The Orchardist I

"Do you think it'll be that easy?" Prater's smile was friendly, natural. He was only offering to help. "We have a deal, you and I. It's too late to back out now."

"We have a letter of intent, contingent on conditions which you have refused to meet. Nothing's been signed. No offering has been made to Chowgani. There is no contract."

Alexia gripped his arm in both her hands. "I don't feel good. I want to leave."

"Let go of my sword arm." He transferred her grip to his other arm. "Stay close." The orchardist watched the exchange, free of any concern. And yet Taylor's instincts yelled at him.

One of the gathered workmen spoke. "Master?" The others stood wearily in place. There seemed to be two separate groups: one older and the other very young. Taylor assumed the older ones were regular hired workmen, and the young were classed apprentices. They all had pruning shears in their hands. Their worn-down bodies and worn-out wills kept them in place, conserving energy for whatever orders their master gave next.

"Last chance, little legate. Give me my new apprentice and my gold, and I'll let you leave."

There was a squeak behind him, like someone had stepped on a mouse. Taylor put his hand into his bag and found his sword. "We're leaving together, and not giving you anything."

"You don't know who you're messing with, boy."

"You don't know who you're messing with." Taylor pumped minor enhancements into Alexia through her hand and more powerful enhancements for himself.

Prater kept smiling his immovable smile, staring at them with unblinking eyes. Now that he was looking for it, Taylor realized the orchardist didn't even breathe.

"Come on, Alexis. We're leaving." They took one cautious step back, and then another.

"Bring me the girl. Mulch the boy."

Workmen advanced with tools drawn, while the classed apprentices stayed behind and gathered mana for some kind of shared class skill. Taylor pulled his sword from the satchel, still sheathed. The workmen didn't care that he was armed: they charged the children together.

Taylor coated the road surface with Slip, hit the workmen with Pushback, then picked them off with stunners … just in time for a green wall of energy to rush out from the apprentices. He didn't know what skill they were using, but he could read the effects clearly enough: it was a wall of mana that would turn to poison wherever it touched someone. He tore his off-hand free of Alexis's grip and used his sheath to cut through the leading front of the attack. The mana boundary collapsed, and the spell unravelled into loose, raw mana. Taylor pulled the free mana into himself. He had a feeling he would need it.

He sent lightning at the apprentices, an effect he rarely used because it was so random, but that's what made it handy against many opponents. Some struck the unconscious workers, some of it hit the apprentices, and some hit nearby trees and set them smouldering. He followed up with more Stuns and made sure he hit everybody.

Oddly, the orchardist didn't interfere. He stood and watched, his wooden smile unmoving.

"Like I said, Master Prater, we're leaving."

"No, I don't think so." The whip's handle fit comfortably against the master's palm, while its length uncoiled menacingly onto the ground. "I won't have you spreading strange stories."

Taylor Sliced his arm off. The member flopped onto the dusty road with its whip nearby, but the arm's former owner didn't seem perturbed. Prater's stump didn't bleed, and the smile remained in place.

"That's a first," Prater said. "You lot normally go for the neck."

Deciding that was a fine idea, Taylor went for the neck, popping the head off like the cork from a keg. He didn't stop there, but took Prater's legs and his remaining arm. Orchardist appendages wiggled and groped on the dirt road for several seconds, then grew more and more still until they lay like deadwood. The loose head rolled around, over and over, until it lay on its side, facing them.

The head spoke. "Did you think that would be enough?"

Taylor sheathed his sword and took one of Alexis's frightened hands into his own. "Run," he commanded.

To her credit, Alexis didn't freeze, and she didn't need to be told twice. They ran back the way they came, hand in hand.

"Gods! What is he?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to find out. Best scenario right now is, he'll decide we aren't worth the trouble."

"I don't think so. Look at the trees!"

The orchard was moving. They pulled their roots from the ground and pulled themselves around. They were slow, but there were hundreds of them, and if they could move, there was no telling what else they could do.

