Casting Runes Part 76“Oi, come out, youhave guests!”“Again?”, a deep, but friendly voice responded to Granny’s words with acounter-question and soon the innkeeper left the room that Jordis now thoughtto contain the kitchen of the inn, “The merchants just left and there’s…”Mid-sentence, the burly man with a dark grey beard on his cheeks,stopped his words and stared at them. Particularly at Neil.“I can’t believe it…”, he then jangled and grinned broadly, “It is you!Gosh, boy, look at you!”“Evan?”, the knight asked in utter surprise and then laughed in happydisbelief, “How, by the runes, did you wind up here?”“Oh, you know, the missus decided she wanted somewhere quiet to liveafter leaving Caellowell. What could be quieter than a hamlet like this one?”,the innkeeper jokingly retorted, but then jerked slightly as he heard a teasingvoice from the kitchen: “Th
Casting Runes Part 75“It’s you!”“Mika!”, Liam called out to the boy in eager joy, “How are you?”Laughing happily, he came running to them and Jordis was sure that hewould simply glomp Liam, but Mika stopped only one step short from doing so.Panting and smiling, he stood there and then addressed Neil and her: “You’rehere, too! Sunna’s gonna jump with joy.”“Tell me, how is she?”, Liam wanted to know from Mika, but at the sametime, also Colleen asked a question, even if much more quietly, almostsilently: „How is her baby?”Sorrow gripped Jordis’ heart as she heard her sister making this enquireas she clearly heard how much Colleen was still pained by the loss of herdaughter.But Mika did not see this or ignored it. He smiled at them all broadlyand told them: “Neam’s fine. But he cries a lot, the little bugger.”“What’s his name?”, Liam asked in confusion and so
Casting Runes Part 74Until she heard asound as strange as everything in the Lurker’s Deathbed.At first, Jordis thought that it was merely a whisper of the wind in theleaves, but then she understood words. Come.Come to us.Shivering from the whispers creeping into her ears and tingling in hermind, Jordis shook her head and looked at her companions. Neil seemed asshocked as she felt, his eyes wide and watching their surroundings for anydanger, but finding none.“What is this?”, he asked muttering and then slid even closer to her,walking right next to her so that she could hold onto his arm. And foreverything Jordis had learned, she did. Not only because she was afraid eventhough she had an idea what they were facing, but mostly to keep Neil at herside. He was in far more danger than she was.“The maidens.”, Colleen softly mumbled, saddened and alarmed both, „Thoseare the Maidens of the Marsh, calling out for their lost husbands.”Jordis had