Honey Beaumont

by Sara Bushway

  "Hey! One of the bottles is missing!" He exclaimed. "That guy must have taken it off me!'

  Andy and Torq turned and ran, Honey following a short distance behind. Andy turned and looked down one alley while Torq ran past and checked the next. They functioned like a well-oiled machine, systematically searching for the thief. When they found him, he was standing in front of a man holding out the bottle and haggling with him. Andy and Torq skidded to a halt a few yards away from the man and drew their weapons. Honey, meanwhile, stopped a few yards behind his team. He was unarmed and unsure of what the consequences would be if he participated in combat before Andy thought he was ready. He felt powerless, but this was what he signed on for. He just held their stuff.

  "Give back what you have stolen, and we'll be on our way," Andy announced. "Please don't make us hurt you."

  Torq chuckled, "No, please do. I could use the exercise."

  Honey remained silent.

  "Feck off, you! I didn't steal nothin'!" The man spat.

  Andy's muscles tightened. "Hand it over now, and we'll leave you in peace."

  Torq muttered, "I can't promise that."

  "I'd listen to the lady if I were you," Honey joined in. "She's tougher than she looks."

  The man's thin, stringy hair shook as he laughed this horrid, scratchy laugh. "You want it back that badly--" In the blink of an eye, he had pocketed the bottle and retrieved a pair of hooked blades that had been crudely affixed to batons from the inside of his long, disgusting coat. "You're going to have to pluck it from my rotting corpse!"

  Andy took a deep breath and paused for a moment to gather herself, as she always did just before a spar. "Very well then." Like a spring wound tight, she sprang into action, running at the man full force. Judging by her preference for long-range weapons, Honey briefly wondered why she drew too close to him, but then it hit him. This was personal.

  Andy ducked below a hook as it sliced through the air and jammed the butt of her crossbow into the man's ribs, sliding past him as she did so. Torq followed after, catching a hook on his machete and using the fist at the end of his other massive arm to deliver a bone-breaking blow to the man's jaw. The other inhabitants of the alleyway fled. Honey minded his distance as they ran past him, fully aware of how easy it was to get robbed. Andy fired a bolt into the back of the man's left knee, sending him to the ground screaming in agony.

  "Give up yet?" Torq said with a grunt. "Cause we'll execute you right here and now if we have to."

  Andy approached, her crossbow aimed at the man on the ground. "We didn't want this, and we don't want any more trouble. We just want what was ours, and then we'll be going."

  The man's hands began to glow underneath his body as he writhed in pain. It didn't take Honey long to figure out what was happening.

  "He's casting a spell!" Honey called out, but it was too late.

  The man rolled onto his back and shot a ball of blue energy from the palms of his hands right into Andy's chest. She flew back, howling in pain, and Torq's machete only took a moment to find the back of the man's skull, nearly cleaving it in two. Honey rushed over to Andy and sat next to her as she writhed. He drew the potion from its holster on his belt and popped the cork.

  "Here. Drink this," he said, holding it to her lips and pouring it into her mouth. He was very glad he took the time to learn what everything was and how to use it, which is more than ordinary support might care to do for his team. Torq kicked the man's lifeless body over, checking to make sure that man was dead for certain, and then joined Honey on the ground next to Andy.

  "Is she ok?"

  "I don't know. I don't think it's enough, Torq," Honey said, his voice breaking. "It's better than it was--you know, not burning a hole through her chest-plate--but she's still looking pretty bad. Does it normally take this long for the potion to work?"

  "It did work," Torq said. "It would have been much worse. Come on." He picked up Andy, who had fallen unconscious, directed Honey to grab her crossbow off the ground with a nod and grunt, and returned to the main road. "Now we really need to get to that outpost."

  Honey shouldered Andy's crossbow and picked through his pouches as they walked.

  "What do I do? How do I make something that will heal her?"

