Bronze Magic (Book 1) (60 page)

As the prince approached his own group, Danton stood up and bowed.
Tarkyn wondered why he had never noticed before how intrusive court
etiquette was on other people’s lives. The prince acknowledged his liegeman’s
bow with a courtly nod then indicated that they should both sit down.
Rainstorm was round eyed. “Hi, prince. What did you do to that lot?
They look pole-axed.”
Ignoring Danton’s pained expression, Tarkyn glanced over at them
then returned his gaze to those around him. A small smile played around
his lips. “I didn’t get angry, if that’s what you’re thinking. Although I
came close when one of them referred to the home guard as my cronies.”
“Very restrained, Your Highness,” said Thunder Storm, with a smile, “I
think that remark might even have taxed my temper.”
The prince raised his eyebrow in surprise. “Thunder Storm, I’ve never
seen you even the slightest bit angry.”
Thunder Storm’s smiled broadened. “Perhaps I should have said, ‘That
remark would have taxed my temper, had I been you.’”
Danton looked on, speechless at the woodman’s temerity, and waited
for the inevitable set down.
Tarkyn merely waved his hand and smiled, “Much more accurate,
Thunder Storm. Well, it did, but I was determined not to give them more
fuel for their fire against me.”
“So what did you say?” pressed Rainstorm.
Tarkyn shrugged, “Not a great deal. I said that if they allowed me to
make the decisions, it would undermine woodfolk society. So basically,
they should not be too influenced by my opinions one way or the other
and should remain independent.”
The prince then found himself surrounded by another group of
thoughtful people.
After a moment, Autumn Leaves asked, “But is that what you set out
to do? I thought you wanted them to listen to you as forest guardian?”
Danton frowned, “Forest what?”
Tarkyn waved a dismissive hand, “I’ll tell you about it later…I do
want them to listen to me. But I don’t want anyone slavishly following
or opposing my advice. You should know that by now.” He gave a little
smirk. “And I did happen to mention how they had all left me for dead
when I was injured.”
Waterstone smiled, “Light begins to dawn. You are a cunning bastard,
sometimes, young Tarkyn.”
“Thanks,” Tarkyn might have said more, but he was overridden by
strangled roar at his side. He turned to see Danton, hands clenched at
his sides, bright red in the face, his tolerance levels overloaded, exploding
with wrath.
“How dare you speak to His Highness like that?” The guardsman’s
voice was shaking with anger. “I have tried to allow some leeway but this
is more than enough. You show him no due respect. You do not stand
for him. You do not bow to him. You abuse the privilege of using his first
name by being overly familiar. And now you use words to describe him
that I would be ashamed to repeat.”
“I was actually being complimentary,” replied Waterstone mildly.
Danton turned his wrath, unabated, onto Rainstorm. “And you, how
dare you just refer to his lordship as ‘prince’ in that disrespectful manner?
And dispute his right to your protection?”
Rainstorm’s eyes snapped in anger. “That’s it. I’m going to have to kill
him.” Before anyone could stop him, the young woodman swung a fist
at the guardsman but found his arm blocked. He swung wildly one fist
after another in quick succession until he had connected often enough to
send the guardsman sprawling.
“Rainstorm! Stop this!” ordered the prince.
But the woodman’s blood was up and he took no heed. Danton
scrabbled to his feet just in time to brace himself as a wiry ball of fury
threw himself at him. The wind swirled leaves and dust around them as
Rainstorm bore Danton over with the weight of his rush and punched
him hard on the jaw.
“Enough,” said the prince sharply. This time, Tarkyn did not wait
for Rainstorm to respond. “
Shturrum,
” he intoned at the two men and
dragged the now unresisting woodman off the guardsman. When he had
created sufficient space between them, he released the spell. Rainstorm
immediately turned his ire on the prince and charged at him instead. The
trees around the clearing thrashed in a sudden gust of wind.
Tarkyn frowned in consternation but dealt with the immediate
problem by waving a languid hand and intoning, “
Shturrum
” again, this
time only at Rainstorm. He glared at the unmoving young woodman.
“If you wish to be released, you will have to calm yourself first. I don’t
know whether you were unaware, or whether you had forgotten, but
Danton guaranteed to use no violence of any kind against woodfolk.
