The night before the choosing, Berg tells Mashaun that there is a book and asks him to get it. He only says that it is important and that it might help them return home. The next morning, the dispersing of the treasure proceeds with someone from each family of the slain party members joining.
There is a long table in the middle of the great hall, where tsaub swords, spears, packs, some clay square with strange markings, some miscellaneous stuff, and the plain book carefully laid out. There are several other tables with the equipment of the slain companions. Each one has their own table with a woodcarving of the lost one with their name carved into the base. For the most part, there is arms and armor along with some supplies, including one of the bracelets on the companions’ table.
For a short time, Abigail watches as people look through the slain equipment with the emotion of going shopping. Not understanding the lack of sadness for the loss of a friend, she leaves the room with teary eyes even though she didn't really know any of ones that died.
Onlookers and families fill the great hall, some just to see what these Tsaub carried while some would purchase items from the patrol members afterward.
For several hours, people examine the goods while only the ones involved with the distribution can handle any of the items. The Tsaub spears have oblong shafts instead of round and about six-fee long, with a barbed bronze tip. There are several swords and bows laid out on the table. None of them really stands out, except for a couple of the swords that look like a wide scimitar with strange hilts. Without Mashaun asking, Wilmer tells him that they are weapons of the Kaovjs, a race that lives far to the south.
Oddly, there are no shields on the table, and when Mashaun thinks about the Tsaub, he doesn’t remember them having shields. Next to the swords is a pile of light rope that looks like spider silk; it appears to be robust while weighting less than a sword. There are some flint and steel, plane knives, and building equipment. Mashaun thinks the building equipment is an odd item for them to be carrying; when he asks Wilmer about it, he agreed.
Neither one likes finding building tools among the supplies, which probably means they are looking for a place to start a settlement. Wilmer tells Mashaun that if they build a settlement on this side of the mountains, it would bring back the dog wars. Mashaun doesn’t say a thing but makes a mental note to find out what he could about them later. Finally, the drum sounds and Llewellyn says it is time to begin. After everybody takes their seats, he explains the rules and the order before starting.
Llewellyn starts the round robin by choosing one of the big Tsaub swords, followed by Wilmer, then Mashaun, Tera, and the rest. It takes all morning and then some before the tables are empty. Mashaun gets the book, Kaovjs swords, some leather armor, a backpack, and some miscellaneous stuff including the rope. Berg is ecstatic when Mashaun chooses the book first and is eager to start translating it. Mashaun offers the group first choice of prizes before giving it to Wilmer to sell. He leaves for Shen Sherin in a few days and will be gone for about a month. Mashaun has asked Wilmer to look in on Kazimir and the twins while he is there.
CHAPTER 16
Snow Training
Llewellyn puts Mashaun in charge of training the guards on how to make and use the skis with his first class having ten students. They painstakingly build their skis and practice using them for several days on the snow-covered flat meadow outside the village. Before long, they are weaving through the trees. Then it becomes time to practice with their bows from the skis. They often go into the forest where Mashaun has set up wooden targets, and they practice shooting while on skis. During the first few days, they lose many arrows as they fly everywhere but at the targets. They leave the compound to practice several times a week. The rest of the time they spend at the range inside while on their skis since the problem is not their shooting; it’s being on the skis.
Once when they are skiing through the forest to the targets, Mashaun hears a noise behind him, turning to see one of the students taking aim at the large cat. Mashaun quickly scoops up a handful of snow, throws the snowball, and hits the guy on the side of the face, knocking him to the ground. His arrow flies wildly into the air, disappearing into the sky. The big cat and Mashaun stare at each other for what seems like an eternity. Mashaun thinks that he sees intelligence in the large green eyes before the cat turns and vanishes into the forest. The guy just sits there in the snow as Mashaun approaches, shaking his head in disgust.
“What are you doing?” Mashaun barks at him. The student just shrugs his shoulders, not knowing how to answer.
