Maverick

by Curtis, Greg

  “In that case I will thank you for your words, and wish you the beneficence of the Lord of Magic as you battle this evil. May the magic keep you.”

  “And you Marjan.” Marjan let the call go then as he saw the look on the adept’s face, hopelessness. He knew nothing and more than that, he was scared. That was never a good sign, and even if the boy had known something more he didn’t want to hear it. At least, without the crystal’s light the peace was restored to the cave, the only light coming from the comforting flicker of the small fire.

  Silence reigned for a while after that, both of them lost in thought while the children slept, and not cheerful thoughts. Marjan was glad when Essaline’s questioning spirit broke it.

  “How did you know I could fire talk?” Essaline was curious again, and he had to admit it was a pleasing trait even in an elf. If nothing else it made her ask questions of him and he liked that. He also liked that she distracted him from the darker places his thoughts wanted to travel, and perhaps she knew that too. Ever since he had witnessed the evil done to Snowy Falls he had been battling a dark temptation of his own, vengeance born of anger and grief, and even now after a hard days walk, it wasn’t easy to hold it back. Not when he now knew that the chances were that his family was dead.

  “I didn’t. I guessed. But even if you could not I can, and I know your name. I would be able to answer for you.” In fact he had spent many nights over the years simply staring into the flames in his fireplace, listening in on the conversations of elves far away, unnoticed. It was one way to pass the time on the long cold evenings alone, sometimes to pick up smatterings of arcane knowledge, and also to learn of happenings in the world outside of his home. Of course Essaline’s people might not see it the same way and so he wasn’t about to mention it.

  “You can fire talk?” She seemed slightly scandalised by the information, as if he had read her private thoughts and those of her people, and maybe he had, a little. But even so he enjoyed thinking about the conversations they might have to come on the subject as well, even if he was held to account. He enjoyed thinking on anything they might discuss as inappropriate as that might be.

  “Most wizards of life can, but it’s not something we speak of openly. Now let me see your wound please.” He was aware that he was telling her things that the Guild might not want discussed openly, but then since he was no longer a member of that Guild he didn’t care too greatly. After all it was a minor breach of the rules at most, and what could they do, expel him again? Besides, times had changed and the Guild needed friends just as he suspected in due course, so too would the elves. Whatever was going on in the world, it hadn’t started locally and he doubted it would stop with Gunder and Gunderland. The enemy would continue their relentless charge south.

  He was also aware that he hadn’t paid enough attention to Essaline’s health that day, not since lunch at least when darker thoughts had possessed him, and he could see that she wasn’t moving her arm a lot any more. Though she had eaten and drunk during the day, eaten a good evening meal as well along with the children, he had made sure of that, and she was seemingly alert, that wasn’t good enough, and he knew he hadn’t been performing his duties faithfully. He had let too many other dark thoughts weigh on his mind, distracting him from his duties.

  Slowly she undid enough buttons on her shirt to free her arm from the sleeve, it was easy enough when the shirt was twice her size, and then gave him her hand, so warm and soft in his. The gauze had blood on it, but that was to be expected, and as he bathed it with warm water to free it from the dried blood of her wounds, he could see that the gashes were already knitting together well. Most of the angry redness was gone and underneath he could see the pink of new skin as it already began to heal over. The herbal poultice had worked well and the salve was doing its job, and there wasn’t a lot of redness even around the stitching. He was pleased with his work.

  “It looks good.” He was speaking about her injury but he could also have been speaking about her long, graceful arm and the way her slender, delicate fingers felt so nice and inviting on his skin. He only hoped that she didn’t realise the direction his errant thoughts wandered.

  “It feels good, but it’s a little stiff.” After a single day of having been treated it was all but a miracle that she could even use it, but he didn’t want to remind her of that.

  “That’s only to be expected, it was a deep injury and some of the muscles were torn, but you will heal, and I hope have full movement in your arm in time. When you get home to your own healers, they will no doubt be able to improve on what I’ve done, and even the scars will fade.” Though she’d said nothing about the scars he was still painfully aware of their importance to an elf.

  “For now I’m going to clean it and then use some more of the hot ginger wound salve to keep the fever demons away and help with the healing, and though it’ll burn a little, it will let you sleep more comfortably tonight. I’ll dress it as well with the bark berry and tea poultice, and tomorrow you should feel better again. In a few days you will be able to draw a bow and I’ll craft a bow and some arrows for you. I might even be able to remove some of the stitches then.” He began doing just as he said, washing down the wounds with a cloth soaked in hot water and studying closely all that it revealed. Then as he was rubbing fresh salve gently into the wound and he could feel her flinching just a little, he knew a little more pride in his skills. The pain was a good sign. He wasn’t the best of healers, but he still did good work and his medicines were strong. Already he could feel the health returning to her flesh under his fingers.

