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

She stumbled on the rock Sun had used to break the lock, falling on her back. Before she could rise, Sun stepped up, blade pointed straight at the woman’s face, now only a finger’s breadth away.

“Please,” the woman whispered. “Please do not kill me.”

“As I said, there is a first time for everything,” said Sun. “But not for this. Not tonight.”

She flipped the sword and fell on the woman’s chest in one smooth motion, bringing the pommel crashing into her head. The woman’s head snapped back and her eyes rolled up, showing their whites for just a moment before they closed.

Breathing heavily, Sun stood again and sheathed the sword. She looked at the hill. The rest of the would-be Shades were nowhere in sight.

Quickly she ran back to the cauldron, scooped up the rest of the magestones and flung them into the darkfire beneath. The flames sprang still higher. They had caught on the sides of the cauldron, though they had not burned through it yet. It was only a matter of time, but Sun found a torch and plunged it into the cauldron anyway. Albern had said to do it, and she guessed he had a reason.

Darkfire sprang up from the top of the cauldron, mingling with the black flames that crept up from the bottom. It began to consume the metal at last, creating holes that sent black blood pouring out into the flames. But Sun did not stay to watch. She sprinted off in the direction she had approached the camp—when she ran head-on into a figure in the darkness. They both grunted and fell to the ground beside each other.

Sun scrambled away from the figure, grasping for the sword at her belt—but then she heard Albern’s deep voice in the darkness. “Sky above, that hurt.”

“Albern!” Sun whispered. “I am sorry. Are you all right?”

“Well enough, I suppose.” He accepted Sun’s hand, and she pulled him to his feet. “Is your task done?”

“It is,” she said. “What of the other Shades? Or whatever they are.”

“They are gone,” he said. “I led them on a merry chase south and then lost them as soon as I could. One slipped away from the others, and I feared she might return here.”

“She did,” said Sun, pointing to the woman’s unconscious form. “I dealt with her.”

His eyes shot wide. “Did you, now? Well done.”

“I will tell you honestly: after fighting a vampire, I found myself rather unimpressed with her.”

That made him laugh, though he quickly stifled it. “Well, we should be going. We have done a good thing here tonight—another good deed no one will ever hear about.”

“Just as I want it,” said Sun.

She followed him as he crept away from the camp and began a long westward loop that would bring them back to the road. Soon they had come out of the hills and begun to walk on open, grassy ground under the light of the stars. The moons had risen as well, and they cast all the world in a silvery pale glow. Sun looked up at them, her heart full, her mind replaying her brief scuffle with the woman in the camp.

“What of the rest of them?” she said. “They got away.”

“They did, but it is of little consequence,” said Albern. “It took them a very long time to gather the information they needed to steal those magestones. It will take them longer to do it again, if they even have the nerve for it. And if they should do so, well, then, someone will stop them. Mayhap it will be us.”

“How do you know how long it took them?”

He grinned at her in the moonslight. “You are welcome to join my adventures, Sun, but you cannot expect to learn everything all at once. I have many friends in many lands who send me much information. And I told you I reserve the right to keep some things a surprise.”

Sun shook her head. “Then what is our aim now?”

Albern stopped and turned, surveying her in the moonslight. “That is up to us. We are partners now, or so you said you desired.”

“I … I did,” said Sun. “I do. Yet I … I do not know what to do next.”

“I have often felt the same,” said Albern. “Well, we have a long walk back to Lan Shui. We can discuss it on the way.”

Sun nodded. “That sounds agreeable.”

They walked on in silence for a while, Sun mulling things over in her mind. She thought of the maps she had studied of this part of the kingdom. There were some things she had always wanted to see in Dorsea. She thought of its history, and of the ancient and great figures of Underrealm’s beginnings, many of them her long-distant kin.

“What if we went to Bertram?” she said.

Albern looked at her, his brows raised. “Bertram?”

“I have often wanted to see it,” said Sun. “My family was going to travel there, though not for some time yet. It was one of the few places along our route that I looked forward to. Renna the Sunmane made her home there, before she built Dorsea’s capital of Danfon.”

“So she did,” said Albern. “Bertram would be a fine place to visit. In fact, there is a man there who owes me some money, and I would be happy to give you a fair share of it, if you will have it.”

Sun frowned. “A fair share?”

He tilted his head. “As a partner.”

“But what is the money for?”

“Ah.” He smiled. “For services I rendered to him, which I shall tell you about once we reach Bertram. But I promise it is a benign surprise, far more innocent than our business tonight. I would split it with you, with your portion being in recognition of your accompaniment, and of your skill with a blade. I am afraid you are a bit of a sellsword now, Sun—at least