“Are you going to eat it? Was it attacking?” he follows. The guy shakes his head no. Dalistra likes hearing his commanding demeanor; it is a lot different from when she first met him.
He thinks that this would be a good time for a lesson, making sure that everybody understands his rules.
“I only have two rules. One, eat what you kill. Two, do not attack unless they attack first. Remember, you are scouts, not fighters. Your best chance of survival is not in attacking but in remaining hidden. If you need to attack, choose your position wisely, never from the same place more than a few times,” he sternly tells the class before telling them about the attack on the bandit camp.
He helps the student up and decides it is time for some fun. He divides them up into two groups on opposite sides of the meadow, each with a flag tied to a tree. The object is simple: get the opponents flag, using snowballs knock the opposing team down, and they play in the snow until almost dark. When they return to the village, they are all wet, cold, and tired but they don’t care.
That evening, Llewellyn summons Mashaun to join him. Mashaun wonders what it is this time. His visits have always been pleasant, but a little uncomfortable. He is taken to the usual dining room, where Llewellyn is talking with a woman with short tawny hair. She is a little shorter than Mashaun and moves with grace toward the table. Llewellyn introduces her as Bianca, a good friend. She looks familiar, but he can’t put his finger on it. During the meal, the conversation turns toward the process of his class and if they are ready for a patrol. Mashaun tells them that they are ready.
Llewellyn also asks Mashaun about the events of the day. Mashaun gives him a synopsis, not spending any time on the cat incident until Llewellyn specifically asks about it. Mashaun wonders why he is so interested in the cat sighting but tells them about the event in full, and then it dawns on him that Bianca has green eyes, and her hair is the same color as the cat.
Mashaun shakes his head as he tries to make sense of it. They look at each other for a moment before Bianca thanks him, with her soft voice, for hitting the guy with a snowball. He simply replies, “You’re welcome,” which he says out of habit. Dalistra tells him that she is a were-cat. Mashaun takes a moment before muttering the phrase lycanthrope hesitantly. Before he could go any further, Llewellyn tells him that he is partly correct, except that she is a human by night and a cat by day because of a mistake he made many years ago. Therefore, she is stuck in the dual worlds of humans and animals. While the arrow would have hurt her, it probably wouldn’t have killed her.
During dinner, he tells a story about how they met in a city while the guards were chasing her. His group offered her safety and protection. Later when they tried to get the curse removed, Llewellyn got overanxious and cast a spell on the other side of town. Somehow, the two spells locked her in this state. They have been companions and friends ever since. As Mashaun is leaving, Llewellyn tells him not to tell anybody and to have his class ready to go on patrol in a couple of days. Mashaun acknowledges them and goes home for the night.
They all show up ready to go, looking forward to proving themselves. Mashaun shows up pulling a toboggan with some extra food and supplies. He assigns two to pull it, and they head to the outpost, which they make in a day, much to the delight of the current occupants. The other group would leave in the morning to go home, but for now, they swap stories and share a meal. Mashaun gets an update from Opaline, the captain of the group.
Opaline tells Mashaun that the most excitement is a family of spotted scorpions moving across the ridgeline on the other side a few days ago. She is curious about the skis, asking all kinds of questions about how they work and if she could learn how to use them. Mashaun agrees to teach her when he returns. Mashaun’s group will spend the next ten days going out in groups of five, scouting around for a day and returning at night.
Before going to sleep, Mashaun asks Dalistra about the spotted scorpions. She tells him that they are short, plump animals with four legs and a long tail with a set of mandibles on the end. They use their mandibles to break open trees and to cut through corpses to get to their food. They can whip their tail around lightening fast, and she has seen them sever a few legs. They will also use their tail to hold the food in front of them while they eat, opening their small mouths large enough to take a whole arm. They are not dangerous, and they harassed or trapped.
