Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1 (22 page)

It was a little before dinner when they finally arrived at Riyan’s home. Needless to say, when Bart and Riyan’s mother saw them arriving with three extra horses and swords at their hip, they knew something must have happened. So while they were putting the horses into the barn, Chad and Riyan explained what happened. They didn’t go into detail as to why they had been in Wardean, and they definitely made no mention of the coins or the King’s Horde while Riyan’s mother was with them.

Then it was Bart and Riyan’s mother’s turn to tell them of the man who showed up to kill Bart. It was well past dinner before both parties had finished relating their different adventures.

Riyan’s mother mentioned that Freya had stopped by but didn’t say much more than that. Later that night after Riyan’s mother had gone to bed, the three friends stayed up late in the front room. It was at that time when Bart told them of the conversation he overheard Freya and Riyan’s mother have.

“So they won’t be getting married for a year,” he summed up once he was finished.

“That might be enough time,” Riyan said as he glanced to Chad.

“Time for what?” asked Bart.

“To find the rest of the key, and open the King’s Horde,” he stated quietly.

“King’s Horde?”

“Yes,” replied Chad. “It’s…” He and Riyan then filled Bart in on what they had learned from Thyrr.

Once they were done, Riyan said, “I intend to find the rest of the key and open it.

With the treasure inside, Freya’s father would have to agree to let his daughter break off the engagement with Rupert in my favor.”

“There’s but one minor problem,” said Bart.

“What?” Riyan asked.

“You don’t know where the rest of it is,” he explained. “What we have could be the missing fragment from the whole, or it could be one of many scattered in a dozen different places.” He paused a moment as he glanced from one to the other. “From what you said Thyrr told you, people have been searching for this place for centuries.”

“I know, but we have something they don’t,” he stated. “We have a part of the key.

Plus we’ve been in The Crypt and seen the seal protecting the King’s Horde.”

“That’s true Bart,” added Chad.

He glanced at them both again and could see they were dead set to do this. Sighing, he indicated for them to follow and said, “Come with me a second.” Leading them to Riyan’s room, he went to the closet and removed the piece of the golden key from his pack. He showed them the map on the one side and the spot he believed indicated a town of some sort. “This is the only place on here that shows something other than geographic representations. It has to mean something.”

“Are you saying the rest of the key is there?” asked Riyan.

Bart shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But if we are going to go in search of the rest of the key, it’s as good a place as any to start.”

“But we still don’t know where the place is,” said Chad.

“True,” nodded Bart.

“There is a large map of the surrounding area in the Magistrate’s office,” Chad suddenly said. “Maybe we could see if this place is on that map.”

“Good idea,” agreed Riyan. “We could go down in the morning and take a look.” Chad nodded and then grew silent. After a moment he said, “Somehow I need to figure a way to talk to my mother about the grinding stones and give her the coins they need.”

“I could find Eryl in the morning and discover whether your father will be at the mill or not,” offered Bart.

“That would be great. Then if he is, I could go pay a visit to my mother.” Chad felt better now that he was one step closer to helping his family and hopefully mending the rift that was between himself and his father.

Chad and Bart spent the night at Riyan’s place. They crashed in the front room while Riyan took back his bed from Bart. In the morning when they told Riyan’s mother that they were heading into town, she asked about the sheep.

“Your friend Davin hasn’t been taking them out much,” she said. “They really need to graze.”

“I know mother,” replied Riyan. “But this is more important right now.” She gave him a look saying that she didn’t agree but wasn’t about to argue the point.

He felt guilty. He knew that she counted on him to help with the sheep and he couldn’t help but feel that he was letting her down somehow. “I’ll take them out later this afternoon, okay?” he said.

“See that you do,” she said.

Feeling somewhat better now that she’s been mollified, he and the other two left and headed into town. Riyan thought about wearing his sword but decided against it. If he were to be seen wearing a sword around Quillim, it would have raised too many questions he wouldn’t want to answer.

