Protector Of The Grove (Book 2) (8 page)

“
Ugh, no, Willy
,” said the imp. “
Noble life is almost as boring as farm life. You just don’t have to wipe your own hind end. Although . . . now that I think of it, there are some funny tricks that you could play on the other nobles
.”

 “This is all about your amusement, isn’t it? You don’t really care about what would make me happy,” Willum griped. “Not that I should be surprised.”

“
Of course I want to be amused. I’m stuck in this axe and your life is the only one I get to experience
,” the imp said, sounding offended. “
This, however, doesn’t mean I don’t care. Ho! I wasn’t wrong when I said you would be bored here
.”

“Do you want to know the biggest advantage I have from being bonded at the age of four?” Willum asked.

The imp sighed. “
Here it comes
.”

“I know how to tune you out,” Willum said, closing off his connection to the axe. He smiled in satisfaction. The imp could still monitor him, but it couldn’t interrupt his thoughts.

“Hey! Willum!” called out a voice to his left and Willum turned to see a man loping across the frozen pasture towards him, a long spear held in one hand.

“Morning, Benjo,” Willum replied with a smile.

 Benjo was a big man. Not fat, but solid. Years of working on the farm and in the forge had molded him into an impressive physical specimen. He was Becca’s son from her first marriage and was a couple years older than Willum. He’d been the closest thing Willum had to a playmate growing up.

“Oh! Sorry,” Benjo said. He hopped over the fence and came to a stop at Willum’s side. He had a goofy-looking grin on his face. “I guess it’s ‘Lord Willum’ now.”

Willum put a hand to his forehead. The big man had been teasing him like this ever since he arrived back at the farms. “Come on, Benjo. Give me a break. We’re brothers.”

Benjo snorted. “Coal might’ve adopted both of us, but that don’t change the fact that you’re nobility.”

“Why do you keep bringing that up? The Vriils aren’t even your nobility. They’re Dremaldrian nobles. You’re from Razbeck.”

“So sorry, ‘Lord Willum’.” Benjo said, giving him a deep bow. “I didn’t mean no disrespect or nothing. See us peasants don’t always understand your high-sounding talk.”

Willum shoved the bowing man, sending him off balance, and Benjo fell to the ground, laughing.

“
Oh, let him pretend to kowtow, Willy. I find it amusing
,” Theodore said.

Willum closed off their connection again. Somehow the imp had found a way to open it up on his own. Willum found that more than a little bit disconcerting.

“Did you come all the way down here to mess with me, Benjo?” Willum asked.

“You gotta admit it’s kinda funny,” Benjo said, sitting up. “When we were kids, Father made you work with everyone else. You were covered in dirt head-to-toe, just like me and here, all along, you were the heir to the Vriil fortune.”

Willum reached out his hand and pulled Benjo to his feet. “It was good for me that Coal did. If word had got out that I had surfaced, Ewzad Vriil would have had me killed.”

“I guess you’re right,” Benjo said, still grinning. “I just think it’s funny is all.”

“Yeah, well I’m not finding much funny lately,” Willum said. He turned from Benjo and continued eastward towards the outside edge of the farmlands.

Benjo hurried to catch up with him and walked at his side. “That’s why I came. Samson said you were out on patrol and that you weren’t in a good mood, so I thought I’d keep you company.”

Willum gave him a slight smile. “Well you’re definitely better to talk to than my axe.”

“Oh, right,” said Benjo, blanching slightly. Willum’s axe made him nervous. He didn’t like how wicked it looked with its black haft and blood red runes. It also didn’t help that the one time Willum had let him touch it, the imp had made some pretty frightening comments in Benjo’s mind. “Good then. So, uh, what’s bothering you?”

Willum sighed. Benjo never had been subtle. He always got right to the point. “I don’t know. I’ve been looking forward to coming back here for so long, but now that I’m back, I just . . . Tolivar loves it here. He wants to stay, but I’m just having a hard time being content. I know I should love it here, being back home. I know. I just . . .”