So, well done on attacking someone who couldn’t fight back.” The bite
of sarcasm in his tone was chilling. He continued in a quiet, disdainful
voice, “And I would not suggest that you continue your attack on me.
You are surrounded by people who will not stand by idly and watch you
do it. But before any of them has time to react, I can assure that I will
send you flying to land hard against that tree behind you. Don’t think
you will enjoy it. It will hurt – badly. I don’t impose many boundaries but
there are some and you have just crossed them.”
With a wave of his hand, the sorcerer released his spell. Rainstorm’s
face suffused with chagrin and tears sprang to his eyes. He looked around
wildly at everyone, then turned on his heel and ran.
“Ooh dear,” said Tarkyn quietly, “I think I may have been a little too
harsh.”
“My lord, how could you say so?” said Danton hotly, as he rubbed his
bruising jaw. “He tried to attack you. He should be severely punished.”
“He already has been,” said the prince ruefully. “He is still young and
his emotions are undisciplined, not unlike my own, I would have to say.”
Then Tarkyn turned on his liegeman and let fly. “But you, Danton, have
no excuse. You presume to order these people around and to impose you
own expectations on them, in direct contradiction to my own. I am very
displeased. You have had the barefaced audacity to come in here and
throw your weight about without even consulting me on my wishes. You
are welcome to your own expectations but you have no right to impose
them on anyone else.”
Danton bowed stiffly. “I beg your pardon, Your Highness. I will strive
to do better.”
Tarkyn took a deep breath and relented, “I’m sure you will. You did
well not to retaliate. Now, let me see to that jaw of yours.”
“In what way, Sire?”
The prince gave a short laugh. “To heal it, Danton. One of those
new skills I was mentioning.” Tarkyn put his hand on the guardsman’s
shoulder. “Close your eyes. Now take the power I am sending you and
direct it into the damaged tissue of your jaw.”
Danton hesitated briefly but then did as he was asked. After a couple
of minutes, he opened his eyes and gazed in amazement at the prince.
“That was impressive. I’ve never come across anything like that before.”
After a moment, Danton turned his attention to Waterstone, made
him a small bow and said formally, “Waterstone, I apologise for not
heeding your words. And for trying to impose my opinions on you.”
He ran a shaky hand across his forehead. “To tell you the truth, I feel a
little out of my depth. All the rules I am used to, do not seem to apply
here and suddenly, I do not know how I should behave.” He looked at
his prince, “The last thing I want to do is offend you, Sire. Perhaps if you
could spare the time, at some point, to explain your expectations….”
“I will, Danton, but not now. You all need to get some rest. I suspect
everyone’s tolerance levels will improve after some sleep. Meanwhile, I
need to go and repair a young woodman’s opinion of himself. I believe
we are all meeting at lunchtime to work out our course of action. So,
Danton, I will see you in three hours’ time.”
Tarkyn walked off into the forest in the direction the feisty young
woodman had taken. He wandered aimlessly for a while then thought
about where he himself tended to go when he was upset and headed down
towards the stream. The waters were still higher than they had been when
he first saw them, but the stream was well within its banks and burbling
calmly across the rocks. Tarkyn followed the stream around a bend and
then, clearing a small overhang of bushes, came upon Rainstorm and
North Wind, sitting on the bank of the stream, deep in conversation.
The prince sketched a small bow and said, “My apologies for intruding,”
and stepped back, preparing to leave them to it.
Rainstorm threw him a black look. “No. Please don’t feel you have to
stay. I wouldn’t expect you’d want to speak to us any more, now that you
have a fellow sorcerer to talk to.”
As Tarkyn paused, working out how to respond, he was startled by
North Wind saying, “I don’t think his sorcerer friend is feeling much
happier than you at the moment. To give him his due, the prince threw
his weight around in both directions.”
Rainstorm stared angrily across the water. “I bet he didn’t call Danton
a coward.”
As North Wind met Tarkyn’s eyes, the prince indicated himself and
then pointed away with a query. North Wind shook his head and pointed
downwards, indicating that he should stay. Tarkyn sat down quietly
behind them with his back to a tree.
“I don’t think you’re a coward. Hot-headed maybe but not a coward,”
said the prince quietly.
Rainstorm sent him a smouldering look over his shoulder. “Oh yeah,
right. You think I would knowingly attack someone who couldn’t hit
back. In my experience, that’s a coward.”
