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“Andy!” The voice that called out wasn’t truly familiar to him, though he turned, since it was a woman, and from the sound of her calling, she was on foot, near the edge of the road. There was a line of wagons there, waiting for the troop of military men on foot and the few horses to pass. Probably to follow along behind, if they could, using the armed men as protection on the road.
It was a good idea, and wagons didn’t really move that much slower than men on foot. Not if the men weren’t being forced to move at best speed. There was no reason to do that to them at the moment, so the pace was about wagon fast. At least on the good, very smooth and dry path in front of them.
Sitting on the back of Brownie, with Chestnut tied behind him, a healthy pack, mainly of food, but also with some few gifts, on her back. Over that he noticed the clutch of women. Each of them was wearing a blue or green cloak, even if the weather was going to be too warm for that, later in the day. Then, Anders was in mail, with a heavy undershirt that day, since it had been what the knights were requested to wear by Sir Daniel. That would be warm later as well, if not as brutal as wearing heavy gambeson would be.
Technically that only meant Anders and Sir Daniel, as well as Sir Ruffo. The soldiers going back to Istlan were actually being sent because they had to protect Princess Salina. That was the excuse at least.
It took him a moment to figure out which woman had called for him. Several were looking his way, and most of them were smiling, so at least it wasn’t going to be an attack, first thing. Unless it was a very clever trick, of course. That a group of whores would think to do that... Well, the truth was, they only had to take direction and perhaps some coin. Someone else could come up with the plans.
This particular group of ladies was familiar, however, when he stared for a bit. Then he pasted a smile on his lips, as one of them waved. She was, when he made eye contact, a person he knew.
“Mary!” He had to get out of the line of travel, moving to the side of the road himself, to speak to her. “Are you well? I was worried about you. All of you.” That was actually true, he realized. There had been a group of women and children, camp followers, taken by the Yansians at the start of the last winter.
The plans had not been to treat them kindly. He’d tried to help, but there was only so much that a man could do from thousands of miles away.
His words had the rest of the women smiling, as well. Not all of them truly meant it, that was obvious, but they were bothering to try, which was enough, for the moment. It was what he was doing, after all.
Mary, her brown hair up on the back of her head, in a rather fine-looking bun, her dress and cloak looking stained and worn in a few places, if clean, laughed.
“We were all almost taken in war... then a giant freed us, after we chanted for a bit. Then... After we got away, two ships with pirates on them came and gave us food, blankets and some coin, to keep us going until we could make it back into Istlan. We just heard that the war is over, so are all heading home now.” The woman gave him a saucy look. “You owe me a fancy new cloak? Last time you spoke in my head you said that.”
He blinked, then nodded. He honestly had. That had even been him making a bit of a vow, at least in his intent, so it was important.
“Ah.” Then he focused and pointed at what she had on. “Clotha cloda devis clotha forma re doogis kal, ere fen.” He had to point a bit, but no one seemed to think anything of it as Mary’s clothing shifted on her body. It made her jump a bit, letting out a soft sound of surprise.
Her cloak grew a bit, thinning the cloth, so it wouldn’t be as warm, and turned a shining metallic gold in color. Her dress repaired itself and changed to what seemed like a sturdy travel dress, this time in bright red, which was Mary’s signature color, he thought. The shoes on her feet, things that had looked ready to fall off, were suddenly reshaped to be light, but nice-looking black boots.
There was a pause, then a soft gasp from the other ladies in the wagon. None of them asked him to do the same for them, for some reason. One of them did speak though. Betha, he thought her name was. They’d met, on the road, some time back.
“We didn’t understand what the pirate men wanted, at first, but they kept saying Brolly and Anders Sona, so we knew it had to be you wot sent us food and coin. They were even polite and helped us build some better shelters, before they left. Was it you that made that giant?” She seemed nearly afraid then, as if a big illusion was a thing to fear.
Especially considering that fierce seeming had saved her, at the time.
“No, that was the work of Illian Darca, the grand illusionist of Yanse. I merely suggested everyone ask him for aid at the time, that was all.” It had been enough, having been pretty hard to manage, at the time. It didn’t seem like a large feat of magic, of course. A few words spoken into a thousand, perhaps two thousand ears.
At thousands of miles distance. It had nearly killed him. Though, now that he thought of it, there was an idea there. He’d identified the cloaks he’d made, and used that as a link to each of the people. He could also name a specific person or even type of item. When he called for apples from the woods, only ones close enough to what he demanded came to him.
