Hunt of the Bandham (The Bowl of Souls: Book Three) (39 page)

“Maybe someone else they knew from their life outside the community?” Justan asked. “A relative?”

“I’ll ask her, but I doubt it,” the master said. “It wouldn’t have had to be someone close to the family. Anyone that watched the children once with that goat would have seen the way they doted on it. Samson will be here soon with more information.”

The centaur arrived a moment later to tell them the results of his search. Few animals had survived. Some of the sheep had broken out of the pen during the attack and were being rounded up. Two of the workhorses had been in Master Coal’s stable waiting to be re-shoed and a few chickens had been overlooked, but the majority of Nala’s animals were dead. It was a disaster.

“Nala will not be able to keep the farm going with two workhorses and a handful of sheep.” Master Coal’s face was calm as he considered the prospects. “Samson, have the men clean up the carcasses and haul them off for disposal. Tell them to salvage what wool they can from the dead sheep. Perhaps some of the meat from the animals is salvageable as well. We will see what she wants to keep and pay her for the rest. Oh, and something else . . .” From the look they exchanged, Justan could see that they were communicating further through the bond. The centaur nodded and galloped away. “Edge, would it be alright if Gwyrtha joined him? Samson is going to need a lot of help.”

“Of course,” Justan said and Gwyrtha trotted off after the centaur. “This is bad isn’t it?”

“Miss Nala may have to give up the farm,” Qyxal replied.

“We’ll worry about that later,” Master Coal said. “For now, let’s focus on figuring out who did this.”

“We know one thing,” Justan said. “With the sheer number of animals killed in the short amount of time it was done, we are looking for multiple attackers.”

“Or one very vicious creature,” Qyxal said.

“How could one individual do all this in one night without being heard?” Justan asked.

“It could have been done,” Master Coal said. “Samson says that all the animals were killed quickly. Their throats were cut or they were struck a single stab to the heart. It was done in a quick and efficient manner.”

“I need to take a look at some of those animals,” Qyxal said.

They went to the barn to examine some of the corpses and as they saw the attacker’s handiwork in the light, it became evident that whatever had attacked was not bandits or men at all, but some kind of creature or creatures. The wounds on the animals were made by sharp teeth or claws, with occasional deep puncture wounds that could have been made by a horn or something. The attacker had been careful, but Qyxal eventually did find some strange tracks. Whatever had done this had claws on its feet at least.

“Fist saw a creature go into the woods last night,” Justan said. “A scaly beast that carried a sword.”

 “But none of these animals were killed by a sword,” Qyxal replied. “Are you sure that is what he saw?”

“Fist showed me the memory. He definitely saw what he described,” Justan said. “Even if the beast was not what killed the animals, it must have been involved somehow.”

“The mysteries continue to pile up,” Master Coal said. “Qyxal, go around to the various attack sites and see if you can discover more. Edge, why don’t you come with me? We should tell Nala what we found.”

Justan followed Master Coal to the farmhouse. By the time they arrived, the workers had already cleared away Bindy’s remains. Miss Nala and her oldest girl were scrubbing away the blood of their beloved goat from the wooden porch. She saw them arrive and walked towards Master Coal on trembling legs.

“So what did you find, Master Coal? How many of our animals survived?” Her tone was optimistic, but her face showed that she did not expect the results to be good.

The wizard told her what Samson and the workers had discovered. As she digested the information her lips trembled, but she did not cry. Nala nodded and her voice was clear and unwavering when she spoke. “Thank you for your help. I will go to farmer Tabot this afternoon and tell him the land is up for sale. He offered to purchase it when David died. Maybe he is still interested.”

“Nala, that will not be necessary.” Master Coal placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I had Samson send some men to tell all the other farmers what has happened. They are putting out a request for help. You know our community. They will be generous. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if your animals were replaced by the end of the day.” Her eyes filled with tears as he spoke and she opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came out.

“If not, I will replace them myself,” Master Coal added.

“I-I . . .” Miss Nala fell to her knees in front of the wizard and clutched his pant legs as if the weight of his kindness had pulled her down instead of lifting her spirits. “We owe so much to you, Master Coal. If it wasn’t for your generosity, I don’t know where we would be. I-I am sorry to be such a burden,”

Master Coal gently removed her hands and knelt beside her. “Nala, it is no burden. David was a great help to me when I first purchased my farm here. Without his
support
, my bonded and I never would have been accepted into this community. Helping you is just one small thing that I can do to repay him. Besides, you more than earn the assistance you get.” Some firmness entered his voice. “I still expect our arrangement to be in force, by the way.”

“Of course,” she replied and Justan could tell that the weight of her guilt had been somewhat lifted. Master Coal stood and held out a hand to help her to her feet. Nala walked back towards the house and went back to scrubbing the porch with her daughter.

Justan reached through the bond to check with Fist. The ogre was inside carrying plates to the family’s table. Giggling children were hanging from each of his mighty arms. They seemed to have recovered from the horrors of the night before. Justan told him what they had found.

Fist was upset about the loss of the animals, but relieved that the family’s farm would survive. His main concern was about the creature’s possible return. The ogre intended to stay there for the day just in case.

Justan turned to Master Coal. “Perhaps I should forgo my lessons today and stay here with Fist. The creature may come back.”

