{"id":4476,"date":"2016-12-05T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T05:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tellest.com\/?p=4476"},"modified":"2016-12-23T12:22:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T17:22:13","slug":"golem-maker-hills-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/golem-maker-hills-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"The Golem Maker of the Hills, Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Golem Maker of the Hills<\/strong>
\nA Story by Aaron Canton<\/strong>
\n-Part Three-<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The man who answered the door at Laika\u2019s house looked nothing like the girl. He had brown hair that was going silver with age, a sharp, angular jaw, and piercing grey eyes that focused on Grannick with an unsettling intensity. \u201cHowdy,\u201d said the man with a smile that didn\u2019t quite reach his eyes. \u201cYou here for a golem?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c…maybe?\u201d Grannick hesitated, realizing from the man\u2019s exasperated look that this wasn\u2019t the right answer. \u201cI mean, I heard golems might be useful but don\u2019t know much about them, so…?\u201d<\/p>\n

That seemed to satisfy the man, who gave a sharp nod and pushed the door open all the way. Grannick found himself escorted into a comfortable living room with a big settee, two easy chairs whose like Grannick would have had trouble finding even in Viscosa itself, and a roaring fireplace which completely shut out the evening\u2019s chill. The rural cabins Grannick had slept in before had always been drafty if not overtly leaky, but this one felt completely solid. \u201cThis is a nice house,\u201d he managed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you.\u201d The man gestured for Grannick to sit on the couch, which he did, wincing as his armor dug into it. \u201cA testament to my girl\u2019s skill. This used to be a one-room cabin before she found her gift.\u201d He waved his arm towards the window, which looked out towards the inn and a smithy. \u201cSo did most of the village. But when you have multiple caravans coming weekly…well, it does good things to the town economy.\u201d He stuck out a hand. \u201cAnton Maltra. Mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGrannick Aldermair. Mercenary.\u201d Maltra raised an eyebrow at that, and Grannick hurried on. \u201cI\u2019ll admit, I was surprised to see so much merchant activity given the remote location…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our trade\u2019s with other mountain villages,\u201d said Maltra. \u201cThere\u2019s lots of old mining paths around these parts which helps keep everything connected. So if the people in Hastral, the town a day to the west, want golems, they\u2019ll all come over here, and we\u2019ll trade favors…We make them so many golems, they fix up so many houses, or trade us so many goods, or whatever we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grannick slowly nodded. \u201cWill you build a road next? So actual merchants can get here?\u201d<\/p>\n

For a split second, the mercenary thought he saw a frown on Maltra\u2019s face. \u201cMaybe,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there\u2019s something to be said for not being on everyone\u2019s maps. We prefer nobody getting in our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grannick remembered how reluctant Laika had looked upon returning home, and his sense of unease grew. \u201cSpeaking of business,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat kinds of golems can I get?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny you want.\u201d Maltra grinned. \u201cAnd for you, we wouldn\u2019t even ask much. You said you\u2019re a mercenary, right? We had a few problems with this one village, about a week north, selling us defective goods. If you could go over there and…recover<\/em> our golems until they\u2019re properly paid for…we\u2019d be happy to trade you whatever kind of golem you\u2019d like.\u201d \u00a0He leapt to his feet. \u201cCome\u2014I\u2019ll show you for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He led Grannick out back to what the mercenary had assumed was a shed. Upon entering the room, though, he saw it was full of tables laden with every conceivable material. There were rocks, minerals, plants, even animal furs and skins. And in the middle was Laika, sitting cross-legged and slowly placing stones into the approximate shape of a person.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaika!\u201d called Maltra.\u00a0 His voice sounded calm, even kind, but his eyes maintained their hard, almost cruel glare. \u201cThis customer wants to see how you make golems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laika turned, and her eyes\u2014which looked much more tired than when Grannick had met her, though not even an hour had passed\u2014widened. \u201cMr. Grannick?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Grannick looked at Maltra, who had given him a sidelong glance. \u201cWe met up the valley. She was\u2014\u201d Laika\u2019s face suddenly paled, and though Grannick didn\u2019t know what that meant, he cut himself off anyways. Then Laika interjected, \u201cGetting more materials for the Hastral order, Mr. Maltra.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grannick frowned. Though he rarely spent time with children, he knew they didn\u2019t generally address their parents by their last name.\u00a0 \u201cMr. Maltra?\u201d he repeated.<\/p>\n

