Cal raised an eyebrow, an expression that he had noted Farsighter using more than once. “Mercenaries?”
“We have to be realistic. We left the mountains with what we could carry only. When we reach civilisation again we will still need money to buy food, clothes and hire shelter.”
“You would have sold the sword?” Cal was horrified at what he was hearing.
“What else could we have done?”
Cal thought on it for a moment before he reluctantly sighed and nodded his head. “I suppose that there’s not really much of an option; the blade would certainly make a good price.” He wrapped the blade back into its cloth and immediately started to offer it back to Vorston.
“No.” The dwarf held up his hand. “It belongs to you. I have freely given it as a gift and will not take it back. And before you think about hiding it amongst the rolls before you leave, that would only force me to have to follow you to wherever you go in order to return it to its rightful owner.
You’re stuck with it now young Cal, make the best of the situation and give an old dwarf the satisfaction of seeing it used properly. That in itself would be worth more than any amount of money that could be offered for the blade.”
Cal grinned. “It is a beautiful sword.”
“Aye, that it is.”
A week later found Cal sat up front of one of the wagons with a dwarf he had become particularly friendly with when he saw Vorston hold his hand up in a motion to stop the caravan. After the first few days of Cal’s return to the land of the living, Vorston had gone back to his rightful position in the first wagon.
As they rolled to a stop Cal dropped lightly from the seat and jogged forward to join the dwarf. He was squinting at a low rise ahead of them when Cal arrived at his shoulder. As he looked in the same direction he realised that he could see several figures stood looking back. At this distance most of them were unrecognisable as anyone in particular, but there was no mistaking the giant of a man that stood almost at the centre of the group.
Instead of cheering, the way he felt, Cal immediately started to look at the countryside that surrounded the caravan. Vorston saw him looking.
“Anything I should know about?”
Cal smiled. “No, but if you’ll excuse me I have something I must try.” He started to jog gently back to the wagon he had been travelling in. the third wagon he passed was stopped next to a large juniper bush and Cal took the opportunity of being shielded from view to drop down into a crouch and start to move away from the caravan.
He kept low and his movements smooth as he rapidly put some distance between himself and the dwarves. Once he was about a quarter of a mile clear he started to bear south, toward the rise where he had seen the figures stood. He could hear the rattles and clanking of the wagons as they started to move along the trail again, but he ignored them, instead listening for other sounds.
He admitted to himself that he had the advantage of being a lot fresher than the people he was stalking, but in fairness they were supposed to be a lot better than he was so that levelled things out as far as he was concerned.
Silently he cursed as he realised that he had left his cloak back with the caravan. It was not that the weather was inclement, quite the opposite in fact, but it would have offered extra concealment as he moved through the bushes and small trees that spread out away from the trail. Movement to his left caught his attention and he immediately froze.
Fortunately he happened to be in the shadow of a young fir and he was able to remain undetected as long as he made no move. Slowly, alert to the slightest sound, one of the Rangers that had accompanied them from Riversmeet crept out from the nearby bushes, Shane he thought his name was.
The sun was behind Cal and low in the sky now, so the contrast between the open and the shadow where he crouched was quite pronounced. Barely breathing he waited for the other to move on, then waited a further few minutes to ensure that he had passed out of hearing, before he started to move again.
Farsighter stood grinning as the caravan pulled to a halt in front of them. “Vorston!”
“Ho Farsighter. Good to see you again.”
“It would appear that you didn’t suffer as great a delay as I thought you might at the hands of the Shalers.”
Vorston laughed. “A slight inconvenience, nothing more. Have you seen that young charge of yours?”
“Cal?” Farsighter’s eyes gained a hard cast to them. “What has he done now?”
“Just thought I’d use the opportunity to put some of that training you all keep giving me into practice.” The entire group spun round at the sound of Cal’s voice behind them. Three of the Rangers had to restrain themselves as they had swords half out of their scabbards, as had Luda and Collett. “Sorry, did I surprise you?”
“You ignorant little…”
“Now, now Luda, there’s a lady present.”
For the next two minutes Cal stood mouth agape as Tamala took up exactly where Luda had left off. In fact, even Luda looked slightly taken aback by some of the insults that Tamala used. All the while it was made worse by the fact that Cal could see Dorrin, Collett and Vorston directly behind her trying hard not to laugh out loud.
Farsighter allowed the tirade to continue for a while before he decide to step in. “Before the Lady Tamala switches to another language in search of new insults, I think that maybe I should have a word with our young friend in private.” The look he gave the others left them in no doubt that it was not a request that he expected them to refuse. Leaving the pair alone, the rest of the party strolled over to join the dwarves, who had begun to set up camp for the evening.
Once they were clear, the genial expression on Farsighter’s face changed. “What the hell do you think you were doing? Gods, that’s the kind of foolish prank that gets a man killed by his own friends before they’ve even a chance to recognise him.”
“I thought to impress you by beating the Rangers that you’d undoubtedly got out patrolling the immediate area. There was no harm meant.” Cal’s jaw had dropped at the rebuke from his old friend, and his eyes were full of hurt.