Hoatha had presented lights for twenty thousand men, which was incredibly impressive, power wise, but if he’d come up with a specific name for Istlan soldier, that might have been enough to make it work. Truly, it could be as simple as a phrase for person on my side. It wasn’t a thing that Anders had come up with at all, yet, but he smiled at the idea. That, and many more, could be used for things similar to that.
The biggest issue then, as always, was really in having enough power to get the task desired done. Hoatha had been very careful around him, so far, but it was clear that he must have supplemented his grand magics with the blood of others. A thing that stole a bit of their lives from them, draining people without restraint, at times. In the old text, it was suggested that such magics might even drink the very souls of the dead, causing them to fade from reality as if they’d never existed.
It wasn’t a thing that he wanted to deal in, to be honest.
Rather than let that thought, possibly wrong, sour his mood, he grinned at Mary.
“Still, the things I sent along helped some? Was it enough?” He’d worried about that as well, for a while. It had been all he could get to them, at the time.
Mary, still staring at her new clothing, looking at her glittering cloak, which was already getting attention from the soldiers walking past, a few turning to make eyes at her, sighed, dreamily.
“We ate well, after that. It was a bit rough, before that, but we holed up for months, and stayed on the coast. It wasn’t truly pleasant there, but it rarely snowed and we had wood to burn, to warm us. No one died, which was a blessing. Thank you, Andy. That was most kind, thinking of us. How much did it cost, sending things that way?”
Half the women simply looked down then, into the wagon. The others pushed their chests out, and tried to seem attractive, for some reason.
“A trifle. Some coins. Nothing I couldn’t manage at the time. Now, I need to get back to my place, or I’ll end up being lost. Are you attaching at the end of the line?”
That got a nod, from one of the women who was actually wearing trousers and a well-worn, filthy looking, tunic.
“Aye! Are you hunting this trip? We could trade for some meat and greens?” The words were hopeful, even if a few of the women tittered, in the wagon behind them. The other two held children. The things were run down and their animals were in dire condition, but no one was raw boned, simply poor looking.
Anders had planned to get some food in, since he hadn’t been able to buy a lot, in Yanse. There had been a war and it was the start of summer. Plus, he’d run out of coin. He had more, but all of it was in his room, back in Istlan. In his room, if Princess Lissa hadn’t had to spend it all, trying to get the servants to bother to study each day.
If that had happened, well, then he was going to have to figure out a way to get some more. That or learn to do without. It was simply easier to pay people than to make every little thing himself. Then they could use the coin, too, which was a good thing for the world.
“That’s the plan. I could use some helpers, to aid with the cooking?”
Mary winked at him.
“You’ll clean this finery for me, when I get it covered with soot and grease? If so, I’m in. You have Little Erry with you as well? I saw him riding by... Prince Erold... It’s hard to believe that I’ve spoken to someone like that, isn’t it? Only, he isn’t so little now, is he? All of you look hard. Even that fine lady seemed like she was ready to end us, didn’t she?”
That was possibly true. There weren’t a lot of smiles in that part of the line.
“Later then, if I can find anything to eat out here? This area was stripped, so I might have to travel a bit to locate things. War does that.” It was a constant thing, he thought.
Every story he knew mentioned that kind of thing. The ones about large wars, at any rate.
Several of the ladies nodded, and he waved a bit, as he rode back, gently tapping Brownie with his heels, to get her to trot for a while, getting them back into place. Hoatha grinned at him.
“Friends of yours?”
“Yes. A group of camp followers that I met some time ago. They should be with us later. Some of the ladies agreed to help cook, if I can find anything to hunt or gather as we go.”
Princess Salina glared at him, her eyes nearly closing.
“Those women were whores, weren’t they? How do you know that sort of person, Prince Anders?” She seemed smug about the idea. As if she were scoring a real point against him in some fashion. He’d already explained that part of things, though.
Sir Daniel smiled at the woman, seeming tolerant more than pleased.
“They were with us going to the front last summer. Anders helped to keep them in food and clothing, as we traveled. They were taken as prisoners by the Yansies, and when they were freed, he sent two ships with supplies for them. Captain Enna mentioned that to me when we sailed back to Istlan.”
Depak Sona, who was on a rather nice war horse, which was named Carlton, for some reason, looked over at Princess Salina.
“Ah? These are the women and children that you asked that illusionist to aid?” He clearly knew the story, so went on, not waiting for confirmation. His gaze never left Salina, who turned in the saddle a bit to look back, questioningly.
“Anders sent a simple message, to several thousand people here, at one time, to get them to beg help from the man we met after the first battle. One who couldn’t gain from doing it at all. It worked, preventing much harm to them. A spell cast by Anders, from far, far away. In many places at one time.” He looked at the pretty woman, waiting for her to speak.
