A Girl and Her Monster (Rune Breaker) (9 page)

He felt Taylin's discomfort at the mention of it, knowing what came next in the explanation. It confused and vexed him to no end that she refused to simply follow the normal course for every master previous. Orders, he understood. Demands, wishes, strongly worded requests; all of those were right and proper and made sense. Being asked nicely and being given choices didn't.

Yes, he followed orders with as much willfulness and belligerence as the link allowed. Indeed, he had a history of wheedling and manipulating in order to gain some sliver of freedom and pursuit of his own goals. But the uphill battles, the constant challenges were what made sense. Taylin left him effectively unopposed and that made him wary. She'd outsmarted him once already; it was entirely possible that she knew the Rune Breaker's history and her actions were an act to keep it from repeating itself.

If that was true, it was the first thing in thousands of years to actually frighten him. Because even assuming this, he was starting to doubt his properly high paranoia. And whenever that happened, he suffered.

He chalked up this internal debate as the cause of the moment of weakness that followed.

“The link is more than a telepathic bond. It allows us to sense each other's location and emotional disposition... unless one suppresses it. But most importantly, it acts as a restraint; binding me into loyalty toward the holder of the other end. I cannot allow her to come to harm, and if I stray too far, there are consequences. That is how she can be assured of my loyalty.”

Moving only his eyes, he concentrated on the fire pit. It was a simple bit of magic that didn't strictly require a diagram or structure to create; any bit of power could invoke
flaer
to create a flame. But as he'd so recently been contemplating conditional fire conjurations, force of habit took over and he imagined the simple diagram for a fire the size of the pit and forced a bit of his personal power into that framework.

With a
whuff
of ignition, the fire simply appeared atop the prepared kindling and began to blaze merrily.

Ru sneered at Kaiel's expression. “And also for your own knowledge; your instincts are correct not to trust me. I am more dangerous than you can possibly comprehend. A monster of nightmare.”

The sneer faded and he looked to Taylin, his expression the definition of neutrality. “But as long as she lives and throws her lot in with you and the Clan of the Winter Willow, I am a monster that is, for the moment, on your side.”

He sidestepped Kaiel and took a few steps as if to walk back to the village. “And now, I shall return to my work, which in the near future your life will depend on.” The baring of teeth Taylin saw as he started to walk past her couldn't have been called a smile and she was thankful that it was meant for Kaiel instead of her.

It was the first time Taylin had seen him teleport directly before. In the span of less than a second, he seemed to become a living shadow, save for a last luminescence of his eyes, and then vanished completely. But before he did, he tossed one more barb in the chronicler's direction. “Rest easy, charlatan.”

After that, the subject of Ru and by extension, Taylin, became closed. Kaiel went into his wagon to scrounge the evening's repast while Taylin tried to make herself comfortable by the fire.

It was spring now, whereas it had been the height of summer when she entered the fated cave, and early enough in the season that when the sun was finally gone, a chill crept over the world. Taylin moved as close to the fire as she could without igniting her clothes. Burning herself wasn't a concern; she had yet to meet a fire hot enough to do that.

After a time, Kaiel returned with a cast iron camp oven filled with water, an iron pry bar, and a tin box of trail rations. The rifle was left behind inside. He sat down facing her with enough space to set the armload of items between them.

“The good news,” He proclaimed as greeting, “Is that I thought to buy fresh rations when we were at the Dragonpier. Dried fruits, some road-friendly vegetables, travel crackers, cured venison, and of course, potatoes.” He pointed to each item in turn. “The bad news is, I've also got plenty of Allbuk's.”

At this, he picked up one of a great many paper envelopes. On the front was a faint imprinted image of a fork and knife in a circle, overlaid with a strange, angular symbol. Taylin had never seen dwarven runes before, so she could only guess at its meaning. Beneath the imprint were serious block letters in imperial trade: 'Allbuk's #3 Instant, Nourishing Porridge – Beef Flavor'.

The other envelopes were similar, mostly porridge in flavors such as Game Fowl, Bear, and Butter. A few others proclaimed themselves to be 'Allbuk's #12 Instant Creamed Corn', and Allbuk's #5 Instant Potatoes – Butter Added'.

