by Sam Ferguson
Garrin sighed and shook his head. “He was scared, my good fellow. So, he went back across the inland sea. When he reached Twin Cities he took a barge downriver to the coastal city of Galleti. From there he sailed around the coast to Richwater. I met him some weeks later when he arrived in Cherry Brook in the middle of the spring.”
“I thought you said he got sea sick?” William poked.
Garrin shrugged. “Perhaps he thought it better to face his nausea than risk another capture by Tarthun on the overland route. Likely it was a safer journey he was hoping for. In any case, he was a much wiser man when he met me. Wiser still after I took him through Geberron Pass, and that is my point. If you learn to listen to the mountain, you will become wise and avoid the dangers. Fail to listen to the great forests, or fall victim to your own hubris, and the mountains will cook you up for supper.”
William shook his head and let it go at that, grumbling something about giving Richard nightmares.
“Can I rest for a bit?” Richard asked suddenly as he yawned and stretched out his arms.
“As you please,” Garrin replied. “You take the bed, and we’ll take the floor tonight.”
Garrin then moved out to the door and poked his head outside. The sun was dipping behind the mountains and the forest was darkening. The trapper gave three short whistles, his signal to the split-tails that he was closing the door and turning in for the night, and then he pulled the stone back into place. The large slab made scraping noise as it was dragged along the wall, which was much more noticeable from the inside than it had been from the outside. When it finally fell into place, Garrin reached up and slid a metal rod along the inside of the slab until it reached an eye-hook secured in the ceiling above. Garrin locked it into place and then closed the wooden door behind it, also locking that into place.
“What about Rux and Kiska?” William asked.
“They never like to come inside,” Garrin replied. “They prefer the outdoors.”
“They were in your cabin when we met,” William pointed out.
“That’s because they didn’t trust you,” Garrin said evenly.
“What about now, do you trust me?” William asked.
Garrin looked to William’s gray-blue eyes and paused a moment before answering.
“Not entirely, but then I suppose if you come after me in my sleep, Rux and Kiska will take you down when you try to leave.” Garrin smiled and offered a wink.
William jerked his head back as if he had been punched in the nose. He stared blankly for a moment and then shook his head.
“My concern is for Richard. As long as you get him through safely, you have nothing to worry about from me.”
Garrin nodded, then he glanced back to Richard as the young boy let out a snore that would have woken the dead and nearly echoed off the stone walls.
“Must have been hard on him, to put him out before supper is even ready,” Garrin observed.
William sighed and stirred the pot. “Don’t talk about it in front of him, but he saw his mother die, and he could hear his father crying out as he fought with the attackers.”
“And how did you figure into the mix?” Garrin asked, still not entirely sure what to make of William’s story.
William offered an insincere grin. “I’d rather not discuss the details of the escape. I’ll say only that when I discovered what had happened, I did everything in my power to keep Richard safe.”
“The attackers didn’t try to kill him before you could get there?” Garrin asked.
William flicked the handle of the ladle against the cauldron and his head drooped.
“No,” he said firmly. “They were trying to take him. I managed to kill the kidnappers and we escaped.”
“If it was a kidnapping, why not just take the child and leave the parents alive to pay for a ransom? Isn’t that usually what happens when a nobleman’s child is kidnapped?”
“Let this go,” William pleaded angrily.
Garrin shook his head. He needed to know more about the situation he was now a part of.
“You offer me a fortune that I could never attain, which means you have means to pay a ransom, or strike a deal of some sort. I must understand.”
William reached out and braced himself with either hand against the warm, stone chimney above the pot.
“It isn’t that simple. They never intended on giving Richard back, it was a different kind of situation.”
“And the king could not help?” Garrin asked skeptically. “Why run to the mountains and not to the garrison?”
William shook his head. “There are powerful people in Richwater. Their reach extends far beyond anything you could imagine. We are leaving, and that is that. I cannot idly sit by and hope that some garrison can protect Richard. We are putting this whole cursed country behind us, and we are never coming back.”
Garrin opened his mouth to say something, but in half an instant William turned and a dagger slid out of his right sleeve. The razor’s edge of the cool blade now rested dangerously against Garrin’s neck. The trapper remained calm, staring at William and waiting.
“Enough,” William said. “I will not be questioned by some trapper who lives alone in the mountains and knows nothing of the political infighting and dangers within Richwater. You want to understand? Then listen to me carefully. I left my wife behind in order to protect Richard. I do not know if she was able to escape, nor can I ever return for her if she doesn’t find her way to Brywood. Everything I hold dear has been sacrificed in order to protect Richard.” William held the knife at Garrin’s throat for another pair of seconds to drive the point home before he backed away and slipped the blade back into its proper place. “Now, can you lay the subject to rest?”
Garrin nodded slowly. “I can do that, but I wouldn’t draw a knife on me again.”
William looked back to the soup and reached in for the ladle. Rather than acknowledging Garrin’s threat, he changed the subject.
