Heir's Legacy

by Vlad ben Avorham

  Jayen waves to him. They shake hands and Savon grins. "Neat little ambush your boy cooked up."

  Jayen just grunts, "Proves he is his father's son. Remember that time the ol' General had us camped out in that abandoned mine for two weeks just so we could be in position, when he needed us?"

  Savon snorts, "Remember? I still hate being in enclosed spaces. Still, we both lived to tell the tale, so my thanks to the General wherever he may be."

  Echal was busy packing a chain shirt for storage on one horse when he heard them reminiscing. It was still hard to believe that the man he'd always called Da, the village smithy, was once an officer serving with the most famous Novain General in living memory. Or that the simple trader Savon was his chief supply officer. I mean if it were true, and he was the great General's son, then trusting him to them made sense, still? He looked down at his right hand and willed the heavy signet ring back to it. It fit his hand as if it belonged there, heavy and gold and warm.

  "It's pretty." Catrin said softly.

  Echal jumped, and the ring vanished back into the ethereal pocket dimension where it had rested most of his life, and he never knew it was there. He looked up to see the red-headed vision from earlier in the fight standing over him.

  "I didn't mean to scare you." she smiled at him.

  Echal's voice caught in his throat. He tried to sound cool, but all he managed was a squeak. "I'm not scared!" Then a quick breath, he found not looking directly at her helped if he could manage it, "I was just foolish to have it out so carelessly."

  "Is that your father's ring?" she asked.

  Echal just nodded. This whole thing of having a father other than Jayen Smith was new to him. Oh, he wasn't stupid he looked nothing like his brother Pavel; it was obvious that he and Rea weren't the Smith's natural children but they were his Mamma and Da none the less. He looked up at her and tried a smile; he was afraid it may have come out looking a bit sick. "I'm glad you're ok."

  Catrin broke out in a warm smile that made his toes tingle. "I am now, thanks to you." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."

  Echal could feel his face flush and he was feeling a little light-headed. "It was the only thing I could have done."

  At that moment seeing his brother getting a bit too much attention, Pavel came jogging up. "Hey runt, you got that armor packed up yet. We need to put as much distance between ourselves and this mess as we can."

  Echal grunted as he picked up the folded shirt and all but threw it at Pavel, who just neatly tucked it under one arm and headed toward the horses. Not for the first time Echal envied his brother. Where Echal was all wiry and gangly, Pavel was a mountain of a man at the tender age of sixteen. Despite all of this though, he noticed Catrin didn't go rushing off after Pavel but stayed to talk with him.

  His real father, he crushed that thought, Jayden was as real a Da as ever there was. His father, he amended, hadn't left them destitute. There were pouches with enough gems in them to buy the little village that he and Rea had grown up in several times over but Da had thought this was safer so with Savon acting as his eyes and ears in the world he settled in to a small village smithy to raise the children of the General, his Elven Tzadi. While they drew the Usurper's troops off after them.

  "I'm sorry I got you mixed up in all of this." he waved his hand at their surroundings.

  She wrinkles her nose, "You didn't get me into this, my Da did. When he picked the wrong side in the succession war. If he'd picked your cousin, instead of agreeing with your father to try to stay out of it, I would have grown up in a palace." she looked wistful for a moment. "I don't know that I want to live in a palace but it would have been nice to have had the choice."

  Mamma Smith called out at that point. "Enough talking, more packing. Time enough to talk once we're underway."

  The Journey

  High Mountain Trails and Cold Camps

  Night comes early in the mountains. To say camp was rustic was a bit of an understatement. A large square of canvas to cover the ground and a slightly larger square angled to keep the dew off. No fire, and cold day old biscuits for dinner after a long day of walking. Little Rea, with her uncanny immunity to sleep, kept watch over the fitful party. Not that anyone did much sleeping. The violent events of the morning replayed through each of the young dreaming minds.

  After a particularly vivid vision of what could have gone wrong with his shot, Echal wakes to hear Pavel sobbing into Mamma's shoulder and hear the sniffles of Catrin balled up next to her father. The care-free days working the forge seemed so far away.

  Dawn came in its due time, but woke no one. More cold biscuits and a thick slice of ham for breakfast and the day started again. Rea in her favorite spot in the world high above everyone on Pavel's broad shoulders. She alone seemed less pensive than those who had tried to sleep. Somehow it just didn't seem right.

  The mists were just beginning to thin when our little party began to cross the saddle into the next valley over. We took a less worn path across a bit rougher ground where we would leave less trace, leading the horses on the uneven ground. Even forded the river twice to throw off pursuit.

  Savon spent a bit of time with Echal on our second day out. Breaking from the main party, they cut an obvious trail off to one side to confuse pursuit. Allowing them to get ahead of the rest of the family and do some scouting. Riding side-by-side Echal attempted to start up a conversation. "Is Catrin, ok?" Savon just grunted and nodded. He waited a moment and then tried again, "Thank you for what you did, it was a big risk and..." he cut off as Savon just gave him an irritated look. After another moment he tried again, "Did I say something wrong?"

