A Boy Without Magic (Missing Magic Series Book 1)

by Guy Antibes

  “Can we sit somewhere comfortable?” Harrison said.

  “Of course, come this way.” Bentwick led them through a door to a cushy office. “I’m sure you’ve been here before,” he said. “A little too ostentatious for me.”

  “I agree, but Bacon had his talents.”

  “He did. I met the man a few times in Baskin. Who is your companion?”

  “This is Sam Smith. He is a boy without magic.”

  “Without what, you say?”

  “He can’t manipulate or even see pollen-made objects due to a serious injury when he was a toddler. He is helping me, and in the course of our summer tour, I am helping him.”

  Bentwick pursed his lips and nodded, keeping his eyes on Sam. “Had some adventures, lad?”

  Sam nodded and looked at Harrison who urged him on with a nod of his head. He told Bentwick of the adventure in Mountain View and Horner’s Rest.

  “You sound like you held up your part. Did he, Colonel Dimple?”

  Harrison raised his hand to throw off Bentwick’s remark. “I am mostly retired. Harrison or Dimple is fine.”

  “Of course, sir,” Bentwick said.

  “And he did remarkably well. I have been training him in the use of a sword on our journey. He has picked up enough to stay alive, so far.”

  “So far,” Sam said, with a bit of a sick feeling. There were more adventures to come, from the sound of Harrison’s voice.

  “What can I do for you?”

  “A few things, actually. Replace the constable in Horner’s Rest. He is a creature of the local boss.”

  “Another one of those has cropped up?”

  Harrison nodded. “We had two run-ins with him. I’ll leave it to you to report on Bagbox, but he needs taken care of one way or another, or the village will turn into a brutal prison.”

  Bentwick wrote as Harrison spoke. “What else?”

  “What do you know about the missing shepherd and the sheep?”

  “I read a report about the situation a few days ago,” Bentwick said. “Do you think it is worthy of investigation?”

  “Maybe. I assume you have some candidates for promotion here?”

  The constable nodded and grinned. “Thankfully, I do. Why?”

  “I’ll take them on a field trip to the north. I’ve asked for two soldiers from the fort to join us. No telling when a city affair turns into a military one,” Harrison said.

  “When do we leave?”

  “You don’t have to come,” Harrison said.

  “I want to. I’ve never been this far north, and I’d like to see the countryside rather than the inside of this constabulary.”

  “Very well. First thing day after tomorrow, here. Send a message to that effect to Captain Rangerfield.”

  ~

  “The last visit,” Harrison said as they strolled along the flatter section of Riverville closer to their river.

  He stepped into a shop. When Sam followed, he could see it was a healer’s office. Chairs lined the walls, half-filled with people waiting to see the healer.

  “Mags?” Harrison called from the counter.

  “Harry!” an attractive woman about the healer’s age came out and gave Harrison a hug. He hugged her back, which surprised Sam. “I didn’t expect you so soon!”

  “I’m a few days early is all. How are you?”

  “I would be better if you helped me clear this room.” She turned to the people waiting. “Some of you know Harrison Dimple. He’s here on his summer tour and will see you today and…” She arched an eyebrow and looked at Harrison.

  “And tomorrow,” the healer said.

  “And tomorrow,” Mags said, grinning at him. She noticed Sam. “An apprentice? I didn’t think you ever wanted one.”

  “A helper for this season only,” Harrison said. “He has already earned his keep. He will be observing me.”

  “Us,” she gave Harrison a wry grin. “Let’s put you to work, helper. I should have everything you two need right here.”

  Sam followed Harrison, as seemed his fate in Riverville, into the back.

  “You can assign me whomever you wish, Mags,” Harrison said.

  Sam spent the rest of the day fetching and carrying for both Mags, whose name was really Magia, and Harrison. The work wasn’t difficult, and it was quite different from treating people in the common room of the Horner’s Rest tavern.

  The day ended with Sam seeing more of people that he wanted, even though none of them wore pollen. Such was the life of a healer, he thought.