None of that made sense to Taylin; those foods were moist and voluminous. They couldn't be stored in tiny envelopes. She voiced this point after careful study of the packets.

Kaiel laughed politely. “I thought Allbuk was world famous by now. I guess not.” Taylin shook her head. “Ah. Well you see, Allbuk is an alchemist and he's discovered a way to separate water from food well past what we can do with normal drying. It renders down into...” He tore open the corner of an envelope of #3 so she could see the grayish powder within, “Powder.”

Taylin blanched. She'd been brought up on ship crackers and whatever rations or stores she could scavenge from enemies, but even the cruelest Sky-Captains hadn't forced her to eat dust.

This drew another laugh from Kaiel. “Don't worry, you don't have to eat it like this. When you boil it in water, it comes back to itself... more or less.”

“More or less?” She asked, untrusting of this bizarre foodstuff.

“It really depends on how much you're willing to pay. #3 is cheap and it's basically grain paste with dry beef broth for flavor. #10, the beef and potatoes with gravy is actually pretty amazing.”

“You don't have any that say #10.” she pointed out.

He looked mildly cowed. “I wasn't willing to pay. Besides, with a bit of care, herbs and some vegetables, even #3 can be a very nice meal.” To demonstrate, he took the top off the travel oven, produced a small knife from the ration box, and began cutting carrots and onions into it.

Before long, the pot was filled and the water a murky gray from two envelopes of Allbuk's #3. Kaiel placed the lid on firmly and used the pry-bar to place the oven directly into the fire.

“Not the potatoes?” Taylin eyed the tubers longingly. Potatoes were a rare meal in her life; always plentiful in enemy supply lines, but eating them raw made her sick and the masters didn't let their enslaved soldiers cook for themselves. The only source of edible ones for her, therefore, was when a few managed to get cooked in the course of battle. Hailene Choirs with members who preferred fire were saints to the famished slave.

“Ah, we could have.” Kaiel agreed, “But if we just place them in a wet cloth like this...” Before adding the gruel to the pot, he had soaked a handkerchief in the water. Now, he placed three potatoes into the middle of it and wrapped them carefully. Once that was done, he laid the whole thing carefully atop the oven on the fire. “We'll be able to eat them before the stew is done.”

This trick instantly found a place in Taylin's memory. Now that she was free, she could have all the potatoes she wanted and thanks to Kaiel she knew how to cook them. Such a simple step forward bought a smile to her face. “Thank you. Again.” She said after a short silence.

He waved the additional gratitude away. “Nothing of it, Taylin. You needed help, so I helped. Just like the Winter Willow is doing for this town. Just like you're doing for them. It's all a perfect working example of the third philosophy that I'm proud to take part in.”

She gave him a curious look there.

“Oh. I supposed Ru would have relayed that.” He said, embarrassed. “The long and short of it is, the idea of helping those in need directly; without catspaws or go-betweens, is a new thing in some circles. They would rather build up a hero than become one. They say we're just story spinners and...” He sighed, recalling Ru's favored insult for him, “charlatans, whose purpose is to tell the stories, not be part of them.”

He shifted a bit and reached into his coat pocket, producing a silver half-flute. “People like me, or some of the loremen I idolize, have made it their goal to prove that the direct way, the third philosophy, is just as valid as any other.”

Taylin picked up on the implications of the entire speech and blushed. It was an unfamiliar feeling to have her face heat up that way. “It's very nice to say, but I'm no hero. I've just seen this sort of thing these bandits do too often. Someone has to stop it.”

Kaiel looked her in the eye, his expression more gravely serious than ever. “Then why not wait for a real hero? Maybe a prince of Novrom will come along, or someone from a penny novel. One of them could easily sweep in and deal with one little bandit camp, yes?”

His examples made no sense at all to her, but she wasn't about to let on that they didn't. She already appeared ignorant of more than enough things to make him suspicious and anyway, his question had an obvious answer.

“None of them are around to help right now when these people need them. There's no time.”

