The Defender: Elderwood

Two

Allan flew.

He’d come to enjoy flying to get around over long distances, like that from the castle to Elderwood Ford. He grew up poor, so he never had the chance to ride a horse, or ride in a carriage. He and his sister had to walk to get anywhere. Occasionally they had to run to get away from something or someone. He’d had to run to flee the city, almost a year ago. Being on foot reminded Allan of being poor.

Not that he’d become rich. He had become a mage, at least by the standard of having read all of Damien’s books and learned to cast the spells within them. Learning magic gave Allan certain freedoms. He could use spells to find and kill game. He could use spells to keep himself warm. He could use spells to fly. Freedom wasn’t quite the same as having coins in your pocket, but for Allan it was close enough, and it felt good.

He could savor the pleasure of flying only for so long. Flying required concentration. The first spell needed was to lift a body into the air. It took a little more energy for Allan to cast that spell on himself than on something or someone else, but not so much that he couldn’t move once he was in the air. The next spell was to move through the air. There was a spell for speeding up and slowing down. Turning required an adjustment by his body through the movement spell.

Damien offered advice from the past on such combinations of spells. In one of his books he suggested that the mage cast spells into an object. Activation of spells cast into objects, or enchantments, could be controlled through spoken words or carved symbols, or runes. It would take a simple word or gesture to enact the desired enchantment.

Allan chose to enchant a wooden rod with runes for flying any distance. All he had to do was move his thumb over the correct rune, tap it twice to activate the spell, and concentrate. He made a strap for his left forearm, so he could tuck the rod there once he arrived at his destination.

It took him just over an hour to reach Elderwood Ford. Even though it was after dark, Allan had no trouble seeing the whole of the city. The first time he had flown here, everything was a surprise. There were the patterns of the fields and pastures leading to the city. There were the straight lines of the city streets, some wide, some narrow. The buildings were squares and rectangles, with the odd circle here and there.

Some parts of the city were better lit at night than others. The Lord’s manor and the wall surrounding it were marked by the lanterns and torches carried by the guards. The river district, with its taverns and brothels, cast its own glow, brighter than the manor’s. The trades district, with its merchant and craftsman shops, had some building lights, but was also lit by guard lanterns.

The only residential district that had any light was the one bounded by the trades district and the Lord’s manor. That was where the wealthiest members of the city lived. They had the only homes that His Lordship felt needed to be protected. Guard lanterns marked the patrol routes that tried to keep those homes safe from ruffians.

Ruffians like Elena and I, Allan noted.

He searched for a place to land. He would need water before he could continue. He saw the Temple of the Moon Goddess below him. He steered to the roof and came down as much like a leaf as he could.

Part of him felt bad using the Temple as a landing spot. The priestesses there were kind to people like him and his sister.

It related to their doctrine. They preached that the Moon had given birth to the Sun. The Sun, being a rebellious boy, out-shined his mother and demanded she be humble to his brightness and warmth. The Moon chose to make her son happy, but always reminded him of who came first, and who gave birth to whom. The priestesses had to be humble before the larger Church of the Sun, but that made them into humble servants of their goddess. As their goddess was a mother, so to did they have to be mothers. That meant, among other things, caring for the poor.