The next morning when Sam awoke, the visitors had departed. He was saddened a little because they were nice people. He would also have liked to hear another story. As he made himself ready for the day's ride, Armegon and Ultrecht discussed some details about a village they were to pass through later. Sam felt like talking himself so he decided to find Tyson.
The fourth member of the party was seated on a fallen tree with his legs crossed in front of him. His hands were open and lying palms up on the balls of his bare feet. Tyson's eyes were open, but unseeing. Sam approached quietly from downwind and stopped in a crouch about a meter from the monk. He could smell Tyson. The normal scent of a human was there plus something else. There was a faint trace of smoke with a pungent aroma attached.
Sam crept a little closer. Slowly he reached out his hands and grasped the soft leather boots that Tyson normally wore.
Like a striking snake, Tyson whirled and caught the boy by the wrist. "Gotcha!"
Sam laughed. The game was not his today. "I'll get you yet," he proclaimed boldly.
"You have the instincts of a beast of prey," Tyson complimented. "You approached from down wind so your scent could not betray you, but you also have the intelligence of man.
You forgot to check your shadow." Tyson pointed to the ground where the double image from the two suns cast their faint shadows. Tyson had seen the shadows as Sam approached.
"What if the wind and the suns contradict each other?" he asked.
"Then you must decide which will allow you the greater surprise. The wind will carry your scent a long way, but the shadows," again Tyson referred to the image on the ground, "are rarely longer than you can leap."
Tyson donned his boots. He picked up a pipe from where he had been smoking and emptied it. Then he climbed to his feet. "You keep at it," he encouraged. "You'll get me eventually." He reached into his tunic and withdrew a cloth wrapping. "I have something for you," he said. Sam took the wrapping and opened it. A bronze buckle carved in the shape of a dragon lay inside. "A gift from the teacher to the student," Tyson said with a wink. "It was given to me by my teacher. I want you to have it. Don't tell anyone about it," he warned, "or Armegon will make you give it back because it’s very old and very valuable."
Sam beamed. "Thanks Tyson," he said and gave the man a hug. Then he skipped off towards the wagon. Tyson grinned as he watched the boy go then he followed.
Sam and Tyson mounted the loaded wagon as Armegon tied the tent canvas into a roll and hove it into the back of the wagon. Ultrecht was hitching the team and fussing about the smell of mules.
"We’ll be stopping in a village tonight," Ultrecht informed Tyson and Sam. "We need supplies." He finished hitching the team and mounted the wagon. Soon they were on the road.
They stopped for lunch about midday and Sam was given the chore of watering the mules. After another hour they were back on the road. The suns were getting close to the mountains when Sam and Ultrecht were seated on the front of the wagon. Armegon was in the back leaning against a wheat sack and Tyson was walking at the rear. Sam was swaying with half closed eyelids when Ultrecht poked him softly in the ribs. "Wha?"
"Shhh!" Ultrecht warned. "Look down the road. What do you see?"
Sam peered down the road. "Five men on horses."
"What are they doing?"
"Talking."
Armegon leaned forward and stuck his head over the bench. "What’re you two mumbling about?"
"Look near the edge of the woods," Ultrecht told Sam; ignoring Armegon, but Armegon caught onto the conversation.
"Yes," Sam said excitedly. "There are three people on foot going into the woods."
Armegon whirled around and bounced to the rear of the wagon. He whispered to Tyson a few moments, then turned forward again. Tyson started falling behind and like a shadow soon disappeared into the brush. "Sam, get your staff," Armegon said quietly. "Set it at your feet and sit quietly. Also put your cloak on and pull up the hood."
Ultrecht and Armegon made their own arrangements, and when Sam had complied with his preparations, they too were back to their normal riding posture. "Remember, Sam," Armegon was saying from where he appeared to be dozing, "your mother will help you but only if you hold tightly to your staff and call her name, and only if it is an emergency."
"Try not to get knocked off the wagon," Ultrecht said with a wink. Sam smiled. This was to be his first fight.
The wagon rolled onward. The natural sounds of the forest faded away in the distance, and Sam caught the scent of fear and anxiety from ahead. It seemed to take hours for the distance to close between the wagon and the horsemen. As they approached, three of the riders urged their mounts to the right while the other two maneuvered to the left as if making room for the wagon to pass.
"Greetings traveler," one of the riders hailed. "Where are you bound?"
"The Twin Cities eventually," Ultrecht replied in a friendly voice. "But first we must pick up a load in Tycho."
"What are you taking to Tycho?"
