The Archer & the Flame (Whispers of the Night Ravens #1)

Chapter 7

The next day passed without event. It was a return to the familiar routine of my missions, crafting a plan as I crossed the blossoming fields.

Valtarra was a tiny village perched on the tallest hill bordering the Blossom Sea. It was the last place I expected to find a covert informant.

Given its size, it wouldn’t expect visitors, particularly one with a weapon. If I kept my head down and didn’t engage its inhabitants, they would likely keep to themselves, wanting to avoid trouble. My goal was to get in and out as quickly as possible, leaving no room for mishaps.

By the time I reached its entrance, three days after leaving the comfort of the Yewdew Forest, any remaining doubts had vanished.

Stone steps were expertly set into the hillside leading up to an arch decorated with fresh flowers from the nearby meadows. A gleaming sign proudly displayed the village’s name, one of the villagers polishing it with vigour as I passed. With my worn clothing, splattered with dirt from my travels, I was noticeably out of place.

Unable to shake the feeling, I wrapped my cloak more tightly around myself. The judging looks the villagers cast my way weren’t the disdain of the Amber City’s residents, but cautious concern, as if by studying me from afar they could understand the reason for my visit.

I’d certainly travelled to less pleasant destinations during my time as a scout. We were the backbone of the Night Ravens, responsible for bringing news to the Old Keep. Sometimes, that meant sitting in the dirt for hours on end, hoping to overhear something of value. Sometimes, when luck evaded us, it was all for nothing.

I continued along the perfectly straight path, the cobbled stone neatly framed by colourful flowerbeds. Finding the informant wouldn’t be difficult. The bookshop was at the heart of the village, one of a handful of buildings besides a row of charming cottages.

It seemed a strange shop to operate there, but as I approached, several young women emerged, clutching their new books and a picnic hamper. With its proximity to the Blossom Sea, it would do a roaring trade on the long summer days, where night was held at bay for all but a few hours.

A bell chimed as I opened the bookshop’s cracked, peeling door, finding myself in a dark room with a low ceiling.

“Just a moment,” someone said from the other side of the shop. It was a promising start.

I glanced around as I waited. The bookshop was an eclectic mess of parchment, old tomes and pamphlets, with no order to the chaos. It was larger than I’d expected based on the outside, tall shelves dividing the long room into a series of aisles, which led to an open space in the middle, cluttered with odd pieces of furniture.

It felt like a different world to the pristine village. I loved it.

The lady who greeted me was just as chaotic, wearing a mismatch of clothing in clashing colours, her red hair wild and untamed. I masked my surprise. Was she the informant?

“How can I help you?” she asked, a beaming smile on her face.

I hesitated. Reuben had equipped me with a pass phrase to confirm I was speaking to the informant, but I could never be too cautious.

“This place is a breath of fresh air,” I said, and she blushed at the compliment. “Have you been running it long? No offense, but you’re not what I expected.”

“You’re not the first to say that. It’s not every day you see a bookshop managed by someone so young, I suppose. It’s a family business, owned by me and my mother, but I’m usually the one serving customers. Is there something in particular you’re looking for?”

“I’m not sure just yet.”

“In that case, browse until your heart’s content. I’ll be here if you need me.” Her enthusiasm spilled into every word.

I chose a strategic position at the front of the shop, feigning interest in a heavy reference book and turning the page every so often. But my attention was firmly fixed on the door and who would walk through it. For a while, the odd patron came and went, but the bookshop remained quiet, mostly leaving me alone with the young girl.

When nearly an hour had passed, a different door opened, this one at the back of the shop. My head snapped towards the noise.

A woman loitered in the doorway. She was the opposite of the redhead, clothed plainly in dark colours that matched her black hair, neatly tied up. A widow. Her gaze landed on me, sweeping over my worn clothes and the bow I carried.

“Dorea, fetch us some tea, would you?” she said.

Dorea obeyed, rushing out of sight to make the tea, a symphony of banging and clattering causing me to be concerned at what shape the kitchen would be in afterwards. The black-haired woman crossed the shop floor, locking the door and flipping the sign in the window to closed, granting us relative privacy.

It had to be her, but I spoke the coded message to be sure.

