The Defender: The Curse of Ironwood

Two

Allan stepped onto the first of the two stone bridges that let to the city of Stonebridge, the town that gave the dukedom it’s name. He felt a tingle in his spine, but it wasn’t from being on the bridge.

This first bridge crossed the Western River. The second crossed the Stones River. Both were in sight of the point where the Stones River joined the Western River. Both bridges and the confluence were impressive. Around this area the Western River was almost half a mile wide, while the Stones River was a quarter of a mile wide. It was said that wealthy folk would travel to Stonebridge just so they could tell their friends, especially those less rich and less well-traveled, that they had seen all this with their own eyes.

Less well-off folk came over the bridges and saw the sights as well. Some of the minerals from the mountains to the west had to go up the Western River, not down. At times crops grown in the rest of Stonebridge, and it’s neighbor Ironwood, had to go north and west as well. It was easier to take a wagon up the road than up against the river’s current, so folk without friends to impress went over the bridges as well.

On this day Allan and Nancy were the only ones crossing the bridges to go to Stonebridge, but they weren’t the only ones on either bridge. They could see a mother with two small children coming towards them at the far end of the bridge over the Western River. Beyond them was another woman with three older children, two young mothers nursing infants, and a young girl leading two small boys.

The dukedoms must really be hurting for so many women and children to be leaving, Allan mused.

His next several steps on the bridge distracted him from those he was walking past. The strange sensation went up and down his back. It felt vaguely familiar. It wasn’t until he was over the bridge that he remembered where he’d felt that way before.

He led Nancy to one side of the road. He pulled her close. To anyone who saw them, it would look like he was whispering sweet phrases to his young wife.

Best to make certain about that. “Smile and laugh as I talk to you,” he said into one of her ears.

She complied without asking him why.

“I felt something on the bridge,” he told her, keeping his voice low.

“Felt what?”

“The feeling I got the first time I was in Damien’s castle.”

She faced him. “Magic?”

He nodded. “Not just magic. The sense of magic. Old magic.”

“Old magic? In the bridge?”

“That’s right.”

“But, the bridges couldn’t have been made by magic.”

“Why not?”

“Wouldn’t they have collapsed when magus faded?”

He paused to think. While thinking he gave her a quick kiss. An instant after that kiss it came to him. “What if the stones were put in place with magic?”

“Then built normal way.”

“Right. It explains what I felt, and that they’re still standing.”

“Let’s keep going and see.”

They continued towards the second bridge. Allan had the same feeling in him that he had while crossing the first bridge. This time, however, there was no one else on the bridge with them.

He leaned close to her. “I feel it again.”

She looked around. “Now that I see these bridges up close, I think I understand your point. Some of the stones that make up this bridge, and the other one, are massive. I imagine having a mage would make it easy to get the stones here and put them into place.”