Gorinthians (34 page)

Ferrich had slowed down.
"You mean you are an assassin,” he said slowly, recognition finally
dawning in his eyes.

"Assassin is such an ugly
word,” Morindessa protested lightly. "Couldn't we just say that I
am a judge or magistrate?"

"Usually the judge doesn't
perform the trial, sentence and execution,” Seranova commented
dryly.

"You are the one that
Captain Kerns hired to take care of Duke Chaucer!” Ferrich
exclaimed, goggling at her as if she had grown another
head.

"Do you see how much nicer
that sounds?” Morindessa asked, turning to Seranova, "Take care of.
It almost sounds like I am helping the sick."

"I can't believe I didn't
recognize your name.” Ferrich stood in the road, shaking his head.
"For some reason I always thought you were a man."

Seranova laughed, "You
really must spend all your time at that Arcane Arts place if you
haven't heard of Morindessa. The fact she is a woman is her most
prominent trait."

"Did you want to meet Kerns
or have you just taken root?” Morindessa asked archly, moving
forward once more. With a start, Ferrich began to follow, staring
at Morindessa as if he was seeing her for the first time, the whole
time muttering to himself too low for either of them to
hear.

"I have a few questions for
you now, Ferrich,” Morindessa said, without turning around. "I know
they don't teach you very much at the university, but I thought you
were one of the more advanced students?” She finished on a
questioning note, looking over her shoulder at him to make sure he
had heard her.

"I am the best student
there,” Ferrich replied stiffly.

"I am curious as to why you
never use your
yar
,” Morindessa asked. The weeds in front of her suddenly laid
flat to form a trail and then stood up straight once the small
group had passed, completely hiding any evidence of their
passing.

Ferrich blushed slightly. "I
am used to a classroom setting where everything is controlled,” he
replied, somewhat plaintively. "It is just an art at the
university, not a utility or defensive maneuver. We only learn the
history of its use in those contexts, not the practical
application."

Morindessa nodded her
understanding. "But you do know how to do many of the things you
have seen me do.” It was not a question.

Ferrich held his hand out in
front of him and wobbled it slightly, "Only some of it. I think I
could probably knock someone out the way you did to Captain Kerns’
soldiers."

"Good,” Morindessa said with
satisfaction. "From now on, we will have a lesson after dinner
every night and you will practice what you learn as we travel
throughout the next day."

A large smile broke out over
Ferrich's face, "That would be wonderful!” he exclaimed. "What can
you teach me right now?"

Morindessa once again wore
that small smile that Seranova had come to recognize as her smile
for Ferrich, "Can you see what I am doing with the road to make the
weeds flatten in front of us?"

Ferrich's eyes did not look
toward the weeds lying down as if of their own accord, but Seranova
thought she could feel a sudden awareness from him reaching out
past her to the phenomena. A moment later, his eyes came back into
focus again. "You’re changing the water content in the plants so
they are more supple and then you are pushing your Aura against the
plant's spirit so that it flattens the plant to the
ground."

"Very good, Ferrich,”
Morindessa congratulated him with another smile. "Now you try it.”
Morindessa fell back and let Ferrich take the lead.

Once again, Seranova felt
something reaching out from Ferrich. She tried to study it, to feel
what it was. There was a sudden sense of force and suddenly she
found herself on the ground, staring up at the sky. At the same
time, she heard several loud, cracking sounds. Sitting up quickly,
she saw Morindessa was still standing behind Ferrich, while Ferrich
began apologizing to Seranova. The trail in front of him was
flattened for several hundred feet, while the trees lining the road
to either side were completely flattened for fifty feet on either
side. Morindessa stood for a moment staring around her, shock
painted on her face.

"Impressive,” she murmured,
staring at Ferrich as if she were seeing him for the first time. "I
would not have thought that was possible without using
yara
."

Ferrich hurried over to
where Seranova was still sitting, stunned as she looked around at
the sudden devastation around them. He reached down and grabbed her
arm, pulling her to her feet. "I really am sorry,” he apologized
lamely, "I am not sure what I did wrong."

"My fault, Ferrich,”
Morindessa said, standing behind him studying the flattened trees
around them. "I should have started with something less physical. I
just didn't expect anyone to have a
yar
as strong as yours.” Turning
around to look at Ferrich, Morindessa studied him intently, tapping
her lips thoughtfully. "Try reaching out again, this time with a
much lighter touch, as if you were merely trying to exhale, instead
of blow."

"I don't know," Ferrich
hesitated, "I might hurt someone."

"No, no. You will be fine.”
Morindessa brushed his concerns away with a wave of her hand. "I
was unprepared before. I will shield Seranova better this
time."

"All right," Ferrich said,
taking a deep breath, "Here it goes."

Seranova felt the strange
force push past her again, this time only lightly brushing against
her as if there were a slight breeze. The tall weeds all around
them slowly bent down to the ground as if an invisible giant were
lying down. This time the force was only directed in front of them,
where they were walking, instead of a large radius around
them.

"Excellent, Ferrich!”
Morindessa complimented him, her full lips widening into a smile
that lit her face. "You really are a swift learner; much more so
than I was."

Ferrich blushed at the
praise, staring at the ground with a pleased smile on his lips
while Morindessa stared at him with a strange look in her eyes.
Seranova shook her head slightly, rolling her eyes to the sky. She
never could understand the interest people had in relationships,
especially when there were so many items of much greater interest
all around a person. What a perfectly good waste of time, Seranova
thought, sighing inwardly.

