The First Spark

by T J Trapp

  “Erin don’t leave me,” he whispered. Then he tried to apply pressure to her arm, but it wasn’t doing much good. He called on dark energy and let it course through her body. He could feel it was helping her, but not enough.

  Help me, Erin, he thought. Show me what is right. With the last flicker of consciousness remaining, Erin opened her mind to him. Alec could feel that what he was doing wasn’t wrong; it just wasn’t right. He moved the dark energy focus around and could feel more rightness in her arm. The blood stopped spurting out. Alec grabbed the skin of her arm and pulled the flesh together with his hands until he felt the rightness from Erin; then he could feel the torn muscles and skin bind back together.

  Then he looked at her leg. The lower leg had a compound fracture – the sharp ends of one bone poking through her skin – and was twisted in an unnatural angle. The sight made him sick.

  “Erin,” he said, trying not to gag, “we need to fix your leg. Can you help?”

  She nodded weakly. “If you keep the energy flowing I don’t feel any pain. I can sense the pain is there, but I don’t feel it.”

  Alec gingerly took hold of her leg and started to gently twist it around, with Erin sensing where it should be. It took him some time to get it correct. When finally both bones were properly in place, and he released the dark energy, her leg looked normal, although bruised.

  Then Alec held her tightly for a long time, wetting her hair with his tears.

  Finally, he whispered, “I need to move you. We don’t want to be close if they discover this fight.” She nodded weakly, her eyes still closed.

  “Are you strong enough to feel around? Can you sense if there are any others?” Alec asked.

  Erin sensed the surroundings. “The other group is still a good two els south of us and doesn’t seem to be aware of our fight here,” she said.

  “Good! Let’s collect our stuff, and my staff, and get out of here. I’ll find a safe place to see if we can heal you.”

  Erin looked down at her body. She was covered with splattered blood, she could feel multiple cuts and bruises all over, she had deep red marks from her partially-healed arm and leg wounds, but she was alive.

  You saved me, she thought to her consort. Again. She could sense his love, wrapping her like a cloak.

  “Alec, I left your staff, so you could get it and have a weapon,” she said. “How did you manage to turn the spear to dust without it?”

  “Because,” Alec said with a slight chuckle, “I did the stupidest thing possible! When I saw what a predicament you were in, I ran straight over here to help you instead of going to get my staff. And, do you know, about half-way here something caught my eye. And there it was! My old medallion, stuck in a thick clump of grass!” He took her hand in his. “I grabbed it and came on over here. Good thing, too – if I had gone to get my staff, the fight would have been long over when I arrived.”

  And I would have lost you.

  ✽✽✽

  Alec collected their gear, helped Erin get on his trogus, and grabbed the lead of their pack trogus. They traveled slowly for a couple of els. They were hopeful that the Alder soldiers wouldn’t notice the scene with their fallen comrades for a few days, but Alec wanted to get far enough away that they wouldn’t be easily found.

  Erin was in shock and pain by the time they stopped. Alec found a strong hummock of brush and grass and created a recess in the side for Erin to lay. This seems like the first few weeks that we were together, fleeing the nomads and camping out on these plains, he thought. Then he hobbled the animals. Next, he carefully undressed Erin, looking sadly at the mass of cuts and bruises that covered her body.

  “Impressive,” he said, trying to make her smile. He felt her legs. They looked badly bruised but no longer broken. Alec felt for the dark energy. As the night wore on and the moons came out, he wrapped his arms around Erin and let the dark energy flow. He bathed Erin in it, again letting her body show him the rightness, soaking it in. He could feel when she quietly slid into sleep. Her ragged breathing became more regular and her sleep deeper. Towards morning, he released the dark energy and closed his eyes.

  ✽✽✽

  Erin woke heavily. She was very sore but was alive. She saw Alec lying beside her and knew he had spent the night helping her heal. With her movement, he woke up.

  “You look much better this morning,” he said, tracing the outline of her cheek with the back of his hand.

  Erin looked at him, wordlessly, and hugged him. The two held each other for a long time, aware that they had almost lost each other. Then Alec went to make something for the two of them to eat.

  His cooking has not improved, Erin thought, as he proudly fed her some gritty mush.

  “It is a good thing that you are a Great Wizard and that you perform your other consortly duties well,” she said. “You would never make it as a royal cook.” She held up her spoon, letting the glob of mush drip off. They both laughed.

  They stayed at the camp for three more days, giving Erin time to recover from her injuries. Alec hunted several times to give them fresh meat. He also captured one of the Alder trogus to replace Erin’s lost mount. Water was not a problem since Alec had learned to use dark energy to create it. After the mush incident, Erin insisted on doing the cooking. By the third day, Erin was tired of being camp-bound and ready to move. They decided that they would start the next part of their journey in the morning.

  Alec wanted to give Erin a treat. First, he created a lined depression and then created enough water to fill it. Next, he heated the water and created a hot bath for Erin. She relaxed in the warm water and let it soak into her aching body. It felt delightful to her, and she purred “Thank you!” to Alec. Alec could feel that it would be a good last night at the camp.