“What you did for Richard a few moments ago was very nice, helping with the trauma of the bear attack, I mean.”
The trapper nodded and moved toward another sealed box to pull out a couple of onions.
“Fear of the mountain isn’t healthy. Besides, I figured he has had enough to worry about lately, I didn’t want him looking over his shoulder for bears during the trip.” Garrin inspected one onion, and upon finding it to be squishy and bruised he set it aside. The next one seemed firm, so he removed the skin and the outer-most layer. Then he chopped up the onion and placed the pieces into the soup.
“Smells good,” Garrin said. It wasn’t exactly an admission that things were all right between the two of them, but it was about as much as Garrin could muster at the moment.
“It does,” William replied.
Garrin took that to mean that William had cooled down a bit as well.
Within the hour they were dishing the soup into bowls and waking Richard so the three of them could eat. Garrin passed the time telling Richard about various animals he had tracked and hunted, carefully detailing the difference in each animal’s tracks, droppings, and behaviors. William was silent, but smiled appreciatively as Garrin kept Richard’s mind off of the more traumatic events of late.
As the meal wound down and it became obvious that none of them were quite ready to turn in, Garrin moved to the bed and reached under to pull out a small wooden box.
“I don’t entertain here, or at home if I am honest, but I do have some cards if either of you are up for playing.”
“That sounds like a decent idea,” William said. The two of them looked to Richard. The boy nodded enthusiastically.
“Do you know how to play idiot?” Garrin asked.
Richard’s grin widened and he nodded again. “I know two versions,” he replied. “We can play Cantan Style, or I can also play Woodland Style.”
Garrin wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “Have you ever played Duerbet Style?” Richard frowned. “It is similar to Cantan Style, so you’l
l catch on quick, but it allows you to reverse attacks if you have matching cards. If you do reverse an attack, then it also reverses the direction of the game. Whoever draws the highest card goes first, and we attack left to begin with. Shall we try it?”
“Duerbet is an ancient city nestled upon the first continent, on the opposite side of the world. How do you know of it?” William asked.
Garrin smiled mischievously. “I have a few tricks of my own,” he said. He shuffled and then dealt the cards. “Learned it in the army. It had been passed down for a while. Not sure where it originated, or even if the game is actually played in Duerbet. All I know is that’s what it was called.”
William offered a half-smile and took his cards in hand.
Richard pulled his cards up as well. “Can you sing another song, Garrin, like you did last night?”
Garrin nodded. “I know of a song you might like. I first learned it from an old woman I met while I was with the legion. She was part of a nomadic tribe we traveled with for part of our campaign. She used to sing this every night after dinner. Let me see if I can remember the words.” Garrin thought for a moment, humming a couple of notes out loud to himself, then he began to sing.
Far across the mountains blue
Beyond the plains and tundra too
There lies a village dressed in white
Warmed by the sun’s great light
Far across the mountains blue
At the edge of dawn’s hue
There stands a village made of stone
A place I once called home
Far across the mountains blue
There is a place for me and you
A nation of honor, and of right
Untarnished by evil’s night
Far beyond the mountains blue
A just man can receive his due
The women are plenty and the land is tame
And the wilds hold much game
Far beyond the mountains blue
How I yearn and long for you
I was born a slave, my home almost forgot
After the raids my fathers were brought.
Far beyond the mountains blue
Yet will I return to you
My home of peace and green grass
I will see you before my days are past.
They played the game for a couple of hours. Richard caught on quickly and never lost a round. William, on the other hand, lost more than his fair share of rounds before the group retired for the night and went to sleep.
Chapter 6
The next morning, a thick blanket of smoke covered the ceiling and was filling the building. Richard was the first to wake, coughing and sputtering violently. He called out for help.
“There’s a fire!” Richard shouted.
Garrin’s eyes snapped open and immediately he knew what was wrong.
“Treewalkers!” he snarled. “Stay low. I’ll put out the fires.” There was no fire inside the building other than the two fireplaces that were lit and burning through large logs that had been placed on the fire a few hours before. So, as long as they could get the smoke out, they would be safe inside the building. The real danger was the Treewalkers.
“Treewalkers!” William shouted as he put an arm over his mouth and nose and helped Richard crawl low under the smoke. “I thought that trapper back in the village was making a joke. You’re telling me Treewalkers are real?”
“Oh, they’re real all right. Glorified thugs that make their way through the forest using the trees. They sometimes flush people out of buildings by stopping up their chimneys and filling the area with smoke,” Garrin said as he spread the logs apart in the fireplace and then smothered them with blankets to reduce the amount of smoke produced as he fought the fire.
“What can I do?” William asked.
“Open the wooden door, but don’t open the stone covering. That should allow the smoke to leave without exposing us to them.”
“What about Rux and Kiska?” Richard asked.
