The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) by Garrett Robinson (elon musk reading list TXT) 📕

his lips. “Mayhap. I suppose we shall both have to see. For now, let us return to Opara, where Mag and Dryleaf and I had taken our lodgings.”

We woke in the morning after a restful night, more restful than any we had had since we set out from Lan Shui. In truth we slept overlong, waking a good few hours past dawn. The smell of food drifting up from the kitchen filled my nostrils as I stretched upon the bed, which I had taken after Mag had replaced me on watch. She sat with her back against the room’s door, dozing, but her eyes snapped open as she heard me groan.

“Good morn,” she said. “I think I shall fetch us some breakfast.”

“Make sure to bring some to Oku as well,” I said. “He is likely angry with us, for spending the night inside and apart from him, after so much time of being able to share our tents.”

“Your tent, mayhap,” said Mag, sniffing. “I never allowed him into mine.”

“That is patently untrue,” I said. “But in any case, I would much appreciate it if you got us some food.”

She nodded and went to do it. I had Dryleaf up by the time she returned, and we ate in silence, enjoying our sliced sweet potato and sour bread.

“Sky,” I breathed, once I had finished eating. “That was good.”

“A taste of home for you, I imagine,” said Dryleaf.

“Time for business, then,” said Mag, before I could answer Dryleaf and tell him that I barely remembered the dish, for I had spent longer outside of Calentin than within it. “We must determine how to hunt down the Shades, and hopefully Kaita.”

“I am afraid I do not know where to start,” I said. “This place is almost as strange to me as if I had never been here before.”

Mag grinned. “There is someone we can call on.”

I frowned at her. “Who?”

“Victon.”

My eyes shot wide. “Victon? Victon is here?”

“He is,” said Mag. “We sent each other letters on occasion. After he retired from the life of a sellsword, he moved here to Opara and began a winery.”

Dryleaf’s brows shot for the ceiling, and he licked his lips. “Did he? It has been some time since I have been able to enjoy a good, rare vintage.”

“Victon,” I said, shaking my head. “I can scarcely believe it.”

“I hope he will be happy to see us,” said Mag, “and that he will be able to aid us.”

Laughing, I said, “Happy? I have never known Victon to be anything but a happy man. Let us ask the innkeeper if he knows where the vineyard is, and then let us report to our old captain.”

You may remember my mentioning Victon earlier. When I joined the Upangan Blades, he was my first sergeant. We fought together for a good long while, and unlike many of my other superiors, he and Mag and I were always fast friends, partially because of something that had happened when I had only been with the company for a few months.

He and I were scouting through the jungle towards an enemy camp when a bear plunged out of the underbrush and attacked us. I was a few paces ahead of Victon, but my focus was on the tracks we were following, and so Victon noticed the bear first. He leaped forwards to shove me out of the way of its charge. It struck him instead, sending him careening into a tree. He sagged to the ground, groaning.

I gave a shout and drew an arrow from my quiver. The bear turned on me at once. It came roaring towards me with a fury that told me it must have cubs nearby. Nothing else could have provoked it into such unreasoning rage.

As it charged, I managed to loose a single arrow. But panic sent my shot wide, and the arrow only entangled in the fur of the bear’s shoulder. It struck out, and I barely threw myself out of the way in time. Its paw snapped my bow in two. I ducked behind a tree as it swiped again. Its claws ripped through the tree, nearly toppling it.

Even as I prepared to run for my life, Victon came charging with a cry. He went for a stab, but the bear rounded and struck him a heavy backhanded blow. He crashed to the ground. The bear reared, ready to fall upon him and crush him with its massive bulk.

I had been about to flee, but seeing Victon helpless gave me just enough courage to rejoin the fight. I drew my short sword and charged. I stabbed the beast in the side, but fear had weakened my sword arm. A few fingers’ worth of steel pierced the bear’s flank, but that was all.

Still, it turned and thundered in rage at me, forgetting Victon. I barely managed to duck another swing. The creature’s speed and ferocity were incredible.

I had only one thought: I had to draw it away from Victon. There was no use in both of us dying out here in this sky-forsaken wilderness. I ran off into the jungle, hoping to lose it. But the bear was never more than a few paces behind me. My breath grew short. I could practically smell the thing, and I thought I was doomed.

But then came Mag.

She had been assigned to the same squadron as I, and she and a few of our fellows had remained behind to wait for Victon and me to return. She heard the sound of the bear’s attack from far away through the jungle and came running as fast as she could.

Even as I was searching for some place I could climb, or some hole I could hide where the bear would not be able to follow, I heard the tone of its roaring change behind me. I turned and found Mag had engaged with the beast. This was long before she had acquired her