Bronze Magic (Book 1) Read online

  The prince frowned. “Oh no. I hope it’s not from the oath. Ask your dad to talk straight to Running Feet, could you?” He flicked a glance at the woodman to check that this arrangement was all right and received a brief nod.

  “Why not me?” asked Sparrow, much put out.

  “Because it’s grown up’s business. They may need to use big words you won’t know. Don’t worry. I’ll tell you everything you need to know. Okay?”

  Sparrow narrowed her eyes at him but complied with his request.

  Shortly afterwards, Running Feet also went out of focus. After a while, the prince said, “Stop gossiping about me and keep to the point.”

  Running Feet flicked back into focus. “If you can’t mind talk, how did you know we were?”

  Tarkyn smiled, “Stands to reason. Waterstone wanted to know what you’re doing in my shelter and what you thought of being stuck with me after our last little encounter. Once he has that all sorted out, he’ll know how far to trust you with relaying messages to me….Correct?”

  Running Feet smiled in return. “Correct.”

  “So. What is Stormaway saying about this storm? Is it a backlash from someone undermining me?”

  The woodman shook his head. “He doesn’t think it has anything to do with the oath. He thinks someone might be trying to flood us out. The stream is rising. It’s nearly up to the top of its banks already.”

  “Who can create a storm like this? And how on earth do they know we are here?” Tarkyn nodded at him impatiently. “Go on. Ask them.”

  Running Feet returned to focus very quickly this time.

  “Well?”

  A slight frown of annoyance appeared on Running Feet’s face as he answered shortly. “Waterstone will get back to me when he has talked about it with Stormaway.”

  The prince took one look at the woodman’s taut face and sighed. “Sorry. Please tell me if I annoy you. It’s much better to sort it out than having you going off to tell everyone what a tyrant I am. I’m just worried. And when I get tense, I have a tendency to cut corners and become peremptory.”

  Running Feet’s face relaxed. “It must be frustrating needing a translator for the mind talking.”

  “It is.”

  This conversation was curtailed as Running Feet was pressed to reply to Waterstone. After a short mind-discussion, the woodman reported back to the prince, “A wizard can drum up this sort of weather, according to Stormaway, though he would need time to create enough power.”

  “Hmph, when you think about Stormaway’s name, it’s pretty obvious really,” said Tarkyn. “So, can Stormaway counter this other wizard’s spell?”

  “He says he may be able to but he will need more power if he is do to it quickly enough to stop flooding. He wants you to help him.”

  “Of course I will. But before we organise that, what about the second question? That’s even more important. How do they know we’re here?”

  Running Feet shook his head. “Stormaway doesn’t think anyone does know we’re here. He thinks the storm is more general than that and that someone is possibly trying to herd us up onto higher ground…”

  “….where presumably sorcerers and wolves will be waiting.” The prince said nothing for a few minutes while he collected his thoughts. Then he turned to Running Feet.

  “Speak to Stormaway and Waterstone. Ask for their opinions on what we should do”

  After Running Feet had reported back, Tarkyn said, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to make sure a few things are put in place before I help Stormaway.” He gave a wry smile. “That is a euphemism for issuing orders, in case you hadn’t worked it out. I remember a captain of the guards once said to me, the more critical the situation, the more directive you must be.”

  “See,” said a shaky little voice. “More bossy than me.”

  “Oh Sparrow, come here.” Immediately she climbed up onto Tarkyn’s lap and he wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t be frightened. We will sort it out. Stormaway and I will do lots of interesting magic and make the storm go away. Now, you just snuggle up quietly while I boss everyone around. How’s that?”

  Sparrow just nodded and pressed herself against his chest.

  Tarkyn stroked her hair and made sure she was settled before looking at Running Feet. “You’re in the unlucky position of being the messenger. Ready?” When the woodman nodded, Tarkyn said, “Right. Tell everyone I am speaking as the guardian of the forest and I need their full cooperation. Tell them what Waterstone and Stormaway have worked out about the storm.”

