoulder. "I have far too much self-respect to lower myself to your degree."

Another crackling burst of thunder swallowed Vina's furious shriek.

The moment they exited the tree line, the rain redoubled. A thick mist took to the air, visibility fading with alarming speed. Everna could hardly see the path in front of her now; it was nothing but a muddy strip that disappeared into the thick veil of white that began only a few feet ahead of her. Thunder boomed once more and this time she felt it in her bones, a deep and uncomfortable rattling in her core. Her horse tossed its mane, hooves stamping in the growing puddles that dotted the path.

"Easy, Esazia," Everna muttered as she ran her hand along the horse's neck. "We'll be out of this in just a moment."

As Vina claimed, a cave sat just off to the left. Relatively large, the opening burrowed into the side of a steep cliff face — the beginning of the ridge's northern turn. It extended for nearly twenty feet before the roof sloped sharply towards the floor. At the very back, a small opening, barely large enough for a person to squeeze through, wound further into the rock.

It didn't look at all comfortable, but it was blessedly dry, and Everna couldn't ask for anything more.