Taking Flight

Kelder had had reasons, though. His father, determined to keep the family farm in the family and having let all three of Kelder’s older sisters arrange to marry away, had adamantly refused to arrange an apprenticeship or a marriage for Kelder; Kelder was going to inherit the farm, whether he wanted it or not, and settling the legacy on him meant no apprenticeship, no arranged marriage.

It had meant that Kelder was expected to spend the rest of his life on that same piece of ground, seeing nothing of the World, learning nothing of interest, doing no good for anyone, but only carrying on the family traditions. That was hardly roaming “free and unfettered,” as the seer had promised, or being “a champion of the lost and forlorn.”

Kelder had not wanted to spend the rest of his life on that same piece of ground carrying on the family traditions.

So, frustrated and furious, he had left, convinced excitement and adventure must surely wait just across the ridge. He had wandered off that first time without so much as a stale biscuit in the way of supplies, and had crossed the ridge, only to find more dismal little farms much like his own family’s.

He had stayed away a single night, but his hunger the following morning had driven him back to his mother’s arms.

The next time he left, when he was thirteen, he had packed a lunch and stuffed a dozen bits in iron into his belt-purse, and had marched over not just one ridge, but a dozen or more-four or five miles, at least, and maybe farther. He had known that soldiers were said to march twenty or thirty miles a day, but he had been satisfied; he hadn’t hurried, had rested often, and the hills had slowed him down.

And when darkness had come spilling over the sky, he had spent the night huddled under a haystack. He had continued the following day-but around noon, when his lunch was long gone and he had still seen nothing but more ridges and more little farms, he had decided that the time of the prophecy’s fulfillment had not yet come, and he had turned back.

The spring after that, at fourteen, he had plotted and planned for a month before he set out to seek his fortune. He had carried sensible foods, a good blanket, three copper bits and a dozen iron, and a sharp knife.

He had made it to his intended destination, Shulara Keep, by noon of the second day, and he had done so without much difficulty. But then, after the initial thrill of seeing a genuine castle had faded somewhat, and the excitement of the crowds in the market square had dimmed, he had found himself unsure what to do next. He had not dared to speak to anyone-they were all strangers.

Finally, when the castle guard had shooed him out at sunset, he had given up and again headed home.

At fifteen he had decided to try again. He had again gone to Shulara Keep, and then continued to the west, until on the morning of the third day he had come to Elankora Castle. Elankora was “beyond the hills,” and while it wasn’t any place particularly interesting, it was a “strange land” in that it wasn’t Shulara, so it was a step in the right direction.

There he had encountered a problem that had never occurred to him. Most of the people of Elankora spoke no Shularan, and he, for his own part, knew only a dozen words in Elankoran. Realizing his mistake, and frustrated by the language barrier, he had turned homeward once more.

That was last year. This time he had prepared for that. He had found tutors-which had not been easy-and had learned a smattering of several dialects, judging that he could pick up more with practice when the need arose.

Old Chanden had taught him some Aryomoric and a few words of Uramoric. Tikri Tikri’s son, across the valley, had turned out to speak Trader’s Tongue, and Kelder had learned as much of that as he could-it was said that throughout the World, merchants who spoke Trader’s Tongue could be found in every land.

Several neighbors spoke Elankoran and Ressamoric, but he could not find anyone willing to waste time teaching him; he had to settle for picking up a few bits and pieces.

Most amazing of all, though, Luralla the Inquisitive, that bane of his childhood, spoke Ethsharitic! Her grandmother had taught her-though why her recently-deceased grandmother had spoken it no one seemed to know.

It had even been worth putting up with Luralla’s teasing to learn that! After all, it was said that the Hegemony of Ethshar was bigger than all the Small Kingdoms put together-so it was said, and he had never heard it contradicted, so he judged it to be the truth.

And if he was to see great cities and vast plains, that could well mean Ethshar.

Kelder had discovered, to his pleased surprise, that each language he attempted was easier than the one before. He had feared that his brain would fill up with words until he could fit no more, but instead he had found patterns, similarities between the different tongues, so that learning a third language was easier than a second, and the fourth was easier still.