• The Mapmaker's Quest

    By Micheal Knight



    Chapter One: The Beginning of a Journey



    It was a misty morning that the two young men stood at the gates of what had been their hometown for the past ten years. One of them had been found outside this very gate unconscious when he was eight years old. The other had been brought in secrecy to escape a civil war in his homeland. The one was a stave's height with golden shaded hair that was cut short and eyes the color of shined silver. The other was only a hand shorter with ebony hair that was shoulder-length and held in the back with a chain-link bronze ring.

    At first, the two of them had been far from friends even to the level of being enemies. However, slowly, and over time, the two of them were able to set aside thier differences. The two of them looked one last time at the town. The large stone wall would hide it from them once they were on the other side. A man placed a hand on one's shoulder.

    "Jason, if you and Martin are going to leave you should do it now," the kind eyed guard said to him, "the gate has to be closed when the mayor comes by for inspection." Jason nodded at the man and then looked to his friend, who nodded back at him. The two of them hefted their packs and walked through the large gateway outside. Behind them the guard closed the gates and they were shut out. It had taken ten years of friendship to cause that guard to allow them through the gate before open hours. Jason turned to his best friend and Martin nodded again. They set out toward the border with Maziar. They would head, first, to Kanira where they would buy supplies, and from there they would follow where fancy took them. Jason had a plan for this journey, however. He was going to travel every road in Syphar to make a map of the entire country more accurate than any to date.

    "There are Cartographers in Kanira," Martin said without prompting, "I found out yesterday from a party that had come from Maziar." Jason nodded thanks to his friend, but he wasn't yet ready to speak companionably. They were still too close to a town that would swallow them up again if they didn't get far away fast. He turned off the path to where they had hidden the horses the evening before. They got out the small breakfast of oats and fed the horses then saddled them, mounted, and rode on down the road toward the trading town. It took an easy half day ride to reach Kanira though they could have made the journey in a few hours riding hard and fast. They planned to get their supplies and leave Kanira before dark and travel a little into the night before they stopped, however, and didn't want to tire the horses. The first place they stopped once they reached the town was a Wagonwright's shop where they paid for a wagon large enough to house five people and supplies for that many and four extra horses to help pull it. They were directed across the way to a tack shop to buy harnesses. After hitching up the horses they drove the wagon down the streets looking for supply stores. They stopped at an armorer's, a fletcher's shop, and a sundry shop before they found a Cartographer's store.

    "Hello?" Jason said walking through the door, "Is master Ian here?" He descended further into the store and heard voices in the back. There was a door slightly ajar at the back of the front room. Jason stepped forward and could make out what the voices were saying.

    "...know when they leave the city," one voice said in a low rumble, "if you can help me then you should. I don't like being lied to." Jason's stomach caught. The man with the low voice was threatening someone. He knew then what he had to do. He walked back out of the shop quietly and took up a position beside the door. When Martin looked at him questioningly Jason put a finger to his lips and Martin nodded assent.

    A few momments later a large man in a black coat walked out of the map shop saying, "I'll expect word this evening by the usual channels." He mounted a waiting horse and road off down the dusty road. Once he was out of sight Jason turned to who must be master cartographer Ian Alchonase.

    "Who was he?" he asked gesturing to the not-yet-settled cloud of dust the rider had kicked up. The mapmaker shook his head.

    "If you must know come inside," the mapmaker said, "I'll tell you what you want to know if I find I can trust you." He then proceeded to lead Jason inside the shop and to the back room where he'd met with low growl. "Now what can you show or tell me to make me trust you?" The man asked raising one eyebrow, a talent Jason had yet to cultivate.

    "I'm a mapmaker," he said prducing a leather tube which contained the first map he'd ever made. Jason realized this was the best way to win the cartographer's trust, becuase he'd heard that people in Maziar tended to trust those who showed talent in the same trade,"have you ever been to Haven?" He asked as he unscrewed the hard leather lid and pulled the map out, unrolled it and set it on the table in front of master Ian, "if this map isn't at least sixty percent accurate to the town you can't trust me."

