Yvan turned off into a patch of woods, found a stream where they could all quench their thirst, and told everyone to make camp.

  The Watchmen went through the old routine in silence. Vidal and Niyazi went hunting and came back with a biturong. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

  No one spoke around the fire. Rien kept grimacing, biting his lips, and rocking back and forth.

  Neils cut up the cooked meat and handed it out as usual, but he did that in silence, too. A cloud hung over the group as they chewed their food.

  Without any warning, Marine put her portion of the meat down, looked up at the faces glowing in the firelight, and started to sing.

  Her clear, high voice drifted through the woods in a haunting melody.

  “There once was a fair maid lived in Strawberry Lane

  Loved by her master and her mistress the same.

  But then a young sailor lad came sailing o’er the sea

  And that was the beginning of her misery!”

  Some of the Watchmen laughed. She grinned back at them before she launched into the rest of the song about how the sailor seduced the maid before he left her to return to sea.

  Her voice sent another wave of goosebumps over Yann’s skin. Her face radiated so much warmth and vitality. Her eyes sparkled with understanding and innocent fun when she made eye contact with each man one after another.

  She shot an even kinder, more understanding smile at Rien, and when she saw him still anxious about his recent episode, she squeezed his hand.

  “Where did you learn that song?” Barsali asked when she finished.

  She laughed like his question was the funniest thing in the world. Her cheeks flushed and her eyelashes dipped so perfectly. She did everything perfectly. She really was a princess even when she was dirty.

  “Would you believe it?!” she exclaimed. “There was a stable boy at the Temple where I trained. He fell in love with one of the kitchen girls and he used to sing that song to her to make her laugh. I got in so much trouble for spying on them and eavesdropping on their conversations.”

  “You’re a rascal,” Vidal told her. “You should have left them alone.”

  “Oh, they never found out I spied on them. I wouldn’t do that to them. It was Master Octavi who busted me sneaking around watching them. He said such things were beneath me.” She burst out in musical laughter again and then sighed. “The Templars should try it sometime. They would be so much happier.”

  “So did the stable boy seduce the kitchen maid and then run off to sea?” Neils asked. “Did he get her pregnant and leave her destitute?”

  “Oh, no! They got married and he became the head groom and she became matron of the whole Temple. Everything worked out for them, but I guess that doesn’t make for a very interesting story, does it?”

  A few Watchmen laughed again. “Tell us another story from the Temple, Marine,” Niyazi urged.

  She giggled. “There was this other initiate when I was there. She was about my age and she became obsessed with one of the younger Brothers. She used to spend all her time in the dormitory planning how to catch him and bed him. She found books in the library on how to bewitch him into coming to her bed at night so no one found out what they were doing.”

  “But if you were in a dormitory, wouldn’t you find out what they were doing?” Eliska asked.

  Marine laughed even louder. “Of course! I would have been lying in the next bed watching everything—but fortunately for me, it never happened. She used to take these forbidden spell books into our study halls and put them inside the books we were supposed to be reading. She even muttered incantations when he was the Brother taking our classes.”

  “So what happened?” Niyazi asked.

  “Master Octavi found her out. He took one of our classes and he had a habit of pacing around the room. He happened to pass her desk and realized she had another book inside the one she was supposed to be reading. He may also have seen her lips moving when they shouldn’t have been. Anyway, he took the book and then, whoo! You can imagine the commotion when everyone realized what she was doing.”

  “What did they do to her?” Eliska asked.

  “They threw her out. They sent her home and wrote a letter to her father saying she wasn’t ‘Templar’ material.” Marine made air quotes around her ears and snickered again. “She really wasn’t. She thought of nothing all day long besides bedding some man. She was a hopeless scoundrel.”

  “What about you?” Omer interjected. “What were you thinking about while you were spying on the stable boy and the kitchen maid? I’ll bet you were as much of a scoundrel as she was—maybe even more.”

  Marine turned bright red and burst into childish giggles, but her eyes only twinkled at him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Omer! I would never do something like that! How can you think that about me?!”

  She made him laugh, too, which was a herculean feat.

