The Girl Who Was A Warrior (The Clandestine Chronicles Book 1)

by L. S. Emory

  I looked down at the map. He was right. It was hard to see, but they did go around the whole thing. “So, what does that mean?”

  “These are symbols, or signatures. It’s the key.”

  “The key to what?”

  “The key to understanding the map. They aren’t symbols. It’s a story.”

  Now I was even more confused. “A story about what?”

  Kirby smiled. “A story about the map.”

  “How about we skip this part, and you just tell me what you are thinking,” I said, growing more irritated by the minute.

  “Whoever gave this map to you wasn’t giving it to you to test your skills or abilities.”

  “Then why did Cody give it to me?”

  “Whoever gave this map to you wants you to do what they can’t do. They want you to find the magic, the very old and powerful magic, that this map leads to. Whoever gave this map to you lied to you.”

  Chapter 11

  “Magic? What kind of magic?”

  “Yes, magic,” Kirby said, crossing his arms across his chest. “This is, you could say, a treasure map.”

  “Ok, hold on just a minute. So, you’re saying that Cody and Aunt Linda set me up, made up this test, just so I could go find some kind of magic whatever because, for some reason, they couldn’t do it themselves? That makes no sense. Why would they do that? And why would they need to?”

  “Wait,” Kirby said, his large goblins ears all of a sudden pointing upward, like an array of radar telescopes. “Never mind. I thought I heard something. We have to get out of here before that werewolf comes back.”

  I wasn’t buying it. I didn't hear anything. “No way. You finish what you were saying. Or I’m not going anywhere.” Stubbornness was one of my greatest virtues. At least according to my parents. The first time that I heard them say that was when I was five years old. I wanted the cookies that we kept on the counter. Being that young, and small, I couldn’t reach them. My mother saw me eyeing them and told me I couldn’t have any until after dinner. So, I did what any good wizard child would do. I stole my mother’s wand and used magic to float the cookies down to me. Except it didn’t quite work out that way. Instead of moving the cookies, I moved the toaster. My magic went wonky, a sign of things to come. After being scolded by my mother and sent to my room, I decided I was going to get those cookies, not matter what the cost. This time I was smarter about it. My mother had put her wand up, so I wouldn’t try that again. So I did the next best thing. I crept into my father’s office and took his. Knowing that doing magic might not work in my favor, I used the wand to reach up and nudge the cookies enough until they came crashing to the floor. My mother came racing into the kitchen, probably thinking I had done something and hurt myself. Instead, she found me in the middle of the floor scooping up cookie pieces and stuffing them in my mouth. She was pretty angry. Hence the saying that stubbornness was one of my greatest virtues. Although she probably didn’t say it that nicely.

  He looked around again. “FIne. This map,” he said pointing down at it, “is very old. The first thing you can notice is that it is made of hippogriff hide. Feel that, how it’s thicker than normal paper.”

  I placed the edge of the map between my fingers. I hadn’t noticed it before, but he was right. I rubbed the map, feeling the thickness of it. It was not only thicker than I thought, it also felt weird. It was almost like it was oily and rough at the same time. Very strange. Now that I was paying attention to it, the map itself began to make me wonder. Where did it come from? Why did Cody have it? I examined it more closely. Maybe there was more to this map than I thought.

  “How old do you think it is?” I asked.

  “Hard to say. This type of material has usually only been used by the Cave Dwarfs of Eastern Europe.”

  “Eastern Europe!” I exclaimed, a little too loudly. Kirby violently waved his finger back and forth in front of his lips, indicating that I should be more quiet. “Eastern Europe?” I whispered. “Then what’s it doing here in the southern United States?”

  “Valid question.”

  “Is there a valid answer?”

  “I don’t know,” Kirby answered.

  He wasn’t being helpful at all.

  “How old is the map? Can you at least figure that out?”

