The Warded Box

by Guy Antibes

  “You think you can defeat us?” the bandit leader said.

  “With the folks in the carriage, their guards, and those who are with the wagon, I do. We have a wizard or two with us,” Tanner said. He turned to Jack. “A demonstration, if you please.”

  Jack pulled out his wand and spat out a wizard’s bolt at a large rock on the side of the road. One of the bandit horses shied. “I have more to demonstrate if you doubt me,” Jack said, getting into the role of an arrogant magician. “I am rather accomplished for my tender age.”

  The bandit leader looked a bit less confident. “So what do you propose?” he said to Tanner.

  “Let these people go. There will be others. I just might have some news for you anyway.”

  The leader laughed. “News for me?”

  “I’ll make it worth your while,” Tanner said,

  Tanner said it in such a way that Jack didn’t think he had any intention on paying the bandits a penny.

  The bandit leader looked at both groups. “You had better not be playing with me,” he said. “You!” he looked at the carriage driver. “Be on your way.”

  Lark and Ralinn looked away as the carriage rolled past and didn’t turn their heads back until the two conveyances and their guards were a hundred paces to the west.

  “So how much are you going to pay?” the leader said.

  “Nothing. I said I have news. Amee Newbright hired us to help her with some wolves.”

  The leader looked at him with some disbelief. “Wolves are always a problem.”

  “Ten packs of mountain wolves. They were half the size of a horse. Our wizard took care of quite a few of them. She gave him the black bracers as a reward.” Tanner said. “The ladies got vests.”

  “I noticed those and wondered when we started selling those in the markets.”

  “Not yet,” Tanner said, “I guess. Jim Lessikan escorted us from the other side of the mountains.”

  “You wouldn’t know his name otherwise. If you are so friendly with us, why didn’t you let us grab our toll?”

  Jack nearly laughed. Toll?

  “We are traveling to Gameton. If we joined you in your efforts, we would run the risk of being identified as one of you.”

  “And that is bad?”

  Tanner gave the man half a smile. “Do you show your face openly?” Tanner pulled down his veil. “I want to. I’m from Corand, and I don’t like using these. I hope you understand.”

  The leader looked them over. “If Amee gave you those gifts, you really did us a huge favor. What is your name?”

  “Tanner Simple. All you have to mention is the magician with the black bracers. She will remember us.”

  “If she doesn’t, don’t bother to come this way again.”

  Tanner looked the leader in the eye. “I hope we don’t see each other when we are finished in Gameton. I’m afraid we will both disappoint your chieftain. Farewell, Morakan.”

  “You even know who we are,” the leader said smiling. “And farewell to all of you.”

  Jack gave them a nod and a wave and was very glad when they were out of sight. Jack’s back itched as they rode past the bandits. They rode past a caravan of ten wagons with lots of guards.

  “We might have saved them some trouble,” Helen said.

  “None of our business,” Tanner said. “We won’t be confused with the bandits this way.”

  “Except you told the bandits you had news for them,” Lark said. “Wasn’t that too much information?”

  “And what, exactly, will Lord Whatever-his-name-is think of us? He didn’t look at us. We warned the bandits with Jack’s wizard bolt. They have no idea what news we gave them,” Tanner said. “I’m just glad we were able to save them from the bandits, and I’m sure that wasn’t lost on the lord or the guards or the drivers.”

  Lark pursed his lips. “I suppose you are right.”

  “He is,” Helen said. “I am always learning something from Tanner. You can too if you just open your mind a little.”

  “I think she is right,” Ralinn said.

  “I will open my mind, just a little,” Lark said with half a smile and looked at Jack. “Is that how you put up with Tanner?”

  “It is. Sometimes he will actually learn a bit from me,” Jack said.

  Tanner laughed. “Jack is right.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  ~

  Y ellowbird was close on the map, but they were still a day away from the town when they reached a road that intersected with theirs at an angle from the north. A large column of uniformed men and women entered their road ahead of them.

