by Derek Palmer
Wolves. I missed the forests, the voice of the wind in the trees, the smells that changed with the weather and the seasons, the silent moments - the peace in general. In that sense, it was funny to find some similarities between humans and animals. Even if it didn't really help me here.
If I had had any doubts about Mrs. Hansen's abilities, they disappeared quickly. In a few days there was a new shopkeeper at the herbalist shop and she would be paying Linnea some rent while she would keep the profits. I had been there with Linnea collecting everything Linnea might need and while doing that I did my best to check if there was anything hidden. Meaning anything magical, but there was no luck with that. I hadn't really expected to find anything but I had needed to check.
That wasn't the only thing where Mrs. Hansen's efficiency showed. Now, when both Linnea and I really belonged to her pack - I mean family - she made it clear to us that, since we were University students we should also be good University students. Besides education we might be able to create some contacts - but carefully. Not with everybody, but selected people - and if somebody would push to become our friend, we should tell Mrs. Hansen immediately.
"So, Stian - your friends... mind telling me what their plans are?"
It was already clear that Mrs. Hansen believed my friends were natural Mages like Linnea and me. Well, in a way they were.
"You mean besides stealing babies, conquering the world and making other people our slaves?" I held a short pause shaking my head. "The short-term plan is to stay alive. The long-term plan is to find a safe place to live, possibly surrounded by friendly people or at least some who do not see us as a threat - even where the women are treated as equals, if not more. Does that answer to your question?"
"You don't see us 'normal people' as different?"
I suppressed a laugh, which I tried to make sound a bit bitter, even though I had noticed her reaction to my comment about women treated as equals. Even if Linnea wasn't here, now, keeping an eye on me, I did my best not to lie.
"My fiancée was a ‘normal' girl. Had she not married another man while I was away for a while, I'd probably be married to her now with a few babies. Mrs. Hansen, if you think of my ability as a gift, please think again. There could be hundreds of people close to me while I'm there at the University and if I weren't able to tune my ability down I would have become crazy already. I know that there are people whose skin has a different color than ours and they are still people. Trust me, we're the same people as you and Alva. Well, maybe not Miss Dahl; she's one of a kind."
Mrs. Hansen kept staring at me for some time before she nodded.
"Elise. Please call me Elise from now on, Stian. I don't really like my last name too much, even though I kept it because of the business."
I guess I was really a part of the family now. Even though she knew that my loyalty would be divided between two families.
"Thank you, Elise."
"Do not thank me. I can see all your families benefiting each other if everything goes as planned. I just hope that, as long as you are here, you'll use your skills to our benefit, just as Linnea promised to do. I already had a short discussion about your trade idea with someone from a fellow family. They are happy as they are now, but they are also willing to help if there's somebody else to take the risk of those far-away journeys. The main reason why nobody has done that yet is there hasn't been a strong enough family to establish it."
I got it. Those ruling the country wanted the businesses to remain small enough so that they wouldn't pose a threat to their leadership. Even less now, if they were planning to go to war. Those two forces balanced each other: The Guardians gave the structure and the Magicians were the ultimate tool that, especially as a group, could scare away a small army - unless the opponent had people who could distract the Magicians. I had no idea what kind of deal these groups had made with the Trolls, but the truth was that, if those groups could combine their strengths they'd be almost unstoppable.
I nodded to Mrs. Hansen - Elise. "I already knew that there's no way I could have established all that alone. My initial plan was to get the process started and cause some delays for those planning to create that army, if possible."
"You really mean that, don't you?"
I smiled. "There's not much point in lying when you can always ask Linnea to come here and ask the same question again. However, there's no reason to worry, since I have no plan to do anything stupid. My other family would not like it."
Elise looked at me intently, as though she'd like to see what's happening inside my head. I almost hoped that she would be able to do so, since I wasn't quite sure myself. Then she just nodded and our meeting was over.
I was now a frequent visitor of the University Library - together with Linnea. I knew all the open sections of the library, I knew where the books on Mathematics and its subtopics were; I knew where were the books about Biology, Farming, Anglon, Religion were; a few books about Astronomy - and local Geography. Local Geography - meaning this island, our Kingdom, the nearby seas and neighbors. That was it.
Then there was a guarded section of the Library downstairs where the books - and maps - about global Geography and Astronomy were, including most of the books related to navigation. Not even my Red Pass opened that gate at the top of the stairs. The gate to the basement - the 'Dark Floor', as the other students called it. The floor that was mostly underground. The place where all the books on Magic were stored! On the other hand, there was no time to sulk about that now, since I was busy learning Mathematics with Linnea.
