“They will not see you.” He had released the tension on his bowstring, but Bridgett did not doubt that several arrows were still trained on her. “Therefore, I will not admit you to the city.”
“Why are you denying my request?” She could not keep a hint of desperation from her tone. His eyes scanned her from head to foot, lacking compassion as they returned to her own gaze.
“There is no reason for me to grant you access to the city. If you have information that needs to reach the council, I will carry the message. If not, then you should leave.”
“Friend of the trees, I understand your hesitance to trust the human,” said Ashir. The elf's eyes flicked past Bridgett to the dragon. “Yet, I assure you that she is not like all humans. The dragons honor her for her part in a great service to our kind. I have carried her here out of allegiance to her, rather than out of obligation. I speak for all dragons on her behalf.” Bridgett smiled at the kind words Ashir gave in her defense. A brief expression of curiosity graced the elf’s features as he returned his gaze back to Bridgett. Another of the archers approached and spoke quietly with the first, and a few unfamiliar syllables drifted toward Bridgett. Though they did not seem to be arguing, it was clear that they were not in complete agreement when he again turned to her and spoke.
“Velien has asked that he be allowed to guide you into the city to seek an audience. Though I feel your attempt will be futile and your stay will be short, I have agreed.”
“Thank you. I am truly grateful that you have reconsidered.” Bridgett smiled over at the elf that had apparently spoken up for her cause, hoping that she had found a friend in such unfamiliar territory. Velien stepped toward her as the first archer walked away.
“Do not be personally offended at his tone; he is well trained to protect our city.”
“I did not expect this to be easy, but I was not prepared for a blatant confrontation before I had even seen the gate to the city. Thank you for giving me a chance.”
“You are welcome. In my experience, a single human is never as bad as many humans in a group.” Bridgett grinned at the playful tone in his voice, realizing that there was at least one member of the elven race that did not despise all humans. She walked with him across the small clearing. “Tell me, human, what is your name?” Before she could respond with a proper introduction, she heard the dragon call out behind her.
“Bridgett, wait.” She turned back at the urgency in Ashir’s voice. As she walked toward the dragon, she sensed his conflicting emotions, wavering between excitement and confusion.
“What is it?”
“I’ve been asked to relay an important message to you.”
10 – Silent Reflections
Osric sat in his makeshift workshop. Happy sat close by with a patient, excited expression on his face, watching the silver spoon as it passed between Osric’s plate and his mouth. Osric could feel the angst of hopeful emotion radiating from the dog, which was beating a hollow rhythm on the wooden floor with his stub of a tail. Happy was one of the few small comforts he had enjoyed in the last few months, and he was the definition of loyal. Watching Happy’s polite, tentative, but persistent begging brought a small smile to his worry-creased face.
He placed the spoon on the table and looked at the remnants of meat, vegetables, and tubers that remained on his plate. Even in the dimly lit room, the meal appeared as appetizing as ever, and he could feel excitement rising in his four-legged companion.
“You know I can’t say no to you when you wait so still in spite of your eagerness.” Osric watched as Happy sniffed the air, his eyes darting from Osric’s to the plate and back. He remained seated while his furry body shook in anticipation of his reward. As Osric lifted the plate from the desk and began to lower it to the ground beside the desk, the dog stood for the first time since Osric had sat down to eat his meal. Happy’s short tail was moving at an alarming rate as he beamed in adoration in Osric’s direction.
“Here you go. You’re a good dog.” He patted Happy's hindquarters and sat back in his chair. “Enjoy the meat. You deserve it.”
Worry crept back into Osric’s mind while he watched his companion eat eagerly. It was becoming difficult to supply enough food for all of the faces that were joining them in their safe haven, and each day it was more difficult to keep this fact hidden.
It was not for a lack of available cattle, as people had been lead to believe. Kenneth had trade routes operating smoothly again, and the remnants of the Kallegian that had attempted to disrupt supply to Stanton were all but gone. They had to work hard to make it appear that their need was due to those minor disruptions, but the lack was for want of coin. A month of having an ursidae living alongside them made it doubly difficult to hide.
When Osric raised the barrier around the barracks, he had not imagined that their most powerful enemy, which would threaten to bring the whole organization to an end, would be their lack of funding. If it were not for Pebble’s donations, they would have crumbled under the weight of their ledger months earlier. The young prairie dog pup’s earnings were keeping them operating, but only just. Buying the first supply of cattle to start breeding enough to feed the forty hungry minds that Osric had recruited was the next on their list of expenditures, but the last discovery of coins from Pebble had been too small. Twenty-eight silver pieces was a small fortune, so Pebble’s name as a Wand-Maker was already known, but it wasn’t enough.
Eublin had been happy to purchase more paper and leather to make the books he was translating. They had been able to buy more supplies for the forge and minor supplies needed by all departments and groundskeepers, but they had only bought a few cows. Those few animals were marked for milk alone. James’s young helper, David, had been overly worried about their supply for some time, and hunters couldn’t keep up with the demand.
