《Jade Farm》


 Unexpected Inheritance

    ¡°Well, Jade,¡± Mage Colden said, ¡°are you ready to step into a new stage of your life?¡± The old man¡¯s eyes were bright despite his years, and the deep laughter lines around them crinkled as he smiled kindly on the solemn young elf beside him.


    Jade Hartsfoot took a moment to really consider the old Mage¡¯s question. Was he ready? Really ready?


    A month had passed, almost to the day, since Marco, Jade¡¯s stepfather, had died peacefully at 82 years old. 82 was a good age for a human in Sounsia. Jade¡¯s stepmother Garena, two years older than Marco, had preceded her husband by only a season. They had been married for most of their lives, and Marco had been content when he felt that his time had come to follow her. Jade had grieved, of course, but both his stepmother and stepfather had lived long, satisfying lives and had, in their humble way, done good for many people, including himself. They had both died without pain at a good old age, and Jade was content that their shades would both now be in Alinia, the undying lands of the dead in human myth. What better could he hope for people he¡¯d loved?


    So, his adoptive parents had passed on, he¡¯d not wanted to strike out on his own while they still needed his strength and youth around to help them, but now that they were dead there was nothing now to hold Jade, here in the town where he had been raised.


    Yes, he was ready. Really ready.


    ¡°I am, Mage Colden,¡± Jade said, seeing the mage¡¯s approval that he¡¯d thought seriously about the question before answering. ¡°I think I really am ready to take the next step. I¡¯ve lived a good life here, but Tamine is too small a town for me. It would feel wrong for me to carry on living in my parents¡¯ house. There are too many memories for me there, and the house itself belongs to the town and would be better used by someone else. I want to make a life for myself. I¡¯m ready to strike out on my own. I¡¯ll head into the city, and make my way to the crafter¡¯s district. I¡¯ll go see Alamos at the Guild of Growers. He knows I¡¯m good with herbs, and he¡¯ll give me a start, I¡¯m sure. I¡¯ll stay at the guildhouse for a bit while I save up some money, but the Guild of Growers is the place for me to begin.¡±


    Even as he spoke, an unfamiliar nervousness welled up in Jade¡¯s chest. He knew Alamos - a journeyman potion crafter at the Guild of Growers - well enough to ask a favour, but he didn¡¯t know for sure if he¡¯d meet with welcome. The Guilds were not known for doing favors for friends. Skill carried you more than contacts in the guilds. But Jade spoke confidently so as not to worry the old mage, and he put a smile on his face. After all, he was young, he was strong, and he did have some real skill as a herb grower. He had even had a go at some herb lore spell work that was a bit out of his league, and had met with decent though unpredictable results. Yes, he was nervous, but there was no need to be, not really. He would be fine.


    ¡°Ah,¡± the mage said, nodding sagely and looking keenly up at jade from under his white eyebrows. He looked as if he¡¯d expected the young elf¡¯s answer, but was well pleased with it all the same.


    A comfortable silence pooled into the space between them. They had known each other a long time. Mage Colden was that rare specimen, a human who knew how to spend time in company without filling the space with needless talk. Jade was an elf, not a human, and he¡¯d learned early on that one of the many differences between himself and his human peers was his patience. He did not need to talk to be content.


    The silence lengthened, with it came a deep feeling of peace. Jade breathed deep, enjoying the moment. The morning sun shone on their faces, making the old mage¡¯s thick curls shine like snow, and striking sparks of blue, green, and red like aurora flashes in a northern sky from Jade¡¯s long, straight hair.


    At a glance, one might have mistaken Jade for a human, but a second glance would have put paid to that notion. It was the young elf¡¯s strange, lilac eyes that most set him apart from humans. Even his ears, though they bore the classic pointed tips that were ubiquitous among the elven race, were not particularly noticeable. But his eyes, his height, and his almost eerily good looks marked him as what he was; an elf of the Greenwood Isles, though he had been raised not in the Greenwood Isles but here, by humans, in the comfortable rural town of Tamine in the hills east of Lestat City.


