Flame and Snow

Chapter 7: Akton

Chapter 7: Akton

His own scent trail was easy enough to follow. Akton couldn’t remember how he’d gotten where he was or where the town apothecary was located, but he didn’t need to. It turned out he’d wandered a bit before settling down for the night. But the scent brought him to the back of a building and he lingered outside the door, listening.

A steady crunching noise. He could smell herbs and oils and all manner of random things, as well as people scents. Akton’s nose wasn’t as sophisticated as a dog or wolf’s, but he could make out the fresh scents of the people who had tended to him last night, including his ally. He opened the door and entered silently.

His ally was at a table, jaw set, grinding something with a mortar and pestle. When Akton shut the door he glared across at him, amber brown eyes seeming to burn.

“Guess I should’ve knocked,” said Akton, trying for humor, but he couldn’t get the tone right, and his ally last night did not look like his ally today. Akton got the feeling he didn’t want him here.

“I thought you left,” he said, standing and abandoning the mortar. He kept the pestle in a hand, yellowish powder on the end of it.

“I needed to rest,” said Akton, not wanting to get into why he couldn’t have done that on the cot—which now held the fox and wolf, he noticed. The wolf was impressively crisped.

The man standing before him had done that. Had paid enough attention to come to Akton’s aid, to risk himself and fight and kill for him. It was difficult not to be attracted to that, and Akton’s ally was already clearly attractive. Akton realized he was feeling much better if he felt the pull, that building urge that crept up on him around some men. Before he knew what he was doing he stepped forward and stuck out his hand.

“Akton,” he said. “Thanks. For jumping in with the—you know. And stitching me up.”

His ally hesitated a moment, then shook. The moment their palms touched Akton wanted to feel more, but he swallowed and resisted.

“Talfryn. Back for me to have a look at those stitches?”

“Uh, no,” said Akton, pulling back and hating himself for it. He’d pulled the stitches out himself a few hours ago, having healed enough for it. But if Talfryn had a look at him he’d know something wasn’t right, and Akton was even more uncomfortable than usual about anyone knowing he was a shifter. So much for trying to get laid.

“You probably don’t want to be dropping by here to visit,” said Talfryn, returning to his chair and beginning to grind the contents of the mortar again. “Mayor Verne has been around and nobody here is happy about whatever this is. No one realized I was there, but you were different enough to be suspicious.”

“So this place is going to hunt me too now?” asked Akton before he could stop himself. Talfryn paused and looked up at him, eyes searing.

“You were being hunted,” he said, somewhere between a statement and a question. Akton shrugged. “Why?”

“What are you doing with the shifter corpses?” asked Akton. He wanted to trust Talfryn so badly, particularly after he’d saved Akton’s life, but he didn’t like the way he was acting this afternoon. Less upbeat.

“The mayor brought them here for us to examine,” said Talfryn. “I’m sorry. I should have thought to hide them last night.”

Akton stared at him, sizing him up. So maybe Talfryn was shorter with him today, but he did seem to be keeping what had happened hidden if he was pretending to not know how these shifters died. And Akton was grateful for that. He held up the pack full of potions and the strange pack.

“I was here because of these,” he said. When Talfryn nodded him over to a table with an empty end he crossed and upended the potions onto the wood. “You still don’t want any of what they had?”

This time when Talfryn rose he set the pestle down. He whistled low and shouldered Akton over a step, grabbing up a potion in a standard glass bottle.

“s**t,” he said. “They had all these?”

“I was going to keep a few—packets, mostly—then I figured I’d let you have a look at them,” said Akton. “I’m not familiar with spells. Any of them good?”

Talfryn glanced over at him with a near-horrified expression.

“Well, this is acid,” he said, then set the bottle down. “Not technically a spell. These, however…” Here he grabbed up several vials with mixtures in them ranging from powdery to liquid. “Poisons and curses. This one will eat away your tendons. Not a slow actor, that curse. Oh, look, explosive dust in little packets. How unsafe.”

Akton watched him pour a tiny pile of black powder onto the table, unsure how he should feel about Talfryn’s apparent ease dealing with such hazardous matter. But then, he must know how to whip up spells like these anyway, and Akton could use whatever information he was willing to give.

“So what should I keep?”

“He’s back, is he?” asked a familiar voice, and Akton glanced up to see the woman who had treated his cuts the night before. She stood in the doorway, frown low on her pale face. To his surprise, Talfryn made a small motion forward, almost as though protecting Akton.

“Akton’s helping us,” said Talfryn, and Akton cringed at the use of his name. The woman’s eyes flicked over to him and he knew she noticed. He wanted to leave, but he didn’t think it was a good idea to bolt, so he stayed, and he tried to look relaxed. “Glenna’s my mother. You can trust her.”

“But can I trust him?” she asked, moving to have a look at the contents of the table. Akton stepped aside as she and Talfryn examined everything. “Where did you get these?”

