01 - The Price of Talent (14 page)

“I’m sorry Ross. I was trying…” I said.

“It’s not your fault, Tyr. It’s mine for not realizing that you are different in the first place. I assumed what worked for me, would work for you. Apparently, that is not the case. So instead of candle lighting, I want you to focus on melting the ice on ponds, like we had previously discussed. That way if you blow a hole in something again, it will be away in the forest where presumably no one will be around to get hurt,” said Ross.

“Ok, I will try to melt ice and what not next time. I’m sorry I blew up the candle,” I said. “I didn’t mean for that to happen…”

“I know kid, I know. It just means we have to go about this in a different way. A safer way,” said Ross.

“Ok,” I said.

“Cheer up, Tyr. No harm was done, and in a twisted sort of way, you have just made some progress,” said Ross smiling.

“Thanks,” I said. “I will try to do better next time.”

“With practice you will,” said Ross. “But for now I think it’s bed time. Good night, Tyr,” said Ross, taking his leave and walking to his room.

              The last bit of the evening was spent cleaning up the wax. Fortunately it was a small room, because it had gotten everywhere. Once clean, I gathered the salvageable wax, and brought it to the area where candle scraps where stored to be melted into new candles. Moira typically would harvest the animal fat from her kills and render it into candle wax. However, she still required us to give her the melted wax from spent candles. She viewed wasting it as committing a deadly sin. A sin, because wasting any part of an animal she killed she took as a personal affront. And deadly, because if you did it enough she would threaten to render you down into replacement candles. Devlin said she was joking, but I wasn’t so sure.

              With the wax cleaned and stored for recycling, and my room back in order, there was nothing left to do except go to bed. And if I was honest with myself, I was quite tired.

Chapter 11.

              I would like to say that the explosive experience with fire was the only one and that I quickly mastered my new found powers. After all, we all like to think we’re special. Unfortunately, I was not a fast learner. In my first few weeks trying to learn how to control the magic within me I had many similar incidents. After moving outside with my practice, I had a long time where I would try to melt ice, or boil water, and nothing would happen. I would get frustrated, and then I would accidentally obliterate the object of my frustrations. At least while I was outside, this would only result in spraying mud and water everywhere. It did mean I had to wash my clothes quite frequently, which was quite a punishment when the weather truly turned cold.

              Fortunately, my other lessons were going well. In archery I was starting to hit the target from the limit of the practice field, about 100 yards. While this was no accomplishment for Moira, everyone else seemed to be impressed with my progress. Devlin constantly pointed out to me that the reason Moira was such a good hunter was that she could shoot a deer through the eye from over 100 yards and that this was an exceptional skill, equivalent to his skill with the sword. What he meant was that it took years of practice and a lot of native talent to get that good. Still, at 15, I considered it a mild disappointment that I was not as skilled after a few months of training.

              As for sword fighting, it was going well too, but maybe not as well as the archery. Over the course of the winter I progressed from learning the basics to short sparring matches with Devlin and Moira. Devlin was constantly pointing out the flaws in my form, but he also was quick to praise the progress I had made. Moira seemed to comment less as I improved. By the time the first thaw came through, I was starting to pull even with her on point sparring. Point sparring, if you are curious, is when you spar till someone gets a clean hit. That person is then awarded a point. She was still a little better than me, but my youthful exuberance made up for some of my lack of experience.

              My sword, of course, was less impressed.

Kid, are you wearing lead boots out there or something? Devlin dances around you like you’re standing still, and Moira, who never uses swords, fights you to a standstill. Frankly, I’m disappointed. I wonder if I can bond with someone else… I bet Devlin has more use for a talking sword than you do.

Thanks! They both have years more experience than I do. Fortunately, I’ve been getting better. So, if you could be patient, maybe you’ll find my skills worthy in the future. Devlin seems to think I could become really good.

He’s just using positive reinforcement to help move you along. I’m betting he’s bored out there watching you flail about so ineptly.

Considering the snow is still on the roads, it’s not like he has a lot else to do.

