Chapter 8

It took Frost and Thomas several hours to navigate the cave system. When they finally made it to the surface, Thomas took time to reflect. His magic had saved them both. He looked at Frost in the light of day as she took off to range in front of him. The blood on her side where she’d landed on the rocks stood out sharply against her white coat.

For him, landing headfirst from that height should have at the very least brained him. To be walking around was a miracle for both of them. Once they made it back to the outpost, Thomas planned to talk to Roger about what magical abilities rangers had in the past. Something told him that he had only found a couple of his abilities: healing and sensing his surroundings.

His thoughts were interrupted when Frost suddenly returned to him and stood behind Thomas.

“I’m such a fopdoodle.”

Thomas really was a ninnyhammer. He’d forgotten about the direwolves that had started this whole episode.

Off in the distance, he saw the pack. The big male that was obviously the alpha trotted forward. When he was twenty feet away, Thomas drew his broadsword. The wolf stopped after getting a little closer but remained out of reach of his sword.

“We’re not going to have a problem, are we?” Thomas asked.

He felt dumb talking to the big alpha, but Frost seemed to understand what he was saying when he spoke to her.

The wolf looked past him at Frost.

“This is Frost. Her mother tried to kill me, and I had to put her down. I found Frost when she was just a pup. She’s been with me ever since.”

The wolf looked at Thomas and then back at Frost.

“I think he’s asking if you want to join his pack,” Thomas said.

Frost’s ears were laid back and her tail tucked under.

“She’s afraid of you,” Thomas told the alpha.

The alpha snorted like he thought that was funny. Frost’s ears came up, and her tail relaxed as she looked up at Thomas.

“If you want to go with them, do. If you don’t like it, come find me,” Thomas said.

Frost tentatively approached the alpha, and they checked each other out. He wheeled around, and she followed. Right before they were out of sight, she looked back. Thomas found he had tears in his eyes. While this had always been his plan, seeing her leave broke his heart. Then she was gone.

“Have a good life,” he whispered and then began his walk to the outpost.

When he got close, Thomas spotted Jason leaning against the wall with his head hanging down.

“You trying to hold the building up?” Thomas asked.

Jason used his arm to wipe his eyes and saw Thomas. His face broke into a huge smile.

“You’re alive,” he whispered and then shouted, “He’s alive!”

“What happened to your hair?”

“Where’s Frost?” Griffin and Randel asked simultaneously as they rushed out to greet him. Roger followed.

“Are you all right?” asked Roger.

“I’m fine. Frost joined the direwolf pack, and what do you mean, ‘what happened to my hair?’” Thomas answered.

“You have a white patch,” Jason said, pointing at the spot where he’d cracked his head.

“You must be starved. We were about to sit down and eat. Why don’t you come in and tell us everything over dinner?” Roger suggested.

Thomas shared his story as they ate. After they were done, he showed them what he’d found. They were most intrigued by the bow. Their bows were long and straight, and this one was curved.

“You say it’s a horse bow? How do you know?” Griffin asked.

Thomas’s lips pinched as he thought about how best to explain it.

“I think it is because of this,” Thomas said as he pulled the crystal out of his shirt. “It was what drew the dead men to the cave. The crystal is magical and was looking for someone to bind with, to control.”

“Control?” Roger asked in concern.

“I was strong enough to hold it off. When it realized it couldn’t dominate me, we made a bargain.”

“What kind of bargain?” Roger asked.

“It wanted free of the cave and to bind with someone.”

“What did you get in return?” Roger asked.

Thomas looked down at his hands and back up at his mentor. He could see Roger was really bothered by all this. His fellow rangers looked uneasy as well. Growing up, there were cautionary tales about evil magic users who bent people to their will. Especially young girls, who were warned that some men could be tricksters and steal their virtue.

When Thomas was about thirteen and starting to think of girls as more than just playmates, he decided he liked the baker’s daughter. She seemed to like him, too, which her older sister noticed. One day, the girl he liked accused him of being a trickster. She admitted her older sister had told her so, and her sister didn’t want him to come anywhere near her.

When Thomas got home, Nana Millicent noticed that he was upset. He remembered what she told him.