Ultrecht cast his eyes downward. "Alas, nothing. With House Blackheart on the move, most goods are traveling east. We’re relocating to Tycho to get cargo."
"Everyone blames everything on Blackheart," one of the riders laughed. "I think you're lying old man. Let us have your wagon and you might live to walk to Tycho."
Sam was caught completely off guard. He had been awaiting some signal from either Armegon or Ultrecht, but instead the initiation of hostilities came from out of the forest where Tyson vaulted from the thickets to one side of the road onto one of the horses and laid the back of his fist against the side of the rider's neck. An audible snap indicated that the rider's days as a bandit were over.
Almost at the same time, Armegon flew past Sam's shoulder leaping onto the leader of the horsemen. They both fell to the ground with a muffled thump.
Sam grabbed his staff and leaped from the wagon to the ground before the unhorsed rider could recover. With a low swing, the weighted metal end of the staff impacted the rider at the base of his skull and the rider collapsed to the ground.
As Sam turned to help Armegon get to his feet, he observed one of the riders shoot up into the air and fly quickly across the road and slam into a tree trunk. Then Ultrecht flicked his wrist and the floating rogue sailed across the road again into another tree trunk.
Sam almost stopped to laugh when a shadow fell across the ground in front of him. He instantly leaped with cat-like grace straight up and flipped backwards twisting at the same time to fall directly behind his assailant. Without thinking he brought the weighted end of his staff across the backbone of the ruffian.
The blow was strong, but the youthful underdeveloped muscles of the boy were not yet powerful enough to break a spine. The villain turned and with a short sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, began to stalk Sam cautiously.
Sam brought his staff up to the guard position and shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. In that slight crouch he awaited his enemy's attack.
As the battle raged around them, Sam and his foe circled slowly. Sam tried to remember everything he had been taught. Tyson's teachings came to him earnestly alerting him to the subtle changes in the foe's stance that heralded an attack. When the attack came, he was prepared.
The short sword lashed out as if to make a leading attack, while the dagger swung around and under to steal past Sam's defenses. But Sam had not intended to defend himself. As the attacker lunged forward, Sam dropped to his knees and planted the staff's butt on the ground. He swung the striking end upward and jabbed into his opponent's midsection. The momentum of the bandit's attack carried him over head to fall face down on the ground behind Sam.
What was unexpected in the melee, was that by Sam's jabbing the staff into the bandit's gut, the bandit instinctively reached inward with his dagger hand, and when he hit the ground, his own weight drove the dagger into his belly.
Sam spun around to prepare for the next attack and was surprised and even a little angry at what he saw. Ultrecht, Armegon and Tyson were all three sitting in the wagon watching him. Of the bandits, he could only see six of the original eight bodies.
"What of the others," Sam asked.
"Tyson nailed the other two before the fight even began," Ultrecht informed him with a smile. "And you appeared to be having too much fun for us to interrupt."
Sam looked back at the bodies. They were all dead. When Armegon, Ultrecht and Tyson fought they meant business. It began to dawn on Sam rather slowly that he could very well have lost his life in the fray of combat. He remembered the arrogance and excitement he had felt prior to the fight. Now he just felt sad.
"Come, Sam," Armegon urged him into the wagon. "Let's be off."
Sam climbed aboard and sat next to Armegon. He looked at the staff he had been so proud of earlier. It was stained with blood. He took a rag and some water and set to scrubbing it diligently.
Ultrecht and Tyson checked the bodies then carried them into the woods for disposal. When they returned, Sam was still scrubbing his prize weapon. Ultrecht gestured to Armegon who simply nodded. Understanding the situation, he and Tyson boarded the wagon and got the team under way.
Armegon watched Sam scrub a few more minutes. The wood and metal were clean, but the boy still washed and scrubbed furiously, almost desperately. Finally Armegon sat down next to his charge.
"You will never be able to scrub the blood from that staff or your hands, Sam."
"But, he‘s dead," the boy murmured with a wavering tone. He was putting forth a great effort to keep from breaking down. "I’m a killer," he resolved.
"So was he," Armegon reminded him. "And if you hadn't killed him he would’ve killed you."
"Does that make it right?"
Armegon looked away. "No," he finally answered. "But it is the lesser of the two evils."
"Rida told me that everything dies in time. Was it their time?"
Armegon smiled and hugged Sam close. "Rida speaks with the wisdom of nature," he said. "She was a good teacher. Yes, it was their time."
"Then I did what was right." Sam said it as if he were trying to convince himself it were true.
Armegon smiled a reassuring smile. No, he thought to himself, not necessarily what was right, but what you had to do.
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