by Dave Skinner
Chapter 15
“Finding gnomes and goblins isn’t easy, is it?” Nails asked. They had started their return journey on a new moon, now the new moon had come and gone again without them finding Garnock’s village. Brayson had said they were close a seven-day before, but they were still looking.
Nails reached over and placed another piece of wood onto the fire. The aroma of the roasted quail they had for dinner wafted up to him.
“Finding any of the little-people who do not wish to be seen is never easy,” Brayson said. He was stretched out on his blanket with his eyes closed. “Crosses and faeries have a way of seeing paths that you big-people cannot see. We call it The Quiet.”
“Because you can’t hear people either?” Nails asked.
“No. It has nothing to do with being quiet that is just what it is named.”
“Are you joking?”
“No. Why?”
“Because what you are saying sounds stupid. The Quiet is a place I can’t see because I don’t have faerie blood, and it has nothing to do with being quiet. Why not call it ‘The Unseen’ then?”
“I am not responsible for the name. I think it has always been called that. Well, I suppose someone named it a long time ago, but we have no stories about the naming. We simply accept it. Now, please let me sleep.”
Nails stretched out on his blanket beside the fire, but questions kept popping into his head. The only time he could ask questions was when they were camped for the night or stopped for a midday meal. At all other times, Brayson insisted they not speak while they travelled. Nails had asked him why, because it seemed to him that no one was around, they hadn’t seen another person for the whole trip. “Because there are animals around that are dangerous,” Brayson had said.
“If we travelled in The Quiet, would we still have to be quiet?” he asked. Brayson didn’t answer. He was either asleep, pretending to be asleep, or refusing to talk. Nails decided he would ask the question tomorrow morning, if he remembered it. He was better at remembering these days, much better than he had been before he met Brayson. His friend had spent a lot of time teaching him about the world, but that had been when they were pirates...no, that wasn’t right. He was supposed to say they were sailors, not pirates. He had figured that out by himself and then checked with Brayson to make sure he was right. Reese did not like pirates. She had made that clear when they were on her little boat. It will be nice to see Reese again, Nails thought. After they saw Sorrick and the gnomes they would go back to Gore. By then, he hoped she would have forgotten about them being pirates and would be friendlier like she had been the first day. His questions faded away as he thought about Reese.
The next morning, after they ate the last of the bread and honey, he went down to the nearby stream to wash up. He had made a mess getting the last of the honey out of the container, and he washed it, his face and his shirt in the stream.
“You should wash your whole body, Nails. Not just your face,” Brayson advised.
“I didn’t get any honey on the rest of me,” Nails said.
“Not the point,” Brayson said. He removed his clothes and was walking into the stream. “We swam almost every day when we lived with the pi...sailors.”
Brayson, with water up to his hips, ducked under, came back up and started rubbing while making appreciative noises. Nails couldn’t resist. He removed his boots and pants and waded in, splashing water on Brayson deliberately as he went. They frolicked for some time before they returned to the bank and allowed the sun to dry them. Dressed again, they doused the fire and were packing up when Nails remembered his question from the night before.
“If we travelled in The Quiet, would we still have to be quiet?” he asked.
“The short answer is, yes.”
“What is the long answer?”
“When I tell you to walk quietly, I mean to walk carefully. Be aware of the Mother all around. Try to place your feet where they will not cause a branch to break or disturb anything. Do not disturb the plants and bushes if you do not have to. When you have to move a branch aside, place it back into position. Do not just let it whip back.”
“I said I was sorry about that when it happened,” Nails said.
“It is just an example. You are doing a much better job of it.”
Nails was bent over tying his blanket to his pack, and he heard a titter of laughter when Brayson said that. He stood up and looked around but saw no one.
“Did you just laugh?” he asked.
“No. Why?”
“I thought I heard someone laugh when you said I was doing a better job. Didn’t you hear it?”
“No,” Brayson said. He looked around the little clearing where they had set up camp. “You must have imagined it.”
They finished stuffing their packs and settled them comfortably on their backs.
“Which way?” Nails asked. Brayson pointed towards a trail that led through a stand of aspen trees. Nails took a step towards the trail and heard a sharp crack as he trod on a branch. Again, he heard a wispy titter. He snapped his head around and saw something disappear behind a tree. “Did you see that?”
“See what?” Brayson asked as he turned to look.
“I thought I saw something slipping behind that tree.” He pointed at a young beech tree. “I think it was a girl.”
“What girl could hide behind a tree that thin?” Brayson asked. Nails turned back to the path they were to follow and saw a woman standing there.
“There she is.”
They both studied the woman. Nails judged her to be younger than Brayson and slightly shorter. Her body was thin and green. He could see the colour on her exposed skin and through the wispy dress she wore. Her hair, a curly white dome that covered her head, dominated her appearance. She stood with feet apart and hands on hips, studying them. Actually, she seemed to be studying him.
