The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) Garrett Robinson (poetry books to read TXT) 📖

in her hands, Duana hoped she was not about to face a bear. But it sounded too small for that. Then a worse thought crossed her mind—it might be a cub, and the mother could be close.

Duana was about to turn tail and run for town, hoping she could outdistance the thing, when she spotted the face.

It was a girl. She was in a low bush, barely two paces away, and she was staring at Duana. Her face was so streaked with dirt and grime that Duana had missed her at first. She had wild, ratty hair filled with mud and sticks and who knew what else.

Duana knelt at once. She held out a hand, moving it ever so slowly and speaking in a gentle, coaxing tone.

“Well, hello there,” she said. “I am sorry if I startled you. Can you come out?”

Huge eyes blinked at her from that dirt-covered face. Ever so slowly, the girl pushed out from the bushes on either side of her.

She was naked, and the rest of her body was as filthy as her face. All sorts of detritus and dirt was worked into her hair, and all up and down her skin. But that skin was remarkably well-kept otherwise. Duana saw no signs of injury upon her, not even a scratch. But in her hand, she held a sharpened stick like a spear. Fresh blood stained the tip, and it looked as if there were many more coats beneath it.

“Hello,” said Duana again. “I am Duana.”

Those great brown eyes blinked. “Duana.” The girl’s voice was halting, but loud, strong.

“Yes,” said Duana. She settled back on her haunches while placing a hand to her chest. “I am Duana. And you?”

The girl pointed to Duana’s hand on her chest. “You.”

“Me,” said Duana. Then she pointed at the girl. “And you.” Again the hand on her chest and then pointing to the girl. “I am Duana. And you?”

The girl blinked twice more. Then she pointed at Duana. “You. Duana. I.” She placed a hand on her chest.

Sudden, clear certainty came into her eyes.

“Mag. I am Mag.”

“Dark take you to its depths, and dark take me for a fool for believing in you!” bellowed Sun.

Albern looked entirely alarmed, and he glanced at the crowd surrounding them on the street. Fortunately, no one seemed to have paid much attention to Sun’s outburst, for the bustle of a thousand conversations did much to drown her out.

“I am sorry?” said Albern.

“You should be!” said Sun. “All this time, I thought you were leading me somewhere with all this talk about Mag’s peerless fighting.”

“You did?”

“I thought you were going to explain it. You made it seem as if one day, you were going to tell me how Mag learned to fight!”

“I did?”

“You did, and you know it,” growled Sun. “You gave me hope, and now I find that you are not going to tell me anything about it at all.”

“Am I not?”

Sun reached over and pinched his nose, much to Albern’s very evident shock. “Stop answering my questions with more questions.”

“Am I? Or, that is, I will try.” Albern’s voice came out thin and nasal through her fingers.

Sun released him. In truth, she was not all that angry, and she was enjoying his reaction to her sudden outburst.

“You lied to me as well,” she said. “You told me that Mag’s fight against Ciaran was her first fight. Yet she came out of the woods with blood on her spear. Clearly, she had fought before.”

Albern could not help a little smirk. “I am usually quite careful in my wording. And what I said, precisely, was that her scrap with Ciaran was her first fight against another person.”

“Albern,” said Sun, letting a whine come into her tone, “you cannot be serious about this. Are you trying to tell me that Mag walked out of the woods as a mysterious little child, already knowing perfectly how to fight, and without a scratch on her under all that dirt? Is this your idea of the brilliant tale of the murky past of one of Underrealm’s greatest figures? Because I must tell you that it is horrible. I have not felt so cheated since my tutor first taught me how to gamble and then stole my allowance for three months straight. My parents banished him from our home when they found out, but they let him keep the gold for his cleverness.”

That made Albern laugh. “Now, that is a good tale. A premise, a development, and a resolution that is unexpected yet inevitable. Pithy, too. Certainly more economical than this overlong yarn I have been spinning you.” He fixed her with an appraising look. “But as for your other question—Sun, what would you like me to say? I am relaying a tale. Would you like me to tell the story of what happened, as best I know it? Or should I make something up? Mayhap you would prefer a tale in which Mag set out to sail the Eldest Deep, battling all of the dark creatures of those terrifying waters, until she found a sea-hag who imparted upon her the secrets that allowed her to become an invincible fighter. That would be a fantastic story. I am certain they would pay me a great heap of coin in any tavern where I chose to spin it. However, it does not happen to be the truth. So. Which story would you rather hear?”

Sun folded her arms as they walked, staring at her feet in a pout. “That is an entirely unsatisfactory explanation.”

Albern smirked. “Well, I shall endeavor to do better in the future.”

“Get back to your ill-fated scouting expedition in the night,” said Sun, waving a hand at him. “I do not want to hear anything more about impossibly perfect children coming from nowhere.”

Albern’s mouth twisted. “You may not feel the same way, by the end of the tale.”

As night drew on and the moons rose higher