by Dave Skinner
“That is a Nadian blade!” Brayson exclaimed. “It must be worth a fortune.”
“Yes, Bray keeps talking about melting it down and making more useful swords from it, but I like it there as a reminder of how different my life was back then,” Ran said. “I am going for a swim. Anyone interested in joining me?”
“I will,” Nails said. “I like swimming.”
Ran led them through the man-door in the rear wall that enclosed the yard. The water was only steps away and they quickly stripped down and waded in. Gore was located on an island in the middle of the widest part of a deep, slow-moving river, named after the town, or perhaps the naming was the other way around. Nails felt fresh and clean after the swim. He put his pants back on after using his shirt to dry off.
“That was an interesting exercise you were doing this morning,” he said to Ran.
“I find it loosens me up and calms me down at the same time.”
“I could use something that calms me down,” Nails admitted. “Will you teach it to me?”
“I would be happy to, but you have to practice every day if you want the benefits,” Ran said as they reached the rear door. Just inside, Reese was explaining something to Remi. She stopped when she saw Nails. Her eyes stayed on his bare torso until she blushed and turned away. She must still be mad at me, Nails thought.
Chapter 11
Ran led Brayson and Nails back towards the main wharf and then into the city through a large gate in the town’s wooden wall. Gore was a busy place with people milling about, and Nails felt his nervousness growing. It had been a long time since he had seen this many people, if ever. By the time they reached the wizard’s house, his shoulders were tense, and his hands were starting to tingle. A man of many years opened the wizard’s door when they knocked, and he led them slowly to a workshop, shuffling all the way. The workshop was smaller than Manda and Ran’s main room and it was packed with tables, which in turn were cluttered with paraphernalia that Nails assumed were needed for the working of magic. The wizard was busy at one of the tables when the old man led them in.
“Ran, what a pleasant surprise, are you here for business or pleasure?”
“Hello, Drafter,” Ran replied. “Business this time. I hope we aren’t disturbing you.”
“Nothing that can’t wait. How can I help you?”
“My friend here,” Ran motioned to indicate Nails, “is having trouble controlling his magic.” The wizard, a young man with long brown hair and a birthmark covering one side of his face and neck, smiled at Nails.
“Come friend and stand here in the light. I will see what can be done. I take it you have tried the usual dampening spells.”
“I don’t know any spells,” Nails told him. “It’s probably not magic. I’m not a wizard. I just get sparks and tingling in my hands when I get excited.” The wizard reached for Nails’ hands. As he touched Nails, his eyebrows arched.
“I see what you mean,” the young man said. He grabbed an earthen pot from the table, poured a little powder from it onto his palm and blew it at Nails. The powder floated around him and then started to form into a circle like a crown around his head. It turned a deep blue and then flowed down and settled around his stomach while turning to a sky blue before fading away. “Someone placed a damping spell on you to restrict the magic you have. It is very well done, but the spell is beginning to fade. Would you like me to strengthen it?”
“Can you take the magic away?” Nails asked.
“That is beyond my ability. I doubt it can even be done. The magic is an integral part of you. All I can offer is to strengthen the dampening spell.”
“Then please do that.”
The wizard retrieved a staff that was standing, without any visible means of support, beside the desk. Placing a hand on Nails’ head, he intoned a spell. The tingling Nails had been feeling died away.
“That feels better.”
“It will help for a while, but at some point, you will have to let the original spell die out so a new one can be used. This one will probably fade faster because the original spell is deteriorating. You can help it last by remaining calm.”
“I can lend a hand with that. I am going to teach him a calming exercise that works for me,” Ran added. “How much do we owe you, Drafter?”
“Five silver will cover it.” Ran started to reach for his pouch.
“I’ll pay,” Nails said. He reached into his pouch and withdrew a handful of coins, selected five silver ones, and passed them over. “Thank you.”
“No problem, but remember the original dampening spell is fading and will have to be replaced. If you know who did it, I would return to that wizard. The spell was finely woven.”
When they were outside again, Brayson asked Ran about a place where they could purchase clothes and equipment for travelling.
“The town centre has what you want. There may even be some Traveller’s wagons there. I want to ask them about this slavery business so I will take you there.”
They followed Ran through the town as many people stopped to say hello. He seemed to be well known. A tavern they were passing had a number of men sitting outside who appeared to be well on the way to intoxication. As they passed the doorway, a man staggered out and almost collided with Ran before falling from the walkway.
“Hey! You tripped my friend,” someone bellowed. Nails heard the sound of a sword being drawn and men scrambling to get out of the way. In a matter of heartbeats, a space had cleared, leaving Ran facing a young man with a sword in his hand. It was at that moment that Nails realized that Ran didn’t carry weapons. Nails went to step around Ran, but his outstretched arm stopped him.
“Your friend tripped over his own feet, so put your sword away before you get hurt and we will be on our way,” Ran said.
“Before I get hurt? You don’t even have—” Ran’s hand smacked into the side of the man’s head. As the man staggered, Ran’s arm came down on his sword arm. Nails heard the bone break. Someone beside him started to rise from a chair and Nails hit him in the face with his left hand. He didn’t think about it. It just happened. All the movement around them stopped.
