A Spell Misplaced, page 27
part #4 of Gags & Pepper: Protection Agents Series
“Can I get you anything?” Gags asked.
“D-Darlia. C-c-clothes.” Miria’s voice was getting stronger.
Gags nodded. “I’ll get her.”
He stood at the doorway and said to Darlia. “You can go in. She wants to change. Miria said the poison was gone.”
“She couldn’t utter a word when I was there, just sounds. I was worried,” Darlia said.
“Eno wasn’t any better when he was de-transformed. I was only transformed for minutes before I turned back into a human. The pain was as bad, but I could speak and walk, mostly. Go on.”
Darlia spoke to Miria, and Gags noticed that Miria’s speech was getting smoother as she talked, but her throat was probably raw from all the screaming. Gags checked the horses and walked around the shack until Darlia opened the door.
“She wants to walk on two feet. I may need some help.”
Gags went back in. Miria sat on the bed, and the riding outfit seemed to hang on her, but food would fill her out. Darlia had combed her hair into a ponytail, which Gags thought fitting. Lucian would have made a wry remark. She gave Gags a tentative smile.
“Do I look silly? I couldn’t do a human smile for so long,” Miria said.
“Your speech is much better. That was fast.”
“Old memories,” Miria said. “I remember everything for better and worse. Do you think the girl at the pub would be disappointed to see me now?”
“I don’t think so,” Gags said. He took a deep breath which made his eyes water. “I can’t believe you are sitting in front of me.”
“I don’t want to sit. Help me stand,” Miria said. Gags helped on one side and Darlia the other as Miria stood. She didn’t seem to have much strength, and it appeared that Eno suffered from balance more than strength.
They walked around the tiny room and helped Miria down the steps, which creaked alarmingly. She walked to the horses and then back to the shack. Darlia helped her, and Gags followed to make sure Miria didn’t fall backward.
“I’m learning,” she said, giving him a tentative smile. “I’ll sit at the table.”
Gags helped her sit on the stool. Miria put her hands on the table.
“Balance is what I need. I can’t ride a horse without balance,” she said.
“You can’t do anything without food,” Darlia said.
Miria took a few bites at first, but once she had something in her stomach, she wanted more and finished what was set out for breakfast. There wasn’t another rabbit, but Miria’s metabolism was already filling her out.
“I’m full, but I’ll want more before we leave.”
She almost seemed like a little girl, Gags thought, until she said something that reminded him of the iron will he knew her to have.
“I heard some of your stories this morning. The words seemed to go in and out. You’ll both have to entertain me on our way to Baxterton.” She struggled to say the capital’s name, but she did it. “A little test,” Miria said. She held out her hand, but nothing happened. She frowned. “No magic.”
Gags didn’t respond other than to say, “Be patient.”
They took a longer walk, and Miria seemed more used to upright walking. The sun began to set.
“One more night, and then we will head southeast,” Gags said.
“You sound like Pophius,” Miria said with a smile.
“He works for me now,” Gags said. “I’m a duke.”
“How did that happen?” Darlia asked.
Gags told them the story of Tillius Tenpenn and the Hosand coup.
“I didn’t think you had the desire to rule your father’s fief,” Miria said.
Gags sighed. “That was mostly my stepmother’s doing. I needed an income to start my agency, and everything else fell into place.”
“I’ll bet all the ladies in Hosand have been leaving their handkerchiefs on your doorstep,” Miria said.
“Leaving their hankies?” Gags asked.
Miria laughed for the first time. It was the restrained laugh he had grown to love. “It must be a local custom where I grew up. If a girl was interested in a boy, she would leave a handkerchief on his family’s doorstep to indicate her interest.”
“We don’t have that custom in Hosand,” Gags said.
Darlia left the shack, giving them both a little wave.
Miria watched her go. “I can’t leave a handkerchief on your doorstep,” she said. “I just can’t.” The laughter was replaced with tears. “Not after everything I’ve been through.”
“I’ve seen a small part of what your life has been like, but we didn’t have a firm commitment before you were taken prisoner,” Gags said. “I cared for you to make my goal to rescue you from the fate of being imprisoned in the unicorn’s body. I still care for you and would hope we can see if there is a future for us.”
“How could there be under these circumstances?” Miria said. “Don’t expect too much out of me. I’m not saying there is no future, but right now, the future is very hazy.”
Gags took her hand for the first time in years. She let him hold it. “Let me help you get established. The agency is filled with friends. Pophius, He Bin, and Lucian, plus more people willing to help you become whatever you wish.”
“Free is enough for now, but we aren’t out of Baxter yet,” Miria said. “I want to return to Peria. Oroia and Dixoia hold such awful memories. I’m sure I can relearn how to fight.”
“Eno Banban’s magic returned. Yours will, too,” Gags said. He almost winced at the fear in Miria’s eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
~
T hey rode through the village where Gags and Darlia had fought. The streets were empty. The soldiers were gone from the pub’s porch, and the doors and shutters were locked. They stopped by the village well and pulled up a bucket of water. Gags smelled and handed the bucket to Darlia.
“The water’s bad,” she said.
