The Writer's Escape

8. The Tavern

Five days left, the next note warned Serena, and even though the Wild Sisters were still nowhere to be found, it was starting to look like she might just get out of this world yet. According to Lord Tyrus, the surrounding villages had beat back the next few waves of demon hordes with no problem.

Berry wasn't appeased. "We should be looking for the witches," she said with a scowl, sitting outside the fortress with her head slumped between her knees. "I ain't just leaving them."

"Look for them where?" Serena said, impatiently. 

Berry huffed but otherwise ignored the question.

"Why do you care so much?" Serena pressed. She brushed sand off her brown desert clothing, a useless movement since more would accumulate as soon as she walked another step in this dusty hellhole. 

"They're my coven," Berry said, as if that explained everything. "Are you really as stupid as you look? Damn it, we gotta find 'em. Jayla's still sick and if she doesn't—" Berry cut herself off as if realizing she'd said too much.

"Jayla's sick? Wait— is that why you asked me for a phoenix? Because of their healing power?"

"No," Berry snapped. 

"Why wouldn't you just ask me to cure her?"

"'Cause it ain't none of your business, princess."

"I didn't know you were close to Jayla." Serena cast back her thoughts to the early versions of her outline, the entire thing so bulky and often disjointed, filled with haphazard brainstorming. With a jolt, she remembered one day jotting down in Berry's file that she was Jayla's sister, and then immediately forgetting about it while she was writing. That detail had never even made it to the story; it existed only in the outline, and only in the first version— she must have forgotten to throw it out when she was organizing and compiling her story-planning documents. "You're her sister," she said slowly. "Right?"

Berry didn't say anything, but she didn't have to; the fierce loyalty and anguish in her eyes gave her away.

"Hey, I'm not trying to—" Serena had never been good with emotional talk. She loved manipulating words on paper, getting them to stab at the heart of what was happening, to perfectly capture a world or a character. She wasn't so good with spoken words, and settled on the classic: "I'm sorry."

To her surprise, Berry didn't start ranting or cursing or leave altogether. Instead she just grunted. "Jayla negotiated the agreement with the flayers," she said.

"But not before they infected her."

Serena ventured, "I promise I didn't mean to—"

Berry cut her off. "Yeah, yeah, I know. It ain't fair to blame you, anyway, this was just a story to you." She spat in the dirt. "Must be weird seeing what you thought was fictional, be alive all around you."

It was the closest thing to an apology she would get from Berry, and Serena appreciated it. She exhaled a small, relieved chuckle. "Like you can't believe."

"I think she's right," Patrick said from behind them, making Serena jump and Berry curse. "I think we should try to go find the witches."

"Spirits' blood, kid, stop appearing out of nowhere!" Then she turned to Serena.

"See, even he agrees with me. You comin' or not?"

"He just wants to get out of Redhaven," Serena said.

"I definitely wanna get out of here," Patrick said. "But also, the Wild Sisters could be in trouble. Esther could be in trouble, and someone should help them. Uh, not me," he hurried to add. "But I can come along, you know, hang around in the background. To get out of this village."