Richard Tuttle - Sapphire of the Fairies

At a signal from Wolinda, two DarkRiders moved towards the innkeeper. One grabbed his left arm andtwisted it behind Esta’s back. The other produced a large huntingknife and held it to Master Tern’s neck, the point drawing a smallpinprick of blood. “I don’t know is not good enough, innkeeper,”Wolinda scowled. “I want the two boys and you will tell me wherethey are.”

“I can not tell you what I donot know, Mistress,” pleaded Master Tern. “If I knew, surely Iwould tell you. The boys mean nothing to me.”

Wolinda smiled as she nodded to theDark Riders. The Dark Rider pushed up on Esta’s arm and the sharpcrack of bones reverberated through the room. Esta howled with painand his movement caused a cut on his neck from the knife bladebeing held by the other Dark Rider.”

Master Tern’s eyes rolled with pain andhis legs weakened, even as he tried to remain still to avoidfurther damage from the knife. He gritted his teeth as he gruntedhis reply. “As well I know they have left the town. I heard storiesthat they went north for adventure, but I do not know for sure. Thetall boy brings rabbits every morning, but the last two days he hasnot come around. Sometimes he goes fishing with his father, but Iknow he did not today or yesterday. I know nothing further. My onlyassociation with the boy is buying rabbits. The other boy is alay-about and I have no association with him. Kill me if you must,but I know nothing more.”

Wolinda scowled and stormed out thedoor into the street. The Dark Riders followed after tossing Estato the floor. His scream of pain could be heard clearly in all ofthe rooms in the inn. When the customers were sure that the DarkRiders had left they slowly filed down to the common room to helpthe innkeeper.

Wolinda led the Dark Riders down to thewaterfront. She sent six into Arik’s house and six into Tedi’shouse with orders to find anything that might indicate relativesother than the fathers. With the rest of her henchmen, she strodealong the waterfront looking for anyone that she could squeezeinformation from. The only person visible was a woman trying todrag her toddler into the house. Wolinda signaled two of her menand they swept the child up and seized the mother.

“I am looking for Arik Clavaand Tedi Markel,” Wolinda spat. “You are going to tell me wherethey are or your child will try taking its next step on the bottomof the sea.” Taking Wolinda’s statement as an order, the Dark Riderwith the child marched out onto a small dock and held the childover the edge.

The woman and the child starting cryingtogether. “I know the boys,” blubbered the mother, “but I don’tknow where they are. I haven’t seen them for days.”

The Dark Rider holding the child by itsfeet started lowering the body towards the water. When the child’shair got wet, the mother started babbling. “I do know somethingthat might help,” she screamed.

The man stopped lowering the child’sbody and Wolinda snapped,” Well, out with it! I don’t have all dayto wait.”

“I think they are planning onleaving,” she shouted. “Master Clava has been going all over towntrying to raise money. He refuses to say why, but he normally hasno use for money other than food and taking care of his boat. Theboys haven’t been in town for days and the fathers have beensleeping in the woods. I’ve seen them coming and going down thatpath over there. And they were gathering things that people wouldwant on a trip. Last night, they hauled all of the stuff into thewoods and came out this morning with nothing. That’s all Iknow.”

Wolinda called to her men and headedtowards the woods. The Dark Rider with the child let go and thechild went head first into the water. The mother ran screaming outonto the dock to retrieve her child. Wolinda sent two Dark Ridersahead of her down the path. Eventually, they came to the clearingwhere the boys had camped.

“They camped here for severaldays,” one of the men stated. “The only useful tracks are back theway we came and towards the sea. Whatever tracks there were by thesea have been washed away.”

“They think they are beingclever,” chuckled Wolinda. “Letting the sea cover their trackswould be a good trick if the choice of which direction they wentwas greater than two. If they went north, they would end up back intown. Get the rest of the men and the horses, we headsouth.”

“We will not make good time onthe beach,” mentioned one of the men. “Why not send a couple oftrackers down the beach and the rest of us can use the coastalhighway. If they left this morning, we will not catch them today,but the trackers can tell us where they left the beach. Tomorrow wewill have them located and captured.”

Wolinda gave the man an appraisinglook. “See to it,” she stated, “and see if anyone in this town hasa map.” Wolinda turned back down the path towards town.

* * * *

Garth finished his exercises and wipedthe sweat from his body with a towel. Exercising by himself wasnever as satisfying as sparring with a partner, but Kalina was notone for swordplay. Still, Garth needed to keep fit and every nighthe exercised at least an hour. He turned towards the wagon andcampfire and saw Kalina still sitting by the fire with a frown onher face. “What’s the matter?” he quizzed. “Surely it is not realtrouble or you would be more agitated, but something is botheringyou.”

“You will get no observationawards for that guess, Garth,” she smiled. “It’s the ring. I hadhoped to find out more of their plans, but they haven’t said twowords the entire day. Wherever they are, I can hear the surf. Fromthe sounds of setting up camp, I gather they walked on into thenight, but that does not give me a good idea where theyare.”

“Does the sound get louderwhen you get closer?” Garth inquired. “If it does, perhaps we canmove around until we draw nearer to them.”

“No, it doesn’t work thatway,” she replied. “The sound varies depending on the distance thesound is from the ring, but it does not matter how far from thering we are. If I could just hear something distinctive, we wouldhave some idea of where they are. I don’t like not being nearer tothem.”

“Perhaps I can hear somethingthat you don’t,” Garth offered. “It is worth a try.”

Kalina nodded and removed her earring,handing it to Garth. He held it up to his ear as he sat down nextto the woman. For several long moments, he said nothing.Eventually, he smiled. “The waves are breaking on rocks,” heuttered. “Waves rolling into shore collapse on themselves, butthese waves are crashing against the rocks and creating a spray. Isthe sound you hear the same sound we would hear if we were standingwhere the ring is?”

“Yes,” responded Kalina. “Justas if your ear were the ring. Does that help at all?”

“Certainly,” smiled Garth. “Ican tell you that they are not right at the rocks where the wavesare crashing. They are maybe eighty to one hundred feet away. Theyare also at least thirty feet away from the nearest trees. You canhear the wind blowing through the trees, but it is not close. I canalso hear the occasional flutter of bats, more than one. My guessis that tall outcropping we passed a couple of hours beforestopping. It’s likely to have nesting spots for bats and it is oneof the few places with rocks right up to the sea. And they are in aclearing. It is just a guess, but I would think it enough to goon.”

Kalina laughed. “I wonder how you wouldlook in earrings,” she giggled as she reached to retrieve herearring from Garth. “You may be right or wrong, but I do feelbetter having some idea of where they are even if it is wrong.Tomorrow I would like to camp a little closer to them if we canmanage that.”

“I could track them down andkeep them in sight if you like,” offered Garth.