Akatika's Legacy Page 6

  “Eliot will take you home Ivy, it's well into the evening and I don’t feel right sending you out alone this late.” Joel explained.

  “If you follow me, ma’am, I have a wagon out back.” Eliot said.

  “Thank you again for everything sir.” Ivy said curtsying.

  “Enough with that, I’m no nobleman. See you later dear give your folks my regards.” Joel said.

  Gabby ran up and gave Ivy a hug. After a moment Ivy nodded to Joel and walked with Eliot out the back through the storeroom.

  The next morning Gabby went down to the kitchen and got a bowl of boiled oats that her mother had made. She poured milk and honey into her bowl and returned to her room to continue studying the strange jeweled book.

  There was something about it that kept drawing her to it. She didn’t know why perhaps it was the mystery of the unknown language or the pictures. She flipped through the pages over and over trying to make sense out of them, but nothing came, except the sound of the tolls of the midday bell.

  She had sent all morning flipping through the book. Her oats were now an ugly paste not suitable for eating. She had been so focused she hadn’t eaten and now it was time for her to go and meet Lafe.

  After looking in the mirror and finding that she was still presentable she ran down the stairs and out the door. Only stopping for a moment to grab an apple and a chunk of bread. She wouldn’t be able to focus while talking to Lafe with the loud growls issuing from her stomach. Lafe wouldn’t mind her eating, after all he was eating all the time.

  Gibron was a town located between the Bay of Tears and the edge the Gib forest. It was a town of close to fifteen-thousand people. The town was large enough and important enough to have a lord over it. It was the first port on the southern side of the realm. It was also the only place that had enough pine trees that it could export to the rest of the kingdom.

  It was difficult to get the pine wood from anywhere else. The eastern realms had two choices go through to get into Thoamira, Ritter and High Road pass. A bad choice for anyone carrying any goods. People disappeared in the area often.

  Ritter was notorious for being filled with thieves, smugglers, and slavers. A den for only the most hardened of criminals. The town was also the only place to stock up on supplies before entering Thoamira from the south-east.

  The Black pass, named because of the massive amounts of coal found there, was the only way to get through the mountains from the north into the realm of Thoamira. The pass stretched from Tof to the town of Coal both of which were mining towns straddling the Tilian range. It was said that traders brought picks and shovels to navigate the pass because of the constant shifting of rocks due to the amount of coal in the cliffs. To get to any other city or town travelers had to cross the Ahogon desert.

  The sea was the only other option. The sea route was not without its perils. It was a long journey for many of the other nations. Stories of sea monsters were common enough, but no one knew for sure if they were tails to drive up prices on goods or the truth. Pirates were a real danger though, several ships made it to port riddled with arrows and scorched from fires.

  The sea route was the lesser of the two evils. A crew good enough could face off the pirates and a ship could carry enough cargo to more than pay for the expenses.

  This made Gibron the first of the stops in Thoamira. Especially if you had the room for lumber on the ship. The light wood was excellent cargo for building things. Merchant ships bought loads of the wood as they headed off to Thoam.

  Many of the young men in Gibron worked for the various lumber yards and mills providing the wood for those ships. It was an honest, albeit modest, income that could support a family.

  It was the end of the day as Gabby approached, and the chopping of trees could be heard from the town, even at the half-mile it was from the lumber yard. She didn’t like the mill because of all the dust, but it was where Lafe was working. As she entered, she nodded to the foreman, whom she knew well. He was looking over a tally sheet and smiled.

  Tanner made his way into the newly cleared field. Maybe thirty trees felled today. Might be a new record he thought as he scratched at his long gray beard.

  Tanner the burly foreman stopped halfway into the clearing and rang the bell shouting the day was over and to finish up. Lafe smiled and kicked the tree he was working on a few times and it toppled over.

  He should have given it a few more hits with the axe. If the foreman saw him…

  “Souter, I know I must be imagining things. You wouldn’t finish a tree by kicking it, would you? Risk rolling it on you or knocking it the wrong way and drop it on top of one of your fellows.” Tanner bellowed.

  “No sir must have been a trick of the light.” Lafe replied.

  “That’s right and if I do catch you kicking a tree down, it won’t be another warning. You’ll be out of here and you can beg for your supper on the street.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll remember that.”

  “By the seven sons of Maerryth, you will, boy.”

  Lafe nodded and began to walk back toward the mill. As he passed the lumbering giant of a foreman, Tanner patted him on the shoulder.

  “Lafe, we like you and you’re a good worker. It’d be hard to replace you, and I’m sure that girl of yours would want you died either.”

  “I won’t do it again.” Lafe reassured him.

  “Good, get going. I saw a pretty little number just inside the office. I wonder who she could be waiting for?” Tanner said with a wry grin.

  Lafe took off at a jog. He almost immediately stopped. Next to a newly felled tree was a patch of wildflowers and some weren’t mangled. He picked a hand full of them and started back to the lumber yard.

