Hand of Fire (The Master of the Tane) (51 page)

             
Thane’s face lit up. “Would you teach me to use one?”

             
“I tell you what,” Jack said, moving away from the fire and over to Thane’s chair. “You go back to your room and clean yourself up and let me get dressed, and in a little while I’ll come and get you for some dinner.”

             
“But what about the swords?” Thane protested.

             
Jack grabbed his arm and lifted him towards the door. “There will be plenty of time for that later. Right now, you need a bath. You stink to the high throne of Seless and your
Dihne
is starting to come unraveled.”

             
“But...”

             
“No buts,” Jack said, opening the door and forcing Thane into the hall. “Take a bath.” Jack shut the door behind him just as Thane was about to make another plea. The only sound that passed through the door was a faint mumble followed by hurried footsteps running back down the hall. “Can I use a sword?” Jack said with a small laugh. “That’s a good one.”

             
About an hour later, Jack came banging on Thane’s door just as the young Chufa was fighting to get his
Dihne
back on. With a little assistance from Jack, he was soon ready to again go out into public. Thane was amazed at how tired and hungry he actually was. Luckily, his room only had a washbasin and not a bathtub or he would surely have fallen asleep in the process of washing himself and probably drowned.

             
The pub was relatively quiet when they entered the main room. Only a couple of men occupied the tables and one sat alone at the bar. Most of the men ate their meals in the barracks where their food was rationed out to them free of charge. Occasionally, some would splurge or get tired of the slop they were fed and buy a meal at the pub. For the most part though, they saved their meager salary to spend on mead. Everyone knew that old Benfer put in a few extra ingredients, mainly water, and charged an outrageous price, but since the next closest pub was in Calandra, a good sixty miles west, the only other choice was to go without. It was not a difficult decision to make for most.

 
              Jack picked a table to their immediate left by the fireplace and they both sat down with their backs to the wall presenting a clear view of anything that might come at them. Jack passed it off as a good habit but Thane still felt concerned for his life in a room occupied by other HuMans and was not about to take any chances. If anything happened, he wanted to see it coming. The door opened and a group of six men walked in taking a table next to the door.

             
“Food in the barracks must be bad tonight,” Jack mumbled, mostly to himself.

             
Thane didn’t reply but moved a hand up to adjust his
Dihne
.

             
Benfer hurried over to their table with two bowls of thick stew and a tankard of mead for each. Thane sniffed at the liquid and wrinkled his nose. “I’d rather have water,” he whispered to Jack.

             
“That’s what most of it is,” Jack grumbled searching through his stew for a piece of meat.

             
“What?”

             
“Just drink it, Thane,” Jack said looking around for Benfer. “It will keep you warm tonight. Benfer!” Jack called just as the portly old man rushed by. “You call this stew? Where’s the meat?”

             
“Sorry, Jack,” he said as he caught up a couple of mugs in his hands and turned to rush back into a quickly growing crowd. “It’s just the end of winter you know. Not much about.”

             
Jack growled disappointedly into his bowl. “We probably could have gotten just as good in the barracks for free,” he said throwing down his spoon.

             
“Just eat it,” Thane teased gulping down another spoonful. “It will keep you warm tonight.”

             
Jack gave him a sharp look but was greeted by a large smile. “You think this is funny, don’t you? While I’m half starving from lack of nourishment you’re cracking jokes.”

             
Quin and a couple of his friends entered the room and, spotting Jack, pushed their way through the suddenly substantial crowd to reach him.

“Here
comes Quin,” Jack whispered. “Remember, you’re Tjal-Dihn and don’t speak much common. Just keep quiet and let me talk and everything will be fine. I’ll find out what I can about the trolls, sell my stuff, and then we’ll be out of here.”

             
Thane was about to make a comment but Quin and his friends reached the table before he could open his mouth.

             
“Jack,” Quin shouted over the din, “look who I brought with me.”

             
The two men smiled broadly at him as each clasped his hand in turn. “Well, I’ll be a troll’s mother,” Jack beamed. “Thunel and Sakin!”

             
“It’s good to see you, Jack,” they both said together and then sat down glancing at Thane who was trying his best to hide in his stew.

             
“You keep strange company these days,” Thunel, the larger of the two, said motioning to the Chufa boy.

             
“This is Thane,” he said quickly. “He’s what you might call a harmless Tjal-Dihn.”

             
The other three men laughed nervously. “I’ve heard them called a lot of things,” Sakin said, “but harmless isn’t one of them.”

             
Thane tried to ignore what was being said about him, thinking that if he made no notice of understanding that they would turn their attention to something else and forget he was even there.
I don’t know why Jack had to drag me out here on display to everyone
.
I would have felt comfortable enough eating in my room
.

             
“Oh, he’s tame enough all right,” Jack assured them. “Left his swords in the mountains.”

             
The newcomers relaxed visibly but Quin shook his head. “Well, I always said you were crazy, Jack. Until now, I just didn’t know how much.”

             
Benfer passed by like a breeze plopping three mugs down on the table and then hurrying on at the call of his name.

             
“A toast,” Thunel called raising his tankard. All followed suit except for Thane who was busy trying to dig out the last bit of stew in his bowl. Thunel looked at Thane. “I said, a toast,” he repeated a bit angrily feeling surer of himself knowing Thane was unarmed. Thane looked up and was surprise at finding the three men across the table staring at him. Jack nudged him with his elbow and motioned to the mug in front of him.

