Arrows Of Change (Book 1) (7 page)

Ash seemed speechless, mouth hanging so low it nearly
scraped the ground. The trainees were gibbering to each other in nonsense, not even
able to form words. Bragdon had his hand under his chin, no doubt to keep it
from dropping open like Ash’s, his eyes narrowed in speculation.

Only Ashlynn could manage any words. “You. Are. Both.
AMAZING.” She pointed to their bows and then threw her hands up, excitement radiating
from her. “I’ve never seen anyone that can do that. I’ve never even heard of anyone
that can do that! Bragdon. We’ve got to get them to teach your archers. They’d
be far better instructors than whichever slob is doing it now.”

“That would be me,” Bragdon responded mildly. “But I agree.
Any spare minute that the two of you have, I want you here teaching my men. How
long will it take before their skills are developed to that point?”

“Years,” Broden replied honestly. He felt flushed and light
with all this praise they were heaping upon him. If they did not quit soon, it’d
likely go straight to his head.

From that look on Riana’s face, it’d already gone to hers.

Ashlynn shook her head, a wide smile on her face. “Well. I
was going to suggest sparring for a good hour to get a feel for each other, but
it seems to me that if you two can see it, you can hit it. That’s enough
information for me right now. Broden, let’s go to work instead.”

“Aye, lass, that be fine. Just give me a moment.” He turned
and started collecting the arrows he’d fired.

Riana was right there with him, even as she asked Ash, “So,
straight to the wall?”

“Yes,” he responded. “You’re welcome to fire arrows in a
line to keep me from building it crooked, too.”

She gave him a wink. “Aye, that I will.”

Broden stopped a moment and looked at that happy expression
on his daughter’s face. He’d rarely seen her like this—cheerful and glowing,
secure with the people about her. Normally she looked wary, on her guard, and
for good reason. Aye, following Ash down here to Estole was the right decision,
if only to have moments like this.

Satisfied he’d made a good choice for them both, he put the
last arrow in his quiver and nodded to Ashlynn. “Ready.”

“Good. Let’s go out into the city, then.”

Ashlynn put her tracking mark on Broden before they left the
castle. She confided cheerily to him that the place was growing so fast even her
head spun from time to time, and she did not want to turn a complete novice
to the city loose without being able to find him again. Broden merely grunted
at her, but was secretly relieved to have the mark.

The castle alone made his head spin.

They went out the same door he’d come in, but took a
different path through the grounds and to a side door that led out into a
crowded street. Ashlynn barely had the gate open when the scent of the street
hit him like a sledgehammer. His nose wrinkled at the smell and he nearly
gagged, it was so putrid. What
was
that? It was like dung and rotting
fish and a tannery’s stench all mixed together.

“Taranis take these idiots!” Ashlynn swore, her hand
covering her mouth and nose.

Broden blinked at her in surprise, not expecting such an
oath to cross a well-bred woman’s lips.

“I tell them time and again not to dump their sewage here,
and still!” She drew a quick, simple pattern in the air and then spoke a word,
it sounding harsher than the other magical words he’d heard. In a split second,
the garbage that had been dumped on the street was washed clean, as if it’d
never been. Several people yelped as the spell hit, their feet nearly knocked
out from underneath them. Ashlynn, not caring about them, nodded in
satisfaction as she lowered her hand. “There, better.”

He looked up and down the street, confused. It seemed a nice
enough place—the buildings no more than two stories tall, all in good repair,
with markets running up and down the side of the street. Cloud’s Rest was not
half as nice as this. “Why would they throw out garbage?” he wondered aloud,
bemused at why they would not take care of the place.

“There’s actually a sewage system built in under the
street,” Ashlynn explained wearily. “But it was never made to accommodate this
many people. It’s overrun and becoming stagnant as it builds up. We’ve told
them not to throw their garbage into the street gutters, to use the bins, but
they’re too lazy to walk all the way to the nearest one. So it builds up in
piles, and stinks up the place, until I stumble across it and clear it out.”

“Lass, I be thinking ye and that king of yers need to build
some houses and clear out some of these people.”

“Oh, I hear you.” Ashlynn nodded in fervent agreement.
“Trust me. As soon as that wall is up, the first thing we’ll do is build places
for these people to go. Until then, well, I get the feeling I’ll be using that
spell quite often.”

“Aye.” He looked around, but of course had no idea where
they needed to go.

“Now, let me explain a few things.” Ashlynn pointed to a
necklace that hung just past her collarbones. It was a long rectangle, with three
wavy lines imprinted into the soft gold metal. “See this? It’s a calling system
of sorts. I have it set up throughout the city. This symbol is on several
different posts on different street corners. People can put their hands flat
against it and speak to me directly whenever they need help. Each one is marked
so that I know instantly which one they’re calling from.”

