“Wow, you really are an antisocial little bugger aren’t you?” Tia replied.

  “I don’t think bugger is the term you should use…that means something different,” Tic said causing Tia to laugh. “I like people Tia, I really do, it’s individuals I have a problem with.”

  “Alright, Tic, you be you, and I will be whoever it is I turn out to be. The only constant in my life now is the fact that you’re my baby brother and I will love you until the end of time even though you do creep me out a little.”

  “I creep you out?” Tic said perplexed.

  “Tic, I felt you inside of me knitting my bones together. Every time I get near you my hip warms as if it knows you or something. Our blood is one since birth but from the events in our journey, we have become more and it kind of creeps me out.”

  “Oh, that’s not your hip…that’s me putting more energy into the healing.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, you’re not fully healed and every bit I can put into you throughout the day will strengthen you.”

  “Seriously?” Tia was aghast.

  “Seriously, it should go away when you’re complete. Until then, a part of me will always be with you. That’s not my decision, it is simply how it works.”

  “You will stop now, Tic.”

  “Well, I can’t really, it’s not up to me. It’s kind of a what’s done is done kind of thing.”

  “Stop, Tic. You worry about you okay. If you ever wonder why you creep me out, remember this conversation, okay?”

  “Okay,” Tic said feeling saddened by the revelation but knowing he could do nothing about it.” He watched Tia walk back to the cabin with a feeling of regret mixed up with a dose of helplessness.

  20

  Sluice Gates

  They held out from the sluice gates for four days until the last of the lumber was pushed through to make their way into Riverhouse and follow the currents to the Headwaters then all the way to Smithtown. The siblings had been impressed by the huge pines, oak, and leather leaf they took down on the island, but they were saplings compared to the giant frost pines that they would harvest in the dead of winter to be cured while the sap was frozen. Tic almost fell over backwards trying to see the top of a giant tree not twenty feet away from him with a trunk more than twelve feet across. He could see some specimens that looked as if the tree had exploded half way up the trunk sending the lofty branches to the forest floor.

  “What happened to the broken trees?” he asked Thorvald.

  “Those are the ones that never made it to maturity. If there is a flaw in the wood or the sap isn’t drained properly or maybe their internal heater is broke they will freeze so hard that the sap explodes. We let it sit for a year or two like that before we take them and use the sap for the cured product you use on our boots and the wood is made into ornamental things or ground up for composites which brings me to our business at hand.”

  “Oh, what business is tha,.” Tic asked curiously.

  “Well, I owe ya for the boots, the medical help of setting my leg, as well as food and passage,” Thorvald stated as if he had been keeping tally.

  “You only owe us for the boots, Thorvald, I won’t have it any other way,” Tia said from over Gi-noo’s back whom she had taken to brushing to kill time as they waited for their turn through the gate. Pomen’s mount was well-ridden and she was extra careful where the saddle had worn the hair thin.

  “You are not a very good business person, Tia, but I appreciate your sentiment. Do you want coin or trade?” Thorvald said and a sly smile came across his face.

  “We prefer coin,” Tic replied.

  “I think in this instance that you very much desire trade…trust me on that,” Thorvald said continuing to appear as if he had some great secret.

  “What do ya got?” Tia inquired.

  “Considering everything, I would like to offer you fifty pounds of cured sap for your boot making.” Tic’s eyes lit up, but it was Tia who had been listening when he said they were no good at business.

  “Seventy-five and it’s a deal,” Tia said and Thorvald laughed.

  “Seventy-five it is. I have a variety of colors from which to choose from, I will have my son bring a selection for you, I won’t be traveling for a while once I get home due to my condition.”

  “I would offer to give ya a lift, but old Gi-noo here wouldn’t forgive me for allowing your tremendous bulk to crawl on top of him,” Pomen said humorously.

  “I would crush him as if he were a new born kid. There aren’t many beasts that can transport our girth without a wagon. I have family up around the third bend that will cart my fat ass to where it needs to be.”

  Finally, it was their turn to make their way into the Lokai River, which was a sixty mile stream from the Swirl that led to the looming architectural marvel of Riverhouse. Tic began to feel its magnificence before he was thirty miles out. The energies began to show themselves to him much like when he carried the stone he had pilfered from the hall of records back in Lemure, except much more powerfully. The energy was clear or unobstructed somehow. He clutched Tia’s arm causing her to look at him quizzically.

  “Tia, it’s here. The power or energy is here and stronger than ever, it almost overwhelms me,” Tic said knowing that he couldn’t describe what he was feeling to her. The tunnel itself seemed to be reaching out for him beckoning him forwards to whatever it was. It was like the entire structure was alive and waiting for him.

  The Lokai River was confining compared to the open seas that they had become used to, but it was more than wide enough for two ships to run abreast. The sluice gates were used to control the water flow into the river as it has been dredged so deep that there is an underwater pressure increasing the downstream speed of the current unless it is regulated. Every half mile they came upon giant posts set strategically across from each other.

  “Ah, I see ya looking at the anchor posts, you have a good eye, lad. There are giant panels on the river floor that are lifted into place in times of flood or when the current gets carried away with itself,” Pomen remarked.

