01 - The Price of Talent (5 page)

“While we are eating, child, why don’t you tell us what happened at your farm?” Said Rich. “Why were you found in a crater with a mysterious sword that looks a lot like the one carried by one of my fellow inquisitors, Lucius Ferdinand?”

“I honestly don’t know.” I replied. “I don’t remember much of what happened. I was coming back from getting supplies at the town, and well… That’s all I remembered.”

              I actually remembered a lot more than that, but I figured the safest path was one of pretending ignorance. Too much could go wrong with a lie, and the truth would likely get me arrested on the spot.

“You don’t know?” Said Rich. “How can you not know how your farm was destroyed or why you were the only survivor? That doesn’t sound likely.”

“It’s actually not that uncommon.” Said Meredith, speaking for the first time during the meal. “You see… Well that is… Um… I work in the hospital. And well, it is not uncommon for people to not be able to remember what happened when they are traumatically injured. Sometimes it’s because of a head injury, sometimes it’s due to mental trauma. Regardless, it isn’t uncommon. And… Well… Tyr was pretty beat up when he got there. He was in the middle of whatever blew up his farm. He’s lucky to be alive, frankly.”

“If it is just a mental block… Well… We have ways of making you remember things. We can make you remember things that never happened with enough… persuasion.” Replied Rich, staring at me with an evil little smile.

              With that said, we all focused on our food for a time. As I said before, I was so nervous I spent more time pushing food around my plate than actually eating anything. My stomach was doing back flips and for the first time in a long time, my head was beginning to twinge with an incipient headache.

              Once everyone else was finished with their food and it was all cleared away, Rich broke the silence.

“Well, Mayor Blythe, that was a good meal. But I think we should stop dallying at the table. I would greatly like to see this blade. Where is it?”

“Oh, well, we keep it in the boy’s room. It always finds its way back there anyway, so we figured it could stay there till you got here.”

“You think it’s wise to let the boy keep such a weapon?” Said Rich.

“I did try and take it away, but even when the boy was unconscious it would just appear by his side. There really wasn’t anything I could do about it.”

“Interesting…” Said Rich as he smiled at me again with that evil smile. He also put a hand to the medallion at his neck as he stared at me. His smile only deepened.

“Well, why don’t we take a look at it? Unless there are any objections?” Said Rich, still looking directly at me.

              During this exchange my head started to pound. The walk to my room happened in a bit of a blur as my eyes were watering from my headache.

              When we got there Raf spoke for the first time. “This all his stuff?”

“Uh, yes… I mean no!” Said the mayor. “Most of this stuff we bought. Even his clothes. When he was found in the crater, he was in rough shape and his clothes were in tatters. Really, the only thing that was not garbage was the sword.”

“Hmmm…” Replied Raf.

              Meanwhile, Rich had walked right over to the sword. “This it?” He asked the Mayor.

“Yes, we don’t typically keep weaponry in my house, we leave such things up to the Church of course…” Replied the Mayor.

“And good that you do.” Said Rich.

              He sat down on one of the chairs and drew the sword. “This does look like the sword Lucius carried… But there is something wrong with it. Not sure what it is.”

“You sure you don’t know what it is Boss?” Asked Raf.

“Well… I have a few ideas actually,” said Rich tapping his medallion with his free hand.

“I don’t doubt it…” Said Raf with a smile on his face, also handling his medalion.

“Well, now why don’t I ask a few more questions of our mystery man. So, tell my Tyr… What do you remember?”

“Uh… I told you, I don’t remember much after heading home from the market.”

“So you don’t remember your farm blowing up?”

“Uh… Blew up?... What do you mean?”

“I’ll take that as a no then. What about how your parents died, know anything about that?”

“I know no one was found with me and my farm was destroyed… But no other bodies were found but mine. At least… That’s what I have heard.”

“Oh I assure you, your parents are dead. Given the size off that crater, I would be shocked if even any of the livestock survived.”

              During this exchange my headache had not gone away. In fact it seemed to have gotten worse.

“I… I didn’t… I didn’t know…” I replied, stammering because I was unsure what I was supposed to say and because my head was pounding.

“Yes. Just imagine them at the end, blown to bits by some unimaginable force. Do you think it was painful? Do you think they suffered?”

              It was then that the Mayor interrupted. “Now see here! There is no cause to say such hurtful things to the boy. We looked all over for his parents, we even sent people out to find distant relatives. But no one was found. Even the house was gone. Rubbing salt in his wounds does not help anything.”