“Get your arm fixed and get out of Gore,” Ran said. No one argued. He stepped forward and the walkway ahead was suddenly clear of men. Nails motioned Brayson to follow Ran as he brought his scales up. If anyone tried to stab them in the back, he wanted to be protected. They moved on down the walkway.
Gore’s town centre was a large, circular space with a central stone well. Three roads exited the area, and storefronts filled the spaces between the roads. A number of wagons surrounded the well. Some wagons had canvas covers while others had elaborately carved wooden coverings. Ran led them to a wagon that displayed leather goods. Again, he was greeted by name.
“My friends here need some packs and clothes, Mace, but first I have a question. Have you heard of any men being forced into slavery on ships?”
“Slavery! No, I haven’t heard of any. Is this recent?”
“Relatively. It happened to these men about four years ago. I will make other inquiries but ask around and get back to me.”
They came away from Mace’s wagon with leather packs, jerkins, groundsheets, and pants. Another stop and they had two new shirts and blankets. Nails couldn’t recall ever having bought new clothes before. He was happy as they made their way back to Ran’s place. They exited the gate to the harbour and turned right towards their destination. Nails noticed a small boat working its way towards the dock they had used yesterday.
“Look at that boat, Brayson,” Nails said, pointing. It has one oar at the stern. Have you ever seen anything like that?”
“No,” Brayson said.
“It is a water taxi,” Ran said. “There are a lot of them around Gore. They are used to transport people back and forth from the mainland to the island. They are based on a design used in the canals at Marshtown. We need to wait for the people arriving in it.”
&nbs
p; “I was going to ask how the Travellers got their wagons to the island,” Brayson said, “but I see barges being used also.”
“Yes,” Ran answered. “Goods from the mainland are carried on the barges.”
Nails was looking with interest at the group that exited the taxi and were walking down the wharf. Two looked like small children while the other was a huge lumbering figure. Nails noticed it had tusks.
“That is a goblin,” Brayson blurted.
“Yes,” Ran confirmed, “and the other two are gnomes. They help build our ships. Try not to stare at the goblin’s tusks. It makes him self-conscious.”
But Nails couldn’t help but stare at the goblin. First of all, he had no idea that a creature like it existed. The goblin was more than a head taller than he was. Its arms were exceptionally long ending in huge hands that hung to its knees. The three were closer now, and he could see their faces. The goblin’s tusks projected from its mouth and pushed its lower lip down. Nails had expected them to be sharp like fangs, but they were rounded. He stopped looking at the goblin and concentrated on the gnomes. One was older, with grey in his hair and beard. The other was young. He guessed father and son from the similarities in their appearance. The younger one laughed as the goblin knocked its hat off, and Nails could see that the back of the gnome’s head bulged out. He had always heard that gnomes had pointed heads, but now he understood why people thought that, and why the myth of the head shape was all wrong.
***
Brayson sat with Remi at the harvest table in the backyard. It had been moved out from the house to accommodate the dinner guests. The others, Nails, Reese, Manda, Ran, Garnock the gnome, his son Farly and the goblin Sorrick, all sat around a bonfire in the centre of the backyard. The gnomes and the goblin were planning to head north to their village in the mountains. Brayson and Nails had been invited to travel with them the next morning, and they had readily accepted.
Remi had pulled Brayson aside to ask about his mother, but it turned out she wanted the story about Amadella—Brayson’s mother—and Bray—their father, so Brayson had explained sirens and their magic to her. He described the effect siren magic has on people—basically making them slaves to the siren’s wishes—and recounted the story his mother told about Bray trying to resist her magic and the attempts he made to fight his desire. His mother told it as a funny story. Remi failed to laugh, but she also did not attack him as Adel had. She was mad, his ability to see emotions told him that, so he asked her to tell him about her family and then about their father. As she talked, her anger slipped away. He saw how much she loved both her parents—especially her mother. Now she made a suggestion that Brayson found excited him.
“When I leave here at the end of the summer, Reese is going to take me to Lower Thesia. I will climb the stairs and my father will meet me at Upper Thesia. If you came along, we could climb the stairs together and I could introduce you. What do you think?”
“To what purpose?” he asked her.
“So he can meet you and you him.”
“Any other reason?” Brayson asked. “Having my father hate me because you want some sort of confrontation about his past transgressions does not appeal to me.” He could see by her reaction that there was a grain of truth in his statement.
To her credit, Remi considered what he had said instead of rejecting it outright. “I...there might be some truth to what you say,” she admitted.
“Learning about me is still fresh for you. We should wait until you are ready to return home before making a decision about this. In truth, I would like to meet my father and your brother.”
“I know Shawn will want to meet you. He has never met a Cross before. He’ll have lots of questions for you.”
“Why is he interested in mixed-bloods?”
