01 - The Price of Talent (22 page)

“All right Tyr,” said Devlin, once we had been on the road for a little while. “What happened back there?”

“Uh, you mean during the ambush?” I said, lamely.

“Yes, then.”

“Bevan was almost killed,” I said.

“There is that, yes,” said Devlin. “But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m referring to how he was saved.”

“Ah, yes… you mean the… um… fire?” I said.

“That’s exactly what I mean,” said Devlin. “But there is more than that. All those men that were killed were wearing amulets under their armor. The same amulets that were on the Inquisitors we rescued you from.”

“Oh shit, No!” I stammered, true shock and fear filling me when I heard him.

“Yes,” said Devlin. “I didn’t point this out to the others because I wanted to talk to you first. Why are inquisitors after you Tyr?”

“Oh no!” I said. “No, no, no! They’re still after me? They weren’t just guarding the money?”

“No, Tyr, they weren’t,” said Devlin. “Tax collectors and transporters often have guards, but they are rarely that well-armed, and they almost always give up without a fight. These guys didn’t even attempt to avoid a fight. They were out for blood from the moment Bevan introduced himself.”

              Upon hearing that, the nausea and weakness flashed through me again. Devlin had to grab my shoulder to keep me from falling out of the cart. My head was pounding all of a sudden and the world was spinning.

Now you’ve really stepped in it kid!

Oh god, not you, not now.

Of course me. Who else would have any insights in your current situation and be able to talk to you telepathically.

I… I don’t know what to do. If I tell him the truth and he throws me out, where do I go? What if he turns me over to the Inquisition? I, I have no idea what to do.

First things first. Man the hell up.

WHAT?!

I didn’t know it was possible for someone to snivel and whine telepathically, but you just fucking managed it.

I’m in a lot of trouble here.

Then why don’t you use your brain?

What?

Think for a moment you moron. He asked you on this trip for a reason. Bevan and Tiernan made no objections to you not helping them carry some really heavy equipment. He has already pointed out that he knows the Inquisitors are after you.

What are you getting at?

HE KNOWS YOU LIT THOSE MEN ON FIRE WITH MAGIC! Now it’s up to you to decide how to spin the situation. You either tell him the truth, and face the consequences, or lie to a greater or lesser extent, and face possibly different consequences.

If he already knows, then lying is not going to do anything but make me look either childish or untrustworthy. Either way, that won’t help me staying with them will it?

See, now you’re using your head. Now talk to Devlin.

“Tyr? You feeling ok?” Asked Devlin, still holding my shoulder to make sure I didn’t fall out.

“Honestly? No, I have not felt right in months,” I said.

              I then proceeded to tell him everything. I told him about how the Inquisitors ambushed me and the family at the farm. How I woke in the hospital to find out my farm was destroyed and everyone but me presumed dead because nothing was found of them. How I was found with my sword. How I can call it to me whenever I need it. How I was captured by the Inquisition at the mayor’s house. How since joining their band of highway robbers I had been practicing my magic in secret, lighting candles and melting ice while there was still ice to melt. The only parts I left out were how my sword talked to me, because I didn’t want to appear crazy as well as dangerous, and how Ross also had some skill with magic and had tried to help me. I then told him how, when I fumbled the reload with my bow, and Bevan was in danger, I panicked and started lighting his assailants on fire.

              After these revelations, there was a period of silence as Devlin let it all sink in and thought things over.

“Tyr, if I hadn’t seen those men burst into flames, I would not have believed you,” said Devlin. “But I did see. I also have seen what fire arrows actually do when they hit things, and unless those things are soaked in oil, they do not burst into flames like that. I have even heard of flour dust causing explosions in storehouses, but obviously there was no flour back there.”

“Please don’t send me away!” I stammered, in a near panic at the tone in his voice. “I don’t know what the Inquisition wants with me and I don’t want to know. It can’t be anything good!”

“Calm down Tyr,” said Devlin, a bit surprised at my reaction. “No one is sending you away. I already have one… talented… member of our little family. I’m not prejudiced against the unnatural.”

“Another talented person?” I asked, pretending I did not know about Ross.

“Yes, and you know it already too,” said Devlin. “Ross spent months healing me after your rescue and I healed at a remarkable rate for someone as inured as I was. I know about his healing skills, how they are not entirely based on his ability to make bandages.”

“Oh, um, yeah…” I said. “I didn’t want to reveal his secret. He said people are unlikely to react favorably to knowing about our talents.”

“I understand, and your loyalty to him in these matters says a lot about your character,” said Devlin. “And he is right, thanks to the church’s teachings many people do look down on magic. But you have found yourself surrounded by outlaws, people not exactly favored by society. So we are about as sympathetic a group as you will find.”

