Arik and Tedi screeched to a halt just as the old merchant was climbing down from the driver’s seat of the wagon. The old man was dressed in drab gray woolen breeches and matching tunic. His garments were clean, but had obviously been mended many times over the years. A gray woolen cap was stretched over his head and he moved as if he had been sitting too long on the wagon. A young boy, similarly attired but in brown, was already bringing oat buckets from the rear of the wagon for the two old horses that stood quietly at the front of the wagon. The old merchant moved to the rear of the wagon and lowered a small gate that kept parcels from falling off.
“Say, old timer,” hailed Tedi, “what news do you bring from the North?”
The young boy had returned for a couple of buckets to get water from the well for the horses. Hearing Tedi’s remark, the young boy shot a disapproving glare at the two town boys, but left to accomplish his tasks. Tedi knew that they only had moments for any news before the townspeople started gathering and then there would be no talk of old times.
The old man turned towards Tedi and looked him up and down before answering.
“The news from up North, child, is that their children are better mannered. The name I use is Boris Khatama. That means that you will address me as Master Khatama and if it’s news you want, then you will wait for the townspeople to assemble and hear it with the rest.”
“Forgive my friend’s lack of manners, Master Khatama,” offered Arik. “We are eager to hear of news that the townspeople never speak of. Lorgo is a small town and most people refuse to discuss things that Tedi and I read about in books. I hope you will forgive our poor manners.”
Master Khatama focused his attentions on Arik as he pulled down small crates of goods from the wagon. “And why should I talk of things that your own parents would rather not have you hear?”
“Oh, it’s not that they don’t want us to hear,” Arik responded quickly, “but I fear that they still think of us as children and too young to hear such stories. Why just this morning at the inn… a friend was telling me about the old times, but he had to return to work. Our fathers are fishermen and they are gone most of the day and tired at night. Besides, what they know is very limited as they have not traveled far and wide as I’m sure you have.”
Master Khatama peered at the boys again as if measuring them. The clatter of approaching footsteps announced the coming townspeople. “We’ll see,” Boris whispered. “You go help Tanya brush the horses, while your friend here helps me unload the wagon and you two can join us for dinner. I will consider then what I will speak of.”
“Yes, Sir,” replied Arik.
“Tanya?” questioned Tedi looking at the young boy watering the horses. “I mean, yes, Sir. Right away, Sir.”
As Tedi moved to help the merchant unload the wagon, Arik walked to the front to help with the horses with Tedi’s comment ringing in his ears. As he approached the merchant’s helper, he looked more closely. While her face still sported the glare given to Tedi for his comment, Arik could now see that she was indeed a girl, a rather beautiful girl if she had not been dressed in those rags. “Pardon me, Tanya,” Arik greeted the girl, “but Master Khatama requested that I offer you assistance with brushing the horses.”
“As if I required assistance,” snapped Tanya. “You can only brush the horses if you know what you’re doing, fisherboy. And if you have any more sly comments about my uncle, you’ll lose your teeth.”
Arik stepped back and raised his hand to ward off the expected attack. “Tanya, please,” he said soothingly. “Tedi did not really mean anything disrespectful. He just has a brash way of talking. He thinks if he acts tough, tough people will leave him be. I am no horseman, but I do occasionally help out at Master Tern’s stables. I do know how to brush a horse.”
Tanya tossed a brush to Arik and began using one herself. The pair worked on in silence for some minutes before Arik spoke again. “Tanya, I really do apologize for Tedi’s remarks. He was anxious about hearing some news of the old times and he knew the townspeople would be arriving soon.”
After a few more minutes of silence, Tanya finally asked, “What’s your name, fisherboy?”
Arik looked over the horse at the young girl. “I am Arik Clava,” he finally answered. “And I would prefer that you do not call me fisherboy. You make it sound like a derogatory term and my father is a fisherman. I find nothing dishonest or unsavory in his character because of his profession. He provides the best he can and I’m proud to be his son.”
Tanya stopped brushing and gazed at the village boy. “It would appear that I also owe you an apology, Arik Clava,” the merchant’s niece responded. “It was meant as a derogatory term and I apologize for it. Why are you so interested in the old times? I thought all of you Sordoans feared the Dark One coming in the night if you spoke of them.”
Arik dropped his brush and started. “You know about Sordoa?” he exclaimed. “I never heard it mentioned until earlier today. I’ve read a little about it, but only of times long gone. Do you know about the Collapse and what happened?”
“Did this Master Tern teach you how to do that with the brush?” Tanya smirked.
Arik apologized profusely and retrieved the brush, once again applying long strokes to the horse. “What can you tell me of the Collapse?” he questioned.
