Dragon's Treasure - 3. Wanderlust

Nana’s eldest son answered her summons. Although this man, Ian’s father, had inherited the farm when Nana’s husband died, Nana was still the head of the family.

“Listen, son,” Nana said as she gestured before the man’s eyes. “Ian has the wanderlust. He will leave tomorrow. You will be sorry to see him leave. You know he will face uncertainty and danger, but you have been a good father. You have prepared him to meet whatever he may encounter. You will comfort your wife and daughter, and still any questions from his brothers and uncles.”

Nana’s soft words, repeated and reinforced with magic, burned their way into the man’s mind. I don’t like to do this to my son, Nana thought, but the Finders must not suspect, therefore he must not know.

That night before the boys were to leave was a busy one. Ian slipped away, and crept to his grandmother’s chambers, where she was helping Ulee prepare.

“Ian, Ulee, pay attention to what I will say,” she said after Ulee’s pack was tied shut. “You will undertake an exciting and perilous journey. There is so much I would like to have told you before you went out into the world.

“You must not use the road that passes by the farm. Go north, through the forest and then along the creek. After a tenday, you will find the river. Follow the river road north until you reach the Great Northern Mountain Road. Take that road east until it ends in the city of Kassel.

“In the Ordinary Market of that city, find a jewel-smith named Marion. Tell him your name and your father’s name and his father’s name. Tell him that you are my grandson, and that his daughter, Ruth, is named for me. Tell him that I ask him to help you. I do not know if he is still alive. It has been nearly a century since I last heard from him, but he is a cousin, however distant. If he is not alive, I do not know what to tell you except to make your way north, across the mountains to Arcadia. They, at least, do not enslave their magic-users.

“Do not try to send messages to us. Even if you found someone to trust, and who would write a letter for you, you don’t know, and therefore cannot trust, those who might carry the letter.

“Avoid quarrels, but if you find yourself drawn into what you cannot avoid, fight hard and vigorously; courage, audacity, and energy may defeat a stronger and more skilled foe.

“Keep your ears and eyes open, and your mind alert. Know what’s around you. Know who is near you. You are new to the world despite your age.

“If it comes to pass that you must choose between Light and Dark, choose the Light. The path is harder, but the reward is far, far greater. Do not believe anyone who tells you differently. It is easier to do ill, and to destroy than it is to do that which is good, or to create.

“You will find friends. Not many, but they will be there if you look for them. Do not trust too easily, but do not fear so much that you trust no one. ”

*****

Ulee crouched in a gully, much as he had done less than a tenday earlier. This time he was wearing sturdy boots and warm clothes. More important, he was not hungry and it was not raining. The pack on his back held food, a blanket, a wooden bowl and a drinking cup, extra clothes, and a hooded cloak. Nana had taken him to this place before dawn, walking through the trees with only memory and starlight to guide her.

“Ian will be here before midday,” Nana said. “He will say goodbye to his mother and father, and walk west on the road until he is out of their sight. Then he will strike through the forest and turn back toward this place. He knows his way, and he will find you. Do not despair if more time passes than you would like. Ian’s parents must believe he is going to the west, and his mother will watch until she cannot see him any more, and even longer. Here is your breakfast.”

The old woman gathered her skirt as she prepared to return to the house. “Ulee, something brought you to us. It was not an accident that it was Ian who found you. It was not an accident that he told no one but me. Please take care of Ian, Ulee.” She turned and hurried away.

Take care of Ian? Ulee thought. Me? He’s bigger and stronger than I am. How can I take care of him?

*****

“Hedgehog? Are you there, Hedgehog?” Ian’s voice carried softly over the breeze. After initiating Ulee into the Mysteries, Ian had given the younger boy this nickname. At first, Ulee had bristled at the thought, but Ian had said the name so gently and kindly that Ulee realized it was not a taunt.

“Here, Ian,” Ulee whispered, scampering to his feet, and scrambling from the gully in which he’d hidden.

Some hours later, the boys rested by the side of a stream. All his life before, Ulee had been barefooted. His feet were unaccustomed to the boots Nana had given him. He had taken them off and was gingerly dipping his feet into the cool water of the stream.

“I’m sorry that I can’t walk as far as you, Ian,” Ulee said.

“It’s okay, Hedgehog,” Ian said. He sat on the stream bank beside the smaller boy, and put his arm around Ulee’s shoulder. “We’re not in any special hurry. Nana stuffed your pack with food, and Mother gave me a lot, too. There are lots and lots of nuts and berries in the woods. The weather should be good. It almost never rains during Harvest.”

