by Guy Antibes
“Reginart Ephram gave me the same warning. I’m sure we will be reminded by the ship’s captain and crew when we sail.”
“You have your money?”
“It is more than enough,” Jack said.
“Then bring some back,” Fasher said with a wry smile. “I can’t tell you exactly where the Battlebone is, but I do know it is in Masukai. It is up to the four of you to find it and bring it back.”
Jack took a measured breath before he spoke. “How desperately do you want it? Will I have to kill to get it?”
“When have you not had to take a life during your errands?” Fasher asked, but he raised his hand to silence any comment Jack might make. “You can make that determination. The Battlebone in the hands of the Red Herons will lead to a great loss of life. It gives a battle commander that much of an advantage.”
Jack nodded. “I will have to do what I have to do.”
“Indeed, you will, and I have a great deal of confidence in you.”
Jack laughed. “I’ll find a way to screw things up. I always have.”
Fasher’s face turned serious. “But you haven’t failed me yet.”
“I hope this isn’t the time.”
Fasher gave Jack a grim smile. “You won’t. Say goodbye to Corina. You have already made your farewells at home?”
Jack nodded. “I will do that when I pass the house on the way out of Raker Falls.”
Fasher stood up. “You’ve taken some rods with you?”
How did Fasher know? “A few,” Jack said.
The wizard walked around his desk and shook Jack’s hand. “Stay confident.”
Those were his last words. Jack left the office. He had already given Corina a few last-minute instructions, but she didn’t need any. She met him out by his horse.
“Take care of yourself,” Corina said. She gave Jack a hug, embarrassing him a bit with Fasher looking out the window.
“I will. Anything you want from Masukai? Reginart Ephram gave me a list. I haven’t thought to ask until now.”
“Your return, most of all. If you find a little something, I won’t complain when you return.”
Jack gave her a final hug and mounted. He couldn’t restrain himself and took one look back. Fasher had come outside and had his arm around Corina’s shoulders. They both waved. Jack returned it and turned a slight corner that took Fasher’s house out of view.
He sighed and went through a similar ordeal with his parents and a few of his siblings and their spouses. Jack had never left this way before. It was as if no one expected him to return. Jack smiled. He would come back. He just didn’t know how long he’d be gone.
Chapter Three
~
J ack ran his fingers along the blade of a few weapons in the swordmaker’s store in Underville. It had been months since he had last passed by the place, but the owner remembered him.
“You used this some since we last talked,” the swordmaker said to Jack.
Jack nodded. “I wondered if you could repair the guard again,” he said.
“My pleasure. I’ve been selling a few of this sword’s descendants,” the swordmaker said, smiling. “The pattern is sought after, so I don’t make too many to keep the price up. I’ll check on the knife, as well.”
Jack nodded. “Tomorrow?”
“I’ll have it done tonight. No charge.” The swordmaker handled Jack’s sword with more respect than Jack ever did.
He picked his weapons up early the next morning. The edges were perfect, and Jack could see that the swordmaker changed the guard a bit, adding more metal to the point where Jack had imbued it with Takia’s fire. He thanked the man and headed west on the Corandian side of the river.
It felt odd to travel by himself, but he headed to Arsinport where he would meet up with Tanner, Helen, and Grigar Soffez. Jack began to whistle when he was by himself on the road as he rode through a handsome wood. The day was late, and Jack didn’t plan well enough to end the day at a village. He would have to sleep in the open. He frowned because he didn’t have much to eat in his bags.
An arrow whizzed past his face.
“That is just a warning,” a stern voice said from within the trees.
Jack pulled out the old wand that Penny had borne on their trip to Passoran. He let a wizard bolt fly where he spotted a bit of colored cloth behind a tree.
“I can warn just as well as you can,” Jack said.
“I can see that,” Tanner Simple said as he emerged from behind the tree. “How have you been?”
“Busier than I wanted to be. When Fasher sent Penny north to Dorkansee, I was hoping I’d go on an easy errand. This time it will be anything but.”
