by Bruce Sentar
He shook his head. There was a lot in this world he didn’t think he could do, but if this somehow made her more secure, he could at least humor her. Sasha seemed to encourage it anyway.
When she stepped up to a man with a stout gut and thick, corded arms, Dar made sure to keep his eyes up.
“Father, this is my new employer,” Amber introduced him. “Dar, this is my father, Bart.”
The man eyed Dar with the scrutiny only a father could give. It looked like, even across worlds, that had stayed constant. “You’ve helped us all. There’s no doubt about that, but if you harm my daughter…” He let those words linger with unsaid threats.
“Nice to meet you,” Dar said, holding out his hand. He was unconcerned with the threat; he had no intention of mistreating the helpful girl.
“Aye, you too.” Bart clasped him by the forearm and squeezed for a second before releasing the greeting.
Dar did his best to mimic it, but he still bobbed his arm like it was a shake.
If that was too foreign, the blacksmith didn’t say anything.
“What can I do for you?” Bart asked.
Sliding the beaten sword from his belt, Dar held it out. “I need to see about repairing this.”
The blacksmith hissed seeing the damage to the blade.
Dar knew the two cuts in the sword were the worst of the damage. Those would be weak points if he were to use this again. As flexible as this bronze seemed to be, it wasn’t going to hold up with those two thin points in the blade.
“You’d have to melt it down and recast it—that’s the only way. I could maybe tack on a brace around those points, but then it’ll be a bitch to cut with.” Amber’s father shook his head and looked up at Dar.
“Seeing what your blade has gone through only highlights how much you’ve helped us. I really wish I could help, but there isn’t much I can do without a forge. You might be better off taking a sword off the dead.”
Dar had that thought already but hadn’t been able to find a better weapon. Most of the townspeople used wooden spears or smaller weapons like a butcher cleaver. He needed something that was up to the task of cutting troll hide.
“I might be able to help get something hot enough for you to melt this down. But I had another question: do you work with iron or steel?”
The blacksmith’s brow pressed down. “Iron, sure. Not sure what steel is.”
It had been worth a shot. Sasha wasn’t an expert in metals like this man. “Do you melt down the iron and remove impurities?”
“You’d have to find someone else to ask those questions. I just work the metal, nothing outside one of the big foundries in the city is going to get hot enough to melt it into ingots.” The blacksmith shrugged.
“Do you have any? Any iron ingots, that is?” he clarified.
The blacksmith grunted. “Only grabbed a few of the nicer ones. Worth more than their weight in copper coins anyways.” He stepped over to his well-made cart. Dar wasn’t surprised he already had a strong cart ready to go. He’d need one to haul around his materials in his shop, and he was clearly able to forge strong axles.
“Here.” He handed Dar a brick of dark iron. It almost looked like stone rather than the shiny metal that he’d come to think of as iron. It was full of impurities.
Dar knew from an old job that it took quite a bit of heat, as well as a few additives, to burn off the carbon in iron to transition it to steel. He remembered the heat from the old steel mill job.
“This is high quality iron?” Dar asked.
Amber’s father looked offended, and Dar raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Sorry. I don’t know much about this, just trying to learn.”
That seemed to calm the blacksmith down, but he still gave Dar a grudging look. “Yes, that’s high quality, even if you went to the city.”
Dar handed the ingot back to the man. “If I could make higher quality iron than that, what would you think?”
“The better the iron, the harder it is to work. I’d think if you made it much better, I’d have a hard time getting it to workable temperatures.”
“What if I could fix the heat problem too?” Dar paused before adding. “I have access to someone who could enchant a forge hot enough to make it work.”
The blacksmith’s brows shot up into his hairline. “You… you’d use enchantments for something like a forge?”
“Uh, sure. I mean, if it helps make everything easier, it is worth it, right?”
“People just don’t do that.” Amber clarified for Dar. “At least not around here.” Her voice ended in a whisper.
“Well, I’m not from around here.” Dar wasn’t about to tell them he was from another world but being from somewhere else might be enough to explain his oddness.
Amber’s father gave him another appraising look. “It seems my daughter found a good man to work with. I’d be very interested in a forge run by dao. Is this how you make… steel, was it?”
He felt his lips quirk at the idea of steel being mistaken for magic iron… but then he realized that might be less suspicious than trying to explain the science of it. It would likely sell even better. “Not exactly, but I don’t think you are going to be making it here without some enchantments to help.”
The blacksmith nodded to himself and cast a look over his shoulder to a woman that looked vaguely like Amber before looking back at Dar. “Do you think you’ll need a blacksmith once you’re in town?”
“Ah. You know what, I just might. I don’t have any land in the city just yet, but I think I’ll get it sorted out.”
“Good. We’ll let you know where we are staying once we make it there. Come find us if you need a skilled hand.”
Nodding, Dar agreed with that. “Still, what about this sword?”
“We’d need to melt it down. Even then, it’d take longer than the time we have during our stops on the road to fix it.” The blacksmith shook his head.