  “A wizard of life?” Of course she was curious, and she wasn’t about to let him go when he’d just spilled such an important secret. But he just smiled as he worked. Perhaps it was right that she and the elves should know the facts, especially now.

  “Those with gifts in the animal and plant realms, or with the gift of healing or reading of souls. I am a poor healer and my skills with plants are modest at best, but I can feel the land around me as a living thing and commune with the beasts of the forest quite well, see through their eyes, even command them.” It was good that she was curious he decided as he kept working, a little awkward perhaps, not that she was being intrusive, but that he seemed to be confessing to things. Still, that she was interested in him, he liked that. He had been alone for far too long and to have a pretty woman interested in him was an unexpected pleasure. It was also a distraction for a wizard, and he could almost hear his old masters lecturing him at length about the distractions of youth again.

  “Your skills as a healer don’t seem that limited to me.” Her words brought a smile to his mouth and maybe even a slight redness to his cheeks from pride, though happily the darkness of the night and the shadows cast by the fire hid it from her, he hoped.

  “Thank you good maiden. When I first realised I was to live apart from the guild and then found my cottage, I began to see the importance of such skills and studied them first and above others. My magic is limited but my knowledge not so, and I have an extensive collection of the local herbs. Besides, I made a little coin by selling my salves and potions and with them bought many tomes of magic with which to advance my studies over the years.” He began dressing her wounds as he had promised and soon her arm was covered once more in gauze. Then he watched with a little regret as she pulled her arm back from his and with a simple contortion, managed to get it back in the shirt’s sleeve.

  “You’re done. That should help you sleep through the night.”

  “Thank you. Your skills with the arrows are even more impressive.” Why he wasn’t more surprised when she threw the unexpected compliment, and of course the inherent question his way, he didn’t know, but neither did he mind that much, as she sought out information. He liked the fact that she was interested in him. Besides, as someone who had children to protect she had the right to be curious about him, and they needed to trust one another.

  “I am a much better enchanter than healer, and I can a
lso wield the magics of force and dimension quite well. My talents with the elemental magics are perhaps my most advanced however. I was nearly an adept when I was forced to leave the Guild, and I have spent the last ten years continuing my studies in private, growing in strength and knowledge. Now I hope I would at least have the power and ability of a journeyman or even a junior guild wizard if not the rank. Not a master sadly, nor even an artisan, but at least someone who can help with a spell or two. I am also an experienced woodsman and these lands are my home. I will keep you and the children safe.” He had a little more magic than that too, if he was honest. Over the previous decade as he’d continued his studies, he’d started working with the magics of force and dimension, and even on his own he’d learnt quite a lot. Enough to raise a strong shield and perhaps even translocate them in an emergency.

  “That I believe.” She reached out suddenly with her good hand and placed it on his, catching him by surprise and sending a rush of colour to his cheeks along with too many inappropriate feelings. “You are a good man and a capable wizard if a somewhat strange one. We were lucky to find you and I think I have not said that enough today.”

  “Thank you good maiden.” He nodded to her as was only proper having been paid such a compliment, and at the same time trying to sound as if he was in control of himself. He wasn’t, in all his life no one had ever touched him like that, at least not as a woman to a man, and he was shocked by the familiarity of the gesture, as well as overwhelmed. He only hoped that she didn’t realise it.

  “I speak the simple truth, and I would have you cease with the formality. You have saved my life and that of my students, trusted me with your secrets and shared your life with us. You have earned my respect and my name.” Suddenly she sat up straight and stared him directly in the eyes.

  “I am Essaline Veral of Evensong, Teacher of the Way, Wisdom and Minstrel, and I am pleased to know you Marjan.” Despite himself Marjan was impressed. The lady was both a priestess of the Goddess the elves worshipped, and a woman of great learning if he understood her titles correctly. Yet she seemed too young to have achieved so much. On the other hand she was an elf, she could be much older than she appeared. If wizards aged slowly then so too did elves.

  “And I am Marjan of the Allyssian Forest, woodsman and outcast wizard. The pleasure is mine good maiden.”

  “And so I understand it was.” Suddenly there was a new emotion in her voice, laughter, and he wondered why even as he tried to make sense of the barb in her words and failed.

  “Your pardon?”

  “The children told me a little of what you did while I slept. Of how you undressed me. Even touched me.” She stared straight at him, and in the darkness with her face partly clothed in shadow he couldn’t tell if she was accusing him of a crime or laughing at him. He didn’t like either choice.

  “I… I…” Like a village idiot he suddenly had no idea of what to say and even if he had, his tongue wouldn’t have obeyed him as it made strange movements while no words emerged. Heat had risen to his face, and a part of him, a large part, simply wanted to run away and hide.

  “Is there something you want to tell me?”

  For the longest time Marjan sat there staring at her, shocked and perhaps even a little guilty, not able to answer her, not knowing how, until eventually some semblance of self-control returned to him.