The first thing they did was to hunt down Eryl. Finding Chad’s brother wasn’t too difficult and when asked, he told them that their father would be at the mill until lunchtime. He was working to prepare the wooden framework for the two wheels that were coming in later in the week.

“How’s mother doing?” asked Chad.

“Fine,” replied his brother. “She’s sad about all that’s going on. I hope things can work out again.”

“Me too,” Chad assured him. “I’m going home now to talk to her.”

“Good luck,” Eryl wished him.

“Thanks,” Chad replied.

They left Eryl where he was playing with several other youths of similar age and headed directly to Chad’s home. Despite what his father said, he still felt that it was his home too.

Making their way through the streets, they kept a lookout for Rupert but he and his three buddies were nowhere to be seen. Before they reached Chad’s home, another young man that lived in town saw them passing through and moved to intercept them.

“Bart,” the young man said. “There’s been a stranger in town asking about you.”

“Yeah, I heard,” replied Bart. “We just got back.”

“He was kind of strange,” Egrin replied. Egrin was the son of the local baker. He wasn’t as close to Chad and Riyan as he was to Bart, though he’s had more dealings with Chad due to the fact his father bought flour from Chad’s father.

Bart came to a stop as he talked with Egrin. “You two go on ahead,” he said. “I’ll catch up.”

“Alright,” Riyan said as he and Chad continued on towards Chad’s home.

It didn’t take them long before they arrived. Chad’s mother was outside drawing water from their well when she saw them approaching. Leaving the bucket sitting on the ground, she turned towards them and waited for her son to approach.

Chad was filled with uncertainty when he saw here. He wasn’t sure just how she was going to react to him after everything that’s happened. Coming close, he said the only thing he could, “I’m sorry mother,” and then gave her an embrace.

She returned it with feeling and when they broke it off, had tears in her eyes. “Oh Chad,” she said, “why did you go against your father’s wishes?” He felt bad. “I was just trying to help,” he replied. “I didn’t mean to make the situation worse.”

“I know,” she said.

“How’s father?’ he asked.

“Not good,” she told him. Emotions got the better of her and it took a minute to get them under control. “He hasn’t changed his mind about you.”

“I realize that,” stated Bart. “How much are the two new grinding stones going to set him back?”

“Fifty golds,” she replied. “We had twenty saved against adversity and those are already gone. The magistrate was good enough to loan us the rest. He said that it wouldn’t do for Quillim not to have an operable mill.”

“Fifty?” he asked incredulous. That amounted to a veritable fortune by the standards of those in Quillim. He was surprised that his family had actually managed to squirrel away twenty golds.

She nodded. “I know. I don’t know how we’ll ever pay him back.” Chad glanced to Riyan who nodded.

Before they left, they had placed all the gold coins they had received from Thyrr into his pack. “I have something for you and father,” he said. “To make up for what I did.” She looked at him questioningly. Then he opened his pack and showed her the gold inside.

When she looked inside and saw the shining golden coins, she had a sharp intake of breath. “Oh my,” she said. “How many are in there?”

“Fifty five,” he replied. “We found some gems up in the mountains while we were camping and sold them in Wardean. Me, Riyan and Bart have decided to give you and father what is needed to replace the grinding wheels.”

“You can’t be serious!” she exclaimed. “Oh Chadric.” Tears began to flow unbidden as she sobbed in happiness.

“Will father accept this?” Chad asked. “I know how proud he is about some things.”

“I think he will,” she said. “But it might be best if I tell him. If you were to be here he might get his back up and no amount of logic would sway him.”

“He can stay at my place,” offered Riyan.

“That would be best,” she said, “at least for now.” So they went inside the house to take the fifty coins out of the pack. When Chad’s mother was about to pick up the water bucket to take it back to the house, Riyan beat her to it and carried the bucket inside for her.

Once inside, Chad removed the coins and stacked them on the table. “I hope this makes things better between father and me,” he said.

“I’m sure it will,” she replied. “But even with this it may take time for things to be as they were.”