“Shawn is interested in everything. My father always taught us that learning is a noble undertaking. My brother has taken that to his heart. Reading is his favourite pastime. Both of us lived with Sinty and the gnomes and goblins while we trained in woodcraft. There is no one better at moving quietly through woods than goblins. Shawn did the exercises, but his heart was always at home in the library.” There was a burst of laughter from around the fire, and they both looked. Even the goblin was smiling and laughing, although the sound he made was more like a pig snorting.
“I must admit,” Brayson said, “I have never seen or even heard of big-people hosting faeries and goblins. Now I see it here, and you tell me your family does it also. Are attitudes changing?”
“No. My father and Ran are unique in that way. Ran feels an obligation to the gnomes and goblins. They visit here often, and they even work on building ships. They don’t feel comfortable visiting our palace, but we have a hunt camp in the mountains behind Nadia where they visit, and of course there is Sinty’s land. My father and Ran created a protected place for the goblins after the Destroyer War. The goblins had lived with Sinty in the North before they came south for the war, she agreed to the new preserve and the gnomes decided to join them.” She lowered her voice and leaned in. “You know, I think Ran actually prefers the fey races to his own.”
Chapter 12
When Nails had seen the mountains they had to pass through to travel north, he thought the trip would be more difficult than it had proved to be so far. The walking had been painful at first, but Brayson said they had just been sitting for too long.
“Our legs need to get used to walking,” he said. Nails didn’t think he was right, but a moon of travel had proved his point. Climbing the mountain foothills and passes had helped them develop stamina. Now, all he had to do was learn woodcraft, especially how to walk without making noise. Brayson could do it; in fact, he barely left a boot print. He attributed it to his faerie blood. The gnomes and the goblin could actually disappear in a heartbeat if you didn’t keep your eyes on them.
Sorrick was trying to teach Nails to walk quietly, and Nails thought he was amazing. He was a head taller than Nails. Two heads taller if he stood straight, but Sorrick slouched. Thanks to Sorrick, Nails had realized that he slouched also. They were both trying to stand straighter. At first, it had been almost impossible to remember to do it, and then Brayson had suggested the two of them make a game out of it. If you saw the other one slouching, you got to smack him on the back. After Sorrick learned to lighten his smack—the need for that was obvious because Nails ended up flat on his face in the dirt if Sorrick forgot—it had become a game. The winner was the one who scored the most smacks, and he got to eat one part of the other’s dinner. It was a significant motivator for both of them because they both liked to eat. Sorrick had been reserved around Nails and Brayson when they first left Gore, but he loosened up as they travelled. Nails talked to him a lot, he had a feeling of sameness with the goblin and had spent too much of his life feeling stupid and out of place to not do something about it when he recognized the same qualities in the goblin. Brayson had taught Nails, and now Nails taught Sorrick.
“You friend,” Sorrick had told him a few days ago.
“Thank you, Sorrick,” he had replied. “You’re my friend also.”
They had crossed the mountains and were travelling down from a ridge when they saw the village below them. It sat in a meadow just above the trees, and a path led up the mountainside from the village to a mine entrance. They decided to bypass it. Many big-people treated little-people poorly, Garnock explained. Garnock led them off onto another trail that dropped below the village and into the trees. They were about even with the village when Brayson drew attention to the party of five men headed their way. It became obvious that the men were going to cut across their path. Nails lost sight of them when his view was blocked by a cluster of boulders, and when he saw them again, they were standing on the path waiting. As they approached the men, Nails noticed that their hands rested on the hilts of their swords. He felt his scales cover his skin.
“What do we have here?” one of the men said as they came closer. “Two pointy-hea
ded little people, a crossbreed, a monster and a man with scales.”
“I think he’s a kobolt, not a man. I’ve heard they can change their skin,” one of the others commented.
“We are only looking to pass,” Brayson said. “We do not want any trouble.”
“But we are in need of workers for the mine, so you will come with us.”
“We don’t want to go with you,” Nails said. The man who seemed to be the spokesman pulled his sword.
“You don’t have a choice. We have ten more men at the village ready to come to our aid if you cause any trouble.”
“That is unlikely,” Brayson said.
“What? Now you’re calling me a liar!”
“If you want us to,” Nails said. “You’re a liar.”
“I don’t think you understand,” the man said. He lifted his sword and pointed it at Nails. “We are going to—” Nails stepped forward until the man’s sword touched the scales on his chest.
“Get out of my way.” He could feel his magic starting to build. He knew a physical confrontation would be safer for all concerned.
“I give the orders,” the man sputtered. Nails’ left arm came up and struck the sword blade, pushing it to the left, while his right fist snapped out and destroyed the man’s face. His left arm continued to move until his hand was on the man’s wrist. With a quick snap, he broke it and took the man’s sword. He saw a sword stroke coming from a man on his right, but the blade hit his scales and bounced off. Brayson’s sword thrust pierced the man in the shoulder and he fell to the ground. Nails blocked a stroke from the other side with the sword in his left hand and kicked the man between the legs before transferring the sword to his right. The last two men were moving backwards but holding their swords out. Sorrick suddenly appeared beside Nails, and the goblin roared so loudly that Nails cringed and the two men passed out. Nails looked around. Brayson said something, Nails saw his mouth move, but only heard a whisper.