  “I’m, … I’m sorry. I only did what I needed to do to treat your injuries. I swear to you that I did nothing inappropriate.” If anything the heat in his face grew hotter while sweat started dripping off his forehead and if it had been light in the cave he had no doubt he would have been as red as a tomato.

  “You’re sorry? As in you found me unattractive?”

  “No! No! Never! You are extremely beautiful.” Yet even as he answered her, making sure she would never imagine him even thinking such a thing, a part of him realised she was having a little fun with him, playing with him as a cat would a mouse, and that he was only falling deeper into her trap with his every word. Yet still he fell.

  “Aha! So you did look.” Just like that she closed the trap and he knew he had walked right into it.

  Marjan’s tongue stopped working completely about then, as he stuttered and stammered and nothing but strange mumblings came out of his mouth. It must have been enough for her, as suddenly the unanswerable questions stopped and instead she started laughing merrily, a golden, musical sound that lent him a sense of relief even as he felt like an idiot. But at least he knew she wasn’t actually accusing him of anything improper.

  “Be at ease my champion. It is I who should apologise to you for being so contrary. It is late I am tired and I sought a little amusement after a long and difficult day. Yet still it is good to know that somewhere underneath that uncivilized attire, behind those fierce steel eyes and beneath that wild hair, there beats the heart of a true gentleman.” Uncivilised attire? Wild hair? She was calling him a barbarian surely, and he didn’t like the sound of that even when she turned it into a compliment, and yet maybe there was an element of truth. He had lived alone for a long time, too many years perhaps, and he did not always attend to his grooming as he should. Such things seemed less important in the forests, and it wasn’t as if his neighbours cared. Still he could probably use a shave and a wash, and it might be good to dig through his saddlebags to find a comb.

  “You have nothing to apologise for, and in Calibra when we arrive, you may speak with my parents. I would be pleased to share an evening meal with you.” It was a let off, sort of, and Marjan should have been relieved but if anything he was suddenly even more worried. There was something more in what she said than he truly understood, more than he perhaps had even dared to hope for, but then he had never been the most interested in the customs of other races or for that matter in matters of the heart. He was a wizard not a diplomat or a housewife. Still he had to put a stop to wherever this was going, even though much of him wanted to go there.

  “Good Essaline, I am not going to Calibra.” Suddenly her smile vanished and the temperature in the cave seemed to plummet as he knew he’d said something wrong, something hurtful. But she had to know the truth and he hurried on with his future plans for them all.

  “I cannot. I am a maverick, an outcast, and a renegade wizard. My kind is not permitted in your lands on pain of death. Even guild wizards in good standing are barely tolerated. Surely you know that as well as I.” In fact a part of him was wondering why she had assumed such a thing at all. She was an elf, surely she knew such things better than him. All he knew were the dry facts of the matter. She should know the heart.

  “Then what will you do? The children will need your protection.” There was concern in her words but mostly coolness that tore at his heart. He had never meant to hurt her, and yet somehow, he knew, he had.

  “Be at ease good maiden, I will not leave you undefended. I will bring you all the way to the border and there find some good elves to take you on the rest of the way to your home, on that you have my word. But once you are safe I will need to continue on myself.” He hated it, but it was the simple truth. For some reason the elves hated wizards. They didn’t trust them despite the fact that they had their own magic. The only wizards they would let into their lands were those who had kept their sacred vows, those who a Guild would stand behind, and they were accepted only reluctantly. Mavericks and renegades, they knew better than to try and enter elven lands.

  “You will not need to move on. I am a Teacher of the Way and on my word you would be allowed entry to Calibra. None would do you harm.”

  “But none would welcome me either my lady. I would be an outcast once more. I have lived alone a long time and in private, pretending to be nought but a simple woodsman, seeking to forget that pain at least. I do not wish to relearn it.” Silence greeted his words, and not an easy silence. A painful, heavy silence that he wished would end, yet which only seemed to linger until he had to fill it.

  “I’m sorry if I have hurt you Essaline, tru
ly. I would rather wade through rivers of molten rock than cause you pain. But you have to know the truth.”

  “Where will you go?” The fun was gone in her voice, the humour and the music missing as if they had never been there at all, and in their place was coolness, business to be discussed, facts to be swapped. The world had lost a little colour and Marjan felt somehow cheated even if he didn’t know how.

  “I don’t know. I won’t know until after I have reached the border of Calibra and given you and the children into the safe hands of your people. But by then I hope I will have a destination in mind.” Not that there were a lot of choices. There was only further south east to Lands End, a small seaside realm said to have only one industry, fishing, and one people, barbarians of whatever race they heralded from, and south west through to the gnomish land of Bryar’s Plains, a more vibrant place with lots of work to be had, but not many humans to meet.