The Azure Wizard (13 page)

Then in his mind’s eye he saw May Kinsley. Ethan was at first startled by her intrusion into his swift-paced thoughts of excitement and adventure, but after a moment he delved into her reasons for being in his mind. She was cute, yes, but she was by no means the drop-dead beauties such as the ancient heroines of old. Still she stirred something within the storyteller that he couldn’t explain. She was somehow familiar to Ethan. She possessed some slight features of a Vharian though she was of course a Greenwellian, and her tough attitude and personality were painfully reminiscent of Scarlet’s. But whereas Scarlet, the Troll, didn’t understand the concept of opening up to Ethan, May had already underwent a change of trust to Ethan and had exhibited an openness and relaxed demeanor that eased Ethan’s ever-present stirrings of anxiety.

His thoughts, a churning whirlwind, were sundered in an instant when a heavy knock sounded on the door. Ethan leapt up from his bed and slid into his new black shirt before opening the chamber door. O’Dell stood there with a grin on his clean-shaven face, but his shadowed eyes held captive darker thoughts and emotions that must have been turmoil in his mind. “Who would have thought you would become a Forester, you little bastard? What did you do, knock boots with Bethany for a position?” O’Dell chuckled as he stepped into the room and cuffed Ethan on the shoulder.

As he walked to the washtub and flipped it over to make himself an impromptu seat Ethan replied, “Yeah, I know. I don’t know what they were thinking.”

After a moment Ethan remarked more seriously, “I wasn’t sure when I would see you next, that is, after your confrontation with Bethany earlier.”

“Well, I’m here for two days so I would have seen you sooner or later.”

“Not exactly,” replied Ethan, “I go on my Errand in the morning.”

O’Dell raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Really? That was fast. Who’d she assign you with?”

“May.”

O’Dell shot him an incredulous look before responding, “You have got to be kidding me. Her daughter is taking you?”

After an answering shrug from Ethan, O’Dell continued, “She must have really pissed off her mother. Where are you guys going?”

Ethan answered, “She’s taking me upriver to Stone’s Shore.”

“Oh,” O’Dell shrugged with a faint smile. “I see Bethany’s still keeping little May on a bit of a leash, eh?”

“Yeah, it’s not too far or exciting, but the sooner that it’s over, the sooner I can a get out there on some real assignments,” Ethan excitedly answered.

“Don’t be too ready to get out there on your own, kid. You might regret it. It’s a mean world out there.”

“I know, O’Dell, but it’s also a free one.”

O’Dell nodded in what may have been approval and replied, “Aye, it is free.”

Following a few still quiet moments O’Dell asked, “So what do you think of her?”

“Of whom?” Ethan responded with a querying eyebrow.

“Oh, shut up! You know damn well who I’m talking about, Ethan,” O’Dell smirked incredulously.

“Oh, May,” grinned Ethan in not-so-genuine surprise, “she’s, uh, alright.”

“Uh-huh, does she know that you’re in love with her?”

Ethan hurled his pillow at him, and O’Dell easily snatched it out of the air with a hearty laugh. The storyteller stated, “She and I have only just met, and we’re barely friends. And besides, O’Dell, we’re going to be traveling together. I don’t think an intimate relationship is what I need to keep a level head as I start my career as a Forester of the Three Baronies.”

“What in the Soul Wastes are you talking about, kid? She’s pretty, a bit too average for my tastes but you seem too scrawny and whiny for a sensual, noble-blooded ,gorgeous nymphomaniac with hot loins and titanic breasts anyhow. Besides, it is pretty much common knowledge among most people close to our organization that we Foresters are a bit … hedonistic. Life on the knife’s edge in the wilds of the Three Baronies makes the company of a good woman and friends much sweeter. If a lad and lass are assigned on a dangerous stressful mission together, it’s a sure sentence for some boot-knocking.”

Blushed, Ethan shook his head with a sheepish grin. “Then why, in Illumis’s name, would her own mother assign us on my Errand together?”

O’Dell only shrugged and released his all-knowing smirk. “Maybe she thinks the two of you are too dim and scared to ever bed with one another. Or maybe she wants a grandchild, ugly though it may be.”