  Tarkyn waited until Running Feet indicated he had done this, and then continued, “We must make sure we have an escape route from the rising water that does not take us where they expect us. In other words, we’ll need to evacuate downhill somewhere, perhaps up into trees. I don’t know. I’ll leave that to local knowledge to sort out. If it means we have to leave sooner, then we will.”

  Tarkyn waited with raised eyebrows until Running Feet nodded. “I have only just realised that you don’t all keep in contact with each other using mind talk as a matter of course. So we need an inventory of all woodfolk everywhere. Do we know where everyone is? It is my fear that these hunters have captured some woodfolk somehow. It is the only explanation that fits the facts. Who is missing? Are there some people too far away to contact? We need to make sure everyone is accounted for and contactable, not just those who have come here.” The prince paused again. He waved a hand. “Don’t transmit this bit. How are we going? Do we have a mass rebellion yet?”

  Running Feet gave a reluctant smile and shook his head. “They haven’t had time to organise it yet because they can’t get a word in edgeways.”

  “Good. I’ll keep going before they do. Ready?” At the woodman’s nod, he began again. “We will need to mount a rescue mission. If they have captured some woodfolk, they are probably being held at that encampment. So start talking to the people who have seen the encampment and start thinking about how a rescue can be undertaken. That’s it from your friendly neighbourhood tyrant for today.” Running Feet looked queringly at this, but Tarkyn smiled and nodded to send it. “I will be working with Stormaway for the next little while if anyone wants me.”

  The prince grinned, “Well, that should give everyone something to think about and complain about, to while away a few damp hours stuck inside.”

  A little voice issued from the region of Tarkyn’s chest. “I think you’re getting bossier.”

  Tarkyn laughed. “I think you’re right. All my good intentions in tatters again, hey, little one?” He looked across at Running Feet. “Thank you for doing that. If you get any backlash at all from it, I want to know about it.”

  “Is that another order?”

  The prince grimaced, “Yes, I’m afraid so. If I make it an order, you don’t have to debate whether to tell me or not. You just do it. Then no-one can blame you for informing on them.” Tarkyn regarded him quizzically. “So, I suppose I’m back in your bad books now? You may find this hard to believe but I have generally avoided giving anyone direct orders until this crisis.”

  Running Feet raised his eyebrows. “It doesn’t really matter what I think, does it, my lord?”

  Tarkyn frowned, “Do you say that because you think little of yourself, or little of me?”

  “I’m saying it because I assume you think little of me.”

  “Because of what I did to you before?” Tarkyn’s mouth twisted in a rueful smile. “I know I treated you with great disdain at our first encounter, but I didn’t know you or anyone else then…And I felt trapped and angry. Now I’ve had a chance to get to know you, I do care about your opinion. In fact, I would have sought you out to make reparation but you chose, quite understandably, to stay away from me. To tell you the truth, I am quite anxious to have your good opinion because I feel guilty about what I did to you.”

  Running Feet have his head a little shake, a queer smile playing around his lips. “Then, for what it is worth, I still think you throw your weight
around but you do it in support of woodfolk, not for yourself. And although I will probably still keep having nightmares about being dropped from great heights, I could not have spent these hours with you without changing my opinion of you. You are not the haughty tyrant I was anticipating. Despite my expectations, I find I like you but I’m not surprised everyone talks about you all the time. You are quite an amazing person. You take responsibility for everyone and see everything so clearly.”

  Tarkyn blinked in surprise at the accolades. “I have to. I’m your forest guardian and I swore an oath to protect you. Everyone is expecting me to pull them through even while some of them hate me. But I would have to say that I don’t see everything clearly. I definitely get things wrong sometimes.”

  Running Feet smiled, “I think I can attest to that. Perhaps I exaggerated slightly but you do see the overall picture very well.”

  “Thank you.” Tarkyn hesitated, “Maybe when this particular crisis is over, I could help you get rid of the nightmares.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Oh, why wait? Let’s do it quickly now. It’ll only take a couple of minutes. Hang on. Am I going there or is Stormaway coming here? Could you find out please – and when?”

