The Orb of Wrath (The Merchant's Destiny Book 1) (12 page)

Mithir was obviously very limited in his communication with the others. He spoke mainly with his brother and, occasionally, with the rest of the group through Erion. Despite his language barriers, Mithir was beginning to establish a stronger link with Ithelas. The two of them had a lively interest in magic, but came to it by completely different paths. Both of them felt attracted by knowledge and loved antique books, although usually on different topics. With Erion's help, Mithir began teaching some basic gestures of sign language and, almost inadvertently, the communication began between them. Later in the day Ithelas, who had an excellent memory, had learned more than forty words.

Thost made an effort to provide the same level of attention to the new group as he did to his normal one; even a little more so. Again and again, almost without meaning to, he set directions, established criteria, defined minor rules and routines that the others would accept in quite a natural way. Thost always asked for the opinion of the others, but then, pretty quickly, he managed to establish a criterion which usually seemed the wisest. Erion and Mithir confirmed quickly what they had already perceived in the forest; the man was a born leader.

Erion didn't want to get carried away by the apparent ease with which the group was amalgamated; although part of his heart was glad of that situation, which seemed an opportunity, above all. His instincts told him that these were good people that could be trusted, but his mind forced him to take it easy, as it was still too early. His life, and his brother's, could depend in any of the group's members in the coming days. If only one of them had ulterior motives, and wouldn't let them be seen until the critical moment, Mithir and he could find themselves in a very complicated situation.

Moreover, Erion was accustomed to the solitude. Except for his brother, he barely related with others for long. Their occupations and travels made it difficult to maintain relationships with others, because they never were in the same place for long. Like all orphans, Erion needed the company of others to compensate for the lack of attention from parents he never had. In practice this was not possible since they had left the orphanage six long years ago. He maintained some friendships from that period; but he saw most of these friends only two or three times a year. In the depths of his being, he longed for that group to be successful and for this to become a permanent thing. But first, and more important than that desire, was to ensure the safety of his brother, and his own.

At lunch they were talking and drawing more detailed plans of what they'd have to do the next day.

“Tomorrow's going to be a really busy day if we want to complete all these preparations,” Ithelas said.

“I think we have to split up in order to do several things at once,” concluded Thost, after some thought.

“One thing is for sure, the day will start very early for all of us and will probably end quite late,” Erion added.

During the long ride, they sought the County's secondary roads whenever they could. At other times they had to ride off-road. The only way to have traveled the main roads, in a good part of the route, would have been if they had gone to Deepcliff first, and then shifted to the southwest by Ekunon's road. But this would have delayed them a lot because it meant a major detour. So, they all agreed to travel the most direct route, although it was not the busiest and, therefore, not be the safest. However, the trip was uneventful until it began to get dark.

“We'll be getting there soon,” Ithelas said cheerfully; “perhaps a little more than a league.”

The sun was setting. They were going through a semi-forest area, and they could see their destination in the distance, some small hills. That's when they saw a winter wolf pack running parallel to them, vigilant. They seemed to have no direct intention of pursuing them, and none of them had attacked. Samar explained that they were probably going through their territory and perhaps the herd had some pups. So they wouldn't leave until they had gone far enough. She also explained that they couldn't trust them not to attack, as this depended on how hungry the pack was at that time. She recommended them to keep going at the same pace and in the same direction and to have their weapons ready, just in case.

Mithir hadn't seen a winter wolf before; at least a live one. He became fascinated with the animals. The winter wolves that lived near Ekunon were famous throughout the Kingdom. Samar explained that she occasionally hunted them for their fur. The magician admired the gleaming white fur of those animals. They were very fast and apparently resistant.

The group shared a mixture of fascination and concern, since the herd was quite large and if they attacked, they'd be in serious trouble. But that wouldn't be the day when things went wrong for the group and, after riding at a good pace through this forest for a while, the pack loosened and then stopped the persecution.

Looking ahead they could see the road that went straight to the Mansion on the Hill, where Thost, Ithelas and Samar lived. They were home.

CHAPTER 11: BOOKS AND POTIONS

After spending two days in the woods and on the roads, everyone enjoyed the comfort of sleeping in a good bed. Erion and Mithir slept in a cozy guest room on the ground floor. The others had their own rooms on the top floor. They all appreciated not having to take turns guarding. Having to interrupt their sleep and stay vigilant, and then having to go back to sleep, was something that almost no one could get used to. Although the property was old, Thost's mansion was an excellent house, big enough for a group of five people.

