Bronze Magic (Book 1) (38 page)

Falling Branch frowned, “Why did you come here? Why didn’t you
just stay with the oathbound woodfolk where you were safe?”
“Before I answer that, can we sit down? And do you think you could
put away your arrows, just for a little while? Otherwise, I’m going to have
to raise my shield. I can’t stand the tension much longer.”
“I thought you didn’t care whether you lived or died,” said Sun Shower.
Tarkyn glanced sideways at her, “It’s one thing to die and quite another
to endure the constant expectation of it.”
“What will the shield do to us?” asked Rainstorm with narrowed eyes.
“Nothing. It will simply protect me. But I have been going to some
lengths not to frighten you. So I don’t want to start now.”
None of the bowmen relaxed their stance so Tarkyn breathed in
resignation and threw up a bronze shield around himself. Immediately,
four arrows pinged against the outside of the shield.
“Oh, what a bloody silly lot you are!” exclaimed the prince in extreme
annoyance. “I’m beginning to lose patience with you! I come here in
good faith, completely unprotected, try to have a sensible discussion and
you act like a bunch of hooligans.”
Sun Shower stepped up to the outside of the shield. “We do not want
to be tricked into your oath.”
“I don’t blame you, but I give you my word that I don’t want your oath.”
Sun Shower shook her head regretfully, “Unfortunately we do not
trust you, so your word is valueless.”
A strong wave of anger hit the surrounding woodfolk, rocking them
backwards with its intensity. Several bowmen notched arrows and
prepared to fire. Tarkyn was almost certain that his anger would have
altered the composition of his shield to make it reflective. He removed
his focus from the shield but managed to hold it in place as he muttered,
“Shturrum!”
He glared around at the stationary woodfolk. “Why does it always
come to this? I have done nothing to you. I intend to do nothing to
you. I have had to stop the bowmen because my shield will reflect the
arrows back at them now that I am angry. I do not want them to die
from their own arrows.” He waited to give his message time to sink in.
“Do you understand? Stop shooting at me! … At least until we have
finished talking. Then if you still want to kill me, so be it.” He swept
his gaze around the angry woodfolk before him. “I will now release you
but whatever you do, don’t shoot at my shield. When you lower your
weapons, I will lower my shield. Everyone clear?”
The sorcerer released the woodfolk and watched as their eyes went out
of focus.
“Fine,” said Tarkyn quietly to himself. “Chat among yourselves. See if
you can sort this bloody mess out.”
At last Falling Branch spoke. “Will you agree to have your hands tied
while we talk?”
Tarkyn felt sick at the memory of the last time he had had his hands
tied. “I will. I won’t like it but I will”
Falling Branch raised his eyebrows. “You are in no position to dictate
terms.”
The sorcerer rolled his eyes. “Oh for heaven’s sake. I’m in every position
to dictate terms at the moment. I’m just choosing not to.”
The bowmen released the tension in their bows and Tarkyn lowered
his shield and turned around to have his hands tied.
“There is no need for your hands to be tied behind you. That will be
uncomfortable. We will simply bind your hands in front of you.”
Tarkyn turned his head to look over his shoulder at the woodman.
“Unless you want this to be a complete farce, you will have to tie my
hands behind me. I can perform nearly all of my sorcery with my hands
in front of me, bound or not.”
Without further discussion, someone tied his hands together firmly
using rough hemp. When he was facing Falling Branch again, he asked
irritably, “Can we sit down now?”
The woodfolk sat Tarkyn on a low log and sat themselves around him.
The prince stretched out his legs and crossed his ankles. “So, what do you
want? To see how I came here or to find out why?”
“Tell us why,” said Sun Shower. “If you wanted to leave the other
woodfolk, why didn’t you just walk away from all of us?”
The prince took a deep breath. “You have no idea how much I want
to do just that. But I too am bound by the oath to protect you woodfolk
whether you have taken the oath or not. And if I am indeed the guardian
of the forest and the legends are true, you are going to need me. So I can’t
just walk away from you.”
There was a surprised silence at these words. Mind messages passed
back and forth. Then Falling Branch asked, “But why did you come to us
when you knew it was so dangerous?”