    Ian bent over the map and studied it, "you sow yourself short young man," Ian said chuckling, "This is the best city map I've seen of Haven since I sold my last one last week." He let another chuckle slip out and Jason laughed with him. "You lived in the city though so that subtracts a little it's easy to map a place you know," Jason had expected this and picked up a scrap of paper from the end of the table and a charcoal piece from a walnut dish and sketched a map from the gate of Kanira to Ian's shop noting the Wagonwright's, the armorer's, the fletcher's, and the sundry's. When he was done he handed it across the table.

    "Today is the first time I've been here. I swear on the road I walk." Jason said as the cartographer studied the sketched map.

    "Son I've seen sketched off maps before but this is the most accurate I've ever seen I believe I can trust you. He put the scrap of paper back on the table and began to fill in detail and surrounding area that Jason had not yet seen as he talked, "That man is a stalker from Chyran. There is a party with a few nobles staying in the Knight's shield down on Gavel street," he indicated the inn on the map he was drawing, "I'll take you and that wagon your hauling there when we're done. The stalker wants me to fill him in on when the party is leaving so that he and a party of rogues can attack them and kidnap the youngest of the nobles." Jason nodded.

    "So I and my friend will stay at the end and worm our way into helping the party leave unharmed," he said looking at the mapmaker's hands deftly wielding the tiny bit of charcoal.

    "At least get the young lord away safely and take him where he needs to go," he said and looked up at Jason handing him the map, "I'll meet you there when you're done and so help me I'll rip the road from under me if you turn out to be a doublecrosser." Jason nodded and walked out of the back room and picked up a roll of oiled canvas paper, a bottle of ink, and a packet of feather pens. He paid for the supplies and walked the older man out of the shop. "What are you planning to do with the mapmaking supplies?" Ian asked as they walked to the wagon.

    "I'm going to make a map of Syphar while I travel. From dawn till dusk I'll study the path I take and map out our journey at camp each night," Jason smiled at the old cartographer, "the way we used to do it." He said in unison with the man. Ian chuckled and as he climbed onto the wagon back and Jason gave the map to Martin indicating their destination. "The plan stays the same but with luck we'll have a few more passangers than two," he said and Martin nodded.

    "I saw the brute who left the shop earlier," he spat off the side of the wagon at the edge of the road, "I'll leave two weeks from now the throw a knife into his plans." Jason and Ian joined him in a hearty laugh as they road down the street to the inn.

    ~*.*.*~

    The large man turned and stalked around the corner where he'd been watching the three imbiciles plot against him. He had asked the old kook of a mapmaker simply to tell him when the party was leaving Kanira. The old twig could have been spared if he had just listened to him and left others out, but now he had stretched his neck for the headsman. There was no way he could get out of killing the cartographer now though he had tried to defend the man with the higher ranking stalkers as a prime source. The man soon found himself at the Hammer and Anvil where his men were staying and walked into the common room. He saw his men at a table near a corner fireplace.

    "Aye, Nateous, si'down sir an ave a drink!" yelled one of the men holding a pint of the local brew high in the air. Nateous walked over companionably and looked around the room. He and his men were the only ones there. He walked right up to the drunken rogue and backhanded him across the face with his gauntleted hand.

    "What did I tell you about getting drunk!!" he yelled at the rogues around him, "I told you not to drink unless it was brandy in water!! Why can't you enlightened rogues ever learn to follow an order better than a mule!?!" The rogue he'd hit pulled a fleck of black metal out of a large gash in his cheek and looked up at Nateous in what looked like deferrment.

    "I'm your man now and till Chyran rise," the rogue said and threw the beer, mug and all, into the fireplace, drew a match from his pocket, struck it across the table, and tossed it in. The liquid caught fire easily and the sudden intense heat caused the clay mug to shatter. "You tell me where to go and what to do and I'll do it from now on you've earned my respect," on saying this the rogue reached down and picked up a shard from the mug and drew it across the middle of his palm. He pulled a small glass vial out of his jacket, filled it half up with his own blood, stoppered it, and proffered it to Nateous. Grinning he took the vial.