What made the library special were the big windows providing all the light they could get - but since that wasn't enough during wintertime, there were also many candle lanterns in which only certain pure candles were allowed. Close to every lantern was a pipe connected to the system that brought fresh water to the whole University. The system was designed so that if there was a fire, water could be directed to the right place by opening a certain valve. There was a nozzle that could be used to direct the shower to the right place putting out the fire in a few blinks of an eye. I was somewhat impressed by the system and I appreciated it because I also loved books. With that system, they should able to minimize the damage to the books in case of a fire.
I was now reminded of my mother’s instructions: 'It's all there in the capital, hidden in the University Library on the pages of books about Geography and Biology. For those who know how to look.' I now knew where to look, I just didn't want to do it with Linnea following me. It was already clear that Linnea knew nothing about the history of Elves, Trolls and natural Human Mages who had gotten here when those Magicians had opened the connection between the two worlds: Elonia and this Earth. It was a part of history that didn't exist. What's more, Linnea had no idea about her parents or even where she was born. Had there been some knowledge about that, it had gone to the grave with her so-called aunt, Gunhild. Besides those books, there might still be certain areas in the very old town part of Aston, but with them, I'd be extra careful since I had no idea of the depth of the betrayal. Hantaliel had also told me about a raid which had taken place years ago and that area might be totally abandoned by the people I would have liked to meet.
At least my mother had been in her full senses until her death and I was quite certain that she had had time to think about what had happened. If only she had had time to speak with me. If only Linnea's aunt had not killed herself. Now I was here, in Aston with access to the University Library, but I was still in the dark about the hints my mother had given me. My Elven friends, with their lessons of patience, would have laughed at me because they would just have thought that I needed to learn to be more patient. Yet, I still had the feeling that we didn't really have time to waste.
I lifted my gaze for a moment from the book about farming that I had been looking at without really seeing anything and looked at Linnea who was reading next to me. A part of me was happy that I had found her, since simply her existence gave us some hope, since more natural Human Mag
es would be needed - many more. Besides that, it had been her ability that had been the key to get the support of our new family. However, there were some issues - the biggest one being that her full loyalty was at the moment mostly pledged to Mrs. Hansen. Elise. It was clear that Linnea idolized her as someone who had been able to survive some terrible torture and become a person of her own, running her own business - even if from the background.
Then there were other, more personal things. More problematic things. The first one was that, even if Linnea's loyalty's main target might now be Mrs. Hansen, she was falling for me. In a way, I could understand it easily. I already knew that her early years had been next to terrible and getting orphaned in your teens was easy compared to what she had faced before she had seen ten summers. Had Gunhild not saved her, she would probably not be alive today. Why she didn't hate all males, I really did not understand, but maybe it had something to do with her ability to tell if someone was lying or not. Linnea had been able to tell that Gunhild could sense if a person was able to do magic when she was able to touch him or her. So, this Human magic thing seemed to have something to do with extra sensitivity - but I didn't need any extra sensitivity to understand that Linnea was falling for me, hard. The hard part of the problem was that I wasn't falling for her.
The logical part of me could understand why this was happening - I was probably the first person who accepted her as she was and who didn't want any 'special services' from her. Besides that, I had played my part as a good fiancé as well as I could and my experience with the Elven women had made me quite good at choosing my words correctly, so that Linnea would not be able to catch me lying. Oh, I did lie to her, but those lies were always 'safe' ones, like 'I did like that food' she had tried to make with Mrs. Hansen's cook and Alva. Think about it: Linnea was already an excellent herbalist, but she was a terrible cook. After that kind of lie - which she always caught - I had to reassure and calm her, maybe hold her close until she started to feel better again. It had turned out that she liked it when I held her in my arms. Which didn't help me at all with the other problem. There was just no way that we could have sex. Absolutely no way.
I didn't know exactly what she had been forced to do before she became ten summers old, but I did know that there were men who I'd like to castrate with a very dull knife. - And there had also been women who had wanted to do things with or to a helpless young girl. When I found out how Gunhild had also used Linnea as a bargaining chip a few times while being well aware what had happened to her earlier, I stopped accusing myself of her death.
But the real problem was that a certain part of me didn't care how Linnea had been abused, it was just aware of the warm female body I was hugging or that was lying in the same bed with me during the nights. Had I been alone I could have taken care of the problem by myself quite easily, but now there were only few times when I was able to be alone because Linnea wanted to stay close to me as much as possible.
The situation reminded me about the time with Erika and Siv - except that there was no release available for me since the whole idea of sexual intercourse made Linnea feel offended, or almost physically sick. She had no problems seeing me naked and she tolerated my morning erections - barely. I tried to think of her as a sister I had never had and it worked somewhat. Not all the time. I tried to convince myself that at some point of later in my life, I'd see this period as something humorous. Usually, I failed. In a way, I was able to understand Linnea, since she had never had a family. Now Mrs. Hansen - Elise - was her mother and I was combined boyfriend, best friend, big brother. During my years with the Elves I had learned a whole lot of practical things and quite a lot of things about Elven women, but for sure I had not learned how fix a broken mind so that she would become a whole person someday. I liked Linnea and I wanted to help her, I just didn't know how.
