by Drew Hayes
“Was that part of the bargain?” Jack asked.
Frank shook his head. “No. I think that’s a message from the tinker elves to the town that captured them. Perhaps we should keep running until we hit the forest. Something tells me they may have more messages to send.”
Marie wasn’t going to dispute that, especially when she needed a quiet place to have the crossbow bolts yanked out of her before she turned back to her human form. Jack silently agreed as well, as all three of them picked up the pace, racing to be clear of town before anyone was entirely sure what had happened.
It was, in truth, their preferred method of leaving a city.
* * *
By the time the sun rose, Marie was back in human form. Frank had pulled the bolts out as carefully as he could, though they still hurt like hell on the way out. Thankfully, her beast form healed quickly; within an hour she was well enough to be normal Marie once more. While they’d been tempted to ride away as quickly as possible, Frank informed them that he and Acorn had a meeting scheduled at dawn. Given the sounds and fires they were hearing from back in Sagan, it seemed wise to make sure they parted with the tinker elves on good terms.
Just as the sky was lighting up with sunshine, Acorn appeared, tumbling down from a tree once more before catching himself on a long branch. “Is done. Is done. No more cages. No more tinker elves held. All free. All free, thanks to you.” He dipped his head in a deep, formal bow, which Marie and Frank both returned.
“We owed a debt, and we always pay our debts,” Jack said. “To be clear, though, this settles the matter on Marie’s clothing?”
“Yes! Many times yes! You paid debt to tinker elves and more. When you come back, you ask for Acorn. I make sure you get goods at friend price.”
“Get goods? Acorn, it sounded like you wrecked the whole town last night. Are there even any merchants left?” Marie asked.
Acorn shook his head. “None! Drove them out we did. No blood, no blood, just took apart everything we made, and many things we didn’t. But we like town, and we like gold, so we keep making. Only now, we work for us.” He was beaming with joy at the revelation, grinning so widely he could have been mistaken for a cousin of Jack’s.
“You’ll forgive me for bringing up a sore memory, but I feel I should ask: what about the shoemaker? He knows how to trap and bind you; it’s entirely possible he might come back to reclaim his town,” Frank said.
The grin on Acorn’s face faded slightly, and he broke off eye contact. “Shoemaker is danger, yes, but no threat. Can’t bind or trap without materials, and he get none. We not break everything in town. Jail and cells still strong. No blood. We not killers. But fair is fair. We made him many shoes. Now he makes the same number for us.”
A slight chuckle arose from Jack. “Fitting. The shoemaker is trapped making shoes. I like it. You’ve got a fun side, Acorn. If you ever want to go on a journey, I’m sure we could find uses for someone of your talents.”
“Thank you! Will think over later. For now, tinker elves need me. Acorn has been elected mayor.” Acorn tapped his chest proudly. “Maybe talk when you come back. For now though, you go. Much work to do, and tinker elves not all want to see humans yet. Safer to leave.”
“We were planning to do just that,” Marie assured him.
“Then I leave too. Much work. Much work to do. Ride safe, and come back soon. Just not too soon.” Acorn leapt up from his branch, back into the leaves, and vanished from sight.
Since the discussion seemed to be over, everyone went about mounting onto their horses and preparing for the day’s ride. They were just about to set out when Jack cast a lingering glance back toward Sagan.
“This might be one of the only towns that gave us a happy goodbye and invited us back, and it’s a town we more or less destroyed. Does that mean we should wreck more places if we want to be welcomed upon our return?”
“An interesting proposal, though one I’m not eager to test,” Frank replied. “If you’d like to try it with Summerly, perhaps we can see if there are any subjugated elves to free there.”
Jack kept looking back to Sagan for a few moments, then finally turned toward the road ahead. “No, not Summerly. We’ll find plenty of strange things there, but we won’t find tinker elves.”
“Going to give us any more than that?” Marie asked.
“Wasn’t planning on it.” Jack met her eyes and flashed that endless damn smile, thankfully without the sour tinge they’d seen on it before stopping in Sagan. “At this point, I’m resolved to what’s coming next. Still, no reason to ruin the fun of a perfectly good surprise.”
The Tale of What Was Left Behind
Neither Marie nor Frank was quite prepared for what awaited them as they rode into Summerly. Marie’s best wager was that it was a town Jack had previously swindled, where the mere sight of him would cause alarms to sound and citizens to gather as they tried to hang him in the street. The only problem with such a theory was that they’d already been in towns where that happened, and Jack had never been bothered by the idea of visiting any of them the way Summerly had unnerved him. Frank, on the other hand, was playing a different kind of odds. He suspected that Jack had accidentally spawned a family here during one of his trysts, and was eager to stay away from any potential offspring.
Ultimately, neither was proven right, though Frank was technically closer to the mark, even if it seemed the victory would go to Marie at first.
As they began riding past farms, and then small cottages, Marie saw the people of Summerly out and about. Many were farmers, toiling hard in the fields, yet she noticed that the children were being allowed to play rather than help with the work. Summerly must be a prosperous place or a lax one, if children weren’t needed to help their parents in the fields. It was at these farms that she and Frank received their first clue, as the people started waving as they saw Jack ride in, some even racing over from the fields to their homes and raising a ruckus to alert those inside. More people poured out, but not to try to tear Jack from his horse. No, they were…waving to him. A few even seemed to be cheering.