Broden let out a low whistle. So magic could do even that?
“How many be there?”

“Two dozen. I’m sorely tempted to add more, but haven’t
found the time necessary to make and install them. Regardless, this is how everyone
contacts me when there’s a situation. If I don’t get a call, I just patrol the
streets as much as I can and stop trouble when I see it.”

“So now we walk about until ye get a call?” he guessed.

“And then we race like madmen over there, wherever ‘there’
is.” She beamed up at him. “Let’s walk this way, as I haven’t been over here in
about two days. While we walk, tell me something about yourself.”

Obligingly, he told her much of the same history they’d told
Ash. Ashlynn was a good listener, only asking a question here and there as he
paused for breath. She took his family history in stride, just as Ash had, her
only surprise coming from how badly the prejudice had followed them. “So you
came with Ash to escape from Cloud’s Rest?”

“Aye,” he admitted without a bat of an eyelash. “That and he
offered good money and position. I had a hope or two it’d be safer for me
daughter as well, but…”

“It’s not looking like that right now, I know,” she soothed.
“But we’ll put things back in order soon enough.

He hoped so. “Now it be me turn to ask questions, I think.
How did ye come to be Edvard’s wizard?”

“Well, as to that, his father was the one that paid for my
and Ash’s apprenticeship fees. Sort of. See, Edvard’s father was a ne’er-do-well
when it came to women. He had more children than anyone’s sure of. At one
point, he came to fancy my mother—” she abruptly cut herself off and picked up
the necklace. “This is Sheriff Fallbright.”

“
Sheriff,
” a tinny sounding voice came from the
necklace. “
We need you here now. There’s been an attempted robbery, but the
man fought back with a knife, and now I have two men bleeding out here on the
street.”

Ashlynn swore loudly and viciously, even as she spun sharply
on her heel and took off at lightning speed. Broden was not a particularly fast
runner, and it was all he could do to keep up with her. They turned a corner suddenly,
rounded another, and soon the streets became a twisted snarl in his mind, to
where he could not swear he’d be able to find his way back again if he tried.

She barely went around the next corner before she slid to a
stop, dropping to her knees and reaching out without even trying to assess the
situation first. “Broden, the other man, put pressure on his wound to stall the
bleeding until I can get to him.”

He took two seconds to take in the scene before he did as
directed. Two men, both looking rough about the edges, were lying right next to
each other. One had a knife sticking out of his chest, and judging from the wet
sounds he made as he breathed, blood was quickly filling up his lungs. The
other was crimson around the stomach, and Ashlynn’s hands were already covered
in blood as she worked her magic at a frantic pace to try and save the man’s
life.

Around all of them stood three guardsmen, keeping a crowd of
onlookers at bay while their sheriff-wizard worked. Broden sank to his knees
and grabbed a kerchief from his pocket, which he used to staunch the flow of
blood leaking from the man’s chest, careful to avoid slicing himself on the
knife as he did.

“Shouldn’t you take the knife out first?” one of the
guardsmen asked, sinking to his knees so that he sat near the prone man’s head.

Broden shook his head in disagreement. “No, master, that
would no’ be wise. I saw it once, when they took a knife from a man without any
means to staunch the blood. Man bled out in minutes. Worse, from the sound of
it, this man’s lungs be half-filled. I will wait for yon lass to come and yank
it out herself.”

The guard listened to him, returning the same scrutiny that
Broden gave. He was in that dark grey uniform Broden had seen Edvard wear,
black boots scuffed and slightly muddy. His brown hair stuck to his forehead
from the sweat on his skin, dark eyes calm as if he’d seen worse than this. He
likely had. “I’m Seth Feibelman, Estole Guard Second Class. Who might you be?”

Now, how to answer this? “Broden Ravenscroft. I be yon
lass’s partner.”

“My wizard-partner, to be precise.” Ashlynn rose up just
enough to scoot over to Broden’s side, completely missing the jaw-dropped
surprise of Seth Feibelman. “Broden, thank you. If you could, take the knife
out as quick and clean as you can without causing more damage. I have to close
this wound up and then figure out some means of draining the blood from his
lungs.”

“Lass, I do no’ mean to tell ye yer business,” Broden started,
half-hesitant, “but I’ve seen a wound like this afore.”

Her eyes flew up to his face. “You have? Did the man
survive?”

“Aye, though it be touch and go for a while. We put a straw
in his wound, then coaxed the blood to flow through it. It took a mite to
drain, and it be painful, but it got enough out that he could breathe proper
again.”

“Broden, that’s genius.” She pointed a finger at the
kneeling guardsman. “Seth, go get me a straw. Now. Oh, and a basin. Mark, get
this other man to his home and tell his wife to pour liquids down him for now.
He’s not to have anything solid to eat for at least three days. I’ll check in
on him this afternoon.”