Tanner emerged from the woods astride his horse. “I’m afraid you are right. I have a Masukai book, but I can’t make out what I’m even learning.”
Jack looked around. “Where is Helen?”
“She is with Grigar, heading down the coast,” Tanner said. He pulled out a metal rod that looked a lot like a wand to Jack. “Can you help me do something with this?”
“You want me to beat you with it? I don’t think I’d get very far doing that,” Jack said.
“No. Imbue it with the wizard bolt spell. I need a little help with magic.”
Jack didn’t quite believe his ears. “You have accepted the fact that you are a wizard?”
Tanner gave Jack a weak smile. “Something like that, lad.”
“Have you even tried it?”
Tanner pointed at a tree, and the wizard bolt fizzled after six feet or so.
“Penny is better than you,” Jack said.
“Of course she is. But I’d like to surprise someone. I’m very good with a bow, but it isn’t convenient to carry one around. Never liked it. That is Helen’s weapon.” Tanner pointed to a longbow and a quiver of arrows tied to his saddle. “I think we might have to be prepared for everything and that includes fighting from a distance.
Jack had to agree. “Let’s find a place to camp, and then I’ll teach you all that I know about wizard bolts. It isn’t much, I’ll warn you. It’s just that what little I know, I can do well.”
“Anything will be better than this,” Tanner said, shooting another too-short wizard bolt. “I can lunge at someone with my sword to better effect.”
They mounted and stopped at an unused campsite. Luckily, Tanner had the foresight to have brought along enough supplies for dinner and breakfast. That alone earned enough of Jack’s time to imbue Tanner’s wand and keyed it to his friend while Tanner prepared dinner.
Jack pulled out an energy rod and made sure it was full of magic power. After dinner, they stood fifteen feet away from a stump. Jack pulled out his wand and tossed a lightly charged wizard bolt at it.
“Can you do the same?” Jack asked.
Tanner pointed the wand and his wizard bolt slapped against the stump. It wasn’t as strong as Jack’s. “Hold the rod and concentrate on sending more energy through the wand. A louder more forceful trigger word generally works for me,” Jack said.
Tanner nodded. He shifted his stance a bit and yelled out the trigger word. A brilliant bolt hit the stump at the bottom, smoking for a bit after it hit. Tanner frowned until a tiny flame emerged from where the bolt hit.
Tanner grinned. “That is more like it!”
“Practice. It might have been the extra energy, or it might have been a bolder expression of your will,” Jack said. “It had enough force to kill or injure someone at half that distance, more than the range of a lunge.”
Tanner nodded. He couldn’t keep the grin off his face until they all heard the clatter of a wagon’s wheels. Two wagons stopped at the campsite.
“Do you mind if we share?” the lead driver said. “We are merchants heading toward the coast.”
“School is over,” Tanner said. “Suit yourself. We can move over there,” Tanner said, pointing to a corner of the site with its own fire ring. “You can use what’s left of our fire.”
“Thank you!” the
man said.
The wagons wheeled into the clearing. Tanner and Jack moved their camp.
“We are farther from the creek,” Tanner said.
“I’m wearing a creek on my arm,” Jack said, raising the red-cuffed bracer that he had received from Eldora, the goddess.
Tanner laughed and clapped Jack on the shoulder. “I forgot. Shall we compare notes on Masukai?”
Jack nodded.
They spent the rest of the time talking about Masukai, keeping an eye on their campmates. Other than mundane uses of magic, Jack didn’t see or feel any extraordinary power among the five people who came with the two wagons.
One of them walked up. “Where are you headed?”
“Arsinport,” Tanner said. “And you?”
“Then we are heading north before you head south,” the man said. “If you are heading to Dorkansee, it is easier to take the crossroads in the next village than go south to Arsinport and wait for a ship to go north, at least at this time of year.”
“We are meeting some friends,” Tanner said.
“Ah, they are getting off a ship?”
Jack smiled and nodded. Tanner cleared his throat alerting Jack that he had given too much information to strangers. He should know better by now.
