The Boy in the Field (10 page)

“Peacekeepers.” You said, putting your finger on the word. “We
should do that.”

Noah smiled. “I was hoping you would say that.”

You cocked your head. “Why?”

“Because I want to do it. I’m just not sure I’m brave enough to
do it alone.”

You frowned. “Noah, I saw you face off to a horde of Taatars a
few days ago with nothing but an old sword and a cloud of rage.” You put your
hand over his. “Think about how great you’d be if you had training and armour
too.”

“I’d be invincible if you were my partner.”

You hesitated, turning to look at him before answering. He
smiled at you, his cheeks pink.

“I think we’d make a good team.”

* * *

You went together to the recruitment office the next day and
were both accepted into the Peacekeeping Corps. Training with the Serlorans was
hard work, but every day, you were sure you were getting stronger. Each time
you hit an obstacle you were sure you couldn’t overcome, your teammates would
cheer you on, Noah always the loudest, until you were through and finished. You
did the same for him too, talking him through every step that he needed to take
to complete his task, telling him he could do it.

By the end of the first week, you understood why the Taatars
had managed to move unchallenged through Kinel. Even when they were off-duty,
the Serloran soldiers kept their weapons on their belts. In Kinel, you had
frequently seen soldiers on-duty with no weapons or with weapons that were
damaged and ill-maintained. Ethigos had peacekeepers everywhere. In the years
before the invasion, the Landian forces had become fewer and fewer while the
Taatar numbers continued to grow with each town they raided.

“So when we graduate, they give us our first mission,” Noah
said as you joined him for lunch one day. “I heard that there is a choice
between going to Hijara and Kinta.”

“And you’re thinking of going to Hijara,” you interrupted.
“You’re going to look for Ethan, aren’t you?”

“It’s so close to Landia. It’s the best place to start looking.
If we can find where the Taatars took them…”

“If you go off when you’re supposed to be working, there’s no
guarantee I can protect you.”

“Protect me? You’d do that?”

“Of course.” You smiled. “But it’s not the best plan. I think
Kinta is a much safer option.”

“But the Taatars haven’t been to Kinta. We’ll find no trace of
him there.”

Choice:
66. Sign Up For Hijara
or
67. Sign
Up For Kinta

“I could be a medic,” you said. “We could both be medics. We’d
be helping the soldiers, but we’d be safe.”

Noah shook his head. “I think I’m going to be a peacekeeper.
Then maybe I’ll be able to protect you the next time the Taatars come.”

You smiled at him. “And maybe I’ll be able to patch you up when
you do.”

* * *

You began training a month later and Noah helped you when you
were given homework to complete, spelling words for you and occasionally acting
as a scribe until your reading improved. When you passed the first exam, you
were given a healing radust stone, a pale green one, just like Adina used to
have. A senior medic took you on as an apprentice and you finally began to feel
like you were helping someone.

Then, a few weeks later, Noah too began his new job, leaving
home for the training camp at the other side of the city. You missed him, but
he sent letters once a week, letting you know he was still okay. He seemed
happy, getting along well with his teammates and enjoying the challenge of the
training.

Within twelve months, you were licensed to use five different
radust unsupervised. The senior medic presented you with a radust belt, a
device that would hold the stones and allow you to use multiple powers whilst
keeping your hands free. Your pay increased, you made new friends and life
began to feel normal again.

Most of the time, your job involved tending to minor injuries
and training to use more powerful radust, but occasionally, Noah would bring
his colleagues to you for treatment, their ailments too embarrassing to present
to the military medics, acquired as they were whilst inebriated or doing
something their supervisors would consider inappropriate. You found that their
wounds often healed before their pride. Many of Noah’s colleagues’ nicknames
were conceived in your ward.

You weren’t quite prepared for a large scale disaster, like the
fire at the Southside Barracks. Your medicium was filled with injured people,
military and civilian alike. The chief medic was bellowing instructions over
the cries of the wounded. Nurses were calling for medication. Organised chaos
ensued.

“
Parahe
!” You heard Noah shout and your heard skipped a
beat as you tried to locate him. He was carrying a stretcher with another a
soldier, a third laid on its canvas bed. You breathed again.

“This way,” you beckoned to them, showing them to the ward.
“What’s happened?”