“Yes, Sheriff.” Mark, a swarthy-looking man that had the
markings of a former bandit, leaped to obey the command.

Seth came scurrying back with a wooden straw that might have
been a river reed in a previous life and a small ceramic basin that had seen
better days. Ashlynn promptly took both from his hands. Looking up at Broden,
Ashlynn asked, “Ready?”

Broden took in a deep breath, blew it out in a taut stream,
and answered, “Ready.”

“Then pull it out gently.”

He tried, but of course, a knife hurt as bad coming out as
it did going in. Deciding it’d be better to be quick than slow, he opted for
speed and took the knife out as cleanly and painlessly as possible. As soon as
the knife was free, Ashlynn slipped the straw into the open wound as gently as
she could.

The man under her hands clenched his teeth around a scream.
Broden tossed the knife to the ground, held him down firmly, and spoke calmly
to the man, “Aye, man, it hurts. Ye can curse the gods properly later, after
the lass here be done with ye. Tell me, now, what happened here?”

“That idiot came after me, saying something about me not
having the right to have first dibs on housing. He wanted my deed!” He gurgled
a little and spat out the side of his mouth. Broden kept an eye on Ashlynn as
he answered and found that she’d adapted his method a mite. She was coaxing the
blood out with magic, making the straw look like some sort of macabre fountain
as it poured out blood into the basin. From the smug grin on her face, it was
working well.

“A deed, be it?” Broden prompted, trying to not only get the
story, but to keep the man’s mind off the reed stuck in his chest.

“Yes. The king has issued deeds to new houses, promises,
really, that we can have one as soon as they’re built. He’s giving them out in
order of arrival, I think.”

“That’s right,” Ashlynn confirmed. “But they’re only going
to tradesmen, merchants, or people with  steady incomes. We can’t give the
houses to people that don’t have the money to support them.”

Made sense. Why give a beggar a house when he’d only bring
it to ruin because he did not have the means to keep it? Although it made him
wonder what Edvard planned to do with the people who could not afford a house.

“Oh.” The man lying on the ground apparently had not
realized there was a rule about this. “So, he was trying to get mine because he
couldn’t get one of his own?”

“Likely, yes.” Ashlynn braced herself. “I think the blood’s
out. Broden? Good, hold him down just like that. Sir, what’s your name?”

“Behrens.”

“Master Behrens, clench your teeth and hold as still as you
can. I’m going to draw this out as quick as possible. Then I’ll heal you and
we’ll get you taken home so that you can rest up properly.”

He nodded in understanding, already turning white with the
anticipated pain. Ashlynn was quick, as promised, and the straw pulled out
clean. Behrens gasped in pain, the sound almost keening, body twisting slightly
under Broden’s hands. Then she laid a glowing hand on the man’s chest, the skin
healing over as if there had never been an injury there, and the pain left his
face entirely.

“Oh. Oh, thank you. That feels strange, but so much better.”

Ashlynn pulled back and smiled at him, just as relieved as
he that she had not had a man die under her hands. “Master Behrens, you should
rest easy for about three days. Eat plenty of meat to restore the blood you’ve
lost, and drink as much water as possible. In three days or so, you can start
working again, but again, take it easy. If there’s any pain, stop. I think
it’ll take at least a week before you’re back to your old self.”

“Yes, I understand, thank you.”

“And
next
time,” she added with a touch of
exasperation, “just give him the deed and report the theft to a guardsman,
alright? We have the deeds recorded in a big book. We know whom they belong to.
Stealing a deed won’t do anyone an ounce of good because we double-check it
against our records.”

“Oh.” Behrens looked down at himself before offering her a
wry smile. “I’ll remember that. If there’s a next time.”

“Hopefully there won’t be.” She nodded up to Seth. “Take him
home. Give his wife the same instructions I just gave him. Master Behrens, I’ll
try to check in on you later this afternoon.”

“Thank you, Sheriff,” Behrens said as he was gingerly lifted
up with a canvas-and-pole stretcher.

Broden took the water flask from his belt and rinsed his
hands clean before taking Ashlynn’s hands in his and also washing hers. He
worked without a word, finished, and replaced the flask before looking up.
Ashlynn watched him with a gentle expression, eyes lifted in a silent smile.
“You’re not a man to spook easily in a crisis, are you?”

“A man can no’ be easily spooked and survive Cloud’s Rest,”
he responded dryly.

“Good point.” She lifted her hand, fingers quick and deft as
she drew a spell in glowing lines, then spoke a word.

Magic washed over him with a quick
zing
, cleaning
both his clothes and skin with equal fervor. He half-yelped in surprise, sheer
reflex sending him to his feet at the suddenness of the attack. Looking down,
he realized she’d washed him clean of the blood that had splattered on him as
well as made up for the fact that he’d made do with a quick wash earlier.