Heir's Legacy

by Vlad ben Avorham

  Slipping in to town the next morning Echal observed with satisfaction the panic-stricken well to do of the town. Any who may have benefited from Jayen's situation or given testimony against him were all trying to outdo each other in their speed to purchase what guards may be found. Echal listened to the mayor try to calm the fears of the people. He asked several people what was going on, what was causing all of this. To a man, each knew a version of the story. Echal made up his mind how this was going to be put to rights. He prepared two arrows. One to do its job, the other with a letter wrapped about it, to set the story straight. Both a clearing of the smears on Jayen, and a cautionary tale for those who may decide to be unscrupulous when dealing with their neighbors.

  That night Echal stalked the city streets again. Again, the chief witness against Jayen, and his hired body guard were found in the morning to be hanging from the smithies wrought-iron fence. Echal had not even known about him before coming to town. Adding him to the list was just a necessary step for the finale.

  On schedule the Mayor was giving his fear not speech. At a full gallop Echal hit the edge of town, his body wrapped in black burlap flowing behind him like grave clothes. nearly trampling one guard who couldn't get out of the way fast enough he stood in the stirrups and loose the arrow. It was several heartbeats before anyone else could realize what was happening the first arrow struck the man down. The second arrow whistled into the door of the newly rebuilt garrison.

  Echal slowed his pace to allow the pursuit to catch up. Ok to nearly catch up with him. As he was thundering over the narrow bridge, he drew a small pouch from beneath the burlap cloak. With a grin, he said the command word and dropped it on the middle of the bridge. Pursuit closed in as the one of Mother Nature's most terrifying killing machines appeared. Resting for a moment on the rise of the next rolling hill, Echal smiled with pride as a large gorilla swung a guard by the leg like a club into two mounted guards forced by momentum into the fray. Echal calmly whistled to himself a casual tune as he rode away at a casual pace. Back to where he had staked out his spare mount in case things went wrong.

  Someone Has to Be Responsible

  Catrin was angry. She knew she didn't really have a right to be angry; he was a grown man and could make up his own mind. Forget that, how dare he get her to fall in love with him and then take off to be reckless as if no one needed him. She had made it to Archive when news of the attacks in the north reached them. She had no doubt that it was Echal. Her contacts even added to the general gossip, seems a letter was delivered as well. A not so veiled threat to the king to back off or force the confrontation he sought to avoid.

  Damn that man, get himself killed before she could strangle him with her own hands. How was she supposed to not mention this to Sha? No way she could hide something like this. Nothing could be done now but complete the task at hand. She had sent word for her father through the guilds message system. It could still be a couple of weeks before she would hear back, depending on where his travels had taken him. She hated to admit it, but she was hoping he would appear soon. If she were to stay in town any longer, she would need to change her cover. The only real downside to the traveling merchant cover is that it wears thin when forced to hold your position too long.

  That night in her dreams, Sha appeared to her as a mature elf of fifty years. Catrin smiled, it is how Sha pictures herself. Catrin had to admit that if Sha's mental and emotional state were reflected by her physical, it was probably about right. A fifty-year-old elf being the age of adulthood among their people. She also could see what poor Pavel confronted with this vision each night would have not been able to resist developing romantic ideas. Catrin mostly considered herself to be straight, but she had to admit, Sha was most enchanting. Part of it might have gratitude, Sha seemed to be just as infuriated with her brother's antics as she was though for different reasons. Sha seemed to think that the small Tzadi delegation dispatched from the Spire to investigate could be an issue. Catrin didn't know much about that but if any of the three were as capable as Sha, she didn't want to have to fight them either.

  On the morning of the second day before she would have to change covers, a familiar voice called out to her in the market. "I hear you have a good price on mountain Thyme!" The lanky rider was as raw and sun scorched as ever, it was Yael, her father's most trusted forward scout. Da would send him in to a town to see if the markets were favorable a few days before the rest of the caravan made it. She had known Yael since she was a tiny girl. She felt like a girl again as she ran to him and embraced him. He spun her around as if she was his favorite niece. "I've got word." He whispered into her ear as he put her back on her feet.

  Bringing him back to her wagon, she settled him in with the obligatory tea, as a proper hostess before she began to grill him in earnest. "I assume you're here because my father got the message? Where is he?" She barely took a breath between questions.

  Yael started to laugh. "Hold on, settle down. Yes, he got the message and yes he's on the way as fast as he can manage. He's been settling up old accounts and saying goodbye to friends for months now. Seems he's determined that he is going to retire."

  "Oh I guess I hadn't thought of that." I answered.

  "He thought if you were going to keep on in the business maybe you could use a good scout?" Yael looked at her hopefully.

  "Oh, I've met someone. I don't know if I will be continue this or," she smiled at him, "most men like their wives to be home when they get back."

  Yael grinned at her, "That they do." He kept smiling in an odd way and finally it really started to get to Catrin.