“I already know how good you are, I don’t need meaningless displays like this.” Farsighter paused before continuing. “And did you?”
“Did I what?”
“Did you manage to get close enough to eliminate any of the patrols?”
Cal grinned. “Yes, but don’t tell Shane. He passed my position about two hundred yards that way.” He pointed toward the fir he had hidden under as the Ranger passed.
Farsighter grunted. “I’ll let you off this time, but from now on the only exercises against the Rangers are to be ones that I set in agreement with the sergeant. Anything else and I’ll let them punish you as they wish, understood.”
“Yes master Farsighter.” He bowed his head as he would when obeying the command of a lord.
“Cheeky young sod!” Farsighter’s hand flicked out but Cal easily ducked under it, laughing as he did.
“I think I should leave now, and make my apologies to the Lady Tamala.”
“That might be a good idea.” The knowing cast to the woodsman’s face worried Cal, but he couldn’t decide why.
When Cal returned to the caravan he quickly noted that Tamala was not in sight, although the others were all waiting to hear his tale of the fight with the Shaler warriors. As the sun crept lower, he soon got caught up with retelling the tale as a largish campfire sprang into existence, thanks to the Rangers that were still with them.
The atmosphere began to get quite festive as the dwarves brought out some hard foods from their supplies and Farsighter, along with two of the Rangers, produced some of the local game that they had been able to trap. It was almost inevitable that the dwarves also managed to produce a large barrel of beer, surprising Cal, as he had seen no trace of alcohol as they had travelled the trail over the past few days.
He also noted that although the Rangers were apparently joining the joyous nature of the meal, they did not touch a
ny of the beer. He also took note of the fact that there was always four still out on patrol, even this close to Nibar’a, for they were only a couple of days at most from the small port.
He decided that he had best follow Farsighter’s lead on the matter, who also partook of no alcohol. Just as well he didn’t follow Luda’s example as the big man was trying to beat the dwarves to the bottom of the barrel.
After nearly two hours he realised that he still had seen no sign of Tamala. He decided against asking Dorrin or Luda if they had seen her and instead crossed the group to Vorston.
“Vorston.”
“Cal! Enjoying yourself?”
The youth laughed. “Greatly, but I wondered if you’d seen the Lady Tamala? I haven’t seen her around the fire and wondered if anything was wrong, that’s all.”
“That’s all? I seem to recall that she had accepted the offer of using the second wagon from the end in order to rest a bit. Maybe you should check on her. Someone should.”
Cal nodded, as if that sounded like a good idea, even if in truth he was having second thoughts. Perhaps she really was just tired and he should leave her alone for a while. Seeing Vorston watching him made his mind up for him. He didn’t want to appear indecisive before his new friend, so he plucked up his courage and walked briskly to the wagon that the dwarf had indicated.
The covering at the rear of the wagon had been drawn closed, no light could be seen from inside.
“Tamala, are you all right?”
“Go away.” The voice sounded distressed.
“I’m not going until I know that you’re alright.”
“Now you want to make sure that I’m alright.” The covering was thrown back and Tamala’s head appeared through the gap. She had obviously been crying. “Why couldn’t you think like that before you decided to go and play hero with the dwarves.”
“What?” Cal was more than a little confused. “What are you talking about? The dwarves needed help.” He stopped. Actually, the only one who had been injured from their side of the battle had been himself, something he hadn’t really comprehended until now. “Okay, maybe they didn’t need my help, but I offered it anyway.” He was actually starting to get angry now. Why should it matter that he had offered to help people in a similar situation to themselves.
“What about the rest of us?” Tamala was raising her voice and Cal tried to quickly glance unobtrusively about in order to see if the others had noticed. In fact the entire camp had noticed, but a raised eyebrow from Vorston had been answered by a gentle shake of the head and a knowing smile from Farsighter.
“Farsighter went to inform the rest of you what was happening. The dwarves may not have needed my help, but they need the help of our people, and what message would it have sent if the first two they met wanted nothing to do with their problems?” He was shouting by now.
Back at the fire Vorston looked across at Farsighter. “It’s a good argument. Won’t work, but definitely a good try.”
Tamala fairly screamed her reply. “As Farsighter had explained the situation they would have thought that you had problems of your own to attend to. Didn’t you once stop and think about how the rest of us would feel?
What if you’d been killed, did you think about that?” In her rage she pulled herself through the opening and dropped down to the ground. Facing Cal she started to rain clenched fists against his chest.
“How could you leave me like that? Did you even think about me as you made the decision?” As she continued to rage at Cal, he suddenly realised that the words were no longer about the group, but solely about her.
Gently he caught first one, and then the other fist, stopping the blows. Tears were again running down Tamala’s face. Softly he drew her tight into his arms, holding her protectively. As she began to calm down he whispered in her ear. “Yes, I thought of you.”
