The Isle of Mists: An Epic Mage Fantasy Adventure (Legend of Ecta Mastrino Book 3)

by BJ Hanlon

  It was a disease of people out to the west. They began coughing up their insides and sounding like a cat with a hairball stuck in their throats. An outbreak in Porinstol some years ago killed almost two thousand people.

  “Baili’s,” the one behind him said. His voice was soft, like a preteen, though he was only a few inches shorter than Edin. “In Ranchera.”

  About twenty minutes later they came to another hamlet. There was no sign that said the name ‘Ranchera,’ but he assumed this was the place as they stopped at a long and low building that looked like a closed stable.

  The shutters were closed but there were thin lines of light peeking out the cracks.

  One of the guards pulled open the door and they were met with music and chatter. A soft smile rose on his lips as if meeting an old friend.

  A tavern like almost any other, men drinking, laughing, playing cards. Flirtatious barmaids flittering through as if floating. A moment later, he saw a drink actually float to a waiting man’s hand.

  The room smelled of smoke, ale, and liquor, but it somehow still felt clean.

  A man stood before others with a set of playing cards, he seemed to be telling some sort of story.

  “So, this red head met me the other day,” he laid down a card, “she tells me I gotta go down to king street.” He laid another card and get me a fat piece of bread. I say how much? The red head,” he laid another card, “said twenty-five.” Two cards. “Twenty-five?” I say,” Two more cards.

  Edin noticed the two and the five. The men were laughing as Edin turned toward the bar as the story continued.

  “Day workers,” One of the guards said. “Evening Baili, this is a foundling. He’ll be residing in the Reaches.”

  “Whose daughter did he touch to get assigned that wreck?” Baili said winking. Her eyes seemed to mutate between green and blue.

  “Alcor’s…”

  “And who the heck is Alcor?”

  The guard grinned.

  “Alright lad, what’ll ya have?” Her blouse was cut low showcasing an ample amount of her bosom and Edin found it difficult to stop from looking.

  It took him a moment to get his head around. “Whiskey.”

  “He was a chatty bird before he saw you there, Baili,” the first guard said.

  Baili twisted from the bar and grabbed a bottle with a brown liquid from a shelf below the mirror. A mirror ran that ran the length of the bar. Edin saw her looking at him in it.

  She turned back to the bar with the bottle and grabbed a glass. “You men can head back if ya’ll want, the Reaches ain’t too difficult to get to from here.”

  “The First told us to…”

  “He ain’t your king,” she said, her tone was almost angry.

  The man shrugged. “But he pays us.”

  “Suit yourselves.” She poured the drink and looked at Edin. “So, what’s the rest of the world like these days?” She poured three fingers of the liquid into a glass.

  That was a big question and Edin almost smiled. It is burning, Edin thought as he twirled the glass in his hand and watched it slosh up to the sides.

  “Where’s our drink?” the guard asked.

  “You’re on duty right?” Baili said without looking at the guard.

  “Come on, we’ll stop by Pop’s Station before we head back. They got better ale,” the second guard said and Edin didn’t notice them leaving.

  “I suppose it’s much the same as it’s always been,” Edin said.

  “I’ll bet.” The attention she put on him made him turn slightly red. It was those eyes, when she stared at him, spoke to him, it was as if all the rest of the tavern was gone.

  Baili shook her head when the men left. “My ale is much finer, as is the whiskey.”

  Edin took a drink. It felt good at first, for just a moment then it tickled and burned. He felt tears, turned, and coughed.

  Baili laughed. “Foundling drank the fire!” she shouted. “Come now, who wants another?”

  Hooting laughter echoed from around him. Edin swallowed the end of his coughing fit. A man slapped his back and reached out his hand. He said his name but Edin didn’t catch it. Other men joined.

  A man offered a long-stem pipe. “It’s only tobacco,” he said. “But I got the good stuff too.” Edin didn’t know what he meant but shook his head.

  Edin turned back to Baili during his introduction to the men. She locked eyes with him, smiled and nodded as if to say this is normal. For the first time in a very long time, Edin began to feel a lessening of the weight, the worries and fears he’d been carrying.

