The Fur Trader (15 page)

“Please, I’m telling the truth!” Brent squealed. A few of the patrons looked as though they wanted to jump into the mix, but Hagrif and Bolgrif raised their hands and convinced them it would be a bad idea.

“Where did they go?” Seidrif asked Brent.

“They went to Geberron Pass, I swear it! They tried to hire guides for Geberron Pass, but no one would take them. I swear that’s where they went.”

Seidrif caught a glimmer of light out of the corner of his eye. He held up his other hand, creating a wall of air on his right side just as a long dagger came at him. The blade hung in the air, motionless as it became stuck in the spell. Seidrif turned to see another man, looking quite like the first mountain man. Seidrif thrust his chin up and out toward the man. This signal caused the spell holding the dagger to return it to the mountain man with exponentially more force. The dagger tore through the man and exploded out his back. He staggered for a moment, muttering something about his brother, before stumbling into a table and crashing to the floor.

The crowd cried out and everyone fell to their knees.

“Where did they go?” Seidrif asked again.

Brent clutched at the invisible hands that had begun to wrap themselves around his throat.

“Northwest! Northwest!” Brent kicked his legs, struggling against the magic holding and strangling him. “I can prove it, I can help you!” Brent offered.

Seidrif arched a brow. He folded his arms across his chest once more and the spell vanished. Brent fell to the floor, gasping and sputtering. “What help can you offer me?”

Brent nodded and held up a hand as if asking for a moment to catch his breath. His chest and stomach heaved a couple of times and then he coughed and leaned back to sit upon his knees. He looked up to Seidrif and nodded once more.

“I studied the history of magic in Rumtyn College, perhaps you heard of it?” Brent said as he coughed once more. “I know a way for you to get ahead of the nobleman. There are ruins in the mountains. They have special platforms that were once used as portals. Please, I can show you.”

Seidrif looked to his brothers, then back to Brent. This was not the answer he had expected at all. He thought on it for a moment and then nodded. “Very well, show me.”

Brent shook his head. “I can’t use magic, but I have books. They are at my house. I can show them to you. The portals are high in the mountains. They dot the northwest area, and you can use them to get ahead of the nobleman.”

Seidrif smiled. “Bolgrif, Hagrif, stay here with the others. If I am not back within the hour, kill everyone here.”

A gasp ripped through the crowd.

“My house is just down the street,” Brent said. “I can have you back in minutes, I swear.”

Seidrif walked toward Brent and bent low to him. “I will warn you, I am not one to be trifled with. If you are trying to trick me, I will kill you.”

Brent nodded, but his gaping mouth failed to utter any sounds at all.

Seidrif lifted Brent up to his feet and then created a special spell. Chords of air wrapped around Brent’s wrists, pulling them close together in front of his waist. A third, longer chord slithered around Brent’s ankles, but it didn’t pull them together.

“If you try to run, my magic will tie your feet together. Understand?” Seidrif asked.

Brent nodded nervously. “Will you let me live afterward?” Brent asked.

“Show me what you have, and then I will decide,” Seidrif said.

The bearded wizard dispelled the glowing barrier on the door and then followed Brent out of the tavern and turned to the left. A few people were out on the streets, entirely unaware of the goings on inside the tavern. Seidrif engaged in idle conversation to maintain appearances and not raise any suspicions.

“Tell me, the town is called Cherry Brook, but there are no cherry trees here. Why is that?”

Brent laughed nervously, bowing his head and glancing at the wizard over his shoulder. “Umm, they, er… The people who settled here first found the almond trees while they were in bloom. They thought they were cherry trees. So, they named the town Cherry Brook. A bit of a misnomer, but it has stuck ever since.”

Seidrif placed his hand across Brent’s shoulders. Brent tensed anxiously, which made Seidrif smile. “Tell me, when was the town founded?”

The two continued the history lesson until they entered Brent’s house, which was little more than a two-room cabin with a small plot of land for an orchard out front. Brent stood still, eyeing Seidrif as the wizard put up wards and barriers inside the building. Only when Seidrif was sure there were no magical traps, or other surprises in the room, did he loose Brent’s hands and feet.

“Very well, where are these books?”

“Here!” Brent said quickly as he pointed to a nearby bookcase that stretched from floor to ceiling in the sitting area.

Seidrif watched as the young man bounded over to the books and began pointing at the spines while he muttered words out loud. It was an impressive library, for a villager high in the foothills, but it was nothing like the books back at Seidrif’s own home. Still, he wanted to know how much Brent knew.

“Aha!” Brent called out as he pulled a red and gold book. “The Complete Chronicles of the Kossin,” he said aloud as he displayed the title. “This was required reading for my second year. I wanted to focus my studies on the history of magic in my area. I had thought to teach here…” Brent’s words died in his mouth as his sense caught up with him. His eyes grew dull and he hung his head, not willing to make eye contact with Seidrif. “Sorry,” he said reverently as he offered the book to the wizard.

Seidrif took the book in hand. “Tell me about these portals,” he said.

Brent nodded. “The Kossin had many fortresses and strongholds in the mountains long ago. In the book, you will see that they used to build special rooms in each fortress that allowed them to travel quickly from one to another. The book says that all of them were destroyed in the wars with the Punjak, but that isn’t accurate.”

“What do you mean?” Seidrif asked.

“I found two of them last summer. I went up into the mountains and found one.” He gestured to the book and took it back, flipping through the pages. He stopped when he came to a map. There were squares and triangles drawn upon the map in pen. “I thought if I could find them, I might be able to harness the magic, or sell it, or something,” Brent said. “The book only mentions a couple of ruins, and neither of them have any portal chambers inside. So, I have begun looking for the ruins to see if I could find any that are still functioning.”

“And?” Seidrif pressed.

