Return To Sky Raven (Book 2) (36 page)

“Alex, end this if you please!”

Father made a heavy thrust, seemingly not caring about only hitting him lightly at this point. But this time, Alex didn’t dodge; instead the blade impacted right above his heart and the point skittered off without leaving a scratch.

“I stabbed you! Alex, are you ok?”

Alex laughed and tossed away his training shield and sword. “I’m fine! We didn’t want to say it, but even that sword will never penetrate this armor; hell, even a demon couldn’t pierce it!” He walked over and retrieved his tower shield, hammer, and helm. Settling the helmet over his head, he sealed it and dropped the faceplate.

“My Lady, would you care to demonstrate?” he said, performing a low bow.

“Why thank you, Magic Boy, I thought you’d never ask!”

……………………………………………….

Alex

Maya snapped her headgear in place and started out with dual crossbows, which she whirled around and fired simultaneously into a four-inch post set into the ground about thirty feet outside the sparring arena. The metal bolts sang slightly as they shot out of the barrels; the first five or six striking so close as to make a single hole. The last grouping across the bottom snapped the post off completely.

Faeron, Renalla and Ryliss were mesmerized; but Lin and Jules, who had seen it all before, were clapping their hands and whistling.

Next, Winya dismissed the crossbows and reemerged as the serrated dagger. Maya held it up for everyone to see. A few seconds later all but the faintest outline of the dagger went invisible, immediately followed by Maya’s armor performing the same disappearing act. Renalla gasped and grabbed the King’s arm in amazement. Ryliss just shook her head in disbelief.

Maya finally reappeared, holding the dagger, which then morphed into Winya’s preferred and most impressive incarnation - the white and silver long sword. Sliding it slowly past her helmet, she bent into a spring stance, paused for a second and then launched into the attack.

I heard the breath go out of the spectators as Maya’s sword lashed out and was barely intercepted by the left edge of my tower shield. I flipped a quick snap of my hammer at her head to drive her back to a more respectful distance. Like an enraged panther, she paced around my defenses looking for a hole and selecting her next moment to lunge. Whenever Winya did strike either my shield or armor, sparks would spray out like a fan, much to the delight of the crowd. Maya was getting better at masking her intentions so I couldn’t always rely on my mage sight to provide accurate estimates of her whereabouts anymore. On two occasions, she managed to slip by my shield and get in a blow to my helm that I actually felt. She was putting a lot into this match, probably to show off to her parents a bit.

Once when I ventured an overhand crushing blow with the hammer and Maya elected to block instead of evade, I was pretty sure I heard a muffled
“Ow!”
and a curse from Winya.

“Sorry, girl,”
I sent over the conduit.

“Grrr, It’s a good thing you didn’t give that damn hammer a voice, Alex, or he and I would be having words right now,”
Winya gritted.

“Yeah, he is a brute, isn’t he?”

After about twenty minutes of this, I stopped and bowed low to my dark elf maiden and removed my helmet.

“My lady, I surrender to your superior skills.”

Maya ripped off her helmet and sauntered over, catlike, and whispered, “I have skills you haven’t even begun to dream of yet!” Any reply I might have made was drowned out by the applause from our spectators. Even Ryliss suspended her disbelief for a few moments to run over and congratulate us on the show.

Renalla rushed up and wanted to examine Winya more closely. Fortunately, Maya remembered to warn her at the last second not to actually touch her. Examination and questions finally over, Maya looked up into her mother’s shining eyes.

“Well, Mom, what do you think; is this an acceptable courting gift?”

Renalla didn’t answer right away; she just grabbed her daughter, and they shared a tearful hug. Finally, she whispered something in Maya’s ear and the two of them burst into laughter.

Maya’s father walked up slowly and patted Maya on the back. Turning to me, he bowed formally. “Alex, I accept you as my daughter’s courted. You are a fine young man, Alex, and an even better warrior. It comforts me to know that she has you by her side to protect her.”

“Thank you, sir. I will protect her with my life,” I said, meaning every word.

