Origins: A Deepwoods Book - a Collection of Deepwoods Short Stories (Deepwoods Series 0) (13 page)

Two and a half days later they reached Stott. Fortunately
there were no complications aside from pushing laden wagons through a few muddy
patches. Fei wasn’t sure how to feel about arriving at their destination. He
would not miss sleeping on cold ground for the night, certainly, but his
previous visits to Stott had not gone well. Stott’s main guild was either not
powerful enough or not organized enough to keep good crime control inside of
the walls. Knowing this, he and Wolfinsky had split the wagons between them so
that there would not be any blind spots.

Stott, unlike other cities, did not offer a communal space
for wagons to park. No one would have trusted that their valuables would still
be there in the morning even if such an area existed. Instead, each inn had
parking available to either the side or the rear that would host small
caravans. If a caravan was larger than the inn could accommodate, part of the
caravan would lodge at a neighboring inn. The inns also offered their own
enforcers as protection and they were strictly governed. If an enforcer was
caught accepting a bribe, the man would never find work again in Stott. Not
legal work.

Fei knew that if they could just get to the inn and secure
lodging, the enforcers there would take over and he could breathe easily. Until
then, his nerves walked a tightrope as he tried to see everything and be
everywhere at once. Twice he caught a furtive movement from the corner of his
eye, but if thieves were there, they did not linger long enough to be caught by
him and nothing was stolen.

The first inn they stopped at did not have sufficient space,
so they tried another further along the main road. Siobhan went in to negotiate
but was back out only moments later with a frown on her face.

“Jacobs, do you speak Lansen?”

Jacobs shook his head, leaning forward on the wagon seat.
“Can’t say I do. Why?”

“The innkeeper here is Lansen. His accent is so thick I can
barely understand him. I
think
he’s saying he has plenty of room, but…”
she trailed off uncertainly and looked over her shoulder.

Fei lifted a hand. “I speak some of that dialect.”

“Do you?” Siobhan put a hand to her heart, relieved. “I’ve
been to this inn before it switched owners; I know it has the right amount of
space for us, so I’d prefer to stay here if possible. Can you talk to him?”

“Certainly.” Fei caught Wolfinsky’s eye, signaling he needed
to go in. Wolfinsky raised a hand in acknowledgement. Satisfied, Fei went in
with Siobhan.

As inns went, this one was nice. Nicer than any other he’d
seen in Stott. The place gleamed, it was so clean, the dark wood shining a
little golden in the lamplight. A short man with dark skin and hair was
wringing his hands next to the table, clearly as frustrated by the language
barrier as Siobhan.

“Hello
,” Fei offered in Lansen.

The innkeeper brightened immediately and dropped his hands.
“
Hello, good master. You speak my language
?”

“
Only somewhat. My companion believes you told her that
you have room for a small caravan
?”

“
I do. How many wagons
?
People
?”

Fei negotiated as best as he could with his limited
vocabulary, giving the inn keeper the information that he needed to know.
Feeling he had done his best, he turned his head and informed Siobhan, “He has
twelve rooms available, eight of them having double beds inside. Baths are
free, dinner and protection is included in the price.”

“How much?”

“Fifteen kors.”

Siobhan waggled a hand. “Not bad, not good, but we need to
stay two nights.”

“That is two nights.”

“Oh? In that case, very good.” Siobhan stuck her head out of
the door and called out, “Fifteen kors both nights.”

“Take it!” Jacobs commanded.

“
We’ll take it
,”
Fei informed the innkeeper.

The inn keep looked very relieved by this, but then, an
empty inn was a loss of income. He wasted no time in handing over keys, calling
his staff into motion (most of them looked like family), and escorting the
caravan in. Fei liked the man’s speed and attitude. He especially liked the
look of the four enforcers on guard. They looked tough, certainly, but also
alert. Bored guards were the most useless beings in the known world.

Dinner was something mildly spicy and steaming hot, which
Fei appreciated, as most of the food offered in Robarge was too bland for him.
He dug in with gusto and sighed in bliss.

Siobhan sank into the chair next to his without invitation
and heaped food onto her plate. “I am so relieved to be in this inn. Language
barrier aside, the man’s a good host.”

He was that. Fei had no complaints.