“The story of the trickster is an old tale that I’m sure has a grain of truth to it. I have no doubt that there was a time when there were men who used magic to get girls to like them. Now, it’s just used as an excuse. How else could we explain why the inn owner’s wife married him?”

Thomas chuckled. The innkeeper’s wife was a remarkable beauty and could have had any man. But she fell in love with a man thirty years older than her. The innkeeper was single for a reason: he had been disfigured when he fell into a fire, and had horrible scars on his arms, chest, and face. Somehow, she saw past that, and they married.

“I think she honestly loves him,” Thomas said.

“That she does, but her other suitors needed an excuse to explain why she picked him over them. It is easier to blame it on magic. In your case, the baker’s older daughter is worried that her sister will fall for you. She knows that as a duke’s son, you may one day be required to marry someone else for political purposes. She is just protecting her sister,” Nana Millicent said.

Thomas knew that Roger and the others were all aware of his wood sense, but they didn’t really understand it. Some of the old stories might help explain it to them. But since most of the tales were designed to teach children how to be safe, they usually didn’t put magic users in a good light.

“I’m not sure what I ‘get’ out of the deal. It did help guide me in selecting the items left by the dead men that would do me the most good. In my mind, I had the impression of using a bow like this on horseback. From there, I thought about how much more we could do if we were mobile on a battlefield,” Thomas explained.

Jason snorted.

“I can just see it. We’ll all kill ourselves falling off our horses. I mean, seriously. What do you think Fury will do if you let go of the reins and let him decide where you’re going?” Griffin asked.

The boys all laughed because Thomas swore the warhorse wanted to kill him at times. Most recently, he’d veered under an oak tree, and one of the low branches had almost taken Thomas out of the saddle. At the time, he felt the joy Fury had at his prank.

“We might have to work that out,” Thomas admitted. “But I know that once we do, it’ll be worth it.”

“Anything else?” Roger asked.

“The crystal helps me. I get the feeling that I only know a small fraction of what can be done with wood sense. Regrettably, it isn’t giving me any clues. What do you know about wood sense abilities?” Thomas asked Roger.

Roger thought for a moment before answering.

“I don’t remember anyone creating a list per se. There are, of course, legends of the old magic. Your namesake, Thomas Mycroft, was the last great ranger. He was supposed to have a remarkable awareness of his surroundings. William Scott was said to have unrivaled tracking abilities. He could track something where no others could find anything.

“Let me think. There was Enola Hudson, one of the few female rangers. She could communicate with animals. Oliver Jackson was able to become invisible,” Roger said.

“I don’t believe that one,” Thomas said.

“I’m not sure I do, either, but he was reported to have walked into a rival’s hall and learned of their treachery,” Roger shared.

Thomas would bet that Oliver had just blended into the background, much like Cullen, the spymaster.

“Anything else?” Thomas asked.

“I would say that the wood sense has something to do with your healing yourself and hunting abilities,” Roger said.

“I was also able to heal Frost. She was injured when we fell into the cave,” Thomas said and then got thoughtful. “I can feel the magic when I heal. There is a connection with the earth. It’s similar to but at the same time different from when I become aware of my surroundings. It’s like I can see where everyone is on a map in my head. My eyesight also gets better at night. I’ve never felt anything while hunting.”

“Perhaps not, but your arrows always find their mark, the place where it will be the most painless and give the quickest death. Even from the time we first started hunting, I’ve never seen you injure an animal,” Roger said.

“I have missed, though.”

“Think about those times. Did you really want to kill those animals?” Roger asked.

“I never thought of it as a pleasurable pastime. Hunting is meant to gather food for the table. I guess I knew that we either didn’t need the meat, or it was a female with babies to care for,” Thomas said.

“How would you know it had babies?” Jason asked.

Thomas scratched his chin.

“I don’t really know. I just did.”

“The real question is, how are you going to learn whether you can do these other things?” Randel asked.

Thomas looked at Roger for answers because he had no clue.

“I think we just try them and see. Something I’ve heard most often about magic is that it requires intent; you have to will what you want into being. I would guess that in that respect, it is like anything else. The more you do it, the easier it will become,” Roger said.

Sleep did not come easily that night. Thomas worried about Frost, and he was used to having her near him while he slept. He always rested easy when she was with him because he knew Frost would wake him if danger came near.