The Fur Trader (16 page)

Kaspar leapt up from the ground, ran up Richard’s shoulder, and then brushed across the youth’s freckled cheek. Richard laughed and took Kaspar in hand, petting the creature softly.

“So tell me, Kaspar,” Richard said. “You can sense my magic?”

The animal wiggled its nose and pawed softly at Richard’s chest. Its black eyes gleamed in the sunlight, beaming up at Richard’s green eyes and holding the youth’s gaze for a moment.

“Can you ferret out all of my secrets then?” Richard asked.

Kaspar chattered quickly and nodded once.

“You understand me?” Richard asked.

The Dryfoot mink spun around in Richard’s arms and burrowed into the crook of Richard’s elbow.

“Too bad you can’t teach me how to use my magic,” Richard said. “At least then I could have helped my father. I’m not as small as my uncle would have you believe, you know. I can take care of myself.” Richard looked around the trees and sighed as the smile faded into a slight frown. “Though, I haven’t really been in the forest before.” Kaspar squirmed around, apparently trying to snuggle in closer.

“Actually, now that I think about it, I haven’t really done any of these things before,” Richard said. “We had servants who helped us. They got my meals, washed my clothes, and all sorts of things.” Richard’s eyes teared up then and the youth had to sniff back a sob.

Kaspar came out from Richard’s elbow and stretched up Richard’s chest, gently placing one little paw on Richard’s chin and reaching up with its face until the two touched noses. Its curious, black eyes looked into Richards and the youth smiled softly.

“You’re a good friend, Kaspar,” Richard said. “You know, I won’t see my other friends anymore. My best friend was Mikal. He was one of the servants’ sons. We used to play hide and seek in my home. I guess now you are the only friend I have.”

Kaspar squeaked and chattered quietly, still looking into Richard’s eyes. Then, the Dryfoot mink switched its tail back and forth and leapt off from Richard’s chest and into the snow. It chattered quickly, bouncing from side to side.

“What are you on about?” Richard asked.

Kaspar buried his face in the snow, held very still for two seconds, and then popped its head up from the snow and pointed its whole body at Richard. It clicked its tongue and emphasized its whole-body-point by sticking out its foot at Richard.

“You aren’t trying to play hide and seek are you?” Richard asked skeptically.

Kaspar bounced around in a circle happily, chattering on and on.

“My uncle wouldn’t like it if I went too far away, so we’ll stay close, okay?”

Kaspar nodded and twitched his nose.

“Alright, you count, and I’ll hide.”

Kaspar slammed his face into the snow again and started to make periodic squeaks that almost sounded like counting out loud.

Richard scrambled up from the tree and ran a short ways away, jumping over a fallen log and then running around a large pine tree.

Kaspar let out ten more squeaks and then squealed with one long, shrill note. Richard peeked around the tree and watched as the Dryfoot mink pulled its head from the snow and looked around. The furry ears twitched and swung around as the white head swiveled in each direction. Richard took in a breath and held it, not wanting to make any noise.

Kaspar stood on his hind legs and sniffed the air, then he spun and ran straight in the direction Richard had run. The youth pulled back around the tree and held still, but it was no use. The animal was there in seconds, bounding around the tree and chattering triumphantly with its tail erect in the air as it pranced in front of Richard, then spun and pointed directly at the youth.

“You can smell my magic, can’t you?” Richard asked.

Kaspar climbed up Richard’s clothes, all the way up to the teenager’s neck, and then used his furry head to push Richard’s head toward the tree.

“All right, all right, I get it. My turn to count,” Richard said. With eyes shut and face buried into the cold bark of the tree, Richard began to count. “One…two…three…four…”

Richard felt the animal jump away, but never heard the snow crunch as he expected. In fact, there was no sound at all. The animal vanished like a ghost. Richard peeked out from the tree, still counting, hoping to get a hint as to where the animal ran to.

“Ten,” Richard said finally. “Here I come.” Richard turned and looked around, but saw nothing. Richard peeked around the tree. Nothing. The youth went to the fallen log, but again found nothing. An idea came into the teenager’s mind. Garrin would use tracks.

Richard bent low to the ground, but found only the tracks leading to the tree from where Kaspar had started. There was no second set. Richard searched everywhere, crisscrossing over the entire area several times.

“Looking for something?” Garrin called out as the trapper approached. “Trying to track an animal?”

