“So your idea of family is really just destroying the lives of everyone around you to get what you want,” Dex said.
“That’s not what I said.”
“Well, what exactly did you mean by saying that no one would dare stand in your way.”
“I just meant that we have nothing to fear. We can build a life together, a really good life, as father and son.”
“I have a good life,” Dex replied. “Being a Marshyl is my dream. I fought for this chance. It’s what I’m great at. I have people who love me and who support me. People who were there for me in the darkest hours of my life. I would never turn my back on them. And if the Marshyl Guild is in danger, you can know with certainty I’ll be in the front lines defending my brothers and sisters.”
“You’re brainwashed,” Maslow said.
“No, your brain is addled if you think anything you say will mean more to me than the people I have fought beside and bled with.”
“Then you’ll die, Dex. And all the people you care about will die. And I’ll die. We’ll all be forgotten.”
“How wonderful,” Dex said sarcastically. “Eat your dinner before I put you under again.”
“Don’t get over confident, son. I’ve let too many people dictate what I will and won’t do to just meekly go along while you take me back to your Lord Marshyl to be tortured and killed.”
“I made that mistake once,” Dex said. “It won’t happen a second time.”
Maslow opened his mouth to say something else but Dex cursed him before he could. He was frozen from the elvish ending curse in a sitting position with his eyes closed and his mouth open. Dex limped over to retrieve the food his father hadn’t eaten. He was bending low to gather up the food when he noticed something poking against the inside of his robes. Dex felt the protrusion and found it to be something solid.
It took a minute to uncover the object, and Dex found several hidden pockets inside his father’s robes. The object in question was the bronze ruby ring and Dex breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn’t been cursed by his father during the few times he had given him freedom on their way back south. In another hidden pocket were a dozen gold coins, and in a third he found a small knife. Unlike the silver dagger Dex carried, his father’s knife was honed razor sharp and looked as if it had tasted blood in the past.
Dex spent the next few minutes searching his father, finding a willow wand in a clever sheath built into Maslow’s left boot. He also searched Sonja and found more coins, a dagger, and thimble sealed with wax. Dex couldn’t be sure, but he had a feeling that a magical object was kept inside. It would be a perfect place to hide some tiny artifact, since a thimble was a common item and one most people carried in small mending kits.
He stashed the wands and weapons in his saddle bags and was contemplating the idea of melting the wax that sealed up the thimble when Bliss awoke with a start. She squawked a loud, high-pitched squeal then took to the air. Dex looked around. The horses were stirring, waving their heads and neighing, but he couldn’t be sure if they were responding to a threat or to the noise Bliss had made when she woke up.
He was still in his armor, but his sword was in its sheath near his saddle by the fire. He limped over and drew the blade just as an eerie sound rang through his camp. Dex guessed it was the call of a bird, but if so it was one he wasn’t familiar with. Another call, from the opposite side of his camp rang out, and Dex knew he was in trouble. The Greeg tribe had caught up to him, or at least their band of warriors had. He’d been too far away when he spotted them on the tall butte to know how large of a band they were, but he knew there was enough to attack his camp from opposite directions. If he wasn’t careful they might steal his horses, and if he was really unlucky they would kill him and take everything.
Chapter 26
Dex knew that if he didn’t think of an alternative, he would have to fight the Greeg warriors. They were barbarians, but Dex didn’t want to hurt them. And he certainly didn’t want to get hurt. Bliss dove into the light of the fire, squawking a warning, before arcing back up into the dark night sky. The phoenix gave Dex and idea and he sat down with his legs crossed. He held the Lord Marshyl’s sword up in his left hand, and with his right he made a fist so that the platinum and opal shards caught the light. Then he waited, hoping he wasn’t making a huge mistake.
The Greeg warriors dashed into the camp with their long, thin spears held high, ready to strike, but they froze when Dex shouted a long, high pitched wail.