  “They will come here because your shelter is bigger. They’ll be here in about ten minutes.”

  Tarkyn smiled reassuringly at the woodman. “Are you willing to let me try to get rid of your nightmares? I think I can do it with my forest guardian powers.”

  “Have you done it before?”

  “No,” said Tarkyn, shaking his head, “but I have healed myself and others. Of course if you do stop having nightmares, we’ll never know if it was because you met up with me and put your demons to rest or whether it was the healing. Other than that, you have nothing to lose. It doesn’t hurt and it’s not unpleasant.”

  “And you won’t turn green,” piped up a little voice.

  Running Feet addressed Sparrow. “How do you know? Have you had it done to you?”

  Sparrow nodded. “Tarkyn gave us all more energy when we had travelled through trees all day. It was quite nice, really.”

  “Okay. Go on then,” agreed Running Feet. “What do I have to do?”

  “Close your eyes. I’m going to put my hand on your shoulder. Now, think about your dream and the fear in it. As you do, I will send healing force into you. You will have to direct the force yourself to soothe the fear in the memory and gradually dissipate the nightmare. Ready?”

  When the woodman nodded, the forest guardian drew forth his esse and sent it into Running Feet. As Tarkyn watched, he could see Running Feet’s face and shoulders relaxing. When the changes stopped, Tarkyn asked, “Enough?”

  Running Feet nodded and opened his eyes. He smiled and the tension in his face that no one had particularly noticed, was no longer there. “It’s gone. I know it has. Thank you. Even if you were the cause, you have also been the cure. So you have made reparation, as you wanted to.” ive people in a shelter made for one was proving to be logistical nightmare. Every time anyone needed to move to keep a limb from cramping up or going to sleep, the others had to re-arrange themselves to accommodate them. Sparrow was getting tired of sitting on Tarkyn’s or her dad’s lap but there wasn’t any room for her in between.

  “Don’t worry, Sparrow,” Waterstone was saying, “The two biggest people are leaving soon. Then we’ll have plenty of room.”

  “Good,” said a seriously discontented little girl. “Then I can show you my map and Running Feet can tell you all about it.” She gave a little huff, “Well, I could have shown it to you, except you’re sitting on it and it will be all smudged.”

  “I’m sure you’ll be able to fix it up.” Waterstone glanced at Running Feet who was sitting beside him while the sorcerer and the wizard planned their tactics up the other end. “It’s good to see you again. We used to spend a lot of time together before… well, before Tarkyn arrived. In fact, you were always with Autumn Leaves and Thunder Storm and me. I suppose that was why you were in the frontline when his lordship lost his temper. We were just lucky he didn’t pick one of us instead of you… Have you been all right?”

  Running Feet turned his head to look at his old friend. “I am now but I haven’t been. I couldn’t sleep for weeks afterwards. As soon as I would start to drift off, I would wake with a jerk, thinking I was falling. Only recently I’ve been able to get to sleep but I’ve always woken several times a night with the same nightmare of being lifted up and then dropped.”

  “Oh, you poor bastard! You must have been horrified when you realised whose shelter you’d come into.”

  “I was.” Running Feet grimaced, “What’s worse, by the time I realised, I had already opened my big mouth and complained to Sparrow about His Highness throwing his weight around.”

  Waterstone glanced across at the prince. The woodman was pretty sure that Tarkyn would have half an ear tuned to their conversation, but he had no intention of letting that affect what he was saying to Running Feet. “Did he get angry? … Silly question. Did he get angry for long?”

  Running Feet shook his head. “In fairness, he came over threatening for about thirty seconds. Then Sparrow pulled him up and he stopped. Once he discovered who I was, he couldn’t have been nicer but he had already backed off before that.” The woodman gave a small sigh, “I have probably done him quite a bit of damage, you know. I’ve twisted and derided anything good that we heard about him. And everyone was just looking for reasons to hate him. So it wasn’t hard.”