“Thanks…” I said. “Thanks for being understanding. I… Don’t have anywhere else to go. I worry I am putting everyone in danger though… Since it looks like the Inquisition has not given up looking for me.”

“Tyr, we’re highway robbers,” said Devlin with a smile. “The authorities are already out to get us. Most of us fled our former lives only a few minutes before the local constables or church police came to arrest us. It’s not like we were model citizens to begin with.”

“Thanks, for… well… everything I guess,” I said, quite relieved again that I was not being turned out.

“This does raise a question though,” said Devlin. “What exactly are you capable of?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” I said. “Before I started practicing with heat and fire, I couldn’t really manage anything on purpose. I would get headaches and then things would explode. Practicing has helped me channel my energies into things, and keeps the headaches at bay. But, aside from lighting fires, I have no idea.”

“Interesting,” said Devlin. “Well, I think we can make use of the fire starting abilities anyway…”

              I was a bit apprehensive upon hearing that, but then I wasn’t really in a position to say anything about it either. After all, things had gone much better than I had really thought they might. I didn’t want to rock the boat.

              A little while later, we arrived at the clearing. Getting the carriage out into the field took more effort than I had thought it might. The field was excessively muddy, and the wheels got stuck on quite a few occasions. Still, we did manage to get it out in the middle. Then Devlin undid the hitches on the horses, and smacked them each on the bottom to start them running away. Of course, they didn’t really go that far, just to another part of the field in the clearing where they immediately began eating the grass and flowers.

“I think they will get the picture better once the carriage is on fire,” said Devlin.

“So, how are we lighting it on fire,” I asked.

“How indeed?” said Devlin with a smile. “Why don’t you do it?”

“With what?...” I said, then felt dumb. “Oh, with magic… All right… Uh, it’s quite a bit bigger than candles and camp fires…”

“It’s made of wood though,” said Devlin. “Think of this as a good opportunity to test yourself.”

“Ok,” I said, with a little trepidation.

              Without any excuses at hand to delay things, I turned and faced the carriage. For the first time I really looked at it beyond just registering it was there. It was much bigger than the carts we used at the longhouse, bigger even than the cart we used back at the farm to carry our excess goods to market. It had a roof, and was even painted. In many ways it was quite a nice carriage.

“Tyr, stop stalling, we have a long walk back,” said Devlin.

              At a loss of what else to do, and realizing he was right, I had been stalling, I started to concentrate on the carriage. I reached deep and found my store of anger and frustration, and slowly focused it on the side of the carriage. The paint on the side of the carriage started to blister and pop, even smoke, but no fire. So I dug deeper and opened up the taps a little more, and then flames appeared on the side of the carriage. But even so, it was not exactly going up in flames. Fortunately, this annoyed me greatly, so I used that too. Finally, a real fire started and quickly covered the whole carriage.

“That’s good Tyr, I think you can stop now,” said Devlin.

              So I released my concentration, and just about fell over backwards.

“Funny, when you were in the fight earlier, you made those people burst into flames,” said Devlin. “That seemed to take a great deal more effort.”

“I was panicking during the fight. I don’t know how I did what I did there,” I said as I regained my balance. “When I do it on purpose, it’s much harder, and much more exhausting.”

“Interesting,” said Devlin. “Keep working at it then. Maybe it’s like sword fighting. You don’t become a master overnight.”

“Yeah, all Ross said was to keep working at it so I could better control it, and so that I could minimize accidents,” I said.

“Regardless, I think, it’s time to hit the road,” said Devlin. “We have a few miles to walk before we get back to camp, and that bonfire you just lit is going to attract attention, assuming there is anyone on the road to spot the smoke.”

              We then turned our backs to the carriage, and headed back to the road. I looked back just once and was happy to see that the fire had indeed scared the horses off. I hoped they found their way back home. Or if not home, someplace safe. Then, with Devlin in the lead, we walked all the way back to camp.

Chapter 14.

“So, how’d the little bonfire turn out?” Bevan asked as we arrived back at camp.

“Quite well. The horses are free, the carriage was a ball of flames as we left, and the bodies were inside,” said Devlin. “With any luck they will be completely consumed in the conflagration.”

“Will it look enough like an accident to fool anyone?” Asked Tiernan.

“Honestly, probably not,” said Devlin. “But then it doesn’t have to keep them confused all that long. It just needs to keep them off our trail long enough for us to relocate.”

“So, did Tyr tell you his little secret?” Asked Tiernan.

“Yup he did,” said Devlin with a smile. “Seems Tyr has an affinity for fires, or at least can start them easily enough.”

“Certainly explains all the melt holes in the snow banks around the longhouse,” said Bevan.

“You… all… already knew?” I stammered.

“You may be a clever kid, but you aren’t clever enough,” said Tiernan. “We figured you were up to something when you spent so much time outside after archery practice and sword practice.”

