The Hob's Bargain

the mage himself.
    My vision fell away from the tower and the king who sat there alone. I traveled some great distance outside the city before so much as a blade of grass survived the bloodmage’s wrath. Far from the city, empty battlefields were covered with bits and pieces of metal scattered here and there across fields of yellow flowers where butterflies danced….

    T HE BUTTERFLIES WERE RATHER ABRUPTLY OBSCURED by Wandel’s mustached face. I blinked at the harper stupidly for a bit while I slowly realized that Kith was standing beside me. My arm ached. When I looked down, fresh blood spotted the bandages.
    â€œI’m fine,” I said, surprised at how steady my voice was.
    â€œWhat did you see?” asked Kith.
    I stood up stiffly, then swung my uninjured arm to indicate the dress-clad bones. “She was killed by the same thing that killed all the cattle in the fields—I’ll wager we could find their bones under all that grass. It killed everything here larger than these chickens. The king’s bloodmage pulled the bindings from the land to destroy everything he could reach. And he reached as far as Auberg.”
    Alarm flooded Wandel’s expression. “Why would he do that? The nearest fighting is close to thirty leagues from Auberg.”
    â€œHe set the spell from the capital—at least I think that’s where they were,” I said. “I don’t think anything closer to the king’s castle than Fallbrook survived.”
    Kith whistled sharply, and Torch trotted over from his grazing. The one-armed warrior swung gracefully to his saddle, collecting his reins by using his hand and his teeth. “Let’s see what remains of Auberg. We’ll go home with a report, and then perhaps we can send a party from here back to Beresford over some of the old trails if the raiders give us time.”

    T HE STREETS OF A UBERG WERE SILENT, BUT I HADN’T expected them to be otherwise. We rode around piles of cloth and bone lying here and there on the streets. At the well in the center of town, Wandel pulled his mare to a halt. He’d been uncharacteristically silent since I’d told them what I’d seen .
    â€œThis will get us nowhere. If Aren’s right, and I have seen nothing to disprove it, no one who was here when the spell hit has survived. Since we’re looking for refugees from Beresford who might have come here, we ought to try and find somewhere they’d gather. The innkeeper of the Pale Grouse was from Beresford, so I suggest we check there.”
    Kith nodded and turned Torch to the left. I had never stayed at either of Auberg’s two inns, real inns with six or eight rooms for travelers. Auberg was at the northernmost point of the river that was navigable and had several trading fairs throughout the year. Father took—used to take—the surplus harvest to the fall market, and got more for it than if he’d sold it at the market in Fallbrook. But when we came, Father usually found a family who would take us in for a few measures of grain. I didn’t even know where the Pale Grouse was. Kith and Wandel seemed to, though. After a short ride we came upon an inn. The bird painted on the sign might have been a grouse twenty years ago.
    When I saw the horses in the paddock in front of the inn, I turned to say something to Kith, but held my tongue when I saw that he searched for a specific animal. Danci’s horse was sired by the same stallion that had sired Torch, and shared their father’s yellow coat. There were no duns in the small enclosure.
    As we rode into the yard, several men came out of the inn and looked at us suspiciously. Their faces held the same despair that had begun growing in my heart since we rode down off the Hob.
    â€œWho are you?” asked the smallest of the four men who blocked the way into the inn.
    â€œWe’re from Fallbrook, looking for refugees out of Beresford,” replied Kith slowly. “And you are?”
    â€œFolks call me Ice. Don’t know you,” replied the man, narrowing his ice-blue eyes. “Been some strange goings-on here. Heard things walking the streets at night. Most of them things my grandfather used to tell us about when my grandmother wasn’t around to stop him. How do we know you are who you say you are, and not some haunt looking for a way in?”
    I hadn’t expected to meet with such suspicion. I didn’t know any of the faces I