Dragon Talker (28 page)

“Oh, I can,” Agardia eyes narrowed as she thought of the villagers who may cause her family trouble, “and I bet you can too if you think about it, but we won’t be surprised by them. We will prepare some dragon tail for the ones who cause trouble. It’s the ones we don’t know about that worry me.”

“Aren’t you glad you married me and came to my village?” Tadeus attempted a weak smile as he said it.

Agardia smiled back, fully, “Do you remember that oaf my parents wanted me to marry?”

“Leonard?”

“Leonard.”

Tadeus had to smile. Leonard was a large man, but not the smartest man in the village. “I liked him,” he teased.

“You had to fight him to get me out of the village!”

Tadeus laughed, remembering fighting Leonard on the outskirts of the village as Agardia shouted at Leonard to stop. Leonard was big, but Tadeus was faster and had eventually jumped on his back and made Leonard pass out by using a choke hold. Tadeus’s spirit was lifting at the thought of an old victory. “He would have been a good, stable husband.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Agardia jumped onto Tadeus, causing the chair to tip over, flinging both of them over and onto the floor.

“Hmmm. I suppose,” Tadeus said, lying on the ground with Agardia on top of him, “we both have some more fight left in us.”

“Yes we do. Don’t go morbid on me.”

Tadeus feigned hurt feelings, “Me, morbid?”

Agardia punched him in the chest. He grabbed her hand and kissed it. “I can handle anything with you at my side.” He raised his head up, trying to see the boys in bed. “Are the boys still asleep?”

Agardia looked behind her. “Yes they are. And I like where this is going.”

Tadeus kissed Agardia and the two lost themselves in each other’s embrace while the boys slept.

Chapter 42

Xeron, Melanie, and Tail Biter sat around a fire. Both had taken their outer most garments and hung them near the fire. Xeron went further and had everything near the fire, with one garment covering his waist. Melanie had no intention of revealing that much of herself to him, and the fire kept her chill to a minimum as her clothes slowly dried, both on her body and hanging by the fire.

Melanie moved a little closer to the fire, and said, “You didn’t expect the tree to explode.”

Xeron shook his head, saying, “No, no I didn’t.”

“Are you crazy, or something?”

Xeron thought for a moment before answering. “I’m going to go with ‘something.’”

“Exploding water bombs?”

“Not quite, I apparently asked for more water than I realized. I am connecting to magic in a way I never knew possible, lately. Perante started it by trying to kill me. As long as I figure out how to use this power, I don’t think I have to worry about him anymore.”

“Aren’t you lucky,” Melanie bitterly replied.

Xeron noticed, “Well, you’re free of him, so doesn’t that mean you’re lucky, too?”

“No. Not lucky at all. What’s left of my family lives in Perantium. My father died years ago as one of Perante’s soldiers in a stupid war, and my mother has no idea where I am or what happened to me, and to make things worse, she doesn’t have my help. Without my wages, I don’t know how she is feeding herself or my sister.”

“I see,” Xeron said noncommittally.

“Oh wait,” Melanie was getting angry, “There is more to my tale. I have to go home and help them, but when I get there, Perante will probably just grab me again, and who knows how he would punish me for leaving his service. He doesn’t seem to take ‘no’ very well.” As she was talking, Tail Biter came over and placed his chin on her leg. She pet his head, even as she wrinkled her nose at the wet dog smell.

“You do seem to be in a bind.” Xeron held up his hand to stop her from replying. “I could help you check on your family.”

“How could you do that?”

“That’s easy. I could change your appearance so no one recognizes you.” He stood up and checked on his shirt. Finding it dry, he put it on and returned to the log he had been sitting on. He frowned as he sat down. “You know,” he said, “drying clothes doesn’t take much longer doing it with fire than it does with magic?”

Melanie said, “I didn’t know that,” in a tone that made it clear she could care less about that fact.

“Right,” Xeron picked up on her tone. He went on, anyway, “it’s just strange for me, to be leery of my own magical ability. Normally, I’d dry them with a spell, but the way magic has been working for me lately, I just might send our clothes up in flames, and I don’t think that would go over to well with you.”

Melanie put her hand over her chest, “No, no it wouldn’t. Back to changing my appearance. How long would it last?”