The older boy yawned. “I couldn’t sleep, last night. Too excited, I guess I was.” He closed his eyes.

“Oh, look!” Ulee said. “That bird, what is it? I’ve never seen one like that!”

Ian opened his eyes, but it was too late. The bird had flown away. “What did it look like,” he asked.

Ulee concentrated, trying to remember all the colors. “His face was bright orange, but the back of his head was bluer than the sky. His breast was purple, but his stomach was yellow. His back and wings were blue-gray.” The boy slowly raised his hand and pointed, “Look, there he is, now.”

Ian looked at the tree toward which Ulee was pointing. “No, Hedgehog, that’s not the bird. That’s your magic! That’s an illusion!”

The bird vanished. Ulee looked puzzled, so Ian explained. “It’s just like when you pretend to be a hedgehog or pretend to be invisible. You use magic to make people see a hedgehog, or to not see you. You wanted me to see the bird, so you made an image of it with your mind. Your magic made that image seem real. That’s what an illusion is.”

Ian hugged Ulee. “It was a very pretty bird. Do it again, please?”

Ulee thought very hard as he said, “Orange face and sky-blue head; purple breast and yellow stomach. Pretty bird with blue-gray wings.”

“There he is…or there your illusion is,” Ian said. “I think it’s a bunting, but I’m not sure. Are you rested enough?”

The boys walked for another hour, and then stopped for lunch. Ian took bread and cheese from his pack, and opened his handkerchief to reveal the blackberries he’d been collecting as they walked through the woods.

“What else can you make, besides a bird, I mean?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Ulee said between bites. “I’ve never done anything like that, before.”

“Please try,” Ian said. “I mean, as long as you’re going to be a mage…as long as we’re going to be mages…we need to know what we can do, and what we can’t.”

Seeing the look on the younger boy’s face, Ian softened his voice, “I’m sorry, Ulee. I know you don’t want to be a mage...that’s just the way it is. You are, and I am, and that’s all there is to it. Please don’t be sad…”

While Ian sorted through the blackberries, Ulee looked into his mind, and remembered an image from his childhood. Trying very hard, he remembered exactly what it had looked like, and thought very hard about it.

“Ulee!” Ian cried as he scampered to his feet and jumped in front of the smaller boy. “It’s a monster!”

Ian drew his dagger, but the monster disappeared. Ian stood, stunned. It was an illusion! When his breathing slowed, he turned around and asked, “What was that?”

“Alligator,” said Ulee, “from the swamps. That’s what we tanned; the hides, that is. I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Ulee paused, and then said, “You thought I was in danger. You didn’t run away. You tried to save me, even though it wasn’t real, you didn’t know that. Now I owe you my life twice.”

*****

“This is the stream that runs past the farm,” Ian said. “It runs all the way to the river, which runs all the way to the Great Mountain Road, which will take us to Kassel.”

The boys picked their way slowly along the banks of the stream until the sun was no longer visible, hidden behind the low hills to the west as the sky became like a purple-gray. Ian called a halt for the day. “This will be a good place to spend the night, I think,” he said as he shrugged off his pack. “How do your feet feel?”

Ulee found a large, flat rock by the stream and sat down. Pulling his boots and socks off, he examined his feet. “This one’s bleeding,” he said.

Ian sat beside the boy. “Wash it in the stream. Clean it well. Use boy magic as I showed you. I’m going to get some herbs.”

Ulee had finished washing his feet when Ian had returned with a handful of green and grey-green leaves. Using the knob on the haft of his dagger, he crushed them together in his drinking cup. “Did Nana give you extra socks?” he asked.

Ian dried Ulee’s feet, and then applied the paste of herbs to the broken blisters. As he did so, he softly chanted the words Nana had taught him, the words that would draw healing power from the magical matrix. He bound Ulee’s feet with clean handkerchiefs, and carefully pulled the socks over them. “You, my little Hedgehog, are not to walk again tonight. Except if you have to piss, that is. I will bring you water and supper, and make our bed.”

“That feels so much better, Ian,” Ulee said. “That was your magic, wasn’t it?”

“That was healing magic,” Ian said, as he washed out his cup in the stream. “It was a spell that Nana taught me. The sound of the words makes the magic, not me. I think it’s something anyone can learn, but I’m not sure. No, my magic is something different. Nana wasn’t sure what it was, and neither am I.” He thought a minute, and then added, “I think it was my magic that let me know that the dog was seeing…what he thought he was seeing, anyway…when you made him think you were a hedgehog. I think I saw what the dog was seeing, if that makes any sense.

