by Sam Ferguson
“Why do you want Erik?” Lepkin asked again.
“Is it not obvious?” Tukai yelled. His pure white eyes took on an orange hue in the light of Lepkin’s sword. “I said that if Lokton’s son is allowed to live this night, then Lord Lokton will die.”
“So you keep saying,” Lepkin said. He looked up to Dimwater, who now floated ten feet from the ground on her cloud. “What do you say?”
“I say we toast him, he will not give us the information we wish to know,” Dimwater replied. Her voice echoed as it left her mouth, giving it an ethereal quality that frightened Erik. “It is true that the prophecy of a warlock will come to pass, but I have yet to see a warlock explain all of the prophecy. They always twist it to suit their own purposes. This one uses this prophecy to hunt Erik. We can not allow him to succeed.”
“You fools!” Tukai howled. “You know as well as I that Lord and Lady Lokton can not bare children. What other son could the prophecy speak of?”
“What other son indeed,” Lepkin said.
“It is true,” Erik said. “Lord Lokton told me himself that the reason I was adopted was because they could not have children. It must be me.”
“Listen to the boy, Lepkin,” Tukai warned.
“Your hypnosis will not work on me,” Lepkin replied. He turned to Lady Dimwater “Toast him.”
Tukai’s eyes went wide. “No!”
Dimwater stretched out her hand and a tornado of fire extended forth, devouring the warlock’s magic shield and enveloping Tukai in its fiery death. Erik watched the scene, stunned.
When everything was done, Dimwater stepped from her cloud and glided down beside Erik. “Silverfang has taken quite a liking to you,” she said. “If not for him, we may not have found you in time.”
Erik looked over to the wolf’s body. It lay limp and lifeless on its side. “I’m sorry your wolf is dead,” he whispered.
Dimwater laughed and rustled his hair. “You have a lot to learn about magic, my boy,” she said with a smile. He looked up at her with questioning eyes. She returned his gaze with a wink that assured him all was well. “Silverfang, though he looks like a wolf of Terramyr, is not actually from this plane. His wounds are significant, but as long as I send him back to his plane, he will heal and be ready again for action very soon.” She waved her hand and Silverfang disappeared from the clearing. “He is a most loyal companion. He called to me from his plane, alerting me to your trouble. I of course allowed him to come immediately to help, and then I went to find Master Lepkin before we caught up.”
“The warlock tricked me,” Erik said sheepishly. “I thought he was you.” Erik pointed to Lepkin. He expected a harsh reprimand, but he saw only a smile on Lepkin’s face.
“Erik, it is very hard to break a warlock’s hypnosis spell. I am very impressed that you were able to do it. I don’t think I have ever been prouder of you than I am now.” The sword ceased to glow with fire and Lepkin slid it back into the sheath hanging from his belt.
“Really?” Erik thought about that for a moment.
“Erik, a warlock uses fear as a way to control people. He controls what they see, hear, and think. Most victims caught by this spell are found dead afterwards. It is a most terrifying magic, and one that warlocks use often when their lesser tricks fail them. How did you realize that it wasn’t me?”
Erik thought about his conversation with Tukai. “I patted him on the shoulder, and he winced in pain because that was where I stabbed him with a fork when he came into my father’s dining hall earlier tonight. I knew it wasn’t you because you could withstand anything. You wouldn’t have winced.”
Lepkin looked up to Dimwater and the two exchanged glances for a moment. Master Lepkin looked down with an arched eyebrow and stared at Erik for a long time. “You stabbed the warlock?”
“Uh huh,” Erik confirmed. “Sir Duvall had tried with a sword first, but I was able to get him.”
Master Lepkin nodded and looked back to Dimwater. “We should camp here until the dawn. It’s only a few hours from now.”
“Then what?” Lady Dimwater asked.
“We will return to Lokton manor and explain what happened here tonight. Then Erik and I will travel east. I have some business for the king, and then I will take Erik to Valtuu Temple. It is time he learned some things.”
“Lord Lokton will be worried about his son all night,” Dimwater commented. “I could send a bird with a message saying he is safe.”
“Very well, but don’t give our location. I don’t want to inadvertently alert others. Remember what I told you about Orres.”
