Mastering the Elements: Elwin Escari Chronicles: Volume 2

by David Ekrut

  “Twenty paces!”

  She looked to the shore. Though the white beach sloped somewhat, the ship would topple as it ran aground.

  Knowing the crate to be bolted to the deck, Zarah clung to the side-handle, “Brace yourse—”

  Vibrations rippled through her feet, shaking her to the core. She gritted her teeth to keep from biting her tongue. Wood splintered and groaned beneath her. Zarah’s weight shifted as the ship swooned, but she held to her crate-handle.

  “Look out!” Feffer called.

  He shoved her aside. A loud whoosh just missed her head. Feffer grunted. The beam meant for her crashed into Feffer, flinging him against the deck. He bounced and rolled all the way to the rail. As if unperturbed, he forced himself back to his feet. A second later, his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Zarah caught him before he could topple. Bending, she laid him across her shoulders and lifted, like her father had shown her.

  Several of her men had already reached the shore. Others helped the injured down a crudely secured gangplank. Arrows still rained down around them.

  Zarah moved as quickly as she could beneath Feffer’s weight. Hundril shielded her with his body and ushered her down the make-shift bridge and into a thin line of trees. She dodged limbs and hobbled with Feffer on her shoulders all the way to the cobbled road. If she went north, she would reach the wharf. On the east side of the road was a thick forest with brush almost too dense to move through.

  She heard battlecries in the distance.

  Hundreds of angry men were on the path, weapons held high as they ran along the road. Those thugs from the pier had found friends along the way.

  Hundril stepped up beside her. Zarah turned to see her soldiers and armed sailors coming through the thin line of trees. All of them had translucent shadows moving about them now. None of their fates were certain, and all were looking at her to lead them.

  Another solider tried to take Feffer from her, but she shrugged the man off.

  “We need to retreat,” she said with more confidence than she felt. “Go east. Into the forest.”

  “But Your Highness,” Hundril protested. “Our supplies. The ship is—”

  “Exactly what they are after. If we abandon it, we can regroup and consider our options, while the thugs fight for our supplies. We have little time left. Now, go,” she said, following her own advice.

  “Archers, guard our retreat,” he called as he hurried after her. “You five, scout forward. Left and right flank. Let’s move!”

  From her periphery, Zarah could see the swath of bandits rushing up the road. There was less than a hundred paces between them now. She took a quick assessment of the future and felt sick to her stomach.

  “Hurry,” she shouted, trying not to look into all the images of the dead and dying faces around her.

  Chapter 19

  To the Letter

  Partial Spending, Day 275 of experimentation.

  With new essences to use for testing, I can finally resume my studies after these long months without energy for the partial spendings. The results of today’s testing are absolutely remarkable. Transmuting a rock, weighing 10 stones, to a loaf of bread only costs 0.7 Berats. At 1.5 Berats, shaping a rock of the same size into a sword is a bit more costly. Interestingly, changing a rock of moderate size to gold or platinum costs the same, 0.2 Berats per stone. Having a limited quantity of Berats for experimentation, I am loathed to continue these control tests, but understanding this power is crucial to our future.

  ~Ricaria Beratum, 2995 A.S.

  ~

  Despite only being midday, Jesnia stopped and turned to Landryn, who was never more than a few dozen strides behind her on the road. She had to move at a snail’s pace, allowing the horde of children to keep up.

  “It’s been well over a tenday,” she said, trying and failing to keep her tone professional. “I have followed our deal to the letter. Your prats are safe. Hold up your end, or you’ll see how I handle people who welch on a deal with me.”

  Landryn raised his chin. “I am not welching on anything. We are in the middle of the wilderness. This is no safe place for a child.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, cities aren’t exactly safe right now. I’ve seen guardians battling the king’s men in the streets. Dragons appear on a whim. The forest is plenty safe. And you may not be battle ready with that bow, but you can hunt just fine. Build a shelter and provide for them.”

