Chapter 6- The Sandpiper

  New Dallia crept up on them. Ethan expected to walk through the trees and suddenly see the city. It snuck up on him much more slowly. First it was open fields with cows or goats, then he started seeing large sections of farmland. As he came to a crossroads with buildings set at each corner, he thought they had arrived at New Dallia. James just laughed and kept walking. The buildings soon became more numerous and bigger in size. As they walked the road to the top of a small hill, he saw it. New Dallia.

  Walls of stone rose in front of him a mile away. He could seed the tops of buildings beyond the wall taller than any he’d ever see. He had been impressed at the three stories of the main school building when he had first seen it, but these were so much taller. And not to mention all the smaller buildings crowding up to the walls of the city as if trying to get in.

  “This is the biggest city in the world!” said Ethan in awe.

  James laughed aloud, “Better not say things like that out loud or everyone will know you’re just a simple country boy. New Dallia is large, but it is far from the largest. Wait until you see the capital city.”

  The capital city was named Esterria, which was also the name of the country. Because of the confusion that sometimes caused, everyone simply referred to it as the capital city.

  “Do you just want to look at it from here, or would you like to see it up close?”

  “Yeah, yes I do!” exclaimed Ethan as he set off almost at a run.

  They made their way through the gate with ease. There were no guards to be seen and the gates were wide open. They were more than open. The corners of the gates had dirt mounded up along the edges from where years of traffic had pushed up against it out of the road. It would take a team of oxen to pull the gate free of the dirt and get it to close.

  “They never close the gate,” Ethan noticed.

  “New Dallia has known peace for so long that the gates haven’t closed in years,” responded James. “But keep your eyes open and your hand on your pouch. Just because there is peace doesn’t mean that all is peaceful in New Dallia.”

  As if to prove his point, James led Ethan through the city to a section that was shabbier than the rest he had seen. The streets were dirtier, the people more plainly dressed, shutters were broken, and signs were hung crookedly. As Ethan eyed a few grubbier looking men, he guessed that the signs weren’t the only thing crooked in this section of town.

  “Why are we in this part of town? It doesn’t feel safe,” said Ethan.

  “I have a friend that works in a tavern close by,” replied James. “And you’re right, this isn’t the safest part of New Dallia.” James pulled Ethan to the side of the road.

  “Look, up the road and across the way. See that tavern?” Ethan saw it and nodded. “Good. You can’t read the sign from here, but it’s called the Sandpiper. The owner’s name is Brownie, at least that’s what everyone calls him. You already know I’m a Watcher. I remind you again, not to tell that to anyone.” James looked at him sternly.

  “I won’t,” promised Ethan.

  “Good. Anyway, Brownie is one of my contacts. To everyone in New Dallia, he’s just a rough but friendly tavern owner. To me he’s a friend and my way of staying informed in this part of Esterria. He also keeps horses. He has a stable in back of the Sandpiper. That’s where we’ll get our horses.

  "From here on we go alone,” said James.

  “Wait, what do you mean?” choked Ethan. He was suddenly aware of how strange the streets seemed to him. He had not quite noticed before because he had been walking along side of James and felt safe.

  “We go alone. Someone may be watching Brownie. If he’s being watched, then we shouldn’t be seen together. Don’t worry, I’ll be close. Just don’t act like you know me. Walk ahead of me from here. I’ll follow. Go inside and find a table out of the way. How much money do you have?”

  “Fourteen coppers,” answered Ethan. He didn’t have to look. It was more money than he had ever had in his life. He had carefully saved each one during his apprenticeship.

  “Good. The meal will cost you three. Don’t ask how much or they will tell you four coppers. The girls just love to get an extra copper out of someone as fresh as you. Just order your meal and when it comes hand over three coppers. And don’t talk to people. Be polite and smile, but don’t be friendly. Just sit back, eat and study the people. You can learn a lot just by being observant. When you see me leave the bar, get up and leave. Make your way around back and I’ll meet you in the stables. Got it?” asked James.

  “Polite but not friendly. Three coppers, don’t ask, just pay. Leave when you do and meet you in the stables. I got it,” Ethan answered nervously, although he tried to sound confident.

  “You’ll do fine,” said James. “And besides, you’ll learn more in the next fifteen minutes than in a month of classrooms."

  It was a strange feeling walking into the Sandpiper alone. Ethan was nervous but tried to hide it. The outside of the building was dirty and in disrepair. The inside wasn’t much better. It was at least clean on the inside, but the people looked rough. He quickly looked around the room and spotted an empty table off to the side. As he made his way to the table, he was grateful that no one talked to him. Truthfully, they completely ignored him.

  After he sat down a serving girl paused at his table. She didn’t say anything. She just gave him an impatient look as she waited to see what he wante

  “A meal please,” said Ethan, and the girl left the table without a word.

