The Pearl Fox

Horned One

"I paid the price!" she snarled, breaking a glass vial of blue methylene powder that once belonged to Marek. "Can you see?"

Arel, Cherin, Green and Cem were all staring at her with hard eyes and black hearts. Only Barrow talked to her, as though he cared for Charsine in her time of grief.

"You wanted it to happen. You performed the ritual sacrifice. All of us did so, and we each ate the flesh of your wizard husband. Don't blame yourself now, and don't blame us. What wrong you ever did was trusting him and the blood arts."

"We performed the sacrifice out of selfish desires to earn power in the Acrosphere. It was the night of the triple lunary eclipse. That was the very same night when my old childhood friend Blood Rose died," Charsine said with dry tears.

Arel, Green and the others thought best not to mutter how it was Charsine's idea who wanted power, not them. They did it through love of killing. Barrow poured the dreaded black wine into a golden goblet for Charsine, then he poured one for himself in a brass chalice. The others didn't have a liking for rich black wine. It made them sleep for days. During hunts, they'd killed many people regardless of who they were. A few of their victims had been lay wizards of lesser ranks from humble villages. Now Charsine lost a friend the same night Marek was sacrificed.

Arel snorted when he felt the urge to kill but he remained still. His pale blue eyes shone through a dark tattooed face. His head was partially shaved to expose a red gash when some other hunter accidently swiped at him with a blade. Showing everyone that made them fear him.  Cherin was the only other female wild hunter of the South Diaphry group, who wore long braids dyed in black and white. Her hungry brown eyes always shone yellow in the dark. Green, with long black hair wore necklaces and bracelets of sharp animals teeth, collected over many years. Cem, often masked by a human skull helmet, had long white hair twisted into matted locks. Barrow always cropped his hair, but was never without a large ring in his nose and filthy metal studs and spikes around ears and his lips. These were just some of Charsine's friends, the wild hunters, but even she couldn't communicate with all of them except Barrow. They only hrunted and shrieked like animals. But like the owner of vicious dogs, they were always loyal at her side.

She never went out alone. She and her friends rode their horses on the way to visit that village of Southernville 70, as she'd promised to do, and find the witch responsible for misery there. That was the witch of the evil eye, who threatened the people with a flood, and such an anti-social character was a problem for the environment, and for the whole country if the witch is going to damage crops again.

The wind picked up and howled like dying beasts. They travelled along the Bell Road, then arrived to Belldark by night, entering through the southern gate. Charsine and her companions stayed at a large inn, and when dawn arrived, they went on their way. They exited Belldark through its north gate beside the haunting clock tower. There wasn't a good road anylonger but a dirt track full of mud because of the season of rainfull. They passed a few small houses, farm, little shrines, woods, hovels, small wooden staves and a thoroughfare that led towards a Grass House temple. The path turned into a thin bridle road and then became a greenway that vanished into the wilderness. The wild hunters didn't care about being exposed under the sky opening into rain, but Charsine learned to live roughly with nature and not against it. She just didn't like it, and wished she'd gotten a carriage instead. They travelled miles, so when darkness came, they camped in the middle of a forest, while cold winds slapped against Charsine's face and hair. She slept under a blanket but by morning, it was gone and she was feeling wet and very cold. The wind had removed the blaket while she slept, and flung it up into a tree. No one else cared, as they didn't use blankets. They were animals. The wet thin rain turned into frost and the sky was grey.