“I think my magic is what kept the dog from running to the door barking. I think my magic somehow makes the dogs listen to me better. They seemed to know what I wanted, and when I wanted them to come to me.”

Ian had put a closely woven wool blanket on the ground between two roots of a huge oak tree. “This one will keep out the damp from the ground,” he explained. “The next one will keep out the cold from the ground, and this one we will put on top to keep us warm.”

Ian looked at the younger boy, “Before we sleep, I want to share with you. If you want.”

“Oh, yes, please, Ian,” Ulee said.

*****

“Ian,” Ulee whispered, poking the older boy’s shoulder. “Ian, be still but look. It’s the bird, again.”

Ian opened his eyes but did not stir. Across the small clearing, lit by the early light of dawn, sitting on a twig, was the brightly colored bird of yesterday. “Is that real, or did you wake me up to see an illusion?” he asked.

“No, it’s real,” Ulee said. “You said you could make the dogs obey you…can you make the bird obey you?”

“You don’t want it for breakfast, do you?” Ian asked.

“No!” Ulee giggled. “But can you make it come?”

Ian thought for a minute. He looked at the bird and thought, come to me. Come…

The bird cocked its head.

“It’s afraid,” Ian said. Don’t be afraid. Come… he thought.

The bird hopped into the air, and flew—somewhat erratically—toward the two boys. Ian held out his hand. Don’t be afraid…come.

Ulee held his breath as the bird landed on Ian’s hand. “May I pet it?” he whispered as he stretched out his hand toward the bird.

The bird shit on Ian’s hand, darted into the air, and flew quickly away.

*****

“The game trails…they lead to the water, but not along the stream,” Ian explained as he urged Ulee along through the brush. “I’m sorry it’s so hard. How are your feet? Do they still hurt?”

Ulee’s answer was broken by his labored breathing, “They’re… fine… since… you… healed… them… The …boots …don’t …hurt …any …more.” The boy stopped, despite Ian’s pull. “I’ve got to rest!”

Ian stopped and turned to face the boy. “Oh, Hedgehog, you’re…” He touched the younger boy’s forehead. “You’re flushed…you’ve never walked this far or this fast, before, have you?”

As the boys sat by the stream, Ulee caught his breath. “I’m strong, I know. I had to lift and carry heavy things in the tannery. But I never walked any farther than from one end of the tannery to the other, until I ran away. Your legs are so long. It’s hard to keep up with you.”

“We’ll go slower, then, and rest more often,” Ian said. “After all, we’re not in a hurry, are we?”

The moon had set when Ian woke to Ulee’s frantic whispers. “Ian, there’s someone here. Listen!”

As Ian shook off sleep, he could hear a rustling nearby. “The fire’s gone out…I can’t see what it is,” he began.

Ulee reached into his shirt and pulled out the ring that he wore on a thong. Concentrating, he willed it to illuminate. Both boys were momentarily blinded by the light that burst from the ring. When their sight had recovered, they saw several pair of glowing orbs, perhaps the size of a penny, and only inches from the ground. The orbs were just outside the circle of light thrown by the ring.

“Raccoons!” Ian said. “They’ve gotten our packs!”

Ian jumped up from the blanket and grabbed his quarterstaff. The orbs disappeared as the animals turned away from the light. One, more bold or more hungry than the others, attempted to drag Ulee’s pack. Even as he raised his quarterstaff, Ian’s mind reached out to the creature. It opened its mouth, releasing the strap of the pack, and fled with its brothers.

The light of the ring had faded, but not before Ian had inventoried the contents of their packs. “They managed to eat or destroy about half of our food,” he said. “We’ll have to find more berries and nuts. There are some roots, too, that we can eat, although they have to be cooked. Now, my little Hedgehog, tell me about that ring.”

“It was my mother’s. She gave it to me when I was apprenticed. The tanner saw her give it to me, and took it away from me. But I took it back before I ran away,” Ulee related.

“No, not the ring itself, but what made it glow?” Ian asked.

“Oh, I did that,” Ulee said. “It’s something that I can do, but it’s never been that bright before.”

“That’s part of your magic,” Ian said, “that you can make the ring glow. It was so strong this time, I think, because you were full of my boy magic, and that made the ring brighter.”

*****

The next day, the stream reached the river. The boys began walking north along the eastern bank. They were paying too much attention to the river to see what was hidden in the reeds, sheltered by the drooping branches of weeping willow trees. They both jumped nervously when they were hailed.

“Yo-ho, boys!” came the voice. “Over here. Are you looking for us?”