              And this was true. Jarvis, Bevan and Tiernan had come back from the road and were in for the winter. I had not seen much of them since they helped rescue me. We still didn’t talk much, as they were a bit of an insular group. But they did not loaf around all winter like I expected. Jarvis took a day to relax and mend his clothes and gear, then immediately began working on the longhouse and various storage areas and barns around the hideout. Apparently, before he became an outlaw, he had been a journeyman carpenter. He hadn’t told how that part of his life ended, but like everyone else here, I’m guessing something got ugly and he left before the law arrived.

              Similarly, Bevan also fell back into his former profession during the winter months as well. He had been a blacksmith’s apprentice before he became an outlaw. Unlike Tiernan, who was not open with his background, Bevan joked frequently about how he became an outlaw. Apparently, the daughter of the blacksmith had taken a shine to him, and kids being kids, one thing led to another. Unfortunately, when the daughter got pregnant, the Smith blew his stack.

“And there I was, eating lunch in the forge and the Smith barges in holding a long metal rod screaming about how I ‘defiled’ his daughter,” recalled Bevan on a particularly snowy morning. “It was hard to tell through the old man’s yelling, but I gather he had found out about our little dalliances. I, of course, offered to do the honorable thing and marry the girl, but the smith was not listening to reason. He attacked me with that iron bar. Fortunately, while immensely strong, the old man wasn’t quick on his feet, so I was able to stay one step ahead of him as he chased me around the forge. As he wrecked the place, wildly swinging that metal bar, he left piles of debris scattered in his wake. While he was charging at me with the bar, I jumped over the scattered remains of raw iron and a wooden bench. He stubbed his toe on the iron, tripped and fell head first into the bench. The fall both cracked his skull and broke his neck. It was ugly. His head was twisted around unnaturally and there was blood everywhere. When his wife came in to investigate the sudden silence, she saw me standing over her husband, who was obviously dead and in a pool of blood, and she ran to get the guards. I grabbed my things as quick as I could at that point. As I left, I heard her calling for the guards and calling me a murderer. With no other options, I ran off, hit the road and ended up here.”

“Why was it unfortunate that he messed up the forge?” I asked. “His tripping and falling may have saved your life.”

“Kid, he was old and slow, and I was young and quick. Not much older than you are now, honestly. If I had been able to wait till he tired out, I may have been able to get him to see reason. I would be head Smith now and married to his daughter. Probably, I would be living happily surrounded by family if he hadn’t gone and broken his own neck…”

              But as I said, Bevan also got right to work as a smith. He started mending broken metal, fixing scarred and chipped weapons, making arrow heads and iron nails for Jarvis’s repairs. He also only took a day or two to rest after getting back before getting to work.

“Too many highwaymen overlook practical materials when they rob people.” Said Bevan. “They go after the gold, the jewelry and the other frippery. Gold and jewelry won’t mend a roof and won’t put food on the table. Not unless you are willing to go to a town or city to spend it. You think a stranger from the road carrying gold and jewelry will go unnoticed in a small town? First you will be the toast of the town for bringing in such riches. But then come the questions. Questions from shopkeepers and then questions from the guards and church patrols. Those are questions a highwayman doesn’t need.”

              Tiernan spent a little more time relaxing and hanging out with Devlin. But even he did eventually get to work. He was a stone mason in his previous life. There isn’t a storehouse, cold cellar or foundation that doesn’t need some work done by a skilled mason, especially when winter comes. The freeze and thaw cycle of late fall and early spring has a way of opening holes between stones, cracking mortar and generally making retaining walls as leaky as sieves. This can eventually cause a building to collapse if ignored for a long time. But in our case, we were more concerned with preserving the supplies that we kept in the basement near the foundation. We didn’t want our food supplies to be ruined by dampness or moisture seeping in. Because of this, Tiernan spent most of the winter patching leaks, repairing foundations and making more mortar than I would have thought necessary to build a house. All that just to repair the damaged stonework.

              The benefit of having all the extra hands around the longhouse was that most of these chores had fallen to me while everyone was out manning the roads. This gave me more time for practice. It also meant that when I went to practice, I was frequently not the only person in the practice yard. With Devlin mostly healed now, he was teaching not only me, but the rest of the crew the finer points of sword fighting. Moira also frequently gave lessons on how to shoot. I was surprised to see that I was not that much worse than some of the others in both sword fighting and archery. But, as I was young, I only measured myself in comparison to the best of them, namely Moira and Devlin. Regardless, the rest of the crew took notice, and when the spring came, there were many discussions about me joining the crew on the roads.

