Diamond Bonds (22 page)

Fire sits with a huff.  Keeping her voice low, she barks, “What’s the big idea?  We’re supposed to be staying inconspicuous!”

“I said I want to be familiar with the place, and it’s not like we’re in a rush.  Jem and Di could be gone for an hour.”

Fire narrows her eyes, wondering what game he’s trying to play.

“Why do you suppose there’s an eating place like this in such a small village?” Era asks.

Fire ignores his attempt at conversation.  The bartender arrives with two mugs of water before looking specifically at Fire.  “Anything else to drink?”

Fire waves him off.  “On the job.  Best to stick with the boring stuff.”

“Suit yourself.  The chef is presently roasting a lamb, otherwise it will be a vegetable stew.”

Era’s mouth waters at the mention of the special, especially with its delectable aroma in the air, but Fire asks, “How much for the meat?”

“Ten venni.”

“We’ll take the stew.”

Disdainfully, the man returns to the back room without another word.

Era leans back and focuses on Fire with intense curiosity.  When she notices, she slams the table and meets his gaze.  “
What?
”

The thief is jolted from his thoughts.  “I-It’s just that I don’t know anything about you.”

“And what is it you want to know?”

“Well… anything,” he answers.  “How old are you, and what’s up with your name?  Is it a nickname or something?”

Fire is taken aback at his interest, and she tries to decide whether to answer him.

“Just tell me your age, at least,” he insists.

“Why?”

“Because I’m sitting here with a master assass-”  Hushing himself, he leans forward and admits, “That is, I just want to know how I stack up.”

Fire hesitates before uttering, “Nineteen.”

“Nineteen!?” Era exclaims.  “So that only gives me two years to catch up?”  Glancing back at her, he asks, “So what about your hair?  Is it actually dark blue?”

She runs her fingers through the short hair extending from beneath her bandanna.  “Ever heard of dye?”

“Ah, hadn’t thought of that,” he admits.  “Seems high-maintenance.  How often do you dye it?”

“Not often,” she says.  “Been a while since I last did it, in fact.”

“But why dye it that color?” Era asks with a frown.  “It’s practically black!  Only in the right light do you even
see
the blue.”

Fire shrugs.  “Always been my style.”

“Can’t say it looks bad on you,” he admits.  “And, in case you were wondering about
my
story, I’m-”

“I’m not interested,” Fire coldly interrupts.

He pauses for a few seconds before continuing anyway, “Well, I’m the son of a famous thief.”  Era leans forward on the table and dramatically whispers, “You’ve heard of the Dark Cloak, right?”

“No.”

Era’s forehead hits the table with a thud, his enthusiasm killed by the blunt response.  “I thought for sure
you’d
have heard of him!  Famous thief, practically invented the profession, stole the Jewel of Nerwal… none of this is familiar?”

“I’ve never heard of any of that, including the Jewel of… whatever.”  She raises an eyebrow and asks, “How is thievery a profession, anyway?”

“It can be a profession!” he insists.  “Well, at least according to my father, who raised me to follow in his footsteps.  I plan to be as famous a thief as him some day.”

“Well, you’re on the right track.  I’ve heard of
you
, and I’ve never heard of
him
,” she says sarcastically.

Era nods, taking her comment more seriously than intended.  “He gave me a lot of advice in life.  Actually, this situation reminds me of one of his gems: ‘Nothing impresses a pretty girl more than the art of dining and dashing.’  He told me I should keep that in mind when I’m out on a date.”  Era pauses and thinks this over, admitting, “Of course, that might not be a good idea in this case, seeing as I’m coming back here tonight.”

Fire stares at him in disbelief.  “Your father… he sounds like quite a man.”

Era blushes and scratches his shaggy hair.  “I know!  He really is a genius in many ways.”

Opting to not respond, Fire instead takes a sip of water.  However, she suddenly realizes what Era just dropped into the conversation and slams her glass on the table. “This is
not
a date.”