Later, toward sunset, I was told to dress in my robes and leave my armor and weapons behind. I had no idea where they were taking me, but it was starting to get really dark. Our small procession, with a few guards trailing behind, slipped through the now thinly-travelled streets leading to the back of the Capital on the edge of the dark foreboding forest. Traversing through a set of gates and down a cobblestone path, I soon found myself standing in a clearing with a large carved rock in the center with many burning candles on it. At the opposite edge of the small ceremonial area, was an arch made from still living trees.

“This is the trial for manhood and is not something to be taken lightly. For some, this trial takes a day; for others, almost a week,” said Faeron.

“What do I have to do that takes that long?”

He smiled slightly. “The task is very simple really; all you will have to do is find the shack about two miles to the south of here, speak to the shaman who lives there, and return.”

“But be warned,” said Renalla, “the forest does not like unwelcome guests and will test your mind.” Then she smiled, killing the ominous mood they had both created. “Say hello to my father for me, will you?”

“Your father?”

Maya wrapped her arms around me. “Yes, the shaman is my grandfather, so be a good boy and behave; not that I’m worried you won’t, but you get my point.” She kissed me gently, getting a pleasant sigh from Renalla. “And before you ask; yes, we girls undertake a similar trial, so I know what to expect and you will do just fine.”

Nia flew over to us as she cried, “You’re going to be gone for days? Why does this always happen to me?” She franticly flew over to Faeron. “I can go with him, right? Please say I can go with him!” He shook his head no.

“I’ll be fine, Nia, so don’t worry. Remember, even out of my armor, I’m not defenseless. I’ll be back before you know it, so please don’t worry.”

She sniffled and flew over to sit disconsolately on the rock, her arms crossed in a pout. Faeron came over to us. “I hate to have to do this, but there is also another rule.” He held up an actual stone knife and a small bundle of leather. “You can only take these with you…and only these. You can change on the other side of the rock.”

Great, going into a dark forest in a loin cloth; I always wanted to do that - not! I did as I was told and went behind the rock to change. Apparently, they don’t make these things for someone my size. As I walked out from behind the rock, Faeron shook his head but tried to hide his mirth. “I am so sorry, Alex.” I looked around to see Renalla blatantly staring at me and Maya nibbling on her finger.

“Well, daughter,” Renalla smiled, approvingly, “that is one hell of a body!”

“Mother!” Maya ground her teeth. “Stop eyeing my boyfriend! I have enough trouble keeping the twins at bay; I don’t need you trying to get in his pants, too.”

She smiled. “Not that hard, dear; he’s not wearing any pants!”

“Mother!”

“
Just to add my comments, mmm-mmm,” s
aid Winya.

I sighed, shook my head and said goodbye to everyone, especially the disgruntled pixie. I smiled as I watched the King and Queen begin walking home arm in arm like a couple of human teenagers, followed by their guards. Maya and Nia plopped down on a blanket and settled in to wait.

With a resigned breath, I started my trip into the forest. It was dark, and I mean like full-ink-bottle dark, but with my mage sight, it was almost bright as day for me. My pace was pretty good, but I will admit I would have liked some shoes or at least a foot wrap or something. Maya keeps me in shape training, but barefooted combat was something we just don’t do. So I really had to watch my step; but even so, there were a few instances where I was reduced to a simpering idiot hopping around on one foot. I just had to hope there wasn’t anyone following me, evaluating my trip and taking off points for tender-footedness.

Every so often, I would deliberately turn off my mage sight and pretend I was a normal human. Then the darkness would overwhelm me and I would stop dead in my tracks, confused. I also thought I heard whispers in the night air. “Go right…run…go left.” Of course, as soon as I activated the mage vision, all became clear again and the noises retreated to normal forest sounds.

I decided now would be a good time to check in on Rosa, and the first thing she said was,
“I’ve been told to tell you that Dawn will happily be there in less than two hours if you promise not to change out of the loin cloth…No, make that less than an hour!”

“What, are you giving everyone there a running account? What is with everyone? It’s just a loin cloth!”

“That’s just it! It’s
just
a loin cloth! I’m sure if you did one loop around Sky Raven in that, every girl here would be all over you. It would make the pied piper legend look foolish!”