A cock from the stables, which was next to the house, woke them up at dawn. After a hearty breakfast that the jovial Dreshpho made for them, they divided into groups to accomplish the tasks, as they had agreed the previous day. Mithir and Ithelas left first. They would go to visit Beromort, the wisest man in Ekunon. Erion and Samar departed next. They would visit shops and stores in the city in order to be equipped for the mission. Finally, Thost stayed in the mansion to prepare the training ground where they would practice together that afternoon.

Thost went to the field which was located down the hill. He used to go there with Ithelas to practice using different weapons: sword, mace, shield, etc. They also had a couple of targets at the end of the field, with which Samar trained often. He took some time to think about what exercises they could do. Thost understood that the best way for a group to survive was to exploit the different abilities of each member, combining them intelligently. A magician, a knight, a cleric, an archer and... Thost was not sure how to classify Erion. He found him to be the most enigmatic character of the whole group. Maybe explorer was the best term, though he wasn't sure.

He decided they should start with individual exercises. That would allow them to see what the others could do. He thought it best to start with ranged attacks. So he went to a shed near the training ground and took out three bulky targets, one by one. And, with a lot of work and effort, he moved them to bring them closer to the other two, which were already placed in the shooting range. But he placed these three at a slightly shorter distance. Most of the weapons were not as far-reaching as Samar's bow. Then he picked up a weapon rack and set it in the shooting range. There was a bit of everything: spears, a few bows and many crossbows, arrows and even a blowpipe with several darts.

He returned to the shed and picked up five straw dummies, one by one. The dummies were protected with steel armor, and had small targets drawn at strategic points: the center of the chest, sides and neck. He aligned them in another area of the training ground next to the shooting range.

"Exercises of close combat, to finish the warm-up", Thost thought.

He returned again to the shed and, this time, took another rack and placed it near the dummies. After several trips, he collected various weapons like swords, maces, daggers, short swords and axes, and placed them in the rack, sorted by size. This left the second part of the training ground prepared.

Thost was sweating. He had carried a lot of very heavy objects. Although he still had a strong arm, he didn't have the same endurance as when he was twenty-five. He sat down to take a short break as he thought about the most important exercises, the teamwork exercises. In the Army, he had learned various trainings and had been able to prove their effectiveness when he himself had to start commanding troops. The Army exercises work primarily with three elements: artillery, infantry and cavalry. It was very important to wisely train and combine the archers and the soldiers. The cavalry usually worked in a complementary way. For example, you could open a breach in an enemy formation on a defensive position; or you could use it to pursue, instigate and exterminate an inferior enemy or use it in a getaway. There were other uses but they were generally complementary to the main force. The key to the cavalry was knowing when and how to use it.

In this case, the situation was different. It was a small group, which limited the tactics they could employ. But on the other hand, there were other different skills that usually don't exist in an army, especially Mithir and Ithelas' magic.

He decided they could start with a simple combination of archers and soldiers exercise. For this, he picked up two other dummies from inside the shed and placed them in a third area of the field. Then he made a start line a hundred steps from the dummies and additional marks every twenty steps. He thought about what formations they should practice. He returned to the mansion, took a scroll and a pen and began to write down the exercises that he had already thought of.  He included a table to record the results.

In the central area of the training camp, he painted a circle on the floor with lime, of about twenty steps across and then placed four more dummies at different distances. They would practice a defensive team position there. He wrote the various distance attacks that they would practice in turns, as well as the proximity ones, subsequently. In that exercise, they could start practicing the most effective ways of combining physical attacks with offensive and defensive spells. He defined the various scenarios that occurred to him and wrote them down as well.

When he finished, he reviewed everything that he had prepared, as well as his notes. He felt satisfied. It would take them several hours to complete all the exercises. He just hoped for everyone to be back in the early afternoon or, otherwise, they wouldn't have enough time.

It was practically lunchtime. Almost without realizing it, he had spent the whole morning preparing the camp. He went to see the horses at the stables. He fed them, stroked them and then returned to the mansion. He could smell the delicious aroma of roast coming from the kitchen.

*******

Ithelas and Mithir reached the city relatively fast. The Mansion on the Hill was quite close; half an hour to one hour from the city, depending on the speed at which you galloped. Their mission was very specific: learn everything they could about vampires and share it with the others in the afternoon. To do this they had decided to go visit Beromort.

In some cities the world of Oris, there were wise men whose fame reached beyond their own Counties. These scholars pursued first, and above all, the constant acquisition of knowledge. The vast majority specialized in a particular branch. There were many options: Architecture, Art, Botany, Physics, History, Music, Chemistry... According to the classifications that had remained in place since the Third Age, there were thirty major areas in which to organize knowledge.

