The Missing Mage (16 page)

Nathan thought about that for a moment, he could see the correlation between the two, grudgingly he agreed. “I suppose.”

Ava continued, “Now take the badlands; they are a large mostly flat combination of desert, rocky areas splattered with small areas with water. The plains south of Elderwood are almost the same, just more vegetation.”

“Dang, when did you get so smart?” Nathan had to agree when she described it that way; the two continents were a lot more similar than he had imagined.

“Phfft I was always smart, you just failed to see my brilliance,” Ava retorted then laughed before continuing. “So where are we going anyways?”

Nathan gave her a small smile, he had not yet told her about Thorn arriving today. ”You’ll see, let’s go say hi to Sharon at the shop.”

Ava was curious, but liked the idea of visiting Sharon too much to argue. Since the older girl had started working for Miss Deville she was much happier. Coming to Balta had been great for their friend. “I know you’re hiding something Nathan… you can’t fool me, but yes let’s go see Sharon and then get some lunch.”

“Wow, Sharon, that is beautiful!” exclaimed Ava as she admired the new dress Sharon had just made.

Sharon beamed with pride, Miss Deville had let her design her own dress for the first time and she had been worried that it wasn’t good enough. Miss Deville had assured her that it was, but Sharon was still self-conscious and not confident enough in her new career to take her word for it. Hearing Ava gush about the dress was exactly what she needed.

Ava turned to Nathan. “Well, aren’t you going to say something? Tell us what you think of the dress.”

Nathan felt everyone’s eyes on him, what the heck did he know about dresses. The way Ava was looking at him he knew he better make a good effort to praise Sharon. Looking closer at the dress, he studied the deep scarlet satin outfit. He noted that the matching gold trim around the shoulder and the bow around the waist complimented the simple lines of the outfit. Not sure if he would sound dumb or not, he tried to explain his thoughts. “I really like it, I think the gold it a nice touch. It looks sophisticated yet simple.” Apparently his comments were sufficient, all three of the woman smiled and agreed before turning the conversation back to Sharon. He was relieved, Sharon really did deserve to be praised and he had meant it. She had done a good job on the dress.

Before they went to leave, Sharon pulled Nathan aside. “Come look at this,” she said.

 Going into the back of the shop, Nathan was surprised by the amount of cloth and thread stored there. The shop must sell a lot of clothing, Nathan mused to himself as they walked through the storage area. When Sharon stopped and pulled out a large bolt of material he was mildly intrigued. Did Sharon plan to make him a new shirt, what did she think he would find interesting back here?

“Feel this one,” she said.

Nathan put his hand on the material, it was incredibly smooth, thin and lightweight. It was obviously silk, but not a normal silk. It seemed even lighter than the already-light material.

Nathan focused more intently on the material. Sharon smiled and laughed “Had you worried I was going to try make you wear some frilly fancy outfit? Don’t worry, you will like this. Try tearing a corner of the silk.”

Nathan was worried he would rip a big chunk out of the lightweight material, he had visions of it shredding like paper as soon as he pulled on it, so he gentle grabbed the material by a corner and gave it a small tug. He hoped to only tear a small bit of it, but the material did not budge. Surprised, Nathan tried again, this time giving it a strong tug. Again, the material did not budge. Nathan was impressed. He turned to Sharon. “It is strong for such a lightweight material.”

Sharon shook her head, laughing. “No, it is really strong. Try your hardest to tear it, don’t hold back.”

Nathan shrugged. He wasn’t sure he should, he had grown a lot in the last year and he was much stronger than the average young man. Still, he set his feet, clutched the material tightly in both hands, and tried his hardest to rip it. Nathan struggled and struggled, finally he was able to get the material to rip. It created a small tear hardly bigger than an inch.
This was really impressive,
he thought to himself. The silk was incredibly lightweight, but as strong as a thick leather. He could see why Sharon was showing him the material.

“It is spider silk. There is this crazy mage who has magically trained spiders to weave the material. It is the lightest weight material we have, but it is as hard to cut as inch-thick leather. We have this and spider thread as well. It makes great cloaks but it is so hard to cut—and so expensive—that no one even tries to make anything else out of it.”

