Merek's Ascendance (10 page)

             
He moved more assuredly now, though his legs still shook slightly. Merek followed, trying his best not to disturb any beams John was on. Merek wasn’t very used to this type of challenge either, but falling didn’t worry him as much as it did John.

             
I’ve been falling for years.

             
Merek shook the thought away, the lapse in concentration almost throwing him off of the course. Meanwhile, John had made it to the last beam. But his concentration must have slipped too, because suddenly he was off-balance. Reacting quickly, Merek jumped beams without thinking until he made it to John’s beam.

             
A second before John fell.

             
Diving, Merek stretched out his hand. John, reached out for him, but he couldn’t maintain his grip on Merek’s forearm.

             
Merek, however, latched on to John’s arm with the grip of someone not accustomed to letting go of whoever or whatever it was holding on to. But with no purchase, nothing to pull John up to, Merek was stuck without any options. To make matters worse, his arm was tiring the longer he had to support John.

             
“Just let go, buddy,” John said, “there’s no harm in me falling.”

             
“True,” Merek said, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he focused all of his efforts on pulling John up. John grabbed the beam with both hands, and Merek let go. Merek moved off of the beam, giving the room to John, who quickly pulled himself up.

             
They both stood on the next platform, smiling while they caught their breath.

             
“I hope you two are having fun, NOW MOVE IT!”

             
The Trainer’s call was unmistakable, and together the two started to move down the rest of the course. There were only two challenges left, crossing the posts and then a net that shot to the ground.

             
Merek and John shared a glance, and Merek shrugged. Compared to what they had already done, this should be easy.

             
He was wrong.

             
The posts didn’t move, but standing on one for too long exhausted his limbs. He could only place one foot down at a time, and so his every landing was precarious at best. John fared a bit better, probably due to his experience with it, but still the two had trouble maintaining their balance. Merek fell only once, but he was able to catch himself before falling off of the course. John fell twice, but both times he was able to make it look like he had done it on purpose.

             
Then, finally, they made it to the net.

             
“The trick here is to fall so you don’t break your neck or hit the ground really hard,” John explained.

             
“You make it sound so easy,” Merek replied.

             
John said nothing else, but instead jumped onto the net. He rolled down, his momentum seeming to spin out of control. At the very last second, his hand reached out and he caught the net, but he must have miscalculated because he pin-wheeled and hit the ground hard enough for Merek to hear the impact.

             
“Ouch,” Merek said.

             
“I do that every time,” John said, standing up and rubbing his backside. Merek shrugged before leaping down, rolling uncontrollably until he was able to grab a hold of the rope. Unfortunately, he appeared to have made the exact same mistake John made, and he landed on his butt harder than he had meant to.

             
“Well, apparently I’m not very good at that either,” Merek said with a laugh. Together, he and John rejoined the Trainer and those not on the course yet. Milly was still there, and she hugged John the moment they were next to each other. Almost as an afterthought, Milly hugged Merek too, which made Merek laugh.

             
“Does John always make you worry this much?” Merek whispered to her. She simply nodded with an exasperated sigh.

             
“Well, you got through it. How about next time you stop holding hands and run the course right?” the Trainer barked, turning his attention to the others on the course.

             
“Well, we’re free until the afternoon, and then we do more practice and have free training time. Until then, want to grab some lunch?” John said.

             
“Mhm,” Milly said, turning to Merek with eyebrows raised.

             
“Oh,” Merek replied, completely unsure of himself when John and Milly both looked to him. He certainly wasn’t expecting to be invited.

“Sure,” he replied, and the three of them left the course.

It was a strange feeling, Merek noted, being invited.

Chapter Eight: The Concept of Friendship

              The three of them went to the Grand Hall, the meeting place for the people and where lunch was usually served. It turned out that every day around high noon, King Tyrigg had a meal for whoever was in the area, as long as they brought some food to share with everyone. The knights and those in training were the few exceptions, seeing as they kept the peace or were training to do so, and thus couldn’t cook anything.

             
It was lucky, because Merek suddenly found he was very hungry.

             
“Merek!”

             
Merek turned to the familiar voice, seeing Thorald headed towards them.

             
“Milly, John,” Thorald said when he was near enough, “how are you today?”

             
“Nothing to complain about,” Milly said with a smile.

