Dread of Spirit: Rise of the Mage - Book One

by Jason Bilicic

  “So that leaves me.”

  “So some folk thought,” Cobb said, nodding. “But now I’ve met you and I can speak otherwise, undo some of the idle chatter I been hearin’ around.”

  Suddenly it dawned on Kelc. Cobb was an extremely honorable man that didn’t think too highly of Varrl. Perhaps he’d been helping the rumors circulate and now felt guilty, so he gave Kelc the equipment to soothe his own bruised honor.

  “I would appreciate it,” Kelc responded. “And coming from a man of such obvious honor- you’re an armorer after all- I know such lies will cease dogging my steps.”

  “They will.”

  Kelc spun on his heel and left the shop, feeling better than before, but still concerned with why the deputies spent such effort against his family.

  His steps carried him to the lawn at the center of the square where he found a bench and sat. He almost sat on the skiver before remembering to slide it around to his right hip.

  He watched as folk moved about the square, hoping that his mother and Shy would appear soon, since he needed either them, or his father, to get something to eat. They had all the coins. He began considering going on a search for them when he was interrupted.

  “Kreg?” asked a feminine voice.

  He looked up into green eyes framed by black hair and accented by freckles and a pretty smile.

  “Kelc, Kreg’s brother,” he answered awkwardly, standing up. “And you are?”

  “Erisa. You’re his little brother?” she said, looking up at him and then down at his clothes, pausing on the sword belt and two blades. “The last time I saw you…” She smiled brightly and it made Kelc’s heart skip a beat. “You’ve seventeen summers?”

  “Eighteen,” Kelc said, since he was so close to it.

  “You look very handsome. With the blades and all, you look…very stalwart.”

  Kelc tried not to blush and felt himself failing. “Many thanks from a woman of your beauty.”

  “Oh,” she said, giggling, “you’re sweet. Your older brother could use a lesson or two from you on how to talk to ladies. He’s coarse, but you…” She giggled again, the sound exciting to Kelc. “You, I like.”

  Kelc’s face reddened further. He dared to look her in the eyes and then, as she glanced away, he looked at the rest of her. She wore a tunic and fitted pants, both light brown, and it was evident that she was athletic, and though they weren’t ample, she had enough curves to appeal to the young man.

  “Would you like to take a walk?” she asked, glancing, now shyly, at him. Kelc nodded.

  She took his hand. “This way.” She led him out of the square and along a dirt side road. After passing a couple of alleyways, she turned down one of them, making no comment.

  After a short distance they arrived at a stable. “So, here we can talk without others watching.” She turned to Kelc, still holding his hand and looked up to him, her nose only two knuckles below his chin. “What would you like to talk about?”

  Kelc felt light headed and blushed again as his body responded to having a beautiful girl so close, though there was no way she could tell, he hoped.

  “I like it when you blush,” Erisa said, taking his second hand. She raised up on her tiptoes and after only a moment of looking at Kelc’s grey-green eyes, she closed hers and kissed him.

  Kelc stood, confused, for a few heartbeats, and then instinct took over. They kissed several times, each one longer than the last. When Erisa suddenly pulled away from him, Kelc’s entire body buzzed. He found himself panting.

  Erisa calmly walked into the stable, pulled a blanket from a storage chest and laid it on the floor, dropping onto all fours to flatten it out properly. When she finished she sat on it and crossed her legs out before her.

  “So, younger brother of Kreggen,” she said, all shyness gone and an impish smile on her face. “You’ve never been with a woman before have you?”

  Kelc’s heart still pounded in his chest and his breathing remained erratic from kissing the young woman. He looked into her eyes, glancing at her lips, noting how full the bottom one looked. “No,” he finally said. He shook his head as well.

  “Should anyone ask, we kissed,” she said looking at him purposefully, though her eyes and pouty lip spoke of invitation. “Only kissed.” She arched her thin eyebrows as if waiting on the answer.

  Kelc nodded dumbly and walked forward until he stood before her. As soon as he came near enough, she pulled him down onto the blanket.

  “Erisa,” he breathed heavily. “What of your surname. I mean…”

  He stopped talking, couldn’t talk, as she unbuttoned her tunic and shed it, followed by her shift, leaving nothing but her velvety skin. Kelc could barely breathe. “Oh, my father is Feldagar,” she said, her arms covering her nude chest. “It’s cold. Are you going to come keep me warm?”

