by Cody Loewen
“Are you going to be able to make it back?” he asks her, the annoyance at the unfortunate injury plain in his voice and on his face.
“I don't think I can walk,” she says through gritted teeth, and he snorts in reply.
“I can't fail this trial because you're too injured to walk,” he says to her after several moments of standing there thinking. “I'm sorry, but I'm going to go out on my own.”
“Xander wait!” Caria calls out to him as he leaves. “What am I supposed to do out here!”
I'm not sure if he doesn't hear her as he walks back into the thick of the trees, or if he just ignores her, but he soon disappears into the brush, leaving her alone. I watch as she softly cries to herself in defeat. Not able to watch my friend struggling alone, her partner having left her behind, I emerge from the undergrowth where I was hiding and quickly make my way to her side. Startled, her eyes widen in surprise at the sight of me.
“Lykara? Where did you come from?”
“I watched your whole fight,” I explain to her as I move to look at her injured ankle. I pull up her pant leg enough to get a good look and realize that it is swollen and purple. She obviously won’t be walking normally on it anytime soon. “I have to say, you handled that man really well out there.”
Her short laugh ends in a pained wince.
“Yeah, the man wasn’t the problem, it was the roots on the ground that I was no match for.”
“I get that,” I laugh in response.
“And now I’m done, I guess. Without Xander, I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to make it back. Being out here alone I don’t stand much of a chance.”
“You’re not alone,” I say to her, putting my hand on her shoulder to reassure her. “Rayfe and I will help you out. We will get you back to the camp when it is time, with or without Xander, you will succeed in this trial with us.”
“But we are supposed to be fighting each other,” she says to me confused. “Why don’t you just take me out of this trial right now?”
“You are right. That would be the smart thing to do.” I grin. “But no one ever accused me of being that smart.”
Rayfe will probably agree with that assessment when he gets back and sees this.
“I’m sure the three of us will be able to make it back in time, and we should outnumber any pairs of enemies that we may come against, with three of us now instead of two. First, we need to wrap up your ankle so you can walk.”
Just like Rayfe had done, I rip the sleeves off of my shirt and rip them into long strips that I use to tightly bind her ankle, holding it rigidly in place so that she can put enough weight on it to support herself. I gently help her to her feet, and she winces as she settles onto it, but maintains her balance enough to stand on her own.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to do this for me. I’m just one more bit of competition out here.”
“You are also my friend,” I say to her. “There’s no reason both of us can’t make it to the end and become Reavers.”
“Are you sure that Rayfe is going to be okay with this decision?” she asks. But before I have time to think about my answer, I hear rustling above us and look up to see Rayfe making his way back down the tree.
Within minutes he stands across from Caria and me.
“Nice to see you, Caria,” he says in greeting as if her being here is the most normal thing in the world.
“She’s going to join us now,” I say to him, expecting some sort of objection, but he simply nods in reply, not fazed by my words in the slightest.
I wonder just how much of the events he witnessed from his perch up in the trees.
“Did you find anything helpful up there?” I ask him, hoping for good news, and his immediate grin confirms my hopes..
“I’m your savior,” he says to the two of us with his huge, cocky grin spread wide over his face and his arms out wide in a ridiculous pose.
Caria looks over at me in confusion, obviously unsure of where Rayfe has been and what he is talking about now.
“Mr. squirrel man climbed to the top of this tree to try to catch sight of a landmark or something that could help us figure out exactly where we are in relation to the training grounds,” I explain to her. “Even though we have another day out here before we need to head back, we wanted to know exactly where we are and how long it will take to us get back. We would hate to have made it this far, survive the combat and everything, just to fail the trial because we couldn't find our way back to camp. And, I'm assuming that stupid grin of his means that he did find something.”
I look at him expectantly, waiting for an answer.
“I know exactly where we are. I was able to locate Sylvestra, and using the sun and that location, I estimated our current position. Just a couple hours’ walk, and we will intersect the pathway that connects Sylvestra to the training grounds.”
I sigh in relief at his words, glad that his seemingly hair-brained idea has paid off and that we actually have a chance of getting through this successfully.
“Well…?”
Rayfe gestures toward himself, smugly demanding our recognition. Rolling my eyes at him, I curtsy.
“Thank you oh so much, great tree climber, for saving our helpless maiden selves,” I say to him sarcastically in response. He dips into a deep bow before standing back up, the grin never leaving his face.
“So, I hate to interrupt this…whatever this is…but what's the plan now?” Caria says to us. Her breathing has returned to normal and she seems to be standing easier now that her ankle is supported.
“For now, we bide our time and just survive another day.”
I nod at Rayfe’s words, knowing how well the plan has worked for us so far; there is no reason to do anything different as we get closer to the end of the trial.
“Whether that means fighting again, or just staying out of the way until the time comes to head back, we just need to make it through one more day. We've come so far, and I refuse to lose now,” Rayfe adds, his tone growing serious for once.