  Savon rolled his eyes and edged his horse close enough that he could grab Echal by the shoulder and pull him in close. In a low-pitched voice not quite a whisper, "Boy, this isn't a trip to the local market! Look." he roughly turned Echal toward the brush on the side of the trail. It was broken off and trampled down. "Goblins been through here not too long ago. We're riding their trail to throw off pursuit. Now unless you want to be goblin chow, shut up unless you see something important."

  Echal was shocked. He hadn't thought that they might encounter dangers besides what might be coming up from behind. This obviously wasn't Savon's first time in situations like this. Echal decided to shut up and pay closer attention to what was happening, maybe he could even learn something.

  Things are not always what they seem

  Jayen also decided to ride ahead a bit, leaving Pavel to lead the pack horses. Bringing up the rear Catrin was trying to introduce herself. "I'm sorry, I don't even know what to call you?" She smiled at the plump matronly woman who was taking this whole upending of her domestic life in stride with remarkable fatalism.

  The woman spared a bit of her labored breathing to laugh. "Oh deary, isn't that just the real question?" She wiped the sweat from her round face. "You can call me Jan Smith though she may be getting left behind now too. Hard to say who I will end up having to be next." Her face took on an odd nostalgic look as she thought through things.

  "You sound like this isn't the first time for you, having your whole life uprooted like this?" Catrin ask wondering what she was getting into with a question like that.

  The older woman just chuckled a bit. "You could say that. If things had turned out a bit different, I might even have been your mother." She giggled a bit at the look on Catrin's face. "Oh, it's true. Back then I was Dame Janice of Kolshire." she got a mischievous smirk at the young girl's surprise. "There was a large banquet being held in honor of the General. My father had died on campaign in Avlia so the titles and land passed to me. It was considered unseemly that an unmarried woman would reign, especially one of my age. I was just turned sixteen." Her voice drifted off into memory again. "Anyway, your father was one of several young men seeking an entry into the peerage. War hero and from his story with a bit of back room dealings had managed to arrange the seating at the banquet in his favor." She sighed for a moment.

 
"Oh, how awful! I can't imagine what that must have been like." Catrin was searching for words when Jan supplied them for her.

  "Oh, about like a piece of raw meat thrown in to a pack of hungry dogs. Don't blame your father he was ever the gentleman the few times we spoke, but Jayen unexpectedly arrived from the front. With honors and titles a plenty, and having turned down land grants, his interest in me was obviously genuine. He swept me off my feet and they haven't really touched the ground since." The woman smiled and took a deep breath, "Oh becoming a smith's wife, was an adjustment after what I was accustomed to, but it was a great place to raise children. Children are worth more than wealth and titles." She gave the young woman a knowing nod. "Now we're going to reinvent ourselves again. Into what? Who can know? A lot depends on where we end up I suppose, though Jayen really enjoys being a smith, so we may find ourselves in a not so different situation in a different location. Doesn't really matter, just keep you kids safe and we always have each other."

  Catrin was mostly in awe, Not just of the fact that this woman gave up a life of relative wealth and leisure to raise her family but the whole story was a window into things and events she had never considered.

  "Story time is over, that flat spot up there is a good place to rest the horses and get some lunch in us all. Run forward and let Pavel and Rea know the plan." She shooed the girl off just as easily as dispatching one of her own children on an errand. Catrin, didn't even realize she had been put off on an errand like a child until she was halfway up the line of horses.

  Together again, a new urgency

  Pavel checked the horses one at a time, readjusting and re-tightening their packs and giving them each a quick brush down. Rea toddling behind him feeding each a treat and a little special attention. Catrin helping Jan lay out the basics of a quick lunch. Portions of ready-made food was limited, but they had plenty of raw materials just no time to stop and cook it up. Catin was looking dubiously at the lite fare when Jan surprised her pulling the last of the salted butter from her saddlebag and dumped in two scoops of flour and began making small balls of a slippery clay like dough. She then rolled these in the same crushed oats that the horses were eating. "It's not much, but it fills the stomach and it's not a bad idea you kids get some experience with it." She smiles sadly, "Jayen and Savon have had long, if long ago experience with such."

  For only like the dozenth time today, Catrin wondered how much she really knew about the man she had grown up with. Daddy was far more than he seemed on the surface.

  As the last of the horses were cared for, Savon and Echal came riding up. Savon was bleeding from a scalp wound and Echal had a nasty bruise forming on one cheek. "Where is Jayden?" Savon called out as they neared the small camp.

  Jan ran to Echal who protested he was fine but Savon should be looked at. "He scouted ahead. Should be back any time." Catrin told her father as she came up to help him out of the saddle.

  He waved her off, "Mount up. We'll go to him."

  Jan didn't hesitate but made her way to her mare. "What is it? Have they found us already?"

