Dragon Talker (18 page)

“One thing, my dear. Where, exactly, are we?”

“I’m not sure what you mean, sir. We are in a ca…”

Xeron interrupted her, “I know we are in a castle. I mean where are we? What village are we near?”

“I’m sorry, sir, I’ve never left this place.” She stood by the door, with her head down, waiting for his response.

“Of course, Perante does like his secrets. You do know Mage Perante, don’t you?”

“Yes sir. Everyone knows him. He is the owner of this castle.”

Xeron decided to see if there was anything he could learn from the servant. He cast a spell of truth as he asked, “What can you tell me about him?”

“He is a kind man. He…”

“Wait a minute.” Xeron found it hard to think of Perante as kind. “How is
he
kind?”

“Oh sir, just last winter, when my mother was ill, he healed her and didn’t even ask for anything in return. He said, ‘we must take care of our mothers, don’t we.’ He’s such a caring man.”

Xeron shook his head, “That does not sound like the man I know.”

“Well, sir, maybe you’re thinking of the wrong man.” With that, the servant left the room.

To himself, he thought,
you may be right, but I think it more likely that this place has a special purpose
. To Tail Biter, “I think it is up to you and I to figure out what that purpose is.”

Tail Biter cocked his head.

“Fine, we will eat first.” Xeron put the wooden bowl holding scraps on the floor.

“Eat your fill, Biter, because when we go exploring, I will not have you getting distracted by bones. Tail Biter’s ears dropped at the bones’ comment, but it didn’t stop him from wolfing down the contents of the bowl.

After he checked his own food for enchantments, Xeron made up for not eating for days. Sated, he pocketed an apple for later and called to Tail Biter, “Let’s go find out what our caring, mother-loving Perante is up to, shall we?”

Chapter 28

When they woke up in the morning, Yuri and the two boys checked the snares All three were empty. Yuri said, “Well, boys, I think we need to do a little hunting if we want to keep eating. If we find a deer, we can even make some new straps for your pack.”

Bernard said, “I don’t like hunting.”

Stone added, “He’s a little baby.”

“Hey, none of that. I didn’t like hunting when I started, either, Bernard, but I do like eating, and we will need our strength for all the walking we have to do.”

“I don’t like it. It makes me sad.” Bernard looked like he was about to cry.

“I’m going to tell you what my dad told me, okay?” Yuri waited for Bernard to nod his head in agreement. “He told me that everything is…” Yuri stopped. How would he talk about life and death to two boys who just had their family and village murdered? “You know, let me think about this a little more. For now, let’s pack up and get moving.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Stone added, clearly ready to move on. “What’s your village like?”

Happy to have the subject changed, Yuri replied, “Oh, it’s a good one. I’ll tell you on the way.” Yuri added their pot to his pack again. Stone didn’t complain. Soon, they were on the road that would take them to Mandan.

“First off, there’s my mom. She’s the best, and my…” Yuri looked back and saw tears starting to well up in Bernard’s eyes. “Um, there’s my family, but wait till you meet Hental. He’s about your age, Stone. You guys will be able to get into all kinds of trouble with him.”

Stone grinned. “Really, what kind of trouble?”

“Oh, let’s see. Fishing, for starters. We have a stream a short walk from the village, and every time Hental goes fishing, well, you never know what he’ll come back with or what he will do. One time, he went out with my dad, and when they came back, my dad was completely soaked. I don’t know how you get that wet, like he lived in the stream. Neither one ever said a word, and that means Hental caused it.”

“But that’s with family. He’s even worse with the neighbors. Do you want to hear about what he did to the goats?”

Bernard was quiet, but Stone said, “Yes. Goats are dumb.”

“Oh, you may think so,” Yuri replied, “and Hental sure thought so, but he learned his lesson. There’s this fool herder, who doesn’t care what his goats do. During the day, they are out in the nearby hills, but when they return, they go all over the place. They will wander in any open door and they’ll eat anything. Unless you have it blocked off.”

“Well, Hental loves carrots, and my folks let him grow his own little plot of them. This was a couple years ago when he was about Bernard’s age. He was out there every day, looking for weeds, and waiting for them to come up. Well, one day, he goes out and, guess what he sees?”

Stone answered, “The goats.”

