novelxo Chapter Chapter Eight
In the months that past after the fall of Lord McCryden, Tanis worked hard at being the ruler of the little town. He saw an end to the hard taxes that stripped farmers of all they owned and left them to starve. He saw that the guilds finally plied their individual trades with all the fervor they had under the old lord. He even established schools for men and children alike to learn the trades of the town as well as weapons and magic. All seemed right with the world until one day a man in a bright white robe of the ancients appeared in the manor house, escorted by a half dozen of the guard.
The captain of the guards brought the man to kneel before his throne and Tanis rose. “Let him up Captain,” Tanis began, “Be welcome to my home, now please tell me what brings you here and under such conditions.” The ancient stood there and looked at him. The man slowly looked up and looked at the man before him. “Tanis, do you not recognize your boyhood friend. It was I who aided your mother before your birth. It was I who tutored you as you grew. Do you not recognize me?”
Looking at the man, Tanis did not recognize the youth standing before him. “I think you may have made an error, sir. I was tutored by a dwarf and you, sir, are not of that noble race. Are you sure you seek Tanis Thalin?” The man simply nodded yes. “Remember I once told you that one with the power can alter his appearance. Let me see if this helps you remember me.” The young man’s form seemed to bend and twist until before him stood Artitous, the dwarf. Tanis looked puzzled. “If you are Artitous, then why the disguise? If you are that wizened dwarf, then why come to me as an Ancient and a half elf?”
Artitous just looked at Tanis and said, “I appeared as a dwarf in your youth so that you would have one your own size to relate to, and now that you are grown I appear to you as I truly am so that your studies can continue unchecked. I come now to continue the education you started as a lad and I am once more to continue as your tutor.” Tanis raised his eyebrow again. He was puzzled by the apparition before him. The dwarf had plunged to his death the day he was married out on the mountain. Yet now here he was as a different person. He was a half elf. Where the Ancients given grown bodies for a new life? He turned back to the half elf. “How did you survive that plummet into the mountain on my wedding day? I had thought until this very minute that you had died in that fall. Speak man tell me your tale of what occurred that you now stand before me when you should be all but a corpse.”
Artitous looked at the man sitting before him. “The magic that you have not touched since my supposed demise is what saved my life. The shield of air that I taught you to weave is what has kept me alive these many a day until I could climb from the mountain. But now I have returned and am ready to resume my place as your bard and advisor. If you will have me that is.” As the bard finished speaking Charina swept into the room. Excitement painted her face as she rushed to her husband and embraced him. She stared into his face and her smile near split her beautiful face in two.
“The druids have just checked me over my heart. The news is good. My stomach upset is not some disease. It is the birthing sickness. I am to have a child! Your child.” Tanis beamed from his wife to his old tutor and then back to his wife. “I hope it is my child, I have not noticed you having another husband around here and I do not believe you would look elsewhere for attention.” Tanis said in between laughs. Charina laughed just as loudly as she once more embraced Tanis. This time Tanis embraced her ever so lightly, laughing about not hurting the child.
Charina just held him longer until she noticed the half elf in front of them. “Hello Artitous, you have finally revealed your true form to us. I wondered when you would feel we were ready to know the real you.” Tanis gaped at his wife. “You knew that Artitous was using a false form and you did not tell me?” Tanis asked.
“Of course I did. Did you not know that an elf can see the magic used by others as if they had made the spell themselves? He did not hide his spell well enough for me not to see it but maybe to your human eyes it was enough.”
All Tanis could do was gape as he stared at both the laughing Artitous and Charina. They had both known all along and said nothing. He felt like a horse had kicked his head. No matter how he attempted to clear it, he still was befuddled and confused. The two people he trusted most just continued to discuss the making of the spell and how it could be used to help Tanis in his ruling the town of McCryden. But no matter how much they explained how the disguise was made, he could not understand why they had used it on him. There had to be something there that he did not know there had to be.
The time of Charina carrying her child came to a close as it should and she bore Tanis a fine son with powerful lungs and a mighty grip. The child seemed to be an ointment to soothe Tanis after the affairs of his town got the better of his temper. As an infant he relished the time he had to play with his child and as the child grew Tanis taught him both the arts of magic and weapons. The sessions he taught as games for his young son. It was as good as life got for Tanis and his young son, Paul, and it seemed that life could not get any better.