This story was originally intended for the Tales of Ever After anthology by Fellowship of Fantasy. It's divided into two parts because it runs a tad long, which is why it didn't end up in the anthology. I hope you enjoy it, and part 2 will be coming soon.


“You said the Walking Graveyard was dead,” Dana said as she scraped mud and bone shards off her boots. “You promised.”

“I thought it was,” Jayden replied. The Sorcerer Lord dunked his head in a nearby stream to wash his long, blond, messy hair clean. Most of the mud came out, but he had to scrub hard to remove the last few bits of soil. “The first time we fought the blasted thing I hacked it to pieces and dropped a stone tower on it. You’ll forgive me if I thought that was enough.”

Dana pointed at the foul remnants of the Walking Graveyard. The trail they were on ran through an idyllic pasture with blooming wildflowers filling the air with their perfume. An otherwise gorgeous scene was ruined by three tons of mud, bone fragments and shattered tombstones spread across the trail. “It followed us across the kingdom.”

“I normally admire tenacity, but not in this case.” Jayden waved for her to get off the trail. “Perhaps this can put the monster to rest for good. Cover your ears.”

Dana walked away while Jayden chanted. Dana was a girl of fifteen with brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a dress that had been dirty before the recent battle and now was in desperate need of cleaning, along with leather boots that came up to her knees. Dana was armed with a dagger and carried a backpack and sack loaded with coins, jewelry and other minor valuables.

Not long ago, Dana had been a simple farm girl, her father the mayor of a small frontier town. A terrible monster had menaced her town, and in desperation she’d reached out to Jayden, the world’s only Sorcerer Lord. He’d helped, but it was clear Jayden was deeply troubled. There was no telling what he might do if left alone, so she’d joined him to steer him from self destructive behavior, like attacking the king and queen of their kingdom.

The chanting grew louder as Jayden continued his spell. He was handsome and charming, and dressed in outlandish black and silver clothes. He carried no weapons, but his magic made him equal to nearly any foe. Jayden carried his own backpack loaded with treasure, rewards from their missions together. Most men would rest and celebrate after acquiring such riches, but money was of little interest to Jayden. He wanted the king and queen overthrown. Nothing less would do.

A spark formed in Jayden’s hands and flew to the defeated monster. This was the second time they’d fought the Walking Graveyard, a horror of mud, stone and bone, and apparently possessing enough of a mind to take offense at their earlier victory to track them down for a rematch. It might be dead this time, but Jayden wasn’t taking chances. The spark reached the Walking Graveyard and detonated into a white-hot blast of fire that cremated and scattered the monster’s body.

“That better be enough, for its sake as well as ours,” Jayden said. “I’ve better things to do than relive old victories, and as odious as that monster was, I’ve no desire to see it suffer needlessly.”

“And we don’t want it following us into a city,” Dana added.

“That wouldn’t do. We should reach our goal before lunchtime, and I don’t want to place people in danger because of me.”

With that done Dana and Jayden resumed their journey. They were on the western edge of the kingdom and close to the sea. Dana could already smell salt water, and the ground was a mix of dirt and sand.

“Admittedly there’s a certain mayor I’d like to introduce the Walking Graveyard to,” Jayden said casually.

Dana rolled her eyes. “Not this again. We were in the town of Rustile less than half a day. Let it go.”

“Their mayor is a pompous, overbearing halfwit who thinks blind loyalty is a virtue,” Jayden replied. “It’s fools mindlessly obeying orders that make this kingdom a dystopian nightmare. No critical thinking, no mercy, no faith, only slavish obedience to those who put him in power and keep him there.”

Dana shrugged. “At least he was honest about who he is.”

“How is that to his credit?”

“He didn’t hide his beliefs like some people. Being a lying two-faced weasel would be worse. Haven’t you ever heard people say just be yourself?”

That stopped Jayden in his tracks. “That’s terrible advice! What if a man was a drunken, illiterate bigot? Being himself would be the last thing anyone around him would want.”