“Oh yes.” Yuri laughed. “They had eaten the tops off the carrots and then started digging them up. They were just little. Hental was so mad. He even grabbed my dad’s bow, but mother came running out after him when he said, ‘I’m going to kill those goats.’ That would have not been neighborly. The herder is a moron; even so, you don’t mess with a person’s livelihood.”

Yuri stopped talking as they spotted a horse drawn wagon approaching. Yuri motioned the boys behind him and said, “Stand in the bushes behind me, boys. It never hurts to be cautious with strangers.” In his mind, Yuri was remembering the hunting trips his father took him on where, whenever strangers approached that gave his father a bad feeling, he would be ordered to hide behind a tree or brush until Tadeus could figure out the intentions of the strangers.

The wagon slowed then stopped as it reached Yuri. An older man in a leather jacket was driving the wagon. His long white hair almost reached to the crossbow on his lap. “Are you looking for trouble?” He asked, resting his hand on the crossbow.

Yuri raised his hands to show he wasn’t holding any weapons. “No sir, just heading home after a long journey.” The man looked so frail, he wondered how he cocked the bow.

Yuri could hear the boys moving behind him in the bushes and so could the man, whose hearing was better than Yuri expected. The man tightened his grip on the crossbow but didn’t pick it up as he asked, “That wouldn’t be a dog back there, would it?”

“No sir. I’m no mage. It’s two boys, but I wanted to know it was safe before they came out. Is it safe?”

“As long as you’re no dirty mage, you bet it is.” He smiled and took the crossbow from his lap and set it next to him. “I mean you no harm.”

“I believe you. Come on out boys.”

Stone and Bernard walked out from the bushes. Stone chastised Bernard, “I told you you were making too much noise.”

“There was a snake.”

Yuri broke in before an argument started, “It’s okay, boys.” He waved his arm towards the boys. “This is Stone and Bernard. My name is Yuri.”

“Sires Stone, Bernard, and Yuri.” The boys smiled at being called Sire. “My name is Bogdanovitch Tanowski. Leatherworker beyond compare. If it’s broke, I can fix it. If it ain’t broke, I can make it better, and if you don’t have it, I can create it.”

Bogdanovitch’s smile was contagious and Yuri couldn’t help but smile. He tried to match Bogdanovitch’s bravado in his answer. “We, Sir Tanowski,” Bogdanovitch smiled at the honorific, “we three are simple villagers, though no one is better company than us. Though both have faced severe adversity that would crush lesser persons, Stone has kept his earnestness, Bernard his kindness, and my own protective nature has come to promi.. prom.. the front.” Yuri blushed. He tried to sound like the elders of his village, Lindale in particular, but couldn’t remember the word he was trying to say.  If Bogdanovitch noticed, he didn’t let on. Yuri was happy to change the subject. “We have a problem you may be able to solve?”

“Go on, Yuri the Protector.”

“Young Stone here has broken his pack and…”

Bogdanovitch interrupted, “Say no more, or all I said before would be proven rot.” He disarmed the crossbow and put it on the seat next to him before slowly climbing down and joining the boys. “Let me see the pack, or has your brother worn it completely through?”

“He’s not…” Yuri hesitated. Who was Stone to him? He knows what his dad would do, has done. “Some of it is left, but not much.”

Stone narrowed his eyes as he looked at Bogdan, who noticed.

“I see you are a cautious boy. Is this pack important to you? Or do you just distrust strangers?”

“My father gave it to me.” Stone didn’t say anything else.

Yuri added, “And he has returned in fire.”

“Ah,” Bodganovitch shook his head. “I see. If you let me look at that, Sire Stone, I will look after it as if my own father gave it to me.”

Stone gave a condition, “Don’t do anything to it unless I say it’s all right.”

“It is your pack, sire Stone, I wouldn’t think of modifying it without your approval. Now let’s see what we have to work with.”

Stone handed what was left of the pack to Bogdanovitch, who returned Stone’s serious look with one of his own. He carefully examined the leather in his hands. “Yes, this was done well. There is excellent stitching here. It looks like it’s been stretched past its limit. What do you usually carry in this?”

Stone answered, “Clothes and food, maybe a few toys.”

“And that,” Yuri said pointing to the cooking pot.

“I see. Do you want your new pack to be able to carry that?”

Stone didn’t hesitate, “Yes.”

“That’s too bad. I think I could make this pack almost exactly what it was, only a little smaller, if it didn’t have to carry all that weight.”

This time, Stone did hesitate. Yuri offered a way out. “You know, Stone, I’m pretty used to carrying this ol’ pot around by now. I could easily do it for the rest of the way.”

