Beastborne: Voracious (Book 5) [Chapter 18]

Chapter 18

Mira kept her guard up, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

If Hamrin was right, then they didn’t have a powerful battlemage camping right where they slept. Somebody who very well might kill them in their sleep or at least make a spirited go of it before trying to get away.

If he was truly helpless, maybe he would be easier to trust. Mira would leave it up to Hal, it was his settlement after all, but she found herself believing him.

Hamrin was either an accomplished liar, or he was telling the truth.

It didn’t take him long to stop at the edge of the trees. For a moment she thought he was going to bolt, but instead he knelt down and cupped his hands around a weed.

“I take it you don’t know what you have here,” he said with a curiously distant voice as if he was reading something and talking was a mere afterthought.

Mira folded her arms. “Enlighten us.”

The hairs on the back of her neck tingled as Hamrin started to do something with magic. Angram had an arrow knocked and Mira’s polearm was out in a flash, its sharpened tip pointed at Hamrin’s throat.

The mage lifted his hands from the plant and raised them slowly, freezing in place. “Sorry, sorry… didn’t mean to startle you. I just… look.”

And they did.

The plant he had been touching had looked sickly and like any other weed. Only now it was thriving, vibrant green with several flowering stalks curling out as if they were watching a nature documentary time-lapse.

Tiny little fruits began to form where the closed flower petals used to be. They swelled into small clusters of red and white berries that resembled raspberries crossed with polka dots.

“Try one,” he said. “They’re completely safe.”

When nobody did, he sighed and, with a gesture by Mira’s spear, he was able to pluck one of the rapidly ripening berries and pop it into his mouth. “See? Harmless. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

Leis took one herself, sniffed it, then popped it into her mouth. Her eyes went wide. “It’s… delicious.” She looked at Hamrin. “What did you do?”

He shrugged sheepishly, but Mira could see the glint of pride in his purple eyes. “It is what I do.”

“You grow plants?”

Hamrin shook his head. “I’m a Gourmage. A sort of… food mage, I suppose you could say. I use magic to make crops grow, create hybrids that are more robust, nutritionally dense, and provide a host of unique benefits, that sort of thing. Not very glamorous, I know. The Tower definitely doesn’t think so, despite all the work we do to keep the people fed.”

“You… can make food from weeds?” Mira asked, dumbstruck.

“Not precisely,” Hamrin explained. “I can create hybrids and crossbreed with magic. I still need a plant that’s capable of producing something. I cannot create food from nothing. Nobody can, that’s a fairy tale. But if you give me some crops, or better yet, some seeds, I could show you more.”

And here, he began to forget that his life was on the line because Mira could see the way his eyes lit up with the true joy of somebody talking about their life’s passion. “I’ve been working on a [Hot Potato] plant that has a small stem attached and when you pull the stem, the potato cooks itself.” Hamrin looked down a bit sheepishly. “Getting the butter to melt inside instead of exploding is a bit of a challenge, though. We never get enough materials or funding, so I have to fund most everything myself, which means it’s slow going.”

The look she exchanged with Angram was one of great surprise. If this guy could do what he just did to the few seed stores they had and make something that could actually grow in the horrible conditions here…?

This is a game changer.

Provided he was telling the truth, their food problems might just be over.

“If we got you materials and seeds,” Mira said slowly, “would you be able to make hybrids that could live in this environment?”

Hamrin didn’t even need to think about it. Something inside him lit up as he said, “Of course! It’d be the simplest of magic to do. If you could give me some plant material of things that thrive here, I could do even better than that. Do… do you have seeds I could look at?”

They had a lot of seeds. Not nearly enough for what Hal had planned for Brightsong… but if Hamrin could make food for them, then the Rangers under Angram’s command and the Adventurer groups under Mira’s would be freed up to do more important things instead of finding enough food so nobody starves.

“You understand we’ll have to keep you under guard,” Mira said, though not unkindly. “It wouldn’t be too hard, I imagine, to poison us.”

The color in Hamrin’s face drained away until he looked sickly and gray. “Poison? Food? I… no. I would never, I swear it on my mother’s life.”

Leis frowned at Mira and patted Hamrin’s back. “He was always a very kind and sweet young man. I do not think he’s telling any lies. You would like to use your talents for good, wouldn’t you, Hamrin?”

He nodded enthusiastically.

“And if we could get you all the supplies and a place to work on them, would you?” she continued.

“Yes, of course! This is my life’s passion.” His eyes turned pleading as they latched onto Mira. “Please. I may come from the Tower, but my allegiance has always been to the food and the plants in my care. I only want to continue my work and research. I will sign any contract, swear any oath, bind myself however you wish if you’ll give me a chance to continue working here.”

“Why?” Mira asked. “Wouldn’t you rather just go home?”

