Hope (8 page)

As Mikael laid his hand upon the dog’s head, the poor animal shuddered and shoved its body into Mikael, knocking him off balance. It lunged at his face, drowning him with its slobbery tongue.

"Help, get him off me!" Mikael laughed, trying to push the dog away.

"Looks like you have a new pet." Lanclor said in a jealous tone.

"Mikael, I don't want to go to school tomorrow," Jenna said, looking down and trying not to giggle as the black dog from the cave licked her toes.

Lanclor smiled beneath his helmet.

"Jenna, why don't you want to go to school? Did something happen?" Mikael frowned and clenched his jaw.

"No...I mean...yes...the other kids. They laugh at me and call me names."

"Why do they laugh at you? What do they call you?"

Lanclor saw the fear in Mikael’s eyes masked with a questioning smile.

"They call me 'Gimpy' and they laugh when I say I'm going to be in the Royal Guard when I grow up. Why do they have to say that? I know I'm different, but that doesn't mean I can't do the things I want to do when I grow up. My teachers told me so." Her little lip quivered and she was close to tears.

Lanclor’s heart clenched at the only fear Mikael had ever voiced. Children could be so cruel. When they saw another kid with a physical problem, they pounced like dire wolves on a newborn calf. Jenna's missing hand wasn't her fault and the others shouldn't hold it against her.

The other kids not picking on her sooner surprised him. Their parents probably warned them not to; knowing the attack that had cost Jenna her hand had also cost Mikael’s wife her life. Marilynn had been a brave woman and held off the Daemons as long as possible. Mikael arrived before the Daemons took more than Jenna's hand.

"You can do anything you want, Jenna," Mikael said with confidence. "Don’t let anyone ever tell you different. The other kids are only picking on you because they’re not smart enough to realize that people can overcome anything if they’re strong and stubborn enough."

"You're right, Mikael, I'm sorry I let them get to me. This isn’t enough to stop me from doing what I want." She waved her left stump in front of her face. "I'm going to go to bed now." Jenna gave Mikael a quick peck on the cheek, smiled at Lanclor, and then ran to her room.

A sad smile came to Mikael’s face as she raced to her room. Marrilynn, Lanclor’s youngest sister, had been gone for several cycles, but Lanclor’s heart still ached every time he thought of her. Nobody could ever take her place in their lives. Lanclor saw so much of her in Jenna, even though they weren’t related, that at times he thought she was looking out of Jenna’s eyes. He hoped she liked what she saw
.

To say Kathryn was nervous would be a gross understatement. Hal and she were about to enter a selection process against numerous candidates from another world that spoke a completely different language. Rielle and Nikton remained by their sides to offer as interpreters.

They had to endure three months of magic class and weapons drills. The knight leading the magic class was a tall, lean man with gray wings and dull gray armor. Like most of the knights, he never took off his helmet. They even wore their helmets during meals using a small flap to gain access to their mouths. It was like talking to a pot with eyes.

"My name is Jakara. I’ll be your Assessor in the realm of magic. Did I give you permission to speak?" he demanded of their translators in a stern voice.

"We’re the translators for these two candidates. They’re from Earth and don’t speak the common tongue," Rielle declared with some annoyance.

Kathryn knew Lord Alextor had told everyone of their presence, but Assessor Jakara chose to single them out anyway. The bug up his ass must have crawled in there and died.

"Oh, yes, I forgot the
Earthlings
would be in my class," he said the word Earthlings with undisguised malice. "As I was saying, I’ll be your Assessor in the realm of magic. You’ll be required to perform ten simple spells by the end of the training. If you’re unable to perform these spells, you won’t make it into the Knighthood. The spells are as follows: fire, ice, water, levitation of objects, fire shield, ice shield, water shield, deflection, teleportation of objects, and holding. All of these spells are simple, and honestly, not very effective. They’re simply a test to see if you’re capable of working with the spells and pronouncing the syllables of the magic language.

"If the Goddess recognizes your skill, then you should have no problem performing these spells. The speaking of the incantation is a plea to the Goddess to allow you to cast the spell. This is why you need to make sure you pronounce it correctly. You’ll find the books under your cots. After today, you’ll need to have them with you for this assessment every day. If you fail to bring them, then there’s no assessment for you that day and no opportunity to make up the time."

He spent the next hour going through some of the spells and explaining the proper pronunciation. Kathryn’s mind wandered back to Jakob and whether or not his gift would allow her to remember the spells. She had tried to take French in high school, but could never seem memorize the list of words each week. Failing French didn’t have the same impact as failing this would. The magic should be the easy part; it was the sword that worried her.

Their weapons assessment took place in a small courtyard. They lined up and waited until the Assessor arrived.

"If our Assessor is Sir Lanclor, I’m going to hurt you," Hal said to her under his breath with almost humor.

"Oh, yeah, I remember now. Something about turning tail and running if he came at you with a sword," she said with a smile.

He scowled. "Maybe you aren’t afraid of having some seven-foot guy in armor come at you with a sword, but we sane people tend to want to avoid that situation."

Sir Lanclor wasn’t really seven feet, maybe 6’5", but his wings added almost another foot. "Good morning, candidates. My name is Sir Lanclor and I’ll be your Assessor in the realm of battle. We don’t expect you to be able to go out and fight Daemons after this assessment, but simply to have a basic knowledge of swordsmanship and be able to identify various foes.