“I’m enjoying the lighter days. It brings out the vibrancy of the flowers.” I kept my voice casual, observing her for any signs of recognition. She nodded, her posture relaxed as she faced me.

“I prefer the rain. It does the flowers good,” she said, completing the secret phrase. “I’m Cassandra. I’m the one who sent for you.”

She beckoned me over to a small table squeezed into the middle of the room between piles of dusty books, before taking a seat herself. “You’re here sooner than I expected. Sorry about the codes. Reuben always did enjoy his little games.”

I couldn’t picture them knowing each other. Reuben had kept to himself for as long as I’d known him.

“This is important. I came as soon as I could.” I tried to release some of the tension from my body. It was essential that she trusted me and I was well aware of my tendency to make a terrible first impression. I would rather fight a pack of rabid wolves than socialise with strangers. I set my mouth in what I hoped was a friendly smile.

Dorea interrupted us, setting down the teapot so hard that hot tea spilled over the table. She squeaked, rushing to fetch a cloth, mopping up the spilt liquid as she apologised profusely. Her face had turned as red as her hair.

“It is no hardship. Sit with us,” Cassandra said. She filled our cups with what remained in the teapot. “I do not know where to begin.”

Dorea’s wide eyes flitted between me and Cassandra. “What’s going on, mother?”

“Our visitor wants to hear about your work last month.”

All the colour drained from Dorea’s face, including her blush from moments before. “I can’t. I-”

“I know. But she needs to see for herself.”

I frowned, not liking the direction this was heading in. Dorea was taking quick breaths, unable to sit still in her chair. Her mother was rubbing soothing circles on her back. It felt like I was intruding on a personal moment, and I wanted nothing more than to give them some privacy, but I’d travelled here for a reason.

“If I may,” I said, seizing control of the situation. I picked up my cup of tea, knowing full well I wouldn’t be drinking it. Although everything checked out so far, it wasn’t worth the risk of ingesting something harmful if this was a trick of some kind. “Why don’t I ask you a few questions to start with?”

Cassandra nodded. Dorea let out a nervous giggle while her mother comforted her.

“How did this all begin?” I feigned a polite sip of my tea, keeping my gaze on the table to avoid direct eye contact with either of them. Staying detached was the best way to proceed here. If my presence became too distracting, I could spook Dorea and miss an important detail.

“Times are changing and less fae are visiting the meadows every year. Too many thieves and swindlers taking advantage of the visitors. The bookshop isn’t doing as well as it used to. Once we could comfortably support our family with the takings, now it’s hard just to keep a roof over our head. When the offer came, it was like our prayers had been answered.”

“What offer?”

“Researchers in the South. They wanted someone experienced to catalogue their findings. The details were vague, but they offered us more than the shop would make in six months. Dorea volunteered to do it. The travel would be hard on me, you see. I’m not as young as I used to be.” Her hand balled into a fist on the table. “We should’ve turned it down.”

“What was this research?” I asked to Dorea, wondering what this had to do with the Night Ravens.

She tried to answer, but all that came out of her mouth was a rasping sound. Her mother shushed her, clasping her arm.

My heart sank. I knew what that meant.

“They made her agree to a bargain,” Cassandra explained. “She can’t utter a word about anything to do with the project.”

My teacup rattled as I put it down more hastily than I’d intended. Why would researchers need a bargain with Dorea? It was suspicious, but I needed more information before I could inform Reuben.

“What about the fae you worked for?” I said, trying to find a way around it. “Can you tell me anything about them?”

Dorea considered it for a moment but choked on her words several times while attempting to answer.

The same happened with each question I asked, all a dead end. What was she cataloguing? Where did she work? What had her daily routine looked like? The bargain was exhaustive in its coverage.

“I don’t understand,” I finally said. “I sympathise with you, but if she is bound by a bargain, surely there is no information that can be shared?” Had this all been a wasted trip? What was the point of sending me all this way for something that could’ve been covered in a letter with little risk?

Cassandra took a deep breath, turning to her daughter. “Show her your arm,” she ordered, and Dorea nodded meekly, rolling up the sleeve of her unique dress.

I schooled my features, masking my shock. It was a challenge, but I owed her that, at least.