  He laughed. Not sure why but it felt good. He took another drink from the whiskey, it had almost magically been refilled. The fire whiskey burned but he didn’t cough. Edin felt light on his toes, his body swayed, and men began to sing.

  Edin barely remembered much that night. The drinking ran late into the night, he’d told his story at least twice. Maybe three times. He tried to leave out the elfish woman, but she may have come up. He most certainly said nothing about the two talents.

  “You gotta knack for stories, boy,” a man with sunburnt skin and calloused hands said. “Keep tellin’ em like that and you’ll drink for free.”

  “It’s not a…”

  “That kid up at the Reaches… he reads a lot, but he don’t tell us stories, just mopes past us all the time…”

  “Someone else lives there?” Edin said. It was the first he’d heard about that.

  “The only other mage outside Delrot, just you and… what’s that bookworm’s name?”

  “Dorset,” someone called.

  “Yeah, kid is strange, wants to be way out here. No one knows what he does in the tower but I’ve seen lights from there and weird sounds. Screeches, cries… moaning.”

  Edin swallowed and wiped an eye.

  “No more of that, Dorset’s a fine boy, just quiet,” Baili said. “It’s good to have a magus here, makes us seem respectable.”

  A bunch of people laughed.

  “They separate you?” Edin asked.

  “It just sort of happens,” the sunburnt man said. “My father and two sisters all have the talent. Me and me ma weren’t so lucky.” He slapped Edin on the back. “But hey, I have my health, my wealth, and my lady. Though I seem to have misplaced her at the moment.” He pretended to look around for someone then erupted in a great belly laugh that nearly burst Edin’s ear.

  “Inside joke,” he yelled.

  “And I’m not on the inside.”

  He laughed again and pushed Edin a little too hard causing him to bump into the bar.

  “Watch it with the ranchers, stranger,” Baili said from the other side. “They’ll drink you under the table.”

  A while later, a trio of Bailis waved him over. He closed an eye and saw it was just one.

  That was a relief.

  She leaned against the bar, it tugged her blouse down nearly exposing all her chest. “Just so you know, it’s two hours past midnight and we’re about to close down.”

  Edin blinked a few times and tried looking at the small clock that was behind the bar. He could barely make it out.

  “Give me fifteen and I’ll walk you to the Reaches.”

  “Bah, that’s a half a league. Come boy, you can stay by my place, it’s around the corner.”

  “Thank you,” Edin said, he could feel his stomach beginning to turn into a warm slosh. “I think I’ll walk. Just down the road, right?”

  “Yep. Straight east.”

  Edin nodded and headed toward the door. As he reached it, he heard Baili calling for everyone out then she appeared at Edin’s side.

  “Come on, it’s a nice night for a stroll.”

  The cold wind felt good on his skin and seemed to put a stopper on his stomach that verged on overflowing. Few of his steps were actually in front of one another, and Baili held his arm to steady him for the trip.

  The road rose and fell with the surrounding landscape. They passed another hamlet that was complet
ely quiet and slowly, silhouetted against the darkness, he saw the tower rising like a thick stump of a limbless tree. He breathed deeply from the smell of the ocean and was taken back to the lighthouse where he and Arianne hid.

  Baili slowed as they grew nearer and Edin found himself almost tripping on his own feet in order to stay with her.

  A lantern lit up the entrance showing off a rather haggard wooden door beneath a crumbling arch. The door began to creak open, squealing as if someone was leaving. But no one appeared.

  “Latch has been broken for a while. Dorset keeps whining about it but nobody does nothing,” Baili said then stopped. “Well, I guess this is it.”

  Edin turned toward her and blinked, her blue-green eyes were still as bright as when he first met her.

  “You really do all those things you said before?”

  Edin nodded. “Arianne and I.”

  “Yes, the princess… I call bull on that by the way.” She had thick lips and they smiled as she stepped closer. She reached her arms out around his neck. “You ought to know, I don’t just walk any man home. Only adventurers.” Baili began leaning in.