  “So which of the Brothers did you dream about bedding?” Niyazi asked. “Were any of them young enough for you?”

  She wouldn’t stop laughing. “Most of them were old enough to be living skeletons, but there were a few young enough to catch a girl’s eye.”

  “A few!” Neils countered. “What would your father say?”

  “He would never find out because I know how to keep those things to myself.” She beamed around the circle. “I wouldn’t dream of telling anyone if I was anywhere but here with all of you.”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “That is truly a privilege, Marine,” Niyazi replied. “Your secrets are safe with us.”

  She laughed again. Her behavior lightened the mood considerably, and when the conversation didn’t restart, she started singing again.

  She sang a softer, more melodious song this time. It was a much sadder love song, but her beautiful voice only eased the tension even more. It didn’t make the men sad.

  Yann found himself gazing at her across the fire. What a tragedy that she became insane by communing with the Dark forces. How much longer would the Watch be able to enjoy her company before she went back to that?

  The idea of losing her became unbearable, but Yann himself wouldn’t be able to prevent it. He just had to appreciate her while it lasted.

  He became increasingly aware of Eliska’s reaction as the song went on. She didn’t look at Marine the way the men did.

  Eliska turned her face away with a pained grimace. The two girls had been acting so friendly before. Yann didn’t understand Eliska’s distaste for what Marine was doing.

  Marine didn’t notice until she finished singing. Eliska sat next to her, so Marine looking all around the circle at the men distracted her from seeing Eliska’s expression.

  When Marine finished, she happened to glance down at Eliska sitting by her side. Eliska looked up at her at the same time and their eyes connected.

  Marine saw Eliska’s features twisted in misery, but Marine only smiled even more warmly if that was possible.

  Marine shot out her hand and squeezed Eliska’s wrist once before Marine went back to staring into the flames.

  “Will you be able to sleep tonight, Rien?” Marine asked.

  Rien stopped searching the dark woods on all sides. He dropped his eyes to the ground, but he didn’t stop rocking and chewing his lips. “I don’t know, young one. I really don’t know. I wish I could.”

  “Do you still see Darklings everywhere?” she asked.

  He nodded down at the earth between his boots. “All the time. They never go away.”

  “What does that mean?” Yann asked. “Does it mean those Darklings are here but invisible or does it mean something else?”

  “Those Darklings came with the Voyant,” Marine replied. “I would think they have something to do with him…..”

  “They don’t,” Omer interrupted.

  Everyone turned to face him. “What do they mean, then?” Marine asked.

  “They’re just a different manifestation of the Dark—a deeper level of Dark,” Omer replied. “That’s what my father said. He said the Dark gets concentrated when the Coil degenerates. The Darklings become more dangerous and more sophisticated as the chaos increases.”

  “How could he know that if he didn’t live through a destabilization cycle?” Eliska asked.

  Yann thought of something else just then. “Do you know Costico Nastase? He belongs to a family of magic-users who fought Dark forces.”

  Omer only nodded at the flames. “He’s my cousin.”

  “Does that help us?” Neils asked. “Does any of this help us deal with this situation?”

  “It doesn’t help us deal with the Voyant,” Yvan replied. “If that was the Voyant we saw earlier.”

  “It was,” Marine replied. “He appeared to Eliska and me when we got separated from you.”

  “Why is he appearing to us now?” Yann asked. “Is it because his Darklings keep failing to capture whatever it is he wants?”

  “He doesn’t use his magic against us,” Eliska pointed out. “Maybe he doesn’t actually want anything from us—except maybe to talk to us. Maybe that’s why he’s been following us.”

  “That’s impossible,” Yvan pointed out. “He wouldn’t have sent Darklings after Middleborough for two whole years if he wanted to talk to us. He wouldn’t have hired Barbarians to attack us if he only wanted to talk to us.”

  Eliska shrugged. “Okay. You’re right—but that doesn’t explain why he doesn’t use his magic against us. He could have flattened us both times, but he didn’t. He only showed himself to us.”

  “He used that magical curtain against us,” Barsali pointed out. “That flattened us.”

  “It took us to another Layer, but it didn’t kill us,” she countered. “He could have. He could kill us anytime he wants.”

