by Guy Antibes
Jack put a finger to his lips and showed them the way out. He took the time on the other side to push a few of the nails back into their holes magically to confuse the guards.
“Do you know the way out of here?” Jack asked in a whisper.
Tanner gave him a curt nod, and then they took off, three fugitives in a line heading toward the village.
They were soon out of hearing from the farm.
“How did you learn to remove the manacles so quickly?” Quist asked.
“You don’t have to do everything with wizardry. I picked the locks.”
Tanner chuckled. “A lad with many unseen talents. Now do you have a plan to retrieve our things or are we just going to steal our horses back.”
“I didn’t think that far. All I know is I didn’t want to weed anymore,” Jack said.
“Neither did I,” Tanner said smiling in the moonlit darkness.
They continued along the path toward the village until they noticed two riders picking their way along the road to the farmhouse.
“Guards?” Quist asked.
Tanner shook his head. “No. Those are two women. Could it be?”
The three of them stood just into the tree line until even Jack could recognize Helen Rafter.
“Looking for three handsome men?” Tanner said walking out. Jack followed him, but he wondered if they were still under the patriarch’s spell.
Helen stopped in the middle of the road. “Have you already escaped?” she asked dryly. “You can’t even let a girl have a good time rescuing defenseless males.”
“Not quite defenseless,” Tanner said. “Jack was responsible for our early departure. Where are our horses?”
“Back in the village. We will tell you on the way.”
Quist padded up. “Would one of you mind sharing your mount? I am an old man.”
“Not that old,” Tanner said, “but you are slow. Get up with the other woman. She looks smaller to me. I assume you are Simara Khotes?”
“I am, and I have a story to tell, but not until we are well away from here.”
“Were you two kept captive?” Jack asked.
“Of course we were. But Gant spelled us asleep in our rooms when he resumed his journey north. He only kept us to bargain with should there be a pursuit,” Helen said. “We were groggy for a few days, but we shook off the last vestiges of the spell he had laid on us this afternoon. The rest of the time, the villagers were wondering what to do with me. The prison farm is for men only.”
“Did the patriarch grab my things?” Jack asked.
“We didn’t even know you had caught up to us until the villagers recognized me. They told Gant nothing.”
“Why didn’t he just kill you like he did Henry Oppen and Derr Mason?” Jack asked.
“You figured that out, did you?” Simara Khotes said. “Derr told us to leave with the orb when the patriarch came to visit. We slipped out the back door as Gant came in to demand the orb.”
“And you led us all the way here. Why couldn’t you have stayed in Corand?” Tanner said.
“Aramore Gant has too much power there. Here he is just another wizard, but a powerful one. He operates outside all laws,” she said. “I won’t talk about it until we are well away from here.”
Helen cleared her throat. “He is a very scary man,” she said, “but not as bright as we make him out to be. Neither is the village mayor. He boasted about you, not knowing at the time that I fought with the Soffez. He runs the inn, by the way, and wanted to impress us with the booty they removed from you. I know where it is. They haven’t sold your horses to the residents yet, but in a few days or a week, they would have been scattered throughout the village. We need to hurry before people get up.”
The five of them hurried to the inn. No one was awake. Jack and Tanner retrieved all their possessions from the innkeeper’s office, and soon they were on the road. Hungry, tired, but free.
Chapter Nineteen
~
J ack put his hand on the wand as he rode. It needed more power. The sword needed more, too, but Jack knew his priorities. The cube still pointed north. He had expected it to be northeast of them, close to the capital/port of Reoja or on the sea, heading back to Corand.
“Where is the patriarch going?” Jack asked. “He isn’t to the east.”
“And he won’t be,” Simara said. “He told us a lot of things while we were under his spell. I can’t remember any of the details, but he is meeting someone he knows who has a keep in the mountains.”
“Another wizard?”
Simara nodded. “Supposedly a powerful one.”
“So he is seeking allies?” Tanner said.
Helen laughed. “You might think so, but he is after the wizard’s objects of power, and then he will kill the wizard just before he begins his conquest of the world from the keep. He told us more. Why I don’t know. I remember bits and pieces, but that is the gist of it.”
Tanner laughed. “So the Black Finger Society will join forces with the rest of the wizard world to fight him?”
Helen nodded. “As I said, he’s not too bright, but he has a lot of power. Even though I don’t give him much chance to rule the world, he has more than enough power to obliterate us.”
“I have my errand to perform. Maybe the other wizard will prevail, and I can ask him for the orb,” Jack said. “I’m happy the patriarch didn’t kill you like he did the others.”
“So am I,” Simara said. “Maybe he still has a few, lingering scruples about killing women. He had no trouble ending poor Henry’s life.”
“And Derr Mason, and his own two aides,” Tanner said. He looked at the wizardess and asked, “So are you a member of the Black Finger Society? The wizard registry said you might be.”
Simara smiled. “The answer is no. I suspect Aramore Gant provided the information for the notation at the wizard registry. Henry was the one who knew Derr Mason and had with connections in the Third Ring where we fled until the ship set sail for Lajia. I thought we’d be safe hiding out in Rugiz, but…” she shrugged her shoulders. The wizardess looked like she was of an age between Jack and Helen, mid-twenties, Jack guessed. She was a bit shorter than Quist and had long dark curly hair and smooth light brown skin. Jack thought she was prettier than Helen.