“Have a good journey,” the man said, waving as he returned to the others in his group.
“My big mouth, again?” Jack asked.
Tanner nodded. “You know better than that.”
“I do. It takes a bit to stop trusting people when I leave Raker Falls.”
“No excuse,” Tanner said. “It will only be worse in Masukai when we talk to the natives in heavily accented Masukaian. I’m not looking forward to that.”
Jack shook his head. “I’m afraid disaster could strike us at any moment if we don’t have someone with us who is Masukaian.”
“Grigar spent nearly two years at their port for foreigners. Hopefully, he has some ideas, even if he has forgotten how to speak the language,” Tanner said.
Jack nodded. He shouldn’t get ahead of himself. He guessed that everything would be resolved once they landed at Taiyo in Masukai.
~
“Do you feel more prepared to go to Masukai?” Jack asked Tanner as they entered Arsinport.
“Not much,” he said. “I can sting some people unexpectedly, but I’m a babe compared to you.”
Jack laughed. “You use the sword, and I’ll shoot the wizard bolts. That is a fair division of labor, isn’t it?”
Tanner smirked. “Fair enough. Let’s see if Grigar and Helen have arrived at the inn.”
Arsinport was a small port compared to Dorkansee, but there were still plenty of ships at the docks. Finding the inn was more of a challenge than Tanner thought, but they eventually found the modest inn not too far from the ships.
After leaving their horses in the stable, Tanner and Jack walked in to see Helen and Grigar laughing at something the serving maid said.
Jack caught Grigar’s eye. “Jack, Tanner, come over here and sit down. It’s been too long, especially since I last laid my eyes on Jack.”
A grin came to Jack’s face. “It is good to see you too. How have you been?”
“Helen told me the details about your instant arrival at Raker Falls,” the little wizard said. “Impressive, even if it was made possible by the Serpent’s Orb. As for me, I’ve been well enough. I miss my sister, but as you can imagine, we weren’t particularly close in the later years when she focused on collecting objects of power.”
“She didn’t collect the Battlebone, did she? I’m not so sure I want to venture to Masukai,” Jack said.
Grigar smiled even broader. “And miss the adventure? No, no, no.” He waved both hands in front of him. “I am eager to return to Masukai and travel into the interior.”
“They didn’t let you before, did they?”
Grigar pursed his lips, still with the touch of a smile. “Not very far. My sponsor said I couldn’t venture into the interior on my own. With you three by my side, we should be able to handle anything the Masukaians throw our way.”
Jack doubted Grigar’s seriousness. Perhaps he was presenting a positive front for Helen and Jack, but Jack’s research, albeit from only four books, didn’t encourage him.
Grigar frowned. “You seem leery?”
“I am. Masukaians hate foreigners. We are four foreigners, the last time I checked. I’m not sure we can survive a trip across the country.”
The wizard nodded. “Perhaps I’m more optimistic than you are. Don’t think I’ll be entering Masukai with my eyes closed. I’m well aware of the dangers, perhaps even more than you. Going with a negative attitude will only ensure a negative outcome.”
Grigar’s comment took Jack by surprise. He did have a negative attitude. Not that he wouldn’t try his hardest, but he didn’t see a path to success, at least not yet.
“Perhaps I am a bit discouraged. Tanner and I have been dabbling in the language, and I’m afraid I haven’t met with a lot of success,” Jack said.
“He is right about that,” Tanner said. “We wanted to know how well you remember Masukaian.”
“Not enough, my friends. We have the voyage to study, and Helen and I have already come up with a plan,” Grigar said.
Jack looked at Helen. “You have?”
She nodded. “We are going to lock ourselves in one big cabin and speak nothing but Masukaian. Grigar said it is the only good way to learn the language.”
Jack would believe that when it happened, but his fear of the language would only be defeated by lots of study. That was how he survived when he went to extended school before he worked for Fasher, and he vowed to himself that was how he would do it on the voyage.
“I’m all for it,” Jack said. “We might have to drag Tanner along.”