  It took him a moment but his arms still worked. He put his hands on her hips and steadied himself. No matter how drunk, there was no way. “Sorry… I can’t I’m…”

  “Baili, never seen you this far from the tavern.” The voice came from somewhere over his shoulder.

  “Just walking your roommate home. This is Edin, arrived today.” Baili still wore a large smile and didn’t seem to care about what just happened between them.

  Edin turned away, prying himself from her grasp.

  “Hi,” Edin said.

  “Did anyone give you a message for me?” Dorset said, he looked to be Edin’s age, maybe a few years older. He wore a grass colored robe that was frayed at the collar and around the sleeves. His hair was a light blond, almost white in the lantern light. He pushed his thick spectacles higher up his nose.

  Edin shook his head.

  Dorset shrugged a bag higher onto his shoulder and stared at Edin a bit more. “I’m gonna die out here…” Dorset sighed then turned his gaze to Edin and seemed to eye him over. After a few more moments he spoke.

  “Bottom level is the kitchen, middle is the sleeping quarters, and top is the observation, though I use it for a study. Don’t touch my things, I’ll be back before dark.” There was a briskness to his words as he barreled down the stairs and stood next to Edin. “You’re drunk.”

  Edin nodded.

  “Do not touch my things,” he said again much more forcefully. “My bed is under the window on the left, there is a spare across the way.” Then he began marching down the dirt road the way they came.

  “So, perfect timing, you got the tower all to yourself.”

  Edin looked away, from somewhere over the edge of the cliffs, he heard the waves thrashing against the rock face.

  “I need to get some sleep,” Edin said. “I got to be at the farm at sunrise.”

  “The farm? Which?”

  “Don’t know, how many are there?”

  “I think eleven, they’re all on Newland,” she pointed toward the south but Edin couldn’t see that far with the darkness. “You’ll never make it. Better to just ignore it, it’s your first day. You could show me around your new place?”

  Edin’s mind went to the near kiss and his heart paused as if to say don’t even think about it. He had Arianne. “I’ll be okay.”

  “When your princess trades up, let me know,” Baili said before turning and heading back down the dirt road behind Dorset.

  Edin walked up the creaking stairs and found a small package. He picked it up. A note was pushed into the twine wrapping. ‘Your clothes all laundered. Le Fie.’

  Edin put it under his arm and pushed through the dying door. The wooden slats that ran vertical were warped and the wind whistled over thin cracks. As he moved deeper inside, he gave a cursory glance to the open floor. A stove, pots, and dry goods positioned at the back wall.

  Soft moonlight died as it met the flames of a pair of lanterns. A crude wooden staircase sat off to his left. Edin climbed feeling that at any moment it’d collapse.

  It was an open stairwell that followed the outer wall for half a rotation before he reached the second floor.

  Edin saw the beds and moved toward the one beneath the window. Outside he saw the beginnings of the sun rising with a red fury on the dark and vast ocean.

  A thought came across his mind, he could be the furthest east that anyone has ever been...

  Edin looked down at the comfortable bed by his knees. He remembered it was Dor’s or whatever his name was… then he wondered for a while if he should take it just to upset him. The man-boy seemed like a jerk.

  “No,” he whispered to himself. He’d already made a bad first impression.

  Edin threw the package onto the floor next to the opposite bed and flopped onto it. He felt tired, sore, and drunk. He rolled over and found a beam of sunlight covering his face.

  No wonder the roommate slept on that side, Edin thought. Edin twisted to face the dark stone wall and covered his face with the blanket. He felt cold and thought about Arianne, wondering where she was and if she was thinking about him.

  He wrapped his arms around his body and wished he could communicate with her, tell her good night… or good morning as it were.

  The dream came again, Arianne crushed, Foristol attacking.

  Edin shot up and looked around. For a moment, he forgot where he was. The sun wasn’t blaring onto his pillow anymore, that was good, and he felt a bit soberer.