  “We are done,” Mags said. “How about treating me to dinner?”

  “Of course,” Harrison said. “The inn?”

  “That would be suitable if we use the dining room rather than the common room.”

  “Of course,” Harrison repeated.

  After locking up her shop, Mags joined Harrison and Sam, trudging through the village streets. The sun set, and the air got much colder.

  “A little side trip,” Harrison said as he led Mags to the stableyard. “Sam has a friend that would love to be introduced to you.”

  “A horse?” She looked confused.

  Sam called Emmy when they reached Harrison’s wagon. Emmy was on the other side of the conveyance and walked around.

  “A large dog,” Mags said, with her hands on her hips. “And a Great Sanchian, to boot.”

  “You know the breed?” Harrison said.

  “I do. Very rare in Toraltia, very valuable, and undoubtedly, the dog was stolen from some lord to have made it to this part of the country. Grand Sanchians rarely leave the country of Vaarek on the Polistian continent.”

  “Undoubtedly. We paid a Gold Lion for her from Lennard Lager.”

  “Stolen, for sure,” Mags said. “I would guess she’s worth fifty times that.” She put her hand to Emmy’s nose to let the dog accept her scent and then put her hand on Emmy’s coat. “Oh, maybe not that much. The dog has fresh scars.”

  “That is why Sam bought her.”

  Magia looked at Sam. “You paid the gold?”

  “I did. We have bonded,” Sam said. “I never had a dog before.”

  “You’ll not have another quite like her. Emmy, you say?”

  Sam nodded.

  “Emmy,” Mags said scratching the dog behind her ears. “I’ll come by to visit you tomorrow.”

  They walked into the inn’s small dining room and sat down. The innkeeper welcomed them. He knew Mags, as well as Harrison.

  “Now you can do some filling in,” Mags said.

  Harrison began with Sam’s beating and ended with his visit to the Constabulary.

  “You didn’t tell Sam of the dangers you always face during your tour?”

  Sam’s friend turned red. “I told him it might be dangerous from time to time. Didn’t I, Sam?”

  Sam nodded. “He has been teaching me how to use a sword.”

  “Harry can be a bad influence,” Mags said. She took much less time describing the changes in Riverville. She did express concern about Chief Constable Bacon. “His death was made to look natural,” she said, “but in my secret professional opinion, he was murdered. Poisoned.”

  “You have shared this with Faddon Bentwick?”

  She nodded. “No one else. He is looking into it. I just heard about a shepherd disappearing. Could they be connected?”

  “Sam and I will be heading north in a few days. We will have some constables and a couple of soldiers with us. Shepherds rarely disappear,” Harrison said.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  ~

  E MMY BOUNDED AROUND THE HORSES, happy to get out of the stable and out of Riverville once they had climbed the slope to the north gate of the village. Three constables, Bentwick, two seasoned soldiers, by the look of them, along with Harrison and Sam rode north along with a packhorse with supplies and food for a day’s worth of riding.

  The north side of the ridge that supported most of the village of Riverville was steeper, but switchbacks had been cut into the turf, m
aking the descent into the next valley relatively easy. They rode for two hours until they reached a pleasant little vale of green grass, spotted by copses of white-barked trees that Sam had never seen before.

  “Here we are,” one of the constables said. “No sheep that I can see. Generally, there is a large flock. They both disappeared.”

  Harrison nodded. “Take us to the shepherd’s cottage.”

  The other constable knew the way as they descended to the valley floor and rode along the lazy stream that meandered in the middle.

  “No question sheep have been here not too long ago,” Sam said, spying droppings all over the place.

  The soldiers laughed. One of them looked up. “No question that the sky is blue.” His companion joined him.

  They were led to a larger copse, and nestled among the trees stood a cottage of stone walls and a slate roof. Further in was a large structure that must have been a barn.

  “Ride through the trees. I’ll want to look at the ground,” Harrison said.

  “Looks deserted to me,” Bentwick said.

  “Seth?” the constable who knew the way called out, but they didn’t hear an answer.