“Maybe that is where the bodies are,” Miria said. She shuddered and rubbed her arms. “We are in the middle of a war.”
They rode past a deserted blacksmith workshop. Gags stopped. “You need a weapon or two,” He said to Miria. “Even if you don’t feel like fighting, showing a sword will make someone think twice before attacking. You can have the dagger that helped us talk.”
“No!” Miria said. “I don’t want it, and I don’t want you to keep it. It reminds me of my captivity.”
Gags nodded. “Let’s hope we can find something serviceable in here.”
It was clear the blacksmith made weapons. The place had been looted, but Gags found a box of crossbow bolt heads. They were longer than most, but he still helped himself enough to fill his bag.
“Remember, the bolts?” Gags said to Miria, who followed a step or two behind while Darlia poked around in another part of the yard.
“I found something!” Darlia said. She held a long, dripping sack. Water beaded off the waxed cloth. “Swords, I think.”
They met in the middle of the yard, and Darlia untied the sack. There were three swords and four knives in their scabbards. Gags drew one of the swords. It looked solid but not fancy, but the blade was sharp, and Gags couldn’t see any flaws.
This one is a little shorter,” Darlia said, handing another sword to Miria.
Miria stared at it in her hands for a moment and then pulled it out. She slashed through the air and moved with the sword as if she were warming up. She pirouetted and stumbled, falling to the ground. The edge of the blade scratched her arm.
“That could have been so much worse,” Miria said, holding her arm. She looked at her arm and shrugged.
“All you need is practice. You need to get your mind and body back in sync,” Darlia said.
She picked up the dropped sword. “It felt familiar in my hand. Can I have this? We’ve already become blood sisters,” Miria said with a tentative smile.
“Choose a knife,” Gags said. “There are four to pick from.”
He removed the knives from their scabbards. The blacksmith was a hidden master, and the blades were simple perfection. Gags picked a longer knife with a dropped tip, removed the sword at his side, and compared it to the longest.
“I’m swapping these out,” Gags said.
Darlia stepped inside the covered part of the work yard, recovered a belt, and punched more holes to cinch the belt tighter.
Miria put the sword on and tucked the knife into her boot. “Almost like old times,” she said. “Now, a test.” She held out her hand, and a dim magic light appeared. “There is hope for me yet. I thought my power would never come back.”
Gags put his old sword and the jeweled communications dagger in the waterproof package. Darlia declined to take anything, and she wrapped the weapons and put them back into the dirty water of the watering trough.
Gags hoped the blacksmith would appreciate the quality and value of the exotic Attoan blade. Gags was thrilled he didn’t need it anymore.
They ate most of their dwindling supply and rode out of the village. Miria seemed to sit taller in the saddle and spent most of the time riding in front of him with Darlia talking about how the magicians won the Attoan war. Occasionally, she turned to look back and smiled at him as if she was proud to be a human, again.
No one walked the road that had been filled two days ago, and for a few hours, Gags savored the sight. Even if Miria went her own way, Gags knew he had done the right thing.
The quiet interlude was interrupted by the smell of smoke blowing across the road from the south. About twenty commoners, clutching bags with their possessions, ran across a field as soldiers soon emerged from a line of trees behind them, yelling and waving their weapons at the commoners.
“Protect them as you can, Miria,” Gags said, pulling his staff from one of the packhorses. “Darlia?”
Darlia nodded and drew her sword.
Gags rode to them. “Who are they?” he asked one of the commoners.
A man looked at the advancing soldiers. “Count’s men,” he said before he continued to run. “You can stop at the road,” Gags said. “We will take care of them.
“Two against so many?” the man said.
“We outnumber them,” Gags smiled.
Gags pulled a handful of the little bolts from the blacksmith’s shop and let the first one fly. He was too far to be sure of a fatal strike, but the soldier went down, rolling in the field.
“Magicians,” the commoner said, his eyes large. Rather than run, he stood to watch.
The following two soldiers dropped with a bolt in each thigh. The four remaining soldiers advanced on Darlia and Gags, riding about five paces apart. They charged the soldiers, and the battle commenced. Gags jumped off his horse, not wanting it to get hurt, and began poking his staff at the men. Two of the four were good with a sword. Gags baited them to him while Darlia fought the other two.
Darlia struck with a lightning bolt, dropping one and engaged in combat with the other. Gags had a harder time once the two men began to work together. Gags didn’t want to use motes since it was hardly fair, but he did stir up a little dirt using his volcano spell to disrupt the pair’s attacks.
Finally, one of the men made a mistake. Gags jammed his staff into the man’s armpit while his arm was raised. The metal tip ripped cloth as it punctured the man’s skin, and the opponent dropped his sword. The other soldier looked at the wound while Gags stepped close to the soldier, grabbing the wrist of the soldier’s sword hand and punching the soldier in the nose, knocking him senseless to the ground.
Darlia stood watching him. “I marvel at your creativity,” she said as she sheathed her sword.
The commoners surrounded Gags and Darlia as Miria watched from the road.
A few picked up the soldiers’ weapons. Gags assumed a fighting stance, but the commoners ignored him as they dispatched all the soldiers.
