by Anthony Ryan
Master Harin spent over an hour stitching and dressing the cuts on Frentis’s body, ordering them from the treatment room when their unasked for advice and constant questions became too irksome. Vaelin found Aspect Elera waiting in the corridor.
“I can see your day has been hard, brothers,” she said. “There is food waiting for you in our dining hall.”
They ate in silence, their conversation stilled by the presence of so many members of the Fifth Order. The healers stared at the blue robed, grim faced interlopers, a few familiar faces offering greetings to Vaelin, receiving a only a curt nod in response. Their table was piled high with food but Vaelin found he had no appetite. His hands retained a slight tremble from whatever the one eyed man had done to him and the vision of Frentis tied and bleeding was still at the forefront of his thoughts.
Aspect Elera joined them an hour or so later. “Master Harin tells me your brother will recover. He will have to stay with us for several days whilst he heals.”
“Is he awake, Aspect?” Vaelin asked her.
“Master Harin gave him a sleeping draught. He should wake in the morning. You can see him then.”
“My thanks, Aspect. May I request that word be sent to our Order? Aspect Arlyn will be expecting my report.”
She sent Brother Sellin to the house of the Sixth Order and gave them a room in the east wing. Vaelin insisted on sitting with Frentis and Caenis waited with him whilst the others slept, cleaning his weapons to pass the time, laying his sword and knives out on the floor, metal gleaming in the candle light as he ran cloth over each blade with meticulous care. Scratch had been confined to an empty pen in the stables. He ignored the food he had been given and howled continually, his plaintive cries reaching them through the walls.
Vaelin studied the long bladed dagger he had taken from Frentis, the blade the one eyed man had used to cut the web of scars into his body. It was Caenis’s by right but he had refused to take it with a grimace of distaste. Vaelin decided to keep it on impulse, it was a finely made weapon of unfamiliar design, the blade well tempered and the handle elegantly fashioned with a silver pommel. The guard bore writing with unfamiliar letters. Clearly it was a weapon from across the sea. One Eye had a long reach it seemed.
“The fire was an illusion,” Vaelin said. His voice sounded listless and dull to his ears, reminding of him of Brother Makril and his jaded tales of fire and slaughter.
Caenis glanced up from his weapons and nodded, his hands continuing to guide the cloth over the blades.
“The Dark,” Vaelin said. “The blood, it gave him power. That’s what the bodies were for.”
Caenis’s didn’t look up, but nodded once more, still cleaning his blades.
Vaelin felt the tremor return to his hands, his anger flaring at the memory of his helplessness before the one eyed man. A helplessness not shared by Caenis. Caenis could leap through Dark borne fire and hack down the man who called it forth. You know so much more than you tell me, brother, Vaelin realised. It’s always been this way. “There are no secrets between us,” he said.
Caenis’s hand paused in mid stroke as he worked a cloth over his sword blade. His eyes met Vaelin’s and for the briefest second there was something there, something different from the affection or respect he normally saw in his friend’s eyes, something almost resentful.
The door opened and Master Sollis entered with Aspect Elera. “You two should be resting,” he said shortly, moving to the bed to check on Frentis, his eyes tracing over the blood stained bandages covering his chest and arms. “Will he scar, Aspect?”
“The cuts were deep. Master Harin is skilled but…” She spread her hands. “There is only so much we can do. Luckily his muscles are intact. He will be strong again soon.”
“The man who did this is dead?” Sollis asked Vaelin.
“Yes, master.” Vaelin gestured at Caenis. “My brother’s stroke.”
Sollis glanced at Caenis. “The man was skilled?”
“His skills were not with weapons, master.” Caenis glanced uncertainly at Aspect Elera.
“Talk freely,” Sollis instructed him.
He told Master Sollis all that had transpired since their departure from the Order House, from the Black Boar inn to their confrontation with the one eyed man beneath the city. “The man had knowledge of the Dark, master. He could call up an illusion of fire and he bound Brother Vaelin by his will alone.”