  The horses were tied up, and the men were careful where they stepped. Emmy walked beside Sam as they approached the cottage.

  “Could he have walked off with his sheep?” a soldier asked.

  “We will find out,” Harrison said. The door was closed, but there was no evidence of a lock. He pushed it in with his foot.

  Sam gasped as he stepped in. The body of a grizzled man huddled beside the rock fireplace. “There he is. Seth didn’t go anywhere.” He couldn’t help pointing at the dead body.

  “What?” said the soldier who had teased Sam. “There isn’t a body that I can see.”

  “Pollen stones?” Harrison asked Sam. “I just see part of the fireplace.”

  Sam pulled out his wand and fastened the gold tip to the end and walked to where the shepherd’s body stood. He pushed the wand closer until it hit something that Sam couldn’t see. “A false wall.” He kept working.

  “A hole in the stone?” Bentwick said.

  “This stone is pollen-made,” Harrison said. “Touch it. You can feel the difference.”

  A constable started at the edge of the fireplace and nodded. “We would have never found it. Someone expert at pollen manipulation made this.” The man grabbed onto Sam’s wand. “I can finish this.”

  Emmy growled as Sam pulled it away. “I can do it faster than you,” he said.

  “He can,” Harrison said. “Let the boy be.”

  In a few minutes, there were two holes in the wall large enough for the soldiers to pull the fake wall off the body.

  “The body is wrapped in a pollen shroud,” Bentwick said. He approached the shepherd.

  “Don’t touch it,” Harrison said. “Sam can identify the body. He is likely preserved in that wrapping. We can take him to Riverville wrapped up like that, unless you want to bury him on his land.”

  Sam described the man adequately for an investigation. “We will have you look him over in Riverville,” Bentwick said to Harrison. “Let’s see what the scene can tell us.” The Chief Constable looked at Sam. “Do you see any other anomalies?”

  After a thorough inspection of the shabby cottage, Sam shook his head. “Nothing that I can recognize.”

  Others had drifted outside and looked at the turf and dirt around the cottage. One of the constables descended to his haunches and looked at a collection of tracks. “More horses than one. The turf isn’t that disturbed, so maybe four or five riders. That’s all I can say.”

  “Did they leave us any tracks?” Harrison asked.

  The constable looked out towards the valley and shook his head. “The site has been idle for too long.”

  “Except we have a hunting dog,” Sam said.

  “What?” Bentwick said.

  “As I understand it, Emmy is a hunting dog,” Sam said. “Maybe she can pick up a trail. Maybe we should look at the barn to see if there is anything she can detect. Maybe the false wall or Seth’s burial shroud might be enough.”

  They walked to the barn. The shepherd’s shabby pony munched on a pile of hay. No sheep were in sight, but the barn would have been big enough for quite a few of them.

  The constable who had looked at the tracks in front of the cottage bent over, looking at the ground. I still think they were four or five,” he said.

  Emmy stayed close to Sam, who looked around the place. His shirt caught at a nail, poking out from a post. He looked at the nail.

  “Blood,” he said, “and a tiny patch of cloth.”

  “And not too old. Harrison took a cloth handkerchief and wiped the remnants on it. He held it out for Emmy to sniff. “Can you find this person, Emmy?”

  The dog kept her nose buried in the handkerchief. She barked and ran out of the barn, and stopped and turned standing in the middle of the dirt. Her tail whipped back and forth revealing her excitement.

  Bentwick looked down and saw a dark spot in the dirt. “I think she might have something if she doesn’t lead us right back to the shepherd.”

  Sam patted Emmy on her head. “Get him,” he said.

  Emmy took off past the cottage towards the middle of the vale and barked.

  “Let’s follow the best nose,” Harrison said, grinning.

  They hustled to their horses and followed Emmy, who ran into the middle of the vale and then headed to the northern side. She stood at the edge of the woods that covered the slope on the opposite side of where they had entered.

  “Lots of sheep tracks here. The entire herd, I would imagine,” one of the constables said. “They are heading towards Gruellia. That takes care of that,” he said.