“Fine, so what should you do?”

“Be better,” Jayden said as he resumed walking. “Be superior to who you were the day before, the week before, the year before. Learn, grow, improve, and never stop, because the day will come when people need you to be better for their sake and your own.”

This was typical of Jayden. He was judgmental and didn’t tolerate flaws in others. When villains committed terrible deeds, Jayden’s fury was terrible, and it lasted. It might take months for his ire to die down.

Jayden also had a thin skin when it came to the royal family, and anyone actively supporting them was a valid target for his temper. The major of Rustile learned that the hard way when he received orders to obtain pastures for the king and queen’s horses to graze on. The mayor tried to follow the order by evicting farmers from their land, which would have worked except Dana and Jayden had been passing through Rustile at the time. Jayden had no trouble scattering the mayor’s bullyboys, and followed that up by first looting and then torching the mayor’s house.

“We’ve reached our destination,” Jayden told her. He pointed to a city at the end of the road, a sprawling mix of wood and stone buildings that hugged the coast. “I came here once and was impressed by the number of ships in the harbor. There may be fewer today, but I trust we can hire one to take us out to sea.”

Dana looked at Jayden’s backpack, which contained a small silvery box called the Valivaxis. It could create a gateway to another world, except the only things on that world were dead elf emperors and living monsters that made wyverns and chimera seem tame in comparison. “What do we do with you-know-what once we get there?”

“Throw it overboard far from shore, where no one can ever find it,” Jayden replied. “It’s a pity given how rare the Valivaxis is, but I don’t feel we could find a safe place for it or person to entrust it to.”

They walked for hours more, but to Dana’s surprise they saw no houses or farms, just small pine trees. There were ruins, burned or rotted away, but few signs of men. “Where is everyone?”

“The soil is poor and supports few crops,” he explained. “There are lumberjacks in the countryside, but most of the wealth comes from fishing.”

As they reached the city’s outskirts, Dana asked, “What’s this place called?”

“Welcome to Fish Bait City, once the richest city in the kingdom,” Jayden said dramatically.

“You can’t be serious,” Dana told him.

“Obviously it’s glory days are behind it,” Jayden admitted. Rats scurried down alleys strewn with garbage. Most shops were closed forever rather than for the day, their doors and windows boarded over. Brick buildings were common and somehow decaying, with crumbling bricks and many holes. The few citizens on the street wore patched clothes that should have been thrown out. Topping off an incredibly bleak picture, the salty sea air stank from rotting fish.

“I mean you’re kidding about the name, right?”

“Shockingly, no. It was once the hamlet of Fish Bait, grew to be the town of Fish Bait, and with the coming of trade routes bloomed into the city of Fish Bait.” Jayden saw her disbelieving expression and added, “It’s considered bad luck to change a settlement’s name, no matter how silly. People believe renaming a town or city risks offending the dead buried there and drawing their wrath.”

“Has that ever happened?”

Jayden shrugged. “Twice that I know of. Both events were overblown.”

Dana stepped over a pothole as deep as a cooking pot. “What happened here?”

“It’s the king and queen’s doing.” Jayden led her through the streets, where they drew little attention from passing men. “Fish Bait City had the good fortune to avoid the worst of the fighting during the civil war. Unfortunately, the conflict that devastated the rest of the kingdom left the treasury empty. Existing taxes were raised, new taxes were made, and old forgotten taxes dug up from the grave and pressed into service. Government officials robbed merchants blind, and in time the merchants stopped coming.”

Dana rolled her eyes. “The civil war was twenty years ago.”

Jayden gave her a lopsided grin. “Taxes often outlive what they were meant to pay for. Three hundred years ago there was a wine tax to fund a war against a league of necromancers. The war lasted two years and the tax is still with us.”

They traveled through the edges of Fish Bait City until they reached a large harbor. Five medium sized fishing boats were docked alongside many rowboats. There were two larger merchant ships missing their sails and masts. Fishermen and laborers were present in small numbers.

