Inexperienced Mage (Reawakening Saga) (13 page)

"Listen Shariel were headed to Avael, where the bad men who hurt your papa are, once we're in town I'm going to leave for a little while and punish the bad men, ok. When I leave I'm going to give you a letter for a very good friend of mine who will take care of you." Thad said trying to keep his voice calm and reassuring.

“But the bad men might kill you; I don’t want you to die.” Shariel said sadly.

They might but if someone doesn't stop them they will keep doing bad things. Plus do you think a few bad men can beat a mage, in any of the stories you daddy told you did the mage ever lose?"

On foot the trip to Avael would have taken four days but on horseback they were there as the sun fell at the end of the second day from Shiel. The trip was mostly uneventful with few other travelers on the road, giving him and Shariel plenty of time to talk. She was a smart girl and could read a little and do simple figures, but her education was lacking, something he decided would have to rectify as soon as they got back to the capital.

Avael was a small logging community surrounded by a large forest, with a large river running alongside the town
carrying logs to the various sawmills that were set up alongside it. While the town was small the main street was bustling with activity as an armed militia paroled the streets. Wanting to find information he stopped the first armed group of men that he passed. The all wore dark leather uniforms and wore the Duchess of Calisaren’s coat of arms. “What is going on here?” Thad said making his voice as commanding as possible.

The four men snapped to an attention. “My lady a large group of bandits have been attacking travelers and land owners in the nearby area we are here to protect this town until the royal army has been dispatched to deal with this threat.”

The town inn wasn’t fancy but looked clean, the inside of the inn had two common rooms one for the males one for females. Not wanting to waste time on idle banter he made his way straight to the main counter where an ancient looking gentleman greeted him. “May I help you my lady?”

“Yes you may I shall need a room with two beds as well as two baths and trays of your best food brought up as well, I will also need to see the proprietor of this inn when she is available.”

The old man stuck his head through the door behind him, and a middle aged woman with raven black hair looking none too pleased to be disturbed came marching out shortly after. "What can I do for you?" her voice carried as much displeasure as her face, with a fair bit of venom thrown in.

Thad handed her a letter addressed to Monique along with three gold coins. Seeing the gold her mood lighted considerably. “I must leave in the morning for a few days and with the current bandit attacks I do not wish to endanger my sister, I wish her to be well taken care of, if I should not return in a weeks’ time you are to get that later to a miss Monique Torin, she is a merchant of the Rose trading company. She will see to the child and cover any expenses that my initial payment does not cover. Will that be acceptable?”

“Margret!” The woman yelled the name and a young lady in her early twenties rushed up to the counter. “This girl will be staying with us for a bit, I want you to introduce her to Melanie in the morning.”

"Melanie is my
granddaughter, they're about the same age so they should get along well." She said turning back to him.

After the long ride, hot bath, and warm food Thad quickly fell asleep. He was awakened sometime in the night to Shariel screaming, his first reaction was showering the room in a bright light thinking she was in danger but as his eyes focused he noticed her curled up in the fetal position crying. He quickly went to her side as soon as he sat down she grabbed him around the waist tightly. He lay their patting her back, until she fell asleep. After he was sure she was sound asleep he tried to wiggle out of her grasp but she was still holding onto him tightly. Afraid to wake her he decided to give up on detaching her and tried to get some sleep himself.

Thad awoke the next morning to with his back and next stiff from the awkward sleeping position. Shariel was still asleep but she had rolled over sometime in the night releasing him from her death grip.
He quickly got dressed and as he went to wake his young charge a knock sounded at the door. He quickly donned his disguise and opened the door to find a wiry, bight eyed, black haired little girl. “Momma said I should come get your girl so we could go play.” The girl rattled off rocking back and forth holding her hands behind her back.

“Well I was just about to wake her up, if you’d like you could do the honor for me.”

A mischievous smile spread across the girls face. Without another word she advanced toward where Shariel was sleeping like a wolf stalking her prey then she pounced, landing right next to Shariel bouncing her slightly in the air as she broke out in laughter, which was quickly joined in by Shariel.

Shariel quickly got dressed and went to run for the door with Melanie but Thad pulled her up short. “One moment Melanie I need to tell her a few things first.” He said to the little girl who pouted a little. “I promise she will be right down.”

He turned back to Shariel and gave her a big smile. “Shariel its time for me to go hunt the bad guys, I have a bag of money here for you keep it hidden and only use it if you have to. I promise I’ll be back as quickly as I can, until then have fun and play with your new friend.” He pushed a bag of gold into her hand and she quickly ran over to her bed and hid it within her pack. Then went to run out of the room turning back before she reached the hallway and gave him a hug, then dashed out of sight.

CHAPTER VI

Thad walked with Spot trailing behind him as he searched the ground for signs of large groups of people entering and leaving the road. Before leaving town he had asked many of the soldiers for the recent news of the brigands, and found that they should still be in the area as they had been plaguing the road from Avael to Shiel using the forest to hide and move about unseen.

Thad was sure that if the brigands had set up shop in the area they would have to have a central base of operations. If they stayed in the forest for cover they would still need campfires to cook and while the smoke from a small fire would be hard to see the different stories he gathered indicated there was quite a large number of people in the gang.

As the sun began to set he looked for a place off the road to make camp. Thankfully all the main trade roads in the Queendom had designated spots every five miles for people to camp, with a large pile of wood stacked for the use of campfires and a brick fireplace. Farlan while one of the smaller countries was one of the richest, being located on the Ceras ocean with the biggest river, allowing for fast shipping into the central portions of Keurt.

