by B. T. Narro
The place of recruitment wasn’t a building as Leo had thought. It more resembled the small shops like Leo would see at the town market. Each seller had their own booth, usually narrow and tall so the sign at its top could be seen among the crowd. At least this booth was a little wider to afford more space.
“I suppose the army doesn’t put much effort into recruiting when they already have so many troops,” Andar said.
The man in uniform stood as they approached. “How old are you?” he asked Andar skeptically.
“Fourteen. I was the only Tisary digger until the commander was murdered. Rolan wanted me and my brother to come here because he knew we were special. We have thought much about it and finally decided that we want to learn more about joining the army.”
“Your brother is far too young. As for you…” His eyes swept up and down. “You may be considered a man where the law is concerned, but to the army you’re still a pup. Both of you should come back when you’ve grown more. Come back when you’re sixteen.”
Leo could feel his brother holding in an insult. It was probably that the army seemed to think this man was a pup as well, forcing him to sit out here and respond to the many people interested in joining.
But Andar spoke politely as he said, “Sir, my brother and I have some skill over Artistry.”
The man barked out a laugh. “Let’s see a link, then.”
“What would you have us link?”
“Your choice,” he said with a smug grin.
“Your boots,” Andar decided without delay.
The man looked down. He grin was replaced with a scowl. “I won’t go through the trouble of unlacing my boots just for you to fail. Pick something else.”
“You can leave them on,” Andar said. “Just come stand out here.”
The soldier looked as though he suspected a trick as he warily walked out from his booth. “You try to touch me and I’ll put you in prison myself.”
“We won’t,” Andar promised.
With a look to his side, he silently asked if Leo was ready. Leo nodded.
They had made a link between their own boots many times. It was easy enough for one of them to do it on their own. So with both working together to grab the Artistry in the air and swarm the boots with it, they were able to shape out a link in no time.
“Done,” Andar announced.
The soldier scoffed. “That quick?” He laughed. “I don’t know what you think you can...whoa!” He tried to move one foot, but his other foot edged forward as well. He fell on his rump and looked at his boots as if they’d betrayed him.
Leo heard a few murmurs behind him and turned to see a small crowd had come by to find out what had made the solider fall. Even touching one could lead to a trip to the dungeons, and the six onlookers seemed to be worried as they edged closer.
Some asked what happened, while others confirmed they saw the soldier fall on his own.
The soldier gave one glance at them and pretended everything was normal as he started to get up. But Leo and Andar kept the link strong between his boots. The soldier’s legs shook, his boots swaying to an unheard rhythm. He let out grunts of effort, even grabbing one of his legs and attempting to bend it so as to get a foot on the ground. But his other boot banged against the dirt and prevented him from moving the other.
It was no struggle to keep up the link, for the soldier never applied much force to either boot. A few of the citizens came over as if to help but were unsure what to do as the soldier’s legs shook violently now. Leo held in a laugh as the man’s face went red.
Andar snickered too quietly for anyone but Leo to notice, hopefully. He composed himself and asked the soldier, “Do you want us to break the link now?”
“Yes, break the damn link,” he grumbled.
“And my brother and I will have the option to join the army as mages?”
The crowd had grown to a dozen. Questions buzzed around.
“Those two boys did this?”
“They linked the soldier’s boots?”
“They’re too young for that, aren’t they?”
“How old are the two of you?” one asked them directly.
“I’m fourteen and my brother will be eleven soon enough,” Andar announced.
It wasn’t true that Leo would turn eleven soon, but Leo supposed that didn’t matter right now. He just wanted the option to join. He still hadn’t determined if he wanted to, though.
“How do I know who’s responsible for this link?” asked the soldier, now on his feet thanks to the help of people pulling him up by his arms.
“We both are,” Andar said. “But I’ll run all the way to the other street so you can see that my little brother is strong enough to hold the link on his own.”
Andar ran off as the soldier started to object. He then sighed as he glared at Leo. “You still linking them?” he asked dubiously.
“Yes sir,” Leo said as he concentrated.
The soldier held the side of his booth for balance, then made a face as he struggled. Leo could feel the link straining against the force of the solider attempting to move one of his boots while holding the other still. It was an easy battle to win. The crowd watched as the soldier did not move.
“Can you move one boot without the other moving?” Leo asked, knowing the answer already but wanting this to be over. He didn’t like being the focus of everyone’s attention, even if many of the crowd’s statements were that of marvel.
“This has to be some trick,” the soldier grumbled.
“I could link your hands together as well,” Leo said with a tone of respect.
The crowd’s laughter came as a relief of tension to Leo. He didn’t know why, but the attention suddenly didn’t bother him anymore. In fact, he enjoyed it.
“Want me to?” he urged the solider, eager to see what would happen if he did.
The soldier grunted as he managed to move one of his boots. But the other moved in the same direction, causing him to lose his footing. He held the side of his booth tightly as he tried to get his feet back beneath him, but soon he fell hard on his rump once again.
