At first sight, p.4
At First Sight, page 4
Tad huffed at his underling and turned his eyeballs back to the globe and its swirling. The sand in the dome settled, revealing a form straight and tall, though it appeared to be a man and not a lady at all. The figure turned and Tad saw a face that was pretty enough, a female face, too, with wavy, black hair and dark eyes. Her attire left something to be desired, and the scowl she wore would frighten anybody away. Hopefully this Hameus fellow was made of strong stuff.
Tad looked at the birds for some clue as to what else he ought to ask to see, but they were gazing intently at the globe. “I wish to see what happened to her before this,” he said. But how far back did they expect him to look? Maybe a long time ago just for a few minutes, then at what she was doing recently would do the trick. “Show me what Nila was up to a couple of months ago.”
He shifted his eyes to the globe and leapt back at the image that spun into terrifying reality. A beast stood in its hind legs and roared, blood dripping from a pair of wolfish fangs. The creature turned and fled, a flurry of arrows barely missing its hairy frame. Shouts rang out. A group of hooded figures with bows in their hands and quivers at their backs chased the beast as it ran into the forest. This image faded and another appeared.
“It devoured Jandar,” the warrior woman said to a hag whose gnarled form hunched over and wept at these words.
“It is your duty to avenge him,” the ancient one seethed.
Nila shook her head.
The hag screeched out her reply. “The bond of your betrothal holds firm. You cannot escape. Avenge my son or you will be cursed forever.”
“That’s enough about Nila,” Tad said in a hurry. He took a moment to steady himself. The birds did not appear surprised at all by what had just transpired but he was having second thoughts about taking this job. “Pigeons, what can you tell me about Hameus?” He dared not consult the globe for fear of encountering more grotesque images. True love was supposed to be kisses and sighs, not blood and beast.
“The wind mentioned he is…Oh, what was the word?” Sev turned to Nan. “A woodcutter, I believe.”
“No, that’s not quite it, but…a whittler,” Nan replied. “He makes objects out of wood.”
“Well, that sounds harmless,” Tad said with a feeling of intense relief. And now that the beastly image wasn’t staring him in the face, the whole thing made a lot more sense. It was just like in the stories he’d heard. A lady who was being threatened with a curse, a man who whittled wood, and a beast? Of course. It was a classic damsel in distress case. He smiled to himself. “So Nila has a beast that needs killing and we have to get her and Hameus to meet so they can fall in love?”
He mulled over the situation in his mind. It sounded like the usual tale where a hero would rescue the damsel and they would live happily ever after, except that this damsel might be a bit unusual. But that wasn’t very important if the Lady had marked her for true love. “Nila looks like the warrior type, although why a lady would wish to be so is a great mystery.”
Roselle would never wear such unflattering apparel. She was far too stately and delicate, and preferred a rosy pink to the scarlet shade Nila wore. And she would not have thought to pull on a tunic and a pair of trousers instead of a dress.
“Still, the matter is simple,” he declared. “How do we get to this other realm?”
Nan blinked her bird eyes at him.
“Simple is not usually a word that applies to our particular line of work,” Sev said.
Pip cocked his head and looked up at the ceiling. “Thorny…terrifying…” His head snapped back to Tad. “And sometimes perilous…horrifying…”
Tad’s teeth ground together. “Just tell me how to get to where I need to go.”
“To move using the magic the Lady has bestowed upon you, simply set your mind on where you want to be and expect to be there,” Nan said.
Tad ignored the studious look she leveled at him, closed his eyes and thought of home, grinning to himself that the pigeons would be looking for him in quite another realm. Moments later he jolted as the room whirled and the ground moved away from him. He wrapped his arms around his frame, squeezing himself for good measure, and dared not lift his eyelids until his feet firmly settled on hard ground once more. It took only three breaths, but he found himself back in the woods that bordered the field where Roselle had been when he was swept away. Now she was gone.
“Why have you come back here?”
Tad jumped at the sound and whirled around to see the birds sitting on the same branch as before. How many times in a single hour could a person’s heart be struck by lightning before it gave out? And how had the pigeons managed to sniff out his trail? “As I said, the case is a simple one.”
The trip to the library had been interesting, but now that he was back home, the event seemed far less magical than it had only moments ago.
“You have only had this role for a matter of minutes,” Nan said in a matronly tone. “You will need time to research the matter fully before you set off.” Tad did not answer. “That means you should be at the library preparing.”
He turned away from his disappointed look at the field. Maybe he could go back in the library and pretend to do research but actually watch Roselle in the globe? But he rejected this idea immediately. Tempting as it was, stalking the lady using a magic ball might cause him to see something he shouldn’t.
“And determine the proper method of—”
“Not to worry, I have a plan,” Tad replied, cutting off Sev’s unnecessary advice. “I know a thing or two about courtship.”
“But you have not prepared,” Nan said.
Did the Lady always employ such bores? “I do not wish to spend the rest of my existence on this case.”
“You have not yet spent a single hour on it,” Nan answered.