  “We will stop here,” Tanner said. He looked at Lark. “Do you recognize the uniforms?”

  The wizard shook his head. “No. Let’s look at your map to see who they might be,” he said.

  Jack took that as a positive sign. Both of them had continued with their barbs, but they hadn’t argued again.

  “Panderites,” Tanner said. “That is my guess. The mountains dip around Yellowbird, and a force that size wouldn’t have to worry about bandits.”

  “Or anyone else,” Jack said. He pointed at a section of about one hundred riders dressed in the robes and caps of wizards. He was glad none of them had points.

  Lark looked surprised. “That is something new. The only wizards in the insurgency have been the Black Fingers, but someone is creating a magical force. Not a good development for us.”

  “Us being the Loyalists?” Tanner asked.

  Lark nodded. “Especially heading for Yellowbird. It is a free city, but a force that large might have designs on making it less free. If the Panderites captured Yellowbird, they would have a significant part of central Tesoria under their control.”

  “We will follow at a discreet distance, then. Any other ideas?”

  “Wear your veil again,” Jack said. He had never stopped and wouldn’t as long as he was in Tesoria. Eldora’s lip prints on his cheek still hadn’t faded.

  “See? I take advice from Jack,” Tanner said to Lark.

  “How many troops, Helen?” Jack asked. She was usually very good with her estimates.

  “Maybe five hundred or twice that,” she said. “Maybe more since they had started on the road before we arrived.” She turned to Lark. “Is that a large force for Tesorian insurgents?”

  Lark nodded. “The crown commands ten thousand around Gameton, but no one knows exactly how loyal they all are.”

  Jack winced. “What a mess!”

  “Most will be loyal,” Ralinn said.

  “How do you know?” Helen asked.

  “If the insurgencies begin to unite, the sentiment in Gameton is that there will be insurgents that will come to the aid of the crown rather than be under the heel of other leaders.”

  “Then why rebel?”

  “Money,” Lark said. “The mountain bandits aren’t the only group taking tolls and taxes from the citizens of Tesoria. When push comes to shove, deals will be made. Ralinn is right.”

  “Is all of Tesoria this cynical?” Helen asked.

  “All but the Morakans and the Black Fingers,” Lark said, “and many of the Loyalists.”

  “But not all?” Jack said.

  Ralinn nodded. “Not all.”

  With so many anarchists, Jack could see why so many wore veils. Most people were bandits of one sort or another. He didn’t see a veil on any of the Morakans now that he thought back. The realization turned his stomach. He had to fulfill his errand, but if he didn’t, he would have turned north at the first opportunity, insurgencies or not.

  He touched the little, blue box with the bone inside and felt the power. Even Eldora had conspired to keep him in Tesoria. He looked toward the road. A long column of wagons had turned onto the road to the city of Yellowbird. Was someone planning to lay siege to the city?

  A detachment of soldiers approached them.

  “Steady,” Tanner told them. He pulled up his veil.

  “What is your business?” one of them said.r />
  “We are on the way to Yellowbird. I hope you are heading somewhere else,” Tanner said.

  “Where are you from?”

  “Corand. I am heading with these three wizards to Wilton to confer with the grand wizard,” Tanner said.

  The man grunted. “The Wizards Guild is still neutral in the conflict, so I suppose you can follow us. Papers, please.”

  Lark looked at Ralinn, but they pulled out their papers and handed them to Tanner, without speaking.

  “Here are mine,” Jack said. Helen didn’t say a word either.

  The soldier shuffled through them and handed them back. “Don’t get involved in any conflict,” he said. “You’ll find that Tesorians are not united.”

  “We have already found that out,” Tanner said. “We just want to get to Wilton and return north.”

  “Keep your distance from us. We will set up our quarters before Yellowbird. Spies will not be treated gently.”

  “We aren’t spies. We didn’t even know we’d be meeting up like this,” Tanner said.

  The man looked at Tanner evenly. “I suppose you are right. Ride on ahead. We will be right behind.”

