by LeRoy Clary
The horse was drinking from the edge of the river with the others. As I approached, its ears twitched, and it turned to look at me with brown, soft eyes. I talked gently and gathered the reins but allowed it to continue drinking. I knelt beside it and scooped water into my mouth, then filled my jugs.
They pushed the barge beside us, and I walked the horse onto it without issue. It was nervous, but my soft talking and nearness reassured it. The others watched, horses and people. A rope was fastened to an iron ring and the other end on the rear of a large rowboat. The old man climbed into the bow of the rowboat and sat facing me where he could also watch the progress of the barge. The sons he’d named pulled on the double oar setup and the rope stretched tight.
The barge barely moved up and down, or from side to side, however, we felt each stroke of the oars with a sudden rush ahead. The far side was not as far away as I’d thought. A barren bank grew in height as we rowed nearer. There were small shrubs and grasses, but no trees. Maybe there were trees along the bank to the east or west.
My horse didn’t have a name, or at least, one that I knew. The Kaon Warrior who owned it might have a name he called it. As we neared the far shore, Coffin pointed out the place he wanted to land.
A shelf of barren natural rock extended into the lake forming a solid pier if a little slanted to one side. The surface of the rock was equal to the sides of the barge, and when the rowboat was pushed against it, there were iron pegs to tie up to. We were not the first to use it as a dock.
The old man said, “You get out first. Show the horse how to step up, and it will follow.”
I exaggerated my step under the watchful eyes of the horse. It snorted, which I took to be laughing at me. The horse exited the barge far more gracefully than I did.
I walked it to the shore where a few tufts of scraggly grass grew and tied it to snack as a reward for being calm on the trip. The old man silently followed. The rowboat had pushed off and was crossing much faster than when pulling us. I said, “What’s going on? Why are you staying here instead of going back with them?”
“To talk.”
“Is that an order or are you asking me to talk?”
“I wanted to be alone for this. There are too many jabbering at once back there, one of you, or one of my boys, is always interrupting things, so the answers are crap.”
He returned to the rock outcrop, pulled his boots off and sat, his feet dangling in the cool water. In the heat of the day, that looked inviting, so I joined him. The water was cooler than expected. He didn’t speak, and I decided to wait him out.
His eyes flicked to the rowboat that was now almost out of sight. A wavering wake told of its progress. The old man said, “Taught him to row better than that.”
“He’s making good speed,” I said, hoping to encourage him to get to the topic he wanted to discuss. “He’ll be back before long, along with someone else to interrupt us, so let’s talk. Why are you called Coffin? I mean, is that the name your mother gave you?”
“Curious, are you? Well, I had another name when young, but after a few fights, Coffin stuck. What I got to say to you won’t take long.”
I waited.
He splashed water with his left foot, then abruptly said, “Tell me your story. The short version.”
Seeing no reason not to, I gave him the highlights. He asked only a few terse questions, then said, “They knew I didn’t kill that man in Dagger, and my sons are not thieves. But we spoke up against that Council of Nine and asked if the King can’t rule, why isn’t his son taking his place?”
“That’s not all you said?”
“Nope. I said we should kick that council all the way back to where they came from, which was Kaon.”
“You said that before being accused?”
“What do you think?” He spat into the water without bothering to look at me. “We heard from a friend they were coming after us, so we took to the river. Barely got away.”
“And you went about as far as you could and built that hut?”
“Nope. Found it just like it is. Things last out here in the desert. It might be a hundred years old, but that ain’t the point we should be talking about.”
“What is?”
“They burned my home and business in Dagger and tried to capture us and would probably have hung the four of us in the main square if they caught us. Teach others a lesson about talking down the Council of Nine. Fact is, my goal these days is to harm them, to hit them back.”
“They took your life away. You have a right to be angry.”
“Killed my wife.”
He hung his head and tried to hide a tear. For me, there seemed nothing to say. I didn’t know the right words, so said nothing.
He drew himself up and said in almost a whisper, “That’s why I wanted to talk to you. Alone. I got more family.”
It didn’t’ make sense that he would choose that time to tell me about his relations, but there was more to come. I waited again. The rowboat came back into view, pulling the barge and another horse.
The old man saw it too. He pulled himself together and said, “I heard you’re going south to Fairbanks and Landor.”
“We are hoping to find help there to join us in the fight.”
“Both kingdoms lay south past Dead Isle and across the sea. You need a boat to get there. The family I spoke of lives on a small bay south of Dagger. Fishermen. They have boats.”
My vague plan had been to try locating a ship or boat of some kind near Dagger without being caught. That appeared to be our major problem. The solution the old man offered was better. We could avoid Dagger completely, the place where the surveillance would be heaviest, and where our descriptions were on the lips of city watchers, soldiers, and bounty hunters, even if we managed to slip into the city.
“We can pay.”
He said, “I’ll send one of my boys with you. He knows where my folks live, and they don’t like the new government any more than us, but you can pay them if they’ll take it.”
