Benjamin Ashwood (4 page)

“We
have plenty of time to make the city,” retorted Amelie.  “I know we cannot fix
every problem in the world, but we did fix this one.  Even if they do not know
it, these are still my people.”

“They
haven’t been your people for a long, long time.”

The
argument was broken up by Blevin who came sloshing up with two fresh pitchers
and several mugs which he deposited on the table.  “Anything else I can help
you with madams and sirs?  We have a roast lamb turning on the spit and my wife
is making a stew.  I apologize that I cannot offer you any wine – we drank the
last bottle a moon ago – but I do have some apple brandy.”

Rhys
looked up at the mention of apple brandy but the woman shot him a glare.  “The
lamb please Master Blevin.  And that will be all.”

Ben
wondered if he should somehow extricate himself from the table but Rhys filled
up a mug and pushed it in front of him.  “Drinks on me, remember?”

The
Blademaster then reached over and offered his hand to Ben.  In an accent that Ben
could not place he said, “Saala Ishaam, at your pleasure.”

Ben
quietly sipped his ale while the conversation continued around him.  Amelie and
Saala were discussing their travel plans with occasional input from the woman
and Meredith.  Rhys had the bulk of his attention on emptying as many pitchers
as Blevin would bring him.  He was primarily focused on refilling his own mug
but regularly topped off Ben’s as well.  Before long, Ben was having trouble
following the conversation.  He had a warm feeling from too much ale and had
never heard of many of the places they were discussing.

Rhys
also kept him distracted by asking questions about the ale, Ben’s skill with
the quarterstaff and Ben’s encounter with the demon.  He felt embarrassed
speaking about how he struck the demon in front of people with such obvious
martial skill.

Strangely,
the girls and Rhys didn’t ask Saala Ishaam or the woman about the demon.  They
knew they had left and they knew that the demon had been killed, but they
didn’t seem to care about the details.  Who were these people where a battle
with a demon was not conversation worthy?

As
the night wore on and the pitchers kept flowing, Ben soaked in the strangeness
of the situation.  No one else in Farview could say they spent a night drinking
with two Ladies and a real Blademaster.

Ben
tried to keep up with the discussion and memorize every detail.  He doubted he
would ever have a chance to meet people like this again.  But a thought kept
nagging at the back of his head.  Why had the woman gone with Saala?  She
seemed to be the leader of this group, which did not match with his picture of
her as a healer or a scholar.  And why had Rhys not gone?  Based on his attire,
he was a man of action and violence.  In fact, he was exactly what Ben would
imagine a lone Hunter or adventurer to be.

The
woman could also be a high born lady he thought, though her stern demeanor and
the way Amelie acted towards her did not fit.  Possibly she was a merchant, but
where were her goods and why would a merchant get involved in hunting down a
demon?  His head was full of ideas, but none of them made sense.

Belatedly,
Ben realized he was past his capacity for ale when the room started to slowly
spin.

“Excuse,
me, I’m going to go get some fresh air,” he mumbled.

Saala
gave him a small smile and Rhys a knowing wink, but the women ignored him.  As Ben
stumbled his way out the front door of the Tavern he saw how late it had
gotten.  Most of the crowd from earlier had left including Serrot and Ben’s
other friends.  He did see Alistair had returned and was in a deep discussion
with some farmers in the far corner of the room.  Making deals to replace slain
livestock or some other way to capitalize on the disruption from the demon Ben
supposed.

Ben
made his way around to the back of the Tavern to relieve himself and breathed
deep of the crisp mountain air.  He hoped the cold air would sober him because
he still had so many unasked questions for the strangers.

