Chapter 5

Ledger was happy to be back on the road once again. He was five Royal Plats richer and had a good supply of food and water to last him several days. He knew the difference between common plats and royal plats now. A normal plat was ten gold coins. A royal was fifty gold coins. He would be well off if he could break even one of them down later without being mugged.

The rods had worked near perfect for what he wanted to accomplish. The only unanticipated issue they ran across was the cold cracking the wooden wall mounts. He had to think of a way to make them resist cold but not interfere with the spreading of the cold air itself. Once he thought he had that solution worked out, the room quickly became too cold to stay in for very long. As with all new things, it required a little tuning to make it work the way they wanted. The room was getting far too cold for safety, so he backed off the chill until it settled at and even temperature. Water and meat would freeze in an hour, but not cause your skin to freeze in a few seconds.

His night at the home of Matilda had proven to be very for him educational. She had a spare room with a cot in it. She offered it to Ledger and he was happy to accept. The food was a simple affair, a stew, and some dried fruits and vegetables. He spent eh evening learning more about the region and how life went in this part of the kingdom. His surprise came late that night when her daughter had slipped in after everyone had gone to sleep and she gave him lessons that he would never forget. He did find her attractive in a simple way. She was only a little taller than he was, not slim but not overbuilt either. Her long black hair was thick, cut to bangs in the front and waved pleasantly in the back as she moved. Her breast were on the small side but proved to be firm to his hand. He hadn’t gotten a look at them in the dark, but he could feel she had very large nipples capping them. Her hips were a bit wide, and her butt a pair of globes sticking out behind her as she moved. She had whispered that she was built for babies. That almost caused him to get out of the bed and start running, but from the way she moved on him, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had just hoped he wasn’t leaving her with another gift. Then again, if he had, he thought later, maybe his talent would carry over to the next generation.

Back on the road now, he walked along slowly and carefully at first. He was seriously overloaded and it was straining his back and legs. He knew that over time, his strength would improve, but for now, he took it slow and careful. On his third day out from the last stop, he came across a group of a dozen men camped along the road in a small clearing. They asked if there were any villages were ahead.

“The last one I passed through was three days ago. They have supplies, but they require some coin. I saw the body of a brigand that had tried to rob the general goods store. His head is on a pike in front of the store and the body is in a crow’s cage along the road leading this way as a warning to any would-be thieves,” said Ledger without stopping.

“Did you stop?” asked one of the men.

“I used my last coppers to get a bit of road jerky,” said Ledger. He didn’t want to give these men any reason to stop him. “I have a long trip ahead of me, so I can’t waste time stopping.” Ledger did his best to speed up his pace. He managed it for a time and was relieved that the men didn’t try to follow him. He had pulled the enchanted gloves out and put them on as he moved away from the group. He refreshed the strike on them and prayed that they wouldn’t try anything.

He heard grumbling as he moved away but little else. Ledger held to the faster pace as long as his legs would go. He managed for fifteen minutes then had to slow down again. Horace had told him to not stop, just keep going or his legs and back could cramp up and he would be stuck for the rest of the day. Fortunately, the sun was bright and warm, it’s yellow-orange light bright in the sky, so when he came to another river crossing and saw that the fording would be shallow and easy. His feet got wet in the ice-cold water but little else did.

It was an hour before sundown that Ledger finally had had enough. His legs were shaking from the strain and his back felt like it was going to break from the load on it. He moved off the road until it was well out of sight and searched for a small place he could set up camp. He found a small clearing where a tree that had been struck by lightning and fallen some time ago. He selected a fairly clear spot and released the straps on the packs. They fell to the ground with a solid thump, the metal pans rattling in the fading light.

As for himself, once the packs came off, he was down and curled in a ball trying to straighten his cramping back muscles. It had been like this every night when he stopped. It took until nearly full dark before he was able to crawl to the packs and begin pulling out the sleeping roll. There didn’t seem to be any chance of rain in the sky, so he skipped the tent. He made sure everything was secure and was asleep in seconds.

Waking up the next morning was another adventure in muscle cramps and pain. He lay curled up in a ball and tried to straighten his back for several minutes. When he finally got it to release and straighten, he was able to stand only if he leaned on a pole for support.

“Ledger,” he said to himself. “We are well and truly screwed if this is what is going to happen every morning.” He carefully rolled his bedding and got it back on the pack. Before he loaded up, he took care of the morning needs he had neglected the night before, then he dragged the pack over to a large log that he could lean up against for support. That tree must have been a giant for the scorched stump to be as wide around as he was tall. He set the cross poles, loaded the small bags on both, making sure they balanced. Then he checked his water supply. He had four skins of half-gallon each left. He drank a bit them tied one onto his belt.

He loosened the straps, squatted down as Horace had taught him. He slid his arms into the straps and pulled them partway tight, leaned forward to get the weight on his legs. Leaning into the tree, he began the painful task of climbing the stump until he was upright. Once up, he turned, pushing the bag to the log. Holding it up, he flexed his knees a few inches and pulled the straps tight. This done, he leaned forward and took a step away and fought to keep his balance. Ledger managed by sheer force of will to stay upright. He reached to the left side into a low pocket and pulled out several tough sticks of dried and jerked beef.

He started walking slowly, feeling every inch of the previous day’s march as he did so. He chewed on the meat as he walked, slowly at first, then gradually increasing his pace when he made it back to the road. That proved to be all he was able to do for the moment. Focus on staying upright and moving one foot in front of the other. He drank at what he felt was reasonable intervals, ate the tough meat and walked. When the sun was at the zenith, he paused. His bladder was sending nasty messages that it wanted relief very soon, and his back end was in the same category, but closer to letting go.