Maltra frowned for a moment before sighing. \u201cLaika\u2019s parents passed away two years ago. It\u2019s the village custom for the mayor\u2019s family to take in orphans, and we did so, but she still thinks of her deceased parents as her \u2018real\u2019 mother and father. Of course, I\u2019m hoping that will change soon.\u201d His face said that it had better<\/em> change soon, and the tense undercurrent in his voice concurred. \u201cI hope you didn\u2019t bother Mr. Grannick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t,\u201d said Laika before Grannick could comment. \u201cI just needed to get some river quartz\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should have plenty of that.\u201d Maltra frowned, and this time he didn\u2019t bother to hide it from Grannick. \u201cDear, we\u2019ve been over this. You have a wonderful gift which is of such benefit to our village…and those with gifts have an obligation to share them. If you spend your time rushing over the mountains for raw materials which we already have, then you can\u2019t make as many golems for the people who need them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grannick frowned. \u201cHow many does she make in a day?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, she can do a simple one every few minutes, but those fall apart quickly. To make one durable enough to sell, she usually needs an hour, and she does about fifteen or so of those in a day.\u201d Maltra saw Grannick\u2019s shock and smiled genially. \u201cWorried about being last in the queue? Don\u2019t be. If you agree to help us with the \u2018recovery\u2019 job I mentioned earlier, I\u2019ll bump you to the front of the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grannick, who hadn\u2019t cared about the queue at all, tried to think of what to say. \u201cThe mountain villages need fifteen golems a day? When will they have enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLaika\u2019s golems tend to last for about two or three months,\u201d said Maltra. \u201cAfter that they stop working, and their owner usually wants to buy another, so we\u2019re expecting to be busy for the foreseeable future. Of course, if Laika takes longer. she can make them last for longer periods of time, and we\u2019ll make sure she takes as long as she needs with yours <\/em>to ensure it works for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

That meant Maltra was deliberately having Laika make weaker golems so they would fall apart and the village could sell more, even if it trapped his adopted daughter in a never-ending cycle. \u201cI suppose she has a lot of golem toys?\u201d<\/p>\n

Laika again paled, but Maltra was watching Grannick and missed it. \u201cShe really doesn\u2019t have time. There\u2019s so many golems to make for the benefit of the village and the…the family.\u201d He chuckled. \u201cDon\u2019t worry; she won\u2019t put off yours because she wants to make a toy for herself. She\u2019s very conscientious and understands that family comes first. Right, dear?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRight,\u201d murmured Laika. She had been assembling the stone golem while they were talking, and Grannick saw it was now in the rough shape of a human. Then she took a deep breath and pressed her hands over the stones; after a long moment\u2014longer than the mud golem outside had taken\u2014it began to glow.<\/p>\n

A hot rage creeped through Grannick, but the only response he could think of was to pulverize Maltra, and he was relatively certain that wouldn\u2019t help. \u201cI\u2019m not a mage,\u201d he drawled, \u201cbut I know some mercenaries with magic, and they told me that if someone overuses a gift like that, they could get hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maltra waved his hand airily. \u201cI won\u2019t let it come to that,\u201d he said. \u201cI consider her to be my daughter, after all. Besides, she likes making golems. Now!\u201d He clapped his hands. \u201cWhat kind of golem do you want?\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, Grannick felt like he should say something, but his thoughts felt leaden and slow. \u201cI don\u2019t…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you can put up in the inn for a couple days while you think about it.\u201d Maltra ushered Grannick out, and the mercenary realized Maltra wanted his ward to get back to golem-making without being distracted. \u201cAny stone, any gems, anything. Get our property back from that village which cheated us, and we\u2019ll make you any type of golem you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before he could respond, Grannick found himself out in the backyard with Maltra closing the shed door behind him. He took a long breath and almost turned to go back inside but stopped short. He didn\u2019t know of anything he could do. All his basic plans\u2014killing Maltra, grabbing Laika and fleeing, smashing up the place until Maltra agreed to treat Laika better\u2014would probably terrify Laika, not to mention make it impossible for him to convince her to give him her gold golem. But if he didn\u2019t do anything, a young child would continue to work fifteen-hour days in a stuffy shed so her father could add another floor to his house.<\/p>\n

Ironically, he thought, Laika would probably be better at this than he was. She was outgoing and gregarious; if she was the adult and he was the trapped kid, she could surely talk Maltra into doing the right thing and letting him go. She\u2019d even been willing to talk to him, a total stranger, so…<\/p>\n

Then he paused. \u00a0Maltra was bad, but he wasn\u2019t the only person in the village. There were others who might help. If he could use Laika as inspiration and talk to them like she had talked to him, he might have a chance. And while this wasn\u2019t anything like the challenges he was used to, he wasn\u2019t going to walk away from it. Laika needed him as much as any of the merchants he\u2019d served as a bodyguard or the nobles whose keeps he\u2019d defended from monsters did.<\/p>\n

And he would come through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Golem Maker of the Hills A Story by Aaron Canton -Part Three-   The man who answered the door at Laika\u2019s house looked nothing like the girl. He had brown hair that was going silver with age, a sharp, angular jaw, and piercing grey eyes that focused on Grannick with an unsettling intensity. \u201cHowdy,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[145,146],"tags":[273,525,1454,149],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Short-Story-Panel.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UVey-1ac","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4477,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions\/4477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}