“Grim as the city is, it has one thing we need above all else: boats,” Jayden said. More softly, he added, “It shouldn’t be expensive to hire one for a few days and take our most unwelcome guest out to sea. Make arrangements for our stay. I need to have a potter cover the Valivaxis in clay and bake it into a brick to better contain it.”

“Don’t you think I should be doing that?” she asked. He looked at her curiously, and she pointed at his gaudy clothes. “We’re not in the wilderness or a small town anymore. Which one of us is going to draw less attention from the authorities?”

“I’m sure they’ll notice me.” Jayden grinned and added, “I’m equally sure there’s nothing they can do about my presence.”

With that Jayden left her alone in the city. This was the first time Dana had visited a city, even a decrepit one, and the experience was overwhelming. Countless streets ran in every direction, brick buildings loomed over her, and nothing could prepare her for the smell. The ocean lent a pleasant odor to the air, but it couldn’t compete with the stench of manure, unwashed bodies, rotting fish and boiling tar. That last vulgar smell came from fishermen coating the hulls of their boats with tar to prevent rot.

If the city was unpleasant, the people were worse. The few men on the roads refused to make eye contact. Dana’s friendly greetings went unanswered as if she didn’t exist. When she hesitated at a crossroad, an older woman sweeping out her house spoke.

“You stay indoors tonight, young lady,” the woman said. She didn’t look up, just kept sweeping. “A fog is coming. Feel it in my bones.”

“Uh, thanks,” Dana replied. That was weird. She was going to chalk up the encounter to the woman being a touch off in the head, but nearby people nodded in agreement.

“Sorry about that,” a young man said. Dana stopped and looked at him, surprised that someone was talking to her. The youth had black hair and brown eyes, and the muscular build of someone used to hard work. He wore simple leather clothes, and more importantly he carried a spear. “It takes these people a long time to warm up to you. They wouldn’t even look at me for four months.”

“Weapons can have that effect.” Dana had a natural aversion to armed men and tried to slip around him, but the man followed her. He shifted his spear to his left hand and reached out with his right.

“Chuck Lowroad, at your service. I’ve never seen you before.”

Dana adjusted her baggage to shake his hand. “Dana Illwind. I’m new in town, Mr. Lowroad. My friend and I are only staying for a short time. Um, is there a reason why you’re armed?”

Chuck laughed. “I’m not anyone’s mister. Call me Chuck. I’m with the militia. I know, I don’t look like the soldier type. I was two weeks off the farm, looking to find my place in the world, when a pressgang gave me a job, a spear and two weeks training that revolved around where to find the best ale in Fish Bait.”

Puzzled, she asked, “How does that help you protect a city?”

“It doesn’t, especially since I can’t afford a drink. The city is six months behind in paying the militia and only sort of feeds us. I’ll be rich if I ever get my back wages. Say, I can’t get you a drink, for obvious reasons, but maybe I can do you a good turn. You’re new here so let me help. I know places in the city you might like to visit and a few you’ll want to avoid.”

Dana had met her fair share of helpful young men, and she’d learned that most of them were too romantic for their own good (or hers). Chuck looked nice, but she’d rather not trust her luck. “I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble with your boss.”

Chuck nodded to a drunken man slouched down in a chair outside a tavern. “Leo, I’m skipping duty.”

“Bring back booze,” Leo called back.

“See, problem solved,” Chuck told her.

Dana stared at him. “Your baron is okay with this?”

“Weapons won’t solve the problems in Fish Bait City. We don’t even have crime since there’s nothing to steal. To be honest, half this job is knowing when to tell the baron we followed orders when we didn’t. You wouldn’t believe how vindictive he is. Let’s find a better topic of conversation. Do you have family here, or are you getting away from them?”

She edged away from Chuck. “This is getting personal.”

Chuck laughed. “Oh come on! Listen, people say I have a good eye for details. Let me guess your past. With those clothes you’re fresh off the farm. You’d doing okay for yourself with so much baggage. And you look confident, which is rare around here, so you’ve got an ace up your sleeve. Am I right?”

