by Guy Antibes
“I’m better at swatting away wards, remember? The alien essence helped me understand wards. In a fight, I can do it. In the heat of pursuit, I didn’t even try with Namion. Unfortunately, there are few who can do such a thing.”
“I never learned that,” Shira said.
“We have the time. I’ll see what you can do when we stop.” Pol called up ahead to Kell. “Want to try, Kell?”
“Won’t hurt to try, but I don’t have any expectations. Loa is the magician of the family, not me.”
The stopped to water the horses in a spring-fed copse of trees that sprung up amidst Zalistyan wheat fields.
Shira looked at Pol sideways. “If you can wave wards away and runes are nothing but glowing wards, why do you use a lodestone?”
“Why not? It’s just as easy. We’ll put some glowing rune-wards on a tree and see what you can do.”
Pol worked with Shira and Kell. To everyone’s surprise, including Kell, the trader could remove the wards once Pol found a visualization that worked for him. Shira learned very quickly, and soon Shira and Pol would make various wards, and Shira and Kell easily defeated them all when someone could tell Kell where the wards were. If they weren’t made to glow, he couldn’t see them.
After Pol had communicated their exercise to Malden, they continued on their way. Pol felt more comfortable with Kell having a defense against warded opponents. Although he couldn’t create a ward, or even see one, and that included not being able to activated dots in the rune book, he could erase the glowing characters without a lodestone. The magician was as much a variable as anything else in tweaking the pattern. Kell had mediocre talents, but he could kill wards. Perhaps he’d have a conversation with Malden about that.
~
Kell stopped them at a border post that looked like someone had built it the week before. “Never had a problem entering Barna before,” Kell said as they all dismounted.
“What is your business?”
“Business,” Kell said, giving the man a grin.
He gave a little card to the guard, who looked at the words. He obviously couldn’t read and didn’t look particularly smart.
“This is supposed to give you permission to enter Barna?”
“Of course,” Kell said, looking back at Pol with raised eyebrows. “I am a trader with Digbee Trading. My name is on the card. I am looking for interesting things to sell, and it’s been awhile since we’ve spent time wandering in Barna looking for things that we can trade elsewhere in the Empire.”
“Empire,” the man snorted.
Pol brought out his Seeker badge. It looked more official than Kell’s introduction card. “I am a trader as well. This is an Imperial badge.”
“Hmmm. I never saw anything like this before. Let me get my partner.”
Pol touched the man’s hand as he gave it to him and detected mind-control. Barna would be a challenge. He waited for both men to confront them before removing the spell.
The partner walked up. “Where is your identity piece?”
Since they stood next to each other, Pol easily removed their mind-control spells as he put it in the second guard’s hand.
Both of them wobbled for a second.
“What happened?”
“There is a little magic involved. Did you feel the power of the card?” Pol said.
“Is that what it was?”
Kell nodded and looked at Pol again for help.
“I am a bit of a magician. I cleared your minds. Did you know that someone tampered with them?”
The first guard rubbed his forehead. “Now that you mention it, I think that happened.” He looked at his companion. “Remember those West Huffnyans that came through a few days ago?”
The second guard nodded.
“We weren’t supposed to let them in, but we did. I thought that was a little strange, but the West Huffnyans spelled you and me.”
“They did,” the second guard said. “Did you spell us, too?”
Pol shook his head. “Just the opposite. You remember them now, but you didn’t until that card cleared your mind, right?”
Both guards nodded their heads.
“We’ll go find them. Do you know where the magicians went?”
“There is a fork fifty paces down the road. They headed west, not north.”
Pol urged Kell and Shira to mount, and then he did the same. “We’ll take care of them. If you shake my hand, I’ll give you a little protection.”
“I want the protection. Damned West Huffnyans. We aren’t supposed to let them in because of something like this. They are all too big for their britches.”
“Then we’ll make some alterations,” Kell said, grinning.
“You do that.”
Both men shook Pol’s hand and then waved as they left the border post.
“Bizarre,” Shira said.
“Why staff a border post with guards who can’t read papers?” Kell said shaking his head and laughing. “Welcome to Barna, the land of inconsistency. They haven’t changed since you’ve been gone. Still lots of weird ideas floating around.”
They took the western fork and galloped away. The Winnowers had a day’s travel on them.
~
Pol surged ahead. Demeron could outpace the other two horses using his magic. He would keep in touch using rune books. The first village showed a great deal of hostility that Pol soon erased as he removed the pockets of mind-control that afflicted the villagers.
“Two friends follow me,” he said. “If you can persuade others who changed after the West Huffnyans rode through to gather, they will remove the spells. The youth, Dale, is a magician.” Pol told the village headman before he took off. The magicians couldn’t be farther than the next village.
Every less mind-controlled person made the Winnowers weaker and the Empire stronger. Pol urged Demeron to go faster. Daylight waned by the time he made it to the next village. It was nearly town-sized as he rode into the city square.
A group of citizens stood listening to the West Huffnyans. Pol dismounted and walked Demeron towards them after reinforcing shields for Demeron. He still did not know if Demeron resisted mind-control like he did, but he wouldn’t take any chances.