  After returning the axe to the quartermaster, receiving only a few puzzled looks from his workmates because of the flowers, he was free for the night. It was a quick walk to the office from the back of the mill.

  Gabby had made her way out and was standing with her back to the main gate looking into the town. Lafe took the opportunity to sneak up on her.

  The flowers appeared in front of Gabby at the same time as a warm face pressed its cheek to hers. “Do you know how much I love you my little wildflower?” He whispered wrapping his free arm around her in a hug.

  “Not as much as I love you my little honeybee.” Gabby replied.

  The men walking out of the front gate snickered and rolled their eyes at the display of emotion. They could remember the years past when they too had the single-minded determination of young love.

  “Mmm, I could stay in your arms all day long, but Ivy is waiting on us. I told her we needed to talk with her about Tony.” Gabby hummed.

  Gabby could feel Lafe tense as soon as Tony’s name left her mouth. “We’re doing this now?” Lafe questioned.

  “I told Ivy I would talk with you and we could see her tonight. What exactly are we going to ask Tony?” Gabby asked as she turned to face him.

  “I think that we should ask him for the minimum. He is going to want to be paid. The less he does the less he can charge.” Lafe stated.

  “Ivy going to come as well. I will need someone with a good head on their shoulders while we are there.” Gabby said.

  “No way. What if there is another skeleton or something worse in there?” Lafe protested.

  “Then we will take care of it. Like we did the last time.” Gabby said matter-of-factly.

  “I say no, but we can see what Tony has to say about it. You know, vote on it.” Lafe knew Tony would with him on this. They may have their differences, but no upstanding man would let their love walk into that kind of danger if they could stop them.

  They walked down the cobblestone road back into town hand in hand. The lumber yard wasn’t too far from where Ivy lived. It was close to the garrison and Ivy’s father, Sinvear, was a sub-commander of the guard directly under Captain Marcus Lynch.

  All of the officers were housed by Lord Clint, who had set up three districts for the officer housing.
The smallest was the docks, the officers could be reached quickly by the garrison there if any issues came up.

  The next was the between the east gate the north gate near the lumber yards. This was in case an emergency came up and the town needed to be closed off. The last and most grand was the garrison at the manor grounds. It housed most of the regular soldiers in the town, not the guards but the actual army unit commissioned by the king.

  The town was an unorganized mess with roads in every direction with unexpected dead ends all over fifty years ago. Lord Clint moved into the manor and the first thing he did was hire draughtsmen and planners from Thoam to redesign the town. He couldn’t stand the unorganized sprawl the town evolved into over the years.

  It took fifteen years to remove, relocate and rebuild the town. Now it was shaped in a grid. The town was walled and had three ways into it, the harbor, the east gate, and the north gate. The town worked more efficiently; you could move from one end of town to the other without having to change roads more than once.

  Lafe’s father told him what it was like when he was a kid in the height of the rebuilding. Chaos was an understatement. He looked to the side of the road and wondered what it would have been like to see the old wooden foundation support beams sticking up out of the packed dirt and cobbles of the road when everything started coming together.

  All the officers lived in the same style house. Ivy’s was no exception. It was a tall white two-story house with a full walk around porch. Round wooden columns stretched up from the porch to support the second story. The house seemed to have a window every five paces, and not the cheap ones. Clear panes of glass without waves or specks in them.

  Gabby and Lafe walked up the three wooden steps to the front door and pulled the rope to ring the house bell. Moments later they were introduced into the house by Gareth the house servant.

  Ivy came down almost instantly when they walked through the door and excitedly hugged Gabby.

  “Thank you, Gareth, we will be in the sitting room. Please bring some tea for Gabby and I and some of the fall mead for Lafe.” Ivy instructed.

  “Ivy, I love visiting you.” Lafe said. “You always make sure I am taken care of.”

  “Of course, she does, Ivy is a proper lady.” Gabby reminded Lafe.

  Ivy blushed remembering the most unladylike escapade that she and Gabby had trying on the trousers. “This way please.” She said and led them to the sitting room.

  The sitting room was spacious with three high backed overstuffed couches and a couple of matching chairs. In the center of the room was a round table with a map of the realm covered with glass. All of which was sitting on the most luxurious rug that they had ever seen.

  The walls had paintings of the family and Ivy’s father. One wall had framed papers on it to either side of the fireplace. Among them were commendations and awards for service in the military.

  Gabby walked over to the small marble bust of Maerryth and offered a prayer and took one of the small pieces of cheese and a drink of wine from the silver tray in front of it, as was custom. Ivy’s father was not a worshipper of Maerryth, he being Kerolian, but her mother Hazel was and so he had the small shrine put in for his beloved wife.

  Lafe took a seat in one of the plush chairs and Gabby sat next to Ivy on the couch. The middle-aged and graying Gareth appeared and distributed the drinks to them and left after asking Ivy if anything else was required.