“If you don’t mind me saying so,” I said as I met his steady gaze, “this seems like a complete turnaround from when we first met this morning.”
He watched the boat approach until it was nearly tied up before answering. “You heard most of my reasons.”
I didn’t like the response. Not that I distrusted him, but there was a part of his explanation he didn’t want to share—and that made me want to know more. I reached out to Anna, *Will you touch minds and tell me if there is anything I need to know about our friend Coffin?*
*I can only hear what is in your mind, not his. You will have to discuss with him what it is that you are concerned about, and I will try to sense any deception.*
That answered one question. She couldn’t read the minds of others but could sense deception. Not as good an option, but one that was useful I responded, *Thank you.*
To the old man, I said irritably, “Your offer is more than generous. If your son acts as our guide and introduces us to the fishermen with boats, we can pay them to sail us to Landor. It solves many problems.”
“If you can strike a blow against Dagger, I’d pay for your trip if I had the money.”
*He’s telling the truth, but holding back.*
I said to him with a frown to emphasize my feelings, “I get the feeling you’re holding back something.”
He glowered at me as he reached for the proffered ropes to pull the barge alongside the rock shelf. Kendra stepped out and urged her horse with a few soft words. You can always tell about the inner workings of a person by how they treat animals. While others might yank on the reins, or another slap the rump of the horse, she did it with soft words.
The old man seemed to separate himself from me by keeping my sister between us while the boat returned to the other shore for another passenger. He was finished talking. But I was not.
*Anna, did you get any inkling of what he’s hiding?*
*It’s not hiding. Not exactly. There is just a subject he doe
s not want to discuss. I don’t believe it places us in danger.*
Everyone has secrets.
But I was not satisfied and felt his reluctance to be honest with me placed his offer in jeopardy. We could use our original plan without any danger from him withholding information. The other consideration was that we would be refusing valuable help. The conflicting viewpoints had me in a quandary.
Kendra allowed her horse to drink its fill, then moved it to stand beside mine. She returned to where neither the old man nor I made eye contact—and noticed the tension. Her voice was cutting, “What is it?”
When he didn’t speak, I did. “He’s offered to help us. I like his idea, but he’s not telling the whole truth.”
Kendra glanced at the stubborn faces of both of us and looked off into the distance. We remained at the little standoff until she said, “Does anybody ever tell the whole truth?”
Coffin shrugged. “Not in my experience.”
“Mine neither,” she said deliberately, then faced the old man. “Does it matter to us?”
“Nope.”
She flashed a smile. “Then why are we talking about it?”
Coffin’s sad eyes returned to the surface of the lake.
I was still uneasy.
CHAPTER FIVE
Kendra’s admonition to us sat between us like a stone wall on a cold day. For me, I considered that most of the people who had provided help for us in the last ten years had probably withheld information of one sort or another. The fact that Anna could confirm my guess should make no difference.
However, it did. There is an impassible gap between suspecting and knowing. I tried to justify both positions and, in the end, couldn’t satisfy myself with either.
Anna burst into my head with a bright red flash of pure emotion followed by shouting. *Enemies! Attacking!*
“Enemies,” I said, turning to Kendra. “Anna says they are being attacked.”
“We have to go help,” she answered while searching the sky for Wyverns that might be trying to attack us. There were none. She scanned the surface of the lake for a boat. Again, there were none. We were stranded on the far side of the lake and couldn’t return in time to help.
I touched minds with Anna. *Tell me.*
*Soldiers. Ten of them.*
If I could get back across, even if they were taken a prisoner, I could use my magic skills to help, scant as they were. I said, “Kendra, send your dragon to help them.”
“How will it know who to kill?” she asked. “What if it makes a mistake?”
That gave me a bit of a pause but realized it could still help. Our people would know it was coming, but the soldiers did not. Maybe just the sight of it nearby would scare the men. “Have it fly low, right at them. The soldiers might run away. Can you make it scream as it flies over?”
Instead of answering, she closed her eyes, and I assumed she was trying. The old man rightfully looked confused. I said to him, “Soldiers from Dagger have attacked them.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
He didn’t follow up with the rest of the questions sure to come before Anna’s excited mental stab, *We beat them back. They lost three, two at the hand of Will and his sword. We have one boy with a small cut on his arm.*
*Great,* I responded in my mind then out loud continued to the old man, “In my mind, I can talk to the girl at a distance. The soldiers lost three in their attack. One of your sons is slightly wounded with a cut on his arm, nothing serious.”
“You are a mage?” the old man asked as he took a couple of steps away from me. His fingers made a complicated twist that was supposed to ward off magic, an old and entirely untrue belief.
For the first time, I had to answer that question out loud. It gave me a pause, despite the ongoing attack, the soldiers locating us, and our group being separated by a lake. Me, a mage? I searched for a definition, but each way I considered it, the result was the same. I was a mage.
A great one? No. A normal one? No, again. On the scale where mages are measured, if there is such a thing, I was at the very bottom. But I was on the scale. No matter how I tried to avoid associating or being identified with them, I was a mage. Just not a very good one.