  “It matters not a lick to us who controls the cities. The king never gave a wyvern’s dung about us, and I am no woodsman. In cities, there are abandoned homes for the taking.”

  “And what’ll you do when Bain’s war catches up to your stolen home? I won’t be around to rescue you, be sure of that.”

  “It’ll be a might more protection than a shanty in the woods built by children.”

  Well, dragons take her, the boy was not wrong. She’d honored the spirit of their deal but not the letter. This was precisely why she got all of these details in writing.

  “Fine,” she said, resuming her march. “We are about halfway to Shallow Shores. I’ll be honest. Nowhere this far south is perfectly safe. I’m sure Bain will sweep north once he finishes Benridge, but I won’t carry you until you are completely safe. Such a thing doesn’t exist. Once we reach Shallow Shores, you will tell me what you know. And it better be substantial. Understood?”

  “Agreed. And it is.”

  Turning due east, she marched into the forest.

  “Wait,” Landryn said. “Where are we going?”

  “There are hundreds of fishermen’s huts along the gulf. I plan to procure one of their boats. I tire of marching to the pace of the slowest prat.”

  Landryn nodded and spurred the children to follow. She pushed them hard until she heard the sounds of moving water.

  “Wait here,” she said.

  She jogged north, along the embankment, only slowing when she saw a fisher’s hut in the distance. She could see no vessel, but she decided to stop anyway. By the size of the home and the dock, the ship would be large.

  After finding a thicket to rest in, she situated herself in view of the dock, then leaned her head against the tree for a quick nap. Once she secured the boat, she would want to get some distance from this place, which meant traveling through the night.

  She woke to the sound of wood cracking against wood. The door to the fish hut had slammed shut. Several men moved toward the large structure at the top of the hill. They’d unpacked their day’s haul without waking her. Judging from the sun, she’d slept for a few hours. Either she’d needed the rest, or she was losing her edge. It was probably the latter. Those thumping kids were wearing on her.

  Slowly, she moved to a crouching position and waited for the fishermen to vanish into the house. It would be wiser to wait until they retired for the night, but she’d lost enough time.

  Jesnia crept to the embankment, watching the house as she moved forward. The ship looked large enough to hold the kids but not so large that she couldn’t handle it on her own. She untied the rope and slipped onto the single-masted cog. Sneaking aboard the vessel reminded Jesnia of her youth. The cog was small by sailor’s standards but hearty enough to survive at sea. Her father had owned a similar ship, only with two sails instead of the one. He’d trained her to navigate by the stars, which had helped her in ways her father never imagined.

  Using the oar, she pushed off and let the low current take her away from the bank. She guided the cog with the stern-mounted rudder. No sounds of alarm followed. Within moments, the fishermen’s hut faded from view.

  Letting the sails unfurl, she breathed a sigh and felt the weight of angst shed from her shoulders. As the sun vanished, she looked up to the stars. Not for the first time, she felt a pang of regret at the life she’d lost. And as ever before, she squashed the thought and reminded herself of the bad parts.
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  The odor of the day’s catch still clung to the deck. Fish needed to be gutted and cleaned. Or it needed to be salted and stored or sold at market. Again and again, every day the same. Her father had been a hard man. Fighting the ocean’s wrath wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, and in the end, the sea had killed him.

  Afterward, she’d been alone. Her mother had died when she was young to the pocks, too stubborn to accept healing by the Elements. Jesnia had been forced to flee, after being caught stealing at the market. Had Briani not found and mentored her, Jesnia would have ended up with a missing hand or swinging from the gallows. Briani, a Chai Tu Naruo, had abandoned her own people in favor of adventure. And in an unlikely twist of fate, the woman had saved a wayward child. Not knowing the first thing about child-rearing, Briani had given Jesnia a sword. When she became good enough with the one, she’d given her the second.

  In truth, Jesnia missed the surrogate mother more than her real one.

