Chapter Eight

Eujin said little for the next few minutes, before rising abruptly and setting off to scout the perimeter of the village. Ven had tried to follow him, but he insisted, rather forcefully, that she stay put. When she chose to ignore that suggestion and followed him anyways, he’d turned a corner and vanished into thin air, leaving her to search fruitlessly for where he’d gone for several long moments until she finally gave up and went back to the cook fire.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, he walked unceremoniously back into the remains of the common room and tossed her a small leather backpack.

“We’re leaving at sundown. You can bring anything you can carry in your hands, or in that pack. Anything you can’t fit or carry isn’t coming.” He said, walking past her to his own pack.

“Wait? Sundown? Shouldn’t we wait until morning?” She asked.

“No.” He said simply, before lifting his black pack onto his back quietly and leaving again for the town square.

Ven growled in frustration. She hated being left out of things, and she hated being bossed around. Combine the two, and she wanted to scream. Grumbling to herself, she slung the empty pack over her back and went to follow after him. To her complete lack of surprise, she couldn’t find him now either as she picked her way through the rubble towards the apothecary. Of course.

Lesson one was going to be her getting him to teach her how he did that.

She realized as she stopped in front of the remains of the blacksmith’s shop that he hadn’t given her any idea of what would be important to bring. I mean, a few things were obvious, like food and water and shelter and spare clothes, but what else? Weapons? Medicine? Money?

She looked at the woefully small leather bag in her hand and grimaced. She wasn’t going to fit much more than the bare essentials in there. She would need to be careful about what she picked.

Food and water would be the most important, so that was what she set out looking for first. The sundry store was largely destroyed, but part of its storage room still stood. Inside she found a few sealed packs of hardtack biscuits, as well as some wrapped strips of dry salted meat. These went into the pack, along with a new waterskin she found in a half-smashed wooden crate near the door. Sadly, not much else remained that wasn’t burned or crushed beyond usefulness.

Two doors down was a tailor’s shop that had managed to escape the worst of the attack. Inside, Ven found a couple pairs of dark trousers, and a couple dark linen shirts that laced up the top half of their front with leather cord. Mother had always insisted that tunics like this were made for men and that it was inappropriate for women to wear them. The way Ven saw it, if everyone already teased her for having the body of a boy, she might as well get to dress like one. She folded the trousers and shirts and stuffed them into the pack. She also found a dark oilskin cloak, and a pair of mid-calf leather boots that seemed to fit well enough. They might be a little snug now, but they’d loosen up as she wore them. She looked down at her festival costume. For some strange reason, it felt wrong to get rid of it. It was going to be pretty much useless, and take up space she couldn’t afford to give to it. But it was the last thing she had left of her old life. She took it off and folded it neatly into the pack and dressed herself in one of her new outfits, including the boots and cloak. The pack was almost half full now, and she had barely anything. She could roll up the bedroll she’d been sleeping in and tie it to the top of her bag. Eujin would probably let her have that much at least.

That gave her food, water, a bed, and shelter if she used her new cloak to ward against rain. She also had the cooking gear that was being used back at the inn. That would probably take up most of the rest of what she had left spacewise, barring what she could fit inside the small pot. So, small things with high value or utility were all she could take now….

Lacking a better idea, she made her way to the apothecary. Most of the items inside had been smashed, and it looked like some of what was left had already been taken by Eujin, so there wasn’t much left. She took the last two rolls of bandages and a small bottle of alcohol, as well as a stitching needle and a spool of gut-thread. She didn’t know how to stitch, but Eujin clearly did. And some part of her told her she was probably going to need him to do it for her again in the not too distant future.

When she walked outside, the sun was already starting to head towards the horizon. She had an hour, maybe two at most. But what else did she need? She was clearly going to be learning how to fight, but she didn’t have a weapon. Nobody in the town used a sword that she knew about. They all used muskets, and then pretty much only for hunting or shooting at the stray wolf or bear who came too close to town. They had woodaxes too, but those were ugly, ungraceful things. She couldn’t imagine a self-respecting warrior like Eujin using one for chopping wood, much less chopping… people.

She glanced down at the body of Anders next to the apothecary entrance again. There, in the middle of his crumpled form, was his musket. She couldn’t see Eujin using a musket either, but it was better than an axe, at least. She bent down and gingerly tried to fish the weapon out from between his stiffened limbs. After a moment of tugging and a few pauses to stop herself from vomiting from the smell, she managed to pull it free. Surprisingly, it looked completely undamaged, at least to her eyes. She found the powder horn and shot bag on his belt, and put both in her pack. She went to take his familiar bone-handled knife. It was more of a tool than a weapon, but it seemed appropriate to take with her regardless. To her immense disappointment, however, the blade had broken off at the hilt, leaving her with a bladeless handle when she tried to unsheath it.

The rest of her time, for lack of any other ideas, consisted of her working through any of the buildings that still remained, looking for either coin or other clearly valuable things. In about an hour of rifling, she uncovered about two more gilders worth of crowns and copas, which she squirreled away. Eujin didn’t need to know about these either, and she was clearly going to need more money if she was going to keep paying him to teach her.