    His strange lilac eyes gleamed with anticipation in the sun. Jade Hartsfoot and Mage Colden were standing on Jarrow¡¯s Hill, about three miles outside the city limits. This was a favorite spot for locals to come and spend an afternoon, since it afforded dramatic views of Lestat City, but was accessible and pleasant, being equipped with benches and tables for visitors to sit at, and shaded from the hot sun by several huge, ancient, and carefully tended elm trees.


    Jade and Colden stood at one of the viewing points near the edge of the hill, where the ground dropped sharply away down to a steep, rocky slope covered in thick underbrush. The weather was fair, and despite the early hour the small parkland area at the top of the hill was already busy. Several families with young children had occupied the larger benches, the youngsters running about excitedly together. A tall, brightly-dressed orc maiden and a dwarf with a long gray beard and piercing eyes walked arm in arm near the trees, their heads bowed in conversation. Several other people sat alone on benches or in the shade of the trees, or wandered here and there reading, eating, or just enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. A quarter of a mile or so away, off to their right, coaches and carts rattled in a steady flow along the cobbled road that ran west, down into Lerant City, bringing traffic to and from the fertile eastern marches of Derit Province.


    The city spread out below where they stood, filling nearly all the flat ground in the river valley below them. Jade¡¯s eyes traced the line of gentle hills that surrounded the city on all sides. The hills were highest in the north and east, but they tapered off toward the southwest where the Lera river, the lifeblood of the city, flowed out through the hills into a wide, marshy flatland and then on to meet the sea.


    Countless chimneys sent smoke skyward. Lerant City looked like a great bed of smoldering embers that might any moment leap into flame. Lerant was huge, a great sprawling mass of habitation, and people from all different walks of life called it home. Low, cramped buildings butted up against high twisting towers, winding streets connected wide carriageways and luxuriant plazas, grand public buildings rose proudly from seas of small private dwellings, and everywhere there was a froth of restaurants, craft workshops, homes, shops, inns, marketplaces, graveyards, temples, guild houses, and watch barracks. Countless streets of all shapes and sizes connected every part of the city to every other part, running between the buildings like the mycelium of some vast and industrious fungus growth.


    The Lera River was the spine of this huge, packed city. The dark line of its deep, broad, unhurried water wound its dignified way from the north-eastern foothills down toward the southwestern edge of the city. Even from where he stood, Jade could smell the distinctive greenish smell of the river water, mixed with the wood smoke of the fires. A few miles before the start of the sea marsh south west of the city, the river pooled into a huge natural basin that was crowded with docks and harbors. Near the upper end of the river basin was the Guild of the Growers, where people like him, who had a natural affinity for plants and their potencies, might find welcome. Or so he hoped.


    Jason let his eye play over the many masts of ships large and small that crowded the river basin docks, before following the line of the water to where it ran out between the hills. Beyond the barrier hills, the Lera river flowed in a deep channel through five miles of salt marshland, then out into the sea.


    Yes, Jade thought, he was ready. He would go down into the city and start the next stage of his life. It was time.


    The young elf pulled his mind and his eyes back from the city and turned to his companion. He held his hand out to shake the old man¡¯s. ¡°You know, Mage Colden,¡± he said as he gripped the mage¡¯s hand, ¡°I want to thank you. You¡¯ve been a huge support to me over these past few weeks. It¡¯s been a difficult time for me, but I¡¯m through it now, and looking to the future. You were a good friend to my mother and my father, but you¡¯ve been just as good a friend to me. I hope you know that.¡±


    The old man smiled broadly, his face crinkling into a thousand wrinkles as his eyes gleamed like stars. He held Jade¡¯s hand a moment longer, squeezing it affectionately, then let go.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear you say so. Thank you for telling me. It¡¯s not always easy to help a person in your situation - grief is a hard thing for anyone to deal with. You want to support your friend, but it¡¯s all too easy to try too hard and end up making things more difficult rather than less. But Jade, I have something for you. You may find this a little odd, but it¡¯s something I can only give to you now that you¡¯ve told me you don¡¯t wish to stay in Tamine where you were raised. It¡¯s a gift for you, from your father. He gave this to me a week before he died, but he made me swear only to give it to you if you decided of your own accord to leave Tamine and seek your fortune elsewhere. If you decided to stay in Tamine and make a quiet life there, then I was instructed never to pass this on to you, nor even to tell you about it, even if you decided later on to leave.¡±