“I’m very glad you’re with us on this trip, Man Fei Lei.
Really, I only speak two dialects well, and Grae and Beirly speak the same
ones, so they’re no help. Wolf’s the only one that can speak others, but aside
from his native tongue, he mostly only knows the insults.”

That didn’t surprise him at all. “I am glad to be of
service.”

“What other dialects do you speak?”

“I do not consider myself truly knowledgeable of Lansen, as
I know only enough to haggle with. There are three that I am conversational in,
aside from my native language.”

“Three?” Siobhan stopped eating and gave him a long, intense
study. “A trustworthy man who has the fighting prowess of a tiger and the
language skills of a trader. How in the world are you still roaming around
free? Surely a good guild should have snapped you up by now.”

“The concept of a ‘guild’ is foreign to me,” he explained
simply. “I do not understand it enough to join one.”

That made her sit back, temporarily ignoring her dinner.
“But it shouldn’t be that foreign to you. I know you told Wolf that guilds
don’t exist in your city, but really, a guild is no different than a family.”

Now she had his undivided attention. Not one person before
her had offered such an explanation. “Is not a guild a business?”

“It operates as one, certainly, because if we don’t make a
living then we’re all in trouble. But a guild, a good guild, functions best
like a family.”

Fei had not once seen a guild that matched that description.
Wait. That wasn’t right. There was one, just one. Deepwoods was rather like a
family, although an imbalanced one, partially because of their newest member.
Fei ran through the past few days in his head, only to realize that Siobhan’s
actions were not normally that of ‘boss.’

“If you are a family, then what are you to them? Mother?”

Siobhan nearly choked on her dinner as she tried to laugh
and swallow at the same time. “It feels like it some days! But no, not
normally. Sister, friend, boss, I tend to oscillate between those three. I am
what they need me to be in that moment.”

No wonder, then, that Wolfinsky felt like he could push his
boundaries with her. He honestly didn’t know from one moment to the next if he was
dealing with his boss or his friend. Fei did not believe for one moment that
Wolfinsky had ever considered Siobhan as a sister. Not with the way the man
looked at her.

Family, eh. Guild family. “It has not been my experience
that all guilds operate as you describe.”

“No, the larger ones certainly don’t,” she agreed factually.
“They just have too many people—there’s no way they can keep track of everyone
like a family would. But they are comrades and friends, so it’s not like you
can describe their positions in a guild as strictly a business relationship.
The smaller guilds, though, act more like a family than anything else just
because we basically live in each other’s pockets.”

Fei’s experience with guilds, come to think of it, was
almost solely with the larger variety. Taking a job like this one, with two
smaller guilds, was rare.

“If you don’t mind my asking, how old are you?”

He didn’t mind. “Eighteen.”

“That is a very young age to be wandering around by
yourself. Especially in this world. I would highly suggest thinking about
joining a guild. You’ll discover that life is easier and safer that way.” An
outrageous twinkle in her eye, she added, “And when you decide to join a guild,
consider Deepwoods first. We’d love to have you.”

This was the second time someone had encouraged him to join
Deepwoods. Fei was beyond flattered that they thought so highly of him. “Can
you invite people without talking it over with the other members first?”

“The price they pay for making me guildmaster without my
consent is that I get full power to choose who’s in the guild.”

They’d made her guildmaster without asking first?
“Maley-zhi, I am very interested to hear the story of how Deepwoods was
formed.”

“And especially how I got Wolf, right?” she asked knowingly.
“We’ve got food and a whole evening to pass, so I don’t mind telling you both
stories, but you have to promise to at least consider joining our guild.”

“I will think about it.” And he would. But only after he
decided if he was going to stay in Robarge or not. Fei was not a man that made
decisions before weighing all the factors, so he listened attentively as
Siobhan spoke, and tried to imagine what it would be like to be part of this
guild.

“Erik Wolfinsky, how under the blue skies do you keep
breaking
an iron hand
?!”

Hm. That didn’t sound good. Fei recognized the voice easily
enough, but not once in the past several days of knowing the man had he heard
Beirly lose his temper. And plenty had happened that would make anyone angry.
Curious, but also a little worried, he flipped onto the wagon near him and then
over it, trying to pinpoint where the two men were.

“I tripped,” Wolfinsky responded. Even from this distance,
Fei could tell this was a bald-faced lie.

