by Eric Vall
Hours went by as we slowly descended into the valley below, and I saw a familiar sight on the horizon. The light of the late afternoon sun was behind us, but I recognized my work when I saw it.
The walled town of Keld. Of course, it wasn’t walled when I first visited there. That had been my parting gift to help protect them from the bandits which once plagued the town. It had been quite a while since my time there, but I was eager to see how they fared. I estimated we were about twenty miles away, so we could get there by sunset with just the tracks we had in stock.
“Look!” Cayla pointed out as we got closer. “It looks like a beehive.”
It was a great comparison. Covered wagons swarmed their way in and out of the front gates of the town from far and wide. I could see activity all over the surrounding fields as if this once sleepy little town had become a hub of action.
We neared the walls and of course attracted a lot of attention. The wagon drivers pulled aside to gawk and point as the Terra Mages turned over the dirt and grass along our path, and I cast out a succession of tracks and ties. When we were about fifty yards from the front gate, I gave Aurora the signal, and the train came to a slow, rumbling halt.
The ten of us as we got out of the train were no doubt a sight almost as arresting as the locomotive itself. Five Terra Mages we had recruited from the Oculus, an enormous half-ogre who could craft gemstones, a healer Aer Mage from a distant island, a half-elf Ignis Mage, the slightly in disguise Princess of Cedis, and me, a transplanted Earth resident turned sole Metal Mage in the land.
We stepped through the gates of Keld and took it all in.
When I had first come to the place, it reminded me of a sleepy, dusty town in the Wild West, beaten down by bandit raids, with weathered buildings ready to fall apart in a strong wind. It still retained some of that spirit but the emphasis was now on the “wild” part of the Wild West. The streets were lined with colorful tents, a bazaar of trading goods, and the atmosphere was that of a party. Merchants shouted their deals, musicians played, traders sampled goods, and certain buxom young ladies showed the world’s oldest profession was flourishing in Keld.
“Mason, it’s amazing that this is the same place,” Cayla gasped. “We have to go to the Prairie Inn and see Serlo!”
“What should we do?” asked Churchwell as he scratched at his gray goatee.
“The walls I built seem to have stood up pretty well,” I observed as I looked them over, “but it’s been a while, and they might need some repairs. Could you Terra Mages take a long walk around the perimeter and see if they need any reinforcement?”
“Definitely,” Pindor replied with an enthusiastic smile. Shosanne’s treatment seemed to have done the young mage a world of good.“Maybe we could look at some of the other structures in town too, and see if they are in need of repairs?”
“I like that attitude.” I grinned and gently clapped him on his uninjured shoulder. “That’s the sort of plan that’s going to start turning around the reputation of mages. We’ll be at the Prairie Inn when you’re finished, and we’ll see if we can’t set us up with some food and beds for the night.”
As the Terra Mages took off to do their good deeds, Cayla, Aurora, Shoshanne, and I made our way through the crowd. Looking from one of the women’s faces to the next, it was hard to determine who enjoyed the sights more. Cayla and Aurora who had seen what Keld used to be, or Shoshanne for whom all of this activity was brand new? All of their eyes, Aurora’s emerald, Cayla’s crystal blue, and Shoshanne’s warm chocolate, were open wide as they tried not to miss a single thing.
The sign outside the Prairie Inn had the same images of the silhouette of the bucking bronco and the pitcher of beer, but before, they had been faded, and now they were clean and newly painted. From the crowd that came in and out of the swinging doors, apparently this was still the place to be in Keld.
We saw Serlo, the proprietor of the inn, almost immediately. His wispy gray hair and tangled beard were just the same, but that was about it. I remembered the first time we met, him behind the bar, a sour expression on his face and a dirty dishrag in his hands as he wiped down some glassware. The memory was a stark contrast with this day, when he rushed from table to table in the large, crowded room to help his tavern wenches get his patrons food and drink. He also wore a big welcoming smile on his face.
We found one of the few empty tables and decided to let him find us.