“Now, I will grant you the kid is learning fast,” said Devlin. “But I think he needs a little more training before he can take a turn at ambushing merchants and taxmen.”

“Oh, come now Dev,” said Bevan. “He’s almost as good a shot as I am, and probably a better shot than Tiernan. And since when do we ever really use our swords for anything but intimidation? He can continue to learn swordsmanship with us at the barricades during the long days between quality marks.”

“As good a shot as I am is he?” Said Tiernan. “Bevan, I’ll beat you in an archery contest any day you want to try me! If he is as good as me, then he’s a damn sight better than you!”

“You two, shut up!” Said Moira. “He’s not a bad shot, probably good enough if he was to take a turn as a highwayman. But he is more useful tending the farm. He was a farmer after all, and aside from me, he’s the only other person here who knows how to plant a proper crop.”

              This went on a bit. I was a little surprised honestly. I had assumed I was more of a burden to them. A charity case because they all felt sorry for the orphaned kid. But then, I guess, enough of them had seen me practicing to know that I at least took the training seriously. I did too, I didn’t want to be a burden. I so wanted them to accept me that I was consumed with my training and chores. Also, it helped fill the time in the long winter months.

“All right, all right.” Said Devlin. “The kid is only 15 though. But you’re right, and we do have a few rules here. The primary one being that everyone of sound body takes a turn or two on the road.”

“If it makes any difference,” I said. “I will be turning 16 soon.”

“Will you now?” Asked Devlin.

“Yeah, my birthday is on the spring solstice,” I replied.

“That’s only a few weeks away,” said Devlin.

“And I think a wonderful birthday present for him will be a turn on the barricade with the rest of us,” said Bevan.

“He can do a turn or two, but only after he helps me clear the fields and plant the crops.”

“I have a solution then,” interjected Ross, who had been silent up to now in these discussions. “He and Devlin can join you three in late spring. By then Devlin will be healthy enough to relieve Jarvis and Tiernan. He can bring Tyr with him. Then Jarvis and Tiernan will be back and can take care of some of the repairs around the longhouse that always crop up before summer.”

“What?” Said Bevan. “I don’t get a break?”

“Not as early as late spring.” Said Ross. “Besides, your skills with metal will be more useful on the road anyway. Got to keep those swords and arrows sharp after all.”

“Besides, come early summer, Moira and I will want a chance to laze around the road and relax a bit; won’t we Moira?” Said Sapphire

“Aye, I think that would be a nice change from providing all your food and drink,” said Moira. “Laying out in the sun, waiting for fat merchants with lazy guards will feel like a vacation.”

“Is that what you think we were doing all fall?” Asked Bevan. “Lazing around, napping till we see an especially lazy merchant?”

“Now, now,” said Devlin. “We all take our time on the road. We all know it’s tedious, and we all know that robbery is not as simple as waiving weapons at merchants and being showered in riches.”

              And so it was decided that once we had the spring planting in, that I was to take my turn on the barricades. I was a little surprised, I thought I was doomed to be a farm hand. But now that I was presented with the opportunity to be a highwaymen with the rest of them, I must admit I was more than a little intimidated. Fortunately, it was still some weeks before my birthday, and a couple of months till we would have the crops laid in. But this new revelation caused me to redouble my efforts learning how to use the sword, the bow and get a hold on my powers.

              Winter held on longer in the mountains than it did in the plains where most of the farms were. I was ready for the snows to end about a month before they actually did. When my birthday arrived, I was expecting it to be sunny and the snow pack to be melting. Instead it was chilly and sleeting out. In years past we had celebrated my birthday outside in the fading spring sunshine at my parents’ farm, so the sound of sleet hitting the side of the longhouse was an unwelcome noise to my ears.

              Still, it was my birthday and I wasn’t about to let a little inclement weather get my spirits down. This was doubly so because yesterday I had finally made progress with my control of magic. I had been tarrying outside after sword and archery practice so that I could be alone with a snow bank. Once I was alone, I focused on melting a snow pile. As usual, nothing was getting accomplished. This made me frustrated, and my frustration caused me to obliterate the snow bank. But, instead of blowing it up and making a big mess, I melted it with some pretty intense heat. I was so surprised I had to try it again, and this time I created a controlled melt.