Free Eye of the Wizard: A Fantasy Adventure by Daniel Arenson Page A

send her back to Hell? She could ask him, but truth be told... she didn't want to go home. Not after her feud with Issa. Hell had become such a bore. Every day, she had to torture more sinners. She had been doing it for almost two centuries, and it was boring by now, so boring. Every day, she used the same whips, hot irons, pitchforks... so repetitive. Earth was new. This was an adventure, she had to admit.
    Romy rolled over again and lay on her side, cheek against her hands. All she needed on Earth was some money to buy a house, a downy bed, maybe a servant or two, and she'd be set. And if she ever missed torturing anyone, she'd kick Neev around a bit and get it out of her system. Living on Hermit Island would not do. There was a whole world to explore here aboveground!
    Finally morning came, and Romy felt like she had barely slept.
    "I want off this island," she announced as the others stretched and yawned. "I want to go someplace with walls, a roof, a fireplace, a soft bed, a kitchen, and servants. I hate it here."
    Neev scratched his belly, yawning, his face stubbly. "We all do," he said through his yawn, "but we're outcasts now, Romy. I flunked out of the Coven, and Scruff and Jamie flunked out of knight school. We have no money, no titles, nothing."
    Romy blew out her breath in frustration. "Big deal. In the underground, when we want something, we take it."
    Neev tossed twigs onto their campfire, took a pan from his backpack, and began to fry sausages. "Are you suggesting we become thieves?" he said.
    Romy shrugged, the spicy scent of breakfast tickling her nostrils. "Why not?"
    Neev cracked a few eggs onto the pan; he and Romy had found them in a nest just off the island. "It's against our principles."
    Romy placed her fists on her hips. "Your principles are to live on an island as hermits?"
    Jamie marched up to her, eyes flashing, hair still mussed from sleep. Five feet tall on her tiptoes, maybe a hundred pounds in her armor, she thrust out her chin as if that could make her larger. "Who said you can join us here, anyway? Scruff, Neev, and I are siblings. Why do you tag along?"
    The girl with the boyish hair amused Romy. With her diminutive frame and fiery eyes, Jamie reminded Romy of a grombeetle, fuzzy pests who filled the underground, delighting demon children and annoying the adults.
    "I'm family too," Romy answered. "Neev summoned me, so he's my mommy."
    Flipping the eggs, Neev groaned. "Oh no, no more of that nonsense."
    Scruff grinned, pulling on his tunic and slinging his shield over his back. "Mommy Neev. I like it."
    Romy was about to reach for a sausage, not caring if they were still cold, when screams came from the hilltop.
    The companions froze, staring at one another for a moment, then began to race up the hilltop, breakfast forgotten. Pebbles chinked under Romy's feet as she ran. Her ears picked up grunting from above, and the stench of rot filled her nostrils. When she reached the hilltop, she saw a girl with pointy ears and lavender skin, crocuses strewn through her glowing white hair. A small spiderweb was tattooed onto her shoulder. A spiderling. Romy had heard of these purple woodland creatures, but never seen one. Seven moldmen surrounded the spiderling, mossy and pale, reaching their claws toward her.
    Three moldmen lay dead on the ground, pierced with arrows, their bloated tongues hanging from their maws. The spiderling's quiver was now empty, and she was wounded. Moldman claws had scratched her thigh, and blood seeped down her leg. Eyes wide and frightened, she clutched a stone dagger, its blade engraved with glowing runes.
    Scruff and Jamie, both screaming, leaped into battle. Scruff wielded Norman, his spiny mace. Jamie swung Moonclaw, her sword. Neev muttered a spell, then tossed black lightning onto the moldmen, burning them. Romy was scared, but if her companions were fighting, so would she. Heart racing, she flapped her wings and swooped onto a moldman, stabbing him with her pitchfork.