Hand of Fire (The Master of the Tane)

by Rath, Thomas

  Thane looked away. “I know,” he whispered.

  Jack turned and wrapped the towel around his waist, and then moved over by the small fireplace in the corner of the room.

  Thane sat quietly thinking of Tam and the experience he had had only a couple of days before. Where could she be now? He knew they were in the woods somewhere, but exactly where he could not tell. He needed Jack if he had any hopes of finding her. Jack knew this side of the mountains. He had to have his help.

  “Why do all the men have such large daggers?” he asked, using his curiosity as an excuse to change the subject.

  “Daggers?” Jack asked. “Oh, oh, you must mean their swords.”

  “Swords?”

  “Yes. Don’t your people use swords?”

  Thane shook his head. “I cannot see how one could fight with something so large.”

  Jack laughed. “Well, they are used a bit different than daggers. The swords used by most of the men around here generally require the use of two hands, although some prefer the short swords which only require one. Then, of course, there are the Tjal-Dihn who are masters in the use of two swords. Their swords are somewhere in the middle as far as size goes and are slightly curved.”

  “I have never seen you with a sword,” Thane chimed. “Do you know how to use one?”

  Jack smiled, letting out a small chuckle. “I know a thing or two.”

  Thane’s face lit up. “Would you teach me to use one?”

  “I tell you what,” Jack said, moving away from the fire and over to Thane’s chair. “You go back to your room and clean yourself up and let me get dressed, and in a little while I’ll come and get you for some dinner.”

  “But what about the swords?” Thane protested.

  Jack grabbed his arm and lifted him towards the door. “There will be plenty of time for that later. Right now, you need a bath. You stink to the high throne of Seless and your Dihne is starting to come unraveled.”

  “But...”

  “No buts,” Jack said, opening the door and forcing Thane into the hall. “Take a bath.” Jack shut the door behind him just as Thane was about to make another plea. The only sound that passed through the door was a faint mumble followed by hurried footsteps running back down the hall. “Can I use a sword?” Jack said with a small laugh. “That’s a good one.”

  About an hour later, Jack came banging on Thane’s door just as the young Chufa was fighting to get his Dihne back on. With a little assistance from Jack, he was soon ready to again go out into public. Thane was amazed at how tired and hungry he actually was. Luckily, his room only had a washbasin and not a bathtub or he would surely have fallen asleep in the process of washing himself and probably drowned.

  The pub was relatively quiet when they entered the main room. Only a couple of men occupied the tables and one sat alone at the bar. Most of the men ate their meals in the barracks where their food was rationed out to them free of charge. Occasionally, some would splurge or get tired of the slop they were fed and buy a meal at the pub. For the most part though, they saved their meager salary to spend on mead. Everyone knew that old Benfer put in a few extra ingredients, mainly water, and charged an outrageous price, but since the next closest pub was in Calandra, a good sixty miles west, the only other choice was to go without. It was not a difficult decision to make for most.

  Jack picked a table to their immediate left by the fireplace and they both sat down with their backs to the wall presenting a clear view of anything that might come at them. Jack passed it off as a good habit but Thane still felt concerned for his life in a room occupied by other HuMans and was not about to take any chances. If anything happened, he wanted to see it coming. The door opened and a group of six men walked in taking a table next to the door.

  “Food in the barracks must be bad tonight,” Jack mumbled, mostly to himself.

  Thane didn’t reply but moved a hand up to adjust his Dihne.

  Benfer hurried over to their table with two bowls of thick stew and a tankard of mead for each. Thane sniffed at the liquid and wrinkled his nose. “I’d rather have water,” he whispered to Jack.

  “That’s what most of it is,” Jack grumbled searching through his stew for a piece of meat.

  “What?”

  “Just drink it, Thane,” Jack said looking around for Benfer. “It will keep you warm tonight. Benfer!” Jack called just as the portly old man rushed by. “You call this stew? Where’s the meat?”

