TST (43 page)

Azerick was about to respond with a scathing comment of his own when the carriage door burst open and two women stepped out. One woman was taller, just a few inches shorter than Azerick, with long, full, wavy, auburn hair. She wore a dress of expensive material in white and light blue. The woman that followed close on her heels was comely in a plain sort of way, wore her soft brown hair braided and coiled upon her head, and was dressed in an emerald green dress, snug fitting in the body but flared out in softer green and billowing white lace at the legs and shoulders.

The auburn-haired woman spoke as she quickly stepped towards the two men who were seconds from trading blows. “Stop this, stop this right now! Captain Brague, you will put away your sword this instant and not say another harsh word to this man!”

“My Lady, this—” he paused to find a word to describe the sorcerer, “
person,
did nothing to assist me and my men nor did he come to your aid until his own miserable life was threatened,” Captain Brague tried to explain.

“I understand your anger, Captain, and I grieve for the men who gave their lives in my defense. Their families will receive due reward and pension for their sacrifice. However, this man is not honor bound to risk his life in my defense even if he had been aware of who was in the coach, which I assume he did not.” She turned to face Azerick who stood silently by listening to the guard captain’s chastisement. “As much as I wish you had intervened sooner so that more lives may have been saved, I do offer my thanks on behalf of myself, my people, and my mother, Duchess Mellina of North Haven. I am Lady Miranda, this is my handmaiden and friend Sarah, and you met the good Captain Brague. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Lady Miranda extended her right hand, fingertips down for Azerick to give his due courtesy.

“I am Azerick,” he replied simply as he clasped Miranda’s proffered hand between his thumb and forefinger, giving it an informal shake.

Miranda stifled a giggle of amusement at the sorcerer’s awkward introduction. “Not exactly the gallant are you, Magus Azerick?”

Azerick could not help but lose a small bit of his hostility at Miranda’s open and friendly smile. “I am afraid not. Truth be known, my etiquette teacher struck me more often than my weapons trainer.”

 Miranda stifled a laugh out of respect for her fallen soldiers. “I can well imagine, Magus Azerick.”

“Just Azerick please, Lady. I do not know if I qualify for such an honorific.”

“And I am Miranda to my friends.”

Captain Brague decided to interrupt the friendly conversation before he threw up his lunch. “My Lady, I must attend to the men before we must depart with great haste. We do not know if this may be part of a larger bandit force. I did observe their leader and another escaping into the woods.”

“Of course, Captain, please see to it. I am sure the good magus will stay to protect us at least until we are ready to depart. Won’t you, Azerick?” she asked with her pleading green eyes.

“Of course I will, it would be my pleasure,” Azerick responded.

Even his hard heart was softened a bit by Miranda’s open and carefree sprit.

Captain Brague doffed his heavy armor, grabbed a pickaxe and shovel from the toolbox at the back of the coach, and began breaking up the hard soil along with the coach driver.

“I’m sure the good magus will protect us,” the soldier mockingly seethed as his anger fueled his heavy swings. “It would be my pleasure. Oh, are those bandits plunging their blades into you? Let me help you as soon as I’m finished with my lunch. It’s not my job to risk my life for my Lords and Ladies. No, that job goes to big, dumb soldiers who are actually stupid enough to believe in honor!”

“Did you say something, Captain?” Miranda called over to him.

Captain Brague ground his teeth until he was sure they were nothing more than white little nubs just poking above his gums. “No, My Lady.”

Miranda turned back to the sorcerer. “Azerick, is there anything you could do to help the good captain and our driver with the graves?”

“Of course, let me go see what I can do.”

Azerick excused himself from the women’s company and walked up to the captain and the driver who were both sweating profusely from the strenuous work. “Miranda beseeched me to offer you my assistance—again.”

“Why on earth would you do that?” Captain Brague asked sardonically. “I thought you only offered help when the job is nearly finished. Besides, I wouldn’t want you to get any dirt under your fingernails.”

Azerick ignored the captain’s sarcasm. It was much more aggravating to be polite than to let himself be baited into another argument.

“I assure you, Captain, I have no intention of dirtying my nails.”

Reciting the words of an incantation, a large hole opened between the guard and the driver. Azerick repeated the spell three more times, creating enough grave space to burry all of the fallen soldiers. The bandits they simply threw off the side of the road.

“Why couldn’t you have done that an hour ago?” Captain Brague demanded.

Azerick put on the most disdainful and arrogant look he could muster, one fit for a noble. “Your efforts and struggles that I had found so amusing simply became tedious.”

Captain Brague had never wanted to stab a man in the back as bad as he did at this moment as the sorcerer walked away.

 The guards’ horses were easy to recover, being trained not to spook easily at the sound of battle. They also found nine more horses saddled and picketed about a hundred yards from the ambush site that must have belonged to the bandits.

“It looks as though we are going to have to ride the rest of the way to North Haven,” Miranda announced once the soldiers were buried and words of condolences and farewell were spoken. “Come, Sarah, we will have to change into something more appropriate for riding.”

