"Add this" Ruby looked puzzled as Daria passed liquorice root. She still added when Daria didn't explain. The unexpected request came from Leu the rider, for a hot soup as Lord was feeling under the weather. Only she knew the reason. And though they were wasting precious daylight early in the morning, Lord's health came first.
"What's his name again?" the prisoner eating bread and butter with morning coffee asked the boy, whose gaze kept flickering towards Daria's scar. It was not a big deal to have scars on the man's body but she had seen people getting curious from time to time.
"I heard Tom calling him Kan, Lord Kan" Lord Kan, It stirred in Daria's heart and mind, mingling with the images and felt closer for some reason, more like him.
"And what do they call you?" He looked at Pam who was sipping her coffee. It was strange that even after five days, they hardly knew about anyone here, let alone their names.
"Robb, Drak, Paul" Pam pointed to themselves one by one, these were actually their code names for field jobs. It was always safer to use a man's name.
"And you?" Pam questioned back
"Rick and Davis" he didn't clarify who is who.
"Here" Ruby handed her the bowl of soup. Daria, processed millions of reasons to excuse herself and head back but it's not like she had to face him, she could simply pass it to Paul and finally she did just that, keeping as much distance as possible.
"Lets get moving"
*******
As the carriage rolled the day turned brighter, she didn't have an ounce of sleep last night, and her eyes were wide awake. She was fully aware of his presence behind the thin partition and it made her restless.
Outside trees were getting thinner, finally they were reaching the end of the forest.
"Take it" Ruby passed the pouch to Daria and Pam, Verian flowers and Thella root as Allen had instructed.
"Are we close?" Daria asked in confusion, they were still a day away from Mountain, then why is she asking them to carry it now.
"Riders have seen some occurrences beyond the crest field," Pam explained.
"Like …it's spreading," Ruby added.
"Or few might have skipped the valley" Daria added
"Yeah both are possible, anyways who would keep an eye on them, in an ungoverned area" Pam was right, Main crest field could be more dangerous now. A worry crept in for the people living there, for her people. She found herself curious…curious to know how it looked now, would she recognize anything from her childhood memory, would there be any resemblance?
They kept chatting for some time before ruby and pam fell asleep, Daria's restlessness was back, she shifted and adjusted herself but to no avail she could find any peace. Giving up she just closed her eyes.
'Come to me…' her eyes flew open..
Darkness filled the room and she instinctively checked outside, there's someone or something hanging through the roof. Dark creature, not the usual bat kind, the image..that she had built in her mind but a combination of some sea creature and human? Its sticky webbed hands were sticking to the window, its dark body slithering like a snake and its face barely resembled a human, extra wide lips, nostrils without any nose and eyes with yellow-black iris with slitted pupil were looking back at her.
The next moment she grabbed her sword and pointed toward the creature, Keeping her back straight and Daria looked directly in its eyes. The carriage halted and with a slash it was cut in half, Leu's serious face appeared behind the greasy window. Holding her sword firm in her hand she opened the door. At the same time Lord Kan's door flew open, they exchanged looks for a moment.
"Look out," someone shouted. She felt something coming towards them but her sword acted before she could. She took a step forward and slashed another, swung her sword down and slashed another then another. She didn't know when Pam and Ruby joined and they fell in their usual rhythm. Sometimes it's Rubie's kick and Pam's sword, sometimes it's her elbow and Ruby's dagger. In one moment she swung wide to pull one down, Pam cracked its head in another. The dance played for another few minutes before she heard the last screech and then silence.
Riders were spreading around, creatures' bodies laying everywhere, there must be at least fifty of them. Where did they come from, this was unexpected.
"When did you learn that?" She followed the voice and found his eyes looking intently at her, this time they were not filled with annoyance but admiration.
"Groven made us learn" Ruby replied
"But aren't you tavern girls head boys" they looked at each other in hesitation, he didn't know they were the dark knights?, did grover hide it on purpose, or forgot to give the details.
"It's up to Grover to decide, my lord" Ruby found a perfect answer.
"Indeed," he replied, still looking at her.
"My Lord, We should keep moving, it's still a long way to Shavormount" Kan looked around the fallen bodies
"Clear the road, and get going" he ordered.