“I know, I know,” Era laughs.  “But I’m at least dining with a pretty girl!  So the advice applies, right?”

Fire shoots him a nasty look, making Era regret his words and avoid eye contact.  She reconsiders taking the bartender up on his offer for something stronger to drink and waves him over.

Chapter 13

Di nearly trips over a large branch, and she longs for the flat path just a short distance away.  “Jem, the road is
right there
.  Can’t we walk on it instead?  There’s no one on it!”

“You want to go home but all you do is complain when we do things to keep you safe,” Jem gripes.  “If you’re fine with being found, then have it your way, Princess.  I’m sick of forcing you to care.”

Di sighs, tired of never getting any sympathy.  Once she returns to Canterin, it’ll be too soon if she never walks through another forest.

“There it is!” Jem calls back, excitedly pointing through the trees.  “Looks like there’s a house up ahead.  Stay here while I check it out.”

Di obeys while Jem approaches the log cabin, built in a small clearing next to the main pathway.  A small trail extends out to the road, which Jem uses to casually approach the front door.  She takes a moment to glance into a window, in which she can make out shelves and shelves of runes.  Confident she has the right place, she knocks twice on the door.

After a few moments, the door swings open to reveal an older man with thinning gray hair and spectacles.  Standing several inches over Jem, he has a wiry frame and wears grimy clothing.  He adjusts his glasses and looks his visitor over carefully.  “May I help you?”

Jem nods toward the shelves behind the man.  “I’m here for the runes.”

The man scans her over with suspicion.  Jem has seen the look before; he’s processing whether he wants to entertain an Allerian, but he ultimately grins and steps aside, beckoning her to enter.  “Welcome to my shop, then.  My name is Tulon Farle.  How is it I can help you?”

“I have something to show you, and I’m actually here with someone else.”  Turning back to the woods, Jem waves her hand, and Di steps out from behind a tree.

“Two pretty little ladies interested in runes?” Tulon asks in surprise.  “I don’t think I’ve had such a pleasure before now.  I’m rather accustomed to smelly old men, much like myself.”

The Allerian enjoys the compliment as she and Di enter the small house.  A musty odor fills the air, reminding Jem of a pawn shop.  Just inside the entrance are shelves lined with runes of all different shapes and sizes.  It’s all but impossible to guess their functions without knowing the meaning of the symbols etched into their surfaces.  Jem glances at Di, whose expression lights up at the sight of so many treasures.

The store owner notices Di’s interest.  “Now, what gets you so excited about runes, young one?  Don’t tell me you’re a rune scholar?”

Before she can respond, Jem cuts in and answers, “We were visiting a friend in the area and heard about your shop.  We found an old rune that I want you to evaluate.”  She retrieves the rune that spawned the water creature and hands it to him.

“This… This is remarkable…” he mumbles.  He hurries to his desk, where he places it under a magnifying glass.  In the meantime, Di peruses the shelves of runes that stand on display.  She used to have full access to such a collection at the Academy, and she finds her nerves calmed to be surrounded with something familiar.

Jem gets antsy enough to watch over Tulon’s shoulder.  He doesn’t seem to notice her as she watches him analyze the tiny symbols etched into the rock.  Bouncing on her toes and tapping her hands against her thighs, she tries in vain to get his attention.  Finally, she asks, “So, what do you think?”

Tulon jumps at the interruption.  “Oh, it’s… ummmm… Well, frankly, this is unlike anything I’ve seen.  Where did you find this?”

“In a cave near Ugorzi,” Jem answers.  “I would actually say that it found us.  The rune was controlling a giant water creature.”

The rune expert is perplexed by her casually-stated revelation.  “A water creature?  What was it like?”

“It was big and scary and tried to
kill
us!” Di cries out.

“Oh, my,” Tulon mumbles, not sure whether to believe them.  “Well, this is a special rune.  That much is certain.  I’ve never seen most of these symbols, and I can’t even read them without my magnifying glass.  Frankly, this feels like a prank.”

