They closed off the last bit of hallway to reach a study room. Tim was just strong enough to push his way inside, holding it open to gesture at the figure on the other side. A man draped in expensive robes, his eyes aimlessly drawing along the floor as he muttered phrases to himself. Despite the man’s manic pacing and disconnect from the world around him, the room was relatively well kept. It was just smaller than a bedroom, mostly occupied by bookshelves stacked with fantastical tales and children’s rhymes. Off in the corner between two wooden shelves was a stringed instrument, coated with a clear line of dust that matched many of the shelves.

  Crouching near the only desk in the room was Sajus, changed into casual clothes and vacantly staring at the grey feather of a quill steeping in its ink pot. Maddison sighed at the sight, the intelligence, albeit very loonie, had left him again.

  Cody stopped at the door, sizing Maynard up with a cocked brow. “You’re-“

  “If you’re just going to stand around don’t stand in the way.” Maddison boomed, shouldering past Cody as he unsheathed his blade. Maynard looked at the gleaming sword, his face contorting with fear as he backed further into the small office. Five steps in he tripped over his feet and tumbled to the ground, shaking the small desk as his back struck it.

  It was a familiar scene, and Maddison didn’t intend to fall for it again. He readied himself for a swift strike, feeling a light force hit his legs as a the small and scraggly child named Timber tried to push him back.

  “He didn’t do it! My dad didn’t do anything! Leave him alone!” He wrapped his arms around Maddison’s waist, his feet sliding across the floor as he failed to budge the towering man. “You’ve got the wrong person!”

  Maddison looked down at Tim’s struggle, void of empathy as he lifted his blade to strike again. “Look kiddo, your dad is a terrible person who happens to have a lot of coin on his head. It’s nothing personal.”

  He pushed past the child, his path only stopped when something suddenly cut between him and his target. The crimson sleeve was enough to stir a growl in his throat as Cody held his arm out, practically beckoning Maddison to give it a lop.

  Cody pulled his arm back once he had Maddison’s seething attention. “Okay I want you to know, before I say anything. I love what you’re doing. Crying kids, their father begging for his life, destroyed village…” Cody said, grinding his teeth as he painfully pushed out his next words. “But you’re wrong.”

  Maddison barely gave his remark the time of day as he lifted the blade to Maynard’s neck. “Don’t worry, you’re next.”

  Cody sighed. “He can’t use magic. How would he have cursed the town?”

  Maddison kept his blade pointed at the terrified man, cocking his head to the warlock. “You think I’ll believe that coming from your mouth?”

  “Seeing as I’m the only one that can tell aside from Sariel?” Cody snapped back, giving in to defeat as Maddison continued to scowl at him. He waved at him dismissively, turning to peruse a bookshelf. “Believe whatever you want. I just wanted to correct you. You’re not killing a mad sorcerer, because he’d need magic for that. You’re just killing a sad, cursed old man. Whoever cast the spell certainly isn’t that guy.“

  Maddison swung around at Cody, only stopped by Sariel’s surprising reflexes as she sprang up between them. Maddison thanked his lucky stars he had the reflexes to register her before her head was on the ground. His anger and surprise quickly dying at the sour look Sariel was shooting him.

  She scrunched her nose at Maddison. “Cody here’s my friend, Mr. Sungard, an we don’t go pointing at friends like that.”

  “He might be your friend, but he certainly isn’t mine.”

  “Well I think sharing is caring. That’s what my old boss Medila always told me when I was holdin food. And she’s always been right on the nose.” She backed up to Cody’s side, giving his shoulder a friendly punch. “We can share 'im.”

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I humbly decline.” Cody replied, sizing up Maddison before paying Sariel a smile. “Without magic, a campfire would make a better travelling companion.”

  “We’ll play nice until his head is off his shoulders.” Maddison growled, withdrawing his blade to point it back at Maynard. “Get the kids out of here, and I’ll give you a thirty second start on your swift departure.”

  Cody let out a bemused chuckle as he loaded up his bag with a few of the titles he’d skimmed. “I’ll get the kids out of here, and I’ll give you five minutes to start running. My fireballs go a long ways.”