  Kirby ran his hand over the entire map. “I can’t say for sure. I can say that the Cave Dwarfs don’t exist anymore. At least not on Earth. The last Dwarf known in our history was Kardil. And he was captured and tortured by a group of outlaw vampires known as the Dark Terror. And that was about five hundred years ago. So the map is at least that old.” He hesitated, looking at me and then down at the map.

  Something wasn’t right. I may not have known anything about goblins, but something was going on. “Ok, so it’s an old map. What is it that you are not telling me? Spit it out. I don’t have time for riddles or a history lesson.”

  “You are impatient, Annabeth. Fine. here’s what I think. First, this map appears to be Dwarven. Second, it’s enchanted. But you already knew that. I think that this is a map to something that they hid.”

  “Like what?”

  “That is the question. At least one of them. And that is one that we can't answer. But here’s the bigger question. Why do you have the map?”

  Well, I already knew the answer to that. At least, I thought I did. Cody gave it to me. It was part of test. He wanted to see if I could navigate my way through the forest to find whatever it was that he hid. But where did he get the map from? What was his connection to these Cave Dwarfs?

  “I told you why.”

  Now Kirby was the one shaking his head. “I don’t by it. This isn’t a test.”

  “What is it then?”

  “It’s a mission. He gave you this map so that you would go find whatever it leads to.”

  That didn’t make any sense. Cody was a much more powerful wizard than me. Actually, he was probably a wizard since before I was born. “If that’s true, then why not just go get whatever it is himself?”

  Kirby scratched his chin. “Now that... that is the question.”

  “Like I told you, this is a test. I’m supposed to find whatever it is.”

  “Hmm. Alright, it’s your map, your life,” Kirby said in a low voice.

  “What does that mean?” I asked. “What are you getting at?”

  “Nothing, nothing at all. We have a deal. I’m helping you, then you help me.”

  I didn’t like this at all. “No way. Spill it. What are you hinting at?”

  Kirby looked at me intently. “Like I said, nothing.” He then looked around, like he was expecting something. “But let me ask you a question.”

  “Fine, ask away.”

  “You’re out here in this forest. You’re in trouble with your school, so you can’t go back, right?”

  “Right,” I said. We had already covered this. It was not a secret. I didn’t know why he was acting like it was some piece to a mysterious puzzle.

  “So, you come out to take this test. Brought out here by your aunt, who you don't seem to get along that well with. And taken to this guy, Cody, who you’ve never met, right?”

  “Yes,” I replied. Still old history by this point.

  “You would be out here in a dangerous forest, if you had not met me, right?”

  This was getting tedious. “Yes, yes, what’s your point?”

  “And,” Kirby continued, sticking his finger up in the air, “you have this enchanted map, which you are supposed to use to recover...something. You don’t know what it is, but you’ve been told this is a test, so that this guy, who, as I said, you’ve never met before, will take you on as an apprentice, which would also get you out of your aunt’s hair, so to speak.”

  Then I started to see where he was going with this.

  “So, what do you think I’m going to say next?” Kirby asked.

  “You’re going to ask if they are just trying to get rid of me, hoping I’ll die trying to do this.”

/>   Kirby nodded his head. “Now, I’m not new to this. I’ve been around the dragon’s tail more than a few times…”

  “Dragon’s don’t exist,” I interrupted.

  “It’s an expression.”

  “But if dragon’s don’t exist, why even say…”

  “It’s just a saying,” Kirby growled at me. “Don’t get distracted. The point is, I’ve been around a long time, been in some bad situations. So when you tell me all of this, one question comes to mind.”

  “And what’s that?”

  Kirby leaned in closer to me. “Who do you trust? Do you trust your aunt? Do you trust this guy? You have to figure out how to answer that. Because your answer will determine what you do next.”

  I could feel my face starting to flush. I was getting angry. Not just because of what he was insinuating, but because that he might be right. Maybe this was Aunt Linda’s way of getting rid of me. Maybe I was too much of a problem. I tried not to be. But Aunt Linda and I never really had a good relationship. I always just assumed everything would be alright. Maybe I was wrong.