Indigent, she demanded, “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

Still slouched in his chair, Leo called out, “Talking like that’s going to get you kneed where it hurts, Chuck.”

“I’m just trying to be helpful,” Chuck protested.

“You want to be helpful?” Dana asked. “I need an inn room for the night. Point me to a good one and I’ll let that ‘fresh off the farm’ comment go.”

“It wasn’t an insult!” Chuck sighed and said, “I’ll take you to the best in Fish Bait City. It’s not what it used to be, but the food’s good and the doors have locks.”

As Chuck led Dana away, Leo said, “Don’t get mad at him, girly. He’s not evil, just dumb.”

The tour through Fish Bait was far from scenic. Streets swarmed with beggars and orphans. The stench had been bad at the city’s edge, and as they walked it actually got worse. Dana had grown up in a small town and was no stranger to farm life and the smells that entailed, but the city’s rancid odor was appalling.

Dana put a hand over her nose when she saw men leave buckets of fish entrails in an alley. “What are they doing?”

Chuck shrugged. “Fed goblins cause less trouble than hungry ones.”

Dozens of goblins scampered through the shadows, and some stopped to eat from the buckets. They were two to four feet tall and had skin colors ranging from red to gray to green. No two goblins looked alike, some having webbed fingers, pointed ears, stunted wings on their backs, sharp teeth, and one had a third arm. They dressed in rags and were armed with clubs and slings. Filthy goblins babbled and hooted as they made mischief and set traps for anyone foolish enough to follow them into the alleys.

“This is disgusting,” Dana said.

“Don’t you have goblins where you come from?”

She frowned and said, “Not this many. They sneak into town to eat table scraps before we can feed them to our chickens. Sometimes they set traps like making outhouses tip over when you use them. I once threatened to give my little brother to the goblins when he was naughty. He asked if I could help him pack. I know goblins aren’t that bad, but there are so many of them here!”

“Yeah, it’s hard to deal with,” Chuck admitted. “If you get too many goblins together they can work some kind of magic. Some old coot said goblins are so stupid and crazy that too many of them close together can warp space. I thought he was joking, right until I found myself flying into the ocean when I chased a goblin.”

“How can that be?” Dana asked. No sooner had the words left her mouth then the air began to ripple and smell musty. Her skin tingled, and live eels appeared from nowhere to rain down on her. She covered her head as goblins laughed and an old woman gathered up the eels for supper.

Dana stared at the goblins and gave Chuck a disapproving look. Chuck raised his hands in mock surrender and said, “I know it looks bad, but we leave goblins alone here. Leo gave me two pieces of advice when I was forced to take this job. Number one is which bars have good mixed drinks, which I have to take his word on until I get paid. Number two is leave beggars, orphans and goblins alone, no excuses. The Shrouded One hunts anyone who hurts them.”

“You’re afraid of a fairytale?” she asked. Nearby goblins laughed as Chuck’s face turned red. “I heard that story when I was five. The Shrouded One lurks in doorways for thieves and bandits, punishing cheating merchants and greedy mayors, stealing miser’s gold and sinking pirate ships.”

Chuck looked down as the color drained from his face. “I’ve seen that fairytale. I’ve seen men try to kill him and what happened to them for trying. And he sunk two ships.”

“You, you’re serious.”

“You bet I’m serious!” Chuck’s earlier bravado vanished. “I used to think The Shrouded One was a boogieman to scare little kids, but he’s real and lives here. You think I’m joking? Come with me.”

Chuck led Dana to the center of Fish Bait City. The buildings were larger but shockingly run down, the brickwork crumbling and wood walls rotting. Across from the ocean was a cathedral that dwarfed nearby buildings. It was in far better shape, but the windows were dark and the only people near it were beggars.

“You’re old enough to remember when the king and queen ordered the Brotherhood of the Righteous out of the kingdom five years ago, right?” Chuck asked. He pointed his spear at the cathedral and said, “The baron who rules Fish Bait City couldn’t wait to chase out the priests and monks so he could steal their property. He threw a party in the cathedral with his friends to celebrate taking it over as his new house.”

