Chapter Two

The Mage

Meanwhile, a mysterious figure is hold up in the tallest tower in King Alvis Altwood's Castle, also known as Altwood Castle, in Redburg Citadel in the city of Ancone. Mckenna Shaw is a thin, and beautiful sorceress with long, dark hair and her soul just as black. Her tower has everything a witch would need to perform any and all types of incantations, mix up potions or remedies, and bookcases filled with magical books and scrolls, and lots of maps. There is even a bowl of water with a stringed crystal beside it. One particular book is sitting open on her table, with different maps unrolled, and showing different possible locations marked. One location reads "Keld?" "Earthstone?".

Mckenna is at the moment; pacing, becoming frustrated by every passing moment, waiting on news from her mercenaries. She does have a keep underneath her tower room so the king will not be suspicious of her undertakings, along with bribing of his soldiers. "Arrggg!! Blast it, where is that bloody bird with news? How long does it take to search a small town for a magical stone?"

"I will roast every one of those on this mission if I do not get what I seek!"

A century ago, the noble Everard guardian protectors of the Earthstone, disappeared along with the stone. McKenna has been looking for it and them for all that time. Now she believes that she has finally found them. She hopes that they are still noble enough to actually protect the stone or getting hold of the stone will be even more difficult.

Not a moment too soon, there was a knock at the door. Hoping for good news that she has been waiting for, she heads to the door, grips the handle, and throws the door open; startling the servant boy who jumps back in surprise.

"What do you want, boy? Can't you see that I am busy," she exclaims, even though anyone watching can tell that was a lie.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but the King would like to see you," the young boy replied, still a little scared by this frightening lady.

She grumbles, "Lead the way." "I do not have time for this, this better be fast." As soon as she closes the door behind her. A raven flies in and lands on its perch with a leather thong tying a letter to its leg, waiting to be read. And a dead rodent clutched in its beak, when it sees its mistress leaving, it starts to engulf its meal and to promptly fall asleep; waiting for its mistress to return.

An hour later...

McKenna comes storming in, fuming. "That arrogant king is nothing like his father, who was comparably easy to control; his fat, lazy predecessor," she angerly breathes out. "If I didn't know any better, I'd thing Alvis is somehow on to some of my doings. She abruptly stops in her tracks, seeing that her pet raven is sitting on his perch. She squeals startling the raven making him jump and flap his wings in annoyance. She rushes over and takes the letter from the raven's leg. She takes a moment to read what the letter says and exclaims, "Fetch, finally! We are one step closer to our ultimate goal." She grabs a bag and hurriedly packs, grabbing some rations, and rushes out the door. "Come, Fetch, we go to make certain that this is true." With barely a look back at her tower room she rushes down the stairs of the tower to the castle stables, has a stable hand hurriedly tack her horse for her and ride out to the town of Keld.

For four days, in her excitement, she pushes the horse to almost braking point; only stopping for water and food, and to let the horse graze. Hours before arriving in Keld, she sets up camp to sleep; to be well rested so that she would not appear exhausted in front of the mercenaries she hired to search the town.

Entering town, she is met with one of the men. She asked, "In your letter said you found the stone, ...so where is it, Louis?" "Well, the stone may be in the hands of a boy." Louis, explained. "What exactly happened?" "Did you see the boy with it, tell me!"

"I wasn't even the one who confronted the boy, Marcus was," the man explained. "He said the boy was holding the stone up to the sky, and Marcus could see it shining. When Marcus confronted the boy, he grabbed ahold of the boys' arm, that's when an earthquake started to shake the ground."

Louis continued explaining that the boy than ran off, being pulled by a girl, followed by a dog."

"Which way did they go," McKenna asked.

"South." Louis replied. "We asked the townspeople who lives down that way, and they say that a family of four live on a farm, Dankworth, they said was the name." "What was the boy's name?" McKenna asked.

"Ellis...um...Ellis Dankworth?"

"Maybe I should go and have a little chat with these Dankworth's," McKenna replies. Before heading south, she goes to the tavern to rent a room for a few nights, dropping her supplies just inside the door, she heads back out, almost knocking a boy down.

***

Sophia and Ellis are in the barn feeding the animals and mucking out the stables, taking turns examining the stone, and discussing what happened earlier. Not noticing that a visitor was walking up to the house at that very moment.