At the talk of time, I look up and notice that the sun shines directly overhead by this point. We still have several hours of daylight left before it is time to hide up in the trees and sleep for one more night out here in the forest. Plus, we need to cover some more ground to bring us closer to the point where we will intersect with the pathway to the training grounds.
“Do you have any water?” Caria asks, looking around. “I am really thirsty.”
“No. We have nothing to carry it in,” I respond, but in addition to climbing trees, Rayfe is pretty good at finding streams, aren’t you, Rayfe?”
His chivalrous bow is almost comical.
“Lead on then.”
Rayfe proves me true to my word, and less than an hour later we stand by a burbling brook. I drink deeply, cupping my hands into the water over and over until I'm satisfied. Caria and Rayfe do the same. While Caria sits on the bank, elevating her ankle on a log, Rayfe sidles up next to me and puts his lips to my ear.
“We were planning to practice with the power of your sword out here,” he whispers to me, quietly enough so that Caria can't hear from across the small space. “I'm not sure we are going to be able to do that without her knowing. Do you trust her?”
Looking over at the girl who has become my dear friend, I nod.
“Well then, if we're going to be practicing in front of her, we might as well let her know what's going on and the full extent of the abilities of that weapon of yours.”
We walk to where Caria is sitting, and I take her hand in mine.
“If you are going to join us, there is something you need to know.”
Here goes nothing.
“My sword is no ordinary blade. It has some sort of magic that allows me to change its form into almost any weapon I can think of,” I say, drawing the blade from its scabbard on my hip. Saying the words out loud make me realize how crazy I must sound. “I’m still not sure what all it can transform into or if it has limitation.
Rayfe and I were planning on practicing with it out here, if that is OK with you?”
She takes a second to process information before nodding at me, obviously eager to watch it happen.
“How should we do this?” I ask Rayfe.
“I think we start simple. How about I name a weapon and you see just how fast you can change your sword into that shape? Once we know how quickly you can change the blade, we can work on transforming it in the middle of a fight. For now, let’s keep it in a controlled environment and work on the basics.”
We move onto flatter ground, Caria volunteering to keep a lookout for strangers wandering into the area while we practice. Gripping my sword in my hands, I am ready to wield it again after having not touched the powers within the blade for several days now. I take a deep breath and try to calm my mind, pulling together the focus I need to concentrate on my sword.
“Dagger.”
Closing my eyes, I picture my sword in the shortest variation that I can think of, imagining every detail of the blade in the form of a knife, as I reach out with my mind and will it to change. After a minute or two of mentally commanding the change to happen, I focus my attention on my hands. Even with my eyes closed, I can tell the blade has changed form by the reduction in weight.
Rayfe gives me a nod of approval and an encouraging smile.
I glance over at Caria, who open-mouthed stare says everything.
“Not bad,” Rayfe says. “But if you're going to use that in combat, it's going to need to be faster than that. Let's try again.”
“Spear.”
I squeeze my eyes shut once again and picture the weapon, conjuring up the image as fast as I can in my mind. This time I keep a fragment of my consciousness on the actual weapon in my hands and feel it shift in my fingers. Aware of the exact moment the blade changed, I know this transformation took half the time that it did before. Pride washes over me at my immediate improvement. I don’t know how much practice I will need to be able to change the blade instantly in the middle of a fight, but if Rayfe and I continue to work like this, hopefully I should be able to get there soon.
“Axe.”
I hear the command, and it catches me off guard, my mind still partially within my own thoughts. Once again I picture the shape of the weapon that I want to wield, and once again the weapon to conforms to my will, even faster this time. All of the work I put in back at the training grounds, along with the little bit of practice today, is starting to pay off. I already feel like I am beginning to truly control the shifting of the blade at my will. I shift the blade back into its comfortable, longsword form and slide it back into its scabbard on my belt.
“We shouldn't do too much,” I say to Rayfe. “We need to keep our focus on our surroundings, so we aren’t ambushed on the very last day out here.”
My words are true, but I don’t tell him the other reason we need to stop practicing. I don’t want to admit it but calling on the magic of the blade tires me to my bones.
I take a seat as I look over at Caria, her eyes wide and still focused on my sheathed sword hanging low from my hip. Her eyes travel up to meet my own as her mouth opens to speak.
“Where did you come across a blade like that?”
I give her a shrug, resting my hand on the hilt of my weapon.
“It was my father's sword. I didn't know it was magic until I accidentally transformed it as I was fighting at the training grounds. I’m still trying to master its abilities in order to be able to use them in the middle of combat.”
“The advantages that sword is going to give you,” she declares, shaking her head in amazement as we begin to move through the trees.
“That's what I'm hoping for,” I reply with a smile. “At least once we get to the point where we're killing trolls.”
We continue moving through the forest, making our way closer to the training grounds, but staying ever vigilant. As night overtakes us, we once again take to the trees. With her injured ankle, it takes a little more effort to get Caria up into the tree, but Rayfe pulls and I push her from below until we are all safe up in the branches.
This time, Rayfe fashions two beds instead of one, before volunteering to take the first watch. I try to pay attention as he weaves the vines together to make the hammocks, wanting to be able to do it myself if the need ever arises, but I get lost as his hands move quickly and easily back and forth within the cluster of plants.
