Fear mixed with excitement the day that the priest-didate stormed across Todd’s path to see Brother Faerbar. There could only be one reason for such a visit: t them orders that he was to ready his men for another mission. Even after being here for over a year, Todd was still on edge whenever one of the lower priests crossed his path. They were a fickle bun their red robes and much more likely to scream at him and his fellow acolytes for imagined sins than to praise hard work. Worse - those beratings usually ended ihy punishments. As Brother Faerbar’s squire, he was often singled out for those while he was told how he o ‘hold himself to a higher standard.’

  By trast, the priests and high priests barely noticed that he and his fellow acolytes existed. Ahat had beeed to the white no longer seemed to see the gray and brown robes of the acolytes, even though many of them had worn them for much lohan they’d worn the white or the red. Todd thought it was funny, but he didn’t really care beyond the extra chores. He had less than zero i in ranks and titles. All he cared about was that Brother Faerbar had been good to him, and he was teag him how to fight. One day he would no longer be a squire but a full-fledged warrior, and then he could go back to the broad pins of his birth and finally get his revenge on the goblin tribes that still lihere even now.

  That wasn’t what would happen today, though, based on the sense en dispy. The red-robed man barely g him long enough to scowl before he hurried to speak with his master. A priest didate would never hurry half so much for a lowly goblin. He was almost certainly here because some heretic or bandit o be dealt with like usual.

  Being ignored suited Todd just fine. He’d just finished mending his master’s mail after their expedition north st week. Right now, he was rolling it bad forth across the small courtyard of the guardians, where most of the sparing practice took pce to get the st of the rust off. The s they’d trudged through to track down their st fugitive had been tougher on everyone’s armor than the self-styled bandit king of the Greenwood had ever been. Besides a single ambush where Todd had taken his first arrow, they’d barely put up a fight.

  Todd paused in his exertions to scratch the pce the wound had been on his arm. There was barely a mark now, thanks to the padin’s healing magic, but sometimes it still tingled. Pausing for a quick break to stretch was just a cover, though. He’d chosen his spot well. It was almost directly outside Brother Faerbar’s window. The rumbling of the barrel made it impossible to hear anything, but as soon as he stopped, he could listen to them speaking again.

  “...nothing beyond that. The letter cims that the pace was filled with evidence of a sughter, and we have been ordered there with all speed,” the strange priest-didate said.

  “Well - if it’s a rebellion and not something darker, we could well be walking into a trap. The light will not avail nearly as much against mortal enemies as infernal ones,” Brother Faerbar respohoughtfully.

  “There is definitely a taint here. I could feel it through the ink,” the other man said stiffly. “Make sure your cadre is ready because, in Fallravea, we will face true darkness.”

  Afraid of being caught, Todd started rolling his barrel once more as soon as he heard that. The details didn’t matter. They could wait until his master felt like dolling them out. All that mattered was that they would finally fight real evil, and his heart thrilled at the news. That wasn’t to say what they’d done in the past wasn’t important and that they didn’t help people, but there was a world of differeween a ghoul or a demon and an old witcher-woman.

  The rest of the m passed without i. Once Brother Faerbar’s armor was and his sword was sharpeodd devoted himself to his drills even more than usual. After all, he would have to be ready. He’d grown stronger over the past year as the dual magics of age and training had doheir work. He’d begun to feel the light flow through him with purpose now, even if he still had no trol over his sight. When it would show him things he’d rather not know, it was great progress, and he felt more than ready to charge into battle with the other Temprs. His master saw Todd sweating as he battered the poor training dummy and smiled that knowing smile of his that told Todd that he already kly how much he’d heard and that he leased with his squire’s eagerness.

  That silent bination of pliment and rebuke kept Todd w hard throughout the day. It was only wheire Cadre sat down to evening prayers and bowls of hearty vegetable stew that he annouhe pn.

  “We’re off to Fallravea at sunrise,” he decred. “It will be a hard four-day ride. Pn accly; bring your full kit. This isn’t going to be another exercise in bandit hunting.”

  Everyoook a mio absorb the words. He’d probably left out the key details so as not to spoil anyone’s appetite, but it was easy enough to read between the lines and hear what he was actually saying to the veterans. ‘Our enemies are infernal, not mortal.’

  “Why ’t we take a ferry downriver,” Brother Darrius asked, “It would save the horses and a whole day besides.”

