Free Scourge of the Dragons by Cody J. Sherer Page A

were home to both the elves
and nomadic tribes of the wilds, but she didn’t know how either
group would react to her and the others. The atmosphere changed as
they entered the forest. Amber’s cheery outlook took the hardest
hit, which noticeably bothered Kade. Julian seemed to be ignoring
both of them, allowing his already negative attitude to spiral even
further down. Mariah stopped at the next clearing and sat down. She
waited as Kade and Amber took a seat next to her. Julian paced back
and forth next to them, tapping his fingers together.
    “We’ve been dodging the subject for far too
long. Why are the Knights of Ardevale after you?” Mariah asked.
    “I don’t know what they want with me,
honestly,” Kade replied.
    “They must have given you some idea with
their questions.”
    “I didn’t understand most of it, but they
were focused on something called they called a scourge or disease.”
Kade pulled off his glove to show the small black dot.
    “This is what they wanted to know about?”
Amber asked.
    “Yes, it showed up a while ago. I don’t know
why, but nothing bad has happened to me.”
    “Didn’t Timus say something about how his
merchant friend visited the elves and they had some sort of
disease?” Julian asked as he approached the three.
    “That’s right. Both he and Goraine mentioned
the elves,” Amber replied.
    “And here we are fleeing straight into their
territory. They’ll have us pegged as enemies for certain. This does
not bode well for us. I had hoped we could escape the Knights and
never need to hear from them again, but if they know the elves are
connected and they know we are heading into the elven lands,”
Mariah let the others come to their own conclusion about what the
Knights would do.
    “They should be able to help him, shouldn’t
they?” Amber asked.
    “It originated with the elves, they should
know more about it than anyone. I would say that they are our best
chance of figuring out what it even is.”
    “Has it changed at all?” Julian asked as he
turned to his friend.
    “Yes, but only slightly. It was smaller
before. Darker too,” Kade replied.
    “No sense in worrying about it now. Even if
the remedy is in the forest, we would have no idea what to even
look for. Let’s go. I’ll let you know when we’ve reached the elven
lands. It is imperative that you let me do the talking when we get
there,” Mariah said.
    The others nodded and slowly followed as she
got up. They were far from experienced soldiers, but the fact that
they were getting used to following her orders was comforting. She
had expected things to be much quicker when she agreed to assist
the youngsters and it was beginning to look like she still had a
long road ahead. So long that she may no longer have a place among
the Guardians upon her return. There was a slight chance of the
elves being able to cure Kade of the disease or scourge, but Mariah
wasn’t about to set all of her hopes on a group that might not even
let them enter their lands. She slowed down and waited for the
others to come alongside her before speaking.
    “There is one last thing that we need to
discuss. The elves aren’t particularly friendly to humans and there
is always a chance of running into bandits whenever traveling off
the main roads. I need to know if the three of you are able to
defend yourselves,” Mariah said.
    “I think we already proved that we can’t,”
Kade said.
    “Everyone has at least one or two skills
that can be transferred to the battlefield. What are your areas of
expertise?”
    “Kade can fire a bow better than most and
Julian is decent with a mace,” Amber replied.
    “She is better than both of us with a
blade,” Julian said as he pointed toward Amber.
    “That’s a start. We can begin training with
the equipment we have on hand, but that will exclude Kade as we
don’t have a bow. Anything else that you can bring to the table?”
The guardswoman asked as she turned to the young man.
    “My