"We’ll meet four times per week. Half of our meetings will deal with drilling, while the other half will involve the discussion of specific foes—what they look like, what their weaknesses and strengths are, and in which area of Av’lor you’ll find them. You’ll pass this assessment if you’re physically able to complete the drills and answer various questions about specific foes.

"Knowing your enemy is the key to defeating him. As for the drill, it will not only be swordplay, but also weapon maintenance and formation marching. This is critical in your future role as a knight. Until you show me you’re incapable of learning this information, I’ll assume all of you will make it into the Knighthood. I hope my assumption will not be proven incorrect."

Sir Lanclor surprised Kathryn with his encouragement. He always seemed on the verge of losing his temper. Something in the way he held his wings made her think he would leap into the sky at any moment or attack anyone who annoyed him. She hoped she could stay on his good side or the next few months would be difficult.

"I’m one of the few drill instructors who think initial instruction with metal weaponry is the only way for a candidate to build enough strength and respect to use that weapon effectively. Many instructors start their candidates with a wooden weapon, then move to metal weapons after the candidate has proven ability with the wooden weapon. Playing with a stick and drilling with a metal sword are vastly different."

Sir Lanclor began pacing their lines, pausing at times to look each of them in the eye. When he stopped in front of Kathryn, she caught a subtle smell of cinnamon. It reminded her of apple pie and she felt a sudden longing for home. She thought he looked at her just a little longer than the others before moving on.

"You’ll never get used to the weight of a metal sword if you don’t start out with it. However, I’m not a barbarian who will give an untrained recruit a sharp weapon without some type of protection for his foe. All of the swords, when used for training, are under a blunting spell so you can’t chop your fellow candidate's arm off—or your own.

"Also, the padded armor is spelled to not allow the wearer to come to harm, but uses colored markings to mimic the intensity of the wound; the darker the color, the worse the
wound
." He illustrated by striking a sword against a brown shield. The light wounds were yellow while the harder ones were red.

"With that in mind, I would ask that you please come and select a sword one at a time. These swords are all of the finest quality. If you make it into the Knighthood, you may choose to keep the sword you started with. Sometimes a sword will seem like it calls to you. These swords have a magic all of their own, but many people don’t realize that the sword isn’t really calling to them; it senses your potential calling to it and responds in kind. We’ll save the selection of the armor until after you learn to care for your sword. Please proceed."

They walked in a single-file line toward the racks of swords. Sir Lanclor encouraged them to let people take as much time as needed to find the sword made for them. Some went to the rack and seemed to select a sword at random. When she was the third person from the front, Kathryn decided to look at the racks of swords to see if there was one that caught her eye. She could only see the first two racks and didn’t see how one sword was different from another. She glanced over at Sir Lanclor’s sheathed black sword and wondered if it were the one he selected during his training. He noticed her look and walked over.

"Do you have a question?"

"Did you choose that sword the same way we’re choosing ours?"

"Yes. It wasn’t the same then. For some people the sword ends up Evolving. For most, the changes are subtle; maybe a little added color or a rune or two. For others, their sword never changes. This doesn’t mean they don’t have potential. It just means they won't focus on weaponry.

"Many of the Gray wings, the magically gifted knights, have plain swords because their focus is on magic and not weaponry. The Brown wings, those more focused on battle and less on magic, have a tendency to have Evolved swords. Then there are Soulbearers. Their swords go beyond Evolved and become Transformed. It’s your turn to choose your sword." He gestured to the racks and stepped away.

She walked past the swords in the first and second rows, but didn't feel any pull toward a certain one. There was only one row left
.
If she didn’t feel a pull, she was just going to pick one. There's no sense in looking like an idiot. She was more than halfway through the last row when she noticed it. No magical blue glow announced its presence and it didn’t sing out for her. The simple sword reminded her of the first time she held Rachel. She reached out and gripped the hilt. Her vision flooded with white.

The sheer number of Daemons flooding from the portal staggered her. She floated above the ground about 100 yards from the portal with a squad of knights at her back. A large army of knights and horses gathered at the edge of the valley before a river. The army of knights resembled ants standing their ground against a water hose. She cast spell after spell, but where a dozen Daemons fell, two dozen more took their place. The flow of the Daemons slammed into the knights on the ground and fires spread around the valley. Screams echoed throughout the valley from men, horses and Daemons. She fell to the ground as a Daemon severed her wing, and then watched her friends get cut down around her. Earth would fall with the knights' deaths and now she’d lose everything she’d gained.

Kathryn felt the rapid beating of her heart and put her free hand to her chest in an attempt to suppress her horror. The smell of burning flesh filled her nose and her eyes stung from the smoke. She didn’t know how long she had stood there with her hand gripping the sword. When her eyes focused, she saw Sir Lanclor standing behind the row of swords and watching her eyes. It seemed he dared not touch her for fear she might harm him in some way. She knew Sir Lanclor had seen the look of terror on her face.

"Is everything okay?" he asked quietly in his accented English.

"Y-Yes. I guess I was just daydreaming. Sorry, Sir Lanclor."