The most troubling part, in Osric’s mind, was that they did not have enough room for herds of animals to graze in the world he had carved out for them. He would have to extend the barrier for miles to accommodate the amount of livestock that they would need to obtain self-sufficiency, and self-sufficiency was the goal. Yet, extending to that range would make them easy to locate. This could cause even more trouble for their group, not to mention the threats to their families living in Stanton. Armies might march on them out of fear of what they were doing in their invisible, impenetrable home.
Toby had voiced similar concerns about the changing world, and he began constructing walls around the whole of Stanton and her people only a few weeks after they sent the turgent’s men running. They had been hard at it, but even a successful trade center such as Stanton had to worry about building within the means of the treasury.
Everywhere he turned was another potential trouble that lay heavy on his mind. Two new recruits had died within a month of being invited into the canopy that protected them. The protection spell was not at fault, at least, or Osric would have felt too much responsibility to continue leading.
No, he wasn’t at fault, but the deaths were related to the traveling spell. Two men had held a location in their minds that they had spent time in as youths. They spoke the spell and appeared in the location, but a tree had grown there over the years. Upon their arrival, the low-hanging branches had instantly impaled them. They were discovered a day later, one man with a branch through his head and the other man joined with the stump of the pine. It was a gruesome sight that provided a steady reminder that new magical discoveries could be inherently dangerous.
Osric was the one who translated the first book into a form that could be read by the average man, so he felt responsible nevertheless. Gus had spent nearly a day convincing Osric that there was no way he could have foreseen an incident like that happening, and there was no reason to withhold the traveling spell from the book of spoken spells simply because they had discovered one possible danger.
Happy lifted his head and whined in sympathy to Osric’s mood. He tucked his short tail in as he approached slowly and placed his head on
Osric’s lap, looking up with sorrow-filled eyes. Though he could not speak, Osric knew what he would say.
“I am fine, Happy. You do not need to worry about me. I will be fine,” he said, rubbing the dog’s head between his hands. He would have continued to let his mind drift through the dregs that were haunting him if it weren’t for a knock at his door.
“Enter.” Osric looked up and Happy barked, warning the intruder against any foul intent. That was the way of an animal that loved his master. Osric merely spoke Happy’s name softly but sternly, and it brought an end to the uproar. The loyal animal turned to look at Osric for an explanation for the unjust chastising. “You’re a good boy. Never change.” Osric patted Happy’s chest as he looked up at the open door to see two stern scowls escorting a third sullen countenance into his chamber.
“Gus, Eublin, what could possibly make the two of you look so equally upset?” Osric’s question set off an anticipated tirade from the small but fierce prairie dog.
“Well, I assure you that the two of us are upset for very different reasons!” Gus stepped deliberately into the room.
“Why didn’t you tell me we had trouble meeting our ends?” Eublin’s normally jubilant attitude had been replaced by anger, which Osric could only guess had originated from a relatively recent altercation with Gus.
“Gus, I thought I asked you to keep the details of our struggles between the two of us.” Osric sighed, closing his eyes and letting all emotion drain from his face. He did a quick inventory of the three men entering the room, calculating the number of men who could potentially be reached by a stray comment about their barren coffers. The numbers made his heart sink to even deeper levels of despair. Eublin alone had a substantial following. During weekly meetings, they discussed a way to bring a hunt-free life to anyone who wanted it. To Osric’s initial surprise, a large percentage of those joining their cause showed a genuine interest in such a life. If he couldn’t gain the gnome’s cooperation, all hope was gone of keeping their secret.
“He didn’t tell us a thing we couldn’t figure out on our own. There is a downfall to bringing in only the brightest of minds, you know.” Eublin watched Osric closely for his response.
“So, how does he know about our lack of funds?” Osric directed the question at Gus.
“Well, he didn’t until you confirmed it just now, you dolt.” Gus glared at him with impatient eyes.
“Stop shaking your head and tell me what happened and why you are here,” Osric replied after a long, uncomfortable silence. He was growing more irritated with each passing moment, and from the looks of things, so was Macgowan.
“The lumbering idiot behind us brought us five bags of silver today, each with more than seventy coins inside.”
As Osric did some quick math in his head, his eyes grew wider. “We have three hundred and seventy-five silver?”
“If you take everything into account, we have four hundred and three coins to spend. Which is more than enough to buy the cattle we need, correct?”
“More than that,” Eublin corrected him, “if you are dealing with reputable sources.”
“Yes, but it is far from making us self-sustaining. We still need to look for space or grow our grounds. There is a lot of work to be done.” Osric looked nervously between Macgowan and Eublin. “We need the two of you to give your word that none of this will be spread beyond this room?”
“I don’t understand why we need to keep something like this a secret,” Eublin protested.
“Anyone with eyes has already noticed the problem.” Macgowan chimed in with his soft baritone.
Osric stood there, shocked at the implications. The Trust gift told him that the two could be trusted with the information, but he sensed a great deal of curiosity from both men. He could not understand why they did not see the issues at hand.
