Moonstone, Magic That Binds (Book 1) (3 page)

Lotto had seen those boots before, but he couldn’t remember where. Just as he had finished that thought, he felt the sway of a boat on the ocean. He had never even heard of an ocean before, but he looked out at the endless water. He couldn’t see trees or mountains or anything. Heron’s Pond seemed like spittle in the dust compared to this. The man and the woman stood at the railing looking out at the sea. She turned to her husband and Lotto realized that she had a large stomach—very large, and then it dawned on him that she had a baby inside of her tummy. The man put his arm around his wife to reassure her about something. Lotto couldn’t hear any of their words, just the wind singing in the ropes of the boat, but somehow they communicated by just looking at each other.

He looked up at the sky and then turned his eyes back to the man and the woman.  Suddenly, they were on land and had just boarded a coach. The town that they rode through was so big. Houses faced out to the ocean climbed up the hills. The boat stood rocking against wooden sidewalks that led out into the sea for a hundred paces or so.

Lotto blinked as he found himself riding with the man and the woman in the coach. They didn’t know he sat with them as they rode up in the mountains and he felt the chill of cold weather as they reached the top of a pass.

On one side, he could see the ocean, looking blue until it spilled over the edge of the world. Looking in the opposite direction, Lotto saw hills filled with tall pointy trees and patches of land and the roofs of villages dotting the lands below.

The carriage rocked, reminding Lotto of the boat. It stopped suddenly in the midst of the forest.  The husband and wife grabbed at their heads as if in great pain. The woman bit her lower lip and clutched her stomach and then wailed. The man pulled out a long curved sword. He didn’t feel their pain, but he shared in their sense of alarm as the man jumped out of the carriage.

Now looking down from above, Lotto could see the two drivers and a big blond man fighting alongside the husband as his wife screamed from inside the coach. The husband squinted as if he could barely see, but fought bravely. One of the coachmen had died along with most of the attackers.

The husband and the blond man beat the men off and continued on their way leaving all of the bodies behind. The husband and wife looked distraught and both of them clutched their heads again, cringing in agony as they climbed into the coach. The woman continued to wail. Lotto couldn’t see inside, but he suddenly heard the crying of a baby and the husband commanded the driver to stop. He screamed and Lotto knew somehow that the woman had died.

The coach took off again and Lotto could see another group of attackers riding towards them. The road ran alongside Heron’s Pond. The husband switched boots and swords with the big blond man, who ran off, holding tightly to a bundle wrapped in brightly colored cloth. The husband stood his ground, fighting. His actions didn’t have the same energy as before. There were too many for him and Lotto couldn’t bear to watch his death.

His focus turned on the man who had helped in the fight, who took off the other man’s boots at the edge of Heron’s Pond and stuffed the baby’s wrappings into one of the boots and threw them into the center of the pond. He passed the old lady’s cottage, but a different woman stood at the door, yelling, as the man pulled something white from the old lady’s clothesline and wrapped up the baby. He left the bundle on the steps of the inn and fled out of town, the opposite way he came, running in his stockinged feet, still holding the husband’s weapons.

~

Lotto felt the rocking of the boat again and opened his eyes to see the old lady shaking him awake. Day had come to Heron’s Pond as he slept.

“I dreamed, Jessie. I saw a man and wife fleeing from another land. I know they were my parents. My mother died giving birth to me and my father died fighting attackers. I was put on the stoop at the inn. That piece of silk was from one of my mother’s dresses that they used to wrap me up when I was born and the boots were my father’s. They possessed the Moonstone and now I’ve yielded up my inheritance to the princess for a nice dinner.” Lotto put his hand to his face as he began to weep. “What have I done?”

“You called me Jessie!” the old lady said. “Your speech has changed.  I can see the light of intelligence in your eyes. The Moonstone changed your mind and has made you grow, for certain!” Her eyes drifted out of Lotto’s focus.

