To Be Chosen (42 page)

Simon had big plans that would take a while to bring to fruition, but that was more than Samuel could come up with, except for one minor change. “Traveling down the Hirus to the Gosian will be a swift ride, but turning and traveling up two rivers against the currents will take too much time. I will take ship at the Tannakonna River and sail down to where the rivers merge, and then whatever ship you are on can convey us up the Hirus to Lake Tomlin. I think that is the best we can do time wise.”

“Agreed,” Simon replied. “Jerremy’s transmission felt near to a panic. I don’t believe they can hold out very long.”

“I’m going down to report what you told me to Bella, keep me informed if things change,” Samuel replied. He was worried about Sherree and the Serinian but refused to allow his feelings to interfere with his actions. He and Simon had a plan and both of them were working toward the same goal, rescuing their friends and, for him, capturing Serin Gell. He also took courage from the fact that boatloads of Accomplisheds from Aakadon would be focusing on the same thing.

“I’ll contact Jerremy periodically and let you know what I learn,” Simon replied and then ended the connection.

Samuel wasted no time getting down to the common room where Bella Sander sat at table three.  The Accomplished was a tall man with stooped shoulders and a long white beard. His garments, much like Samuel’s, were crimson and black silk, except the elder had a golden lighting bolt on each shoulder. Against his chest was a silver bird of prey emblazoned on a gold medallion.

“Sam, I thought you would be brooding in your room for another mark or more,” he called out while gesturing for Samuel to join him at the table.

The room was filled with people, most of them eating dinner, including Tim Dukane and his wife Gina, who were at table two. Both were in buckskins, except hers were dyed pink.
Her long black hair was attractive and a full figure indicated she was quite healthy. Skinny Linda Polkat, Henri’s young daughter, light green dress hanging down to her ankles, carried plates of food to table eight and then went back to the kitchen. Kemer sat at table seven wearing buckskins, red-dyed shirt and blue-dyed pants, like most every male on Tannakonna. Traces of gray streaked his hair and mustache. Laugh lines near his eyes showed him to be a jovial man. Sharing the table with him was Hough Bess, the mayor, whose bushy sideburns stopped short of being considered a beard. His light blue-dyed buckskins were clean and unstained.

“I’ve received an urgent message from Simon Trenca, a One-bolt Accomplished of the Willow Guild.” Samuel began.  He did not know Bella very well but the man came across as being kindly in nature, not exactly the portrait of an Eagle Guild Senior Soarer, hardly one to fill his prey with terror.

“It must be urgent to bring you to me. What seems to be the problem?” Bella replied.

Samuel told him everything he knew and by the time he was finished, the Senior Soarer was pulling an amulet from within his silks, and the Dukane’s were sitting at the table with them, having overheard the con
versation, and clearly eager to hear more.

“A ship with a flock of twenty Soarers and five members of the Zephyr Guild will be sent up the Hirus within a few marks. This is the boldest move the Serpent Guild has made since the escape and not a single member of the Eagle Guild would hold back at the opportunity to recapture Serin Gell,” Bella stated. “Know that everything possible is being done. Unfortunately, a large part of our affiliation is exploring
Mount Gosian, but I am sure twenty Accomplisheds should be enough.”

“What are you planning to do?” Tim Dukane asked while looking Samuel directly in the eyes. His straw hat barely contained his dark wavy hair.

“What makes you think I’m planning something beyond what Accomplished Sander has revealed?” Samuel replied, as if the idea of doing more never occurred to him.

Tim chuckled. “I’ve ridden with you before. One thing you’re truly bad at is staying in one place for long after a destination is set.”

Samuel could not argue with that. “You got me there, but why are you asking?”

“He is asking because we want to help. Sherree and Jerremy risked their lives defending Bashierwood and we do not want to see them suffering Serin Gell’s tender mercies,” Gina answered.

“I came here to keep you from the very man you want to help me capture,” Samuel hoped he could persuade them to stay behind.

