Chapter 18: Familiar Situation

"Run," someone shouted, and the crowd turned to disperse.

"Hold it!" Corwal ordered, and a water snake jumped from his waterskin. It went for the closest target and wrapped around the bandit's torso and neck.

The man was middle-aged and looked rather rough with his long beard, small eyes, and beefy body, but a dark stain went down his trouser leg at that moment. Not noticing it, or not paying it any attention, he fell to his knees before Corwal.

"Please, Master Mage, we didn't know it was you traveling."

"So you mean it's fine to attack other people?" Corwal asked with a raised eyebrow. The man shook his head violently, ready to renounce his evil ways, but Corwal was no longer looking at him.

His eyes went over the crowd that had frozen upon his display. A few bandits in the back had escaped, but all those already in the open had no way out. Arawn didn't think that was necessarily true, but the men before them seemed to be sure of it.

"You!" Corwal pointed at a man near the back. He was no different than the others—unwashed, long haired, and ruddy. "Come here. You've been camping in this area for at least a week, right?"

"Master Mage, we—"

"I need information," Corwal said, cutting off his excuses. "If you give me what I want, I may consider letting you go. Otherwise…"

The water snake rushed to the leader, or one Corwal had deemed such, and the man shuddered. He fell on his knees as well and told all he knew. Apparently, there had been other people in the woods a week ago.

Their scouts had seen a large group of armed soldiers dressed in shabby cloaks pretending to be random bandits some seven nights ago. They had spent the night in the woods then had left early the next morning. Since then, the bandits hadn't seen them.

"How many of them were there?"

The leader thought for a moment, then motioned for one of his men. "Gram, you scouted them. How many were there?"

The man who suddenly received all the attention trembled like a leaf in the wind and lowered his head. "Master Mage, there were this many," he said and raised his hands up with splayed fingers. He then lowered his fingers and raised them again.

"So around twenty? That's not many. How could they have gone through the princess' guard…" Corwal muttered to himself, looking pensive. "In which direction did they leave?"

There was hesitation on the scout's face, but after a moment he pointed to the east of them. "Tracks led there."

"Anything else? Did they have any crests or other ways to identify them?" The man shook his head, and Corwal nodded. "Thought so. She would have already been found if they were amateurs." He turned to Arawn and motioned with his head at the tree blocking their way. "Do you mind?"

Of course he didn't. Arawn jumped out of the cart, feeling relieved to leave it even for a moment and stretched. His bones creaked, but he felt good. There was still little meat on his bones, but it was starting to collect, and every day there was more energy in his body.

"Step away," he told the closest bandits who were in the way, and they rushed to the side like a demon had spoken. Smiling at how they were more right than they knew, he called upon ether.

Light flowed into his hands, and he waited for a moment, enjoying the sense of control, then threw the ether at the tree trunk. The blasts of energy cut through it like it was made of cloth. In but a few moments, the large tree was reduced to kindling.

"Move the rabble and we'll let you free," Corwal said to the bandits who were too stunned to move. They just stared at Arawn and the large tree that was no more.

Annoyed, Corwal exploded his water snake. The blast sent streams of water in every direction, hitting a good dozen bandits. It didn't threaten their lives, but all of them would sport bruises for a few days.

"Did I not make myself clear? Remove the rabble from the road!"

This time, the bandits jumped to do as told. They instantly began tearing branches and pieces of the cut up trunk away from the road. In no time, the road was clear as if nothing had happened.

Corwal nodded at their work, then turned to the leader of the bandits. "Return to your homes. If I hear of any untoward activity in this region, I'll return and scour this land until not one of you remains."

He followed his words with a pull on his reins, turning the horse around and leaving. The reins of Arawn's horse were in his hands as well, so he jumped into the small cart, not wanting to be left behind. Eliot had his horse come as well.

When they were a good distance away, Corwal turned his head back and looked at the road behind them. "Why do I feel like this was too easy? What military outfit wouldn't have noticed such bumbling idiots running around them?"

"Bumbling idiots?" Arawn asked. He didn't think that the bandits were high class fighters or anything, but they had weapons, so that had to count for something, right?

"They're farmers," Corwal sneered. "What else should I call them? They probably even still return to their homes every day." He shook his head. "I really don't know what's the king thinking, raising taxes like that again."

After a moment of silence, when Arawn was sure Corwal had nothing more to say on that topic, he said," I thought everyone can use ma— ether I mean? Why were they so scared then?"

"Can everyone sing or paint? It's a talent like any other. Just one that's a lot more destructive and reserved for the 'high-class' people. Only those of noble blood are allowed into academies to learn how to use ether."

Arawn motioned with his head behind them where Eliot was riding lost in his thoughts. The kid seemed to be unaware of anything around him, his eyes staring into his saddle, but not seeing it.