Tanya stopped brushing the horse and stuck out her hand for Arik’s brush. “You did good enough for a f… boy who is not used to taking care of horses,” she quipped. “I will tell you nothing of the Collapse or the old times. If your townspeople found out, my uncle would be driven out of town and times are poor enough as it is without losing some trade here.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” Arik promised. “I won’t tell a soul. We could just be friends talking. No one will suspect what we are talking about.”
“You won’t tell a soul because you will have nothing to tell,” she stated. “And I don’t have friends. Friends cause you pain and grief and I don’t need anymore of either, thank you very much.”
Tanya disappeared around the side of the wagon and a befuddled Arik headed towards Tedi, who was now standing with the crowd of townspeople that had gathered to hear the latest news. Tedi noticed the woman in the green dress on the other side of the crowd and she seemed to be trying to slide through the group nonchalantly. After fifteen minutes of tales of bleakness and starvation, bandits and rogue armies, the two boys left the gathering with the mysterious woman only several feet away. People started crowding around the merchant and picking out small items from a rather poor selection of goods. Tedi pulled anxiously at Arik’s sleeve and started to run towards the harbor.
When the boys reached Arik’s home, they leaned against the back of the house in silence. Finally, Tedi turned towards Arik. “Did you see her trying to get closer to me,” he wheezed.
“I’d say it was your imagination,” offered Arik, “but she sure didn’t seem to be interested in anything the merchant had to sell. What did the old… Master Khatama have to say after I left?”
“Not much,” Tedi replied. “He griped a lot about youngsters today and their lack of respect for their elders. He also asked our ages about three different times. I guess my big mouth got us off to a rather poor start.”
“I’ll say,” chuckled Arik. “The merchant’s niece practically bit my head off for that one comment she overheard you say. She’s a bitter one, she is. You hear people talk about bitter old maids, well, this girl is around our age and she already has the demeanor to put those old maids to shame.”
“Well, I guess we won’t have to bother going back for dinner, then,” Tedi laughed. “The chance of either one of them knowing anything useful, or telling us if they did, is probably out of the question.”
“I don’t know about that,” remarked Arik. “Even the girl knows about Sordoa and the Collapse. She wouldn’t talk about it, but I could tell that she knows.”
“If I didn’t know better, I could almost be suspicious of you liking Tanya,” chuckled Tedi.
“Forget it!” exclaimed Arik. “She doesn’t even want friends. I tried to be friendly with her and I had to keep an eye on her hands to see if she would pull a knife on me. That girl is poison and will never have any friends, never mind boyfriends. Still, she does possess knowledge that I’d like to have. I’m willing to go back and talk as long you come and keep an eye on her hands.”
“Heck, if nothing else it’s a free meal,” smirked Tedi. “Why are you interested in the Collapse so much all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know,” replied Arik. “Lately, I’ve been having dreams of what I think the old times must have been like. I guess it may just be not knowing what all of the older people know and frustration at their stubborn refusal to talk about it.”
“You mean you are not afraid of calling down the Dark One on your family?” asked Tedi.
Arik combed backed his shoulder length brown hair with his fingers and sat on the back stoop. “How are we supposed to believe that story about the Dark One if nobody is even willing to talk about him?” he quizzed. “You know, Tanya laughed about the Sordoans believing in that story. She called us Sordoans. She knows an awful lot about what I want to know. I’ve got to get her to open up and tell me.”
“You have a better chance of her opening up a cut on your lip,” laughed Tedi. “Why don’t we go out in the forest and see what game we can find. I doubt the bandits are still around if the peddler got through, but we can go out the south end just in case.”
The boys headed along the shore towards the south end of Lorgo. When they reached the quay, the woman in the green dress stepped out in front of them. Tedi grabbed Arik’s sleeve and the boys ran out to the end of one of the docks. The woman slowly marched after them and paused not ten feet from the end of the dock where Arik and Tedi stood with no escape. The woman stood staring at them, her long black hair twisted into a single braid as thick as an oar shaft. “Who are you?” she demanded.
For several moments, the boys pondered their position. Certainly they could leap into the sea and she wouldn’t follow or maybe they could just run past her. When they refused to answer and the woman realized that they still planned to evade her, she moved her hands and the boys were frozen in place from the neck down. Arik tried to move his arms and legs and failed. His body refused to listen to his commands and it tingled like he was just doused with a bucket of ice-cold water. Only his head moved and he realized that it was sweating. Looking at Tedi, he realized that his friend was experiencing the same thing with sweat pouring down his face.
“I’m sorry if we’ve offended you, Mistress,” Arik croaked. “Whatever it is you think we’ve done, I apologize for it. If you could just see it in your good grace to release us, I promise we won’t bother you anymore.”
“Shut up!” she shouted. Lowering her voice as she came closer, she stared Arik in the eyes. “What is your name, youngling?” she demanded.
“Arik Clava, Mistress,” Arik whispered, “and my friend is Tedi Markel.”
