Richard Tuttle - Sapphire of the Fairies

“Sure, he did, Hanjel,” Lomarsaid as he drank his ale greedily. “I saw himself not five minutesago. I’ve been looking for you ever since.”

“Who is this Mikal Obanik?”the third man asked.

“An old friend of Hanjel’s,Chekst,” Lomar chuckled.

“Friend, my foot!” Hanjel spatangrily and Chekst looked confused.

“He is an ex-Targa Ranger,”Lomar supplied. “Supposedly was a personal friend of ColonelAlexander Tork. I never met Tork, but this Obanik is the meanest,toughest son of a mother that ever walked the face of the earth.Hanjel and two of his friends had the displeasure of meeting himabout five years ago and you can tell that Hanjel still remembershim, fondly, of course.”

Hanjel smashed his mug down on thetable, drawing attention from all over the common room. “I’llfondly you, Lomar, if you don’t wipe that grin off your face,”Hanjel growled. “The man’s a bandit and a liar and deserves to die.Friend of Tork, indeed. Tork is just a myth, and a dead myth atthat, but seeing as they was friends, maybe Obanik ought to go seeTork, whatever hell he is in.”

“Oh, Tork is no myth,” Chekstobjected. “I had a friend in the Sordoan Royal Guard that was inthe Royal Palace the day that Tork assassinated the Sultan. He sawhim again the day the Empress died. No, Tork is no myth, but whydoes this Obanik bother you so much?”

“Obanik was supposedly passingthrough town about five years ago,” Lomar began. “Three men startedgetting on him about him having been a Targa Ranger and how KingByron of Targa was the cause of the Collapse. When Obanik tried toignore them, they got rowdy. Obanik got up and left the inn andthree fools followed him out into the street and drew their swordson him. Most amazing display of swordsmanship I ever saw. Obanikdrew his sword and fended off the three men and called for theguard to arrest the fools so he wouldn’t have to kill them. Well,the guard showed up, all right. Three senior guardsmen came and oneof them was Hanjel here.”

“I think you’ve said enoughfor one day,” threatened Hanjel.

Lomar ignored the other guard andcontinued. “The three guards started taking bets on the outcomeinstead of intervening. Finally Obanik shook his head and in onetwirling motion, cut the three fools in half. Hanjel and his twobuddies arrested him for murder and took him before King Alfred whosentenced him to death. Some of the citizens objected and the Kingordered an investigation. When King Alfred discovered what hadreally happened, he offered Obanik a choice, become the General ofthe Melbin Army or leave the city and never return. Either way,Obanik would be required to teach the three guards, who had notbroken up the fight, a lesson. Obanik chose to leave the city andsaid that his sword was already too bloody to use against theguards.”

“Well, Hanjel should at leastbe happy about that,” Chekst said.

Hanjel threw his ale mug at the walland stormed out of the inn. Lomar shook his head and continued thestory. “The King was not pleased with either of Obanik’s responses.He decided to throw Obanik in the ring against the three guards,anyway, but without Obanik’s sword. Hanjel and his friends werethrilled and they all gleefully drew their steel to kill Obanik,but it didn’t quite turn out that way. Obanik beat the three ofthem without his sword, killed one of them even, and knocked theother two unconscious. Hanjel and the other guard were demoted tonew recruits and Obanik was shown the gate out of thecity.”

“Will Hanjel arrest him forreturning to the city?” Chekst asked.

“I don’t think so,” Lomaranswered. “Hanjel curses the day he arrested him the last time. Ifear he will try to kill Obanik and that, I am sure, will result inHanjel’s death. I would arrest Obanik myself to save Hanjel, but Ithink the King might impose his original sentence on the Ranger andhe doesn’t deserve to die for killing those fools.”

“You said you saw the fight,”Chekst asked, “why didn’t you stop it?”

“I wasn’t in the guard then,”Lomar stated. “It was Hanjel’s poor performance that made me wantto join the guard. I was ashamed of his performance and thought theKingdom deserved better than that.”

Tedi rose and casually walked out intothe street, eyeing the door to the Bosun’s Jib. Hanjel was nowherein sight, so he marched across the street and entered the commonroom. He found the innkeeper and inquired about Mikal Obanik andwas told that he had gone out. Tedi wanted to alert Garth, but hedid not want to leave a message with the innkeeper, so heleft.

* * * *

Arik was amazed at the wealth ofmerchandise available from the weapons merchants. There were swordsof every shape and size, battle-axes, crossbows, longbows, horsebows, staffs, pikes; the list was endless. The variety of knivesalone would keep Fredrik busy for a week just picking out the typeshe wanted. There were weapons that Arik could not name, or evenguess what they were, or how they were used, and these were theones that Tanya were interested in. She had already purchased fivefinely polished and balanced fighting staffs and something called abola, which looked like a heavy cord with a ball on each end. Thebola confused Arik until the merchant demonstrated its use. Still,he had no idea what Tanya intended to use it for. Perhaps she wouldgive it to Niki and Niki could use it to snare herself aKing.

Arik found himself fondling a longbowand the merchant asked him if he would care to try it out. Ariknodded and the merchant handed him a bowstring and threemetal-shafted arrows. Arik bent the longbow, which was much stifferthan his Lorgo bow, and attached the bowstring. The merchant was onthe edge of a practice field and there were several targets erectedacross the field at even intervals. The merchant suggested he shootat the closest target.

Arik stuck two of the arrows into theground and saw the merchant wince. He held the third arrow and feltits smooth finish and fine balance. He had never seen a metal arrowbefore and shuddered at the thought of leaving a dozen of them inenemy bodies after a battle. Killing could get to be an expensivehobby, at the price of these metal arrows.

“Remember,” the merchant saidsoftly, “your drawback will be half again greater than your countrybow.”

Arik nodded thoughtfully as he nockedthe metal arrow. He mentally adjusted for the difference in forceand smoothly let the arrow fly. His arrow struck lower than hewould have thought and he quickly pulled an arrow from his ownquiver and repeated the procedure. His wooden arrow hit dead centerand the merchant smiled approvingly. Arik plucked a second metalarrow from the ground and, after mentally adjusting for the extraweight of the metal arrow, sent it sailing into his woodenarrow.

Taking the third metal arrow, Arikadjusted for the furthest target. The merchant saw the elevationArik was applying and shook his head with his eyes closed. Ariksmoothly let the metal arrow fly and it sailed into the target, nota thumb’s width from the center. Applause broke out and Arik turnedto find several people had become spectators to hisdisplay.

The merchant beamed as he said,“Excellent shot, Sir. If you can repeat that last shot, I’ll gladlygive you a tenth off the price of that longbow.”

Arik laughed at the merchant’s attemptto sell his longbow. He was well aware, from watching Tanya, thatany of these merchants would give you a tenth back to make a sale.Still, the longbow felt good to his hands and it was extremelyaccurate.

“I will repeat it threetimes,” boasted Arik, “if you will give me three tenths off theprice and a quiver full of these metal arrows.”

The merchant was taken aback by theaudacious request, but the crowd, which had swelled greatly,applauded again and he quickly acquiesced to Arik’s request. Hehanded Arik three more metal arrows and Arik again stuck two ofthem in the dirt while he waited for the boy to clear the targets.When the field was clear Arik nocked his first arrow and easilysent it through the air, driving it into the center of the distanttarget. The crowd that had become very large applauded.