Both of them smiled at him as if he was being silly. “We are both more than competent handlers of the bow and knife. You might recall, we have some experience facing this foe,” Tim assured him.

“Simon is going to meet me at the Hirus River and we will sail from there up to Lake Tomlin,” Samuel admitted.

“We can hire a boat to take us that far,” Gina told him.

Samuel had no money and had planned on asking Bella for the funds, but the elder Accomplished was watching all three of them without adding anything to the conversation. “Okay, we should leave immediately,” he gave in to them.

Bella cleared his throat, drawing attention. “I normally would not allow a Fledgling to fly into danger. I could put a stop to your plan, but I will not. Multiple teams of Accomplisheds will be involved, so the risk is not so much, and you need something to occupy your mind instead of brooding in your room. It is not easy to lose a mentor, especially one you have some affection for, so fly free for awhile,” he said and then handed over an amulet set with a topaz. “Use this to keep me informed.”

Samuel accepted the communication device. “Thanks for understanding,” he told the elder Accomplished, the oldest living man, two hundred ninety-eight years of age.

He had planned on leaving in the morning but Tim and Gina wanted to leave right away and seeing as they knew the trails so well, he agreed. They left the common room to pack for the journey and Samuel went to his room to prepare. A mark later they were mounted and headed down the eastern slope of
Mount Tannakonna toward the river named after it. Both mountaineers had a quiver full of arrows and long bladed hunting knives sheathed in their belts. Rio seemed eager to be out and about and the night was pleasant.

---------------------------

Simon dashed down the hall from his second story room, feet pounding on the floorboards of the Timberman’s Inn, his black and crimson cloak fluttering out behind him. He came to a stop at the eighth door on the left and knocked rapidly. Ronn Benhannon answered, granting him entrance. The room had a bed, table, and two chairs, one of which was occupied by Miriam.

“What’s wrong?” she inquired before he could open his mouth. The woman was uncannily perceptive.

Ronn leaned his large frame against the closed door and folded his arms across his chest. “You look harried as a squirrel in a room full of cats.”

Barnabas Galloway was right, Simon thought, he did need to work on proper decorum. He took a deep breath and did his best impression of the Senior Forester. “Serin Gell is attacking Sherree Jenna and Jerremy DeSuan,” he began, then proceeded to give them all of the details, and finished with, “So I wanted your suggestions. I can make a boat large enough but I need an efficient design. I’ll be going against the current to get to
Lake Tomlin so I’m thinking of a whole lot of oars that I can paddle at once with a spell rather than sails.”

Ronn went over to the table, picked up a pen and ink, and then started drawing. Simon watched over the man’s broad shoulders while Miriam stood to his right, watching intently. The first draft looked like a long canoe with twenty-two oars, eleven on each side, set in rings. It was workable, if they did not take any horses.

“No,” Miriam said. “It needs to be broader and some sort of cabin or shelter for Simon and his friends to get in out of the elements.”

Ronn glanced at his wife, nodded his head, and then began drawing a wider boat with a deck, bilge holes, and a one room cottage two thirds of the way toward the bow. “Can you make something like this?” he asked when finished.

Simon was still thinking about how he was going to use, Lashing The Rope, to make all of the oars row in synchronization, and it took a few moments to register the question. “I can form the wood of a tree into whatever shape I choose.”

“You don’t’ like it,” Miriam stated.

“I know only one spell to work the oars and rowing all of them at once is going to be tricky, requiring a great deal of concentration. I don’t think I can steer and do both, but that won’t be a problem after I pick up Sam,” he replied.

“That is not a problem we can’t overcome,” Ronn said confidently.

“What about a waterwheel like the one the miller has down in Bane?’ Miriam suggested.

It was an absurd notion, using a water-driven wheel, meant to turn a grindstone, for moving a boat. Ronn looked askance at his wife, apparently he felt the same, but then he smiled and kissed her full on the lips. “You are brilliant,” he told her and then sat back down to draw.