“I will be careful to be discreet,” Dimwater replied.
Erik wondered what the two were talking about. What had happened with Master Orres, what was Valtuu Temple, and why had Lepkin looked so surprised when Erik talked about stabbing the warlock? Suddenly he felt very tired. His eyelids hung low and he let out a long yawn that seemed to take the rest of his energy away. He lay down on a blanket that Lepkin stretched out beneath him and clasped his hands beneath his head. He barely felt the weight of the blanket over him as Lepkin wrapped it around, and then there was complete calm.
“He will sleep well,” Dimwater said.
“Yes, well, your sleeping spells seem to have that effect,” Master Lepkin replied with a grin. Lepkin sat on the ground cross-legged next to his apprentice and laid his hands over his knees. “Did you hear him say that he stabbed Tukai?”
“I did,” Dimwater replied solemnly as she held her left arm out in front of her, parallel to the ground. “I told you he was strong.” An owl came down from the sky and rested on her arm. She looked to the owl and locked eyes with it for a moment. Then she pushed the owl up and it flew off in the direction of Lokton manor. “He will deliver the message for us,” she said.
“The Order of the All Seeing Eye is not a low level band of warlocks,” Lepkin said. “We will have to stay alert.”
Dimwater nodded her head and sat next to Lepkin. She gently slid her left arm behind him, grazing his side. Lepkin’s heart jumped, but he tried not to show it. She pointed her right hand out to the ground and lit a small fire to keep them warm. The flames danced above the ground, needing no fuel to burn other than the spell that had created them. “You will take him to learn of the Ancients?” Dimwater asked.
“I will,” Lepkin replied with a nod.
“Not a moment too soon, either,” Dimwater said. “He looks peaceful, doesn’t he?”
Lepkin looked over to Erik and smiled. “Yes, he does.”
“We could have started a family of our own, Lepkin,” Dimwater said wistfully.
Lepkin shook his head slowly. “We should not talk about this.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” Lepkin said as he turned back to Dimwater. Her eyes captivated his and the two gazed at each other for a long while. He felt his heart pound in his chest. Her beauty was so intense. He wished he could reach out and hold her, but he did not move. Instead, he broke the gaze and looked back to the campfire.
“Did you want to duel Orres for my hand?”
“You know I did,” Lepkin replied softly. “But my duty prevented me from returning. There was nothing to be done about it.”
“You could have abandoned Gelleirt monastery,” Dimwater replied.
“Let’s not talk about this,” Lepkin said through teary eyes.
“Alright,” Dimwater said. She reached around and gently pulled Lepkin’s shoulder back so that she could lay her head down on it. “Then let me ask you something else.” She waited for a moment before continuing. Lepkin found himself wishing that they could stay by the campfire for the rest of their lives as she snuggled into him and got comfortable. “If Orres is a traitor, then you can duel him now. You would have the right to call him out.”
“I can not call him out until I have proof,” Lepkin replied. Lepkin pushed her back from him and looked into her sad eyes. He wanted to tell her of the journal that Janik had given him, but he
couldn’t. He knew that in order to preserve the integrity of the journal, to be sure it was Orres’ own hand that wrote it, he could not tell Dimwater about it. Any help she could give in unlocking the journal would present the possibility of her tampering with the contents magically. Lepkin had to find the answers on his own. “I will figure it out. There must be proof of his misdeeds somewhere.”
“Yes, there must be,” she said softly. “I wish I could help you find it.” Dimwater laid her head back down and sighed. “Lepkin, if times were better could we win? I mean, if Orres wasn’t a traitor, if Janik wasn’t crippled, if the lords of the major houses all united with us, if you had several years to train Erik, and we had both of the books, would we stand a chance against what is coming?”
Lepkin breathed in and sighed heavily. He thought carefully about the dangers, the darkness, that approached and was threatening the realm. “No.”
