Chapter 14-Guests
Twilight and instinct woke Shibu before either Fel or the Count.
He was instantly awake, and with one quick step up and forward, he was looking between the two of them as they peered into the dense and increasingly foreboding forest.
For Shibu, it was all as familiar as the Green at the center of his village. Cici had marched him and his bow all the way to Emelka and back again on moonless nights with only the stars to guide them both.
"We're nearly to Emelka!" Shibu piped up brightly, instantly recognizing both the forest and the trees. "They have an inn there that makes the best Gobball Stew ever!"
For just a moment, even the dour Count Maxim had to admit that the thought of a comfortable bed, and a warm dish of food had a certain irresistible appeal.
But Count Maxim had other plans for this evening, more out of necessity than desire. So the nobleman discreetly but firmly shook his head no.
"We should push on after stopping at the well to water the sheep. Bonta won't come any closer on its own if we stop."
Fel, who had begun to salivate at the thought of warm stew wiped his muzzle on his sleeve, while silently casting his eyes down with regret.
"Besides, if you want to get to the Meadows by morning, you know we have to cross the forest by night." Count Maxim informed them both.
Shibu nodded, even as his stomach issued a loud growl of protest.
"The water from this well is very good. It should refresh us, and the sheep too." Shibu told his friends.
"Need to stop, to feed the sheep anyway." Fel groused out loud.
"The best journeys are the swiftest journeys." Count Maxim retorted somewhat sharply. "If we don't stop now, by this time tomorrow, will be in sight of Bonta, and everything the city can offer, including my hospitality." The nobleman explained, as if he was talking down his nose to a peasant.
Fel's response was to loudly snap the reigns on the leather harness, stirring the sheep to continue pulling.
"They're going to get awfully mean if they miss their supper." The canine teamster worried out loud. Count Maxim seem to ignore him, but Shibu was listening.
"Is it time to switch yet?"
Fel grunted. He could use some water, some jerky, and some sleep, since he now seemed sure that was all he was going to get.
"You know this land, blue eyes." The canine grunted. "Draw water from the well near Emelka. Fill the cask on the side of the wagon. Wake me in two hours." Fel told him curtly as he passed the reigns from himself to Shibu who slid over, excited to take the reins.
"Don't worry." Count Maxim said at his canine retainer. "I think Shibu knows the way better than both you and the sheep put together."
The thought made the nobleman smile. Count Maxim already knew that Fel would be wide-awake long before two hours had passed.
Shibu had walked to this well so many times that he could find it in pitch blackness, walking backward, and blindfolded all at the same time.
Water from this well was the dark-haired boy's reward for a successful night march with Cici at his side. On special occasions, if they arrived at the well after the moon had set, the two of them would spend a few Kamas, and take a room until sunrise at the Emelka Inn.
But Shibu didn't think he would be so lucky tonight. The moon was high and full casting a bright light over everything normally draped in nighttime shadow.
Shibu had no problem controlling the pair of wild gobballs that were barely straining to pull the heavy wagon. They were a strange set, harnessed in both leather and brass fittings for a heavy leather harness which kept them where they were supposed to be.
Shibu didn't need to speak a word of command to get the two sheep to halt as the shadowy outline of the well rose into view. All that he needed to do was to snap the heavy rains loudly. The sound itself work better than the cruelty of the whip, of the sort which the canine teamster had lost in Shibu's home village.
Shibu was the first one down, hopping off the wagon, to take the wooden lid from the water cask on the driver side. Inside the wooden barrel was a large pot. The utensil was cast iron, equipped with a flimsy tin handle. It had obviously seen much service, for its black surface was streaked with heavy brown rust.
Looking at the iron pot, Shibu tried to figure out quickly how many trips it would take him to fill the water cask. He quickly decided not to think so much about the number of the trips. It made life easier as he strode toward the well under the full moon to draw the first water from the well.
Along about the tenth repetitive trip back and forth between the wagon and the well, Shibu looked up at Count Maxim and asked an obvious question.
"Have you got a long pole, and two wooden buckets?" Shibu asked, already sounding tired enough to need more sleep.
Count Maxim smiled at once. He already understood what the intelligent blue-eyed boy had worked out for himself.