  “You know my stan the river, Darrius. It’s been tainted, and I believe it might have something to do with the rest of the mission,” Brother Faerbar answered between bites of his meal. “I aim to cross as far upriver as possible and stay well clear of it until we get to the city. Too many ships have disappeared to risk it.”

  Brother Darrius nodded but made nument against his leader. He cked the sight, so while he respected Brother Faerbar, he’d always beeical of the man’s stan the broad and Meandering Oroza. Especially sihat fixation had cost all of them quite a few extra days in the saddle. Todd uood too well, though. Even though the river might look picturesque, he could see the gray-green film that g to it like an oil slick. His master had petitiohe Hierarore than one occasion that he is allowed to go upriver and iigate the source of the taint. However, to date, it had not been deemed to be worth the church’s time.

  Perhaps this mission would ge that, Todd thought hopefully as he wolfed down his meal. He would sleep sounder if they could find and fix su apparent evil, but truthfully the world was full of them, and they couldn’t be everywhere at once. He’d evehe taint of the monastery at Garvin’s gift sometimes. So much blood had been shed in the world that it was hard to find true purity outside the walls of the fortress city of Siddrimar.

  . . .

  While Todd might enjoy his new home’s air and holy aura, he loved being out of it almost as much. Until he’d been taken away by Brother Faerbar practically two years ago, he’d hardly traveled at all in his whole life, now they did it stantly, and he’d grown to love it. As they traveled west on the high road, he looked around at sights he’d already seen a dozen times with fresh eyes. Siddrimar was rge enough that small vilges crowded every road that led to it for miles and miles in all dires, but after a few hours of riding, they came only every hour or two, aually not at all, as the fields gave way to forests.

  He’d been told more than ohat before the Drowning swept across the nd, there were twice as many vilges and that the forest never crowded this close to the main roads. It would be years before that was true again, and everything was in its proper pce, though. Now you could see the thickets encroag on the rown fields, and occasionally, you could pick out a cottage all but engulfed in ivy, but mostly the uhat had bee under by the siess had all but vanished.

  Ohird night, they camped in what used to be a town on the far side of the river. There were dozens of buildings that were no longer occupied, and the only part that had any life to it was the inn and tavern that stood at the crossroads. They ate there, giving Todd a ce to listen to a bard sing a song about some heroes in a s, which seemed appropriate given that they’d just fought in a s themselves, even if there hadn’t been anything as exg as zombies waiting for them.

  This was enough for his master to decide that the run-down pce was too worldly for them, and as soon as everyone had finished eating, they quickly paid a. Instead of nice warm beds, they slept on the dusty floor of ay cottage that still had a w firep their bedrolls. The roof had begun to sag badly in the middle, but it was still enough to keep the rain off, which was all that mattered. The stant drizzle had shown that the autumn had finally begun and that the mighty Oroza would soon fill its banks rather than the muddy trickle it was now.

  The most exg thing that Todd did the rest of the night was gathering firewood, though, even as run down ay as the area was, he didn’t feel afraid. Not even the rain or distant thunder was enough to make him jump at his own shadow these days, and this pce still smelled too muan for the moo move i. He still carried his mace with him at all times, of course, but he never once felt the o lift it from where it hung on his belt.

  Things didn’t start to grow worrisome until they were less than a day outside Fallravea. There the sun-ravaged fields had yet to heal, even after all the rain they’d gotten i week, and they were greeted by stunted crops and starving people in every little vilge. Only the vilges right on the river had been spared the worst of it, but those families had an evil look that Todd didn’t care for.

  Since Brother Faerbar’s trip to the red hills, most of their questing had taken them north a, but the short versations that he heard the Stoic Temprs sharing amongst themselves certainly agreed with his assessment: things had been much better when they’d st passed this way.

  At the end of their journey, all that awaited them was a city in m. Their Cadre entered just before su, with cloaks c their armor and as little fanfare as possible. “Evil rarely weles our arrival,” Brother Faerbar said as a reminder as they rode down the side streets single file. When they reached the pace, they closed and locked the ate, issioning the city watch to hold the public at bay while they dealt with whatever darkness was tained within in private.

  They would sleep in the garden until m, and only then, after prayer and fasting, would they finally ehe pace proper and discover the truth of the matter.