  Torq sighed, "You don't. Sure, some of those herbs mixed together can cure minor aches and pains, but this is too much for either of us, Honey. She needs a bonified healer. If we're lucky, there will be someone stopping in on their way to a clerical convention who can help her." Honey closed up all of the pouches and made sure to jog ahead when they approached the doors of the adventurer's guild.

  "Help! We need help!" He cried out as Torq carried Andy into the foyer. The two workers behind the desk rounded it and helped Torq put her on a bench nearby. Meanwhile, a group of four adventurers approached, and one of them knelt on the ground next to Andy. She brought her hands together and placed them over the wound. The light seems to roll off of her hands like water into the hole in Andy's chest, and the wound healed closed before all of their eyes.

  Torq glanced down at the stranger. "Clerical convention in town?"

  "No. Just a natural ability that I was born with," she said.

  "Lucky," Honey commented. "Will she be ok?"

  The stranger nodded. "Yes. She'll sleep for a long while, probably from now until late into the morning tomorrow, but she will fully recover. I'm sure of it." Honey picked up Andy's limp body and nodded to the healer.

  "Thank you. I don't know how we'll ever repay you."

  "I don't require payment," she said, "but perhaps I'll call on you for a favor at some point. That will be enough."

  Honey nodded in agreement and hurried up the stairs.

  Torq called out to Honey, "I'll be up later. I have to go deal with that mess we created." And he left.

  Honey placed Andy on a bed in one of the bedrooms, not paying much attention to which room was most suitable for a woman, and removed her armor and gear.

  "Oh, Andy. You were right. Adventuring is dangerous. What am I doing here? Am I just here to pour potions down your throat when you get hurt?" He sat next to her, gazing through the hole in her shirt to the recently healed hole.

  Now I know what I have to do.

  *****

  The next morning, Honey crept into Andy's room to check on her. She was sleeping soundly and looked very healthy.

  The spell really worked, Honey thought. I have to figure out how I can learn some magic like that. He left her room, leaving the door slightly ajar in case Torq wanted to look in on her as well without waking her. The door of one of the other bedrooms was closed. Honey assumed Torq had claimed it for himself and wasn't awake yet. He dressed himself in comfortable clothes, thankful he didn't need to put on his armor and gear yet, and left to go to the lobby. As he approached the desk, he was asked about how Andy was doing, which confused him because it wasn't the same two desk attendants from the night before. He told them she was recovering well and that he was looking for something.

  "A book," he said. "I'm looking for a book that can teach me magic, like healing magic."

  "Healing magic is an innate ability," one of the attendants replied. "And we don't have a book of spells for this outpost. Some have them, but we aren't required to have them available, and we don't."

  Honey frowned. "Alright then. Thank you anyway."

  The other attendant stepped forward. "Wait. There's a wizard staying here who might be able to help you. They pass spells on down through the generations through their grimoires."

  "Where would I find him?"

  "Her, and she's right in the common room having a bit of breakfast. Just look for the short girl in the pointy hat. You can't miss her."

  Honey nodded and thanked them before starting toward the common room. It only took a few moments of searching the tables to find the pointy purple hat that almost seemed to be sitting on the table itself until he noticed a girl peeking out from under it to find her fork. He sauntered up to her tab
le and bowed.

  "Good morning, wizard."

  The purple hat tilted as she looked up at him from her seat. Her green eyes blinked up at him for a few moments before she replied, "Uhh…Good morning...servant?"

  "Support."

  "Oh," she squeaked. "I apologize. Without your gear, it's difficult to tell. What can I do for you?"

  Honey cleared his throat. "I was hoping you could help me learn magic. We recently had a nearly fatal run-in. I could have helped her then and there if I knew magic. Could I possibly borrow your magic book? I promise I’ll take good care of it and give it right back when you need it."

  The little wizard giggled. "Oh, my grimoire. It's my family's book of spells passed down from my great-great-grandfather, Quimby Ashgrove." She reached into her pack in the next seat over and produced a large red book with black runes inscribed on the cover. It was the biggest book Honey had ever seen. Bigger than the dictionary. Bigger than Dane's copy of Fisysion's Desk Reference. Honey stared in stunned silence.