“He and I will be learning side by side,” Helen declared, folding her arms.
“At least I like the side by side part,” Tanner said. “When does the ship sail?”
“Two days,” Grigar said. “It is a Tesorian merchant ship and heavily armed.”
Jack smiled. “Be ready to help defend the ship against pirates. They swarm around foreign ships, so Reginart Ephram told me.”
“You talked to Penny’s father?” Helen asked.
“I did. He gave me the name of a contact in Taiyo and a list of things to buy for his two daughters.” Jack told them everything Penny’s father had told him about Masukai.
“He didn’t have much of an opinion of you when you first returned to Raker Falls and left his daughter comatose.”
“She changed after we disposed of the Black Fingers,” Jack said. “I’m a little surprised about it all.”
Helen grunted. “I’m not. Penny was on the verge of growing up anyway. Her experiences on our errand just pushed the process up a bit. Fasher didn’t waste any time getting her in the healing institute in Dorkansee.”
“We will see how grown up she really is when we return. Does anyone have any idea how long we will be in Masukai?” Jack asked.
“Months and months,” Grigar said. “Masukai is as wide as Corand is long. For all my optimism, we can’t travel outside of Taiyo until we speak acceptable Masukaian and understand the customs better than I did after living at the port for nearly two years. Those two years were a long time ago, by the way.” He grinned. “I don’t doubt we can do it, but if I had to guess, we might be gone six months to a year, depending on where the Battlebone is. Don’t forget we also have the Red Herons to contend with.”
Chapter Four
~
J ack was sick of the rolling ship and sick of attempting to learn the language. Grigar didn’t remember enough, so they might have been slaughtering Masukaian pronunciation. Even Grigar was struggling with reading as much as the rest of them.
Someone pounded on the door. “Pirates! The captain wants everyone on deck to fight!”
They all looked at each other, but Grigar grinned. “It means we are getting close to Masu
kai’s coast!”
“We can’t say we weren’t warned,” Jack said as he went to his bags and began to put on armor and gather his objects of power into a leather sack he slung around his neck. He had to admit, he’d like to try out Takia’s Cup and his copy of the Serpent’s Orb, but only if it meant saving the ship. Jack felt very anxious about the confrontation. He followed Helen up to the main deck and looked across the sea at three ships approaching on one side and two on the other.
“It is a wolf pack, we call them,” the captain said. “I’ve been trading in Taiyo for fifteen years, and the pirates have only gotten worse, but not to worry. We have an armored vessel. We won’t go down, but lives may be lost.”
Jack sighed. If he sunk a ship, there would be no healers to help the sailors. He corrected his thoughts—pirates. Those who staffed the ships were not friends. Jack knew that Fasher wouldn’t fight, but he wasn’t Fasher.
“Where do you want us to go?” Helen asked once Grigar finally joined them. He wore a breastplate and an old misshapen helmet.
“Two wizards?” the captain asked.
Jack noticed Tanner kept quiet.
“I have two wizards on board. They wear the dark-red armbands, so spread out from them. The strongest on the side of the three ships and the weaker on the other,” the captain said.
Jack looked at Grigar. “Take your pick,” Grigar said. “I don’t care,” the older man shrugged his shoulders.
Jack moved toward the three-ship side after nodding to his friends. “We will come out of this alive,” he said.
“Of course we will,” Tanner countered. “Look around. Every sailor is wearing armor.”
“And most are battle-tested,” the captain added, “fighting against the pirates.”
Jack took a deep breath and took up a position. He fiddled with Takia’s Cup and the frame he had made to hold it, the burning of Aramore Gant’s fingers was seared in his mind. He smiled at the use of the term “sear.” That helped him turn his focus toward the enemy in front of him.
The cup was ready. Jack had never used it against anyone, but from the looks of the crew, even if they were battle hardened, the men looked scared. One of the pirate ships shot something into the air that looked like a sloppy wizard bolt. Then he remembered about Masukaian fireworks. It was a signal, and the faster pirate ships began to close.