McKenna walks up to the only house for miles around and knocks on the door. The door is answered by a strong and fit man with short, dark brown hair and a short-trimmed beard, wearing olive-green tunic and brown trousers, and long brown boots. "May I help you?" he asks quizzically, wondering why there is a strange woman at his door.

"Yes, you could say that…does Ellis Dankworth live here?" she asks.

"Yes, he is my son.? What do you want with him?"

"I believe he has something that is potentially dangerous," McKenna says.

"May I know what it is?"

"That is none of your concern, all you need to know is that he has something that he should not, and I am here to take it off his hands."

"I'm sorry, you must be mistaken, my son doesn't have anything in his possession like what you described," he says angrily, trying to hide his worrying emotions. "You need to leave, there is nothing we can help you with" he said strongly.

"Maybe I can come in and discuss it with you," trying to keep a smile on her face with a sweet disposition, and not to lose her temper.

"No, I am sorry we are extremely busy, goodbye," he pushes her out the door before slamming the door in her face.

"Grrrr." Then she sees two children walking out from the barn, talking and laughing. Before she can do anything else, the back door opens, and the father ushers the children inside, waving his hand frantically. "I need to come with a plan to get that boy alone, without his sister, and especially his parents; to get that stone off him. The boys' father may know and even if he didn't and the boy is keeping the stone a secret from his parents. It will not be long until he finally talks to his parents. The Dankworths' could even be the Everard's in hiding?" She examines, making an educated guess, while riding back to the tavern in town.

She returns to town and to the tavern, foregoing dinner, and heads upstairs to her room to formulate a plan. The next morning stepping out of the tavern, she comes across a very dirty, very malnourished, and very young boy. Noticing it is the same boy that she almost knocked over in her rush to leave the inn the previous evening. She asks him "Boy, where is your family?"

"I don't have one, I live in the orphanage near here, " the boy replied.

"What is your name?" McKenna asks.

"Trent."

Getting an idea, she asks, "Say Trent, would you like to come work for me?" McKenna asked. "It would be just for running errands and such. Almost like an apprenticeship."

"I'm too young to be an apprentice, miss." the boy replies, looking crestfallen.

"I can start you off by teaching you to read and write, in between you running errands, then move on the reading simple history and spell books." She offered. "What do you say? You will be clean and have food and water. You will not be just surviving but contributing and learning to be useful."

"I can read and write a little," Trent says with slight indignity.

Not even hearing his response, she goes on to say, "But for now, I want you to spy on the family living on the farm south of here. You will report straight to me, tell no one else, and do not be seen. Got that, now go on, get going." McKenna ordered Trent her new errand boy.

***

For a week, she has not seen Trent. She is getting a little anxious and a lot frustrated. She has already devised her plan and is just waiting for what would be a great time to enforce it.

Trent rushes in and explains, "the family, you had me watch, has not left the farm a week…but at a certain time just before noon; the kids and the father seem to just disappear," pausing to add a quick apology he then continues on with, "The woman will sometimes leave out the back door, walk for a while, and she then also disappears."

Looking the boy over, she notices that he appears to be sleep deprived and she wonders if he has eaten anything. She heads out of her room and downstairs and orders a meal to be brought up. She heads back up to her room and enters, seeing the boy asleep on the bed. Instead of getting angry that he was on her bed, all she does is pull the blanket's up to cover the sleeping boy's form. Maybe there is a heart in her chest, just maybe. Moments later, the food she ordered arrives, the server place it on the table, who then leaves.

In the afternoon, Trent awakes and notices the food, but no one else in the room. His stomach rumbling, he stands from the bed and walks over to the table to start eating; not even caring that the food is cold. Just as he is finished eating, McKenna walks in.

"Feeling well rested and full?" She asks. Trent nods his head. "Speak up, you will answer me with the same hole that you shoveled all that food into, understand?" she rudely demands.

"Yes mistress," Trent squeaked.

"Good," she whispers with a smirk on her face, she wonders why she never thought get an apprentice before now.

***

Her plan is simple…or so she thought, but while watching the boy, she was trying to find a time when he would sneak off by himself and that would have been when she swooped in to nab that infuriating boy. He never seemed to be alone, he was either with his sister or that dog, or Gods knows where. She does even get a hint a magical blip at the same time every day, but nothing else.

"I will have that stone, if it's the last thing that I do!"