“Because I can’t allow woodfolk to be opposing woodfolk for my
protection. You will need to be united to face whatever threat lies ahead
and I will not allow this cursed oath to destroy your unity. If it means I
have to die, then at least I have kept my word to protect you as well as I
could.” Tarkyn flexed his shoulders. “If you allow me to live and work by
your side as your forest guardian, I may be able to provide even greater
protection, but I can’t guarantee it. I don’t know what dangers lie ahead.
Anyway, the choice is yours.”
With the unblunted perception of youth, the angry young man asked,
not unkindly, “There’s more to it than that, though, isn’t there?”
The prince nodded reluctantly. “Yes.” He moved his wrists trying to ease
the pressure of the ropes. “How can I explain it to you? - The woodfolk I
know have chosen to protect you from me. They didn’t trust me enough
to take the risk that I wouldn’t try to force the oath on you. In the time I
have known them, they have never let on that woodfolk existed who had
not sworn the oath. So the fact that they are protecting you from me has
undermined any relationship I had with them.” Tarkyn looked around at
the unsympathetic faces surrounding him. “You probably think that’s a
good thing but it’s not from where I’m sitting. And if I can get rid of any
need for subterfuge in woodfolk’s dealings with me, then I will.”
Rainstorm considered the prince who was sitting surrounded by
enemies, looking remarkably relaxed, if a little awkward, with his hands
tied behind him.
“How old are you, prince?” he asked suddenly.
The young woodman found himself being scrutinised in return.
Tarkyn’s eyes narrowed as he tried to judge the woodman’s age. “I am
nineteen. Maybe slightly older than you?”
Rainstorm reddened at the implied compliment. “I am sixteen, but I
will be seventeen soon.” He paused and added self-consciously, “I hope
that by the time I am nineteen I have as much courage as you – and less
need to use it.”
Tarkyn smiled. “Thank you.” A wave of fellow feeling rolled out from
the prince to the youth before he could stop it.
Rainstorm’s eyes widened in surprise then smiled in return.
A rough voice cut across this interchange, “And how did you find us
and avoid our lookout?- I am Raging Water.”
Tarkyn transferred his gaze to a tough old woodman with gnarled
hands and a weathered face. His smile faded and he gave a small sigh, “It
would be easier for me to show you. It’s like mind talking but no words.
It may affect your balance but it is not a trick. You can block it out at any
time, just like mind talking. Agreed? So, is everyone seated? I can’t see
who’s behind me.”
“Sun Shower is just bringing you a cup of tea. Wait for a minute,”
replied Rainstorm.
“No thanks. Forget the tea. Too hard in my present situation.” There
was a slight but definite bitterness in Tarkyn’s voice. He looked at
Rainstorm. “Is she ready?”
At a nod from Rainstorm, the sorcerer closed his eyes and took the
woodfolk on his journey following the owl across the moonlit treetops, down
behind the lookout and into their clearing. He opened his eyes and waited.
“You lucky bastard!” breathed Rainstorm.
Tarkyn raised his eyebrows and gave a short laugh. “I suppose I am. I
hadn’t thought of it like that.”
Raging Water stood up and stomped around to stand over the prince.
He glowered down at him. “You really are a bloody guardian of the forest,
aren’t you?”
Tarkyn shrugged, “So I have been led to believe.” He stared the old
woodman straight in the eye. “It’s not my legend and I hadn’t even heard
of a forest guardian until a week or two ago. So you must be the judge of
it, not I.” He flicked a glance at Rainstorm, “To be perfectly frank, I find
it all a bit embarrassing.”
Rainstorm roared with laughter but was quickly quelled by disapproving
looks from the older woodfolk.
Raging Water had not moved from his aggressive stance over the
prince. “So even if you are a guardian of the forest, there are still a few
things we need to sort out before we let you go. Now we have you here
bound and helpless, it seems to me that we should be forcing you to
release our kin from the oath.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” said the prince, “but would you
mind moving back just a little while we discuss it because I’m beginning
to get a stiff neck looking up at you.”