“But not you?” Sollis asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No. I expect I surprised him by seeing through his illusion.”
“You made sure of the kill?”
“He’s dead master,” Vaelin assured him.
Master Sollis and Aspect Elera shared a brief glance.
“I hear the Aspect had been gracious enough to provide you with a room,” Sollis said, turning back to Frentis. “She would feel insulted if you failed to use it.”
Recognising their dismissal they rose and moved to the door. “Tell no-one else of this,” Master Sollis ordered before they left. “And do something to shut that bloody dog up!”
In the morning Master Sollis questioned them closely about the route to the One Eye’s chambers and the ancient temple to the Faith they had found. Vaelin offered to guide him but received only a stern refusal. When he was satisfied with their directions Sollis told them to return to the Order House.
“Brother Frentis…” Vaelin began.
“Will heal just as well with you at your training where you belong. The Test of the Sword is but eight weeks away and none of you are ready yet.”
They trudged back to the Order House without Master Sollis who had given them another warning to keep silent before going off to investigate their findings. Scratch had whined in protest when they led him away from the House of the Fifth Order, needing much reassurance from Vaelin before following their steps.
To Vaelin their tower room seemed to have shrunk in their absence. A night of fear and mystery made it feel so small, a child’s room, even though it had been a long time since he felt like a child. He stowed his gear and lay back on his narrow bed, closing his eyes to see again the one eyed man’s wall of flame and Frentis's tortured form. I believed I had learned so much, he thought. But I know nothing.
The boys from Frentis’s group came asking questions but Vaelin followed Master Sollis’s instructions and told them he had been attacked by a mountain lion during his test of the Wild. He was recovering in the House of the Fifth Order and would return within a few days. Sollis himself said nothing about his investigations on return to the Order and the Aspect did not request their presence. Frentis’s abduction was another non-event in the Order’s history. The Order fights, but often it fights in shadow. As he grew older Vaelin found ever more truth in Master Sollis’s words.
Frentis himself said nothing of the incident on his return, resuming his training with a disturbing vigour, as if rejecting the damage One Eye had done to him by ignoring the pain his exertions cost him. His demeanour had changed also, he was less apt to smile and where he had been talkative before now he was largely silent. His temper too had grown shorter and the masters had to drag him out of several fights. Even the other boys in his group seemed wary of him. Only with Scratch and Vaelin did he regain some vestige of his old self, taking an energetic part in training the now grown pups. However, even then he continued to say nothing of his ordeal, although Vaelin sometimes caught him running his fingers over the pattern of scars carved into his skin, his face oddly thoughtful as if trying to decipher their meaning.
“Do they hurt?” Vaelin asked him one Eltrian evening. The pups were tired from a day spent tracking with Master Hutril and could only snap lazily at the treats they tossed into their pens.
Frentis quickly pulled his hand away from his shirt. “A little. Less and less as the weeks pass. Aspect Elera gave me a balm for ‘em, helps a bit.”
“It was my fault…”
“Forget it.”
“If I had told the Aspect…”
<
br /> “I said forget it!” Frentis's face was tense as he stared into the pens. Slasher, his favourite pup, sensed his mood and came over to lick at his hand, whining in concern. “He's dead,” Frentis said, calmer now. “And I’m not. So forget it. Can’t kill him twice.”
They walked back to the keep together, cloaks wrapped against the chill although winter was fading fast and the surrounding trees were quickly taking on the verdant hues of spring.
“Test of the Sword next month,” Frentis said. “Worried?”
“Why? Do you think I should be?”
“I’ve already bet my whole knife collection that you finish all three in less than two minutes. I meant what happens after. They’ll send you away, right?”
“I expect so.”
“Think they’ll let us serve together when I’m confirmed? I’d like that.”
“So would I. But I don’t think we get a choice. It’ll be a good while before we see one another again, that’s for sure.”