  Feldagar. Erisa was a candle girl. Kelc grinned. “Yes,” he told her. “Definitely.”

  Kelc waited on the wagon, his legs dangling off the back, while his mother and Shy quickly checked with their seamstress on whatever garments they’d purchased.

  Varrl, still angry after insisting that Kelc must have stolen his new equipment, fumed on the driver’s bench. He’d sent Kreggen to check with Cobb regarding the belt, skiver and sheath, and once Kelc’s story was confirmed, his father only grew angrier, though he withdrew, leaving him be.

  Kreg sat on the other back corner of the wagon, staring at his little brother.

  “So,” he said quietly enough that traffic along the lane shielded his voice from Varrl, “you seem to be deep in thought.” Kreg couldn’t help but smile as the red began to creep into Kelc’s face. “It is possible that you could be thinking about your argument with father. He did get pretty angry.” Kreg reached over and drew Kelc’s skiver from its sheath. Kelc, meanwhile, pressed both hands to his face as if rubbing his eyes. “You might be considering how to use this fine dagger in your offhand while fighting.” Kreg brandished the knife. “It does feel good in the hand. I like the wire grip on it.”

  “Not now,” Kelc said.

  “Or,” Kreg offered very quietly, “perhaps you were remembering where you were when you missed lunch. And the two glasses after lunch.”

  Kelc’s head slumped forward, his hands still covering his face. “Kreg,” he said, almost pleading.

  “I walked all over town, brother, and couldn’t find you. Oh, how I worried that you might have gotten into trouble.” Kreg scooted over and put an arm across Kelc’s shoulders. “But I wasted my worry. As soon as you came walking back to the square wearing that big dumb smile… I knew.”

  “Knew what?” asked Shaia as she climbed into the back of the wagon and added a burlap package to a number of others. She had to ride next to Kreggen because of the barrels and supplies now stacked in the front of the bed.

  Kreg smiled broadly and Kelc said nothing, though his neck shone red as a radish.

  “Knew what?” she repeated.

  “Let’s go,” Varrl called. “Heeyah. Yah!” The wagon rumbled forward, causing all three of the children to hold on.

  “Shy, you did stow the embroidery threads, yes?” Adda called back over the raucous of the wagon.

  “Yes, mother. It’s...” Shy looked at the mess of bags, small boxes and barrels. “It’s here. I put it in here somewhere.”

  Adda nodded and turned around, looking forward.

  “So,” Shaia said, “what were we talking about?”

  “Nothing,” Kelc said. “Kreg was just going on…”

  “About where our dear younger brother got off to when we were all supposed to be eating our midday meal.”

  “Oh,” Shaia said, extending the word with her piqued interest. “Did you have a run-in with one of the candle girls?”

  “A run-in,” Kreg said, wearing a smile. “Is that what happened, Kelc? A run-in?”

  “Was it Urna?” Shy asked. Silence. “Not Peka.”

  “Nope,” Kreg answered.

  Kelc lifted his he
ad suddenly. “How did you know that?” Kreg’s eyes shot wide. “Oh! Peka is it?”

  “That’s where you went,” Shy said, waggling a finger at her older brother. “After we ate, you said you needed to see about something and you were off before anyone could say a word. You…pig!” She laughed as she said it.

  “Oh, and Kelc isn’t a pig? I doubt Erisa stopped at a handshake,” Kreg said.

  “Erisa,” Shaia said appraisingly. “She’s pretty. And Kelc didn’t go all over town looking for some willing strumpet. He’s…sweet.” She smiled at her younger brother.

  Kreg laughed, obviously thinking otherwise.

  “So,” Shy said, raising one eyebrow, “did you kiss her?” Whatever red had escaped Kelc’s face immediately returned. “More than that?” she asked, her tone raising in disbelief. “Kelc!”

  “Congratulations, Kelc! You’re a pig,” Kreg announced. “Even Shy didn’t see this one coming. Our younger brother goes to town, gets equipped like a hero from a story and celebrates like a victorious conqueror. Ha!”

  “I don’t believe it.”

  “It just…happened.” Kelc finally smiled. “What can I say?”

