Son of the Hero Read Online Free PDF

response. While Dorthin wasn’t strong enough to invade and conquer us as we were, if we invaded Dorthin to try to rescue Avedell, our losses might easily have weakened us enough to make us vulnerable. And my magic wasn’t enough, even though I did have my glasses then. The Etevar’s wizard was a tad bit better than me even when I was at my best. I counseled that we find ourselves a Hero. That’s the traditional method. It took a bit of doing—it always does—but we ended up with your father. He had no family of his own and he had most of the necessary skills after serving in Vietnam.”
    Parthet fell quiet then. His face was lost in the shadows. Maybe that’s where his mind was too—not to mention mine. I brought out my last two beers and we started on them. After a couple of minutes, Parthet resumed his tale.
    “How your father rescued your mother and gave the old Etevar and his wizard their just reward is too long a story to tell just now. And modesty forbids me telling my own part in that adventure. For a time afterward, your father lived here in Varay. He married Avedell. They didn’t go to your world until Avedell was expecting you. Since then, Carl has returned whenever we’ve needed our Hero. Varay is generally a peaceful little kingdom, but we have need for a Hero more often than you might imagine. That’s the way of things here.”
    “What about this time?” I asked.
    “The young Etevar—oh, not so young as you, lad, more your father’s age—has been causing trouble, more than usual. He’s always looking for ways to avenge his father’s death. His army took a small castle on the march between our lands, a fief belonging to a Varayan knight, a distant cousin of yours, I believe. His Majesty was angry, but there were other complications, a dispute with the elflord on our nothern border. Our army, such as it is, is fully occupied with that. Since it didn’t appear that the Etevar would leave much of a garrison to hold Castle Thyme, His Majesty thought that your father might be able to handle the incident with such modest help as we could give.”
    I sat there and tried to soak it all in. No matter how it sounded, I had to accept everything as real until proved otherwise. Sure, it all sounded like the premise for an arcade game, but just maybe we weren’t all crazy. I wasn’t sure about this Hero jazz, but it would explain all of Dad’s scars, and the way new ones appeared now and then. While I was on my James Bond kick, I thought Dad was a spy, off on dangerous missions with beautiful lady spies.
    “What did Mother think she could do?” I asked.
    Parthet chuckled. “Well, she’s not all that helpless, lad. She’s really deadly with a bow. I’ve seen her skewer a hot dog—the long way—from fifty yards. And she does control a wee bit of magic of her own. Nothing major, you understand, but a little, a little.”
    “So what do I do?”
    “I’m not sure.” He shook his head a couple of times. “If your father and mother didn’t succeed, there may be more to this than I thought. There may be wizardry involved.”
    “It’s getting dark,” I said, since Parthet didn’t seem to have noticed. “You have any candles or anything?” The shadows were so deep that I could do no more than make out Parthet’s outline.
    “There’s a lamp, if there’s any fuel left. Hold on, I’ll try to find it.” He got up and went to the end of the fireplace, right to the lantern. He shook it gently and brought it back. “There seems to be a bit of kerosene left.” When the light came on, I was surprised to see that it was a Coleman lantern, not some primitive local thingie.
    “Ah, yes, that is better.” Parthet sat across from me again. “Now, where were we?”
    “You said there might be wizardry involved.”
    “Yes, certainly there might be. A wizard with better eyesight than mine. You may have a touch of the gift yourself, lad, like your mother. Your father was going to bring you around so I