  “Or war I would guess,” Tic replied.

  “Aye, at least initially, but they have yet to be used for that. There hasn’t been a full-scale war in a long time, and the country north of Riverhouse is Bjorvic, home of the frost piners. Not much to worry about on that front with those giant clods hanging about,” Pomen said and again Thorvald laughed causing Tic to finally realize that the huge humanoid simply didn’t care what anybody said about him. How they thought of him or spoke to him meant nothing because he was secure in who he was. Years of being alone and facing the elements every day close to the same level as any animal of the forest, he had developed a confidence to be who he was and the self-worth not to care what others thought. Pomen on the other hand, he loved the giant piner like a brother, Tic could see it and felt it was his duty to keep him humble through insults.

  As the man had said, the third bend came into view and there stood four large men around a wagon as well a woman whose straight dark gray-blue hair hung low down her back, giving her an air of superiority. She was magnificent and wore a pose of elite dignity with the exception of her slight smirk and the mirth within her eyes.

  “That’s my wife, Ilizza, she’s as beautiful as the day we met. I still can’t believe she stuck with me this long, and that after four sons. The shorter one of the men is my youngest son, Thane, the others are his cousins who are over anxious about the opportunity to see me desperate and in need of help.” He thought for a minute and turned to Tic. “If one of them gets out of line, you be sure to wallop em one, alright,” he said and Tic shook his head.

  “I’m not hitting any of them, in fact I think I’ll go below,” Tic replied, knowing that any one of those four men could easily shot-put him out into the middle of the river. Again, Thorvald laughed.

  “You’re a smart man, Tic, most humans don’t know how puny they are until we crush a few,” he said with a wink.

  “Yeah, well at least I got two good legs,” Tic replied sarcastically in reference to Thorvald’s injury, simply to see if he could get away with it. He did and Thorvald laughed before he hopped up on to his good leg and started to test the injured one on the deck. He had been immobile for at least seven days, but it was a lot of bone to mend so it was doubtful that it could support his vast weight. Much to the cobbler’s dismay, he stood on it and hardly even winced. He took some slow steps and Tic could tell that he was injured and wouldn’t stay up on it for long, but it also wouldn’t be long before he was back to work.

  “Hey, look over here, ya big oaf,” Pomen said, causing Thorvald to glance his way. He sent a long pole of over seven feet into the air for him to catch. He looked at it admiring the simple walnut staff that had been whittled from a slightly curved branch.

  “I cleaned up a stick for ya while yer snoring was keeping me awake. I will swing by and check up on ya on my way out.”

  “Thanks, Pomen, that was real nice,” Thorvald said as he leaned his weight on the staff to ease his leg, which was starting to throb. He’d be damned if he let those punks carry him off like a sack of potatoes.

  “I won’t be changing my mind though friend, I am too old and I know that there is no glory in battle. Only blood and death.”

  “Be true to your word and inform those who you can and you will have done your part.”

  “I will, take care and give Gi-noo some love when he doesn’t have a pretty girl around to do it for ya.”

  They all said their goodbye, leaving the ship quietly as each one reflected upon the frost piner. He himself was a force of nature in the physical sense yet he had a personality that was warm and fun loving that spoke of days of quiet solitude as well as love of family and friends.

  “To know him is to love him,” Tia said.

  “Excuse me dear?” Pomen asked, having been pulled from his own personal revere.

  “There are just some people in this world that as soon as you meet them, you love them. Thorvald is that kind of person.”

  “Aye, lassie, that he is.”

  After two days without the need of sails they came into a large lagoon where the pines were collected and bundled into huge bundles of twenty to thirty logs. they then set them adrift with the current the larger bundles toward a cliff face where the barest hint of an opening or what could be considered a fissure could be seen upon the rocks face.

  “Trail that last bundle they sent out, that should keep us far enough away until we get to customs,” Pomen instructed to which Tia shrugged and steered the skiff that way. “I will depart once you are through customs, but I will stop by and pick up my repaired boots on the way out if that is acceptable.”

  “Should be fine,” Tic replied. “I have the new soles in the clamps now and the leather is inundated with lokai oil which I will buff out once I get the soles trimmed up. I am a little concerned about how thin the soles you requested are. We can’t give too much of a warranty when you deviate that much from design specs.”

  “Relax, young man, I don’t walk all that much and when I do, I need to be nimble and feel the rocks beneath my feet. Also, I don’t weigh nearly as much as most of the other races. It is still the same amount of material, a half-pound of sap is a half-pound of sap, you just pounded it more I assume.”

  Tic paused for a bit before answering. “I used a half a pound but not all of it went into the soles. I did some gilding on the insides of the toe and heel where you showed a lot of wear, also you have a crooked step so I added a little more weight to the outside of your left foot, hopefully we can straighten you out.”

  “Bah, there ain’t nothing wrong with the way I walk, yer uncle’s been making my boots for years and I still walk the same as I always have.”