After
finishing his business, he came back around to the front of the Tavern and
paused next to Blevin’s rain barrel.  Blevin left a ladle to scoop water for
customers who’d had a little too much to drink inside.  Ben took a long drink
and leaned back against the rough-hewn logs of the Tavern.  He ran his hand
along the wall and thought about how this Tavern had been here a long time. 
Long before Alistair Pinewood had finished building the timber mill that Ben’s
father started.  The tavern was built back when all of the buildings in Farview
were built with rough logs.  It wasn’t worth the price to float them down to
Murdoch’s, have them cut into boards and shipped back up the mountain.

He
was still lost in thought when another man came stumbling out of the Tavern and
headed towards the barrel.  As he got closer, Ben realized it was Alistair and
that he had also partaken a little too freely tonight.

Alistair
splashed his face with water and had the ladle tipped up before he realized Ben
was there.  He sat the ladle back and coughed wetly to clear his throat.  “Ben,
I didn’t see you.  Exciting night, huh?”

“Yes
sir, I think it’s about the most exciting night we’ve had in Farview.”

“You
mean aside from the night my boy got killed?” growled Alistair with a steely
glare.

Ben
grimaced.  He hadn’t meant any offense.  Alistair was in no mood to hear
anything but his own troubles.  Brandon’s injury must be worse than anyone in
town realized if Alistair was already talking like he was dead.

“Sorry
sir, that’s not what I meant.  I just meant that I’ve never heard of a man like
the Blademaster being in Farview and the rest of them too.  High born ladies or
whatever they are.”  Ben shrugged uncomfortably.  Telling Alistair about his
excitement seemed like a crime when Brandon was in such bad shape.

Alistair
snarled, “I don’t care if they’re high born ladies or King Argren’s own
daughters!  I had enough when I had to talk to them earlier.  The girls with
their noses stuck in the air, the men acting like we don’t know what the hell
we’re doing and that bitch woman trying to control everything and everyone
around her!  Who does she think she is?”

Ben
blinked in surprise.  That was it, control.  Nothing else made sense.

“Alistair,
she’s a Mage!”

“What? 
That is crazy.  You’ve had too much to drink and this demon is getting ideas
into your head, boy.”

“Think
about it Alistair.  She went after the demon with no weapons, she’s got a
Blademaster following her orders, she bosses around two Ladies but she’s no
highborn.  What else could she be?”

Alistair
stood stunned.  A Mage in Farview was unthinkable.  In the stories, the Mages
were the hidden hand behind the thrones of the land.  They were never mentioned
as fighting demons or other mundane heroics.  What reason would she have to be
in Farview?  Ben was certain as soon as he said it though, she had to be a
Mage.

“Ben,
do you know what this means?”  Alistair asked excitedly.

“No…”

“If
she’s a Mage Ben, then she can heal Brandon!” 

Alistair
spun around and ran back to towards the door, nearly tripping over the step as
he rushed inside.  Ben stood in shock.  It was true, there were stories about
Mages who were said to have incredible powers to heal wounds that far surpassed
the skill of even a trained physic.  But it was also said in the stories that Mages
never worked for free – and that their payment was rarely in gold.  They could
perform great, mysterious feats, but they always collected something in return.

The
next morning Ben awoke with a pounding head.  He lay on the small cot in his
room and winced as a pair of birds burst into song outside of his door.  He
judged by how much light was coming in under the door it was mid-morning.  He
knew he must have woken up with worse hangovers.  At the moment, he couldn’t
recall when.

He
stumbled outside to the water trough and plunged his head in.  The cold water
sent a shock through his body and he came up gasping for air.  He filled up a
tin mug he hung outside and sank down onto a rough-hewn bench and leaned
against the timber mill.  His head fell back against the wall and he stared up
at the clear, cloudless sky.  His stomach rumbled in hunger but the thought of
stoking the fire and making porridge or frying eggs seemed like an enormous
effort.  The thought of eating the handful of hard dry biscuits he had in his
tiny pantry was even worse

He
reflected on the previous night and his mind still swirled with unasked and
unanswered questions.  He’d followed Alistair into the Tavern where Alistair
was already begging for the help of the woman in front of a stunned crowd.  The
woman did not deny she was a Mage, but she did not admit it either.  She simply
said she’d look at Brandon’s injury and see if she could help.