"As a matter of fact, I do. The pole and the buckets are in the very back of the wagon, lashed to the gate." The Count replied with a wide smile that reflected brighter in the moonlight.
Shibu quickly returned to the wagon, and dropped the rusted pot deliberately into the soft grass off to one side. With his hands free, he could make a quick grab for the pole, the buckets, and lastly the heavy leather strap that held all three of them to the gate. Shibu collected them, walked a few steps, and then plopped himself contentedly into the slightly damp grass just a few steps from the well.
Count Maxim watched with admiration, as Shibu lashed the iron handles of the buckets to each end of the long pole. When the dark-haired boy stood up, he tucked the pole across his shoulders, behind his neck.
From the way Shibu moved, the nobleman could tell that Shibu was in his element. Shibu could now dip first one bucket and then the other into the well by shifting the length of the pole across his shoulders as he turn first to the left, and then to face the right. He walked back toward the water cask on this trip with ten times the water that the battered iron pot could hold. Shibu bent low, and slid the pole across his shoulders once again, expertly pouring first one bucket, and then turning easily to repeat the motion and pour out the other into the cask.
Very few things really impressed the jaded nobleman, who all the while retained his seat at the front of the wagon, on the bench next to where Shibu had been sitting.
"Someone would think you've done this before, Shibu." Count Maxim commented with a smile and a sly wink.
"I prime the pump at home with two buckets, just like this every morning, right after I wake up." Shibu explained, returning the Count's smile.
Without stopping, Shibu sprinted toward the well once again, to pick up more water. Count Maxim couldn't help but notice the fluid nature of Shibu's own movements as he made a long and dreary task seem like a bit of nighttime fun!
What had normally taken Fel an entire hour to do with the iron pot, Shibu accomplished in less than a quarter of that time. All while the canine retainer slept soundly in the rear of the wagon.
The pair of wild sheep hitched to the wagon took care of their own fodder, grazing on the long grass near the well, while Shibu concentrated on filling the water cask. He set the lid on it, and then returned to the rear of the wagon, to replace the long pole and the pair of buckets where he had found them, lashed to the rear gate of the wagon. And after a moment of thought, Shibu even collected the old pot. For him, it was pure reflex, as no Ranger would ever leave something like it behind them to despoil the virgin forest.
Just as Shibu began tying down the pole to a pair of pegs on the rear gate, the blue-eyed boy felt the hair on the back of his neck rise suddenly in the moonlit shadows.
Four, no, six of them.
Three appeared behind him, lurking in the trees across from the well. Three more, out ahead of them, near where the sheep were grazing, as far off the road as their leather harness would permit.
Shibu felt his fingers wrap securely around the wooden pole once again, and take it from the pegs and its leather binding. Holding the pole, he walked around the drivers corner of the end of the wagon, using the pole as if it was a staff which he needed to help him walk.
Count Maxim saw Shibu hobble slowly into the corner of his vision. To any onlooker, Shibu's figure would seem weak, as the boy now appeared to be lame in one leg.
The nobleman began to look over at Shibu with a questioning look on his face.
Quickly, the blue-eyed boy put a finger gently to his lips, making not a sound himself as he pointed behind him with his free hand, and then casually held up three fingers. Shibu's next gesture was to swing the end of the pole down, and use it as a pointer as he walked along, holding up three fingers once again as he pointed ahead.
The Count understood Shibu signs at once. Three figures behind, and three ahead of the wagon. Before Shibu could reach the lead bar at the front of the harness, six shadowy figures formed a circle, surrounding the wagon and the team!
Shibu kept walking, in spite of the fact that there was now no chance to lead the wagon and the team out of the trap. His goal now was to step far enough away from the wagon before the group revealed itself to allow him to swing the pole. Shibu managed two steps ahead and to the side of the wagon, before a scratchy voice seem to come from every tree surrounding the well.
"Look at little boy lost!" The voice said in a snide tone.
"Poor Lil' guy probably forgot his way back to the Inn!" replied another echo.
Shibu stood his ground, keeping both hands on the pole, seeming to hold himself up with it. He knew that he had to wait until just the right moment.
