Ossendar: Book Two of the Resoration Series (29 page)

“Bandits,” the wide eyed young man murmured to himself, although Heather couldn't tell if it was fear or awe. The young man's face brightened, and he looked up, “I sure hope that we don't see any. We're leaving at first light, headed south. I'm a guard on Master Elridge's caravan.”

The pleased expression on the young man's face showed clearly that this was his first trip. An idea suddenly occurred to her, and she jumped at it without thought, “Master Elridge?” She asked.

Three or four heads turned to look at her, as this was the first thing that she had said, except to the serving girl. Most dismissed her immediately, but the young man smiled widely at her. “Yes, that's right. It's my first trip with the caravan.”

Heather smiled at the young man, and in return his smile widened. “Where is the caravan headed?” She asked, her eyes concentrating on him.

“Jamellah. It's a port city, to the south and west of Diminia.” He talked fast, and the words almost ran together. “I hear that they don't like us, the people in Jamellah, I mean. They only tolerate us because they need our trade. We mainly trade grain and livestock, although they also want to buy weapons.” He leaned in as if he was telling her a secret, but he still spoke loud enough that the rest of the people at the table could easily hear. “Mynar is in a state of civil war and prices are constantly going up. Master Elridge thinks we'll make a fortune.”

Heather wondered what would happen if the people couldn't pay the high prices, but quickly forced that thought from her mind. She had a job to do, and she couldn't solve everyone's problems as it was. Cocking her head to one side, she asked, “Civil war?”

“Yeah,” he said, straightening as he spoke, “The king died without an heir and four lords have stepped forward to claim the throne. They have been fighting for years.”

Heather was sickened at the boy's enthusiasm. He seemed to be excited about seeing the war torn country. 'I bet he gets sick at the first sight of death,' she thought. “What's your name?”

The smile fell from the boy's face, “I'm sorry, I thought that I told you. My name is Jefflem from Devlon's Mill.”

Heather leaned close to Jefflem, and his smile came back even bigger than before, but it slipped at her question. “Well Jefflem, where can I find this Master Elridge?”

“Uh, I'm not sure where he is,” he leaned closer to her and lowered his voice. “Why don't you come up to my room and I can tell you all about Mynar.”

Heather grinned, the young fool hadn't even been there, and he was trying to impress her with his stories. She wondered how many of them would be made up. Judging by the childish grin on his face, he actually thought that he had a chance with her. “No,” She said sweetly and was delighted to see the boy blink. “But I would be very interested in meeting this Master Elridge. I think that I could do business with him.”

“Business?” He asked in a confused manner, pulling away from her as he spoke. “What type of business?”

“Well, you see I'm traveling to the south, and I was hoping that I could arrange to travel with your caravan.”

Jefflem blinked at her for several moments and then smiled. “Well, perhaps he'll let you, and that would be great. I would love to have a beautiful young lady along for the trip.”

It took all of her willpower to keep from frowning at the boy, and for the first time she wondered if this was such a good idea after all.

For all Jefflem's claiming to not know where Master Elridge was, he seemed to find him awful quick. He led her upstairs to the third floor, to a large room at the end of the hall. He knocked once and stuck his head into the room, after a moment, he opened the door and entered.

A little nervous about entering a strange man's room, Heather followed quickly so that she could keep a watch on Jefflem. Entering, Heather glanced quickly around the room; Master Elridge seemed to be doing all right to have such a comfortable room. A huge four poster bed was along the wall to her right, and a circular table with four chairs was to the left. Directly in front of them, was a man wearing a robe and sitting on a small couch. He was smoking a pipe as they entered, and the room had the smell of smoke and fruit. The man on the couch, she assumed it was Master Elridge, was in his middle years, with just a touch of grey in his sideburns. His rather large nose had been broken more than once, but that was quite common for those that had worked their entire lives with the wagon caravans.

The man glanced at Heather and then spoke to Jefflem, “Well, nephew, what have you brought to me? I hope that you haven't caused a problem.”

“It's nothing like that, Master Elridge,” Heather said quickly, before Jefflem could answer, the boy had conveniently forgot to mention that Master Elridge was his uncle. “I have a business proposition for you, and this young man simply helped me find you.”

The man on the couch smiled at her, “First, I insist that you call me Wylon, Master Elridge was my father. And second, it's completely impossible to conduct any business with one person sitting and the other standing.” He motioned to one of the chairs that sat around the circular table. “Please.”

Heather immediately found herself liking the man and graciously accepted his offer of the chair. She noticed that he didn't offer a chair to Jefflem.

He waited until she was sitting comfortably before speaking, “Now, what is it that I can help you with?”

Heather cleared her throat, not exactly sure how to start, her words came out kind of slow as first. “Well, I will be traveling south with several friends and I was hoping that we could ride along with your caravan.” Wylon seemed to hesitate at that, and she hurried on, “We have our own supplies, and wouldn't be a bother to you at all. In fact, if someone tried to rob the wagons, we would help defend them.”

Wylon considered for a moment, “How far south did you intend to go and how many friends?”

Heather smiled slightly, pleased at the man's apparent agreeableness. “There are four of us, and we're going to Falda.”

“To Falda, really?” Wylon smiled at Heather, “Well then, I don't see why not. Our wagon caravan will pass through Falda on our way to Mynar, and it's always good to have more swords along.”

Heather's smile slipped slightly. It seemed almost too easy and she hadn't expected that. She had expected Master Elridge to resist and for her to provide a list of reasons that he should consider. She had even thought of offering the man gold.

“However,” Wylon continued, “We will not supply you with any food or shelter.”

