Ashes of Revenge

Chapter 3: The Map to Everywhere

Raven's mind had finally settled on something besides her hand: getting to the next village. Thoughts ran through her head as if it was the very water her hand was in currently, bouncing off rock after rock but never slowing – trying to determine how they would get to the next village and what might await them.

Her thoughts came to a halt when she caught her reflection in the water, destroying her hard work to not think about the scars. Raven stared at her burn marks for a few seconds before she looked down at her now-shaking, burned hand. The skin white – reminding her of wax – and red, while other parts were charred black.

Blurry images of what she used to look like entered her head: perfect skin, wide smile, and a sweet face . . . all that was gone. What replaced it was burned flesh, unsmiling lips, and a stern set, sunken face.

Despite practically hating the way she looked, at the same time, she almost didn't mind it. She hated how she had received her scars and the pain that she had had to endure. However, it was a reminder of what was taken from her and why. The worst was hopefully behind her.

"Raven. . . ?" Richard's soft voice said behind her.

She stood, softly shaking her burned hand to get the water off it. "Mmm?"

"They disappeared through tha trail we were gonna go through."

She remained silent for a few seconds. This meant that now there was a possibility they would be ambushed again, and she doubted they would remain lucky; the majority of the men were Monstros, meaning they had the upper hand during the night. The sun was still setting, meaning they would be drastically outnumbered. But now they had to change which village they were going to, wasting more time.

Sighing, she finally spoke, "We need to look at tha map." She began to walk away, but Richard outstretched his arm, stopping her.

His other arm raised her sword to her. She grabbed the handle and plunged it into the sheath. Disconnecting the glove for her left hand from his belt, he proceeded to hold it open for her. She placed her fingers in the leather, and Richard did the final shove, making her breathe out in pain and causing her body to tense. After a second, her jaw relaxed, and she retracted her hand. It was better if she kept the open wound covered until it could be properly cleaned and bandaged.

She looked to the abandoned battle scene and saw Colt turn over a body with his foot. "I'll set up tha map, tell Colt I only threw two daggers."

Richard watched as Raven left, and once he was sure she wouldn't look back, his face fell. He knew how she felt about her scars, and while it usually didn't bother her, he could tell it now was. He wished he could take away all her pain, even if that meant it landing on him. Breathing out in what could only be described as grief, he ran his fingers through his hair and walked towards Colt.

"Hey," Richard said.

"Hi," Colt grunted as he flipped over another body and searched the pockets.

"Raven said she only threw two daggers."

Colt held up his free hand and grasped between his thumb and pointer finger were her weapons. "I know." He sighed and straightened out. "None of 'em has any money," he murmured.

"They disappeared through tha trail we were gonna go through."

Colt spun around to face Richard. "What are we gonna do?"

The pair began to walk to where Raven was situated.

"Go to another village." Richard rested his hand on the handle of his sword.

Colt looked to the setting sun – they were running out of time, and fast. Clearing his throat, the Shifter changed the subject, "How is she?" He knew how Raven felt about getting new scars. His fingers gently rubbed against a straight line of a scar on his forearm.

"I think it's gettin' to her a bit."

Colt nodded and looked at her. The wind faintly picked up, and he observed the way it added faint volume to her hair, which she ran her fingers through, revealing her destroyed hairline for a second before it fell back, always parted to the right to help cover the burns.

Without looking at the pair, she held out her non-damaged hand, barely feeling Colt's fingers brush her palm as he slid the daggers into it. With a flick of her wrist, they disappeared up her sleeve.

They all looked at the map, their eyes naturally landing on their respective species' Kingdom: Farian, Mundus, and Shifter. The group's entire existence was a liability, and if more Knights came and managed to capture any of them, they would be tortured and killed.

All Five Kingdoms and all the villages were on it, laid out on a giant island known as Corrail. It was large enough to hold five Kingdoms but not big enough to keep the five species from nudging each other's elbows. The island was surrounded by what was simply called the Dark Sea, and a smaller island – Irlandia – rested in the sea in front of the Mundus territory, the fine tip of the small island pointing straight down to the Mundus Castle village with its ports.

In the middle of the bigger island sat the Mundas Kingdom, its bottom jutting out as if reaching for Irlandia. To the right of it was the Monstro Kingdom, where they currently were. Further East was the Farian Kingdom, with pieces of land stretching out into the sea like ink slowly moving through water. A black X marked out the village they were in currently as well as the entirety of the Farian Kingdom.

To the West of the Mundas Kingdom was the Shifter Kingdom, parts of it raised due to the expansive cliffsides. Further West was the Telik Kingdom, the only Kingdom with an expansive river throughout it. All were unmarked, but Raven knew that would change soon.

They all knew that would change.

The names of each King were over their Kingdom – Raven had written them herself in black ink – and her eyes naturally trailed to three – King Leroux Fee: Farian King; King Onyx: Monstro King; and King Arthur Gaius: Mundus King.

Her scar tissue-covered finger stopped tracing over the Kingdoms and landed on a Monstro village. "We were going to go here, but it's too dangerous." She trailed her finger to the second closest village. "We have to go here." Luckily, the village was less than a day's journey away as opposed to others that could take a week.

"What's oll this?" Colt asked as he circled a mountain range beside the new village.

"That's tha Morte Mountains. We'll do our best to avoid it." The Mountain was one of the reasons why they hadn't been traveling to it in the first place.

"Why?" Colt questioned.

"They have some of tha most dangerous creatures in tha Kingdom. That an' tha Mountains are almost impossible to navigate through. If we tried, we would get lost an' most likely freeze to death." From that village, they would either be backtracking or the Mountains blocked any real logical step forward. But they were out of options and the sun was setting fast.

A sense of dread washed over Colt, and he ran his fingers through his hair, the dirty blond locks falling back to their original spots. "So, we go around?"

Raven rubbed the bottom of her nose twice with her hand. "I don't know," she mumbled. How had it all turned so bad so quickly? How had their plan been flipped so suddenly? They had planned to avoid the Mountains and now they were being forced to walk directly into them. "That's not tha only problem, though. What could we destroy? What do they have that's valuable?" That was another reason why they hadn't planned on going to the Mountain village, because it was of no strategic gain to them. Their mission was to make the Monstro Kingdom weak, to eradicate all the profit and importance of the Kingdom so no allies would remain, and the people would turn on their King. And then the group would kill the Monstro King and take the throne.

"We can figure those things out when we get there," Richard finally spoke. "But right now we are losin' daylight an' need to move. Pack up," he ordered.

Whistling, Richard's and Colt's horses came running to them and before the animals had fully stopped, they had mounted them. Richard went to go inform the Messenger of their changes.

Raven rolled up the map and placed it into a leather case. She whistled, and Herbert came running to her.

She ran her ungloved hand along his nose as she made her way to his side. She strapped the map to the saddle before climbing up. "Are yeh excited?" Herbert snorted, and Raven breathed out. I am.