from those days, people say that Doria was built in those times.”
“My father wants to collect these old relics, store them away so that they can’t influence people, so that people can make up their own minds about things, so their judgment isn’t clouded,” said Jon.
“Why doesn’t he just destroy them then?” asked Sorus.
“Dad would say that he doesn’t have the right to make that decision. I think he’s a little crazy sometimes about neutrality. You have to make a stand somewhere but my father doesn’t think so. So he just collects these things and hides them away.”
“What is it you’re here to collect?” said Sorus, the truth of Jon’s mission beginning to become clear to him.
Jon smiled, “You’re on the right track,” he said. “In the ancient empire there was a great child of the dragons, a king, or something like that and he had a powerful relic called the Staff of Sakatha.”
Sorus shook his head and partially closed his eyes, “Hmm, I’ve never heard of it and there aren’t many reptile men around although there are some way up north in Darag’dal.”
“My father seems to think the staff has reemerged,” said Jon. “I don’t know how my father gets his information, but he is almost always right about these things. He thinks it’s down here near Elekargul somewhere, he wants me to collect it and take it back to Tanelorn.”
“You should just tell Thorius that,” said Sorus. “I’m sure if he knew he wouldn’t be so dismissive towards you.”
“I’m to talk to the First Rider about it and the First Rider only,” said Jon. “My father was very clear on the subject. Those old relics, when you hold them in your hand, when you taste the power they carry, they can corrupt you,” said Jon and his eyes grew dark and cold and his hand clenched at his side. “It isn’t easy to fight off that sort of temptation, that sort of power.”
“Have you held them in your hand?” asked Sorus his voice almost a whisper.
“The Gray Horn and… the Black Sword, Banisher,” said Jon as his body suddenly trembled and a haunted look came to his eyes.
“What are they?” said Sorus, his voice became quieter if anything.
Jon suddenly shook his head and laughed out loud, “Enough of this talk, Sorus the future knight of Elekargul,” he said and clapped the boy on the back. “I hope you brought a small keg of your finest for the journey and my belly rumbles like I haven’t eaten in week.” He spurred his horse which leapt off in a gallop and he called out to the riders far ahead, “Sir Germanius, Mikus, my belly tells me we must stop for lunch!”
Sorus spurred his own steed and quickly caught up with the others as they settled on a spot where a small creek flowed into the Frosty Run River. Nearby bunches of purple flowers interspersed with green grass dotted the landscape and Jon spotted several small gray rabbits that nibbled on the bounty.
“What sort of flower is that?” he asked no one in particular, as he and Sorus unpacked two of the horses, while Germanius filled a kettle with stream water and Mikus gathered wood for a fire.
“Those,” said Sorus as he pointed to the purple bunches. “They call them Aubrieta I think, my mom likes them. They grow around here a lot, near creeks. Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” said Jon. “My mother is always telling me that it’s important to know the animals and plants of a region.”
“You have a mother?” said Sorus and laughed aloud. “You talk about that father of yours so much I figured maybe you dropped from the sky or something.”
“No,” laughed Jon. “I guess I don’t talk about her as much, but I think about her a lot.”
“I feel sorry for the poor woman,” said Mikus who returned with an armload of wood and caught the tail end of the conversation. “Having to give birth to a boy with that giant of a head must have been a traumatic experience.”
“You don’t know the half of it, Mikus,” said Jon as he got up to help dig out a small fire pit. “I’m a twin.”
“There’s two of you?” asked Mikus and shook his head in disbelief, “I can’t believe a woman could survive such a birthing.”
“My sister is not as big as me,” said Jon, “she only comes up to here,” he said pointing to his lips.
Sorus, knew his own height of six feet and realized the girl was half a foot taller yet. “Yeah, a real shorty I bet.”
Jon laughed, “She always complains there aren’t enough tall boys in the world but I don’t think she means it. She loves to fight more than me and is already a gray captain.”
“Aren’t you a captain in your army,” said Mikus as he turned to face Jon.
Jon shook his head sadly, “My commander says I have to learn discipline before I can be a captain. I think he’s still mad about me and his daughter.”
“I don’t even want to know,” said Mikus as they put the kindling in a pile and the young squire began to scape his knife over a metal plate, which instantly produced a shower of sparks that caught light to the kindling, and soon a roaring little blaze was going.
“Those rabbits good eating?” said Jon with a motion of his head to the bunnies that romped all over the field.
“Three Maria’s,” said Sorus with a grin. “I don’t know why they call them that but they’re fine eating. They’re all over the foothills like this,” he went on. “There’s another kind too called Mountain Rabbits that are a little bigger with big white tails. We’ll bag a few this afternoon after lunch if you want to try them. Do you have rabbits up north in Tanelorn?”
Jon smiled, “I don’t think there’s anywhere with rabbits. Speaking of rabbits do you have gnolls down here,” he continued.
“I’ve heard of them,” said Mikus. “Great hairy beasts, ten feet tall and they like to laugh in this crazy way, right?”
“They are big and they are hairy but I don’t know about ten feet tall,” said Jon, “at least not where I’m from anyway. We have an expression up in Tanelorn that the bunnies made me think about. Rabbits breed like gnolls!”
“There must be a lot of them then,” said Mikus with a smile. “How come they don’t just overrun Tanelorn?”
“I fought a dog-man once,” Germanius rumbled up from the depths as he stirred some vegetables into the water not yet aboil. “Not much bigger than Jon there,” he went on, “but a wild creature he was, he fought with an obsidian blade, the stone swords are sharp but brittle. He smashed it against my shield and near broke my arm but I managed to best him in the end.”
“Where was this?” asked Jon.
“Eh?” said Germanius as he went back to the vegetables.
“Where… did… this happen?” Jon said in a loud voice.
“No need to yell,” said Germanius and then gave Jon a wink. “The old man is only mostly deaf, not completely.”
At this all three of the youngsters laughed aloud and Sorus urged the old knight to continue, “Come on Sir Germanius, tell us the story.”
“You youngsters always humoring an old knight,” said Germanius with a smile as he attended to their lunch with great diligence. “It was well west of here, in the territories of the orcs, Grelm it is now, but before that it was something else, I can’t remember. I couldn’t have been much more than twenty or so years old. There were reports that the old masters were stirring and me and some of the fellows went into the orc lands looking for any them.”
“Old masters?” whispered Jon to Sorus who replied with a nod of his head.
“I’ll tell you about them another time. Brutus Brokenhand was their slave and he escaped and founded Elekargul,” said Sorus and turned his attention back to the old man who himself had paused in his story for a brief moment to fish out a small onion and pop it into his mouth.
“I think it was Torrentius Oldhill watched the camp that night when we was attacked,” said Germanius. “He was mostly hobgoblin old Torrentius, he leapt in front of them ambushers and was near chopped in half by the dog-man but held them off long enough for the rest of us to get up. It was quite a scramble I can tell you that. At one point one of them, a little fellow, goblin or some such, jabbed a dagger right up my arse. Now boys,” said the old warrior, “let me tell you straight, don’t ever let a goblin feller jab his dagger up there unless you’re fond of