  Now that he was sitting at a table and had ordered his food, he felt more at ease. This was easy. He could do this. Ethan began to study the room. There was a group of men on the opposite side of the room playing some card game and drinking. There were a few people quietly eating meals as they sat alone like Ethan. There were a few patrons at the long, rough looking bar in the back of the room.

  As he was studying the room, a plate of food was dropped in front of him. He almost asked ‘how much’ before he remembered to give her three coppers. He fumbled open his small pouch and fished out three coins and handed them to the girl. She took them and walked off, still having said nothing to him. The service was not friendly, but the food smelled great. As he dug into his meal, Ethan continued studying the room.

  His eyes drifted back to a table of men he had glanced at before. There was something strange about them. As he was considering what it was, James walked in. He didn’t even glance in Ethan’s direction. He just made straight for the bar at the back of the room and began talking with the man behind the bar. Ethan assumed it was Brownie.

  Ethan looked back to the strange table of men and tried to figure out what was different about them. He wasn’t certain. They laughed and drank like the rest of the room, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was different about these men. They were dressed much the same. As Ethan watched them he noticed that they watched the room much as he did. They would occasionally survey the room and it seemed that their eyes kept straying back to where Brownie worked the bar.

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  Brownie worked his way up and down the bar serving drinks and removing empty glasses. After a circuit, he would stop at the end of the bar next to where James ate his meal. The two would talk and laugh and seemed perfectly ordinary for the tavern. In fact, the only thing out of the ordinary Ethan noticed was the amount of time Brownie spent at the end of the bar close to James. If he hadn’t known the two were secretly exchanging information, he probably wouldn’t have noticed anything unusual at all.

  But these men may have been watching for the unusual. They seemed too interested in what Brownie was doing. Brownie had to know they were there. If Ethan could tell something was strange about these men, then someone trained to observe like Brownie, should be able to spot them as well. Ethan looked back towards the bar and saw James and Brownie leaning in and exchanging words in quiet voices. Neither one of them seemed to know the men were watching them.

  Ethan looked back to the table of men and saw one of them stand up and start towards the end of the bar where James was sitting with his back to the room. Brownie and James had their heads down studying some paper on the bar and didn’t see him coming. As the man got within a few feet of James, Ethan saw him grab a dagger from his belt. The man pulled the dagger back to thrust it into James’s back, and James wasn’t even aware of the threat behind him!

  Without thinking, Ethan jumped to his feet and yelled at the top of his voice, “Stop!”

  The room froze. All laughter and conversation went quiet. Ethan waited for the dagger to push into the back of his friend, but the man with the dagger didn’t move. No one moved. One heartbeat. Two. Three. Everything was frozen in front of him like a picture.

  “James?” questioned Ethan.

  At his name, James quickly turned and saw the dagger inches away from him. He threw up a hand as if to block the strike, but the assassin remained still. Ethan heard the room begin to move and voices began to question, but the man continued to stand frozen before James. James slowly reached out his hand and took the dagger from the frozen man. As soon as James took the dagger, the man’s eyes went wide, and he took a half step back. Without warning James slammed his fist into the man’s jaw and the assassin crumpled to the floor, knocked out by the undefended punch.

  Ethan heard chairs knocked over and looked back towards the table of men just in time to see them running out the front door. As he looked back to James, he saw his friend wave him over.

  Ethan crossed the room, paying special attention to the unconscious man. As he stepped close, James spoke quietly to him.

  “There’s no use pretending we don’t know each other now. Stand here and watch the door while I work out a few details with Brownie.”

  Brownie turned back to James after speaking quickly with two men. The two men grabbed the one off the floor and took him into the back room. James and Brownie continued their hushed, hurried conversation while Ethan watched the room and the front door. The laughter was gone from the room. The conversations were quieter and strained. Ethan saw more than one person push their drink away and he heard some quiet cursing.

  James grabbed Ethan’s arm and pulled him towards the back door.

  “Come on. We need to get our horses,” said James. And more quietly he whispered, “And we need to talk about what just happened.”

  James and Ethan mounted their horses and as quickly as possible made their way out of the city. At the city outskirts they stopped briefly to replenish their supplies. The only words spoken on their exodus from the city was to the shopkeeper.

  They travelled quickly and silently along the road for a few miles before James led them off the road and into the trees. They continued the journey through the rough country at least another ten miles before they finally pulled their horses into a thicker stand of trees and made camp for the evening.

  “No fire tonight,” said James. “We don’t want to attract any unnecessary attention. Brownie’s men grabbed one of the strangers at the bar, but the other two are out there somewhere.”

  “Who were they?” asked Ethan.

  “I don’t know. Agents of Drumania from the north, maybe.”

  “But I thought we had peace with Drumania.”