Sitting around the campfire he stared over the forest but being surrounded by trees he couldn’t get a good vantage point to see above the canopy far enough to see any smoke.
After walking up and down the road in each direction he couldn’t get a find a good vantage point to see over the canopy. Cursing his own stupidity he made his way back to where he had camped.

When he got back to his camp he found three men casually sitting at his fire talking. As he approached the men went silent and one of them men raised his hand and greeted him. “Hello there, hope you don’t mind us sharing your fire, when we first got here we thought the bandits might have already gotten you.
I’m Everit, shorty here is Isaac, and that mountain back there is Tack. ”

Thad examined the men closely their clothes were well
worn, the man who had called to him was of average height clean shaven with his long hair pulled back behind him. The man next to him reminded Thad of a rat with his short disheveled hair and days of patchy beard growth, he didn't have any visible weapons Thad could see but something about the way the man moved set his nerves on edge. The other man sat across from the fire, it was hard to tell much about the man as he was mostly obscured by the fire pit and flickering flames, his face was clearly visible though and his eyes followed Thad like a hunters.

Thad put a smile on his face and raised his hand greeting the men back. "I doubt the bandits would worry much about a lone traveler let alone a man, I was just out trying to catch me some dinner, with little luck I must say." He forced a smile to his face but kept his eyes trained on the men, watching them closely.

As he drew closer the firelight caught the gems in his staff and he noticed the rat faced smile and lick his lips. Unconsciously Thad moved his hand to the hit of his short sword, and tightened his grip on his staff, his reaction getting a deadly laugh from the man who had greeted him. “I guess it’s too much to ask to talk first?”

"We can talk, but if that little weasel comes near me I'll skewer him." Thad said mentally preparing his shield spell as he moved his hand away from his sword.

“I can see that you don’t have an owners mark, and you look as if you’re doing well for yourself, but I doubt it has been easy. Me and some of my friends have gathered together to demand a change from the crown. Now I want you to think long and hard about your answer, I wouldn’t want there to be a misunderstanding.” While the men never moved for his weapon Thad understood his meaning as he heard movement from the woods behind him.

“I have to admit it hasn’t been an easy life, and I agree that the current system could use a lot of work, but I won’t give up my staff or my sword I worked too hard to get them, so what do we do now.” Thad moved his hand back to his sword, crouching slightly as he eased his left foot
out.

The rat faced man dashed toward him as the man who Thad had figured to be this group's leader shouted for him to stop. The little man's movements were fast as his hand flashed almost magically bringing two daggers to his hands. Thad had seen movements like that before, assassins
were always a fear of the peerage and he had been trained long and hard on how to deal with them. When the man reached him he lunged forward with both his daggers, in one deft move Thad swung his left leg back as his sword shot out of its sheath severing the little man's head from his neck, then quickly reoriented himself on the two remaining men in the clearing as he let his invisible shield surround him.

The man behind the fire still hadn’t moved while the other man had his hand raised above his
head. “Now that was unfortunate Isaac was always a little excitable, but he had his uses. Why don’t you put away your sword, and come back with us to the camp.

Thad weighed his options, if he fought he was sure he could take out the two in the open but he didn't know how many hid in the woods, and while they didn't scare him if any returned to their camp they would be forewarned of his arrival. If he went with them a number of things could go wrong, ranging from being poisoned to catching a knife while he slept. Bending down he cleaned his blade on the fallen man's tunic and place it back in its scabbard, at least this way he would know where they were at. "No reason to waste
anymore time out here is there?"

As soon as they were in the safety of the wood they were joined by ten others who as Thad ha
d expected carried bows. Everit introduced them, Thad greeted each one, introducing himself as Mark, it felt odd to use his old name, but it was the only name that came to him besides using his own.

The moon was fully above them by the time they reached the outskirts of the camp. From the rumors he had head he had figured on a rag tag band of at most fifty, surveying the
massive amount of tenets that littered the large clearing it looked close to near a thousand. Thad let out a low whistle, “quite a bit more than I expected.”

Everit slapped him on th
e back, Thad knew he was a killer, but just couldn’t make himself hate the man. “Just pick a place to settle in for the night, I have to report the night’s events, but I’ll meet up with you in the morning and show you around.”

Thad watched Everit as he made his way to the center of the camp and went into a large tent. With little
else to do Thad picketed Spot on the edge of the camp and laid out his bed roll. Wishing he had a spell to protect him while he slept he clutched his staff tightly as he stared up at the star filled sky.

The next morning Everit met up with him a few hours after the sun had risen
. The camp was larger than he thought but there wasn’t much to see. After a quick tour they went to the mess area when they were fed a tasteless gray gruel. Picking up a glob of the gruel and turning over his spoon he Thad watched it plop back into his wooden bowl with disgust. “So how do things work around here?”

Everit swallowed his mouth full of slop, “you get used to it,” he said twirling his spoon in the air. “We have different groups that go out looking for supplies, new members, or hitting the wealthy merchant’s caravans. Most of the time no more than a hundred men are gone from the main camp at a time.  Our leader Formir collects information and gives us our assignments, it’s a lot more organized than you would think.”

“When did you join up with these guys?”

“I joined at the beginning; I was a dock worker in Shiphaven working all day barely making enough to eat, and living in a group house when I met Formir. I was in a pub complaining about the injustice of the world drunk off my ass, when the pub owner took offence to something I said and was treating to have me whipped. Something inside me snapped and I beat her to death before I knew what I was doing.
Formir saw the whole thing and pulled me from the pub before the city guard could get me. That was over a year ago, we been slowly gathering out strength, and attacking where it will hurt the queen the most her tax money. It hasn’t been until recently we had enough to really make much of a dent, but soon we can bring that bitch to her knees.” Everit spoke passionately, but Thad wasn’t convinced.