by Brian Beam
Max was curled up asleep on the saddle in front of Sal’. I had the feeling that he was going to have some joke prepared about how he got between her legs before me just to spite me. I knew that little furball too well. He probably wouldn’t have believed me if I told him that when I was with Sal’, that was not my primary desire. Probably because he knew me too well.
“Did you hear me, Korin? Do you know why her bond was messed up?” Til’ prodded.
Snapping from my thoughts of Sal’, I shook my head and turned my head back so both she and Til’ could hear me. “My guess is that when the egg is buried beneath the earth, the bond is broken. When she first awoke, the Kolari had it buried and she couldn’t feel the bond. When Galius stole it, she could feel it again.”
“But she could only feel it during the day and it would disappear at night again,” Sal’ argued dryly, speaking to me for the first time since the previous afternoon. When I turned my eyes to her, she promptly turned hers back to the landscape before us.
Trying to act like her avoidance of me didn’t hurt, I explained. “Well, if Galius is like your typical street beggar, he probably buried the egg at night when he was travelling. I figure he was paranoid about it being stolen since it was all he really had to his name at that point. He probably buried it a good distance away from him when he camped so that if someone tried to rob him, they wouldn’t get the egg. Once he established himself in Byweather, I’d bet anything that the safe he kept the egg in was partially buried in the dirt under the floorboards of his house or in a secret basement of some sort. You know, old habits die hard.”
“Wow!” Til’ exclaimed. “That’s brilliant, Korin. Did you hear that, Sal’? Korin is so smart.” Sal’ huffed and slowed her horse, dropping behind us once again. “Hey, what’s wrong with her?”
Fighting the urge to stop and find out, I kept Telis moving forward towards Geeron. “I wish I knew,” I replied.
* * * *
That was the way that the entire trip went. From the McAlwains’ to Geeron, Til’ barraged me with conversation, Sal’ made no conversation, and Max either slept or kept silent. By the time we were halfway to Geeron I probably knew more about Til’s life than anyone else’s other than myself and he probably was starting to know me just as well. I couldn’t complain given the lack of eldrhims, evil wizards, or attempts on any of our lives.
We made it to Geeron in the early evening and stayed at the Weary Traveler’s Inn just because I hadn’t had any problems with it when I had stayed there before. My plan was to get Sal’ cornered away from the others and find out what was going on with her.
Not five minutes after our horses were stabled, however, she announced she was going to see if there was a wizard’s guild in the city and disappeared into the evening. I had never thought that I would want her back to her old, crazy, labile self, but I would rather have had her scream at me one minute and joke the next than completely ignore me.
The common room of the Weary Traveler’s Inn was pretty empty for that time of night. Only two of the dozen or so round wooden tables were occupied. The room was strikingly warm from the great stone fireplace in the back of the room. In front of the fireplace, a wiry man in colorful tights was juggling a half-dozen balls of various colors in two separate circles. None of the inn’s patrons paid the poor man any mind.
After paying for three rooms, I left a note for Sal’ with the same suspendered, rotund innkeeper from my previous stay. The note was just to let Sal’ know that her room was taken care of and that I would like to speak to her when she got back. I ordered three trays of roast beef and boiled potatoes with mulled cider to be sent up to my room.
With the exception of Sal’, we ate in my room with both Max and Til’ indirectly trying to get me to give away my plan. All I could tell them was that I planned on taking Galius the egg and from there they’d just have to see. Max glared at me suspiciously, but Til’ just accepted that I wasn’t going to tell him anything and proceeded to ask Max about what it was like to be a squirrel.
I left Max to deal with Til’ while I went out for some fresh air, letting Til’ know that I wanted him in his own room by the time I returned so that I could get some rest. In all truthfulness, I still didn’t feel nearly recovered. I felt that if I spent more than an hour on my own feet, I’d fall to the ground in exhaustion.
On my way out into the cool night, I left a silver coin in the clay pot before the performer in the common room as he played a fiddle while dancing and singing an old folk song. Even if I was starting to lose more money than I had made working for Galius, I still had a good amount saved up, and the performer wasn’t going to get anything from the few people who were in the room. Additionally, if my plan didn’t pan out, I wouldn’t have need for the money anyway as either a servant to Galius or a dragon snack. The performer paused his fiddling to give me a slight nod and a gracious smile before going back into his song.
Once outside I took a deep breath, trying to clear my head of thoughts of Sal’. Yes, I cared for her, but there were more important issues that I was about to face. I kept my head down as I walked down the cobblestone street just in case Brennor or his fellow thugs had avoided being jailed by the town guard after our little altercation and happened to be out and about. Okay, I was being paranoid, but even with a dragon egg in my coin purse, I didn’t want to push my luck. I’d had enough excitement in the past week of my life.
Even though late evening started to darken the streets, I was able to find a tailor’s shop with its windows lit up. The Golden Thread—as the hanging, lacquered wooded sign out front named it—provided me with three simple, gray woolen cloaks for a silver coin. Til’s needed some alteration for his smaller size, but the tailor was swift with the changes and I gave him a couple of copper coins for his efforts. At least we’d be a little warmer on the way to Byweather.