He stood behind, lifting mind-control from the citizens as he took a circuitous route towards the front. He guessed at least one hundred people listened to the rantings of the two men and a woman on the steps of a central fountain. He would have to try to erase the spell from the middle of the crowd.
Pol took a deep breath and imagined mind-control afflicting all within a hundred-pace radius to get the pattern in his head, and then the tweak would be evaporation. Evaporation generally worked for him. He closed his eyes and went to work.
He heard a few moans, so it must have worked, and he quickly shielded everyone. Pol lost his balance. The shields drew much of his power. He opened his eyes, and the rapt attention that the West Huffnyans had enjoyed a moment ago had…evaporated. Pol smiled and quickly pushed his way up to the front.
“What are you doing here?” Pol asked. His head felt the lurch of the female magician trying to control him.
“I am doing the righteous work of the Winnow Society. Why do you ask?”
Pol raised his eyebrows. “Righteous. Placing mind-control spells on all these people?”
“Is that what they did?” “Magic?” “Forcing us to think like a West Huffnyan?” The comments came from the crowd. A few of them approached the Winnowers.
“I command you to stay back,” the female magician said.
“Why?” an older woman asked. “We don’t like your kind around here, especially now. You tried to trick us.”
“The Winnow Society does not trick,” the magician said.
“That’s a lie,” Pol said, stepping to the front. The magician could kill some of these people. He broadcast a sleeping spell in their direction. They all slumped, except for the magician, falling where they stood.
“Warded?” Pol said.
The magician peered at Pol. “You’re wearing a mask spell. Who are you?”
Pol pulled out his badge. “A Seeker from Yastan,” he said.
A blast of fire issued from the magician’s hands.
Pol heard people scream behind him. “That wasn’t nice,” he said. “You can surrender,” Pol said.
“I don’t have to surrender. There is nothing you can do to me,” the magician said.
Pol could hear the concern in the woman’s voice. “I can remove your protection ward. Then where would you be?”
A blow hit his physical shield from behind.
Pol tweaked, teleporting the attacker over his head and letting him drop at the magician’s feet. “I’ve learned my lesson,” Pol said.
He waved his hand and shot a flame at the magician’s feet. They caught fire, and the Winnower jumped into the fountain to put out the fire. Pol put her to sleep along with his attacker. He had to drag the magician out of the fountain to keep her from drowning.
Pol turned to the crowd. “Where are the town’s authorities?”
“Someone put them to sleep,” a youth said running from a side street.
“Do you have a jail?”
Citizens were more than happy to carry the Winnowers to the Guard Office not far from the square.
Pol looked at the Winnowers. All but the magician were in the same cell, and she still slept in a cell of her own. Pol didn’t know how much power the woman had, so he had her incarcerated separately, so he could look into her mind.
He entered the unlocked cell and put his hand on the woman’s blond hair. She looked prettier in slumber than when her face twisted with the hate he associated with Winnowers.
There it was. The same kind of lighter compulsion spell he had seen before, three thin bands of an amber hue. He removed the ward, and the woman jerked in her sleep. Pol put the men back to sleep, and two of the three had the wards.
“Do you have some ink?” Pol asked a guard.
He smeared the unwarded man’s forehead with an ‘X’, so that any who interrogated these men would know the one who didn’t need mind-control to carry out the Winnowers’ orders. The man also wore a Winnower amulet, which he removed. He was the only one. The female magician didn’t wear anything around her neck, only the ward in her mind.
“They won’t wake up until morning. I’ll be back then,” Pol said to the chief guard, who still rubbed his eyes from the sleeping spell the Winnowers used. “Is there a good inn?”
“I’ll take you there. Your room will be on the house, Seeker.”
Pol had used his badge to prove to the chief guard that he rode with the authority of the Emperor’s Instrument. “I have two companions who will be showing up sometime tonight. I’ll let them know where I’ll be staying.”
“Birds? I didn’t see any on your horse.”
“I have something better.” He put a finger to his lips. “Secret.”
The chief guard nodded. “Of course.”
The inn was only a block away. Pol got rooms for each of them and gave them Kell’s name and his servant, Dale. Shira would love that. He washed down Demeron, who enjoyed Pol cleaning and brushing him.
“You did good work today,” Pol said.
So did you. We are a great team.
Pol smiled. “Indeed we are. Here is the grain I ordered for you. Enjoy.”
A tall, thin figure stood in the darkness. “You are a magician?” the specter said.
“I am,” Pol said.
“Are you going to West Huffnya?”
“Maybe,” Pol said.
“Take me with you,” the man said.
“Why?”
After a pause, the figure said, “Someone I know is in West Huffnya.” He didn’t sound so confident, telling Pol that information.
“You can go by yourself.”
“I need to be escorted,” the figure said.
“By a Winnower?”
“Perhaps.”
“Then find a Winnower recruiter like the ones I stopped tonight.”
“I thought you might take me to West Huffnya,” the man said. Pol sensed a bit of petulance in the voice. “Take me with you.”
“No,” Pol said, thinking the conversation to be very strange.
“I will do as you say, then.”
“Good luck,” Pol said not knowing if fortune would be useful for someone wanting to be swept up by the Winnower recruiters.
