Valor (Book 3)

by Sever Bronny

  That didn’t seem to calm Jengo, who breathed as rapidly as a squirrel. “Is there … is there a chance of spell failure?”

  “I assure you, my dear boy, you will be fine.”

  “May I offer assistance, Mrs. Stone?” Mr. Okeke asked.

  “That would be welcome. Perhaps the use of a room—”

  “Yes of course. Please, this way.”

  Mr. Okeke, Jengo, and Mrs. Stone filed into another room. After some highly dramatized moaning, there was a silence, but Augum and Bridget placed their hands over their ears, neither wanting to hear the bone being broken. Only Leera listened, and her face said she regretted doing so.

  They returned not long after, Jengo tenderly rubbing his arm.

  “Mrs. Stone, I … I am so very grateful,” he said, bowing deeply. “So eternally, respectfully—”

  “That’s quite enough, son,” Mr. Okeke said, also bowing. “And I, too, am grateful, Mrs. Stone.”

  Mrs. Stone gave a courteous nod.

  Mr. Okeke gestured at the basin. “I am happy for you, my son, but those potatoes will not boil themselves.”

  The Miner’s Mule Inn

  The light steadily darkened as Jengo tended a pot of boiling water and potatoes. He peppered the trio with questions about arcanery, particularly how safe it was. They responded by telling him which spells they knew and which ones they were studying to learn next. He listened with rapt attention, remarking on how dangerous each one sounded.

  Mr. Okeke decorated the table with candles and holly. “It is Endyear and we invite our guests to partake in the festivities. Perhaps we can all have a jolly game of Piggy Run after supper.”

  Jengo fished the potatoes out with a ladle into a large bowl. “Really, Father, that’s a game for children.”

  “Ah, perhaps a game of cards or Cuppers for us old folk then—if Mrs. Stone and Mr. Goss do not object, that is.”

  “I have never gambled before,” Mr. Goss said. “Annie disapproved of the practice.” He gave a nervous chortle. “And you will have to bear with my sight. But seeing as it is Endyear …”

  “I do not consider myself much of a gambler,” Mrs. Stone said, frowning. “However, I see no harm in playing a hand or two—for entertainment’s sake of course.”

  “Of course.” Mr. Okeke scuttled to a cabinet and withdrew a dark stoppered bottle. “Nodian Heartfire wine. Only Titan wine is stronger and tastier.”

  “Augum’s mother is from the Titan clan, Father,” Jengo said.

  “Is that so?” Mr. Okeke immediately began a lengthy diatribe on the many subtleties of Titan wine, the enormous grape it comes from, and the mystery of its making—all while preparing food. Mrs. Stone’s lips thinned as he went on while Mr. Goss nodded politely. Leland finally moaned so loudly that Mr. Okeke stopped himself. By then the table was crowded with buttered and herbed potatoes sprinkled with bacon bits, roasted chicken, steamed peas and peppered leek soup. For dessert, Mr. Okeke served dried cranberries in sugar sauce and waffles covered in caramel. After supper, he served pine tea.

  “That was a very fine feast,” Mr. Goss said, cheeks colored from the wine. “Thank you kindly, Mr. Okeke.”

  “Ah, but feasts always taste that much better to those that are hungry. You have undertaken great trials.”

  Augum, eyelids drooping with the haze of stuffing himself, realized Mr. Goss and Mrs. Stone must have told Mr. Okeke some of the things they had all gone through.

  The conversation continued in spirit as Mr. Goss, Mrs. Stone and Mr. Okeke moved to the living area, composed of a lush carpet of black and white striped fur on top of which sat two pine armchairs and a settee decorated with plush red and blue cushions. Everyone else remained at the table, where the trio brought out their blue tome and the burned yellow book on elements.

  Jengo picked up the tome. “ ‘On Arcaneology: A Pupil’s Encyclopedia of the Arcane Arts’.” He looked up at them, eyes wide. “I’ve dreamt of such a book, I’ve dreamt of it, and here it is in my hands!”

  Leera snorted. “Did you dream how thick it was too?”

  “I’d read every word a thousand times.”

  Leera quickly gave Augum a goody-goody look.

