Sam nodded. “No problem.”
“How do we know we can trust them?” Brin asked, feeling very uneasy about the risk Sam was proposing to take. “What is to stop them giving permission, then attacking us once we have stepped over the border?”
“I was hoping that nobody would ask that,” Tor said, grimacing. “It is a distinct possibility and, when the time comes, each one of us must decide if they are prepared to take that risk or not. I will not make anyone’s decision for them.”
“Just make sure we keep the horses out of sight until after the negotiations,” Modo warned solemnly.
The route decided, Tor turned the conversation to Hawk and where and how they could meet up with him. “I really want him to join us before we reach Tennel if possible. If we can think of no other way, we may need him to fly into Tibia’s garden to retrieve the flower we need.”
“Sorry to put a dampener on things, but that will not work.” All eyes turned to Ellen. “The flower will have to be retrieved during the day. It changes colour at night, taking on the colouring of those plants and flowers nearest to it. Hawk will never be able to identify it.”
“Shit.” Modo looked around, as if suddenly realising who was standing near him. “Sorry.”
Looking once more at the map, Tor did some measuring. “Whether we go through the Sha-Na plains or not, it looks like Tennel is the only logical place to meet up with Hawk. Anywhere else will have us waiting around or taking a large detour.”
“I can recommend an inn there,” Patrick volunteered. “Even if we end up staying somewhere else, we can state in the message to Hawk that that should be the meeting place.”
“Agreed.” Tor and Patrick headed towards the bar, where the innkeeper was serving another customer. They arranged for the message to be sent to Allias, via the innkeeper’s son, then ordered a couple of mugs of ale.
As they would not be leaving till the morning, everyone was at a loose end. Brin and Sam decided to take the opportunity to spend some time alone together, exploring the surrounding countryside. Torrick and Liselle had the same idea, but headed in the opposite direction. Ellen went back to the local witch, intending to swap more knowledge, while River announced that she planned to spend a few hours relaxing in a stream she had been told about. Seth pulled a pack of cards from his pocket and volunteered to teach Dal a gambling game that was popular in most taverns. All of the men joined in, even Bellak, and the afternoon passed pleasantly. It would have been much more enjoyable if they had not allowed Ria to join them, as she promptly won the majority of the hands. They were not playing for real money so nobody actually lost out, but they were all embarrassed about being beaten by a woman.
When they returned to the inn, Sam spotted Samson lying under a tree, asleep. One eye opened slightly and his ears twitched as he heard movement in the inn’s courtyard, showing the sleep to be just pretence. “I’ll be back in a minute,” Sam said to Brin, kissing him on the cheek before unhooking her arm from his and walking up to Samson.
“Samson, can I ask you a question?” Sam made sure she had the wolf’s full attention before continuing. “Why did Bellak lie about how he found you?”
The question obviously took the animal by surprise, but he answered without hesitation, informing her that he had no idea what she was talking about and that Bellak had spoken the complete truth. Sam did not believe a word he was saying and was rather shocked to discover that animals were capable of lying. Samson stood up, stretched and walked away before she could question him further.
“Something is definitely going on,” she said to herself. “And I am going to find out what.” Her stomach growled, informing her it was time to eat. “But it will have to wait a while.”
Patrick entered the tailor shop as soon as it opened the next morning. As promised, the proprietor had his shirts ready for him. He tried them on and was pleased to find they were a perfect fit. Patrick had paid above the asking price in order to get the quick turnaround and thought the clothes were well worth the money. He had chosen the best fabrics in the shop and the workmanship was excellent. He paid his compliments to the tailor and neatly folded his new purchases and placed them into his travelling bag. Ria went to the bakery to buy the promised bread, while Tor went to the blacksmith to collect the wagon, all arriving back at the inn at roughly the same time.
Before heading out towards the cart track that followed the river, they stopped at each of the farms that had been visited the previous day, making the purchases that had been agreed upon. The cart was fully laden by the time they left the last farm, making the donkey, which was pulling it, complain to Sam. She assured him that he could swap with one of the horses as soon as they stopped for a rest break and he went quiet, temporarily content. They had been travelling for a little over an hour before they realised that one of their party was missing.
“Where is Cirren?” Tor asked.
Torrick shrugged. “He did not come into the room last night.”
“He was not in ours either. Seth?”
“No. He did not sleep in the hay loft.”
“Then where did he sleep.”
“Probably with the innkeeper’s daughter again,” Sam commented. Tor groaned. Samson whined.
“Someone is coming. Fast,” Sam translated. Everyone looked back the way they had come, seeing dust being thrown into the air, indicating that someone was galloping towards them. Cirren called for his horse to slow as he got close, stopping next to Tor. He was breathing heavily and his horse was foaming at the mouth.
“You have an explanation I assume?” Tor asked his younger brother, who looked away, embarrassed.
“The innkeeper caught me with his daughter,” he said, a little sheepishly. “He came after me with an axe. I do not think he followed me, but I did not dare stop to find out.”
Brin, overhearing, grinned broadly. “It is nice to see that your near death experience has not changed you.”
