Legend of Ecta Mastrino Box Set

by B J Hanlon

  “You insolent little–”

  “Men are given the right to speak here. You are not king, Pharont,” Mersett interrupted. “Everyone on this island can say what they wish… or have you forgotten about that?”

  Edin noticed the man behind Pharont staring at Mersett with fury, like he’d just taken away his favorite toy.

  Pharont’s son, at least that’s what Edin assumed of the laugher, he looked like a pompous little bully, leaned down, spoke into the fat man’s ear. A smile crossed the FAE’s face.

  “Fine, as magnanimous as I am, I will not banish him. A boy such as him looks strong, sturdy like a pack horse.” He turned his attention to Edin. “You will work as a farmhand and live at the Reaches. Guards, please escort him home. By sunrise, you will report to Fior on the southern fields.”

  “Magi do not work the fields,” Mersett said.

  “We are all equal are we not?” Pharont grinned at Edin. “We all do our part. You will have safety, a roof over your head, and food in your belly. Is that understood?”

  Edin clenched his jaw.

  “Master Otembo… Edin and I are together. I wish that he stays with me,” Arianne started stepping next to him.

  “If you wish to stay in the Reaches Tower, be my guest.” Pharont said and Arianne shut her mouth. “Otherwise my son Casitas will escort you to a guest chamber.”

  The young man behind Pharont began moving around the side of the bench and toward the steps.

  Edin turned to Arianne. “Where are the Reaches?” Edin asked though not looking at Le Fie.

  “An outcropping of rock on Brackland. As far east on the isles as possible,” Le Fie answered.

  “It’s probably better than some of the places we’ve stayed,” Edin said holding her hand.

  “I want you with me…” Arianne said. “Who else will I have to make fun at?”

  “Fun of,” Edin said smiling. “It’ll only be temporary I’m sure.” He leaned in and kissed her.

  A throat cleared sounding only inches from Edin’s ear. He didn’t care, he pressed his lips more firmly to Arianne’s for a few more moments until another throat clearing and Arianne’s lips turned to a smile.

  “You are very creepy,” Edin said looking at Casitas. The man reminded Edin a bit of Le Fie in the cheeks and nose. Dark hair, dark eyes but Edin guessed his look was one of fury as opposed to Le Fie’s probing one.

  “We do not offer these displays in the agora. It is disrespectful.”

  “I caught you in here boy,” Le Fie said. “Or don’t you remember?”

  “Do not call me boy,” Casitas said, his face growing red like his father’s. “You will watch yourself.”

  Le Fie jabbed a finger at Casitas. “If you wish to threaten me you better make sure you can back it up.”

  Casitas glared at him before taking a deep breath. “I am sorry, cousin. I only wish to preserve the sanctity of the agora.” He turned toward Arianne, “Lady Bestavienne, I will show you to your chambers.”

  Arianne looked back at Edin, they separated but still her hand was in his. She let go and nodded at Casitas.

  The man put out his arm to escort her but she ignored it. “I can show you the city. There are all sorts of lovely shops where we can find you new clothes.”

  Arianne rose up the steps they entered and disappeared out into the evening sun.

  “She’ll be fine,” Le Fie said. “Come Flack, I’ll show you to the school.”

  It wasn’t her Edin was worried about.

  A moment later, a pair of armed guards appeared, they looked at Edin and one nodded for him to follow out to the right through a postern door. As soon as they exited they entered a wooded courtyard and Edin realized they were alone.

  4

  Separated and it feels so bad

  Edin kept his hand on his hilt as they exited through a small gate east of the castle. They pressed through the city as it grew darker. Shops were shutting, men swept streets that already seemed perfectly clean. Edin wondered if he could eat from them. Probably not a good idea.

  The guards kept him between them like a sandwich. Soon they came to a long and wide rope bridge. Edin swallowed as he held onto the right handhold.

  Far below, he could hear crashing waves but couldn’t see the water in the darkness. Edin felt tense and looked back at the man behind him. He wasn’t even watching Edin, his eyes were off somewhere to the south.

