They rode in silence until midday when Gavin claimed someone would have to hold him in the saddle if he didn’t get anything to eat. Justin tossed his thoughts to the wind and assured them that they would reach a small town before supper so they all had as much to eat as they wanted. They planned to buy more food in town so it was unnecessary to ration what they had left. Lucy was unsure if she would be able to eat anything, but after she discovered that food helped restore some of her energy, she made herself eat more than she otherwise would have been able to.
After eating, she felt well enough to ride on her own. She was still emotionally exhausted and did not want to think. The best way to avoid thinking about what she didn’t want to think about was to think about things that were safe to think about. She studied a sparrow flying through the air and wondered if it was returning to a nest and if it had any eggs. She thought about the movement of her horse and how graceful it was. She noticed the clover amidst the grass. Her mind started to wander to bodies buried under the grass. Before she let that thought get too far she focused on a distant tree and began to count how many steps it took to get there. Two hundred and forty-seven steps later she started to look for images in the clouds. Clouds are interesting in an odd way or, perhaps, they are odd in an interesting way. Lucy ran out of cloud options about the time they entered the town.
The sign approaching the town read Plint. It was a small town, but with all the basics. Plint made most of its money on travelers. There was a blacksmith, a chandlery, a tavern, and an inn. A good inn at that, even though it didn’t have a name. Being the only one in town, it was simply called ‘The Inn’ by everyone. They left their horses with the stable boy who promised to take good care of them after Gavin flipped him a coin. Gavin and Maya went to get supplies while Justin made arrangements at the inn.
The innkeeper kept her prices fair. She owned the only inn in town and could have charged what she wished for rooms, but good prices meant good word of mouth which led to good business. People would rather camp in the woods and bathe in a stream than feel like they got taken at an inn. Molly led them to two rooms upstairs at the end of the hall.
“I let my customers inspect their rooms before I charge for them,” she said good naturedly brushing a stray lock of brown hair out of her face. “If you don’t like them, you can leave and I don’t have to give you your money back.”
The rooms were simple, but clean so Justin was more than happy to pay for them. Each room had two single beds with clean sheets. Molly drew back the faded but serviceable quilts on top to show them. There was a fireplace, a stand with a washbasin, a small wardrobe, and a small table with two sturdy chairs.
“I’m not much of a one for frills. You don’t notice frills when you sleep and an inn’s for sleeping,” said Molly.
“They look wonderful,” said Justin. “We’ll take both of them. Do they include a bath or meals?” he asked before handing over any money.
“Each room comes with two clean towels and the option of a bath,” said Molly, as she opened the wardrobe and pointed to a top shelf where two clean, but worn gray towels were neatly folded. “The room comes with soup and bread for supper. Anything else you pay extra for when you order it. Drinks are your own expense. The tavern has harder liquor if you have a mind for it. Breakfast is porridge. Eggs and sausage can be provided for an extra charge.”
“We’ll take two rooms for one night. Two more people are coming. We have four horses in the stable,” said Justin. Molly named her price, and Justin handed her the coins plus an extra one.
“No cause for that yet,” said Molly, handing back the coin. “You can give me extra if you enjoy your stay.” She nodded at them, and went back down to work. There were many things for an innkeeper to do, and they weren’t her only guests.
Justin put his and Gavin’s things in the wardrobe of one room while Lucy put hers and Maya’s in the other one. Justin said that he would wait for the others while Lucy bathed so she grabbed a towel out of the wardrobe. The baths were located down the back stairs at the end of the hallway on the ground floor. A servant had nearly finished filling the tub when Lucy entered. The room was not nearly as pleasant as the bath caverns in Kennemt, but like the rest of the inn it was clean and serviceable so Lucy was thankful and enjoyed it. Once she was clean and feeling much better she switched places with Justin.
When Gavin and Maya arrived, there was some discussion. Gavin wanted to eat first and bathe later. Maya claimed she was not eating at an inn smelling like she did. Justin arrived, his hair still wet, and the discussion was easily solved.
“There’s only one tub,” said Justin. “Maya, why don’t you go bathe and meet us in the dining area when you are done, and Gavin can bathe after dinner.”
Thus this simple solution found Justin, Lucy, and Gavin sitting together at a table. The tomato and vegetable soup was good, the barley bread filling. Gavin also ordered some mutton and ale. Justin had ale as well. Lucy inquired what her options were and discovered that the local berry juice was very tasty.
“Hey,” said Maya as she joined them looking clean and refreshed. She motioned to the serving girl who brought out soup and bread for her. “I’m looking forward to traveling anywhere that is not a jungle situation.”
“I agree,” said Gavin. “Do you know where we are going next?”
“I was thinking and studying some maps. If we travel east, we’ll traverse some grasslands, which should be easy travel. There is a plateau that direction where Lucy can try her idea. It’s open, and we can see if anyone is nearby or coming. We can try when there is no one for miles so that if anything goes wrong, no one should get hurt. If it turns out we can’t take the horses with us, they will be relatively safe and have plenty to eat. As for the research part, there are supposedly some caves further east and a little north near Athonoa that may have some of the earliest references to Kleth. Athonoa itself has a decent library as well.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Gavin.