She frowned.
“That sounds difficult... Truly, I would figure that it must have nearly killed you, if this isn’t merely bragging about a lesser feat?”
Depak smiled then. It was a kind seeming thing, instead of derisive.
“It was real. It didn’t nearly kill him though, Princess Salina... It did kill him. He was pulled back from the edge of the eternal void, but it was so close that even the woman who did it, Mistress Belford, could barely believe it worked.”
Hoatha cleared his throat then.
“I had not heard of that. This was before we met again?”
That got a nod, since Anders didn’t really see the point in going over such things. Depak however, had one.
“That is the cost of being a Great One, Salina. It isn’t always about practice and safely using grand magics. At times you must face, and even be willing to go into, death itself. Trust me, when the time comes for it to be your turn to do such things, you won’t have time to consider it. That is why you must constantly seek to improve your skills. So that, in that crucial moment, you might live and in doing so, save the lives of others.”
The girl, her tan skin flawless and eyes a lovely shade of brown, snorted, rather rudely.
“Yet again you instruct me in the fact that I can’t possibly seek such a position. How can anyone be worthy of such? I’m not even certain how you do it, Great-grandfather and I’ve spent months now, with you sharing your tricks and knowledge with me daily.” She paused then and shrugged. “Anyway, I was teasing Anders, before you came up with yet another tale about his splendor. Which... I do understand why Naveed was worried about losing his place as Heir. At every turn he’s helping others. Even after conquering Yanse, he taught that message boy magic and saw to his further lessons, with Prince Daren. That alone would get you into the top ten on the postings. I mean, teaching princesses could have been you currying favor or even you grasping at a way up the list... Doing so for a page boy, unreported to anyone back home can’t do that for you at all.”
Depak frowned a bit then, but Hoatha didn’t.
He lit up, in fact.
“There is that, isn’t there? Still, Anders seems to be rather supportive of Naveed getting that promotion, in time. Best to stay away from Barquea for a while, so they can all forget you, given that, eh Anders? Now, there was talk of hunting? You and Salina are going to catch our dinner?” He kept his face blank, as if that were the real plan.
So Anders simply did the same thing and answered blandly.
“Correct. First, we need to find some animals to hunt, of course. Princess, can you do that while riding?” It was actually harder to stay seated on a horse while doing that than it sounded like it should be. He could manage it, now, but it had taken some real practice.
After making a face, the woman simply nodded.
“Maybe? Let me see here...”
Depak moved in closer to her, and had to steady her several times, over the next half of an hour, but eventually, her left hand came up, finger pointing to the same side.
“That way, about a mile. Something less than that? In a straight line though. There are deer, I think. A large herd of them.” She didn’t bother acting pleased with her efforts, which Anders checked, barely dropping into a trance.
“Indeed! I’ll be gone for about an hour and a half, meeting you all down the road?”
Prince Erold rolled his eyes at the proclamation.
“I’m going with you. We should take at least two others.”
Depak raised his right hand.
“Salina will act as one of those, since this is her duty, for the day. Who else do we have for that?” It was clear the man was willing to go himself. Also, that he understood that his going would mean that Salina would defer to him, instead of doing the work for herself.
“I’ll go, if that’s allowed?”
That came from Saffron, who looked like a scaled, faintly green, blonde lady. She was larger than a lot of people, including the soldiers marching with them. Other than that, she could pass as a normal woman, in the distance. She was even attractive in an exotic fashion. She was wearing tan trousers and a heavy shirt, but other than that she seemed lovely.
Anders smiled and gave a small bow in her direction.
“That’s a good team. I need to grab my bow and get someone to lead my horses.”
The Princess didn’t whine, though she made a face that seemed annoyed.
“Of course we’re walking. Why ride, when we have these wonderful feet, don’t you agree, Prince Erold?”
To his credit, Erold simply smiled about the idea.
“Agreed, Princess. It will be easier for us to walk than to take the horses through the brush that way. This isn’t a managed forest, from the look.”
That was true, but Salina simply altered her clothing and walked behind Anders, touching him on the back or shoulder occasionally. He figured it was about steadying herself on uncertain terrain, or even guiding him, since there was a bit of that, a few times.
Saffron, who was empty handed, with only a small knife at her side moved in and tapped him as well. Then she held a finger to her lips, and pointed with her other hand, into the distance. Sure enough, there past the trees and brush, stood at least fifteen deer. More than that, he knew. That was how many he could see, however. It was a good way off and through the trees.