  These men wouldn’t be the friendly escort the bandits were, Jack thought. Would Fasher ever send him on an errand that was a pleasant ride up and back?

  Lark and Ralinn moved up toward Tanner and spoke to him softly, out of Jack’s hearing. Tanner looked at their papers as they rode and handed them back. Something was odd. When they moved back again, Jack rode to Tanner’s side.

  “What was that all about?”

  “Lark and Ralinn’s papers, the ones they handed me, identified them as Corandians.”

  “Multiple sets of papers. Are they the spies?”

  Tanner pursed his lips. “Something isn’t right, but we will find out eventually. They don’t want to be put in a position to talk to anyone, since their speech will reveal them to be Tesorians.”

  “Something hasn’t been right from the start,” Jack said. “But Lark did help us at first.”

  “He did. I’m sure they don’t mean us harm, but still, watch out for them. It is my opinion; they haven’t been hiding any of their capabilities. You are the strongest among us all.”

  Jack laughed. “Not me.”

  “In some situations, you are. I couldn’t fight off the wolves like you did. Let’s just consider Helen and I part of your team, not theirs.”

  “Our team,” Jack said. “I’m still learning too much to even dream of leading a team. I am yours to command, and I wonder a bit about Helen.”

  Tanner smiled. “She will be on your team until she isn’t. We will exercise caution and flexibility in Yellowbird,” he said. “I think you can get back to ride next to Ralinn. Don’t pry.”

  Jack nodded. “I won’t.”

  Helen and Lark held up the rear as Jack took his position next to the wizard’s apprentice.

  “This is scary,” Ralinn said. She looked back at the scouts following them. “I never thought we’d be putting you in this kind of a situation.”

  “Lark did tell us that the boundaries might restrict our movements,” Jack said. “He was more than right about that; in fact, it seems that might have been an understatement. All we can do is stay calm and ride through the Panderite army to Yellowbird. Who knows what obstacles we will face getting to Gameton?”

  “You will protect us?”

  Jack laughed. “That is what Tanner and Helen are for…to protect me, but it seems that, practically, the three of us are doing just that.”

  He touched Eldora’s box and found he was full of power, and the orb was back to full strength too. Jack couldn’t be more ready, as a wizard with limited tools, to do what he had just told Ralinn. He looked over at her. She seemed to smile back with her eyes. She really was pretty, Jack thought. She definitely deserved protecting, if nothing else, as a reward for slapping down her mentor when he needed it.

  “How much learning did you do when you were with the sisters of Eldora?” Jack asked, trying to make some kind of conversation.

  “When my parents discovered I had extra power, they had the sisters test me, and from then on, I was theirs to teach. I learned more than wizardry. They taught me everything any other child might learn in a school.”

  “Were there many students learning along with you?”

  Ralinn laughed. “Where I lived, there weren’t many young girls, so I had to learn alone. What about you?”

  “In Raker Falls, there were plenty of children of all ages. There usually are in a village of any size, and Raker Falls isn’t a small place. We merit an Alderachean temple and a wizard healer, my mentor, as well as a normal healer. I went to an extended school, for my advanced learning. It was for two extra years. Most of the students go to a university or an academy, or they get a good job.”

  “And you don’t have a good job?”

  “As I said, my father expected me to work in his shop. He made me take extra schooling as punishment for my illicit past.”

  “You were a thief?”

  Jack laughed. “No. Illicit meaning playing jokes, getting drunk, and general messing about. It did include a lot of lying, especially to my parents. I deserved the punishment. I was lucky to have fallen into the employ of Wizard Tempest.”

  “I don’t remember you calling him a healer, but you might have. As far as I know, he didn’t represent himself as one to Lark. Have you learned any healing?”

  Jack laughed again. “No. He has an apprentice for that. I’m an errand boy.”

  “A wizard’s helper as an errand boy?”

  Jack nodded. “As you have found out, his errands turn out to be rather dangerous.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Don’t you resent him putting you through all the turmoil that he evaded himself?”