    "Then listen up this is your chance to get some recognition," Nateous sat down and began to unfold the events of the day as well as his new plan to stop the meddling of the two in the wagon. With this outcome he could avoid killing his old cartographer.

    ~*.The Knight's Shield.*~

    Thier laugh had lasted almost half the trip to the inn with the other half being predominated with planning how to gain the confidence of the party with the nobles. Neither Jason nor Martin had any idea's as to how they were supposed to do that. Ian, however seemed to have an idea.

    "You won't have any trouble getting in with them. They aren't all nobles one of them is a young mage lady from Koridia a really hyper girl most of the time but she can hold her calm in fight. I think if you can befriend her she'll get you to see the young master with the group," Ian nodded almost to himself and Jason nodded back.

    "Alright then how do we get to talk to this young lady?" Martin asked looking away from the road before he remembered he was driving the wagon.

    "She gets into alot of fights in the common room. If the two of you step in and stop one of those she'll instantly like you," Ian said then signalled them to get off, "Unless I miss my guess she will be causing herself some trouble right about now. Go in and wait until whoever is getting mad at her starts throwing punches, or knives," He had added the last almost as an afterthought but Jason and Martin figured that he was being serious. The two of them got off the wagon followed by Ian and they walked into the common room while Ian walked back down the street toward the corner that would take him back to his shop.

    As they walked through the door they saw two men and a young woman on their feet off to the right with people gathering around to watch what was coming. The girl stood three hands short of a stave's height with long blonde hair and citron eyes and was certainly dressed like a mage in a cornflower-hued blouse and divided skirt. She even had a short staff at her waist. The two men were apparantly holding an allied front against her which was Jason and Martin's cue to come in. They walked closer to the melee-waiting-to-happen, easing their weapons. When she started to look curiously at them Martin held a finger to his lips and she looked back at those assaulting her.

    "I'll tell you one more time you don't want to mess with me. I have friends who can club you from behind before you know it," she said to the two toughs confidently.

    "Your throat'll be cut before you can reach these friends of yours," the taller of the men bellowed in laughter. The other man joined him and they drew knives from their shirtsleeves.

    "I tried to tell you," the young woman said shaking her head to hide her eye contact with Jason and Martin. They knew that was the sign and Jason charged the taller man clubbing him behind the ear with his sword's pommel while Martin did the same to the shorter man with the but of his spear. The two fell to the floor unconscious and the crowd erupted in cheering.

    "The lady escapes another brawl!!" one man cried waving a mug in the air.

    "Hooray for the latest young heroes!!" another yelled out. The innkeeper came over to see what all the ruckus was about and saw the two senseless men on the floor.

    "As usual you talk to the wrong people miss Lily," the innkeeper said as he signaled for two men to drag the sensless ones to a room in back, "Be sure to return good for good with your young friends they had Ian with them when they pulled up so their probably here on an errand for him. Lily rolled her eyes at the mention of the mapmaker's name and motioned for them to follow her. They walked up the stairs and into a room that was empty other than a single bed.

    "So what is it Ian wants to know this time. I already told him we're leaving tonight what more does he need to know?" she asked suddenly not liking them at all.

    "It's different this time miss," Jason said to her, "This time Ian has some information for you and your friends." Lily looked at him with surprise.

    "Well then sir by all means tell me," she crossed her arms and sat on the bed waiting.

    "Ian has been being strong armed for information by a Chyran stalker," Jason said to her crossing his own arms, "I approached him and he asked me to help him foil the stalker's plans. That is why we came to your rescue. We need your help to win the noble's trust." Lily uncrossed her arms and looked at Jason, then at Martin.

    "So the mapmaker is trying to doublecross a Chyran stalker," Lily said as if she doubted it, "what is the plan to save him? He's going to throw away his life for a young noble from Neonis?" She looked at them and appearantly saw the surprise on their faces. "You've never dealt with anything like this have you?" she asked looking at them intently. Martin shook his head and Jason followed suit. He hadn't known that Ian was risking his life to doublecross the stalker and his rogues.