“I am a mage,” I said aloud for the first time in my life, drawing reactions from both. The old man pulled away another step and held an arm up as if to ward me off. My sister gave me the smallest of smirks and a slight nod of her head as if satisfied I’d finally admitted the truth to myself.
Anna burst into my mind again, *They are going to attack again. They have bows they should have used the first time, but the fisherman boys had three bows in the hut. We’re outside now. It’s a standoff.*
If I had the numbers correct, there were now only seven soldiers against Anna, Will, Elizabeth, and the boys. Seven to five. I said to Kendra, “How long before your dragon gets there?”
“Count to twenty slowly.”
To Anna, I said, *The dragon will get there soon, flying low and screaming like it’s a devil from the depths of Turban. Tell everyone to get behind cover in case it attacks and does not know who is who.*
There was another pause, then she said, *We’re down and behind a little hill for protection. Here it comes. Just in time because they are starting another attack again with swords.*
I didn’t like the remark at the end. Why attack with swords when they had bows and could use them from a distance? The answer seemed obvious. They wanted some of us alive and overrunning us was the best way. Arrows are indiscriminate and kill. I said to Kendra, “Our people are under protective cover. If you can instruct the dragon only attack those out in the open, do it.”
She didn’t bother arguing that she had little, or no, control over the dragon’s actions beyond broad communication. She concentrated with a look in her eyes as far away as the other side of the lake. Sweat broke out on her forehead. Her jaw was so tight the muscles shown clearly as she breathed shallowly.
*We are all fine. The dragon swooped in and grabbed one solder in its mouth and shook it like a dog with a rat. It also snatched another in a rear talon and carried both high into the air—then dropped them to the ground right in the middle of the other soldiers. The falling body missed hitting the others, but not by much.*
*Then what?* I asked.
*They are running away. Not all in the same direction.* Her mental voice conveyed relief and laughter.
I said to Kendra, “Your dragon killed two and drove the others off. Everyone is safe.”
“For now,” she snapped, her anger belying the fact she was helpless to reach them.
*The barge is almost here. We don’t know what to do. If some of us leave, the ones here can’t hold off the attackers when they come again.*
I understood the problem instantly. Who to send across the lake next? Keep our best fighters on the far shore, but fewer of them? Send Anna here because she is a child and then we would lose our only communication? Send the princess? That seemed our best option. *Princess Elizabeth is next. We’ll figure out who will be after her.*
I told the old man and Kendra what was happening.
Kendra agreed with me.
The old man didn’t. He said, “Bring one horse, and all your people. Have your best men row, and the boat will carry two more. I’ll row back by myself, and we’ll ferry your horses one at a time, but you’ll all be safe over here and we’ll be in the boat where they can’t get to us.”
That was a better plan. I started to give instructions to Anna when Kendra took my arm in an iron grip. I followed her gaze. To the east, or on our side of the lake, in the direction of Dagger, a plume of dust rose.
The fisherman looked too. He said, “Horses, coming fast. At least ten, maybe more. Got to be an army.”
Kendra said, “What now?”
“Ride,” the old man said as he pointed south. “Lose yourselves out there, then head directly east. Find the fishing village called Ander and ask for Thom. He’s my brother.”
“What about the others?” I asked. “Our friends?”
“Use your witchcraft to tell the others to take to the water. Leave the horses. There are no other boats near here. They will be safe there.”
Kendra said as she strode to the horses and leaped for the saddle. She snapped at me, “Come on. Tell Anna we’ll meet up in a few days. Right now, we either ride or are captured.”
I turned to the old man. He stood calmly, showing neither fear nor excitement. With a slight shrug, he said, “Go.”
“What about you?”
“I will be fine. This is not the first time my enemies have tried to find and capture me.”
The barren ground offered no hiding places for him, he had no horse or boat, but from the slight twitch at the corners of his mouth, he had a plan. My horse was nervous and ready to run. I gave it my heels and turned it to follow Kendra, who was keeping to the vegetation to avoid raising a dust cloud of our own. Smart. As usual, she was a full step ahead of me. No, make that two.
Looking back over my shoulder, I watched the old man wade out into the water and slowly begin swimming with long, easy strokes. By the time the army arrived, he would probably be so far from shore they wouldn’t see his bobbing head. If they did, most of them probably couldn’t swim, and he could just swim away from the shore where they couldn’t reach him. But the easy thing was that he didn’t have to swim all the way across the lake, only far enough from shore where they wouldn’t spot him. After they left the area, he’d probably swim back ashore and wait for his sons to rescue him.
Not for the first time, I felt the least intelligent of the three of us on this side of the lake. I reached out to Anna. *Riders are coming our way. A lot of them.*
*Get out of there.*
*We are. On the coast, a little south of Dagger is a fishing village called Ander. The man there named Thom is the old fisherman’s brother. He will help you and us. We’ll meet you there.*