“I know.” Chad gave her a hug before he and Riyan took off for the magistrate’s office. “Send Eryl to Riyan’s if things change and I can come back.”

“I will,” she said as fresh tears began to course down her face.

“I love you mother,” Chad said after another hug.

“I love you too,” she replied.

When at last she was able to release her son, he and Riyan left and headed over to the magistrate’s office. Chad was awfully quiet as they made their way back through town.

“You okay?” Riyan asked.

“Better,” he replied. “If my father forgives me then I will be.” He really didn’t realize how much he cared about the way his father felt about him until he lost his goodwill.

Now he almost felt empty inside and knew that only regaining his father’s favor would fill it.

They encountered Bart who was on his way to meet them at Chad’s family’s home.

“Everything go alright?” he asked.

“Won’t know that until Eryl comes with word,” Riyan replied.

“I’m sure it’s going to work out for the best,” Bart said reassuringly as they approached the Town Hall where the magistrate’s office lies.

When they entered the building, they stopped to see Ceci and asked her if they could see the magistrate.

“I’m sorry Riyan,” she replied. “He and Rupert went up to Yarix and won’t be back for three days.” Yarix was a small town less than a day’s ride to the north. It too was a small town of herders and farmers like Quillim.

“Thank you,” he said.

Once they were outside, Riyan said under his breath, “Three days!”

“Don’t worry Riyan,” Bart said. “We’re going to get in and see that map before then.”

“What do you mean?” he asked. “Ceci isn’t about to allow us to go poking around his office while he’s out.”

“I know,” he replied with a grin. “But if you don’t want to wait three days, I do have another idea.”

Riyan glanced at his friend and asked, “What?”

Later that night when the town grew quiet, three shadows moved in the dark. They wended their way through the buildings until the Town Hall rose out of the darkness before them. Stopping for only a brief moment in the shadows of a bordering building, Bart made sure no one was around. Then he led Riyan and Chad towards the main door.

“Are you sure this is such a good idea?” asked Riyan.

“No one’s around this late at night,” replied Bart. “Besides, we’ll only be a moment.”

“Exactly,” Chad interjected. “It’s not like we’re planning on taking anything.”

“Just keep an eye out until I get the door opened,” Bart told the other two. Taking out his lockpicks, he pulled out two of the instruments and began working on the lock. This lock was a rather simple one, nothing better had ever been needed in the quiet town of Quillim. It took him but a moment before he felt the lock turn.

“Okay,” he whispered and opened the door. Bart moved inside and was quickly followed by Chad and Riyan. He relocked the door once it was shut.

They followed him to the stairs where they made their way up to the third floor in the dark. Moving in the all but absolute darkness of the Town Hall’s interior forced them to step carefully. Riyan had thought they should bring a lantern, but Bart had argued against it.

“You aren’t really going to need it if you just move slowly enough,” he explained.

“Also, it might be seen by someone passing by outside.” He did however bring along an item for light, something he called a ‘tube lantern’. It was little more than a hollowed out piece of wood, six inches long with a diameter of three inches, with the stub of a candle set inside. When the candle was lit, it aimed a beam of light at a specified location rather than illuminating the entire room. He told them this was a little item his father claimed to have thought up.

Riyan recognized it from earlier this afternoon. He had taken the flock out to graze as he promised his mother, Chad and Bart had accompanied him. They also dropped off Old Glia’s package for which she was very thankful. While they were out, Bart had found the piece of wood and begun carving out its insides. When they asked what he was doing, he just grinned but wouldn’t answer. As it turned out, he had been making the tube lantern.

They followed the stairs up until they reached the third floor landing. Then they headed down the hallway to the end and the Magistrate’s Office. None were surprised to find that the door was locked. But it was just as simple as the one below and Bart had it opened in no time. “They don’t worry too much about breakins around here do they?” he asked once the lock was opened.

Chad chuckled, “What would anyone steal?”

“True,” Bart replied then opened the door. Several windows spaced along two of the walls allowed light from the moon and stars to filter in. It cast the room in a multitude of shadows.