  Leland moaned twice.

  “Don’t worry, we promise to read it aloud for you,” Bridget said, giving him a pat on the hand.

  “We should check on the orb,” Leera said.

  Jengo looked up. “The orb? Is it … is it dangerous?”

  Bridget patiently explained all about the Orb of Orion and how they were using it to spy on the Legion.“Problem is,” she concluded, “it’s possible Erika knows we have the pearl. She could hear through the orb by putting her ear to it. She just can’t see us—”

  “—we can see her though,” Leera added while Jengo’s eyes kept enlarging, “and hear her too.”

  “And we can also lock the orb in place,” Augum threw in. “Anyway, we’re supposed to look in on it regularly to see what the Legion are up to. With any luck, they still think someone else has the pearl.”

  Jengo looked between them, mouth open. “You mean to say they could be listening to us right now?”

  Augum shrugged. “Maybe, but—”

  “So they could be on their way this very instance—”

  “Not very likely, but—”

  Jengo placed his head in his hands. “We’re all going to die. So these are the final moments of my life …”

  Leera’s arched brows sharpened. “Don’t you think you’re being a touch … oh, I don’t know … melodramatic?”

  “There’s no point discussing anything. We should just wait here and accept our fate. It’s in the hands of the gods now.”

  Leera could barely keep a straight face. “What are you talking about? Nothing’s happening to us—”

  “The whole village is gone already, we just don’t know it yet. It’s over. I’m sorry it ended this way, but there you have it.”

  “ ‘There you have it’? Ugh. Aug, just show him how it works.”

  Augum placed a finger to his lips before withdrawing a tightly wrapped bundle of cloth from his pocket. He carefully unwrapped it, closing his hand over the pearl immediately, hopefully muting the low voices coming from the living area.

  Jengo only wrung his hands throughout.

  Augum closed his eyes and concentrated on looking through the Orb of Orion. A dark room materialized before him. Chains hung from the walls and sharp objects glinted in the light of a single candle. The dim light highlighted long blonde hair, eyes half open, arms manacled above her head, and a stained linen dress.

  “Haylee—” he said without meaning to.

  Her face shot up, twisted with fear. Quick footsteps echoed and in strode Erika Scarson, leering at the Orb.

  “Well Happy Endyear to me,” she sang. “This could only be one of my favorite three kiddos. How glad I am you retrieved the pearl from that savage little brat. What a bore he was.”

  She got up close, face magnified by the curvature of the orb. Her icy blue eyes looked like oblong saucers, cheeks overly painted, nose toad-like. She wore an exquisitely embroidered rose-colored dress. Large earrings jingled alongside her wobbly head. The sound brought a shiver to his spine.

  “Like my new earrings? I don’t—they’re not nearly as nice as the pair you stole from me.” She gnashed her teeth a moment before her lips widened into a falsely sweet smile. “So now, who would it be looking through my precious orb? Could it be Squirrel, that upstart of a young lady, with that pretentious nose of hers? Or would it perhaps be that disgustingly filthy Freckles … or maybe even the grand prize, that little hustler himself, who almost fooled me into believing he was my own nephew …”

  Augum didn’t reply.

  Erika stepped back, smiling. Her hand slowly went to Haylee’s head. She got a good grip on her hair and yanked it up. Haylee whimpered but Erika didn’t bat an oversized eyelash.

  “This is my chance to redeem myself. I’m assuming you’re clever enough to unders
tand where I’m going with this.” She pulled Haylee’s hair harder, forcing her to scramble to her feet to catch up, tears freely running down her cheeks. Erika then ceremoniously drew a little knife and held it to her neck. Haylee yelped and stood on her tiptoes, breathing rapidly.

  “You tell that old crone we want the scion and the pearl,” Erika said, ignoring Haylee’s struggles. “She can come to the academy. She has one day. If she doesn’t come by sundown tomorrow, this little traitor gets it.” She jerked Haylee’s head away and walked off. Haylee collapsed, caught sharply by the manacles. She started sobbing.

  “Haylee, it’s Augum, we won’t let them do anything to you—”

  “They killed them … they killed my parents … my grandfather …” she blubbered, hands dangling above her.