For his part, Jack merely smiled and waved back, even as he seemed to sink deeper into his saddle. Curious as the incident was, what made it all the stranger was how many times Marie watched it play out again and again. Every farm they passed, every cottage they rode by, people were clamoring to see and greet Jack. As they drew nearer to the town proper, word had apparently spread, as citizens were waiting along the road to joyfully cheer Jack’s arrival.
“This is peculiar.” Frank had a real talent for understatement sometimes. Marie had seen a lot of reactions to Jack, but celebration was a new one. Even when they were helping clients, those people tended to be more afraid of the devil they’d made a deal with than thankful for the aid. Yet there was no terror in this group, no fearful glances being exchanged, only wild enthusiastic happiness at seeing Jack ride into town. It was a mystery, albeit a short-lived one.
“Agreed. I feel as if I’m back in a parade procession, there’s so much waving and cheering,” Marie said.
“Oh, yes, the people are behaving strangely for certain. But I was referring to that.” Frank pointed toward what looked to be the town square. Marie squinted hard, yet all she could see was a lump of yellow metal in the middle. “You should be able to make it out soon.”
In fact, it took another several minutes of slow riding before Marie could see what was in the town square. If not for Frank’s warning that it was stranger than the people, she very well may have tumbled from her steed at the sight. For there was a gold-painted statue showing a younger, slightly more serious-looking Jack, as he stood atop the belly of what she assumed was a not-to-scale giant. It shouldn’t have been so surprising; they both knew he’d had adventures before meeting Frank. Yet the idea of Jack making a good enough impression on people that they would build a statue of him seemed as mad as Jack himself.
“I think I understand now.” Marie rode a touch closer to Jack, so sh
e could keep her voice low around the crowd. “You came through here when you were younger, not quite so…you…and saved these people from a giant, right?”
“More or less,” Jack replied.
From the crowd on the street, a burly man muscled his way forward, pushing himself dangerously close to the path of the horses and clapping Jack on the leg. “You bastard! You couldn’t be bothered to send word ahead? Your mother is going to be right pissed that we didn’t have time to make you a proper welcome feast.”
Marie started coughing in shock, while Frank made a strange series of noises in his throat that she felt relatively certain humans weren’t supposed to be capable of. Deep down they both knew that Jack had come from the coupling of a man and a woman, but it was hard not to imagine him dropping fully formed into the world, a grin on his lips and blood on his blades. Marie’s shock turned to annoyance as she glared at Jack.
“More or less?”
“Less was an option,” Jack pointed out. “And you weren’t that far off. The only part you got wrong was about me passing through Summerly, and even that’s open to interpretation. If you look at the first part of my life the way I do, as one long stopover, then I was indeed merely passing through.”
“Jack’s hometown.” Frank was whispering under his breath, and it didn’t seem entirely intentional. “So much to learn. So much to understand. We should start checking the local supply water to see if there’s any mercury or curses in it.”
“Or we could find the Blue Fairy’s next message and be on our way.” Jack turned back to the man by the horse and leaned down, slapping him gently on the shoulder. “Benjamin, would you do me a grace and run ahead to tell my mother, as well as her caretaker, that I’ve arrived and I’m bringing guests?”
“There’s little chance word hasn’t reached her cottage by now,” Benjamin told him.
“All the same, I would appreciate if you made sure they were properly prepared.”
Benjamin looked up at Jack for a moment before giving a sharp nod. “Of course. Anything for you and your friends.” The burly gentleman began muscling his way back through the crowd, which soon parted, and then he broke into a brisk jog as he headed through the town.
Although he certainly hadn’t meant to, Jack’s interaction had apparently opened the floodgates, as the townsfolk nearby surged forward to greet him, shake his hand, and occasionally hold a child or baby for him to meet. Marie and Frank allowed themselves to be pushed out, leading their horses carefully through the crowd and into the town square.
It was here that Marie again noticed the wealth of Summerly. While it was certainly no great kingdom’s city, there were more niceties here than rightfully should be. They’d been through many a farming village like this one; usually the buildings were thatched just to the point of working and the roads were so torn a wagon risked a wheel with every journey. Here, however, everything was well-kept. There were no ostentatious or out-of-place elements like magical street lanterns. What gave away the prosperity was the simple lack of concern reflected in the faces of the people who lived here. They weren’t worried, their children could play, they could take a day off from the fields to greet a returning town hero; none of these would be the case in a less stable town.
“If you’re wondering whether or not Jack has been sending money here, I’m uncertain.” It was the first thing Frank had said since they’d left Jack with the crowd, and it confirmed Marie’s own suspicions quite well. “I know he’ll occasionally stash some or have it magically transported away, but where it goes is beyond my knowledge. Jack keeps his secrets well, even from those he trusts.”
