by Resa Nelson
“That’s not us,” Skallagrim said. “So, put down your weapons.”
Unconvinced, the young dragonslayers refused, although they appeared less stiff in stance.
“You said you heard about troubling portents,” Auntie Thurid said. “Where? How?”
“None of your concern until we get you sorted out,” Bruni said.
An old but fit man emerged from the woods behind the young dragonslayers. His bald head contrasted with a neat white beard. Mapped with deep wrinkles, his face looked grizzled. “Consider them sorted,” he said. “Hello, Thurid. Good to see you, Claude.”
Bruni and Seph sagged with relief.
The old man walked toward them and held one hand toward Bruni.
Turning the weapon around, Bruni handed its grip to him.
Taking the sword, the old man said, “We’ll discuss this later.”
Skallagrim watched in amazement when Auntie Thurid rushed forward to hug the strange man. Uncle Claude grinned and followed in her footsteps.
Who is that old man?
Auntie Thurid turned to look at Skallagrim. “I keep forgetting how long it’s been.” She beckoned for Skallagrim to join her side. To the old man, she said, “This is Skallagrim.”
The old man wore no sheath on his belt, so he had to hold onto the sword. He planted its sharp tip in the ground between his feet. “Skallagrim,” he said. Something caught at his voice as if he were catching cold. Or as if something troubled him enough to cry. “My name is Benzel of the Wolf.”
CHAPTER 6
“Benzel of the Wolf,” Skallagrim said, perplexed. “I never heard a name like that before.”
Benzel smiled and looked at Thurid. “It used to be Benzel of Heatherbloom and later Benzel of Hidden Glen. It was your auntie who gave me the name that stuck.”
Skallagrim tried to puzzle it out. “Are you part wolf?”
The adults laughed, but the young dragonslayers paid such rapt attention that Skallagrim thought they must have wondered the same thing.
“No,” Benzel said. “I’m all mortal. All Northlander.”
Skallagrim considered a new question. “Did you grow up with wolves?”
“No.” A wistful look softened Benzel’s eyes. “But I once found a wolf pup, and it grew up by my side. It became my family.”
Bruni and Seph exchanged wide-eyed looks.
That’s more than he’s told them.
Uncle Claude interrupted. “Benzel of the Wolf is a new teacher. He’ll be yours.”
“Join us for the first lesson,” Benzel said to Skallagrim. He pointed at the woods from which the young dragonslayers had emerged. “We have our own building behind the manor. The quickest route is through there.” To Bruni and Seph, he said, “Tell the others I’ll be there shortly.”
Skallagrim followed Bruni and Seph onto a narrow path that led through the woods. Taking a quick glance back, Skallagrim saw Benzel of the Wolf conferring with his guardians.
What do they have to talk about?
It worried Skallagrim that he’d never heard anyone say Benzel’s name before. If Benzel of the Wolf had known his guardians for such a long time, why had they never mentioned him? They knew Benzel would be Skallagrim’s teacher.
And if Auntie Thurid and Uncle Claude knew all this, wouldn’t they have told Skallagrim’s parents? They’d always been as thick as thieves with his guardians. Skallagrim assumed there were no secrets between them. Why had Mother and Father never talked about Benzel of the Wolf?
“This way!” Bruni called out.
With a start, Skallagrim saw he’d fallen so far behind that he’d almost lost sight of them. He hurried to catch up with Bruni and Seph, doing so just in time to step out of the other side of the woods. Here, a grand expanse of buildings and lawns greeted him. A short distance away stood the back of the grand manor Skallagrim had first seen from the streets of Bellesguard. Another stone building faced him.
Bruni pointed at it. “That’s where we train. The family that lives in that manor had it built especially for dragonslayers!”
Skallagrim considered it to be a simple building compared to the manor because it had plain walls and a square shape. He also considered it to be grand because a dozen or more houses on Tower Island could easily fit inside.
A group of 20 other boys streamed across the emerald lawns and into the training building.
“Let’s go!” Seph said before he ran to join them.