“I presume from this, that you didn’t know Danton had agreed not to
use any violence?”
“That’s not the point, Your Highness. The point is, you thought I
might have known and still attacked him.” Rainstorm picked up a stone
and threw it with some violence into the stream.
North Wind again surprised him. “The prince said you either forgot or
didn’t know when you hit Danton.”
Tarkyn raised his eyebrows, “You must have been listening closely. I
didn’t think you would be able to hear from the other side of the clearing.”
North Wind gave a wry grin, “Autumn Leaves relayed the confrontation
to me.”
“I might have known our peacemaker would be in this somewhere.”
Tarkyn looked at Rainstorm’s stiff back and grimaced, “Rainstorm,
Danton overstepped the mark and so did you. It happens to all of us
some time or other. That’s when we find out where the limits really
are.”
“You’re bloody lucky the prince didn’t belt the living daylights out of
you, charging him like that,” put in North Wind. “I would have, in his
position.”
“You couldn’t lay a finger on me, if I didn’t want you to,” sneered
Rainstorm at his friend, determinedly unbending.
“I meant if I was the prince, you grumpy bastard,” he said, rolling his
eyes in the prince’s direction.
Tarkyn gave an answering smile but held his peace. A long silence
ensued, broken occasionally by the splash of a stones being thrown into
the water. Tarkyn found himself a stick and kept himself amused by
breaking it slowly into little pieces. North Wind glanced at him after a
particularly loud crack as a piece of stick broke off and saw what he was
doing. A slow smile dawned on his face and his eyes went out of focus. A
moment later Rainstorm looked around too.
Tarkyn laughed quietly. “Would you like to see another one?” he asked,
as he dropped the last of the first stick and picked up another.
“Very funny, Your Highness,” scowled Rainstorm.
The prince’s smile faded. “Don’t call me that. I like you calling me
‘prince’. Don’t take what Danton said to heart. He just doesn’t understand
yet.” Tarkyn proceeded to destroy his second stick as he talked. “And
Rainstorm, I do thank you for standing guard all night long, last night. It
was a long, long night for you who stayed awake. Embarrassingly, despite
my best efforts, I’m afraid I slept through most of it.”
Finally Rainstorm began to unbend. “I don’t know how you could
have, with that unknown quantity sitting so near.” He threw another
stone into the water. “You wouldn’t be much good as a lookout,” he
added as a final jab.
Tarkyn shook his head ruefully. “I must have felt safe enough with you
all guarding me. I told you, princes are a constant drain on the people
around them. On the bright side, it’s lucky I wasn’t as overtired as the rest
of you, or I might have waded in and returned your attack.”
“I am not overtired,” stated Rainstorm baldly.
Tarkyn raised his eyebrows. “Aren’t you? It’s probably the adrenalin
then. Because the others have all gone to have a rest before the lunchtime
meeting.”
“Have they?” Suddenly Rainstorm yawned. “Blast! I wish you hadn’t said
that. Now I am tired and there’s not enough time to sleep before lunchtime.
If I go to sleep now, I’ll feel awful when I wake up in an hour’s time.”
“You’ll just have to hang on until this afternoon,” said North Wind
sympathetically.
Tarkyn frowned suddenly, “You know, North Wind, I had picked you
out as a rebellious young character like our friend here but you aren’t
behaving like that at all anymore.”
“No audience,” put in Rainstorm with a cheeky grin at his friend. “I
think there might be someone he is trying to impress.”
North Wind jabbed him in the ribs and turned a dull red.
“I see,” said Tarkyn thoughtfully. “Might I suggest that she would
probably be a lot more impressed by what I’ve seen of you here, than
what I saw of you previously. Though, to give you your due, at least you
had the courage to speak to me which was more than anyone else did for
a while.”
“Anyway,” said North Wind, with a poisonous look at his friend,
“Rainstorm has it all wrong. I was baiting you because I thought you
were going to rip into us.” The young woodman shrugged and tinge of
resentment underlined his next words. “Besides, I can’t be as rebellious as
Rainstorm is, because I’m under oath.”
“You see? You still don’t understand,” said the prince in some
exasperation. “I hardly ever give orders. I make requests, just as you do,
and I listen when there is an objection.”