Hanna smiled and nodded. The journey west had been somewhat tedious. Many of the villages had not yet heard the news and had been skeptical, to the point of calling Hanna a liar. The charge had caused more than one heated argument ending in bloodshed. Hanna didn’t take being called a liar well, and Katla was more than willing to back her when meetings turned violent. A few broken noses later, most apologized. Only once did she really lose her temper, with a particularly stubborn and obnoxious village leader. Who even after being bloodied refused to repent for questioning Hanna’s word. Hanna had the man tied and taken to the coast and put on one of her fleet that travelled to the Isles of Seron and Droll. She figured it would only take one or two trips before the ship encountered a dragon flying along the coastlines. If the leader was smart and lucky he’d be back in his village in a few weeks. “I don’t think my great uncle will be as stubborn as the others we’ve encountered. He has many trade routes and deals with foreign traders, and he isn’t ignorant to magic like many are. He’ll not be surprised by what I have to say. We won’t have any brawls here.”
“A pity,” said Katla. “Those have been the only highlights of this journey. That, and the promise of meeting this handsome cousin you speak of.”
Hanna laughed. Katla was a terrible flirt and loved to tease handsome young men, but Hanna knew a certain young mage meant far more to her than she was willing to admit. “He is a handsome one, and perhaps by now he is done mourning the loss of his beloved to the point where he may be swayed by your charms. But I would be careful if I were you. You haven’t encountered many men like him before. He can match you on the battlefield with weapon or with magic.”
Katla raised an eyebrow. “And what of you? Could he defeat you?”
Hanna shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think I would ever want to find out. His magic is very strong, and his father was one of the deadliest warriors in Northern Solotine. That is a combination that is hard to ignore. Thankfully, he doesn’t have the ambition or desire to be a great ruler or to be known as a deadly warrior.”
“Yes, I mean all he has done so far is create a kingdom of mages in Southern Solotine before leaving his teens. Thank the gods he doesn’t have ambition,” said Katla, her voice dripping in sarcasm.
Hanna ignored the sarcasm. “Everything he’s achieved has been to help others, not for personal gain. Now go find a handsome man to flirt or fight with while I go deliver my message to the king.”
Katla smiled and gave Hanna a small curtsy. “As you wish.” She then accepted the reins of Hanna’s horse and walked towards the local stables.
Hanna shook her head and headed towards the king’s great lodge.
…
King Theron rapped his knuckles on the table. “Bloody idiots. I should burn their villages down for not taking a Stoneblood at her word.”
Hanna smiled. Her great uncle’s displeasure at her mistreatment was a welcome change from the usual attitude she received. “Well, technically my name is Hanna Halfblood.”
King Theron waved his hand dismissing her excusing the village leaders. “Your mother was a Stoneblood and your grandfather was my brother. They all know who you are. They are ignorant fools to dismiss your warnings. Now, tell me what you know of these dragons.”
Taking a deep breath Hanna reflected for a moment. What did she know about dragons? “Well, I’ve seen them with my own eyes. We were returning from a routine trade run from Droll when we spotted one. It was feeding. It would swoop down into the seas and grab a full-sized tuna and in two bites the fish was gone. We didn’t get any closer to it, but it looked at us. Thankfully, it was preoccupied with its meal and didn’t give us a second glance. Other than that, all we have is secondhand knowledge. There are at least two Dragonbloods out there. One on Partha and one on Droll. Although I suspect there are at least three if not more. The Sacred Blood have been furiously organizing and there have been battles between them and those who welcome dragons back.”
King Theron nodded and took a drink of his wine. “That sounds about right. My father had a historian who was fascinated by dragons. As a boy, I often listened to him tell tales of the mighty beasts and the dragon wars that happened beyond Solotine. It seems a hundred years has changed nothing.”
“Why beyond Solotine?” asked Hanna. “Why were we not affected by the wars?”