“You saw me!” It was a statement. “How can that be?” she continued as she walked up to him. “Your kind should not be able to see me unless I will it.” The woman stopped in front of him and reached out a hand to touch his chest. His shirt was stretched over his pack to dry, and her hand on his bare chest tingled so much that the patch of skin under it developed scales. “Oh,” she said. “What are you doing in my woods?” she asked, as she stepped back and looked at Brayson.
“We are looking for the village of some friends,” Brayson told her. “We did not mean to trespass in your domain.” He bowed to her. Nails couldn’t understand what was happening. He had never seen his friend show this much deference to anyone. “My name is Brayson, and this is my friend Nails. We are looking for a village of gnomes and goblins we thought was around here.”
“You have friends in the village, you say.”
“We travelled with three friends from there when we came north from Gore. Garnock, Farly and Sorrick are their names,” Brayson told her.
“Well then let me guide you to the village,” she said as she maneuvered herself between them and held both their arms. “My name is Sinty. This land is under my protection.”
“Are you a faerie?” Nails asked. Sinty laughed.
“Do I look like a faerie?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Nails admitted. “I never met a faerie.”
“What about your friends from the village?”
“They are gnomes, and Sorrick is a goblin,” Nails said.
“Gnomes and goblins are faeries,” Sinty told him. “As are brownies, hobs, far darrigs, sirens, kobolds, leprechauns, sylphs and selkies. I am a nymph, an earth elemental. I can see that your companion, Brayson, is a cross, but what are you?”
“I’m just a boy,” he said.
“But you are from New KaAn, are you not?”
“No, although I have scales like they do, or so I have been told. My mother was not KaAnian. I never knew her, but recently I was told her name was Micka.”
“Micka!” Sinty exclaimed.
“Brayson! Nai
ls!” He heard someone call. They had walked out of the woods and up to the edge of a village. He saw Farley running towards them.
“We will talk later,” Sinty told him, and she walked away. Farley smiled at her and bowed his head a little as he passed.
“You met Sinty,” Farley said as he arrived. “What took you so long?”
“We had a hard time finding your village,” Nails said. “Is Sinty the nymph you told us about, the one who may be able to help me control my magic?”
“Yes. Did you talk to her about it?”
“Not yet,” Brayson said. “We only exchanged names. She said we would talk later.”
“Well, come and see the village. I helped Sorrick clean up his place. You will stay with him. My father’s house is too small for you, although he said he would be happy to have you there. You would bang your head every time you moved.”
Nails understood what he meant. Although Farley was a young man, he was already as tall as fully-grown gnomes, but none of them were taller than Brayson’s hip. At one campfire during the trip here, Brayson had explained that gnomes were almost the smallest of the faerie folk.
“Those without wings that is,” he had explained. “Sylphs, the only faeries who can fly, are smaller. They are spirits of the air, but not to be confused with sprites. Sprites are elementals.”
“Are elementals small?” he had asked, as he struggled to understand.
“Sinty is the first one I have met, so I cannot say for certain. I learned that water sprites and air sprites appear to be small, but they can change shape, so they may do that so as not to scare people. I imagine if you are made of air or water like sprites are, you can grow as large or as small as you want to. Nymphs, like Sinty, are earth elementals. They are born and grow in the earth, and then they emerge as small beings and grow like us. Not much is known about fire elementals.”
“I thought they would be a hot topic,” Nails had said. Brayson had groaned and not even laughed, but Nails still thought it was a good joke.
The village they walked through was like nothing Nails had ever seen. Neat little houses made of stone were interspersed with larger homes...well, he wanted to say shacks because the quality of the construction was bad. Boards on the shacks were attached to frames using nails, ropes, vines and any other means that could be employed. Not many of the boards were cut through cleanly; in fact, a clean cut was rare from what he could see. Most were partially cut and then broken off. The small houses contrasted strongly. Apart from the better construction, door jams and the ends of roof trusses were elaborately decorated with carvings. More carvings could be seen on window boxes that graced most of the buildings. Despite the differences, the village had a sense of comradery. He saw gnomes sitting and talking comfortably with goblins, and smaller gnomes, he assumed they were children, ran around playing games with other goblins. Both were squealing with delight. Farley must have noticed Nails watching the interplay.
“This is all due to Ran and Bray, the King of Nadia,” Farley said. “We did not live with the goblins before the Destroyer War. Sinty had made a place for them above North Lake, but they lived alone. Their help in the war made most faeries see that they are not the animals we took them to be. Now, they have become part of our community. They love to play games with the children. I think it is because there are no goblin children.”
“Can’t they have children?” Nails asked.
“Apparently not.”
“Then how do they...where do they come from?”
“Are you not familiar with the hob’s curse?” Farley asked.
“No, never heard of it.”
“Hobs had a curse placed on them a long time ago by a powerful witch. The story says that they were playing tricks on her and she got mad. She cursed them, and now some hobs become hob-goblins. They turn into the creatures you see here. At first, they are wild and dangerous, but later they become peaceful and slow of thought. Their communities shun them after the change, and for a long time people thought they were monsters, but Sinty made a village for them. Here we are. Sorrick, are you home?” Farley called. “Brayson and Nails have arrived.”
Sorrick’s door flew open and the goblin barged out.