Dar couldn’t think of a way to speed up the process without revealing that he possessed the dao of heat and not Sasha or Cherry. He could get away with making a forge on private property, but not out here.
“Thanks,” he said, stepping away with Amber following in his wake.
“I’m sorry that he couldn’t fix it, milord.” She looked at his boots as she spoke.
“Not a problem. I was already expecting an answer like that.”
Shouts from the riverbank caught his attention, and he pivoted, ready to jump into a fight, but the men shouting appeared to just be fishing.
“You, big guy. Come here.”
Turning to see just what was wrong, Dar strode over to the riverbank as more people came. He noticed most of the men were looking upstream eagerly.
Dar got close enough that he could see around the trees at the edge of the river, giving him a clear line of sight upstream. A massive river boat was floating their way. The thing would have almost filled a football field.
“You can talk to them for us?” one of the men asked.
Shouldn’t they be asking Count Tint? He started to voice just that thought, but other men took up his idea and nodded eagerly.
“Yeah, you should talk to them for us. See if they can’t help carry us downstream, or at least take the elderly,” another offered.
That was only met with more eager conversation to the same ends. Apparently, he was being nominated as the caravan’s spokesperson.
“What’s going on.” Count Tint stepped up to the group, but as soon as he got a sight upstream, he became excited like the rest. “Alright, everyone start packing up camp. We need to be able to move quickly if we want to get on the boat.”
Everyone bolted back to camp to do just that.
“Can you get Cherry’s cart moved here and get me a bite to eat?” he asked Amber, wanting to stay here for the boat.
Amber snapped to attention, giving Dar a firm nod before hurrying off. The girl really took her job seriously.
The boat bobbed only slightly in the river a
s it came. It was moving quickly. While not very impressive compared to a car, the boat was making great progress on the stream compared to their caravan.
Standing on the shore, Dar waved at the boat, hoping to get someone’s attention.
Sure enough, a head popped over the side waving back, before disappearing again. A minute later, another face appeared, then another. Soon, faces crowded the side of the boat.
It was surprising how many people were on the boat; Dar was starting to get worried that there wouldn’t be room.
As the boat came closer, he got a better feel for its size and some of the hope returned. The boat was huge. Cargo was held tight by netting along the sides and the top deck was clear. About a third of the boat was under water, plenty of space for trade goods despite it being a river vessel.
Head after head poked over the side watching him and gawking at the group behind Dar. Shouts came over the bow of the boat and there was a heavy splash behind it, and it began to slow.
“Hello.” Dar waved as a stern man came to the edge of the boat. The boat passengers made way for the man, making Dar think this must be someone in charge.
The man scratched his beard, looking at their group with a grimace. “I hope you don’t want a ride down the river too.”
“Too?” Dar couldn’t help but deflate; he rescanned the faces on the boat, realizing maybe they weren’t all crew. Sure enough, some were too young or too old to belong as crew for this ship. And many faces were shallow or sunken, showing clear hardship.
Count Tint shouted, louder than was needed, “We’d like to purchase passage on your boat down to Bellhaven.”
The man looked between Dar and the count before Dar spoke again. “I’m Dar, wizard and traveler. What might your name be? Are you the captain of the boat?”
Ignoring the count, the man seemed to have made up his mind, turning his full attention to Dar. “Trevor, I run the boat. We don’t see that many wizards this far out. As for us, as you can see, we already loaded up a large number of refugees.”
“What happened?”
“Devils. They’ve been bad recently. We’ve always had some troubles, but it’s like someone let their dog off its leash. They have been going wild out in the countryside this past week.” He shook his head.
“How many towns?” Dar asked, a bad feeling growing in his gut.
“You’d be the third we’ve heard of on the trip back to Bellhaven. I’d offer to take some of your people, but as you can see, we are already packed in here.” The captain paused for a moment. “And if I’m honest, your group looks far better off than the other two.”
“It’s thanks to the big guy,” one of the people near Dar chimed in.
“He fought off two devil attacks,” another added.
People from the town celebrated Dar, causing the captain to smile. “Darn, really wish I could take you guys, but we need to get going. I hope you don’t mind me being in a hurry, but I would recommend you hoof it to Bellhaven as well. We are in some odd times right now.”
“Thanks for the advice, Trevor; we’ll get going. Hope to see you in town.” Dar gave him a wave and moved back from the river. In his peripheral, he caught Count Tint’s face, which was nearly purple, but Dar just ignored him and walked past.
“Everyone, the boat is full of other refugees. And they look much more worn than our hearty group of survivors. We’ll keep heading along the river in five minutes. Get yourselves ready,” Dar’s voice boomed over the crowd.
The river boat was filled with more shouting as it started to gain speed and continue its trek downstream, the caravan continuing its own journey only minutes later.
“Sasha, are devil attacks always this common?” he asked once they had gotten moving. The town had seemed well established; it seemed impossible that they’d been attacked so frequently.
She answered slowly. “No. We haven’t seen attacks like this recently. But there are stories of large waves of devils in the past that don’t seem so different than this.” She turned to include Cherry in the question. “What do you think?”