A young woman trailed far behind them. She wore her long, dark hair piled on top of her head in a neat bun.
Walking next to Bruni, Skallagrim said, “Is that the dragon queller? I met her at Limru.”
“Limru?” Bruni turned to him with surprise. “When were you in Limru?”
“On the way here. We stopped there. That’s when I met her. I saw her quell a dragon!”
“No, she’s not from Limru.” Bruni stared at the woman. “We heard a rumor about a dragon queller in the Midlands, but no one here believed it.”
Skallagrim squinted as the distance between them grew shorter. “Are you sure that’s not her?”
“That’s Pingzi Po. She’s from the Far East.”
“Far East?” Skallagrim thought he must have heard Bruni wrong. “No one from the Far East ever leaves it.”
“She did. She came with Master Benzel.” Bruni’s tone took a serious turn. “Now that you’re going into training, you must know this: treat your teachers with respect. That means you must address Benzel of the Wolf as Master Benzel. You must address Pingzi Po as Mistress Po.”
Skallagrim brightened with new hope. “Is she our teacher, too? Will she teach us how to quell dragons like the Dragon Queller of Limru?”
“She’s not a dragon queller,” Bruni said. “Mistress Po is a demon queller.”
The thought chilled Skallagrim. “A demon queller? Are there demons in Bellesguard?”
“Not that anyone knows of. No demons in all of the Southlands as far as I know.”
“But there must be a demon somewhere if she’s come all the way from the Far East.”
Bruni shook her head. “I don’t know. Nobody does.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “But they say she’s the one who has portents. I never heard of anyone in the Northlands, Midlands, or Southlands who knew what a portent was, much less had one. It’s only the Far Easterners that can have them.”
Skallagrim mulled over what Bruni said. “If there’s no demon, then why is she here? To help us with portents she sees?”
“Maybe. All I know is Mistress Po and Master Benzel—whenever you see one of them, the other’s not far behind.”
Demons. Quellers. Portents.
There’s nothing like any of that on Tower Island.
Skallagrim felt as if the ground he now walked upon welcomed his feet. The warm breeze embraced him.
This is where I belong. It’s where I was always meant to be.
For the first time in his life, Skallagrim felt confident and at peace. Side by side with Bruni, the Northlander from the Boglands, he entered the hall built to train dragonslayers.
CHAPTER 7
The first thing Skallagrim noticed inside the training hall was its massive area and high ceiling. Skallagrim assumed the space would be divided into rooms. Instead, the interior of the great stone hall stood as one massive space. Within moments, Skallagrim understood why.
For now, only Skallagrim’s fellow trainees occupied the hall. A few of them paired up, took wooden swords from rows hanging on one wall, and began sparring. Each wooden sword stood shoulder-high and required two hands to control. Each pair of fighters required a great amount of space. For one thing, the boys needed space between each other to avoid being struck. For another, every swing of the sword required clearance above their heads and on all sides. They also needed space to keep from hitting or being hit by other dueling pairs.
“I don’t understand,” Skallagrim said. “Where are the real swords? Why do they fight with wood?”
Mas
ter Benzel entered with Mistress Po close on his heels.
Bruni gave a sharp whistle.
All the boys gathered in front of Master Benzel in a neat row.
Master Benzel gestured toward Skallagrim. “Meet our newest candidate. He is Skallagrim Scalding from Tower Island. Don’t be deceived by his appearance. He’s a true Northlander, so take care to speak his language until he learns Midlander and Southlander.”
When everyone turned to look at him, Skallagrim realized with surprise that he felt no discomfort.
This is where I belong.
“His first question,” Master Benzel continued, “is about the wooden weapons. Who would like to answer?” Master Benzel gave a pointed look at Seph.
Seph answered with a defiant tone. “The wooden weapons are called wasters. They are the same shape and weight as a dragonslayer’s sword.”
Standing next to Skallagrim, Bruni piped up and draped a proud arm around his shoulder. “Dragonslayer swords are made by the finest blacksmiths in the Northlands. There’s no other country that knows how to make them.”
