Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) (22 page)

*****

The next morning the companions were awakened early by the old wizard and told to join him for breakfast which had been brought by the boy from the inn across the way.  Shortly everyone was sitting at the table in the kitchen of the tower eating their meal. Partonius spoke. “Well, today should be quite the day around Deelt. When the boy brings my breakfast each day he also brings all of the news and rumours from around the inn. It seems that before dawn the night patrol found a dead stranger in an alley across the way and an inn keeper near the north-gate found that one of his guests had been murdered in the night. It turns out that the man dead in the alley way was staying at the same inn and that the two dead men shared a room. They kept to themselves and some say that they didn’t speak much but when they did they had a strange foreign accent.”

The old wizard caught the quiet glances that his young guests exchanged and then he continued. “So that’s it then, these foreigners who were following you and trying to take these marvellous creatures know that you have come to Deelt. And someone else knows also and knows that these foreigners want the dragons. And that someone doesn’t want the foreigners to take the beasts. So whoever killed those men wants something too; I imagine that he wants the dragons. I sent the boy off with an order for the butcher to deliver meat for the animals and that should be along soon and you can tend to their breakfast.”

Cyerant said, “Thank you for allowing us to stay here and for the food and for the meat for the dragons, we will pay you for your expenses.”

“Nonsense,” responded the old wizard. The tower still has quite a large treasury and you are my guests. Besides you have done the tower a great favour. Your dragons have brought magic back to us. I wish that there was a way that I could repay you. Oh my!” The old wizard was startled by the two non-bonded dragons starting to wrestle and play on the floor of the kitchen.

Jolss looked at the playing dragonets and said. “I think that one of them is a night dragon.” He continued as everyone turned toward him. “There was a type of dragon that disliked the sunlight and daytime and could see very well in the night, even in the total darkness of the mines. They also could read stone like a scout can read tracks and so they helped miners find rare metals. One of those metals was very, very rare and really deep and was called dragonite. There was once a famous miner who was blind but he could see through the eyes of his dragon and he could find dragonite easily.”

One of the baby dragons seemed to pause in its play and glance over at the boy as he spoke. After a moment the dragonets returned to their play.

The old mage spoke. “Yes, well you, young Jolss or Daralce, whichever you prefer, will come with me today to see that nasty magistrate. You will come as an apprentice to show that the tower continues to train mages. The rest of you should stay in the tower grounds until we know more about these foreigners. Now you should all go out to the well and get yourselves cleaned up before the meat arrives for the beasts. I apologize that there was no water in your rooms waiting for you when you awoke. We have not needed servants at the tower for some years now. I suppose that I shall need to employ a few servants soon for the new apprentices who will be coming, but perhaps we should wait long enough to make sure the servants do not run into dragons.”

Shira asked. “How do you know that apprentices will come?”

“Magic lives again and so those who wish to learn will come seeking it and some will be fitting students,” responded the mage. “While this young apprentice and I are away you are welcome to make yourselves to home in the tower. If anything is locked then leave it alone and you are welcome to use the library where you will find many books about many things.”

Veer asked. “Is there anything which we should not read?”

Partonius gave a little snort of laughter and waived dismissively. “Yes, but anything that you shouldn’t read you will not be able to read anyway. That is the nature of magic books.”

A half an hour later Partonius and Jolss were leaving the tower gate. The dragons had been fed and the mage and apprentice were setting off for their visit to the Magistrate. Anyone watching would see an old wizard walking along with a boy who looked about eleven years old with a bird sitting on the shoulder of the boy. And someone was watching from the shadows of the inn across the way.

Jolss asked. ‘Why do I feel like someone is watching us?” The bird sitting on his shoulder seemed to be a bit agitated.

“Because someone is watching us boy,” answered Partonius. I imagine that it is whoever killed those strangers during the night. He is probably one of those people sitting over in front of that inn across the way and most likely has a room there. What remains to be seen is if he will follow us or if he will stay and watch the tower.”

“Oh” Answered Jolss who then asked. “How long does it take to get to the Magistrate’s office?”

“We will be near there about lunch time I should think.” The mage answered. “Then we will stop at a tavern nearby, have lunch and then go in to see this new magistrate.”

“That long? I didn’t think this city was that big.”

“It isn’t,” responded the old man. “A half an hour walk from the north gate to the south docks is all that it takes to cross it.”

Jolss looked confused. “Then why does it take so long to get to the magistrate?”

“It doesn’t.” Answered Partonius looking a bit irritated.

“But you said.”

“I know what I said. We simply will not be going directly to the office and court of the magistrate. My boy you have a lot to learn about people. Rumour boy rumour, it can be a wonderful tool.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t understand. You need to watch and learn. Sometimes you learn more from a person by watching than by asking questions. When you ask a question a person tells you what he wants you to know but when you just observe then you can often see to the heart of a matter. A mage must be a keen observer child. For instance. Do you still feel like someone is watching you?”

“No I don’t.”.

“And that means?”  The wizard looked quizzically at the boy.

“That whoever it was stayed to watch the tower and did not follow us.”

“Precisely,” said the old man with a smile. “Now we know just that much more about him.”

Jolss looked at the mage and asked. “What did you mean when you said rumours?”