“I’m sure they will be fine. Fist is more than capable of protecting them don’t you think?” Coal asked.

“He wouldn’t let anything happen to them,” Justan agreed, thinking back to the horrible tragedy with Tamboor’s family. “If any creature tried to attack Miss Nala or any of the children with him around . . . I would pity that creature.”

“No you wouldn’t,” Master Coal replied with a knowing look. Justan smiled in response.

“No I wouldn’t,” he agreed. “It would deserve whatever Fist did to it.”

“Very well then. Since Samson and Gwyrtha are hard at work elsewhere, why don’t we start walking back to the keep? We can discuss today’s lesson on the way.”

“Yes, sir.”

The day had become unseasonably warm and Justan shed his jacket as they walked. They started up the road, passing men who were cleaning up the carcasses of the animals. Justan waited for the men to be out of earshot before he spoke.

“Did you get my message to Willum last night?”

“Yes, I dictated your letter to him exactly as you wrote it. He said that your father is away on an important mission, but he will take the message to the rest of the council. Evidently Willum is quite close to Tad, the Cunning.”

“Oh . . . good.” Justan said, a bit disappointed that his father had not been able to receive the message directly. He had also considered passing along a message to Jhonate, but now he was glad that he hadn’t. Justan didn’t know how many people would have heard it.

“I also sent a letter off to Wizard Valtrek and told him to get Qyxal’s message to the elves in the Tinny Woods. I would suggest you stop worrying for now. There is nothing more we can do. Hopefully Willum will tell me the council’s reaction when I contact him later today. I will let you know what happens as soon as I hear back.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, Master Coal.”

“Now, back to your lesson. I know that it was an eventful night, but did you get the chance to apply anything we spoke about yesterday?”

“Yes!” Justan said, suddenly remembering what he had been so eager to speak with the wizard about. He related what he had discovered about Fist’s bond with Squirrel.

“Excellent! That was the surprise I wanted you to find!” Coal said with a wide grin. He looked more excited than Justan had seen him before. “Don’t you find it fascinating?”

“Well, y-yes. But how is that possible? I mean, at first I thought he got the ability from me, but he says Squirrel felt the bond from the first time they met.”

The wizard nodded. “That makes sense. The bond helps each of you by enhancing attributes you already have, but it would not give your bonded new abilities. How long has he known Squirrel?”

“About a year before we bonded. But . . . do ogres even have magic?”

“I’m not an expert on Fist’s race,” Coal said. “But I do recall hearing that there were ogre mages during the War of the Dark Prophet, so I see no reason an ogre bonding wizard couldn’t be a possibility.”

“So Fist is a bonding wizard . . .” It was the first time Justan had thought of it in that light.

“Yes. It would seem he is.”

“But could that cause a problem? How will his bond with Squirrel react to mine? Are the bonds connected together in some way? Can I communicate with Squirrel directly or . . ?”

“Those are very interesting questions and I don’t honestly know the answers. The concept of two bonding wizards linked together is one I have never thought about. If you want to try and reach out to Squirrel, you can I suppose. But I have no idea what kind of response you will get. I suggest asking Fist how he feels about it. At any rate, you will have to deal with it sooner or later. Fist could bond to something else, you know.”

“Oh! I hadn’t thought of that.” Somehow, that possibility was a bit unnerving. Another thought came to him. “So since he has bonding magic . . . Shouldn’t Fist be joining us in our lessons? I mean, he needs to learn too.”

Master Coal laughed and when he saw the disconcerted look on Justan’s face, added, “Don’t misunderstand me. I’m laughing at myself. You are absolutely right. He should be learning to use his magic. I am probably the only wizard in the world that would agree with you, but honestly, after all the creatures I have bonded to, I have no idea why it didn’t cross my mind. It should have.”

“So what should we do, then?” Justan asked.

The wizard scratched his head as he considered it. “He wouldn’t understand the lessons you are currently undertaking. You were lucky enough to have come to me with a year of
Mage
School
under your belt, but Fist would have little to no magical training at all. I am afraid that with you and Qyxal and all of my other responsibilities, there isn’t time enough in the day for me to teach him all he needs to know.”

“So it is up to me then,” Justan said, unsettled by the idea. How was he going to undertake that kind of task? He would need to spend his every spare moment catching Fist up. “But Fist is learning so much already: how to speak, how to read and write . . . I wonder if it would be asking too much of him to take on this extra study on top of it.”

Coal smiled. “Ask him how he feels about it. Just remember, you have an enormous advantage over any other teacher he could study under. When you are using the bond linked mind-to-mind, you don’t have to overcome the barriers of understanding that most teachers have.”

“I suppose not,” Justan said. “But how would I go about showing him everything I know about magic? I’m not a good teacher.”

“You don’t have to be a good teacher to share knowledge through the bond. You have shared memories with him before, have you not?”

“Yes,” Justan said. “Many times.”

“In that same way, you could teach him about magic. It will take practice, but soon enough you will find that by using that same technique, you can explain whole ideas to him in an instant. Why I could teach you a week’s worth of lessons in a few hours if we were bonded together.”

“I should have thought of that.” Justan frowned, having made the awkward realization that by overlooking such a simple application of the bond, he had been holding Fist back. How could he have gone this long without thinking of trying that? The ogre would be much farther along in all his studies if he had thought of teaching him that way earlier.