Bronze Magic (Book 1) Page 56

  “Now!” he breathed.

  They stood up and walked casually onto the road behind the group to join the stragglers. An old woman’s eyes widened briefly as she suddenly found herself no longer at the rear. But life had been hard and she wasn’t really interested in anything other than reaching camp and getting some food and rest. So she gave a faint shrug and kept putting one foot in front of the other.

  Stormaway and Danton matched their pace and posture to those around them, hunching their shoulders and treading slowly and heavily. They didn’t speak because they had nothing safe to say. Forty minutes later, they were approaching the encampment. Strangely, the guards at the entrance paid very little heed to anyone.

  Danton frowned and whispered, “This lot wouldn’t last long at the palace. Why do they even bother having guards if they don’t even make a cursory check on people coming in?”

  A chilling thought struck Stormaway. “Maybe they are more careful about people going out?”

  The two men looked at each other. “There is no one going out,” whispered Danton.

  As they watched, they realised this wasn’t strictly true. From time to time, a small group of armed soldiers would leave, heading back down the path to the main road through the forest.

  The wizard and the sorcerer found themselves ushered to a place around a campfire. Helpful guards provided them with food and drink. When they were sated, soldiers showed them to a large tent where they could bed down in a corner when they were ready. Beyond that, they were left to their own devices.

  “Do you know any of these people?” asked Danton.

  The wizard shook his head. “Not so far. But I have a wide network. There must be someone here I know.”

  Danton frowned. “I think I may have seen one or two of the soldiers before, but I don’t know them personally. I could have seen them anywhere.”

  “Let’s start moving around,” suggested Stormaway. “We have to find out the feeding arrangement for the wolves. We only have tonight. Tomorrow we must get it right.”

  “It’s a short time line,” said Danton, bowing slightly to an officer as they sauntered past. “I would have preferred more time but the woodfolk are anxious about their friends and I suppose the danger of discovery increases the longer we stay here.”

  Stormaway shrugged. “We are in no danger of discovery. We both have every right to be travelling wherever we please.”

  “It would help if we knew why it might be that we have come to the encampment.”

  The wizard looked thoughtful. “True. Let’s find the stake, the woodfolk tent and the wolves first. Once we have done our planning, we can settle ourselves in around a campfire and listen to a few conversations.”

  They wandered around the inside of the perimeter of the encampment, trying to work out which tent housed the woodfolk. It took twenty minutes to circumnavigate. Thanks to Tarkyn’s complete and utter lack of directional sense, they had no real idea where the tent was. However, they guessed that it might be on the east because they knew Running Feet’s vision would have lead Tarkyn’s mind from that direction.

  The wolves and horses were a lot easier to find. The wolves were unhappy with their lot and several of them paced restlessly up and down the few feet of travel their chains would allow them. When Stormaway and Danton approached them, they snarled and howled, dragging at their chains in an effort to attack. Several people looked over to see what was causing the disturbance. Although the horses were roped well away on the other side of the camp, the wolves’ snarling caused several horses to whinny, tossing their heads and rolling their eyes in fear.

  “We’ll give those wolves a wide berth then,” said Danton firmly. He added quietly, “I wonder if they can smell woodfolk on us?”

  “Possibly,” mused the wizard. “Anyway, we don’t need to get near them. We just need to find their food source.”

  Suddenly, they found their way blocked by a sturdy, armed guard. He was dressed in a cobbled together uniform that was a mixture from several regiments. He wore no helmet and his bald head shone in the afternoon sun. What was left of his hair was grey and shoulder length. He glared at them from under dark, bushy eyebrows and demanded, “What do you two think you’re playing at, getting so close to those wolves? They’re dangerous, you know. Look at that! You’ve disturbed the horses.” He leant forward and peered closely at them, “Have I seen you before? You don’t look familiar.”

  Danton’s heart was thumping in his chest but he replied with a semblance of calm, spiced with just a dash of uncertainty, “I beg your pardon, sir, if we have upset anyone. We have only just arrived and were simply having a look around.”