  Lafe took a drink of the mead and was surprised how sweet it was. It was the perfect amount of honey and tasted faintly of lavender. This had to be one of the best that he had ever had, far better than the swill they served at the lumberyard kitchens.

  “Ivy we need Tony’s help.” Gabby said.

  Ivy scrunched up her brow and asked; “What kind of help?”

  “The kind that a person of his character can give.” Lafe deadpanned.

  “He is a good person Lafe. He may need some encouragement to stay on the right path, from time to time.” Ivy insisted.

  “He is a thief, a good one if you can believe the stories, and we need thief skills.” Lafe stated.

  “We know he is a nice young man Ivy. He would have to be if you and he are together.” Gabby interjected. Lafe could be so insensitive sometimes, how would he like it if people walked around calling him wood brained lumberjack, maybe she would see he would like it.

  Ivy looked into her teacup as if contemplating the ratios of milk and sugar to tea. After a brief silence, she asked; “But why do you need him. I don’t like what you’re saying. You need a thief, for what?”

  “We found something in the monastery Ivy. There’s –” Gabby started.

  “A lot of something and it’s behind a locked gate. We wouldn’t ask but we couldn’t find the key and Gabby says we can trust him.” Lafe finished.

  “If we could get Tony to come and help us, we would pay him for his service. Unlock the gate is all, nothing dishonest, just adventuring.” Gabby smiled her most reassuring smile and continued. “You would have to come, of course. It’s my first adventure and you have to be there for the end of it. That’s what best friends do.”

  “This sounds dangerous.” Ivy said, “I don’t know if I want to be part of this.”

  “Horribly so, you shouldn’t come. Gabby shouldn’t either but, you can’t stop her from doing anything.” Lafe said matter-of-factly.

  “Ivy can come if she wants. I am the leader of this adventure and I will make the party how I like. You big wooden brained lumberjack.” There now he can see how it feels.

  “I can see there is no stopping the Lace Queen. Can you set up a meeting with Tony? We can ask his opinion on the matter.” Lafe inquired.

  “Honestly Lafe, Lace Queen, you can do better. I don’t even wear that much lace.” Gabby said.

  Lafe finished the tall mug of mead. “I’m tired, alright. It’s hard to think.”

  “You sure it’s not the wooden brain that’s hard.” Ivy teased.

  “Not you too, Gabby is corrupting your pristine sensibilities.” Lafe said smiling.

  “Nope, we both share the same opinion of you.” Ivy corrected.

  “See, I knew there was a good reason we were best friends.” Gabby announced.

  “I’ll talk to Tony. I don’t know how he is going to take this though; he is kind of secretive about things.” Ivy said.

  Lafe cocked his eyebrow, “He told us about his past about a week after we met him. How secretive could he be.”

  “That’s different. I had him tell you because I didn’t want to keep the secret from Gabby.”

  “How do we know he won’t steal everything from us after we lead him there.” Lafe accused.

  “Lafe, Ivy wouldn’t let him do a thing like that. He may have a poor choice in hobbies, but he isn’t a bad guy. He sticks to his agreements.” Gabby lectured.

  “If you say so, but remember we had this talk.” Lafe said.

  Ivy looked ill; she knew that Lafe had good reason to question Tony’s honesty. She loved him and knew he would change with her help. “I’ll talk with Tony and we can meet in a few days. It’ll have to be in the morning though he has patrols in the evenings.”

  “I’ll get the time off from the foreman. He thinks I’m the son he never had, and he knows I am setting things up for after the harvest festival.” Lafe explained.

  Gabby smiled that smile that got her everything she wanted and waved Lafe over to her. “Then everything is set. Lafe you can go, Ivy and I have some talking to do. Girls stuff you wouldn’t be interested.” Gabby hugged Lafe and he left to go and get some rest.

  Chapter 5

  The seasons were definitely changing, Tony thought. The rain was no longer a warm miserable thing to suffer but was ice cold. The wind made it worse blowing it into his face all night long. How could something be so cold and not be ice? It didn’t make sense.

  The sky was covered in rain clouds which were a blessing he supposed; well it would be if it wasn’t raining. No moonlight meant it wa
s less likely he would be seen, but it also meant he would leave tracks in the mud.

  This was the night he made his name immortal in Gibron. Others had tried breaking to Lord Clint’s manor. One had even gotten into the bedrooms before the guards caught him. But no one had ever pulled off a successful heist against Lord Clint. That was going to change tonight, well with luck and maybe the blessing from Talokai god of the unjust.

  Tony didn’t worship Talokai like others in his group did. Truth be told he didn’t worship anything except maybe money, and certainly not Maerryth. But seeking for the blessing of stealth from Talokai set his mind at ease on nights like this.

  Tony had climbed the outer wall of the manor and been able to avoid the guards thus far. It was no small feat and a source of endless anxiety. These weren’t town guards; they were soldiers from the army and were less likely to ask “who goes there” than just shoot intruders with a crossbow.