Mashaun divides his charges into two groups and goes out for the day to scout around, meeting back at the outpost that night. They are all told not to engage for any reason unless they are attacked. Finally, he tells them that if they come across any of the spotted scorpions, they are to go the other direction. Each day, the groups would go out to their assigned patrol areas and return that night. On the fifth day, the watch comes down and tells Mashaun that a patrol is returning but something is wrong. Mashaun and the rest go to greet them; they find one of the members, Josiah has a broken arm and several cuts and scrapes. After tending to the wounds, Mashaun sits down with each to find out what happened.
The general story is that they came across the spotted scorpions on the ridgeline and they all wanted a closer look. They snuck up close enough to get a good look at them, and they followed them for some time. When they decided to leave and return to base, one attacked Josiah. They had no choice but to defend him and Josiah was caught by the claw. Then several others came out of the forest along with the large cat. The cat spring at the scorpion that had Josiah, knocking it over, forcing it to release him, grabbing him, and they came straight back here. Mashaun asks them, “Why did it attack?” They don’t say anything as they uneasily sit there, looking everywhere but at him. Mashaun knows the answer but wants to hear it from them. “Who shot first?” he asks firmly. Slowly they point to Josiah, just what he thinks. Josiah hangs his head as Mashaun looks at him. “So you don’t follow orders, you don’t use cover as your defense, and you were probably saved by a large cat, probably the same large cat you were going to shoot.” He sends that entire group back to the village the following morning and reports to Wilmer.
Berg painstakingly tries to translate the book. The writing in the book is an unknown language, that he doesn’t think that it’s Tsaub. Several pages of the book are missing, and others are in terrible condition, but he knows in his gut that it is valuable. He spends hours cross-referencing the book with other documents in the hall of records, only to match a few words.
He often thinks back to the discussion he had with Mashaun about the book. When they looked at it together, Mashaun thought that Berg had lost his mind, wanting something that’s in such disarray. However, he got it for Berg nonetheless, even though it probably cost him something else, and Berg is grateful. After weeks of poring over scrolls and books both old and new, he finally finds something worthwhile.
He is so excited that he runs out of the room, nearly forgetting to grab the book. He dashes around the village like a chicken with its head cut off, looking for Mashaun. Finding Mai, she tells him that Mashaun is on patrol. She wants to know what he is so excited about, but he tells her, “Not in public,” but instead asks her to go with him, almost pulling her off-balance as he drags her back to the hall of records, grabbing Abigail as they pass her. He sits them down and rambles on about Thesila and the wizards while Mai and Abigail sit there bewildered. Finally, the girls calm him down, telling him to start at the beginning and to go slowly, which they have to remind him often.
After some prodding, he gets to the important part of all his work—he found the way to Thesila. The girls are unimpressed. Many people have sought Thesila, all ending in failure. “The city is a myth,” they tell him. Berg says, “It’s not a myth, and we have something none of the others had, this book and Magdalenia’s staff, and it is a major key to leaving or waking up, I’m not sure yet.”
The girls start to follow his line of thought up to the staff being the key. Berg continues telling them about Thesila and, without waiting for an answer, tells them that powerful mages once ruled city. According to legend, there was a power struggle, and Thesila disappeared. The girls nod their heads in agreement. Berg holds up the book and tells them that he has discovered some information about the internal mage war. Several mages escaped the civil war and took gate keys with them.
Thesila has three gates: a red one, a yellow one, and a blue one, and today there are three powerful wizards—a red, a yellow, and a blue one—see the connection. Mai and Abigail look at each other as their eyes light up, realizing the importance of what Berg has found, and that if it is true, there could be many people after that book, including Magdalenia. They ask Berg how they are going to get one of the staffs, and they have no more than asked the question than they remember that Mashaun hid the red staff. Berg then made a huge leap of faith, telling them that if the cave is built by these mages, then perhaps that is also the way home, and all three are filled with excitement at the prospect of returning home.