“Nails! Brayson! Good see you! Gone long time,” Sorrick said, as he wrapped his arms around both of them.
“No squeez—” Nails heard Brayson start to say before the breath whooshed out of both of them. “I...can...not...breathe...Sor...rick,” Brayson wheezed, and Sorrick let them go.
“Sorry,” Sorrick said. “Excited. Welcome my house.”
Nails flexed his back and shoulders. Brayson was doing the same. Sorrick turned to enter the house, and Nails slapped him soundly on the back.
“Slouching,” he said. Sorrick started to laugh. He was a scary sight with his mouth open and his tusks and sharp teeth showing. I will have to get used to that again, Nails thought.
Chapter 16
Brayson liked being with the gnomes and goblins; it was obvious that they enjoyed living together despite their differences. Sorrick burned them a haunch of venison from a great deer to celebrate their arrival. Ale was supplied by Garnock. Berta, Garnock’s mate, brought a bowl of greens and vegetables which Nails and Sorrick ignored. Farley would have done the same, but Berta forced some onto his plate and made sure he ate it. It was a pleasant evening. The next day, while the sun was still climbing the sky, Sinty appeared. They were sitting around a fire at the back of Sorrick’s house where they had broken their fast. “The goblins all cook outside,” Farley had explained the night before. “It is safer that way.” When Sinty arrived, she sat on Sorrick’s lap and leaned back against him.
“You said your mother’s name was Micka,” she said to Nails. “I knew a young girl with that name. She was a close friend of Adel’s. The wizard, Andoo Toran, trained them both. Was she your mother?”
“I believe so,” Nails said. “Andoo Toran is related to me somehow.” Brayson saw that Nails was withdrawing as he usually did whenever Andoo Toran was mentioned.
“From what we understand,” Brayson said. “Nails stopped being under Andoo’s care when he became the Master of the Wizard’s Council. Nails had celebrated four name-days at that time. Somehow he ended up working in a pleasure house and they sold him into slavery as a rower on a ship.”
“Slavery!” Sinty said. “When did big-people start doing that?”
“It was well established when we fell afoul of it. That was five summers ago.”
“I should tell Ran and Bray about this,” Sinty said.
“Ran knows.”
“Ran is known to you?”
“Yes, his daughter, Reese, introduced us.”
“You are friends with Reese?”
“We met her when we saved Princess Remi from pirates,” Brayson said.
Sinty laughed. “I think you should tell me the whole story. Have you heard it, Sorrick?” she asked the goblin. Sorrick grunted. “Then we will listen together. I am already excited by the tidbits Brayson has fed me so far.”
So Brayson told them the story with some help from Nails. When they got to the part about Crosstown, Brayson concentrated the story on Adel. He skipped the section about Nails’ fight with Fairchild’s henchmen.
“Can you do something about my magic problem?” Nails asked when they finished.
“Let us see.” Sinty stood and went to Nails. After kneeling in his lap, she placed her hands on his face, one on either side. Brayson felt a tingling in the ground below him. She stayed like that for many long moments until finally dropping her hands. “I have never encountered magic like the kind that is inside of you. It is like you are molded together out of love and blood and held together with magic. I would be afraid to try to remove it.” Nails’ expression took on a hurt look. “But I can show you some tricks that will help you to control it.”
“I would like that,” Nails said. “Ran showed me an exercise to do that helps a little. Any other help y
ou can give would be great.”
“Then let us take a walk. We will get started.” She stood, Nails struggled to his feet, and they walked away.
Brayson saw little of Nails during the next seven-day. His friend was away with Sinty most of the time. Many days, when he returned he was too tired to answer questions. He grunted a lot, just like the goblins. Brayson occupied himself by exploring the region with Sorrick and Farley, or by answering Farley’s questions about Crosstown and its people. They were all sitting by the fire outside of Sorrick’s house when he found out that Sinty had finished.
“You have mastered the grounding and breathing exercises, Nails,” Sinty told him. “There is nothing else I can teach you. A wizard could teach you more. I suggest Andoo Toran if you decide to seek one out.”
“Thank you, Sinty, for everything. I will think about seeing a wizard.”
Sinty watched him for a few moments. “Wizards are supposed to help people. It is their job. There is nothing to be afraid of.”
“I’m not afraid,” Nails said.
“You are afraid of something,” Sinty told him. “I can sense it. As soon as I mentioned Andoo Toran, you became upset. I know Wizard Toran. He is one of the best. The Court Wizard of New KaAn is also good, if you would rather see one of your own people.”
“Why does everyone tell me I am from New KaAn?” Nails snorted. “I have never been there, and my mother wasn’t KaAnian, as far as I know.”
“Your mother was not KaAnian,” Sinty said. “She was in love with one though. Nailmoe was his name. You are as good looking as he was, but Nailmoe died fighting the Destroyer. He could not have been your father in the normal sense of the word, but I suspect Micka used his blood and magic to create you. It was a foolish thing to do, but from what you have told me, I understand she died because of it.”
“Why would she do something like that?” Nails asked. It was clear to everyone that the idea upset him.