Cherry worried her lip as she thought about something. “Sasha is right. Waves of devils have occurred in the past. People always thought they were the result of two tribes fighting, and the losing one being pushed out.”
Nodding, he liked that answer. It fit with the natural order of things. Animals often ventured out to claim their own land after losing a battle.
“However...” As Cherry started, Dar let out an internal groan. He had liked the easy answer, but she continued. “This seems to have picked up as soon as you appeared, which you say coincided with Lilith’s end.” Cherry looked concerned. “I think that might be too much of a coincidence for me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Lilith spent her whole life hunting and suppressing devils. She sealed off places where they entered this world as part of her work to suppress them. What if some of those, or even all of them, have become unsealed with her death?”
This made Dar think back to Lilith turning to the River of Souls and walking in like the weight of living had been too much to bear.
Regardless of what was causing the issue it meant in the short term, Dar might now have an easier time feeding his little dao tree. Another three fruits and he’d get to learn if he could merge them into a greater dao and what would come with that.
It also meant that the city of Bellhaven might have more reason to work with him to create a force to kill devils. At the very least, it wouldn’t be odd for him to work towards that end.
Taking a deep breath, Dar worked to suppress all the thoughts churning in his head and refocus. “Devils are good for my growth, and for now, we will focus on the ones we come into conflict with as I work to grow and establish my house. As I get stronger, I’ll be able to take on more and more, and hopefully help turn the tide of these attacks.” Dar tried to say it with full conviction, but it still felt overwhelming.
The two girls nodded. Cherry seemed simply accepting of that, while Sasha’s nod was full of concern. Her eyes flickered over the rest of the caravan, taking in the lives of everyone else who might be affected.
“We’ll try and protect who we can, but I don’t think battle will favor anyone,” he answered her unvoiced concern for the rest of the caravan should there be another attack.
“Of course. I should be used to it by now, but I think I’m starting to grow attached to this group.”
“Amber and Marcie will be behind the city walls. If they aren’t safe there, there isn’t much else we could have done,” he reminded her.
Sasha grew quiet but nodded, focusing on her feet as they continued their trek towards Bellhaven.
Chapter 16
Dar watched as Cherry once again erected a hut for him and Sasha to sleep in as they settled for another night out in the wilderness.
Cherry’s bright red lips curled into a smirk as she caught his eyes. “You two enjoy yourselves tonight.” Her tongue pressed into her cheek in a lewd gesture.
He looked over, seeing Sasha start to turn bright red, which seemed to please Cherry further. Cherry opened her mouth, about to push even further, but Dar gave her a look letting her know it was enough for now. Smiling to herself, Cherry just sauntered off, swaying her hips a bit extra as she walked.
He shook his head, trying to figure out how he had ended up in this situation. He was all for communication and being open about sex and needs with your partner, but when there were multiple different relationships at play, he couldn’t believe they were all so comfortable talking about it in the open.
Earlier as they had followed the river, the girls were talking about his night with Sasha, and they’d gone into way more detail than he’d been comfortable with. Sasha seemed to have no issue describing things she thought he especially enjoyed, even with Amber present. He’d been nearly struck silent, unsure of what to say.
He tried to tell himself that he should be open to it all, but it was hard to break the mono
gamous idea of romance in his head. He had never met women so willing to share; this was all just surreal.
“You okay, Dar?” Sasha asked, coming back to their hut with two bowls of stew and a grin that said he’d need to eat to keep up his energy.
“Thinking is all.” He took the bowl and sat just outside the hut to watch the sunset.
She fluffed her skirt and sat down on it. “Thinking about what?”
“Things are just different. Different from where I came from, and sometimes it is hard for me to wrap my head around it all,” he admitted.
“Is this the advice on how to act in the city again?” she hedged.
He scratched the back of his head as he thought about how to say it, but he finally decided being direct was best. “No, it’s about being with more than one woman.”
“Didn’t we already have this talk?” Her eyes narrowed over her steaming bowl of soup.
“You talked about how it was acceptable, but logistically… it isn’t something I’m familiar with.” He checked to make sure Cherry wasn’t listening. “Do I still take her out for a date once we get to the city? I mean, she made me her wizard or whatever and now it doesn’t feel right.”
Sasha gave a chuckle as she started in on the stew.
He looked at his own stew and decided to give it a try. It was pretty gamey, but with the right herbs, it wasn’t overpowering. He figured it was great for a caravan of refugees and would give their bodies the sustenance they needed.
“I’ll help you with Cherry. You being her wizard doesn’t change much for her. It isn’t much more than you offering to be my bodyguard for two months, although the commitment is a bit longer. And, as far as pledges go, those were pretty loose. They definitely weren’t the most intense conditions I’ve heard.”
Dar nodded, his mouth full at the moment.
“If we find other demons or spirits that at least have greater dao, I’ll push for them to join our group. It’ll be a good trade. Their numbers will help add to your safety and power, and you’ll treat them better than others they’re used to. I have no doubt that some of them will start coming to you on their own as word spreads. Then our dao will blend into one big whole that hopefully accelerates your goals of fighting the devils.”