Chapter 4

Lord Kax and Ned spoke a while longer about this and that. Ned tried to hide his impatience. Magrid would be waiting. Sort of. In that way that she had, like she really couldn't be bothered only she did that way too well for it to be anything but false. He fidgeted.

Yet Kax continued with the small talk well past the appropriate moments to end it. Every subtle indication that Ned displayed of impatience was deflected or misinterpreted until Ned finally realized that there was something the king of the squirrels was trying to tell him. Or there was something he wanted Ned to say or ask.

Whatever it was would have to wait. There was a knock at the door. The door opened and a weathered gray head peeked in to look at them.

“Dara?” asked Ned.

And the big old woman threw open the door. “Hello, boy!” she said as Ned rose to greet her. “I’m sorry, your majesty,” she added to Lord Kax who smiled, then laughed.

“You are just in from the road?” said Kax.

“I am, your lordship,” she said. “Made safe for travel by you and yours and,” she pointed at Ned. “His, for which all we poor traveling merchants are grateful.” She winked at Ned and drew him into a hug.

Dara Furlong stood well over six feet, was broad in the shoulders, and broader with her smile. She was well into her seventies, her long gray hair fell halfway down her back, held back from her smiling gray eyes by a thick band of sweaty leather. She was also one of the more important transporters of goods on the capitol to Laggisport to Fort Smith route.

“And how is everybody’s grandma?” asked Ned.

Dara ruffled his hair. “Scamp,” she said. “I am well! I see you are, as well? And yourself, your lordship?”

Kax waved a dismissive hand. “And are the roads really as safe as you claim?”

Ned aimed Dara at a chair and then stepped back around his desk for his own.

“Alas, no,” said Dara. “We had no problems coming up here from the port but saw the remains of a caravan not four hours from here. A large one, utterly destroyed. We looked for survivors and recovered some cargo and manifests but….”

“I see.”

“It was something large that did it. Or some things. We saw paw prints bigger than my foot and impressive claw marks on the wagons.” She held up her hands to both of them. “Please understand, we know this is no failure of yours, fellas. We know what you’re doing, at least on this stretch of road, but something is really wrong out there.”

“Something we were just discussing,” said Kax with a smile.

“Oh! Have I interrupted? I’m so —”

“We had concluded our discussion, Ms. Furlong. It is always good to see you,” said the squirrel. He looked at Ned. “I must see to some things. We will let you know what we find.”

“Thank you, lord,” said Ned.

And then the squirrel was out the door.

Dara came over to sit on the desk. She leaned down and pinched his cheek. “I’ve got it, you delightful boy. Now, what have you got for me?”

The next project I need to do, thought Ned. Are stables. There might be room between the inn and the smithy. Or on the other side of the smithy. Right now the best they could do was unhitch the wagons by Ned's carpentry bench and hitch the animals to the long rail posted in front of the inn where a trough was kept for such purposes.

This particular wagon, Dara’s wagon, in fact, had been driven to the far side of Ned’s tower where Ned was examining it.

It was a simple thing with a large bed with solid wooden walls along the sides, a gate that dropped down for loading, a bench with a backrest for the driver and an assistant, and a covered box under the seat where Dara sat, peering at him.

It was the box Ned was looking at. Up close, he could see it was new. Much newer than the rest of the wagon.

“I had it made in Fort Smith,” said Dara. “It was easier than taking the old one out and re-purposing it.”

Ned nodded.

The box was built to open from the top. He did so and found a store of food and blankets. The joints had been caulked and the sides treated making the whole thing waterproof. As Ned had specified.

He closed the lid.

He looked over at Dara and smiled. “Where is it?”

She smiled back. “Under the lip of the lid, over on the driver’s side.”

He felt and found a small lever. He flipped it and the side of the box fell open.

As they took the things out of the box and piled them on the driver’s bench, Ned said, “I’m really not sure if this’ll work.”

“So you’ve said. Many. Many times.”

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Ned sighed. If it didn’t work he wouldn’t get what Dara had brought him. Something he needed. But that was contingent on what happened here today. Or the next time she came by.

“And I have your word you won’t use this for nefarious purposes?” he asked her, half serious.

Dara said, “Do I strike you as a nefarious person?”

“Yes.”

“Fair enough,” she said. “Look, boy. Traveling around this benighted kingdom is dangerous enough without smuggling contraband unless you made certain arrangements with the nobility, which I haven't, which is why I’m still respectable. I need this,” she patted the box. “Because the roads are getting dangerous again and I can move more things in a lighter vehicle, which means it'll be faster, which means I’ll have a better chance at escaping.”