“Then what were you going to do with the orb?”
“Sell it back to Fasher Tempest, of course.”
“So what about my errand?” Jack said. “I suppose Fasher can pay you for helping us. You know Lajia better than Tanner.”
“I do. We can join forces,” Simara said. “Since Ozzie Quist,” she turned and bowed to Quist riding in the rear pulling the packhorse, “is powerless, you will probably need another wizard to help bring down Gant if we can.”
Jack thought for a bit. “What if we just left Lajia?”
Tanner, Helen, and Simara looked shocked. “And leave Gant with a very powerful object of power?” Simara asked.
“Just a thought,” Jack said. He really didn’t know and tossed that out there to see what they said. “I need to bring the orb back to Fasher, or do you?”
“I live in Dorkansee,” Simara said. “I have to return to clear my name and eradicate the Black Finger label. I was engaged in making my way in Dorkansee and didn’t have any intention about fleeing back to Lajia, where I was born. I’ve haven’t been paid, but I want to avenge my friend’s death. So I am with you..”
“So, I suppose we move forward.”
Simara raised her hand and then nervously played with her fingernails. “I have one request. We will be traveling by the town where I grew up. I know you are after the patriarch, but I would like to visit my widowed father. It is only a small detour.”
Jack looked up the road and back toward the village they escaped from. He shrugged, knowing that the patriarch wouldn’t be taking over the world by the time they finished a short side trip.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Jack said. The others nodded.
“
So how far is it?” Jack asked.
“We will reach it the day after tomorrow. It is a few hours travel from the Notiz Road,” Simara said.
They kept riding, but by late afternoon, even Tanner was ready to stop for the day at a village inn.
Jack was more hungry than sleepy, unlike the others, so he sat at a table facing the main street, looking through the slatted shutters that passed for windows in Lajia.
“Mind if I join you?” Simara asked, taking the chair across from Jack.
“Not at all. I’m just doing some reading.”
She leaned over and looked at the title. “That looks like something Derr Mason would own,” she said.
“He did. Quist took it from his library when we found him.”
Simara nodded. “It is protected, but you have probably found that out.”
“Quist said something to that effect. I can’t understand much of it,” Jack said. “He said if I tried most of the spells in the book that I wouldn’t like the results.”
“Or more likely, you would be dead. I can remove the protection if you promise not to try any of the spells on your own. You might need some understanding when we confront Gant.”
Jack gave her the book. She muttered something, and Jack felt a tiny tingle of power.
“I felt you do it,” Jack said. “That hasn’t happened much to me.”
“But you are a wizard’s helper.”
“Not even a month on the job and I was sent north to Dorkansee.”
“How did that happen?” Simara asked.
Jack told her his story.
“You can teleport six feet, Quist said?” she said interrupting him.
Jack nodded, disappointed that the little wizard had opened his big mouth. “I learned that on my own. It came in handy once, but I probably shouldn’t have tried. What happens if you teleport into a space, like a brick wall?”
“The teleportation won’t work. Did you worry you would be stuck in the wall?”
“It was a gate, actually,” Jack said. “I found that out when I appeared on the other side.”
She smiled at him with admiration. “No wonder Fasher recruited you. May I touch your arm?”
Jack shrugged. It had been a while since a girl had asked to touch him or he her. He felt a tiny trickle of power leave him.
“You don’t lack power,” she said.
“But I do lack finesse, knowledge, and wisdom. My father has reminded me of that almost daily since I became a teenager. I still feel that way, as it turns out,” Jack said. “I know I’m not very mature, but I do want to learn, and I do want to return the Serpent’s Orb to Fasher Tempest,” he said. “It is just that I feel I am way over my head.” Jack hadn’t confided in any of the others in quite this way, but it did feel good to admit it.
“Are you afraid?”
Jack frowned. “Not particularly. I am more of a take-life-as-it-comes kind of person, much to my father’s chagrin. This wizard stuff is new to me, and I know it is dangerous to read this book, but somehow I feel if I don’t I will let everyone down.”
“That is too heavy a burden to share for some. It was for me, as it turned out,” Simara said. “I was so thoroughly beaten by Aramore Gant, I am still ashamed that I couldn’t fight him off. I had to watch as Gant casually killed my friend.” Her eyes were getting a little watery for Jack’s taste.
“Were you and Henry more than friends?”
She nodded. “A little more than friends. We met recently.” Simara took a deep breath. “But that is in the past, now we must look to the future. Here.” She handed him the book. “You should be able to read it now. Quist could have done it, but he is disabled.”
Jack wouldn’t have thought of the wizard like that, but to Simara, he probably was. “He still knows a lot more than I do,” he said. “What was it like living in Lajia?”