  The guard straightened up in response to Danton’s well-bred accent. “That explains it then, my lord.” He gave a kindly smile, “Took your finery, did they? You must be feeling a little shaken up still. Don’t worry. We’re a friendly enough bunch here. You’ll soon get to know us all. My name’s Torgan.” He looked Danton up and down, to which Danton took silent exception. Sergeant Torgan smiled disarmingly. “You seem to be in pretty good shape, sir. You might be ready to join a regiment quite soon.” He glanced at Stormaway. “Your friend here could take a bit longer.” He frowned, “Perhaps he has other skills we can use instead. He doesn’t look like much of a fighter.”

  Stormaway managed to cower down and appear even more pathetic than before, “I am a tailor, sir,” he whined, “Though my eyesight is not as good as it used to be. But I can still sew if someone else threads the needle.”

  The guard gave him a hearty, condescending pat on the back, “Good on you, old man. I’m sure there’ll be plenty for you to do.” He tipped his fingers to his forehead in a friendly salute, “I’d better go. I expect I’ll see you around.”

  As soon as he was out of earshot, Danton turned to Stormaway incredulously. “Tailor? Where did that come from?”

  The wizard shrugged and gave a small self-deprecating smile, “I don’t know why it is, but people never think of a tailor as a threat. It’s a very useful disguise.”

  “And can you sew?” demanded Danton.

  Stormaway snorted, “Of course I can. I don’t do things by halves, you know. I’ve been in this game for many long years.”

  “Well, if you’ve been in this game for so long, what do you make of all this?”

  The wizard looked around and shook his head. “I don’t know for sure but I would say they are recruiting people for something.”

  Danton’s eyes widened, “Not for hunting woodfolk, I hope.”

  “I don’t know. Could be. Could be for something else. We’ll keep our eyes and ears open and see what we can find out.”

  Not surprisingly, Stormaway and Danton eventually located the imprisoned woodfolk’s tent quite close to the wolves. There was no other tent with a chain issuing under the side panel attached to a metal stake in the ground. A large black crow was perched on the top of the tent pole. It flew off as they approached and settled further away in an overhanging branch.

  Once they had identified the tent, they wandered around the vicinity, looking casually for guards or magical wards. Stormaway looked around surreptitiously and muttered under his breath, “Wards, Rayavalka!” and thrust three fingers outwards.

  Immediately, pale splashes of green flickered in a dozen different places across the encampment. One of them flickered across the entrance to the woodfolk’s tent, but there were none around the sides.

  Moments later, Stormaway snapped his fingers back into his palm and the green lights flicked out.

  “Mmm. Interesting, “said Stormaway. “A ward to stop people going in by mistake, or out of idle curiosity, but no real expectation of a rescue attempt.”

  Danton shrugged. “I can only imagine they have underestimated the woodfolk. Maybe Golden Toad and his family are playing dumb. Whoever has them trapped might think of them as wild animals if they don’t speak – and wild animals wouldn’t rescue their kin.”

  Stormaway frowned in disapproval.
“Woodfolk are nothing like wild animals. Mind you, without Tarkyn’s help, they wouldn’t have known Golden Toad and his family were even missing, let alone where they were.” Stormaway looked towards the nearest perimeter. “Okay. Let’s see how many guards there are, and where.”

  They scanned the perimeter nearest the woodfolk’s tent.

  “Six that I can see,” reported Danton.

  “I wonder when they change the guard?”

  “It’s usually every four hours,” replied the ex-palace guardsman. “We’ll need the woodfolk to strike soon after the change so that they can be well away before the next watch discovers the unconscious guards.”

  A small huddle of travellers wandered past them, obviously reconnoitring their new surroundings. As Danton sauntered over to them to strike up a conversation, they bowed in response to his unconscious air of command. He frowned and threw a wry glance at Stormaway before nodding his head in acknowledgement. He offered a few desultory remarks and when they were more at ease, asked, “New here too, are you?” He nodded at the woodfolk’s tent. “What do you suppose is in there with that chain going under the wall like that?”

