Rangers magic 2, p.24
Ranger's Magic 2, page 24
“And you know what else that must mean,” Farlo put in excitedly. “You Dernwaith people, like Ralnor and Akhen here, must have a powerful talent for magic, if you were only able to be trained in it!”
“This last I do understand,” Anaxis said. “There is a tendency for what you call magic among my people. But we do not use it for combat any more, we’ve forgotten the way of it. Instead, we just use it for peaceful applications. We work with the land, and we use our magic to enhance the crops and to be in close communion with the soil and the trees, with the seasons and the beasts of the plain. We do not really call it magic anymore, nor do we think of it as anything unusual. We work with the land, that is all.”
Akhen smiled and gazed at Anaxis. His expression was both sad and happy at the same time. “Those are the applications of magic which seem most valuable to me,” he said. “I have dreamed for a long time that the elves and the humans could get rid of their desire for power through magic, and could use it in this way, as a gentle, subtle enhancement to their lives and their stewardship of the land.”
“Alas,” Sena said quietly, “I think it very unlikely that either humans or elves will ever quite see the attraction of the peaceful, simple lives of the Dernwaith. You are an example to us all, Anaxis. Perhaps in the future, your way of life will be more available to others as well, and perhaps more people will make the choice to live simply and in harmony with nature and with each other. But I fear that for us at least, there is still a long and warlike struggle ahead of us before that comes to pass.”
At that moment, the door opened and Cowan came in, carrying a large bundle and shaking the rain from his hair. “Not everything was destroyed,” he said, placing the bundle carefully on the ground.
Cowan unpacked his bundle and showed them the results. “Akhen,” he said, “here are your books and writing materials. Your map, as well. And Lana, here is the extra cloak you brought with you, a little worse for being dunked in the river, but no worse for wear.”
One by one, he pulled out and revealed new treasures, and everyone was pleased to find that the things they’d brought along had not all been destroyed.
“How is it that we’ve managed to retrieve so much of our stuff?” Farlo marveled, holding up a set of potion-making tools. There was a mortar and pestle, a leather bag containing some ingredients, and a little pouch full of empty glass vials that he would use to put his own creations in.
“We got lucky,” Cowan said with a shrug. “The spot where we berthed the boats was very shallow, and the humans who fired their exploding arrows at the boats did not hang about to finish the job. The boats were holed and sank quickly, but the sinking put the fires out. They were both holed at the back, so that the rear end of the boats sank first. We had stashed most of our goods in the front of the boats. The front of the boats floated, and the gear remained mostly above the water line.”
“So the damage to the boats is not that bad?” Sena asked eagerly.
“I would not say that,” Cowan said. “They are damaged by fire, and the flooding has caused the insides of the boats to swell and warp. I have no skill as a boat-builder, I’m afraid. Someone who knows about such things might be able to patch them up and make them water-worthy again, but I’m not sure if anyone here has the skill to do that.”
Sena sat back again, looking disappointed. It made Ralnor think again about the biggest challenge that this new event had brought about. They would struggle to get on toward the Forbidden City on foot. Even if they did make their way overland to their destination, they could in no way guarantee that they would get there before the humans arrived.
Ralnor frowned, thinking about the problem. He had no regrets about having stopped to help out the Dernwaith villagers, but at the same time their decision to do so had raised an unexpected challenge. On the other hand, if they had been caught in their boats by the party of humans, the results might have been disastrous.
As these thoughts were passing through his mind, Anaxis stood. “I have good news for you,” he said. “Me and my people live in close commune with the river. We build boats and use them for fishing and for the little travel that we do. We cannot afford to give our boats away, but we can repair yours. There are people in my village who definitely have the skill. It may take a day or two, but I have no doubt that we will be able to repair your boats and make them water worthy again. Let me talk to my villagers. I think Enwen and his sons are the best boat-builders that we have in the village. I will go to them and ask them for their help.”
“That would be wonderful,” Lana said, and Sena nodded her agreement and smiled with satisfaction at Anaxis. Clearly, both women had been thinking along the same lines as Ralnor.
“It would have been risky to try to carry on overland,” Ralnor said. “Thank you, Anaxis. We accept your offer with gratitude.”
Anaxis bowed gracefully. “There is one thing that I would ask,” he said, looking around at the whole party. “I would ask you to keep your knowledge of our origins to yourself. My villagers are simple people, and they are happy in their lives because of it. I have no desire for their mind to be disturbed by this ancient history.”
“That is an understandable sentiment,” Akhen said, “but I wonder if it might not be a good idea to accept a little disruption in your peaceful way of life in the cause of long-term survival.”
“What do you mean?” Anaxis said, looking at Akhen curiously, and with a little suspicion.”
“Just this,” Akhen said. “I guess that today’s incident is the first time you have ever been attacked from outside your village?”
“The first time for as long as anyone can remember,” Anaxis said. “The first time since the ruined city ceased to create horrors.”
