“So, um, Founder—”
“Ezekiel.”
“Yeah, OK, Zeke.” She looked around at the trees and the path before gazing back to look at him. “Where the hell are we going?”
He lifted his staff and pointed toward the horizon. Peeking up over the dark green boughs of the pines was a tower. Even from her vantage point, it looked like a relic from the old world. She could see places where the structure had crumbled. It looked like the hand of a god had reached down and torn off the top.
Having grown up in her cage of a city, Hannah was clueless when it came to judging distances that encompassed more than a walk across the four quarters, but she made a guess. “Going to take us hours to walk there.”
“Yes it would, if we were to walk.”
Ezekiel’s eyes flashed bright red and a flood of power washed over her. The hair on her skin stood up, and a mighty wind rushed through her hair. She blinked and realized she was no longer outside the city gate, but instead stood in the middle of a great hall with high arched ceilings. Crumbled rock and rails of steel—a metal from the old days before the Age of Madness—filled the place. She cleared her throat, and the sound echoed through the cavernous interior.
Well, it was cavernous compared to her little hovel in QBB.
“What the hell?” she got out as she rotated in place to look around.
“Not hell. This will be our little heaven,” Ezekiel said, just as a piece of the ceiling crashed to the floor some thirty feet away. “Or at least purgatory. It is where we will train and ready ourselves for the first steps of taking back Arcadia.” He reached up and scratched his beard as he looked around. “It needs a little cleaning first, but nothing we can’t handle.”
The man’s face was drawn and sickly. He slumped more than when he had first entered her father’s house, leaning his weight on his staff. “But for now, I must rest.”
Hannah hesitated before reaching out. “Are…are you OK?”
The man laughed. “Of course, but magic comes with a price. Teleportation is one of the most exhausting arts I know. Takes even more to move both of us.” He pointed with his staff. “I made you a place at the end of that hall.” He gestured with the staff to the left. “Mine is over there. I need to restore some of my strength. You should get settled in. This place will be your home for some time. But for now, stay inside the tower. The surrounding forest is not as tame as Arcadia.”
He opened his mouth as if to say more, but thought better of it. Nodding his head, he shuffled toward his room. Hannah watched him go in silence, then turned to explore her new residence.
A thin mattress lay pushed into a corner. Other than a side table and a tiny desk with a chair, the room was bare. Settling in wouldn’t take long, but it was more than she had ever had so Hannah was grateful. And although she loved William with all her heart, sharing a room with a boy allowed for little privacy. She tugged open the leather bag and pulled out her spare shirt and cloak, the only clothing she had.
Two beady eyes stared up at her. “Here we are, Sal. I’m not sure what’s ahead of us, but I’m glad I’m not alone.”
She turned and placed the creature on the bed, where he rolled into a ball; he was a lazy beast. She thought he had grown since the night he made himself a part of the family. She considered rolling him around on the bed for a second, a mischievous smile on her face.
Hannah could hardly remember the way he looked when she first saw him, nothing more than a common newt. If Ezekiel was right, then maybe magic was the reason this thing changed into his new form. Either way, Sal didn’t seem too upset with his new lot in life.
She folded her clothes and slid them into a drawer, then paced the room, wondering what the strange building would have been in the days before the Age of Madness. While walls in Arcadia were constructed with the precision of magic, the walls of her room were different.
Somehow even more precise.
She had heard of machines in the old days that had run on something like magitech but required no magician. There were so many stories floating around Irth about the past, one never knew which were true and which were bullshit.
People generally chose the ones that benefited them and discarded the rest.
After three complete laps around the little room, boredom took its toll. At that time of day, she and Parker would normally be working together running some con.
She wasn’t used to taking days off.
Hannah turned for the door. She walked toward the great hall where she had first landed and marveled at the way the ceiling soared upward. The pitter-patter of Sal’s footsteps followed behind her, and she turned to look at the little guy. “You bored too?”
His tongue flicked in and out of his mouth. She smiled at the memory of Sal tickling her wrist.
Curiosity pushed her, so she tried all the doors to the rooms that adjoined the hall but none of them budged.
She was unsure if they were shuttered before the last humans fled, or if Ezekiel had done the job himself when he came back. One of the doors must have led into a stairwell because she was stuck on the ground level.
Stay in the tower. The magician’s words echoed through her mind.
Naturally she knew that the world outside Arcadia was different, but certainly, it wouldn’t harm anything to stretch her legs a few steps, right?
Finding a door to the outside, she pushed and was surprised to find it unlocked. Hannah’s inquisitive nature trumped caution and obedience, and she took the first steps into the new world.
Hannah hadn’t realized just how musty the tower was until the cool afternoon air struck her face. It was altogether different from what she had breathed in the city her entire life.
As she inhaled deeply, a smile lit her face. The air smelled of pine, earth, and freedom. Hannah stretched her arms toward the sky and let the breeze from the forest blow through her hair. It was only a few hours since she had left her brother on Queen’s Boulevard but she already wanted to talk to him, if only to describe what she was seeing right now.
During their conversation, before he had given his blessing, she had been inclined to try to bring him along, but William had insisted on her going alone with the Founder if only to see what he had planned.