“Umblat,” he muttered, along with some nonsense words in a low voice.
A snaking strand of fire jumped from the tip of the sword. Normally Dex used the spell like a whip, swirling and striking out with the fiery rope of magic, but he didn’t want to hurt the Greeg warriors. He would defend himself if he had to, but that wasn’t his desire. They were scavengers and raiders, simply doing what they had done for centuries as nomads in the barren Greeg Lands. Dex had hoped to avoid them, yet when he needed to he had been willing to let the Greeg fight the Regulators while Dex fled to safety, knowing that many of them would have been hurt or even killed by the outlaw wizards. If he could help it, he would spare them from the dangers of using his magic against them.
The strand of fire moved upward, then snaked toward the warriors who were frozen at the sight of Dex and his beguiling magic. The fire moved in a circle around the young Marshyl, and as soon as the tip of the fiery rope made a complete circle, Dex used the magic of the opal to levitate himself up into the air slowly. He rotated the ring of fire, so that it encircled him from above to below. There were more than twenty warriors, some young, a few old, most were adult men in their prime. Dex could see the muscles in their shoulders bunched in thick, powerful, masses as they held their spears ready to cast. He also saw the look of wonder on their faces. Only one man, a short but thick warrior with a bald head covered in tattoos that seemed to catch the light from Dex’s ring of fire, seemed unimpressed by his magical display.
The strain of casting and controlling the magic was taxing. Sweat rolled down Dex’s forehead and his mind felt as if it were being torn apart from the inside. The young Marshyl had mesmerized the Greeg but he needed to frighten them away before he faltered and the spell was broken. The response of the short, bald warrior was the perfect opportunity. The Greeg fighter shouted a challenge in his barbarian tongue, then threw his spear straight at Dex. With a flick of his wrist the ring of fire snapped down into the path of the spear, coiling around and consuming the weapon before it could reach Dex.
He flicked his wrist back, and the long, magical rope flew back up over his head. With a chopping motion he cast the fire back down at the Greeg, who stared in awe at Dex. The fire whip cracked and sent a bright tongue of flame flying toward the warrior, who had to dive out of the way to avoid being burned. Dex was shaking by that point, the strain on his mind and body from holding two separate magical spells was almost more than he could bear, but fortunately the Greeg didn’t notice. They were too busy running in terror from the camp. Dex tried to lower himself only to end up falling the last few feet and landing in a heap. He lay in the dirt, his body soaked with sweat that made him shiver in the cold night, listening to the Greeg tribe fleeing from his camp.
After a few minutes they were too far away to be heard and Dex crawled slowly back to the fire. He collapsed on the horse blanket he was planning to sleep on just as Bliss landed on the rock. She looked down at him, cooed triumphantly, as if she had sent the Greeg tribe running for the hills all on her own. Dex managed to get his sword back in its sheath, and pulled a blanket over his legs. More than half of the wood they had salvaged was gone, but he piled more on the fire and sunk backward, his head resting on the seat of his saddle. Above him the stars twinkled for a moment and then he fell fast asleep.
He woke to a gray sky, the clouds seemed almost oppressive. He was thankful that the Greeg tribe hadn’t returned while he slept. Normally Dex considered himself a light sleeper, but the strain of working so much m
agic, mixed with the stress of his quest, had taken a heavy toll. He had always thought that Outriders returned to the Marshyl compound just to get new assignments, but as he gathered their supplies and saw to their horses, Dex realized that he was in need of some down time. He needed to relax, to be with friends, to feel safe. The pressure of his task was weighing down on his mind and making him feel tired, weak, and just a little desperate.
Once he had the horses saddled, he unfroze Sonja, who was able to sit up on her own. Dex took that as a good sign. Her legs seemed to be on the mend, although Dex had no desire to rush her recovery.
“They don’t hurt,” she said with surprise. “Thank you.”
“Phoenix feathers have amazing healing properties,” Dex said. “Thank Bliss, not me. She volunteered that feather.”