Shibu heard a familiar creaking. He didn't need his eyes to see Count Maxim slowly getting off of the bench, and onto his feet. Thru it all, Shibu could still hear Fel snoring loudly in the bed of the wagon.
Cici had taught Shibu to use all his senses. Together, he could now tell where the three figures facing the wagon were. One was behind the tree a few paces ahead. The other two were up in the tree itself, crouched as if ready to spring like cats from the lowest branches of the same tree.
"Go on your way, whoever you are." Count Maxim spoke up sternly. "We don't want any trouble."
"And you'll have none, Rich man. As long as you give us everything you have." One of the scratchy voices told the nobleman.
"You dare attack a Bontarian?" Count Maxim fumed. "I tell you again, go on your way."
"Pay us a toll, and we'll consider letting you off." Another voice said. This one spoke up from behind the wagon.
"Let us take the young one, and we will let you go." The voice up ahead spoke again. "We can always sell another slave, even a lame one will bring a few Kama."
"We could eat for a month, selling off that skinny brat." A forth voice chimed in. "Give him to us, and you are free to go. If not, we'll take him anyway, along with everything else you have."
"Try it." A new voice spoke up.
It was Shibu. It was also a challenge he knew the bandits could not resist.
"There's more fight in the lame one than in the rich man." One voice replied. "You had your chance rich man. Now you'll pay our price."
Shibu felt the air around him move as one of the bandits in the tree jumped down from the limb above. The other bandit who was up high used the limb like a spring, and dove right at Shibu!
Shibu planted the pole firmly into the softer grassy ground at his feet, and used it like a hinge, swinging around on it as he pulled himself up tall again. As he came around the pole turned staff, he felt his kicking foot smash solidly into something softer than the shoes he wore.
The darkness around him was torn with a sharp cry of pain and surprise, then Shibu heard something heavy land with a thud on the ground nearby.
One down. He thought to himself.
As soon as his feet touched down again, Shibu swung the pole up above his head quickly. A dark figure bumped into him hard. There was a sudden glint of metal in the moonlight, as the makeshift staff stopped a hand swinging downward with a dagger.
Shibu relaxed, and slipped under the pressing figure, this time kicking for the bandit's ankles! He lashed out, and there was a solid crack like a small branch breaking. Another sharp cry of pain went up in the moonlight as the second shadow fell and seemed to vanish for the moment.
Two. Shibu thought to himself. Where was the thi-?
Shibu never finished the thought, as something solid shoved him hard from behind, and he went tumbling thru space across the grass.
Tuck and roll. It was an instinct as simple and automatic as breathing.
Rolling on the soft, slightly wet grass softened the blow, and kept Shibu from being badly hurt. He still clutched the pole become staff, and as he rolled to a stop in the grass, face down, he was close enough to see one of the figures in black reach for his staff.
Shibu rolled quickly to his left, just beyond the black figure's grasp, and whipped the staff upward sharply. The air close to Shibu was filled with a satisfying crunch!
Shibu never stopped moving, bringing the end of the pole around and driving it hard between a yellow pair of eyes that were suddenly as close as his nose! Shibu struck hard. The tip of the pole caught the haunting yellow-eyed face just above where the nose should have been, directly between the eyes!
The black face with the yellow eyes seemed to ripple and then fade away, like a reflection in water.
Three. Shibu thought. But there were three more, now behind him!
Shibu sprang to his feet like a Bow Meow. He shifted his weight, and pivoted on his toes. He looked quickly toward the wagon. Sure enough, a trio of shadows flickered in the moonlight, closing in on the rear of the wagon. Shibu lowered the pole, and sprinted toward the wagon.
He felt someone familiar sweep by him, as the flash of Count Maxim's epee caught Shibu's eye.
Shibu drove the other end of the pole out and down, so it stuck in the soft ground. It was an off balance vault, but enough to send Shibu sailing thru the air toward the soft top on the wagon! He landed solid, and balanced on the chests protected by the cloth cover of the wagon bed. Reflex made Shibu recoil, and the blue-eyed figure brought the pole around with a snap of his wrist.
Suddenly plunged into total darkness, Shibu "saw" thru a light as blue as his own eyes. It was as if each of the three remaining bandits glowed in the dark!
