Part 3

"Learn anything new?"

The door to Toby's shop thudded shut behind her and she whipped around to see none other than the very man she'd been asking questions about. He leaned back against the dull painted siding of the shop, one foot propped up on the wall behind him. From the way that he was currently looking at her, an irritating smirk curving the corners of his mouth, he was well aware of what she'd been up to. She kept her features carefully arranged in an expression of indifference.

"I'm not sure how the answer to that question is any of your business," she answered, pivoting on her heel to head back toward the business district.

"I beg to differ." He caught up to her quickly, falling into step beside her. "If you're curious about me, why not ask me? Why seek a stranger's answers?"

She cast him a sideways glance, her eyes lingering on the sword sheath strapped to his back before averting her eyes back to the busy road in front of them. "How do you even know I was asking about you to begin with?"

He let out an amused chuckle. "I'm no fool, Zara. I know that man deals with information. How do you think I knew where to find you last night?"

Zara felt a tiny stab of annoyance. Of course, she should've guessed. Even she wasn't immune from being the subject of Toby's dealings. Despite the fact that she might've been one of his most frequent visitors. She walked at a brisk pace, but Ronan kept up easily with his long strides. She hadn't been prepared to see him yet, still mulling over Toby's answers in her mind. While most of her was buzzing with the anticipation of joining Ronan's quest, she hadn't given in completely just yet.

"Fine. But Toby isn't a stranger. You're the stranger. For all I know, you could be a deranged lunatic trying to lure me into the forest on some wild goose chase." She finally answered him, and he let out a laugh, her words having no real impact on him.

"Fair point. So what have you decided? Am I deranged lunatic or will you be joining me?" He asked.

Zara could feel his eyes on her, but didn't spare him a glance. She was still a little thrown, trying to picture this cocky, grinning swordsman helping to destroy a clan of witches. Pulling her lip in-between her teeth, she shook her head. "I still think what you're asking me to do is the impossible. I don't think I know as much as you believe I do." Besides, they were two people. Two people amongst a forest that was home to hundreds of deadly, dangerous creatures who didn't think twice about taking a pitiful human life.

Moving with the agility of the hunter he was, Ronan suddenly stepped in front of her, blocking her path. She was forced to stop short to avoid colliding with his broad chest. Her hands went to her hips as she looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "Are you going to follow me around all day like this?"

She expected him to look amused, to give her one of his lopsided smiles. Instead, his lips pulled into a thin, hard line as his expression became very serious. "If it helped to sway your mind, I would." He answered truthfully, eyes boring into hers. Zara felt slightly uncomfortable underneath his intense stare but refused to show it. Around them, life continued on. People hurried past them with their baskets and carts, towing children by the hand. Some of them casted the pair dirty looks for blocking the road way and forcing everyone to part around them like some sort of human sea. "You are the best person for the job. No one else I've sought out has even a third of the skills and experience that you do..."

He trailed off but Zara had a feeling where his thoughts had been headed. No one else was as desperate as she was for a chance to redeem herself. She was at rock bottom and he knew it. How could her life sink any lower than it already had? Well, she could die of course. But would that really have been so much worse? In the grand scheme of things? Everyone else she loved was already dead.

"And if I still refuse, will you still go alone?"

Ronan didn't hesitate. "Yes. I'm leaving tomorrow after dark."

Tomorrow? But that was so soon. Her mind reeled for a moment, considering all possibilities once again. To leave or stay? To follow a stranger or to spend forever standing still? She exhaled slowly, letting go a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "The Goldenfinch. This evening. We will meet to discuss the terms of your quest a little further."

The relief that broke out over Ronan's face made her cheeks tinge pink, to see such visible proof that this capable person had been betting on her help so heavily. "Tonight," he agreed eagerly. He looked like he wanted to say more, or perhaps like he was on the verge of reaching out and hugging her.

Zara cleared her throat awkwardly and straightened her shoulders. "I'll see you then."

He nodded and the slightest of smiles returned to his lips. "Persistence pays."

At this, she rolled her eyes and sidestepped around him. "Persistently annoying," she muttered under her breath. She could feel his eyes as she walked away, but fought the urge to turn and see the look on his face. It'd been a long time since anyone had looked at her with such hope. Now she just hoped she wouldn't let him down.

#

As sun as the sun had disappeared, dipping behind the shadow of the mountains, Zara had slipped outside into the cool night to find her way to the Goldenfinch the old inn near the business district. She'd spent the day pacing her attic room, convincing herself over and over that she had made the right choice. A part of her felt dread at the thought of going back inside the place that had taken everything from her, yet the other half was thrilled, almost electric, at the idea of adventure. Of a chance to do something right for once.