“Exactly,” Akhen said, “and yet today a force of well-equipped goblins raided your village out of nowhere. Things are changing in the world. Our mission is to the ruined city north of here, the place that used to generate horrors. We call it the Forbidden City. We believe that an evil power has occupied it, and that magic is emanating from the city and reawakening the forces of darkness in the world. That means that your peaceful way of life may no longer be viable, at least not for the moment. You need to defend yourselves…”
“I could have the villagers dig a defensive ditch,” Anaxis said doubtfully, “and perhaps the smith who makes our farm tools might be able to make some swords for the stronger villagers…”
“I have a better idea,” Akhen said. “You said that it’s going to take a few days for your craft workers to fix up our canoes. You’ve also said that your people have some propensity for magic. Well, I propose that we stop here for the few days that it takes for the boats to be fixed, and that in those few days, I teach you and your villagers the basics of defensive magic. Having a few magic spells at your disposal will set you up better than having rudimentary swords in the hands of your villagers.”
“And I,” Farlo said enthusiastically, “can work with your smith and show him how to make swords and spears! Perhaps Akhen and I might also work together to help you make some healing potions?”
Ralnor smiled at the way that things were unfolding. “This seems like a good plan,” he said. “Even with a couple of days’ delay, we should be able to beat the humans to the Forbidden City once our boats are working again. If we can spend those days making it easier for you in the village to defend yourselves, then so much the better. While Akhen is teaching magic and Farlo is helping the smith, perhaps Sena, Lana, Cowan, and myself could spend some time scouting in the hills behind your village for the source of the goblin attack. They must have come from somewhere, I think. Perhaps we can find out where.”
“That’s a good idea,” Akhen said. “We have our mission, but we would do well to leave this village in a more defensible position than when we arrived. Tell me, Anaxis, how many other villages are there nearby? Could you send messages to them, perhaps even ask them to come here and learn magic for their defenses? There’s always strength in numbers, and it might be a good idea at present for the Dernwaith to all come together and look out for each other for a while.”
“The thought had already crossed my mind,” Anaxis said. “There are three villages within a days’ march of here, and another four further south. From what you say, I suspect the villages that are further south may be at less risk, being further from the Forbidden City.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Ralnor said. He was thinking of the undead they had fought in the tomb near the hills of the Nameless Ones—or the hills of the Dernwaith, they should perhaps be called. If their theory was correct, the influence of the magic emanating from the Forbidden City had reached that far south, and so the Dernwaith villages in this country were all likely to be under threat.
Eventually, they agreed that messengers would be sent to the three nearby villages, and then those messengers would recruit more messengers from those villages to go on and warn the others.
“I just hope they will find villages there,” Lana said, “and not burned-out shells. Who knows what might have happened before now? I’m starting to realize that this evil has been going on for much longer than we thought. Perhaps the other villages might already have been attacked.”
“We will have to go there and find out,” Anaxis said firmly. “Let’s not anticipate trouble before it happens. I will arrange the messengers at once.”
The rain was falling steadily as the party followed Anaxis out of the hut. Of the villagers, only Anaxis was fluent in the common tongue. Their own speech was unintelligible to Ralnor and his friends. It was a beautiful sounding language, full of rolling syllables and sing-song intonation, and Ralnor smiled to hear it. The Dernwaith people bowed and showed their appreciation for the efforts that he and his friends had gone to on their behalf, and they quickly understood the phrase that the villagers mostly were saying meant “Thank you.”
Akhen was able to pick the language up quickly. He could read it, but he had never spoken it aloud, and the villagers laughed good-naturedly and clapped their hands in appreciation as he blundered bravely into conversation with them. Anaxis translated between the villagers and the others, and a work party was quickly formed to haul the half-sunk canoes back to the village where they could be worked on.
The fire damage to the thatch on the villagers’ homes was not too bad. Already the villagers had patched the damaged parts of the roofs, and Anaxis explained that they would wait until the next dry day before adding completely new thatch to the roofs.
Farlo quickly found the hut of the smith. Unlike the other buildings, this was built from river stone rather than mud, and roofed with timber and slate rather than thatch. This made sense, as it helped to reduce the risk of fires from the smith’s forge. With a bit of help from Anaxis, he made it understood that he, too, was a smith and an armorer, and that he would like to teach the man how to make swords to defend the village. The smith quickly became enthusiastic about the project, and before long the two of them were huddled over the forge together, exchanging words in their respective languages for the common tools and concepts of their mutual trade.
It was a homely, simple place, this little village. There were about twenty houses, most small, some, such as the one where Anaxis lived, rather larger. The buildings were laid out in a circular pattern around a central square which was used for meetings and as a simple market, as well as for the larger projects that needed an open space where a group could work.
Most of the houses followed the same pattern—a circular building made from mud with a single entrance and one or two windows. Apart from the smithy, they were all roofed with thatch, and Anaxis, who was giving the tour, explained that the thatch came from the crops they grew every year on the fields within the shelter of the hills behind the village.
“Rye, barley, flax,” he said, “all are used both for food and for the roofs of the houses. The flax is also used for our clothing, as well as leather we obtain from our small cow herd and from the deer we hunt in the woods around here. We live simply, seeing to our own needs, but it’s a good life.”