Corwal smiled at the boy, then returned his eyes to Arawn. "I'm teaching you as well, aren't I? Or are you some secret lost prince with the bluest of bloods?"

"No." Arawn didn't remember anything from before his imprisonment besides one event. Yet it wasn't that surprising since he'd been only around two years old or such at that time. Still, he knew he wasn't of noble blood from what he'd heard from the archmage. "I'm not a noble."

"You sure?" Corwal asked with narrowed eyes. "You suddenly grew so serious, and I don't think I liked that expression I just saw."

"Just remembered something, my first imprisonment. Not a happy memory."

With a sigh, he looked to the side, trying to scatter the memories he didn't want to recall. They haunted his nightmares, so they could at least leave him alone during daytime. Or was that also too much to ask?

For a time, they rode in silence. Arawn lay down on his back in the cart and watched the sky pass overhead. It was so blue that his eyes hurt, but he didn't turn away. The fact that he was really outside still caught him unawares at times. For so long, stone walls were all he'd had surrounding him.

The warm early summer sun wrapped him in a soft blanket, and his eyes closed by themselves. With the lullaby of the wind and constant hoofbeats, he soon found himself in dreamless sleep.

...

Someone was shaking him. Worry flashed through him, and magic coalesced, throwing whatever it was away. Or it should have, anyway. When Arawn finally opened his sleepy eyes, he saw Corwal standing a few steps away, his hands raised. White light particles were surrounding his fingers.

"I was barely on time to disperse it," he complained while lowering his hands. "You could have crushed Eliot's spine if you'd sent him with so much force against a tree."

"I…"

Arawn didn't know what to say. It was an instinct to let ether have its say when he was ambushed. His magic was violent on general basis, but if he really got injured, there would be no controlling it. He'd seen that happen more than once, and he didn't want a repeat.

Yet Corwal was correct too. If Arawn used anything against Eliot, there was little chance the boy would make it through—he was just a normal child after all.

"Just don't let him wake me up, okay?" he murmured in the end, his head lowered. When his eyes landed on the ground, he saw two trails in the road. They led from the cart to where Corwal was standing and were both half a finger deep.

Exactly how much power had he used to push a grown man to leave trails in the road? But an even better question was how had Corwal managed to resist? It wasn't the first time Arawn heard of dispersing magic—he'd even seen it done before—but so quickly and with such efficiency? It was impossible that the average skill level of all mages would have risen so much while he was locked up in the Gutter.

He raised his eyes to judge Corwal's expression, to see if he had noticed the doubt in his face, but Corwal was no longer looking at him. The mage pushed his hair back from his eyes and went to help Eliot with giving water to the horses.

When Arawn stood up, he was told that they'd reached their destination. They were in the area where the princess' carriage had disappeared with all the guards. Save for one of course. Apparently, he'd been dispatched the moment they were attacked and managed to reach the capital.

"How does the whole country know about it then?" Corwal murmured while leading them on foot down the road. His head shifted left and right, examining the stretch of land with hawk-like vision. "The king would have never released it and told his people to do the same. The loss of the princess does nothing but weaken his prestige and credibility before the upcoming conference."

They walked while looking for something until Arawn's feet burned and he wanted to just drop down into the cart he despised so much. It was uncomfortable and rattled all his bones, but at least his feet wouldn't have to bear the burden of his body anymore.

"Wait," Corwal whispered and tilted his head, listening.

They stopped and looked around, but Arawn couldn't see or hear anything. He was about to say that when a noise not fitting with the wind's song in the forest reached him. Was that… hoofbeats? Their horses were standing still though.

The next moment, riders in heavy armor showed up in the distance, galloping through a dust cloud. Arawn couldn't make them out, but he could see that there were more than five people this time.

"What are we going to do?" Eliot asked, coming closer to Corwal. His face was getting whiter by the moment. "Those people are armed!"

"Can't run, they already saw us," Corwal said. "And the forest isn't thick enough for us to lose them there. We'll have face them. Eliot, move off the road with the horses. Arawn step a bit back, don't let them encircle us."

Tense, they waited for the arrival of the soldiers. Arawn didn't touch ether, but he saw it flickering around Corwal's hands. The man had called upon it already and was holding it like a drawn bow.

Envy at the ease with which he controlled ether flashed through Arawn's mind, but it was soon forgotten when the armored riders reached them. They fanned out before their group and drew their swords that gleamed in the sunlight.

"Is it just me, or does this situation seem familiar?" Arawn suddenly asked. Hadn't they just faced an encirclement in the morning?

Corwal rolled his eyes at him, but a corner of his lips lifted up. "Just don't let them get through you."

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