“Something smells really good,” Shoshanne sighed as she inhaled the scent that drifted in from the kitchen.
I took a sniff as well, and then I tried to stifle back a grin. “Ah, those would be sod poodles.”
“Sod poodles?” the Aer Mage asked, curious. “Is that a local specialty?”
Cayla nodded while she failed in her attempt to suppress a smile of her own.“You could say that. They’re pretty good, but don’t ask too many details about what they are.”
“By the gods!” Serlo suddenly shouted as he caught sight of us and rushed to our table. “You’ve returned, the saviors of Keld!”
I felt a tinge of embarrassment but mostly pride as my chest swelled up at the tavernkeep’s words. We shook hands warmly, and then Serlo kissed Aurora and Cayla on the cheek before he stopped at the sight of Shoshanne.
“Are you on a mission to collect the most beautiful women in the land?” the bartender asked me with a grin. Then he turned his eyes back to Shoshanne. “What is your name, milady?”
“Shoshanne of Epiphones,” the healer replied as she let her wild, curly hair fall over her face to conceal a blush.
“Well, I hope you came with an appetite, Shoshanne of Epiphones,” Serlo declared as he chuckled heartily, “because all the food and drink is on me.”
“Before you make that offer, Serlo, you should know we aren’t alone,” I spoke up. “We have six Terra Mages on the streets, making repairs, and one of them is a half-ogre who could probably eat all your sod poodles and ask for a sod great dane on toast.”
“We have no risk of running out of supplies, I assure you,” Serlo said with a smile. “Not anymore. Not since you helped us get back on our feet. Will you all need rooms for the night?”
“Do you have any vacancies?” Cayla asked.
“It might be a little crowded, but I’ll make sure you have beds,” the tavernkeep assured us and signaled to the closest wench to come to our table.
She was a pretty, smiling girl in a corset dress with a deep plunging neckline that pushed her endowments together but left just enough freedom for them to jiggle as she hurried over.
“Ria, we need to get beds for ten tonight for my friends here,” Serlo told the wench.
“We can shuffle things around, but some people might need to share a bed,” Ria replied.
“I don’t recall that was a problem for you before, right Mason?” the tavernkeep said with a wink.
I nodded my head with a quick glance at Cayla and Aurora.
“I’ll see to it,” the wench smiled, evidently not a stranger to these types of arrangements. “In the meantime, I’ll tell the kitchen to bring out food and drink for your friends, sir.”
Ria hurried off, but not quite fast enough to avoid the smack on her ass that Serlo delivered. She shot him a grin over her bare shoulder as she left us. Then Serlo pulled up a chair to our table.
“Okay, tell me everything about your battle with the Bandit Boss,” the tavernkeep said as he took a seat. “I’ve heard various rumors, but they couldn’t possibly be true. Something about you employing a metal warrior?”
“The rumors are true about Big Guy,” I grinned, and let Stan out of my pocket. “He’s a giant version of this little fellow.”
Serlo stared wide-eyed as Stan stepped out onto the table and lifted a metal hand up. After a moment’s pause, the bartender tentatively lifted his own hand up in greeting.
“Hello?” Serlo said, unsure.
“He’s looking for a high five, like this,” I explained with a smile as I tapped Stan’s hand wi
th my forefinger.
The bartender’s face broke out in a laugh as he too tapped Stan’s hand with his finger. “I’ve never seen anything like it!”
“Stan’s one of a kind, all right,” I agreed, “like his big brother. The battle was definitely one for the ages. The Bandit Boss, also known as Camus Dred, had taken King Davit hostage in the throne room. It took every trick in the book to take him out, and even so, we barely made it out alive. I’d probably be dead right now if it weren’t for Shoshanne. She’s a healer of the Order of Pallax.”
Serlo glanced at Shoshanne with respect as well as admiration for her looks. “Very impressive.”
“Since then, we’ve been doing what we can to rid the region of the remaining bandits,” Cayla continued. “Among the rumors you’ve heard, has there been one about Mason’s train?”