  “Well,” Kirby asked, drawing out the words. “Do you trust them?”

  I held my head down. I didn’t really know what to think. But something about this didn’t make sense. I’ve always been socially awkward. I’ve never really felt right in any situation. And I’ve never had any really close friends, at least since I was little. But I’ve always thought I had good intuition. And despite what Kirby was suggesting, my intuition told me he was wrong. I could feel it in my stomach while he was talking. Did I really trust Aunt Linda? Not really. But I also didn’t think that she wanted to get rid of me, at least not like this. Not permanently. Did I trust Cody, a grumpy old cowboy-looking-probably-rogue-wizard-living-out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere kind of guy? My intuition told me yes. Despite what I didn’t know, yes, I thought I could trust him.

  “Yes,” I answered. “Yes, I do.”

  “Hmm,” Kirby said, crossing his arms. “Are you sure?”

  I thought about for a few seconds. “Yes, yes I am sure.”

  “Then perhaps I should show you something else,” he said, flattening the map out.

  “What?”

  Kirby pointed at the map. “This. The writing on the back. Look closely. You can barely see it.”

  I moved in closer, looking intently at what he was pointing at. Then I saw it. I didn’t know what it said, but I could see something written. “I can’t tell what it says.”

  He put on his spectacles again. “It’s an old dialect of an even older language. You’re lucky I’m here. Not many could read this.”

  “How come you can read it?”

  “Because,” he replied, “in the circles that I do my business, it’s helpful to know these things.”

  That sounded rather cryptic. “So what does it say?”

  “It’s just a note to the reader of the map, kind of warning or something that you need to know in order to use the map. The ancient mapmakers use to do this all the time. It’s almost like they are giving the map-reader a reason to give up on their hunt,” he said, adjusting his spectacles. “It says that to find whatever is hidden requires a warrior.”

  “But I’m not a warrior. I’m a wizard. Or at least I’m going to be one day.”

  “It doesn’t say wizard. It says warrior.”

  “I don’t care what it says. If it takes a wizard, then I can do that. I am not a warrior!”

  Kirby looked at me intently. “Maybe this Cody knows something about you that you don’t know about yourself.”

  Chapter 12

  “You’ve lost your ever-loving goblin mind,” I said, standing up. I had grown up in a wizard family, in a town of wizards, and went to a school named after one of the greatest wizards in history to become a wizard myself. I was not a warrior. From what I knew, ‘warrior’ was a military term. There were warriors in every supernatural race except for wizards. In war, wizards fought from a distance. That’s why we use spells. The races that didn’t use magic had warriors. There were ogre warriors, were-beast warriors, and even human warriors. But warriors fought hand to hand. Warriors were on the front lines. Warriors were physically strong. Wizards, however, were none of those things.

  “Says the girl who got kicked out of wizarding school because she couldn’t properly cast a spell.”

  “Shut up.” I didn’t need this crap from some goblin bounty hunter. I was well aware of my shortcomings.

  “Touched a nerve, have I?” Kirby said with a grin on his face.

  I had just about enough of him. “I said shut up! I don’t even know why I am even talking to you! You trapped me, and then made me make a deal to help you, all the while I’m supposed to be trying to past this stupid test so that I don’t get sent to prison! I am through talking to you!”

  I could feel the hot air coming out of my nose. I was mad. And now he knew it. I could see it in his eyes. At least he had stopped talking.

  And then I realized why.

  I looked down at my hand. I had drawn my sword, and now had the razor-sharp silver blade pointed at his throat. Blue energy crackled around the blade, like lightning. I didn’t even realize that I had done that.

  “You’ve got a bit of a temper there,” Kirby said.

  Yeah, I did. Then I remembered what Cody had said. “Get your emotions under control. You can’t let your anger get away from you like that. That can cause real problems. When you start feeling things like that...anger, rage, whatever, you take control of it.” The words rang in my ears. He was right. I pulled the sword down to my side.