  Augum’s chest tightened. “Haylee, I’m … I’m so sorry.” Mere words.

  “Augum … help me … please …” Then her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell forward, limp.

  “Haylee—!” but there was only silence and that single candle, standing crooked like some kind of cruel Endyear jape.

  “They have her hostage,” he said, letting the pearl roll out of his hand, barely noticing Mr. Goss, Mrs. Stone and Mr. Okeke standing nearby.

  Leera immediately smothered the pearl tightly, wrapping it in cloth.

  “And they killed … they murdered her parents and grandfather …”

  There was a shocked silence.

  “Poor, poor Haylee,” Bridget said quietly. “Tell us what happened.”

  He relayed everything he had seen and heard.

  “It’s obviously a trap,” Leera said when he finished. “Mrs. Stone, you can’t go—they’ll just take the scion and kill you—”

  Mrs. Stone paced to the fire. “I was afraid of this very thing …”

  “Are we going to die?” Jengo asked in a weak voice that hardly matched his towering frame.

  “Everyone dies in the end, son,” Mr. Okeke said.

  That didn’t seem to help Jengo, who swallowed hard, forehead beading with sweat. He leaned towards Augum. “Are they on their way here right now?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “But there’s still a chance of it happening, right?”

  They ignored him, instead watching Mrs. Stone as she stood staring into the hearth, hands behind her back. At last, she turned around.

  “In the academy, you say?”

  Augum nodded. “By sundown tomorrow.”

  “Then we have very little time. I must go immediately—”

  “But Nana, it’s a trap—”

  “Mercy, child, that is plain as day. You do not think I plan on teleporting in there like some jester’s apprentice, do you? No, what is required here is the finishing of something that I started a long time ago.”

  “What do you mean, Mrs. Stone?” Leera asked.

  “Years ago, I began my studies of the Orb of Orion oblivious to the existence of a control pearl. Many things did not make sense then. Now that we are in possession of the pearl, perhaps I will be able to discover something to our advantage. The time has come to finish those studies. I must go to Antioc at once.”

  “Why Antioc?” Jengo asked in a wavering voice.

  “The ancient library,” Bridget replied. “But won’t it be guarded?”

  “Most certainly.” The scion on top of her staff began humming. Clouds formed within, flashing rapid bursts of silent lightning.

  Jengo focused his gaze upon it. “Is … is that thing dangerous?”

  Mrs. Stone glanced to the trio.

  “I trust you to comport yourselves appropriately in my absence. Keep watch on Haylee.”

  “Yes, Mrs. Stone,” they replied in unison.

  She took a deep breath before focusing on the scion. Suddenly there was a tremendous implosive sucking sound and she was gone.

  Jengo jumped, knocking the tome to the floor.

  “It is all right, Jengo,” Mr. Goss said, pawing the floor until he found the book. “That was merely Teleport.”

  “So … so she didn’t just … disintegrate?”

  Mr. Goss chortled as he handed the tome over. “Hardly. When you spend enough time around warlocks, you will grow accustomed to these things.” His hand drifted up to his face to adjust spectacles that were not there. “Everything will work out. Mrs. Stone is a most competent warlock. Let us not underestimate her.”

  “Can I offer you more tea, Albert?” Mr. Okeke asked.

  “That would be wonderful, Kwabe, thank you.”

  Mr. Okeke helped Mr. Goss back to the living area, leaving the youths sitting silently around the table for a time. Augum worried about Mrs. Stone. What if she sprung the trap and the Legion killed her? The thought was unbearable, but as much as he tried pushing it out of his mind, it remained like a stubborn splinter.

  “So … is there anything I can do to help?” Jengo asked.

  “Aside from checking in on Haylee, I can’t think of anything to do,” Augum replied when the girls did not.

  Leland moaned while pointing to the dark window.

  “I think Leland wants us to ask around about the castle,” Leera said.

  Jengo perked up a little. “Castle—?”

  “We’re looking for Occulus’ castle. It’s supposed to be lost to time.”

  Jengo’s voice dropped to a frantic whisper. “Why in all of Sithesia would you want to find that place?”