“How long do you want? Again, I may practice a little before I’d think it’s safe to send you home, but a few days to a week is easiest and safest. Of course, you still have that fuzziness I can’t figure out. That might make things harder.”

“I don’t know about fuzzy, but I would like the chance to go check on my mother and sister without being grabbed by his men.”

“Then what?” Xeron asked.

“Then we…” Melanie stopped. What would she do? Would she stay in town, hiding? If she did, how could she work? Could she take her family and escape? How would they get by? “I don’t know.”

Xeron leaned back and rested his hands on his thighs. “Hmmm. I have an idea that might interest you.”

“I don’t think so,” Melanie replied, fearing the worst.

“Hear me out. I haven’t lied to you or misled you yet, have I?”

Melanie thought about it, answering slowly, “No, not so far, but your exploding tree nearly killed me.”

“My apologies for that. That was… unexpected. I am on to something new, and I need time to understand it, learn to use it, safely. Studying magic, serious study, is not something you do a little at a time. It is a calling. Mastery takes years of work, every day. What I have tapped into…” he shook his head back and forth in wonder, “…that could take a lifetime.”

He pulled his attention back to Melanie, who was staring at him with a look that said,
Why do I care?
“What I’m getting at, Melanie, is a job offer, for you and your family.”

“Oh. Wait, what?” Melanie wondered if she was hearing him correctly. By the expectant look on his face, she realized she had. “Have you lost all your acorns? I just escaped one mage and you want me to put my entire family under the control of another?”

“Not control, Melanie, employ. There is a difference.”

Melanie didn’t believe him. “Explain the difference to me. I don’t see it.”

Xeron rubbed the bridge of his nose up with two fingers. “For starters, no spells. Your family would run the small household I plan on creating in a remote area…”

Melanie shook her head at the idea of her family trapped out in a remote area with Xeron.

“Hear me out. Your family runs the household so I can focus on my studies. I’ll pay you more than you can imagine and…”

Melanie interrupted, “What’s payment good for if we have to spend the rest of our lives out in a ‘remote area’ with you?”

“I see your point. See, I like you. You are smart. So, we make it a contract. Work one year, which should be enough time for me to understand the scope of what I am attempting. If you want to add to the contract, meaning I haven’t been a terrible mage, you can. If you want to go, you can, with enough silver to set you and your family up forever.”

Melanie looked at him skeptically. “How do I trust a person who can do anything to me?”

“Most people would jump at this chance. You, your family, away from Perante. My only interest in you is practical, and,” he added, seeing the look on her face, “the fuzziness. That intrigues me. Whatever reasonable assurances you need, I will grant.”

He had an idea, “There’s something I’d like to try, an assurance, if you will.”

Melanie was dubious. “I was almost killed by a chunk of wood with the last thing you tried.”

“Yes, I suppose so, but I won’t be surprised like that again. I am a fast learner where magic is concerned.” He cleared his mind and began concentrating on the earth below.

Melanie grabbed her still damp coat from the fire and wrapped it around her shoulders, just in case Xeron didn’t learn as fast as he claimed.

When he was tapped into the tree’s roots, he realized he was also tapped into the ground around the roots. It made sense, since the roots were absorbing nutrients from the surrounding earth. Even now, he felt connected to the ground below, and that connection included a sense of the metals under his feet, too.

He could feel a lot of copper below his feet, and his life experience taught him that silver was often nearby. His new magical depths allowed him to feel it. He reached out with his mind and began to search the dirt for minerals. At first, it was hard to tell which metal was which. The fact that silver was often combined with copper was confusing at first. His intent was to impress Melanie, so he was searching for a pure nugget of silver. Though much more rare than silver combined with other metals, he sensed it was around.

Eyes closed, right hand extended out in front of him, he mentally sifted through the earth below. He had the odd sensation of swimming through the earth. A smile appeared on his face at the thrill of his new found abilities. He wasn’t an accumulator by nature, but he realized with this new ability, his wealth was basically unlimited, and portable. The last thought broke his concentration.

Sitting down, he looked at Melanie. “What would your family need to start over in another place? If that’s what you want.”