“Oh, that,” the big man said, nodding sagely. “That’s an easy one. I know what’s bothering you Willum.”

“Great,” Willum said, shaking his head. “Please enlighten me.”

“It’s ‘cause father’s not here,” Benjo replied. “I’ve been feeling the same way ever since I knew he’d died. Coal’s Keep just ain’t the same without Coal.”

His words hit Willum like a punch in the stomach. Of course. It really was that obvious, wasn’t it? Coal was the reason he’d always assumed he’d come back and live his life out here. He had been more than a father, after all. He’d been his bonding wizard.

With Tolivar things were different. Sure he had Willum’s bond and they had a mutual affection for each other. But Tolivar didn’t expect his bonded to stay at his side forever. Samson would stay with Tolivar because, well that’s what rogue horses were made to do. But Bettie would be leaving for the academy soon with Lenny and their new baby. Where did that leave Willum?

“What?” Benjo said, giving him a strange look. “Darn. I was wrong, wasn’t I?

Willum realized that he was wearing a sour look on his face. “No. No, Benjo, you were right. That’s exactly my problem.”

“Oh. See? Easy,” the big man said, his smile returning.

  The two men walked on in silence for a moment, Benjo whistling to himself and Willum brooding. Then Benjo said, “Hey, Willum, looks like we got some strangers coming up the road.”

Willum looked up, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. Sure enough, far in the distance, there were some figures on the road coming in from the east. They were on horseback. “Yeah, you’re right, Benjo. You’ve got good eyes.”

Benjo’s smile grew wider and the two men picked up the pace, jogging towards the oncoming horsemen. It was likely that they were soldiers from the king on one of their infrequent visits, or perhaps a troupe of merchants. But as they drew closer, Willum could see that they weren’t the king’s men. There were six riders altogether, and none of them were wearing the distinctive red uniforms of Razbeck’s troops. Also they didn’t seem to be carrying enough equipment to be merchants.

Willum reached out to slow Benjo down just before they crested the next rise on the hilly road. “Hold back, Benjo.”

“Why?” Benjo asked, edging up so that he could see over the top at the riders.

 “We should get a better idea of who they are before we go running up to them.” Willum reopened his connection with the axe. This time he spoke to the imp mentally.
Can you get a feel for those riders
?

“
Ho-ho, Willy. So now you want to speak with me
?” said the imp in irritation.

“You see something I don’t?” Benjo said, raising his hand to his brow.

 
You were being annoying and you know it
, Willum replied to the imp.
Just tell me who’s coming. Please
.

“
Aww, you threw a ‘please’ in there. Ho! How sweet. Like I was a dog that needed to be tossed a bone
.”

Come on, Theodore
, Willum replied. He understood why the imp was perturbed, but he did not have time to play around.

“
Ho-ho! I wonder what I can get for this information
?” the imp mused. “
Perhaps I should require you to speak to me aloud only for the next week
.”

Willum pursed his lips. Theodore liked it when Willum spoke to him aloud. The imp claimed that’s what ‘friends’ did. Their current arrangement was that Willum would speak to him verbally only when he was alone.

“I don’t know what you’re worried about,” Benjo said, unaware of Willum’s conversation with his weapon. “Some of them are wearing academy standard gear.”

“Academy gear?” Willum said. He looked again. It was hard to tell since they were all wearing long winter cloaks. Academy graduates didn’t have a uniform per se, but their equipment did have a certain style to it. Muted colors and straight lines. “I think you’re right, Benjo. Those three in the back.”

“
Come, Willy. Are your eyes really so bad
?” said the imp, eager to be relevant now that Benjo had ruined his game. “
Don’t you recognize your friend, old wood-face
?”

“Swen?” Willum said, breaking into a grin. One of the men was quite tall in his saddle. Now that he knew what to look for, Willum realized that the long staff he saw over the man’s shoulder was, in fact, Swen’s oversized bow. “I wonder what he’s doing up here? Come on, Benjo.”