“From the people after me,” said Akton. “I…took their things, after…” He glanced at Talfryn, wondering how much she knew. But Glenna rolled her eyes.

“Yes, I figured out you two went and butchered five people last night.”

“They were trying to kill us,” said Talfryn.

“They were trying to kill him. Why would you get involved?”

“Look,” said Akton, feeling sorry for Talfryn. He’d only been trying to help. “It’s over. What do we do now?”

“With these things? Leave them with me,” said Glenna, shaking her head at the contents of the table. “By all the spirits, did these people wish to cause some harm.”

“Not everyone’s as peaceful as we are here in Teorg,” said Talfryn. “I think we should let Akton take some when he goes, to protect himself.”

Glenna snorted.

“He needs to get back home. People his age ought to be settling down. Starting families. Putting back into their communities. Not getting in with the likes of whoever would have three different types of flaming acid spells.”

Talfryn scowled, but when Akton caught his gaze he almost looked embarrassed before turning away. Had Glenna thought they’d make a couple? Maybe for a night, but—Akton shook himself. He couldn’t be thinking about s*x, not when he wasn’t sure where to go or what to do next, not when this town seemed to be out to get him, too.

Glenna was annoying him.

“Actually, the reason they were trying to kill me was because I said I didn’t want to get in with them,” he said, and when Glenna turned to look at him he pulled open the strange pack and took out the parchment orders. “I was at a town just within the confines of these orders, to buy supplies. When no one joined their group they burned the place down.”

Akton swallowed, tried not to think about it. The screams had been horrible, how the smoke had burned his eyes, clogged his lungs. He’d wanted to pull someone out, but he hadn’t been able to. And then they’d come after him.

Glenna and Talfryn read the parchment between them, Talfryn looking up first. His eyes met Akton’s, and it was almost as if he knew. But Akton had done nothing to give away that he was a shifter. Nothing. Talfryn couldn’t know. Glenna handed the parchment back to him, her expression tight.

“What else is in there?” asked Talfryn, wariness in his voice. Maybe this was what he’d been guessing. Akton opened the flap to show the collection of furs.

“Shifters,” he said. “Mostly rabbits.”

Glenna shot Talfryn a meaningful look.

“You’re right, Tal,” she said, sounding sad. “These were bad people.”

“What could they have wanted with the furs?” asked Akton. “Sure, they protect the rabbit or whoever in shifter form, but otherwise they’re useless.”

“Not truly,” said Glenna, pulling up a chair and sorting the packets into like piles. “Could you imagine what a coat of shifter fur would do for you? Never go cold. Infused with the right spells, you could theoretically coax out a little shifter magic to use on your own.”

Akton shook his head in disbelief, but it was Talfryn who spoke.

“How do you know this?”

“I researched everything I could on shifters a long time ago,” she said. “I had my reasons.”

“This isn’t good,” said Talfryn, apparently deciding to ignore that. “Why do you recruit people? To create an army.”

Glenna wrinkled her nose.

“Oh, you read too much,” she said.

“Maybe someone’s tired of the queen. She has been around hundreds of years. Unless you have a better idea what this is?”

“I think we ought to discuss our findings with Mayor Verne.”

“No,” said Akton, hearing his word echoed by Talfryn. They looked up at each other and for an instant Akton was overcome with the desire to kiss him. He was beginning to regret the fact he’d have to leave here once this discussion was over. He would have enjoyed resting up with Talfryn before heading back home.

“What we have here is big,” said Glenna. “I don’t know how to handle this.” She swept her hand to indicate the table. “There’s enough spell weaponry here to kill twice the amount of people in Teorg. I don’t think Verne will be upset you and Akton stopped them.”

“It’s too big,” said Talfryn. “What’s Mayor Verne supposed to do?”

“What are we?” asked Akton, pleased to get to look at Talfryn’s glowing eyes again when he turned toward him. He nodded toward the pack. “It’s powerful people who have access to so much. I killed an owl shifter on the way over here. We have to assume whoever gave that directive sent recruiters to other regions, too. Anyone who can get that many spells and shifters…”

The air in the room felt oppressive. Outside, the sun was going down, and the dimming light only made Akton feel like the world was ending. Maybe it was. He had the feeling he and Talfryn had stumbled on something horrible.

“We report it,” said Talfryn into the silence. “We take the evidence to the Queen’s Guard in Ivels. Then they know. Then they can deal with it.”

“Talfryn,” said Glenna, but his expression was hard.

“No,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do, this time. I acted before thinking last night. Well, now I’ve thought first. Mayor Verne can’t do anything. The queen needs to know.”

“I’ll go,” said Akton.

“You’re not going alone,” said Talfryn. “You’re injured.”

“I’m fine.”

“I need to get out of Teorg for a couple of days. After last night…” He trailed off, and to Akton’s surprise, Glenna nodded at Talfryn’s words. “It’s only a few days’ travel to Ivels. We go together, then we can part ways.”

Akton hesitated, then nodded. It was better to travel with an ally, after all.