“Tell me how old you are,” commanded the witch as she came toe-to-toe with Arik, her breath smelling strongly of onions.
“Fourteen years,” wheezed Arik trying unsuccessfully to lean back away from the strong odor. “And so is Tedi,” he quickly appended.
“You look much older than fourteen,” she scowled. “Perhaps you need a lesson in truth telling. How old are your parents and where do they live?”
Sweat was dripping into Arik’s eyes and his nose was starting to twitch. Arik was focusing on the woman’s face when all of a sudden, she literally rose up and was tossed into the sea. The moment she hit the water, the spell binding the two boys broke and they took off running down the dock. They didn’t stop running until they entered the woods at the south end of town. They both collapsed into a gully and turned to watch the path from town. Long minutes of silence passed before either one talked.
“What was all that about?” asked Tedi. “And why did you lie about our ages?”
“I don’t know,” answered Arik. “Nothing about today makes much sense. When she trapped us, I thought she was after you because of the incident at the inn this morning, but she seemed to be more interested in me. I guess I figured if she thought we were younger, the punishment for whatever it was that I was supposed to have done would be less because we were younger. I don’t know why, but I don’t mind telling you that I was scared like I’ve never been scared before.”
Tedi nodded in agreement and wiped the sweat from his short black hair. “Why is everyone interested in our age all of a sudden? First the merchant asks me three times and now this… witch. This witch uses magic on us in broad daylight and demands to know how old we are. How did you manage to trip her anyway? I was frozen solid except for my head.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Arik quivered. “Somebody else tossed her into the sea.”
“What do you mean someone else?” quizzed Tedi. “There wasn’t anyone else around. Nobody in sight anywhere.”
“I know,” Arik grimaced, “but I was looking at her face when it happened. She was more surprised than we were. Someone used magic on her like she was using on us. She may even think it was one of us. One thing I know for certain. I am not going to be anywhere where she can get a hold of us again. That woman would kill us as soon as talk to us again.”
“But you gave her our real names,” Tedi objected. “Even if we can stay safely hidden, what about our fathers? She’ll have no trouble finding out where the Clava and Markel homes are.”
Arik pondered for a while as his breathing simmered down and his heart started beating regularly again. He reached into his pouch and extracted some coins and pressed them into Tedi’s hand. “Get to your father as quickly as you can. Tell him that the innkeeper at one of the inns owes you a favor and he can drink for free all day if he hurries. Pick any inn but the Fisherman’s Inn. Give the coins to the innkeeper. It should be enough to cover his drink and a room for the night. I’m sure your father will need the room before he’s done.”
“You know I don’t like him drinking,” spat Tedi.
“I know, Tedi, but you won’t like him any better dead. Let him drink today. Tomorrow we can come up with a better plan. That woman will be soaked and she’ll have to return to the Fisherman’s Inn to get changed, so we don’t have much time. When you get done, meet me back here.”
“Okay,” Tedi agreed, “but what about your father?”
“I’m going to send a message out to him by one of the old fishermen who repair nets now. I’ll have my father bring his boat in down here away from the docks.”
“What if he ignores the message?” asked Tedi.
“He won’t,” stated Arik. “After my mother was taken, I was pretty upset and frightened about the bandits coming back. I refused to acknowledge that she was really gone and my father had some harsh words for me about lying. Then I was afraid they would come back for my father or me and that my father wouldn’t believe me if I told him I was in trouble. He promised me that if I ever swore on my mother’s life that I was in trouble, he would believe me without question. If anything can be said of Konic Clava, it is that he is a man of his word.”
The boys split up to see to their fathers and returned an hour later. Tedi was frowning when he arrived. “The green witch is on the prowl again,” Tedi scowled. “I heard her asking Master Tern about our fathers and mothers and where they lived. He asked her if she had a problem with either of us and when she didn’t answer he told her to get out and let him get his work done. That put her in a right nasty mood as if she wasn’t in one already. Incidentally, she’s wearing a blue dress now. Then she started going down the street towards the quay and stopped in each building. I didn’t see any smiles crossing her face, so I guess nobody was willing to talk to a stranger.”
“Sooner or later somebody will answer her,” Arik sighed. “Who is she and what does she want with us?”
“I don’t know, but I suspect that she won’t leave town until we answer her questions,” mused Tedi.
Arik sat drawing pictures in the dirt with a stick and finally jumped to his feet. “I’ve got it!” he exclaimed. “Let me sneak back into town and tell everybody that we’ve decided to go seek our fortune up north somewhere and left town. Whatever she wants, she’ll have to head north to find us.”
“That sounds good,” admitted Tedi, “but why north?”
“The bandits you saw in the forest,” beamed Arik. “With any luck at all, they’ll take her captive before she gets to the next town.”