“I can take the second watch,” Caria declares quickly as she gingerly climbs down into one of the hammocks. I climb into the other, looking forward to some rest before our final day of the trials.
“See you in a few hours,” Caria says to me from her vine hammock. “I am lucky to have you as my friend.
“We are both lucky,” I reply, before laying my head down and shutting my eyes.
Chapter 9
Today is the last day of our trial, I think to myself as the sky slowly turns rose with the approaching dawn.
So far so good. Just survive one more day.
No need to wake my companions, I realize. Caria’s rustling below my perch tells me she is already gathering her few belongings in preparation for the descent down the tree. I can’t hear Raye, but I glimpse him pacing on the ground at the bottom of the tree. Gingerly, I begin my climb down from the heights where I have been keeping watch. Surer of myself now that I have done this a few times, I maneuver from branch to branch, trying not to look down from the dizzying height. Movement above me catches my attention, and I see Caria slowly descending above me, picking her way through the branches as gingerly as I am.
Who besides the three of us might still be in the contest? There can’t be that many pairs of initiates left that could knock us out of the competition. Unless they have all taken the same tactic we have and waited until the last day to engage.
Lost in my thoughts, I almost miss the next foothold on the branch below me, the bark of the trunk scraping my belly as I grasp it to keep from falling.
“Could you be any louder?” Rayfe snaps from below, his customary grin replaced by a scowl.
I don’t remember ever seeing him so out of sorts before. Obviously, I am not the only one having difficulty keeping my fears from rising to the surface.
Come on. I need that confident Rayfe back. At least one of us needs to be optimistic today.
Caria’s voice floats down from right over my head. “Don’t worry, Rayfe. If anyone out there hears us, they will just think we are a couple of clumsy squirrels.”
Rayfe just stands there with his hands on his hips, shaking his head. But as he turns away from the tree, I catch the beginning of a grin on his face.
Thank you, Caria.
Once we are safely on the ground, Rayfe quickly gets his bearings and sets off at a brutal pace. I assume we are headed toward the camp.
“You’re sure that you are taking us in the right direction?” I ask him with a grin, trying to keep the mood light.
Caria lets out a chuckle at my feigned suspicion. “Do you think we can trust him not to be leading us deeper into the forest, completely lost?”
“Well, I guess you’ve just got to trust me, don’t you?” He replies easily, the anxiety from earlier fading away. “Or you can lead the way if you would prefer?”
“That might not be the best idea.”
I motion with my arm for him to continue forward. That familiar grin lights his face as he offers an exaggerated nod before spinning around and picking up his pace. Caria and I are forced to trot to keep up with him, but neither of us complain. The sooner we reach camp, the sooner we become Reavers.
One step closer to killing Kromm.
I hadn’t given the monster much thought the past few days, but those images that had given me purpose for the past several months caught up with me. My blade dripping with his blood. His death screams. My revenge at him drawing his last breath as the life fades from his eyes…
A large shape bursts out of the trees in front of me, almost colliding with me as my a
wareness shifts back to the present. Rayfe manages to dive to the side and avoid the first strike of the ambush, letting his momentum carry him back to his feet in one continuous motion. Whirling to engage our attacker, Rayfe is quickly forced back on the defensive, as a second form erupts from the undergrowth. Both fighters focus their attacks on Rayfe.
I watch in awe at the dance that is Rayfe’s fighting style. His two blades circle in perfect harmony, one striking high, the other low. Like twin blurs, they spin so fast I can hardly see them. Raye is somehow managing to stay one step ahead of both opponents, but I know he won’t be able to sustain the frenetic pace for long. His enemies realize the same thing and move to position themselves on either side of him, giving one of them better access for a killing blow while Rayfe is forced to fend of attacks from the other.
Understanding dawns on me at their tactic. If they take out Rayfe, we are both out of the contest.
With my sword already in hand, I stride forward to engage the man closest to me. Before I am able take a second step, however, another pair of fighters burst from the trees on the other side of the path, one of the engaging me while the other one attacks Caria. My opponent, a burly man that I had seen in the training camp but never had the opportunity to fight, wields a heavy hammer in both hands, and I don’t doubt for a second that he has the strength to use the weapon.
I manage to step back and lean to the side to avoid the first thundering downward strike that he sends my way. Unwilling to test my slender longsword against the weight of the huge weapon, I resort to dodging his attacks rather than blocking them, and immediately find myself giving up ground under his barrage of blows. Obviously comfortable with his choice of weapon, the man skillfully continues his attack, using the momentum of the previous movement to launch the next strike forward, saving as much energy as he can through each maneuver.
At first, I had hoped he would tire quickly and allow me to begin to counter and overwhelm him with my much faster weapon, but his attacks don’t seem to be slowing down in the slightest as I continue to dodge the deadly hammer. My foot snags on a root, sending me into a backward scramble. I barely manage to avoid the deadly blow aimed at my head as I struggle to regain my balance.