All Chapters of Foundling: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

88 Chapters

10 Ham

CHAPTER NINEIt was argued which came first, Kraagkeep or the School. In truth, it mattered little, for each had grown apace with the other to become seats of capital and knowledge. Kraagkeep was a city of stair-stepped terraces that hugged the slope of a mountainside overlooking a forested basin. The upper plateau was the seat of commerce, its dealings, its intrigues, its vices, and its festering discontent. Descending the main road, that snaked and turned, forked and split as it wound its way between the lanes and alleys of the plateaus, one came to the second plateau where resided the factors of the Great Houses, the Guild Masters, Ambassadors, and the wealthiest of merchants living in mansions. Immaculate hedgerows fronted those mansions and competed with one another for distinction and prestige.The next level below were the townhouses of the master craftsmen and tradesmen, shopkeepers, and Magi who did not reside within the School’s demesne. Moving from plateau to plateau, the

11 Descent

It was Rumbole and Crest who discovered a route over mountains guarding deep forests hidden between treacherous ridges cut by white-capped rapids leading to precipitous falls. A rough terrain of beauty and bounty where many men had become lost never to return, but not Rumbole and Crest.They would disappear for months on end only to return with strange and exotic furs. They made a small fortune selling their wares to the merchants of Free Hold; a fortune they would drink and whore away during their sojourn there.The legend went that they had become trapped on the high mountains by an early winter storm coming in from the east. With the cold and sleet cutting into flesh, they were forced ever westward. Running before the storm they followed the path of migrating animals. Days of cold, catching sleep when they could, moving so as not to perish, it was some time before they realized they were on the lee of the storm sheltered by the pitched contours and jagged heights of mountain peaks.

12 Prophecy

Dinner that night was salted meat skillet fried in lard and laid between the crisp, flakey outer crust of a round loaf split down the middle and quartered for them all to share. A whole onion was chopped into the frying meat and cheese spread over top it all. Added to the meal were dried figs and bananas. It was a welcome repast shared across the heat of the campfire and beneath the light of the moon.Poe knew himself to be have been favored by fortune to have fallen in with a man that traveled with such considered preparation. Ham, however, took no praise for the repast. He credited his wife.A soothing lassitude spread from his stomach to the rest of his body. He laid back to take in the vastness of the night sky salted with flickering stars and was struck by a sudden insight. In the clearing when he had gazed into that dark laceration that split his world open to that other space, what he had seen were the constellations of another heaven.The lassitude that had once filled him tur

13 Talisman

People could talk about privilege all that they wanted, but being hot, sweaty and not knowing when your next bath would come while putting one plodding footstep before the other in robes that were a comfort in the morning before the sun had warmed the chill air but were too heavy in the afternoon. Then, privilege did very little to assuage any discomfort.He could calm the heart, take longer breaths, slow the blood and cool the body so as not to let the heat discomfit him so, but it would have taken more concentration and attention than he deemed warranted. Such measured control did not come easily to him as it did to healers or those vain in pursuit of an artificially propped reserve. It was rational, effective, but not for him. Instead of focusing his attention on being comfortable or, alternately, letting frustration wash over him because of his discomfort, he welcomed the sensations of the heat that powered the motions of his body, the discomfort that let him know he was alive, th

14 Battle

Hawks circled in the clear blue searching for prey below in glades and grasslands. Gliding aloft, wind whistling through feathers spread wide like fingers to catch the rising drafts of heat and air, heads swiveling, eyes darting, it was up not down that they should have been studying. Startled, they shrieked their displeasure as Poe parted their ranks, breaking their aerial ballet as he descended limned in argent and gold.This quickening to glory and power had been neither quick nor easy. He had put a half a day’s distance between himself and the way station when the Magister had begun channeling power to him in slow, steady increments. It had taken another day of careful concentration, cramps that made him squat beside the road as the muscles in his legs bunched, and flesh that became so sensitive that even light made it feel as if it burned. And then there were the other, unforeseen side effects.For all their precautions, the emotions flowing and congealing from all the minds conne

