by T Nisbet
Chp. 14
When I finally got out of the bath, I found my tunic shirt and pants folded at the foot of the bed with a note attached.
Hope you enjoyed your bath without me.
J.
I grinned, and set aside the note. My tunic had been cleaned. It felt softer than it did before. I put on the pants and the top, and hooked on my sword belt properly, so the hilt was closer to my hand. I discovered that my boots had been cleaned and brushed as well.
“Smells better too.” I said aloud sniffing my sleeve.
“Sure does, and the bloodstain is gone,” Toby said.
After we finished dressing, we grabbed our packs and made our way to the common room where we found Coach brooding at a table.
“Morning Coach,” Toby said.
“Boys,” he responded staring into a cup of what smelled like coffee. “We’ve got a problem.”
“What’s the problem?” I asked worried that it had to do with my fight.
“There maybe a group of Vampires after us,” he said simply.
“From the vampire council?” Toby asked.
“No, the local vampire girl scouts!” Coach growled, shooting Toby a dark look.
Toby sat back nodding in approval, “Good one Coach.”
“They were watching your table, trying to be subtle and probably didn’t clue in I was with you.”
“When, last night? Who?” I asked.
“The minstrels, who else? Can’t you tell a vampire when you see one?”
Toby and I looked at each other and shared a silent shrug. The musician playing the flute had been extremely pale.
“Why didn’t they just kill us in our sleep?” Toby asked. “Isn’t that what they do?”
Coach explained that the Council couldn’t conduct murder inside the city without risking banishment, and possibly war. Lockewood, belonged to a kingdom called Cenaria. Cenaria was like the Switzerland of the world we’d entered. A council of powerful mages, who stayed apart from the petty politics and wars that plagued the other kingdoms, ruled it, officially, anyhow.
Several millennia ago the mages had imbued a dozen magical gems and placed them at the heart of the major cities within their kingdom. Coach called them ‘Treaty Stones.’ The treaty stones basically made the major cities within Cenaria neutral ground. All people and creatures, magical and non-magical were welcome, but break the treaty by committing a crime, and the stone would banish the individual or group, if they belonged to one, from Cenaria.
If the Vampire Council attacked us within the city of Lockewood, all the vampires within Cenaria would find themselves suddenly outside the borders of the kingdom, with no ability to return unless the mage council lifted the banishment. Coach thought such a move by the Vampire Council could very possibly start a war with Cenaria, and no one, kingdom or group, wanted that.
I listened carefully to Coach talk. It was more than I had heard him say at one time since I had met him. When he was finished, I started to raise my hand, then ran it through my hair hoping Toby hadn’t noticed.
“Why wasn’t I banished last night then?” I asked.
Coach glowered at me.
“Still trying to figure that out. Maybe the Treaty Stone allows one on one mutual combat. Hell, I don’t know. The brigand that tried to take your sword didn’t just come up from behind and slit your throat. He challenged you. Maybe that has something to do with it.”
“The stones can transport people? Just like that?” I asked, hoping to turn Coach from discussing my fight any further.
“Yes they can, and I have reason to believe it’s more than a bit painful,” he responded.
The girls joined us, effectively ending the conversation, because as soon as they arrived Coach stood.
“The wagon should be ready. Stow the gear boys, Brianna you’re with me.”
Coach mumbled a gruff thank you to the owner of the tavern and we left ‘The Pregnant Wench’, but not before the buxom waitress from the night before, pulled me aside on my way out the door, and kissed me soundly on the mouth. She promised to keep an eye out for my return, with her breath hot against my lips. My head swirled in confusion. I didn’t know a kiss could be so intimate and filled with promises.
Toby wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me outside before I could say anything embarrassing.
Toby whistled as we walked behind the wagon, winding our way through the city of Lockewood. Carla frowned at me several times as if I had something to do with the kiss, Ivy didn’t say a word and ignored me completely.
Like I had anything to do with it. I didn’t ask her to kiss me.
“No, but you didn’t stop it either,” said the voice, returning to my thoughts.
I almost stumbled. Not now!
“You’re basically blind to the wiles of women. It’s kind of funny.”
I tried to ignore it and looked around at the buildings of the city as we walked.
“You don’t have to speak aloud, just say the words in your head and no one will be the wiser.”
“What was I suppose to do, push her away? Besides she’s a lot older than me. I don’t understand why Carla or Ivy would even care,” I said angrily inside my head.
“Of course you do,” answered the voice. “If a twenty-seven year old man kissed Ivy, would you not have cause to be upset! Both of the girls have a sound rationale for being disappointed in you.”