             
“Uh, he doesn’t know common very well,” Jack explained weakly.

             
Thane looked at the mug distastefully and then lifted it like the rest of them. Thunel gave him a sour look and then continued. “To old friends and new adventures.”

Thane watched as the four humans brought their mugs up for a long swallow. Jack jabbed his ribs and he quickly brought the mug up to his mouth. The smell was awful, but he knew if he didn’t want any trouble he would have to drink. He knew it wasn’t poison, his Tane would have warned him of that. But, anything that smelled that bad couldn’t be good. Raising the tankard slowly, he watched as the putrid smelling liquid approached his lips. Closing his eyes, he took in a quick mouthful and almost choked on it as he tried to force it down his throat before everything
else came back up. The sour taste made his mouth pucker and his stomached tightened. Setting his mug down, he suddenly felt dizzy. He looked up and the room started spinning around him. His lips felt numb and the sweet after taste of honey lingered in his mouth. Talk and attention had long past left him but, strangely enough, he no longer felt apprehensive. In fact, he felt kind of jolly. He reached for his mug again as the noise around him faded away like the fire’s smoke right up the chimney.

             
“So how are things in the mountains, Jack?” Sakin asked wiping the foam off his lip. “You wouldn’t consider coming down for a while and hanging around here would you?”

             
“Yeah,” Thunel added with enthusiasm. “It would be just like the old days. What do ya say, Jack? We could always use a good fighting arm like yours.”

             
Jack smiled while shaking his head. “Oh no boys, I’m through with that life. The reason I left for the mountains in the first place was to get away from it all. You boys know that.”

             
“Get away from it all, he says,” Quin chided. “So, to get away from it all you walk right into the spider’s web.” Turning to the others he continued. “I bet he’s part o’ more fightin’ then the three of us combined. No wonder it’s been so slow this winter. Jack’s done killed off all the trolls.” The others let out a small chuckle of agreement and Quin went on. “Oh no. I suppose that our life down here is much too boring for our friend, Jack, here.”

             
Jack stared into his tankard for a moment and then took another drink. “No boys, I’m afraid that old Jack has put up his sword for the quieter life of hunting furs and relaxing in the warm sun. The trolls don’t come around my place anymore. Not for a long time now.”

             
Sakin laughed. “Like Quin said, you probably killed them all.”

             
The others laughed again and then Thunel stopped short catching the somber look on Jack’s face. “You can’t be serious, Jack,” he breathed in disbelief. “You hate trolls. You always have. I’ll never forget the first day you got here right in the middle of a raid.”

             
“Yeah, Jack,” Sakin added. “You were like a demon straight from the halls of Dren. It was a whole week before you would talk to anyone.” 

             
Jack’s mouth turned up into a grin but his face held no joy or laughter. “Well, boys,” he said quietly, “I’ve put that demon to rest. That’s why I went into those mountains. Anyway,” he said waving his hand and draining the rest of his mead, “enough of all this talk of the past. What I want to know is where in Seless’ name is Wess and when is he coming back?”

             
Thunel and Sakin looked at each other grimly. “I told you,” Quin shot back, “he’s out...”

             
“I know what you told me,” Jack interrupted, “but that’s not what I want to hear. Come on now. It’s me, remember? It’s Jack. What’s going on around here?”

             
Quin looked down at the table and then quickly glanced around to make sure no one was listening. “We really don’t know for sure,” he whispered, leaning across the table. “Rumor is that a large group of trolls have gathered and are heading west towards the Mogolths.”

             
Jack’s face became a dark mask of concern. “Are you certain of this?”

             
“Nobody knows for certain,” Sakin answered, “but it comes from pretty reliable lips.”

             
“Whose?” Jack hissed. “I’ve got to know.”

             
Thunel gave him a surprised look. “Come on Jack. Have you been away that long? You know we can’t tell you that.”

             
Jack sighed and wiped a callused hand across his face. “I know. I’m sorry.”

             
“Why is it so important who told us anyway?” Quin asked.

             
“It just is,” he replied. “I’ve got to know for sure if it’s true.”

             
“Well,” Thunel said, “Wess will be back tomorrow or the day after. You can ask him. You know he’ll tell you everything before he says a word to us.”

             
“I guess,” Jack breathed settling back into his chair.

             
“Maybe those demons of yours aren’t completely gone like you thought, eh?” Thunel said looking at the others who nodded their heads in agreement.

             
Jack didn’t reply. Suddenly, Thane let out a loud yell and then jumped up onto his chair while bursting into song. All noise in the room quickly ceased as everyone turned and looked just as Thane pounced onto the table and threw himself into some sort of a jig. Laughter erupted in the room and some actually began to clap and cheer him on. Thane smiled at the cheers and, encouraged, sang louder. Jack jumped up like a shot and grabbed his arm desperately trying to shut him up and get him down. In doing so, he knocked Thane’s tankard onto the floor where it bounced a couple of times and then rolled under the table. It was bone dry.

Catching hold of his wrist, Jack pulled the young Chufa into a bear hug and yanked him from the tabletop to the chagrin of all who watched. “By the blood of my fathers,” he yelled into Thane’s ear trying to rise above the shouts of encore that echoed all around them. “What do you think you are doing, boy?”

              Thane looked at his friend and smiled. “Jack!” he screamed. “How you are then?”