The crowd stifled laughter.
“Break the link,” the soldier growled.
“But my brother hasn’t come back yet. He still needs to prove he can hold the link on his own.”
“You both can join. Just break it!”
Leo made a show of sweeping his hand across the air as he tore the thick line of Artistry in half between the boots. “There,” he announced.
The solider looked relieved as he moved one leg at a time and gingerly got back on his feet. Andar returned as the crowd had different reactions for Leo. Some congratulated him. Others worried for him, urging him not to join. But most seemed to be amazed as they asked how he’d learned to use Artistry at such a young age.
“What happened?” Andar asked.
“He’s letting us both join,” Leo explained.
“He didn’t need me to hold the link on my own?”
“Not after I asked if he wanted me to link his hands as well. He just wanted it to stop.”
Andar laughed.
The soldier kept his head down as he leaned over the flat surface of his booth and wrote on a scroll. Eventually he looked up and bent his finger to call over Leo and Andar.
“Papers,” he said.
They handed over the papers with the names of their parents, their own names, and their places of birth. After hearing the truth about their family, Andar and Leo had realized that Andar’s papers were falsified like their father’s. Andar was really born in Halin, where their father and mother were born. He was given the name Andar Quim, but the false papers that he handed this recruitment “officer” said he was Andar Litxer of Jatn. Leo’s real papers read Leo Litxer of Jatn. He felt a little left out at not being listed anywhere with the Quim family name, but he still considered himself to be as much a Quim as his brother and father.
He was worried when the solider stared at Andar’s papers fo
r a while longer than Leo’s. But the wax seal of the king looked exactly the same on both. Leo and Andar had compared them already. Raenik must’ve had a seal just like the officials who took care of identification papers.
“Who trained both of you?” the soldier asked.
“No one,” Andar said. “We trained ourselves.”
The solider looked up with an irritated squint of his eyes. “Lying to a solider is an offense to the law.”
“It’s no lie!” Andar said. “I learned by myself, and then I told my brother what I figured out. We practice together but with no one else.”
“And how am I to believe you learned with no training?”
Andar told the skeptical man about his meeting with the commander and starting work in the Tisary. He explained how he learned much about Artistry from Rolan and from the mages he met down there. He was given many breaks, in which he studied Artistry and practiced.
“Like I said earlier,” Andar stated, “Rolan wanted to recruit us because he knew what we could do, but he was killed right in front of me.” Andar let down his head. If it was an act, Leo could not tell. “Now I want to make him proud.”
The soldier didn’t reply as he looked at Andar for a short while. Eventually, he finished writing on a scroll, then held it out. “Don’t fold or roll this, or the ink will smudge. You will be taken to the capital. The wagon leaves this afternoon. Here, take it.”
Andar took hold of the scroll. “We aren’t sure if we want to go yet,” he said. “We have many questions.”
“It’s a long trip. Make sure you’ve eaten and bathed. You have to bring all the food you’ll need and all your belongings with you. Have you prepared?”
“No,” Andar said.
“Then you’d better hurry. The carriage leaves from the northern road out of the city. Show that scroll to the man in charge.”
“We’ll take the next carriage,” Leo decided. “So now we have time to ask questions.”
“The next carriage isn’t for six months.”
“What?” Andar said. “Why so long?”
“We train foot soldiers here in the city, but mages-in-training need to be brought to the capital for further testing before they can join. Tests are conducted every six months. Carriages from each city are to arrive at the capital before the time of the test.”
“And what happens if we pass?” Andar asked.
“You’re offered an army contract.”
“What would our lives be like then?”
“I don’t know what a mage does each day. Any questions about that you must direct to the mage tester. You really should hurry if you want to make this carriage.”
Leo told his brother, “Let’s just wait until the next carriage.”
“Why?” Andar said. “That’s too long.”
“Because we won’t be able to tell Rygen we’re leaving.”
“She’ll understand.”
“She won’t!” Leo argued, incredulous his brother would be fine with abandoning her without even telling her where they were going. “I know her better than you do.”
“We’ll leave her a note, and we’ll come back as soon as we can. I’m sure she’ll understand if we explain the situation in a letter.”
Leo supposed she would understand, but that wouldn’t make her life any easier. The crowd had dispersed by then, but Leo still couldn’t concentrate in his haste. He spoke before he’d fully formed his thoughts.
“You go first, and I’ll take the next carriage.”
Andar’s face twisted with sadness. “You would separate from me just for Rygen?”
“I would come six months later, I promise.”
Andar looked to the ground. Leo’s heart wrenched.
“If that’s really what you wish,” Andar pouted. He glanced up. “But I might be sent away with the army before you come. We might never see each other again.”
“If that’s true, then you’re admitting that we might never see Rygen again.”
“No.” Andar spoke firmly. “We can always come back to Jatn to see her.” His voice picked up. “And hopefully convince her to join after she sees how much better our lives are. But if I leave six months before you do, we could be sent off to different places at different times. We would have no idea when and where to meet each other. I could come back to Jatn while you’re away for years. Then you could return to Jatn when I’m assigned elsewhere. Do you see?”
