CHAPTER 62 Who Would Even Do That?

CHAPTER 62

Who Would Even Do That?

Brownie

The edge of the Dark Enchanted Forest was an obvious thing. The trees thinned out, and brambles scattered in trailing thickets over fallen boughs and old leaves of seasons past. The forest floor was more brown, the sprigs and twigs and vines weaker … and all over, the lack of dense magic left everything slightly less colored.

Rufus let out a breath of pure relief, like a load had fallen off his shoulders and he could finally relax. His smile got brighter, and his entire demeanor relaxed.

“Oh, look.” Brownie pointed into the forest off to the south where a giant bunny golem stood with its nose pointed to the sky and its ears taller than the tree line. “The border guard.”

Rufus waved at the golem, who didn’t pay them any mind. “That’s Fiddles. He was one of the Dark Lord’s first large automata. Keith quickly realized it cost much less mana if he made his creations closer to their natural form’s size. They also didn’t blow up as often.”

Brownie admired the rabbit, who had one ear flopped forward and the other pointed up. “Bye, Fiddles!”

That got the golem’s attention, and its nose twitched. One beady glass eye swept over them, but never stopped searching for intruders.

They weren’t its target.

“Fiddles probably wouldn’t want pets,” she murmured absentmindedly.

Slake’s tail flicked onto her lap from where he lay on the bench between her and the beastman she was traveling with. “Pet me instead.”

She obliged, and Donna successfully pulled their wagon out of Nilheim and onto a winding road that led through craggy cut paths and steep hills with groves of errant plum trees. The plum blossoms had fallen recently, and the cliffs were covered in the flowers while the trees showed the first signs of setting fruit .

It was now or never, really. And she wasn’t going to not tell him in some weird, vain hope that he just wouldn’t find out her secret while meeting her family.

Who would even do that?

That sounded like a full-blown panic attack that ate away at her soul. Brownie wasn’t the quiet type, and she wasn’t going to start now.

“Rufus, there is something I need to tell you,” she started. Straight and to the point. There were butterflies in her stomach as she considered her words.

He turned on the bench to face her, careful his knee didn’t bump the grimalcat she was still petting.

“Alright, what’s troubling you?” Rufus leaned heavily on one elbow resting on the back of the bench. “I know something’s been weighing on your mind.”

“I just wanted you to hear this from me. You’ve been such a wonderful travel companion, and I would hazard to say, friend.” Maybe, one day, she would break down and ask if they could be more than friends.

She wanted to reach out and place her hand on his hand beside her on the backrest, but she resisted.

He stiffened almost imperceptibly. “That’s … It has been an excellent journey, and I would be proud to call you a friend.”

“So you will see how important it is that I let you know that … my uncle Derek is the leader of the Assassin Assembly of Peldeep.” Brownie stopped there, holding her breath.

Rufus’s eyes opened wide as she watched him start filling in the blanks. She released her breath and tried to get everything straight to talk to him without making a mess of it.

Not that she was deliberately lying. The second Jack had turned his intense, questioning gaze at her, she’d activated [Liar’s Palace] so fast … But when Rufus turned a similar curious stare her way, she wanted to bare her heart and soul to him.

Maybe he’d activated a perk? Even as the idea took hold, she ignored it. If Rufus used a perk on her, he’d ask first.

“The same Master Derek Stannard I’m scheduled to meet in three days’ time?” Rufus finally spoke.

“Yes.”

“And the same Assassin Assembly that’s tried to kill my king on multiple occasions?” he continued.

“Yes.”

“Those same assassins,” he added, “that you informed us were coming on boats and traveling through Servalt. The ones hired by Drendil to attack in a massive group that was close to a hundred people?”

“Technically,” she countered, “many of those were regular mercenary rogues on contract to act as a diversion for the army unit marching on the Black Fortress from the south, so there weren’t really that many true Assassins … And who counts Assassins anyway?”

Slake snorted at her use of the saying but didn’t so much as twitch his tail.

She was trying to play it off with a light heart, but honestly, she liked Rufus. Brownie didn’t want him to suddenly turn strange because she was too close to the ones he was investigating.

Before he could say more, she added, “It’s just … I know my family tried to kill King Keith. But I did have my uncle check, and it was just a normal business transaction. No molten ash vane conspiracy. No deeper ploy. Whoever the great mastermind is out there trying to permadeath all of the rulers on the continent … I honestly don’t think it’s anyone from my family.”

Rufus stared at her for a long time before saying, “Thank you for letting me know, Bronwynn. If it isn’t too much trouble, I do have some more … questions.”

“I’m ready.”