  “Sorry, Jack,” he said as he caught up a couple of mugs in his hands and turned to rush back into a quickly growing crowd. “It’s just the end of winter you know. Not much about.”

  Jack growled disappointedly into his bowl. “We probably could have gotten just as good in the barracks for free,” he said throwing down his spoon.

  “Just eat it,” Thane teased gulping down another spoonful. “It will keep you warm tonight.”

  Jack gave him a sharp look but was greeted by a large smile. “You think this is funny, don’t you? While I’m half starving from lack of nourishment you’re cracking jokes.”

  Quin and a couple of his friends entered the room and, spotting Jack, pushed their way through the suddenly substantial crowd to reach him.

  “Here comes Quin,” Jack whispered. “Remember, you’re Tjal-Dihn and don’t speak much common. Just keep quiet and let me talk and everything will be fine. I’ll find out what I can about the trolls, sell my stuff, and then we’ll be out of here.”

  Thane was about to make a comment but Quin and his friends reached the table before he could open his mouth.

  “Jack,” Quin shouted over the din, “look who I brought with me.”

  The two men smiled broadly at him as each clasped his hand in turn. “Well, I’ll be a troll’s mother,” Jack beamed. “Thunel and Sakin!”

  “It’s good to see you, Jack,” they both said together and then sat down glancing at Thane who was trying his best to hide in his stew.

  “You keep strange company these days,” Thunel, the larger of the two, said motioning to the Chufa boy.

  “This is Thane,” he said quickly. “He’s what you might call a harmless Tjal-Dihn.”

  The other three men laughed nervously. “I’ve heard them called a lot of things,” Sakin said, “but harmless isn’t one of them.”

  Thane tried to ignore what was being said about him, thinking that if he made no notice of understanding that they would turn their attention to something else and forget he was even there. I don’t know why Jack had to drag me out here on display to everyone. I would have felt comfortable enough eating in my room.

  “Oh, he’s tame enough all right,” Jack assured them. “Left his swords in the mountains.”

  The newcomers relaxed visibly but Quin shook his head. “Well, I always said you were crazy, Jack. Until now, I just didn’t know how much.”

  Benfer passed by like a breeze plopping three mugs down on the table and then hurrying on at the call of his name.

  “A toast,” Thunel called raising his tankard. All followed suit except for Thane who was busy trying to dig out the last bit of stew in his bowl. Thunel looked at Thane. “I said, a toast,” he repeated a bit angrily feeling surer of himself knowing Thane was unarmed. Thane looked up and was surprise at finding the three men across the table staring at him. Jack nudged him with his elbow and motioned to the mug in front of him.

  “Uh, he doesn’t know common very well,” Jack explained weakly.

  Thane looked at the mug distastefully and then lifted it like the rest of them. Thunel gave him a sour look and then continued. “To old friends and new adventures.”

  Thane watched as the four humans brought their mugs up for a long swallow. Jack jabbed his ribs and he quickly brought the mug up to his mouth. The smell was awful, but he knew if he didn’t want any trouble he would have to drink. He knew it wasn’t poison, his Tane would have warned him of that. But, anything that smelled that bad couldn’t be good. Raising the tankard slowly, he watched as the putri
d smelling liquid approached his lips. Closing his eyes, he took in a quick mouthful and almost choked on it as he tried to force it down his throat before everything else came back up. The sour taste made his mouth pucker and his stomached tightened. Setting his mug down, he suddenly felt dizzy. He looked up and the room started spinning around him. His lips felt numb and the sweet after taste of honey lingered in his mouth. Talk and attention had long past left him but, strangely enough, he no longer felt apprehensive. In fact, he felt kind of jolly. He reached for his mug again as the noise around him faded away like the fire’s smoke right up the chimney.

  “So how are things in the mountains, Jack?” Sakin asked wiping the foam off his lip. “You wouldn’t consider coming down for a while and hanging around here would you?”

  “Yeah,” Thunel added with enthusiasm. “It would be just like the old days. What do ya say, Jack? We could always use a good fighting arm like yours.”

