“Excellent!” I grinned. “We’ll do well together, I’m sure. What skills have you been focusing on recently?”
She placed a hand on her pouch and gave me a cunning look. “A few potions of a new design. As you well know, I’m a battle druid, Leo. Experimenting with potions is a big part of my skill building. Of course, I keep up my bladework and I’ll always love my bow, but the potions have been my main focus recently. What about you?”
“I haven’t changed. It’s been axes for me, always axes,” I said, slapping the huge two-handed, double-headed monster of an axe that lay beside me. She eyed it critically.
“That’s a big weapon. You never fancy something smaller?”
“I’ve been practicing with two smaller ones recently, one in each hand, and I’ve a belt of throwing axes too, but it takes a lot of practice. Unless something crazy happens, I think the two-hander will always be my best weapon.”
Cara nodded thoughtfully. “Tomorrow, we’ll head alone into the Festering, seeking the heart of the corruption. We must be prepared for anything.”
The next morning, I rose from my bed at the first glimmer of gray light. At first glance, I thought the whole camp was asleep, except for the men who had watch duty. Then I saw Cara. She was dressed in a light, flowing dress of pale blue, and her feet were bare. Her long blonde hair hung loose down her back. Her maidens had pitched their tents along the stockade wall nearest the gate, and Cara’s tent was larger and finer than the rest.
She was going through the movements of a form using a long, unusual-looking straightsword. When she saw me watching her, she stopped and walked over to me. She was naked under her blue dress, and the slight breeze pressed the thin fabric against the curves of her body, clearly outlining her curved hip, lush breasts, and erect nipples. I looked, and she knew I looked, but she did not seem to mind. She tossed her hair back and fixed me with her bright blue eyes.
“That smell,” she said. “Is that the Festering?”
I breathed in deeply through my nose. Under the rich scents of the tall pine trees that surrounded the stockaded camp, I could catch it. A sickly smell, like something dead left in the sun.
“You get used to it after a few days,” I said. “I’d almost stopped noticing it. Yes, that’s the Festering. You can see it in the Westmarsh if you walk to the top of the ridge.”
“I’d like to have a look, I think, before we go down.”
“All right. Now?”
She nodded. “Let me get my leathers on, then we’ll go.”
When Cara emerged from her tent dressed again in her leather armor, we left the stockade and walked together up to the edge of the ridge that looked down on the Westmarsh.
The Westmarsh had always been a beautiful place, a vast and untouched fen that stretched for miles. It was home to countless beasts, birds, insects, and it was said that benevolent spirits occupied the little tufts of woodland that dotted it here and there. Folk seldom ventured out into the marshlands. There were no paths, and there were pockets of deep water hidden by floating carpets of thick mosses. It could be a dangerous place for the unwary, but for the people of Saxe, the vast expanse of Westmarsh had always been a reassuring presence. North, south, and east, we would always have to watch our borders, but to the west, the vast marshlands ran right up to the cliffs at the edge of the Grimwood and kept an impenetrable guard on the western borderland of Saxe. Until now.
Now, in a broad swathe of decay that cut through the flat landscape, the Festering had turned the lush green of the wetland to a sickly gray. Noxious vapors rose from the waters. On either side, there was still a wide expanse of untouched green, but the influence of the Festering cut like a huge arrowhead across the Westmarsh, the tip of the arrow pointing toward the cliff where we stood.
“Ugly, isn’t it?” she said, and her voice shook a little.
“Does it affect you?” I asked her. “I mean, do you feel it? In your heart.”
She didn’t look at me, but she nodded, slowly.
“I do too,” I assured her. “The influence is less strong with me, but I feel it. When we go down, it may be stronger. If it’s getting too much for you, tell me.”
Her eyes flicked up to meet mine. “Don’t worry about me, Leo, I’ve got something that will do the trick I think.” She patted her bulging potion belt and smiled. “When do we leave?”
“As soon as we get our bags from the camp and rouse our warriors to see us off. If we leave now, we’ll have plenty of daylight to make use of. The Festering will be bad during the day, but I guess it’ll be even worse at night.”
Back at the camp, all was activity and bustle as the men and women of our honor guard got ready to see us off. It had been agreed that this stockade should be occupied by our warriors either until the Festering withdrew, or we returned with fresh orders. If nothing changed for a year and a day, our warriors were to pick new leaders from among their own ranks, and return to the service of Thane Johan of Saxehold. Neither my men nor Cara’s shield-maidens were particularly happy to see us go off on this dangerous quest alone, but they all understood the honor that came with such a quest.
We did not know how long our quest would take, so we packed enough rations to last for two weeks with care. The water