Tor did not see the funny side. “It is about time you grew up. A father with an axe is going to catch you one of these days. Beside, should you not still be mourning Emma?”
Cirren’s face turned cold. “Everyone handles death in their own way.” He turned his back on his brother and went to speak to Sam, voicing his concerns about the welfare of his horse. She conversed with the stallion and informed Cirren that his name was Roeden and he would be fine as long as he was not asked to go quite that fast again for a while. Cirren apologised and promised not to do it again.
It was going to be a long and tiresome journey, even if they did manage to cross the Sha-Na plains, but it looked like the weather was going to be pleasant, at least for a while.
“We are heading north,” Sam observed. “Do we need to stop on the way to get some warmer clothing?”
“Whatever for?” Ria was genuinely surprised by the question.
“Doesn’t it get colder as you head north? The map shows that we are roughly in the centre, which should be the warmest place.”
“Why?” Ria asked again.
“Because you get further away from the sun.” Ria’s face looked at her blankly. “I will draw you a diagram when we next stop,” Sam promised.
True to her word, as soon as Tor called a halt, Sam retrieved her paper and drew a quick sketch consisting of two circles to represent the planet they were on and the sun, and a number of lines connecting the two. “See,” she explained. “As you go north, the distance between the sun and the planet increases so the temperature should decrease.”
“How do you know the sun is there?” Ria took the quill and drew another circle higher up, adding the connecting lines. These were now much shorter towards the north.
“That is possible,” Sam agreed. “In which case, the temperature would get hotter as you travel north and a lot colder as you travel south. Is that the case?”
Ria shook her head. Bellak, who had been listening in, looked over her shoulder at the diagram. “I can explain this.” Sam stared at him in surprise.
>
“Is the diagram wrong?”
“No,” he replied, in a surprisingly agreeable tone of voice. “You had it right before Ria played with it.” Ignoring Ria’s look of indignation, he continued. “Both the far north and the far south used to be a lot colder than they are now. About 500 years ago, something started happening to the sun. For some reason, it began to get hotter. All of the wizards and witches got together to try to figure out what the problem was and how to fix it. They were all stumped until one bright young lad suggested they stop worrying about the cause and concentrated on fixing the problem. Crops were beginning to wither and die and what used to be fields of green grasslands were becoming dry barren deserts. Streams were drying up and famine was setting in. People began to abandon their homes and head either north or south, where it was still cooler. Beasts were dying in the fields and flies were everywhere. It was a bad time for humans and animals alike.” He noticed that Patrick had drawn closer. “Patrick can confirm all I am saying.”
Patrick nodded his head. “It is true. Tor and Cirren have been taught all about it in their history lessons, but I lived through it. As the seas became warmer, fish started dying, leading to larger marine life starving to death. Many beings from all races died.” His voice was filled with sadness.
Bellak continued where he had left off. “For many weeks, all those with magical abilities discussed the possibilities. For the first time in known history, all races worked together to try to find a solution. Humans, elves, dwarves, sprites, giants; all animosity was temporarily put aside. It is a shame it did not remain that way once the catastrophe had been averted. There was peace throughout all lands. That has never happened since.”
He shook his head, as though clearing memories from his mind. “Sorry, I drifted away from my tale. Where was I? Oh yes. It was the same bright young man that suggested looking for a solution instead of a cause that came up with the best idea. Through a combination of many different spells, an invisible barrier was created to surround the entire planet. While allowing all light to penetrate it, it prevents any harmful rays from hitting us. It’s main purpose, however, is to regulate the heat. It has been set to allow a maximum temperature through. This results in all lands being more or less equal as far as heat and cold are concerned. We still have the seasons as our planet spins, as the colder months drop below the maximum temperature, but we will never again experience the killing heat that invaded our realms all those years ago.” His explanation complete, Bellak went silent.
Sam had been watching him closely as he told his tale. “It was you wasn’t it? You were the ‘bright young man’.”
Bellak smiled. “Astute observation, but while magic prolongs life, no wizard had ever been known to live that long. No, it was not me.” His eyes suddenly filled with pride. “It was my grandfather.”
Chapter 17
“So does anywhere experience extreme cold?” Sam asked. “Only up in the mountains I suppose.”
“Actually it gets hotter as you climb a mountain.” Sam stared at Bellak in disbelief. “The higher up you are, the closer you are to the heat barrier. The heat dissipates as it travels downward, making it cooler the further you get from the source.”
Sam was forced to agree that that made sense. “So do you ever get snow anywhere?”
“What is snow?” Ria enquired.
“It’s kind of like frozen rain, I suppose.” Ria shook her head.
“I remember snow,” Patrick announced. “I used to look forward to winter when I was a child as I enjoyed playing in it so much. Of course, that was before the air started to heat up and the barrier was formed. I must admit that I am glad that hail no longer exists, but I do miss the snow.”
Sam smiled sympathetically. “Did you ever build snowmen?” She received a few quizzical glances. “We used to roll two balls of snow, the larger one made a body and the smaller one was placed on top for the head. We then added stick arms, stones for the eyes and mouth and a carrot nose.”
