Blade's Fall Chapter Three

Chapter 3


Loflan awoke with the vague sense that something was wrong. He glanced up from his pallet of blankets on the floor to see Maude darkening the doorway.

“Get up. I want to do a reseeing.” She said, her voiced clipped and businesslike and walked briskly away. It reminded him of his apprentice days.

Loflan fought the urge to fall back to sleep and failed. A few minutes later a loud boom jolted him up. He stood panting, heart hammering with Banisher already unsheathed in his hand. It was not glistening with molten fire so whatever it was was not a threat. He heard Maude chuckle from the other room. Clearly Banisher had a loose definition of threat.

Grumbling he resheathed Banisher and got dressed. He walked into the kitchen and saw Maude had made him breakfast. He forgave her instantly for her precussion spell as he inhaled eggs, toast and cheese while washing it down with strongly brewed tea.

Maude breezed in as he was finishing the last bit of cheese. “Ready then?”

“After a breakfast like that I am ready for anything.” He replied “How’s our little ward.”

Maude shrugged. “Much the same. Her fever hasn’t broken but it didn’t rise dangerously high last night either. I think tonight will be the night. If not tomorrow for sure. Then she will really start to recover.”

Loflan nodded shrugged on his coat and followed Maude out the door.

“Take me to where you found her.” She said.

As they passed by the stables Loflan remembered something. “Lets check in on our four legeds.”

“Good idea. I need to send mine on the long journey home for my things.”

They walked into the stable and were met by a black horse and grey donkey. Maude went up to the donkey after giving Loflan’s horse Glydenhall a nod. She stroked the donkey affectionately and he nudged her back with equal affection.

“Did you enjoy your company?” Loflan asked striding over to pat Glydenhall’s flank. “It has been a while since you have seen old Brute.” The horse grunted and nodded it’s magnificent black head. Loflan smiled at him and glanced over at Maude and Brute. They looked like they were having an intense staring match. Loflan sighed. “I wish we could communicate that way.” He mused. Glydenhall snorted. “Maybe one day I will be strong enough for the binding. If it was a matter of love and respect you we would be bound already.” The horse nudged his shoulder affectionately. He knew the feeling was mutual. It was a powerful and difficult thing to bind ones self with an animal. Brute and Maude were the only bound pair he knew of. The binding was not unlike what he did to objects but an animal is immensely more complex. He just hoped he would be able to pull it off before Glydenhall died. Brute, being the lesser of the two speices would live until Maude herself expired. Since Loflan had a sneaking suspision Maude would be around an extra long time he figured Brute would outlive his own life. “Well I will see you a bit later Gly.” Loflan said noticing Maude and Brute breaking eye contact and Brute slowly making his way out of the stable.

They left the stable and watched Maude’s ass retreat slowly in the distance. “Maude?” Loflan asked. “How old is Brute?”

“Old.” She replied.

Loflan rolled his eyes. “Can I get just a tad more than that?”

“Going on seventy eight.” She said. “Lead on, dear boy and no more questions.”

“Oh just one? Please, please, please?” Loflan whinned.

It was Maude’s turn to roll her eyes. “Oh all right.”

“How old are you?” He asked studying her face for a reaction. It stayed serene and slightly amused..

“Older than Brute.”

“By how much?”

“Loflan you know I am not about to answer that. Why even ask?”

“I thought I would catch you off guard. I hoped one day you would tell me.”

“How about this. One day I will tell you but today is not the day.”

“What if you die first?”

Her serene expression broke and she looked at him seriously. “I won’t.”

That gave Loflan much to ponder of the mysterious mysteries of Maude that they didn’t speak again until they reached the corn field.

He didn’t need to point out the exact spot as there was still blood staining the ground.

Maude walked a little way away from the scene and raised her right hand, palm up, in front of her face. “When I tell you to close your eyes, close them. When I tell you to open them, open them.”

Loflan watched her as she called to her magic. He felt the air become laced with it, the earth tremble with it. Hell fires she is powerful. He thought. The irises of her eyes began to slowly turn liquid silver.

“Close your eyes.” She barked, silver vapor escaping her lips. Loflan did as he was told.