Rhys
and Saala exchanged a worried look then Rhys said he’d go with her.  Saala and
the two girls quickly retired to their rooms.

Ben
and several of the other town folk hung around the Tavern anxiously discussing
what it meant to have a Mage in their midst but after a bell it became apparent
there would be no more news that evening.

The
stories were all clear that when a Mage cast a spell they expended themselves
somehow.  They were also clear that a Mage would never expend that energy
without recompense.  From what he could gather, they sounded somewhat
self-serving.  He guessed they were limited in either what they could do or how
often they did it.

As
Ben sat thinking on what he knew about Mages, it slowly occurred to him that
his pounding headache should be much worse.  His room was above an operating
timber mill and this time of the morning there should have been the sound of
saws cutting raw logs into boards, the crashes and bangs of wood being moved
around inside and the constant swearing of the mill workers.  The only sound he
could hear was the chirping of birds.

He
groaned and stood to change into fresh clothing and to go find out what was
going on.  After last night when he nearly missed seeing the Blademaster and
Mage, he wasn’t willing to sit and let the news come to him, even with a
pounding head.

Ben
jogged the short distance from the mill into town and he slowly started to feel
better.  The light exercise got his blood pumping and relieved some of the
pressure in his head.  As he made his way to the town center he saw where all
of the mill workers had gone.  There was a crowd gathered on the green and they
all seemed to be shouting towards the small lodging house that was next to the
Buckhorn Tavern.

Ben
spied Serrot on the outskirts of the crowd and made his way over to him. 
“What’s going on?  It looks like half the town is here.”

“I’m
not completely sure.   I just got here, but they’re saying that the woman Mage
is trying to kidnap Meghan Pinewood.”

“What! 
Do they have her in there?  Is that why everyone is here, to try and rescue
her?”  Ben glanced around and saw that there were some weapons in the crowd. 
But even with half the town here and many of them armed, he didn’t like the
odds of going up against a Blademaster and a Mage.

“I’m
not sure.  Meghan is in there and Alistair is with her.  You were with them all
night last night, what happened?”

“Nothing
that foretold this.  They were more focused on their plans than anything going
on in Farview.  After the first couple of minutes they mostly ignored me.  At
the end of the night when we found out the woman was a Mage she did go to the
Pinewood’s estate to look at Brandon.  Something must have happened then.”

While
they were talking the crowd was growing restless.  Alistair Pinewood was known
by everyone in Farview but loved by few.  His daughter Meghan on the other hand
was loved by everyone who had ever met her.  While Alistair was cold,
businesslike and a hoarder of gold, Meghan was caring and always willing to
help those in need.  When someone in Farview was facing hard times, they went
to Meghan Pinewood first.  And there weren’t a lot of people in this tight knit
community who would turn their back on her if she was in need.

Ben
grabbed Serrot and pulled him along into the crowd.  He had to get closer and
find out what was really happening.  Ben couldn’t reconcile the people he met
last night with the idea of kidnapers.

As
they pushed their way to the front of the crowd they found Blevin Beerman
pacing back and forth on the porch of the lodging house.

“Blevin,
what’s going on in there?” shouted Ben.

“I
don’t know!  About two bells ago, Alistair and Meghan came bustling on up
here.  Meghan looked like she was packed to leave and Alistair was beside
himself.  Right as they were going in the door he saw me and yelled to get
everyone I could and that they were taking his daughter.”

The
men around Ben and Serrot shouted in anger when they heard Blevin speak. 
They’d obviously heard the story several times now and were getting more and
more worked up with each telling.  Soon they would work themselves up to doing
something stupid.  Something was not right, but this didn’t sound like any
kidnapping that Ben had heard of.  Meghan and Alistair walked in on their own.