They lingered at the courtyard, Vaelin sensing Frentis had more to say. “I…” he began then stopped, fidgeting uncomfortably. “I’m glad you spoke for me, when I came here,” he said after a moment. “I’m glad I’m in the Order. I feel like I was meant to be here. So you shouldn’t feel bad about anything that happens to me, right? Whatever happens from now on, you don’t have to feel bad and you don’t have to come running when I’m in trouble.”
“Wouldn’t you come running if I was in trouble?”
“That’s different.”
“No, it’s exactly the same.” He clapped Frentis on the shoulder. “Get some rest, brother.”
He had taken a few steps when Frentis said something to make him stop, his voice barely above a whisper, “The one who waits will destroy us.”
He turned to find Frentis hunched in his cloak, arms folded tightly against his chest, face wary. He wouldn’t meet Vaelin’s eye.
“What?” Vaelin asked.
“He told me.” Frentis winced, as if pained and Vaelin knew he was reliving his torture at One Eye’s hands. “He got angry when I wouldn’t tell him what he wanted to know. Kept asking about the Tests, the skills we’re taught here. Seemed to think we get taught how to practice the Dark. Stupid bastard. Wasn’t going to tell him anything though. So he cut me some more, then he said, ‘The one who waits will destroy your precious Order, boy.’”
The one who waits... “Did he tell you want it meant?”
“I passed out when he started cutting me again. He’d only just managed to bring me round when you turned up.”
“Did you tell the Aspect of this?”
Frentis shook his head. “Dunno why. Just felt that I shouldn’t tell no one except you.”
Vaelin felt a chill that had nothing to do with the deepening cold. For a moment he was back in the forest during the Test of the Run, listening to the men who had killed Mikehl as they debated the identity of their victim. The other one… You heard what the other one said. Gave me the shivers he did.
“Don’t tell anyone else,” Vaelin said. “One Eye told you nothing.” He watched Frentis shiver in his cloak and forced a smile. “The man was a loon. His words mean nothing. But it’s best we keep this between us. Telling our brothers would only cause foolish talk.”
He watched Frentis nod and walk away, still clutching himself beneath his cloak, his fingers no doubt playing over his scars. Will he dream tonight? Vaelin thought and felt a pang of mingled guilt and regret. Why couldn’t it have been me who killed One Eye?
Chapter 9
The morning of the Test of the Sword brought a hard rain that turned the earth to mud and did little to lighten their spirits. The Test was held in an arena on the outskirts of the city, an ancient structure of finely shaped granite, worn with age and weathered by the elements. It was known only as the Circle and Vaelin had never met anyone who could tell him when or why it had been built. Looking at it now he realised there were similarities with the temple to the seven orders they had found beneath the city, the way the supporting columns curved up to the tiers above echoed the elegance of the underground structure. Here and there he glimpsed adornments in the stonework, carvings of faded intricacy that recalled the better preserved motifs of the temple. He drew Caenis’s attention to them as Master Sollis led them into the shade beneath the columns but received only a grunt in response. Today even Caenis was too preoccupied to indulge in curiosity.
Vaelin could see the fear and uncertainty on his brothers’ faces but found he was unable mirror it. The emotions that made Dentos vomit his breakfast and Nortah white-faced and closed-lipped were something he simply didn’t feel. He was unafraid and he didn’t understand why. Today he would face three men in armed combat. He would kill them or they would kill him. The prospect of death should have chilled him to the core. Perhaps it was the very simplicity of the situation that robbed him of his fear. There were no questions here, no mysteries, no secrets. He would live or he would die. But despite his inability to fear the ordeal something still nagged at him, a small, insistent voice at the very edge of his thoughts, whispering words he didn’t want to hear: Perhaps you don’t fear the Test because you relish it.
Unwillingly, he recalled the Test of Knowledge, the awful truth the Aspects had forced from him. I can kill. I can kill without hesitating. I was meant to be a warrior. Images of the men he had killed came back to him in a rush: the archer in the forest, the faceless assassins in the House of the Fifth Order, the one eyed man’s hireling. It was true he had felt no hesitation in killing any of them, but had he truly relished it?