  A young girl curtsied and answered with wide-eyed nervousness, “Sir, I believe there is an injured wolf in there, sir.” She curtsied again, her chestnut hair falling down over her shoulder.

  Danton smiled disarmingly, “Really? I’m glad I asked. I wouldn’t want to go in there by mistake and get myself mauled.”

  “No sir, you wouldn’t,” said a tall gangly youth, clearly her brother and clearly anxious to get a word in with this lordly acquaintance. “Only the wolves’ keeper goes in there, we understand.” He hesitated, “Will you be taking over one of the regiments, sir?”

  Danton cast a quick measuring glance at the other members of their group. “I have only just arrived and do not yet know my intentions.”

  “My Da and uncle and me… We all plan to fight the brigands.” The young man glanced earnestly at an older man standing just behind him. “Don’t we, Da?”

  “Yes lad, we do.”

  A short stocky man, presumably the uncle, joined in. “It’s got to be stopped, you know. You can’t have the kingdom’s road rife with thugs. If the king won’t attend to it, we’ll have to do it ourselves.”

  Danton raised his eyebrows, “Do you doubt the king, sir?

  For a moment, the man gobbled at him, his mouth opening and shutting soundlessly like a landed fish.

  “Do not fear,” said Danton with a slight smile. “I am not the king’s agent. I am merely interested in the progress of popular opinion, since I have been out of touch for a few weeks.”

  The uncle scratched his head, “Oh well, in that case…” He leaned in a little closer. “It’s not that we are disloyal to the king. It’s just that he is so busy chasing his evil brother... ”

  Danton frowned, “Who? Prince Jarand?”

  The man snorted. “No, not Prince Jarand. He is fighting to support us against the raiders. Prince Tarkyn. He’s the evil bastard who destroyed half of Tormadell, and killed off all the Royal Guard and hundreds of innocent bystanders.”

  Danton’s eyes grew round not, as they thought, at the enormity of the crimes, but at the enormity of the rumours, which had grown considerably since he last heard them.

  The father nodded sagely. “Well you might boggle, my lord. No wonder the king has his hands full. The countryside is shouting for the Prince Tarkyn’s blood but the king, very nobly, wants to give his brother a fair trial. Personally, I’d be happy to see the murdering bastard torn limb from limb, but the king has his standards.” He shrugged. “Still, that’s why we look up to the Royal Family.” He sucked his breath in sympathetically and shook his head. “What a shame for them to have such a black sheep among them.”

  It was taking Danton considerable effort to regain the use of his vocal chords, “Harumph. Yes. Quite embarrassing for them.” Feeling that he could not stomach any more of this, Danton turned to the young lady and summoned a smile for her, “And what do you intend to do while the men of your family fight brigands?”

  She gave a shy smile in return, “My little sister and I will stay here in the camp and see what we can do to help. Perhaps we will see you around the campsite from time to time.” Then she blushed furiously while her father scowled at her. “I beg your pardon. I did not mean to sound forward. I only meant…”

  Danton glanced reassuringly at the father and broadened his smile, “I understand what you meant. I am sure we will all see each other again if we remain billeted within the encampment. After all, it is not so very big, is it?” He sketched a small bow for her. “It would be a pleasure to run into you again… all of you,” he added hastily.

  “Excuse me, my lord,” he heard a caustic voice say behind him, “but I believe duty calls.”

  Danton swung around to find Stormaway’s eyes boring into him. He frowned before swinging back to say ruefully, “I am afraid he is right. Until next time.”

  “I see you do not have the same natural difficulties with dissemblance that your liege displays.”

  Danton gave a short laugh. “No. Not at all, as you just saw. So it’s just as well, isn’t it, that Tarkyn’s morals keep me in check?”

  “I have no problem with a natural dissembler. I am one myself. It doesn’t have to be in an unworthy cause.” Stormaway regarded the sorcerer curiously, “But if I weren’t here to report back to him, what then? And what of your behaviour when you were on your own, searching for him?”

  Danton frowned in annoyance. “I don’t dissemble with the prince,” he said shortly. “I know what he wants and as far as I am able, I deliver it. Always.”