“Giants,” said King Theron. “There have been dragons here before, but Solotine was a land of giants, and other beasts that were natural enemies of dragons. For thousands of years giants were the rulers of the lands of Northern Solotine. For the most part, dragons simply avoided Solotine. There were always exceptions, but generally it was giants who ruled the lands of Solotine when it came to mighty beasts.”
“And now giants are gone,” said Hanna.
King Theron’s eyebrows furrowed as he pondered Hanna’s simple reply. “Yes. For hundreds of years the people of Solotine have been fighting against magic. Killing giants, hunting a’kil, to the point where now magic is barely spoken of here. The damn priests and their religions are to blame, that and math.”
“Math?” asked Hanna.
“Yes, math. The ancient races, the Ingla, Giants, and the like didn’t reproduce often. Their numbers were stable, while Currians, the race that basically occupy Solotine now, were more like rabbits. In the last two hundred years the population of non-magical beings in Solotine has exploded while magic bloods have decreased rapidly. There was a time when race didn’t matter. Our own bloodlines are a testament to that. Ingla and giants would breed with each other and with Currians. But as the Currians grew in power so did their religions. It was only a matter of time before Solotine became theirs. Now everyone is Solotine is almost completely Currian, to the point they don’t even call themselves Currian anymore. Now they are simply Solotinians.”
“And now there are no giants, there is nothing stopping dragons from coming here, is there?” asked Hanna.
“Perhaps, but nature has a funny way of balancing things out. You and Nathan have shown powers no one in my generation could imagine, or several for that matter. Maybe there are others like you and Nathan that have the old magic. It also could be the wars between dragons and those like the Sacred Blood will keep them occupied and Solotine will be ignored.”
Hanna raised an eyebrow. “You believe that?”
“No,” said King Theron, as he shook his mighty head. “Already the Sacred Blood and others have been trying to buy up as much of our black steel as they can. At first, I thought it had more to do with fear of that crazy goat Lord Zellox and his attempt to rule the world, but now it all makes sense. The Sacred Blood don’t care about Zellox they care about killing dragons.”
“And if we sell them weapons we become enemies of dragons.”
“Yes. Something I will be bringing up when I go and meet with the other chieftains. Have you noticed more black steel being shipped?”
“There have been more weapons shipped, every kingdom seems to be preparing for war, and not just with dragons.”
“Yes, we’ve heard that as well. Southern Solotine seems on the verge of civil war. Even the threat of invasion from Lord Zellox doesn’t scare them into compromise.”
Hanna nodded. “Our traders say the same. The eastern cities are increasingly frustrated with the taxation and taking of manpower for the king’s personal army. How has this affected Elderwood?”
“So far, it hasn’t,” said King Theron as he shook his head. “Who would have ever imagined a city of mages in Solotine? It’s amazing to think it wasn’t so long ago I sent Nathan to Balta for fear he would be hunted for having magic powers. Now he returns and builds his own kingdom with mages.”
Hanna smiled. “You are doubting the abilities of a Stoneblood to become a great leader? He is your grandson.”
King Theron grunted at her chiding. “I suppose you are right. And perhaps a city full of mages is exactly what Solotine needs with dragons returning to the world, and Lord Zellox running amok in the Western
Isles. We know damn well he uses mages in his armies. Of course, King Parth won’t share that sentiment, he’s never shown any open-mindedness about magic.”
“Does the king hate Nathan then?” Hanna knew much about King Parth, her village traded often with the eastern cities of Tarnstead and the southern kingdoms politics were common knowledge. But, she hadn’t heard much about the king and the sudden declaration of a new kingdom on Tarnstead’s western border. The king had been strangely silent about his new neighbors.
“Likely, but I suspect he doesn’t want to be too vocal about it right now. Count Mavane is still among his most loyal allies and he wouldn’t want to isolate the count while he deals with the eastern cities. Tarnstead is a cauldron of strife waiting to explode regardless of what is going on around it.”
“Does Nathan still intend to have a lunar celebration? Isn’t that risky given the current political climate in Southern Solotine?”
“I don’t believe he cares about politics enough to understand. It is one of the reasons he reminds me so of his father. Nathan will do what he believes is right, politics be damned.”