As her mind had contemplated all that had happened and the hope she had allowed to bloom since the magician had healed her brother, she headed toward the shadows of the trees.
No more than twenty feet into the forest, Ezekiel’s admonition returned.
Stay in the tower.
“As long as I don’t go too far, I’ll be fine.” She looked around, trying to see between some of the branches in the trees.
Hannah was a kid from the Boulevard. She had spent her life around danger.
What harm could a few trees do?
Glancing over her shoulder, she spotted the door leading into the decrepit tower and convinced herself that she was close enough to the magician’s fortress to return if something out of the ordinary happened.
The crunching of little feet on the forest floor was easily heard as Sal came scampering across from the building and jumped into her arms. She absentmindedly rubbed his scaly body as her eyes scanned the woods.
He wriggled as she ran a fingernail down his back, outlining the base of each of the peculiar spikes. When she finished, he crawled up onto her shoulder. “Ouch!” She flinched as his sharp claws bit into her skin. “I’m not your pincushion.” He settled down, his tail draped down her back.
Hannah let the pain recede into the background as she considered just how much her life had changed in a few short hours. If it weren’t for the Hunters in the square, or even for William’s seizures, none of this might have happened.
Life had dealt her a shit hand, but it seemed she had finally drawn a lucky card.
Now the question lingered in her thoughts, Would the luck remain?
The answer to her question came sooner than she expected. As she stepped farther into the trees, a series of grunts ec
hoed around the woods, and she heard what sounded like city goats pawing around in the dusty square of the market.
Looking up from the pine needle-covered earth, her eyes fastened on a creature that looked like one of the pigs the farmers brought to Arcadia for slaughter. Only this pig was twice as big and had tusks jutting from its jaw. Thick black hair ran down the ridge of its back.
“Oh, this is bad,” she whispered, eyes flitting left and right before locking on the pig.
The animal continued to paw the ground and snort and roll its massive head as it stared at her, saliva dripped from its tusks.
Hannah retreated slowly while she gawked at the creature, until she stood with her back planted against a tree. Sal moved his tail so it didn’t get squished.
“It’s OK, boy, girl, whatever you are,” she said in the most soothing voice she could muster, but her words did nothing to calm the beast. Hannah’s eyes cut to the tower’s door, and she wondered how fast the animal could move.
From the looks of the tusks, she assumed the thing could deliver significant damage. She took a test step in the direction of safety, and its grunting increased to a frenzy, long strands of saliva ran from its hungry mouth. And then, without warning, the oversized war pig jumped towards her and ran head-down in her direction.
A lifetime of instincts honed by the dangers of the Boulevard pushed Hannah to action. She turned and sprinted back toward safety.
Sal’s claws tightened on her shoulder.
Branches whipped across her face and arms, but she ignored the pain. She could hear the pig closing in on her. The tower was just ahead, but she knew she wouldn’t make it. She glanced over her shoulder to see how much time she had but as she did, a root caught her foot and sent her sprawling on the ground.
She landed hard but quickly rolled so she could see behind her. The large beast was nearly on top of her, its tusks like spears. Hannah raised her arms in defense, a pitiful attempt to block the creature’s charge.
She refused to give up, but she knew in her heart that death was upon her.
Her eyes caught movement from her left; an object streaked through the air and struck the beast in the head. The animal dropped, rolling to a stop just a few feet in front of her with its skull crushed beyond recognition.
The projectile, a giant metal hammer with a spike on the handle’s end, lay bloodied on the ground to her right.
As Hannah stared wide-eyed at the weapon, she heard a branch snap behind her shoulder.
“What the hell is a little lass doing out in the forest by her lonesome?” a gruff voice asked in the rearick dialect.
A man with a thick beard and long hair falling over his leather armor approached and bypassed the pig to pick up his hammer. He grunted as he took in the animal before he turned to Hannah.
He was half as wide as he was tall, and his face held no hint of what might be considered kindness as he eyed her up and down.
He didn’t seem impressed.
Hannah stammered at her savior. “I…”
“It ain’t safe out here, as ye now know. And who the hell are ye? And what’s that?” he asked, pointing to Sal with the head of his hammer.
The strange feeling of power under her skin enveloped her, and Hannah breathed deeply to stifle it. “That is my pet. And I’m not sure if anyone of your stature should be calling anyone else little, sir.” She cracked a half-smile and raised an eyebrow at the rearick.
Without warning, the man pulled a knife from his belt. Hannah jumped back, thinking the man was a monster, saving her from the war pig only for his own vicious pleasure.
But before she could react, the rearick flipped the knife over in the air, catching it by the blade. He extended it toward her. The blade was made of silver, its hilt ornately crafted.
She stood up, knocking the worst of the dirt and needles off her. She was right; he stood a head shorter than her.
He offered, “Ye might not be very smart, but ye sure got some balls, and I like that. And sassy, too. This is fer the next time ye decide to do something as stupid as ye did this day.” He jerked the blade a couple of times in the direction of the pig.
Hannah accepted the knife and turned it over and over in her hand, eyeing the craftsmanship. To her trained eyes, it had some value.