  “Why do you think he wants us, then?” Yann asked.

  “I have no idea, but it can’t be to kill us.”

  “He’s killing plenty of other people,” Marine pointed out. “Even if he doesn’t want to kill us specifically, he’s killing too many other people for us to just let him get away with it.”

  “From what I can tell, none of us has the power to stop him. You, me, and Anríq don’t have the power to stop him even if we combined our magic together—and we don’t even have any magic right now.”

  Marine opened her mouth to argue, but she stopped herself, cocked her head, and frowned when she finally realized what Eliska was saying.

  “The question remains what we’re going to do about all of this,” Omer interjected. “If he’s coming to us, then maybe the best policy is just to stand and wait for him to come. Maybe then we can at least find out what he wants. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m tired of running.”

  “We have no choice but to move around if things continue to destabilize and every Island we come to collapses with us in it,” Eliska pointed out. “We haven’t run from him since the snow Island, but the Coil keeps sending us to different places. Deciding that we don’t want to run from him might not make much difference in terms of what we actually do.”

  “Well, what do you think we should do?” Omer countered. “If we don’t run and we can’t fight him, what other option is there?”

  Right then, something snapped out in the forest to one side.

  Rien jumped out of his skin. His head shot up and he jolted to spin in that direction.

  Everyone else looked, too. They all held their breath and listened. Something rustled out there. It traveled sideways, rummaged in the bushes, and eventually moved off.

  Niyazi let his shoulders slump. “It’s nothing. It’s just a night animal.”

  That scare killed the conversation, but the men didn’t fall back into the same gloomy depression.

  Each man drifted into his own thoughts. No one made any effort to draw anyone else out, but the atmosphere stayed thoughtful instead of doomed.

  Yvan finally stretched out on the ground, propped his head against a fallen stump, and shut his eyes. Barsali went to sleep next and the other men followed one after the other.

  Eventually, even Rien curled up on the ground by the fire. He kept his eyes open and stared out into the forest for a long time, but in the end, he closed them and his breathing lengthened.

  Yann stayed awake watching each person drift off. The two girls fell asleep near each other. He watched them for a while letting his own thoughts drift.

  He marveled as much over how much he’d changed as how much both of them had changed.

  No one in their party doubted any longer that Eliska was one of them. Whatever happened to her, she remained as staunchly committed to the Watch as any of the men.

  Yann would probably never find out what made her change her mind. He didn’t need to.

  He admired her even more now because of that than he did when she had the magic to save them all. That moment in the charred ruin flipped a switch between her and the Watch as much as it did for Yann.

  Whatever happened, it would happen to all of them. They were all in this now, for good or bad.

  He still found it nearly impossible to believe how much Marine had changed. He never would have believed she could be like this—so warm and irresistibly attractive—and not because she was so beautiful.

  She dedicated everything to stopping the Voyant, too. She went into the Dark to carry out her mission to help everyone in the Coil—and she would do it again. That was the hardest part to accept.

  Everything great and wonderful about her would vanish in a breath of wind the next time the Coil turned.

  A soft voice drifted out of the darkness to Yann’s side. “You should sleep, too, Yann.”

  He glanced over to find Anríq sitting next to him. Yann couldn’t look at his friend. “I should, but I don’t want to.”

  “You must be tired,” Anríq pointed out.

  “I am. What about you? Are you going to sleep?”

  “I will eventually.”

  Yann didn’t say anything else. Anríq must have a lot on his mind, too. He might even be thinking all the same things Yann was thinking.

  Yann didn’t ask. He and Anríq stayed up sitting in silence for a long time watching over the others.

  Everything Yann cared about in the world was right here. Wandering the Coil as a Servant was all very fine and noble.

  It meant nothing compared to his dedication to these people right here. They deserved his service more than anyone else. Their mission was his mission—however they managed to carry it out—if they could even carry it out.

  He didn’t know what would happen to them tomorrow, but he would dedicate his best effort to them. He couldn’t think of anything finer or nobler than that.

  End of Chapter 12.

  ? 2024 by Theo Mann

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