Falk laughed at Ahren’s wording. He was moved by what his apprentice had said and looked at him for a moment before fleeing from his emotions into a conversation with the mayor. There were some things about the old man that would never change.
Ahren looked around and saw Trogadon, who was extricating himself from a throng of single women, all of whom seemed agitated at the fact that he was leaving. The warrior’s broad arms were overflowing with presents, and with booming laughter he retreated to the stocky horse that Likis had organised for him.
‘He always did that in the old days’, grumbled Falk, who had finished his conversation with the mayor. The apprentice asked himself if his master was jealous of the man from the little folk, who made friends so effortlessly. The old man caught Ahren’s searching look, and the apprentice quickly focussed his eyes elsewhere.
Khara was just bidding farewell to Likis and Holken by kissing them both on the cheek, which didn’t exactly improve the young man’s mood, considering she was still ignoring him.
He quickly looked away and noticed Uldini floating over his horse’s back in a most striking manner. The little figure glanced around. ‘Are we all ready then? Where’s Jelninolan?’
Heads turned in search of the elf, and Ahren realised that he hadn’t seen her at all that day.
He had hardly spoken to her since her Unleashing, and he’d had an uneasy feeling concerning her well-being for weeks. Both Uldini and Falk had reassured him that she had fully recuperated, but now her absence made him feel uneasy again.
‘I’m here!’ called a voice from within the mayor’s house. Jelninolan appeared at the door, wrapped up in her travelling clothes and her Elfish ribbon armour. She was holding an engraved circular object in her hand, and she walked towards the group with it. ‘It all took a little longer than I’d expected’, she said by way of excuse. Ahren could now see that the circle was some sort of collar, formed like a delicate snake. The clasp was the head, so that when it was closed, the snake was biting its tail.
Jelninolan knelt down. ‘Culhen, my dear, come over to me’, she called to the excited animal. Ahren’s own curiosity was mixed with that of the wolf, who trotted over to the priestess, sniffing the air. She placed the collar around him and uttered a single Elfish word, which caused the clasp to glow red for a moment. Then she smiled at the wolf affectionately and stood up. Culhen sat back on his hind legs and tilted his head and Ahren listened carefully to him.
The collar fitted perfectly and was so light that Culhen hardly felt it. Ahren was convinced that the piece of jewellery was magical, and he wondered how long Jelninolan had been working at it.
It feels good, he heard the wolf communicate. The animal looked up gratefully at the elf, and she ruffled the top of his head while Uldini addressed her.
‘That’s an Elfish Animal Blessing, isn’t it?’ he asked in disbelief. ‘Did you not take on a little too much there? How did you get it done so quickly?’
The elf laughed. ‘I cheated a little’, she said mischievously. ‘I carried the collar under my clothing during the ceremony yesterday. When we touched the godstone, I used our connection to the THREE to fill it with magic. I just had to finish it early this morning and then adjust it so that it would fit Culhen.’
Uldini was flabbergasted, and Jelninolan looked down at Culhen with a look of satisfaction. Then she mounted her horse and glanced around her. A look of sadness came over her face for a moment when it seemed as though she hadn’t found what she had looked for.
Ahren could imagine who she had been hoping to see. The tanner Jorek had been avoiding Jelninolan ever since her Unleashing, and hadn’t turned up to say goodbye.
Finally the elf shrugged her shoulders and jutted out her chin. ‘Shall we leave?’
Her travelling companions nodded, and they set off on their mission to free the Paladin Bergen from the besieged Brazen City, waved off by the good citizens of Deepstone.
They rode along the Eastern Forest in a southerly direction. Ahren would have liked to have given his surroundings more attention on account of the fact that he didn’t know when next he would be returning. But the rest of the day was pure torture for him, and his attention was otherwise engaged. Culhen was so proud of his collar that he kept circling Ahren’s horse or standing in front of it, blocking the way until Ahren would assure whom how wonderful he looked. Unfortunately, the wolf was constantly seeking out new ways that the praise could be expressed, and whenever the apprentice wasn’t putting in enough effort, the wolf would bombard him with feelings of deep grievance.
‘What’s the point of that collar at all?!’ Ahren cried out in a moment of frustration. ‘Does it just force wolves to exhibit conceited behaviour or does it serve any other purpose?’
Uldini chuckled and turned his head towards the young man. ‘Don’t underestimate Jelninolan’s gift. The Elfish Animal Whisperers use these collars to honour the best of their animal allies, and also to reinforce their strengths. Culhen will become a little faster, stronger and larger. Also, smarter if I’m not mistaken.’
‘And above all his body will become more immune to poisons and illnesses’, said Jelninolan without elaborating, but everyone knew what she was referring to.
Ahren had understood the priestess only too well. The collar was undoubtedly a safeguard against Culhen falling victim again to the perfidy of any other malicious person.
Suddenly the apprentice was confronted with a terrible thought. ‘Does that mean...’, and he swallowed hard before managing to finish his question, ‘...he’s going to be hungrier?’
‘Oh dear’, responded Jelninolan with embarrassment, ‘I never thought of that.’
Culhen licked his chops as the first waves of hunger rolled over the young man and the wolf began whining for food.