  Landryn stood on the shore with the children behind him. The relief was plain on his face. He’d probably thought she had abandoned him. Fool boy. She’d made a deal, after all.

  But he wasn’t a fool, and he had tenacity. If not for the children, she would consider taking him on as an apprentice. It wouldn’t hurt to have someone doing her cooking and such, but she had no time or patience for a bunch of orphans following her around like lost ducklings.

  As she neared the bank, she grabbed the pole to push off the rocks while mooring the ship. Once the anchor was in place, she lowered the rope ladder for them to climb up.

  “Can you get any closer?” Landryn asked.

  “No. You’ll have to wade out.”

  “Not all of them can swim.”

  “Not my problem.”

  Frowning, Landryn waded into the water and ordered the others about. The older ones made a human bridge to help the younger ones to the rope. Despite her resolve to let him do it alone, she helped the small girl climb onto the deck. After all, if the duckling fell off and drowned, she would have broken her end of the deal.

  Once they were all aboard, she shoved off once more. Landryn came to stand beside her.

  “Keep them below deck. It will be tight with so many, but it can get chilly at night.”

  “Thank you,” he said. Tension left his expression, and he studied her for several seconds.

  Probably, he was trying to figure out what else he could wring from her. She wasn’t giving him another copper.

  “You better keep up your end,” she said.

  “I will. In fact, I’ll tell you what you want to know, now.”

  “Finally trust my word, do you?”

  “I do.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “You could have left and didn’t. I trust you.”

  Maybe he was a fool after all. Not everyone kept their word as she did. She didn’t say that, of course. She just watched him expectantly.

  “Coin is going to Churwood. She said something about trading a shipment of gold for artifacts in Shallow Shores, but then she is going to Churwood to trade artifacts for gold.”

  Made sense. She used the counterfeits to buy artifacts and trade those for real gold. There was only one thing that bothered her.

  “Why Churwood?”

  “Do you know about the magi?” he asked.

  Jesnia snorted. “Before the dragons appeared, they were a fiction, but now I can’t go into a tavern without hearing something about them. And there are those strange shops appearing everywhere. Why?”

  “Coin hates them,” he said. “Whatever she is doing, it won’t be good for those who align themselves with the magi. She never stays in one city for too long and seems to think the magi are after her.” He raised an eyebrow at her, turning the statement into a question.

  “I’m no magus,” she assured him, “and to my knowledge, neither are those who hired me. I work for the Lenders, and they don’t look kindly on people making fake gold. That’s it.”

  “They didn’t seem fake to me. Spent just as well as any other coin.”

  “Do you have any left?”

  He shook his head.

  “It doesn’t matter. The Lenders wouldn’t pay me so well if they were not certain.”

  “We could go with you,” he offered. “I know how Coin operates. I could help you find her. For a fee, of course.”

  “You plan to release the ducklings back into the wild? If you cut them loose, I’d consider taking you on as an apprentice. Otherwise, I can’t have them getting in my way.”

  He only frowned.

  “I didn’t think so. Let me know if you change your mind. In the meantime, get them below. I plan to travel until morning.”

  “Isn’t it dangerous traveling at night?”

  “Only an idiot could maroon a ship on this gulf. Besides being deep and wide, elementalists have shaped the speedways for fast and easy going. The bottom along this stretch is for optimal travel, like a road for vessels. Even if it was dangerous, we’d risk it. As soon as those fishermen find their vessel spirited away, they’ll seek aid from their neighbors and give chase. I have half a mind to teach you to work the rudder, so you can keep us going in the morning.”

  He watched her steer the vessel for a few minutes and said, “It doesn’t look too hard.”

  “So long as the wind is tame and no ships are coming at us, it’s simple. Anyway, get some rest and take the prats with you. They are shivering from being wet, and I don’t have the patience to hear them coughing and sniffling if they catch a cold.”

  “It almost sounds like you care.”

  “Just do as you’re told.”