“This entire morning has proven that.” Marie looked again at the statue of Jack and the beaten giant. Whoever had made it did a fine job; the work was of a high quality. Yet they hadn’t quite managed to capture Jack’s face properly. He looked triumphant, and happy, both of which were fine feelings after conquering a giant, but the sculptor had failed to etch the hunger in his eyes, the gleam of adventure on the horizon. Jack was never as content as his statue, not so far as she or Frank could tell. Proud, happy, celebratory, all of these things and more, just not content. Part of Jack was always looking to the road ahead, wondering what the next job would have in store. “Do you think we’ll get any clues as to what makes Jack…Jack?”
“Do these people seem as if they have the slightest idea what sort of man they’re cheerfully greeting?”
The crowd around Jack had swollen, and someone had thrust a baby in his arms. He was grinning as always, beaming really, yet Marie knew him well enough to trace the annoyed twists at the ends of his lips that betrayed how little joy he was getting.
“No. Not at all. But perhaps he was different before. Perhaps being here will give us some insight into who Jack was before all the adventure.”
“Perhaps,” Frank echoed. “Although I have my doubts. I have traveled with Jack for many a year, and I have seen him do many a strange thing. But change, change does not come naturally to Jack. I can’t help but wonder if the Jack they celebrate ever existed in the first place, or if he struck out on his own to no longer hide who he truly was.”
* * *
It took more than an hour for the crowd to disperse. Eventually, someone made their way over to offer Marie and Frank refreshments, which they both accepted. This was the kind of day that would go smoother with a drink. Finally, Benjamin came riding into town on a dark mare and forced apart the crowd, insisting it was time for Jack to see his mother. The crowd was surprisingly respectful, clearing out so that Jack, Benjamin, and Jack’s friends could head off.
More people waved to them from the road on their short ride, but the numbers thinned out as they grew further from town. The road led them upward, over a series of increasingly tall hills, until they crested one and found themselves staring at a large building that wasn’t quite an estate, yet wasn’t as far from one as they might have expected. It was a tall white stone building with what appeared to be a hovel of a shed in the back, sitting atop one of the lower hills so that only the top portion peeked over. While that no doubt limited the views, it also made the place harder to spot unless one knew what to look for. Several people were working the grounds, all of them greeting Jack and Benjamin on sight. Summerly was so friendly that Marie found it off-putting, especially after so many years riding with Jack. True, she might have been greeted with fanfare if she returned home, but part of her wondered if it would have the level of sincerity these people were showing to Jack.
Once the horses were put away in the spacious barn, they entered the house and found the inside even nicer than the exterior. Again, it was not overt luxury, merely that every piece of the home looked either new or well cared for. There was wealth here, along with a desire not to display too much of it. Frank and Marie’s inspection of the home’s interior was short-lived, though, as they were almost instantly distracted by a woman with dark, graying hair darting forward and wrapping Jack in an impressive hug. She squeezed him tightly, and to their surprise Jack wrapped an arm around and hugged her back. It wasn’t that Jack never showed physical affection, more that he tended only to use it as one of many charming tools when bedding a barmaid.
“No warning? Not even a letter telling me you were bringing guests?” The woman pulled back, looking Jack in the eye. “I know you were raised better than that.”
Jack hung his head, not quite daring to break eye contact. “Sorry, Mother. Our trip has been rather harrying. I only found out recently that we would be passing through here.”
“Passing through? Nonsense, I’ll hear none of that. Unless the kingdom is burning down around us I’m sure you can make time for a few days to visit and catch up. It’s been a long time since you were last here.” Finally breaking away from her son, the woman turned to Frank and Marie with an assessing gaze that was oddly familiar, until they realized how many times they’d seen the same expression on Jack’s face.
“You two must be his friends. My name is Flora; i
t’s a pleasure to meet you both. I do hope my son hasn’t made too much trouble for you.” She took a hand from both of them and squeezed. Both braced for her realization that Frank’s was too cold, too pale, and too scarred to be natural, but it didn’t come. Flora merely stood there, waiting for her greeting to be returned.
“The pleasure is ours,” Marie said at last. “Please call me Marie.”
“And I’m known as Frank.”
“Marie and Frank, no surnames?” Flora asked. “Or are you like my boy, leaving his name behind, as if the Spriggins clan weren’t good enough for him?”
While Marie was trying to figure out how to hide howling laughter at the revelation of Jack’s surname, Frank seized control of the situation. “In our line of work, surnames pose a liability. If the allies of the wicked people we stop were to know the names of our families, then they could strike at them. So we forsake the pride of our surnames, in order to protect the others who wear them.”
“I see. So you’re the charming one of the group.” Flora released their hands and patted Frank on the shoulder before looking to Marie. “I take it that means you’re my son’s lover? Or perhaps wife? It’s certainly been long enough for him to have taken one.”
Whatever mirth Marie felt at the uncovering of Jack’s name evaporated instantly as she began to scour her mind for a way to tactfully explain to this mother all the reasons Jack would never make a suitable mate for her, if anyone. Ultimately, she decided to forgo the explanation and hope Flora accepted the truth at face value.
“No, madam, Jack and I are merely colleagues who work together, just like he and Frank.”