Lotto did feel more aware of his surroundings. His mind felt like it emerged from an ancient, hidden place. “I’ll get the herbs and mushrooms that I dropped last night.” He had to get out of Jessie’s cottage and think. The basket of his forest harvest lay where he dropped it. Picking it up, he looked around him. The names of the herbs came to his tongue. He looked in the basket and recognized the mushrooms that were edible and those that weren’t. Everything that Jessie had taught him must have been tucked into his mind, not coming out until the Moonstone unlocked his mind.

His lean-to even looked different. He wondered how he could have lived there. Whatever had changed his mind had given him a different perspective. Lotto sat in front of his meager dwelling and realized that his old life had slipped away with the Moonstone. He looked south and could sense the direction that the princess took. South. The Moonstone had linked them in some way.

He shook his head and searched for one of the boots. He remembered that the boots in the dream had the same odd style buckle.   Lotto searched his mind for more information from his dream. He could remember most of it, but other than what he had seen, the dream gave him no further information.

~

Jessie’s back was to him, stirring a pot of stew. He’d get his dinner after all, but a little late. Three gold pieces lay on the old lady’s table. “For the Moonstone?” he asked.

He heard a sob. Jessie turned around and rushed into his arms. “Forgive me, Lotto. I never knew. I never knew until this evening who you are.  Your parents must have been of noble birth and here you are living in the mud outside my door. Please forgive me.”

Lotto put his hand on her head and stroked the iron gray hair. “I knew no better. I was happy, although I won’t be now, living like that. I’m changed. I can tell that I speak better and think better. Look here. I sorted out the mushrooms, like you did. All that you taught me is still in here,” he tapped his head, “I remembered it, but my mind tucked it somewhere I couldn’t find and now everything is unlocked.”

She looked up at him, taking his face in her hands. “Noble Lotto. You realize that you’ve lived little better than an animal? I could have taken you in.”

He shook his head. “No. I thought more like an animal. I can see that now, but I survived. The Moonstone has changed me. I don’t know what I’ll do. Even yesterday, I ate a rotten apple along with the worm inside and felt it a treat. I can’t do that now.”

“You can fix your lean-to up and eat with me. With those three coins, you are set up for at least a year, although you might find it difficult to exchange those here in Heron’s Pond. Those might well be the only golden coins in the village.”

~

Lotto spent the night curled up on Jessie’s settee. He woke up in the morning and gasped. His clothes bound and pinched. He stood up as Jessie came in from her bedroom in the back of the cottage.

She put her hands to her mouth. “You’ve grown even more in the last day. What shall we do?”

He looked at his arms poking out of his sleeves. “I’ve grown in the night. I’m the size of a man.”

“You’re the size that you should be at eighteen years old. The power of the Moonstone has restored your mind and now your body. I’m sure you can no longer stay in my cottage. Let me fix the breakfast. You go out and chop some wood. You’ll have to sleep in your lean-to tonight.” Jessie looked at Lotto with concern.

He left confused and deflated. His re-birth as a real person didn’t start the way he expected. He chopped the wood, marveling at his new strength. He had to be careful as the old axe bounced around a lot more. Lotto had no desire to chop his way back down to his former diminutive size. At least he could laugh at his thoughts.

Bringing in a load of firewood, he knocked on the door first. Jessie opened the door for him.

“I’m so sorry. You must imagine my shock at seeing you the way you are this morning. Sit down for breakfast and let’s talk.

Breakfast!  Jessie had never invited him for breakfast before. He generally got her leavings, but this morning he received the fresh hot stuff. “This is marvelous!” Lotto said with his mouthful. His mouth had rarely been full of good food before and this made two real meals in a row.

Jessie laughed for the first time. “I have enough savings to break one of those coins down. We’re going into the village this morning and buy you some new clothes. You will have to wash first. That means you and those rags you currently wear.”

After breakfast, Lotto walked down to Heron’s Pond and didn’t see anyone about, so he stripped and swam through the water, rubbing the dirt off of him. He rubbed at his hair and then he scrubbed his clothes on a rock and set them out to dry in the morning sun. He lay down by the rock and let the sun warm his body as he drifted off to sleep.

