The Sword that Binds (Book of Worlds 1) (12 page)

Sarena sat in the corner with her back to the wall, while Ropal took the seat across from her. Before either of them could speak a young woman, barely more than a girl really, set two mugs of a clear brown liquid in front of them. Her hair and eyes were the same color as Asbin’s, and Sarena didn’t doubt that she was his daughter.

“The first drink is free,” she said with a clear high voice, giving Sarena a warm smile before turning to Ropal. “Except you Ropal, you’re no stranger. One copper as usual. A meal is three coppers. Today’s is lamb stew.”

Both Sarena and Ropal ordered the stew and sat back to relax while sipping their ale. It wasn’t Sarena’s first time drinking, but the ale they had in Garland Keep was so bitter that she had never bothered with it again after her first taste. She had been expecting Asbin’s to be similar, but was pleasantly surprised to find it was perfectly smooth. Ropal watched her face and she took her first sip and couldn’t help but smile when he saw her look of pleasure.

“Best ale in all of Shavren isn’t it? That Asbin can’t use his nature magic for anything except brewing, and it’s made him famous. Tovern wouldn’t even exist without him here; the only reason I go this far out of my way is to trade for his ale. Most profitable part of my entire route,” he said while bringing his mug up for another deep gulp.

“Uckey is requesting you buy some for him,” Tyrus interjected. “Well, more demanding than requesting. Please do it. He won’t stop talking about it.”

Raising her eyebrows, Sarena nodded at what Ropal had said before answering, “You’re right, but I don’t think I’ll be able to bring any with me. I’m no trader, and ale just doesn’t agree with me.” Sarena couldn’t help but feel regret as she set her mug down. As good as the ale was, she couldn’t pass up the chance to get her revenge against Tyrus and Uckey for the past couple days.

“What!” Tyrus yelled, “You’re going to abandon me like this! You realize he’s going to be just as annoying to you when we leave!”

Sarena did her best to fight back the smile that was desperate to appear, even with the wind still in her to calm her down. It didn’t take long for Asbin’s daughter - Tiera as Ropal called her - to return with their dinner, which Ropal paid for with a silver coin, getting three copper back in return, and the rest of the meal was eaten with little conversation. While Sarena had said she wanted information, in truth she was mostly just hungry and wanted Ropal to pay for the meal. Any information she could get from him would just be a bonus as far as she was concerned. So far she had already learned that one silver was worth ten copper. It was different from her own time, but easy enough to remember.

“Where are you headed, if you don’t mind me asking?” Ropal inquired. “If we’re going the same way it might be worth it to travel together. Your magic is suited for combat if this pelt is anything to go by, and there’s always safety in numbers. I go north until the Teroban for my next stretch, and there’s plenty of dangers to look out for. I always welcome company.”

Sarena wasn’t sure how to answer, she didn’t know of any rivers except the Agraven, and Uckey hadn’t mentioned any others either.
Maybe the name is different in this time?
She thought.
He did say to the north though, so it should be alright. Uckey said Stewrix is five hundred miles north of here in the White Mountains, so it should be fine to travel with him for a time.

“I’m headed that way myself, and I might be willing to travel with you if you can provide the meals. I’ve been out hunting for too long now. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand the taste of dried meat ever again,” Sarena answered. She doubted Ropal would mention safety if he wasn’t afraid of being attacked at some point. Although it looked like he normally traveled alone, so he couldn’t be completely helpless in a battle.

“Perfect!” He said, his face lighting up, “I’ll pay you for the pelts tomorrow morning, and even cover the room for you here tonight. It’s the least I can do for you after getting such a bargain on those pelts.”

Nodding, Sarena asked a question that had been on her mind ever since Uckey had mentioned it the night before. “You mentioned dangers. Would that be the lesser races that roam the area? Or is there something else now?”