Holding out a beefy hand, the man said, “The name’s Karl.”
Hannah took his hand. Suspicious or not, he had just saved her from a proper goring. “Hannah,” she replied with a smile. Looking down at the beast and back at the knife, she said, “I really don’t know what to do with this.”
Karl shrugged and pointed to the pig’s head. “With an animal like that, always aim for the throat. Works with a man, too, but it’s a wee bit harder to land it.” He winked in fun, a smile spreading under his thick beard.
She looked back toward the path he had approached from before asking, “Do you live around here?”
“Around here? Bah. No.” He jerked his chin toward the horizon. “I’m from the Heights. But I can make a lot of scratch escortin’ farmers and traders through these woods to Arcadia. Just dropped a group off, and I’m pickin’ em up again tomorrow.”
“Oh. Then what are you doing around here?”
“Have you ever been to Arcadia, lassie?” he asked.
Hannah laughed. “This is my first time out of Arcadia. Been there all of my life.”
“Figures. That explains yer performance with this boar here. But if yer from the city, then ye know that Arcadia is no damn place for a man who loves the shade of trees and the feel of wind in his beard. Gets so damned claustrophobic in there, I can hardly make it through the gate before I need to get me ass back out of there.”
“I didn’t know that rearick could get claustrophobic.”
The man tilted his head. “Under the ground’s different, eh? I trust the holes we dig in the rocks. People, not so much. Now, let me escort ye back to yer palace, me lady.”
Hannah flushed a little and tucked the knife into the leather belt that held her cloak in place. “What about that?” she asked, nodding at the boar.
“That’s dinner, if ye care to join me.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Gross.”
He laughed. “Nope, not gross, good. Damn good meat and she’s a fat one. A little heat and a lot of salt, and I’ll sleep with a full belly.”
They walked to the tower. She would have been caught by the big pig, boar, whatever, for sure. She had gone farther than she thought.
The man stopped at the base. “Want to come in?” Hannah asked. “I could introduce you to my friend if he’s up.”
Karl’s eyes scanned the tower from top to bottom. “Not in there.”
“More claustrophobia?” she asked with a grin.
“Sure, kid. Something like that.” Karl nodded then took a couple steps backward. “Pleasure to meet ye, lass.” He pointed at her belt. “Now do me a favor and keep the knife close and stop bein’ so damned stupid in these woods.” His words were gruff, but Hannah could sense warmth beneath his granite exterior.
She watched the man sling the giant hammer over his shoulder and disappear into the woods before she retreated into the safety of the tower with Sal on her heels.
10
“Come on, just one more time, sir? Give a boy from Queen Bitch Boulevard a chance to win his money back.”
“Sure. Once more,” the middle-aged man said as he counted the coins in his palm. His fine clothes and trimmed hair told the onlookers that he was a noble who had wandered out of his quarter. “But, I’ll tell you, son, if I win, I’m keeping the coins. Only way you boys will learn.”
Parker placed his hands in front of his chest, palms together, and bowed. “I am always willing to take a lesson from an elder. Especially one who is both wise and refined.” He turned to the crowd that had gathered at the corner of the market square. “What do you think, folks? Should I try it again? He’s good, and I only have a handful of coins left.”
The onlookers hooted and hol
lered, urging Parker on.
“OK, I don’t want to let the good people down. But I can only do ten this time. My dear Ma still needs her medicine.” Parker lifted an imaginary glass and pretended to drink. The crowd roared.
“Here we go, then. Three shells, one ball. As everyone can see, the ball is here, under this one.” Parker tilted back the middle shell, showing a tiny green pea. “Now, sir. Last chance and I need the money, so I’m going to make this one a little tougher. Ready?”
The man kept his eyes on the shells and nodded.
Parkers hands moved fast, his mouth even faster. “Keep your eyes on the shell as they go around. Where’s the pea? That’s the plea. Where's the pea? Can you tell me?”
He went on for another thirty seconds before pulling his hands back from the shells. “How do you feel?”
Sweat glistened on the man’s forehead. “Good. I got this.” His finger hovered over the shells as it finally settled on the one furthest to his right. “This one.”
“You sure about that?” Parker asked. “Really sure?”
“Yes. This one. I’m positive.”
“Last chance.”
The electricity in the crowd was thick. Everyone leaned in waiting for the reveal. Parker closed his eyes and let his head dip. Flipping the shell, he said, “Well, they say the nobles are smart, kind, and good looking. At least you’re one out of three.”
The green pea sat under the shell.
Scooping up his winnings, the nobleman said, “Get an honest job, kid. Sweeping the gutters is a sure thing, and you’re not very good with those shells.”
As the man moved out of sight, Parker looked back at the gathering. “Well, I guess my ma will go to bed sober tonight. Might as well give it one more shot. Who’s feeling smart or at least lucky?”
The crowd shifted as a man stepped forward, landing twenty coins on Parker’s crate. “I’m in for twenty.”
“Sorry, sir. After the noble, I need to be cautious. Are you a farmer or something with all of that coin?”
Welcome To The Age of Magic Page 10