“I wonder how openly we can travel,” started Justin. “We have no idea what Kaliea will do when her dead cousin fails to turn up at all much less without us.”
“Not to mention, the whole scheme seems awfully ambitious for anyone from Kennemt. I wonder if anyone else is involved,” added Maya. “It’s not like them to concern themselves with politics or power at all.”
“There could be other people out there who might want to try to use us to find Kleth,” said Justin.
“I don’t think we should skulk around at night,” said Gavin. “Then it really looks like we have something to hide. Appearing to be on a quest for Kleth is one thing. Intentionally hiding what we are doing makes it look like we know something and we don’t want anyone else to know.”
“Exactly,” agreed Maya. “Besides, if Lucy is right, it doesn’t matter if they follow, we could be anywhere on Kinowenn. Place doesn’t matter, mindset does.”
“We should make it appear that we don’t care that anyone is following us, because we don’t, but I do think it would be wise to encourage people to keep their distance,” said Justin.
“I think we can manage to take out anyone close enough to harm us often enough to encourage anyone else to keep their distance,” added Gavin with a smirk and a glance at Lucy.
“Any input?” Maya asked Lucy who had been quite during the whole discussion.
“I’m for any plan that does not involve me frying people, and the plateau sounds like a good idea,” she responded.
“Hmmm, no frying. How do you feel about electrocution?” asked Gavin somewhat jokingly.
Lucy gave him a sad look and said, “I know it’s early, but I think I’d like to go to bed. See you in the morning.”
Lucy left, went to her room, climbed into bed, and was actually able to fall asleep.
“Is she going to be all right?” Maya asked after Lucy left.
“I think so,” said Justin. “It’s too bad she chose fire. It’s one thing to get the sight of pain out of yo
ur head or the sound of a bone crushing, but the smell of burning flesh will haunt her for awhile.”
“I think she’s sometimes scared of what she can do,” said Maya.
“That’s true, but aren’t all of us in our own ways? Gavin has so much natural talent with weapons and so much training that I bet he could beat anyone in Kinowenn in single handed combat. Unless a group was used to moving so as to take advantage of their numbers, he wouldn’t have any problems with around ten men either. Maya, your strengths may be more subtle, but they can still be deadly. With your potions skills, you could put an entire town to sleep for a decade, make a king die of a heart attack, paralyze any number of people, and many other combinations besides without it ever leading back to you. What chance do people have fighting against that? I’ll add that among my talents, I’m very good at healing. Any good healer also knows how to kill. Firstly, we’ve all had longer to learn, adjust, and hone our skills. She’s still learning a lot of hers. Secondly, she feels that we are in control over our talents. If Maya were to poison a town, it would take thought, foresight, and planning. Lucy got scared and mad, and she blasted holes of fire through twelve people. That was not control, and that is what scares her. What else might she do if she loses control?”
“I guess we have to find ways to help her and be there for her,” said Maya. “She’s powerful, and that power can be useful. She’s smart, too. I hope her idea on how to get to Kleth works. We can’t let her dwell in fear and self-doubt.”
“Valiantly spoken,” said Gavin. “Or, she can learn to tough it out, grow from the experience, and embrace her power.”
Maya glared at him.
“Justin? Is that something you can heal?” she asked.
“I’m not sure that would be the best way to go about things. It’s like you and horseback riding. You may not like it, but you are getting better and your legs are toughening up. I’m not sure what I could even heal. I could make her forget the incident, but then the next time something like this happened we’d be right back here. I’d rather she learn to cope.”
“I can see that. However, if she starts having nightmares and doesn’t get any sleep can you at least make it so she can sleep? She’ll need her rest to help heal.”
“That I can do.”
They stayed up talking, laughing, and playing a local board game. Then they crept up the stairs as quietly as they could so as not to wake up Lucy, who was in fact having nightmares.
Chapter 49
Breakfast might only have been porridge, but it was the good kind of porridge. It was the kind that warms you up, sticks to your bones, and gets you ready for a journey. Naturally, Gavin requested two eggs and some sausage as well, but the rest of them found the porridge more than adequate for breakfast. Justin thanked Molly as they left and put two extra coins on the counter. Molly winked and put the coins in her pocket. Their horses had been well cared for, and they started heading east in high spirits with full packs.
It was a warm day with a gentle breeze. It promised to get uncomfortably hot as the sun rose higher, but as least it wasn’t humid and there was a breeze. Maya led and studied the local vegetation as they traveled. She stopped a couple of times to collect various plants which she put in her pockets. Lucy wasn’t paying much attention to what she collected, but she figured whatever it was could only come in useful.
Justin rode beside Lucy. He spent most of his time sending out his mind to search to see if they were being followed, hunted, herded, tracked, or otherwise watched. The rest of his time he spent trying to study Lucy without looking like he was studying Lucy. She was quiet, and he wanted to know what she was thinking and how she was doing, but he also wanted to give her time to collect her thoughts and come to some conclusions.