Ethan wished he had another pillow to throw, but instead resorted to a terse obscene gesture. When their grins diminished somewhat Ethan asked, “What do you think the Troll is up to, O’Dell? Do you think it’s in the city?”

The experienced Forester shrugged and his vivid stare became vacant. “I don’t know. If I was to guess, I would assume so. It needs to get in close with our organization, and there is no better place to do that than the very headquarters of the Foresters of the Three Baronies.”

“Does Bethany know of the threat?”

“Aye, I’d only just finished speaking with her when I came to see you. It was her who told me that you’d been sworn in.”

Ethan nodded and was then overcome with a mighty yawn. As he rubbed his eyes O’Dell said, “If you’re leaving tomorrow morning I better get the Soul Wastes out of here so you can get your beauty rest. By the Ancestors, you need it.”

Ethan shook his head with a smile and stood up. He was followed by O’Dell who reached out his arm, meaning to shake Ethan’s hand. The storyteller looked down at his outstretched hand, and instead of grasping it he stepped forward and locked O’Dell in a brotherly hug. As they patted each other’s backs Ethan whispered, “Thank you, O’Dell, for saving me from that monster. And thanks for getting me here. I seriously doubt I could have done it without you.”

“Sure you could have. You just would’ve arrived in Greenwell City as a bit of jiggle in the Troll’s belly.”

After they shared a laugh within their embrace O’Dell said in a quieter voice, “Don’t be scared, kid. You’re one of us now. We protect everyone in the Three Baronies, but we protect our own even more. We’ve got your back now, Ethan, as much as you got ours’. You’re going to do fine.”

Ethan’s yellow eyes threatened to spill a tear as he nodded swiftly in reply. When they broke their hug O’Dell stated, “In honor and duty.”

Ethan Skalderholt answered the same.

Morning light hued in yellow and gold flooded into the courtyard of the Foresters’ Compound as Ethan and May stood next to the fountain of Lady Quinn making sure the supplies for their assignment were in order. Ethan felt energized and he felt pride as he wore the complete uniform of the Foresters of the Three Baronies about his slender frame. Under his armor and satchel the storyteller wore trousers of dark brown linen and the soft linen shirt of the dark orange hue. The sterling silver hand axe hung prestigiously from his waist and his satchel, now bulging with supplies, hung at his other side from a single strap that crossed his torso diagonally.

“Alright,” May began, “we have six days worth of trail rations, a full water skin, flint and steel, a flask of oil, a roll of linen bandages, and a vial of Blue Root extract to numb the pain of wounds and speed the healing process. Correct?”

Ethan finished thumbing through the contents of his own satchel and nodded to her. “That about does it.”

“Well, let’s get out of this city and into the woods,” grinned May.

Ethan knew then that his new companion truly and dearly loved this stuff, the lifestyle and obligations of the Foresters. He felt nervousness in his own gut as he wondered if he too would revel in this new change of his simple life. Ethan could only hope for the best as the two of them strode swiftly from the courtyard of the Foresters’ Compound, through the ivy-shrouded iron fence, and into the mid-morning bustling avenues of Greenwell City.

A few hours later they found themselves on the busy Three Baronies Road that ran into the north gate of Greenwell City. Unlike most of the cart and horse traffic that was entering the capital of the Barony of Greenwell that warm summer morning the two Foresters walked on foot. They were of the minority that was actually departing the metropolis instead of gaining entrance. The next settlement was the populous trading-city of Wellgreet that lay about two days’ walk northwest of the Greenwell City. But that was not the way that they were heading.

Soon after departing the gate of the city the Three Baronies Road bent to the north meaning to take travelers across a long sturdy stone bridge of ancient craftsmanship that crossed the Three Baronies River and on to Wellgreet. The river, meanwhile, continued on for a couple score of miles before emptying into the Bay of Dawn to the southeast, and the Three Baronies Road flanked it to the port-town of Maple Bridge located on the bay. The road then curved to the south deeper into the Forests of Greenwell before finally breaking through them into the temperate rolling grasslands of Wendlith at the border-town of Woodend.