More than four weeks passed by in delightful harmony and the omens were good for a wonderfully mild onset of spring. They continued to ride south through sleepy Hjalgar, whose luxurious woodlands and rich meadows offered a beautifully peaceful view, and they would settle down for the night in tiny hostelries or in the barns of wide-eyed farmers who would give their exotic guests as wide a berth as possible. The familiar routines of travelling, training and sleeping helped Ahren to come to terms with the changes that were taking place within his head. He taught his reason to turn its attention towards or away from Culhen, and so he could strengthen their connection or weaken it if necessary, so that he could only perceive the wolf within his head as a weak impulse. To his amazement the wolf learned to do exactly the same. A few times in fits of pique they cut each other mentally off, and it didn’t take them long to realise that loud calling would always penetrate through to the other. They became familiar with the fact that their connection had its own dynamic, which varied according to the moods of both wolf and apprentice. Ahren was pleased to realise his subconscious seemed to be taking control over the intensity of their connection to an ever-greater degree, so that Ahren could direct it as naturally as he could the movement of his arm.
Falk was delighted with their progress, and one evening when they were sitting around the campfire, having found neither hostel nor farmhouse to sleep in, he took his apprentice aside. ‘I’ll let you practise for a little longer, and then we’ll begin training your bond for battle. If you have Culhen’s impressions at the back of your mind and can prepare without being distracted by them, then you’ll have a distinct advantage in every skirmish. This is how Selsena and I are always able to work in harmony when we ride into battle. Culhen can cover your back or reconnoitre for you, whatever the situation requires.’
Ahren’s eyes lit up, but his master immediately brought him back down to earth. ‘It will take some time to get to that point. First you have to learn not to be distracted by him. And then you have to learn to reclaim the Void. And after that we’ll see.’
Falk retired to sleep, leaving his apprentice staring into the fire and pondering over what he had just been told.
Chapter 7
The ambush was quick and efficient. No sooner had Selsena warned Falk that people with perfidious intent were in the vicinity than the first armed figures stormed out of the undergrowth left and right of the trading path and towards them. The travelling companions had only just broken camp, and the sun was still low in the cloudy spring heavens so that only occasional rays were striking the undulating landscape here and there. They were riding through the depths of the forest in whose canopy they had rested the previous night, but now twenty fierce-looking men and women were pointing their weapons at them.
Ahren had been ambushed by bandits once before, but these ones seemed different. He followed Uldini’s and Falk’s example by raising his arms chest-high and making no effort to reach for a weapon, at the same time studying the aggressors intently.
They were all wearing more or less matching leather armour with studs situated for protective purposes. All of them were bearing crossbows that were aimed at the group, and the apprentice could also make out shields on their backs and swords on their belts. Each bandit also carried some kind of red-and-white material on their clothing. Some of them had made head coverings out of it, while others had a scrap of material tied to their arms or legs.
The young Paladin glanced at Falk in an effort to find out what to do, but the old man simply shook his head. ‘Too many crossbows’, he murmured. ‘We’ll be bloodstained pin-cushions long before the wizards have a chance to create a shield.’ The grey-haired Forest Guardian turned to Uldini. ‘All they want is gold. If they had wanted to kill us, Selsena would have sensed their intentions a lot earlier and warned us.’
‘Mercenaries’, said the Arch Wizard dismissively. ‘We might be able to buy ourselves out of this one.’
Jelninolan placed a hand on Khara’s forearm. The ex-slave had instinctively clutched Wind Blade. It went against the girl’s nature to give up without a fight, and Ahren understood where she was coming from.
Trogadon, on the other hand, was sitting at ease on his saddle and nodding approvingly. ‘First-rate ambush. Clean and professional execution.’
Ahren stared at the dwarf in astonishment.
‘What’s up?’ asked the dwarf when he saw Ahren’s face. ‘We dwarves appreciate good workmanship when we see it.’
Once it had become clear that there wasn’t going to be any fighting a woman dressed completely in white and red came out from behind a tree. She was holding two remarkably curved short daggers in her hands. The woman was extraordinarily scrawny, and her blond hair was shaved on either side.
‘You’ve been caught in the deadly web of the Red and White Loom’, she called out in a threatening voice. ‘Give us all your gold if you value your lives!’
Ahren was amazed at the mercenary’s pompous way of speaking, and he leaned over to Falk. ‘I’d say more like a red and white loon’, he whispered in disgust.
Falk frowned and gave a warning look. ‘Be quiet. These people are very easy to antagonise. The most important thing in an ambush is to intimidate your victims. A suitable name can work wonders in this respect.’
The old man sounded as though he were speaking from experience, and Ahren remembered once again that his master had gone through a dark period in his life and had mixed more than once with mercenaries at that time. That was how he had got to know Trogadon over a dozen decades previously.
‘Falk, would you be so kind?’, murmured Uldini. It was clear that the Ancient didn’t want to reveal himself, and anyway no mercenary would negotiate with what he believed to be a ten-year-old.
‘Ah, the burden of being old’, said Falk in a low voice, and gave a quick grin at the Arch Wizard, who pressed his lips together in fury.