He felt a burst of magic from Maude that swirled around them. When the magic had ceased being a roiling torrent and became a consistent buzz she instructed him to open his eyes. Nothing had changed. He wasn’t put off by this. This was not his first reseeing. Slowly things began to appear distorted slightly. The corn stalks that had before swayed lazily in the slight breeze slowly began to sway and then more rapidly, swishing from side to side. The sun, instead of its slow trek west raced back eastward across the sky until it set with a hurried blink on the horizon. The night sky appeared and the stars rotated rapidly above their heads. Maude never moved or blinked as time went backwards around them. Loflan was more in awe of her than the sights around him. Besides if he focused on the night sky too long it made him alittle queasy. Suddenly the sun was up, racing across the sky. When the sky started to darken and rain started to fall the dizzing rewind slowed but did not stop. The sun was playing peek-a-boo in the distance. Though it poured rain around them Maude and Loflan remained dry. After a minute or so Loflan had to move out of the way so he could let himself pass. ‘Past’ Loflan was moving backwards. A woman dangling from his arms. He layed her down on the ground sheathed, unsheathed and resheathed Banisher and walked backwards away. Loflan couldn’t help feeling a bit odd and uncomfortable looking at himself in this perspective. His hood was up obscuring his chin length, curling brown hair and casting shadows along his defined features. His lips which could almost be called full were set in a grim line. His smoky grey eyes seemed to have the power to turn unwary glancers to stone. He looked menacing and foreboding. His dark brown duster was made of thick hide and made his shoulders look broader. The whole scene made him look capable of anything while the sword at his side made him look like he was just waiting for the opportunity. Once ‘past’ Loflan’s retreating form was out of sight Maude sped things up again.

Soon the rain stopped and stars raced across the sky once more and when dusk appeared Maude slowed again and Loflan was treated to a spectacular display of rotating yellows, pinks and golds on the horizon while watching a horse cart rumble cart first up the road. The four horse led cart backed up to where the girl lay. There were three men. Two in the cart and one driver. They were all dressed in southlander blue tunics with the gold eagle crests of Palitain Palace guards. The girl’s body lifted in the air and hands rolled her backwards and slid her underneath a ratty blanket under the men’s feet. The cart drove off backwards down the road. Maude stopped the reseeing and the cart started forward at normal speed. We watched as it turned and backed up. The men were singing and laughing uproariously. Loflan felt anger rising in his chest. He didn’t try to contain it he used it to steady and focus his mind. As soon as the men became visible he began memorizing their faces. They were the faces of the men he had sworn an oath to kill afterall. He smiled at the thought and Banisher glowed slightly pink in it’s sheath in anticipation. The driver was a tall lanky man in this late thirties. Clearly the oldest of the three. They all had the short cropped hair of southlander guardsmen. This one had sandy blonde hair with thin lips and dull, unfeeling blue eyes. He giggled like a schoolgirl as Loflan looked at him. He was drunk. The other two looked equally intoxicated and a full ten years or more younger than their companion. They were also identical twins. They both had light brown hair, long, angular faces and bright blue eyes. If Loflan didn’t know of their crimes he would have just thought them carefree young men out having a good time. The coldness and callousness of the men enraged him as they unceremoniously yanked the girl out by her wrist from beneath the blanket. She looked so broken, bruised and filthy and now that Loflan had the opportunity to look more closely and with more time he noticed the blanket they used to conceal her was covered with a multitude of dark stains of blood and urine. A cloud of flies flew off the blanket when the guard had disturbed it. The twins rolled her limp form to the edge of the cart and pushed her over. They laughed and jeered at her. The driver said “Hope you had a nice trip, Love. I know we did.” The three men erupted in laughter, one of the twins wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. Loflan trembled with barely suppressed rage. He watched their laughing forms until they were out of sight. He looked at Maude whos silvery eyes were looking at him, assessing him.

“Close your eyes.” She said in a deeper voice than her own motherly one.

The magic dissipated quickly around him before Maude instructed him to open them again. Loflan looked longingly down the road.