Around the fire everyone noted that the screaming and yelling had stopped from the far end of the caravan. Dorrin glanced across at Farsighter. “You know that we are going to just have to embarrass him in the morning.”
“Leave the boy alone, just because you aren’t getting any at the moment.”
Vorston laughed. “If master Dorrin wishes, I have a sister who’s currently single. Takes after her mother in looks she does.” Dorrin raised an eyebrow, almost knowing that a punch line had to be coming. “Mind you, me mother took her looks from me grandfather.”
The crowd around the fire dissolved into laughter at the joke and even Dorrin had the good grace to join in.
Nibar’a
The sun was bright in the midday sky when Cal caught the first trace of salt on the air. Having never even seen the sea before he had laughed at the others when he had been told that you could smell it for miles, but now he smelt the evidence for himself.
Riding alongside him, Tamala giggled when she saw him taking a deep breath to better smell the wind. Cal had put up with the lewd comments from Luda and Dorrin the morning before with commendable self-control but had been more surprised at the knowing look he had received from Vorston, almost as if he had known what would happen even before he had met them. Now that he’d had the chance to spend a slightly quieter night with Tamala, rather than the passion charged events of their first night together, he found that it was impossible for him to stop from beaming at the most stupid things.
Farsighter just spent the entire time constantly shaking his head and raising his eyes heavenward every time he saw the pair together. It wasn’t that he wished they would stop mooning over each other, just that he wished that the two of them would hurry up and get past that stage so that they could concentrate on what they were supposed to be doing. Admittedly they had found one slight advantage to the situation. Cal now felt that he had something to prove with his lessons.
Tamala was well read and had been taught by some of the finest tutors and masters in the kingdom. Cal had mentally decided that he had to bring himself up to a similar standard, and suddenly the likes of Dorrin and Luda were being constantly bombarded with questions, even whilst they were riding, which had led to Luda being quite glad that the pair had gone back to mooning at each other for a while.
They were now riding across the flood plain behind Nibar’a, and due to the flat nature of the land they could also see the first signs that they were nearly at their destination. It surprised Cal that they saw the ships first, rather than the town. Slowly rising above the horizon they began to see the tops of the masts that decorated the port. Some with pennants flying, some without. One appeared to have a large flag adorning it, though at this distance even the eagle eyed Rangers could not make out whose flag it was.
Farsighter brought his mount level with Collett. “We’ve a decision to make.”
“You mean whether to maintain an inconspicuous guise or to announce our presence to the entire world.”
Farsighter nodded. “Each has advantages. With the amount of nobility and military standing in this party we would probably have little trouble gaining whatever we felt necessary through official channels.”
“But?”
“If we kept things quiet we would find it much easier when we reach Mid’gra.”
Collett fell silent as he thought about the two options. After a moment he spoke. “How about a compromise, we have enough bodies that we could split into two parties. We have an official party including Dorrin, Luda and Tamala, a trade delegation or something, and an unofficial party. When was the last time you played mercenary.”
Farsighter thought about the idea. He had to admit that he liked it for a couple of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that the unofficial party would have little difficulty keeping an eye on the official one without anyone suspecting that all was not as it seemed.
“How do we explain mercenaries heading away from the battle?”
“Do you have any idea how much the Galorn’s are reputed to pay, especially if they’ve received word that a neighbouring kingdom has been invaded by a force of Mythraan bac
ked Shalers and J’Dar.”
Farsighter shook his head in appreciation of the simplicity of it. Money was a great excuse for many things, and now it would provide both of their parties an excuse to travel.
“We could use that I suppose, in view of the fact that I can’t think of a better cover story.” He grinned at the guardsman. “How long do you think it will take to gain passage on a ship?”
“That’s easier than you might think. Dorrin will find little difficulty organising a ship to Mid’gra, then all we have to do is book passage on the same vessel.
As we all want the same destination, and no captain will turn down the chance to have extra hands aboard that could assist in repelling any unwanted visitors, we should find no problem.”
“Sounds like a plan to me, let’s get to the Raven’s Head.”
They both spurred their horses and picked the pace up to make up the ground they had lost on the caravan whilst they had been talking. They quickly explained to the others what they had decided, Collett rapidly splitting the party.
Vorston and the dwarves continued as they had for the entire journey, a caravan escaping the war that had begun to the north. He bade farewell, promising Farsighter that he would contact him once they had got settled on the outskirts, where they would be setting up camp.
Cal found himself placed in the group with Dorrin and Tamala, apparently as the lady’s bodyguard. Dorrin had questioned the wisdom of the move but Farsighter explained that Cal and Tamala’s ‘relationship’ would actually prove a boon in this particular circumstance.
Much to the embarrassment of the pair, Farsighter went on to explain that the idea of a lady becoming romantically involved with a young guard of her father’s command, and insisting on him becoming her personal protector in order to keep him close was not even an original story.
Laughing, Dorrin agreed that indeed that was the case. Cal felt that he was being sorely used, but as Farsighter said, at least he would be kept close to Tamala.
Fall of a Kingdom Page 17