Another boy snorted. “That’s because they keep the know-how to themselves. They keep it secret.”
“For good reason,” Bruni said. “It’s the best and strongest type of sword in all the world. No one wants that kind of sword falling into the wrong hands.”
Master Benzel cleared his throat.
Bruni and the boys fell quiet.
“The reason we use wasters,” Master Benzel said, “is because all swords, and especially those made for dragonslayers, are very sharp and dangerous. If you use a real sword to train, you risk getting hurt or hurting your classmates or me or Mistress Po.”
The lady in the beautiful dress stood behind Master Benzel and gave a slight bow toward the young dragonslayers in acknowledgment.
“That would be foolish,” Master Benzel said. “For that reason, you will use a wooden sword for the purpose of learning how to use a dragonslayer sword. As Seph pointed out, the wooden sword is the same size, shape, and weight, which makes it perfect for training. If you accidentally hit someone with it, the result will be a bruise or possibly a broken bone in the very worst case. If you accidentally hit someone with a real sword, you could kill them. No one dies here. Understood?”
“Yes, Master Benzel,” Skallagrim said. “But how long will it be before I can use a real sword?”
All of the other boys laughed. Bruni struggled to keep her composure.
“Seph?” Master Benzel said. “Would you like to explain?”
This time, Seph held his hands behind his back and looked down. “It takes years of practice before we’re allowed to touch a real sword. We have to get good enough to control the blade so we don’t hurt each other.”
Astonished, Skallagrim said, “That takes years?”
“It’s easy to swing a sword,” Bruni said. “But not so easy to control exactly where it goes.”
Seph looked up at Master Benzel. “I saw a dragon go into the woods! I looked for you, but you weren’t here. I couldn’t let it roam around. Someone had to stop it!”
“Which is why you must look for me or one of your other teachers instead of swiping a sword you’re not fully prepared to use.” Master Benzel swept his arm across the row of trainees. “What if you had killed Bruni?”
“I didn’t, and I wouldn’t have.”
“You don’t know that. You could have tripped. She could have tripped. Any number of things that you can’t anticipate could have happened.”
“But they didn’t,” Seph muttered.
“Which is why I’m permitting you to remain in training.”
Seph looked up in surprise.
“But if it happens a second time, you will be going home to your mother and a lifetime of farming.”
Seph opened his mouth as if to protest again but thought better of it. Instead, he said, “Yes, Master Benzel.”
Turning his attention to Bruni, Master Benzel said, “I’d like you to be Skallagrim’s training partner this year. Help him learn Midlander and Southlander. Once he’s proficient, he can spar with everyone.”
Bruni beamed. “Yes, Master Benzel.”
“But first, a lesson about dragons,” Master Benzel said. He gestured for Mistress Po to stand by his side. “Every dragon you face will be different. They are cunning creatures. If you underestimate their intelligence, they will kill you. Understood?”
The young dragonslayers nodded.
“Good. Every fight you have with a dragon will therefore be different. The dragon will size you up and determine the best way to slaughter you. Your disadvantage is that the dragon is covered from head to toe in armor.”
Surprised, Skallagrim spoke before he could think. “Dragons wear armor?”
Master Benzel paused and gave him a long look. “Yes, they do. Dragons are covered in scales so strong that even a dragonslayer sword will glide off and leave the animal unscathed.”
Seph raised a meek hand and then spoke when prompted. “But dragonslayers kill dragons all the time. How do they do it?”
“That is the heart of today’s lesson,” Master Benzel said. “A dragon has two weak spots. Its underbelly, which is covered in scales soft enough to be penetrated, and the back of its neck, where the overlap of its scales is wide enough to let a blade slip through. The problem with the underbelly is that you must get a dragon to roll over on its back. That rarely happens. You will have better luck going for the back of its neck.”
Another boy spoke up. “But dragons are too tall. Unless it’s a young dragon, it’s impossible to reach the back of a dragon’s neck.”