“It certainly seems to be,” Ralnor said, smiling at the obvious pride with which Anaxis showed off his village. “Will you show me the fields?”
“Of course!” Anaxis said, smiling. “With pleasure.”
It was not far to go.
They walked through the village to where a narrow road between two houses led them out toward the hills. In the rain, the low hills looked gray and mysterious, but between the hills and the village lay the generous fields of the villagers.
The hills reached out in two long spurs to the village, leaving a flat area in between. Ralnor, looking around, saw that the villagers grew their crops on the flats, and kept their cattle on the higher ground.
“I imagine you bring your cattle down onto the flats over the winter?” he asked.
“Exactly,” Anaxis said. “That way, the cattle can help to regenerate the soil each year so that next year’s crop will be healthy and strong.”
“You’re not far from harvest, too,” Ralnor said, pointing to where the tall flax crop swayed in the wind. The mass of pale blue flowers was pleasing to the eye, and he could see that the flowers were just beginning to turn. The crop would be ready for harvest in a few weeks.
“Not far off,” Anaxis said, gazing lovingly at the fields. “I am thankful that those goblins did not do any damage to the crops.”
“That’s true,” Sena said thoughtfully. “They came straight for the village. What does that mean?”
“Perhaps,” Lana said, “they are driven by the same instinct that drove the undead back in the tomb in the southlands. They just want to kill, not to damage in a tactical way.”
“Undead?” Anaxis said, with fear in his voice. “You have fought undead?”
“We have,” Ralnor said, “but don’t be too afraid. We’ve seen no evidence for the dead rising in this area, and there is too much to this mystery that we still do not understand. Put your trust in Akhen, and let him teach you some magic. Meanwhile, I think it would be a good idea for a few of us to pick up the goblin trail and track them into the hills a little way. We still have some daylight left, and I want to know for sure if there are any others waiting in the wings or if we’ve dealt with them all.”
They returned to the village, where they found Akhen in the central square. He was enthusiastically undertaking the training of a group of keen but slightly confused villagers on how to do a force spell. Apparently, Akhen’s Dernwaith language skills were not quite up to scratch. He was becoming frustrated, and hailed the return of Anaxis with pleasure and relief.
“You can help me here, Anaxis,” he said. “What’s your word for spirit? As in, the spirit that animates all life? I keep trying to get the idea across but everyone seems very amused, and this fellow keeps trying to give me this fish.” He held up a fresh river fish with a bemused expression, while a pleased-looking villager beamed at everyone, nodding and pointing at the fish.
Anaxis, keeping a very straight face, listened to the word Akhen was using. “Ah,” he said, “the emphasis is wrong. The way you’re saying it, the word does actually mean fish. You’re telling them they need to connect with the power of fish, which actually is not that strange a concept, considering that we’re used to using our magic to connect to the natural world. Say it like this…”
And with that, Anaxis and Akhen became absorbed in the task of training the villagers. The concepts and language that were needed were abstract and advanced, and Anaxis decided it would be best for him to stay with Akhen so that he could both learn and translate at the same time.
Farlo and the smith, whose name was Droll, were working together at the forge, laughing and joking and making a lot of noise with their hammers. At the other side of the village square, Enwen the boat builder and his two sons had hauled the canoes up onto wooden blocks and were examining them closely. Most of the villagers were here in the square, and even the ones who were still working on patching up the fire-damaged roofs were keeping a keen eye on the training that was happening.
“I think we can leave them to it, don’t you?” Ralnor said to the others. Sena and Lana nodded, smiling at the bustle of activity in the little village, but Cowan shook his head. “If you don’t mind,” the old Scout said, “I’d very much like to stay here and take part in Akhen’s magic class. You see, unlike Sena, I never took a vow not to use magic. My life has been damaged by magic, and I cannot forgive the Black Spire for that, but I am a human and I have some ability for magic, I think. If I did not, I don’t think that the spell to stop me from needing sleep would have worked so spectacularly well. I want to learn what Akhen has to teach, so if you don’t mind, I’ll stay here rather than coming with you.”
“Oh, very well,” Ralnor said. “I would have preferred to have your tracking skills when we go looking for these goblins and wherever they came from, but I guess we’ll be able to get on with just the three of us. Sena, Lana, are you prepared to go out after the goblins, just the three of us?”
“Of course,” Sena said defiantly.
Lana looked less certain, but she nodded. “Very well,” she said. “I think it would be better to have more people, but if we’re only going on a scouting mission…”
“Definitely,” Ralnor said firmly. “We’re not going out to engage in any fighting, just to find out what’s going on with the goblins and to see if there’s any information we can get. We’ll track their progress, see what we can find out, then return straight away.”
“That sounds safe enough,” Lana said with a smile. Sena looked at her as if she disapproved of her caution, but Lana shook her head. “Don’t look at me like that, Sena,” she chuckled. “Don’t forget, I’ve come within an inch of death already through an overconfident decision to engage in a fight. I want to be careful and to succeed in our mission without getting myself or any of us killed!”