She stood in the cold, damp hallway of the old town inn, staring at the closed door she knew Ronan was behind. She wondered if he had any idea just what he was getting himself into, if he'd ever gone into the dark forest before. Most likely not. Unless he had been there before the third rising, just as she had lived there during those days. He exuded an irritating sort of confidence that made her think almost nothing could worry him. Her thoughts once again drifted to what she had learned from Toby. If it were true, about the Shadow Coven, than he wasn't entirely useless.

Her hand was still poised to knock, when the door was suddenly opened and she found herself face to face with his chest. She had to crane her neck in order to look up at him properly, and tried to avoid looking embarrassed that she had been caught staring at a door with so much intensity.

"Evening."

"Is there a reason you're so interested in my door or were you considering changing your mind and running off?" he asked, his voice just slightly teasing.

Zara ignored him. "I was just thinking about all the things we have yet to plan. I know you'd like to think you know what you're doing, but you'd be foolish to do so. There are details that need ironed out. Things that must be seen to."

He leaned one shoulder against the doorway, arching an eyebrow. "Things such as?"

Zara held back an irritated sigh at how seemingly unconcerned he was. Just as she'd suspected. Like the task at hand was nothing more than a walk through the kingdom gardens. He must have been forgetting the fact that this particular "garden" was full of all sorts of wretched things that would kill at first opportunity. No reason necessary. "Things like how we're going to get past the Red Cape guard. How to find this wolf lair. What we'll do if we find it."

"Once. Once we find it," he corrected her with ease, stepping aside and gesturing for her to come in. She hesitated for only half a second before crossing the threshold. The room was only slightly smaller than her own. A single bed was pushed up against the far wall. A faded quilt was stretched across it, though the sheets were rumpled underneath as if it had been hurriedly made. She turned her eyes on the table pushed up against the wall closest to the door, covered in crinkled maps and parchment.

"That cockiness won't do either of us any good when we stumble across a nightwalker or a dark fairy," Zara warned him with a calm, coolness flashing in her eyes. "This is not as simple as tracking and capturing a wild animal. We're talking about a pack of werewolves here. Their human sides are not a vast improvement over their animal sides. How many wars have they started in the past?"

"Two," he admitted grudgingly. "Almost three. We have time on our side, though. There's a chance we'll be able to find the lair and get her out without stirring anything up."

Zara clucked her tongue. "Seven days will not seem so long once you're in the forest. Especially when you don't know where you are going."

"I'm not going in completely blind, you know. I have my own contacts, my own sources of information." He handed her a faded sheet of parchment. "An old friend of my father's passed that along to me ages ago. It speaks of an enchanted object. One that supposedly can direct a seeker to wherever it is they desire to go."

Zara didn't even have to read the words inked on the sheet of paper. "You mean the Finder's Glass? That old fairy tale about the mirror?" she scoffed and thrust the paper back towards him. "A bedtime story." One of dozens her Gran had told to her on those late nights were sleep seemed next to impossible. The Finder's Glass was supposedly one of a dozen fabled objects that had been enchanted by the essence before it had been locked away. For good reason too. Before those days, magic had flowed freely and dangerously, of use to anyone who could utter a simple spell. Now, with most of the essence sealed away deep in the forest, magic was a rarity. One only a few gifted individuals could wield, though only in secret.

"No, I assure you it's real," Ronan insisted, refusing to take the paper. "That's a journal entry from one of my father's books. He was a treasure seeker before he died, and he claims in that entry to have come across such an object during his travels. A prized possession belonging to one of the four fallen kingdoms."

"One of the fallen," Zara murmured, her interest piqued against her will. She knew two of them well, having visited many times before the war brought the high stone walls crashing down. Before the forest claimed what was left. She gave Ronan a wary look before her eyes flickered towards the parchment.

The words were faded, as if the paper had gotten wet at some point.

"-it's the strangest object. At first glance nothing more than a beautifully ornate, handheld mirror of silver. Something Annika would love, I'm sure. I thought I was having my leg pulled until it was passed into my hands...I was told to think of the place I desired most to be. Home came to mind. Then, there was the most peculiar feeling as I was pulled-"

The rest of the sentence trailed off into a inky smudge, unreadable.

"Who's Annika?" Zara asked with interest, glancing up from the ruined diary entry.

Ronan's jaw suddenly grew firm, back teeth grinding together as he turned away. "My sister."

Zara waited, but he added no further explanation. Odd, Zara thought. Although then again the entire situation was an odd one. She supposed he was entitled to his secrets, just as she was to hers. So long as those secrets didn't come back to bite her.

"So your father," she began, changing the subject, "he somehow managed to get his hands on this so called magical item?" Her disbelief quickly became confusion, though, as Ronan let out a snort of laughter. Her dark eyes narrowed.

"Of course not, he confirms in the following entry that he had nothing to trade that even remotely matched its value. He claims to have left empty handed." Ronan was still chuckling, shaking his head as he sank into the desk chair. "Decent man, but a terrible treasure seeker. God rest his soul."

