Viktorija Adelyte Kazlauskas

Chapter Seven

“Viktorija, did you find anything?” Emilek asked her as she appeared at the last checkpoint, now all they had to was wait for Dedrick and Valdemarr’s next set of escorts to collect them. Where they were going after this, he didn’t know, and it wasn’t information that he needed to know.

“Did you run into anyone?” Viktorija asked him, she had run into three different bandit camps and yet, she was still slightly pissed. It wasn’t like she was going to tell him about any of her run ins, he’d know more then he needed to.

“No,” Emilek told her.

“Then yes,” Viktorija told him rolling her eyes, she was curious about that empty building she spotted near bandit camp number three. It didn’t look empty, and there was a guard or two walking around it. “All of them were newbies at best, easily taken care of.”

“Where were you?” Ismay hissed as she walked past her, Ismay had asked Etienne on a date when they stopped. The mission was over, but he had glared at her.

Glared, her true love glared at her and walked away. It was Viktorija’s fault, it was always that salopes fault.

Viktorija just rolled her eyes before walking away from, she wasn’t going to waste her breath and time on someone who’d never learn. Anytime they spoke all it did was end up in one fight or another; no, it was better if she didn’t talk to Ismay or even acknowledge her.

Ismay Marin wasn’t going to change her mind; not until it got her, or Etienne killed. All Viktorija could do was make sure that Etienne didn’t pay the price for Ismay’s stupidity. The only person who’d die because Ismay didn’t understand what she had gotten herself into; would be Ismay herself and no one else.

“Valdemarr, Dedrick,” Viktorija greeted as she walked over to the two, Ismay and Etienne were talking to Emilek; even if Etienne looked at Ismay the same way someone would look at a dog foaming at the mouth.

“Viktorija,” Dedrick greeted before handing her a bottle that he’d been holding. Rosé Wine, Brahia Rosé Wine.

“What used to be around here?” Viktorija asked them, if there was a check point here then there had to be a reason. There had to be a history about this spot, something had happened to make this spot look more unused then the other checkpoints.

“A small village,” Dedrick admitted, as Viktorija looked at the wine bottle in her hands. It was one of more popular brands; something that high-end ladies and lords would drink. “Along with a Clan’s compound; a hideaway spot in case the were attacked or if someone got a mission during the end of the Autumn and had to hide for the Winter.”

“Something happened,” Viktorija guessed.

“Happened fifty years ago,” Dedrick told her.

“I was child back then,” Valdemarr told her.

“How old are you?” Viktorija asked.

“Sixty,” Valdemarr admitted.

“I thought you were forty.”

“Thanks dearie.”

“Family has good genes,” Dedrick told her.

“There’s a legend about what happened to the village,” Valdemarr told her, Viktorija looking at him with wide eyes. Dedrick just laughed and pulled the wooden back down so she could sit on it and not hurt her neck.

“Let’s sit, uncle’s a pretty good storyteller,” Dedrick told her as he lifted her up and placed her on the end of the wagon.

“Here’s your wine,” Viktorija told him, trying to hand him the bottle.

“Keep it,” Valdemarr told her, when she looked at him with a raised eyebrow, he pointed to the small wires keeping the cork in. One of them was slightly bend, what that had to do with it Viktorija didn’t know. “The high ups won’t pay it, it won’t sell. You might as well have it, keeping the bandits away from my goods.”

“Dedrick’s not bad himself, he knows this one better then I do,” Valdemarr told her.

“Two hundred souls used to live here fifty years ago, but legend has it that one day red ash rained down from the heaven’s and once the rain had passed, all two hundred souls were dead,” Dedrick told her, Viktorija looking at him with her mouth slightly open and her eyes wide. Valdemarr thought it made her look younger than she was, not that he knew what her age was. “Legend also says that a day before the event, a shadow man was seen looking at the old compound; they say it’s one of the men from the Clan Wars, mourning the lost of his love.”

“A shadow man?” Viktorija asked, when Dedrick nodded she thought back to the hideout as they were about to leave. “With glowing white eyes and a large white grin?”

“Some say that if you its smile, then your whole family will be killed,” Dedrick finished.

“What about the compound?” Viktorija asked.

“It used to be an Atspoguļo Compound,” Valdemarr told her. “They haven’t used it for the last two hundred years.”

“How long has this trade route been around?” Viktorija asked them.

“It was created because a tribe in Al Qa wanted to trade silk for bigger horses,” Dedrick told her making her blink. And here she thought silks were completely useless. “So that they were on a level playing field with Ahnia and Bollin.”

“Before the Clan Wars started,” Viktorija mussed to herself.

“Before most Clans were formed,” Dedrick corrected, smiling as she Viktorija finally sealed the bottle in her hands into one of her seals. “Before the Age of Ash and the Age of Shadows.”

“Aren’t those just legends?” Viktorija asked him.

“All legends have some facts in them,” Valdemarr told her.

“And the Compound?” she asked them, she would have to start picking up books about the trade route. It was something she could investigate during her own time, but if the compound was something else.

“Anyone’s who been dared to enter the building in the last fifty years has been found dead with their family,” Dedrick admitted.

“This Shadow creature has a thing of killing whole families then,” Viktorija muttered, now she was more interested. She didn’t need Dedrick or Valdemarr to know that she was thinking about risking her life.

She was an orphan. So, if this doesn’t have any connections with Nýtt tungl then she was only risking her own life. And anyone else’s who happened be in the way of a pissed of Snake of Envy or found any of its usually haunts.

And if she was right about the connection; then she might be held against her will, but she wouldn’t be killed.

“You’re not thinking going there, are you?” Dedrick asked her, Viktorija just looked at him and raised her eyebrows. The only people who’d understand her desire to investigate anything to do with Nýtt tungl would be Aldona and Azuloas. Maybe, Launcelot and Page if she explained her reasons, but it was her life that could be ruined if she never found the reason for the group’s formation.

“No,” Viktorija told him.

Valdemarr just looked at her, before shrugging. Dedrick looked at her as well, before nodding his head and telling her about some of his species. Along with other things that he’s traded in, after having a week break; he planned to go into Al Qa to get some yards of silk and lace.

Valdemarr just sighed, before also telling her some of his plans after his own month break. Viktorija just nodded her head, before telling them some things she had seen in a travelling merchant; even if some people called them gypsy.

The information that Dedrick and Valdemarr might never be useful to Viktorija, but at the same time, she get an undercover mission where it would save her life. She’s read about missions leading to deaths because they didn’t have the correct information; they didn’t know enough about the history of the position they claimed to have.

So, Viktorija usually found herself gathering random information.

If she wasn’t going to allow Ismay’s stupidity to be her deathbed. Then Viktorija wasn’t going to allow her ego and pride to get her kills; she wasn’t going to get caught because she allowed gabs in her knowledge about random things.

Viktorija was going to live, even if she lived her life by spite’s sake.