    As he spoke, the old man was fumbling in the knapsack he carried by his side, and after a moment he pulled out a copper cylinder about a foot long, stoppered with wax at both ends, and about as thick as Jade¡¯s forefinger.


    ¡°That¡¯s very strange,¡± Jade said. ¡°My father gave this to you, to give to me?¡±


    ¡°Aye, but only if you chose to leave Tamine village.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s so odd! Didn¡¯t you think it was odd, Mage Colden?¡± Jade took the cylinder and looked at it. It seemed to weigh hardly anything in his hand.


    ¡°Aye, I should say I thought it was odd,¡± Colden agreed, nodding. ¡°But a dying man¡¯s wish is a dying man¡¯s wish, and I didn¡¯t question him. I guess that he knew what he was doing. Your stepfather was a man of simple tastes and simple habits, but for all that, he was an intelligent man who had seen something of life. He wouldn¡¯t have given me an instruction like that without some solid reason behind it.¡±


    Jade looked at the red seal that stopped up the cylinder. The wax looked old and had lost some of its color, but it was still thick and solid, unyielding to the touch. The cylinder itself was featureless and undecorated, and indeed it seemed rather crudely made. He shook the cylinder gently, wondering if the contents would rattle, but there was no sound.


    ¡°And you don¡¯t know what¡¯s inside, or why my father should have put such a strange condition on you giving it to me?¡± Jade asked.


    ¡°Your father never told me, but I will say this. When he called for me and gave me the cylinder and the instruction, he seemed like he wasn¡¯t sure whether he should hand it over at all. There was something in his eyes, and it made me think that he¡¯d intended to keep it secret and do nothing about it, but had changed his mind at the last moment.¡±


    ¡°That sounds ominous,¡± Jade said.


    ¡°Perhaps. But ominous or not, I confess I¡¯m as interested as you to know what¡¯s inside.¡±


    Jade smiled. ¡°Well then, let¡¯s go sit on this bench and open it together, what d¡¯you say?¡±


    Mage Colden nodded, looking pleased. He was still a strong and robust man despite his immense age, but he sighed deeply as he sat down. Jade thought the sigh was more in anticipation of learning the solution to the mystery than from the relief of taking the weight off his legs. His bright eyes glittered with interest as Jade sat down beside him.


    Smiling at the old man¡¯s curiosity, Jade tried to work his thumbnail under the edge of the wax seal, but he immediately saw that he¡¯d not get far that way. The wax was old, hard, and tightly wrapped around the top of the cylinder.


    Jade pulled his small, workaday belt knife from its sheath and tried again. This time, he was more successful. Carefully, he worked the blade of his knife around the edge of the seal until he was able to peel the wax free and lay it carefully on the arm of the bench. He sheathed his knife, turned the end of the cylinder toward the light, and peered inside. There didn¡¯t seem to be anything in there except for two sheets of paper. He snagged these with his finger and eased them out.


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    The sheets of paper came out smoothly. He unrolled them on his knee.


    There was a small red gemstone about the size of his smallest finger joint, fixed to the outer sheet by a small blob of wax of the same color as the cylinder seal. Jade raised his eyebrows at that. The gemstone was cut and polished as if by a master jeweler, and the light of the morning sun glowed in it like fire. It looked precious.


    The paper itself was covered in neat lines of small black script, written in an old-fashioned hand. Jade turned the paper to the light and peered at the small writing, trying to decipher what was said.


