Unsuspecting Mage

by Brian S. Pratt

  Miko looks at him and asks, “What’s so funny?”

  “I was just remembering when I came to realize the value of that particular gem,” he says as he begins to explain, but then pauses for a moment.

  “And what happened?” Miko prompts him.

  Smiling at the memory, James says, “Well, it was summertime and we planned a trip out to the coast, San Francisco was the name of the city. Now, my grandfather was telling me that I should bring my jacket, that I may need it. But it was really hot where we were and I couldn’t see the need of it. We arrived at the city and decided to go see Alcatraz, that’s an old prison situated on an island in the middle of the bay. I got on the ferry that was going to take us over there, and froze.”

  Smiling, Miko is enjoying hearing about James’ little goof up.

  “I told my grandfather that I was cold,” he explains. “But he just smiled and called it a lesson learned. We stayed there on that island for what seemed like a long time and I froze the entire time. I was miserable, my nose was running and I was shaking. When we finally returned to the mainland, I made a beeline toward this guy who was selling hot clam chowder and grabbed me some.”

  “I’ll never forget that experience and I will never be caught again without a coat, not if I can help it.” Finished with the story, James rides along in silence for a while, silently reminiscing about home.

  Shortly, he begins noticing the smell of wood smoke. He looks around for a plume of smoke that could indicate a forest fire, but doesn’t see anything. The smell steadily increases as they continue, when he suddenly realizes that they must be approaching the top of the summit and what he has been smelling is the smoke from many campfires.

  Cresting the top of the Pass, they come to the way stop and are surprised at how many people are camped there. A contingent of soldiers is also there, seeming to be keeping order.

  As they approach, one of the soldiers breaks off from his fellows and approaches, holding up his hand to have them stop. “Sorry, but the way stop is bursting to capacity with more coming in all the time,” he explains. “You two will need to camp a little further back down the road.”

  “Why?” James asks. “What’s going on?”

  “Refugees from the fall of Saragon,” the soldier explains, indicating the people at the way stop. “They’ve been pouring through the Pass for the last day or so. We made a temporary camp here for them and will keep them here until we know what is to be done with them.”

  “Why not allow them to go on into Trademeet?” Miko asks.

  “Those are the Captain’s orders and he didn’t explain himself to me,” the soldier replies.

  “No problem,” James tells him. “We can camp a little further back down the road tonight and then continue on over in the morning.”

  “Sorry,” he says, “but we got orders that no one is to be allowed down the east side of the Pass until further notice.”

  “What?” James exclaims. “Why?”

  Looking like he’s tired of explaining the same thing over and over, the soldier says, “Like I said before, that’s the Captains orders and he doesn’t explain them to me.” The soldier, having said all he intends to, turns around and heads back toward the camp that has been set up at the way stop.

  “Now what are we going to do?” Miko asks.

  James gives Miko an exasperated look and says, “Would you stop asking me that!”

  “Alright, alright,” he replies.

  “Let’s go back down a ways and find a campsite,” James says. “Maybe we can think of something.”

  Going back down the road, they find a widening of the road with enough room for them to make their camp and not be on the road. James sends Miko to gather firewood before it gets dark while he stakes out the horses and gets them ready for the night.

  Miko makes three scavenging trips before collecting a sufficient store of firewood to last throughout the night. James gets the fire going and has dinner started before the light completely fades. While sitting around the fire eating dinner, two men appear from the direction of the way stop and approach their campfire.

  “Hello,” one of the men says.

  “Good evening gentlemen,” James replies, then waits to see what they will do.

  They approach a little closer to the fire and James can see that they are eyeing their food hungrily. He says to them, “Would you two care to share our fire this evening? We have enough to share.”

  “Yes, we’d like that,” the other man says. “But we actually came to see if you could spare some for our families. You see we fled Saragon when it fell with nothing but the clothes on our backs.”

  “Certainly,” James says, “if you don’t have too many,”

  The taller of the two men almost breaks down and cries while the other says, “Thank you very much.” Turning to the taller man he says, “Silas, go and bring ‘em over.”

  Silas nods and heads back toward the refugee camp. The man says, “My name is Bellon, I was a farmer before the Empire’s army sacked our city.”

  “How did you get out?” Miko asks.

  “When the Empire overran the walls, it was total chaos,” Bellon explains. “People were running in every direction trying to get out. My grandfather used to be a smuggler way back when he was a younger man and once showed me an old smuggler route into the city that he said no one, not even the Governor knew about. Silas and I found it and used it to get our families out past the walls. The tunnel came out in a pile of old stones a dozen yards from the river, almost two miles north of the city.”

  “We were past the enemy lines and ran all night and all day, hiding whenever we heard someone approaching. We did that until we saw some of our soldiers coming from the City of Light. We waved them down and told them where we were from and what had happened. They told us to head here, saying we could find refuge and safety.”