What kept me sane was the fact that Mrs. Hansen made both of us work for her, without endangering our studies. A few times she had taken Linnea to meetings with her as her 'assistant', where Linnea's real task would be to keep track of when the other party would be lying. I was sure that most of the time Mrs. Hansen - Elise - would have been able to tell, even without Linnea's help, but now she was sure. According to Linnea, nothing in Elise's demeanor changed even if the other party would be lying their asses off. Something to keep in mind if I wanted to be successful in business myself.
While Linnea worked with Mrs. Hansen in bright daylight, openly doing business, I worked with Frode - usually after sunset. We did go to see Frode's friend Geir at least once a week for practice. No weapons though, since the city Guardians were the only ones allowed to carry any kind of weapons openly in the city. Well, Frode sometimes carried a walking stick, and there were people carrying knives and batons. Batons and knives could easily be deadly, but I'd choose a walking stick over them any time. Since I didn't feel like having one, I concentrated on practicing unarmed fighting. However, that wasn't work, but fun.
Some of the work we did was because of Linnea's findings. No, we didn't kill anyone - but we delivered a few messages. When you get home happily because you have just been able to lie your way out of trouble with your financier, it can be most unsettling to find out that someone visited your home the next night, leaving some message behind. Quite often message was a written one, most likely a suitable quote from Miss Dahl, who had an endless supply of them available. No blood, nothing messy or nasty - Mrs. Hansen - Elise - had pointed out that she wasn't like her late husband. Once, it happened that some hard-headed person wasn't able or willing to take the hint. A few days later, when he woke up he surely wondered how some of his family heirlooms were missing.
There was one of those times we were supposed to deliver a message. One merchant had had some financial issues and he had borrowed some money from Mrs. Hansen, but now the loan payments had twice been unpaid, even though he was supposed to have managed to clear up his problems. He had already lied to Mrs. Hansen and Linnea twice and asked for more time - though he probably had no intention to pay everything back. The amount of money wasn't a problem: his attitude was. So, that's why Frode and I were now walking towards one of the nicer buildings of the city in the darkness of a drizzling rain.
"Frode, stop."
As soon as the building came into view I felt them. Mrs. Hansen - I still had issues calling her Elise - had done her work and she had her own spider’s web of cleaners, house maids and cooks delivering information. She specialized in having friends in low places while most other people tried to get as many friends in high places as possible. Nobody noticed the cleaners, maids or the people working in the kitchen. Well, nobody who considered her- or himself important. Most of the time, we had all the needed information even before any loans were given.
Now, besides the arrogant man and his family, there should have been only a few people in that building. To me it felt that there were more than ten.
"What is it, Stian?"
"There are way too many people. I'd say that there are more than ten."
As soon as I spoke, we both stepped into even deeper shadow, keeping an eye on the building. After the first demonstration of my abilities, he had never even once questioned them and once or twice, we had been able to avoid being seen because of my ability.
"If we go to the other side, we should be able to climb to the roof and take look at the house - and the backyard."
Frode probably knew all the accessible roofs inside the city; and, after I had given him several massages and tried to heal his back, he had reached almost the same flexibility he'd had before his accident. It didn't take us long to reach the correct block and a bit later we were on the roof. I had been a good hunter and able to move without almost any sound in the woods, but when it came to entering and sometimes climbing the buildings and moving there without a sound, Frode still beat me despite his age. However, he kept on telling me that I was getting better.
It took us some time to get into a position where we had some visibility of the house
and its fenced backyard. I still had the same feeling about the number of people, even if I couldn't see anything.
"There, in the backyard, on the right. Someone moved against the fence."
As soon as Frode said it, I noticed it, too. Someone hadn't been quite able to stand still in this rain. After noticing that one guy, we soon noticed two other guys standing outside in the deep shadows - and something about those men reminded me of something I had seen before.
"Guardians. Most likely, they are Guardians. Who the hell is that guy living in that house?"
There were two independent groups maintaining order in Aston. There was a local police force in a few of the largest cities and their job was to walk the streets, take care of drunken brawls, thefts and all those 'small' crimes. If a few drunks fought and one of them got killed, the police took care of that. Besides that police force, which was normally armed only with batons, there were also Guardians. The City or the Aston Guardians. They considered themselves the elite of the Guardians: no need to crawl in the woods, no need to fight some nameless monsters or Trolls and you were allowed to wear your shiny uniform most of the time - which was why the Aston people made fun of them. That didn't change the fact that those 'Shinies' were tough fighters.