    ¡°It seems to be the deeds to a piece of land,¡± he said. ¡°Or perhaps... yes, to a homestead and a piece of land. Why, Mage Colden, it is! It¡¯s the deeds of ownership for a farm. And here at the top, here¡¯s my name! It says, granted to my stepson Jade Hartsfoot, in perpetuity, by my hand on this day... and here¡¯s my father¡¯s signature, and the signature of two witnesses, and the date.¡±


    Mage Colden leaned forward, peering at the document. ¡°The date is nearly two decades ago,¡± he said, amazed.


    ¡°I would have still been an infant,¡± Jade said quietly. ¡°This must have been made up at around the time my father and mother adopted me.¡±


    ¡°And he never mentioned owning a farm?¡± Colden asked.


    ¡°Never,¡± Jade replied.


    ¡°Stranger and stranger,¡± Colden shook his head. ¡°He was not a secretive man by nature, at least, not about his life after he moved to Tamine. But what is the other paper?¡±


    Jade slipped the second paper out from behind the property deed and gave a laugh of surprise. ¡°It¡¯s a map!¡± he said.


    ¡°But why would you need a map?¡± Colden asked, taking the deed again and looking at it for himself. ¡°Yes, look, the address of the farm is written here, at the top of the deed. It¡¯s out on the western edge of the city, near the village of Briarhome. You wouldn¡¯t need a map to find it, and anyone who wanted to find it could¡­¡±


    ¡°No, no,¡± Jade said, interrupting the old man¡¯s flow of questions. ¡°Look again - it¡¯s not a map to show where the property is, it¡¯s a map of the property itself... or at least of a part of it.¡±


    Jason held the map toward Colden, and they leaned over it together. They were looking at a very rough plan of a large building. The building was horseshoe-shaped, but with sharp edges - a straight central section with a long wing at each end, coming off at right angles from the central part. In the middle of the central section, between the sheltering wings of the building, the artist had sketched a short flight of steps leading up to the main entrance.


    This main entrance door, and possibly the location of a few windows, had been indicated by thicker lines laid over the line that represented the walls, but aside from these and the entrance steps, it was not a particularly detailed map.


    But it was not the location of the windows that interested Jade, nor was it the front door, the steps, nor even the layout of the building. It was the bold, red X marked just outside the far end of the left-hand wing of the house.


    ¡°It¡¯s a treasure map!¡± Jade exclaimed.


    ¡°Look on the other side,¡± Colden urged, ¡°maybe there¡¯s some other clue.¡±


    Jade flipped the map over, but there was nothing to see there. His heart beat swiftly in his chest as he considered where this unexpected inheritance might lead him.


    He looked again at the property deed, then at the map, then back at the deed. He put a finger on the red gemstone that was fixed to the deed. The smooth surface of the stone seemed strangely cold. ¡°What do you think this is?¡± he asked. ¡°It looks like a precious stone - a ruby, perhaps?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not a natural gemstone,¡± Mage Colden said with certainty. ¡°That there is a keystone. An old-fashioned device, but not unheard-of, even these days. A keystone is a magic spell made solid and permanent, an opening spell, designed to open a specific lock, or sometimes a series of locks. Some keystone locks have physical keys as well, and both key and gem are needed before the lock will open, while others need only the keystone. It¡¯s an old magic, rather impractical, and it has long since gone out of fashion. It would have already been something of an anachronism when this document was made up, and nowadays hardly anyone makes them or buys them.¡±


    ¡°A magic keystone to open a magic lock¡­ but my father wasn¡¯t a mage, was he? I never thought he was, he never told me anything like that.¡±


    ¡°I never knew your father or your mother before they came here, bringing you with them. I said earlier that your father wasn¡¯t a secretive man, and that¡¯s true when I knew him, but it¡¯s also true that neither he nor your mother ever spoke about their lives before they moved here. They were always very polite but very firm about it, and as I valued their friendship I never pried.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯re a mage,¡± Jade said. ¡°Surely you would have known if they were mages too? Felt the presence of magic or something?¡±


    Mage Colden tilted his head from one side to the other thoughtfully, as if unsure. ¡°I¡¯m retired,¡± he said once he¡¯d had time to think about it. ¡°I¡¯m retired, and I¡¯ve not done any serious magic for a long time. Even when your parents came here, I was winding down my practice and had been doing so for some years. It¡¯s not good for a man of my age to practice magic - asks too much of the body and the soul, you know.¡±


    He was hedging, Jade could tell. He gave the old man a look, and Colden shrugged and sighed.