“Broken arm, burns…” Noah shook his head. “He’s not bad.”

“Are either of you hurt?”

Both men shook their heads. “We weren’t inside.”

You settled the man on one of the beds, Noah telling you the
information the medic at the barracks had given him while his colleague rushed
away with the empty stretcher.

“Ethan!” The man in the next bed sat up, his face streaked with
blood.

You looked at Noah and he looked back at you. Noah moved to the
man’s side.

“Where is he?” he asked.

The man coughed, spraying blood down his own arm. “Who?”

“Ethan. Where is Ethan?”

The man coughed again and you pulled Noah away from the
bedside, rolling the man onto his side and giving him all the pain relief you
could manage.

“Where is Ethan?” Noah shouted again.

Choice:
68. Tell Him to Wait Outside
or
69.
Concentrate on the Man

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” you said. “Perhaps they will
allow entry to the two of you, but not me. They won’t let me in.”

“They will if you marry my son,” Adina muttered. “Family
matters.”

You looked up at Noah, sharing with him an expression of
nervous amusement and shocked uncertainty. You weren’t officially courting,
much less ready for engagement.

“Mother, such suggestions are premature.”

“Such suggestions may see us all to safety.” She pushed herself
up and stood next to Noah at the window. “Do you think our house is still
standing?”

Noah put his hand to her shoulder. “Don’t think about it,
mother. If it stands, it stands.”

“And Ethan?” she asked.

“We’ll look for him.” He nodded to you. “We’ll try to collect
some things and if it’s safe, we’ll come back for you, Ma.”

“And what if it’s not? What if he’s…?” She clasped her hands
together, rubbing her fingers. “What then?”

Noah smiled. “It’ll be okay. We’ll come back if it’s
dangerous.”

You began to walk, the road eerily quiet. You were together on
the rocky ridge when you saw the two men in the loose, brown cloaks, scarves
around their necks to keep out the desert sands and thick hessian hoods to
protect them from the sun and winds.

“Keep your head down,” you murmured, pulling Noah to the ground.

“Taatars?”

The two men talked, pointing in various directions. They were
too far away for you to hear their conversation, but you were sure they
wouldn’t take kindly to spotting you or Noah lurking in the rocks. You kept
your heads down, kept quiet and hoped for them to leave soon. Noah inched
closer to you, his hand slipping into yours. You weren’t sure how long you
stayed there, nestled among the rocks, sharp edges poking you in the sides, the
back, the legs every time you moved. Your feet cramped and whenever Noah
cautiously raised his head to look, he would duck down again, signalling that
they were still there. He held you close and whispered into your ear.

“They aren’t going anywhere,” he said. “What do we do?”

Choice:
56. Risk It
or
57. Go Back
To Adina

“We just keep going,” you replied. “We try to get through and
hope they don’t see us.”

You didn’t get far before seeing more of them. Every step
forward left more exposed to detection, the rocks too small to hide behind and
the bushes too far apart. They were everywhere. Nobody was going to make it
into that town without them knowing about it.

“We have to go back,” Noah whispered. “We can’t make it.”

You nodded. “Yeah.”

As you turned, you heard a shout from across the field. Voices
spoke to one another and you both ducked as low as you could, hearing them
coming closer. A hand grasped the shoulder of your shirt and yanked you from
your hiding place.

“
Cas koj muaj npe
?” the man asked, throwing you to the
ground. “Your name?”

You looked around. Another had Noah, a knife to his throat.
“Don’t hurt him! Please!”

“
Donertimplis
.” The man cocked his head. “You live
here?”

You nodded. “Please. Let us go.”

There was another shout from across the field, more urgent than
the last. You watched as most of the men fell back to towards the town, leaving
only a few guards at the road. The men holding Noah and you looked to one
another.

“Nasish yog puias. Ua tua.”

You screamed as Noah’s man pulled the knife across his throat,
spraying blood across everything nearby. You gasped for air, your cries choked.
You fell, blood pooling beneath your cheek in the grass. Noah’s eyes locked
onto yours as you landed beside him. You couldn’t breathe. You reached for him.

The End
(Back to start)

“We go back,” you said. “We stay low and we keep quiet and we
go back to the house. If they’re still here later, we’ll know we can’t go
home.”