Stone asked, “It will be like it was?”

“I can even fix that inside secret pocket to working order.”

Stone’s eyes widened at that. His pack had had a “secret” pocket inside that his dad had told him was for storing those special things.

“What do you think, Stone?” Yuri wanted to get home, but he knew there was a long way to go and they did not have the food to get them there. “We do need to stock up on food.” To Bogdanovitch, he added, “We’d be happy to share what we collect if you’d work on his pack. Or, I have some Mandan arrows to pay with, if you want that instead.”

“Mandan, huh, you’re a far clip from home, aren’t you?”

“I’ve been farther, but it will be nice to be home for the winter.”

“I will join you for meals, but I think I’ll fix Stone’s pack without charge, because a boy needs a good pack to make his way in the world.” Looking at Stone, he continued, “but you’ll have to help me do it. Are you up for doing some work, young Sire?”

“Yes. I work harder than most, when I want to.”

Bogdanovitch smiled, “I bet you do.”

“Then it’s settled. Bernard and I will go out and hunt.” Yuri saw Bernard scrunch up his face at the idea of hunting. “I will hunt, and Bernard will gather nuts, berries, and any fall mushrooms. Stone, help Bernard lighten his pack to make room for collecting. Bogdanovitch…”

“Call me Bogdan,” he interrupted.

“All right.” Yuri smiled. “Bogdan, could we have word?” Yuri nodded his head in the direction of the back of the wagon.

“Of course.” The two walked behind the wagon. Two tarps, one front and one back, covered the supplies in the wagon. Yuri could see hides and tools in the gaps of the side of the wagon.

Behind the wagon, Yuri told explained, “I am in charge of these two boys. I’m responsible for their safety.”

Bodgan put his hand on Yuri’s shoulder. “Yuri, you are a good young man. I’m a good enough older man. Your boy is safe in my charge. I may be frail, but I will protect him as if he was my own grandson. You have my word.”

The tension drained from Yuri’s shoulders. “I believe you.” Yuri felt a relief in sharing responsibility, even if only a bit. “And thank you for fixing his pack. It’s something important to him, and I just realized that a few moments ago.”

The old man nodded, “Sometimes we need something physical to stand in for the things we keep locked in our hearts. That boy has a locked down heart. You know what happens when you try to force a lock, Yuri?”

Without even thinking, Yuri responded, “You break it.”

“That’s right. Do you have time for some advice from an old man?” Yuri nodded, and he continued, “Give that boy time, and don’t mix up Stone and Bernard. What is right for one is not necessarily right for the other.”

“What am I supposed…”

Stone interrupted, shouting, “What are you doing? Let’s go. Time to fix my pack!”

Yuri looked imploringly at Bogdan. Instead of the answer, Bogdan brushed his hands on his thighs. “The boy calls. You don’t have to figure it out, Yuri. Just get them home.” Louder, so the boys could hear, he added, “Young sire Stone, your services are required at the rear of the wagon. It is time to get to work.”

To himself, Stone said, “Finally.”

As Yuri and Stone passed each other, Yuri reached out and tried to rub Stone’s head, something he would do to Hental. Stone ducked as he swatted his hand away, saying, “Too slow.”

“Ah, you are too fast for me Stone. We’ll be back in a few hours. Are you okay staying here.?”

“Yeah. Get going, but don’t let Bernard out of your sight. He doesn’t try to get lost, but he does if you’re not watching,” he warned.

“You got it.” Yuri smiled, but inside, he was thinking
, this isn’t fair. I shouldn’t have two boys to take care of. I’ve got enough to worry about
. He hadn’t, though, been worrying about his village or Samora. The weight of his responsibility relanded on him like a sack of grain.

His shoulders sagging, he felt the pendant with his hand as he focused on the scales covering his neck and chest. I’m a dragon talker, with mother-dragon scales. I can handle this. By the time he reached Bernard, he was standing tall again.

“All right, Bernard, let’s go get some food so we can get home.”

Chapter 29

The Earth, Sky, and Sea settled in to the new arrangement, but the earth was the first to say, “This is not good enough.” It didn’t like how much of itself was covered by water, but there was only so much that could be on the surface. The ocean filled the waters with creatures big and small, claiming it as its own. The sky said no more dragons, but it was jealous of ocean for all its creatures and made the birds of the air to soar through the skies.