Son of the Hero

"I've never tried to conjure by flashlight," Parthet warned while Lesh was assembling the wood.

"Never mind, I've got a lighter." The disposable Mom had packed was still in its cardboard-and-plastic package. I set the flashlight on the ground next to the twigs and branches and got the lighter right down in the shavings Lesh provided with his dagger. I spun the wheel of the lighter, but nothing happened. There was a spark from the flint but no fire. I tried again with the same lack of result. I kept flicking the lighter. There was butane in it. I could hear it hissing when I held the lighter next to my ear and held the lever down. But it wouldn't light.

"It looks like magic is needed," Parthet said.

"I've got matches. They should work," I said. They did. I started to toss the lighter away but ended up sticking it back in my pack. There was no call to start littering.

Hot instant coffee, day-old bread, salted beef jerky-eating was exercise enough for anyone's morning. By the time we finished, there was light in the east. Saddling up and getting loaded gave dawn time to sneak across the sky. I made one change in my attire. I put the chain mail under my fatigue shirt. That made it easier to get at the pistol holstered at my waist. None of the others noticed the gun during the instant it was visible.

"There's light enough now," Parthet said. He hoisted himself aboard Glory. "Remember, stay close to me."

The magic was just as impressive the second time. The brambles swayed and parted in front and closed behind us. When we reached the road, we stopped and looked back across the brambles. There was no trace of our passage.

I took the lead and we started off single-file for Castle Thyme. Not long after we started, the road widened enough for us to ride two abreast again. The road turned a little more toward the north too. We were able to move faster on the better track. I was edgy after my uneasy night, so I picked up the pace to the fastest the horses were comfortable with.

"We're getting closes to the marches," Lesh said near noon. "We're maybe ten or twelve miles from the border now, due east of here. A little farther on, we'll hit a spot where the road forks coming down from the north. The other branch runs south past my home village on to the other two marcher castles."

"Three castles to guard the entire border?" I asked.

"Four if you include Coriander in Battle Forest," Parthet said. "There aren't many decent routes between the two kingdoms, certainly not fit to take a sizable force across. There's no use building castles to guard passages no enemy can make."

It still sounded like scanty protection for a border that stretched 250 or 300 miles.

"From the fork, it's five hours to Castle Thyme, maybe six," Lesh said ignoring the interruption.

That morning, I had arbitrarily set my watch to six o'clock when I caught my first glimpse of the sun-very roughly, since the forest didn't allow for close accuracy. It still wasn't the right time, but it had to be closer than before. Minutes and hours seemed to mean less in Varay than they did in Louisville or Evanston, but I still thought in those terms and I liked the comfort of being able to look at my wrist and knowing the time.

Thirty minutes later, a shadow blocked the sun-too abruptly for a cloud. We all looked up. The horses got skittish.

"There's a dragon for you," Parthet said tightly. I didn't get much of a look. The creature moved past the sun, and the sudden glare put spots in front of my eyes. I couldn't see anything for a few seconds. "This time of day, he's probably already eaten and is on his way home to nest for a long sleep. Even so, it's better to hope that he doesn't see us, and best to make sure that he can't. Don't bother me for a bit."

Parthet started mumbling and humming, a different kind of sound from the one he used to part the brambles. He turned in his saddle and leaned back to keep the dragon in sight as much as possible while he conjured. When my eyes cleared, I could see the huge form in the sky, but it was too high for me to see any real detail. The body looked bulky, fat in the middle, tapering off quickly in front and back to serpentine neck and tail. The wings were massive and moved stiffly. They didn't look like bat wings, but more like the wings of some large bird of prey. The legs had to be tucked up close to the body. I didn't see any trace of them.

The sky started to shimmer like heat mirages on the highway, and the dragon became even more indistinct.

"He won't see us through that," Parthet said. I couldn't be positive that this was magic, but neither could I be positive that it wasn't. After seeing the deMille act, I was inclined to accept Parthet at his word. We kept riding and the shimmering sky stayed between us and the dragon.

"If he does see us, will that stop him?" I asked.

"If he saw us, castle walls might not stop him," Parthet said, "but he won't see us."

I got a stiff neck looking over my shoulder though. The dragon disappeared to the south within a couple of minutes, but I kept looking that way, wondering if he might decide to come back. Parthet's shimmering sky calmed down gradually. Not long after it cleared completely, we reached the fork in the road and stopped for a rest. I dismounted and walked fifty yards along the road to the south. It didn't seem any different from the road we had been on. I saw no sign of recent traffic.

"Not many folks live in these parts," Lesh said when I came back from my short walk. "Too much war. Those who do live along the marches stay close to their villages and farms, where they have some little feeling of safety. Maybe months go by without anyone but a royal messenger or tax collector coming to visit. Maybe a peddler now and then. Not often." Stay-at-homes with a vengeance. It gave me an empty feeling.

"I suppose we should start figuring out what we're going to do when we reach this castle," I said.

"We don't know yet what we're going to face," Parthet pointed out.

"Can't you find out?" I asked. "You've shown a couple of nifty magics. Haven't you got some way to get in touch with my parents or to look over the scene before we get there?" I hadn't noticed a crystal ball, but I guess that's what I was hoping for.

"Not from this distance. Not for a long while yet," Parthet said. "When the castle is in sight I might be able to penetrate its more superficial secrets. Might. Now"-he paused for a moment-"by bending my thoughts her way, I can just barely perceive something of Avedell's presence. Nothing more."

"What about Dad?"

A shrug. "He isn't blood kin to me. I'm not nearly so aware of his mind's signatures. Carl's mind isn't easy to touch even when we're standing next to each other. Nor is yours. With your father, it's part of the magic of being Hero of Varay-a protection. With you, I'm not certain. You are blood kin. I should be able to sense you."

"You read minds?"

"No!" Very forcefully, that. "No," he repeated. "I can't truly read anyone's mind, not even my own. But, with some people, sometimes, I can sense things, occasionally share a perception. It's not a simple matter."

"Let me know when we're close enough for something definite."

"Of course." Parthet looked around. "We're making better time than I expected. We might come within an hour's ride of Castle Thyme by sunset."

"Maybe that's a good thing," I said. "We may have a chance to look around before anyone knows we've arrived. Lesh, how high is the wall around the castle?"

"No more'n twenty feet," he said after a moment's reflection.

"Can it be scaled?"

"Not if it's defended, lord."

"How about at night, with no moon?"

He shook his head. "Two guards can cover the entire wall. They'd hear or see a grapple by the watchfires."