by Linda McNabb
Eagan held his breath, and flicked his gaze between Waide and Ryker. Ryker raised his staff theatrically and began to mutter a spell. Eagan couldn’t hear the words so he had no idea what was coming. Darius stood next to him as he awaited his fate.
Suddenly, Eagan lost his footing and tumbled backwards. Was this something to do with the spell? He let his eyes close and waited for the silence and peace that death would surely bring. He waited two heartbeats, three, and then four. It was taking a long time! He could feel a rock under his left shoulder and he flicked his eyes open. He could hear Ryker yelling furiously but it sounded muted and distant.
‘Are you alright, Wizard?’
Waide was staring down at him with a worried expression.
‘I am not…’ Eagan began, meaning to remind the youth that he wasn’t a wizard but Waide cut him off.
‘You’re not okay? Where are you hurt?’ Waide bent down to check Eagan’s legs for injury.
‘I’m fine,’ Eagan snapped a little too quickly and Waide drew back. Eagan instantly regretted his harshness.
Ryker was standing at the edge of the barrier and he appeared to have given up throwing spells at the invisible wall. Instead he glared angrily at those beyond it. Even though he could not see the wizard, Eagan knew Oran was just as likely to have his nose pressed against it as well. He found himself hoping that the barrier would hold.
Perhaps he should pass the staff on to Waide just in case? He looked at the youth and saw the hurt expression. Maybe not just yet. He would need to discuss it with Darius anyway as it had a large impact on the wizard as well.
He scanned the sky for any sign of the two dragons but the little sky that was visible was clear. The walls of the pass appeared to go up for a very long way and he hoped the dragons were careful. Eagan dusted himself off and looked at Rem, who stood a dozen paces down the path. She was the only one who could have saved him.
‘Thank you,’ he said, nodding a short bow in gratitude.
Rem’s eyes softened briefly then her haughty manner returned. ‘You saved my life back in the marshes – now we are even.’
She walked off without another word and Eagan was more than happy to hurry after her, leaving a furious Ryker shouting after them. He tried to think through the reason the barrier had let both Rem and Seth through but couldn’t find anything they had in common except being master to a dragon and that seemed an unlikely reason.
They walked for several hours then the pass suddenly opened out to clear open lands. Eagan looked behind him, mentally calculating how long they had been in the pass. It wasn’t possible for them to have travelled through the mountain range yet.
It should have taken several days to traverse the huge peaks, even in a straight line. Yet here they were, at the edge of a very open landscape that was not quite flat, but definitely not a mountain.
‘I wonder if it was us or them that created the pass,’ Darius muttered as he too looked back at the mountains. ‘It must have taken many lifetimes of magic.’
‘Can you tell which way Caden and Seth went?’ Waide asked. He scanned the area for footprints as the ground changed from dusty white chalk to scrubland with large areas of forest in the distance.
‘We don’t need footprints to track,’ Eagan said, pointing across the scrub to a bush that bloomed with delicate flowers. There was a trail of them leading towards a forest. ‘If Caden went that way we can assume that Seth did as well.’
Chapter Nine - Market Day
Night fell while they were still in the forest and, even though none of them wanted to stop, it was necessary to rest if only to prevent them tripping over branches and vines in the dark. It was a long, uncomfortable night for Eagan, filled with dreams that made no sense. He knew Darius would wake them if there was any real danger nearby but he remained restless throughout the night.
It wasn’t long after the sun rose that they set off again, hungry and tired. Darius was ahead of them and he stopped and called Eagan to catch up.
‘I sense something ahead,’ he said and by the concerned expression it was obvious to Eagan that there was more to it.
Eagan put up a hand to signal the others to follow him then stopped by Darius. Rem paused as if annoyed, but stepped closer to listen.
‘We’re not alone…’
Rem interrupted him before he could continue. ‘Good. We can find out if Seth has been this way.’
‘And Caden,’ Waide said with a nod.
‘Perhaps we could find out more before we walk in and announce ourselves?’ Eagan paused. Were there people living in the east or was it a clan of night-shadows?
Rem took a deep breath and let it out slowly but nodded briefly and moved off again. The animal track they were following petered out and Eagan led the way, guided by Darius who had stopped up ahead and was peering through the trees. By the increasing light coming through the canopy of leaves they were reaching the edge of the forest. Sounds of a typical village morning drifted to them on the chill morning air. Laughter, carts, horses, banging of metal on metal – perhaps a blacksmith?
Eagan was first to reach the wizard and he stopped and followed Darius’ gaze. Yes, there were definitely people in the east.
Up ahead the scene looked like any typical small village in the west. Small farms stretched off into the distance to the right but on the left they gave way to a cluster of houses a hundred paces down the road. They were standing almost opposite a well-worn track leading into one of the farms. The fences were sturdy-looking but roughly made and the farmhouse in the distance had seen better days.
‘It looks like we’ve arrived on market day,’ Waide said quietly as he and Rem joined him in the shadows, a few trees back from the road.
Several horse-drawn wagons were heading towards the village. One was laden with crates of food and behind it was a covered wagon with a man and a teenage boy riding up front. They were dressed in plain beige tops with darker trousers and the man scratched at the neck of his tunic as if it irritated his skin.
