Son of Soron (22 page)

Verin nodded, he could see that Theron was not happy to make this decision; he would like to have the boy grow up with him, but was making a decision that was best for Nathan.

Glad that Verin agreed with him, Verin continued, “magic blood may be more common on Mithbea, but there are still very powerful ingla in the north. To the east of here lives an old ingla mage that is very adept at reading the powers of others. I would like you to take Nathan to meet him on your way south. There is a pass to the east of here near where the ingla mage lives, so it would not be out of your way. I marked down a grove of witch oak that grows just to the east of the pass so you will be able to get the wood as you head back to the south.“

Theron handed Verin the map.” I will be giving Nathan the stallion; you will accept a mount for yourself and two packhorses as my gift. When Nathan returns from his ride, I will take him for a walk and tell him of our decision. You will leave in the morning. I would like to spend more time with the boy but fear the longer he stays in the north the greater the danger for him.”

True to his word, Theron was waiting at the stables for Nathan when he returned from his ride. While he waited for Nathan, the stable master filled him in on Nathan’s success with the wild stallion. “Walked right into the corral, sauntered on over to the big beast and jumped on his back like he had known the horse his whole life. He rode him out of here without a bridal or saddle. It was like riding a pet pony. I’ve never seen the likes. It was almost like magic…”

Theron gave a half-hearted smile, the boy certainly shared a connection with the glorious stallion. “Don’t worry old friend, I know how some around here feel about magic blood, I will be sending the boy away. Besides, he is too much like his father to truly thrive in the north.”

When Nathan returned he was grinning ear to ear, ignoring the pain in his lower buttocks region and his inability to walk straight, Nathan found his grandfather. “Oh, Theron he is wonderful. I could ride him forever.”

“Well, if you did that you would want to use a saddle.”

Nathan laughed and rubbed his sore posterior, obviously his grandfather noticed his funny walk. “Yes, a saddle sounds like a good idea.”

Theron gave Taneal a nod “I’m sure we will be able to come up with a decent saddle, now come with me Nathan, we have much to discuss.” As Theron and Nathan walked, the king filled Nathan in on the conversation that he had had with Verin about going to Balta. The king explained the dangers for him in the north and why he wanted him to go to Balta with Verin; he also announced his gift of the stallion.

Nathan was torn; he understood the logic and agreed that going on to Balta was the right decision. He was sad that he would be leaving Theron so soon and sadder to think of not seeing Ava while he was in Balta. “Now tell me, Nathan, you have your very own horse. It is a beautiful black beast. But what are you going to name it?” Nathan looked at his grandfather “His name is Thorn.”

That evening the king hosted a great feast, and they spent the night laughing and hearing stories of a young Soron, and his bride Velaina. The time of mourning had passed. To mourn longer would dishonor the dead. As custom dictated the departed were to be celebrated and honored with stories of victories and tellings of attributes; after the mourning period. It was a fitting tribute to Soron and Velaina.

The next morning Nathan and Verin spoke with King Theron one last time before they left to complete their journey.  Besides the horses, King Theron had one last gift for Nathan.

“Here take this,” said the king as he handed Nathan a small leather pouch. Nathan gave Theron a look silently asking permission to open the gift, which the king granted with a smile and slight nod. Inside the pouch were a large handful of gems. There were at least two each of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and garnets. Nathan could see a half dozen emeralds and amethyst at the least. The small pouch contained a small fortune.

Theron explained his gift, “When your father was a boy, his favorite thing to smith was jewelry. I used to get mad at him and tell him that pretty things didn’t win wars. That swords and spear were the only thing worthy of a blacksmith's time. Sometime after Soron left the north I started to realize that being king was about more than winning wars, it was about providing my people with a better quality of life.” The king paused, reflecting back on his past. “Your father always appreciated beauty and knew its importance. It wasn’t until I grew old that I began to understand what Soron knew all along. So a few years ago I started collecting these jewels. My intention was to give them to your father as a late wedding gift. My way of explaining that I came to understand why he chose to leave the north. Now that he is gone, these are yours. Do whatever you like with them. But I would ask that at least some of them you make into jewelry. I would like to see them again one day. In addition, you should show the jewels to the mage. He is trustworthy, and will be able to teach you something special about gems.