“You speak as if the bird understands us,” Sonja replied.
“Bliss does understand. She’s very intelligent.”
“She’s a bird.”
“A phoenix,” Dex corrected her. “A magical creature. Don’t judge what she’s capable of by what you’ve known. She isn’t just a common bird. Magic infuses every part of her.”
“Thank you... Bliss,” the woman said, her voice softening a little.
“Do you think you can ride upright today?” Dex asked.
“I’m willing to try.”
“I took your knife. I suppose you know that.”
“I do,” Sonja said. “And I don’t blame you. I would have killed you and never looked back. I thought Marshyls were murderers with no remorse. Why are you helping me?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure. I couldn’t just leave you to die.”
“You said you would.”
“I was bluffing,” Dex said. “But I didn’t intend to take you as a prisoner. My mission is to return Maslow to the Marshyl compound.”
Sonja rubbed her legs as they talked. Dex was surprised she could tolerate them being touched. Seeing them bent at such extreme angles the day before made him feel sick. He didn’t even like thinking about it.
“I never knew his name was Maslow,” she admitted.
“Tell me about the Regulators,” Dex said. “Why did you join them?”
“Why wouldn’t I,” she said. “Master Crane wants the entire world to have magic, not just the Marshyls.”
“And you believed that?”
“Of course I did. It’s the right thing. We shouldn’t be second class citizens just because we don’t have a wand or a magic ring, you know.”
“I agree,” Dex said, not wanting to start a debate.
“I was a seamstress but the tailor I worked for was killed when a Marshyl Knight got into a fight with a group of wizards,” Sonja said. “I couldn’t make a living in my village after that. It didn’t seem fair that everything I had worked for could be taken from me in an instant. I wanted a way to fight back. When the Regulators came to my village, I went with them.”
“And what have you learned about magic?” Dex asked as he finished securing their supplies to the draft horse.
“I can cast six spells,” she said proudly. “Well, I could before I broke my wand.”
“But where does the magic come from?” Dex asked. “Where did your wand come from? Did you make it?”
“No,” Sonja said, shaking her head. “I know magic comes from the Source, and that the Marshyl Guild has hidden it away so that they remain the most powerful wizards in the realm.”
“Do you really believe that’s true?” Dex said.
“I don’t know what to believe,” Sonja snapped. “I know you kidnapped Master Crane’s most powerful student.”
“Maslow?” Dex asked, pointing to his father. “Did you know he was sent to kill Marshyls?”
“He was sent to free us from the tyranny of the Marshyl Guild.”
“It’s time that you stopped believing everything you hear and start thinking for yourself,” Dex said. “I can see that you have a keen mind. Don’t let your anger over the events in your past cloud your judgement.”
“The Marshyls have been in control too long,” she argued.
“The Marshyl Guild is not in control, nor do we try and control anyone or anything. Our mandate is to protect people. We serve the kingdoms of the Dragon Isle.”
“In my experience, Marshyls only serve themselves,” she replied.
“Perhaps it is time that you broaden your horizons,” Dex said.
He levitated her onto the saddle of her horse. Then took the time to help her get comfortable. Her legs were mending, but the bones weren’t whole yet. Dex used straps to help support her legs, then released Maslow from the elvish ending curse. His father groaned as he sat up. Dex immediately cursed his father again, and then levitated him onto the back of his horse in a face down position, his body folded over the horse like a sack of grain.
“You don’t like him very much,” Sonja said.
“Perhaps that’s because he’s a murderer, or maybe because he waylaid me when I let my guard down with him before.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t kill you,” she said. “You’re young, but that never stopped him from being cruel to the recruits we brought into the Sage Order.”
“Sage Order?”
“It means to be wise,” she offered.
“I know what sage means,” Dex replied. “I thought you were called Regulators.”