*****
Erik shifted in his saddle for the thousandth time. His mind was wracked with worry over his father. The prophecy hung over him like a dark cloud that even the bright morning sun couldn’t vanquish. He had asked Lady Dimwater about it before they left the manor this morning. She had told Erik to ask Master Lepkin, but Lepkin never explained much, especially not today. He seemed quieter today than he had ever been. Erik figured that he was lost in his own thoughts. A lot had happened the night before, and the brief conference with Erik’s adopted father back at the manor didn’t seem to ease any of the tension.
At least Lord and Lady Lokton were safe. That relieved Erik quite a bit. Braun had been there too, though he had a few more bandages than Erik had seen last night. The fight at the manor had been hard, according to Braun’s own words. In addition to the three Blacktongues that attacked Erik in the briars, there were seven more slain around the manor. It was this news that seemed to bother Master Lepkin the most. All he said was “I see,” and then he never said another word. Dimwater had gone back to take care of some things at Kuldiga Academy, though no one told Erik what those things were. And now, Erik and Master Lepkin were riding east.
“Look over there,” Lepkin said, yanking Erik from his thoughts. “If you look down the road a ways you can see the walls of Buktah. We’ll stop there and see what we can do about getting some proper equipment.”
Erik looked and saw gray walls jutting up from the ground, with a tower at each of the four corners. “Do you think there will be more warlocks?” Erik asked.
Master Lepkin drew his horse up beside Goliath and patted Erik on the back. “I don’t think they will come after you for a while now, my boy.”
“Why not?”
Lepkin arched an eyebrow and smiled slyly. “Because, they are afraid of you,” he said.
“Afraid of me, why would they be afraid?”
“I can not explain everything right now, but soon I will. I promise.” Lepkin leaned in a little closer. “I will even tell you all about Gelleirt monastery.”
Erik looked back at Master Lepkin. He could tell by the grin on Lepkin’s face that that last bit had been meant to cheer him up. It didn’t. Erik was too worried about his family, and what he might do to them, to care about Gelleirt monastery right now.
“It’s because I could hurt Tukai and no one else could, isn’t it?” Erik asked after a bit.
“It is,” Master Lepkin confirmed. “There is a power in you, Erik that can overcome the dark arts. That is what enables you to hurt warlocks with normal weapons, and even to defeat Dimwater’s ghost and wolf. Tukai was no ordinary warlock either. He was one of the three chiefs of the Order of the All Seeing Eye, an especially powerful group of warlocks consumed by their lusts for power. Your father has dealt with Tukai before.”
“He has?” Erik asked.
“Yes,” Lepkin said. “Tukai trained at Kuldiga Academy at the same time as your father, though he was known by a different name then. His talents far surpassed the skills of the other wizard apprentices. He had visions come to him in his sleep. These visions always came to pass, just the way he had seen them. So, he started to tell people of them in an effort to help people. Some of the people listened, and others said that he was mad. Tukai felt that his gift was taken for granted, so he started to demand payment for his help. Some people paid, others didn’t, but when the headmaster found out that he was selling his gift like a street vendor he expelled Tukai from Kuldiga Academy. Since then Tukai has twisted his gift the way that all warlocks of his order do. He pronounces a prophecy and twists the meaning to further his own agenda.”
“So he lies, then?” Erik asked.
“No, the words he says are true,” Lepkin replied.
“So I will kill my father, because I was not killed last night,” Erik muttered.
Master Lepkin placed a hand on Goliath’s neck and the beast stopped instantly. Lepkin reached up and turned Erik to him. “No. That is not necessarily the case. As I said, the warlocks of his order twist the meanings of their prophecies. The words he speaks are true, but they do not always mean what you think they do.”
“How can it mean other than what I think it does?” Erik asked. “I am Lord Lokton’s only son.”
“Perhaps,” Lepkin replied with a shrug. “Perhaps there is another son somewhere.”
“My father can not have children, he told me so.”
“Did he tell you that he couldn’t, or that they couldn’t?” Lepkin asked with an arched eyebrow. “Think carefully, Erik. What did your father say?”
Erik paused for a second. “He said they couldn’t have children.” Erik scrunched up his face. “But my father would not dishonor Lady Lokton.”
“Well, think of all the possibilities, Erik. How could there be another son without dishonoring Lady Lokton?”