‘Why do we have to stop here, Asher?’ the boy asked as he leaned out to peer around the wagon ahead of them. He did not look pleased at what he saw ahead. ‘They will be looking for us by now.’
‘Just relax, Tal. We’ll take care of our business here and be on our way as soon as possible. We need the money and this fair is a good place to find the right sort of buyer.’
The wagon passed by and was soon out of earshot. Rem stepped out of the trees and started walking down the road. Eagan went to call her back but shrugged and followed her. If there was a large fair and lots of strangers then nobody would notice three more and they would be able to look around without having to keep out of sight. They were only a dozen paces down the road when a thought struck Eagan even as Darius voiced it.
‘What if they recognise her? I’m willing to bet a lifetime of spells she’s from the east.’
Eagan dropped back a bit so he could talk. When Rem and Waide were far enough ahead he mumbled a reply. ‘It’s the only possible solution really. If she’d been from the far south I doubt we would have found her in the marshes so far north. And we found her at the same time the intruder came from the east last winter. They might have been a man’s footprints that showed in the pass but it’s too much of a coincidence to be anything else. She must have come with the person who left the prints, but I don’t think she was from this village.’
‘How do you figure that?’ Darius asked.
‘The clothes she wore were very expensive so she definitely wasn’t a farmer’s daughter or from a small village.’
Eagan looked ahead at Rem and knew he was right. She had been a pretty, delicate child with long flowing hair six months ago and now she was a strong, angry young woman with short hair, a huge sword strapped to her back and tattoos on her face. He doubted that even her own father would recognise her.
Rem walked at a steady, unhurried pace as if she had all the time in the world but Eagan could tell by the stiffness in her shoulder
s that she was anything but relaxed. He wondered what she would do when she finally found Seth.
Another cart rumbled up the road behind them and they had to walk along the ditch as it passed. It was loaded with goods covered by a cloth and judging by the thick layer of road dust on both the driver and the cover, they had travelled a long way.
Eagan studied the houses as they came closer to the village. They were made from varying sized chunks of stone. The colours showed that they had been collected from many different places and that they were likely scavenged rather than quarried from a single source. Some of the stones in one house looked very uniformly made though and gave the impression that they had been reused from an old building. It looked as if the entire village had been rebuilt or moved from somewhere else.
The streets were hard-packed earth but gave way to large flagstones as the three strangers navigated the narrow turns that led deeper into the village. It would be easy to get lost even though it wasn’t a large village.
The market square could be heard long before it came into sight as people streamed both ways down the main road towards it. If Eagan hadn’t known better he would have said it was a typical market fair in any village in the west. Children were running about causing mischief and being chased by stall owners.
By the look of the complex layout of the stalls it was a well-organised event. The large village square had been marked out with alleyways and thoroughfares and someone had even handwritten small signs indicating what sort of fare was in each direction. Some of the stalls were well-stocked, whereas others were already packing up. It seemed it had been going for some days already.
Up ahead, Eagan saw the father and son from the road. They had left their cart on a side road and were walking cautiously towards the nearest stalls. The man didn’t really look interested in the goods and he scanned up and down the stalls. His gaze kept flicking around at the people and he stepped back to avoid any contact with those passing by. The boy kept very close and looked nervous.
Eagan lost them in the crowds as he was moved on by the sheer force of those around him who wanted to get past. He kept a firm grasp on his staff with one hand and the other on his carry sack – he didn’t want to lose anything to pickpockets!
‘What do you expect to find here?’ Waide asked as he moved closer to Eagan, almost like the boy had done to his father. He was a little wide-eyed and didn’t appear keen to stay any longer.
‘Maybe some information,’ Eagan replied with a shrug. ‘I don’t think Seth or Caden will be here, but often there is gossip to be overheard in a busy market. If Seth or Caden have been this way then someone will be talking about it. Just wander around and listen to people’s conversations. Don’t be too obvious though as nobody likes an eavesdropper. We can meet back out by the edge of town in a while.’
Waide didn’t look any less uneasy but the possibility of news about his brother appeared to seal his decision to stay. He nodded his agreement and headed off down one of the makeshift alleyways at a stroll. Rem appeared to have her own agenda and saw no reason to talk to Eagan. She was already well ahead of them and only her unusual haircut made her easy to spot from a distance. Nobody was paying any attention to her and Eagan was almost convinced that she wouldn’t be recognised.
‘I’m hungry,’ Waide commented after they had been in the market for at least an hour. There had been little gossip to gather and Eagan was feeling deflated as they had no idea which direction to search next.
‘Me too,’ Eagan added, and watched as a woman handed over several copper coins to a stall holder. ‘But we don’t have the right sort of coin to buy food.’
‘That’s one thing I can actually be useful for,’ Darius chipped in, appearing before Eagan so abruptly that the apprentice drew back a little. The wizard had his large leather book out and was flicking through pages in twos and threes. Eagan watched as his old friend finally stopped on a page and ran his finger down it slowly. ‘Aha, here it is.’