    ¡°I¡¯m reluctant to mention it, because they never mentioned it to you, and they clearly wanted to put their past behind them, but I suppose I owe it to you. Yes, I admit that there was something, something about your mother, though not about your father. A sense of... Well, as you put it, a sense of presence. The presence of power. I never knew your mother as well as I did your father, but when I first met them I did think that there was a hint of magic about her. Definitely.¡±


    ¡°So this keystone might be her work?¡±


    ¡°Who can tell? I cannot, not now. But one need not be a mage to use a keystone, Jade. One may buy a keystone and lock from a specialist who makes such things, and in former days, many people did. Even if your mother was a mage before she moved here, I suspect that it¡¯s more likely she bought this. The creation of keystones is highly specialist work, though not particularly powerful. Your stepmother was¡­ Well, put it this way. If she was indeed a mage, I suspect her business was something more consequential than the crafting of keystones.¡±


    Jade nodded. He looked at the deeds, the key, and the map, and wished suddenly that his mother and father had seen fit to tell him more about who they had been. Mage Colden¡¯s intuitions - not to mention these mysterious gifts from beyond the grave - hinted at some dramatic and exciting tale. All he had ever known of his adoptive parents had been safe and predictable; a good thing, and he was grateful for the peace and stability of his upbringing. But he could not help wishing they had told him more about their past lives, their lives before they had adopted him.


    He did not even know how he had ended up in their care. He had always simply been content that he was. It had never seemed that important, until now.


    There was something ominous about this strange inheritance, something that echoed in his mind with deep and far-reaching consequences. He was an elf, and though he¡¯d never been taught anything about the gifts of intuition were native to his kind, he knew that he had sensed things in the world in a way that humans did not. It wasn¡¯t prescience, not exactly, but he had learned over the years to trust his gut feelings about people, places, situations, and even objects.


    This deed, map, and keystone gave him an undeniable feeling of excitement, but it was mixed with a sense of foreboding and respect, a sense that issues larger than he guessed might hang from them. His mind kept coming back to the conditions his father had placed on the granting of the inheritance. His father had specified that these documents should only be given to Jade if he clearly stated that he wished to leave his childhood home. If he¡¯d chosen to stay, he had no doubt Mage Colden would have kept his word and never mentioned it.


    All unknowing, he had chosen to leave his hometown, and his choice had triggered this gift. He still had a choice. He could choose not to follow the path that these documents opened to him.


    He turned to look at the old man beside him. Jade had known Colden all his life. The man was like a grandfather to him, and had been there for him as a mentor and confidant many times during his growing up.


    Looking back at the mysterious papers, his eyes landed on the address at the top of the deed. ¡°You say you know where this place is?¡± he asked.


    Holden nodded, though his expression darkened slightly, as if he knew what was coming. ¡°I do,¡± he said, and pointed out west over the city. ¡°My eyes are too old for it, but if you look way off on the other side of the city from where we are now, you should be able to see a white tower, near to a big domed silver roof?¡±


    Jade shaded his eyes and after a moment picked out the tower, a tall thin spire sticking out of the mass of buildings, a little to the left, a huge, gleaming silver dome. ¡°Yes, I can see the white tower and the dome.¡±


    ¡°The tower is called the Spire of Sedrax - it¡¯s worth a look if you¡¯re in the area. It¡¯s supposed to be the pointiest tower in the whole city. And the dome nearby is the roof of the High Terrace Library. Not a huge institution, but a very pleasant place to spend an afternoon, or at least it was when I was last out that way. The district around the library is called High Terrace - a nice part of the city, and somewhere I used to go often, back when I was in practice. Anyway, if you look at the hill just beyond the Spire of Sedrax, you¡¯ll maybe see a gleam of white that marks the location of a village, up there on the hill?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s mist on the hill. I can¡¯t see that.¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s there, all the same. That¡¯s the village of Briarhome, and the address on your deed is High Field Farm, Briarhome, West Lerant Hills. So, there you go. If you go out there, you should find the spot.¡±


