Sapphire of the Fairies

After a few moments, when Alan realized that Konic was not coming back to the campsite, he walked down to join Konic. Konic was sitting on the sandy beach and didn't even appear to notice when Alan walked up and sat beside him.

"What is the matter, friend," Alan asked cautiously. "Are you all right?"

When Konic looked over at his friend, Alan could see that he was shaking and his eyes were moist. "It is worse than we expected," Konic replied with an unsteady voice.

Alan wondered what had happened to make his friend afraid. Konic had always been the steadfast one, never shaken, never fearful. He wondered if the bandit had harmed him in some way. Alan could not see any bruises, but he knew a man could be broken without any marks. "What did the bandit do?" demanded Alan.

Konic gazed at the rolling surf, heard the waves crashing against the shore. Strange, he thought, how some violent actions were so soothing, while others so unnerving. "It isn't what the bandit did that bothers me," confided Konic. "It is what he said that upsets me."

Konic relived the meeting with the bandit for his friend, leaving no detail unspoken. "Then, even if these rumors are untrue," Konic concluded, "our boys will never know peace or safety in their lifetimes."

"Surely, if we explain it all to the town council," Alan offered, "the whole town would stand behind the boys and help protect them."

"Would they?" queried Konic. "Would this town really stand against twenty Dark Riders and a witch? How about the next time when it was two hundred Dark Riders and a dozen witches? What if one of the townspeople was a Black Devil and nobody knew it? All it would take is one arrow, or one knife, or some damn spell."

Alan recalled stories of the Black Devils from before the Collapse. The group was a society of magicians devoted to a wizard known as Sarac, the same Wizard who supposedly had been chosen by Alutar, the Great Demon, to be the Dark One and rule the world. If the stories are true, it was Sarac, as the Dark One, who had caused the Collapse of the Universes. "You know that I will stand with you until the end, Konic. No matter what the end may bring."

Konic looked over and gave a weak smile to his friend. "I know that, Alan, without asking. It is not you or I that I am worried about. I would gladly trade my life for the boys, but even that will not help. The only thing that I can think of is to send the boys away."

"How will that help?" Alan asked. He was just finally reunited with his son after three years in a bottle and he wasn't too happy to even think of sending him away. "They will be in danger no matter where they are. Why shouldn't they stay here?"

Konic rubbed the tears from his eyes. "Because if they stay here, the townspeople know how old they are. Someplace else, they can lie about their age and perhaps survive until the rumors go away."

"Well, why can't we go with them, then?" asked Alan. "That way, we could get them away from the townspeople who know them and still be close enough to protect them."

"I thought about that," replied Konic, "but we would stick out like a small bandit gang and, sooner or later, one of the larger gangs would eliminate all of us. If the boys go alone, they can make their way to another town or city and become apprentices without raising too much suspicion.