Gavin brought up the rear. He was also watching for any signs that they were being watched or followed. While doing that he practiced with his weapons. It was good to know how to fight on horseback as well as on foot, and practice was the best way to be ready. He would run through drills and forms with one weapon, sheath it, draw out another, and run through a different set of drills. Maya admired his ability to do this. She was a capable fighter, but if there was a fight on horseback, she would be lucky to make it through alive, still on her horse, and uninjured. Flight was her best option.
“Justin?” asked Lucy sometime that afternoon.
“Yes?”
“How do you get tough without getting hard? I want to be one of those people who can kill if they have to without letting it drive them insane, but I don’t want to be one of those people who can’t mourn for other people because of the people I’ve killed. Does that make sense? I don’t want to be a killing machine.”
“That makes sense. Think of a storm and a wooden barn. No matter how strong that barn is built, there is a storm strong enough that can make it shatter and drive its planks through trees. It can be destroyed, scattered, and unable to be rebuilt. Now, think of a blade of long green grass. It can bend in the wind and let the storm rage around it without breaking. It will still be there when the storm is over, and it will continue to grow. You have to accept the storm and bend to it enough to survive and continue to grow, or it will find a way to shatter and destroy you.”
“That sounds so much easier in theory than it is in real life,” said Lucy with a half smile. “The other thing to look at though is the blade of grass survives because of what it is, and the barn falls because of what it was made into. The barn cannot by its own nature bend. Nor can the blade of grass stand strong.”
“Then perhaps, the trick is to make yourself into what you need to be to survive and make sure you don’t let others make you into something that cannot possibly survive.”
“I take it that you’ve mastered this, oh great sage?”
“Certainly not. Knowing what one should do and mastering it are two different things. Every time a storm hits, I work on bending a little more and springing back up a little faster and stronger than before,” said Justin, and Lucy could sense that that was true. Good ideas did not imply perfect execution.
Lucy lightened up after this. Being bothered by something mentally was no reason to be rude to those around you. There were times when the group rode in silence, and it was during those times that Lucy tried to puzzle through her emotions and how to control them without being controlled by them. However, she spent the rest of the time trying to learn.
She practiced weapon exercises on horseback with Gavin. She had some training on this, but not much, and she soaked up learning. It helped that Gavin had a large supply of weapons with which to practice. Unfortunately, most of the weapons he had were heavier than she would have liked, and none of them were practice weapons. After giving herself a gash that they had to stop and take a break for awhile while Justin healed her and yelled at Gavin, Gavin kept his training to her staff and Maya’s short sword. Rather than know a little about a lot of weapons, they focused on attempting to perfect two weapons. They also worked on throwing daggers too. They would pick a target, a dead tree worked well, and encourage the horses to canter while they threw their knives at it. When they reached the target, they would reclaim their weapons and let their horses rest while Justin and Maya caught up. Sometimes, Gavin would practice shooting arrows like that, but it was unanimously decided that Lucy should avoid that on behalf of all living things within a mile radius.
She started to ask Maya about the plants she picked up and why she picked them up. One day, Maya decided they should have salad for dinner and spent the ride gathering a large variety of greens. This way Lucy learned about bugloss, used to comfort the heart and drive away melancholy. Both the leaves and flowers could be eaten in salads. Maya was fond of lavender. She picked a fresh sprig whenever she found it and wore it in her hair. She claimed the scent was soothing and reduced headaches. When the sprig started to wilt, she would hang it upside down on the back of her saddle to let it dry fully. Then she stored it in one of her pouches because it made a good healing tea,
and it was always a good idea to have something on hand to make a healing tea with. Maya also collected a variety of herbs that could be used to help burns, rashes, cuts, bruises, and other small ailments. Lucy wondered why she bothered if they had Justin, but then Maya pointed out that if Justin was injured, he might not have the strength to heal their injuries, and it was always good to have a back up plan.
From Justin, she continued to learn ways to use and hone her magical abilities. Thankfully, it was in a nonviolent capacity. He was teaching her how to use her thoughts to locate what was around her even if her eyes couldn’t see. He had her ride blindfolded and describe the landscape. It was a tiring exercise, and she did not excel at it. Justin could look for miles in every direction and describe birds, trees, streams, ants, deer, and people. Lucy was working on mentally seeing farther than her eyes could. Justin also taught her to place small wards or traps and to sense how it felt when something broke them and what broke them.
They started simple at dinner. Lucy would set wards all around her for five feet in every direction. Then she would sit in the middle and close her eyes. The others would pick a ward and break it. Lucy had to identify which ward, and who broke it. If they threw a rock at it to break it, Lucy had to try to figure out who threw the rock. A broken ward felt like a small tingle at the base of the skull. Lucy started to color code her wards. She couldn’t explain how she did it, how it worked, or why it worked, but once she started doing that it became easier. Wards require a delicate touch. Perhaps the frequency that gave light color affected how the tingle felt when it was broken. Justin didn’t do things that way, but he didn’t care how Lucy did things provided she knew when an ant ran over a ward she left a mile behind them. If she could know when, where, and by what he didn’t care if the reason she knew was because it was purple.
The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 Page 38