They continued down the
overgrown road for several more hours before it abruptly gave way
to a T where a dirt road that was obviously maintained regularly
traveled from North to South. They could see a small village about
a mile down the road to the South. The forest had been cut back
away from the small village, leaving a hundred yard ring between
the last house and the tree line. They could hear the sounds of
woodcutters chopping trees in the forest around the village as they
came closer. The houses were made of logs with mud to seal them,
and thatched roofs with shutters instead of glass-paned windows.
There were no children out playing in the street like Seranova
would have expected in a small town like this and the men that were
walking through the dusty streets carried pitch forks or staffs
with them.

"These people look like they
are expecting to be attacked,” Seranova whispered quietly to the
other two.

Morindessa nodded her
agreement, steering them toward the closest of the poorly armed
villagers. He was tall and lanky, without a bit of meat on his bony
limbs and his hair was long and greasy. He watched them narrowly as
they approached him, wiping his wrist across his runny nose and
then wiping it on homespun trousers. His loose wool shirt looked
like it had not been washed in months and one of his eyes stared
off in a slightly different direction.

"Excuse me," Morindessa said
in a clear voice, stepping in front of her companions. "Could you
tell me the name of this village?” Morindessa kept her eyes focused
on the eye that Seranova guessed was looking at them.

The rough-looking villager
stared at Morindessa for several moments, suspicion burning in his
off-center eyes, before reaching out and plucking at her
intricately woven linen shirt. "How much did this cost you?” he
asked in a lazy accent that some of the farmers at Laketown had
adopted.

Morindessa had remained
still while he plucked at her shirt, but Seranova could suddenly
feel the threat of violence radiating from the slim assassin like
heat from a forge. "The question is, how much is it going to cost
you?” Morindessa replied quietly, her eyes burning into his
head.

The man's eyes widened
slightly as he perceived the sudden threat, unconsciously taking
several steps backword before catching himself. "Didn't mean
nothin' by that,” he muttered, suddenly much meeker. "This is the
village of Fair Venning."

"And is there lodging in
Fair Venning?” Morindessa asked, her voice still deadly quiet as
she studied him like an insect.

"Yes, mistress," he
muttered, swallowing once before continuing, "at the other side of
town.”

"You are too kind,”
Morindessa beamed, suddenly all smiles as she led them down the
street. The other poorly armed villagers that were moving around in
the streets looked at the trio as if they might approach them, but
after casting an uncertain glance toward the greasy-haired man they
had first talked to, the men continued on.

"Why did you stop and ask
him?” Seranova asked, looking at Morindessa curiously. "We could
have found the inn if we had just gone through the
village."

Morindessa nodded as she
walked. "I always like to feel things out a little when I am in
unfamiliar territory.” She looked around casually, studying the
disparate looking men in the street, "Something is wrong here. They
are all afraid of something."

Seranova glanced at a short,
chubby little man with a balding head as he walked past them,
stealing furtive glances at them when he thought they were not
watching. His eyes were wider than normal, making him look
half-crazed. "What do you think happened to them?” Seranova asked
uneasily.

"Hopefully we can find out
more at the inn,” Morindessa replied, her eyes continually scanning
everything and everyone around them. Seranova could also feel what
she was beginning to recognize as Morindessa's
yar
gently reaching out and probing
the surrounding village.

The village was only about a
mile long, with the courthouse being the largest building. She
thought she saw a child through a large crack in one of the
shutters of a crude log house that had mud crumbling between the
logs. As soon as she looked, however, the small eyes peering
through the crack disappeared. As the inn at the far side of the
village came into sight, Seranova heard a baby crying in another
log home, and what sounded like a mother trying to comfort
it.

The inn had a small sign
hanging in front with a picture of a bearded man splitting wood
with an axe. Beneath the crude picture were the words, 'The
Woodsman'. Morindessa signaled her and Ferrich to stay behind her
as she opened the heavy oak door and entered. Inside, there were
square wooden tables with benches that filled a small common room,
empty with the exception of a man in a green cloak that was
obviously not a local. He had black hair cut to the shoulders and a
small goatee that looked out of place on his otherwise handsome
features. Seranova could see a scabbard touching the floor next to
his bench, just barely sticking out of his long green cloak. He
glanced up at them as they entered, brown eyes showing recognition
when he saw Morindessa before hastily looking back down at his mug
of ale. Glancing at Morindessa to see if she had noticed, Seranova
winced as she saw the cold, calculating look Morindessa directed at
the stranger. Wondering if the man would survive the night,
Seranova's attention was distracted by the entrance of a large man
with an apron that might have been white once long ago. He had
shoulders that reminded her of the blacksmith at Laketown, with
short-cropped red hair and blue eyes.

He strode over to them, a
welcoming smile on his rough features. "Mistresses. Master.” He
nodded to each of them in turn. "Welcome to the Woodsman. I am
Derek, the owner of this inn. How many rooms will you be wanting
tonight?” He had an odd way of talking, not at all like the other
villagers. His speech was precise and clipped, as if he actually
thought about what he wanted to say before he said it.

"Three rooms please,”
Morindessa replied, pulling some silver from her purse, "and if
it's not too much trouble, we would like to have dinner brought up
to our rooms."

The money exchanged hands
and Derek led them down a hallway to their rooms. "Thank you,”
Morindessa replied when he opened the door to her room. "Do you
know anyone in this village who has three horses they would be
willing to sell?"

Derek shook his head. "All
they have here are farm ponies for plowing,” he said regretfully.
"However, North Fork is only ten miles south of here, and they are
sure to have a few horses for sale."

"Very well,” Morindessa said
brusquely, "North Fork it is."