Hanna couldn’t help but laugh. The pride Theron had for his grandson was written all over his face as he spoke of the young man. “Well, it should make for an interesting visit.”
6
As Nathan approached the walls of the canyon gates a figure stepped out of the shadows.
“Going without saying goodbye?”
“Verin, I wasn’t sure if you were here or out on patrol.”
“I have been taking less patrols lately,” Verin said.
“That have anything to do with a certain lady from Pailtar?”
Verin smiled. “You know it does. However, I also am finding myself having to do more official council duties. I can’t disappear for weeks at a time like I used to.”
“Anything important I should know about?” asked Nathan.
“The usual. Organizing patrols and caravan guards, making sure our outer farms are doing okay. The biggest issue is manpower. We lost many of our fighting men during the naval attack we are spread a little thin for all the things we are trying to accomplish. If it weren’t for the security of the canyon I’d be pulling my hair out trying to figure it all out. I did get a report of a young lord returning yesterday with a plethora of holes in his tunic.”
“Hardly a plethora, although it did ruin my tunic. Apparently, bandits are naturally attracted to me.”
“It’s the boyish face. No one finds you intimidating,” Verin said with a wink. “Come. I’ll walk you out. I need to stretch my legs a bit.”
As Nathan and Verin approached the gates, they were opened, and the guards nodded at them.
“Tell me about your conversation with Count Mavane,” Verin said as they started walking southwest, following the edge of the mountains into the open lands. While the area around New Balta was forest, to the east was the great swamp, west of the canyon was more open, lightly treed, and large open fields, perfect for their farmers.
Nathan repeated everything he’d told Avera and Sharon, filling him in on the meeting and the count’s thoughts on the situation in Tarnstead.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” said Verin when Nathan was done.
Nathan glanced over at Verin, raising a questioning eyebrow.
“Tarnstead being volatile didn’t happen overnight,” said Verin. “We’ve been getting reports of the king’s behaviors ever since your parents’ deaths. I’m more surprised it has taken this long for things to fall apart. Tarnstead isn’t an old established kingdom, it doesn’t have generations of stable leadership. It was a kingdom forged in battle. It will be a kingdom that dies in battle. We need to be prepared for when it happens.”
Nathan sighed. “A few years of peace would’ve been a nice change.”
“It could still happen,” said Verin. “We have a trustworthy neighbor in Count Mavane. As long as he rules Salma we should have peace.”
They walked in silence for a while, both enjoying the walk. Nathan appreciated the company. One thing Verin was always good at was knowing when to talk and when to just enjoy the silence and be aware of their surroundings. His ranger training kept him alert always.
They followed the tree line as they walked. They were coming up to one of the bigger farms and they could see the fields were well worked. “Which farm is this?” asked Nathan.
“The Donaldsons,” Verin said. “Two large families that work together. They were one of the most productive farms back in Balta, and it looks like they will be here as well. Kind of a prickly bunch, prefer to be among themselves, but hard workers and honest.
“It is impressive how much land they have worked,” said Nathan.
“They were smart, when we first arrived they went to Salma and bought a dozen draft horses and a couple plows and then had other tools made. They work hard, but they also work smart.”
“How many farms like this are there now?” asked Nathan.
“Like this? Only one. But there are a dozen large farms and many smaller single-family ones.
Nathan knew a few of the farmers by name, he’d met some in Balta with Verin, but for the most part he barely knew who they were. But he did understand how important the farms were to Elderwood’s survival. No city could thrive, or even survive without food. “Has there been any issues for the farms?”
“The usual, rain when they want sun, sun when they want rain, those with livestock have had to be careful about predators, but no one has a large number of livestock, they are all rebuilding their herds from scratch so keeping an eye on them isn’t a difficult task, but there are plenty of wild beasts to be wary of. My rangers have been hunting frequently. There have been sightings of enormous wolves and bears.