  Jack smiled while shaking his head. “Oh no boys, I’m through with that life. The reason I left for the mountains in the first place was to get away from it all. You boys know that.”

  “Get away from it all, he says,” Quin chided. “So, to get away from it all you walk right into the spider’s web.” Turning to the others he continued. “I bet he’s part o’ more fightin’ then the three of us combined. No wonder it’s been so slow this winter. Jack’s done killed off all the trolls.” The others let out a small chuckle of agreement and Quin went on. “Oh no. I suppose that our life down here is much too boring for our friend, Jack, here.”

  Jack stared into his tankard for a moment and then took another drink. “No boys, I’m afraid that old Jack has put up his sword for the quieter life of hunting furs and relaxing in the warm sun. The trolls don’t come around my place anymore. Not for a long time now.”

  Sakin laughed. “Like Quin said, you probably killed them all.”

  The others laughed again and then Thunel stopped short catching the somber look on Jack’s face. “You can’t be serious, Jack,” he breathed in disbelief. “You hate trolls. You always have. I’ll never forget the first day you got here right in the middle of a raid.”

  “Yeah, Jack,” Sakin added. “You were like a demon straight from the halls of Dren. It was a whole week before you would talk to anyone.”

  Jack’s mouth turned up into a grin but his face held no joy or laughter. “Well, boys,” he said quietly, “I’ve put that demon to rest. That’s why I went into those mountains. Anyway,” he said waving his hand and draining the rest of his mead, “enough of all this talk of the past. What I want to know is where in Seless’ name is Wess and when is he coming back?”

  Thunel and Sakin looked at each other grimly. “I told you,” Quin shot back, “he’s out...”

  “I know what you told me,” Jack interrupted, “but that’s not what I want to hear. Come on now. It’s me, remember? It’s Jack. What’s going on around here?”

  Quin looked down at the table and then quickly glanced around to make sure no one was listening. “We really don’t know for sure,” he whispered, leaning across the table. “Rumor is that a large group of trolls have gathered and are heading west towards the Mogolths.”

  Jack’s face became a dark mask of concern. “Are you certain of this?”

  “Nobody knows for certain,” Sakin answered, “but it comes from pretty reliable lips.”

  “Whose?” Jack hissed. “I’ve got to know.”

  Thunel gave him a surprised look. “Come on Jack. Have you been away that long? You know we can’t tell you that.”

  Jack sighed and wiped a callused hand across his face. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Why is it so important who told us anyway?” Quin asked.

  “It just is,” he replied. “I’ve got to know for sure if it’s true.”

  “Well,” Thunel said, “Wess will be back tomorrow or the day after. You can ask him. You know he’ll tell you everything before he says a word to us.”

  “I guess,” Jack breathed settling back into his chair.

  “Maybe those demons of yours aren’t completely gone like you thought, eh?” Thunel said looking at the others who nodded their heads in agreement.

  Jack didn’t reply. Suddenly, Thane let out a loud yell and then jumped up onto his chair while bursting into song. All noise in the room quickly ceased as everyone turned and looked just as Thane pounced onto the table and threw himself into some sort of a jig. Laughter erupted in the room and some actually began to clap and cheer him on. Thane smiled at the cheers and, encouraged, sang louder. Jack jumped up like a shot and grabbed his arm desperately trying to shut him up and get him down. In doing so, he knocked Thane’s tankard onto the floor where it bounced a couple of times and then rolled under the table. It was bone dry.

  Catching hold of his wrist, Jack pulled the young Chufa into a bear hug and yanked him from the tabletop to the chagrin of all who watched. “By the blood of my fathers,” he yelled into Thane’s ear trying to rise above the shouts of encore that echoed all around them. “What do you think you are doing, boy?”

  Thane looked at his friend and smiled. “Jack!” he screamed. “How you are then?”

  Jack looked around frantically, smiling nervously at his friends while pulling Thane away from the table. “He’s had a little too much. I better get him to his room and into bed.”