Brent nodded. “The squares and the triangles represent what I believe to be the correct locations of more ruins. Triangles are for Punjak forts, and squares for Kossin. These three here, I have already found.” Brent pointed to three separate places that each had a small dot placed on the left side. Two of them were squares, and the third was a triangle. “You can see the closest one is only a day away to the north. I found a portal in there, and the crystals were still glowing. I then found the second Kossin fort here.” Brent pointed to the other square. “This one also had a functioning chamber, or at least I think it functions. I couldn’t make it work. There is a spell in the back of this book that is supposed to be what the Kossin used to navigate the portals, but I don’t have any magical abilities. I couldn’t make it work.”

Seidrif nodded and reached up to stroke his beard. “Who else knows about this?”

Brent shrugged. “Nobody. I’m the only one here who knows about it. I suppose anyone who studied the history of magic back at Rumtyn College would know, but none of them showed any interest in searching for the ruins when I was there.”

“I’m taking this,” Seidrif said as he pulled the book back into his hands and looked down at the map.

“I don’t know if any of the others work, but you can see by the squares I marked out that there are several Kossin forts along the way to Geberron Pass.”

Seidrif nodded. “Thanks for this,” he said. He then raised his hand.

“No wait, I told you all I know, don’t kill me, please!”

Seidrif frowned. “I’m not going to kill you, but I can’t have you talking to anyone else either.” He quickly weaved his fingers in the air and a blue flash of light sparked in the air in front of Brent. The man’s hands went up to his mouth and he moved his jaw as if trying to speak. “This will silence you, permanently. Should I need to return for more answers, I can lift the curse, but otherwise you are now going to live as a mute. Oh, and don’t think about writing either.” Seidrif weaved his fingers again and another blue spark appeared, this one coursing down to Brent’s hands. “Can’t have you telling anyone where we went or what you found.”

Tears filled Brent’s eyes and he fell to his knees. A soft whimper emitted from his throat and he bent his head down to the floor.

“Chin up, lad, there are worse things in life.” Seidrif bent down and patted Brent on the shoulder. The wizard then left the building and closed the door behind him. He placed an invisible ward upon the whole house, ensuring that Brent would not be able to exit the house until the following day. Seidrif went back to the tavern and entered to find the crowd now sitting all together near the fireplace. Jinny, the barmaid, was also seated among the others. Her husband was still suspended in the air near the bar.

Bolgrif looked to Seidrif and offered a nod. Seidrif returned the gesture and then waved his hand, letting Jinny’s husband down softly.

“He should be fine by tomorrow,” Seidrif told Jinny. “Now that we have what we need, we’ll be off. However, I will caution all of you not to follow us.” Seidrif pointed to the two corpses in the building. “If you cross us, you will meet the same fate.” His words were met with stony silence and timid stares. He then gestured for his brothers to follow him. “Let’s go.”

The three of them exited the tavern quickly and then Seidrif placed a ward on the tavern similar to the one he had placed on Brent’s house. As they mounted their horses, Seidrif turned to Bolgrif. “We should make contact with Zek. It turns out that we may be able to use the teleport chambers he had told us to look for after all.”

*****

“Richard help me shift these items around on the sled so we can both ride the horse,” William said.

Richard nodded and glanced back at the new horse and sighed. It was nothing like the two they had brought from Richwater. In fact, Richard doubted whether it could carry both of them.

William was still grumbling about the unlikely story of the sorceress in the cave, but even Richard noticed William’s wide eyes when Garrin had shown them the crystal. It had to be magic, didn’t it? Why would the trapper lie about that?

Soon they were traveling again. Richard sat behind William, bobbing along as the horse picked its path over the snow. Garrin led the way with his sled, but it was painfully obvious to Richard that they were going much slower now. The trapper had to halt his sled every now and again to allow the horse time to catch up with them.

Richard was only all too thankful when they stopped for lunch.

“No fire,” Garrin said. “Let’s eat some of the dried fruits and meat we have and then be off again.”

“Sounds good,” William said as he slid off the horse and then reached up to help Richard down.

Richard watched the two split-tails leap away from the sled once Garrin loosed them. The two animals tumbled over each other and then darted off into the forest. Richard wished he could go with them. Anything to get away from William for a minute or two.

The youth’s eyes lit up when Garrin set the canister with Kaspar in it down upon the ground and opened the lid. He heard the trapper tell the animal to get out and stretch its legs. The cute little nose poked up, whiskers twitching as it sniffed the air. Its round, furry ears shifted on its head and then it tipped the canister over and shuffled itself out, scurrying behind a nearby rock and taking care of some business it had obviously been holding for a while. When Kaspar finished, he kicked a bit of snow back over the waste and then came bouncing back around the rock.

Instead of returning to its canister, the little animal came up to Richard and brushed against the youth’s leg.

“Taken a real shining to you, I see,” Garrin commented as he pulled out some dried meat. “You can go for a small walk if you like.”

“Do you think that’s safe?” William called out.

Richard sighed. Safety was all that man cared about now. Running and fighting was all they had done for days. It was beginning to wear on Richard.

“It’s fine,” Garrin replied. The trapper pointed out to the trees where the split-tails had gone. “Don’t go out of earshot, but you can go that way for a bit. It’s good to stretch your legs. Besides, Kaspar will go with you, and if there is anything he can’t handle, then Rux and Kiska will be close by.”

Richard didn’t wait for another word. The youth was jogging away into the trees, calling out for Kaspar.

The Dryfoot mink chattered happily and bounded on after Richard, easily keeping pace and staying at Richard’s side. The two only went about thirty yards away from Garrin and William, but to Richard it felt incredibly freeing.

Richard peeked around a tree at Garrin, and then slid down the trunk to sit at the bottom.