"Just as importantly, they can keep you informed as to which merchants have a reputation for shady dealings, and so to avoid them. They do charge a commission, but again, lads, my factors are more than fair, having an excellent reputation for those in the know that is worth more than gold. Nothing is so important to the beginning trader learning the ropes as a factor he can trust to learn the ropes from, and accurately too. They also handle contracts and can help with legal proceedings for blatant foul play, but there is no law, of course, against foolishness, so listen to your factors, lads, until you know the ropes yourself."
Lord Canterbier rose from his chair, providing each of the youths with silken bags containing four large silver eagles each, the last gold royal in Sorn's bag. "I bid you good fortune in all your future endeavors, and I am sure that with dedication and experience, you will achieve all that you set out to do. Enjoy the afternoon, lads. You all leave bright and early in the morning. My man Jesren will supply each of you with a pack containing basic supplies you may find useful, and you are more than welcome to ask him for whatever other equipment you might need."
With that, the youths expressed their deepest gratitude to Lord Canterbier for both his wisdom and kindness and bade both Lord Canteriber and the wizard Valentien a warm and grateful farewell before leaving the receiving chamber. They snagged a couple fruit from the silver trays in passing, of course, before making their way down the passages to the dining hall where they managed to beg some sausages off of a smiling cook before leaving the building and strolling by unspoken consent to the stream wherein they had swum with the guardsmen, just outside the keep. Those that saw them pass by couldn’t help but reciprocate their cheerful smiles, so bright and happy the four youths looked, basking in their good fortune.
6
"This is fantastic! It's just like you said, Sorn, now we will be traders! Sailing the high seas, fending off pirates and making our fortune!"
"It's nice to see you in good cheer, Lieberman," Sorn replied, smiling warmly at his cousin. "However, I think you might be exaggerating the pirates a bit."
Fitz shook his head. "You never know, Sorn. Could be dozens of them out there, just waiting to intercept our barges."
"Exactly!" Hanz declared. "For all we know, they're so anxious to buy grain at York because pirates keep sinking the barge ships!"
"Well said, brothers!" Lieberman concurred. "Who knows what cruel foes we will have to face on the high seas? Where in order to save our grain, we will have to use all our talents, and blast those pirate ships to ashes and splinters!"
Lieberman, Sorn couldn't help but note, looked particularly excited at the prospect of getting a chance to do some blasting.
"And of course, fighting for our lives. With no quarter given, we must by necessity use any means at our disposal to take out our dastardly foe. Including… biting him!" Fitz chimed in.
Hanz nodded happily at this thought. "Right, dear brother. Who knows what could happen in the middle of combat? We might accidentally swallow whatever we bit!"
"That's true, heck we might end up eating the whole pirate crew, if we aren't careful!" Lieberman allowed, grinning like a cat.
"Such a shame," Fitz smirked.
"A tragedy," Hanz hungrily agreed.
"Guys, there will be no eating of pirates on our journey! Get it through your thick heads, okay?" Sorn glared at his cousins.
Lieberman looked crestfallen. "But, Sorn, they're the bad guys!"
Fitz gave Sorn a contemplative look. "Lieberman's right. I mean, think about it, Sorn. They're raiding our ship, taking our cargo, maybe trying to kill us! What does it matter if we fight them off with swords, or eat them instead? Either way they're dead, and dead is dead, right?"
"Exactly!" exclaimed Hanz "otherwise, we're just wasting food! Besides," Hanz said slyly, "you can't talk Sorn."
Sorn's expression was puzzled. "What are you talking about Hanz?"
"The Bandit leader Bront. You ate his eye, remember? Swallowed it clean whole. Good move, too! Kept him out of action."
"Hanz is right!" Lieberman exclaimed triumphantly. "You can't talk, since you did it yourself! And if you can, why can't we?"
"Guys, that was an accident. I wasn't actually planning to swallow the darn thing! It was just in the heat of battle and… no, don't say it! I know where you are going with this, and I don't care. You guys are not to use a 'heat of battle' excuse to eat all the pirates! Besides, we don't even know if we are even going to run into any pirates."