He woke to giggling. Three of the village girls stood some paces off laughing and pointing. Lotto grabbed his clothes and put them on, being careful enough not to rip them. He walked up to them, now in a more decent state. “Is that better?”

“No!” one of the girls blurted out to the laughter of the others. They ran past him and on further along the banks of the pond. “Who are you?”

They didn’t recognize him? All three of their names came into his mind.

“I’m Lotto and you are Daisy, Hester and Rena.”

Shock came to their faces. “You’re not Lotto, but how did you know our names?” They all blushed. “Don’t tell our parents that we saw you all naked.” That brought out more giggling.

He pursed his lips and looked at them hurry away, looking back from time to time. He could feel complications arising from his new shape and new awareness.   He shared his experience with Jessie, who couldn’t help but laugh at his predicament.

“You go from the village half-wit, a tiny imp of a person, to a strapping young man. No wonder the girls looked at you in wonder. Twenty-five years ago I’d be mooning along with them. Let’s get some decent clothes and some new bedding for your lean-to and see how you fare during the rest of the summer.”

~~~

CHAPTER FOUR

~

“I
T’S BEAUTIFUL,”
F
ESSANO SAID
, admiring the gem’s glow in his hand. “I can feel its power. I can see it has changed you, but there’s something else. What happened when you retrieved it? Did it come from a wizard?”

Restella didn’t want to tell him about the half-wit or admit to the guilt that she felt about seizing the stone.

“Come now. I’ve found out a bit more by asking around if any of them knew of events in the village. I’ll share what I know if you’ll tell me the story.”

She looked into his eyes and found no guile. Fessano always treated her as she wished her father had. “I came across an old crone. No, she’s not that old. An older woman living by herself, just outside the village. She has some power, she admitted as such. The scout from Walkington said she is the healer for the village; midwife and all the rest. Anyway, I confronted her about the stone. She said the village half-wit found it. She knew enough not to touch the stone.”

Fessano nodded his head. “Half-wit, you say? A half-wit with magical power? Only a wizard could unlock the power in the stone.”

“He did that,” Restella said. “The boy looked like he was ten or twelve, more of an animal than a human. Filthy and feral.” She shivered with disgust.

Fessano laughed. “You thought that up while you rode back from Heron’s Pond.”

Restella grinned, as she only would for the wizard. “I wish I did, but if you doubt me, there are witnesses. The boy defined his decision as giving the Moonstone to me or eating the dinner that the witch was about to cook.”

“He could have had both!” Fessano said.

She nodded. “I had eleven armed men with me and that might have influenced him to give up the stone.” She shrugged. “It didn’t matter. He gave up the stone, but a strange thing happened. As I took it from his hand, I felt a flash of light— of power, really—and then I fainted for a moment. The stone shrank in size.”

“A binding of some kind, I can tell. The stone affected you with some of its power and now look at you!  Taller and stronger.” Fessano closed his eyes and ran his hand up and down, still facing Restella. “Yes, a binding, yet it isn’t complete. I told you that the holders of the stone were physically transformed. Do you feel him? A faint pulling to the north or anything?”

Restella shook her head. “Nothing. I did leave a few gold sovereigns as payment.”

“Not close to the value of the Moonstone, but a fortune for a villager.”

“I thought so. What do I need to know about this binding?” Restella said.

“He has power. I don’t know how much, but enough to have inadvertently bound you to the stone, probably along with him. His power changed you and created the link. It will either break or get stronger the next time you both touch the stone together. You don’t feel anything?”

She closed her eyes, imitating Fessano, and concentrated. Nothing.

“Perhaps you have nothing to worry about, except this remarkable change in your appearance, if the boy stays in the village the rest of his life.”

“What did your research tell you?” Restella said. Could he tell her more about the effects of the Moonstone?

“The noble couple fled from Serytar on Zarron eighteen years ago. This was not long after the Emperor of Dakkor rose to the throne and began to exercise his power. The Duke and his wife both had magical talent. There were being pursued, but no record exists of the details. They had asked for sanctuary in Valetan and were granted such as soon as they arrived in a small port to the north. They never made it to Beckondale.”