“Tell me it is not true.” She asked looking at him, her eyes back to their usual light grey.

“Tell you what isn’t true?”

“That you did not swear an oath to kill those men.”

“Why do you see it? Does justice prevail?”

Maude sighed and shook her head. “I can’t really blame you, dear boy I wanted to swear an oath myself. Yes I do see your lines intersecting but at this juncture all four lines continue on.”

“Damn.” Loflan shrugged. “I bet I get them the second time.”

“That’s the ticket. Be optimistic.” She grinned at him and they started back towards home.


***
They didn’t talk anymore until they had checked in on their ward and made a pot of tea. Loflan dug a biscuit tin from the cupboard and served it with some leftover bread and cheese.

“Southlanders.” Loflan groaned as he sat down.

“Southlanders indeed.” Affirmed Maude. “Poor child. What she must have suffered.” Maude looked away and stared at the fire in the hearth.

“It is a full four days ride from the border.” Loflan mused. “Four days of abuse.”

“No I think only three nights. They could hardly abuse her in an open air cart in broad daylight. Much less a moving one. They had their way with her at night. Daytime must have been a god sent respite for her.”

They were silent for a few moments trying to push imaginings of her ordeal out of their minds but finding it hard to do. Loflan began talking again. He needed the distraction to redirect his thoughts. “What I do not understand is why four days ride? Why not dump her just outside the border like the rest of the spineless southlander murderers?”

“She must be someone that people would look for. What is most curious to me is why the Queen’s own guards would be the ones doing the dumping. Who is this girl that the Queen would order her guards to dispose of her and in such a way. I can not fathom it. A working girl at that. I have felt her hands and they are rough and calloused. She is no noble’s daughter. To the Queen she would be a mere nothing, a nobody.”

“Well the blasted would be murderers did not do their job. They only left her for dead and not actually dead. Luckily I was summoned to her in time. Now the question is what do we do with her? I can not abandon her but nor do I want to be in the middle of a Southlander political drama. Not to mention most common southlander folk think we midlanders are all evil magic users and would sooner curse them as to look at them.”
Maude poured herself more tea, with a silvery twinkle in her eyes. “You know, dear boy I think she has magic in her.”

“Whaat?” Loflan spluttered. “In her? I sensed nothing from her at all. And believe me I looked straight away.”

“Nor did I when I looked at her but when I try to read her line I can not. Sometimes I can see it when it intersects with someone else’s but never hers alone. I have only ever run across this once before and that was a very powerful user and he was doing it on purpose.” They both involuntarily glanced toward the bedroom door. “I don’t think hers is intentional.”

Loflan knew that is wan’t unheard of for a southlander to have magical blood but it was rare. Even more rare than in North Escapia. In Sorsenia magic borns were more common. In the South lands magic was banned and the youth were conditioned early to think of any person north of their borders to be a magic user and therefore dangerous and damned. There was no trade or communication or passing back and forth. A perimeter fence was erected long ago to reinforce the air of hostility. Sorsenians couldn’t understand the ignorance and stupidity of the southlanders and so chose to ignore them as thouroughly as they were ignored. Typically once a southlander crossed the border there was no recrossing it but palace guards were allowed exit and entry anytime. This made some guards corrupt as they often dumped bodies across the boarder for a fee. No body, no crime.

“Whoever and whatever she is she is ours now.” Maude said. “We will find out more about her once her fever breaks and her healing begins in earnest. Then she can tell us herself. We must be careful what we do and say so as to not alarm her. We will just take it a day at a time and try to undo the damage a lifetime of southlander predjudice and ignorance has instilled in her. I pray we can and that we help her in whatever way we are led to.”

“As do I.” Loflan agreed. “I must go to town now to get the extra provisions we will need for winter for ourselves and our animals.”

“Be sure to stop into the taverns to listen for any talk of men searching for a woman. If you see any such men say nothing until we check them out thouroughly.”

“Just so.” Loflan said as he donned his coat, pulling up his hood. Banisher’s hilt poking out between the flaps of his coat. “I promise not to act unless it is our three jolly fellows.” He smiled mischievously and was out the door before Maude could respond.