Nathan thanked Theron for the wonderful gift. Thinking of his lost parents was always tough and now leaving his grandfather was proving to be difficult. Nathans voice was wavering as he spoke. “They are beautiful. I promise to make something worthy of such a wonderful gift.”

Theron was very pleased by Nathan’s reaction to the gift. “In the supplies I also included a large bag of hexin. It is a rare mineral, which can be used like graphite except instead of making iron into steel it makes it into a softer metal. Your father used to try making jewelry out of it. But he rarely had enough of the mineral to make it work. See if you can make something of it.”

With one last embrace Nathan with his grandfather, Nathan mounted Thorn and got a feel for the new saddle that Taneal had found for him. Satisfied that traveling for long periods of time would now be much more comfortable Nathan gave a last way and headed out of Amradin.

Chapter thirty

FOR SEVERAL DAYS, they traveled east following the directions and map that Theron had provided. Thorn carried Nathan effortlessly. Horse and rider moved as one. If a scent on the wind alerted Thorn, Nathan knew it. If Thorn saw a movement, or picked up a suspicious sound, Nathan knew it. As they headed east the land became drier, the vegetation more sparse. Even the air seemed different to Nathan, almost acidic. However, the dry flatter land made for easy travel for the horses so they made good progress. On the third night, they were making camp when that changed
.

The campsite they had chosen was a good one. A small clump of alber elm provided cover and firewood in an otherwise barren and exposed area. Verin tethered and unloaded the horses while Nathan gathered dry twigs and branches and then started a fire.

As they ate their supper, the horses were acting a bit unusual. Filled with nervous energy, the animals were jostling about with heads high, noses into the wind. “They smell something out there, either a storm is coming or they have picked up the scent of a predator. If they don’t calm down soon we will take shifts keeping watch,” said Verin as he gave a cautious watch over the camp. Verin rose and took a long walk around the perimeter of the camp but failed to notice any obvious signs of anything moving out in the night.

By the time Verin was finished his walk around the camp the horses had already started to calm. Whatever had bothered the animals was gone or no longer worrying them as much. Despite this, Verin was wary. “Forgive me if this offends your ears, but I am going to sing to the beasts for a while. Singing always seems to calm herd animals, even bad singing.” And with that, Verin began to sing. His voice not nearly the calamity he had insinuated it to be.

Fair lady I remember thee

Heart bound by in fire

I burn every time you get to close to me

Darkness of night and time past has taken my besot heart and turned it to stone

But even the stone heart burns every time you get close to me

Fair lady I remember thee.

Fair lady I come for thee

My broken stone heart still searches for it home in the fire of your love

Distance and time matter not for one day a time will come

Fair lady I will come for thee

As Verin sang his love song, the horses calmed and stopped moving about. The sad melody put Nathan into a contemplative mood. Afterward, Nathan asked about the song. “Mother used to sing to me all the time. I never heard that one before.”

“It is not one of the popular songs of Balta. In fact, very few have ever heard it. It is just a song a lonely ranger wrote for a girl he knew long ago,” said Verin in a reflective tone as he stared off into the distance.

Nathan could tell from the sound of Verin’s voice that it was most likely that he was the lonely ranger and the song was a reminder of a lost love. Not wanting to embarrass his uncle or reveal that he had figured out where the song originated from Nathan simply replied, “It was lovely, your singing on the other hand...” Nathan drifted off into sleep dreaming about a certain village girl with freckles like the nights sky.

It was after midnight when Nathan awoke with a start. The camp was quiet. The fire had died down to just coals. Verin was asleep, as were the horses. Wait, all the horse except Thorn slept. Nathan sensed that Thorn was awake and was scared. Not many things scare a wild stallion so something dangerous was close to the camp. Nathan quickly added a handful of wood to the fire hoping that some flames would scare off whatever was out there, or at least provide more light to see the danger with. Nathan grabbed his daggers and quickly walked towards the horses.