             
“Pretty good. Your new best friend saved my neck on the course today,” John said, clapping a hand on Merek’s back.

             
“Yeah, he tends to do that,” Thorald said. “Listen, how about you three sit near me?” He lowered his voice and leaned in closer, “it’s better than listening to Aunt Tomina.”

             
He turned his gaze, and Merek followed it to a woman in a rather ill-fitting dress talking with King Tyrigg.

             
“The King sits here during the feast?” Merek asked. “Isn’t that… unsafe?”

             
“A lot of people think so, myself included. But he insists that it’s better for morale, and better for the country, that he is seen. That people can feel comfortable bringing their problems to him.”

             
“What do you think?”

             
“I think he’s right… but we should still have him sit at a separate table, at least.”

             
Merek nodded and chuckled slightly, getting a plate of food. He tried not to take too much, seeing as everyone present needed to eat, but he still loaded the plate.

             
“I thought he had his own table. Isn’t that where we sat a few nights ago?”

             
“He uses that for ceremonies, important occasions. Not lunch.”

             
“I suppose his son returning alive is a very important occasion.”

             
“Greeting my rescuer was as well.”

             
“Really?” Merek said, though Thorald didn’t appear to hear him. The thought had never even occurred to him.

             
Still feeling one step behind everyone else, he sat next to Thorald as they began to eat. Milly and John soon lost themselves in their own conversation, while Thorald seemed to be contemplating something.

             
“What’s on your mind?” Merek asked as he bit into a piece of chicken.

             
“We sent some troops yesterday to the Eastern Plains, to recover the bodies of the fallen.”

             
Merek nodded to show he was listening as he took another bite.

             
“They returned just a few hours ago, with the bodies, and we’re preparing their funeral now.”

             
“Then what worries you?”

             
Thorald was quiet as he thought it over, making sure no one was eavesdropping. Tyrigg was talking to Tomina, who was complaining about the long commute (whatever that was) between the castle and her home and how he would be
such
a dear to have someone come by to pick her up instead of her having to walk.

             
Small wonder Thorald doesn’t want to talk with her
. Merek thought. She seemed healthy enough to him where a walk wouldn’t hurt her.

             
“It’s the rope bridge,” Thorald finally said, pulling Merek’s attention back to him.

             
“What about it?”

             
“I thought it had just snapped due to the storm. But… the soldiers who returned reported that the bridge… the ropes didn’t seem weathered or frayed. Near as they could tell, it shouldn’t have snapped unless it was directly struck by lightning, or something of the like.”

             
“So you worry that it was cut,” Merek said.

             
“That is my worry, yes. I fear Grevoria was attempting to assassinate me.”

             
“Do we have any proof?” Merek said, shoving a roll into his mouth.

             
“None so far. And I think it best not to bring up any accusations without it.”

             
Merek nodded. Besides, if Grevoria didn’t know that they were suspected, than that would give Thorald an advantage.

             
“What are you two whispering about, so quietly and mysteriously?” Milly said, inching closer to them. John looked at them both with almost an apology, and Merek laughed.

             
“Sorry, I’m a bit nosy,” Milly said, shaking her mane of hair.

             
“Just reliving our meeting,” Merek said immediately, eating something that seemed like a thicker form of soup. It tasted sweet and had chunks of chicken in it.

             
“Oh yeah,” John said, “We’ve heard part of the tale. Found our dear Prince when he was stuck in a ditch, right?”

             
“I wasn’t stuck in a ditch,” Thorald said, “I was at the bottom of a ravine.”

             
Merek could tell the bottom of the ravine was still very much a sore subject for Thorald, so he moved the conversation along to the forest.

             
“Well, after getting him out of the ravine we run to the forest because we’re being chased by a tornado,” Merek said.

             
“Can you believe that? A tornado! Bearing down on us faster than you would believe.”

             
“So we run…”

             
“Well,” Thorald interjected, “hobble.”

             
“Yes,” Merek laughed, “limp to the forest, fast as we could, because the wind’s picking up and the rain’s falling…”

             
“So we finally make it to the trees, and I think we’re safe, but Merek here, he wants to keep running.”

             
“I’ve seen the storms before, being outside is asking for trouble. So we run, well, hobble some more…”

             
“Until we make it to this little cave in the middle of the forest.”