“You’ll wait in here.” Master Sollis led them into a chamber set back from the main entrance. The walls were thick but they could hear the baying of the crowd in the Circle. The Test of the Sword was an ever popular event in the city but only those with sufficient coin could purchase a ticket and typically it was the Realm’s wealthier citizens who came to watch the three day spectacle, often wagering huge sums on the outcome of each contest. The profits from the day would be donated to the Fifth Order to care for the sick. Vaelin couldn’t help but smile at the irony of it.
“What’s so funny?” Nortah demanded.
Vaelin shook his head and sat down on a stone bench to wait. There were twenty brothers in Vaelin’s group today. The fifty other survivors of the three hundred who had started their training together as boys of ten or eleven had undergone their Tests over the preceding two days. So far ten had been killed and another eight so badly maimed they could no longer serve the Order. Many others had serious cuts requiring weeks of healing. The parade of wounded and shocked brothers trooping through the gates over the past two days had added considerable weight to the burden of fear most of them now carried. Of all of them, only Vaelin and Barkus seemed unaffected.
“Sugar cane?” he offered Vaelin, taking the place next to his.
“Thank you brother.” The cane was fresh and its sweetness tinged with a slight acidity, but still the sensation was a welcome distraction from the grim mood of the others.
“Wonder who’ll be first,” Barkus said after a moment. “Wonder how they choose.”
“We draw lots,” Master Sollis told them from the doorway. “Nysa. You’re first. Let’s go.”
Caenis nodded slowly, face immobile, and got to his feet. When he spoke his voice was barely audible. “Brothers…” he began, then stopped, choked. “I…” He stammered for a moment before Vaelin reached out grasp his forearm.
“We know, Caenis. I’ll see you shortly. We all will.”
They stood, the five of them, grasping hands. Dentos, Barkus, Nortah, Vaelin and Caenis. Vaelin remembered how they had been as boys. Barkus beefy and clumsy. Caenis thin and fearful. Dentos loud and full of stories. Nortah sullen and resentful. Now he saw only shadows of those boys in the lean, stern faced young men before him. They were strong. They were killers. They were what the Order had made them. This is the end of something, he realised. Live or die, this is where things change, forever.
>
“It’s been a long road,” Barkus said. “Never thought I’d get this far. Wouldn’t have but for you lot.”
“Wouldn’t change any of it,” Dentos said. “Every day I thank the Faith for my place in the Order.”
Nortah’s face was tense, his brows furrowed as he fought to master his fear. Vaelin thought he wasn’t going to speak but after a moment he said, “I… hope you all make it through.”
“We will.” Vaelin clasped hands with all of them. “We always do. Fight well, brothers.”
“Nysa,” Master Sollis said from the door. He sounded impatient and Vaelin was surprised he had allowed them this interlude. “Let’s go.”
Waiting to find out if your friends were dead, Vaelin discovered, was a singular form of agony that made the effects of Joffril root feel like a taste of lemon tea. One by one his brothers were called out by Master Sollis, there would be a short wait before the crowd erupted in cheers, the volume of which rose and fell with the fortunes of the fight. After a while he found he could gauge the course of a fight, if not the victor, by the crowd’s reaction. Some were over quickly, a matter of seconds, Caenis’s fight in particular had been very short. Vaelin found he couldn’t decide if this was good or bad. Other fights were longer, Barkus and Nortah both enduring prolonged contests of several minutes.
Dentos was the last to be called before Vaelin. He forced a smile, took a firm grip on his sword hilt and followed Master Sollis from the chamber without a backward glance. Judging from the noise of the crowd his fight was eventful, raucous cheers followed by hushed silence then an explosion of applause, repeated several times over. When the final wave of noise washed through the chamber Vaelin found he was unable to judge if Dentos had survived.
Luck to you brother, he thought, alone in the chamber now. Mayhap I’ll join you soon. His hand ached from gripping his sword hilt, the knuckles white on the leather. Is this fear now? he wondered. Or just stage fright?