“Sorry, young man,” said the old woodman moving back a couple of
paces. Then he frowned in confusion at his own compliance and shook
his head a little to clear it. He looked severely at the prince and began
again, “So, as you are now our prisoner, we demand that you release our
kin from their oath.”
Tarkyn put his head on one side as he thought about what to say. “I
do not know how to release the sorcery in the oath. If I did, I would have
done it as soon as I knew about it. The one person who does know how to
release the spell has refused to do so because he fears that I will be killed
by the woodfolk if they are released from the oath. If I survive today,
I will be in a better position to persuade him.” The prince flexed his
shoulders again as they stiffened from being in one position. “However,
there is a slight hitch to this.”
“Go on,” growled Raging Water.
“Waterstone assured me that woodfolk are people of honour and that
since they swore the oath in good faith as a debt of gratitude, disarming the
oath will not remove their commitment to honouring it.” Tarkyn looked
around at his captors. “The only sure way I can think of releasing them is
to kill me. – Of course you do run the slight risk that the allegiance may
automatically revert to my brother King Kosar, but I think that is unlikely.”
“Blast you!” roared Raging Water in the prince’s face.
Tarkyn jumped in fright. “Why? What have I done? I have offered
myself up as the sacrificial lamb. I can’t do much more than that.”
“You have reminded us that we are indeed people of honour,”
explained Falling Branch. “We are all one people. If we kill you, we will
have betrayed the honour of our kindred.”
If Tarkyn was relieved, he didn’t show it. “Perhaps then, the best
solution will be for me to stay away from the oathbound woodfolk. Then
they won’t have to ‘serve, honour and protect me.’ I can easily override
their vow to protect me by ordering them to stay away.”
“Then, prince, you will have the situation you were trying to resolve in
reverse,” pointed out Rainstorm. “You’ll still have some woodfolk having
to stay away from other woodfolk if you are with them.” The young man
eyed the prince uncertainly for a moment while he decided whether to
say what he was thinking. Finally, he drew in a breath and said quietly,
“You are going to have to face them sometime, you know.”
Flinging a look of defiance at his elders, Rainstorm walked around
behind the prince and untied his bonds.
“Thanks,” said Tarkyn quietly and brought his hands around to the
front. He focused briefly on his wrists and the pink weals from the rope
disappeared as the woodfolk watched. He looked up and let his gaze
travel around the woodfolk. “So, is it safe for me to get up and move
around? I would swear that I mean you no harm or tell you what I have
sworn as my part of the oath but there’s not really much point if you don’t
trust me anyway.” He waited until he saw a couple of grudging nods,
then stood up. “I will try to move slowly for a while until you get used to
me. There’s something I need to do.”
Tarkyn walked across the clearing and bent down to inspect the
damaged elm. He placed his hands on the scar made by his blast of
magic and waited until he felt the trunk’s bark become smooth under his
hand. “There,” he said to himself. “That’s the best I can do.” He gave the
tree a final pat and walked back to join the woodfolk who were silently
watching him from around the firesite. Sun Shower gave him a cup of tea
that, this time, he accepted.
“At least,” said the prince between sips, “I know where I stand with
you. You can behave as you like around me. I know you won’t trust me
so I won’t be disappointed when you don’t. And this time, this time, I
will have learnt my lesson and will know not to trust you either.” He
gave a wry smile, “It’s not much as working relationships go, but at least
it’s clear…and so far I’m still alive.” He paused and added, not very
convincingly, “And that has to be a good thing.”
Falling Branch scowled at him. “I do not like your implication that we
are not trustworthy.”
“I beg you pardon. I did not mean to offend you. I am sure you are
all as trustworthy as any other folk amongst yourselves.” Tarkyn took
another sip and looked at the woodman over the rim of the cup.“From
what I have seen, more so than most. But as Sun Shower has already
pointed out, you don’t trust me. So, in that case, I can hardly expect that
you will be forthright with me, can I?”
“No, I suppose not,” conceded Falling Branch grudgingly.
“And unfortunately, over time, the mistrust does not seem to abate. So
I think I will be safe in always assuming that, at least on the issues most
closely concerning you, woodfolk will never be open with an outsider.”
The prince looked around them and was saddened but not surprised
when no one challenged his statement.