  Jack shook his head. “I’d be wasting away in the village guard if I didn’t.” Jack got to thinking. His time in the guard would be coming to an end if he had stayed in Raker Falls. But as he thought for another moment, he realized he wouldn’t have had the experiences he had shared with Tanner and Helen. At this point, Jack could probably defeat all his friends in any kind of battle by himself. “There is more to learn than what you pick up in a book.”

  “That is why Lark and I are traveling away from home. We both needed a little seasoning.”

  “Isn’t it a little late for Lark to need more experience?” Jack asked.

  “We all can use more from time to time, and in these times, one needs to learn quickly.”

  “Wizards shouldn’t learn too fast,” Jack said. “That has been pounded into my head often enough. I’ll get more learning when we return.”

  “If we return,” Ralinn said. “As I said, this is scary.”

  Before they passed the Panderite camp, their papers were examined again, this time by a higher-ranking officer. He looked at their weapons and their armor and spent more time talking to them.

  “You are swords for hire?”

  “Nope,” Tanner said. Jack let the mercenary do all the talking, as usual. “Three of us are bodyguards for the two wizards. They have business in Gameton.”

  “Loyalist business?” he asked.

  Tanner laughed. “Wizards Guild business. We might have to journey onward to Wilton, I was told. Tesorian politics seem to be shifting by the day.”

  The officer held Tanner’s gaze. “Don’t spend too much time in Yellowbird,” the man said as he returned the papers. “The city is likely to be invaded.”

  “By Panderites?”

  “By someone. I’m not sure we are here to take over a city, but we will keep anyone from heading to our lands.” The officer waved them through after giving them each a token. “Hand these to the guards on the other side of the camp.”

  Tanner gave the man a casual salute, and they passed through the soldiers setting up camp on both sides of the road. He looked back and waved to the leader of the scouts that had escorted them to the camp.

  Jack joined Tanner. “Th
at was easy.”

  “Meant to be,” the mercenary said. “The officer knows whatever we have seen or heard will be repeated in Yellowbird. Of all the insurgents, he is the most honorable man I have met.”

  “Do you think they are protecting the road to the Panderite insurgency?” Jack asked.

  “Does it take a thousand men to do that?” Tanner said.

  “I don’t know.”

  “It doesn’t. Two or three hundred would stop any evacuees,” Tanner said. “We will learn more once we see what Yellowbird looks like.”

  “He did say to leave Yellowbird as soon as we could.”

  “That is one of the messages. Who is to know which one is most important? I think we will follow his advice if it is possible,” Tanner said.

  Chapter Seventeen

  ~

  Y ellowbird didn’t look like a city under attack, but it was a nervous place. Riders passed them coming and going, undoubtedly to see what the Panderites were up to. Men walked the city’s walls—real walls, not a stockade—but they didn’t line the battlements.

  Farmers still worked in the fields, and wagons lined up at the gate to enter., There were even a few wagons that showed up behind them, evidence that the soldiers were letting people through, at this point. The city looked pretty much the same size as Pestersee.

  A blue spire tipped with gold reflecting the late afternoon sun was the highest point in the city. Jack guessed it was an Eldoran temple. He lifted his veil and asked Ralinn if the blue kiss mark was still on his cheek. It was, much to Jack’s disappointment. The veil was a burden to wear as far as he was concerned.

  The guards, five of them at the gate, and that seemed like it might have been more than usual, looked over the papers, including the ones claiming that Ralinn and Lark were Corandians. Tanner repeated the same story that he had told the officer. Lark and Ralinn had taken over Jack’s role, at least as far as the story went.

  “Have you been to Yellowbird before?” Jack asked Ralinn, as they resumed their ride into the city.

  “A few times, but always passing through. It is regarded as a rural city.”

  “It is big,” Jack said.

  “Pretty much an overgrown market town,” Ralinn said. “There isn’t much in the way of the arts or even athletics. Most of that occurs in Gameton. However, we can easily replace our worn clothes here. Lark has been complaining about his boots.”