“Actually, Mr. Mayor… It does help. Maybe not him, but it helps our inquiries. Now, if you interrupt again, I will have you removed.”

“This is my house; I will not be removed from it.” Replied the mayor indignantly.

“You serve at the pleasure of the church and I can remove you from your job, your home, and existence if I wanted to. Now why don’t you go get some air…”

“Uh… yes… why don’t I… do that…” Replied the mayor, backing out of the room and grabbing Meredith on his way.

              Rich stared him down the whole way out. He was still holding my drawn sword and fingering his amulet.

“Now boy, now that the insolent mayor has decided to go for a walk, why don’t we get down to business?” Rich said, while standing up from inspecting my sword. He then walked over to me and pointed it directly at my throat. “Now, why don’t you tell me what really happened?”

“I already told you, I don’t remember.” I said as my headache continued to grow worse.

“So be it.” Said Rich, who suddenly lunged forward to stab me. But just as suddenly, the sword disappeared from his hand, and his empty fist punched me in the throat.

              The result of this was that Rich hurt his hand and I was knocked to the floor on my back. I spent the next several minutes choking and holding my throat. Rich spent those minutes cursing up a blue streak and shaking his hand in pain. A good grip on a sword for a thrust is not a good position to punch someone.

“God damn it! Did any of you sense anything just then? Where did that bloody sword go? Don’t just stand there you morons, go get our crossbows!!”

              At this Mik ran off to get the weapons and Raf grabbed his own medallion and stared at it. In the meantime, I started looking around the room. I didn’t see anything that would help me. So I started to stand and my foot hit something. I looked down and saw my sword, sitting there in its sheath right by my feet. So, not knowing what else to do I grabbed it and pulled it out. I wish I could say I struck an impressive stance, or even looked impressive holding the sword. Unfortunately, I was just an awkward kid, with no sword training whatsoever. I was lucky I didn’t cut myself.

              Just as I pulled the sword and was resolving to do something stupid with it, Mik returned with the inquisitors’ crossbows. More importantly, he returned with his crossbow loaded. As he distributed the others to his friends, they also cocked and loaded their crossbows. I am glad that I was not too messed up from the punch to the throat, because I am sure if I had made any sudden movements that this tale would have ended rather abruptly. Fortunately, I did see the loaded crossbow Mik was carrying, so instead of attacking, I backed away.

“Why don’t you put that sword down kid? We would not want to do something drastic, like shoot you full of crossbow bolts.”

“Why don’t you put down the crossbow first?” I said, all bluster, not knowing what else to do.

“No, I have an even better idea.” said Rich. “Why don’t we get the Mayor and his daughter in here? What if I shot him with the crossbow? Or maybe slit their throats, this time using my sword. Would that jog your memory?”

“Don’t you harm them!” I shouted. “They have nothing to do with this.”

“Oh, I think they have everything to do with this. But regardless, I don’t care. I was sent here to get answers for the church authorities. They don’t much care how I get them. Understand?”

              It was at this moment that I realized I had lost track of Raf. Only too late I realized he had snuck around near me with a sheathed sword. I caught a glimpse of him for a split second, just as he was bringing the sheathed blade around into the back of my skull. The blow knocked me unconscious.

Chapter 4.

              I woke up with a splitting headache and found myself tied up in the back of a barred wagon. It looked a lot like the cart my father and I used to take excess goods to market, except it had a roof held up by bars, and instead of a hitch it had a locked and barred door in the back. The three inquisitors were sitting on the front bench, driving the cart. I tried to clear my head by shaking it. Unfortunately, this motion let the inquisitors know I was awake.

“Well, look what we have here? The kid has a thicker skull than we imagined. He managed to wake up after all,” said Rich.

“Raf, you owe me 50 silvers, it hasn’t yet been a day since we knocked him out,” said Mik.

“Damn it! I was close though. The moon is almost at its zenith,” said Raf.

“Hah! Close… Pay up, loser,” said Mik.

“Where… where am I?” I said rather feebly. This was only partially feigned. I figured staying meek and appearing hurt would keep these villains from hurting me more and would buy me more time to recover from the blow. The world was a little unfocussed and I felt nauseous. Likely I had a concussion.

“Not that it is any of your business, but we are heading south on the road out of Forsburg. We are headed to Caer Sud. There you will be interrogated by the head of the Inquisition. Does that frighten you, boy?” said Rich.