“I must correct my previous statement that there is a downfall to bringing in only the brightest of minds. Though the two of you may see it as a downfall”—Eublin nodded toward Osric and Gus—“I tend to see it as a necessary method of preserving and bettering Archana.”
“Yes,” said Gus. “It is beneficial to have bright minds working together for a common goal, but tell them that their next meal is in question and see how fast they flee. Tell them how close we are to failing within the first months of our founding, and watch them lose all confidence in their leader.” Gus motioned toward Osric as he grumbled back at the gnome.
“Osric is not making mistakes,” Eublin protested. “We are simply growing too fast for our current funding. We need to get the minds within our walls to start thinking of ways to capitalize on what we are learning here.”
“I am not making mistakes?” Osric laughed out loud from the shock of hearing ideas that were so contrary to everything that he had been spending months contemplating.
“Just what mistakes do you think you have made?” Gus’s snide comment echoed through the room. Osric knew he was challenging him on the deaths of the two recruits, but his mind was far removed from anything as recent as that.
“My first mistake was leaving Stanton to chase after an enemy that didn’t exist while my town was left to suffer alone through the aftermath of my failure. Then I failed to secure our flight, and Pebble was carried away with us in our luggage. I allowed myself to be manipulated by the very forces I was seeking to stop, and I nearly got us all killed because I was too concerned with being a good Contege to consider the safest route to my destination. ”
“What?” Gus took a step back, squinting in confusion.
“Oh, it did not end there. Then I brought us all to the Braya Volcano instead of completing the action that led us away from Stanton in the first place. Once we freed the dragons, I came home to watch from a distance as the Vigiles were disbanded. I put myself in a situation that had my best friend beaten nearly to death. I was too dumb to realize I was serving as bait, which led to our city being invaded by the Kallegian.” Osric threw his hands in the air in frustration. “Wait, it gets better. I betrayed the Maiden of the Unicorn to kill a man and then had to watch all of them be forced from their home because the unicorns shut the whole place down. Then, to make it all better, I made this place for all of us to be safe, and if it weren’t for Pebble bailing us out, we would all starve to death. If any of our recruits knew how truly incompetent I was, I would be out on my ass, and I would deserve it!”
Osric stood there, trembling. Only the practiced demeanor of years spent as a Vigile kept him from breaking down and weeping in his office in front of all three of them. When the thought of Bridgett leaving entered his mind, he sat down and hid his face in his hands.
There was a long silence in the room as the three companions shifted uncomfortably. They each cast their gaze at different locations, unsure of what to say. The small room had no windows to let in the light from the twilit sky. Only the light from a half-dozen candles cast shadows, giving each of them some concealment. Happy whined, feeling the tension in the room. Then one voice broke softly into the silence.
“Well, that's one way to look at it.” Macgowan held his head with pride. His stern expression showed no trace of anger, but it held a deep, enduring distaste for the words he had heard. “You freed the dragons from an ancient, unknown captivity. Then you discovered that the irua were not behind the attack on our home. You were the mastermind behind our battle plan to defeat a foe that had never been defeated, and then you gave us a place to learn about magics we never knew existed when winter began.”
Osric lifted his head with a desperate desire to believe gleaming in his eyes. He searched Macgowan’s face for sincerity and found it. Then he discovered that his was not the only dissenting voice in the room.
“You’ve only got but a year in as a leader. Mistakes happen.” Gus sounded annoyed at coming to his defense, but Osric would take it.
“And you unlocked a lost and untapped magic. We’ve only begun to discover what spoken spells can do.” Eublin’s characteristic awe for knowledge w
as back in his voice.
“And pairing spoken spells with wand-casting gives me a thrill each morning when I summon my belt,” Macgowan said, stepping forward. “Visible spells are a new concept to all of us.”
“You have us creating a treasure trove of those books, which could benefit the whole of Archana. My small staff is working around the clock, and we're finishing a book a day on average,” Eublin said, shrugging.
Osric caught Eublin’s expression when they looked at each other. There was a whole lot more to their relationship than the books they had worked on together over the last few months. He had opened Osric’s mind to a whole new concept of life—a life that still held honor but would allow anyone on Archana to live a life to its potential length. Osric still felt constrained in his beliefs by the culture that had raised him. The honor of dying in the hunt, passing on one’s body to serve as nourishment to another, still seemed like the greatest ending he could strive for. However, he now had great reservations about ending a life when the prey might prefer to die of old age. He had never considered the possibility that he could be dishonoring another being by taking its life in the hunt, but Eublin had led him to see that many see honor from a very different perspective. Gus stepped forward and placed a paw on his calf, interrupting his thoughts.
“As much as I hate to admit it, my son would most likely never have been able to make his wand under my tutelage. And when you put me in the same area as the other two incarnations of my gift”—Gus glared up, feeling both hatred and adoration—“I despised you. But even I cannot argue against the amazing things that have come from that single act.”
The Well of Strands (Osric's Wand, Book Three) Page 11