  “Let Emmy lead us farther,” Sam said. “Go!”

  Emmy’s face broke into a dog smile, complete with her tongue lolling out as she plunged into the woods and up the slope. They followed behind the dog, who bounded over the easy trail made by the sheep. On the other side of the ridge, they found a wooded valley with patches of grass, nowhere as picturesque or as good a pasture for the shepherd’s sheep. Emmy took off towards the west, not the north, and stopped at the end of the valley.

  The dirt had been trampled.

  “There were more horsemen here,” the constable who tracked said. “More than we can handle. I’d say ten or twenty. The sheep headed over that little saddle to the valley beyond.”

  One of the soldiers rode closer. “That leads to the main road from Riverville to Fussel’s Ford. Jarry and I can follow it to make sure and then ride back to Riverville. If they used the main road, there wouldn’t be any trace of them. All kinds of livestock and wagonry roll over that road every day.”

  Harrison emptied a bit of the packhorse supplies to give the two soldiers a bit more of their food. “We’ve got what we need to know if that’s what they did. If the trail leads elsewhere, return to the fort, and we’ll set off with a proper expedition.”

  “We are just going to abandon our search?” Sam said. He didn’t understand why they didn’t pursue the murderers.

  “If the criminals were after the livestock, we will be able to trace a large herd being sold. Who knows where they went once they hit the main road? There are more than a few side roads that lead to other villages, even a road that goes to Mountain View,” Harrison said. “The trail is days old. We will leave the rest to the army and to Chief Constable Bentwick. I have a body that I want to examine.”

  Sam nodded, still wanting to ride west to find the men who had killed the shepherd. They said farewell to the soldiers and headed back to the cottage. Sam had to call Emmy to abandon her hunt a few times before she followed them back to the cottage.

  “We can put the body on Seth’s pony,” Bentwick said. “We’ll need to seal the barn and the cottage.”

  “I can take care of that,” Harrison said.

  Sam watered the horses and Emmy at a trough made for sheep next to the stream. He figured out ho
w the shepherd shunted the water into the trough.

  Soon they were headed back to Riverville. The sky began to darken, and the trail became slick from the rain as their pleasant trip to the cottage was much less so during their return. Harrison met with Captain Rangerfield before they proceeded to Mags’s office.

  “You can go back to the inn. Mags and I will spend the rest of the day and probably part of tonight examining the shepherd’s body. It won’t be pretty. Autopsies never are.”

  Harrison didn’t have to convince Sam. He fed Emmy scraps from the kitchen before he tied her up.

  “You did a marvelous job, Emmy,” he said.

  “Indeed she did,” Bentwick said, stepping out of the inn. “I came looking for Harrison, but I suppose he and the local healer are just getting started.”

  Sam nodded. “They are. I wasn’t needed, and I really didn’t want to stay.”

  Bentwick smiled. “I wouldn’t either. I would appreciate a message left at the Constabulary as soon as Dimple’s findings are ready.” The Chief Constable cleared his throat. “You did well today. We would have missed finding the shepherd’s body if it wasn’t for you and Emmy here,” Bentwick scratched Emmy behind the ears. “Did her job very, very well. She is indeed a very good hunting dog. Don’t lose her.”

  “I won’t if I can help it,” Sam said.

  “Harrison told me you couldn’t see pollen. I didn’t think your talent would be so useful.”

  “It is a curse, not a talent,” Sam said. “It’s why I’m here, rather than thinking about an apprenticeship back home.”

  Bentwick nodded. “That’s right, you are Dimple’s helper, not his apprentice.”

  “Healers use a lot of pollen techniques,” Sam said. “I have none.”

  “I still think you have a talent. It is a matter of finding out how best to use it.”

  ~

  When he woke the next morning, Harrison snored away. Sam let him sleep in their little room and padded to the washroom before he finished dressing. He slipped downstairs and ate a solitary breakfast. He kept a slice of ham for Emmy and checked on the dog before he headed back up to see what Harrison had discovered.