  25 – Transporter

  How are we going to find the Alder transporter? thought Erin, late in the night, not sure if Alec was still awake.

  “I have been thinking about that,” Alec replied softly; he, too, was awake. “I can feel a pulsing in the dark energy fields. Initially, I thought it was just a natural variation in the field, but now I think the pulses are tied to the elf device on one end and the transporter on the other. I can sense and follow the field lines and lead us to the device.”

  The next morning, Erin felt well enough to travel, and they started off in the general direction towards the evening sun. Erin would periodically feel for Alder patrols, and Alec would sense the direction of the field lines. When Erin felt a patrol, they would hide, let it pass, and then continue. Twice, patrols came close enough that Alec needed to produce a blurring field to obscure the view. In one case they could tell that the Alder trogus smelled their animals, but the Alder riders just spurred them on.

  The passing Alder patrols became more frequent. On one day, after they had been traveling for a week, they spent most of the time waiting for a clear spot between patrols.

  “That probably means we are getting close to the transporter,” Alec said, thinking aloud.

  “Then we probably need a new plan,” Erin answered. “We can’t just keep hiding from all these patrols.” After discussing their options, and weighing the possibilities of failure, they decided on the direct approach.

  “There have to be supply caravans going in and out of the transfer area. We can join one and pretend that we are traders.”

  “Yes,” Alec agreed. “That will allow us to move forward, at a reasonable speed, and not spend time hiding.”

  So far, they had been avoiding towns as they traveled. Their best tack to find a caravan would be to enter a village, look for a caravan, and join it. Erin began feeling for collections of people. They were wearing the typical loose clothing worn by Grassland villagers, so they were not concerned about anyone recognizing them as part of the Gott forces. They also had a few local coins, collected from the destroyed Alder caravans, and Alec could make more if they needed them.

  Within a day Erin sensed a small village, and they entered it confidently. The vi
llage inn had only four sleeping rooms, but fortunately, one of the rooms was vacant, and they took it for the night. After settling in they went to the common room to eat. As the evening went on, the common room filled with locals who came to have a meal and an ale; Erin and Alec sat to one side listening to the local gossip.

  “Any caravans going through these parts?” Alec asked after a while, striking up a conversation with a group of the local villagers. Erin sat meekly behind him, as a Grasslands woman would.

  “Well, there’s a town about a half-day away,” a friendly-looking man at the next table said. “It’s where most of the caravans stop. They have a larger inn than this one – the food’s not as good as here, but they have more rooms.” A couple of other locals joined in, advising Alec of where to find caravans, which ones might be headed in the right direction, and what they might be carrying.

  The next morning, they walked over to the stable to collect their mounts. Four young men were looking at their trogus.

  Seedy characters, thought Alec to himself.

  “Good-looking animals you have,” one of the men said.

  “You don’t look like the type of people who should have such good-looking animals,” said the second. “We have a couple of animals that that would be better for you, and we’d be willing to trade you even, fair and square,” he continued, pointing at two old and worn drungs tied up on the other side of the stable.

  “I don’t think we would want to take advantage of you,” said Alec, “but thanks for the offer. We will keep our current animals.”

  The four started to surround them.

  Alec raised his hand.

  “That is a bad idea,” Alec said calmly. “Leave peacefully, and you will be fine. Otherwise, if you bother us, you may regret it.”

  One of the young men laughed, and the four continued to move around them, drawing closer. One of them lunged towards Erin. In a blinding flash, her sword was out, poking the young tough in the chest. A few specks of blood spurted from the contact point and stained his shirt. He gasped in surprise, more startled than hurt. The other three backed off, and all four of them headed for the door and ran from the stable.

  “We should move on,” said Alec in a low voice. “I fear this is not over.”

  Erin sheathed her sword, and they went to collect their trogus. The stable had fed and brushed the animals; they quickly saddled their mounts, harnessed their pack animal, and led them towards the stable doors. Then they heard a slight commotion outside. Erin looked through the stable window.

  “Ten individuals are coming our way, including our previous four,” she said.

  Bring your trogus back even with mine, Alec thought to her, and then hold them quiet and still.

  The men in the courtyard turned the corner and looked through the stable doors, prepared to stop the travelers. The stable appeared empty.

  “They’ve already left,” one said.

  “They had to go the other way, or we would have seen them!” another exclaimed. The men turned and ran off in the other direction.

  Alec dropped the obscuring lens, and the dark energy no longer bent the light. They were once again visible.

  That was close, he thought to Erin. Let’s get out of here before they come back.

  Erin had trained their mounts to move quietly when needed, and she gave them the signal to hold still as she and Alec swung into the saddles. They were able to leave the stable without making too much noise. However, before they had crossed the far side of the courtyard they heard a yell from behind as one of their intruders spotted them. They urged their mounts to move out quickly. Erin used her senses to look behind but did not detect anyone following them.

  They rode for most of the day, finally arriving at the larger town late in the afternoon. The town was large enough to boast three inns; they had no trouble finding lodging and stabled their trogus. That evening at dinner they sat next to an Alder soldier.

  “I see you are a fighting man,” Alec said, trying to sound admiring. “You must have an exciting life! What would it take to join your force?”