  “There’s something there we have to get,” Leera replied.” Anyway, it’ll be exciting. It’s a big adventure.”

  “ ‘Exciting’? ‘Big adventure’? Do all warlocks crave death like this?”

  “Leera’s excited about anything involving death and adventure,” Bridget said. “Anyway, Jengo, it’s supposed to reside up in the Muranians in some hidden location.”

  “Occulus was the most powerful necromancer ever,” Jengo mumbled, absently rubbing the scar on his chin. “Even I know that. I don’t like talking about him. It’ll definitely bring bad luck.” He glanced at their eager faces. “I don’t know where the castle is, but I guess you could ask Huan, the innkeeper of the Miner’s Mule Inn. He’s probably heard more stories than everyone in town combined.”

  “Is it too late to see him?” Leera asked.

  “The inn’s loud until dawn, especially during Endyear.”

  “I don’t know, Lee,” Bridget said. “Mrs. Stone preferred us to stay here. The Legion—”

  “—is looking for an old lady with three children. We should be fine if only Jengo, Augum, and I go.”

  “You’re taking an unnecessary risk, if you ask me.”

  “We’ll be fine, Mrs. Stone.”

  “Ugh …” Bridget raised her nose. “I suppose I’ll just have to stay here and teach Leland about arcanery then.”

  Leland moaned in delight.

  “You’re too young to cast spells, but we can begin outlining the basics.”

  “Here, you might as well take this.” Leera withdrew the wrapped pearl and placed it on the table before Bridget, whose lips tightened much like Mrs. Stone’s.

  Jengo looked to the window. “It’s dark though, and there could be any manner of Legion monster out there—”

  “Don’t even think about changing your mind.” Leera stood. “Come on.”

  Jengo swallowed but moved to his fur coat, Augum and Leera right behind.

  Mr. Okeke stopped conversing with Mr. Goss and put down his tea. “Son, it is getting late. May I ask where you are going?”

  “To the Miner’s Mule, Father. We won’t be long, promise.”

  “Just remember to play the good host, Jengo—no sneaking mead.”

  “Father, please, I’m almost a man grown—”

  “This is not a game, Jengo, and put on a coat—”

  “And I’m not a child!”

  “Well you certainly act like one sometimes. Please do not embarrass me.”

  “Yes, Father.” Jengo slapped on his coat and left with Augum and Lee
ra.

  “I’m almost fifteen and he still treats me like I’m eight,” Jengo said as they trekked on a path through the towering snow-covered evergreens. Torches lined the route, pushing back the night.

  “I felt the same way once,” Leera mumbled.

  “Hmm?”

  “Nothing.”

  Augum suspected he knew what she meant—the last conversation between her and her mother was one she probably regretted.

  Distant singing soon reached their ears.

  “Sounds festive,” Leera said.

  “Just wait until the Star Feast tomorrow night.”

  Her face lit up. “That’s tomorrow?”

  “Yes. Shame you missed the sword and archery tournaments a few days ago.”

  “And Merrygive too,” Augum said. Going door-to-door to help one’s elders was traditionally done on the first day.

  Leera scoffed. “Merrygive. You just miss the butter cookies.”

  “Oh, and you don’t, with your famous sweet tooth?”

  “Of course I do!” She glanced skyward. “I love Endyear …” she said wistfully.

  A lonely feeling speared Augum’s heart. Endyear was a time for family and friends. His father robbed her and Bridget of that, not to mention so many others in Solia. His best Endyears were with Sir Westwood, but now he too was gone.

  “You’ll still be here tomorrow, right?” Jengo asked Leera.

  “Probably.”

  “So are you going to take someone to the Star Feast then?”

  “The only boys I know around here are you and Augum, and look how ugly he is.” She thumbed in Augum’s direction.

  For a horrifying moment, Augum thought she was being serious, until he saw the playful smile. He felt a light flutter. He’d never been asked to a Star Feast before, should he dare ask her to go with him? What about Bridget, who would she go with? If she didn’t have anyone, she’d just sit all by her lonesome.

  Then he thought of Haylee, hanging in that dreaded dungeon, and realized there were more important things to worry about than some silly late night supper.