'That's good to know,' replied Liam.
'In fact,' the veteran leaned in his saddle closer to Liam, lowering his voice, 'Captain paired me with you as a precaution. Asked me to look after you, make sure none of the other men got any wrong ideas.'
'Oh,' said Liam, 'aren't you the martyr.'
'Well,' said Knoblauch, sitting up as he rode, 'if you're going to be like that about it.'
Liam sighed. 'I apologize. It's just that things have been pretty rough for me the past few months.'
Knoblauch gave Liam a knowing nod. 'I'll bet.'
The two men rode on quietly into late morning. In the silence, Liam mulled over all the thoughts Knoblauch could be having about him. What if their roles were reversed?
'Hey, Knoblauch,' Liam said after some time, 'can I ask you a question?'
The veteran nodded. 'Yeah.'
'Did you ever fight the Crimson Awl?'
Knoblauch squirmed a bit in his saddle. Then he nodded. 'Yes.'
Liam felt a chill run down his spine and a knot formed in his stomach. He steeled himself then asked his next question. 'Did you ever kill any?'
Knoblauch took a deep breath. 'I already told you I don't hold grudges.'
Liam shrugged. 'Yeah, but maybe I do.'
Knoblauch laughed. 'All right. The answer is no. I never killed any of your 'Brothers' or 'Sisters.' ' The veteran continued to chuckle to himself.
Liam nodded. He wasn't sure he believed the man, but he guessed it didn't matter. Would it make a difference in his situation if the guard next to him had killed members of the Awl? Probably not. And knowing for sure which of the soldiers around him had killed his friends and which hadn't would only serve to torture him more.
The same was likely true for many of these men. They surely had friends and comrades killed by the Awl. None of them would know if it had been by Liam's hand or some other. Liam looked around at the soldiers in his unit. If they got into a fight, would one of them turn on him?
Then he looked at Knoblauch. Guess the captain already thought of that.
Liam settled into his saddle. He wished Ryder were here.
Up ahead, the road took a turn to the east, and Shalane Lake came into view. It was a beautiful deep blue.
'There she is,' said Knoblauch. 'Big Blue.'
'Big Blue?' asked Liam.
'You've never heard of Big Blue?'
Liam shrugged. 'Should I have?'
The veteran looked at Liam with astonishment. 'Then you don't know the tale of Ellhimar's Tower?'
Liam shook his head. 'No.'
A smile bloomed on Knoblauch's face, and he rubbed his hands together. 'Well,' he started, 'lakes this far inland usually look green and less pristine than Shalane Lake. This one, however, is the sapphire blue of the tropical ocean.'
Liam looked at the water. It was remarkably blue. He'd never seen the tropical ocean before, so he'd just take the veteran's word for it.
'As the story goes,' continued Knoblauch, 'there is a wizard who lives at the bottom of the lake.'
'At the bottom?'
Knoblauch nodded, a knowing smile on his face. 'At the bottom. Ellhimar's Tower is said to be surrounded by a protective magical bubble that keeps the water out and the air in.'
'Sounds reasonable,' said Liam, trying his best to keep a straight face.
'The brilliant blue of the water is a result of the magic that powers the wizard's enchantment.' Knoblauch looked at Liam, who obviously wasn't buying the story. 'You can ask Lord Purdun if you like. He studied with old Ellhimar before becoming baron.'
'What?'
Knoblauch nodded. 'That's right. Purdun is a mage.'
'But…' Liam stumbled for words. 'He pulled a sword on me.'
'I heard about that.' The veteran chuckled.
'You and everyone else in Ahlarkham,' said Liam, sulking.
'Well,' said Knoblauch still laughing, 'I'll give you this-you certainly have courage,'
Liam tried to hide his smile by turning his head and covering his face with his hand. Finally he couldn't hold it back, and the two men had a good laugh.
'Purdun only dabbles in the martial arts,' explained the veteran, his laughter subsiding. 'At heart, he's an evoker.'
'An evoker. Really?' Liam didn't know what an evoker was, but he didn't want to reveal his ignorance.
Knoblauch smiled. 'You don't know what that is, do you?'
'Uh,' Liam started. 'Of course. An evoker, sure I know what one is.'
'All right.' Knoblauch shook his head. 'I'll let you off the hook. Evokers manipulate arcane energies to create things out of thin air.'
The regiment rode around the bend. The road turned west again, away from the lake and into the surrounding forest. The clopping of the horses' hooves grew quieter as the ground turned soft and damp under the canopy of trees.
Liam shrugged. 'Yeah.'
'You know the battle mages who patrol the top of the wall at Zerith Hold?'
Liam nodded.
'They're all evokers.'
Liam understood. 'You mean the ones that shoot the big balls of flame?' He blurted.
'Have you heard Lord Purdun ever referred to as the Firefist?'
'Yes.' Liam had heard him called that more than a few times. Ryder had even used that nickname the day they had ambushed the carriage.
'Do you know how he got this nickname?'
Liam relaxed, glad to get to a different topic. 'No, I don't.' Making up stuff to sound like he knew what he was talking about was hard work.
'Well, you might not guess it now, but as a younger man, Purdun was a brash, foolish, hothead with a quick temper.' Knoblauch leaned away in his saddle, taking a long look at Liam. 'Not unlike someone else I recently met.'
'Is this part of the story?' asked Liam.
Knoblauch ignored him and continued. 'Just after he married Princess Dijara and became baron, Purdun had a meeting with one of the princess's previous lovers, a minor noble by the name of Stanley Smorthby.'
'Stanley Smorthby? What a name,' replied Liam.
'I know. Anyway, Stanley had been in line to marry the beautiful young princess and become the Baron of Ahlarkham. So naturally, he was a bit uppity when meeting the man who had taken away not only his woman but also his political power.'
'Yeah.' Liam scratched his chin. 'Must be rough.'
'As the story goes, old Stanley Smorthby rubbed Purdun the wrong way. Nobody knows exactly what he said or what he did, but all those present could see that Purdun was mad.' Knoblauch shifted in his saddle once again, settling in. 'When their conversation finally ended, Purdun offered Stanley his hand-presumably to shake and part on peaceful terms. But when Stanley grabbed hold a huge jet of fire launched out of the baron's fingertips, filling up a quarter of the room and looking like a giant piece of molten cherry pie.'
'He burned him? He torched his wife's old lover?'
Knoblauch nodded, a mischievous grin on his face. 'Scorched all the clothes and hair right off the corpulent, uppity little snob.' The veteran laughed. 'It was the funniest thing I ever saw.'
'You were there?'
Knoblauch smiled. 'I was one of Purdun's personal bodyguards.'