As we spoke, Ria appeared and passed around mugs of cold ale.
“Well, I’ve never heard that word used, but there’s one outlandish rumor about a metal caravan running around the countryside,” Serlo scoffed. “They say the Metal Mage has something to do with it.”
“That rumor’s true as well,” I said with a grin as I took a sip of my ale. “The idea is to link up all the major trading posts in the region with fast transport for goods and soldiers, if need be. If you think you’re busy now, wait until we’ve built the Keld train station stop.”
Serlo’s eyes glittered, and he slapped the table eagerly. “Well, tell me more about this … train then.”
We had attracted more than our share of attention in Keld and in the Prairie Inn, and I had gotten used to the curious stares and whispers. At a table near us, however, I couldn’t help notice a group of six men who hadn’t taken their eyes off us since the moment we walked in. They were each dressed in ill-fitting thread bare clothes, and their faces were grim and unsmiling.
As I opened my mouth to respond to Serlo, the group rose from their table and came to ours. They were led by a man with a scar that rose from his left eye and into his hairline, and his hair was cut short so the ugly scar could still be seen in the black stubble of his head.
“What do you need, Yaxin?” Serlo asked as he turned toward them. A frown was etched across the tavernkeep’s face, and I let my eyes settle warily on these newcomers.
“Just wanted a word with your friend here,” the man in front sneered. “I think he could use some advice.”
“Go on,” I said calmly.
“We don’t need your fancy magic caravan,” Yaxin glared back. “Me and my men got the trade here handled just fine without you.”
“So you’re traders?” Aurora spoke up, and I glanced at her to find her eyes narrowed. “You must be doing good business now that we’ve taken care of the bandits.”
“Yeah, and we don’t need you messing things up,” he growled at her before he turned back to me. “What gives you the right to come in and fix what don’t need fixing?”
“As a matter of fact, we’re operating under the directions of King Temin of Illaria and King Davit of Cedis,” Cayla replied with her sweetest smile. “So you can leave us alone and take it up with them.”
“Listen, bitch,” Yaxin sneered as he pulled a dagger from inside his raggedy jacket, “you can save your breath. Only one thing you need to do, and that’s leave.”
“This is my place,” Serlo said angrily as he got to his feet. “You and your men are the ones who need to leave.”
The trader made a move to stab Serlo, but I was ready. With a small surge of my power, I sent the metal blade out of his hand and across the room, where it impaled itself up to its hilt in the wood of the bar.
After that, everything seemed to happen at once.
Yaxin made a move to grab me, but I was already out of my seat, so he fell into the table. Our drinks crashed to the floor as the three girls jumped up from their chairs. The nearby patrons fled or were pushed aside by the traders as they grabbed what they could use as weapons.
Yaxin made another lunge for me, but I met him with a haymaker that sent him on his back to the floor. Then I reached for the revolver I always kept strapped to my hip. Momentarily distracted, I had missed the burly trader next to me as he swung a chair at my head. I only noticed when a shot rang out, the chair fell to the ground, and the trader fell back. He groaned in pain and clutched his blood-stained shoulder.
“Who’s the bitch now, bitch?” Cayla smirked as she cocked her smoking revolver.
Two more traders came for me from either direction, one with a sword and the other with a bottle of booze. I caught a scent of evergreen just for a moment to warn me that Aurora had flexed her powers before the bottle of alcohol exploded in the man’s hand in a burst of flame. As he fell to the floor and screamed in pain, the other trader was just distracted enough for me to flex my own power, yank the sword from his hand, and bend it tightly around his wrists.
Yaxin was on his feet, and he gave a thin-lipped grin as he wiped blood from his mouth.
“You had enough?” I demanded as I lifted my revolver and leveled it between his eyes. “We’re taking it easy on you, but patience isn’t my strong suit. You need to apologize and clear the fuck out.”
“What are you doing?” Yaxin demanded, but it wasn’t to me. His eyes had jumped over my shoulder, and a frown marred his face.
I turned and saw what the trader was looking at it. It was one of his men behind me.