  “I’m not a warrior, like I said,” I grunted at him through my clenched teeth.

  “Ok, if that is what you say. I don’t want your sword stuck in my face again, so I won’t argue. But I didn’t say that you were.”

  I felt bad. Well, I felt a little bad. I also felt kind of good. Cody also said not back down when someone started talking to me like that. At least the not backing down part was easy enough. The controlling my emotions part wasn’t as easy.

  “I don’t care about whatever you found on the map or what it says. It’s not talking about me. Maybe that’s part of the test, trying to see if I get killed while trying to do something that I can’t.”

  “That would indeed be a test,” Kirby said, looking up to the sky. “But, would this guy give you a test knowing that you would fail? Seems rather unfair.”

  “Of course it sounds unfair. He said he didn’t really want to test me, that I might not make it out alive. So maybe that is what he meant. I don’t know.”

  The thought that Cody and Aunt Linda might be tricking me was all I could think about. I still didn’t believe it. I didn’t have any proof. Just some ideas from a goblin. And I didn’t really have time to get in to some deep-thinking session about this.

  “Let me see the watch,” I said to Kirby.

  “Now hold on,” he said, raising his voice and slowly backing up. “We had a deal!”

  “Yes, yes, deal, whatever, “I replied. “I’m not taking it back. I just need to check the time.”

  Kirby hesitated. He clearly didn’t like the idea of me getting anywhere near the prize that he had bartered for. I meant it when I told him I didn’t want it back. Sure, I could snatch it and run. I wasn’t sure how good my prospects of getting away would be. He could have set more traps. Not to mention there was a werewolf roaming around. But more than that, I wasn’t going to go back on my word. I didn’t care how much things weren’t making sense now.

  If there was one thing that I remembered from my parents was that I should always live out my values, no matter what. “Pressure will either shatter a piece of coal, or turn it into a diamond,” that’s what my mother used to say. Then my father would say, “That’s not right; you’re already a diamond. Your job is to just keep shining brighter than everyone else.” That’s how they were. And I felt alone without them.

  Kirby stuck out his hand, showing me the watch. I leaned in, careful to kee
p my hands by my side so he didn’t think I was going to try and grab it. I checked the time. Two hours left. If I didn’t make it by then, the tes would be over. I would be without a mentor and right back where I was a few hours ago. If I was being used to find whatever this map led to though, did the time really matter? If Cody was lying to me, then why give me a time limit?

  “Alright, I want to renegotiate.”

  Kirby raised his eyebrows. “Renegotiate? For the watch? I’m listening.”

  “No, not for the watch. Forget about the watch.” Goblins and their love of technology. “We made a deal. I said I would help you find this wood elf. I’ll do that, but I’m on a time limit. I don’t know what the truth is about this map, this test, or anything right now. But I can’t take any chances. I need to do this. You said you’ve been through this forest many times. I’m guessing you know your way around, what to look for, even the direction that the map shows. I want you to help me get to whatever this map is leading to.”

  “I see. What about my elf?”

  “I will help you afterward. I promise.”

  Kirby stood there, stone-faced. “Let’s say I agree. What do I get out of this?”

  I didn’t have anything else to give him, except my sword. And I wasn’t giving that up. I already didn’t know how I was going to explain giving the watch away. I wasn’t going to explain giving away the sword too. And besides, it was the only weapon I had, the only thing I had to protect myself. I did have my magic, but I couldn’t count on my spells working under normal circumstances, much less if I had to defend myself against a werewolf or who knows what else out in the forest.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “Everything of value we find.”

  “No way. I have to bring back whatever this map leads to.”

  Kirby just stared at me. Goblins weren’t known for sharing, but what he wanted was a little ridiculous. Besides, shouldn’t I get something too?

  “Alright. Obviously the map is meant to lead to one particular thing. We don’t know what that is. But, when we figure that out, you get that. Anything else we find we split. I get 70%, you get 30%,” Kirby offered.