“Because there is no need.” Tad’s eyes made another futile search of the empty field. How long had he been gone? Roselle had definitely moved on. “The three of you go now and spread rumors that the beast Nila seeks has been spotted in the forests around Hameus’s home, wherever that is. Take whatever form you must using whatever magical enchantment you possess. That will put her where we need her. Come and report back to me when the deed is done.”
Six eyes stared at him.
“What?”
Nan gave him a penetrating look. “You are the first avenger ever in my considerable experience to accept this role with hardly a question.”
“Or to rush off without knowing anything about anything,” Sev said. “And we don’t have any magic that allows us to change forms.”
What good were they, then?
“My colleagues are congratulating you on your unprecedented foolishness.”
“Hush, Pip,” Nan replied. “But you are a strange one.” These words she directed at Tad.
“That is my concern and not yours.” Tad waved his arm at them. “Be on your way now.”
“We are not your slaves,” Pip said.
Tad’s chest filled with indignation at the winged rat. “But the Lady said—”
“Oh, come now, Sev, Pip.” Nan lifted her wings. “Let us help him without any of your usual antics. Or would you like me to remind you of your first cases?”
The boy birds grumbled but stretched out their wings, and the three black forms raised themselves to the skies. They circled and fell back down, one behind the other and vanished as if entering through an invisible door.
Tad shrugged and trotted off toward his cottage. Who knew the day would take such a strange turn? Sure, there would be a few chores ahead for the Lady, but she had promised him the desire of his heart at the end of his service.
Roselle, my love, it’s only a matter of time.
He jaunted along the path toward home with happy thoughts of kisses and butterflies, but picked up his pace as a familiar blue structure with an orange entryway met his eye. What lurked within was enough to dampen any man’s mood, even one that had just received the greatest news of his life. Love magic was a strange and beautiful thing but something unnatural had begun to stir since his arrival in town nearly one year ago.
And with this stirring a certain suspicion that all was not quite as it appeared.
Chapter 7
“We’re back.”
Tad jumped at the sound of Pip’s voice right in his left ear. “Pigeons!” He swatted at Pip, who had perched himself on his shoulder and flapped just out of range of a backhanded swing. Tad turned a grimace on him and the other two birds sitting on the mound of crates in the alley behind him. It was far too early for magical shenanigans. “Quit sneaking up on me.”
“Aren’t you a bit young for her?” Sev said, peering around Tad at Roselle, who was giggling at her companions as all three examined a cart of apples.
A twinge of jealousy arose in Tad’s soul at Sev’s dashing voice, but he resolved on the spot never to admit it. After all, a mere beast was not to be envied. And Roselle would prefer a more natural tone, anyway.
“Or a bit old?” Pip said. “Such white hair I never did see. But maybe your kind likes the ancient look.”
Tad did not care much for the opinion of a creature whose feathers were as disheveled as this one’s were. He replied to Sev, “We’re the same age…almost. She is slightly older but a man cares nothing for that when the lady is his true love.”
“Why are you stalking her if she’s your true love?” Nan asked.
“With us men it’s love at first sight, a head over heels tumble at the lady’s feet.” He turned back to the square where Roselle had chosen the perfect, red apple for her breakfast and was sinking her perfect, pink lips into it. Today she wore a light blue gown, one that made her dazzling eyes sparkle. Or at least he assumed it did. He had not yet gotten close enough to confirm the matter. “But ladies require a delicate touch, persistence and patience.”
“Hiding behind a barrel of ale is a delicate touch?” Pip asked. “Why is it some creatures drink rotten produce juice, anyway?”
“As I recall, you got a snootful yourself once.” Nan turned her piercing eyes on Tad. “Nila has arrived in Little Farthington.”
“Where is that?” Tad didn’t really care.
“Hameus’s village.”
“Oh, well…good work, then.” He cast a long look after Roselle.
“We did nothing,” Nan said.
“Uh huh.”
“That girl can’t be your true love,” Sev said. “She’s all giggle and you’re all grump.”
Tad turned back to his alleged helpers. “Haven’t you ever heard that opposites attract? But I simply do not enjoy being accosted in the middle of wooing a beautiful woman. I most certainly am not a grump.”
“A bit on the short side, then?” Pip asked.
“I’ll have you know, the ladies think I’m cute.”
“For a larvae,” Sev said.
“Or a toad,” Pip said with a nod at Sev. “Such big eyes I never did see, except for that one time I met—”
Tad whipped out the branch he had hidden in his coat and swung it at Pip, whose unkempt feathers went flying as he hurled himself backwards, barely avoiding the instrument.
“Grump,” Pip tweeted with a scowl.
Tad waved the birds off with his swatting stick and turned back to Roselle. But the pigeons keep squabbling about getting to Little Farthington, something about Hameus, and three fat kids. “I cannot make any sense with all of you squawking at once,” he said, mourning the loss of Roselle as she moved into the bakery. “Can just one of you speak, please?”
“Finally, a touch of civility,” Sev said. “The Lady told us your name is Tad, but she never said you were so ill-tempered.”
“Tad, indeed. Her ladyship told us your other name.” At this, Tad was truly dismayed. “I am Pip, as you know.” The bird snorted and shook his mass of dingy feathers. “And that is my real name.”