Richard looked up and nodded. “I was playing hide and seek with Kaspar, but I can’t seem to find him.

Garrin snorted and seemed to suck in his lower lip.

“What?” Richard asked. “I already checked the trees above, and there are no other tracks on the ground here. It’s like he vanished.”

The trapper started to turn a bit pink in the face and he put a hand up over his mouth. “Sure you searched everywhere?” he asked through his thick mitten.

What kind of question was that? Richard huffed and turned around, frustration building within as each passing second seemed to mock the youth.

“You could help, if you are so great at tracking,” Richard put in. “That is your profession, is it not?”

Garrin laughed out loud. “I already found him.”

“WHAT?!” Richard shouted. “He’s with you? Open that canister!”

Garrin pointed back to where the canister was lying on the ground. “He isn’t with
me.
”

“Well he certainly isn’t with me either!” Richard said, flustered.

Garrin smiled and offered a nod to Richard.

“What?” Richard asked.

The trapper pointed at Richard. “Maybe try a check over your shoulder.”

Richard’s brow drew into a frustrated knot, but the youth did what Garrin suggested. Richard’s hand brushed something soft and furry that was clinging to the back of his outercoat, and barely noticeable at all.

“You slimy little cheat!” Richard exclaimed.

Kaspar climbed up and over Richard’s shoulder, tail high in the air and nose even higher as it let out a series of triumphant clicks and squeaks.

“He’s a crafty one,” Garrin noted. “Come on, we need to be moving again. It’s going to snow soon and we need to make some good progress before the weather bogs us down.”

The late morning sun peeked over the snow-capped, ruined tower before Seidrif. The bearded wizard halted the group and inspected it from afar, glancing back down to the book in his hands and finally nodding.

“This should be it,” Seidrif said. “Let’s get inside and take a look around.”

“What about the horses?” Bolgrif asked.

Seidrif shook his head. “Won’t know for sure until we see the ruins on the inside. Zek was under the impression that the Kossins built the teleport chambers large enough for horses too, but he has never seen one in person.”

Hagrif dropped off the side of his horse and waved his hand. A burst of wind wiped the snow from the face of the tower, uncovering a stone door at the base.

“Thanks for that, Hagrif,” Seidrif said as he led the trio to the tower. The door was square, maybe six feet wide by six feet tall. The hinges on the door squeaked in protest as Seidrif pulled on the large iron ring and opened the doorway.

The bearded wizard expected dust, or perhaps spider webs in the doorway to blow out with the sudden opening of the door, but nothing happened. They walked into the first chamber and found a most peculiar set of stone furniture there.

“Who would sit upon stone benches and eat at a stone table?” Bolgrif asked as they walked around what appeared to be a large dining chamber on the first floor of the tower.

“The Kossin,” Seidrif responded. “They never used wood for building.”

“Why not?” Hagrif asked.

“The Kossin have an affinity with the trees of the forest. Their magic connects them with the pines.”

“Is that what their war with the Punjak was about then?” Hagrif asked and brushed a hand over the smooth table top.

Seidrif shook his head. “I would wager that the feud between the Punjak and the Kossin ran deeper than that, though I don’t imagine it helped much that the Punjak had no aversion to cutting down trees.”

“Hang on, Seidrif,” Hagrif called out.

The other two wizards stopped and turned around.

“If they never used wood, then how did they make tools? And what about scepters and such?”

Seidrif responded, “They could use fallen limbs for tools if needed. For the scepters, I understand that they had to ask a tree’s permission. Then, once a tree offered a living limb, it bound that tree to that particular Kossin wizard. The wizard would become a guardian of the trees in that area as payment for the bough.”

“Sounds like hogwash to me,” Bolgrif put in. “Look at us, we don’t need to ask the trees for permission.”

Seidrif nodded. “I’m only saying what Zek explained to me.”

“You’re close to Zek, aren’t you?” Hagrif asked as they crossed the room and opened a door leading into a hallway descending down into the mountain.

Seidrif shrugged. “Zek has been good to us. He pays us fairly and values our work. But if you were to ask who I am closest to, that answer should already be obvious.”

Hagrif stopped and scratched his head. “Who?”

Bolgrif huffed and backhanded Hagrif in the chest. “It’s
us
you dolt!”

“Oh!” Hagrif replied with a big, toothy grin. “Right then.”