  “Then I guess we’re fighting after this.” Maddison scoffed.

  Cody paid him a curt nod as he wrestled Tim under one arm, just barely strong enough to carry the screaming child out the door while his little brother obediently followed suit.

  Maynard whimpered as Maddison raised his blade to swing. There was a little bit of life in his eyes again, the man’s act so good he was even working up a nervous sweat under the blade. “Please… please I’m sorry. I don’t understand how everything… what I did…”

  Maddison frowned. The old man was a great actor, or legitimately clueless. He’d seen this on rare occasions. Sorcerers that casted spells so powerful they took hold of them, destroyed their minds and swirled out of control.

  Maddison let out a heavy sigh. “You still did it. Like I said, it’s nothing personal, your head just has good coin on it.”

  “C-coin… coins. Gold…” Maynard muttered, scratching at the ground as his eyes widened. “That’s it… that’s it! I left her there, so very long ago. We gave her gold, and yet we suffered… she did this. She left the town…”

  Maddison slowly lifted his blade to strike, brow furrowed at the mention of a she. “What are you prattling on about?”

  “Winter, summer, winter, summer. But then. Then she came back, the same woman I knew, ageless. She shouldn’t have come back.” His eyes widened further. “The forest took her, it should have taken everything.”

  Sariel’s face twisted with discomfort as she tried to make Maynard’s words clear in her head. “Sorry there, not sure who you’re talkin about sir..”

  “Don’t entertain his rambling, he’s buying time.” Maddison growled. He turned the blade, swinging to land a perfect strike at his target. But the sword didn’t meet flesh in its journey, and no head fell from the end of his blade. Instead, Maddison felt his body freeze. A horrifyingly familiar sensation.

  Sariel cocked her head at the sight. Maddison had frozen, the steel of his blade just touching the whimpering man’s neck.

  “Now what are you up to Mr. Maddison, are you tryin to harass the elderly? Medila told me there was no good in that.”

  Maddison gritted his teeth, trying to will his mouth to speak. Something had seized his body within the blink of an eye. His cheeks flushed with rage as all he could do was stare down Maynard, every alarm bell ringing in his head that the man had fooled him again.

  But the man cowering at his feet remained in a state of terror, trying to press himself into the wall and away from the pointed blade that had barely pricked his neck.

  But then a voice came from behind them both. A woman’s.

  “You know, I was worried you group of adventurers were working together.”

  Soft yet powerful. And still full of buttered mockery from the flour laden baker Maddison had met in Bervolt.

  “Must be my lucky day.”

  The woman it belonged to welcomed herself past Cody who was frozen in place at the door. His entire body quivered as he tried to fight an invisible force, the spell holding his body so tight he could barely breath.

  Maddison couldn’t turn his head to see her face, but he was hitting himself for not puzzling at all together sooner. Cindy the bun maker. There was hardly a better enchantment than the ones you forced people to eat.

  Sariel stared at the woman in confusion, allowing her to take a few more steps into the room and look around. Her gaze landed on Maynard, and her lips twitched into a malicious smile.

  Maynard looked up at Cindy, hands shaking as his voice quivered with fear. “Y-you. You died. You died! Died! Died! Died!”

  Cindy snatched his jaw, squeezing her nails into his cheeks as she shushed the man. “What are you talking about dear? You said it yourself when you cast me out of my home. You can’t kill a witch. Now sit still and shut it like the rest of these puppies.”

  All at once the fear wracking Maynard diminished, the man slowly sinking back down to the floor to stare blankly at the wall ahead.

  “Now then,” Cindy said, turning to Maddison and stroking her hand across his back. She gazed at Cody, sizing him up as her voice dipped with a shimmer of empathy. “A shame, there aren’t many of you left.”

  Cody gritted his teeth, his hair flaring with stilled rage as he fought the spell Cindy had placed on them all.

  Cindy chuckled at the sight, turning back to Maddison to whisper a single command in his ear. “Kill the caster.”