Once I had made it back to the inn, I passed through the common room—empty except for a couple of silent men working on flagons of ale—and went upstairs to the rooms. The hallway was dimly lit with candles in wall sconces. Light poured out from under a faded red door with a black 5 painted on it. That was Sal’s room. I knocked twice, but instead of an answer, the light just extinguished.
“Sal?” I called. “Can we please talk?” There was no response. With a sigh, I made my way to the door marked with a 7.
Max was still awake when I entered the room. “Seems you have become as secretive as me,” he announced as I shut the door behind me, dropping the cloaks into a pile on the floor.
“Then I guess you can’t complain,” I retorted, dropping down onto the bed wearily. The room was set up exactly as the one I had stayed in before, down to the sandalwood oil soap and red blanket over pressed sheets. I dropped down onto my back with my legs hanging over the end of the bed and sighed, shutting my eyes against the glow of the oil lamp.
“You are not going to give me any idea of what you plan on doing, are you?” Max asked.
“It’s better that way,” I replied.
I heard Max let out a sigh of his own. “Korin, you have put your trust in me more times than I deserve. I will put my trust in whatever you are thinking on doing.”
Letting out a slight chuckle, I opened my eyes and turned my head to where Max was laying beside me. “Trusting a lunkhead like me? That’s not like you, Max.”
“Don’t remind me,” he replied wryly.
I turned my eyes back to the swirl-textured ceiling. “I just wish I knew what was wrong with Sal’. I mean, if this goes wrong and I end up dragon food, I don’t want to die with her feeling so angry at me.”
“First of all, if you die, Salmaea will just be mad at you for being stupid enough to get yourself killed.” I shot a scowl at Max, which he ignored as usual. “Secondly, I can tell you exactly what is wrong with her.”
That got my attention. “Then, what’s going on with her?”
“Salmaea is just mad that we are not going to the Wizard Academy,” he answered bluntly.
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I sat up and shook my head, placing my fingers to my temples. “Wait, what do you mean we’re not going to the Academy? And exactly why would she be angry about not going to a place she was angry about having to go to in the first place?” Yeah, my wording of that last question kind of tied my own brain in knots too.
“I guess I have not told you that about that yet, have I?” Max asked, his beady black eyes protesting innocence.
I narrowed my eyes. “No, no you haven’t. Explain, furball.”
Max glared at me a moment for the “furball” comment before explaining. “Well, when Salmaea awoke the morning we left the McAlwains’ farm, she told me that she wants to talk to her father about the whole dragon situation. She wants to find out if there have truly been raids by wizards to kill the dragons and if the dragons have truly been cursed to only have one child until they become extinct. I think she feels guilty about the situation Bhaliel described. I also think she is a little worried that the dragons are going to cross over and kill all the wizards of Amirand.
“When I told her that we were no longer going to the Academy, she dropped into this mood and quit talking to us. I think she is even angrier at you.” Max stopped to scratch at his jaw with a hind leg.
I stared at Max incredulously. “And why would she be madder at me than you when I wasn’t even informed about our change of plans? Besides, she can go to the Academy on her own if she wants. She doesn’t have to stay with us.” The thought of her leaving and not seeing her again made my heart drop, but she was free to do as she wished.
“Because she likes you, lunkhead. I thought the kiss would have clued you in on it. If you want me to spell it out for you…”
“What do you mean, Max?” I asked in exasperation.
“Salmaea is angry that you are not letting her in on your plan. To her it looks like you are just putting your life in danger and that you do not even care enough about her to let her help you avoid a fiery death at the hands of Bhaliel or a life of servitude to Galius. Either one would take you away from her and she is a little miffed that you don’t seem to care. She probably would not want to go to the Academy on her own because that would take her away from you,” Max explained condescendingly with his head slightly tilted to the side.
“And she told you this?”
“No, but I am no idiot with women like a certain someone I will not mention,” Max quipped insolently.
Letting out another deep breath, I sucked up my pride to do something that Max would never let me live down. I asked him for advice on how to deal with a woman. “So, what should I say to her?”
Max shrugged his tiny shoulders. “Just give her some time to let this go. Unless you plan on telling her what you are going to do in Byweather, anything you say before you give her time to cool down will probably just make things worse.”
I nodded slowly. “Here I am with my life on the line and I’m worried about Sal’s feelings towards me. I guess you’re not the only one acting a little out of character.”
I had never felt anything like what I felt for Sal’ towards anyone else before. Max may have always tried to make me out as some sort of womanizer, but with my life on the road, I never got to know any woman well enough to have more than a night of fun with them. Sal’ was the first to make me want more than just one of those nights. I really wanted to know her, to make her happy…
Okay, before I start getting too sappy, I better continue about my conversation with Max. “Now, what is this about not going to the Academy?”
Max looked up at me guiltily. Again, I am not an expert at squirrel expressions, but it looked like guilt to me. “I was going to tell you once all this was over. I figured you would want to be free of any additional distractions while you resolved the whole Contract thing.” Max took in a deep breath. “Before Menar died, he told me that he believed that Raijom was involved with Gualain’s warmongering.”