You inched your way along the rocks, each step slow and silent.
The line of trees along the edge of the therin enclosure shielded you from view
as you made your way back towards your house, sneaking inside through one of
the back windows. Hours passed and the two men didn’t move from their
positions. It was as if they were sentries, guarding the roads to Landia.

“They must be expecting more soldiers,” you said. “Perhaps
people escaped and they’ve gone for help.”

“Maybe Ethan escaped.” Adina sat up, her eyes hopeful. “Maybe
he’ll come back.”

Noah shook his head. “He didn’t come this way, Ma, or we’d have
seen him by now. He would have waited here for us. And if he tries to come
through now, they’ll see him.”

Adina slouched. “Then we go to Ethigos.”

Instruction:
58. Flee To Ethigos

“It’s the best idea we’ve got,” you agreed. “It’s too
dangerous to go back to the town. If those men were Taatars, they’ll be taking
slaves. If they’re not… Well, it doesn’t matter. They were obviously
dangerous.”

“If you’ve got any clothes or blankets here, pack them,” Adina
said. “I’ll search the kitchen for food. Noah, look for anything that we can
sell.” She smiled. “We’re not defeated yet.”

You each searched the various rooms of the house, looking for
anything not so mouldy that it would make you ill. Adina found a sack of dried
beans and rice in the kitchen which she separated into smaller potions,
distributing the weight between you. You found some of father’s shirts that
would help keep out the cold and Noah found four pieces of Taatar gold wedged
between the floorboards.

Adina took a deep breath. “Ethan…” She looked up. “Should we…
Should we wait a little longer?”

Noah shook his head. “The longer we wait, the more difficult it
will be leave. And the more dangerous it will be out there. And there’s no
guarantee that we’ll get into Ethigos anyway.” He put his arm around her
shoulder. “He can look after himself, Ma. He’ll be fine.”

“If anything’s happened to him—”

“There’s nothing we can do.” He smiled and shifted the weight
of the pack on his back. “We’ll find other supplies along the way. Come on.”

You took one look back at the house as you left. Even though
the house was damp and falling apart, part of you didn’t want to leave. And
even though you had nearly been assaulted and the town of Landia was now full
of Taatars, you had good memories of that place too; discovering that Noah had
a twin, playing with the brothers and staying in their house.

You turned away, beginning the long trek towards Ethigos.
Unlike your country, Kinel, Ethigos was part of the Serloran Empire and home to
its capital city, Ethigos City where the Emperor and his family lived. It was
be safe, if you could just reach its borders without being found by the Taatars
or mistaken for them by the peacekeepers or magisters of the Serloran military.

It took almost two weeks to reach the capital city, travelling
mostly by night and resting whenever possible. The few items you had been able
to sell earned you only a few hundred kesas which you had traded at the border
for Serloran currency. It cost you every last coin to rent a tiny room in a
building more dilapidated than the house you had left behind and even then, you
had to share with another three others – a mother and her two young children.

The room was tiny and contained just two single beds and the
shell of a chest of drawers, the drawers themselves, presumably, stolen. A
grotty bathroom stood at the end of the corridor, shared with three other
rooms. All the locks were broken and twice, large, hairy men had walked in on
you whilst you went about your ablutions. By the third night, you wouldn’t go
anywhere without Noah, having him stand outside the door when you used the
bathroom.

“It won’t be for long,” Noah said as one of the woman’s
children nestled at your feet in the single bed. “We’ll find a place of our own
just as soon as we have some money.”

“I’m not sure odd jobs are going to pay for much around here,”
you replied. “What are you going to do?”

He turned to the back of the newssheet. “They’re recruiting
peacekeepers. It pays well. They’ll provide food and accommodation for me, so
all my money can go to you and Ma.”

You sat up, making the child groan in her sleep. “A soldier?
Are you sure? I mean, why?”

“You’ve heard the news, right? The Serloran army is going into
Kinel. The Kinn army is failing to resist the invasion. Serlora will help us,
sundari.” He stood up and kissed you on the top of the head. “Serlora will
overpower the Taatars. We’ll be able to go home.”

Choice:
70. Ask Him Not To Go
or
71. Agree
With Him