………

“Tell me about your Quest,” Yain said, an hour into their silent journey northwards.

Kit ground his teeth together. For the last ten minutes or so, he’d forgotten that he had a tag-along. They were moving quickly through the edges of a forest; Kit, anxious to clear out of Jasca, had forgotten to pick up a new map. The air had gotten heavier and quieter, with the sunlight lazily sliding down the leaves and playing along tall, narrow tree trunks. For a few minutes there, he’d almost been happy.

“Your Quest?” Yain said again, but the innocent ease of his question made Kit’s blood boil.

“I’m under a curse, and you seem to be part of it,” he snapped. Yain shut up after that, but Kit could feel him eyeing up the hat.

“Hello, over there! Wait on, will you?” a cheery voice called out, and Kit swung around. He recognized that voice.

“Meri?” he said, dread rising like bile in his throat.

“Surprised, are you? No more than me!” A short girl, barely taller than Kit, hopped down from the upper road—the one for carts in the twisting, dangerous line of a forest—and paused to straighten out her bag. “Thought you’d seen the last of me in Ryado, did you? Ken, my friend—“

“It’s Kit,” Kit interrupted sourly. Yain was watching Meri with a bemused expression; just the sort of reaction Kit would expect from someone so useless.

“Kit, my friend,” Meri went on, without even a twitch, “It’s good to see you again. Fancy another comb, do you? Who’s your new friend? Hello, I’m Meri. Shake or curtsy?” Rather than waiting for an answer, Meri gave a quick half-curtsy, half-bow and then caught Yain’s hand to shake. “I sold Kit a pair of boots once, but he wouldn’t buy a hat from me. Says he doesn’t trust magic against magic, but I think he was trying to get rid of me. I’m sorry, what’s your name?”

“Yain.” And Yain sketched a quick bow, a smile quirking at the edges of his mouth as he did.

Meri’s eyes crinkled when she grinned. “Ah, you’re a quick one. Why are you along with Kit, here? He can’t be good company.”

Kit bit his tongue to keep from taking the bait and stalked off, taking a mean pleasure in hearing Yain squawk as the curse kicked in and he was forced to follow. But it hadn’t been easy to get rid of Meri last time, and it wasn’t proving easy today.

“What’s this, then? Kit! Kit, why’s this man following you? Yain, what are you hopping along like that for? Just stop for a moment, Kit, will you? I’ve got something useful for you! Need a… map?” Meri’s voice grew louder and more cheerful, and Kit knew from experience that while he may run faster than Meri, she had more stamina, and she always caught up.

“I’ll take the map, and then could you leave? I’ve already got this one—“ Kit jerked his thumb at Yain—“following me, and I don’t need you, too.”

Meri had been digging through her bag, but looked up at that, pausing only to blow her bangs out of her eyes. “Why’s he following you, then?”

“It’s a curse,” Yain explained. “It has to do with his hair.”

“Oh, I know that much. Have you seen it, then? I’ve never seen such hair before in my life!” Meri held up her own braid with a rueful expression. “I can’t seem to get mine much longer than this, and bright red! What I’d do for a rich blonde. Though black is quite nice, too, and Kit’s is a lovely brown. But here I am, all red, red, red until the day it goes gray, and that’s not much better.”

“Can you please shut up?” Kit begged.

“You wanted a map and a comb, didn’t you?” Meri asked, digging said items out of her bag. “You’re heading deep into the woods, this way. You ought to buy two or three combs; you never know when you’ll break them again. Though if you were more careful with them, I’d have less to sell, am I right? Of course I’m right! Yain, what can I get for you? Oh, and do continue with your story; I’m all ears!”

“You’re all mouth, you mean,” Kit grumbled, but sat down to let the two of them talk and check through Meri’s bag. He knew about that bag, of course; Meri had explained her quest when she interrogated him about his own:

The bag was a magical item, and could produce anything that a person desired. More to the point, it produced those desired things for any person in a fifty foot radius. The owner of the bag had to get those items to the person that desired them, because he could not abandon the bag; the spell on it wouldn’t let a carrier get rid of the bag until that carrier had found the one thing he desired most of all.