Upriver from the city, though, the waterway meandered northwestward up into the highlands of the Forests of Greenwell for about one-hundred miles before curving sharply northward at the community of Stone’s Shore, birthplace of Lady Quinn. It then continued on into the Vhar Mountains far to the north from which it was birthed from the crystalline womb of the world. The task that lay before the two Foresters, though, would only take them to Stone’s Shore, and from there they would be forced to return to their headquarters at Greenwell City. Their diminutive excursion would only take them about twelve days in total.

They walked straight off of the side of the road, deep dark brown hoods pulled over their heads and cloaks swaying about their marching forms, as it curved northward at the bridge. They couldn’t see the curious stares of onlookers and passersby as they strode determinedly downhill to the willow-shrouded banks of the wide Three Baronies River. The large willows that covered the shores of the river sagged heavily with their limp branches of green foliage as though they too were enfeebled by the oppressive summer heat.

Ethan was already drenched in sweat when they reached the riverbank, and was thankful for the reprieve that the trees provided him. “Let’s catch a breath here and have a bite to eat, shall we?” huffed May, her cheeks flushed and her brow dampened in sweat.

Ethan nodded in response and pulled his hood back from his head. The storyteller craned his neck upward, and was witness to the slow slight swaying of the deciduous plush canopy above that periodically dappled his pale face with fierce sunlight. Time seemed to slow for him, the better for him to marvel at sylvan majesty. When he leveled his head back down time seemed to resume it’s natural pace, and he could hear the many buzzing insects and Dawn Heralds that made their home on the cool riverbank. He could also hear his companion digging in her satchel’s contents as she ambled passed him en route to the shore.

His gaze followed her and he was again caught up in the pristine woodland beauty of this land. Time seemed to once again quiet as May sat down upon a thick log on the edge of the river, the surface of which was a dazzling road of glittering diamonds as the sun reflected off the numerous churning imperfections of the river’s surface. She was beautiful there amidst the vibrant orange and yellow Marigold blossoms that dappled the tall emerald-hued grass that grew all over the area. With a sudden moderate gust of pure woodland breeze a towering ancient willow tree that stood near to her seemed to ease its hanging branches just over her hooded head in order to provide better protection against the bright summer sun. This moment, Ethan thought, is what I have always wanted.

He shook the grandeur of the moment out of his crammed, busy mind and strode forward to the log and sat down next to May, but facing the opposite direction so that he looked through the narrow stand of trees to the grassy hill that they had just descended. Peeking over the crown of the hill he could see the highest gleaming turrets and edifices of Greenwell City standing majestically in the hot summer air. That city was unlike anything he had ever imagined when he lived in the Barony of Vhar. The stories and legends he had catalogued to memory as a youth didn’t even touch its splendor, but now, after finally arriving there after his troublesome journey, he wasn’t altogether unhappy to be leaving.

He fished through his own satchel and brought out a handful of rations, oats and nuts locked together in bite-sized clusters by hardened golden honey.  As he crunched into a cluster he also took a swift pull from his full water skin. When he swallowed and got ready to eat another May asked without taking her blue eyes from the river, “Why did you want to become a Forester of the Three Baronies, Ethan?”

He thought about it for a short moment before answering, “In my homeland all my family had passed to the Ancestor Lands to dwell with my kin and the Ancestors. I was raised as a storyteller, trained in the telling of adventures and quests of distant heroes, and all my life I’ve felt a slight need to experience something like that for myself.”

“You wanted to be a hero, then?”

“No,” he spoke, “but I wanted to be around those that I consider heroes. I wanted to keep company with the champions of virtue in our land.”

“And you think us Foresters are the champions of virtue?” she laughed, blue eyes shimmering warmly.

Ethan smiled. “Sure I do. We Foresters, I hear, are somewhat eccentric and adventuresome but our duty is nonetheless virtuous in its meaning. ‘From here until I stride into the Ancestor Lands may I live to make safe all of the Three Baronies. For all who dwell in our land I will endure the hazards of the wild. I will endure beasts of the woods. I will endure the cruel and villainous. I will endure the fiercest weather, all dangers our land has to offer. I will endure loneliness and fear. I will endure hardships unnumbered in hopes that none may have to. By the Golden Eagle I vow to live a good life and promote safety in the wilds, in honor and duty.’ ”

May gasped in shock with a wide open-mouthed smile. “You already have our creed memorized?”

“You forget I’m a storyteller, May. I am trained to memorize swiftly and accurately.”