The Curse of Tyvem: The Voiceless

Daybreak

    Lavender rode Briarwave to the stables and saw Tyran waiting with a stupid smile on his face.  Even though she was ungodly tired, she couldn't help but feel the corner of her mouth lift in response. Traitor. He was far too chipper for someone awake before dawn.  He had his hand on his hip and held out a large pouch to her.

    "This is your share of the money. It is expected to fund our trip and to be honest it is more than enough for one person to live off of for a few months."

    Lavender dismounted her horse and he dropped the bag of coin into her hand. She quickly dropped Her horse's reins and stabilized the bag of coin to avoid dropping it.  It was much heavier than she expected and no doubt more money than she had ever made before.  The job hadn't even started yet.  If she were a lesser person, she could just take the money and run but she made a vow to Tyran.  She wouldn't break her vow. 

    Lavender surveyed her surroundings.  "Where is Lord Blackburn, is he not to see us off this morning? Do we have any sort of travel plan?"

    "Lord Blackburn will not be joining us this morning.  He has other things to attend to.  As far as a plan, we will stick to the roads for now and just go.

    Tyran had been tightening his saddle since handing off the coin to Lavender and he looked up at her, really seeing her for the first time that morning.  The rising sun caught the wisps of her hair around her face and cast a glow around her. She felt his eyes rake over her from head to toe, and this time she stood a little more confident than she did the first time.

    "Are you ready to go?"  As he asked the question, his tongue darted out to lick his lips.

    "I am as ready as I will ever be.  We better hit the road before I change my mind."

    She watched Tyran smirk at her.  He gave his saddle one final tug to ensure it was ready and mounted his horse.  He rode a black stallion.  His steed looked young and well cared for.  Obviously Tyran had it made at this lord's estate, no wonder he had such strong allegiance to him. 

    The morning was boding well for a good weather during their travels.  Who knows how long they were going to be on the road, at least it was beginning on a high note.  The brilliant sun was now just over the far mountain range, casting everything in a warm golden glow. It was beginning to warm up, so Lavender could no longer see her breath before her face. She welcomed the sun.  She wished she could live in its warmth forever.

    As a child, there were days would go without seeing the sun.  Her parents were not the most loving in the world and she frequently felt like some sort of burden to them.  Any time she did something wrong or incorrect, she was sent to the cellar.  Sometimes it was hours, other times it was days.  The longest she went in the cellar was four days.  

    The cellar was used to store the flour, sugar, and dried meats. There was one small windows with bars and they put a large padlock on the door to keep her inside. She remembers her mother yelling gibberish at her, her voice going entirely shrill with unchecked fury.  Lavender began to cry and her mother swiftly brought her backhand across her face.

    "STOP YOUR INCESSANT CRYING!"

    Lavender felt her mother's hand clamp down one her forearm with bruising force. Suddenly her legs didn't want to work anymore and felt like dead weight. Her mother dragged her outside of the house to the cellar.  The door was flung open and Lavender was thrown inside, like one of the bags of flour. Her mother slammed the door shut and promptly locked it.  Lavender didn't see anyone until four days later.  She couldn't even remember what she had done to so grievously offend her mother.

    Suddenly, Lavender realized she had fallen into her dark place and realized Tyran had been speaking to her while they trotted down the road. He was looking at her with almost concern.  She couldn't tell him where she went.  She simply shook it off and asked him to repeat what he had said.

    "I asked if you wanted to stop at Ebongrasp for the night?  I realize we are still only midway through the day but we need to think about accommodations for the night, unless you wanna skip straight to camping out. I don't care either way, but you look tired and a good, full night's rest may do a world of good for you.  We have the coin, why not?"

    Lavender just assumed they'd be sleeping out.  She didn't think he'd want to stop in a town for the night, much less stop so she could sleep.  She must look more tired than she originally thought.  She hadn't even realized they had been riding for half a day.

    "That would be fine with me.  No reason to suffer if we can avoid it. We should actually go ahead and water the horses and eat a snack to make it to town.  There's a point up here where the river is closest to the road."

    Lavender gestured up to the bend just ahead of them and Tyran nodded in agreement.

    "We can stop for a moment. At this pace we'll reach town just before nightfall and will be able to secure clean lodging"