  “Remarkable story,” James says. About that time, Silas returns with the rest, two women, an older boy and two smaller children. All have the lost look of those who have had their lives torn asunder.

  James stands when the ladies approach and says, “Welcome to our campfire. You are welcome to stay here the night if you wish. We don’t have a lot of food, but what we do have we will gladly share.” Turning to Miko, he says, “Get the rest of the food out of the bags and pass it out, they look as if they could use it.”

  The two families situate themselves on the ground around the campfire and wait for Miko to distribute the food. As it happens, there is enough to go around, maybe not enough to stuffing their bellies, but sufficient to still their hunger.

  “By the way, my name is James and this is my companion, Miko,” he says, indicating Miko.

  “We sure thank you for this, James” Silas says. “The kids were getting awfully hungry and the food that the soldiers were distributing had run out by the time we made it to the front of the line.”

  “I don’t think the soldiers had planned on this many making it here,” Bellon says. “They said a caravan was on its way from Trademeet but wouldn’t be here until later tomorrow or possibly the day after.”

  “We passed a large caravan coming this way early in the morning,” Miko tells them. “It will most likely be up here sometime late tomorrow.”

  “That’s good news,” Silas says.

  “James and I plan on going on through the Pass to Madoc in the morning,” Miko tells them.

  James gives him a look that says, ‘Don’t tell strangers our business’. Miko has the good sense enough to blush at his mistake.

  Silas’ wife says, “You mustn’t go there!”

  Holding his wife’s hand, Silas says, “I agree, it’s not a good place to be right now.”

  “Well, we don’t plan on going anywhere near Saragon,” James says.

  “Still, the Empire’s men are terrible foes,” Bellon states.

  “Why are they so terrible?” Miko asks with apprehension.

  Bellon looks at him and says, “They kill just f
or the pleasure of it. If they can capture you, you become their slave and they take you back to their Empire to sell you at auction. When Saragon fell and we were running through the streets to get to the smuggler’s route, we saw the slavers taking people, tying their hands behind their backs and stringing them in slave lines. If they were too old or an invalid, they just slit their throats, leaving them to lie in the street and bleed to death.”

  Bellon’s wife puts a hand on his arm, and when she has his attention, shakes her head and indicates the children. “Oh, sorry, maybe this is not the time or place to be talking about such things,” he says.

  “I think I get the idea,” James says, understanding. “But there is not much we can do, we have to go.”

  “If you must go,” Silas says, “then stay as far to the north away from Saragon as you can. No one was sure if the Empire would stop at Saragon or push further north.”

  “We will, I promise,” he assures them and then turns his attention to the vacant eyed younger children. “Now who would like to hear a silly song about a bunny?” he asks.

  They kind of perk up at that, at least the younger two do. One of them says very timidly, “I do.”

  So James begins to sing. “Little bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest…” While he sings, he pantomimes the little bunny hopping along with the rest of the cast of characters.

  For the remainder of the evening he sits and sings all the old silly songs he once sung as a child and even throws in a couple of poems. The children sit in rapt attention and after the first two songs, begin to smile a little and even clap along. The adults, seeing life returning to their children, begin to clap along as well with tears in their eyes.

  Eventually, James’ voice begins to crack and he has to stop for a while. Miko, surprisingly, begins a song about a lord who can’t find his slippers. It’s a silly song, but obviously one that the children have heard before because they begin to sing along with him after the fist chorus.

  The rest of the night is full of singing and silly tales. For a time at least, the memories of what happened and what their futures might hold are forgotten. All that mattered this night was that they had brought joy back to the children.

  The following morning when the sky begins to lighten, even before the sun rises over the mountain peaks, James and Miko make ready to get through the Pass.

  Silas, Bellon and their families gather around, shaking hands. Silas’ wife even goes so far as giving James a kiss. “Thank you so much for last night,” she says with tears in her eyes.

  “I wish you all well,” James says as he mounts his horse with Miko following suit. James reaches into his shirt and pulls out a bag of coins and tosses it toward Silas who catches it. “Take this and start a new life,” he says.

  “We can’t accept this,” Silas says and makes to hand it back.

  “No, you keep it,” James says, refusing to take it. “Money I have plenty of, what good is it if you can’t use it to help out your fellow man.”

  “How can I ever repay your generosity?” Silas asks.

  “Before the year is out, help two people who are less fortunate than yourselves,” James explains. “Also, ask them each to help two people within a year. Start a chain of giving, who knows where it might lead.” When all is ready he mounts up as does Miko.

  “We will,” says Bellon, the rest of the adults nod their heads in agreement.

  James reaches down and shakes hands with Bellon and Silas, “Good bye now, and good luck.”

  “May the gods speed you on your way,” Silas says.

  “And be careful,” his wife adds.

  With a final wave, James and Miko turn to head back toward the summit and over into Madoc. Behind them, James can hear one of the little girls begin to sing, “Little bunny Foo Foo…” With a tear beginning to well in his eye, he hurries along toward the way stop.