  As they crossed a large wagon carrying what looked like wheat passed them on the left with more than enough room. It rumbled heavily over the wooden slats and caused Edin to tighten his grip.

  After it passed, Edin pulled the flask from his tunic and tried to drink. Nothing.

  Somehow, the bridge held and after they left it, they met a dirt road and the smell of livestock and farms. The guards kept a quick pace.

  After all of the months of hiking, only two weeks of little movement made his legs tire quickly again. They passed cottages with large pens of cows, sheep and chickens. A small hamlet like any other he’d seen… except it was lit by torches that didn’t emit smoke or burn.

  Voices poured out of the homes, some of laughter, others monotone and one man that was furious as to how overcooked his dinner was. Life in the country.

  To the north, he could see a rising plain with large black shapes moving cautiously in the moonlight.

  “What are those?” Edin asked.

  Neither guard answered, but a lone moo came from that direction.

  The road grew dark as they passed out of the hamlet. To the south he heard the water though it seemed distant and after a while, a wooden fence appeared before an open black gap.

  It was a quiet hike, he’d had many of those but this one felt different. Almost like he was being led to the dungeons. The fact that he wasn’t bound and still carried Mirage was the only reason he knew he wasn’t arrested… at least yet.

  Edin tried to take in the scene, the land. For the first time since early spring, he was safe… then he glanced back to the guards. Relatively safe.

  The FAE clearly wasn’t a fan of Edin’s father, and Edin didn’t do himself any favors by losing his temper. It was a bad idea. He knew that. Grent or Horston would smack him just for thinking about insulting the man, let alone loosening his tongue. FAE, he thought… Fat Arse Egotist… Edin chuckled to himself drawing looks from the guards. After a few moments, he pulled out the flask again and shook it.

  “Any place to get a refill?”

  The guard behind him looked past Edin as if he were not there.

  “What, were you told not to talk to me? I don’t have any diseases… I’m not going to drop dead with cat-cough.”

  It was a disease of people out to the west. They began coughing up their insides and sounding like a cat with a hairball stuck in their throats. An outbreak in Porinstol some years ago killed almost two thousand people.

  “Baili’s,” the one behind him said. His voice was soft, like a preteen, though he was only a few inches shorter than Edin. “In Ranchera.”

  About twenty minutes later they came to another hamlet. There was no sign that said the name ‘Ranchera,’ but he assumed this was the place as they stopped at a long and low building that looked like a closed stable.

  The shutters were closed but there were thin lines of light peeking out the cracks.

  One of the guards pulled open the door and they were met with music and chatter. A soft smile rose on his lips as if meeting an old friend.

  A tavern like almost any other, men drinking, laughing, playing cards. Flirtatious barmaids flittering through as if floating. A moment later, he saw a drink actually float to a waiting man’s hand.

  The room smelled of smoke, ale, and liquor, but it somehow still felt clean.

  A man stood before others with a set of playing cards, he seemed to be telling some sort of story.

  “So, this red head met me the other day,” he laid down a card, “she tells me I gotta go down to king street.” He laid another card and g
et me a fat piece of bread. I say how much? The red head,” he laid another card, “said twenty-five.” Two cards. “Twenty-five?” I say,” Two more cards.

  Edin noticed the two and the five. The men were laughing as Edin turned toward the bar as the story continued.

  “Day workers,” One of the guards said. “Evening Baili, this is a foundling. He’ll be residing in the Reaches.”

  “Whose daughter did he touch to get assigned that wreck?” Baili said winking. Her eyes seemed to mutate between green and blue.

  “Alcor’s…”

  “And who the heck is Alcor?”

  The guard grinned.

  “Alright lad, what’ll ya have?” Her blouse was cut low showcasing an ample amount of her bosom and Edin found it difficult to stop from looking.

  It took him a moment to get his head around. “Whiskey.”

  “He was a chatty bird before he saw you there, Baili,” the first guard said.

  Baili twisted from the bar and grabbed a bottle with a brown liquid from a shelf below the mirror. A mirror ran that ran the length of the bar. Edin saw her looking at him in it.