“Great.”
“The question becomes what can you do about it?” the voice asked.
I had no idea.
“Something will come to you.”
“Yeah, because I’m thinking so clearly.” I said to myself.
“You aren’t crazy, my son.”
“Says the voice inside my head.” I laughed inwardly.
“You needn’t worry over it. As the strength of the spell’s binding increases, like it did between Sir Nisbet and I, and near countless others before him, you’ll only imagine my voice. It will be as if your intuition has increased.”
Holy crap! This was that old knight’s sword.
“It was indeed, and by the way, he wasn’t old until he returned to your world and made the decision to gift you with his blessing, or as he called it, ‘your birthright’,” the elderly voice stated calmly.
“He was young?” I asked the voice in my head.
“For several millennia he seemed a man in his early twenties.”
“You must have known him pretty well then,” I thought to myself. “That’s a long time!”
“That I did, but he didn’t receive the sword until the King of Andorland died and bequeathed it to him seventy-five years ago. When I pass to a new protector, I learn of their entire life at the same time as the knowledge I have is passed to them.”
“Oh,” I said aloud.
“What’s up?” Toby asked.
I looked over at him as we walked down the street still following the wagon through the city.
“Tell him you have gas,” the voice snickered.
I disregarded the voice.
“This city is really big,” I said lamely.
“Yup.” Toby agreed.
I looked away and stared at the tailgate of the wagon.
“So you’re bound to the sword and pass knowledge of fighting on to whoever owns the sword?” I asked in my mind.
“No, I’m bound to you until your death. The sword can pass to a hundred different owners and it will only be a marvelous sword. If you die, I’m returned to the sword until the next owner worthy of the responsibility wields it, and is chosen.”
“So when Sir Nisbet died…”
“My essence returned to the sword. Where it had been placed according to his instructions, to be given to you when you came to this world,” the voice finished for me.
“Is that the training Brianna’s father was talking about?”
“Yes, it was,” the voice answered. “Quite a bit of planning went into it.”
“How did you get stuck with this job anyhow?”
I asked.
“I made a mistake, and the council bound my essence to this task until I have atoned for it,” the voice said.
“Must have been some mistake.”
“You could say that,” the voice chuckled ruefully. “Wizards live a long time, yet I have outlived them all and I was no spring chicken when my essence was shriven from my body. I’ve been a part of history in my own way and don’t begrudge them their penance for my crime.”
“How will you know when you’ve paid for your crime?”
“When the demon I arrogantly brought into this universe is no longer a threat.”
The wagon stopped and I almost walked into it. A dozen black clad guards dressed like those we’d seen on the road yesterday stood in front of it barring our way forward. Their leader, a middle-aged man with graying hair and a bearing of command, moved over to Coach McNally’s side of the wagon. His uniform was more formal than the other guards. Decorations for valor of one type or another littered the front of his tunic beside the coat of arms over his heart.
“A moment of your time,” he said politely.
“I don’t have a moment,” Coach answered. “I have to pick up my next load and be on the road before the eastern gate closes.”
“Fear not, in all likelihood you will be, unless of course, you try to relieve yourself on me,” the man said pausing for effect. “There is one among you who fought a brigand last night. I would have a word with him.” He bowed towards the girls. “Ladies.”
My heart started speeding up, and I could feel the rush beginning.
“Steady,” said the voice in my head. “Acknowledge it.”
I took a deep breath and walked around the back of the wagon.
“I did,” I said trying to keep my voice from cracking.
“Well done!” the voice said.
The captain regarded me.
“Even so,” he said turning to face me. He had known it was me all along.
“Of course he did,” said the voice.
“It was a test?”
“Indeed,” the ancient voice said softly.
“I’ve been asked to accompany you to the Mage’s Citadel. The council would like a word with you,” he said politely. “You may keep your sword.”
“Listen here!” barked Coach. “He’s my guardsman. I will have need of him once we leave the city!”
“A guard will escort you until we can return him to you,” said the Captain looking back at Coach as though he were of no consequence.
“I don’t need a hostage, I need his blade,” Coach griped.
“Two guards then.”
He nodded at a couple of the men standing before the wagon and they stepped forward. “That should more than make up for his prowess with a blade.”
“He wishes!” said the voice.
The captain turned once more towards me. “Shall we then?”
I nodded and moved to his side.
“Thank you good merchant,” he said bowing to Coach McNally.
Coach grumbled something I couldn’t make out, but I was pretty sure it was a curse.