15 Aftermath (1)

Wood smoke drifted on slow-moving currents carrying the scent of cooking meat among the branches of the forest and between the close trunks that tried to push back the light that intruded on their darkness, the foreign presence in their midst that leaped and danced, retreating and advancing, invading their solitude.Poe took no notice of the battle between forest and flame. His imaginings were split between the squirrel, spitted between two forked limbs dripping fat into the crackling fire, and the sleeping child wrapped in the blanket from his rucksack.The child was all elbows and knees, spindly, knotted sinew and vein emphasized by his dark skin. His face was long and angular: high cheekbones, flared nostrils, and arched, full brows. His hair was tangled and filthy, bound at the nap of neck by an old ratty strand of leather.The boy twitched, fighting the artificial sleep laid upon him. The spasms were coming more frequent as the boy’s resistance grew stronger, but his mind had nee

15 Aftermath (2)

Poe’s voice was soft, melodic, the droll monotony of his tone hypnotic and soothing, capturing the boy’s attention even while he tried to resist. A mystery of power and persuasion as puissant as any force of mind, or influence of sorcery, were words. They were the first true gift given to man, to name the unnamed, to riddle answers from mysteries unknown. And though Poe did not normally consider his words to resound with any great force or influence, he spoke as true as he could his feelings, his convictions and the responsibility to honor them both. (And it saddened him that he could not express the same to Martine.) “I can offer you something other than that loneliness and isolation. Others like you coming into their power. Others who are confused and searching and don’t know what they search for. Just like you.”Poe continued for some time, his words rousing fancies and wonderment in the boy who listened rapt and attentive, and when he finished, body worn and bone tired, mind tosse

16 Farmhouse (1)

It was a little past midday on the second day of the journey when Poe walked up the knoll to the farmhouse. He could see where the worn stone of the original foundation butted up against wings added later to become a two-story home with nine windows facing the lane: five on the second story and four on the main level and an equal number facing the planted fields. As Poe crested the knoll, he could see the fields on his right stretching away into the distance and on the other side sheep, waiting to be sheered, milling in a paddock beside two barns. There was activity everywhere, in the paddock, the barns, and the fields where curious heads turned to track his progress. When he knocked, an old woman, bent and slightly stooped but with eyes as forthright as those of a newborn and fetching as the flight of a sparrow across a noonday sun, opened the door. She wore a high-cut black bodice with short white sleeves over a simple gray dress with blunt toed shoes sticking from bene

16 Farmhouse (2)

“Why do you not ask the real question lingering in the stale air between us?” he finally said, voice stiff, but before either could reply, he answered instead.“No one was taken, none coerced. But let me be clear. The vessel does have a choice in the matter. Would you take that from them?”“That is no answer?” the Conjurer said, voice just as stiff but colder.A wry expression, only apparent in his eyes, briefly flitted across his face. “Then, let me be clear. No child was stolen or persuaded without a families’ consent. Such fears are groundless. At one time, there might have been some truth in those beliefs, but that was another time, another place. Here, those with the Ability come to us in their own time and manner. Some never come. It is a choice. The Source also seeds abilities of many types and degrees, and the School nurtures more than just those strong in ki. Many at the School come to master a skill or learn a trade, much like the women in your kitchen. It is insulting to sug

17 Testing (1)

When they began their journey, Poe thought it best to stay to the tree line. He had a good idea of where he was, had locked in memory maps of the area. He knew in which direction lay the High Road, the settlements in the area, and the roads leading to and from them. By staying to the tree line, it would be easy to avoid all common traffic until he needed to take the High Road for the last leg of their journey, but before that, he would need to get Hunter some clothes, and Poe now knew why Master Giles had suggested he stop at this particular homestead if there were need.They were putting the final preparations on supper when Poe returned with Hunter. When the Conjurer opened the door to the grimy, woolly-headed boy with gnats leaping about those matted locks, and dirt smearing his naked body so as to almost be a layer of clothing, she turned her nose up but made no comment. Her first duty was to see to the boy, as best she could, and the Mage would be of little use in that, so she sho

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