Before he could get to the horses, dark terrors sprung out of the shadows in all directions. Only a movement, spotted out of the corner of his eye, saved Nathan. A large beast had sprung from the bush at him. Nathan instinctively jumped back and the large projectile flew past him. But not before a vicious set of claws caught him across the shoulder. The next attack came from a second beast trying to bite his leg while the first one corrected its path and turned back to attack Nathan again.

Nathan struck the second beast hard. He slashed it across the chest, but the blade made no cut. The beast’s skin was incredibly hard and did not yield. As Nathan slashed at the seemingly invincible beast the first one again pounced at Nathan. This time the attack was successful.  Nathan was knocked to the ground.

The beast was on top of him and about to sink its razor like teeth into Nathan’s neck, when in one last desperate counter-attack Nathan drove his blade into the beast’s mouth. This time the blade did not bounce off but pierced into the brain, killing the monster immediately.

Nathan pushed the beast off of him and looked around. The second beast was on him just as Nathan finished shoving the dead one off himself. Nathan felt a searing pain as a set of claws sliced through the back of his leg.  Nathan spun to his side and jabbed his dagger into the second monsters mouth. The animal reared in pain before dying beside the first dead beast.

Nathan lunged to his feet looking around. The fresh pieces of wood had caught ablaze and in the light of its flames Nathan saw Verin trying to fight off three of the beasts. Another was attacking Thorn. The wild stallion was raised up and striking down with its hoofs, keeping the monster at bay. Nathan yelled at Verin “Strike them in the mouths. It is their weak spot.” Nathan ran to help Thorn.

The monster, trying to avoid the ferocious strikes of Thorn’s powerful front legs, failed to see Nathan coming up from behind. Nathan struck the beast to get it to face him. Nathan’s dagger pierced through its mouth and into the brain of the ugly beast.  The jaws of the beast had almost snapped close fast enough to immobilize the blades of Nathan's dagger. Had the beasts' mouths been deeper Nathan’s hands would have been cut by the razor sharp teeth. Now that Thorn and the other horses were safe from immediate danger, Nathan turned and rushed back to help Verin against the remaining beasts. Verin had killed one of the beasts while Nathan had been looking to Thorn’s attacker. But still faced two of the beast, while a third one was coming around behind him. Nathan ran towards the beast behind Verin hoping to distract it before it could jump on his uncles exposed back. As Nathan ran at the beast, Verin struck one of the two in front of him killing his second monster. Suddenly the two remaining attackers turned and ran off into the night.

Verin hobbled closer to the fire before collapsing to the ground. Nathan quickly came to him, checking to see the severity of his wounds. Verin had a deep wound in one leg were one of the beasts had bitten him and several claw marks over the rest of his body. The leg was bleeding profusely and Nathan noted with concern that Verin had lost a lot of blood.

Grabbing a piece of cloth Nathan made a tourniquet and tied it around the leg to stop the bleeding. As he worked, Verin talked “I have to say waking up a vraber bite is not as pleasant as experience as it sounds.” He grunted as Nathan gave the tourniquet another tug to tighten it more. ”I am taking a dislike to the north. Not a friendly place at all.” Verin coughed, already weaken by the loss of blood.

“Vraber? I’ve never heard of one before,” said Nathan as he worked on the wounds.

“While you were visiting with the king, Magnus and I were having a drink of ale and he was telling tales of the north. Magnus warned me about these god awful creatures that looked like a cross between a wolf and a lizard. He said they have scaly hide that supposedly makes great armor. I can see why now.  They are a pack animal who live in the desert, and will attack anything. I thought Magnus might be exaggerating his stories a bit for my enjoyment. If I ever see him again I will have to apologize. They truly are a dangerous animal.” Verin was rambling a bit at this point. Nathan suspected that the vraber wounds were causing a reaction in his body.

Nathan cleaned up the rest of Verin’s wounds and fed him some water. “Go to sleep uncle. You have lost a lot of blood. Water and rest are essential now.” Verin mumble in agreement before closing his eyes. In moments he was passed out. Once Nathan was finished with Verin, he worked on cleaning his own wounds up. Washing them out with water and applying salve. The rest of the night Nathan stayed awake to make sure the vraber that had fled did not return. As Thorn settled, Nathan knew he too could relax. He would trust Thorn to raise an alarm.