Wolves and bears had always been problems around Elderwood. The mountains were where many of the predators lived, but they’d come down into the flat lands to hunt deer, and in the case of bears, to forage. Lions and other of the great cat family would also hunt in the flat lands. Nathan was thankful that vraber, the deadly lizard-like cats, never came this far south. Wolves were the most common of the predators to be sighted, but there were many different breeds of wolf that lived in Solotine. Gray tails were the most common, they were the least dangerous to men. Hardly larger than a dog, gray tails hunted in small packs and hunted smaller creatures. They would occasionally take down a larger elk or moose if it was old or injured, but they weren’t as aggressive as the larger breeds like the timber wolves and the even larger ridgeback wolves, which were more than twice the size of a gray tail. Ridgeback wolves were rare, but they did live in the mountains to the west of Elderwood, so it was possible the rangers had spotted one, but it was more likely they had seen timber wolves, which were still much larger than any of the wolves found near Balta. “I don’t think the farms will have much difficulty with wolves, there is enough deer around here to keep them well fed, and they tend to avoid areas with humans. Wild cats are more troublesome.”
“Agreed. And to be frank, those concerns are small. Most of the farmers are very excited about the situation here, good tillable lands, plentiful water, and plenty of heat. They are surprised these lands weren’t already taken.”
“The lands to the east are ever richer soil, and flatter lands. The farmers in Tarnstead think these lands are terrible,” said Nathan.
Verin laughed. “Not terrible at all, just needing to be worked. Our farmers will do well here as will the ranchers who focus more on livestock. Well, I’m going to head back to the city. I have meetings this afternoon. Don’t spend too much time wandering west, you are needed in Elderwood.”
“I won’t. I’ll be back before the trip to Raumont.”
Verin clasped Nathan on the shoulder. “I’m glad you are taking the time to do a little wandering. Life is about balance. It is important to have you in Elderwood, but it is also important to reacquaint yourself with the region. Much can change in a few years.”
“See you when I return,” Natha
n said as Verin started walking back towards Elderwood. Nathan then turned and started walking west once more. He had a lot of walking to do. The first part of his journey would’ve been much quicker with a horse, but the stretch of desert and badlands that followed was much easier to navigate on foot, especially since he had never traveled it himself. He knew from his parents’ stories what places and things to avoid, and how to find the different cacti and plants his mother had collected from the badlands. But his parents had never really mentioned the people west of the badlands. It had never caught his curiosity as a boy, but now they were gone, Nathan often thought of the things his parents had chosen not to tell him. Northern Solotine, Balta, entire areas they knew well, they had shared nothing about. His world had been so small. The village of Elderwood, and its surrounding area down to the nearby village of Birchone were the extent of Nathan’s travels, they talked of Venecia and Tarnstead, but mainly as trading partners.
The day went fast. It wasn’t long before Nathan couldn’t see any more farms. Most of the farms were situated within ten miles of the opening to the canyon, a few were farther out, but they were mostly further south to take advantage of the flatter terrain. And while he didn’t see anyone, there was much he learned from his walk. The ground told a story. Animal tracks from a variety of beasts let him know the area was a rich hunting ground. Occasionally, he spotted the tracks of hunters looking for food. He could tell the difference between farmers out hunting from the rangers. The farmers wore different footwear and had heavier strides. They moved with purpose while the tracks of rangers were lighter. They too moved with purpose, but their intent was different. Rangers avoided wet ground where their tracks would be easily spotted, they didn’t step on broken sticks that would make unnatural sounds.
As he walked, Nathan could feel something watching him. Something, or someone, was up the mountain to his right. He couldn’t see or hear any signs of what was following him, the only real indicator was the lack of noise. No birds chirping, no squirrels scrabbling through the trees, something had them quiet. Nathan wasn’t worried, there were plenty of curious animals that would stalk a man simply because they’d never seen one before, and if it was a man, he was too far up the mountain to be a danger, yet. Glancing up, Nathan realized he only had a short time before nightfall. He started looking for a place to sleep for the night.
Treachery in Tarnstead Page 5