Ropal couldn’t help but show a look of confusion at her question, “If by lesser races you mean monsters, then yes. They are the worst danger, but there’s always bandits and thieves on the roads out here. The king’s soldiers don’t patrol as often this far from the capital. Normally I would hire a few guards, but the ones I normally use were busy this year. The only ones available on short notice were less than reputable, so I decided to take the risk of heading out here on my own. So far I’ve been lucky and only a couple of harmless goblins have attacked, but I’d prefer not to stretch my luck too far.” He sighed as he shook his head. “I hired a retired mercenary that happened to be in town, but he’s only willing to go half the distance to the Teroban, and it’s not likely I’ll find another trustworthy mercenary between here and Millstone. After that I just go by boat all the way to the capital, so there’s no need for any guards.”

Going by what Ropal was saying, Sarena was fairly sure Millstone was the town on the Teroban, but she was surprised he was willing to risk traveling alone. Uckey had told them that the monsters in the Godwoods seemed similar to the lesser races that existed in his time, but Sarena didn’t realize they were actually considered monsters.

Seeing the look of confusion on her face, Ropal guessed at its source. “My own magic is somewhat helpful in a fight, nothing like what a real battlemage or Highmage could do, but I can hold my own against anything less than an ogre. I would never risk traveling this far alone if I wasn’t somewhat confident in being able to take care of myself.”

Sarena decided to leave it at that. She would just have to ask Uckey about everything else later on. She regretted not learning as much as she could about this new world from him before arriving in Tovern, but she had let her anger and stubbornness control her instead. The first thing she would do the next day would be to ask him everything she could about the world, starting with the lesser races. They sounded like monsters to her, but Uckey had made it sound like they were much more than that before. Aside from the creatures that came out from the Godwoods in her time, monsters didn’t exist.

After Ropal had settled the bill for a room and stable for Sarena, the two of them went their separate ways. She was starting to suspect Ropal hadn’t told the entire truth about being beggared by their deal. Sarena lead Uckey to a stall, even though he could have done it himself, and Tyrus’ prediction came true. Uckey wouldn’t drop the subject of the ale the entire time. She made him promise that he would explain everything about the lesser races to her the next day and then went straight to her room in the inn, excited to finally have a real bed to sleep on.

Before taking Uckey to the stables she had arranged for a bath to be brought to her room, and Ropal had given her some new clothes as an extra payment for her protection while traveling. After stripping down for the bath and getting her first good look at what she had been wearing she changed her mind about those pitying looks from before. They weren’t because she was magicless, they must have thought she was homeless. Bursting out laughing she realized that that was actually true. Garland Keep didn’t exist anymore, and it hadn’t been her home for over a month anyways. It was a sobering thought.

T
yrus focused on the area around him, trying to stay on guard while Uckey explained the concept of lesser races to them. They had left Tovern right at dawn, when the village had just begun to stir. Asbin didn’t wake up until later, so they had left in silence and met their mercenary escort on the outskirts of Tovern. He was a middle-aged man named Jesba, and he was a metal user - copper to be exact - with a massive copper broadsword strapped to his back with a leather cord. According to Sarena his short hair and eyes were both reddish brown, and Tyrus could feel that most of his aura matched that as well. When Tyrus had wondered how he was able to even draw his weapon, Uckey had replied saying that he could easily just have the blade flow around the strap on his back like it was liquid. Aside from introducing himself he had said almost nothing.

It was midday before Ropal had asked one of them to scout ahead, saying that the area within the first few hours of a village was the safest and usually didn’t require a forward guard. Sarena had volunteered, using the chance to travel half a mile ahead, just in range of Tyrus’ perception so he could let them know if they encountered any troubles and needed help. With the distance between them Sarena could openly speak to Uckey and Tyrus instead of just having to listen to the two of them talk.