  “You can tell me if you liked it,” Shaia said, but Kelc only grinned. “I see. Wow! How things are changing.”

  The wagon had only just gotten out of Haggon’s Mill, when the three saw a horseman coming up strong behind them.

  “Father,” Shy called.

  “Rider aboun!” Kreggen shouted, again using an old Symean command. “Coming at a run.”

  “Hells!” Varrl shot a look back at the rider before slowing the wagon to a stop. “Looks like Timmon Siles, the cooper,” he said as the rider neared. “Wonder what he wants.”

  “Doesn’t he have his grandmother still alive; woman must be near on seventy-five summers,” Adda said. “Maybe she died.”

  “Maybe.”

  The hoof beats grew louder by the moment and soon Siles was near enough to call out, “Varrl, wait! Wait. We need you!” He kept riding, right up to the wagon, until he stopped next to Kelc’s father. “It’s my mother. She just died.”

  “Well, I’ve this wagonload of…”

  “I have a cart, myself,” Siles said. “If you and Adda could come, help us wrap her in linens, you could take the cart and I could come get it after the rending.”

  Varrl sighed. “We’ve some trouble at home,” he said, looking back at Kreggen. “I… Kelc, can you drive our wagon home?”

  “Yes, sir,” he answered.

  “Kreg, with all the trouble we’ve seen, you’re staying with me,” Varrl said to his oldest. “Help your mother dig the shroud linen out and the three of us will take care of Timmon’s mother. Shy, you go with Kelc and make sure that everything gets home and put away. Leave the silvering and furnace oil until I get there, but I expect the two of you can get everything else taken care of.”

  “Yes, father.”

  Kreg jumped up and began sorting through the supplies while Adda directed him. Kelc dropped off the back of the cart and turned to offer Shaia a hand.

  “Ride up front with me, Shy. We’ll make like important folk.”

  She beamed. “You know,” she said mischievously, leaning forward to whisper, “with a cart and all these supplies, we could probably reach Skurgaard before anyone caught up.”

  “Tempting,” Kelc murmured as he helped her step down from the wagon. He’d never considered running. He was property, Varrl’s property. A deputy would come after him. “Don’t think we could get very far,” he whispered to nobody.

  Varrl, Adda and Kreg started back into Haggon’s Mill while Kelc sorted the team lines, making sure he remembered which did what.

  “You sure you can do this?” Shaia asked.

  “I’ve driven the team plenty of times.”

  “With four or six?” she asked, checking to see how far off her mother and father were.

  “Four…a few times. I can do this.” He sat up, content with his grip on the reins. “Heeyah! Get off with ya! Macy!” he barked, using the lead horse’s name. “Freska! Yah!”

  The horses started forward and Kelc tested his lines, making sure he had them right, steering the team a bit before speeding them up. “Heeyah!” He cracked the reins and the team jumped up to a cantor. “Shy, keep an eye on the supplies. Does us no good to speed home if we leave everything on the road.”

  “It’s all fine. You’re doing better than I thought.” Kelc looked over at her and she smiled. “You have certainly become a man, little brother.” She rested a hand on his leg, getting a smile in return. “And a good one at that.”

  Kelc shored up the reins in his grip, urging the team forward with an occasional snap of his wrist.

  Soon Haggon’s Mill fell behind, dropping from sight, and the brown sea of grass swallowed Kelc and Shaia. The only proof that they were moving at all was the small bluffs of trees that seemed to mosey past as they rolled along the road. That, and the noise.

  Several times Kelc tried to have a conversation with his sister, but the tumult of the wagon was loud enough that he didn’t bother. Instead, he focused on driving, occasionally glancing over at Shy where she enjoyed the ride, staring off into the distance as the breeze tossed her hair.

  Too quickly, it seemed, their property loomed before them. They had perhaps one glass of light before the sun fell below the horizon, but it still gave enough light that the willow tree could be seen from a league away, a sole giant.

  Soon, they passed the first headstones nestled in the brown grass, hardly visible to the untrained eye. But any novice would notice them as they began to dot the land by the hundreds.

  Kelc’s heart sank as they crested the last mild rise and their house appeared. “Slow, girls. Slow,” he called and pulled just a bit on the reins bringing the team to a walk.