While the puzzled looks remained in place, Patrick developed an inane grin. “I remember those. I once made one that looked so much like my tutor I was grounded for a week.” He sighed. “Oh to be young again.”
Their supplies diminished rapidly and it was agreed that they would head for the next town or city and spend a night at an inn while they restocked. Cirren had whined endlessly about having to camp out each night when local hospitality could be sought, but Tor insisted that their party was too large to impose on the villagers and refused to let any of them be approached.
It was nearing nightfall when they came upon the outskirts of a small town. Stallholders were beginning to pack up and one happily directed Tor to a local tavern. As Tor had predicted, the group was too large for all of them to stay under the same roof, but there was another inn at the other end of town that could easily accommodate those that could not stay in the first one. Neither establishment could offer large dormitory rooms, so Tor rented a number of smaller rooms, allowing the three couples the privacy of not having to share with anyone else, while the rest fell into groups of three. There was a central stable and Seth and Dal volunteered to sleep in the hay loft as they wished to check over all of the horses and this would take them deep into the night.
“Why do you check the horses?” Sam asked before they headed off.
“To make sure they are fit and not injured in any way.” Seth thought it was a stupid question and could not keep a slight trace of irritation out of his voice.
“Why don’t I just ask them how they feel?”
Seth looked at her, then turned his back on her and moved away, grabbing Dal by the arm and dragging him with him. “It is just not natural,” she heard him mutter before he was out of earshot.
“Don’t say I didn’t offer,” she called after him.
The next morning, Dal woke early and wandered around the still deserted city streets. As he passed the jailhouse, his eyes strayed to the noticeboard and he did not like what he saw. Taking down one of the bulletins, he ran back to find Tor as fast as he could.
He was panting when he burst into the room Tor was sharing with Patrick and Cirren. “We have a problem,” he gasped.
“Good morning to you too,” Patrick said, grinning. The smile fell from his face when he noticed how worried Dal looked. “What is it?” Dal held out the piece of paper he had removed from the noticeboard and Patrick quickly read it before handing it over to Tor.
“Modo is in the room next door. Bring him to me now,” the Prince instructed in an irritated voice. A few moments later, the vexen strolled through the door as if he did not have a care in the world.
“You summoned me?”
Tor thrust the notice towards him. “Explain this,” he snapped.
Modo read it and paled visibly. “I did not know there was still a price on my head,” he gulped.
“What did you do to warrant that amount of money as a reward?” Dal asked.
“I was caught cheating at cards. It is not my fault that one of my opponents turned out to be a Baron’s son. How was I supposed to know?” he asked, defensively.
“The question is, what are we going to do about it?” Tor asked.
“I vote we turn him in to claim the reward.” Seth had been approaching the door, which was not quite closed, and heard most of the conversation.
“This is serious.” Tor was not in the mood for Seth’s brand of humour. “We cannot afford for Modo to be recognised.” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “I suppose we can keep him hidden here until we are ready to leave, then sneak him out somehow.” He looked at Modo. “How do you feel about travelling in the wagon under a pile of blankets for a while?”
“That depends on what the alternative is.”
“A prison cell.” The reply was blunt and to the point, but it got Modo’s attention.
“The back of the wagon should be just fine.”
“Good. Cirren, you stay here and keep this idiot company while the rest of us r
estock with supplies. We head out at nightfall.”
Dal acted as messenger, letting all the other members of the team know the situation. Torrick and Ban took the cart and toured the local farms, buying fruit, vegetables, butter and cheese, while Ellen headed for the bakery and Patrick and Tor went in search of meat, both fresh and dried. Seth took the opportunity to restock his supply of herbs and spices and they all agreed to meet back in Tor’s room by midday.
As soon as she had purchased an adequate supply of bread, Ellen joined the other ladies in making use of the city’s public bath house. After soaking in the warm water for an hour, they were rubbed down with rough towels before having their arms, legs, backs, shoulders and necks massaged with aromatic oils. By the time they exited the building, they were clean, happy and relaxed.
Oak, Grimmel and Brin had volunteered to act as lookouts, making sure nobody approached the room Modo was hidden in. They positioned themselves in the common room where they had a good view of the stairs as well as the main door. While giving the appearance of three friends sharing a jug of ale and pleasant conversation, nobody entered or left the room without being spotted by one of them. Samson curled up under their table, pretending to sleep.
It was nearing midday when a soldier entered the inn and spoke to the owner, who was tending bar. Brin did not look in their direction, but out of the corner of his eye he noticed the innkeeper nodding and pointing in his direction.
“Get ready,” he whispered to Oak and Grimmel. “There may be trouble.”
The soldier walked up to them and cleared his throat to get their attention. “Excuse me. Do you mind if I join you?” Though his helmet obscured most of his features, it did nothing towards hiding his youth. This was definitely no seasoned warrior. He had probably only just completed his training. Oak, Grimmel and Brin all relaxed, nodding their heads towards a vacant seat, which the soldier gratefully took. “I hear you arrived last night,” he continued, pulling the chair closer to the table as he sat down. He did not see Samson under the table and his foot came down on the wolf’s tail, causing him to emit a low growl. The soldier immediately jumped backwards, overturning the chair.
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