  Having started on his second ale, the Alderman looked at Alec, appraising him.

  “Well, it is a good life. You are tall: with your size, if you can swing a sword at all my group would be glad to have you.”

  “I know my way around a blade a little bit,” Alec answered. “Who would I need to see to join up?”

  “Talk to my Captain in the inn down the street,” the Alder soldier said. “Our force will give you a week’s training and then send you off for a few weeks to protect one of our supply caravans. After that, they will assign you to a unit in the battle zone. The pay is good, the food is good, and the women are freely available,” he said, and then looked at Erin. Alec could tell that the soldier was eyeing Erin’s sword, still attached to her waist.

  “And my consort, here,” Alec said, “she knows a little bit about handling a sword.”

  “Bah! There are no women in the Alder troops! Even if she could swing a sword with the best of them, and I’m sure that’s not the case, we don’t want her as a soldier. Hah!” He eyed Erin closely, his eyes squinting slightly. “But we can always use extra camp girls.” Then, looking at Alec, he said, “If you are willing to let her work two nights out of three they will let you have her every third night.” He smiled. Obviously he thought that was a good offer.

  “Well,” said Alec, a little put off by this exchange, “it sounds like a great opportunity. We will … uh … we’ll sleep on it, and maybe look for your Captain tomorrow.”

  Alec and Erin left and went to their room.

  “‘Great opportunity?’” Erin said, giving him a dig in the ribs. “‘Every third night?’” They both burst out laughing.

  “Well, looks like our plan to join the Alder isn’t going to work,” Alec said, still laughing. “Time for ‘Plan B.’”

  “‘Plan B?’”

  “You know, our other plan. We’ll purchase another wagon, and then take it on the road towards the Alder camp, and look like we are ‘for hire,’ looking for a load to haul. You know – like peddlers, sort of, but not.”

  The next morning, they started looking for a wagon. At the first place, they told a simple story of how they had come from out of the area and needed to move an aging aunt.

  “So our aunt … I mean, her aunt … Aunt Perrin … has a lot of … stuff, and we can’t carry it all, and so we need to buy a wagon.” Alec smiled disarmingly. The ostler just laughed.

  “All our wagons are being taken to haul supplies for the Alder. I don’t think there is a free wagon in town! But I guess you could try the junkyard and see if they have anything. It seems like several of the Alder wagons broke down recently – seems like they had a lot of problems with fires and such – and they might have something you could get and repair.”

  “Fires?’ “said Erin. “How unusual, out on these plains! Who would have thought that would happen!” Alec bit his lip to keep from grinning and kicked her ankle. The ostler just looked at her.

  They went to a few other likely places and heard the same story – no wagons, the Alder had taken them all. Finally, they went to the junkyard and told their story. The yardman listened sympathetically.

  “Your old aunt? Yes, I had a similar situation myself. It was really hard to get her to move – her eyesight was gone, and she had so many pots and pans. So sad when they get like that. It was so hard to move all her things. We had to get a wagon ourselves – none for hire, you know, and do it all for her.”

  “And so, we need a wagon,” Erin piped up, cutting off his tale.

  “I’m afraid that all my useable ones are long gone,” the yardman said, shrugging his shoulders. “All I’ve got is one broken wreck – I don’t know what happened to it. Some of the wood is all splintered and broken, and it has some holes in it. No axles. It must have rolled over and crashed down a gully!”

  “Let’s take a look,” Alec said. The yardman led them around heaps of discarded
items and broken bits of this and that, to a pile of shattered wood in the back of the lot.

  “Woof!” whistled Alec. “It’s a lot worse than I thought it would be!”

  “Can you fix it?” asked Erin.

  “I don’t know,” Alec said, rubbing his chin. Sure, he thought to her.

  “Well, I can let you use the shop here and my tools, if you can refurbish it, if you want to buy it.”

  Alec studied it for a long time, conversing mentally with Erin.

  “Well,” he said finally. “It’s going to be a challenge, but I would hate to disappoint Aunt Marrin.”

  “‘Parrin,’” corrected Erin.

  “How much for the wagon?”

  “Thirty large golds coins,” said the yardman.

  They both gasped.

  “That wagon … that pile of wood … wouldn’t be worth five small gold coins in brand new condition!” Alec said.

  The owner smiled. He knew they had few other choices and his business nose told him they were hooked. He shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands.

  “What can I do?” he said. “Times change. The Aldermen, they buy up everything as fast as we can supply it! It is all that I have,” he gestured towards the broken wagon, “and demand is high for wagons.”

  After a long negotiation, they finally agreed on fifteen gold coins, including three drungs and all the materials to repair and outfit the wagon. Alec promised to return in the morning with the coins. That night, after their supper at the inn, Alec brought a pouch-full of dirt into their room. He pulled out a gold coin and studied it intensely. Then he made gold coins, one by one, until all the dirt was used up.

  The next morning they went out to close the deal. The junkyard dealer was pleased to see them. He had insisted on coins in advance and was surprised that they carried that many coins. Fifteen gold coins were more than many Grasslanders saw in a lifetime. He checked each coin to verify it was real, biting into the soft gold.