There was plenty of reason to doubt that Vares knew what he was doing.
After all, the only thing Mora had seen him do so far was bring misery to people. Granted, that may have been justified; but still…
The guy said that he was a pirate and a captain, but there was no evidence of either. Now he was suddenly tracking someone through the wilderness, a person he seemingly knew nothing about.
Maybe he’s just crazy, she thought. Sure, he’s big and strong. But you can be big and strong and still be crazy, can’t you?
The only thing that confused her were his eyes. Given her age, Mora’s experience with intoxicants was non-existent, while her maturity was high enough for her to hope that things would stay that way.
Over the years, the tavern provided plenty of examples of drunks going nuts; but she had never seen a single person get better from consuming anything. Was that even possible?
The red glow of Vares’ eyes was unmistakable, though. And she had seen the same with Anders.
I should ask Nik. The thought left her as soon as it came. Why would he ever tell her anything? Mora had learned a lot from him—lessons almost always taken in the moments when he forgot she was even there.
In a way, the whole thing made her rather upset. In the starting years of her life, at least as far back as she could remember, she had gotten the idea that she was almost like Nik’s daughter. That one day, when she was old enough, she’d stop being the disrespected little kid taking orders to become a player in her own right.
Instead, ever since she’d reached nine or ten, Nik began to exclude her. Even the usual tasks she would’ve done begrudgingly—cleaning his office, bringing his food and drinks when he was alone, and carrying his messages—he began to give out to others.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
That he gave her away to get rid of her was just rubbing salt in the wound. Mora hadn’t dreamed of him being some perfect father figure to her; but on some level, even if it hadn’t been an entirely conscious one, she’d always hoped Nik would see her more as a daughter than a servant as the years went by.
Instead, he doesn’t want to see me at all, she thought. It contrasted greatly to the way he treated Petyr, for example. Petyr never got any grief from Nik. On the contrary, Nik seemed to treat him like they were relatives or something, only adding to her resentment. If not for the fact that she had a light crush on Petyr, stupid though he was, Mora might’ve found an even bigger rock to throw at him…
“This is it,” said Vares, stopping.
Mora had fallen so deeply into her own thoughts that she hadn’t even noticed they entered a small clearing. There was clear sky above, a blue dark enough that allowed her to see the stars while the only thing that stood before them was a firepit and a tree stump.
Cracking his knuckles, Vares went over to the fire and probed it with his finger. “Interesting. It hasn’t been out for long. Can you think of anyone who might be out here?”
Mora scoured her brain for Windustian lore but there weren’t even legends to do with the forest. Though it was right there, people preferred not to think of it at all. It was said that previous famines had led the locals to hunt everything inside of it, so that there was nothing left now—not even a squirrel. There were no hunters in Windust to speak of.
“Not at all,” she said.
Vares ran a hand through his long hair and stood up. His nostrils flared. “No, this is a woman’s perfume. And it’s not a scent I can imagine coming from this place. He was right. This is a foreigner.”
Mora’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Who was right?”
He ignored her as he paced around the encampment, his eyes darting from place to place. “Notice that there are no traps, little oni. You know what that means?”
Mora crossed her arms incredulously. “It could mean a number of things.”
“Oh?” Vares made a face and smirked expectantly. “Such as?”
She sighed impatiently, almost contemptuous at the line of questioning. How stupid did he think she was? Just because she was a kid, didn’t mean she couldn’t think. “Maybe they were too dumb.”
Vares chuckled darkly. “Let’s leave that aside. Next reason.”
“I suppose… they didn’t imagine anyone would come looking for them?”
He gave her a long look at first, then began to nod. “That’s precisely the case. And from that, too, we can surmise that this stranger is either excruciatingly stupid… or highly competent.”
Vares paused for a moment, then grinned in a way that made him look like the sort of danger that kept people in their homes at night. “I believe this is the latter."