“I like it,” Tedi readily agreed. “I’ll tell everybody down by the quay. You get yourself up to the Fisherman’s Inn and tell Master Tern. He likes you for some reason and the witch has to end up back there sometime.”
Arik dashed up alleys and slid between buildings until he was behind the Fisherman’s Inn. It was approaching late afternoon and fairly soon the dinner hour would be upon him, making Master Tern unavailable without entering the common room. He still hadn’t figured out a way to get Master Tern to believe his story. Arik quickly slipped in the back door to the kitchen and caught Master Tern entering from the door to the common room. The kitchen help didn’t even blink as Master Tern strode across the room and swept Arik out the back door.
“What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into?” demanded the innkeeper. “You should know by now that the Markel boy is nothing but trouble.”
“I don’t know, Master Tern,” Arik quickly offered. “We didn’t do anything, but that witch means us harm. I can feel it.”
“This has to do with this morning and her window, doesn’t it?” Esta scolded.
“I don’t think so, Master Tern,” confided Arik. “Tedi was up on the roof this morning, but she seems more interested in me and it doesn’t have anything to do with her window. She’s been stalking us all day and finally trapped us on one of the docks. She threatened us and demanded to know about our ages and our families and where we lived.”
“I figured that Tedi would be the one on the roof this morning,” growled Master Tern. “She probably knows it was a young boy but not what he looks like and she is picking on you because you look older. It is a very serious thing to be pushing women into the sea, young man, and I expect to be talking to your father about this matter.”
“We didn’t push her,” pleaded Arik. “We couldn’t push her. We couldn’t even run away, Master Tern. She had us frozen from the neck down with magic. Somebody else tossed her into the water and they had to have used magic, too, because there was nobody else in sight.”
“Arik,” sighed the innkeeper, “I am very disappointed in you. Ever since I watched you and Tedi for weeks while your fathers went hunting for your mothers, I’ve had the feeling that you were a very good lad and I’ve grown to like you, but I will not accept such rubbish from your mouth. Now, you will march inside and sit in the common room until the woman comes back and we will get to the bottom of what you have done to her. I’ll send someone down to the docks to wait for your father.”
Esta grabbed Arik by the shoulders and started pushing him into the inn.
“No, Master Tern,” Arik almost shouted. “By my mother’s life, I swear that I’m telling the truth. The woman is a witch and she means me harm. I really don’t know why, but I know it well enough to have sent a note to my father to meet me in the woods and for him not to go home.”
Master Tern stopped abruptly. “I was present when your father made you that promise, Arik, and I will act as I know your father would. I will tell you, though, I don’t put much store in stories of magic and you would be the first to admit that your story seems rather unbelievable.”
“I do understand, Master Tern,” Arik sighed with relief. “I wouldn’t believe it myself except that I felt it. I couldn’t move anything but my head and she stood toe-to-toe with me and demanded to know all about me, and her breath reeked of onions. I was looking right into her eyes when she was tossed into the sea and she was very surprised. As soon as she hit the water, it was as if someone untied me. Tedi and I took off running.”
“Well, there is no doubt about her breath,” chuckled Esta. “That woman eats more onions than are good for a person. I’ll let you go meet with your father, but I want to know what is going on.”
“Master Tern,” Arik began, “the reason that I came to you is to lead her away from us before she can do any harm. We know that she has been asking everyone in town where we live and she seems determined to get her questions answered. Tedi and I plan to spread the word that we left town to the north to seek adventure. We hope that she will try to follow us and leave Lorgo.”
“You’re still a bit this side of a man to be adventuring off,” scolded the innkeeper.
“We don’t plan on really leaving, Master Tern,” Arik added quickly. “We’ve had enough adventure already. We just want to get rid of the witch before she captures us or our fathers in that spell again.”
“That cuts pretty close to a lie,” admonished Esta.
“It is a lie,” admitted Arik. “I also lied to her about my age. I told her I was fourteen. I don’t know why, but I get the feeling of just wanting to be rid of her. Master Tern, I really don’t know what to do about her. I know she means me harm and I’ve never done anything to her. I’m hoping that my father can help me when he arrives.”
“I’m not sure why, Arik,” responded Master Tern, “but I believe you think what you’re saying is true. I won’t lie for you, though. The woman started questioning me and I refused to answer her. I will do that again. You run along and meet with your father and tell him that I want to know what is really going on.”
“Certainly, Master Tern,” replied Arik. “You could honestly tell her that I said we were leaving town. If she is not really after me, she won’t follow. I will go to my father and he will let you know what is going on.”
Arik hurried down the alleys and between buildings to return to the woods at the edge of town just as the sky was getting darker. It could hardly be called a sunset by a boy who had never seen the sun, but it was the time of day that the fisherman planned to be back in port. Hopefully, he would make it to the woods without running into the witch.