Origins: A Deepwoods Book - a Collection of Deepwoods Short Stories (Deepwoods Series 0) Read online

  Published by Raconteur House

  Antioch, TN

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ORIGINS

  A Collection of Deepwoods Short Stories

  A Raconteur House book/ published by arrangement with the author

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Raconteur House mass-market edition/May 2016

  Copyright © 2016 by Honor Raconteur

  Cover by Katie Griffin

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information address:

  Raconteur House

  3425 Daisy Trail

  Antioch, TN, 37013

  www.raconteurhouse.com

  Other books by Honor Raconteur

  Published by Raconteur House

  THE ADVENT MAGE CYCLE

  Book One: Jaunten

  Book Two: Magus

  Book Three: Advent

  Book Four: Balancer

  Advent Mage Compendium

  The Dragon’s Mage

  The Lost Mage

  Warlords Rising *

  SINGLE TITLES

  Special Forces 01

  The Midnight Quest

  Kingslayer

  THE ARTIFACTOR SERIES

  The Child Prince

  The Dreamer’s Curse

  The Scofflaw Magician

  DEEPWOODS SAGA

  Deepwoods

  Blackstone

  Fallen Ward

  Origins

  KINGMAKERS

  Arrows of Change

  Arrows of Promise

  *Coming soon

  The Story of Deepwoods

  The day was a good one for travel as they bypassed Stott and traveled on the Grey Bridge leading into Orin. As the cart rumbled along, Fei gave them a history lesson, pitching his voice to carry over the sound of wheels turning and Kit’s hooves. Markl was especially glued to this discourse and wrote notes furiously in his book. Tran, on the other hand, just listened intently, his memory absorbing every word Fei said.

  Fei stopped mid-sentence, coughing, and held up a hand to indicate they should wait.

  “Fei, perhaps you should take a break,” Siobhan suggested. “You’re not used to talking this much, you’ll lose your voice if you keep going like this.”

  He grimaced, swallowed several gulps of water, and agreed somewhat hoarsely, “I think I should.”

  Markl shook out his writing hand, a rueful grimace on his face. “I’d certainly appreciate it. I can barely keep up with him.”

  “Then enough cultural lessons for now, I think.” Siobhan tried to shift a little on the cart bench, but in truth there was no way to sit on wood for hours at a time and not have a numb posterior after a while. They still had another two or three hours before they reached the other end of the bridge and arrived at Channel’s Pass. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt her to walk for a while, get the blood flowing again.

  Hopping off, she walked at the back, taking in the view. The water looked a little low for this time of year—she could see part of the riverbank because it was exposed—but otherwise it looked as it always did.

  Rune dropped out of the cart as well and set his pace to hers so he could walk alongside. “Siobhan.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Grae mentioned to me that Deepwoods was formed because of him.”

  Typical Wynngaardian that he was, when it became quiet for any stretch of time, Rune went looking for a good story. After years of living with Wolf, she recognized the signs immediately. “That’s right, it was. Grae being Grae, I suppose he only told you the bare bones of it.”

  She got a very dissatisfied look in response.

  Laughing, Siobhan said rhetorically, “After living with Wolf for a decade, you’d think the man would understand that when a Wynngaardian asks for a story, he wants the full story, all details included.”

  Rune perked up as he realized she was more open to the idea of talking than his master had been. “Will ya tell me?”

  “I’d be glad to.”

  Siobhan looked up from the lists in front of her and blinked. “What did you just say?”

  Her childhood friend frowned at her. “Will you actually listen?”

  “I was half-listening—I’m just convinced I heard you wrong; now, what did you just say? You want to strike out on your own?”

  “Right. I want to stop working with Master.”

  This looked serious. Serious enough, at least, for her to put her own work aside for a few minutes and get to the bottom of Grae’s sudden announcement. Siobhan normally had no time to spare at this hour, as it was two days before Market Day and she was the coordinator for the vendors along three streets. She had a mountain of paperwork to plough through to make sure that everyone was licensed, their inventory had been checked by the city’s enforcers, and they were clear on which area they could set up in. But even with the stacks of paperwork in front of her, she felt she had to make ten minutes for Grae.

  “Back up and start at the beginning.”

  Grae pulled a stool out of the corner and sat next to her desk. “Master’s the one with the clients, not me, and they don’t trust me as much as they do him. They only use me if he refuses to go, or if he’s already traveling with another group and isn’t available. I’m not getting enough to live on. He keeps saying ‘give it time’ but I’ve been licensed now for two years and the situation isn’t improving. I need to strike out on my own, in a different city; otherwise I can’t make a living.”

  That was a very sound reason to move out of Widstoe. Siobhan hadn’t expected anything else out of Grae, as he always had a logical reason for doing things, and wasn’t the type to get carried away by fancy. That said, she didn’t like the idea of him going out on his own. Pathmakers were rare and highly desired by everyone. Grae, especially, was not the combative sort, and he would be an easy target.