The three wizards made their descent and turned left once they reached the bottom of the platform. Seidrif kept his nose in the book in his hands, while Bolgrif focused on the floating orb of light he conjured for them. Aside from the occasional rat, nothing stirred within the ruins.

Rooms lined the hallway, most of them small dining or bed chambers. Hagrif stopped them when they passed by a library where the door had fallen from its hinges and lay cracked upon the floor.

“If the Kossin didn’t use wood, then how did they make paper for books?” Hagrif asked.

Seidrif turned around impatiently. “It’s a mix of hemp waste and reed fiber, now can we please move on to the teleportation chamber? You know the king is not a patient fellow. Though Zek may like us, the king is not about to forgive us if we let the traitor slip through our hands.”

Hagrif’s expression turned to stone and he nodded once, slamming a fist into his other palm.

“I’ll crush the traitor.”

“Just be sure not to hurt the child,” Bolgrif put in. “We’ll be dead if anything happens to the child.”

Seidrif nodded and then motioned for his brothers to keep up. He turned and led them through a winding maze of hallways. Had it not been for the notes in the book, it would have taken hours, perhaps even days to explore the vast system of corridors and storage areas below the ground. Thanks to the notes in the book, it took only twenty minutes to find the chamber they searched for.

A great archway opened into a large chamber that was thirty feet across and forty feet long. In the center of the massive room was a platform. Upon the platform was a vast map of the Dryden Mountains. Small sapphires sat in the map, representing other Kossin ruins. Of course, the structures had not been in ruin when the platform was originally built, but rather they had been massive fortresses of the mighty Kossin people. Rubies also dotted the map. Those were the Punjak settlements.

Seidrif doubted whether there had ever been a mechanism of teleporting directly into a Punjak settlement, but he had heard rumors and legends that the Kossin had been trying to do exactly that in order to gain an advantage in their war against the Punjak.

Whatever had happened those many years ago, it mattered little now. Seidrif was focused only upon the task at hand. He brought the book up to his nose and read the notes while calling out instructions to his brothers.

“Hagrif, there should be a pedestal in the back of the chamber with a large, green stone in it. Go and find it.”

Hagrif nodded and moved quickly across the chamber.

“Bolgrif, do you see the four columns at the corners of the platform?”

Bolgrif nodded and said, “I do.”

“There should be thin, long emeralds on the interior of each column. They should be resting vertically. Turn them horizontal.”

Bolgrif moved to the first column. “Found it!” he shouted as he reached up and turned the first gem.

Seidrif moved onto the platform and inspected it. As the first emerald was turned, he felt a charge build up in the air and the gem began to glow. Bolgrif moved to the next and turned it. The static charge in the air intensified, causing Seidrif’s hair to rise on end slightly. He smiled when he saw a line of green light extend from the first horizontal gem to the second. He closed the book and took out a red stone from his pocket. He bent down, and with the stone drew a star upon the platform. It didn’t leave a lasting mark, but rather a figure made of lines drawn with magical light.

Seidrif then set the red stone in the middle and called out to Bolgrif.

“Don’t turn the fourth one yet,” he cautioned.

Bolgrif paused, having just turned the third gem.

Hagrif called out them. “I found a large emerald. It is sticking out of a hole in the pedestal. What do I do with it?”

“When I tell you, you will spin it clock-wise, and then push it into the hole,” Seidrif replied. The bearded wizard motioned to Bolgrif to leave the platform. He wasn’t sure this teleportation pad would work, and he didn’t want to chance his brother getting injured from it.

Seidrif moved to the fourth and final emerald spinner. He reached up and turned it to a horizontal position. It glowed brightly and connected a line in both directions, completing a rectangle around the perimeter of the platform.

The bearded wizard then tested the perimeter, half expecting a shock or other unpleasant experience. Fortunately, he was freely able to cross the line. He stepped off the platform and pulled Bolgrif away gently.

“Stay here,” he warned.

Seidrif walked back to the star he had drawn with his red stone. The stone was now vibrating and spinning on the platform. The bearded wizard smiled as he saw each of the sapphires were now glowing. He looked up and shouted to Hagrif. “Is your emerald glowing yet?”

Hagrif shook his head. “Not yet.”

Seidrif nodded and bent down to one of the sapphires. He consulted his book once more, checking that this was the next furthest ruin along the trail. He then stretched a finger and pressed the sapphire in. A glowing column of azure light beamed up to the ceiling and the charge in the air became so strong that Seidrif could taste the bitter, metallic energy building up.