No one was foolish enough to call out about the animals, thankfully. Erold and apparently Saffron were experienced enough to know that, but Salina, who had likely been hunting only on the trip they were currently on, also held to silence. The issue was that there was no clear shot. He could see the beasts, but there was no way he was hitting any of them with even a glancing blow. That didn’t mean he couldn’t kill them, of course.
He muttered for a bit, and then nocked the arrow smoothly, pulled the war bow back and let loose the instant he had a path to arc into the area the deer were to die in. There was no real sound, other than the shot being taken, the string humming gently. Not until there was a soft bumping noise, as several of the deer hit the ground. The others started, and a few walked away, but none of them bothered to run.
“We can go and collect them now.”
They were led to the spot by Saffron, who pointed and grinned when she saw the meat laying on the ground.
“You got six of them? With one arrow? Impressive! We should bleed these here, if we have time? This is a lot to carry. How are we doing that? I can take two, I think, but it won’t be easy.”
She looked at them covertly, as if she didn’t think they could each carry a deer of their own. Which was ridiculous.
“Salina and Erold will do that for us, while we stand guard. We could have Salina do it all, naturally, but I want Erold to get the practice.” Salina was the strongest of them there, magically speaking.
Erold did fine though, and was, Anders thought, as powerful as he was. Not as well trained, yet, but he definitely wasn’t weak that way.
The large scaled woman looked at the others and then nodded.
“That sounds easy for me, at least. I’ll be on the lookout? I don’t see or hear anything dangerous, yet.” She started to look around, as if she really meant it, at least.
“Good. I’ll try to find some roots and maybe some other things we can eat. Here, let me...”
He started to call out for various fruits, roots and greens. Only about half of the attempts got anything to happen. They had a nice group of roots and early greens regardless, after several moments. Those were both small, but there was enough for everyone to have some.
He also managed some onion greens.
The mass had to float behind him on the air, since he’d forgotten to bring a sack with him. It was no more impressive to look at than the deer hanging in the air, bleeding from their necks. Saffron had done that part for them, without asking if it was needed. His plan had been to make the others do it, but that worked well enough. Erold wasn’t going to balk at such a simple task and if Salina found it a problem, she was hiding it fairly well.
As the blood started to drip, instead of pour out in a thin line, from each of the six floating beasts, Anders nodded.
“Take three each. A single file line, I think? It will probably work better to have them hanging about ten feet up.”
He muttered for the roots and greens to rise higher in the air, and then into a line, to show what he meant. The others had greater burdens, so struggled a bit, with both of them having to use multiple spells to actually get the task done. That was fine, really. Not as fast perhaps, as using hand signs, but the work was well enough performed that a few moments later they were, carefully, picking their way through the brush. Saffron managed to move fairly quietly, but as a group they were kind of loud.
They found the road after fifteen minutes of fast, difficult, walking. Anders was fine, but Salina was gasping. Erold was as well, but in a softer way, clearly trying not to let that kind of weakness show. Saffron was fine, but wasn’t doing any magical work. A thing that Anders knew she could do, if not what exactly her skills were that way. She’d let some things slip, about having hidden herself that way, for a long time and, obviously, could change shape.
There were some interested glances at the floating things, but no commenting on it as being strange or wonderous in particular.
Once on the packed, hardened and smoothed road, they had to catch up to the group of wagons and marching soldiers. Several of the younger children cheered a bit when they saw them jogging up. Salina was not happy with the rushing around, but gasping too much to scold Anders over it.
“Master Andy! Is that for us?” The little girl who spoke was hushed, by an older boy, but they both seemed pleased when Prince Erold nodded.
His voice was rough, but not unkind.
“This is for everyone, when we stop later, since it needs to be cooked. We should... Is there room in any of the wagons for it?”
The driver of the wagon with Mary in it called out then, in answer.
“Make room for food in the wagons! Part that out. We should be stopping in about four hours.”
That last part made sense, given that the way they made room to carry the food was by kicking some of the more agile people out, so they could walk. Four hours of that wouldn’t harm anyone, so he didn’t really think about it for too long. He had a horse, so was going to ride, now that they were back on the road. At least that was his plan at first.
At least until he noticed that one of the people kicked out was a little boy who was limping pretty badly. He winced in pain with each step, but didn’t whine about it. He just did what was needed.
So, after the food was portioned into the four wagons, most of the meat going into the wagon the boy had come from, Anders went forward, got Brownie and brought her back.
“Here, I’ll help you up. Why are you limping?”