“What anybody needs: food and shelter. A few pigs, some chickens, and we could get by.”

“And what would you need to get that?”

“That depends. I could get married to someone who has that. My mother is a good seamstress, but the amount of work…”

Xeron interrupted her, “Would a pound of silver get you that faster?”

She looked at him like he was crazy. “Huh? I guess. Do you have a pound or two of silver in your jacket?”  

“Better,” he replied. Standing back up, he returned to sifting through the earth. Soon, he zeroed in on what felt like a pure nugget of silver. He imagined breathing in the silver through his hand. Nothing happened at first, but when he added a spin to his thoughts and the nugget, it began digging its way to the surface. Its rough edges carved through the dirt on its way through the earth.

Melanie watched, legs tensed and ready to run if a gusher of water or who knew what started bursting out of the earth. Instead of an exploding tree and deluge of water, she saw a puff of dirt on the ground in front of Xeron and a streak of silver race from the ground into his hand. Xeron smiled and walked up to Melanie. He slowly raised his closed fist, turned it over, and opened it, showing her a nugget of silver in her hand.

Melanie was trying to believe what she was seeing, but her mind did not want to. “This is some sort of trick, right? You had it all along?”

“No trick. I felt it and brought it up.”

“You felt it? How’s that work?”

“Are you going to take it, or not?” he asked.

She took it gingerly, half expecting it to be hot for some reason.

“When I tapped into the tree, for water, I tapped into its roots. It was as if I was the tree, or at least connected to it.” He went back to his original spot and sat down. “A tree, apparently, knows what’s around it. That was my starting point. Then it was sifting through the different metals. A fortune of metals lies under this forest.”

“So you could do this all day?” Melanie was in wonder of what Xeron could do.

“I suppose, but I think it would get boring. And how much silver do you need, really?”

“I could come up with an amount,” Melanie said quietly.

Xeron heard her and replied, “Name it.”

She squeezed the silver in her hand. The edges bit against her skin. She liked the pain, though, because it meant the silver was real. “What are we talking about, here, exactly?”

“You name the price, how much silver you want, and I give you half. Then we go get your family out of Perante, I set up a small chateau of my own, and your family works for me for one year. After that, you can stay or go, with the other half of the silver.”

“It sounds like a great deal, actually, but…” Melanie ran through the potential dangers. He could renege on the deal and have her and her entire family. Fuzzy or not, even if she was immune to long term coercion from a mage, her family was definitely not. “…how can I trust you?”

“I don’t know much more I can do.”

“You could bind Tail Biter to me permanently.”

Xeron shook his head and rubbed his arm. “Out of the question. I’m fond of the mutt. If you want to pick up your own dog, I could make him a pretty good guardian. Of course, what I create I can destroy, so that doesn’t do much for trust with me. It would make your leaving easier, though, if that is what you chose.

“Think about it.” Xeron made motions to get moving again. “I’m dry enough to get back on the trail. If you don’t like the offer, we’ll split up as soon as we get to a place I recognize. Servants I can find anywhere.”

Melanie got up to return the silver to Xeron. He stopped her, putting up his hand and saying, “Keep it. Consider it an act of good will.”

As much as Melanie hated mages, her experience with Xeron was nothing like living under Perante’s control. “Thank you,” she said, and decided to spend some time considering the offer.

Chapter 43

Yuri was still getting used to the fact that the boys were calling Samantha “Samantha.” To them, Bodgan had never existed. He wasn’t surprised that they liked their new riding accommodations, calling it the castle. He knew Hental would have immediately collected as many rocks as he could in preparation for throwing at whatever looked like an inviting target off the trail. Remembering Stone’s accuracy, he was glad the boys didn’t have the same idea.

The trail they were on felt smaller, much smaller, to Yuri as they traveled on it in the wagon. At times, they would have to duck tree branches that were hanging over the trail. Yuri tried to remember any tight spots in the trail where they might have trouble passing. The streams wouldn’t be a problem this time of year, but there were a couple inclines Yuri knew where they would have to unload the wagon, lightening it enough so the horse could make it up the trail. Yuri wondered if it would be easier if he tried to pull the wagon himself at those times. It would definitely give him an idea of how strong he really was.