The Blood of Alchemy

Chapter 8: Screaming Stone

It had been two months now since the burning at Ficus. Another group of men had showed up asking questions about Tharon, but the villagers never said a word, and the riders were now under strict instructions to keep their searching peaceful. They would ask if there was any word of the boy, and the forest folk would tell them that they had clearly driven him into hiding - it wasn't a lie. They would evade the questions that followed too with nonsensical answers. "Is he here?" - "Do you see him anywhere? Right here? I think we should both know if he was. You've a knight's eyesight, after all." - or "Have you seen him?" - "I've seen a lot of hims, and quite a few hers, if you get me. You'll have to be more specific." - "Tharon Ficus." - "They're in Ficus? Well then I'd say you might do better searching there then." - "Are you playing smart with me?" - "I'm not playing smart, I am smart, and I never knew it was a game. Fancy that." - The knights would never get anywhere and always ended up leaving.

Gad's friend had returned from a southron shipping mission only a week prior. He had brought back a load of spices and rope and iron arrow heads and all sorts of goods to help the forest folk in their ways of life. They had once made all of this themselves, but it was much easier to send their travelling men to the south and trade dried meat for supplies. It also kept southerners from coming up and buying themselves, so everybody won.

Hiro stepped into their tent almost the moment he had arrived. He had cut his mission short after hearing news of the burning and high tailed back to Ficus as fast as he could. Luckily, he had not gotten too far when he had found out.

"Gadriver, I'm sorry, mr friend. I wished it not to be true when it heard the tales."

"It is no tale, Hiro. Ficus is gone, and half its people with it."

"At least you and your daughter made it, and your nephew... Is that part true, Gadriver?"

"Yes, I believe it to be. I'm glad you are here, Hiro. I need answers."

"What sort of answers? I can try my best, you know I will."

"Should the boy be taken to his people? Do you think that the alchemists were evil people, Hiro? Should I be afraid?"

"Gadriver, from what I've seen in my trips, there are evil people everywhere. Yes, you should be afraid. But not of a boy. I do not know whether he should be taken to his people, or not. I do know that they will not stop hunting him here. I was stopped a dozen times on my way back to Alder, just for wearing the clothes of the forest folk. Sometimes by sympathizers, and sometimes by men who thought they were going to find some alchemist boy, and bring him to the king and demand a bounty."

That was not an answer, in Gad's mind. He knew though that he could not abandon Tharon, and he could not stay in Alder.

"What would you do, Hiro?"

"I think, I would let the boy decide, Gadriver. It will not be long, living the life he is now destined for, before he becomes a man. Let him choose, Gadriver, and guide him on his quest to become the right man."

"I wish I knew how to do that."

"Gadriver, you and I both know these are questions that only time can answer. I cannot tell you what to do, because I do not know, but I can tell you what I do know, if you should decided to take the boy south to his mother's homeland."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I know you will not want to be drawing any attention to you. I know you will not be wanting to ask around lightly for a boat to Arbol. And I know that it will be costly. So costly, that I do not think I could help in the funding at all."

"Well, that part I might have taken care of." Gad said, smiling for the first time since they had gotten to talking.

"What do you mean, Gadriver? How? You realize you'll be asking a captain for a ship, since there is no unprotected land route to Arbol anymore, and that captain will be sailing for months, risking his life to bring you there, and then has to get back. It is not likely that this whole village combined could afford to fund that right now. Trust me, I know that we don't have much."