  As they talked, they had walked around the area surrounding the wolves looking for the source of the wolves’ dinner. By mutual, unspoken agreement, they wandered further afield towards the smells of cooking food.

  When the wizard did not reply, Danton continued, “And I have always tried to protect him from other dissemblers. Because he is so straightforward himself, Tarkyn struggles to understand that some people may be more devious. He knows in his head that people double-cross and manoeuvre for power and influence at the expense of personal integrity, but in his heart, he has never been able to come to grips with it.”

  Stormaway studied the passionate young sorcerer, “Unless I am much mistaken, you too have your own emphatic code of ethics.”

  Danton gave a slightly embarrassed smile, “Yes, I do. Of course I do, but not everyone at court realises that. If they did, I would have been privy to less intrigue and in a poorer position to protect my liege.”

  “Ah! A man after my own heart,” said Stormaway as he followed his nose to large white tent. He pulled back the flap and poked his head around the corner to see several long trestle tables set up as preparation benches. Large baskets of vegetables were sitting under the tables waiting to be prepared for the night’s meal. A huge cooking fire burned slowly in the middle of the tent beneath a hole in the roof; and several cooks had already begun to prepare the vegetables. As they were finished, handfuls of carrots, potatoes and chopped onions drifted through the air into large cooking pots, already simmering over the fire. Every now and then, one of the cooks directed a trickle of yellow magic into the steam and smoke to keep it on course for the hole in the roof.

  At a separate table, a hefty cook was dismembering a skinned deer using a sharp hatchet. Bones and offal were thrown into a big wooden bucket against the wall of the tent. As Stormaway watched, a marrowbone missed the bucket and landed on the floor. With a slight frown of annoyance, the cook casually directed a thin stream of grey magic at the bone and lifted it off the floor into the waiting bucket before returning to his chopping.

  The wizard withdrew and looked around at Danton, a satisfied smile playing around his lips. “I think I may have found the wolves’ food. The meat scraps are being collected in a bucket against the back wall of the tent. Couldn’t be easier, if that is the case. We’ll wait around here and ma
ke sure.”

  “Perhaps we can loosen the stake when the wolves are eating tomorrow night.”

  Stormaway brushed a speck of dirt off his left shoulder. “Possibly, but the wolves are very close to that tent. It depends on whether their trainer stays with them while they eat. And whether other people come to watch them feed too. We’ll watch and see what happens tonight.” He then brushed down his right shoulder, by the end of which procedure he had scanned to whole area around them. “We’d better move on. We don’t want to be seen loitering near the food tent. Let’s stay close by but wander over and have a look at the horses. ”

  They sauntered around the corner of the next tent and ran slap bang into Andoran and Sargon.

  eep in the woods, North Wind and Rainstorm eyed each other as they followed Waterstone to set up targets.

  “He told you, didn’t he?” asked North Wind as soon as they were out of earshot.

  Waterstone nodded as he handed them chunks of yellow ochre, “Here. Mark out some targets on these trees. We’ll need six or eight of them, I’d say.”

  Surprisingly Rainstorm didn’t object, but merely asked, “How do you want them?”

  Waterstone stood with his hands on his hips while he considered it, “Just draw a circle with eyes and nose. A bit above our head height. We don’t need the body. We’ll be aiming for their heads.”

  As they each began work on a separate tree, Waterstone said quietly, “I’ve been looking for a chance to talk to you two, for days.” The woodman didn’t beat round the bush. “Are you sure, Rainstorm? Couldn’t it just be the forest protecting its guardian?”

  Rainstorm thought carefully before answering, “I don’t think so. It wasn’t the trees reacting. It was the wind…and it was damaging the trees. What do you think, North Wind?”

  The young woodman shook his head. “No. The trees weren’t protecting Tarkyn. The wind was lashing the trees, ripping the leaves off them.” Waterstone looked at Rainstorm with concern. “And how are you? It’s quite something to come to terms with, isn’t it? I’ve had years to get used to the concept yet even now, I get upset sometimes. Still, I suppose even I have only had a few weeks to come to terms with the reality. It’s hard, isn’t it?”