  Generations of magic compiled into a single book? Oh, the things it must contain!

  She sighed, "I can't loan it to you. It's too valuable, and I need it for my own adventuring." Honey wilted, and she continued, "But I can give you a different magic book I have." She rifled through her pack and produced a small, blue book with black runes on the cover. "It's great for beginners like you--I mean, not to judge your skills or anything. I just assume you're new to magic because you don't know about grimoires and such." She held the book out to him, and he took it.

  "Thank you," he said, turning the book over in his hands and flipping through the pages.

  She tapped on the cover of the book with a long, purple fingernail. "There's a pronunciation guide in the front. You'll want to copy that down somewhere else, so you're not flipping back and forth. It wears the spine down faster when you do that."

  Honey flipped the book open to the front, and sure enough, after the dedication page, there were several pages that served as a pronunciation guide.

  After a few moments, he managed to reply, "I can't thank you enough. What do I owe you?"

  "Oh, nothing," she chirped. "It's useless to me now anyway. I know much stronger spells now. All you're doing is saving me the room in my pack."

  Honey nodded to her and bowed before slipping away, running up the stairs, and creeping back into his room inside the little dorm to start studying the tome. Between the guide and first spells were a few pages outlining the basic rules of magic and the different terms associated with it.

  "Somatic components," Honey muttered. "Gestures. Verbal components. Chemicals. Reactions. Wow, this is really complicated. I hope I can learn this."

  Honey grabbed a pen and some paper from a drawer and sat down at the table with the tome. He began his studies by copying the pronunciation guide at the front, just as the little wizard woman had said, and flipped to the beginning of the first lesson. He was glad he had learned to read because the book began by outlining how this book would be different from most wizards' tomes. The first difference being that most wizards' tomes were written in their secret script.

  That would have been terrible, Honey thought. Not only would I have to translate their script into common, but then I would have to learn the runes and how to say them? How complicated.

  The book also explained the differences between people who had natural magical talent, wizards who studied magic, and those who gained magic through their faith in higher powers called clerics. People with natural magical talent were separated into different categories based on their magical prowess. Clerics were also divided by which deity they gained their powers from. Honey knew he did not have the divine magic of the clerics and had never demonstrated natural abilities, so he would most likely be regarded as a novice wizard for a long time while he studied up.

  He finally got to the first spell in the book when Torq emerged from his room. He waved to Honey and grunted his usual morning greeting on his way to Andy's open door. He peered in and then looked back at Honey.

  "Any movement yet?"

  Honey shook his head. "No, but her vitals are good. She's healthy, but she's tired."

  Torq nodded and went to the kitchenette to fend."Whatcha readin'?"

  Honey looked over, a little embarrassed but resolute. "It's a book about magic. I'm going to try to learn some spells so that I can help you guys."

  Torq continued rummaging through the kitchen, unfazed by Honey's admission.

  "That's great. Good luck with that. But you know Andy's still going to give you grief about engaging in combat, especially after all of this."

  "Yes, I know, but at least this way, I could do something if you guys needed my help. I couldn't do anything to help you this time, and I won't go through that again."

  "That's not true," Torq said. "You gave her the healing potion, which might have limped her along until we could bring her back here and get her some proper healing. You might have saved her life."

  Honey sighed, "Yeah, but with magic, I could have done more. Maybe I could have stopped him from hurting her in the first place. I have to figure this out."

  "Well, again, good luck to you. All of that magical singing and waving around is way beyond me."

  Honey returned his attention to the book and read the instructions. "This one doesn't seem so hard. You just wave your hand like this, see an image in your mind of a butterfly flying and say...uh...

  He recited the incantation. Nothing happened. He tried it again. Nothing. He sighed in frustration, noting Torq's silence on the matter, and read the instructions again.