‘I thought we didn’t have much magic left,’ he mumbled into his hand. He wasn’t sure what Waide knew about wizards and apprentices, probably nothing if he was typical of most villagers. It wasn’t the right place for the boy to be asking questions so it was best to keep things unnoticed even by him.
Darius shook his head and shrugged. ‘No, not much, but this is such a small spell it barely even counts. We won’t be making coins, just altering how they look. It wouldn’t make any difference to any other spell we might need to cast. I’m assuming you have coin from the west?’
Eagan nodded and touched his hand to the small pouch that hung from his belt. ‘And a few more in my sock, for emergencies.’
Darius screwed his nose up as he looked down at Eagan’s boot. ‘I’ll just change the ones in the pouch.’
The wizard turned the book around so that Eagan could see the words on the page. It was one of the few times that Darius had ever let him see the book and he knew it was because he was likely to be in there himself in the very near future.
‘So you just read the words?’ Eagan asked.
Darius looked a little offended for a few seconds then shrugged. ‘I suppose so. When you are in here you’ll feel the difference when you draw on magic. It’s more of a feeling than just saying words, but for now, yes, just say the words and I’ll do the rest. Can you get hold of one of the coins?’
Eagan looked at the people passing by. He had no intention of becoming a pick pocket. ‘No.’
‘Just picture one then,’ Darius suggested.
Eagan saw a man buying a large pot and focused on the handful of coins in his hand as he counted the right ones out. Some were brass, some silver and one small one looked to be gold. The stall owner took the offered silver coin and even gave change on it.
‘Got it,’ Eagan said.
Waide looked up and frowned then looked around for who the apprentice was talking to. He looked away with a slightly sympathetic expression. It was clear that he thought Eagan was a little mad. Eagan ignored him as he held the image of the coins. They were very similar to those in his pouch but had a different picture pressed into the metal. His had a dragon head in profile, but these featured a night-shadow. He had only seen the reverse side of one of them and hoped the others were all the same.
He muttered the simple verse in time with Darius and felt the pouch shift slightly as if the coins had taken on a life of their own.
‘There, done. You’ll make a fine wizard if I do say so myself,’ Darius said, slapping the book shut and smiling at Eagan like a proud father. The book vanished in a puff of smoke and before Eagan could respond, the wizard faded from sight.
‘Are you still hungry, Waide?’ Eagan asked as he loosened the tie on the pouch and dug out a small handful of coins. He ran the other hand through them and nodded to himself as he compared them to others he had seen. Yes, they were perfect.
‘I thought we didn’t have any coin,’ Waide said, leaning a little closer to look at them. His expression changed from disbelief to a broad grin when he saw them.
‘I guess I forgot about these ones,’ Eagan said with a shrug. He handed a selection of them to Waide and waved him away. ‘Go get something nice to eat.’
Chapter Ten - High Sun
Now that he had plenty of coin it seemed quite plausible to wander the market and haggle for goods while listening to gossip. As he worked his way back along the market stalls he spotted the man and boy from the road. They were heading towards one of the furthest corners of the market where several groups of very undesirable looking characters were milling about.
There were only a couple of stalls beyond there and Eagan had seen their sort before. They dealt with the more dubious goods that most traders wouldn’t touch. Eagan wondered why the man would be taking a youth anywhere near a place like that. Perhaps he wasn’t aware of the dangers?
‘There’s not much we could do to help,’ Darius said as he appeared above the crowd.
‘Well, I could stand there and l
ook menacing?’ Eagan suggested and Darius raised one eyebrow and suppressed a smile.
‘Have you looked in a mirror lately?’
Eagan knew very well that he looked like an elderly uncle who had seen more than his fair share of summers, not at all threatening, but he headed over towards the corner anyway.
The man approached the first group of men and spoke briefly with them. They shook their heads and he moved on to the next group. One man came forward and looked at looked interested as a cloth-wrapped article was taken from a bag.
Eagan edged closer to listen.
‘It has been handed down my family for generations,’ the man said, pulling the lad forward and putting his arm around him. ‘I’d like to pass it on to my son for his wife in the future, but we need food more than a pretty trinket.’
So, the man knew exactly what he was doing, and the chances that it really was a family heirloom were fairly slim if he was doing business there.
‘There’s not much call for these around here,’ the burly man said, pretending to be less than impressed, but Eagan could tell he was definitely interested. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the trinket. ‘We’d have to travel into the city to sell it.’
The man withdrew the object and wrapped it up again. ‘Ah well, thanks anyway. I guess I’ll hang onto it.’
He went to walk away and the burly man looked alarmed. ‘I guess I could take it off your hands if you’re desperate,’ he offered.
‘Really?’ the man appeared grateful, but Eagan noticed again how he pushed the boy forward a bit. He was using him as both emotional leverage and possibly a deterrent to any thoughts of physically snatching the object.
‘I’ll see if the boss wants to look at it. I can’t promise anything.’
The burly man almost ran the few steps back to the stall and vanished behind the grey woollen curtain that shielded part of it from view. By now the first group of thugs had seen that their competitors were interested in what they had turned down. Several of them wandered closer to take a look and were warned off.