Ned held up a finger. “Remember,” he intoned. “Nothing alive goes in this.”

Dara nodded her agreement. “I remember and I promise. If it works.”

“If it works, yes.”

Ned dug in a pocket of his robe and brought out an arrangement of crystals. He spaced them out on the top of the box with its side laying open. Then, he sat, his legs tucked under him, and concentrated on his breathing.

You have chosen to perform multiple actions! All actions’ percentages are at half your score plus its main attribute score!

Enchantment: Extra-dimensional Containment and Expansion check (33+20= 53%)…

70 6

Failure!

Ned shook it off.

Enchantment: Extra-dimensional Containment and Expansion check…

20 9

Success!

Ned held the magic, like a breath, and willed it into the leftmost crystal, which began to glow with a subtle light.

Enchantment: Organizational Itemization and Identification check (28+20= 48%)…

40 0

Success!

He repeated the process and a second crystal began to shine.

Enchantment: Summon Owned Item to Hand check (31+20 = 51%)…

40 3

Success!

A third crystal was illuminated, Ned closed the side of the box, and then he breathed out. The light dimmed from the crystals and was gone.

He looked over at Dara. “I think it worked.”

Dara leaned over the back of the seat and opened the box from the top. She shrugged. “Looks normal to me.” She replaced all the stuff they’d taken out earlier, closed the lid, and then gestured at Ned.

Ned sighed, flipped the secret switch, and had to hold on due to a sudden fierce vacuum that threatened for a moment to pull him into the box.

Ned found himself looking at a black void his magical senses told him easily consisted of about three times the capacity of the bed of the wagon where he currently sat, though he could see nothing at all within.

It was utterly empty.

No sign of the blankets or foodstuffs.

He closed the side of the box.

He opened the top of the box. Blankets and foodstuffs.

He closed it.

He opened it again. Blankets and foodstuffs.

He closed it.

He opened the side once more. Black nothingness.

“Holy shit,” he said. “It works.”

Dara’s eyes were huge. “What the hell was that?”

“What?”

“That wind?”

“Oh, that was wind.”

“What?”

Ned laughed. “There wasn’t any air in there when I made it. When I opened it, the air rushed in to fill the vacuum. I guess it does that when it's a box and not a bag.” Ned shrugged and smiled.

“It worked?” Dara bent way over to see, upside down, into the box and gave a great whoop.

“It worked.”

“Here you are, my boy,” said Dara and handed over a parcel wrapped in brown paper, tied with twine.

Ned opened it to find a sack made of a slick blue fabric. It was nearly weightless and the blue was a shade lighter than a clear summer sky. It was the size of one of those pillowcases made for two pillows at once.

“Giant orb-weaver spidersilk dipped in indigo with a drawstring of the same material chased in pure gold and silver. Guaranteed to hold as many enchantments as you can throw at it, barring you screwing up,” Dara told him. “You could sell that and buy a mansion in the capitol.” She winked. “Furnished,” she said. “With servants.”

“It’s beautiful,” he said. And it really really was.

Dara beamed. “I’m glad you liked it. My partners and I went through a lot to get it.” She patted the wagon. “You’ll only have to enchant maybe ten more of these now. Anybody who says the word rutabaga to you and drives a wagon. After a while, though.…”

“I know….” For there was no putting this genie back in the bottle. Word would get out. Everybody would want an enchanted wagon for the near-weightless transport of goods.

Oh, Dara and her partners would put a few things in the wagon for people to see and bandits to steal. Sure. But, for a time at least, no one would think to find the bulk of whatever it was they were transporting in the small box under the seat that was a regular box when you opened it one way, and a magically extensive storage space three times the size if you opened it another.

Ned shook the bag. “I need this for my own experiments though and besides, someone would’ve thought of this sooner or later. Somebody’s gonna ask why’s it gotta be bags of holding, and then here we are. Might as well be first.”

“Soon,” she said. “You’ll be able to charge for this, and then, my friend, you’ll be a very rich man.”

Ned shrugged.

Dara laughed and slapped him on the shoulder.

Ned stood in front of the inn with the bag, once again wrapped up in paper, in his hands. He looked at it a long time.

He looked at the sky. It was early evening. Maybe an hour before dinner time.

Plenty of time.

He turned and walked away from the inn and Magrid, to his tower and his lab.