    "If the mapmaker plans to betray a stalker then he has a plan," Martin said after a momment, "He said he'd meet us where we were headed so I'm going to trust him." Jason nodded agreement but Lily didn't look convinced.

    "Listen forget Ian we need to help you and your friends it's important," Jason said. Lily nodded reluctant agreement. "Now how many are in your party and how can we convince them to let us take the young noble on to wherever he needs to go?" Jason asked and Lily stood again.

    "It's only me, the young lord, and his father," she said looking at them, "I'll be able to approach them about this. I can bring you with me, but let me do the talking until they ask you to speak." She said walking to the door. "Now follow me and remember keep your mouths shut until asked to speak." They both nodded and followed her out of the room. She led them down a set of stairs and through a door that appeared to lead into a private dinning room, but they passed that up and followed a hallway into a room filled with books and chairs to sit and read. At a large table in the middle of the room a middle aged man and a man about Jason's age stood studying an old volumn that seemed to be falling apart. Each had their own sheaf of paper and a pen appearantly translating the book. Scholars, odd for Neonite Nobility. Neonis was a land of military power. As they walked toward the table the two men looked up from their work.

    "Ah, Lily, here to tell us we can't fill our stomachs with translations?" the older man said chuckling, "You even brought help to drag us to the dinning room this time." He let out a hearty laugh and Lily simply crossed her arms.

    "Lord Nathaniel Marx, I have an urgent report on matters to inform you of. If you and the young Lord Kenneth Marx will follow me to the dining room I will give you the initial report," Lily uncrossed her arms and grinned, "I promise this isn't a trick to get you to eat." Lord Nathaniel laughed heartily again and the younger man who must be Lord Kenneth looked up.

    "I thought we asked you to call us Nathan and Ken," the young man looked aggravated, "we're in a forsaken inn not the grand hall in Neopolis or the home estates in Marxiana." then Ken noticed Jason and Martin, "Who are these men, they appear too clean to be residents of the inn?" he asked causing the whole room to erupt in laughter again.

    "Lily allow the young men to introduce themselves," Lord Nathan said in an authoritative voice despite the laughter. Jason stepped forward.

    "I am Jason Kirsan a resident of Haven since I was eight years old," Jason said bowing slightly to the noble he was introducing himself to, "this is my friend Martin Aizar of Maziar, he too has resided in Haven for the past eleven years," with his indication Martin bowed as well staying slightly more erect than Jason had.

    "Well then we will come with the three of you to the dining room where I expect Lily will let you tell us the news that brought you to us," Lord Nathan said walking around the table to them. The five walked back down the hall to a dining room where they all took a seat and Lord Nathan signalled for the serving man beside the door to bring food for them. "Now young sir, if you would, kindly tell us what dire news led you to us." The Lord sat back in his chair, and his face took on a more serious expression.

    "Well, Lord Nathan, we have been informed that the cartographer, master Ian, has been put under duress by a Chyran stalker for information on when your party will be leaving the city. We have reason to believe that this stalker plans to use a band of rogues to attempt a kidnapping of Lord Ken for some unknown purpose," Jason watched the lord's expression as he related the news and after finishing sat at ease while Lord Nathan absorbed the news. After a short time the serving man returned with plates of roast beef, greens, and fried potato slices for all five of them as well as two chilled silver pitchers and a third gold one. He and those with him placed the food and drink on the table along with five chilled silver cups. "By your leave I'll pour the drink," Jason said and Lord Nathan waved his consent. Jason rose and walked to the pitchers. One of the silver pitchers contained water, the other mint tea, and the gold pitcher contained bubbling white wine. Jason offered to Lily first who indicated the mint tea as her choice. Next he offered to Lord Nathan who waved him off. He poured a half glass of the white wine for Lord Ken, Martin, and himself. Having finished he took his cup to his place and took an appreciating sip. Once he had finished this Lord Nathan finally spoke up as he stood.

