Konic stared at the bandit. “How is itthat you know the boy’s name?” he demanded.
The bandit sat on the stoop of thebuilding, the other two stars already put back wherever theybelonged. “I overheard him and Arik, who I suppose is your son,talking in the woods about some witch in a blue dress. They were onan animal path just west of the coastal highway. Arik was trying tofind Tedi and finally succeeded. Do you know who this witchis?”
Konic was stunned with the amount ofinformation that the bandit possessed. The man would make anexcellent spy. He had been in town less than a day and already knewmore than most of the townspeople. Master Clava sat next to thebandit and shook his head. “No,” he replied, “but whoever she is,she has too much interest in the boys for my taste. How do I knowyou are not allied with her?”
“If I was,” the bandit smiled,“she would still be here instead of chasing your boys up Northsomewhere. She will return, you know. Whatever she is after, shewill know by tomorrow night that the boys did not gonorth.”
“How do you know so much?”Konic frustratingly asked. “Just who are you?”
The bandit stared at his feet as ifdebating with himself as to how much to say. “My name is GarthShado,” the bandit finally stated, “and I mean no harm to you oryour boys. As to the witch, I saw her pass last night. She travelsin the company of Dark Riders, about twenty of them. How old arethe boys?”
Konic’s head jerked upright. The boyshad told him about everyone wanting to know how old they were. Heturned and stared into the bandit’s icy blue eyes. “You willexplain your need to know their ages,” Konic demanded with a toneof challenge.
Garth raised his hands as if to fendoff an imaginary attack and smiled. That smile was beginning to geton Konic’s nerves. “There are the Prophecies of the Collapse,”Garth said softly. “The Prophecies foretell of the children whowill rise up to slay the Dark One. Although the Prophecies don’tspecify when the children will be born, many believe that thosechildren were born in the year of the Collapse. There are rumorsthat the Dark One has ordered the death of any child born thatyear. The boys are close enough in age to draw a lot of attention,even if they are not the children of the Prophecies. I am afraidthat people will be interested in their age as long as they live.Some people, like myself, will only be curious. Others will have amore serious agenda.”
Konic was not sure that Garth had puthimself in the right category, but at least he now knew whyeveryone wanted to know the boys’ ages. “How do you know that thewitch will be back?” Konic asked.
“Because the Dark Riders willfan out and check everyone heading north,” Garth replied. “She willsoon know that she has been duped. It is only logical for her toreturn to the last place she sighted them to try and pick up atrail.”
Konic stood and faced the bandit.“Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me, Master Shado,” Konicsaid formally. “I will digest what you have told me, but know thatI am sincere where the safety of the boys is concerned. If you haveduped me with your intentions towards them, it will not diminish myresolve to protect or avenge them.”
Garth only nodded as Konic strode downthe street towards the quay. Konic was shaking with fear and he wasdetermined that no one would notice. He barely held his body backfrom running all of the way to the campsite. Instead of returningdirectly to the campsite, Konic waved to Alan and continued down tothe shore to sit and think. After a few moments, when Alan realizedthat Konic was not coming back to the campsite, he walked down tojoin Konic. Konic was sitting on the sandy beach and didn’t evenappear to notice when Alan walked up and sat beside him.
“What is the matter, friend,”Alan asked cautiously. “Are you all right?”
When Konic looked over at his friend,Alan could see that he was shaking and his eyes were moist. “It isworse than we expected,” Konic replied with an unsteadyvoice.
Alan wondered what had happened to makehis friend afraid. Konic had always been the steadfast one, nevershaken, never fearful. He wondered if the bandit had harmed him insome way. Alan could not see any bruises, but he knew a man couldbe broken without any marks. “What did the bandit do?” demandedAlan.
Konic gazed at the rolling surf, heardthe waves crashing against the shore. Strange, he thought, how someviolent actions were so soothing, while others so unnerving. “Itisn’t what the bandit did that bothers me,” confided Konic. “It iswhat he said that upsets me.”
Konic relived the meeting with thebandit for his friend, leaving no detail unspoken. “Then, even ifthese rumors are untrue,” Konic concluded, “our boys will neverknow peace or safety in their lifetimes.”
“Surely, if we explain it allto the town council,” Alan offered, “the whole town would standbehind the boys and help protect them.”
“Would they?” queried Konic.“Would this town really stand against twenty Dark Riders and awitch? How about the next time when it was two hundred Dark Ridersand a dozen witches? What if one of the townspeople was a BlackDevil and nobody knew it? All it would take is one arrow, or oneknife, or some damn spell.”
Alan recalled stories of the BlackDevils from before the Collapse. The group was a society ofmagicians devoted to a wizard known as Sarac, the same Wizard whosupposedly had been chosen by Alutar, the Great Demon, to be theDark One and rule the world. If the stories are true, it was Sarac,as the Dark One, who had caused the Collapse of the Universes. “Youknow that I will stand with you until the end, Konic. No matterwhat the end may bring.”
Konic looked over and gave a weak smileto his friend. “I know that, Alan, without asking. It is not you orI that I am worried about. I would gladly trade my life for theboys, but even that will not help. The only thing that I can thinkof is to send the boys away.”
“How will that help?” Alanasked. He was just finally reunited with his son after three yearsin a bottle and he wasn’t too happy to even think of sending himaway. “They will be in danger no matter where they are. Whyshouldn’t they stay here?”
Konic rubbed the tears from his eyes.“Because if they stay here, the townspeople know how old they are.Someplace else, they can lie about their age and perhaps surviveuntil the rumors go away.”
“Well, why can’t we go withthem, then?” asked Alan. “That way, we could get them away from thetownspeople who know them and still be close enough to protectthem.”
“I thought about that,”replied Konic, “but we would stick out like a small bandit gangand, sooner or later, one of the larger gangs would eliminate allof us. If the boys go alone, they can make their way to anothertown or city and become apprentices without raising too muchsuspicion. If they lie about their ages when they first arrive,everyone in their new town will vouch for their ages because itwill be as they always knew. It is the only solution that I canthink of and I am going to miss them both very much.”
Alan could only nod in agreementbecause his throat was too choked up to speak. Konic reclined onthe sand and a few moments later was sleeping soundly. Alan figuredthe stress of the day had finally taken its toll on his friend andreclined to ponder the dilemma, hoping to discover some solutionthat was more palatable than losing the son he had justrediscovered. It was not long before Alan was also asleep andnobody woke Tedi to take his turn at watch.
Garth climbed the stairs of theFisherman’s Inn and opened the door to his room. Sitting in a chairreading was a beautiful woman in a long, black dress and long,flowing black hair. “Did you learn anything interesting?” sheasked.
“Quite a bit,” Garth smiled.“The father of one of the boys came to confront me. Even thoughmost of the people in town say that they are younger than what weare looking for, I believe they are all lying.”