That Frigid Fargin Witch (The Legend of Vanx Malic) by M. R. Mathias Read Free Book Online Page A

tell you the answers to yours.”
    “Well hurry and ask it.”
    Xavian must not have had a question ready, for it took him a few moments. “What is the name of Darbon’s first love?”
    “Matty, damn you.” She cautiously braved her way to the door. Seeing that she didn’t get blasted, she moved closer.
    “Where are Vanx and Chelda?” Gallarael hobbled over to the fire, her expression none too pleased.
    Xavian’s face was pallid. “You are alive? They said you fell to the bottom of the canyon.” Then he looked at Darl. “They thought your roped was chewed through, that you also fell.”
    “I felt Kegger’s warning tugs and secured myself. When the end of the pull line came snaking over and down, I crawled down to a ledge.” He paused to look at the mangled but healing wound that covered most of Kegger’s lower leg.
    “I didn’t know what sort of beast was attacking up here so I cut a piece of the rope and hauled the lady, uh, the princess, up into a cave I found on my way down.”
    “She was still alive?” Xavian asked, looking now at Gallarael, was toasting her bloody feet by the fire.
    “You’re still alive?”
    “No Xavian, I’m dead, just like you’re going to be if you don’t tell me where Vanx is.”
    Hesitantly he told them, and as he did, he fed them stew from the pot he and Kegger had been nursing. Vanx had left some healing herbs he’d gathered from the forest, and had killed several rabbits and a small doe before they’d gone. They threw the herbs in the pot.
    He told them of the elf, Thorn, and the wolfen attack; Kegger joined in the telling for a little while, but only to validate what Xavian said. The parts about the waist-tall, pointy-eared man with strawberry hair came out sounding far-fetched. Kegger’s assurances that it was all true, quelled any doubts that Darl might have held. Gallarael would have believed anything they told her. In her lifetime she’d survived the Wildwood, while full of fang-flower venom. She’d seen wolf-riding Kobals, and huge, angry, green-skinned ogres through her poisoned haze. She’d even seen a dragon. So the idea of elves and wild creatures didn’t surprise her all that much.
    When Xavian was done with the telling, Darl rummaged through Kegger’s bag and came back with a drawstring sack. He hung it just outside the blasted door of the cabin and then went about stretching a flapped blanket over the hole. Before he was finished, a skittish ramma came in from the woods and started sniffing at Darl’s sack. A short while later a few more came, but that was it. Most likely, the witch’s wolfen beasts had gotten hold of the others.
    When Gallarael announced that in the morning she was going after Vanx and Chelda, Xavian nodded that he would go with her. Darl objected, because Kegger was in no condition to travel, but the big gargan ranger, using a tree branch for a crutch, made his way to the room’s table board, where he sat stiff-legged. He insisted that he could take care of himself there in the cabin. All he needed was for them to hunt some more meat. He figured that in a day or two he would be well enough to move around, set snares and start feeding himself.
    Darl agreed that he would lead the others into the Lurr and wait for them at its fringes. He would do this, but only if they hunted Kegger an ample amount of food before they left. He pointed out that having three rammas to ride would make up the extra day it would take them to hunt, and reluctantly Gallarael agreed, because a day of rest would go a long way toward easing the pain in her broken feet.

Off beside the river
    far away from everything
    the fishes keep me company
    while I close my eyes and dream.
    – Parydon Cobbles
    T he air in the Underland tunnel grew so warm that Vanx and Chelda were forced to shed their coats. Vanx removed Poops’ vest, too. He then carefully rolled up the coats and stored them in the pack he was carrying. Thorn pulled his arms from the sleeves of his