Azerick’s eyes followed the two women as they disappeared back into the coach to change clothes.

“You had best watch your eyes, boy, or I’ll cut them out,” Brague promised. “It is my duty to protect Lady Miranda with my life and I will do so, from
every
threat.”

“Given the level of competence you have displayed thus far I am surprised she is not already heavy with child from any number of men, myself included given that I have been under your watchful eye for the better part of an hour,” Azerick fired back.

The captain reached for his sword as Azerick took a step back, smiling at his ability to provoke the soldier. Miranda and her maid stepped from the coach just as Brague unsheathed his weapon.

“Captain, put away that blade this instant! Can I not turn my back for a moment without you two going at each other’s throats?”

“My Lady, this scoundrel made some very obscene remarks. I was defending your honor!” Captain Brague said in his defense.

“Actually it was your very act of turning your back that got him so concerned. It seems that the captain thinks that should he let his vigilance slip but for a moment every man within eyesight will attempt to mount you as if you were a mare in heat,” Azerick told her.

Captain Brague’s eyes bulged and his face turned violet once more. “Lies, I never said any such thing!”

“Stop it, both of you,” Miranda pleaded and stepped between the two men. “I need both of you to respect each other at least for the duration of the trip to North Haven, assuming Azerick would be willing to accompany us and agree to assist us. Would you provide us such protection, Azerick? My mother will certainly wish to bestow her thanks to you for saving our lives.”

“I was going to North Haven anyway so I suppose I can play bodyguard for a while,” agreed Azerick.

“Good, now no more fighting or bickering between you two. Let us mount up and be away from this dreadful place.”

Azerick noticed that Miranda had changed into riding pants and wore a leather vest over a white silk shirt. She had exchanged her elegant shoes for tall riding boots that reached just below the knee. Her maid had changed into a similar but more feminine and flowing garb. Captain Brague and the driver, Otis, tethered the horses behind their own. The riderless horses had a variety of packs, bundles, and chests strapped to their backs that constituted the majority of the coach’s salvaged contents as well as the shields, swords, and personal effects of the fallen soldiers so that they could be returned to their families.

Captain Brague tried his best to keep him and his horse between the obnoxious mage and Lady Miranda without appearing to obvious about it. But every time he did, Miranda would work her way right back next to Azerick.

“So tell me, Azerick, where are you coming from?” Miranda asked him.

“East, but I used to live in Southport.”

“Did you study at the Academy?”

“For a while, but I left,” Azerick vaguely replied.

“That must have been very exciting!”

“It was—memorable,” Azerick conceded.

Miranda continued to ask questions while Azerick continued to dodge most of them and Captain Brague kept trying to split them apart. The coach driver, Otis, interrupted Azerick and Miranda’s mostly one-sided conversation about two hours into the ride.

“I think I see my beauties up ahead!” the driver called over his shoulder gleefully.

True enough, as they drew closer, the white shapes far ahead resolved into the spooked team of horses that the driver had been able to free before they destroyed the coach or injured themselves in their panic. Otis rode ahead quickly but cautiously, trying to avoid spooking them again.

He slipped off the side of the horse that he had commandeered and walked towards the magnificent team that was still trailing their traces and attached to the long tongue of the coach that he had freed by pulling the linchpin.

Otis slowly approached the team, calling out to each of the horses by name in a soft voice. The horses flicked their ears and looked about warily but did not bolt. The driver went about pulling the pins that attached the heavy piece of lumber to the horses’ harnesses while constantly talking to them and stroking their broad powerful backs. Once he freed them from the long wooden tongue, he led them away and back towards the rest of the party where he attached the lead ropes to the other trailing horses.

Leading so many horses proved to be a rather difficult task even for trained animals such as these. Fortunately, the party found themselves entering a small but decent town about an hour before sunset. Otis and Captain Brague saw to stabling the horses while Azerick and the two women went inside a quaint but clean inn to find rooms for the night.

The innkeeper recognized Lady Miranda almost immediately and tried to refuse payment on the grounds that it was enough simply to have the honor of having her stay at his inn, but Miranda insisted that they all pay for their rooms and meals just like everyone else. She knew times were hard for most people and would not deny any of them their due.

Otis and Captain Brague entered the inn just as the others sat down at a large table where drinks were already being served.

“I paid the stableman to board all the horses except the ones we are riding and using as baggage carriers until Otis and a team of men can come back and retrieve them,” Brague informed Lady Miranda while Otis bobbed his head in agreement.

More patrons began arriving just as their meal was being served. The inn maintained a warm and friendly environment that even Azerick allowed himself to enjoy. Lady Miranda continued to badger him with questions, questions that continued to hammer away at the emotional defenses he had built up and found himself answering more and more of them.

Years of dangerous living and deadly encounters taught Azerick to maintain a high level of awareness at all times. It was because of this that he found his grip tightening on his staff and a spell coming to mind as a pair of burly townsmen stalked towards their table. Azerick had seen that smile on men before, and he knew that it could indicate trouble. He saw that Captain Brague also stiffened at the strangers’ approach just a second after Azerick had.