“Thank you,” the figure said as he disappeared.
What an odd conversation, Pol thought. He didn’t feel threatened by the mysterious man at any time, but there was an odd note around him. He shrugged the encounter off and went back inside.
The inn only had a common room, but the clientele was anything but common. The chief guard had rightly claimed a high-quality inn, and he was right. Pol could choose from three entrees. The higher-class people in the town didn’t eat until later, which was when Pol walked in from taking care of Demeron. He probably did not smell particularly high-class, so he sat by himself, away from the other tables.
The food came quickly. The innkeeper and a well-dressed man sat at his table after asking permission.
“We don’t like the Winnowers in Barna,” the innkeeper said. “If you hadn’t come along, we’d all be heading north to join the Winnower Army.”
“If any want shields in case another group comes through here, I’d be happy to spell them. I’ve run into two other groups of traveling Winnowers.”
“I hope you killed them.”
Pol flushed. He did not like looking embarrassed. “One we interrogated; the other group didn’t make it to the next town.” That was all he would say.
“One of the men in the crowd said you wore a mask?”
“Seekers are typically magicians. They can change their features. I’m wearing a disguise right now,” Pol said. “It makes it easier for us to blend and not be recognized.”
The well-dressed man nodded. “I’m the mayor of Grinderton. We have mills.”
Pol guessed the man gave him the reason for the town’s name. “Spread the word about these teams. I know you have magicians in your country. Tell them the Winnowers are using mind-control, and it can be erased using an evaporation tweak. They should know what I mean.”
“We have three competent magicians in town. I will send them over to the inn first thing in the morning. I will get birds out tonight to the capital and a few other places. We are glad you came to Grinderton.”
“We discovered the magicians were at work when we crossed into Barna. My friends cleaned the mind-control from the village to the east of you.”
Pol’s dinner came, and the men left Pol to his meal. He inquired about a bath, and Pol was told he would be able to take one at sunrise the next morning. The staff was busy serving their evening clientele.
Pol could have tweaked the water to have a hot bath, but he was too tired to bother. He sent messages via his rune book to Kell and Shira, as well as another report to Malden.
He woke as dawn broke and slipped down to see if Shira and Kell had arrived in the night. They had not. Pol ran back up the stairs to his rune book. He stared at the glowing runes.
“All is well.” The rune page from Shira’s book said. At the bottom corner in Shinkyan characters, Pol read the two symbols for help.
~~~
Chapter Seven
~
P ol grabbed all his things and ran downstairs. “I’ll be back, but I don’t know when,” he said. “Could I have some food to eat on the road? I will be saddling my horse. Please take it there. I think there might be an emergency.”
He hurried out to the stables.
“Shira and Kell have been abducted on the road. We have to move out quickly while there are traces. It had to be between the village and Grinderton, probably closer to here,” Pol said to Demeron.
I am well-rested and well-fed.
“I’m worried,” Pol said. He stared at the runes still glowing on the page. “See?”
Help in Shinkyan.
“How could a West Huffnyan know Shinkyan, or have Shira’s rune book?” Pol said. He continued to gather everything he needed.
A server brought food wrapped in a cloth. Pol shoved it into his saddlebag and heard the girl wince.
“It’s not for me, necessarily,” Pol said. He mounted and yelled out, “Sorry,” before Demeron galloped out of the stable yard.
~
Demeron slowed down at Pol’s request.
“We are getting closer to where they might have been taken,” Pol said.
They rode until midday and stopped at a track leading into a stretch of woods. Pol caught sight of something shiny sticking from a tree trunk. He dismounted.
“One of Shira’s Shinkyan boot knives. They didn’t tie them up, but somehow they are restrained.”
Pol walked along the track and spied Amble’s hooves. Shinkyan horses had larger hooves. He could easily track them now. Pol could use his magic to highlight her shoes as a pattern through the rest of the hoof imprints.
“Locate for Amble, and I’ll do the same for humans. They would have stopped to sleep and rest their horses. If they cooked their first meal, the fire might still be warm, and we can find out how far ahead of us they are,” Pol said.
Demeron sped along the forest track. It would not be long before they would catch up to Kell and Shira’s captors.
~
They found the campsite a few hours later. The coals were still too hot to touch. Pol would have extinguished them with water as Siggon Horstel, Paki’s late father, had taught him when he was much younger.
“They are close,” Pol said. The hunted still traveled out of Pol’s location range, but they could not be that much farther ahead.
Within an hour, Pol located seven riders. Two horses had two riders. Shira and Kell must be riding tandem with a captor. That explained how she might have gotten her knife thrown. With five captors, she could not fight them all with a knife.
He ground his teeth as frustration bit into his emotions. Pol knew Barna was dangerous, but he thought they would face peril in the towns, not the countryside. Barna was not a wild, uninhabited place. Its citizens cultivated most of the land.
They are only minutes ahead of us, Demeron said. I can locate Amble easily from this distance. She is carrying two riders. I’ll soon be able to communicate with her. Demeron slowed. Shira and Kell are restrained by some kind of spell. Shira told Amble that you know of it. It’s the same one used on Ako.