Simon Fayter and the Doors of Bone by Austin J. Bailey

Author:Austin J. Bailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin J. Bailey
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9. The Pants Thief

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

—Proverbs 16:1880

My training began that night after everyone had gone to bed. The Tike brought me and Tessa back into the large central chamber, which was now empty, and Tessa showed her what the two of us had done. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that we should share all our secrets with the Tike, but Tessa liked her and wisely argued that since she was in charge of helping us, we had to trust her.

“It’s a diagram of the turncoat, see?” Tessa explained, unfolding the large piece of paper we had been working on for the last hour. The paper showed five rows (labeled A‐E) of ten knobs (numbered 1‐10). They corresponded with the fifty knobs that we had found inside my coat.

“Should we ask her?” I said to Tessa.

“Ask me what?” the Tike said.

“We found something interesting when we were examining the turncoat and making the diagram,” Tessa said.

I opened the coat and indicated the five knobs on the bottom of the right panel. They were bigger than the others, and they each had a small leather pocket beneath them. A leather flap closed them, and the knobs served as fasteners to keep them shut.

I opened the E6 pocket and drew out a small stone. It was the color of blood and partially transparent.

“Ayia!” the Tike exclaimed, clamping a hand over her mouth. “A bloodstone!”

“See?” Tessa said. “Told you.”

Tessa had been sure that it was a bloodstone the second we found it, and it made sense, as they were supposed to be incredibly powerful. The knob on the E6 pocket had brought us to Daru in the first place, which seemed like an impressive feat of magic.

“Are you sure that’s what it is?” I asked.

The Tike nodded. “When Rellik defeated Tuloth the Giant, he took from him a stone just like this one.” She looked at me. “These stones gave Rellik great power. You should be careful with it.”

I nodded and tucked the stone back into the E6 pocket.

After promising to be careful with the stone, we told the Tike the rest of our plan, which was to experiment with the knobs and learn what they did. If they all held magic as powerful as the lightning, then I might not be in such bad shape after all.

To my surprise, the Tike approved of this.

“Good,” she said. “Yes. Good. I was afraid you would ask me to teach you how to fight. This is better. Still, every champion needs a weapon.” She held up a plain silver dagger. It was half the length of my forearm and came in a brown leather scabbard.

“This is called a dagger,” she said, speaking slowly, as if I were a particularly dense child. She drew it out and indicated the needle‐like tip. “This end goes in your enemy.” She indicated the handle. “This end you hold in your hand.” She sheathed it and handed it to me. “The dagger is a good weapon for you.

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