After that, and with the sun dipping to the horizon, she set off back towards the inn. The village was not particularly large, but with most of it in shambles, it took her a while to figure out the correct way back. And it took even longer for her to realize where she was when she entered the intersection she’d last seen Mother in. She froze, and for a brief moment was swept away by memories and pain and fear, and had to hold her breath and shut her eyes until it finally went away.

Once she was composed enough, she opened her eyes again, and allowed herself a look around. To her relief, there was no sign of her body, or any sign of violence. The street looked just as it did any other day, covered in dust and dirt that drifted about gently in the breeze between the cobblestones. The fact that nothing was different, for some reason, only seemed to make things worse. It was as if nothing that had happened was important enough to even make a mark on it. It all just blew away, to be forgotten by people no longer alive to remember it.

Ven said a silent prayer, signing the five points of the All-Mother’s mercy on her eyes, mouth, and hands with her fingertips. She went to leave, ready to put every single part of this all behind her. Then, right on the side of the road as she turned to walk away, a flash of something caught her eye on the edge of the road. Curious, she walked over to inspect whatever it was.

There, sitting right in the middle of one of the dust-filled cobblestone grooves, was Mother’s silver hairpin. It had to be hers. No one else in the village had one like it. It was still perfectly straight and unblemished, like it had fallen out by mistake while she was walking. The pointy end was still surprisingly sharp, and the little curled metal petals of the rosebud at the decorative end were still unbent, and glinted gently as she turned the pin in the fading sunlight. Ven pursed her lips to maintain her composure, and placed the pin gingerly in with the rest of her findings before reshouldering her pack and returning to the common room.

Once inside, she was mildly surprised to find Eujin sitting again by the fire, his arms crossed, Scarlet Whisper’s gloss-black scabbard resting between his arms on one shoulder. Everything else of value in the room was packed and stacked near him, ready to go. Hearing her approach, he glanced in her direction. Seeing the musket in her hands, however, he pursed his lips.

“You’re not taking that with you.” He said.

Ven scowled at him.

“I’ve got to have something to defend myself with. I can’t expect you to do everything if something else attacks us again.” She said, pulling the gun a little closer.

Eujin sighed, setting his blade beside the fire and walking to her.

“There are two problems with that line of reasoning.” He said, stopping in front of her. “First, you have no idea how to use a musket. No, don’t argue with me. I know you don’t just by how you’re holding it. And second….”

He reached out a hand, gesturing for the weapon. Ven looked at it dubiously, then at him, before slowly handing it over. He took the musket, gave it a quick once-over with his eyes, then held it out sideways towards her.

“See this tiny crack in the barrel right here, near where the flintlock hammer is?” He said, motioning to a spot with a fingertip.

Ven squinted where he was pointing and sure enough, she could see a tiny dark line, no bigger than a hair’s width, winding its way a few inches down the barrel.

“If you tried to fire this with that crack there, you’d blow your hand off when the power ignited.” He said, then added, “so, lesson one- don’t take weapons you can’t use effectively, especially when you don’t know how to check if they’re even safe to use.”

Ven’s face reddened, but she nodded.

Eujin smirked at her expression, then looked at the weapon in his hands again, seeming to sense the question she wasn’t asking.

“I inspected it earlier today while collecting supplies, if you’re wondering. It is a shame that it’s damaged. It’s honestly pretty well-made. Oh well.” He said, before dropping it unceremoniously into the mud.

“Well, I guess I don’t need these then, either.” Ven said, dropping her pack and pulling the powder horn and shot bag out of it.

“Actually, keep those. They have a lot more uses than just firing a musket.” He said. “Make it long enough, and I’ll even show you some of them.”

“Great. Thanks.” Ven said flatly as she stuffed them back into her pack. She slung it back on to her shoulder.

“Alright, so what am I supposed to use if we get ambushed then? You expect me to just stay quiet and let you kill everyone?” She asked, crossing her arms.

Eujin looked at her in amusement.

“Unless you think you can somehow do something that makes my life easier in that situation, yes. I expect you to do nothing.” He said.

Ven looked at him coldly.

“I paid you to be my teacher, not my bodyguard. If you’re just gonna babysit me for a couple weeks until your conscience lets you leave me somewhere with someone else, you can give me my gilder back and I’ll make my own way.”

Eujin snorted.

“You really have no sense of humor at all, kid.”

He reached into his belt and pulled the knife he’d taken from Logen’s shop free, before handing it out towards her, sheath first.

“I’d already planned on giving you this later, but since you’re so insistent, happy birthday.” He said.

Ven took the dagger and slid it into her belt, and Eujin continued, his face turning serious.

“You will learn everything I can teach you, if you don’t get yourself or both of us killed and you can find a way to keep making it worth my while. But until you know enough to keep yourself safe, I expect you to stay out of the way if something bad happens. Are we clear?” He said.

“Yes.” Ven said.

“Good. Now grab whatever you can carry out of the supplies here. We’re leaving before dark. I am going to make one final sweep to make sure nothing will be following us. When I return, I expect you ready to travel.” Eujin said.

And again, without another word, he left the common room and vanished out of sight.