  They don’t get far before they are once again challenged by a soldier, a different one than the day before. “Travelers are not allowed beyond the way stop,” the soldier tells them.

  “We can take care of ourselves,” James assures him.

  “Be that as it may, my orders are clear. No one and I mean no one is to be allowed to endanger themselves by traveling into the Madoc area.” He stands there and bars their way, staring at them.

  “What if we just ride around you and go anyway?” he asks.

  “Then the soldiers further east will stop you,” the soldier explains. “If you persist after that, they will arrest you and place you in jail for your own safety until you realize that it’s not safe for you to go there.”

  “Damn!” James mutters under his breath. Turning his horse around, he heads back toward the west. As they return, they find that Silas and Bellon have already returned to the refugee area with their families.

  James glances at Miko who is looking at him with a questioning look on his face. “Don’t ask me!” he says to him.

  “I wasn’t,” Miko replies innocently. “I am simply waiting patiently to find out what we are going to do now.” Smiling, he continues to look at James.

  “I don’t know,” he says. “I certainly don’t want to waste the time backtracking all the way to Trademeet and then going north through the Dragon’s Pass. That will add days to our travel time.”

  “Why don’t you use that compass thing of yours,” suggests Miko.

  “It might just be time to do that,” James agrees. “Good idea.”

  Miko beams at the praise as they return to the spot where they spent the night before. There they dismount and James removes the compass from his backpack.

  He sits as far from the road as he can with his back to the rock wall. Motioning Miko over he says, “This may take a while, so make sure I am not disturbed. And remember, we don’t want anyone to find out I can do magic, alright?”

  “Alright,” agrees Miko as he takes position a little closer to the road.

  James settles down and holds the compass in his hands on his lap as he begins to tap the magic. He concentrates on finding a way through the mountains that he and Miko will be able to travel, which will avoid the soldiers patrolling the road. He concentrates harder and harder and then feels the magic surging forth when he releases it to begin hunting for a way. To James, it feels as if the magic is expanding from him in a spherical radius, causing ever increasing amounts to be drawn from him, searching every nook and cranny of the mountain for the elusive path.

  The spell continues to draw large amounts of power from him and after just a short time, he begins feeling the effects. His head starts to throb and his breathing becomes more labored. Yet still the spell isn’t finished, has not yet found a path through the mountains.

  Suddenly, the flow of power eases as the powers begin to merge and flow in a more singular direction like a pack of dogs that’s caught the scent of a fox. Then all of a sudden it was over and the needle of the compass turns to point westward down the road, back toward Trademeet.

  Opening his eyes, James sees where the compass is pointing and sighs.

  Miko hears him and comes over asking, “Did it work?”

  “Yes,” James replies, “but it’s pointing back the way we came.” He shows the compass to Miko.

  “Is it directing us toward Dragon’s Pass?” Miko wonders.

  “I don’t know,” he replies, “though we may have little choice.” Getting up, he has a sudden dizzy spell and briefly loses his balance. Miko sees him faltering and puts James’ arm around his shoulder. After taking a few steps and several deep breaths, he begins feeling better. He then removes his arm from around Miko’s neck. “I’m okay now, it’s passed.”

  “Too big a spell again?” he asks.

  “I think so, but I seem to be better able in handling the effects.” He mounts his horse and they turn to follow the direction indicated by the compass.

  Several hours later and still following the compass, they once again come to the plateau where the old abandoned keep stands. When the keep
comes into view, the compass swings and points toward it.

  “Great!” James hears Miko exclaim when he realizes where the compass is pointing. “Somehow I knew we’d be going in there.”

  “I had my suspicions too,” James admits. Thinking the way may be further down the plateau and not the old keep, James angles them to go around its left side. But when they begin to pass the entrance, the compass turns and continues pointing toward the open front door.

  He shows the compass to Miko with a grin. Shrugging, he turns his horse toward the entrance and dismounts when they come to it. James peers through the slight opening made by the door being ajar, but isn’t able to make out anything in the dim light filtering in.

  Turning back to Miko he says, “Let’s secure the horses around back and then investigate. We don’t want anyone coming by and helping themselves to them while we are in there.” They walk the horses around to the back where they find a fallen tree to secure them to. James takes his backpack and they return to the entrance. They stand there for a second when he says to Miko, “Wanna go first?”

  “No,” replies Miko, a little scared.

  “Alright then, I’ll go first.” James steps up and slowly makes his way through the doorway, passing into a poorly lit room. He makes his glowing orb and the light from it reveals a large room with several doors and two hallways leading from it. The compass indicates they should take the hallway directly opposite the door.

  He makes his way across the room to the hallway. As he enters, the light from the orb reveals something large lying across the floor not three feet from where he stands. As he moves closer he discovers it to be a dead body in the latter stage of decomposition. The clothing on the man, at least he thinks it was a man, is in pretty bad shape but looks as if they used to be of good quality.