  He’d slept. A little while at least, it was still morning though probably closer to eleven, though he had no idea what time he’d gotten to bed. Four hours, maybe five. Edin turned back and looked across the open room to Dorset’s bed.

  He felt exposed. He’d need to get a partition or something. There was no way he’d want to look at Dorset’s bed all night.

  Edin rolled back toward the wall and shut his eyes. Later.

  He was half asleep, maybe fully asleep—sometimes it was impossible for him to tell—when he heard noises below him. Then there were heavy footsteps pounding up creaky stairs. He remembered the battle at the dry docks. In an instant, Edin rolled from his bed, and drew his blade at the exact moment a head appeared in the floor.

  A moment later, he remembered he was on the Isle of Mists. Just bad dreams.

  “You Edin?” The man said.

  Edin nodded and then looked down at himself. He was in his undertrousers and nothing else. He hadn’t remembered removing his clothes. Slowly, he let the blade drop.

  “I’m Henny and you’re late.” The man wore a brown tunic and brown trousers to go with a wide wicker hat. The man had huge arms, a thick neck, and a bushy black beard speckled with gray. It crawled like ground covering weeds all the way around his neck. His face was wrinkled from time out in the sun but he seemed to walk with a purpose as he approached.

  “I wasn’t told…” Edin began to lie, excuse making, like he did with his mother, with Master Horston.

  Henny waived his hand, “don’t matter to me. Unless you’re gonna stab me with that there blade, get dressed. We got work to do. I’m already missing far too much time riding to this backwater.”

  Edin mulled it over in his head. Did he play his game, do what Pharont wanted and work the field?

  It was far from the way he’d pictured his life. A long way from dreams of playing hero but now, he knew this was better than that.

  He had his adventure, he’d met pirates, gangs, and sellswords. Spent far too many nights on the road, spent too much time being stitched up, and slept to long with rocks in his bum. He had a bed, a job, and a girl.

  Edin nodded. “Let me get dressed.”

  Henny disappeared back down the stairs that still sounded as if they’d collapse. Edin threw on his black clothes from the day before and went down.

  “That’s formal wear, only to be worn for an audience wi
th the Praesidium. You can’t wear that.”

  “I have nothing else,” he lied again. “Would you rather see me working naked?”

  “Gods no.” The man eyed him for a moment before sighing and heading outside. “Tomorrow, you need more appropriate clothes,” he muttered and motioned Edin outside and toward a horse. It was a white and gray mare already saddled next to Henny’s huge brown stallion.

  Edin absently wondered how his horse, former horse Hail, was doing. If he was still out there roaming the grasslands. Maybe he found some mare and was off living a life free of everything. More likely though, he was stuck in someone’s stables.

  They rode for a half-hour through grazing lands and small farms. Pig sties and chicken coops dotted the landscape with low grasslands and the road cutting through like rivers.

  They crossed another long bridge from one island, Brackland, to the other, Newland. Henny explained that Brackland was mostly grass with around a thousand cattle on it. Seen from the sky, it was shaped almost like an arrowhead pointing north east. The Reaches were three long peninsulas that poked out into the sea nearest the tip. Newland though was almost completely farmland with small copses of trees dotting the land. The island was connected to Brackland by two long bridges.

  “Don’t know why they put you at the Reaches, by foot it’ll take you two hours to walk each way and we start work at six.”

  Edin knew the reason, the fat man wanted him to suffer. He didn’t do himself any favors by acting the way he did. Edin pulled out the flask and took a sip. Henny shook his head.

  He held the reigns tight and clenched his legs against the horse as they crossed one of the chasms. About twenty yards below was a rock-infested waterway rolling with the tides.

  After they crossed, the horses trotted along a dirt road between row upon row of wheat to one side and corn to the other. In the distance, he saw a knoll with what looked like grape vines held up by T posts.

  Henny started to slow and pulled alongside Edin. “You ever worked a field before?”

  Edin shook his head. “We had tenant farmers. Never spent much time with them.”

  Henny eyed him.

  “Back on Bestoria, I was of noble birth,” Edin said answering the unasked question. “I wasn’t pampered, if you’re wondering.”