“This is a strange case,” Nan said, interrupting the vial of fury in Tad’s belly, or he would have uncorked it and given Pip a good whack with the stick. “I think we should return to the library before trying to resolve the matter. You see, we did not have to spread any rumors. Nila was already in Little Farthington when we found her.”
Tad only let her finish because she was the polite sort, unlike her comrades. But he did not require any advice about romance from a bird. “Well, that is a fortunate coincidence.”
“I doubt that is the case,” Nan replied. “I suspect Rune has his own reasons for pushing the two together, although I cannot imagine what they might be. He is a devious one.”
Tad frowned at the mention of Rune. It was most convenient not to recall the stories he had heard about this foe. “We had better do our business before Rune does his, then.” All he had to do was force Hameus and Nila to meet, and it would be magic. No enemy could thwart true love. “Let’s get on with it.” At least he’d had a good night’s sleep. With any luck, the whole ordeal would be over before nightfall.
He closed his eyes and set his mind on Little Farthington with the expectation that he would arrive there safe and sound. His body trembled as magic engulfed him. In an instant he was caught up and transported, his feet barely leaving the ground before touching down again as if he had simply jumped from one realm to another in a single bound.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” he said upon opening his eyes to find himself at the edge of a quaint village, completely unlike his own fine town of Rosendale.
Here the inhabitants wore inferior clothes and drove inferior carts and built inferior establishments in their scantily-populated square that was completely without cobblestone and sorely lacking in charm. The local residents might have thought it very quaint, but it was not a place he would wish to call home. There were no fine shops and one could certainly not hold balls or dances with a bunch of rustics. Roselle would never approve.
He breezed down the dirt path leading to the center of things, a collection of small buildings that appeared to be a tavern, a mercantile, a bakery, and a few carts where bored merchants sat awaiting paying customers. A group of young women giggled as they passed him, their eyes turning down at his form just before breaking into another round of snickers behind their hands.
Tad was used to ladies giggling at the sight of him, but their eyes had spared him just the one glance while their lashes fluttered furiously at something behind him.
“Featherbrains,” a craggy voice said to his back. “They know how to move their eyelashes, but not a thing about knitting.”
Tad spun around to see a silver-haired woman in a plain, gray and lavender dress standing next to a tall, brown-haired man in a checkered blue and black shirt, mud-colored trousers held in place with black suspenders, a pair of dusty boots completing this provincial ensemble and perfectly complementing the ugly, black hat that sat askew atop his head.
A couple of bumpkins, Tad decided.
“Gram, I’m not interested, as you well know,” the man replied.
“Shameful son.”
“Grandson.”
Gram’s stormy eyes sent the other bumpkin a certain look. “I need to get myself some supplies. You stay here and look for a wife.”
The grandson grinned. His elder cast him another look of annoyance and whirled into the shop behind her. The man watched her go with a shake of his shaggy head, but his eyes were suddenly captured by a racket making its way down the street.
A woman in a tunic and trousers with a quiver of arrows and a bow at her back was being chased by a horde of three very round forms bearing pots and spoons and other items that dangled from their bodies and clashed against one another. These figures and their extraordinary attire rattled after the woman, receiving stern reprimands from Nila, as Tad recognized her to be. The red cloak left no doubt of that.
Fortune had definitely smiled on Tad. She was headed his way.
“You should not have run off,” Nila said to the largest porker, who had managed to make his way alongside her and was desperately trying to keep up with her long stride.
“We’re sorry,” the littlest boy said. His face melted into tears as he chugged along at the rear of the group.
Nila stopped and turned to him. “No tears.” She reached down and wiped away the streams from the boy’s face with her thumb. “Just promise me you’ll never scare me like that again.”
“So, you’re staying?” the middle-sized boy asked, his face all aglow.
Nila did not answer.
“You have to stay. Look, we got you some breakfast.” The littlest boy pointed to a bundle the next largest boy held.
“We just wanted to pay you back,” the oldest said.
“Not necessary,” Nila replied, accepting the bundle the middle one thrust at her. “But it is a very nice gesture. Thank you.”
The boys beamed.
“Now stay here. You know I have business to take care of and it’s too dangerous for three children.”
“But we want to come,” the smallest boy whined.
“No, and that’s final. I’ll tie the three of you up if I have to.”
“Hameus!” The middle boy ran, clinking and clanging, to where the man in the suspenders and the ugly hat was staring open-mouthed at Nila.
Tad’s smile couldn’t have been any bigger, though his optimism was short-lived. Hameus was definitely besotted, standing there all twinkle-eyed and oblivious to the boy trying to get his attention. It was love at first sight for him. But Nila was strikingly beautiful in her shiny, red cloak and the only accessory missing from Hameus’s desperate attire was a piece of straw poking out from between his lips.
A warrior and a rustic? What was Lady Love thinking?
Hope nearly arose amidst the dust and clatter that the situation might not be as ridiculous as it seemed. Nila stared at Hameus as he stared at her. Then the warrior woman averted her eyes and moved in the opposite direction of where Hameus stood gawking. Just as Tad suspected, she wanted nothing to do with an oaf who could probably not utter a syllable without a drawl.
