Firewind

Chapter 26-Diero

"We're lost, aren't we?" Leshanna asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, we're not," I said, looking over Ronan's shoulder to look at the map he was holding.

"No, she's right," Ronan sighed. "We are hopelessly lost."

He balled up the map and chucked it over his shoulder.

"I knew we couldn't trust that shifty mapmaker," I swore under my breath. Leshanna covered Talkinn's ears and glared at me. I rolled my eyes t her.

"Roro, my legs are tired," Talkinn said, rubbing his eyes.

"I know little guy," I said, ruffling his dark hair. I picked him up again.

We had been walking all day, following that darn map, hoping we would reach the next village as the mapmaker had said. Unfortunately, I think we were cheated out of our money and were given a faulty map. The suns were starting to set and it was starting to get dark out. The path we were taking had ended abruptly.

"Do we just head back down this road?" I asked Ronan. "Or do we carry on and hope for the best?"

"I don't know these parts well, but I'm afraid we'll have to find someplace to stay for the night. How about I stay here with the two young ones and you go see if there's a better place for shelter. Especially considering the quickly fading light and these woods aren't exactly child friendly. I'm sure we'll work something out. We'll find somewhere or something will find us. It'll be alright."

I set Talkinn down reluctantly and nodded to Leshanna. She crossed her arms and turned away from me. I sighed and headed into the slowly darkening embrace of the twisted oaks and tall pines.

There was quite a variety of trees in this particular part of the forest. With white birches peeking out between pale sycamores and dark evergreens, the forest was brimming with wildlife. The trees grew so close together that the branches entwined, their limbs reaching out for each other like wooden hands. The leaves were so dense, that I thought for sure the suns had already set. I couldn't tell for sure because the trees completely blocked my view of the sky. There was no sign of anyone having passed through these parts regularly or recently.

I was just about to head back when I heard leaves rustle and a twig snaps to my right. I inwardly groaned. I hoped it wasn't more of those pesky htraephim or one of those ogana from my dreams. I faced the direction of the noise and notched an arrow to my bow once again.

A young woman stepped out from between the trees and just walked right by me as if she didn't see me. She turned back and glanced at me and sighed.

"What?" she asked impatiently.

She was quite a lot shorter than me with beautiful brown eyes and dark hair.

"Nothing," I asked and strung my bow over my back and returned the arrow to my sheath.

"You look a little lost," she said, smirking.

"Ah, yes. I guess I am."

"Where are you headed?"

"The village of Linti. We were given a map but I think it's faulty."

"We?" she asked, frowning.

"Yeah, my sister, my brother and a Seer we were travelling with."

"I can take you there. If you want."

"Really? That would be great!"

"We have to go back and get the others. I left them at the end of a path that branched off from the main road. It was supposed to have led straight to Linti but..."

"But the map was wrong," she nodded. "Well, lead me to them then!"

I headed back in the direction I had gone. Ronan was still there with the others. Talkinn was sleeping on Leshanna's lap and Ronan was telling her a joke. She smiled slightly before yawning. My heart broke at how her spirit was slowly fading. She used to be so energetic and carefree. She used to laugh nonstop at the most random things. She used to find so much joy in life.

"Who's she?" Leshanna asked.

"Ummm... well, sorry I just realized I don't know your name. But she said she'd help us find our way to Linti," I managed to mumble.

"Amora Martine-DuBaué, at your service," she said giving a little bow.

"I'm Diero Helder," I said. "This is Leshanna, my sister. The little boy is Talkinn, my brother. And this is Ronan Bersk, a Seer that we met a while back."

"Oh, I've never met a Seer before," she said. "Pleased to meet you."

"Which way to Linti?" Ronan said in return.

"This way," she pointed to the left of the trail.

"Won't that lead back to the main road?" Leshanna asked. She had smoothed out the crumpled map and was squinting at it.

Amora joined her and frowned at the map.

"This mapmaker is really sneaky, my goodness!" she exclaimed. "He made it look like this was the correct path even though no one's used it in ages. The main road was actually what you had to take even though Linti is such a distance away from it on this map. This isn't wholly inaccurate. It used to look like this but they re-routed it to make more sense."

I stared down at the map over her shoulder and saw what she meant. How had we not seen it before?

"Well lead on," Ronan said, gesturing with his arm for her to take the lead.

I was surprised that Ronan didn't say much. Usually, he was quite talkative and charismatic. He was always rambling on and on. As Amora led us through the woods, Ronan pulled me back to talk. Leshanna was in higher spirits. She was telling Amora a joke and they laughed together. She must be grateful to finally have another female around to keep her company. Especially since I haven't been the best of company lately.

"I don't trust her," Ronan said, glancing at Amora to make sure she wasn't listening. "Doesn't she seem shifty and suspicious to you? And doesn't it seem strange that she shows up and willingly offers to take us to Linti without expecting anything in return? Doesn't that seem even the slightest bit off?"

"I think you're overthinking this," I raised an eyebrow at him.

"You're sure you don't want to think bad of her just because she's beautiful?"

"You didn't like people judging you because you are blind, so why are you judging her for her appearance? Give her a chance. Everyone deserves a couple of chances."

"Fine, but if I'm right I will not hesitate to say 'I told you so'."