“And when we saw all the melted holes in the ice, the missing candles, etc…” Said Bevan. “We were able to put things together.”

“It also helped explain why you were locked up in the back of a cart being escorted by three members of the Inquisition,” said Tiernan.

“Oh, uh… I guess that makes sense…” I replied.

              The rest of the evening was surprisingly relaxed. No one seemed to question what I thought was a giant revelation about myself. I guess when you are a group of outlaws, everyone has secrets. In some small way I was kind of disappointed. I was expecting condemnation, accusations of witchcraft and the like. Instead, everyone was matter of fact about it. I was a little dumbfounded. Still, with the loot stowed in the lean-to, and dinner cooking on the fire (more salt pork), there was not much else to do but relax. In the end, we all turned in fairly early, agreeing that it had been an exhausting day.

              The next day we all slept in. We had agreed the previous night before going to bed that we were not going to hit the road until Sapphire got back with the wagon. Then we were going to relocate to a new ambush site on the road, one far away from the one we had just used. Fortunately, Sapphire did not make us wait. She moseyed on into the campsite a little after lunch and was disappointed to find that there were no leftovers.

“So after spending all morning in the carriage I get here to find you four lazing around the camp, and you didn’t even leave me any lunch?” She asked.

“Well, to be fair, we didn’t know when you would get here,” said Tiernan.

              With the greeting, such as it was, out of the way, Devlin explained the situation to Sapphire. As he was doing this, the rest of us started loading up the cart to travel off to the new campsite. Unfortunately, it was going to take more than a day to get there, since we were going to be traveling on trails through the woods and not by the road. And while there was some complaining about having to sleep in the woods, everyone saw the necessity of avoiding the road. Who knew what sort of patrols were on the road now that the escaped guard had enough time to report the incident?

              Things were pretty quiet in the woods. It was a beautiful spring day, and the birds were singing in the branches. The path itself was a little narrow for us and the cart. With the cart being full of loot, everyone but the driver had to walk. Everyone but me took turns driving the cart, as I did not know how to drive it. Bevan was all for teaching me right then, but both Devlin and Sapphire thought teaching me to drive the cart in a narrow woodland path would only lead to trouble. I saw their point.

              Come evening we started looking for a glade or clearing to camp in. It took some looking, but we finally found a little opening that was big enough for us all to spread out in and let the horse graze. That night was more salt pork, eaten with more gusto than normal because we had spent all day walking and had worked up substantial appetites. Still, the general mood was quietly jovial. I fell asleep listening to the good natured bickering while staring up at the stars.

              The next morning we pulled ourselves together and started our hike to the next campsite at a few hours after sunrise. It took us till almost lunch to get to there. The blue sky of the day before had given way to some patchy clouds. It did not look like rain, but it was also not as nice as the previous day. When we got to the campsite, it looked a little the worse for wear. The lean-to smelled of wet fur and the fire pit walls had been knocked over.

“It looks like an animal may have wintered in our lean-to,” said Sapphire.

“Certainly smells like one did,” said Bevan.

“There are some fairly large bear prints around the cabin and some claw marks on the walls of the lean-to,” said Tiernan

“Jarvis would not be too terribly pleased with that,” said Devlin. “Still, there doesn’t seem to be too much lasting damage. We just need to clean out the worst of the fur and detritus from the lean-to and fix the fire pit.”

“Well, I better get started on the fire pit,” said Tiernan.

“Good idea,” said Devlin. “Tyr, why don’t you go look for some firewood while Sapphire and I clean up and fix the lean-to.”

              So that’s what I did. While out, I found the stream where we were going to be getting our water. I also managed to get a few arm loads of sticks and kindling materials for the fire. By the time I was working on my third load, Devlin and Sapphire had stopped cleaning out the lean-to and started unpacking the supplies. They left the money and the extra weapons in the cart as they were going to be heading back to the longhouse the next day.

              We all finished up our chores around the campsite a little before dinner time. By the time everyone had settled in, a discussion had begun about who was going back with the extra loot.

“I’ve been out here since before the snows all thawed,” said Bevan. “I would like some time relaxing at the longhouse.”

“Hah! You want time relaxing next to one of my mead barrels while I’m not there to supervise,” said Sapphire.

“No, I’m sure there’s lots of stuff around the house that needs a blacksmith’s attention,” said Bevan.

“We already mentioned the mead Bevan,” said Tiernan.

“Besides, Jarvis said he could use Tiernan’s help with some repairs,” said Sapphire. “It turns out the snow melt is seeping through a couple of storeroom walls.”

“Damn, you know I just shored them up this winter too,” said Tiernan. “I guess those mead barrels are just going to have to pine away for you Bevan.”