  She turned back to the bar with the bottle and grabbed a glass. “You men can head back if ya’ll want, the Reaches ain’t too difficult to get to from here.”

  “The First told us to…”

  “He ain’t your king,” she said, her tone was almost angry.

  The man shrugged. “But he pays us.”

  “Suit yourselves.” She poured the drink and looked at Edin. “So, what’s the rest of the world like these days?” She poured three fingers of the liquid into a glass.

  That was a big question and Edin almost smiled. It is burning, Edin thought as he twirled the glass in his hand and watched it slosh up to the sides.

  “Where’s our drink?” the guard asked.

  “You’re on duty right?” Baili said without looking at the guard.

  “Come on, we’ll stop by Pop’s Station before we head back. They got better ale,” the second guard said and Edin didn’t notice them leaving.

  “I suppose it’s much the same as it’s always been,” Edin said.

  “I’ll bet.” The attention she put on him made him turn slightly red. It was those eyes, when she stared at him, spoke to him, it was as if all the rest of the tavern was gone.

  Baili shook her head when the men left. “My ale is much finer, as is the whiskey.”

  Edin took a drink. It felt good at first, for just a moment then it tickled and burned. He felt tears, turned, and coughed.

  Baili laughed. “Foundling drank the fire!” she shouted. “Come now, who wants another?”

  Hooting laughter echoed from around him. Edin swallowed the end of his coughing fit. A man slapped his back and reached out his hand. He said his name but Edin didn’t catch it. Other men joined.

  A man offered a long-stem pipe. “It’s only tobacco,” he said. “But I got the good stuff too.” Edin didn’t know what he meant but shook his head.

  Edin turned back to Baili during his introduction to the men. She locked eyes with him, smiled and nodded as if to say this is normal. For the first time in a very long time, Edin began to feel a lessening of the weight, the worries and fears he’d been carrying.

  He laughed. Not sure why but it felt good. He took another drink from the whiskey, it had almost magically been refilled. The fire whiskey burned but he didn’t cough. Edin felt light on his toes, his body swayed, and men began to sing.

  Edin barely remembered much that night. The drinking ran late into the night, he’d told his story at least twice. Maybe three times. He tried to leave out the elfish woman, but she may have come up. He most certainly said nothing about the two talents.

  “You gotta knack for stories, boy,” a man with sunburnt skin and calloused hands said. “Keep tellin’ em like that and you’ll drink for free.”

  “It’s not a…”

  “That kid up at the Reaches… he reads a lot, but he don’t tell us stories, just mopes past us all the time…”

  “Someone else lives there?” Edin said. It was the first he’d heard about that.

  “The only other mage outside Delrot, just you and… what’s that bookworm’s name?”

  “Dorset,” someone called.

  “Yeah, kid is strange, wants to be way out here. No one knows what he does in the tower but I’ve seen lights from there and weird sounds. Screeches, cries… moaning.”

  Edin swallowed and wiped an eye.

  “No more of that, Dorset’s a fine boy, just quiet,” Baili said. “It’s good to have a magus here, makes us seem respectable.”

  A bunch of people laughed.

  “They separate you?” Edin asked.

  “It just sort of happens,” the sunburnt man said. “My father and two sisters all have the talent. Me and me ma weren’t so lucky.” He slapped Edin on the back. “But hey, I have my health, my wealth, and my lady. Though I seem to have misplaced her at the moment.” He pretended to look around for someone then erupted in a great belly laugh that nearly burst Edin’s ear.

  “Inside joke,” he yelled.

  “And I’m not on the inside.”

  He laughed again and pushed Edin a little too hard causing him to bump into the bar.

  “Watch it with the ranchers, stranger,” Baili said from the other side. “They’ll drink you under the table.”

  A while later, a trio of Bailis waved him over. He closed an eye and saw it was just one.

  That was a relief.

  She leaned against the bar, it tugged her blouse down nearly exposing all her chest. “Just so you know, it’s two hours past midnight and we’re about to close down.”

