Free Five Stars: Five Outstanding Tales from the early days of Stupefying Stories by Aaron Starr, Guy Stewart, Rebecca Roland, David Landrum, Ryan Jones Page A

and a feverish flush flowed through me. This hadn’t happened to the witch. But then, she had been meant to take a worm into her. I had been born a man. The worm would kill me within a day, if I didn’t remove it.
    But the worm was the only way I could think of to gain an advantage over the witch. And now that it resided within me, it too was exposed to the witch’s plague. Being a magical creature it would be merely a carrier of it, immune to the plague’s ill effects.
    The flush ebbed. I joined the steady stream of people on the wide dirt road. Murmured conversations and the creak of harnesses and wagons washed over me. Beside me rolled a wagon filled with large oak barrels, driven by a couple with two bleary-eyed young boys sitting between them.
    I walked at the wagon’s rear corner, one hand on it for support. The wagon slowed as it neared the gate into the city. One of the stocky ponies pulling it tossed her head and snorted. Two sullen guards in King Wren’s blue livery stood at the gate, passing people through with hardly a glance.
    “Go on,” one of the guards muttered to the farmer driving the wagon.
    My legs strove to carry me forward with it, but the worm writhed inside me as if wringing out my innards. The creature might kill me before I could find the witch. I had to find her without delay, but the pain drove me to my knees as I clutched at my belly. A moan escaped me.
    “Hey,” a guard said. “What’s this?” A shadow fell over me. The young man, scant red hair covering his chin, said, “Are you ill?”
    The second guard kneeled beside him. “What’s the matter with him?”
    “The witch,” I gasped.
    The first guard shook his head. “Doesn’t look like you can afford her fees.”
    Pushing back the cloak, I revealed my crown, the only item of worth left on my person.
    The second guard shoved my face to the ground. Pain exploded from my nose and radiated through my face. “She told us you might show up,” the guard spoke, near my ear. “You can forget about getting in.” He hauled me to my feet. “Now hear this,” he called out, gaining the farmer’s attention and that of the others nearby. “Anyone caught helping this man to get inside these walls will be thrown into the dungeons with no chance of getting out.” He pointed to the farmer perched on the wagon. “Spread the word.” Then he shoved me back down the road. “Now get out of here, old man.”
    My feet carried me blindly away until the guards paid me no more attention. I left the road and studied the walls around Lowshire. Scaling them would be dangerous. I would be leaving myself open for attacks, and doubted I had the strength to make it to the top. Perhaps, with the help of the worm—
    The worm. “Show me where the witch resides within those walls,” I whispered.
    A glow lit the ground around my feet and became a faint sparkling trail that led towards the eastern wall. I walked in that direction at a normal pace, careful not to draw attention to myself. A few glances told me the guards were busy with people entering the city-kingdom and paid me no heed.
    Soon I rounded the wall and was out of sight of the guards altogether. The glimmering trail disappeared beneath the stone wall. I sensed it did not go much farther. Steep thatched roofs rose above the wall, shutters thrown open to the morning. Smoke curled from stone chimneys, carrying the aroma of burning wood, baking bread, and sizzling ham.
    Perhaps it would be easier to get the witch to come to me. Her desire for power could lure her, if she knew I had another worm.
    I cupped my hands around my mouth and called out, “Witch, you think you’ve had the best of me. But I have your old worm. I will find another witch and bestow it upon her, and then return for you.”
    A middle-aged woman appeared in one of the high windows, the scarf covering her hair marking her as a servant. Her face was all harsh angles. “Quit it ’fore I call the guards on ye!”
    “My