“Yeah, I’m sure they already miss him dearly,” said Devlin. “But if Jarvis says the walls need Tiernan’s attention, then he is the one who should go.”

              With that settled, everyone got things ready for dinner. Devlin built the wood into a log cabin arrangement in the newly repaired fireplace, but instead of grabbing some tinder and the flint, he turned to me and smiled.

“Tyr, why don’t you get this started,” he said.

“Um, ok, sure,” I said, not knowing what else to do.

              So I walked over to the fire pit and the wood and concentrated on the wood. After a minute or so, I had gotten the bottom logs going enough that the rest would catch soon enough.

“He didn’t use the flint,” said Sapphire, more than a little surprised. “There’s a story here isn’t there?”

“There is indeed!” Said Devlin with a mischievous smile. “Tyr may have revealed why it was the inquisitors had him trussed away in the back of that cart when we first found him.”

“Oh?” Said Sapphire.

              Devlin proceeded to tell the whole story in grand fashion. He left out the bits where I was in a blind panic about Bevan being in harm’s way, or my throwing up the minute I smelled the burnt corpses. Instead he made it sound almost heroic. Like the first high priest blasting away the armies of the mages. The basic facts were the same as what actually happened, but it made me seem far more impressive than I actually was. Bravely throwing fireballs at our enemies sounds a lot better than what I actually did, which was to panic, drop my arrows, and lose control of my powers. Still, Sapphire seemed impressed, and as a teenage boy, impressing women, even those a decade older than me, seemed like something I should not interrupt.

              Dinner was eaten with lots of discussion. Sapphire seemed more impressed with Bevan defending himself from two mounted men and two crossbow men than my lighting people on fire. Bevan re-enacted running the guard through and using him as a human shield a number of times. Once using Tiernan as the human shield, much to his annoyance. Food was as it usually was, more salt pork. After all, it was that or the older supplies. What had seemed like a luxury when we got it, had by this point lost its luster. Which just shows you that you can get sick of anything if you eat it often enough.

              Still, the evening passed in a jovial fashion, and when I turned in, I was able to ignore the smell of wet fur in the newly cleaned up lean-to and fall fast asleep. I awoke the next morning to the sound of breakfast being made. Unfortunately, yesterday’s clouds had stuck around and new ones had joined the fun. It looked like we were in for a little rain in the near future. Breakfast was just oatmeal, nothing fancy. No one mentioned bacon or other cured meats, even Bevan having finally gotten sick of them.

              When breakfast had concluded, we all helped Tiernan get his gear into the cart for the journey back to the longhouse.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to smash your face in, Bevan,” said Tiernan with a smile.

“Not that you would have accomplished any more than those guards did attacking me,” said Bevan in reply.

“They were incompetent and you had support from us archers in the woods,” said Tiernan. “If we had sparred, you wouldn’t be able to rely on our little pyromancer here lighting me on fire when things went badly for you.”

“Bah, one on one is far easier than five on one,” said Bevan. “I would have given you a few extra lumps on your head for sure.”

“Yes, be that as it may,” said Devlin, “I think it’s best if Tiernan got a move on. Those storeroom walls won’t get any better for waiting. And if our meat and grain stores spoil we will have to stretch the salt pork out for quite a while.”

“True enough,” said Tiernan. “Well, I wish you all better luck in the days to come. Tyr, you try not to light anyone on fire. Well, don’t light Sapphire or Devlin on fire anyway.”

              And with that, Tiernan snapped the reins and the horse and cart began trundling along the path back toward the longhouse.

“Now that we have that settled,” said Devlin. “Why don’t we head out to the road and see if anyone drops by and volunteers to give us their goods.”

              With nothing else to do, we all gathered up our weapons and armor, and headed out to the road. The spot this time was on a long straight section of road with two rises about 300 yards apart and a depression in the middle. The two rises gave us good views of the road north and south and the depression provided a decent spot for an ambush. The idea was that the hills would give us enough cover to push out a barricade of fallen logs without being seen. And with trees on both sides of the road in this spot, fallen logs for the barricade were plentiful.

              We again split up with Bevan and myself on the north branch with Devlin and Sapphire overlooking the southern branch. It was at least mid-morning by the time everything and everyone was in place. Lashing together a barricade takes some time, and this spot did not have one already prepared in the woods for us. Apparently, this was one of the less frequently used ambush sites.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the late morning and afternoon passed uneventfully. No one came by in either direction. And while nothing was going on, the clouds just kept getting darker. When the sun dropped below the tree line, Devlin called it a day and we all headed back to the camp. Personally, I was fine with nothing happening. After last ambush, I was not comfortable with going through all that again. Having almost lost Bevan in that trap, my anxieties had resurfaced. Bevan, on the other hand, was less than thrilled with nothing going on.