    ¡°I know it might be a lot to ask, Mage Colden, but do you think you could...¡±


    Colden was shaking his head before Jason had even finished his question. ¡°Do I think I could come out there with you? No, lad, I can¡¯t do that. I had a feeling you might ask it, but no, this is your adventure. I¡¯ll be here if you want to visit me, and I hope you do, but my traveling days are over. I¡¯ve not even been down into Lerant for a long time now. No, I won¡¯t come with you. But I¡¯ll say this. I can see there¡¯s some doubt in your mind about following up this strange gift, and I don¡¯t blame you. If you go, and you find that whatever is out there is not to your liking, well, there¡¯s nothing to stop you tramping right back here and knocking on my door. You know you¡¯ll always find a welcome with me, and you can stop with me for as long as you need while you work out what you¡¯re going to do instead, whether that¡¯s the Grower¡¯s Guild, or whatever else.¡±


    This time, Jade didn¡¯t just shake Mage Colden¡¯s hand, he leaned over and hugged him.


    The old man slapped him on the back and laughed. ¡°Does that reassure you?¡± he said.


    ¡°It¡¯s all I needed to hear,¡± Jade said. He put the documents back in the cylinder and squeezed the wax seal back onto the end. He stood, slipped the closed cylinder into an inside pocket of his long, pale green jacket, and gazed out through the smoke haze of the city and off to the mist-shrouded hills beyond. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t take me more than a day to walk across the city. I have some coin in my purse - I¡¯ll walk across town, have a meal and stay the night at an inn near High Terrace, and then go up to Briarhome tomorrow.¡±


    Mage Colden tilted his head and looked at the young elf thoughtfully. ¡°I have a better idea,¡± he said, ¡°one that would allow you to save your coin and maybe make a new friend on the way.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Jade asked. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    He looked at the old mage with interest but also a little wariness. He wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to make a friend. He was an elf, and that difference had set him apart from his peers growing up. He¡¯d learned to be content with his own company, and often found humans his own age difficult to get along with. Still, if Mage Colden thought it was a good idea...


    ¡°Don¡¯t concern yourself about having nothing in common,¡± Colden said with a smile, neatly guessing Jade¡¯s fears. ¡°I think if you go where I recommend, you¡¯ll get on perfectly well. The person I¡¯m thinking of isn¡¯t exactly the typical inhabitant of Lerant any more than you are.¡±


    Jade smiled suddenly, feeling his fears lift. This was more interesting. ¡°All right then, who are you talking about?¡±


    Colden winked conspiratorially. ¡°When you get to High Terrace, make the library your first stop. Go inside and ask for Loktar. Say what your business is, and that I sent you. That¡¯s all you¡¯ll need. No,¡± he said, holding up a forbidding hand, his face full of mischief, ¡°I¡¯m not going to tell you anything more. Find it out for yourself. It¡¯s all part of your adventure! Now you¡¯d better get going. The morning is passing, and if you don¡¯t get to the High Terrace Library before it closes, you won¡¯t manage to see Loktar at all.¡±


    Jade nodded. He knew well enough that there was no point trying to get more information out of Mage Colden if the old man had decided to say nothing more. Despite his age, Colden was sometimes as fond of mischief as a child. The old man would go home full of satisfaction knowing that he¡¯d sent Jade off with yet another mystery to unravel.


    Jade didn¡¯t hang about any longer. ¡°I¡¯ll write and let you know how I get on,¡± he promised. ¡°And I¡¯ll come see you when I get a chance.¡±


    ¡°Make sure you do,¡± Holden said. ¡°And Jade?¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°Good luck.¡±