Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) (20 page)

Cyerant led the company out of the forest and joined the traffic of people moving along the last mile of the Edgeway before it entered the city of Deelt. Cyool had seen no ducal guards or foreigners in her fly over of the area. Cyerant knew that even if there were ducal guards they would be looking for a lone young man passing as a noble and not a group of four teenagers with five dogs, a young horse and a black crow following them in the air. Cyool had done her job scouting so it had been a better idea to have her come back down out of the air and walk along with Shira looking like a dog.

And so what people saw coming into the city through the open gates was a small party of young people with their horses and with a hunting dog, a large mean looking dog and some puppies. Thought it made a bit of noise there was no reason for anyone to pay much attention to the noisy crow which kept flitting along roof tops.

“Now we have to find a place to spend a night or even a few nights.” Cyerant said. “The horses are easy, we can leave them at hired stables or we could find an inn with stables. We have the money but no inn is going to let us keep the dogs there.”

“Can we rent a house?” Shira asked. “Find an empty house with a stable and enough space to keep the, um, dogs.”

Cyerant said, “Not likely. We have some gold but that would take it all. And that is even if we could find a house to rent.”

Veer asked. “So what are we going to do?”

Cyerant said. “Well, let’s look around and see if we can book passage on a river boat to take us down river to Verat City. If we find one leaving some time in the next few days we can just hide out and camp back in the forest until time to leave on the boat.

“Why a boat?” Jolss asked.

Cyerant turned toward his younger brother and answered. “Because, Daralce, it will be faster for us and harder for someone to catch up to us if we are quietly on a boat or a river barge. And it is faster; only about a three week trip.”

“Have you ever been to Verat before?” Jolss asked.

“No,” said Cyerant. “Never, but I know the map and how long the part of the trip should take. But right now I’m hungry and I smell hot food so we should get something to eat from one of the street vendors.”

As the small party stopped at a street vendor in order to get some food, they did not notice that there was a woman sitting back in the shadows under the porch of an inn across the wide street. As soon as she had recognized the party coming down the street she had simply leaned her chair back so that her face would be in shadow and they would not recognize her.

*****

Garisa watched the four young people getting some bread and roasted meat to carry with them as they walked. She also noticed that one of the three foreigners who had also been sitting on the porch watching the people go by got up and hurriedly scuttled inside and returned just a few short minutes later with his two companions.

Garisa watched as the three strangers excitedly spoke to one another as if deciding what to do. The strangers were acting oddly and kept sipping from little leather flask bags. The faces of the strangers looked as if the were seeing ghosts and their conversation seemed to grow more and more excited as they whispered. Garisa just sat back in the shadows and watched the strangers who didn’t even seem to notice that she was sitting at the other end of the porch. Garisa knew only that these three must have lied to her and that they really want the reward for the impostor and that she was not going to allow them to get her reward. Garisa watched as two of the men went back inside the inn and the third man began to follow the young people as they started to slowly move down the street again while leading their horses and eating their meat and bread.

Being an expert in these matters Garisa knew that she should not follow the kids because the stranger would eventually notice that she too was following the same target. Easy enough, the stranger can follow the kids and she will follow him. The kids will not recognize her and the stranger will be too intent on watching the brats. Garisa just sat patiently and watched the group of young people move away with the stranger casually moving along behind them. While she sat and watched one of the other two strangers came out of the inn and headed right to the stables down the street and in a few minutes he was mounted and riding toward the city gates and out of Deelt. So the strangers wanted the reward and two of them were to stay behind and follow the impostor while the other one went to report to someone. Well, that leaves two strangers to deal with in the dark and more strangers coming later. So the woman knew that she would need to act soon; as soon as she knew where the boy and his friends were going to get rooms for the night. Now she got up and casually followed the stranger who was following the kids. She watched him from a distance knowing that as long as she can see him he will show her where the impostor is.

*****

As the young companions moved down the street eating their roast meat and bread they also looked closely at all of the wonderful things the street vendors had to offer.  Here and there they picked up small items and a few supplies to replace things which had been used or worn out on their journey. Jolss notice a stone building with seven floors of windows. It was a square tower of grey stone decorated with battlements along the top and with a small forecourt behind a low stone fence. The building was very old and had a small gate in the front of the fence for entry. But what caught the attention of the boy was the carving over the gate that led into the small courtyard in front of the tower. Pointing Jolss said, “look! That tower! It says that it is the tower of the Brotherhood of Mages.”

Shira said. “I hate to tell you this Jolss but the mages don’t exist anymore. They lost their magic and faded out of history. That tower is very old if it was used by the mages. No telling who owns it now.”

“Maybe they have more books.” Jolss said as he ran toward the gate quickly followed by the others. As Jolss pushed open the gate and stepped into the forecourt Prin leaped into the air and fluttered on the shoulder of the boy where she continued to flutter her wings trying to hold onto the boy who was now walking quickly to the door of the tower. Cyerant looked around to see if anyone had notice a puppy suddenly flying and sitting on the shoulder of the boy. But in the hustle and bustle of the street only the companions themselves noticed the little dog jumping into the air. Now passers by would only see a little boy with a pet bird on his shoulder but for a moment people would have seen the impossible.

“Daralce stop,” called Cyerant.