He turned left off the road into the thick brush. He found a spot with a tree that would work on getting the packs back on. He dropped the packs in the place they need to be when he was ready to get going and dug a small hole for his waste. He finished then stood back up straight. He stretched the muscles and worked out the kinks the heavy bag was causing in his spine, which popped loudly in protest. He stopped long enough this time to make a small meal. He needed the energy if he was going to survive the coming weeks of travel.

While he sat and ate, he played around with a flat stone about a foot long and six inches wide. It was a thin bit of shale so it did not weigh much. He made it lighter, he tried to force it to be so light it would float if he let it go. The first few attempts just had the slab slowly sink to the ground. On the fifth try, the slab started too very slowly rise instead of sink. He pushed on it and it pushed back down with little resistance. Ledger pushed the effect further until it was lifting him off the ground. He backed the lifting off until it remained where he stopped it. Now the challenge he had failed at before on the bridge. He moved it around the camp. He could still feel the mass of the stone a little. “This might work,” he said thoughtfully.

He secured the stone under the main pack with a few loose straps of leather, then pushed it to lighten up more. He did not want the pack to float, just lifted enough to take off some of the weight off his back. He readied his gear then slid into the straps. He followed the steps to getting on his feet carefully. The pack lifted much more easily this time. It was still heavy, but not to the point he felt like it was going to break his back if he slipped even a little. He did remember this time, the weight was reduced, not the actual mass.

He took a few steps and discovered that the way he did it this time proved much easier. The bag moved with little resistance and could stop without trouble. In a few more minute’s he was back to the road and on his way. He kept a small part of his thoughts on the stone, just to see that it wasn’t going to fail without warning.

Ledger made far better progress for the rest of the day than he had thought possible at the start. This time when he made camp, he set up his tent, had a small cooking fire going and a small pan with a simple stew cooking away. After he ate, he sat and looked at what he had achieved with this enchantment. It allowed him to cover greater distances easily. The one thing he also considered, if he made it to light, he would never build up his strength. He decided to leave close to half the natural weight in place in the morning once he started.

Ledger made it to the next village in two more days. Here he was able to use some of the earned coins to buy more road rations. Another thing he looked at was a cobbler’s shop. He needed new boots. His old pair had begun to wear down and had started causing him problems with his feet and ankles.

“How long would it take to fit two sets of light boots for road traveling?” he asked the old man. He looked around the shop and could tell it had been open for quite some time. Shoes, boots, sandals, and other assorted foot-ware he couldn’t identify hung from the walls. The smell of leather and glue was thick in the air of the old building. He could also smell a faint hint of tanning solution coming from another room in the building. Behind the counter, many tools hung or sat. All looked used and well cared for. The cobbler was an old man, hunched over from years of working his trade. Grey hair long and thin, a beard that had long gone to grey and scraggly and in need of trimming. His voice was raspy and low like he had breathed to much smoke most of his life. His hands looked like worn parchment, the veins standing out on the thinning skin.

The man studied Ledger for a moment, depends on the coin boy, if you have enough, I can have two made by morning. It will take longer if you can’t pay in coin.” The old man didn’t seem too worried, he wanted a day laborer for a week or so to help fix things about his home and shop.

“How much coin is needed good sir,” asked Ledger.

“What you asked for will cost you ten gold coins each. Even then fitting will take a day to get right,” he replied.

Ledger didn’t even blink. He set his main bag down, opened the top and dug deep inside for a pouch. Once he had the pouch out, he counted out ten gold coins, all the royal type. Ledger had forgotten that royal and common had a hard ratio to the next coin down.

The old man looked at them and frowned, “I said ten gold coins, not royals.” He pushed all but three back towards Ledger. “You need to learn to look at the coin before you hand it over. Most shop keepers would have taken these and not warned you of the overpayment.”

Ledger looked at the coins, he re-opened the pouch and poured several more into his hand and looked at them in wonder. “That butcher was serious about what he wanted to pay me what he thought the best value for the deep freezer room,” he muttered.

The cobbler looked at Ledger curiously, “You built a deep freezer for the man that gave you those? How do you keep it cold?” he asked.

Without thinking, Ledger touched a small wooden mallet that was on the desk and started it glowing, then released it back to normal. The old man stared in shock. “You can enchant? Why not simply take leather and shape it as you like, boy?” He snorted, “knew a man once that could form the leather with but a thought and it wouldn’t need glue or sewing. Long dead by now, I should guess. I was but a boy then.”

Ledger looked at the man and wondered if that was possible, “I don’t know how to do any of that. I am going to Fairhams Cove to meet with some folks that might be able to teach me that sort of thing.” Ledger was worried. He knew he had power now. What he didn’t know was exactly how much and what he would be able to do once he learned to really use it.

“Son lets get you fitted out so we can get you on your way to these trainers. You have a rare talent that the world needs and shouldn’t be wasted. The sooner you learn, the better off the world will be for it.” The old man was now gathering the tools he would need. He came around the counter, “Have a seat there boy,” pointing to a high double-ended stool. “I have to measure your feet first.” He had Ledger sit in the tall chair that had tilted footrest in front of it. He took his boots off, then the padding socks that protected his feet from chafing in the boots.

The cobbler called to the back of the shop and a young man in his early twenties came out after a moment. He was quickly making notes as the old man called out numbers to him. “We will need to make three sets for the traveler here. One for lightweight wear, for day to day usage, and two pairs for long walking on the road.” He looked at Ledger’s feet carefully, “Boy, you need to wash and dry them more carefully. Footrot will kill you if you don’t start taking better care of your feet. If you have some talcum to keep them dry at night, that would help. Do have any oil grease?” he asked.