My breath caught in my throat. We had a real lead on Raijom. “So we should be able to find him in Gualain?” I asked. Where he may or may not have an army to protect him, I thought to myself.
Max shook his head. “I doubt he is in Gualain, but we will be more likely to figure out how to find him there than at the Wizard Academy.”
“Why wouldn’t Raijom be in the kingdom he’s presumably helping to start a war?” I asked suspiciously.
With one of his usual huffs, Max stood on his hind legs and crossed his scrawny arms over his fuzzy chest. Now, that was an interesting sight. “This is exactly why I did not want to tell you. You have enough to worry about without puzzling over this.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I admitted. I couldn’t just let the thought go but Max was right. I didn’t need to pile more concerns onto the heap in my brain. “Did Menar tell you anything else?”
“Nothing useful for our journey,” Max replied vaguely. I wondered what else Menar had told him that Max was keeping secret, but saw nothing but futility in asking.
“Alright then,” I said. There was one more riddle I wanted solved, though. “What about this Prexwin guy?
Max shrugged. “I had never heard of Prexwin or seen him before yesterday. Raijom never had an apprentice to my knowledge, but it was a long time ago that I knew him. I do know that if Prexwin is only his apprentice, then Raijom must be much more powerful now than when I knew him. The magic Prexwin was using was far beyond my own capabilities. The way he paralyzed us involved paralyzing individual muscles in our body concurrently. That was how he could allow us to make certain movements while still being immobilized. He was targeting multiple relay centers in multiple people’s brains at the same time. The power needed for that is just…it is just more power than I have ever seen in any wizard.”
“What was with those weird convulsions? Without those disrupting his magic, we would probably all have been killed. Did the dragon egg cause them?”
Max tilted his head as if in thought before answering. “As for his convulsions, he was just taking too much of that power from himself to create those spells. His body was rebelling against his magic use before he destroyed himself. I am sure that with just a little more time of him using so much magic, he would have burned out and lost his sense of self or just died. I am not saying that the dragon egg’s magic had any part of it, but the convulsions created by using his own energy did seem conveniently timed, though.”
While I had considered that possibility, it didn’t make sense to me. “But why would he do that to himself? Is he just that crazy? Why wouldn’t he use animals, or heck, even one of us to cast those spells? I mean, from what you’ve told me about magic, if he had been using himself to create spells in the past, as much magic as he used on us should have incapacitated him more than it did.”
“That is because our encounter with him was probably the first time he had ever used himself like that. He must not understand how magic works here—” Max turned his head away from me. He obviously didn’t mean to say what he did.
Anger started welling inside me. “What do you mean ‘here’? Do you mean as in ‘this world’ as I’ve heard you and Prexwin both refer to?” I snapped accusingly. What had they been talking about? They couldn’t have been talking about a world separate from Amirand unless there were other lands across the ocean or on the other side of eastern Amriand. To my knowledge however, those areas just held violent storms that turned explorers back if they didn’t kill them first.
Max’s eyes snapped back to me. Would I finally get some secrets out of him? “What I mean is that there are other places where you don’t have to draw the energy from living entities. There are places where magic energy flows through the air for the taking. The process of creating spells, whether from your own body, another living being, or the air around you feels no different. You have to learn how to figure out the difference, though, or else the first sign you would have in using your own self instead of magic from the environment around you is the effects it would have on your mind. I learned magic in such a place—as di
d Raijom—and I can only assume this Prexwin did too,” Max explained snippily.
I stared at Max skeptically. “Seems weird that Prexwin wouldn’t know about that, don’t you think?” The edge in my voice caused Max’s brow to lower.
“I do not have an answer for everything,” Max shot back.
“So, do you not have one for this, then?” I questioned, trying to corner him in the argument.
“What do you want from me, you Khamlea-blooded lunkhead?” Max rebuked, dodging my question.
This argument was not going to get us anywhere. Max can sometimes be even more stubborn than me and that’s saying a lot. In fact, Khamlea is the goddess of stubbornness. Yeah, there’s a goddess of stubbornness.
I took a deep breath to calm myself. “Okay, let’s drop it.” I had to concede or I’d end up with yet another friend ignoring me.
We made small talk after that, eventually joking about whether all Kolari were as insufferable as Til’ and if Sal’ had it in her to become a better wizard. Max thought she had the ability, she just needed the confidence. Even though I knew nothing about using magic, I couldn’t help but agree.
After Max fell asleep, I took some time to catch up on my journal. When I finally snuffed the light and settled in for the night, sleep was a long time in coming for the unceasing questions running through my mind. Was my plan going to work? If not, what would become of me? Was Sal’ going to let her anger go and actually talk to me again? Did she share the same feelings for me as I did for her? Would my wiry build keep her from having those feelings? Why would Raijom have anything to do with Gualain starting a war to expand their power? Why wouldn’t he be in Gualain if he did? Maybe most importantly, when would I let Max know that I knew exactly who he truly was?
Chapter 20
Drinks, Amends, And Teases