  “Really, Pomen?” Tia said in a tone of incredulity. “Do you think that if Uncle Rowen was on our level, he would have brought us here? I mean he’s good and he does know more about foreign and exotic styles, but when it comes to craftsmanship… you come to us just like he does.”

  “Yeah, especially her,” Tic added, then continued when she looked as if she was going to protest. “Let’s face it, you’ve turned boot making into an art. Your stitching is perfect on a machine or by hand.”

  “We’re probably going to be doing it by hand soon if we can’t upgrade from that portable model we keep on ship.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Tic said reassuringly as Pomen scoffed.

  “What’s your problem?” Tia said irritated by his blatant rudeness.

  “Somebody close to you would be laughing his ass off if he was to see you two right now.”

  “What are you talking about, gnome?” she snapped and Pomen laughed harder.

  “No, it is not my punchline. You two are so oblivious you aren’t even aware of who you are.”

  “Who are we, Pomen? If you are so smart, go ahead and tell me who we are.” Tia was standing with her hands on her hips and facing down the ranger.

  “That, I will tell you…in a little bit. First, turn around and look and you will know that this is not a sight that everybody gets to see. I will take the helm so you may gawk at the result of the greatest collaborative effort of the five races ever to have occurred, I give you…Riverhouse.”

  Tic and Tia turned toward the bow and gasped. It was more of a fissure than an opening that reached over a mile into the sky with both sides coming straight down into the river a hundred meters apart. The current pulled them slowly forward but the wind buffeted their faces from inside the fissure with such force as to push a sail against the current with considerable speed. The left side of the fissure was clean, raw cliff face. The right side was covered with figures carved right into the face of the stone. Giant figures chiseled in exquisite detail depicting a sprint in an exaggerated size, three-dimensional sculpture standing over ten feet tall as opposed to the diminutive little runners they were at right around a foot or two tall.

  It was backed by a gnome who looked much like Pomen and he also was astride a mountain goat. Looming over him at over thirty feet tall stood a dwarf, wide and thick with an intelligent face, taller and straighter behind it was what could only be an elf with his delicate features and large almond eyes and pointed ears. Behind him was man, tall and imposing with a powerful chest. Each held their weapons in their left hand at ready. A sprint with a blow gun, the dwarf his axe, and an elf with a rapier. The human displayed a shielded arm holding a broad sword, while the gnome, of all things, simply held only his pipe. Their weapon arms indicated the carnage of mythical beasts sculpted upon the ground at their feet as their right arms indicated the welcome of the entrance to Riverhouse.

  “A pipe? Pomen, tell me you don’t take your pipe into battle,” Tia mocked.

  “Again, you underestimate, my dear. A pipe to a goat rider is a very personal thing. We spend weeks making one when we come of age and every time we use it, we are using the energy of our mind locked within deep concentration. I won’t tell you what the secret is, but some day you will see, I am sure of it.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that thing is magic?”

  “No, heavens no, not everything of power is magic, dear. I have told you enough, now is the time to watch and learn.”

  Tic had stopped listening to their banter, more intrigued with the sculptures and how each was lit in a particular manner creating the most dramatic effect of shadows. The detail carried over into the field of trampled corpses that they stood over, signifying the blood and flesh that was shed here to bring peace and freedom to the world. Huge broken winged aerials and giants with caved in skulls. Beast that must be trolls and evil bug like beings, as well as some he couldn’t make out or identify. It was incredible and he was awestruck by the magnificence also humbled by the quality of workmanship. He scanned it from all angles until they passed from view where the cliff wall suddenly turned into evenly spaced, huge granite tiles constructing the walls that displayed recessed sconce type oil lamps. Thousands of oil lamps running down the wall in a perfectly straight line, a dwarf with a clip board ran along a boardwalk writing down whatever information he could get from the hull. After a couple of seconds, he flipped back a couple pages and then looked up at the skiff.

  “Are you the cobbler kids then?” the dwarf shouted, shocking the siblings to silence.

  “Yes!” Pomen shouted.

  “Good, you’re late and we were beginning to worry!” the man shouted back.

  “We sent a sprint, they should have known we would be with the piners,” Tic said to Pomen.

  “Bah, bloody dwarfs are always worryin’ about something. We’ll take a hard left around this abutment and pull into the wharf so you can do your business with the dwarfs. I will be taking my leave for a bit, but will see you very soon.”

  “Hey, you were going to tell us what we are,” Tia said.

  “Watch how the dwarfs and everyone treats you and you will see what you are. If not, then I will see you in a week or two,” Pomen said as his goat jumped the last twenty feet to the dock. “Be sure to send the bill of my passage to Riverhouse,” he said, then smiled and trotted off.

  21

  Set up

  “Master Rowe, I presume? And you must be Lady Tia.” An extremely well-dressed dwarf met them at the dock after their skiff was moored. His speech was from an indecipherable location and toned in a calm middle range that conveyed comfort and welcome as well as security, strangely enough considering his build and attire.

  Being a dwarf, he was short in stature and had a thicker torso and limbs. It was hard for the pleasant mannered siblings to say it, even to themselves because it was rude but the man was quite portly to say the least. They both nodded in turn and smiled.