Swen and Willum had become good friends during the war. Willum had been excited when he’d heard that Swen had been posted at the academy outpost a day’s ride to the south. Unfortunately, Swen had only been allowed to come up to visit once in the two months since then. The local commander was pretty strict and he didn’t allow the men much free time.

“
If you care, the two riders in the front are carrying magic weapons and I’m pretty sure one of them is a dwarf
,” added the imp.

Yeah, thanks
, Willum replied. That information didn’t matter so much now that he knew the riders were friendly.

“It’s weird, academy guys coming this time of year. You think they need supplies or something?” Benjo asked

“Maybe,” Willum said. Coal’s Keep was known in the area for being well stocked all winter long, but the last time he’d seen Swen, he’d sent him back with plenty of extra supplies for the outpost. Surely the winter hadn’t hit them that bad.

He reached out to Tolivar through the bond.
Hey, we’ve got some company approaching from the east
.

Is that so
? Tolivar replied. The veteran warrior was in the kitchens and his arms were soaked up to the elbows as he helped Becca with the dishes.
Do you need Samson and I to come down
?

I don’t think so
. He sent Tolivar an image of the approaching riders.
It’s an academy group. Swen’s with them
.

Huh. Keep me posted
, Tolivar replied.

Willum and Benjo stood at the top of the rise and waved to the riders. Swen’s tall form waved back and Willum watched as he said something to the others before spurring his horse ahead. As he approached, Willum noticed something strange. Not only was Swen carrying ‘Windy’, his oversized bow, he had a smaller bow sticking up from behind his back as well.

“
You humans and your need to use two weapons
,” remarked the imp, making a back-handed stab at Willum’s own two-blade style. “
Ho! What’s he going to do? Fire them both at once
?”

Swen reined his horse in a short distance from them and dismounted. He wore a wide smile that bent the regularly angular lines of his long face as he approached Willum and clasped his hands. “It is good to see you, friend.”

“Yeah, I’m glad to see you, too,” Willum said, returning his smile. “I’ve got to say I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Two bows, Swen?” Benjo said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, big man,” Swen said in his deep monotone voice. He had met Benjo the first time he had been up to visit and the two tall men had hit it off. “Windy can be slow to fire. And while this was fine up on the wall, I needed something else for shorter distances. So I made this.” He pulled the smaller bow off of his back and held it out. It was expertly crafted and was the size of a good medium range bow, though with Swen’s long arms it looked like he was holding a child’s toy. “I call her, ‘Stinger’.”

“I’d say that fit’s it pretty good,” Benjo said. “You gotta teach me bowmaking one of these days. Bettie just makes steel bows and Lenui’s been too busy. Plus they’ll be leaving soon.”

An uncharacteristic eagerness appeared in Swen’s eyes and Willum knew that Benjo had started off on the wrong subject. “Ah, but the art of bowmaking is not something one can learn in one short lesson. It would take many-.”

“Guys, can you have this conversation later?” Willum said, interrupting the tall man before he could get rolling. “What brings you here, Swen?”

“Oh, I’m here on a job,” he said, looking a bit disappointed. He jerked his head towards the approaching party. The others were cresting the rise. “Or we’re here, that is. We’re looking for recruits.”

“You’re looking for recruits here?” Willum said in disbelief. “From the farmlands?”

“Well, you and Tolivar specifically. You know, the bonded,” Swen said. “Maybe Lenny if he wants to come.”

“
Ooh, a mission
!” cried the imp. “
Ho, Willy, that’s just what you need
.”

“Hello there, Willum,” said one of the other riders. Strangely, he was mounted on a mule.

Willum looked up, unable to recognize him for a moment. Then he realized he was the dwarf the imp had told him about. He was big for a dwarf and kept his beard short and well trimmed. “Jerry the Looker?”

“His name’s Djeri,” snapped one of the other riders as they got down from their horse. This one wasn’t wearing standard academy gear, just some badly damaged leather armor.