“It’s glowing now!” Hagrif called out.

“Wait until I am clear!” Seidrif shouted back. The bearded wizard went off the nearest edge of the platform and then turned back and gave the signal. “Turn it now!”

Hagrif grunted as he spun the gem into place and then pushed it down.

The four green lines between the pillars spread from floor to ceiling, creating a wall of magical energy. Once the walls encased the platform, the blue column of light from the sapphire spread and filled the space inside the magical walls. Then, the red stone vanished and the blue light faded with the crack of thunder. Moments after that, the green walls disappeared and the emeralds spun back into their vertical positions.

Seidrif finished his scrying spell, calling out to the red stone. The air opened up over the magical figure he had drawn upon the platform and showed him a nearly identical platform in another ruin. The red stone spun around in the air, illuminating the other chamber with red light.

“It works,” Seidrif said.

“We can follow it then?” Bolgrif asked.

Seidrif nodded. “Let us pick a ruin that is beyond where the traitor should be. Then, we can send my scrying orb ahead of ourselves to ensure that the landing platform is unobstructed, like it has done in this case. If all is well, we should be upon the traitor before dinner.”

*****

The trio traveled through a light snow storm for another day, winding through the forest and making their way uphill. To Garrin’s surprise, Richard and William had become much better at setting up camp compared to the first night. It didn’t take nearly as long, and William was sure to keep the bear hangs the proper distance from the tents.

As Richard and William finished their chores, Garrin built a large fire. The yellow flames licked and scratched at the logs. Bits of bark popped and sparked as the fire grew. Garrin took the last of the bear meat and offered it to Rux and Kiska. The two split-tails took it eagerly, devouring it within only a couple of minutes. Garrin knew the two animals were still hungry, but they were staying close to camp. Ever since the strange cave, the two animals had been reluctant to go more than fifty yards away from Garrin at any time. Rux had even taken to sleeping in his tent.

The change in behavior was enough to unnerve him. William noticed as well, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

After Richard and William had food to eat, Garrin went for his spear and grabbed a few traps. William looked up to him questioningly.

“You leaving?” William asked.

“Only setting a few traps. If they won’t hunt, then perhaps I can catch a few hares for them while we sleep. If I see something out there worth hunting, I’ll try to bring it back. Otherwise, I should return within an hour or two at most.”

“You won’t go far, will you?” Richard asked as he rubbed his shoulders.

Garrin shook his head. “I’ll be close by.” He pointed up over a snowy hill to the north. “There is a stream just over there. I’ll set the traps there and then return. I’ll be close enough to hear you if you need help, just yell.”

That seemed to calm Richard. The boy nodded and stared back at the fire.

Garrin looked up to the sun. It was still more than a hand’s span above the mountains. There was time enough to set the traps and return before dark.

He trudged up the gentle slope, his feet pushing through the knee-deep snow and struggling to find solid purchase below with each step. Rux and Kiska flanked him, walking slowly and sticking near to him.

“It would help if the two of you just went out and caught your own food,” Garrin grumbled near the top of the hill. Neither of the animals seemed to hear his words. Garrin sighed and shook his head, pushing on until he reached the pinnacle. There was a large stone atop the hill, with a single flower growing beside it, defying the winter and blooming brightly. The tall stem rose nearly two feet into the air above the rock, which itself was several inches above the snow. The purple petals were long and thin, fully open and pointed toward the sun. Garrin knew the flower well. It was rare, but highly prized for its medicinal properties.

“Kyra’s Kiss,” he said as he neared the plant. It was named for Icadion’s daughter, who had been tricked by Hatmul and imprisoned in Hammenfein for a time. Garrin smiled at the irony of a medicinal flower being named for someone who was now known for tricking and harassing humans throughout history. Still, he thanked the gods for his fortune as he propped his spear against the rock and set the traps down as well. His hands moved to a small pouch on the back of his belt. He pulled it around and opened the leather flap. Garrin pulled his right mitten free from his hand. The bitter cold bit his skin instantly, chilling him down to the bones in his hand. He knew he would have to hurry. He reached out with his left hand and grabbed the stem. He pinched the bottom of the blossom between his right thumb and forefinger as hard as he could, then he gave it a half-twist before pulling the bloom free. He smiled as he set the purple flower into the pouch, carefully wrapping it in a small bit of cloth he kept for such occasions.