Blood Magic
an excerpt

The morning was unusually still, but fair. As she followed the banks of the stream, Vetra caught the scent of death on the air again, stronger this time. She slowed her pace and moved as if stalking prey, unsure of what awaited her.

The land dropped more steeply as she moved south, and Vetra had to leave the banks of the stream to find more even ground. This brought her back to the road, which was no more than a wide dirt trail until it passed the Kurfan lands. Hesitant to be out in the open without knowing what was ahead, Vetra paused at the edge of the road. She could continue in this direction and toward the source of the foul odor brought to her on the morning breeze. Alternatively, she could double back and take an alternate route around Lake Wellius that would bring her to the western Kurfan lands, although she knew her furs would prove less valuable there.

Vetra had delayed in leaving for Kurfan lands, and feared the winter would leave her unprepared if she took longer that she had allowed for this trip, however. She unstrapped her short spear from the side of her satchel and crept forward with it ready in her hand. The road curved around a set of low hills, weaving away from the stream. Vetra recognized the place and felt a knot start to form in the pit of her stomach. A village of Kurfa lay on the far side of the hills.

As Vetra rounded the last bend of the road, the smoke came into view. A thin pillar of green smoke drifted in the wind, formerly hidden by the forest. Vetra drifted into the trees, leaving the road, and circled toward the northern edge of the village.

The stench of death and rotting flesh grew stronger, now mixed with an unhealthy burning odor, like that of charred meat, but with an underlying putridness. Vetra swallowed against the bile attempting to rise in her throat, and moved closer.

Between the foliage, she saw jagged structures and unidentifiable shapes on the ground. A light mist of the green smoke emanated from everything. Vetra felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle and she had to concentrate to keep herself from bringing up the dried meat.

Vetra waited until she could feel her stomach settle marginally. By the time she felt well enough to move again, her legs felt cramped beneath her. She stood shakily, rubbing her legs to get some life back into them. Broken huts and mangled twisted fragments of human bodies lay strewn in the clearing where she had once intended to trade her furs. Over everything, the unnatural green mist lingered, like fog that failed to burn off in the morning light.

I should never have come here, she thought. I should have gone to Lake Wellius at the first sign of something amiss.

Vetra had never seen anything like this. She knew that she could handle the butchering and skinning of animals – she had been doing so since she was small. When it came to humans, however, she had no tolerance for the grotesqueness of injury, illness, and death. When Thruak had fallen to the ice beast, she had grown so weak as she dressed his body, that she nearly succumbed to the unnatural cold that had swept over the plains that winter. Some nights she still had nightmares of his broken and mangled body, even though it had been so long.

All her senses on edge, Vetra backed away from the terrible sight. She wanted to bolt, but just barely kept herself together. Fear swept through her, and she could not imagine what had caused such devastation. Perhaps it still waited nearby…

At that thought all stiffness left her legs and Vetra moved smoothly, retracing her path back to the road she had followed in. As she reached the western edge of the village, no longer in sight of the carnage, a sound caught her attention. A wailing, like an injured animal, or…Vetra hesitated, trying not to think of painful memories, but couldn’t help it. The cry came again, and this time she was certain. A child cried nearby.