"Stop here for a second."

"What? We need to run!"

"I'm going to do some magic."

Taylor hated using fire. It was too messy, too uncontrolled, and had a way of turning back on its users. But sometimes, it was just the thing. He knew the spell but hadn't practiced it, so he spoke the words out loud. He was careful to use the Old Orlut version of the spell, instead of the original Mi'iri.

"Mana to fire, fire to deadly flame / In perfect sphere, mobile but contained / Fly at my foe and in his face explode!" It was a terrible translation that omitted all the technically useful bits of the spell, but it was so widely used that chanting it was like pulling a cart along well-worn tracks. Taylor filled the pea-sized ball with enough energy to cast the spell ten times over, firmed up the mana boundary with his superior control, and tripled the conversion ratio. It took him four whole seconds to put that spell together, and when he released the deadly marble deep into the gathering trees, he immediately put up a barrier to protect Alexia and himself from the blowback.

The explosion rocked hundreds of trees, setting them on fire, and washed a hot shockwave against their shields, throwing up a cloud of burning wood, dirt, and tiny rocks that arched outward from the zone of impact in a wave twenty feet tall. All the world seemed to come apart. Alexis was screaming, but she wasn't hurt; she was just scared. Overwhelming danger could do that to a person. She ran out of breath, sucked in a huge lung of hot air, and screamed again, eyes bulging.

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"Alexis!" He turned her carefully, so she wasn't facing scenes of armageddon. Though she was slightly taller than he, he knew how easily he could break her with a full complement of boosts. The change calmed her enough to stop her screaming.

"We're fine! The trees aren't moving anymore!"

"But we can't get through! The road's on fire!" She pointed behind her, but didn't look at the swath of burning orchard.

"We can just go around. See?" He pointed to an empty area where the mobile trees had come from. "Come on!"

They moved as fast as Alexis could run without hurting herself, skirting the gathered mass of burned and felled fruit trees, and climbed to a ridge where they could look down on the worker barracks.

"We're going so fast," she panted, hands on her knees, "what did you do to me?"

"Minor body enhancements."

"Minor? Is it always this crazy for you?"

"No. It's been a tough week, that's all." He rummaged through his bag and shoved a small wrapped package at her. "Put this in your pocket and don't lose it. You'll want it later."

"What is it?"

"Food. It's not the tastiest, but it's dense. Trust me. You're going to need it." He was scanning the area while they talked. There weren't any signs of pursuers. There weren't any people at all, unless he counted the unconscious ones he'd left on the road. Past the knocked-out work crew and over the next rise, he saw birds take flight, and something moving. It grew taller and taller, as if it were climbing the hill.

At first, he couldn't understand what he was seeing.

"Is that," Alexis pointed, "a tree? A huge, walking tree?"

"I think that's Prater's real body. And he's coming right for us. How do you like your new master?"

The whine in her voice betrayed her mood. "Should you be joking about this?"

"Right. Stand over there a second."

"Oh no," she moaned.

"This one's not so bad," he promised, "just … cover your ears." As the ancient tree stepped onto the far ridge, fully exposing his impressive height, two hundred feet or more, Taylor took careful aim and shot at him with Dragon Shot. He felt the spell kick, heard the familiar satisfying boom of the supersonic round going downrange, saw the path of distorted air it left behind, and the sudden curve as it swerved away from his target and missed.

"That's a first." Prater hadn't shielded himself or countered the spell. He'd done something else.

"What does it mean?"

He looked at Alexis. "It means we run."

He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hill, past the barracks, and then uphill again to the next ridge. Behind, they heard tremendous stompings of the massive tree. Ahead, they could see the master's grand house and the paved loop in front of it.

"We made it! The carriage is still there! Hey!" Alexis waved at the driver, a dogkin who seemed very much at his ease, eating something from a box.

"He's too fast. We won't get away. Look." Prater didn't seem to hurry, but his long stride only made him look slow. He had already reached the barracks. The tree was gaining on them.