When Mashaun returns from a patrol, the three enthusiastically greet him at the gate, literally dragging him to their residence, where they tell him the whole story as he sits there quietly listening. Frequently they all speak at the same time until Berg asks them to quiet down since it is his story to tell. Afterward, they sit there looking at Mashaun, waiting for some sign as he just sits there with his hand on his bearded chin, thinking. He questions them about the findings and the book, asking them if they believe it to be true. They all affirmatively nod their heads. He tells them that it would be smart if they leave in the spring, giving them time to get ready for the trip and giving Berg time to find more information.
The next day, he goes to see Tera, and she can tell that he feels bad about leaving them, but she assures him that he probably would be dead also if he stays behind. He disagrees with her, telling her that he has been in tight spots before and has always managed to survive. She just smiles before telling him that she is quitting and going back to the city where she belongs. At first, he tries to convince her that she is better than she thinks, but that gets nowhere. Mashaun tries to talk her into staying a while to make sure that is what she wants, but she is adamant about leaving when she can travel. The healer says that could be in just a few weeks. He asks her to wait until spring when they would be leaving also and they could travel together. She agrees. She asks him how he knows where to look. He sidesteps the question, and she lets it slide.
Next, he goes to visit Wilmer to catch up on the news from Pavvo, Kazimir, and the twins. He finds him in the inn, having a drink, and Wilmer offers him a drink as the two talk for hours. Wilmer gives Mashaun a bag filled with green, yellow, blue, and a couple of red jade marbles. He is astonished that they had made so much from the tsaub treasure. Mashaun tells Wilmer about Berg’s findings while Wilmer listens intently. Wilmer tells him that according to legend, the three mages betrayed the city by leaving the gates open, allowing the city enemies to enter before they closed the gates for the last time, trapping everybody and everything inside; however, myths tend to distort the truth.
Wilmer just looks at him before asking if he is going to become a treasure hunter. Mashaun just nods negatively, telling him that there might be more to the city than just fame and fortune. He asks Wilmer to join them, but he declines and tells him that he has too many responsibilities to go treasure hunting again. Wilmer tells him that he used to treasure hunt with Llewellyn—“Oh so long ago,” he says with a far-off look—but not anymore, but thanks him for the offer anyhow. Masha
un asks Wilmer to tell him about some of his adventures, and Mashaun orders a couple more of drinks.
After several weeks, the group and Tera are ready to head down the mountain. They agree to take Tera to the city since she is determined to go anyway, though everybody tries to talk her out of quitting, including Wilmer. The days have gotten longer and warmer, meaning that spring would soon arrive, and the group is anxious to be on their way. They say their good-byes and leave Myelikkan behind as they make their way down the snowy road. Wilmer goes with them; it would soon be time for the merchants to travel again, and that means they would need guards. He will first meet up with Axtel and then check with Pavvo for a job. They have worked for him over the last several seasons and will probably do so again.
Tera spends a lot of time asking Mai questions about where she is from, explaining that she is one of the few she has ever seen with red hair and little sparkles on her ears. Mai looks at her hair, dawning on her that it is the same as when she first arrived. Mai contemplates her answer carefully before telling her that where she comes from, everybody has red hair and wears earrings. Tera says that sounds nice and she would like to visit sometime. Not knowing how to answer, Mai just nods.
CHAPTER 17
The Threat
The journey to the Golden Unicorn takes them longer than expected due to the softer snow and the muddy road below the snow line. The road through the forest at the bottom is hard from the lack of rain. The road has some soggy sections from the melting snows running off the mountains. At times, finding a dry spot to sleep is a challenge. The Golden Unicorn is a welcome sight after spending several weeks wading through slushy snow and mud. It sits on a small rise surrounded by a marshland except for its entrance and the road, which acts as a dam preventing the snow runoff from getting to the river. Mashaun tells Wilmer that he doesn’t remember it being in a marsh, and Wilmer tells him that it only happens during the spring runoff. When the mountain snows melt, they drain here, and sometimes the streams overflow, flooding this area. It will be dry in a month.
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