The voice was that of a man who stood, with three others on the deck of a boat. The boat was perhaps 30 feet long, and broad across the center, tapering slightly to blunt ends fore and aft. A wooden structure that resembled a small cabin or cottage, complete with a thatched roof, stood in the middle of the boat. There was enough room on either side of the cabin for a person to walk on the flat deck. Two masts, their sails furled, projected from the deck fore and aft of the cabin.

Ian took a breath to answer. Before he could, however, two men stepped from the brush nearby. The men wore naked swords, short and broad. One called to the boat, “We’re from Dago...” Turning to Ian and Ulee he added, “You boys better come with us.”

Ian turned as if to retreat into the bushes, reaching for Ulee’s hand as he did so. The older of the two men was quicker, however, and grabbed Ulee around the waist. “Not so fast, boy,” he said to Ian. “Your friend is coming with us. Perhaps you’d better…”

“Let me go!” Ulee cried, as he struggled. The man lifted the boy from the ground and held him under his arm where Ulee’s kicks and punches could not reach him. With his free hand, he struck the boy, missing his head but placing a strong blow on his shoulder.

“Shut up, boy,” he growled.

By this time, the second man had drawn his sword and put its point at Ian’s navel. “I can run you through faster than you can turn, boy,” he said. “Now, walk slowly toward the boat.

Ian walked across a narrow board from the shore to the deck of the boat. The two men followed, one still carrying a chastened Ulee. “Who are you?” one of the boatmen asked.

“We lived on a farm, near Bayreuth,” Ian said. “We’re traveling to Witten. Please, we can’t harm you…”

“No, but you’re more valuable than this stuff,” the riverman said, pointing to the bales of gray-green vegetation being loaded onto the boat.”

Ian and Ulee had been tossed into a hold below the decks. In the darkness, Ulee clung tightly to the older boy. “What’s happening? Who are they?” Ulee asked.

“They’re traders,” Ian said. “The bales? Cannabis. Some farmers near the river grow it. The boatmen will take it to Bayreuth. And they mean to sell us there, too! We must escape!”

*****

Ian held Ulee until the boy had calmed down enough to sleep. As soon as he heard the younger boy’s soft breathing slow, Ian allowed himself to fall asleep as well.

They were wakened by shouting voices: “Don’t let go that line…” one voice yelled. “It’s gone…” called another. By this time, the boys realized that the boat was rocking not side to side or front to back, as they had felt before, but rather in both directions at once.

“Ian,” Ulee cried, “what’s happening?”

“Shhh, little Hedgehog,” Ian said, feeling for the boy in the darkness. “I don’t know, but…”

With that, the boat shuddered violently. There was the sound of a huge crash, and Ian could see moonlight through a hole that had been torn in the side of the boat. The light was bright enough for him to see the shore as it raced by not ten yards away. There was another crash and shudder, and the boat became motionless, apparently aground. The only sound was the rush of water against the side of the boat.

“Quick, Ulee,” Ian whispered. “We must escape! See, there is the bank of the river. I’ll lift you up so you can crawl out the hole, then I’ll follow.”

The water was no more than chest-high as the boys waded through muck to the shore. Ian held Ulee’s hand and urged the boy through the brush, away from the river. Despite their fatigue, they did not stop until morning.

“They didn’t find the dagger you gave me,” Ulee said, holding it out to Ian. “You’d better hold it, now.”

“No, Hedgehog,” Ian replied. “It’s yours…

“Come on, we need to keep walking,” he added.

The boys slogged through the marshy ground, swatting at mosquitoes and flies that bit and stung. Despite this additional hardship, Ian didn’t want to get too far from the river. “It’s our guide,” he said. “Nana said to follow it until we reached the river road. It shouldn’t be long, now.”

As evening approached, Ian turned east, keeping his shadow in front of him. “We’ll go a little way from the river,” he said. “And sleep there.”

That night, Ulee clung to Ian, but seemed reluctant to share boy magic. “I’m afraid,” he said. “And I’m hungry.”

Ian held the little boy tightly, and whispered to him. “Do you remember how your ring glowed because you had gotten my boy magic?” he asked. He felt Ulee nod.

“I think boy magic makes our other magic stronger,” Ian said. “And I think we’ll need all the magic we can get.”

Ian was right. When something crashing through the brush wakened Ulee, and he glowed his ring, the light was immensely bright—and showed a huge brown bear moving toward them.

Ian’s magic had been enhanced by Ulee’s boy magic, and when he raised his hands and pushed the bear turned and lumbered away.

“Wow!” was all Ulee could manage before he fell asleep, cradled in Ian’s arms.