He remained still until the teams were fully engaged with securing the warehouse, and their attention was firmly on what was within their circle, rather than what was without. The two teams sent to find him returned empty-handed and once they were accounted for, Will felt secure in slowly creeping away.
The king is going to be very displeased when he finds out I made fools out of them, thought Will. He felt a little bad about that, but he couldn’t afford to get tied down answering questions. His friends didn’t have the luxury of time.
He debated his next move, as it could technically be accomplished at either end of the journey, but in the end it made more sense to take care of it in Cerria. Plus, since he was already in the dockside district, it would be easy to find what he needed. He stopped at the first pub he found and circled around to the back alley.
Dawn was fast approaching, and so the drinking houses were all closed, but Will worried he might run into an early morning employee coming to begin the day. It was the work of a few minutes to use another spell to open the back door and let himself in. From there, he searched until he found the entrance to the cellar, where what he needed was sure to lie.
In the cool dark there were racks that held numerous casks and barrels. It didn’t take him long to find the ale, which was held in four massive butts, the largest barrel size in the room. Once again, he felt a sense of guilt, since he intended to take two full butts, leaving the pub with only one full and one partial butt to supply their customers.
It had been over a year since he had bought wine in large amounts, and this was a different beverage, plus at that time, he had only bought quarter casks. This was roughly four times as much volume, so he did a little mental math, quadrupling what he had paid before, then doubling it again. He still wasn’t sure if it was enough to compensate the owner for the trouble of losing his stock, so he added a little more and left an even pile of thirty gold marks on the floor in front of where the butts stood. Then he stored them in the limnthal.
I’ve been nothing but a thief tonight, he realized, but he wasn’t about to second-guess his choices. Exiting the cellar, he left the pub and stopped for a moment to make sure he relocked the door properly. It wouldn’t do for someone else to come along and rob the place after he had left. He liked to think he was considerate.
Will resumed his purposeful walk, and soon he was outside Cerria again, heading south toward the congruence point. The sun was rising on his left, turning the pastures and fields into shifting shades of green and gold. Spring was already beginning to leave its mark on the world.
Alone and away from people, he activated the limnthal and sought advice. “I need to get back to your old house quickly.”
“Did you already return Tailtiu to her mother?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a shame. You could have used her to bargain for a guide. You didn’t have any actual debt to repay. The only reason you had to rescue Tailtiu was because of her implied threat,” said the ring.
“Well, it’s a little late for that now.” And I rescued her for my own reasons, not to bargain with her life, he added mentally.
“Yep. You’re screwed.”
“How does Aislinn do that vanishing thing? Twice now I’ve seen her appear and disappear. Is she becoming invisible or is she traveling somehow?” asked Will.
“It’s a form of travel,” said Arrogan. “Not one you’ll be using any time soon, and never in Faerie.”
“So there’s a spell that can move you from one place to another?”
“It’s called teleportation, and generally it can only be done over short distances, either to a place you can see, or a very familiar place that isn’t too far away.”
“How far is too far away?”
“A few miles at best,” said the ring. “There used to be ways to teleport from city to city, but that required a beacon and there aren’t any left.”
Will was enthralled by the subject. “What happened to them?”
“Someone destroyed them.”
The brevity of the answer raised his suspicions. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” said Arrogan. “Don’t you have something more pressing to worry about?”
“Why didn’t anyone rebuild the beacons?”
“The secret of their construction was closely guarded by the Wayfarer’s Society, which was sort of a specialized wizard’s guild. The last of their masters died during the Terabinian War for Independence.”
“Because you killed him?”
“Listen, I didn’t kill everyone who died during that war. It’s rude to assume. I know I made it sound like I did a lot of terrible things, but I wasn’t the only one involved.”
“But you killed the guild master of the Wayfarer’s Society, didn’t you?” asked Will insistently.
Arrogan growled. “Yes, damn it. Are you happy now?”
“Maybe a little,” admitted Will. “It’s been a bad day, so it doesn’t take much to improve my mood. So, you say I can’t teleport. Can you guide me through Faerie? Tailtiu took me on a journey using multiple congruence points back and forth to get back to Barrowden in just a few hours once.”
“She’s a part of Faerie, so she instinctively knows where all the congruence points are,” explained the ring. “Not only that, but she visits our realm now and then and already knew the two places in our world that you wanted to travel between. Both of those things are necessary to figure out a route like that. Regular humans like you and me—well, like you—have to make do with the few routes we know personally.”
“So, you’re no help at all.”
“You already know my old shortcut between Barrowden and Branscombe. That will shave three days off your journey.”
He needed to get there and back much more quickly than that. Will released the limnthal and continued walking in silence. Not too long ago he’d had a surfeit of allies and resources; now he had none. As he finally reached the congruence point, he saw something move in the tall grass.
Will paused, suddenly cautious, until a familiar gray form stepped into view.
Chapter 27
Gold eyes stared at him without blinking. “What the hell do you want?” Will demanded.
“As you have been useful to me in the past, I thought I would offer you a boon,” said the goddamn cat, completely without shame.
“You left me to die last night. I needed your help then, but you abandoned me! They were eating me!”
The cat blinked once, slowly. “And yet you are standing here. It appears that despite your histrionics you didn’t need my help after all.”