With a sigh the old man explained. “Today we will walk around this city; every street of it actually. People have lost their respect for the mages and so they will say unkind things. We will use some small magics here and there to teach them some respect. Nothing to cause serious harm but certainly it will be enough to get tongues wagging. Then we will stop for a nice long lunch and let the rumours precede us to the magistrate. Because when those rumours come to the magistrate’s court, many people will also come and the place will be crowded in expectation and then there will be many witnesses to see our response to this order. By tomorrow the whole city will be buzzing with the news. The mages are doing magic again.”

“Oh,” answered the boy. “And I guess that by walking all of the streets we will be restoring magic across the city.”

“Yes, there is that also,” responded the old man. “You are quite a smart young fellow. Ah, that green eyed crow is such a noisy bird following us about. Is the bird always this unpleasant?”

“Yes, always,” responded the boy. “Green Eyes is always following and always nasty and noisy. Are your plans always like this, with the part that you tell and the part that you do not tell?”

“Always at least twofold my boy; always.”

*****

Garisa watched from the shadows of the porch in front of the inn across from the tower. Last evening she had moved to this inn so that she could keep an eye on the tower where the impostor is staying. Taking care of the two strangers had been an easy enough task. Slip into the alley behind one man as he ducks in to relieve himself. Then simply get herself invited into the room of the other man and he will happily disarm himself. Done and done. She watched as the younger child left with an old man. But the child was not her concern since he was a nearly worthless orphan. She cannot sell the little orphan for much but the impostor is a different story; she knows that there is a nice reward for him.

Now to come up with a plan to take the impostor and get the reward. Outside of a city it is easy enough to take a prisoner and bring him in for a reward but not in a city. In a city there are laws against taking someone prisoner, even when there is a reward. Bothersome magistrate’s hearings are required for a warrant to secure a fugitive. There are always people to pay off and officials to bribe. Magistrates and officials; a guild of thieves. Even the guards sent by a Duke cannot take anyone prisoner inside the city without the authority of the city magistrate. The types of question that magistrates ask are not the types of questions that Garisa likes to answer. Perhaps the orphan can be of some use in getting the impostor outside of the city. Well for now, the woman knows that there is nothing for it but to watch and seize the first chance to get the impostor out of the city alone.

*****

Cyerant, Shira and Veer passed the day in the tower. After feeding the dragons and tending to the horses there was nothing to do but read and hang about the tower. After such a long and difficult journey it was nice to get a chance to rest. Around midday the boy from the inn across the way delivered lunch for five. An afternoon sword practice in the back courtyard of the tower was really all that Cyerant and Veer had planned for the day. As always Shira would spend that time practicing with her knife and bow which were the weapons of the Hillfolk.

*****

By lunch time the city was buzzing with the news that the crazy old mage from the tower was walking around actually doing magic. Little things really, the stall of a nasty merchant was blown over and all of the belts and buckles on a group of rude people unfastened themselves at once. The old man put on quite a show in the tavern at lunchtime demonstrating spells and conjurations while he and his apprentice ate their lunch. All the while the crazy old wizard was loudly talking about needing to get to the magistrates’ office. By the time the wizard and his young companion arrived at the office and court of the city magistrate there was a crowd of people waiting with the building full of onlookers and more of them spilling out into the street. The crowd parted to let the old man through.

“Where is this silly man; this magistrate?” Called the old man as he entered the room where the hearings were being conducted.

The magistrate looked in the direction of the sound of someone daring to call him silly and he saw an old man enter his court accompanied by a boy with a bird. “No children allowed in this court,” the magistrate said pointing at the boy.

The old man responded, “he is my apprentice so the boy stays.”

“And there are no animals allowed, especially birds,” continued the magistrate.

“The boy is rather fond of the beast so the bird stays,” the old man answered as he walked to stand just in front of the desk of the magistrate and pulled himself up to his full height so that he towered over the sitting official.

“Guards, remove the child and the bird immediately,” instructed the magistrate to the two guards in the room.

As the guards approached Jolss and Prin, the dragon flew into the air and began to screech but all of the people present just saw an agitated bird. The wizard waved his hand while whispering an incantation and the two guards collapsed. “Ah, an afternoon nap will do them some good,” the old man said.

The people filling the gallery and around the walls of the court immediately began to whisper so that the room suddenly sounded like it was filled with the hissing of snakes. The magistrate pushed his chair back and jumped to his feet shouting, “silence or I will have this room cleared.”

With a wave of his hand the wizard directed the chair behind the magistrate to fly forward striking the magistrate behind his knees and sitting the man back down in his chair. “Sit down! This is a public court and they are the public so they will stay. Besides, your guards are asleep right now.” With a wave of his hand the old man caused a chair to gently float over to rest in front of the desk of the magistrate and then the wizard slowly seated himself. The chair with the wizard sitting in it then floated a few inches up into the air so that the wizard was still looking down at the magistrate. “I am called Partonius and I am the Grand Mage of the Tower of the Brotherhood of Mages of Deelt. I am told that you wish to speak to me.”

The magistrate tried to compose himself and then waved his hand toward a man standing near his desk and said. “Bailiff, read the order.”

The man near the desk shuffled through some papers and found the one that he was looking for and began to read but shouted in surprise and dropped the papers as they began to burn in his hands. “Yes” the old man said. “One of the constables was kind enough to read this too us yesterday.”

The magistrate was now fully composed and clearly intended to assert his authority. “Then you have heard my order, I want you out of the tower and I declare it and all of its accounts and property forfeited.”