“There is a trick to it. Remember, the legs of a dragon don’t stand underneath it like a horse or a cow or a pig. The legs of a dragon bow out to either side.” He gestured toward Mistress Po, and she lifted her arms out to her side with her bent elbows as high as her shoulders and her forearms and hands hanging below her elbows. “This is the shape of a dragon’s legs when it walks or runs or stands still.”
Skallagrim studied Mistress Po’s arms. “Her elbows are square, like the corners of a house.” He brightened with a new thought. “Or like stair steps!”
Master Benzel’s eyes gleamed. “And what do you think that means, Skallagrim?”
Skallagrim’s mind raced. “Could you use them like stair steps? To climb up on the dragon’s back?”
Bruni clapped her hands together in delight while the other boys groaned in disgust.
“You’re saying that’s how we get to the back of the dragon’s neck,” Bruni said to Skallagrim. “We use its leg like a stair step!”
“Yes,” Skallagrim said. “I think so.” Looking at Master Benzel, Skallagrim said, “Is that right?”
“That’s exactly right,” Master Benzel said. His posture appeared to straighten even more, as if he stood with pride. “And that’s why we will now include balance exercises in our daily routine.”
The boys exhaled with more groans of dismay.
“Or if you prefer,” Master Benzel said, “you can spend the next several years learning how to use a dragonslayer sword only to go out into the real world where you will let a dragon bite and kill you because you couldn’t get your footing when trying to climb upon its back.”
Master Benzel then instructed the young dragonslayers to pair up for drills. He showed them how one partner could use a lunging step to mimic a dragon’s leg and then how the other partner could climb upon it. All the other boys paired off quickly, leaving Skallagrim with Bruni.
Facing him, Bruni said, “You don’t mind working with a girl, do you?”
“You’re not just a girl.” Skallagrim smiled. “You’re a Northlander. I’d rather work with you than anybody else!”
Beaming, Bruni skipped to the wall to retrieve two wasters.
At the same time, Skallagrim had a strange feeling. He looked around the room until he noticed Mistress Po staring at him. Her look made him feel unnerved and relieved at the same time.
/> “Why are you looking at Mistress Po?” Bruni said when she returned with a waster in each hand. She gave one to Skallagrim.
“I’m not looking at her. She’s looking at me.”
“You make no sense.” Bruni raised her free hand and beckoned for the mysterious woman to join them.
“What are you doing?” Skallagrim said in a panic. He didn’t know why he suddenly felt afraid of Mistress Po, only that he did.
“I’ll not have you thwacking me in the head with a wooden sword because you’re busy wondering why Mistress Po is staring at you. We’ll get to the bottom of this right now. Once that’s done, I’ll get you started on learning how to use a sword.”
When Mistress Po walked across the room, the airy robe swirling around her made it appear as if she floated.
Skallagrim couldn’t help but stare at the woman who looked so different and exotic compared to anyone else he’d seen before. She had the blackest hair and the darkest eyes, which had the prettiest shape he’d even seen, like slanted buckleberry leaves. The closer she came, the more awkward he felt at being in the presence of such a striking young woman.
Mistress Po gave a brief bow to each of them. “Bruni. Skallagrim. Do you need help?”
“Yes.” Bruni took charge. “Skallagrim thinks you’re staring at him. There’s no way I’m training with him until I can get his full attention.”
“I see,” Mistress Po said. “It’s true I stared at him.” She addressed Skallagrim directly. “I’ve seen you from another realm. I recognize you.”
A lump of fear tangled in Skallagrim’s throat, and he struggled to swallow it.
Bruni squirmed with delight. “Was it a portent? Did you see Skallagrim in a portent?”
“Yes. I had a portent last night, and it revealed his arrival to me.”
“How exciting!” Bruni jumped up and down, barely able to contain her excitement. She shook Skallagrim’s shoulders. “She saw you in a portent!”
When Skallagrim managed to talk, his voice came out in a timid squeak. “How could I be in a portent? I don’t remember anything about it.”