    "Against the usual policy of travelers not to trust any and everyone who comes to them with news, I believe I will trust you Jason," He walked over to the pitchers and poured himself a full cup of the wine, "Your story rings true, and, despite Lily's belief to the contrary, I had noticed the cartographer's interest in our party. Now, I would like to ask your aide in getting Ken safely back to Neonis. I assume that is why you came to us. I must ask that you address Ken and I as equals we are no more noble than most scholarly travelers." Jason nodded agreement and then stood himself and brought the gold pitcher round filling the half empty cups with white wine.

    "We did come to offer our help, Nathan. My friend and I left Haven just this morning and plan to simply wander around Syphar. My personal plan is to map out our journeys along both the old roads and the new trade routes Maziar has established. The route between here and Neonis will be a good start for that map," Jason paused to take another swallow of his wine, "I have a proposition as for how to elude the stalker. You could allow Ken to travel with Martin and I in our wagon tonight while you, Lily, and a decoy set out. Lure out the stalker and his rogues and deal with them while Ken escapes the fray by not being there." Jason noticed the insulted look that came over Ken's face, "I don't mean to say you are incapable of defending yourself, in fact, I sincerely hope you can." Jason took another swallow of the wine.

    "What do you mean by your last statement?" Ken himself asked, a little of the insult gone from his expression. He was interested now.

    "I mean that the enemy probably know's we'll be helping you. I noticed that as Martin, Ian, and I were driving away from the cartographer's shop the stalker was watching us from the corner. If he knows Martin and I are involved he probably will divide his forces among the three gates of the city." Jason pulled a piece of parchment out of his pocket and unfolded it. He had drawn a quick sketch to map out the city earlier in the day and was now glad of it, "You see if our two parties leave from the gates on the opposite side's of the city then we can take out the parties stationed at the two gates and converge on the final party from outside the walls at the third gate where we'll meet up. Once we're done with that party we'll head on to Neonis watching our backs the whole way." As Jason looked up from the map Nathan, Ken, and Lily were all looking at him with a new respect.

    "So we have a cartographer and a strategist in the same person with us," Ken said coming over to get a better look at the map, "some of the roads are a little off but it is a sketch, and the most accurate one I've seen since coming here." He looked at his father and said, "I think we should go with his plan." Lord Marx nodded.

    "We'll need to hire a mercenary for the fight at the gate," he said turning to Lily.

    "No you won't," a familiar voice said from the door to the dining room and Jason and Martin turned around. What they saw was a man of a height with Jason who's hair was an odd mix of silver that faded into burgundy from about halfway down the strand no matter what it's length. He currently wore it pulled behind his ears and falling to his shoulders. He wore Black leather pants and an open canvas vest. On his feet were stout leather boots.

    "Jason, Martin, did you honestly think you'd be able to leave me behind that easily?" The man asked and Jason leapt from his chair.

    "Laeon!" Jason shouted running to his friend the two grasped hands and patted backs then Jason turned him over to Martin, "I thought you'd left Haven three days ago." Jason said in wonderment.

    "I did you two losers passed me on the way into town today. I told you I didn't have a horse waiting outside the city. I even tried to yell at the two of you but you were in the middle of a race to the gate and didn't hear me. I spent the whole day tracing where you'd been."

    "So this is a friend of yours?" Ken asked offering a hand to Laeon, "You're welcome to help if you will we need one more person." From the other side of the room Lily gasped, and they all turned to her.

    "What is it Lily?" Martin asked confusion written large on his face.

    "Lord Ken, Lord Nathan, don't you recognize the man's daggers? That's Laeon the Rogue's Nightmare," Jason and Martin backed away from Laeon puzzled and Lord Nathan laughed.

    "So it is, It's about time you got here, Laeon, I've been waiting for you," He walked over to Laeon and shook his hand, "I thought I'd have to leave without you for a momment. By the way, how long have you been standing at the door?"

    "Long enough to have heard the plan," Laeon said. Jason and Martin relaxed. Laeon was famous? the could barely believe it but they all agreed with what he said next. "This is going to be the beginning of a journey for us all you know that?"