I’ve never been scared before.”
Tedi nodded in agreement and wiped the sweat from his short black hair. “Why is everyone interested in our age all of a sudden? First the merchant asks me three times and now this… witch. This witch uses magic on us in broad daylight and demands to know how old we are. How did you manage to trip her anyway? I was frozen solid except for my head.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Arik quivered. “Somebody else tossed her into the sea.”
“What do you mean someone else?” quizzed Tedi. “There wasn’t anyone else around. Nobody in sight anywhere.”
“I know,” Arik grimaced, “but I was looking at her face when it happened. She was more surprised than we were. Someone used magic on her like she was using on us. She may even think it was one of us. One thing I know for certain. I am not going to be anywhere where she can get a hold of us again. That woman would kill us as soon as talk to us again.”
“But you gave her our real names,” Tedi objected. “Even if we can stay safely hidden, what about our fathers? She’ll have no trouble finding out where the Clava and Markel homes are.”
Arik pondered for a while as his breathing simmered down and his heart started beating regularly again. He reached into his pouch and extracted some coins and pressed them into Tedi’s hand. “Get to your father as quickly as you can. Tell him that the innkeeper at one of the inns owes you a favor and he can drink for free all day if he hurries. Pick any inn but the Fisherman’s Inn. Give the coins to the innkeeper. It should be enough to cover his drink and a room for the night. I’m sure your father will need the room before he’s done.”
“You know I don’t like him drinking,” spat Tedi.
“I know, Tedi, but you won’t like him any better dead. Let him drink today. Tomorrow we can come up with a better plan. That woman will be soaked and she’ll have to return to the Fisherman’s Inn to get changed, so we don’t have much time. When you get done, meet me back here.”
“Okay,” Tedi agreed, “but what about your father?”
“I’m going to send a message out to him by one of the old fishermen who repair nets now. I’ll have my father bring his boat in down here away from the docks.”
“What if he ignores the message?” asked Tedi.
“He won’t,” stated Arik. “After my mother was taken, I was pretty upset and frightened about the bandits coming back. I refused to acknowledge that she was really gone and my father had some harsh words for me about lying. Then I was afraid they would come back for my father or me and that my father wouldn’t believe me if I told him I was in trouble. He promised me that if I ever swore on my mother’s life that I was in trouble, he would believe me without question. If anything can be said of Konic Clava, it is that he is a man of his word.”
The boys split up to see to their fathers and returned an hour later. Tedi was frowning when he arrived. “The green witch is on the prowl again,” Tedi scowled. “I heard her asking Master Tern about our fathers and mothers and where they lived. He asked her if she had a problem with either of us and when she didn’t answer he told her to get out and let him get his work done. That put her in a right nasty mood as if she wasn’t in one already. Incidentally, she’s wearing a blue dress now. Then she started going down the street towards the quay and stopped in each building. I didn’t see any smiles crossing her face, so I guess nobody was willing to talk to a stranger.”
“Sooner or later somebody will answer her,” Arik sighed. “Who is she and what does she want with us?”
“I don’t know, but I suspect that she won’t leave town until we answer her questions,” mused Tedi.
Arik sat drawing pictures in the dirt with a stick and finally jumped to his feet. “I’ve got it!” he exclaimed. “Let me sneak back into town and tell everybody that we’ve decided to go seek our fortune up north somewhere and left town. Whatever she wants, she’ll have to head north to find us.”
“That sounds good,” admitted Tedi, “but why north?”
“The bandits you saw in the forest,” beamed Arik. “With any luck at all, they’ll take her captive before she gets to the next town.”
“I like it,” Tedi readily agreed. “I’ll tell everybody down by the quay. You get yourself up to the Fisherman’s Inn and tell Master Tern. He likes you for some reason and the witch has to end up back there sometime.”
Arik dashed up alleys and slid between buildings until he was behind the Fisherman’s Inn. It was approaching late afternoon and fairly soon the dinner hour would be upon him, making Master Tern unavailable without entering the common room. He still hadn’t figured out a way to get Master Tern to believe his story. Arik quickly slipped in the back door to the kitchen and caught Master Tern entering from the door to the common room. The kitchen help didn’t even blink as Master Tern strode across the room and swept Arik out the back door.
“What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into?” demanded the innkeeper. “You should know by now that the Markel boy is nothing but trouble.”
“I don’t know, Master Tern,” Arik quickly offered. “We didn’t do anything, but that witch means us harm. I can feel it.”
“This has to do with this morning and her window, doesn’t it?” Esta scolded.
“I don’t think so, Master Tern,” confided Arik. “Tedi was up on the roof this morning, but she seems more interested in me and it doesn’t have anything to do with her window. She’s been stalking us all day and finally trapped us on one of the docks. She threatened us and demanded to know about our ages and our families and where we lived.”
“I figured that Tedi would be the one on the roof this morning,” growled Master Tern. “She probably knows it was a young boy but not what he looks like and she is picking on you because you look older. It is a very serious thing to be pushing women into the sea, young man, and I expect to be talking to your father about this matter.”
“We didn’t push her,” pleaded Arik. “We couldn’t push her. We couldn’t even run away, Master Tern. She had us frozen from the neck down with magic. Somebody else tossed her into the water and they had to have used magic, too, because there was nobody else in sight.”
“Arik,” sighed the innkeeper, “I am very disappointed in you. Ever since I watched you and Tedi for weeks while your fathers went hunting for your mothers, I’ve had the feeling that you were a very good lad and I’ve grown to like you, but I will not accept such rubbish from your mouth. Now, you will march inside and sit in the common room until the woman comes back and we will get to the bottom of what you have done to her. I’ll send someone down to the docks to wait for your father.”
Esta grabbed Arik by the shoulders and started pushing him into the inn.
“No, Master Tern,” Arik almost shouted. “By my mother’s life, I swear that I’m telling the truth. The woman is a witch and she means me harm. I really don’t know why, but I know it well enough to have sent a note to my father to meet me in the woods and for him not to go home.”
Master Tern stopped abruptly. “I was present when your father made you that promise, Arik, and I will act as I know your father would. I will tell you, though, I don’t put much store in stories of magic and you would be the first to admit that your story seems rather unbelievable.”
“I do understand, Master Tern,” Arik sighed with relief. “I wouldn’t believe it myself except that I felt it. I couldn’t move anything but my head and she stood toe-to-toe with me and demanded to know all about me, and her breath reeked of onions. I was looking right into her eyes when she was tossed into the sea and she was very surprised. As soon as she hit the water, it was as if someone untied me. Tedi and I took off running.”
“Well, there is no doubt about her breath,” chuckled Esta. “That woman eats more onions than are good for a person. I’ll let you go meet with your father, but I want to know what is going on.”
“Master Tern,” Arik began, “the reason that I came to you is to lead her away from us before she can do any harm. We know that she has been asking everyone in town where we live and she seems determined to get her questions answered. Tedi and I plan to spread the word that we left town to the north to seek adventure. We hope that she will try to follow us and leave Lorgo.”
“You’re still a bit this side of a man to be adventuring off,” scolded the innkeeper.
“We don’t plan on really leaving, Master Tern,” Arik added quickly. “We’ve had enough adventure already. We just want to get rid of the witch before she captures us or our fathers in that spell again.”
“That cuts pretty close to a lie,” admonished Esta.
“It is a lie,” admitted Arik. “I also lied to her about my age. I told her I was fourteen. I don’t know why, but I