"Take this." Taylor pressed a gold coin into her hand. "Run to the carriage, and pay him to take you back to town. Talk to the gate guards. Tell them what happened. Bring help."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll cover your escape, then hide. Go."

Alexis didn't move, her motives painfully at odds with each other. On one hand, she wanted to leave as fast as possible. On the other hand, it wasn't right to abandon a younger child in danger.

"Just go! I can't fight if I have to protect you." She still didn't move. "You're in the way! Scram!" After being told three times, Alexis flew down the hill, shouting at the driver as she went.

Taylor followed the ridge to keep his high ground, but also to pull Prater away from the carriage. He grabbed a handful of prepared bullets from his bag and used his improved Rock Shot, sending slugs of steel at his enemy. The difference between that and Dragon Shot was more than just scale. Dragon Shot projectiles were conjured, temporarily real, while the premade bullets were real real. Some defenses were better against magic, while others were best against plain physical attacks. He wanted to know what he was dealing with.

He shot his rounds at the advancing tree, but their paths curved away, just like Dragon Shot. He followed the failed attacks with his pure force effects, Slice and Spear, which also veered away from their target at the last moment.

If projectile spells didn't work, then area effects might. He blasted Prater with Flare, right in his crowning branches, and was rewarded with a shower of debris. Flare was all sound and fury, a tool to distract and disorient, but the fact that it did anything at all was a good sign. What he needed now was … to not be standing there.

He had tragically misjudged Prater's speed. The tree-thing was suddenly on his ridge, practically on top of him, cocking one leg back, far, far back, and swinging it forward. Taylor tried to flee, but there wasn't enough time or space to dodge.

Prater kicked him like a ball.

~ Alexia ~

Scram! It was a slap in the face, but one that sent her running to safety. It felt wrong to leave him there, but Bilius was the legate. He was the strong one. If he said run, then her job was to run. She had never moved so fast in her life.

As soon as she was clear of the trees, she shouted at the driver again. The dogkin was lounging on the roof of his carriage, jacket off, shirt collar unbuttoned, eating a sandwich and drinking from a clay jug.

"We have to go!" She leaped into the driver's seat. "Now! Prater's trying to kill us!"

"What's that, little miss?" The dogkin looked up the ridge, just as the top of Prater's crown came into view. "Why'd he set a druid's companion on you two? Did you do something?"

"There isn't time to explain. We have to get help, or Bilius is going to die!"

"I don't know … he seemed plenty strong to me. Beastkin have a nose for that sort of thing."

"Here's gold. You have to take me to the city." She tried to push the gold piece into his hand, but he caught her wrist instead and hauled her onto the roof.

"Keep it. I'd pay twice that to see this! They're just getting into it. Look at them go!" Several bright flashes of light shook debris from the top branches, and reached them a second later like big fireworks popping.

It didn't even slow Prater's tree form. It towered over the boy, fifty times his height. The mismatched scale was confusing to watch: Suddenly, the tree was on top of Bilius and booted him into the sky.

"Oh no!"

"Ouch," the driver agreed. "That looks like it hurt."

"We have to get out of here before it chases us! We have to tell someone."

"Not just yet, missy."

"We have to go now! He said!"

"We're staying! Now, I've seen some wizard battles down at the arena, never one quite like this, more demonstration bouts, you know? But the thing you learn is they don't give up so easy. Your young man isn't falling right, see?" He traced the legate's trajectory with his finger. "He's coming down slow. He's still got magic."

Beams of bright white light flickered between Biliius in the air and the trunk of the tree on the ground, followed a second later by rolls of thunder. Smoking black spots appeared on Prater's trunk.

Alexia cheered, her hands in the air. "It's not over! He's still fighting!" She shouted with all her might. "Go, Bilius! Kick his wrinkly ass!"

"That's the spirit, girl! Look, he's waving at you. He's a sporting young fellow, isn't he?"

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