“What is awaiting me there?” Hamrin said sourly. “People who don’t care about me or my Class simply because I can’t maim and kill others for being different? I want to help people. Food is something we all need, and I enjoy what I do. Besides, even if I were to go back, what are the odds that they would welcome me back?”

“Not very good,” Angram admitted.

Hamrin motioned to Angram. “See? While my life was undoubtedly more comfortable there, I’ve always yearned to be at the forefront of innovation. Here I could make fruit that keeps you warm for hours, vegetables that provide defensive buffs, mushrooms that when cooked can cure common poisons—though first I’d need the poisons to inoculate the mushrooms, of course—instant baked potatoes, bomb berries, slowmatoes, even cloffee if I can find some [Rhyze Berries].”

“Hold on, hold on,” Mira said, patting the air between them. “Take a breath. We’ll get you some materials if you tell us what you need. Are you sure you feel up to this? You did just wake up after being badly wounded.”

“I don’t know if it’s the air, my second chance at life or… or something entirely else, but I feel invigorated!” Hamrin had that manic look that Deklin sometimes got when he was on the cusp of discovering a new spell.

Mira shook her head. “Gods help me, but I actually believe him.”

“Nobody can lie that well,” Angram agreed. “His enthusiasm is nigh infectious.” He turned to Leis. “I know Hal trusts you, though I am still suspicious that you did not use the [Sending Stone] to speak to him about all of this. There was no need to visit and put all of us in harm’s way.”

“I… tried,” Leis said. “Perhaps there is something wrong with his, or it is damaged? I have heard a great many things about what Hal has done since I last saw him, and I would not be surprised if the errant magic from one of his escapades did something to the delicately tuned [Sending Stone].”

“He trusts her,” Mira told him. She turned to Leis. “How about this? You’ll be responsible for Hamrin until we can sort this all out. For the time being, we’ll keep an eye on the both of you, mostly for your own protection.”

Hamrin and Leis looked more than a little worried at that.

Angram laughed. “We won’t hurt you if you don’t provide us with a reason, but there are some here who truly dislike Rinbast and look suspiciously at anything that is tied to him. Until Hal makes a final ruling on the matter, it’s safer for everybody this way. Besides, you’ll soon find out why the Shiverglades is completely empty of Rinbast’s rule.”

“Spoiler alert,” Mira said with a grin, “it’s dangerous as flork out here. You’ll be glad to have an escort. Just think of them as somebody who wants to make sure our two newest citizens aren’t going to come to any harm. But for now, we’ll vouch for you.” She looked sharply at Hamrin. “Don’t make me regret this, because if you do, I’ll make sure you live a very long life full of pain and misery.” She smiled sweetly at him and patted his stunned cheek.

Angram and Mira turned to head back to the cottage. The leader of the Rangers gave a signal, and two members of the Royal Knights under Durvin and Ashera stepped out from overseeing one of Athagan’s constructions.

The Ranger explained matters to the Knights-in-training, and the pair saluted, fists pressed over their hearts. They hurried off to keep Leis and Hamrin under watch and to provide them with materials that they saw fit.

“I’ll talk to Rondo,” Mira assured Angram. “The little gnome loves me to pieces. I was the one who introduced him to Hal after all, and he’s in hog heaven here sorting and organizing everything. I’ll loop him into what Hamrin wants and, with any luck, by the time Hal wakes up, your Rangers will be rested and fresh to hunt down those pesky Kinslayers that’re coming to kill all of us!”

“You really do have a way with words, you know that?” Angram said with a laugh. “I’ll tell the others. I feel like our resident Brewmaster would love to have a say in what gets planted. If the little brown bundle of sass gets better ingredients, think of the brews she could make. Brightsong very well might succeed purely because of our world-famous beer.”

Mira shook her head. She turned around and began walking backwards from Angram, heading toward the Quartermaster’s place. “Wars have been won over far less, Angram! I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if Komachi was the reason we end up trouncing Rinbast.”

It wouldn’t be the first time a soul aeder had been responsible for lasting peace and a better outcome on a Worldshard. Though this Komachi was different from the one bonded to Sylvie, they all shared a similar… komachiness as it were.

And if there was one thing all Komachis loved, it was food.

On her way to meet Rondo, Mira couldn’t help but smile. She had expected the meeting to go a number of ways, mostly bad, but never had she thought they would suddenly have a means of making food.

The [Farm] buildings were expensive to produce, she knew, and the food that they could grow was extremely limited. It was mostly things that would only grow for a little while before the snow and the frost came.

It was difficult to till ground that was as dark and hard as iron. And from what the Ebon Star Tribesmen said, that was precisely what the Shiverglades would transform into in a matter of weeks.

There was a reason the tribes didn’t plant anything. They foraged and hunted because there was nothing else to sustain life here.

It was a wonder that this place managed to survive at all!

Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, Mira wished that Hal had chosen a warmer climate for his little rebellion.