The Forest Guardian instructed Selsena to trot forward a few paces, and then he spoke in a loud voice. ‘We all seem to be reasonable people here, and we know how things should proceed.’ If Falk was afraid of a myriad of crossbow bolts aimed at him, he was hiding it well.
Then the Forest Guardian and Selsena approached until they were five paces in front of the ringleader and looked proudly down at her.
‘One hundred gold pieces and you let us go. Then we’ll have a few coins left so that we don’t starve on our journey.’
The woman immediately nodded, much to Ahren’s surprise. He had expected some hard bargaining or even a flat rejection. Instead, the scrawny woman pointed at the stump of a tree. ‘Leave the gold there, and we’ll let you go unhindered.’
Falk reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a bag from which he pulled eleven gold coins, which he showed to the Loom. When she nodded her agreement, he put the coins into another saddlebag. Then he rode over to the stump and placed the jingling bundle on top of it.
‘There are one hundred gold coins left in there’, he said.
The Loom indicated to one of the mercenaries near her, and he walked over and felt around the inside of the bag with a finger.
‘Full of gold. No silver or copper. Should be about right’, he said abruptly.
Ahren saw a scar around the man’s neck which seemed to have been the result of a noose. This scoundrel had, it seemed, cheated death on more than one occasion and seemed neither nervous nor fearful. The rest of the troop of mercenaries seemed similarly relaxed. The apprentice was beginning to understand why they weren’t fighting, and he was pleased that everything was being done in such a civilized manner.
The ringleader bowed in an exaggerated manner and stepped out of the way. ‘May you reach your destination safely’, she said in a generous tone. The crossbows surrounding them were lowered even if the mercenaries remained on red alert.
The travelling party slowly rode out of the deadly circle and soon the bandits were out of sight behind a bend in the path.
‘That all ran very smoothly’, said Trogadon in a strangely approving voice. ‘There’s nothing better than watching people who know what they’re doing.’
‘Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched’, said Uldini in a dark voice. ‘I’ve thrown a little magic net. If they don’t follow us, we’re in the clear.’
Ahren looked inquiringly around the group, but nobody apart from Khara seemed to be aghast or even angry at the fact that they had just been held up by bandits. Finally, Ahren could contain himself no longer. ‘Did you calculate on something like this happening?!’ he blurted out.
‘Let me put it to you like this. It happens often enough so you should be ready for it’, answered Falk stoically. ‘You have an adequate amount of money ready in a separate bag. You ask for a bit of pocket money, so you won’t starve on your journey, so it looks as if you’ve given all your money, and you keep a cool head.’
Ahren persisted: ‘So that wasn’t all our money?’
Jelninolan shook her head. ‘Each of us has a little pouch in our travel bag - you do too. Imagine if the horse with all the money in its bags got lost or was stolen. The experienced traveller always divides up his possessions.’
‘And if she’d wanted to have our horses?’ thought Ahren out loud.
‘That’s the difference between a normal highwayman and a genuine bandit. The bandit will only take so much, to give you the opportunity to survive and at worst dream of revenge. The highwayman is greedy, and it always ends up in a fight’, explained Trogadon. He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the ambush. ‘They didn’t want to fight, just earn a bit of money. That was just one hundred gold coins without pain or danger to life.’
Ahren was irritated by the lax, almost friendly manner with which the dwarf described the rabble of ne’er-do-wells, but before he could speak Uldini began to scold.
‘Blast it! Now they’ve run through my magic net. They’re following us’, he said sourly.
The faces of the travellers darkened. ‘I hate it when they’re greedy. Damned amateurs!’ blurted Trogadon. His respect for the mercenaries seemed to have lessened significantly, And Ahren had the impression that the dwarf was taking their disappointing behaviour personally.
Uldini shook his head. ‘I’m sure they know the area inside out. If we gallop off, they’ll know that we’ve smelled a rat, and they’ll cut us off at some point of their choosing.’ He pointed a little down the track where a few dense bushes were standing close to its edges. ‘We’ll turn the tables on them’, he said.
‘An ambush? Are you sure?’ asked Falk as he contemplated the scene.
‘It’s our best chance of getting out of this tricky spot we’re in’, argued Uldini.
Falk shrugged his shoulders. ‘Fry them when they get to us.’
‘Or we can use Tanentan’, added Ahren hopefully. He was eager to avoid a fight.
‘Not a good idea. I sense solitary Dark Ones all over the hills around us. The southern end of the Borderlands is another two days’ ride away’ interrupted Jelninolan.
Falk grimaced. ‘They’d sense the magic and discover us easily, wouldn’t they?’
Both magicians nodded, and the old man gave a deep sigh. ‘Right then, the old-fashioned method. Could you at least create a few shields against the arrows?’
Jelninolan considered for a moment before answering. ‘Only for a few heartbeats. Any longer and the Dark Ones would sense us too easily.’
‘That’s long enough’, said Trogadon cheerfully. ‘They only have one volley with the crossbows.’ The dwarf’s mood had brightened considerably once it had become clear that there was going to be a fight, and Ahren worried about the warrior’s priorities.
The Brazen City Page 12