But, while the bag had an infinite capacity, it also grew heavier with each thing it produced, and it would not let an item out unless the person desiring that item had indicated acceptance. Enter Meri, and her ability to irritate a customer into buying something just to be rid of her.

Kit hadn’t desired a comb. No, that would be “let me run my fingers through your hair, stranger” Yain.

“Now this comb is oak, a nice strong wood, and the teeth are large and widely spaced. It’s perfect for hair like Kit’s, especially after being shoved up in that hat all day.”

“Don’t encourage him, Meri,” Kit growled. “He’s not combing my hair.”

Meri and Yain smiled at each other. Kit itched to hit them both.

“Here’s your map, Kit, my friend, and that one’s on the house, because I think I’m going to just have to go ahead and ask you for an itty-bitty favor, one that you won’t mind granting I’m sure, as it really won’t cost you anything—“

“Anything so long as you stop talking!” Kit shouted, curling up defensively. This was exactly how she’d bullied him into buying the boots.

“I’m going to, ah, follow you, too,” Meri said, and smiled desperately when Kit turned with slow incredulity to gape at her. “Just for a time.”

“You.” Kit was having an allergic reaction to very thought of another traveling companion, if the swelling of his throat was any indication. He settled for gaping until he could work back up to a glare.

“Just let me be part of your Quest for, oh, say, another six months?” Meri’s smile had stretched nearly into a grimace. “Until the statute of limitations runs out?”

“What happened?” Yain asked. He looked to Kit for help, but as Kit was starting to turn shades of red and purple, quickly turned his gaze back to Meri.

“I might’ve, well, you see, there was a group of men, back a ways, and they wanted a certain, well, weapon, or really, a few of these, er, weapons, and…” Meri took a deep breath and tried for a brighter smile. “If I’m part of your Quest then I can’t be hanged, right?”

“The statute of limitations?” Yain repeated, after a moment of silence.

“Whenever the group of men finally overthrows their old mayor.” Meri shrugged. “It’ll be within six months, I’m sure of it, but until then I need to lay low, but the bag doesn’t necessarily allow me to do that. So, instead of lying low, Kit here can share his immunity with me! What do you think, Kit? We’re friends, right? Friends don’t let friends get hanged.”

Kit gave a choked little snarl that seemed to pass for agreement. In any case, the moment he’d tried to say no, the swelling in his throat had become real, and really painful, with the faintest hint of snow-tingle at his ears. It seemed Meri was, in reality, already part of the Quest.

Whether Kit liked it or not.

………

There was something nice about, well, walking. Being en route. Following a path. Once he caught up, Aldys knew, there would be trouble. There always was. Whenever he got close to a goal, there was trouble. But just walking along, confrontation safely in the future, failure still just one of many possible outcomes, Aldys was comfortable. Safe. Almost at ease.

“Apprentice.”

Aldys jumped and yelped, and lost his staff in the process. “Magician Dove!”

He tracked the voice to the side of the road, which had just reached the forest. A lone mourning dove in the low branches of a pine tree stared fixedly at him with one dark eye.

“Something has happened. The goose’s magic… reacted,” Magician Dove’s voice intoned. The dove hopped to a nearer branch, still watching Aldys carefully. “Tell me why it happened.”

Aldys knew it wouldn’t help, but his face broke into a helpless, mirthless grin. “I, ah, haven’t caught up to them yet…?”

The dove fluttered to the ground and then, with a bird’s peculiar head-bobbing weave, began to advance. Aldys found himself backing away from a bird no longer than his foot.

“I don’t have time for excuses, Aldys. The net around the pair grows stronger, and it has recognized me. I can’t see them any longer. Do you understand what this means? Can you begin to comprehend the strength of this spell?”

“I—I, uh—“ Aldys yelped again, very quietly, when the bird fluttered onto the road and fixed him again with a baleful stare.

“Stop wasting time!” Magician Dove snapped. The bird fluttered up again and stayed there, a foot from Aldys’ face, wings flapping fast to keep it level with his cringing face. “Find them. Now!”

“I—Sir—Oh!“ Aldys gave up and ran, scooping his staff up as he went.

For Aldys, failure was where he inevitably ended up. But for Magician Dove, failure was where Aldys had been since day one.

………