“Precisely.” Kaiel dropped his gaze and fiddled with the flute's keys. “And I would imagine that's the moment each of those folks became more than mere mortals. No mistake; you won't star in a dime novel for what you'll do for these people. Even if I wrote one, a simple raid wouldn't sell. But because you came and because you stood; even if no one ever knows what happened here, for that moment, I believe all of us will be heroes.”

Taylin looked at him wide-eyed for a moment. His conviction was iron clad on the subject and just hearing how he said it made some part of her sure of it too. It was a heady feeling.

Then he chuckled and broke the spell. “Except for Ru.”

She couldn't help laughing with him.

***

While looking congealed and a foreboding shade of beige, the stew was enjoyable enough.

The conversation had gone well too. Taylin tried her hand at subtly leading the conversation into areas that provided her with precious information about the course the world had taken while she slept. She was sure Kaiel suspected as much, but the chronicler hadn't made an issue of it, instead supplying her with exactly what she was looking for.

Surprisingly, the end of the war hadn't heralded a golden age. Without the unifying threat of the hailene, the Vishnari Empire fell into a cycle of civil wars that saw atrocities on the same level as their former enemies. That was the Age of Tragedies and it ended with a peace known as the Thirteen Nations Accord, signed only some thirty years earlier.

In addition to Taunaun, where they were at the moment, she learned of the fractious nation of Novrom and its many principalities all vying to be kingdoms, the rough and tumble country called Callen where tribal warlords ruled by rite of strength, and finally Chordin, a frozen land wrapped around the glimmering jewel of a city called Harpsfell: home to the Bardic College.

Kaiel was a Novromi, transplanted to Harpsfell and aspiring to become a citizen of this still fresh, new world. Taylin felt this explained a lot about him.

After dinner, she lay back on her elbows and digested the wealth of information. There was a lot of world out there and she burned with a curiosity to see the whole of it. Idly, she wondered if only loremen or perspective loremen could take walkabouts. While she mused, Kaiel turned to face the fire and brought the flute to his lips, playing with one hand while the other held the clay cup of weak wine he'd brought out to accompany dinner.

A few minutes later, Taylin was startled out of her considerations by the appearance of a ball of scintillating light above the campfire. The mysterious orb pulsed like a heartbeat, shimmering and blending from one color to the next in a beautiful display. It took her a moment to realize that the color changes were perfectly in time with the flute music.

She looked over to see Kaiel, eyes closed, wearing a dreamlike expression as he continued to play. Already regretting the interruption, she was nonetheless prodded on by her curiosity.

“What are you doing?” She asked in a hushed tone.

Kaiel ceased playing, but the orb persisted on its own volition for several seconds thereafter before fading gracefully from the night air. He smiled with a slightly sly pride. “I was just practicing the College's brand of magic. I suspect I'll need it tomorrow.”

“It's nice to see that Ru was wrong. No charlatan could make something so beautiful.”

This drew a sigh from him. “As much as it pains me to say, Ru doesn't realize, but he's not wrong, not technically anyway. You see, the powers we use—“

“Keese Kaiel.” He was interrupted by a deep, clipped voice. Both turned to see the owner step into the fire light.

He was a halfling, aged in much the same way as Grandmother, but unlike any of the other male halflings Taylin had seen since entering the village. They wore their hair long with a handful of small plaits spaced throughout and kept their faces clean shaven. This one was just the opposite. His hair was cut short, especially in the front, foregoing the bangs the others cultivated and he sported a tightly controlled beard that, due to his age, was nearly blonde.

In his arms, he carried a cloth wrapped bundle that looked too large for him, and on his back was strapped an implement almost as tall as he was and as round as a wagon wheel. As he came further into the light, Taylin made out thick spokes beneath the dark covering stretched over it. It
was
a wagon wheel.

Kaiel turned swiftly and bowed his head deeply. “Grandfather. I hope this night finds you hail and joyous.”

The elderly halfling half smiled. “I am hale, but tomorrow will bring death. I will be joyous when we turn away this threat and those who fall for the right cause sleep in cool shade.”

He turned his attention to Taylin. “And in this battle, I'm told we are not alone. Taylin, yes?”