"Well if we are not going to encounter any pirates, you don't have anything to worry about, Sorn!" Hanz said with a smile.
Sorn sighed. "Look, guys. Everything else aside, if you were to do what I think your getting at, the sudden weight could capsize the whole ship! Is that what you want to do? Destroy our own vessel and all the cargo in it, sinking our entire trading venture, just for the sake of chewing on a couple lousy pirates?"
The triplets could only shake their heads, shoulders slumped, unable to deny Sorn's point. It looked like they would have to forgo pirates after all. Sorn suddenly felt bad for them.
"Now guys, that option might not be open, but look at it this way. If I threw some fireballs it would still result in the pirate ship being blown to splinters, right? And our prizes would be safe!"
The brothers nodded happily, cheered at the thought.
"All right then, it's settled. Starting immediately, we practice our magics, so that you guys can cast fireballs and protective wards without being distracted by a rocking ship! And since we can't exactly practice shooting off fireballs right next to Lord Canterbier's keep, we will work on defensive wards!
The triplets looked a bit put out with this line of reasoning, realizing, perhaps, that Sorn had gently steered them into a line of thought which virtually demanded that they practice. They noted as well that they were some distance from the keep, the freemen busily filling wagons with grain were out of sight completely.
"Hey, you tricked us!" Lieberman exclaimed.
"No kidding." Sorn smiled. "Okay, guys, no more clowning around. Relax and focus…"
Soon enough, they were ready. Sorn could sense by the subtle interplay of magical energies suddenly coming into focus that they had successfully tapped into the arcane forces and fields at the very core of their being.
"All right, guys," Sorn began softly, "I want you to see the spell web before you. All the points of power and the interwoven connections… can you see it glimmering faintly in your mind's eye?" Brows furrowing in concentration, all three nodded. "All right then, focus. Focus the power you feel coursing through you, send it flowing into the web. Concentrate, Lieberman, it shouldn't be so hard. Okay, now let your constructs help you. Let the web draw the energies while you focus them toward the web. Don't fight it. Let it help you. Good." He nodded approvingly to Hanz and Fitz, who were, with steady discipline, completing their spell, now ready to cast it as he could tell from the buildup of mana that he could sense in his mind's eye.
Sorn was a bit concerned about Lieberman, however, who was gritting his teeth and shaking, as if the channeling was taxing him far more than it should. He was fighting the web, forcing it to fill with arcane power, rather than letting it help him. This troubled Sorn, since Lieberman should not be having this degree of difficulty with a second order spell that he and his brothers actually knew quite well. Sorn concluded that he would have to spend more time tutoring them. Soon enough, Lieberman gave a satisfied grunt, his web complete, giving a tight little smile. Still, it had been close to half a minute, far too long a time to focus and bring to bear a missile warding spell, should one suddenly need it.
"Are you all ready?" Sorn queried, receiving three concurrent nods in turn. "All right then, release".
With serene smiles, Hanz and Fitz uttered several soft syllables, gently moving their wrists with the motions their inner sense told them would be best to most smoothly release the web. Within a few seconds, a faint pink shimmer appeared around the pair, whi
ch would be invisible to any mundane save for the effect, gently nudging any missile away from its target. It would last for hours before decaying, but its power was such that only a certain number of bolts or arrows could be countered before the energies invested in the spell had been depleted. A blow with a sword or fist could also be blocked with this ward, but the energy required would probably cause the spell to dissipate from a single such blow. "Very good, cousins," Sorn nodded approvingly.
"Lieberman?" He frowned with concern, still seeing his cousin focus. Lieberman, however, paid him no mind. All his attention was focused on his task, peering intently at the stream before him. His normally gentle features had grown hard and fierce from the intensity of his focus. Lieberman suddenly brought two fingers forward, pointed at the stream some hundred feet distant, and with the softest of whispers from trembling lips, a crackling green ball of flame leaped from his outstretched fingertips to fly shrieking through the air into the stream to explode in a terrific blast of steam, sending water, clumps of dirt, and fragments of instantly broiled fish flying everywhere.