And Once Shibu could see them, he could hit them.
So he did. As fast and as hard as he could.
There was a solid cracking sound as Shibu's staff lashed the top of the head just below him! Shibu saw the figure melt away, as the blue light outlining him became dimmer,
Two left.
Or in this case, one on each side. But before Shibu could react, there was someone else glowing blue in his vision.
A Large square head with floppy ears!
Fel's growl wasn't as much a sound of annoyance as it was an eruption of anger.
In his blue-lit vision, Shibu saw two large furry hands reach out, and grab the two remaining bandits. The figures were pulled up and into the bed of the wagon, which suddenly began to rock, violently. So much so that Even Shibu lost his sure footing for a moment, just before he saw two figures come sailing out of the end of the wagon as if shot from a cannon!
One of the two bumped hard against the tree nearest the end of the wagon, while the other landed with a thud at the base of the tree, and the night once again fell silent.
Shibu lowered the end of the pole to the soft grass beside the wagon, and taking a hold on it, slid down the pole to stand beside Count Maxim, whose sword was still drawn.
"Never fear, Shibu. They are finished." The nobleman said quietly.
As the tension left him, The blue light within his vision faded, and Shibu sank to a cross-legged seat in the soft grass, still holding tightly to the pole that had been his staff.
Only then did Shibu notice that he was panting, and that the pole in his hand was shaking so much Shibu couldn't hold it still.
Only when a large furry paw fell lightly on Shibu's shoulder was the dark-haired boy steady, still, and calm again.
"Easy, Blue Boy. You hurt?" Fel asked.
Shibu gave up his grip on the pole as Fel took it from him, and replaced it on the gate of the wagon.
Shibu drew his first deep breath in what seemed like a whole day.
"I'm all Right, Fel, thanks for your help." Shibu replied.
"Stupid bandit pulled my tail." Fel grunted, As the large dog paused to scoop up the fallen bandits, one under each arm.
"You want these, Master?" Fel asked in Count Maxim's direction.
"Pile them up with the others." The Count replied. "When they wake, they might provide some amusement and then some information." Maxim replied now sounding more than a bit tired.
Shibu rose from where he sat, standing steady again, and began to walk toward the village beyond the well.
"Shibu? The Count inquired.
"I don't trust these bandits. I'm going to fetch the night watch."
"Stout lad!" The Count replied hardly missing a beat."We'll watch over this lot, until you return."
Five minutes later, Shibu was back, leading a line of heavily armored men. One guard for each of the six bandits.
When the leader of the guard saw the pile of bandits, he and his men came to a shocked halt before the scene.
"Hay there, the boy was right!" the gruff officer remarked.
"Well polish my halberd, it's the Shadow Bandits! All of them!" Another soldier spoke up.
Count Maxim stepped forward, and took charge.
"Indeed they are, Sergeant. Bandits one and all. Take them away, and show them the hospitality of your finest cell." The Count said.
"And who are you, Sir?" the officer of the guard asked.
"I am Count Maxim, a Nobleman of Bonta, my good Captain.
"The entire guard detachment snapped to attention. "By your leave, Your Excellency, we shall do our duty." The captain of the Guard replied formally.
"Did Your Excellency do battle with all of these?" One of the guardsmen asked politely.
"No, Sir, I did but little. If you would seek a hero find Shibu there." The nobleman replied.
"Shi-who, Your Excellency?"
The B-" The Count began to reply, but stopped short when he realized that Shibu was no where to be seen!
"Fel? Where is Shibu?" the nobleman inquired brusquely.
"There, Master." The Canine answered simply. The canine indicated the wagon with a jerk of his stubby thumb.
Before Maxim could offer any more explanation, the quiet of the night was broken again.
This time, by a loud snoring coming from inside the wagon!
"Take them away, Captain. We shall linger here until morning, to see that these evil ones are charged, and that my entourage is properly rested."
"As you wish, Your Excellency. Rooms shall be opened for you at our Inn. We shall see to your needs and comfort while you are here." The leader of the Watch told the Nobleman.
A few moments later, after the guard led the bandits away, Fel scooped up Shibu and the duo walked toward the Inn for the night.