“This is no prank,” Jem insists.  “The rune controlled a giant water monster that was clearly designed to be a killing machine.  It only stopped when I hacked at the rune at this spot here.”

“That was
Era’s
work,” Di calls out, ruining Jem’s bluff.  “Don’t take credit for that!”

Jem shoots Di a dirty look and mutters, “Fine, so it was our guardian-for-hire who killed it.  Either way, it dispelled the moment he hit the rune, which was floating around inside the thing.”

Tulon is caught between wonder and disbelief.  “Again, I’ve never seen anything like this.  Could it be…?  Maybe it’s a relic from the Third Kingdom?”

Jem frowns.  “That old fairy tale?  Come on, you can do better than that.”

“The Third Kingdom was real, Jem,” Di snaps.  “Their technology was far more advanced than ours.  There are ruins that prove that.”

“A bunch of crumbled ruins just proves it
existed
,” Jem argues, “but the legend that it was centuries ahead of the rest of the world in everything, and yet it just collapses at the peak of its power?  I don’t buy any of that.”

“There was a great war that took it out,” Di explains, annoyed by Jem’s stubborn attitude.

“Despite having weapons like
this?
” Jem sneers while pointing at her rune.  “Come on, Di.  You’re supposed to be smart.”

“It happened!” Di insists.  “According to lore, Alleria and Valvoren actually
allied
against it.”

“Ha!  Now I know it’s a myth,” Jem says.

Tulon continues to look it over.  “Regardless of the legend, this is far more advanced than any of our runes, so I suppose it lends credence to the theory.”

“So there isn’t anything else like this?” she asks with excitement.

“Not that I’ve ever seen or heard.”  The expert continues to gaze down at the treasure before him, carefully handling it as he analyzes each symbol.  “The Third Kingdom is well studied by the Three Pillars Academy, being part of its namesake and all that.  Even if it’s not related, you could probably set their rune research forward decades with this discovery.”

Jem impatiently taps her fingers on her arm. “Look, I don’t care about research.  Any idea what it’s worth?”

Tulon swings around, aghast by her comment.  “You can’t be serious!  A treasure like this… all you want to do is sell it?”

“I know!  She’s awful!” Di exclaims, happy to have found a kindred spirit.  “I don’t understand why she won’t donate it to the Academy.  I know my professors could all learn so much from it!”

Tulon looks to Di in surprise.  “You’re an Academy student!?”

Jem shoots Di yet another dirty look.  “Oh, yeah!  Forgot to mention that.”

“And you haven’t seen anything like this?”  He looks down at the rune with further confusion.  “I’d think the Academy of all places would have one.”

Di puffs her cheeks.  “Infusing obelite with an element starts a degradation process that eventually leads to the rock crumbling.  Makes it difficult to study runes from ages past.”  Helping herself to Jem’s bag, she pulls out the shards she’d taken from the underground caverns.  “Take these, for instance.”

“Di!  Have I been carrying those this whole time!?” Jem scolds.  “I told you to put those in Era’s bag!”

Ignoring her, Di offers one to Tulon.  “Here, look it over.  If the legends are true about the Third Kingdom, the war happened three hundred years ago.  There’s nothing left from that time, or at the very least, the runes would look like this.”

“So why was that thing still active, then?” Jem challenges.  “It must not be all that old.”

“Obelite hardens and keeps its form while activated,” Tulon half-mindedly replies while fawning over the piece of rock.  “We can reason that if one exists, there could be others like it.”

Jem shudders at the thought of more killing machines, mostly because her rune wouldn’t be worth as much.  “This thing sounds rare.  So stop delaying and tell me what price tag you would place on it.”

The expert is both saddened and stumped by the request.  “I’ve no precedent for anything like this.  If you insist on selling it, you’ll need to have someone make you an offer.”

“And what would yours be?”

Tulon scratches his head.  “I guess I’d give you five hundred for it.”