Sorn was left speechless, not sure if he was surprised, shocked, outraged, or impressed, while his cousins laughed on, giving their brother a clap on the back.
"Good show, brother!" Fitz cheered.
"Indeed. It looks like we'll get some fish while we're here, after all!" Hanz agreed with a smile as a well-broiled fish head chose that moment to plop down from the sky, causing Sorn's cousins to break up in fresh peels of laughter. Which wouldn't have been so bad, Sorn thought, if the fish head hadn't landed on his own.
Sorn locked gazes with his cousin, giving a slow nod of approval. "A very impressive fireball, Lieberman. You actually surprised me. However, seeing as that roar could well alert the whole keep, and we are having enough problems in terms of discretion, I suggest we take this opportunity to head over to the barracks and see what supplies Jesren has for us and our journey."
The four youths then made their way to the barracks, Hanz and Fitz commending their brother's impressive fish broiling technique, pointedly ignoring the occasional stare and whispered gossip about strange sounds about the keep, each of them handed packs by a smiling guardsman upon their arrival.
"Well, if it isn't our four heroes!" the guard said warmly. "Lord Canterbier wanted to make sure you were well supplied. Now you have all that you might need to set up camp should you find yourself out on the road come nightfall, as soldiers often do. Also, having heard of your appetites, I packed you some extra dry rations, just in case." The guard smiled as the youths thanked him warmly.
"It's a pleasure, young sirs. Oh, for your sparring, here are some practice blades," he continued, handing them each a leather wrapped practice sword of good stout oak. "As you know, the best way to train is to spar as if it's the real thing, which you can't really do if you're using live steel. This way, you can train like you mean it, and get in some good practice. I'm sorry I missed the opportunity to spar with you all by the way. I here you made a worthy challenge! Sorn, we couldn't help noticing that you have no actual sword of your own. Are you skilled with a blade?"
"Moderately." Sorn couldn't help sighing, having noted that everyone was in near awe of the triplets’ prowess, accrediting it to their supposedly magic mithril hauberks as much as to natural talent, yet the keep’s inhabitants seemed to have conveniently overlooked his own sparring with the twins yesterday, and he without any mithril shirt at all! "I have some small skill. And yes, it’s true that at present I lack a blade of my own." Sorn eyeballed his cousins as he said this, cousins who were conveniently looking elsewhere.
"In that case, Sorn, we would be honored if you took one of our own." The guard led Sorn to a rack displaying a number of swords, all oiled, sharpened, and in pristine condition. The majority of them were broadswords and the like, Sorn noted, no sabers in evidence. Finally, he settled for a blade that, though considerably heavier than the weight of a fencing saber, nonetheless possessed a balance that was amicable to him, such that he found he could still quite comfortably bring it through the series of strikes, parries, and ripostes inherent to the primary sword form that he had been taught. He performed the motions slowly, flowing from one movement to the next, not wanting to give away the unusual strength he shared with his cousins. Despite this, the guard saw fit to comment.
"I get the sense that you, like your cousins, were taught a fencing style of swordplay, based on light, quick motions. Though no doubt very effective against unarmored civilians in a duel, a well-trained soldier fighting with sword and shield together will give you considerable challenge, particularly if he is armored. Your cousins have a great advantage with their enchanted armor, as it leaves them strong enough to strike and parry with the power of a broadswordsman and the speed of a duelist both. This advantage is something that most of us lack, lad, so I feel it behooves me to say that you would be best suited to either train in the broadsword and shield, or obtain a fencing blade suited to your strength as soon as you hit Pormar." The well-meaning guard gave Sorn a friendly clap on the shoulder. "Don't feel too bad, lad. Your form looks graceful, and I'm sure Commander Jesren can direct you to a good weaponsmith in Pormar who can supply you with a quality blade more suited to your style."
Sorn, for his part, just smiled and forbore to comment.