Dana eyed their surroundings nervously. No nobleman would allow beggars so close to his home. “I’m guessing that didn’t work too well.”

“A dense fog rolled in that night, and The Shrouded One came with it. The baron and his friends ran screaming into the night. The baron won’t come into Fish Bait City unless he has to, and he leaves before nightfall. These days only the homeless stay at the cathedral. That was five years ago, and The Shrouded One hasn’t left. He comes some nights and every time there’s a fog, punishing the guilty and protecting the unwanted. Hit a beggar, kick a goblin, ignore an orphan’s pleas, and you’ll pay.”

Still skeptical, Dana asked, “You’ve seen him?”

Chuck pointed at the two large ships in the bay. “Two months ago the baron ordered us to ambush The Shrouded One when he came with the fog. We waited on those two confiscated smuggler ships with every militiaman in the city. The fog rolled in, we heard church bells ring for midnight, and when the last bell tolled The Shrouded One was standing between us. I saw him get hit by arrows, spears, swords, fists, and Leo even head butted him. We just made him angry. If brotherhood priest were still here maybe they could banish him. As for us, we learned our lesson and keep out of his way.”

Dana put a hand over her face. “What is it with me running into weird monsters? Wait a minute. Why did your baron send militiamen instead of soldiers or mercenaries?”

“Oh, them.” Chuck laughed without mirth. “The king and queen are throwing a war, and everybody’s invited. Soldiers and mercenaries who are supposed to protect Fish Bait City got called away months ago. That’s why I got pressganged into the militia. Someone’s got to protect the city. The baron conscripted guys like me to do it, with a death sentence for deserters.”

Jayden had a deep and burning hatred for the royal couple, and he was sure they were going to invade neighboring kingdoms. If a city as large as Fish Bait had been stripped of defenders and left with only militiamen, then the war couldn’t be far off.

“Your baron couldn’t hire more mercenaries?”

Chuck shrugged. “Mercenaries come in by sea from time to time. The king’s agents hire them the moment they step on dry land. Doesn’t matter that we need them when the war needs them more. We even had an elf wizard show up a week ago. He left the next day with a job to hunt an enemy of the king. It wouldn’t have helped if they’d stayed.”

“Wonderful,” she said sarcastically. “It’s one hideous monster after another lately.”

“You need a place to stay tonight,” Chuck continued. He pointed out to sea, where a mist hung on the horizon. “There’s going to be a fog tonight, and that guarantees The Shrouded One will come. I’m sure you have money to pay for an inn room, but if you want protection—”

“Don’t you ever stop?”

Chuck studied her from head to foot and smiled. “I’ve got a good reason not to.”

To her relief, Dana saw Jayden coming down the street toward them. She pointed at him and told Chuck, “And there’s your reason to be a good little boy. Meet my traveling companion.”

Chuck looked worried as Jayden approached. “Wait, I’ve seen wanted posters for that guy. You travel with him? There’s a huge price on his head, and it keeps going up. The latest wanted poster puts the bounty at 1000 silver pieces! That kind of money attracts dangerous men who wouldn’t mind hurting innocent girls.” Chuck paused and gave Dana a questioning look. “You two aren’t…you know?”

“What? No!”

“So I’ve still got a chance with you?” he asked hopefully.

Dana went through her belongings until she found a gold coin. Once upon a time she would have been shocked to have such wealth, but since traveling with Jayden she’d come to see gold as a tool to be used. She pressed the coin into Chuck’s hand and said, “Here, I’m paying you to go away. Try those bars you heard about and have a drink on me.”

“But—”

“Scoot!” she scolded, and pushed him away. Chuck left looking like a puppy that had been kicked.

Jayden smiled at the spectacle. “And you thought I’d attract too much attention.”

Dana blushed. “We’ve got bigger problems than teenage boys. A fairytale lives here, and not one of the nice ones.”