An irritated sigh escaped her pursed lips. "So, what's your point then? How are we to know where to even begin looking?"

Ronan clucked his tongue. "Now, now. Don't go getting discouraged just yet, my lady."

"Wonderful...we'll be lost before we even begin," Zara mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Have some faith, will you?" Ronan said, much more optimistically than she felt anyone in their right mind should've been for the task that lay ahead of them. "According to this journal entry from my father, the object we seek was last seen in the kingdom of Maran."

Zara ignored his casual use of the word 'we'. She had never agreed to seeking any object, only a princess. However, he was making it sound as if finding the Finder's Glass was their best hope. "Maran? It's been abandoned for years now. There should be nothing left I imagine." Zara shook her head. She had fond memories of the kingdom, though. In her mind, she could still see the high, iron gates and the white stones of the castle glimmering in the sun. It reminded her of happier times, which had been few and far between lately. As a small girl, the kingdom's beauty had left her in awe. She had spent many days make believing she was a knight of Maran after that, brandishing a wooden stick as a sword and vanquishing invisible foes. How could anyone have known then what Maran's fate would become?

"You know it then?" Ronan asked excitedly.

Zara glanced at him, raising her eyebrows. "Better than you it would seem. I might be able to point us in the right direction, although I can't be certain anything is the same. The forest has a way of changing."

She couldn't be sure anything was the same now. As a part of the guard, they had patrolled only certain areas of the woods. Never venturing too far. It had been years, over a decade, since she had last been that deep. The paths and roads would be long gone, disappeared as if they had never existed. There would be no help either. Every village had been evacuated since the third rising, people forced to flee from their homes as the forest grew more chaotic and wild. She was almost positive that the forest they were walking into would be much different than the one she remembered as a child.

"As do many things in life," he agreed.

"How do we know it remains there? It could have been traded after your father left." Zara pointed out. "It seems like a fool's errand."

"Perhaps it is. However, Maran came under attack not a week after my father left. I have a good feeling the Finder's Glass never made it out."

"So that's the plan then? We go into the dark forest, which is forbidden for good reason, to search for an item that may or may not be where you say it is, and then we use said fabled item to locate the wolves' lair and rescue your princess?" Zara asked with arms crossed over her chest. It sounded even more ridiculous and ill planned when said aloud. Yet despite it all, she knew she would go. She would not back out of this. A fool's errand, perhaps, but also her last chance to prove herself worthy of rejoining the Red Capes.

Ronan gave her a wry smile. "That's exactly the plan."

Zara returned his smile with a hollow one of her own. "Well, I suppose you're depending on me then, to find us a way to slip past the Red Capes?"

His smile grew into one of triumph when he realized she was agreeing with his plan, rather than tearing it a part and walking out the door. "You know the guard better than most. If anyone can get us into that forest unseen, it's you."

Zara pursed her lips, turning her back on him to look out the room's single square window, towards the forest and the guard that stood by. They were too far to see, but she knew the Red Capes were stationed at every entrance, hiding amongst the leaves, or on the floor near the tangled roots and gnarled branches.

It was for good reason that the Red Capes kept the forest from being entered, although most people had grown wise over the years and wouldn't even consider stepping foot inside. There had been a time when the forest had been inhabited by humans and creatures alike. Zara had been a part of that. Eventually, as they often do, humans became greedy. Encroaching on territory that wasn't theirs, stealing and taking at will. Eventually the forest fought back. War followed. Many years of it. Now, the forest was forbidden.

She could still remember the stories the seasoned Red Capes told, of hunters or foolish teenagers slipping past the guard, their mangled bodies being found near the boundary weeks later. If they were found at all. That forest was full of nothing but anger and pain now.

The thought of going back there pained her. That horrible day in the forest still shone so clearly in her mind, though. The blood and the screams. The sharp, blinding pain that incapacitated her and made her incapable of saving the one person she had sworn to protect. If she hadn't followed the noise, if she hadn't insisted they cross the boundary...

"Zara?"

She glanced at Ronan over her shoulder. He was watching her with a curious expression but didn't question her silence.

"There may be one person left who would be willing to help us. Although I can't promise anything," she finally answered him. The only Red Cape who had not faulted her. Who had forgiven her. One out of hundreds. "I'll try to reach her."

"The sooner the better," He prompted.

Zara rolled her eyes. "I said I'll try. Perhaps you should spend the rest of the night coming up with a back-up plan, just in case we don't find your little trinket." A tiny smile stretched her lips and Ronan shook his head.

"And perhaps you should work on having more faith," he chided her.

Zara moved to leave, hand on the doorknob. "Having too much faith is what got me here. Lucky for you."

She moved into the hallway, shutting the door behind her. She thought she heard him murmur something behind the closed the door, but couldn't make out the words. To her keen ears, though, it had sounded an awful lot like 'lucky me indeed'.