Ignoring his older brother, Jolss came right up to the double doors and knocked on them as loudly as he could. And he heard a man’s voice from inside of the tower calling to go away. So the reached up and grabbed the door knocker hanging from a metal face on the wooden double door and used that to knock even more urgently.  The voice from behind the door was growing louder and more irritated sounding and Jolss could now identify that it was the voice of an old man; a very angry old man. Then the door opened slowly inward and the voice of the old man came through the open door first.

“I told you to tell the magistrate that I have paid the taxes and I will not sell the tower. This has always been the mage tower and as long as there is one mage in Deelt it will remain the, oh.” The man stopped speaking sharply as he looked down and saw Jolss. “Harrumph, boy. Go away; I don’t have anything for urchins.” The man started to close the door.

“I want to ask you something,” Jolss said.

“No, don’t need any more servants. No work here for little boys.”

“It’s about books,” said Jolss frantically while sliding his foot into the door to hold it open.

“Yes books I have many, very good ones all about magic, a whole library,” the old man answered as he tried to close the door again.

“I have some books,” Jolss said.

“Don’t want to buy any – got enough,” said the old man. By this time Cyerant had reached the door also and the old man noticed him and then the others behind him. “Oh there are more of you. Well I don’t need anymore books go sell them somewhere else.”

Jolss said, “I don’t want to sell them I want to ask you about them.”

“Let me think, leather covers? Parchment leaves all stitched together and with ink splashed here and there into words?” The old man asked.

“Yes,” said Jolss.

“Definitely sounds like books; we call that kind a codex as opposed to the older scrolls. What a smart child being able to see that a book is a book. Now go away,” said the old man as he once again tried to close the door. “Move your foot.”

At this moment Prin jumped into the air and flew through the door over the head of the old man. Startled, Jolss stepped back and the door slammed in front of him. The he heard the sounds of the old man yelling inside and Prin screeching in anger.

The door opened again and the man looked out at the little boy and yelled. “I don’t want a bird. Get the bird out of my tower.” The old man let the door open and Jolss squeezed through and then was followed by Cyerant. The old man closed the door behind them leaving Veer and Shira still standing in the forecourt with the horses and dogs. The sound of the old man yelling was still coming through the door.

“That old goat is as mad as a badger,” said Veer as he turned to Shira chuckling.

“He thinks that he is a mage. Of course he’s mad. I bet he makes hats as a hobby.” Shira answered with a smile of her own. “Glad that we are out here.”

The door swung open again and the head of the old man popped out and he looked right at Veer and Shira. “You two leave the horses and dogs in the courtyard and get in here and help them catch this bird.”

Shira and Veer looked at one another and with a shrug they walked into the Tower of the Brotherhood of Mages. As the two other young people entered the room, which was actually a large hall, Prin fluttered down from the iron candle chandelier and landed peacefully on the shoulder of Jolss as if nothing had happened.

The old man seeing this said, “there, you’ve caught the thing, get out.” Once again the man opened the door and pointed outside. “Now”

As the old man pointed through the open door two dogs and two puppies ran through into the hall. “No, no dogs! Oh look at this, dogs and birds in the Tower of the Mages. You were sent to torment me weren’t you? Well, I am the last mage of the Tower of Deelt I have ancient magics and mysteries at my command and if you do not take your beasts and go now I will call the fury of dark magic down on your heads.”

“Stop!” Shira shouted. “Old man, you know that no mage has been able to call anything down on any heads in hundreds of years. And if you don’t calm down you are going to give yourself a spell or something.”

The old man looked startled at the sound of the young woman yelling. “Oh yes, well, there is that. Magic doesn’t work so well anymore; not like it did in ancient times. But this is still the Tower of the Mages and I am still a mage.”

“Sir, please sit down before you become ill,” said Cyerant

“Yes, quite so, I…. I should sit. The man said as he moved over to a chair near the door. “I should have a cup of tea when you leave. But please take your beasts and go.”

“I just have some questions about some books and you might be able to answer them,” said Jolss. “Please just listen to me for a few moments.”

“I will try” answered the old man. “But understand that I am a scholar of magical history and there are many ancient and wonderful magic books here in the tower but I am not a general librarian so I likely will not have your answers. But after I try you must leave.”

“We will leave after you hear his questions,” said Cyerant. “His name is Daralce and he is my younger brother.”

“So Daralce, what are your questions?” the old man asked. “I am Partonius myself.”

“Well, he has some magic books that we want to know about,” said Veer. “I’m sorry, my name is Veer.”

“Impossible,” said Partonius. “All known magic books have been gathered into the tower s, the tower here and the tower in Verat City.”

“Even so he has three books and one is written in an unreadable script and one was filled with tales about ancient dragons and the other was blank,” said Veer.

The old man jumped to his feet and walked toward Jolss saying. “Let me see these books.”

Jolss opened the cloth sack that he carried with him everywhere and took out the three books and held them up for the man to see.

Partonius looked startled and said, “I know these books. How did you come by them?”

Jolss answered, “Veer bought from a trader in a town north of here on the Edgeway. The trader bought them from an innkeeper who sold them to cover the debts for an old man who had died in the inn.”

With lightening like speed Cyerant rushed to steady the old man as he staggered and looked as though he might collapse. Veer joined him as the legs of the old man gave way and together they gently lifted the mage over to a sitting couch.

“Dratarion dead,” the old man said as his eyes filled with tears. “Twenty five years we have lived here together since our teacher passed and left us as the last mages in the tower. The old fool. Catch a dragon, as if dragons still roamed the wilds.”

Just then everyone was startled by a knock at the door. “Oh what now?” The old wizard asked.