  “Sure, Jack,” Thunel waved while Quin and Sakin sank into their chairs unable to control their laughter.

  “You didn’t tell us he was a Tjal-Dihn bard,” Sakin roared holding his stomach.

  “Right,” Jack smiled. “I’ll see you all tomorrow. Maybe we could spar a bit to see who the bard in this group really is.”

  “Whatever you say, Jack,” Quin smiled. “And don’t forget, these drinks are on you.”

  “Of course,” he answered carrying Thane, who was now half asleep, into the hallway. Quin’s voice rose above the din calling for Benfer to bring his best ale. Thane woke up the next day with a pounding headache and a churning stomach. He tried to focus on his surroundings, not quite sure where he was, when an acid filled burp warned him of worse things to come. He stumbled from his bed and crawled to the basin of water, arriving just in time for his stomach to reintroduce him to what was left of last night’s stew. The horrid, sweet taste of honey remained and was enough to make him stay where he was with expectations of more.

  A loud knock came at the door and then Jack peaked his head in. “By the looks of it, I don’t suppose you want any eggs for breakfast.”

  “Go away and let me die,” was all he could muster the strength to say.

  “That’s almost what became of you last night the way you were carrying on,” Jack said, his voice somewhat stern. “What got into you to drink all of that mead, boy?”

  Thane’s only answer was to empty his stomach of what had not come up the first time.

  “Right,” Jack said stepping back outside the door. “I’ll get you another basin of water and then I think I’ll leave you to this yourself. It looks to me like you’ve got a pretty good handle on it.”

  Thane lifted a weak hand and waved him off and Jack was all too happy to oblige. Clawing his way back into bed, he lay moaning for a short time before finally falling back to sleep where he remained for most of the day.

  That night, Jack returned with a small bowl of soup, which Thane readily accepted, finally feeling much more like himself. He still felt a little bit weak but, for the most part, the worst of it was over.

  “What have you done all day?” he asked between sips of soup.

  “Well,” Jack answered a disappointed look on his face, “after the news we received last night, I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, to find out more.”

  Thane looked up from his bowl in confusion. “What information?”

  “Didn’t you pay attention to anything that was being said last night?”

  Thane looked down in shame not remembering much after his first taste of mead.

  Jack s
hook his head but continued. “I did some checking last night and it seems there may be some troll activity in the north.”

  Thane looked up. “How far?”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to find out but no one seems to know anything.”

  Thane suddenly stood and paced slowly to the door and back trying to work some life into his tired muscles and wondering about Tam. Maybe that is where she is. “We need to find out where. I must go there.”

  “Hold on a second now, son,” Jack said turning to face him. “First of all, we don’t know yet if all of this is true. And second, we are not going anywhere until you tell me what is going on. Now, I was willing to come down here because I had planned to anyway. But running through the countryside after a herd of trolls, that may not even exist, for a friend you say has been taken but are not sure how you know, is going a bit far. Now, if you want to tell me what happened back on the mountain and how you know all of this then maybe we can talk about it, but until that time,” Jack paused, his voice growing softer, “until that time, I am not going anywhere with you except back into the mountains. Now, the choice is yours. I know I owe you my life Thane, but I won’t be forced into something I don’t know anything about. I don’t like surprises when it comes to my life or to the lives of those around me.” He paused only long enough to make his way past Thane and open the door. “I’ll be in my room when you’re ready to give me some answers.” He was out the door before Thane could say a word.

  What am I to do now? Maybe I could go on without him. I’m a good tracker, how hard could it be to find a large group of trolls?

  Sitting on his bed, he tried to finish his soup. I can’t just wait around while Tam’s life is in danger. I’ve got to act now. I can’t wait any longer. But what if Jack is right and it isn’t true? I need someone who knows the area. He got up again and paced the floor. I need jack but I can’t risk telling him about what really happened on the mountain. I’m not really sure what happened up there. I’ve got to convince him somehow to come with me.