Nathan broke out into a huge smile. Sharon knew about his vraber skin armor. She knew he had made a magical knife, designing it to cut the incredibly thick material. He could tell she was thinking about using his knife on the material. “What were you thinking of making?” he asked.

“Well, if your knife works well on it, I was thinking I could make myself a set of clothing that would be as strong as any leather armor. I could make you some as well…but it really is expensive. I would need to borrow some money from you to buy it. It is very rare and right now we are the only store that has it. Apparently, training spiders is not easy.”

“Sharon, that material is amazing. It is not as strong as my vraber armor but it is close and I had to use a lot of magic to make my armor. Using the spider silk to make protective clothing is a great idea. Don’t worry about the cost. I will talk to Aunt Avera, there have been a few people asking her if I would be interested in making black steel swords for them. She said that I could charge an incredible sum for the weapons. I will make a few so that we can get enough spider silk and thread to make our clothing. But you better plan on making clothes for Ava, Rose, and Quinton as well. I know if you and I had those clothes, Ava and Rose would want some too, and Quinton is going to be very helpful in my magic lessons so I want him to have some too.”

Sharon’s eyes went big, thinking of the cost and time it would take to make five outfits out of the magical material. She nodded. “Okay, but it’s going to take some time. I have to do my regular work here but can take a bolt of the spider silk home tonight to get started.”

 “Great, take all the spider silk the store has. Aunt Avera has credit here right?”

Sharon nodded.

“Good, I will talk to Aunt Avera when I get home. I will get started on a sword or two right away, to pay for it. Make your own outfit first. The knife is in my war room on the workbench. Go ahead and grab it when you get home.”

“Thank you so much, Nathan. When I done making my outfit I will make one for you next,” said Sharon as she gave him a quick hug. “Come on, let’s head back out front before they wonder what we doing back here,” she added with a wink.

Nathan laughed, it was nice to hear Sharon regain some of her old self: the flirty, fun girl who used to love teasing him and Ava.

After they left the dress shop, Ava laughed at him. “You looked like a startled deer, ready to bolt at the first sound. Your eyes were huge and I am pretty sure you started to sweat.”

Nathan chuckled; it was only a small exaggeration. “I was nervous, what do you expect? I don’t know anything about dresses and I wanted to say something to make Sharon feel good about her accomplishment. It was a lot a pressure.”

Ava gave him a hug, then leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Honestly, you did great, it was the perfect thing to say. Now are you going to tell me where we are going or am I going to have to tickle it out of you!”

Pleased his compliment warranted a kiss, Nathan decided he would have to learn a little about clothing so that he could really impress her the next time it came up. “I thought we would go down to the docks and watch the ships come in,” he said still not revealing the true reason for the trip.

 “So what did Sharon take you in the back for? She sure seemed happy when you came back out. What is she cooking up?” asked Ava.

Nathan laughed, Sharon was right. The two of them heading to the back room had raised Ava’s curiosity. Nathan explained about the amazing spider silk, and how Sharon wanted to make protective clothing out of the material.

“Oh that sounds interesting. I’ll bet she makes something incredible out of it. Speaking of protective, how are her lessons coming? She seems happier and I know she is sleeping better. Is she getting good?”

“The lessons are coming along really well. She is actually really talented, if she gets bored of being a seamstress and dressmaker she can join the royal guard. She is a natural athlete, picking up the fighting techniques much faster than I ever did. She is already giving Quinton all he can handle in sparring and he is no slouch. Between her fighting ability and your magic rocks, I am going to be the safest royal in the kingdom.”

“Oh, so you consider yourself a royal now? Should I bow and curtsy whenever you enter a room.” She stopped her teasing and talked more about Sharon. “It is great that you are training her. Most men are so uptight about training girls to fight.”

Nathan laughed along with her, “Since you’ve been kicking my ass for years I have no qualms with the idea of girls fighting.” Nathan then stopped smiling, getting more serious “After what happened in Elderwood I wouldn’t feel right if you and Sharon couldn’t defend yourselves. I don’t care what anyone says, I am going to turn Sharon into a badass warrior if that is what she wants. As for me being a royal, I don’t feel royal or special.” Nathan paused, “But I do have to be careful. It is the reason my parents took me to Elderwood in the first place, because of people trying to assassinate them in order to prevent my birth. I will not forget that.”