  “And now he’s forced you to send out his latest pronouncements.”

  Running Feet gave a small smile. “No. He didn’t force me. He just assumed I’d do it.” He grinned, “But he did order me to tell him if I get any kickback from it.”

  “Did he?” Waterstone raised his eyebrows. “In all the time I’ve known him, he hasn’t given me a single order. Yes he did, just one. But that was just something silly between him and me,” he added, making light of something that actually mattered a great deal to him.

  “So he was telling the truth about that, was he? He said he was making it an order so that I didn’t have to choose.”

  Waterstone shrugged, “You have to give it to him. That was a good reason to give an order.” He paused, “By the way, just so you know, Tarkyn never deliberately lies.”

  Running Feet watched the prince in animated conversation as he said slowly, “So I can take it that everything he told me about his time with you people is true?”

  “Yes. Of course it is. Only a fool would tell you lies that you could go straight out and disprove.”

  “He was courageous, wasn’t he, to throw himself on the mercy of the forestals?”

  Waterstone flicked a warning glance down at his daughter.“We were not very happy with him about that,” he said tightly. “Tarkyn left in the middle of the night and made sure we couldn’t follow him, to protect the forest. But he didn’t consider how we would have felt at our failure to protect him.” The woodman grunted, “Actually at that stage, he probably thought we wouldn’t care. But he was wrong. We really don’t want to lose him…any more than I would want to lose this little ratbag,” he added, giving his daughter a squeeze and a tickle that made her twist and giggle in his lap.

  Running Feet smiled but quickly became serious again. “But how can you stand having someone in charge all the time when we are all used to having an equal say in things?”

  Waterstone raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Tarkyn’s not in charge. Whatever gave you that idea?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” replied Running Feet sarcastically, “Something about his manner, the constant stream of edicts…the way he takes over all the discussions.”

  “He is at the heart of many discussions,” conceded Waterstone. “And sometimes he does have an arrogant air about him, like last night for example. But not all the time by any means.” The woodman smiled, “And the stream of edicts? We all worked them out together during the afternoon when everyone else was giving him the cold shoul
der. We would have included everyone but the morning session showed us that it wasn’t viable. In case you didn’t notice, most of this morning’s edicts, as you call them, were basically the recommendations made by Stormaway and me. Our forest guardian is the only person who can command everyone’s attention at a time when we can’t afford the luxury of long debates and inaction. So he’s prepared to put up with being disliked to make sure we can protect ourselves.”

  Running Feet frowned. “He seems to have a strong tendency towards self sacrifice.”

  “He does when he feels it’s needed.” Waterstone shook his head. “It worries me sometimes. Most of it stems from the oath he swore to us, but the other morning, I’m not so sure about. From what I’ve been told, I’d say he was right on the edge. He didn’t just give them the opportunity to... you know.” He glanced down at his daughter, “I think he was almost trying to talk them into it.” He looked steadily at his friend. “He was devastated by what he saw as our betrayal of him. We’ve sorted it out now, but he doesn’t give trust easily. You have no idea how hard it was to get him to trust us after the repeated betrayals he has suffered.” Waterstone’s voice developed a distinct edge to it. “I would not like to see anyone develop a closeness with him and then betray his trust. They would have his home guard to answer to.”

  Running Feet’s eyes widened. “You really do care about him, don’t you?”

  Waterstone shrugged, easing off the tension. “I wouldn’t let just anyone into my family.”

  “I suppose not. I was surprised by that, I must admit, but not so much now as I was.” Running Feet paused. “In answer to your unspoken question, I have no intention of undermining him any further than I already have done.” The woodman glanced at his friend. “But I suppose I would say that, wouldn’t I, whatever I was going to do?”

  Waterstone considered him for a few seconds before replying. “No, my friend, I don’t think you would. You have been honest about undermining him in the past, after all. A lot has changed since we last met but a lot remains the same and I hope you will be able to travel again with us sometime.”