Erik ran his fingers through his hair as he thought. “Well I suppose there is some chance that they could still bare a son in the future, or maybe my father had another son before he married Lady Lokton.”
“You see?” Lepkin said with a grin. “There are too many possibilities to decide that the prophecy must speak of you. Besides, what would Tukai gain by killing you? The fall of House Lokton would only help him and his order gain more power, so why would he try to strengthen House Lokton?”
“So, he twisted the prophecy to make someone kill me?” Erik asked.
“That is my guess. I bet that he and his order fear you and your power. So, when he had this vision he saw an opportunity to exploit other peoples’ fears and eliminate you. That is why I have tried to teach you to listen, and to judge carefully what is right and what is wrong. If you cannot discern the truth from the lie, you will fall prey to the designs of evil men.”
“That has made me feel better,” Erik said with a nod. “I felt deep down that the prophecy couldn’t be talking about me. I could never hurt my father.”
“You judge too quickly again,” Master Lepkin said with a frown.
“What do you mean?” Erik asked.
“There are other possible explanations. Perhaps your father will end up joining the wrong side, and you will slay him because he turns evil.”
“That won’t happen!” Erik hollered.
“Erik, calm down. I am only suggesting that it is possible. If your father aligned himself with Tukai’s order, for one reason or another, then that would give Tukai a reason to kill you before you could stop your father.” Lepkin patted Erik on the back again and started down the road once more. “I’m just showing you that there are many possibilities.”
Erik huffed and tapped his heels to Goliath’s side. He didn’t believe that his father could turn evil any more than he thought he could slay his father. Neither option seemed natural. Erik decided that there must be another son somewhere. Either in the future, or from the past, but he was somewhere. “If there is another son, what do we do?” Erik asked.
“I can’t tell you the answer to that Erik,” Lepkin replied. “That is a mystery that only time will unravel for us.”
Neither of them spoke again until
they reached the gates of Buktah. Erik watched the walls seemingly grow as the two of them came nearer. The towers loomed over them, with guards inside each one. The gatehouse was simple, but formidable. Large spikes protruded out from the center of each iron door that closed the city walls. After Lepkin identified himself the doors were drawn open by teams of oxen, attached to long, thick chains that creaked and groaned at the strain of the heavy door. Once the doors were open Erik saw a heavy iron portcullis being raised by chains connected to even more oxen on the inside of the walls.
“Do they always keep the gate closed during the daytime?” Erik asked.
“Not always, but they have been doing it increasingly more often in the last few months,” Master Lepkin replied.
Erik nodded and followed his master into the city. He could smell the ox dung as they passed through, but the odor quickly gave way to the smells of the market. Dust, sweat, and other animal scents mixed in with the fragrances of sweet breads, fruits, spices, and roasting meats. Several vendors approached holding out handfuls of jewelry or flowers, but they were quick to back away once Master Lepkin slid his cloak back to reveal his sword. Many of the vendors bowed their heads and apologized as they walked back to the side of the road, others just turned and ran.
“Do you have that effect on people often?” Erik asked.
“I do,” Master Lepkin replied evenly. “Follow me.” Master Lepkin turned his horse to the left and Erik fell in line behind his master. They rode for a few minutes down an old, dusty road. It was narrower than the main road and was flanked by short, brown wooden buildings. The doors were simple and there were usually one or two windows facing the street, but occasionally there were buildings without windows. Erik marveled at how close together everything was.
A short, fat woman came out into the street from one of the buildings on the right. The sour look on her face and the way she threw the dead rat into the street made Erik decide to give the lady a wide berth as he rode by.
A road of cobblestones crossed the dirt road they were on. Lepkin turned his horse onto the cobblestone and beckoned for Erik to keep up. Lepkin sped his horse to a light trot. The horses’ hooves danced across the road with a pleasant clippity-clop as they road by several inns. Erik saw many signs. Some were ornate with fresh paint or elaborate engravings. Each sign was cut in a different shape and hung above the front door of the respective inn. There was the Rosewood, the Midnight Traveler, The Spotted Owl Inn, and then there was one plain sign that simply had the word “Inn” etched lightly into its side. Lepkin stopped in front of the inn with the plain sign and secured his horse to the hitching post.