“Thanks, I think. So what’s going on over there?”

“Well, let’s see…I’ve been working on creating a new portal for Sky Raven, a new and improved version of the ones I made centuries ago. Much more versatile and with better safeguards. Oh, I finally found that thing you needed from the black room; let me just say I never want to do that again! As for everything else, things are going really well. We are already getting supplies delivered from Belrothe’s farmers, and they seem more than happy to trade with us. In fact, I do believe that dashing young cavalry commander stops by almost every day. I have heard he’s making quite a splash with the older healer girls. I’m pretty sure the road between the farms and Sky Raven is the most secure ever.”

“Speaking of the road, the earth wizards have completed most of the repairs to the citadel and they have started improving the road from here down to the main trade route. Nearly every morning we find a pile of fresh herbs and other ingredients left near the bridge; the healers absolutely love that. Your parents are helping out, too, teaching some of the classes. Imagine learning magic directly from the celestial beings who created it! We are so kicking the asses of any other mage school out there. By the way, the twins both say that they miss you two very much, but I think they are hoping that when you return, their training will be over and they can finally get away from the nebulia maidens!”

“But the news is not all good. From what we are hearing from our first test trips through the portal, Ocanse has fallen. It’s been completely overrun by the Duke’s forces, and waves of refugees are pouring into Elcanse and Anshea. More area of the map, sadly, turned to black. Sorry to end on a sour note, but I think you have reached your destination.”

“Good night, Rosa.”

I had indeed reached my goal. A few hundred feet in front of me was a small twig hut. Light from a fire could be seen through a tiny window and there was herbal-smelling smoke rising through the roof. I walked over and knocked on the door. “I believe someone is at the door, Master,” I heard from within.

“That’s odd this time of year. Kahr, be a good lad and deal with it will you?”

“Yes, Master.” The door opened to a rather surprised young dark elf. Scrawny didn’t begin to describe this kid, who I assumed was the Shaman’s apprentice. He was wearing a black robe, was heavily tattooed on his face and arms, and had animal bones and other fetishes woven into his waist length ponytail. “Master, it’s another trial, but this one’s human.”

“A human? Well, don’t just stand there, bring him in!” The young man stepped aside, revealing a small hut packed with all manner of things, most of which looked to be used with magic. There were also a lot of herbs and other exotic healing-related items like dried birds feet in bunches hanging from the ceiling. I’m not sure if Alera would have been fascinated or appalled at the sight. In the center was a fire pit with a pot of bubbling stew and an old dark elf tending it.

“Ah, it is a human…and a big one, too.” Well, I’m not really a human but I wasn’t about to tell him that. The old elf shuffled closer to the back wall and activated a couple of glow orbs, which started out pretty feeble but gained strength with time. Now I could see that he was dressed in a slightly more elaborate robe than his apprentice. The old elf had fewer tattoos and his hair was not as tamed as the other, either. As I saw his face, I could see the strong family resemblance to both Renalla and Maya, the same quirky turn of the mouth and sparkle in the eyes. He motioned for me to sit. As I was about to say something, he held up a single finger indicating I should wait.

The apprentice retreated to a far corner of the room and appeared to go into a meditative trance. The shaman smiled sheepishly and rummaged around in a large ornate basket that was positioned nearby. Finally, he withdrew a large piece of headgear - an animal skull actually; it made me think of a large ox or bison of some kind. The skull was adorned heavily with runes, bangles, and hand-painted pictograms of various animals. He placed it on his head and with a contented sigh, reached near the fire for a pipe that I hadn’t noticed sitting there before. Taking a theatrical long pull off the bowl, he blew the smoke into the air, which suddenly gave the entire interior a flickering, hazy, almost ghostly appearance.

Sitting down across from me, he laboriously crossed his legs. I saw a shadow of a smile cross his face as he absently batted at a loose bangle that was dangling from the skull in his line of sight. “So! Tell old shaman Mingt what I can do for you, young man?”

I didn’t really know what to say; I mean the apprentice seemed to know why I was there. “Um, I guess I’m here for the trial.”