“Into several someones no doubt,” Beirly snarled. “Wolf, you
have no appreciation for just how
hard
it is to make these things! There
are multiple moving parts, and the joints have to be just right, otherwise they
won’t fit together. Not to mention how expensive all of this iron is getting!”

“Beirly, what do you want me to do?” Wolfinsky growled back,
although his tone was more exasperated than angry. “I don’t always have my
shield on me, especially in an inn. If a fight comes my direction, the only way
to shield myself is my right hand.”

Really, both men had valid points. And Fei would be the
first to admit that he had to repair his weapons on a regular basis. Fighting
was like that. A weapon was to protect a person, not the other way around. But
Beirly didn’t see it that way. He was a craftsman that saw his hard work
getting damaged on a regular basis, and that would put snarls in any master’s
hair.

At the very back of where the wagons were lining up, Fei
finally found them, nearly nose to nose as they argued. Well, more like nose to
chest, as Beirly was significantly shorter than Wolfinsky. Clearing his throat,
he got both of their attention before stepping forward. “Wolfinsky-jia, may I
see the hand?”

Grudgingly, not sure where Fei was going with this,
Wolfinsky extended it in his direction.

What had been a moving hand of two parts was now mangled
metal. If Fei had not seen the original, he would not have been able to unravel
what the design was supposed to be. “It is a pity this has happened. I had
wished to study it more thoroughly while we were on the path today.”

“Study it?” Wolfinsky repeated blankly. He clearly didn’t
understand why Fei would be interested.

“Nothing like this exists in my hometown,” Fei explained to
both men, but mostly to Beirly. “I wanted to diagram how it works with the hopes
of one day taking it home. We have several mines on the mountain and sometimes
the workers there lose a foot or hand. This knowledge would be very
beneficial.”

Rubbing at the back of his neck, Beirly rocked a little on
his feet, cheeks tinging pink. “Well, now, that’s a fine compliment to hand me,
Man Fei Lei. If you’d asked before, I would have drawn it out for you.”

“Truly? You do not have a price for sharing such knowledge?”

“No, I’ll teach anyone that wants to learn. Most don’t have
the skills to begin with, so they just come to me anyway to make them up one.”

That was likely the case. “If that’s so, then let us strike
a bargain. I will pay for new ore to replace this hand with. In return, let me
be at your side as you create a new hand, so that I may document the process
step-by-step.”

Wolfinsky let out a sound of denial. “Now hold up, man, I’m
not letting you pay for my hand.”

“I am not,” Fei returned calmly. “I am paying for the
experience of learning from a master. Iron ore is cheap as a price.”

One hand idly stroking his beard, Beirly gave him a shrewd
look. “You have the right of it there. I don’t think you’ll need to buy much,
anyway, as I can melt most of this down and re-use it. Alright, Man Fei Lei,
you have a deal.” Beirly thrust out a hand, which Fei took, sealing the
bargain. “Our next stop is Goldschmidt. I have something in the workshop he can
use to tide himself over. Once we’ve returned from Wade, stay with us for a few
days. That way we can take our time in getting a new hand done. You have much
experience in smithing?”

Fei spread out his palms face-up. “Only in blade smithing.”

“Oh? But you do have experience in a forge. Alright, then,
that’s good. I won’t have to teach you the basics. That’ll speed the process
along nicely. Wolf, thank the man nicely, as because of him I’m not going to
ream you out any more than this.”

Perhaps a trifle grudgingly, Wolfinsky inclined his head a
few inches. “Heill ok sael.”

Not expecting an expression of gratitude in Wynngaardian,
Fei had to take two seconds to form a response. “Not at all. It is my honor. A
delicate question, if I may? Will you be able to hold your shield at all?”

“I have a spare hand,” Wolfinsky assured him. “It’s wooden,
though, and it takes longer to fasten it to the shield. So if we do get
attacked, I’m likely to just roll in without the shield and make do.”

After having sparred with this man multiple times, Fei did
not doubt his fighting abilities, but he also knew how heavily Wolfinsky
depended on the shield. It was his trained fighting style, after all. “If such
a fight occurs, put me at your right.”

The giant Wynngaardian clapped a hand on his shoulder, the
blow hard enough to fell a weaker man, a grin on his face. “I’ll do that. For
now, let’s get this caravan moving. It’s a straight shot to Goldschmidt from
here, and if the heavens are smiling on us, we can get there without trouble.”