Simara shrugged. “Much like Corand, I would imagine, except we don’t worship a cow god. Ours lives in the clouds and always has been a goddess. Takia is her name, but she does the same basic things. We have priests, but no patriarch, thank goodness!” She laughed at that. “I grew up a middle child between an older brother and two younger sisters. They got all the attention, and I got all the magic. None of them turned out to have any extraordinary power. I was discovered by a priestess of Takia and taken to a special school. If I had had a more nurturing aspect, I would have been encouraged to be a priestess, but those who don’t are taught the Lajian equivalent of the first three manipulations and then you have to seek a wizard or wizardess for more tutoring. I had a falling out with my teacher, a man, and decided I would seek my fortune in Corand.” She looked at Jack and made a face. “Not too interesting, is it?”
“What is interesting is all the stuff you didn’t talk about. What made my life interesting was misbehaving. In Raker Falls, I was good friends with the guards and with the Alderachean priests because they were always called upon to intervene. That, I think, is behind me. I’ve never had to be an adult before, and it isn’t as much fun.”
Simara laughed, softly. “Life and fun are what you make of it. I obviously haven’t succeeded as well as you, but I’m not disappointed…until recently.” She got up from her chair. “If you need some tutoring and get tired of Quist, I’d be happy to answer your questions. Just don’t try anything on your own. Promise?”
Jack raised his hand. “I promise.” He watched her leave. His first thought was that she didn’t deserve what happened, and his next thought was why Fasher didn’t have her retrieve the orb. It would have been easier. Did the wizard want him out of Raker Falls? The answer might have been yes, but Fasher was plain that he intended on sending Jack on errands. Not everything she said made sense to him.
He examined the book, and whatever Simara had done worked. He could read the words and understand most of them, but the concepts were well beyond him. Jack would have to go slowly, after all. He didn’t want to be restricted in his learning, but Quist and Simara said it was dangerous, and she did make Jack promise.
~
Simara’s town was two hours from the road, which they left midmorning. The cube still pointed north when they turned off. They didn’t know how far away Gant was, but the patriarch would be days ahead.
A river ran through the town, which was a crossroads. Boats were tied up in wooden slips along one side of the waterway. The place looked comfortably worn, which was a term Jack’s father would use to describe a good piece of used furniture. Simara led them over a bridge and along a river road on the other side until she stopped at a gate in the wall.
“Home,” she said with a little bleakness in her voice.
It didn’t look like she was excited to be home, but she opened the gate and led her horse inside, beckoning the others to ride into a courtyard. The house was at least as big as Penny Ephram’s in Raker Falls.
A servant came out, thin, bald, and all knobby knees and elbows in shirtsleeves. “Miss Khotes. We didn’t expect you!” The tone was more like we never expected you, again, the way Jack heard it.
“Wizarding business brought me to Lajia, and we were taking Notiz Road, so I had to stop by. How is Father?”
“Your father is fine…to me, but I’m not so sure about you,” the servant said. “You brought friends?”
Simara nodded. “Traveling companions. Can’t I at least say hello?”
“Of course,” the servant said. “I will get your father.” He nearly glared at Jack, Tanner, and Helen.
“We won’t be accepted inside the house?” Simara said.
“That will be up to him. I wouldn’t take such a thing upon myself,” the man said and disappeared inside the house.
The girl frowned.
“You didn’t leave this place under pleasant circumstances?” Jack asked.
She shook her head and looked down at the ground, but then something made her lift her chin. “I won’t be intimidated.” She pressed her lips together and walked inside the house, leaving the others standing in the
courtyard holding onto their horses.
“This is awkward,” Helen said.
“It is?” Quist said. “She isn’t on good terms with her father, is all. I never was.”
Jack realized that his own relationship was a bit iffy on most occasions, but he hoped that the father would let her stay, even if they had to find an inn to have a meal when they reunited.
“You can come in. I will take care of your horses,” the servant said.
“I can help,” Quist said. Surprisingly, he looked eager to help the man.
Jack walked in last. Simara and her father stood in the tiled foyer as she introduced them.
“You can at least stay for your midday meal. When did you last eat?”
“Breakfast,” Simara said.
Her father, Igar Khotes, rubbed his white-gloved hands. “Come into my sitting room. I will join you as soon as I notify the cook we have guests.”
The sitting room was large with seating for twelve or more. Jack walked over to the bookshelves that lined one wall.
“You might not like Lajian books. They tend to lean toward romances, and I don’t think you are the romantic type,” Simara said.
“Probably not,” Jack said. She was right. Jack liked action books and histories, but he looked for books on wizardry. “Nothing on magic?”
“In Father’s study. He was the wizard that I had a falling out with.”
“Oh,” Jack said. “So this is a little more than a visit. A reconciliation?”
Simara shook her head. “Neither of us is ready for that, yet. But I hope our visit might lead to one.”
Igar stepped inside the room and sat down on an empty chair. “I would like to know what brings my daughter back to Lajia. You look like people on a mission.”
“We are,” Tanner said. He gave a quick version of their reason for heading north on the Notiz Road.
Igar looked at his daughter. “You were captured in Rugiz?”
Simara took a deep breath and nodded. “I was lucky I wasn’t killed like my friend.”
“Why didn’t you come here?” Igar said.
“I didn’t know if we would be welcome.”
“You and the Corandian wizard?”