  “Alright. I see what you’re driving at. But I don’t think you should go out on your own, that’s far too dangerous.”

  He nodded in somber agreement. “I don’t think so either. But I don’t want to just pick a city and join a random guild, either. I don’t do well with lots of people. And being surrounded by strangers is a little…”

  Right, with his personality, it would be terrifying. “What do you want to do, then?”

  Grae blinked hopeful eyes at her. “Will you form a guild with me?”

  Form a guild? Siobhan rephrased the request carefully, working her way through the idea as she spoke. “Form a guild in a city we don’t know all by ourselves?”

  “It’ll be less scary if we’re together,” he said with absolute certainty.

  While that was true, it wasn’t quite the worry she was trying to get through to him. “Grae, to begin with, I think we need to consider just which city we’re going to move to. And then we need to look up the rules on what it takes to form a guild. I’m not sure if just two people will meet the criteria.”

  Grae paused as if this idea hadn’t occurred to him before. “But if it isn’t, then who else can we ask t
o join?”

  That was a very good question and one that Siobhan didn’t have an immediate answer to. “Let’s get information before we ask ourselves questions we don’t have the answers to. It might be easier to form a business than a guild.”

  “Might be,” Grae allowed. “But you will go with me, right?”

  Siobhan was not in the least surprised that he was set on having her as a business partner. Grae had always trusted her judgement with people over his own, and, if the option was available, he let her do all of the talking for the both of them. She looked around at the dingy little room she was in, overflowing with stacks of paperwork on all sides, and thought about being the assistant market coordinator for the rest of her life.

  “You bet I’ll go with you.”

  That won her an outright grin. “What do you think we should do first?”

  “Well, why don’t you go to the city office and find out what the requirements are for forming a guild?” she suggested. “And get some information about which cities have Pathmakers and which ones would be the best to start a guild in.” Knowing that the idea of walking up to a complete stranger and asking all of those questions terrified him, she casually added, “Kenneth works there in the afternoons; if you go now, you should be able to catch him.”

  Grae blew out a relieved breath. “Right, I’d forgotten he worked there part time. And you?”

  “I need to finish this stack off first, but then I’ll go hunt down Beirly.”

  “Beirly?” Grae repeated in confusion. “Why?”

  “Well, he owns a carpentry business, after all. I figure the best source of information about how to set up a business and the possible pitfalls would be something he would know.”

  “That’s a good thought,” Grae agreed thoughtfully. “Then, should I meet you at his place?”

  “Probably the shop; he tends to stay there late into the evenings before Market Day.”

  “There, then.” Decided, Grae popped off the stool and kindly returned it to its corner before heading out of her office.

  Siobhan watched him go, tapping a finger against the surface of the table. Shy Grae wanted to push out into the world, make his own business or guild, and leave Widstoe altogether? The situation had to be dire to push him to that point. Siobhan hadn’t won any great position in this city either, and if it wasn’t for that fact that she was still living at home, she probably wouldn’t be making enough to live on at this job. Maybe it was time for them to both move on and make something of themselves.

  Determined, she set her mind to the paperwork, wanting to get it done as quickly as possible. She had a fire in her now to go and have that talk with Beirly.

  ӜӜӜ

  Beirly greeted her warmly enough, always happy to have someone to talk to while he worked, but two sentences in she won his unwavering attention. He braced himself against the edge of his worktable, dusted his arms free of shavings, and repeated, “You and Grae want to leave Widstoe and form your own business.”

  “Or guild,” she confirmed, perching on the edge of another worktable. “We’re not sure which one will be better at this point, but Grae’s at city hall getting more information.”

  “Why?”

  “Beirly, think about it. Grae isn’t getting enough business on his own to make a living. My job isn’t glamorous or well-paid either. Shouldn’t we think about doing something more with our lives?”

  “But leave Widstoe?” Beirly objected.

  “We have to leave Widstoe, it won’t work if we stay in this city. Everyone here automatically goes to Grae’s master for pathmaking. We need to go into a city that has no Pathmaker; otherwise, we don’t stand a chance of making it.”

  Scratching at his beard, Beirly regarded her with thoughtful silence for a long moment. “It’s not safe, not with just the two of you going.”

  “I agree.” Siobhan would admit that she was a decent swordswoman but not anything spectacular. Grae could barely defend himself. It would not be wise for them to go out on their own. “I think that if we choose to have a guild, we’ll need more than two members anyway. I’m not sure who to ask to be a third member, though.”

  Beirly got this unreadable expression on his face. “Why’s that?”

  “Because most of our friends already have established lives and business here,” Siobhan said promptly. “Like you.”

  “I think a true friend would drop all that and pull up his roots rather than see the two of you go off alone,” Beirly opined quietly. “But we’ll leave that aside for the moment. What city are you thinking of?”

  “That’s one of the questions that Grae’s asking now—” she cut herself off as the door to the workshop opened and Grae stepped through. “Speak of the devil and here he is. Grae, what did you discover?”