  Shy threaded an arm behind his back and rested her head on his shoulder, noting Kelc’s change of mood. “Take heart,” she said soothingly, “it has been a good day.”

  Kelc rested his head on hers, comforted by her. He stayed that way even after the wagon rested in front of the house, content to be with his sister.

  “Oh!” she finally said, as if remembering something. She carefully lifted her head, and freeing her arm from Kelc, dropped off the side of the wagon. “Take this in,” she said, digging a medium slatted crate from the wagon. “It needs to go in the salt box.”

  Shaken into action, Kelc hopped off the wagon and took the crate. He bounded up the steps and fumbled his father’s key off of his belt, dropping them. “Hells,” he muttered, bending to get the keys, all of his muscles stiff.

  He snatched them up and unlocked the door. As he walked to the kitchen, his footsteps seemed too loud, or the house seemed too quiet. Either way, the place bothered him. Within moments, it seemed to Kelc as if his house sought to put him at odds, to make him uncomfortable. Maybe it’s keeping me aware, he thought. Maybe the greeching place is protecting me. He let a hoarse laugh scrape out of his throat. “Not damned likely.”

  “Kelc,” Shy called, almost jogging through the door, scaring him a little. “I wanted to give you this,” she panted, “before anyone else was around. I had a little extra coin and material, so I had the seamstress hem it for me.” She offered a sizeable twined package, wrapped in burlap.

  Kelc plucked it from his sister’s grasp and untied it, expecting a tunic or a pair of breeches, maybe both based on the weight of the package. It was a little bit bigger than just one article of clothing.

  “Whoa!” he blurted. He couldn’t help himself. He grabbed one edge of material and shook it out, displaying a full length dark cape.

  “Put it on,” Shy urged. “It’s Dark Sea Green. I didn’t know you were going to get all that fantastic black equipment, or I would have traded it for black.”

  “No,” Kelc said, dragging the material across his shoulders and fastening the broad chest sashing. “It’s fantastic.” He grinned at his sister. “I feel ready to go climb a mountain,
” he laughed and with a quick motion, he drew his cape back from his hip and ripped his sword out. “Kelc, Commander of Symea.”

  “You look wonderful in it. With that new belt and this cloak.” Shy grinned, using one finger to push his blade away from her as she walked to her brother. “I see what your little Erisa must have seen.”

  Kelc blushed, unprepared for that to be brought up again. Shy hugged her brother, wrapping both arms as far around him as she could. She stood a knuckle or two taller than Erisa did, her nose just below his.

  “Thank you so much,” Kelc told her, returning the hug with as much strength as she held him. He buried his face in her brown hair and kissed her head. “Thank you.”

  Shy loosened her grip, but did not let go, falling back so she could look at her brother. “You need it. You’re such a good man. This is no lie, Kelc. I have met no one I can say is a better man…here.” She rested her left hand on his chest. “In your heart.”

  Kelc smiled and thanked her again, kissing her on the cheek, but Shy put her arm back around him, wearing a private smile. Her eyes looked at her brother’s in the failing light, so dark and warm.

  He bent down and gave her a soft kiss and though it was quick, she made a sound Kelc now knew as a request for more. He kissed her longer, though no harder. Her lips parted and he held her firmer to him.

  He felt as if lightning flashed down his spine, and he kissed Shy harder. She clutched at him, trying, it seemed, to haul him right into her soul.

  Suddenly she pulled back. “Kelc,” she breathed, “we must store the supplies.” She kissed him again, sucking on his bottom lip for a moment. “They could be here in a glass or two.” She kissed him yet again.

  “Uh-huh.” Kelc crushed his sister to his chest, smelling the clean herbal scent of her hair, feeling its silken length ride along his skin. His breathing labored and his heart threatened to burst from him. “This…you feel.”

  Shy shushed him, her brown eyes huge as if her shock matched Kelc’s. “This,” she said emphatically, kissing him again, “Mm…this must be our secret. Forever.” She gave him another lingering kiss and her hand wandered from his back, dropping lower, where she gave him an appreciative squeeze. “An absolute secret. Tell no one. No one.” Her hand wandered even further, gently caressing the front of his breeches. “But we can do no more right now. We’ve no time,” she told him, her tone expressing just how upsetting that was for her. “But we will,” she promised, kissing him a final time. “We will.”