ӜӜӜ

It was indeed a very short trip to Goldschmidt. In fact, Fei
timed it at just under an hour to go from one city to another. He was almost
positive that it had taken longer to pack the wagons back up and form them into
a line than to actually take the path.

Siobhan, as usual, made sure that the caravan was settled
into a good inn and that Jacobs didn’t need any help from the guild when it
came to escort duties. The man was comfortable enough with the city and assured
her that she had a break until it was time for them to move on to Converse. Fei
would have thought he was exempt from this until Jacobs turned to him and said,
“You can take a break here, too. Goldschmidt’s enforcers are tough and they
keep a sharp eye on the marketplace. Since we’re not going to leave this area,
there won’t be much for you to do.”

“Is that so.” Then perhaps he and Beirly could start on the
hand? Deepwoods was from Goldschmidt after all. “Then by your leave,
Jacobs-jia, I will do so. I will most likely be spending time with Deepwoods,
if you change your mind and need me.”

Jacobs got that shrewd look on his face that meant he was
thinking hard and fast. Putting a hand on Fei’s shoulder, he drew him in
closer. “I’ve noticed that you’re getting along right well with that guild.
They’ve taken a shine to you, clear enough. I don’t know your history, son, and
I’m not one to pry into a man’s background. But I’ll give you this advice, and
you can take it as you wish. You won’t find a better guild than Deepwoods. If
you’ve got a good rapport with them, then you take the chance to join them.
Odds are you won’t get a better opportunity than this one.”

Actually Fei wasn’t sure what to do with this unsolicited
advice.

Perhaps it showed, as Jacobs patted him on the shoulder
before releasing him. “Just think on it. If I need you, I’ll contact
Deepwoods.”

Not sure what to say, Fei settled for a quick bow before
spinning on a heel and walking off. Why would Jacobs say this to him? Had
someone mentioned that they wanted Fei to join the guild? It was entirely
possible as both Siobhan and Wolfinsky were forthright about their opinions.

“FEI!”

His head snapped in that direction, astonished to hear his
given name out of anyone’s mouth. Wolfinsky waved a hand above his head then,
seeing he’d gotten Fei’s attention, beckoned to him. Curious, Fei obeyed, and
once he was past the crowd of people, discovered that the whole guild was
waiting on him. “How did you know to call me that?”

“Oh, is that right?” Siobhan perked up, interested.
“Actually, it was a debate on our part. It’s hard to call out your full name,
it’s rather a mouthful, so we thought we’d shorten it. But if you say ‘Man’ or
‘Lei’ then it sounds like just a word. We figured ‘Fei’ would work best.”

“How does your name work?” Grae asked. “I assume your family
name is part of it.”

“Man is my family name,” Fei explained slowly, still mildly
shocked at hearing his given name out of Wolfinsky’s mouth. He hadn’t been
called that way in three years. “Fei Lei is my given name. I was often called
Fei growing up, as a nickname of sorts.”

“That’s perfect, then. We’ll call you Fei. Your name is a
little hard for us to say.” Siobhan smiled, the matter settled in her mind, and
moved on before he could get a word in edgewise. “Beirly tells me that you want
to learn how the hand is made?”

Well, what did it matter, what they called him? It was
highly unusual for him to be so casually addressed by people outside of his
family. They were more than strangers to him, if not already friends, so he
could adjust to being called by a nickname. “Yes, that is correct. Jacobs-jia
just gave me a day off, so I am free to study.”

“Then just stay with us,” Siobhan invited, already pulling
him into motion. “We have spare rooms. Take a turn at cooking and I won’t even
charge you for staying.”

That seemed a fair enough deal and it saved him the hassle
of finding a cheap place to stay. “Your invitation is kind. I accept.”

“Good, good. We’ll need to stop by the food market as we go
and pick up ingredients. Tell me what we’ll need in order to have that fun
dinner you made us the other night. The sauce especially, I want to know how to
make that.”

Fei agreeably shouldered his bag a little higher and
followed along. As he walked, the strangest feeling of normalcy stole over him,
as if he was perfectly placed for that moment. Strange, that, as he had not
once felt so since leaving home. What was it about this guild that influenced
him to think so?