  “You’re right, it takes more than two people to form a guild,” Grae informed her, closing the door behind him. It was a warm summer evening and he must have been hurrying, as there was sweat on his forehead, which he wiped off as he came in. “Hello, Beirly.”

  “Grae,” Beirly greeted, expression softening. “Last thing I expected to hear today was that my shy friend decided to move to a different city.”

  “It’s a matter of must at this point,” Grae grumbled, grimacing. “So, we need at least three members to form a guild, and Kenneth highly recommended doing a guild over doing a business. He said especially if I’m doing pathmaking, it’ll take a guild pass to get through all of the cities. Just having a business license will not help us in some places.”

  That was a very good point and one she had not considered. Even Grae’s master was part of a guild for that reason.

  “Even if you say ‘guild instead of business’ a guild is run most like a business,” Beirly corrected. “Especially if you’re going to form an escorting guild, which you’ll have to do to put your pathmaking skills to use. So. That answers one thing, but my question still stands: what city?”

  “I have a list of cities that don’t have a Pathmaker.” Grae pulled a sheet out of his vest pocket and laid it on the table next to Siobhan’s thigh.

  She craned her torso and head around so that she could read it. “Is this listed from largest city to smallest?”

  “Yes.”

  “Goldschmidt, Oatman, Vellshire, Baring, Converse, Stott.”

  “So basically, it’s only Widstoe, Winziane, and Goodliffe that are out on Robarge.” Beirly stroked his beard, eyes blindly staring ahead. “I would think something along a trade route would be the best bet.”

  “Which means Converse, Goldschmidt, or Stott,” Siobhan said, ticking them off on her fingers. “Grae, I’ll be frank, I’m not fond of the idea of joining a smaller city’s main guild.”

  “Master advised against it,” he admitted. “He said the smaller guilds don’t have as much clout, and I’d be safer under the protection of a large guild.”

  “In that case, our choice is really only Goldschmidt. It’s the only one large enough and in the right location to form an escorting guild.” As an afterthought, she added, “Unless we want to move to a different continent.”

  “And into a totally different culture?” Grae looked horrified. “No thanks.”

  “That’s rather what I’m thinking. Alright, Goldschmidt it is. At least, we’ll try that city first.” Siobhan rubbed her hands together. “Now we’ll need a timeline and to think of someone or several someones to go with us. I think I can just give notice at work and pack up and be ready to go. Say, about two weeks?”

  “I don’t need more time than that.” Grae’s mouth turned down into an uncertain frown. “But who can we ask?”

  For some reason Beirly just sighed, head hanging. “What am I going to do with you two?”

  Siobhan studied him, a suspicion forming in the back of her mind. The way he had been reacting, and some of the things he said, was starting to form an overall picture. “Beirly. Want to sell your business and come with us?”

  Grae made a noise of surprised protest
but Beirly didn’t even look up. He just heaved another year’s worth of sighs. “I think I’d better,” he finally groaned. “Someone’s got to work the business angle of things and watch your backs, or there’s going to be real trouble.”

  She didn’t mean to grin, as it probably looked demented, but she couldn’t help it. Beirly would have been her top choice if she were forced to name people who she would form a guild with. “We’d be very glad to have you,” she said sincerely.

  Beirly finally looked up, and there was a growing excitement as the idea of forming a guild took hold. “Mind, I’ll need more than two weeks. And we need to do more research about Goldschmidt before we form true plans.”

  “Three weeks, then,” she said cheerfully, “And I’ll take the caravan bosses aside at work and talk to them. They’re bound to know things.”

  “Three weeks,” Beirly repeated in despair, looking around his shop. “I have to find a buyer for this place, Shi. We’ll need the funds to form a guild with until we’re making enough money to afford our own Hall.”

  “I’ll help you advertise,” she promised.

  “And you’ll need to talk to your families, both of you, and tell them what you’re planning. They might want to talk you out of it.”

  Grae gave him a dubious look. “And have one less mouth to feed? My parents will likely help me pack.”

  “Mine too.” Siobhan knew that Beirly was now just throwing out objections for the sake of being the devil’s advocate. He’d always been the one to talk sense into them when he felt like they were being rash. “Three weeks, then, is the goal.”

  ӜӜӜ

  Three weeks and four days later, they arrived in Goldschmidt.

  Siobhan felt like it had taken something of a miracle for her to see these city gates. Neither her family nor Grae’s had put up much of an argument as they were glad to see their children go and try to make something of themselves. The thing that held them back the most was finding a buyer for Beirly’s shop. The business was successful enough to attract buyers, but most wanted the tools as well, and trying to convince Beirly to give up his tools was like prying children out of a mother’s hands. It finally came down to a matter of weight: they only had so much room in the cart, Grae had only one path that led to Goldschmidt he could use, and Beirly literally could not afford to take every tool.