“
Five hundred?
” Jem whines, disappointed.  “That’s all?”

Tulon grimaces at Jem’s tone.  “I’m a dealer in
working
runes, and this can no longer be activated.  The type of people wandering into my store would never buy such a thing.  Sadly, I’m neither rich nor a collector.”

“
That’s
why we should donate it to the Academy!”  Di glares at Jem with her hands on her hips, hoping to somehow convince her.

Jem folds her arms, unsure of what to think about the conversation.  Rare though it may be, it’s almost
too
rare, since selling it would either require significant research or a high-profile auction.  “Guess I’ll take it back then.  Thanks for your time, old man.”

The rune dealer reluctantly hands the treasure back to Jem.  He gazes longingly after the disc as she closes it up in her bag, lamenting the loss of potential.  “We could learn a lot from studying that rune, you know.”

“Whoever buys it from me can learn whatever they want!” she replies as she swings her bag to her back.  “And for what it’s worth, the Academy might be a good place to sell it.  They have piles and piles of money, right?”

Di looks despairingly at Tulon.  “See?  This is what I’ve had to deal with.  All she cares about is money.”

Tulon pats Di’s head.  “Well, next time you’re visiting the area, let me know where it ended up.  I’d love to see it on display and find out what they’ve discovered.”  With great disappointment, he holds the shard out for Di to take back.

“No, you keep it,” Di says with a smile, pushing his hand back.  “I’ve got more!”

Tulon smiles excitedly.  “Do you mean that?  Thanks ever so much… what was your name?”

“Her name is mud,” Jem says as she drags Di by the arm.  “I’m about to make you carry my bag for pulling that little stunt.  No wonder it’s been so heavy!”

“Era is the one who snuck them in there!” Di insists as they hurry away from the house.  Tulon waves before hurrying inside to inspect his new treasure.

*              *              *

Era stretches and rubs his full stomach as they meander down the town’s main road.  “That was delicious, and I get to eat here tonight as well!  This day is going to be the best one I’ve had in a while.”

Fire ignores her companion, enjoying the light buzz from her drink.  It’s been a few days since she last took pleasure in the sensation.  “It wasn’t a bad stew,” she admits.

“Hey,” Era says as he walks alongside her.  “I feel like that’s the first positive thing I’ve heard you say.”

“I’m not a positive person,” she says, apparently not bothered by the comment.

“Still, a smile now and again wouldn’t hurt, would it?” he asks.

Fire gives him a warning look.  “You’d better stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop… whatever it is you’re doing.  We’re business partners, nothing more.  Quit making idle conversation.”

Era gives her a sideways glance.  “Okay, so one last question for you.”  Pausing to consider his words, he asks, “Why are you a… That is, why are you in this… profession?”

Fire averts her eyes.  “Don’t ask questions about things you don’t want to know.”

Era swallows hard, but he can’t squelch his curiosity.  “I want to know!  You’re really
young
to be a master assassin.”

“You’re not much younger than me, and you want to be a master thief,” she comments, annoyed by the conversation.

“I’m
not
a master thief, though!” Era exclaims.  “And besides that, I want to follow my lineage.  You can’t possibly come from a long line of
assassins
.  So what made you want to be one?”

Fire’s eyes glaze over as Era’s words cause unpleasant memories to resurface.  “Sometimes circumstances force your hand.”  Suddenly upset she let those words slip, she turns her head away from him.

Era frowns in disappointment, wanting to know more.  The two walk in awkward silence to the edge of town, where they hear a whisper call out to them from the trees.  Heading back into the foliage, they find Jem impatiently sitting against a tree.

“Uh oh,” Era says.  “Been waiting a while?”

“We’ve been waiting a half-hour!” Jem barks, crossing her arms.

Di scoffs at Jem’s exaggeration.  “Try five minutes.”

“You shut up!  I’ve about had it with you ruining my fun.”

“You two not getting along?” Era needlessly asks as a staring contest ensues.  “What did you find out about the rune?”