“We are the Sage Regulators,” Sonja said. “Master Crane teaches that we are restoring the wisdom of ages past, when magic was for all people.”
Dex didn’t respond. He was certain that the master of this peculiar group would have to be dealt with, which for some strange reason made Dex uncomfortable. The Marshyls would face any threat to the people of the Dragon Isle, and there was little doubt that Master Crane was a threat, but his followers didn’t see him as an outlaw but as a liberator. What if people didn’t want the Regulators killed? Could it be that they might prefer to let the Regulators be their defenders? If so, where did that leave the Marshyl Guild? Dex wasn’t sure.
“You’re not going to curse me with your paralysis spell?” Sonja asked.
“No,” Dex said. “Not unless you’re going to cause trouble.”
“I don’t have a wand, and I don’t think I can walk yet,” she said. “The only trouble I’ll be is when I need to pee.”
Dex smiled.
“I saw what you did last night,” she went on. “My eyes weren’t closed all the way. Why didn’t you just fight the Greeg?”
“Fight a whole tribe all by myself?” Dex replied.
“You could have,” she said. “You fought eight Regulators all by yourself.”
“Only because I had to,” Dex said. “I found another way to deal with the Greeg. And I wasn’t all by myself. Bliss helped.”
“You really love that bird.”
“She’s a phoenix.”
Sonja paused for a moment, as Dex climbed up onto Titan and they set out, riding south. It was clear she was thinking about things.
“You could have killed them all,” she said.
“Maybe, but that’s not what I wanted to do,” Dex said. “And it certainly isn’t what I was trained to do. Despite what you’ve experienced and been told, Marshyls protect. We don’t use our magic to hurt others when we can help it.”
“No one would have blamed you.”
“I would have,” Dex said. “I have to live with my actions, even if no one else does. The Greeg are people too.”
“They’re barbarians,” Sonja said. “They would have slaughtered us. I’ve heard they eat people.”
“I’ve heard that too, and they are different. After Maslow waylaid me and left me for dead, I was captured by a tribe.”
“Let me guess, they nursed you back to health and changed the way you thought about them.”
“No,” Dex replied. “They wanted to sacrifice me to one of their gods.”
The red-headed woman actually laughed. Dex wasn’t sure if she was laughing at him, or at the Greeg, bu
t he couldn’t help but chuckle a little. They were riding side by side, with Maslow between Dex and Sonja, the draft horse following along behind with no need for a lead rope. Bliss was away hunting, and soon after they broke camp the heavy clouds began dumping snow. It was not an ideal way to travel. Dex felt as if things couldn’t get much worse, and made a mental note to secure himself a waxed cloak that would keep the water off his clothes in bad weather as soon as they returned to a civilized kingdom.
The snow fell off and on throughout the day, sometimes in heavy showers, at other times in slow, serene flakes that seemed to float more than fall. Dex was grateful that Sonja was more interested in talking than in making the journey harder than it had to be. She didn’t seem to want to escape, not that he could blame her. Even if her legs were healed, no one in their right mind wanted to be alone in the Greeg Lands.
Chapter 27
The next day the sun reappeared and there was even water trickling through some of the arroyos they passed. It took two full days of travel after the snow day to reach North Gate. Dex was relieved when he saw the village in the distance. They were all exhausted, even the horses, who had very little to eat in the Greeg Lands.
Sonja could stand and get around on her own, although being on her feet for very long was painful. Dex kept Maslow cursed the entire trip south. He didn’t want to speak to his father, and he refused to give the older man a chance to escape. After seeing to their horses, Dex tied his father’s hands together and left him in a stall of the barn while he went in search of a warm meal.
They stayed in North Gate for two days, letting their horses rest. Sonja had trouble getting up into the loft of the longhouse at first, but she spent her days mending clothes and making friends with the villagers. Part of Dex thought she should return to the Marshyl compound, but other than trying to free Maslow, she had done nothing wrong, at least to Dex’s knowledge.
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