He leaned closer to Heather, and she instinctively leaned back away from him. She opened her mouth to agree, but he talked right over her.

“And if I catch you stealing anything from us or causing us any problems, I will make you wish that you had tried your luck with the bandits. Understood?”

Heather swallowed hard. She had underestimated this man. At first glance, he appeared to be a somewhat friendly old man, but now his toughness was showing through. His eyes were ice cold, with a murderous glint in them, and she had to stop her hand from instinctively sliding toward her dagger. “I understand, Master Elridge.” She managed to get out with a small smile, “and please rest assured that you will have no problems with us.”

Heather left the room and a smile grew on her face. Not only had she found protection from the bandits, but traveling as wagon guards would be a perfect disguise.

Her smile slipped a little thinking about Jefflem, the boy's mind was squarely in his pants. If the boy tried something with her, it might cause problems with his uncle. She shrugged, no use shearing the sheep before their time.

Her smile disappeared completely when she reached the hallway with their rooms. What was she to do about Enton? He was causing problems and they hadn't even left Telur's borders.

Despite her successes, it was a long sleepless night.

The next morning dawned grey and cool, and Heather was talking with Aaron and Mikela when Enton joined them. She stopped talking as he approached, but he didn't seem to notice.

Enton smiled a mirthless smile, “Tagging along with a merchant train. Not a bad idea, although it will slow us down quite a bit. I'm actually surprised that you thought of it.”

Heather fought down a swell of anger. The brute had moved beyond openly disliking her and he was now insulting her. Things were not going the way she had hoped between her and Enton, and now it seemed that it was just going to keep getting worse. She glanced over at Mikela and Aaron, wondering how Enton's attitude would affect them on the journey. Mikela was staring at Enton with a look of smoldering anger, while Aaron was staring at the ground. Enton's attitude was clearly affecting all of them, but what to do about it?

Enton glanced over at the wagons, “The wagons will be nice to sleep in when it's cold or raining.” He looked back at Heather, “I hope that you didn't pay too much for all this.”

Her anger at the man slowly disappeared, and in its place, she found something new, determination. She had tried her best to appease this man, but enough was enough. An idea occurred to her, an idea that pleased her tremendously. Not only could she solve the problem with Enton, but she could get a little revenge on the man at the same time. She noticed that her heart had started beating quicker; he would not like this, not one bit.

“Enton, I have a task for you, and seeing how Flare put me in charge, I'm sure that you will obey.”

His smile dropped away, “What?” His voice did not seem as cocky as it had been only moments earlier.

She smiled at Enton and he swallowed unconsciously. “I am ordering you to go back to Telur.”

He chuckled, “No, really, what is it that you need me to do?”

Heather's right eyebrow shot up, “I'm not joking. I'm ordering you to go back to Telur. You are hindering us and I will not allow it to continue.” She spoke quietly, but with force.

Enton seemed confused, “Hindering you? Without me you don't stand a chance. What do you think, Aaron?”

The anger was back now. Not only was he mocking her, but he was circumventing her to get Aaron's input. Heather opened her mouth to speak, but Aaron spoke first.

“Actually, I'm surprised she didn't do this days ago. Your attitude has been horrible.”

Enton seemed surprised; apparently he thought that Aaron would have supported him regardless of how he had been acting. He glanced at Mikela, but the angry look in her eyes let him know that she was not an ally. He focused his attention back on Heather, “Flare sent me along on this mission, and we both answer to him.”

Heather nodded, “Yes he did, and he also ordered you to follow my orders. So if you refuse them, then you will be disobeying both of us.”

“But you need me.” The tone of Enton's voice had changed now, it was no longer confident, but was now sounding desperate. “You can't hope to succeed on this mission without me. You will need my strength.”

Heather shook her head, “You're hurting us now. I will not keep you around just for what you might be able to do for us later.” She folded her arms and stared at the huge warrior.

He stared back at her for just a moment, and then his features hardened. “Fine.” He took a step closer to Heather, and was now glaring down at her.

It took all her will not to take a step back, but Heather stood her ground. Enton seemed to be bigger than ever, and his features seemed carved from stone. She dimly was aware of Aaron stepping closer up behind her. Even with Enton hulking over her, it was nice to know that Aaron was backing her up.

Enton paused for a moment looking down at Heather, as he did so, he noticed two things. The first was that Heather didn't back up or look away from him, and that surprised him. He hadn't really gotten to know the tracker, but he still wasn't too impressed with her. The second thing he noticed was that Aaron had immediately stepped up beside her. He hadn't expected Aaron to support her over him, if anything he had thought that Aaron would stand by and watch events unfold. “Fine.” He repeated, “But I want you to remember this, because you will regret it. Before this trip is over, you are going to wish that I was there to help, but I won't be.” He glared at her for another moment, and then turned and stomped away.

Heather let out a breath that she hadn't known that she had been holding. “I thought that he was going to kill me.”

Aaron snorted, “Well, if he had killed you, I want you to know that I would have been there to avenge you.” He paused, a small smile creeping onto his face, “Unless I thought that he would kill me too, and then I would have gladly followed his orders.”

Chapter 12

After splitting off from the other guardians, Derek had quickly led Trestus, Enstorion, and Kara eastward along the road, even breaking into a gallop to leave the other guardians behind.

“Derek.” Kara called out from the rear of the group, “What's the rush?”

He pulled his horse up and turned to face the other three, his horse sidestepping as he faced them. He nodded back the way they had come, “Flare thinks that this mission is dangerous, and he doesn't want to know which way we go, so I am going to oblige him. Start looking for a good hiding place off of the road.”

“Who are we hiding from?” Trestus asked.