  “No. We’ve been at war with Drumania for the past twenty years. Of course, there has been no open conflict for at least ten years. Mostly our armies just watch each other from across the border. Some think that means peace, but it’s not the same thing.

  “We’ve been worried about this,” continued James worriedly. “King Eldmond has not forgotten Esterria. We thought he may be plotting something. I think the first thing he’s trying to do is blind the eyes of King Reichert.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The Watchers,” replied James. “If Eldmond can eliminate the Watchers, King Reichert will struggle to know what’s happening in Esterria and especially along the border with Drumania. Over the past few months one Watcher has been killed and two others are missing. We think Eldmond has sent agents into Esterria to identify and eliminate the Watchers.”

  “Those men were spies?” questioned Ethan.

  “Assassins most likely. They almost got another Watcher today except for what happened in the Sandpiper.”

  “I don’t understand what happened. He almost had you and then, everything stopped. It was weird. Did you do that James?”

  “You’re right, everything stopped. Or more correctly everyone stopped. They were all frozen, unable to move. Including me. No, I didn’t do it,” James paused and looked directly at Ethan. “You did.”

  “Me? I didn’t do anything! I have no idea what happened,” said Ethan worriedly.

  “You used your gift.”

  “How does the gift of arms do that?”

  “Not the gift of arms. Your other gift,” said James flatly.

  Ethan didn’t know how to respond. He just stood there trying to comprehend what James was trying to tell him. James gave Ethan time to think and began unsaddling and rubbing down the horses. Once Ethan’s brain had a chance to catch up to what he just heard he responded.

  “I have another gift?” Ethan asked quietly.

  “It certainly looks like it. Not many people are Gifted. Maybe ten percent of the population. And of those about ten percent discover they have two gifts. That means only one percent of the people have two gifts.”

  “You have two,” Ethan said as he remembered what James had told him earlier in their journey.

  “Yes. The gift of arms and the gift of knowing. I’m part of the one percent”

  “What is my second gift?” Ethan could still hardly comprehend the fact that he had two gifts. He hadn’t even learned how to use his first one yet!

  “You know the gifts,” James replied in his teacher’s voice. “What gift do you think it was?”

  “I still don’t really know what happened. How could I have used a gift?”

  “You remember what happened. Recount the incident for me and you’ll find the answer.”

  “I was watching those strange men at the table. I was wondering how Brownie didn’t see them. Hey wait, why didn’t he notice them? I could tell there was something wrong with them and I’ve never been trained to watch people.”

  “I don’t know,” said James. “All I know is that he didn’t notice them and neither did I. It seems you were the only one sharp enough to spot something strange. And it’s a good thing you did. Now, please continue.”

  “Well, I was watching them, and I saw one of them coming up behind you. Right before he got to you he pulled out a dagger. And then everything just froze.”

  “You left out one detail. You shouted ‘stop.’”

  “That’s right I did!” remembered Ethan. “Are you saying that was when I used a gift?”

  “I think so. I can’t explain what happened any other way. Now, back to the original question. What gift was it?”

  “Words? Are you saying I have the gift of words?”

  “Not that one. The gift of words can persuade people to do something, but they still must think and agree with what you are saying. There was no thinking at the Sandpiper. Everyone just did what you said. You commanded them. It’s not the gift of words. I think it is the gift of calling. You called everyone into obedience to your wish.”

  “You mean I froze everyone?”

  “You said ‘stop’ and everyone stopped,” replied James.

  “But I saw you move,” countered Ethan.

  “I did, but only after you spoke my name. It was like you were giving me permission to move. I tried to turn before but it was like my body was no longer under my control. When you said my name, I could move.”

  “But I didn’t say anyone else’s name and they all started moving,” Ethan responded, but he was clearly confused.

  “Honestly, I’m not exactly sure how the gift of calling works. Maybe you somehow mentally gave them permission to move. Maybe you were learning your gift without even knowing it. After all, the one person you really wanted to stop was still frozen. He didn’t move until I disarmed him. It’s like you didn’t give him permission to move until he couldn’t harm me.”

  Ethan was amazed. He had the gift of calling. He still couldn’t believe it!

  “You said the gift of calling is one of the two rarest gifts,” said Ethan excitedly. “Only a few people have the gift of calling or the gift of holding?”

  “That’s right. I think there are less than ten people in the whole kingdom with the gift of calling and they all work for the king or for the schools. I can’t think of anyone with the gift of holding.”

  I can’t believe it,” stammered Ethan. “I have the gift of calling!”

  “Maybe,” said James. After convincing Ethan he had a rare gift, it seemed like James was backing off of that declaration. Ethan just stared at James confusedly until he continued.

  “I said I think it is the gift of calling,” explained James, “but I’m no expert. It could be the gift of holding.”