“I’ve told you before that the lesser races are similar to the creatures in the Godwoods, but only in the sense that they are aggressive,” Uckey began to explain, his voice becoming unnaturally serious, something that Tyrus noticed it tended to do when he was teaching. “They almost all originated from the northern forest, and were at one time just ordinary wildlife. A race called Elves lives within those forests, and they are an all almost entirely magical. Unfortunately, outside of a few rare High Elves, none of them can control their magic and it simply saturates the auras of everything around them. When there are only a few gathered together it promotes growth and the forest flourishes, but if for any reason there is a large gathering of elves their Life magic overwhelms everything, causing mutations and unnatural growth. Almost all of the lesser races were born from this, each of them being products of a gathering of elves. Most of them appeared when the elves took it upon themselves to make a great city within their forest, trying to learn from the Shavren. Before that the lesser races were so few in number that they were mostly ignored, but within ten years the number of them had increased by so much that even the dwarves were willing to leave their mountain and go to war.”

“What’s so special about the dwarves?” Tyrus interrupted him.

“The dwarves are peerless craftsmen, more so than any other race, and almost never leave their mountain! Even Stewrix itself was created by them, and we didn’t even ask them to do it! My ancestors were spread out all over Mount Eberak until one day the dwarves said they had a surprise for us!” Uckey exclaimed proudly. “They have always been the greatest allies of the gnomes! Although it is a bit strange that they made Stewrix so far away from them, almost a month’s journey. We’ve never been able to get a straight answer from them about that.”

Tyrus couldn’t help but laugh. There was no doubt in his mind why the dwarves would want to be rid of the gnomes. If they talked even half as much as Uckey did then even a month away sounded like it might be too close. Before Uckey could continue Tyrus wanted to try and have a couple more questions answered.

“Uckey, how come I’ve never seen you do any magic? I know you can use the mana element, but what else?” Tyrus asked.

“Because I’m a horse now! My magic hasn’t been working right since that blasted fake dragon put me in this body! I can sense the elements around me somewhat, but not more than a couple steps away. Gnomish magic works very differently than your instinctive Shavren magic. I need hands and fingers to work it. These hooves just aren’t nimble enough. Normally I could lay out the matrix I need for a spell without them, but this horse’s mind doesn’t let me form them for some reason.” Uckey replied, “If it wasn’t for that I could show you the real power of a gnome! Personally I’ve mastered the elements of wind, water and stone, and I am the foremost expert on the unconquerable mana element! Or at least I was in my time, and I strongly doubt anyone will ever surpass my achievements.”

“Wait! You can use four elements?” Sarena blurted out.

“Five to be exact! There’s also earth, but it’s such a boring element that I chose not to study it in favor of stone. Who cares about dirt when you can use rocks? All gnomes can use those five elements, but only by creating a matrix, or magic circle as the Shavren tend to call them. All done through research of course! Far more useful than being limited by just one or two elements like everyone else in my opinion,” he said, his voice brimming with pride.

“So in other words, you’re completely useless because you have hooves,” Tyrus said.

“No! As a master of three elements I am able to form the matrix within my mind to cast! It’s just that this horse’s mind is incapable of holding the form of the matrix, otherwise I would be just as powerful as I was before!” Uckey continued to shout, giving Tyrus a mild headache as usual.

Tyrus suddenly felt a presence pop up within his search radius, instantly causing him to alert the others. Almost immediately several other presences started to appear at the edge of his perception, all of them with auras showing aggression and excitement. Most of them were small, only about half the size of a man and even their auras felt weak, but one of them towered over the rest. He judged it to almost twice the height of Sarena with an aura just as imposing, filled with an earthy brown color that seemed immovable.

“There’s around a dozen of the smaller ones, and one huge creature. The big one is the only one that feels dangerous, it’s about half again the size of a grown man, and if its aura is anything to go by then it’s probably several times as strong too. They’re about half a mile ahead of us, so we should probably wait here until Jesba and Ropal catch up,” Tyrus warned them.

“Sounds like goblins for the smaller ones, common and weak, but able to overrun you with their numbers if you aren’t careful. The big one could be an ogre or a troll. Trolls are too stupid to work with any other creature, though,” Uckey said.

Uckey stopped and waited, and it wasn’t long before they caught sight of Ropal’s cart coming around a bend towards them. Ropal reined in the horses pulling his cart when he had caught up with them. He eyed Tyrus in Sarena’s hand, the faint blue glow drawing attention.

“What’s the problem?” He said as he stopped.