Ava hugged Nathan. “I’m sorry, I know things have changed so much for you now, and that you are still in danger. Avera did explain some of it to me. I just forget that you are still not the clumsy boy who chased me through the forest anymore.”

Nathan smiled at the memory. “It is okay, now let’s talk about something else. We’re almost to the docks.”

“Alright, that could be fun. I like the ocean, I like it a lot more when I am on land looking at it. I never want to be on a ship during a storm again. That was awful.” Ava shuddered as she remembered the journey to Balta.

“It wasn’t that bad… okay maybe the storm wasn’t so fun, but sailing was pretty fun,” said Nathan as he took a seat on a grassy hill that overlooked the docks. While they chatted, Nathan kept an eye on the merchant ship pulling up to the docks. It was the ship carrying Thorn and the rest of his supplies. Having already made arrangements with the shipping company, Nathan was excited to see how Ava would react to his surprise. He tried to concentrate on what Ava was telling him about porca leaf and its medical benefits, but he could see Thorn and Verin’s mare being unloaded.

“Are you even listening to me? I just told you that the porca leaf turns people into frogs and all you said is that sounds terrible.” Ava looked down towards the dock, attempting to find what was distracting Nathan. It was then she noticed a horse walking up the dock by itself. “Would you look at that, some idiot forgot he has a horse and it’s leaving the dock by itself. I’ll bet you a silver coin some chubby old lord comes bellowing for his servants to grab his horse any minute now.”

Nathan smiled as she spoke. “You’re on. I’ll take that bet.”

“What? Oh come on, I wasn’t serious… a copper. I’ll bet a copper” Ava frowned as she renegotiated the wager. Nathan didn’t like to bet with her very often, unless he thought he was sure to win. Turning her gaze from the beautiful beast, walking closer by the second, to Nathan she studied his face. Slight smirk, twinkle in his big blue eyes… Yep, he was up to something. She turned back to see who would come get the animal, but so far no one was making a move to retrieve the wandering horse which had left the dock and was now heading right towards them.

Surprised, Ava watched as the horse walked right up to her and nudged her. Tentatively Ava reached out and ran her hand over its neck. She admired the beautiful creature. Its jet-black coat looked almost blue in the sunlight. Turning to Nathan, she exclaimed, “What a gorgeous beast. I may have to steal it.”

“What about that fat lord? He will have you tossed in the dungeons,” replied Nathan, laughing at her threat to steal Thorn.

“Phfft, only if he catches me. I bet I could jump on his back right now.”

Suddenly the horse bent down.

“Well, why don’t you then,” Nathan retorted as he watched her giggle in glee.

“If I wasn’t worried about actually getting tossed in jail, I would jump on right now. Can you believe this? He wants me to ride him.” The strange horse amazed Ava.

“Don’t worry, I won’t have you arrested,” Nathan said as he jumped on Thorn’s back. ”You owe me a copper. Now, are you coming for a ride or not?”

Ava stood there mouth open, having a hard time comprehending what just happened. Finally, she remembered the stories of Nathan having a mind connection with his horse. Without saying a word, she took his outreached hand and swung onto the back of the horse. She held Nathan tight as they trotted across the empty field between the docks and the city walls. After a few minutes, she finally spoke. “No way you are getting a copper for that. You told him to walk up to me and to kneel down?”

Nathan turned back, looking over his shoulder with a big grin on his face. “Pretty good for a chubby old lord, don’t you think?”

“Oh shut up,” Ava snorted as she leaned her head against Nathan’s back and enjoyed the ride.

They rode in silence, working their way along the coastline away from the city. Nathan was still adjusting to the different landscapes of Mithbea and trying to become more familiar with the land around the kingdom. Reunited with Thorn once more, he would now easily be able to cover a great distance and truly get to know his new homeland. Nathan was just preparing to tell Thorn to head back to the city when he spotted a man walking towards them. He was favoring his arm and stumbling, suggesting something was amiss. Silently Nathan commanded Thorn to hurry. As they got closer, he could see the man was dressed in the familiar garb of the rangers. It was also obvious that the man was indeed injured.