He drew a boat similar to the last except this one was a little longer and had a blunt stern and a wheelhouse in front of the cottage along with ten stalls in the back quarter of the vessel for the horses with room for men to walk to the stern from the sides. He extended the frame out a long way and then added a waterwheel. “Now you have as many paddles and only one object to turn,” Ronn stated proudly.

Miriam was shaking her head. “That design is good, but if you make the wheel broader rather than tall and narrow, it seems to me Simon would be able go faster.”

Ronn smiled at her again and then redrew the boat, following her suggestion. Simon had to admit, the boat did look better, and the new wheel design would be more efficient, more so than a narrow wheel or rowing twenty-two oars. “I think it is worth building. Thanks for your help,” he told the couple. “I truly wanted to escort you to your son’s estate, but..,”

“There are no buts,” Ronn stated firmly, while glancing at his wife, who nodded her head slightly. It was as if they had their own private means of wordless communication. “You offered to escort us to Daniel’s estate and we agreed. A Benhannon does not go back on an agreement. We stick to our word.”

“But..,” Simon began to explain how important it was that he met with Samuel.

“No, you agreed to escort us, so we are going with you, someone has to steer, and after we have helped Sherree and Jerremy with their problem, you can take us the rest of the way to our son’s estate,” Miriam said.

Simon was going to continue arguing, until he saw the looks in their eyes, not far different from that of their son’s when Daniel decided that his wait for a meeting with Efferin Tames had lasted long enough. “Fine, is the morning soon enough?”

“I don’t believe Serin Gell is going to take a break from his assault, so right now seems better to me. We can leave Bon and follow the river to an isolated spot with plenty of trees from which to make your boat” Miriam told him.

“Once away from the city, you can summon fire or a ball of light, like Daniel can, that should be adequate for seeing where we are going, and to work by once we choose a spot,” Ronn added, and then picked up a long piece of wood he had been whittling on and went to work.

Simon wondered when deciding what to do had shifted from him to the Benhannon’s, but the suggestions were good so he went along with them. They paid the bills for the night’s lodging and set out on horseback. Miriam packed some food and quite a few containers, items she no doubt thought necessary. Both of Daniel’s parents had a long bow and a quiver full of arrows. There was no doubt she possessed strength to draw the thing. Not long into the journey, Simon summoned a ball of light, which floated up in the air just ahead of them. Five an a half spans out of the city limits they came across a heavily wooded area along the river. Miriam set up camp while Ronn continued whittling what was shaping up to be a model of the riverboat to help with the visualization. Simon selected a huge oak tree that suited his purposes. It was broad in the base and had huge branches. He went back to the camp and found Ronn still at work on the model and Miriam sitting on the ground watching him.

Ronn’s work was meticulous and Simon marveled that a commoner could form something so intricate out of a piece of wood. No detail had been left out and even the waterwheel turned when Ronn gave it a spin with his finger. He handed his crafting to Simon. “Can you work from this?”

Simon examined the boat, removed the roof of the wheelhouse, saw the circular steering wheel and some benches along the sides. The cottage, he noted, was not one room but two, one with table and benches and the other with bunks. On the portside Ronn made three gangplanks, the largest being near the horse stalls. Simon put it all back together. “This is perfect,” he announced and made his way to the oak.

Ronn and Miriam stood within visual range, but far enough away so as not to interfere with the casting. Simon held the model in one hand and then summoned the potential for, Shaping, drawing it through the level four crescendo, and focusing on the huge sprawling tree. The casting was powerful enough that he was sure the Benhannon’s could see the power being wielded. The oak began to glow cobalt blue, leaves and bark fell to the ground, stripped away in mere moments. The ground shook, roots writhing beneath the earth and the tree rose up like a giant on his tip toes, teetered for a moment, and then toppled down with a mighty crash. The trunk, branches, roots, every part of the oak formed into a single whole, drying sap, sealing the wood against leaks, and then began to take on the shape of the model.