At that point the friendly guard’s expression turned thoughtful for a moment, soon nodding his head as if pleased by a sudden thought. “It just so happens, young sir, that though we lack proper sabers such as would most fit your style of swordplay, we do have several rapiers on display back at the keep. Though admittedly such weapons have little utility, save in settling disputes between courtiers, the swept hilts are actually quite exquisite. In truth, I think that is the primary reason why we have them up for display. I will tell you what. Leave the sword here with me for the nonce, and I will see if I can arrange for our good smith to weld one to your blade.
"Why thank you, sir!" Sorn replied, pleased both by the guard's genuine thoughtfulness as well as by the prospect of a nice protective hilt on his blade. In truth, one of the weaknesses of fencing was that the hand and wrist were almost always in the front, allowing for quick strikes and parries, yet leaving the hand and wrist very vulnerable all the same. A swept hilt, comprised of a latticework of thin steel bars attached to the quillons so as to protect the hand, would be a very nice addition indeed. "But are you sure Lord Canterbier won't mind? It is on display, after all."
The friendly guard laughed good-naturedly. "Somehow, lad, I think you could ask our lord for every sword in the armory, and I doubt he would bat an eye. Fear not. By morning, you shall have the most exquisitely hilted broadsword in the duchy! And I'll personally test it to make sure that the balance isn't thrown off in the least."
Sorn couldn't help grinning, even as the guard whose name Sorn hadn't even caught clapped him fondly on the shoulder. "After what you did for my sworn lord, it is the least I can do in turn, lad."
With that, the guard led Sorn out to his cousins, presently chatting with an animated Chestnut who gave Sorn a warm smile when he appeared. "I was just asking your cousins if they wanted to go riding. I know you all need to leave early tomorrow morning, but I thought you might want to enjoy a quick gallop around our lands today before you go plodding down the trail next to the grain carts tomorrow, hardly having seen our lands at all." Sorn and his cousins agreed, and a beaming Chestnut led them to the stables.
"This is Lightfoot," Chestnut said affectionately as she introduced the first mare to an uncertain Fitz, while the grooms handed out the reins to three other mares to the other youths. "Don't worry, Fitz, she's a sweetie!" reassured a bemused Chestnut, having caught Fitz's expression. "Nothing a brave knight such as yourself need fear!"
Chestnut's playful grin soon turned to a puzzled frown as the four youths and an equal number of horses quietly stared at each other, none of them so much as blinking an eye.
"Come on, guys, why aren't you mounting? Haven't you ever
been on a horse before?" Soon it became painfully obvious to both Chestnut and the grinning grooms that her jest was nothing short of the truth. "Guys, please tell me you have been on a horse before! You're supposedly knights, right? And I know you three, at least, are formally squires!"
"Um… the thing is… the thing is we're 'Landed Knights,'" Fitz explained desperately.
"Exactly!" Hanz chimed in. "We prefer to stay on the land!"
This, of course, caused Chestnut and the stable boys to burst out laughing, though the triplets couldn't see what was so funny. Sorn could only shake his head and sigh.
"You guys are too much!" Chestnut finally said with a smile. "Okay boys, help our 'brave knights' mount their fierce stallions, and I will teach our heroes the basics of riding their mounts without falling off!"
After some deft assistance rendered by the still grinning stable lads, it was a subdued group of youths who followed their new friend as she led the mounts out to the surrounding fields. "That's it, guys. Just hold your reins lightly, gently tug it on the side you want to go. No, Lieberman, your mare shouldn't be going in circles like that. Just relax your grip on the reins. It's okay, she'll just follow the rest of us. How are you doing, Sorn?"
"Oh, just fine," Sorn said, focusing intently on getting the hang of this horse riding thing. In truth, he felt a bit crestfallen when he figured out that as opposed to following his adroit signals, the horse had just been following Chestnut's all along.
"Don't worry, guys, you'll get the hang of it! Okay, are you guys ready for a gallop?"
"No!" four voices called out in unison.
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