Black tendrils snaked up Dorea’s arm as far as her elbow, burrowing beneath the surface. The skin they touched had lost all colour, withering, as if the life had been drained from it.

“She was found like this. Her escort dumped her on the outskirts of the Blossom Sea when they realised she’d been compromised. One of the villagers recognised her, thank the gods, and brought her to me. It took days before she could speak and that’s when we encountered the bargain.” She squeezed Dorea’s other hand. “The veins grow larger every day. When she first arrived home, they were at her wrist. The healer has never seen anything like it. No matter how many treatments they’ve tried, the infection persists. If they reach her heart...”

She didn’t need to continue.

“And you can’t tell me how it happened?” I’d known horrific injuries through my line of work, but this one was unique in its viciousness.

Dorea shook her head. “It burns,” she said, her voice so quiet my ears strained to hear it. “Sometimes the pain is so intense I black out.”

Had Reuben known what I’d find here? Was he hoping I could identify the disease and report back to him?

Dorea looked so broken that I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She seemed like a sweet girl. Blinding rage soon replaced my sympathy. Someone had exploited their family and allowed Dorea to be hurt this badly. Someone unconcerned with the devastation it had wrought. They’d simply discarded her when she’d ceased being useful to them.

If I ever found them, they wouldn’t be walking away from the encounter.

I tried a different approach. “Can you remember anything distinctive?” Dorea’s mouth opened, but I interrupted her before she could choke on her answer. “Not about the research, but before that. When you were travelling?”

She considered her response slowly, chewing on her lip. “Actually, there was something. It’s fuzzy in my mind, but maybe it can help.”

I sat up straight in my seat, listening intently. Her mother encouraged her to continue.

“The ground was cracked into two, a deep gouge in the earth. I remember wondering how we were going to cross, when I could barely see the other side. But somehow we did.”

Her description was unfamiliar, but specific enough to help. I opened my map, scanning the southern region. At first, nothing jumped out. But then, there, cutting across the land, was the Threstian Gap, separating the two halves of Threstia. Of course.

“Do you think you can find it?” Cassandra asked.

“I believe so.”

Dorea winced, clutching her arm.

“She’s all I have. Please help her,” she urged, too quiet for Dorea to hear. “If this worsens, I don’t know what to do.”

“I’ll do what I can.” I said, the vague response all I could offer.

“Thank you.” Her hopeful smile nearly broke me.

Cassandra retreated to the back of the shop, returning with a glass lantern. She thrust it into my hand, a gentle glow contained within. “Here, take this if you’re venturing out in the dark. You’ll have more need of it than us.”

I exited the bookshop with a cloud over my head. My mission was complete, the obligation met by the information Dorea had shared.

All that was left to do was report back to the Night Ravens and await my next orders. But it felt unfinished, a tug in my stomach at the thought of returning to the Old Keep with the barest of details.

Without helping Dorea.

No one deserved the pain she suffered. And despite my distrust of others, I had a soft spot for the weak and the defenceless.

I paused at the edge of the village, eyeing the intersecting paths at the base of the hill. The best course of action was to take the information back to Reuben and wait for the Threstian Gap to be investigated by a more experienced team.

But what if that was too late? What if by the time they travelled there, all traces of the researchers had disappeared?

Dorea’s face, full of pain and fear, wouldn’t release its hold on my mind. For a moment, I was no longer in Valtarra, but looking into another innocent’s terrified eyes as her grip on my arm slipped, and I lost her to the sea forever. A single tear trailed down my cheek.

How long would it be before the inky black veins consumed Dorea completely?

I was tired of this world destroying the kindness in everyone. I would not stand by and let it happen again.

Reuben would have to understand.

It took several minutes of hammering on the bookshop’s door before Cassandra answered, her eyes red as if she’d been crying.

“I need a favour. Do you have ink and parchment to hand?”

I scrawled a brief update to Reuben, the letter phrased in a manner that would be meaningless to anyone who hadn’t learnt his codes. Cassandra took it when I was finished, assuring me she’d get it to him undetected.

Then, I strode decisively onto the path leading south, leaving Valtarra behind, and with it, everything I’d known.