The boy shook his head, but after a moment, allowed Anders to pick him up, getting a bit of help from a taller boy, who was about his own age, and placing him on the horse.
The older one spoke to him.
“Tolly don’t talk. Not even before the war. He hears fine and could talk, we think, but he don’t. He started limping, about a week ago. No one saw what happened.”
There was a shoe on the foot, but when Anders touched it with his mind, steadying the child, he noticed that there were several broken bones across the top, a lot of swelling and inside, deeply set, was a pocket of white infection. It was harsh enough that Anders had to stop himself from hissing in sympathy.
He didn’t ask if the boy was fine with magic, just muttering.
“Tof ere ina fen.” The silent boy sat up straight then, his eyes wide. The other boy, still right there, walking next to them, doing the same.
“What didja do?”
“I just took the pain away from his foot. Now, the rest of this is going to be a bit different. Let me get the swelling down first? Then we need to drain the infection and set and heal the broken bones.” He focused on doing the work, first thing, holding his other questions for later. They probably weren’t important, after all.
As soon as he’d cleaned the boy, and taken the swelling away, they managed to slip the old, well worn, shoe off. There were some bright blue and purple bruises exposed then, which he took away with the next spell, moving carefully.
“Tof xeles ere fen.” He had to point, to show which foot was meant, but it worked well, the color draining away, almost instantly. Less than ten breaths later his foot looked misshapen, but a normal, pale, color.
Then, while walking, he had to focus, use his wizardry skills and more than a little effort to fix each of the bones, one at a time.
“There! You should be fine now.” He helped put the shoe back on, carefully. The boy, rather gingerly, as if fearing pain, hopped down. Favoring his right foot still. Then he tried to walk, simply wandering away. At first, at any rate. After a bit of moving without pain, he ran, as if showing the world that he was better again.
Before Anders could climb on his horse, a girl, who looked to be around the same age that Princess Lissa was, waved to him.
“Master Andy? I...” She moved in and whispered to him. “I’m cramping something awful. It’s my time... Is there anything you can do?”
That was a new idea to him, though he understood that women suffered due to their nature, once a month, often for days. Truly, being it was part of her and not an injury or illness, there wasn’t a lot of true healing that could be done at all. Instead of giving in that easily, he nodded, pretending to skill he didn’t have.
“Ina inna ere ot ere, neg ot neg, fen ot neeth.”
The girl stood up then.
“Ah. I’m healed?”
He had to shake his head.
“You weren’t ill, so no. I just helped with the pain, until sunrise tomorrow. If you need me, come get me then and we can repeat it. Before that, if anything comes up, of course.” He nodded, and patted her on the shoulder, pushing her ever so gently away. That forestalled any long drawn-out thanks, at least, though she did smile back at him, as she moved back toward the collection of children.
Which, he realized shortly, simply meant he was supposed to see the next patient, apparently. Bemused, he simply waited, and helped the boy with the reknitting of a muscle, his innards trying to poke out through the wall of his stomach. That took seven different spells, and some actual reforming of the flesh, to make happen. Still, as with the others, the boy seemed to be much relieved as he moved off.
Only to have another of the children come up to him. Then, one of the ladies with Mary. One he’d met before, but didn’t have a name for.
“Um... I have sores, on my... Where I sit? It hurts and bleeds when I feel the call of nature.”
Anders had read about that kind of thing before, at least, so wasn’t surprised at all. He simply repaired the damage, and removed the remaining inflammation. That did the trick it seemed, the rust haired woman sighing.
“That is much better! Girls, Master Andy is doing free healing...” She looked at him then and blushed. “I didn’t even ask if it was free...”
“It is! We should hurry, and see if any of the soldiers need anything, while we move?” It was all practice and if he wanted people to have a better, easier, time with magic, they needed to see it more often. In a way that wasn’t harmful or frightening. Healing didn’t really get that job done, he realized.
“Later I might do a small illusion show? Just a bit of entertainment. If anyone wants to see it?” They might not, of course.
“I’ve heard that the folk of Istlan have given up being afraid of magic now and instead have decided on a calm skepticism about it, instead?”
The woman winked at him, then patted him on the arm.
“That sounds fine, Master Andy. I’ll let everyone know, in case anyone wants to see it? I don’t know about the rest of that. It sounds... Right? We just won a war using magic. Before that only happened to us, not the other way around. We should show respect to magic, given that?”
He nodded.
“As much as you would any useful tool or craftsman, at least. No more than that, of course. It’s magic, but only a skill, like many things.”
With that, he got back to work. A lot of people had things that they needed to have seen to, it turned out.