  Andy's door creaked as she pushed it open and shuffled into the main room. Honey and Torq both stood and went to her.

  "Andy, are you alright?" Honey asked, putting his arm around her to steady her wobbly stance.

  Andy nodded weakly. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I feel fine. I'm just...very tired, but I'm also hungry."

  "I've heard healing spells do that. It speeds up your metabolism or something to speed up the healing. That's also why you slept until almost lunchtime."

  "Then what's your excuse?" Honey razzed at Torq.

  "My excuse is I had to go back and do all of that paperwork and stuff for killing that guy."

  Honey's smile faded. "I'm sorry, Torq. I was only kidding. I thought we were allowed to kill criminals."

  "We are," Andy sighed, "but there are a lot of rules and regulations designed to deter us from doing so. I'm sorry you had to deal with that, Torq. I know I'm normally in charge of the bureaucracy of it all."

  Torq chuckled, "Well, you were kind of busy, you know, dying and all."

  Andy managed a weak laugh and reached out toward the kitchenette. Honey walked her over to it and helped her make a cup of coffee and a modest breakfast sandwich of ham and egg on a roll. When she was done preparing her breakfast, Honey wrapped his arm around her again and took her coffee mug.

  "Come on. Over to the table."

  "Honey, you don't have to do this," Andy protested.

  "Sure, I do," he chimed, sitting her down in a chair by the table. "After all, I am support."

  Torq groaned at Honey's pun and moved over to her other side. "I’m glad to see you up and about, even if it is only because you're hungry enough to eat a whole horse."

  "Just don't eat Marco Bryant's horse," Honey joked. "That might be a little heavy on your stomach."

  Andy glanced up at Torq. "Is he always this goofy, or am I just that tired?"

  "Yeah, he's a hoot and a half, even in the morning."

  Honey giggled and returned to his place at the table. He put his notes inside the book and closed it on the page he had been studying, deciding it was a good time to take a break and be with his friends instead.

  Andy made a full recovery by the following morning and was ready to go out on missions again. Torq insisted she take it slow, but Andy wasn't having it. She was up and at it like nothing ever happened.

  As per Torq's request, their first few miss
ions after Andy's ordeal were simple ones, mostly transport assistance and protection. Honey liked the bodyguard missions because he liked getting to know the person they were protecting. Andy warned him that talking to the client was unusual, though not against the rules. So, Honey talked up the clients, who seemed to enjoy his company, while Andy and Torq took strategic positions further out. His position was called "The Body Man," which made him feel sort of like a superhero. The Body Man was in charge of staying close to the client and defending them against any attacks that might get past the outer guards. That was how Honey got started with chatting up the clients. Standing near them and watching them be quiet and uncomfortable made him feel bad for them, so Honey began with small talk, and after he had built some rapport with them, he would tell them jokes he had heard while on the road or ones he had read in books and magazines. They really seemed to enjoy it, and Honey enjoyed pleasing them without having to remove his clothes, especially with the cold weather coming on.

  Honey struggled with the tome, unable to cast anything at all. He practiced and practiced but could barely summon enough magic to make his hands glow, let alone cast a spell that could affect the world around him. He knew healing magic might be a problem for him, but not being able to cast anything made him feel very small.

  "Well, maybe you can cast magic--most people have a little bit of ability-- but you don't know how to use it yet," Torq said. "We could go see someone and have you tested if you like."

  Honey nodded. "Yeah. I would like that. I would like to know whether it's worth the effort I’m putting in is worth it. If I can't learn magic, then I need to learn something else that can help the group. Maybe herbalism is a better bet."

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Andy and Torq took Honey to Fellborne's Magix, just up the road from a little pub they had been frequenting since they arrived in the area. They brought Honey in and approached the counter, where a young girl dressed in an over-sized scarlet robe was taking inventory of a box of wands, and an older gentleman in decorated robes of blue with green and teal triangles was watching closely. He looked up as the group approached and smiled.