These wise men usually lived in quiet neighborhoods of major cities, to facilitate public access. Their main source of income was to charge for their consultations. People of all over, who wanted to find out something very concrete, visited them and made their questions for a predetermined fee. Some scholars also accepted students and taught classes. But others prefer to avoid it, because it was time-consuming and a major distraction to their studies. Some simply did not like teaching. But even those who taught avoided providing advanced studies. The deep knowledge of a subject was what distinguished the elite guild of scholars from the rest of society, and it was what allowed them to finance their lifestyle.

Exceptionally, one could accept an apprentice with whom to share all or, perhaps, most of their knowledge. But such trainees were carefully screened before being accepted. Normally they sought loyal, young people, and they were tied and bound with the teacher for many years or even up to their death. A wise man normally sought an apprentice in two circumstances. When he realized he was nearing the end of his days, with the desire to transfer everything they learned to another person. Or, on the other hand, if the wise man was so successful that he had more work than one person could cover, he could find one or more assistants, who they hired for long periods and usually resolved only the simplest questions.

Beromort was one of the two famous scholars of Ekunon. The other was named Ky'lumin, but everyone regarded Beromort as the smartest man in the city. Ky'lumin specialized in Architecture. Beromort in Theology. Perhaps a wise man expert in Folklore or History would have been more appropriate to ask about vampires; but they would have to settle for what they could learn from Beromort. Mithir knew, at least in name, the majority of the scholars of the kingdom of Bor and none of them were specialized in Folklore or History. That said, they would have had to travel to another kingdom, perhaps to the Duchies or maybe even further. This meant traveling for weeks or even months. Acquiring knowledge in the world of Oris wasn't easy. That was one of the reasons why knowledge fascinated Mithir and also Ithelas, to some extent. To be able to learn things that almost nobody else knows was both exotic and fascinating.

Ithelas had visited Beromort several times. On occasion to make a specific inquiry, but more than once he had tried to convince him to organize some courses so he could learn as much as possible about the Order of Light, which was Ithelas' order.

Following tradition, at nineteen, Ithelas swore his Accession Agreement on a visit to his temple in Borydos, procedure by which a faithful was incorporated in the service of his Church. After serving for six months as an altar boy in this temple, Ithelas was relegated. This process disassociated him from any religious center. He must then return home or to travel the world for a period of ten years, which they called the tithe. During that time he should help others and spread his faith wherever possible. After this period, he would present himself in a larger temple, that is, in a monastery or an abbey, where the head (the prior or abbot, respectively) would interview him to assess the merits during his tithe. If he was defined as suitable, he would be assigned a position in any of the temples or churches of the order for ten years; called the second tithe. But that was still a distant thing for Ithelas; he still had more than six years to go.

Although he had initially decided to travel around the kingdom of Bor, shortly after the beginning of his tithe, Ithelas' father was exiled. Ithelas then opted for his crusade to be to help his father recover his name and, therefore, stood beside him.

Ithelas had received a workshop in the temple, after the swearing of the Accession, where he had been taught many things. But this knowledge hadn't satisfied the curiosity of the young cleric at all.  During his time as an altar boy, he tried to learn everything he could with other more senior clerics. On the rare occasions when he got permission to enter the temple library, he read and studied everything he could. But this hadn't been enough either. So when he began his tithe, one of the first things he did was go visit Beromort, whom he knew since childhood from his summers in Ekunon. The wise man refused to give him the classes he asked for, but lent him a book about the history of his Order. Ithelas read it so many times that he could recite whole passages by heart.

Mithir also knew Beromort. He had only visited him once, though. The magician tried to visit and meet the wise men of all the towns and cities through which he passed. If any of them accepted students, he'd try to enroll and learn everything he could about any subject, at least for the time he could stay in that city. All the areas of knowledge interested him, although some more than others. Theology was not one of his favorites. He believed that much of the content of any religion is closer to superstition and therefore farther from the true knowledge. However, even in Theology, there were interesting things like the history of religions, knowledge of the structure and organization of the Orders and, of course, everything related to divine magic.

Neither Mithir nor Ithelas had the faintest idea whether Beromort could help them. Their mission was to find out, one way or another, everything about vampires. Of all the activities they planned for that day, this was the most important and they both knew it. The life of a part, or even of all, the members of the group could depend on what they could find out that afternoon. They were determined not to take "no" for an answer.

Along the way the two young men had "talked". Ithelas had learned more words in the morning. They used a simple trick. Ithelas pointed to an object and Mithir made the gesture that represented it a couple of times. After Ithelas mimicked the gesture and continued Mithir's corrections until he did it properly. Horse, saddle, sword, boots, pants, tree, road, sun, Ithelas' vocabulary was growing rapidly.

In addition, Mithir could read lips, although he didn't need this ability to communicate, because his ear worked perfectly. He was still improving this skill but had reached a quite acceptable level. Finally they reached the city and came across the South Gate. They rode through the streets of Ekunon.