  "What? You know something you're not telling." she locked eye contact with him.

  "Not mine to tell," Yael objected.

  "Yael, if you don't tell me I'll drug your tea and leave you to the Tzadi. You'd make some lonely Tzadi a fine guardian." She mock threatened him.

  Yael chuckled good-naturedly, "You'd do that too, wouldn't you? Always did have to have your own way. Well, lets just say if your man is as big of a surprise to your Da as what he has for you, I might be glad to be able to be in the next town over."

  "Yael? Yael, what do you know?" Now she was getting concerned. It couldn't be too bad as he still was smiling but the last thing she needed was more shaking of her life.

  Yael set his empty teacup on the little drop down table. "I'm here to sign a contract for a market stall and to let you know he wants to travel with you for the next leg of your trip. He'll be here tomorrow morning, you can ask him then. Until then you'll just have to be patient." He gave her an affectionate kiss on the top of her head as he stood up. "Before you ask, no I won't be drinking anymore of your tea." He grinned and then headed off.

  Heading Home

  Uh Mom?

  Just like clockwork Savon's wagon and assigned packhorse train arrive at the market stall right next to hers.

  "Daddy I've missed you." She whispers fiercely to him as they hug, out behind the wagons and out of site of prying eyes.

  "I've missed you too! I've got news for you." He pulls her out to arm's length.

  "I want you to meet your new stepmother." he said nothing else studying her face intently. He turns back to the covered portion of the wagon and hands down a girl younger than Catrin. Her skin was almost as white or maybe it was just the coal black hair and almond-shaped eyes that made it seem so. She was unbelievably tiny in every dimension. Well, with the obvious exception of the large melon someone had put beneath her gown. Catrin's attention was drawn back to those eyes, something about them other than the almond shape she had never seen before. When she finally saw it her hand involuntarily went for her knife.

  Savon sprang forward between them. "Easy Catrin. It's not what you think."

  "But Da! She's a hedge witch!" Catrin hissed.

  "This is true." said a musical voice from behind him. "Yet I have no hold on your father other than love, and the shared love of our son." she rested that tiny hand on her oversized belly. "And our shared lov
e of you, if you will allow it."

  Savon's voice raised and then calmed, "Catrin! Focus on me for a moment. Trust me. I am under no compulsion. Hedge Witches are only dangerous if the spirit they merge with is malignant. I have met Ma Li's spirit; it is kind and giving. It is a nurturing spirit. It is why she could not kill her captors who brought her here from the far reaches of the world. She believes in complete personal pacifism. She has been my lover for the last two years. She has never stopped me from working even though she knows some of the uglier side of the work I do, but she won't even swat a fly."

  "Two years eh?" Catrin asked eyeing Ma Li.

  Savon grinned a bit red faced. "Well I'm sure I haven't been introduced to your every dalliance either."

  Catrin shook her head. "Sadly perhaps you have. Speaking of which, he's been up to some damn dangerous tricks. I think I would have heard if they had caught him yet but... Daddy why are men always so stupid?" she almost wailed.

  From behind Savon the musical voice spoke up, "Too much Yang honored daughter."

  Catrin turned to her. "Look Molly or whoever you are. I'm willing to try to make this whole thing work because my Daddy seems to really be smitten by you. Just stop with the 'honored daughter' bit. I doubt you are even as old as I am?" She looked between the girl and her father and back again.

  Savon shook his head. "You're about the same age. It's hard to know for certain because of the way Ma Li's people reckon time. Oh yeah, and 'honorable daughter' was not meant to make you feel inferior, it is just how they talk. It grows on you in time. Now there is business to be done if we're going to catch up with this hellion of yours and get him back to Jan so she can settle him down."

  The Trip Home

  Catrin was soaking in her bath. Too much to think about, so she just let the warm water carry her away. Her own mother had passed when she was very young and she really didn't remember her. She knew other women had shared her father's bed over the years but he always had kept such dalliances discrete. Sharing her Daddy with this new woman, and a hedge witch at that?

  Even if she could wrap her head around all of that, what about Echal? Was he ok? Was he going to stop this recklessness? Would his threat to the King work, or just bring greater retribution? It really was too much.

  Ma Li was soaking in a tub only two doors down from Catrin. She was serene; she would serve her new husband and become his cherished bride. Honorable daughter would be won over in the end, or she would endure for the sake of Savon who had rescued her from a life of enduring. Her Ma'el, the bonded spirit that shared her existence, radiated warmth to her. She knew the truth of their symbiotic relationship. The Ma'el fed on her love and her service for those who needed her, and in return it healed her hurts and gave her strength and power to better serve. It was a selfless life, that found meaning in others. She was content.