“Uh… No?... Honestly I have no idea what you are talking about. Are we heading south? Is that the eastern forest there on our left?” I replied, still somewhat bewildered from the blow to my head.

“Oh that’s right, I keep forgetting what provincial rubes you farmers are out here, being so far away from the coast.” Said Rich. “I suppose I will have to educate you. The inquisition is not only in charge of collecting those tainted with magic like yourself, but more senior members have been trained specifically in extracting information as well. They make life uncomfortable, and sometimes short, for those who do not answer them truthfully.”

“What? Like they throw you on the rack or stick you with red hot pokers?” I asked as the horror of my situation started to dawn on me.

“No. They have moved far beyond such inelegant means of persuasion. They have developed more… let’s call them effective… ways of getting people to spill their guts.”

              I wanted to ask what they were, but then quickly realized that I probably didn’t want to know. Still, the imagination has a way of presenting you with a myriad of horrible possibilities, especially when you try and not think about them.

              Instead, I started to worry about how I was going to get out of this situation. Unfortunately, being tied up as I was, I didn’t have much to work with. That was, until I remembered that my sword seemed to keep showing up whenever I needed it. So I concentrated on trying to call it to me.

You there sword? I asked in my head.

I am always here. Much to my chagrin. What do you need kid?

Uh, I need to get the hell out of here.

Master of the obvious aren’t you. And here I thought I was doomed to witness the persuasion techniques these idiots were talking about.

Well, between you and me, I would like to get out before then.

That strikes me as the start of a good plan. So how do you propose we get you untied and out of the cage?

I was hoping you would come up with a brilliant plan.

Kid, the best I can do is appear next to you in the cage and hope they don’t notice.

Well, if you do that, I might be able to cut my bonds. But I am not sure that will get me out of the cage.

Probably won’t get you out. But it is a good sight better to be untied in a cage, than tied up in a cage.

The problem is that it will be pretty obvious when I am untied unless I continue to pretend to be tied up. Fortunately, it’s night now, so I may just be able to fool them until the sun rises. But that only gives me a short time to get out of here.

Kid, you have nothing but time. However, if you don’t start working on it soon, you might not have a chance. You are unlikely to get away with untying yourself in the daytime.

OK, well then come to me and let’s work on the knots.

              With that the sword appeared next to me. What struck me as odd was that, instead of flying or moving, it simply appeared by my side. While this helped keep it from being noticed by my jailors, it also seemed weird to me. To ask why a flying sword seemed stranger to me than a magically appearing sword, did not occur to me. That it appeared without its sheath also didn’t bother me at the time.

              As soon as it appeared I rolled over onto it to keep it from the eyes of my captors. Then, using the pommel protector I rolled the thing a little onto its side with my body so I could get an edge up enough to help cut my bonds.

              It took what felt like hours to cut through the rope binding my hands and feet. Even then, I made sure to keep my hands together and held some broken rope to pretend like I was still bound. I then worked my way near to the cart’s door so I could study the lock and try and plan a way out. I kept the sword behind me, so that it would not catch anyone’s eyes.

              Unfortunately, I was not having any luck figuring out how to open the door. Hitting it with the sword, or trying to pick the lock with the point was out. It likely wouldn’t work (since I had no idea how to pick a lock with a sword) and it would be too obvious given my captors were sitting only a few feet ahead of me on the bench seat driving the cart.

              While I was working on my hands, my captors were busy talking to each other. Apparently, Raf was trying to avoid paying his debt to Mik, and an argument was well along the way. I wasn’t paying it much attention, obviously, as I was busy with my bonds and the door. But basically, there was some debate over when I woke up and what the stakes of the bet were. This went on for enough time for me to get free and into a sitting position near the door. Until…

“Enough!” said Rich. “Raf, pay Mik his 50 silver when we get back and shut up about it. You two are being so loud everyone within a mile can hear you. Need I remind you two idiots that we are in the east country, where there are very few patrols and we are far from both Caer Sud and Caer Dogmatorum. We actually have to worry about bandits and brigands out here.”

              There were an assortment of grumbles in response to this from Raf and Mik, but they did stop their quarreling. It was just starting to get quiet again, as the road came near to the forest. I had never been this far south of the village before. There had never been any need to go elsewhere to sell our goods. So this was unfamiliar territory for me. I estimated that we were about a day’s ride south of the village.

              I was still pondering the surroundings and trying to figure out how to escape when the sun peaked above the mountains on the horizon.