  Savon grunted hurrying his daughter over to her mount. "Goblin patrol. I think we got them all but when they don't report back in..." he trailed off. "We're not far from Stonedown Mines. The dwarves patrol that area well enough that we should be ok, but we need to move now!" and with that he pushed on out ahead of the lines.

  Echal readied his bow and set to follow.

  ***

  Jayen the Warrior

  The long pack horse train was making its way back down the mountain to where the trees got thicker and taller, as they rounded one bend they heard the sounds of a battle ahead. Savon kicked his gelding into a full gallop followed quickly by Pavel after a quick shout to Echal, "Stay, protect ma."

  Echal hesitated just a moment before his mother waved him onward as she dismounted and began to string her bow. Echal arrived on the scene just in time to see a pile of bodies scattered around Jayen's feet, but it was obvious the big man was tiring. Fortunately, Savon and Pavel crashed into the outer ring at full gallop scattering goblins and pieces of goblin as they went.

  Seeing the reinforcements, the three remaining goblins made a run for it. Jayen cut one he sought to disengage. Pavel ran down the second at a full gallop. Echal was still fifty yards out, but he stood in his stirrups, took aim between the gallops and triggered his bow. The arrow released from the fingers of his right hand and flew straight into the tree trunk right over the goblin's gnarly head.

  Savon had wheeled his mount and was coming back for another charge but was on the wrong side of the road. Jayen was exhausted and dropped to one knee. This was the opening that Savon had needed. With an awkward left-handed fling of his axe, the weapon tumbled through the air at an odd sidelong angle but still smashes handle first into back of the fleeing goblin's head, knocking it prone and motionless.

  Echal was vaulting from his horse before it was at a complete stop, stumbling into the exhausted man, searching for wounds. There were plenty but fortunately all were minor cuts mostly stopped by the armor, and a couple of spots where the ill-fitting armor had taken its own bites. Echal looked up and nodded reassuringly to Pavel, who was swinging down from his mount at this point. He looked down at the giant gray dapple that had been his father's horse for as long as either boy could remember. The left foreleg was shattered just below the knee.

  Pavel hesitated only a moment before a mighty swing of his bearded ax ended the gentle beasts suffering. The blood sprayed from the severed neck staining both Pavel and the ground. The grief on the young man's face only deepened when Jayen's simple thanks was given, his deep voice harshened by his exertions. "Thank you, it was necessary, and I am glad to not have been the one to do it."

  Savon, rested his hand on Jayen's shoulder for a moment and wordlessly began stripping off the horse's saddle and tack. Then, with his newly recovered ax he violently hacked through the horse's sternum and reached both arms in cut free the heart. He was wrapping this up when Catrin and Jan, bows at the ready arrived at the top of the little crest with the pack train.

  Jaden raised on hand to his wife, signaling both that he was ok and that she should wait. Pushing himself to his feet he looked at his boys. "Clear a path through this mess for the rest. The ladies don't need to see the worst of it and the horses are going to be skittish enough with the smell of all of this blood and death in the air."

  As part of the cleanup Echal noticed a golden glint on a goblin's gnarled finger. It was a small golden ring with a ruby setting. The only thing of value he had seen on these wretched creatures. When it wouldn't pull loose on its own, he drew his axe again and removed the finger, prying the ring loose. He wiped it off the best he could and dropped it into his pouch. It would make a good gift for his mother, or maybe Rea. He thought on it a bit more, or maybe Catrin. He grinned as he remembered the warm feel of her kiss upon him.

  A Distant City

  Dwarves

  The rest of the trip to the dwarven lands was a painful blur. All were tired, many had injuries, and those who didn't had saddle sores. The small fortress town of Stonedown Mines was a blessed sight that evening. The dwarves were only too happy to pay the bounty on the goblin heads, and a lowland trader up this far on the mountain was a welcome sight as well.

  After a trip to the town baths, a real treat for those raised in a small mountain village, and each taking a turn for Rea to stich up wounds and bandage the hurts. She had spent more time in the healer's shack learning the herbs and treatment of wounds than any girl her age. That she was too small to effectively run with the others was part of it but her apparent total lack of need for sleep also made her the perfect choice for the long overnight watches of those who needed it.

  Finally, a real meal. To the younger members surprise, the first item served up was a large roasted horse's heart. Brought out to the table by Savon himself. Jayen, nodded his thanks and stood. "Brave and loyal friend. Your body becomes our body that your loyal service may be w
ith us always." and with that he cut strips of the heart for each one at the table.

  Catrin having been through this ritual before, knew the heart would be chewy and tough, so she chewed up her bite just enough to get it to slide down with a little wine and was done. The other young people were at various stages of acquiring her level of experience. Poor Rea seemed to be having the steepest learning curve.

  Soon though warm bread arrived and bowls of lentil stew. Warm food entered recently clean and exhausted bodies and the only one not trying to fall asleep at the table was tiny Rea. Still, they all made it to the beds before losing consciousness.