*
"Are you a clairoyal?" he asked him one day. Luca and Darius lay on a grassy knoll and watched a cloud of sylphs dancing across a meadow, while Wolf dozed in a patch of dandelions.
"A clairvoyant."
"Yes, that. You are, aren't you? You can tell the future and everything."
"Who, me?" said Darius, scratching his bristling red beard in thought. He took a long time to think about it, and years later, Luca realized he was just amusing himself. "Nope."
"But you know things before they happen," Luca said, stunned and disbelieving. He flipped onto his elbows and came right out with it. "You knew that storm was coming in Starblum valley. And you knew about that cavetroll when we went into the Atrayan caverns, but you said it wouldn't find us until we found the blue diamond, and we'd get out in time because one of the tunnels would cave in - and it did!"
"Yes, that was a good story," Darius said, grinning to himself.
"You told it before it happened!"
"I am a good guesser. It's one of my many talents. Aren't you glad I made that guess? It was a fun trip into that cave."
Scowling, Luca flopped back onto the grass and tried to adopt a smug tone. "Well you can't fool me," he said, knowing he had won the argument even if Darius didn't want to admit it. "I know you're a clairvoyal 'cause you never let me-"
"Finish your sentences?" he suggested.
One day, Luca had returned from a trip to the market with a black eye and in a furious temper. He had stormed back to where he and Darius had made camp the day before, to find Darius ready and waiting with a compress of herbs and medicine.
"You knew it would happen, didn't you!" he demanded, fighting back tears.
"I know lots of things. Sit down, and don't touch it, come here."
Luca pushed him off. In the last town they had visited, some of the boys had been skeptical of Darius' stories. Luca hated hearing them call Darius a crackpot old loony, a pathetic old man who should be put in the stocks, and a raving liar who swindles people out of their money. He had finally shouted at them that they knew nothing, and they had left him sprawled in the dirt. "Why didn't you stop them?" he nearly yelled. "You could have, but you didn't! Why didn't you?"
"Because - sit still - because sometimes it's not enough to avoid the bad things," Darius said, grabbing him and making him sit still while he treated his eye. "If I'd told you to stay away from those boys, would you have done so?"
"No," Luca snapped. "You didn't hear-"
"What they said about us. So you would have done it anyway, even if I told you you'd come back looking like this?"
Luca fumed silently while Darius wrung out a damp cloth. "Exactly. Some things have to happen, even if they hurt. That's called learning. Now think. What did you learn?"
Luca kicked at the ground moodily, but his anger ebbed away. "I dunno... duck?"
Darius laughed. "How about, 'don't concern yourself with things that don't matter, for that path leads to black eyes'? Think you'll take that path again?"
"No," Luca grumbled.
"Hm. Learned something already. Keep that up and you'll know as much as I do one day."
After awhile, Luca suspected that whenever Darius let him finish asking a question, he was humouring him. Sometimes Luca greatly amused himself with any question he could think of, since Darius always seemed to know the answer.
"What are we going to see when we get to Serafine Forest?" Luca asked him, while they sat on the back of a bouncy hay cart as it followed a caravan across the hillside.
"Oh, a lot of trees, some bushes and flowers... and you're going to give a wood sprite a terrible surprise when you trip over his tree roots."
"What about... that story you told back in Milandria, with that mad old shepherd and the manticore - when will we meet him?"
"In about a fortnight. Which reminds me, I'll need to pick up a decent shield in Grystold... and you're getting too tall for that tunic, we'll find you a leather one instead. Don't worry, we'll have enough to afford it; there's a wealthy lord in Grystold who's going to be absolutely captivated by our excellent adventures tomorrow night."
Luca grinned and kicked his feet over the edge of the cart, while Wolf lay in Darius' lap and sniffed at the juicy berries he had scooped into his hand. When Luca looked at up at him, Darius raised a bushy eyebrow in amusement.
"Father, why do we travel so much?" he asked. "You know, telling stories in different towns and having adventures all over the world. Didn't you ever want a home somewhere, with a front door and a bedroom and a fireplace and all that?"
"We've got a home, boy," Darius said, flicking the last berry at Luca's nose. It left a small smear, and Luca laughed in dismay as Wolf got up to lick it. Once Luca had pulled his arms around Wolf in a headlock, Darius ruffled Luca's hair with his large hand and paused before continuing. "I always wanted to have adventures with my son," he said, grinning. "Show him all the places I've seen, make him see how wonderful the world is, and why we've got to appreciate what's here in this land. And that's what I've got, my greatest blessing. Never wished for anything more."
Luca didn't say so, but he thought he felt just the same way - that nothing could make him happier than his adventures with Darius. He had wished, as he had always wished, that it could go on forever.