Garrin paused. He didn’t hear any signs of a struggle outside. In fact, he didn’t hear anything at all. His heart jumped up into his throat as he feared the worst. The trapper blinked his stinging eyes against the smoke and tried to clear his head. He couldn’t afford to worry about Rux and Kiska now. The split-tails were smart enough to take cover or to climb the trees and attack, thanks to their cougar-like paws. Whether they were alive or dead, there was nothing he could do for them now, and risking danger to Richard by opening the stone door would not help the animals.
The wooden door squeaked and some of the smoke began to shift toward the door.
“Grab a blanket and try to push the smoke out like this,” Garrin told Richard as he grabbed a blanket and began fanning the smoke toward the door.
At that moment, an arrow zipped through the narrow opening where the round stone slab didn’t cover the opening. The shaft glanced harmlessly off the floor, but it had been dangerously close to William’s leg. William jumped back silently and then crouched low under the smoke again.
“They have us pinned,” he said.”
Garrin nodded. I have an idea, but we need to clear as much of the smoke as we can.” The three of them worked with their blankets, forcing the smoke out as best they could while staying away from the doorway. No other arrows flew in, but they knew the Treewalkers were out there.
After they had pushed most of the smoke out, Garrin held up a hand and signaled for everyone to stop flapping their blankets. He held a finger to his mouth and both Richard and William nodded. William dropped his blanket and pulled out his rapier, then he moved to flank the door, but Garrin shook his head. It wasn’t time to exit just yet. They had to cause some sort of diversion first. If they simply opened the door, they would be inviting the Treewalkers to open fire.
Garrin signaled for the two to come over to him quietly. Richard hunched down and walked softly while William was able to cross the room much quicker without making a single sound with his feet.
“The chimneys are small,” Garrin said. “Too small for any of us to climb out through,” he added.
“So?” William asked bewildered.
Garrin sneered. “So, Kaspar can make it out. I bet the Treewalkers covered the chimneys with thick blankets to stop them up. Kaspar can easily work through one. He is devilishly quick. Once we hear the shouts, we can try opening the slab a bit. There is a bow under the bed. Are you a good shot, William?”
“I’m fair, but not great,” he said.
Garrin shrugged. “Well, in any case you are likely better than me. I was never very good with a bow, that’s why I use traps and a spear. You can take up a position there,” Garrin said as he pointed to the far wall. “I’ll open the slab and try to break out to the left and circle around the back of the building. Chances are, most of the Treewalkers will be facing the front door, so if I can put the building between me and them, I might be able to draw some off without taking an arrow.”
“Can Kaspar take down a man?” William asked as he looked over to the canister.
Garrin stifled a laugh and nodded his head. “Sure can. If Rux and Kiska are out there, they’ll join in as well.”
“What if they aren’t?” Richard asked.
Garrin shrugged. “Then you two had better stay in here if I can’t fend them off. There is food and water if you need to dig in for a bit. Treewalkers travel light, so they won’t be able to stay out here more than a day or two.”
“I could come out,” William offered. “Maybe a few seconds after you do.”
Garrin shook his head. “That would leave Richard open to attack. Better to stay in your position. You’ll have a clean shot at the doorway in case they try to come in.”
William relented and nodded.
“What do I do?” Richard asked.
“Just hide by the bed. Let us handle this one,” Garrin replied. Garrin crept over to the nearest fireplace and carefully peered up into it, testing the sides for heat with the back of his hands
before emerging and going to Kaspar’s canister. He opened the container and out came the white, furry creature. It made a clicking noise and then wrinkled its nose as it ran up Garrin’s arm and perched atop his shoulder.
“How will he know what to do?” William whispered.
Garrin just smiled and extended his arm into the chimney. “He has been through a few scrapes with me over the years. He won’t let us down.”
Kaspar bounded down Garrin’s arm and paused for a moment at the trapper’s wrist, standing up on its hind legs and sniffing the air. It chattered quietly and then leapt for the chimney. Its tiny hands gripped the stone and it climbed up a few inches at a time, reaching for each new perch and heading toward the thick, dark covering above.
*****
Kaspar’s eyes adjusted to the dark quickly and he was soon nosing the blanket and carefully looking for an exit.
The fabric moved with each probing push. Then, Kaspar saw a sliver of light. He froze. His nose pulled in the scents around him. More than that, he sniffed for hints of magic. Finding only the scent of an unbathed man standing close by to the left of the chimney, Kaspar prepared his muscles, hunkering down and ready to launch.
An instant later, he shot out from under the blanket, a white bolt of furry lightning. Kaspar darted toward the nearest Treewalker before the man had a chance to notice him. Kaspar ran up the man’s pant leg, nipping and biting all the tender bits of skin he could find and sending the man into a crazy dance. Kaspar loved it when a human responded this way, and went to his work with an enthusiastic chatter. Popping out of the man’s shirt collar for a moment, Kaspar noticed another Treewalker taking aim with a bow, but the first waved him off frantically before twitching back to slap at Kaspar’s head. Kaspar dove gleefully back into the man’s shirt just as his hand connected with his collar bone. The man continued to slap and punch himself as Kaspar dodged each of the strikes and continued his assault underneath the man’s clothes.