  Jesnia ignored his smirk.

  Chapter 20

  Perfectly Planned

  Carpeci,

  You have done well, but the rogue will reach Iremine far too soon. Give the guardians players for their stage. If the plebs do not rise to action, give them incentives. The timing must be perfect. Do not fail.

  ~His Messenger, 2999 A.S.

  ~

  “Welcome to Wiltshire,” the guardian said. “What’s your name and business?”

  Jax stroked his fake beard as though from habit. “I am Barnabus of Arguy, and I sell dyes.”

  He patted the large barrel in the back of his newly acquired wagon. “These are the deepest yellow you have seen, made from the sands of Kalicodon.”

  “You use sand to make dyes?”

  “Of course,” Jax said, hoping the line of questioning went no further. “How else?”

  “From plants and fruits,” the guardian said.

  “No. Only amateurs do this. I grind down sands for my base. Lasts much longer this way.”

  The guardian shrugged. “How many barrels are you selling?”

  “Three.”

  “The tariff is five roses a barrel.”

  “What?” Jax asked not needing to fain surprise. “Why so much?”

  “I don’t set the rates. If you cannot pay, we can hold the fee against your earnings.”

  Jax dug the hard-earned coins from his purse, trying not to think about how much lighter paying the guardian made it. He’d gambled at every hamlet and village along the way to get what they had. After taking the coins, the man stepped aside, allowing Jax to urge the horse through.

  He guided the wagon down the street and turned left at the crossroads, continuing until he found a secluded alley. He coaxed the horse into backing the wagon in. Once he was certain no one was watching, he climbed into the back and popped the top off the large barrel.

  “Hurry,” Jax said, offering the large man his hand. “Before someone looks this way.”

  Daren grabbed his wrist and climbed out. “Why am I always stuffed in the barrel or the bottom of a wagon and not you?”

  “For one,” Jax said, replacing the
lid, “I am better with the ruse. For another, you are much more recognizable. Those thumping bounty postings are everywhere now, and lastly, I look better with a beard.”

  “Still, you fit better in tight places.”

  “Maybe next time. Come on, we need to stable the horse.”

  “Can we afford the inn now?” Daren asked. “We might need to find a cheaper one.”

  “It needs to be the one near the manor, or this will never work.”

  “Like everything else, the price of a night’s rest has likely become highly inflated.”

  “Fine.” Jax handed Daren the reins. “Wait for me at the inn. Go down this street and turn right at the second crossing. The road ends in a large square. The Blazing Hearth Inn will be the largest one, next to a supply shop, called the Mountaineer. Stable the horse and wait for me. Try to get a room on the top floor. The balconies on that level overlook the Lord of Wiltshire’s manor. I want to get a good look at it before we make our plans. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the innkeeper will let us get the room on credit.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’ll acquire some gold, so we can pay for the room.”

  Daren raised an eyebrow, as if he didn’t already know the answer to his question. “Acquire?”

  “Just go.”

  Sighing, Daren guided the horse down the road. Jax went the other direction, making his way westward. He stopped in front of a marble structure, several stories high and half again as wide. The entryway was covered with an arched gable held up by ornate columns. The gilded sign labeled the place, Lofty Ales.

  Jax opened the door, breathing in the tavern smoke, feeling as though he’d just come home. He went to the bar and ordered an ale, which cost seven thumping silver pieces. He’d given up the coins begrudgingly and decided to sip the drink until it was hot as wyvern piss, rather than guzzling down the fine tasting brew. None of the players here would take him seriously without a drink in hand, but if he purchased any more mugs, he’d have nothing to wager with.

  Despite the ridiculous pricing, the place was full. Since all the seats were taken, he stood near the bar for an hour, studying the moves of the other players. He judged one near the rear to be his best chance to triple his coins. That’s all he would need to procure the inn. Then, by tomorrow night, none of this would matter. He’d have his artifact and be hundred thousand richer.