  Savon was off buying books. Not just any books, he was after history and naturalist works. He also spared a huge budget for occult works and scholars of the world that lay beyond what a man could see. Savon knew from talking to Catrin that they would have a long winter cooped up in a glorified cave. He wanted to use that time for their next move. Echal was a brilliant tactician as his father was, proof that they were still hunting for both of them. The problem is that he is still angry. Angry young men do foolish things if wise heads are not around to distract them to more productive pursuits. With the right tales of ancient glory, perhaps he can persuade him to exhaust his energy in the stricken lands or even the frontier clearing monsters and making way to settle new people. Anything would be better than letting him waste his life with petty vengeances.

  So it was that two loaded wagons and a spare train of fresh horses left the gates of Archive in the early morning light. They figured with any luck they could make it to the inns in Somners Falls by sunset. If Echal had left any of Somners Falls still standing. The stories were all over the road as they approached the town and each one growing in the telling. The last one they heard had a black-robed man on a flying horse killing the mayor and thirty guards in broad daylight.

  Far from destroyed, Somner's Falls was in fact packed to the rafters with troops. It seems that they had been filing in for days. With no easy place to stop for the night, the small caravan pushed on and camped cold as the last gray of twilight made travel foolish.

  Catrin sat on second watch keeping a weary eye out for any sign of trouble. With all the Kings soldiers in the area most of the ordinary bandits would have found easier pickings else where but given that they were a small caravan without visible guards, even soldiers could be a problem if their officers weren't watching too closely. So when the horses started to make noise she slipped off of the wagon seat where she was taking her watch and was headed back to wake her father, when she heard a familiar whistle. Sure enough, along came a freshly washed and shaven Echal. Looking more like he had spent the time at an inn rather than living rough in the fields surrounding the town.

  She hugged him tightly. "You bastard, don't you ever scare me like that again."

  He softly chuckled. "Why whatever do you mean?"

  She wasn't in the mood for his jokes; she drove her thumb deep into the pressure point in his armpit where the armor didn't quite cover. He let out a grunt of pain and pulled back from her to protect himself. "OK, ok..." he gasped. "You don't need to worry about me. I'm fine. I told you I'd be ready to leave when you are, and here I am." He pulled her back in an embrace carefully positing himself so he was not as easy a target. "It's all ok. I'm sorry I worried you."

  They didn't get a lot of guarding done the rest of the evening but Echal assured her he had already scouted as far as anything was likely to come in the time before daybreak. They didn't do any sleeping either.

  Good to Be Home

  The check point was more professional as they approached. Taxes gathered and no sign of the smarmy sergeant. The young officer also was sporting a large bruise on one side of his head but otherwise appeared more in charge than before without the older man undercutting his authority.

  Taxes were still heavy but once paid, the whole party was waved on about their business. It wasn't until they were out of earshot that Echal started laughing. "What is it?" Catrin finally asked him.

  Echal shrugged. "Oh, I was just thinking of the story that young officer must have told those men to get them in line. I took an evening and settled things up with that sergeant. Bad apples like him can spoil discipline quickly and become a real problem. As I finished with him, though I ran into the poor officer. I almost finished him too, but I recognized him and spared him. I bet that isn't how the story was told though." He laughed again. "Good for him, he needed something to get control over that band of rabble. Maybe he can even make them into troops."

  The rest of the ride passed easily. When ever Catrin would start to lecture Echal, he would ask her a question about her new mother. It seemed that for the moment at least she was more angry about that situation than determined to browbeat him into settling down.

  Echal figured that as long as they weren't hunted, that he wouldn't attack the town or the King's guard again. He wouldn't say that the score was settled but Catrin was right about one thing. His father wouldn't want him fighting just for the sake of fighting. It would need to be to replace the King, or he should give it up. He didn't want to be King. He was enjoying his life as it was too much to lust after the illusion of power. Kingship was certainly that, an illusion. The King only got what he wanted until someone strong enough told him no. With as many strong groups and forces in the world as there are, it was still more rule by consensus than not. At least for most kings. Very few were the cult of personality needed to truly "ride history" rather than just be along for the ride.

  Maybe he would do some exploring. Savon has mentioned a couple of places he had heard of that might be just the ticket. Who knows what a man might find in places long abandoned by men. The ancient ones made some amazing things. Just look at the almost other worldly grace of the Eter
nal Spire. Some of the details Sha had told him about it, made him wish they would admit men in so he could see it with his own eyes and not just through her illusions.

  He was lost in thought as they approached the turnoff to the little track that lead up to their home when Echal noticed a long black trail of smoke rising into the air from right where home should be. In a moment of panic he threw the traces to Catrin and vaulted off of the seat of the still moving wagon. He noticed as he was untying his horse's lead from the back of the wagon, that Savon was jumping down and doing the same for his. A moment to tighten the cinch and he was up in the saddle. He considered for a fleeting moment stopping for armor but that was a fight at his home and every moment could count.

  He was just spurring his mount into a dead run as he caught from the side of his vision, Savon falling into formation on his left. The ride seemed to take forever though honestly it was probably not more than five minutes. Each moment though brought his heart into his throat fear of what was happening that he could do nothing about.