And he had one arm around Shoshanne and held a knife to her throat.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” the man chuckled as he curled a lock of Shoshanne’s hair around his finger teasingly, “no one’s gonna hurt you. You’re packing up and going back to where you came from. And when I say ‘packing up,’ I mean dismantling all your railroad shit. You hear me?”
“Put down the knife,” Yaxin growled. “You know we don’t do it like this.”
“You don’t think the other traders do?” the man snarled back.
I tried to make a judgement call on how serious these guys really were. They certainly acted tough, but my gut told me it was just that, an act. They weren’t bandits, they were traders.
I’d still put a bullet between their eyes if they kept threatening my women though.
Just as I was going to fire a warning round into his shoulder, I heard a gasp from the man who held the knife to Shoshanne. The man’s face had turned blue, and the knife clattered to the floor as he staggered back.
“C-can’t breathe,” he gasped as he clutched at his throat.
A light breeze blew through Shoshanne’s hair and robe as she focused her Aer magic at the man. Yaxin stared at his fellow trader in shock for a moment before he turned to grab the healer.
I flexed my power quickly and turned the stone floor under Yaxin into quicksand. He cursed as he sank to his waist, and then I sent another pulse into the floor to solidify it around him.
I was pissed and felt a strong urge to constrict the stone around him and snuff the motherfucker out of his misery. But then I took a moment to check myself. This guy was no killer despite his bad manners and bravado.
“Yaxin,” I said calmly as I looked down at him, “I want you to listen to me. I have no intention of hurting anyone’s business, including yours. The railroad is happening, and you have a choice to adapt to it or not. It’s not going to go to every podunk town, village, and farm in the land, and it could be very lucrative for you to make a deal with the kings to be that middleman.”
The trader just glared up at me.
“Are you hearing me, Yaxin?” I asked, more sternly.
He took a deep breath and nodded.
“Good,” I replied. “I’m going to let you and your men go now, and I don’t want to see your face again until you’ve considered this very generous offer where everybody wins.”
With a wave of my power, I softened the stone that held Yaxin. After a bit of struggle, he managed to pull himself out of the floor. He didn’t lift his eyes to meet mine as he rose to his feet.
Yaxin and
his injured men helped up the unconscious man who had held Shoshanne, and they silently headed for the swinging doors out of the tavern. Yaxin paused at the knife the unconscious man had dropped, but I yanked my revolver up and fired a quick shot that cracked across the room. The bullet embedded itself in the floor in the mere inches of space between Yaxin’s fingers and the blade.
“Why don’t we just leave that there?” I said with a smile that was more a baring of teeth. I didn’t want to murder these unarmed men now, but if they tried anything more, they’d leave me no choice.
Yaxin muttered something under his breath as he pulled his arm back, and he and his men continued on their way out the door.
“So do I have your answer? Are you with us or against us?” I called after them as I uncocked the revolver and swung it around my finger.
Yaxin glared back at me, and I could tell he wanted to spit venom, but his eyes tracked the silver gleam of my revolver, and fear shone in his face.
He might have been a toughened trader, but he had never seen anything like me.
The traders left without another word, but with the railroad still in its infancy, I expected I’d see them again.
Until then, I’d keep doing what I do best.
Moving forward.
Chapter 12
Serlo had insisted Aurora, Cayla and I take his room, while the seven other people in our party shared the large room next door. It was just before dawn when I was woken by a knock on the door, so I quickly pulled on my breeches and answered.
It was Serlo together with Korion, who tried to avert his eyes when he spied Cayla and Aurora lying in the bed behind me.
“This boy says he knows you?” the tavernkeep said as he stifled back a yawn.
“I do, thanks,” I said before I turned to Korion. “Did you have trouble finding us?”
“Not really,” Korion chuckled. “It seems like there’s no one in town who doesn’t know who you are. They were all talking about the fight you got in last night. I wish I’d been there.”
“Yeah, things got a little hairy.” I shrugged. “But more importantly, you brought some restock of our tracks and ties?”