“Hey, boss, what’s that?” asked Raf.

              At this I sat deathly quietly, sure I had just been discovered.

“Looks like a barricade across the road.” Said Rich.

“Why is the road barricaded?” asked Mik

“Don’t be stupid Mik,” said Rich, “It could be that a few trees were knocked over in a storm, it could be brigands. We don’t know yet do we?”

“Well, there’s no one out there boss,” said Raf, “so I’m guessing it’s probably just some fallen trees.”

“Don’t let your eyes deceive you.” Said Rich. “Better to be prepared and it be nothing than not prepared and get jumped by thieves.”

              With that they grabbed their crossbows, wound the cranks and set quarrels behind the strings ready for firing.

              The cart slowed as it approached the obstruction in the road.

              When the cart got to the barricade, for barricade it was, a man stepped out from behind it. He had a longbow in his hand with an arrow knocked, a quiver on his back and a sword on his hip, still in its sheath. He was also wearing leather armor that was weather worn and discolored.

“What do we have here? I was hoping for tax collectors, but now that you are near, I see that you are mere jail keepers. Transferring a prisoner are you? We don’t much like jailers around here. So instead of merely asking for a toll, we are going to need you to drop your weapons, release the prisoner and give us all your coin,” said the mystery highwayman.

“Why you insolent thieving dog. Do you really think I’m stupid?” Said Rich. “You stand here by yourself, in front of a wood pile and you think you can make demands of us?”

              As Rich said this both Mik and Raf grabbed and raised their crossbows at this mysterious fellow.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you where you stand right now?” said Rich.

“Ah, such tough words! You clearly have no idea the position you’re in. The woods are filled with my men, all with arrows trained on you. So while you might get a shot off, I assure you, you three would not survive the experience,” said the brigand.

“No you have no idea. We’re Inquisitors out of Caer Sud. Kill us and this forest will soon have visitors. An entire army of them to flush your lot out. It’s been too long since we sent patrols through here anyhow. Perhaps it’s time to renew the practice, maybe with an entire legion of heavy infantry?” Said Rich.

“You overplay your hand. First you threaten us with armies if we kill you, then you threaten us even if we let you live. Are you trying to convince me that you’re too dangerous to let live?” Said the brigand.

“I grow tired of this wordplay,” said Rich. “Boys, fire at will.”

              With that there was an explosion of motion. Both Raf and Mik fired their crossbows, the brigand began to leap behind the wood pile, and the sound of arrows being shot from the forest followed. I immediately dove down low in the cage, hoping to avoid any stray arrows. The diving brigand was hit by a quarrel in both the shoulder and the thigh. Mik, who was sitting closest to the forest, got hit in the head, neck, chest and thigh with arrows, pitched forward and fell off the cart onto his crossbow. Rich, who was sitting in the middle, got hit in the shoulder and head with arrows and fell over in the seat. Raf, who was on the right side of the carriage seat, was missed entirely. He jumped off the seat after the first volley and took refuge on the other side of the cart, using it as cover from the arrows.

              I took the reprieve from arrows to look myself over. I managed to escape being hit by any. Not surprising since I was not the intended target. But a few arrows had embedded themselves in boards of the cart near enough to me that I did not feel comfortable sitting upright.

              As I was checking myself over, Raf drew his sword. The brigand who got hit with two quarrels was on the ground behind the barricade. But out of the forest came a group of people. All had bows and swords, though some of these weapons looked to be in better shape than others. They were all clad, to one degree or another, in leathers, some apparel more armor-like than others. Really, they looked like they were dressed in mixed and matched castoffs, either stolen, looted or made by them. The man at the barrier was obviously chosen because he was the most impressive looking. His armor at least matched and his weapons, which while weathered, were at least in good condition.

“You all stay back or there’ll be hell to pay!” Yelled Raf at the approaching highway robbers.

“Hell to pay is it?” Said a female voice from the approaching brigands. “Do you hear that boys? We’re being threatened. I hope you’re all appropriately scared.”

              As they approached, two of the robbers nocked arrows to bow strings, while the woman and a third man drew swords.

“We finish this now! If we let him leave, we are in for a whole army of troops coming our way. We can’t have that,” said the female brigand.

              As she approached the wagon, she motioned to the other man with a drawn sword. He and one of the archers started circling behind the wagon, while she and the other archer went around the front of the wagon. Their strategy was clearly to hit Raf from both sides.