The man who had stayed to watch Gags and Darlia fight walked over to them. “Serves them right for what they did just a few hours ago. Soldiers think they can do anything they want.” He shook their hands and joined his fellow commoners celebrating in the field.
“Don’t stay here,” Gags yelled. “More soldiers may come. Find a village or head toward the seashore.”
Gags and Darlia joined Miria on the road.
“I tried to restrain them, but once you defeated the squad, they only had murder on their minds,” Miria said. “I almost joined you at one point, but,” she sighed, “I would have been a liability.”
“We can work on that,” Darlia said.
A smile flickered on Miria’s face. “That was long ago.”
“The future is still yours,” Gags said, “no matter what has happened in the past.”
~
“That’s better,” Gags said to Miria as they sparred in a meadow off the road. They ran into more people, but there were few soldiers, so they were making good time as they traveled to Baxterton.
“You are getting stronger,” Darlia said. “How is your magic?”
Miria shot a fire spear across a stream. “It isn’t as strong as I remember,” Miria said. “As I recall, my fire was better than Gags’s.”
“It still is,” Gags said, sending a fire spear over the water. It didn’t make it half the distance that Miria had.
Miria laughed. It sounded good to Gags’s ears.
“Can you still walk on water?” Miria asked.
Gags stepped onto the surface of the stream and skated on the water. “I can, but it is still a power eater. I can airwalk on land, which is easier on my magic.”
He stepped onto the shore, rose about three feet, and lowered himself again.
“Impressive,” Darlia said. “You haven’t shown me those moves.”
“I did during the challenges, but you didn’t notice,” Gags said. “I even jumped a few stories into a building, but it cost me all my magic. Going down is generally easier.”
“You never used those moves in Atto,” Darlia said.
“I developed some of them since Atto, and when we fought as a unit, I only did extra magic when I needed to.”
Miria shook her head. “I still would have been captured by Eno Banban,” she said.
“There were too many guards in the room,” Gags said. “There was nothing I could do.”
Miria came over to him and put an arm around him. “I know. I ran through the scene at the banquet again and again and couldn’t see how I could have escaped or how you could have saved me.”
“It took me five years to do that,” Gags said. “I’m sorry it took so long, but I was persistent.”
“From what you say, you did that. You came to Oroia on a rumor,” Miria said.
“Two rumors mentioned a unicorn owned by Count Browning,” Gags said.
“I feel guilty you had to waste so much of your youth looking for me,” Miria said.
Gags snorted. “It isn’t as if I pined away and did nothing. I started a business, fought wizards, and became a duke. But I never wanted to forget you.”
“It would have been easy, and I wouldn’t have blamed you for forgetting me,” Miria said.
Gags looked down into Miria’s eyes. “I never wanted to forget,” Gags said, but for the first time, he wondered if his obsession with saving Miria was based on guilt. He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I have saved a comrade in arms. Lucian will be thrilled.”
~
They entered the town of Redwater, a few hours away from Baxterton. It was untouched by the war with Count Browning except for the camp of refugees on the north side of town. Royal soldiers were carefree as they walked the streets along with the townspeople.
They entered an inn.
“You’ll have to pay for four. It is the only room I have left tonight,” the innkeeper said. “You don’t wear uniforms, but all three of you look like soldiers.”
Gags was surprised the innkeeper included Miria, but as he watched her standing with Darlia, she was already reassuming the posture of a soldier.
“We will have to make do. Is there plenty of food available?” Gags asked.
The innkeeper nodded. “We have more than enough. Many people from the north brought all kinds of things to sell for cash. There are bargains to be had in Redwater, except for accommodations.”
They paid grooms to take care of the horses and brought their bags to the room. There were two beds on a side facing each other.
“We’ve slept together before,” Darlia said. “I supposed another night won’t kill us.”
Miria shrugged. “I was part of Pophius’s scouts. I never thought about it in the field. After being a unicorn in a stable, I’m unsure what I think about such things now.”
“Why don’t I take Miria to the marketplace and get her some more clothes and things.”
“Especially things,” Gags said with a smile. “Have a good time. I’ll be in the common room finding out what the situation is with Count Browning and in Baxterton after I secure our room.”
Gags used magic to seal the windows and the door to the doorframe as he left. Despite the innkeeper’s reassurances, Gags didn’t trust the soldiers on leave.
The common room was filling up. Gags took a table for four and looked around. He guessed half the occupants were soldiers. “Mind if I join you?” an officer said, walking up to him.
“I’m waiting for two ladies I’m escorting to Baxterton.”
“Two?” the officer said, sounding impressed.
“How goes the battles?” Gags asked.
“Browning’s forces are about broken. He has positioned them for a retreat. We think it’s to join Lord Julius’s army. I don’t have any intelligence on the southern flank. Admiral West seems to be waiting to see who prevails, Duke Vingus,” the officer said.
Gags sat back, wondering how the conversation was going to go. He was surprised the officer gave him so much information and called him by name. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Nothing. I’m under General Dyre’s command. He said you’d show up, although hearing about your mission to the north, I didn’t think you’d return.”
“That is always a possibility,” Gags said. “What do you know about my mission?”