  Edin blinked a few times and tried looking at the small clock that was behind the bar. He could barely make it out.

  “Give me fifteen and I’ll walk you to the Reaches.”

  “Bah, that’s a half a league. Come boy, you can stay by my place, it’s around the corner.”

  “Thank you,” Edin said, he could feel his stomach beginning to turn into a warm slosh. “I think I’ll walk. Just down the road, right?”

  “Yep. Straight east.”

  Edin nodded and headed toward the door. As he reached it, he heard Baili calling for everyone out then she appeared at Edin’s side.

  “Come on, it’s a nice night for a stroll.”

  The cold wind felt good on his skin and seemed to put a stopper on his stomach that verged on overflowing. Few of his steps were actually in front of one another, and Baili held his arm to steady him for the trip.

  The road rose and fell with the surrounding landscape. They passed another hamlet that was completely quiet and slowly, silhouetted against the darkness, he saw the tower rising like a thick stump of a limbless tree. He breathed deeply from the smell of the ocean and was taken back to the lighthouse where he and Arianne hid.

  Baili slowed as they grew nearer and Edin found himself almost tripping on his own feet in order to stay with her.

  A lantern lit up the entrance showing off a rather haggard wooden door beneath a crumbling arch. The door began to creak open, squealing as if someone was leaving. But no one appeared.

  “Latch has been broken for a while. Dorset keeps whining about it but nobody does nothing,” Baili said then stopped. “Well, I guess this is it.”

  Edin turned toward her and blinked, her blue-green eyes were still as bright as when he first met her.

  “You really do all those things you said before?”

  Edin nodded. “Arianne and I.”

  “Yes, the princess… I call bull on that by the way.” She had thick lips and they smiled as she stepped closer. She reached her arms out around his neck. “You ought to know, I don’t just walk any man home. Only adventurers.” Baili began leaning in.

  It took him a moment but his arms still worked. He put his hands on her hips and steadied himself. No matter how drunk, there was no way. “Sorry… I can’t I’m…”

  “Baili, never seen you thi
s far from the tavern.” The voice came from somewhere over his shoulder.

  “Just walking your roommate home. This is Edin, arrived today.” Baili still wore a large smile and didn’t seem to care about what just happened between them.

  Edin turned away, prying himself from her grasp.

  “Hi,” Edin said.

  “Did anyone give you a message for me?” Dorset said, he looked to be Edin’s age, maybe a few years older. He wore a grass colored robe that was frayed at the collar and around the sleeves. His hair was a light blond, almost white in the lantern light. He pushed his thick spectacles higher up his nose.

  Edin shook his head.

  Dorset shrugged a bag higher onto his shoulder and stared at Edin a bit more. “I’m gonna die out here…” Dorset sighed then turned his gaze to Edin and seemed to eye him over. After a few more moments he spoke.

  “Bottom level is the kitchen, middle is the sleeping quarters, and top is the observation, though I use it for a study. Don’t touch my things, I’ll be back before dark.” There was a briskness to his words as he barreled down the stairs and stood next to Edin. “You’re drunk.”

  Edin nodded.

  “Do not touch my things,” he said again much more forcefully. “My bed is under the window on the left, there is a spare across the way.” Then he began marching down the dirt road the way they came.

  “So, perfect timing, you got the tower all to yourself.”

  Edin looked away, from somewhere over the edge of the cliffs, he heard the waves thrashing against the rock face.

  “I need to get some sleep,” Edin said. “I got to be at the farm at sunrise.”

  “The farm? Which?”

  “Don’t know, how many are there?”

  “I think eleven, they’re all on Newland,” she pointed toward the south but Edin couldn’t see that far with the darkness. “You’ll never make it. Better to just ignore it, it’s your first day. You could show me around your new place?”

  Edin’s mind went to the near kiss and his heart paused as if to say don’t even think about it. He had Arianne. “I’ll be okay.”

  “When your princess trades up, let me know,” Baili said before turning and heading back down the dirt road behind Dorset.