Leo nodded.
Andar asked, “And don’t you want to go with me?”
Leo figured his brother would not try to put on an act right now. This was too important.
“I do.” But upon seeing the sadness on his brother’s face, Leo had to say more. “I really do, Andar, and I agree it’s best not to wait. I just don’t want to abandon Rygen.”
Andar had a sharp breath. “This might be hard to hear, but you are not abandoning her. She’s made the choice to stay when she could come with us. Skyfire and ash, she’s certainly skilled enough to earn recruitment.”
Leo supposed he couldn’t argue against anything else Andar said. But there was one more important thing he had to bring up. He led his brother away from the booth to give them privacy.
“What about Father?” Leo asked. “He will come back to Jatn to look for us.”
“That’s likely to take years, if he’s able to come back at all. If you really want to increase the chances of seeing him, then we should join the army because one day we might be sent to ‘attack’ the rebels. We could save Father then. But if we don’t join the army, then we are as useless to him as we are to ourselves. Six months is too long. There’s no telling what might happen if we stay in Jatn all that time. You could be banned from the Bookbinding Guild if Gartel so desires. You won’t have anywhere else to work. I might be arrested. Our home could collapse in the next storm. It’s dangerous, Leo. We have to get on that carriage, and we have to get ready right now if we’re going to have any time to leave a note.”
“Can we run to Rygen’s farm to tell her what’s happening instead?”
“Yes, so long as there’s time after we finish everything. We have to hurry. You’re with me, right, brother? Together forever.”
Guilt ate away at Leo, but a veneer of pride made it easy to ignore it for the moment. “Together forever,” Leo agreed.
Andar was right. If the army really did improve their lives, then it should be easy to convince Rygen to join them. She would be heartbroken at finding out they were leaving without her, but she had already known this could happen when she decided to stay.
Leo would come back for her as soon as he could.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Rygen began her day like all the others. She walked a little farther than she wanted to in order to get to the farm where she worked. Her overseer wasn’t nice, like Gartel, but he didn’t strive to make everyone’s life miserable like Rhenol did to Andar. Rygen used to work on the same farm as the two brothers. Andar did talk back, but Rhenol had provoked him. He seemed to enjoy his power over Andar and looked for opportunities to punish Andar, even when Andar hadn’t said a word to him.
Rygen didn’t bother trying to make friends with any of the other farm workers at her new job. Most were older. What’s more, they were forced to spread out and weren’t allowed to talk to one another while working. She spent today preparing the wet dirt for seeds, shaping it into grooves. There were only so many tools, and she hadn’t earned one yet. Sometimes she wondered how necessary her tasks were on the farm. There were many laborers on the large property, dozens hard at work every time she glanced up. A mansion was at its center, just like at Rhenol’s farm. All farms in Jatn were designed the same, according to Leo, who had heard that from his father.
Shock struck her as she noticed someone familiar speaking with the overseer by his mansion. There was no mistaking his large frame and ugly grimace. He didn’t have the same cold look in his eyes as when he’d entered their home drunk and grabbed Rygen. He looked embarrassed, failing to
meet the overseer’s gaze. But as he glanced around, he found Rygen and smiled at her.
She shuddered. He did not have on a uniform any longer. Soon he was being sent to the toolshed. Rygen watched as he came out with a shovel. He came back with his gaze on her and began work nearby.
So the army had finally banned Marcus Dowl. He should be in a prison, though, not here. He hadn’t done anything to Rygen, but she had never seen another man look at her body like that. She knew terrible things would’ve happened if Leo hadn’t found the commander nearby.
He would not work here if she could help it! She took a wide berth around him as he stared at her. She was overcome by a disgusting feeling of something crawling over her skin as she imagined him gaping at her backside. She met the overseer at his mansion.
“Why are you over here and not working?” the overseer questioned.
She looked over her shoulder to find Marcus still staring at her. It enraged her.
“The man staring at me is a criminal. He broke into my home while in uniform and grabbed me. I don’t know what he would’ve done if my friends hadn’t been with me. One had to fight him to stop him from grabbing me, while my other friend ran to fetch the army commander, who came in and reprimanded him.”
Surely, the overseer had to show some compassion. He did glance at the former solider at least, but then he called him over!
“Marcus, come over here.”
The large man’s flesh jiggled as he jogged over. “What is it?” he asked.
“Did you grab this girl?”
“You saw me arrive at your farm for the first time just now! I haven’t touched anyone.”
The overseer rolled his eyes. “Not now. At another time.”
The solider looked closely at Rygen. Either he didn’t recognize her or he played the part very well.
“I haven’t even met that girl before.”
“You have!” Rygen insisted. “Your name is Marcus Dowl. You were a soldier not long ago, when you drunkenly barged into my home and grabbed me.”
He ignored her to address the overseer. “I don’t know her. She’s lying.”