Mantle of the Gods

Camp was a wreck.

“No!” Aelin ran ahead as soon as we could make out the wreckage.

“Aelin wait!” Justia took off after her.

I put down the fruit and jogged with Ether beside me. I was too tired and sore to run.

Every fencepost had been yanked out of the ground, and quite a few of them had been snapped in half. The rocks for the firepit had been scattered and there weren’t any ashes that hadn’t been mixed with dirt. I was glad that we didn’t have anything else that we had left there, because everything was broken or destroyed in some way.

The blonde noble wasn’t around and that was probably for the best. We were tired and really didn’t need another fight. I had hoped that Edward had calmed down and I could talk to him. Ether’s assessment seemed quite likely and some reassurance about the future might have soothed some of his fears.

“I don’t think we should stay here.” Ether looked at me. "We should go now.”

“Where?” Aelin sniffled. Justia was trying to comfort the blonde woman.

“Into the woods.” Ether pointed back the way we’d come. "There are four of us and one of him. We need to get somewhere that he’s going to have trouble getting to at night. We don’t want him to sneak up on us while we’re sleeping.”

Aelin froze. "You don’t think he’d do that?”

“He’s scared, angry, hungry, and probably humiliated by the people he’s been told all his life that are beneath him.” Ether looked at Justia. "How do the Nobles treat low level Mundane Adventurers?”

“Like they are still Mundane.” Justia sighed. "She’s right, he’s probably been at the gate trying to get someone to open it for him. When that doesn’t work, he’s going to focus on us.”

“Let’s go.” I motioned for the women to start moving.

Ether picked up a few broken stakes, which prompted the other two to gather a few each.

“We might not be able to build a full fence, but we can do something.” Ether explained

“Where are we going?” Aelin shivered

“Probably hit the bank on the other side of the bridge and follow it to the left until we get halfway through the forest.” She must have seen the confusion on my face. "It turns into grassland after a good bit, we don’t want to be too close to the snakes, but we can get close enough that we won’t have to worry about him sneaking up on us from that direction.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about that.” I looked around. "He was here.”

Justia dropped the stakes in her hands and readied the ax.

My jumpsuit was gone. All that fruit that we’d spent valuable time picking and it was gone.

“He must have been waiting for us.” Ether looked around. "Probably to ambush us, but when he saw a chance for a free meal…” She sighed. "Maybe he’ll leave us alone since he’s got enough food to last him the next two days.”

“Do you really believe that?” Even in the lower visibility of the moonlight, I could see just how shaken Aelin was.

“I do.” Ether shook her head since she was out of Aelin’s field of vision.

We needed to hit level two as fast as possible. I couldn’t imagine what life was going to be like once people figured out what I was if this is how life had become before it. At least if we hit level two, then we’d be able to defend ourselves against him a lot better.

I picked up the discarded stakes. "Come on, we’ve got a lot of work to do and it’s late.” I held most of them on my shoulder with my left arm and held one with my right. "And we’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

We started walking again, and veered off the trail as soon as we crossed the bridge. Walking on the river bank wasn’t much more difficult than walking on the trail, so it wasn’t too hard to manage in the lower visibility. I let Ether lead us, while I brought up the rear. Aelin and Justia were almost side by side as they traveled in between us.

As much as we’d reassured Aelin that we wouldn’t have any more trouble out of Edward, I couldn’t help the feeling that we were being watched. I knew it was going to be a long night.