             
“That’s the cave,” Milly interrupted, “where you spent the last six months, right?”

             
“The very same,” Merek said, “and it had become quite nice, I think. So we waited out the storm,”

             
“I still don’t know how the tornado didn’t suck us out through the opening,” Thorald laughed.

             
“Until finally we were able to walk to the nearest village.”

             
“We practically had to swim, there was so much water.”

             
Merek laughed, and then noticed half of the table was hanging on their every word. Tyrigg was resting his head on an arm, only half-listening to Tomina and clearly listening to them.

             
“And… yeah, that was our adventure,” Thorald concluded.

             
“Well, how you managed to survive out there for six months is amazing,” Milly said, “especially with all the storms and the angry bears…”

             
“Angry?” Merek said, giving her his full attention. “What makes you say that they’re angry?”

             
“Well… they’re bears. Bears are always angry.”

             
“That’s not what I’ve found,” Merek replied, “not if you’re nice to them. If you treat them with respect, they’ll leave you alone. Sometimes you might even get a hug.”

             
“Wait…” Thorald said in a voice of total disbelief, “you were hugged by a bear?”

             
Merek shrugged and nodded. Was that really so unheard of?

             
“Wow. The Great Forest must have
really
liked you,” Milly said as she took a roll from a silver platter in front of them.

             
Merek simply shrugged again before the entirety of his attention was drawn by the latest entrant into the Grand Hall. It was the woman from his first night, today wrapped in a simple blue dress that hung loosely from her shoulders. She smiled at everyone she passed, taking a plate of food and sitting halfway down the table.

             
When his attention returned to his companions, he found Milly was almost bent double with laughter. Thorald had a huge smile as well, and John chuckled as he put a hand on Milly’s back.

             
“Did I miss something?” Merek asked, his brow furrowed at the strange reactions coming from his companions.

             
“Whenever…” Milly laughed, “Whenever you get your jaw back into place, just let us know.”

             
“Whenever I… what?”

             
“You should really just go talk to her,” Thorald said with an appreciative chuckle.

             
“Talk to who?”
              “Who do you think?” John chimed in. “The woman you were just drooling over.”

             
It took Merek another moment before realizing what was clearly obvious to all three of them. His face reddened, and this did not go unnoticed either. Thorald tried his best not to laugh, but the other two didn’t even pretend. Soon, half of the table, the woman included, all stared at the commotion.

             
“I wouldn’t even know what to say,” Merek said to Thorald, the only one who could actually hear him anyway.

             
“Start with ‘hello,’” Thorald replied, “that’s usually quite the icebreaker.”

             
Merek smiled despite himself, looking down at his plate as the smile faded.

             
“As if I even deserve to say hello,” Merek said to himself, a custom he had long ago grown used to.

             
But this time, there was someone else around to hear it.

             
Merek got up from the table and nodded his goodbye to the three of them, and so he didn’t see the smile fall from Thorald as well. Nor did Merek see his new friend watch his retreating back with an expression of both pity and concern.

             
All Merek saw was the woman smile at him, a smile so bright and beautiful even Merek couldn’t suppress the urge to smile back.

             
It was almost enough to lift his spirits.

             
Several hours later, after the Trainer was through punishing them all with sparring matches and exercises, Merek found himself staring at the forest without really knowing why. He was comfortable here in the castle, he was safe, he had met new people, and he wasn’t getting rained on constantly.

             
But he still missed his little cave in the wilderness. He didn’t have mixed feelings about the leaves, and he didn’t have to wonder if he looked decent for the rocks.

             
“You look… wistful.”

             
Merek didn’t need to look to see Thorald’s approach, and he didn’t turn as the prince stood next to him.

             
“I don’t know what that means,” Merek admitted honestly. He was too tired, both from training and… something else, he couldn’t quite name it, to really care.

             
“Something tells me you don’t read a lot,” Thorald said.

             
“I never learned how.”

             
“You never learned to read?”

             
“My... my mother was too busy to teach me. And I was needed to work the farm, so I never went to school.”

             
Thorald was quiet, though Merek could see the pity in his eyes. He despised it.

             
“Just something that happens,” Merek said, “nothing to worry about. Plenty of people can’t read.”

             
“This is true,” Thorald said, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about it. Come with me.”

             
“Was that a request?”