Guards Vestige

by Alexander Adams

  “Perfect,” Hall said. “Now Captain North will just ask you some questions and then he’ll show you where you’ll be staying.” Hall paused and looked at Claudia. “While they do that, I would like a report on that pack you were sent to find.”

  “Of course, commander,” Claudia said.

  The ranger motioned for Daniel, Aaron, and Griffon to follow. He led them quickly back down the hall and stairs to the floor below. Directly off the stair landing was a small room with several chairs inside and a second door at the far end.

  North pointed to Daniel and Griffon. “You two wait here. Mr. Cross, come with me.”

  Aaron and North went into the second doorway and left the two of them alone. Griffon fell into one of the chairs set against the wall with a sigh. Daniel did the same. He briefly scanned the room as they waited. Aside from the chairs lining the walls and the two doors, it was empty. As they waited, he felt and heard his heart beating twice as fast as normal. He knew that there was nothing wrong at the moment, yet in spite of that he felt nervous, even terrified. He tried to control his breathing to calm himself.

  “What do you think they’re talking about in there?” Griffon asked, her voice startling Daniel in the quiet.

  “I have no idea. I don’t know what they would possibly need to ask us.”

  Griffon apparently had nothing to say in response. The silence resumed with a new sense of awkwardness.

  Daniel felt the need to keep the conversation going. “So . . . why do you want to be a Dragon Guard?”

  Griffon replied with a light shrug. “Honestly, I never wanted to be.”

  “So why are you here now?”

  “It’s a long story, but I guess . . . ” She bit her lip. “I guess it just came down to me being tired of not being able to protect myself. Something happened back home and a Dragon Guard helped me through it. After seeing what he did, he kind of inspired me to come here and learn to how to fight back. So I wouldn’t ever need to be helped again.”

  In spite of their time at sea together, he hadn’t really had the chance to speak with Griffon about anything like this. He was curious about the circumstances of her departure. “What happened?”

  “I’d rather not get into it. Let’s just say I had to leave home and he helped me get on my way.” She turned to him and smiled. “What about you, why are you here?”

  He felt her unease and decided to go with the subject change. “It’s what I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember.”

  “That’s it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  She laughed lightly. “I mean you just wanted to be one so you’re here? There’s nothing else?”

  He smiled as he thought about how he would explain it. “Do you like to read?”

  The question seemed to confuse her. “What?”

  “Read, stories about adventures and things like that.”

  She looked up at the ceiling. “I never learned to read, but I do remember a poem that my brother used to tell me about a lone wolf wanting to be human. Does that count?”

  “Close enough.” He pulled his pack off his back and set it on the floor. The one thing he would never part with was inside. He pulled the book out and set it on his lap. “I love reading. My father taught me when I was really young before he left.” He sighed and smiled at the memory. “I’ve always read books where there’s a hero that comes along and protects people just for the sake of protecting them, even if the hero doesn’t get anything in return.”

  “So you want to be a hero like that?”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  “Sort of childish, isn’t it?” Griffon said. “Seems like you’d be better off playing with wood swords and pretending to save the day.”

  “I don’t think so. If there were never any heroes in the world, then it wouldn’t be what it is now. I think everyone can be a hero to at least one person in some way. The problem is that most people don’t try.” He paused to consider his next words. “You said that a Dragon Guard helped you leave Forge. He went out of his way to help you even though he didn’t get anything out of it. So wouldn’t you consider him a hero?”

  Her response was quiet and thoughtful. “I suppose so.”

  “Ever since I first met Claudia, Kenneth, and Mila . . . they’ve been heroes to me. If it wasn’t for them, I’d be dead on the bank of the Arrow. I never would have made it here. They didn’t have to go out of their way like that. They could have just kept walking. They took the time to try.”

  Griffon seemed to consider his words. Before she could respond, the door across the room opened and Aaron stepped out.

  He sat down in the chair next to Daniel with a heavy sigh. “He said to send you in next.”

  Daniel stood and looked at him curiously. “What did he ask?”

  “Nothing, really. It was . . . weird. Felt more like a casual conversation. Just a lot about home, family, friends, and things like that.”

  Daniel, more confused than he had been a moment ago, went to the door and pushed it open. It was empty save for a table and two chairs on either side of it. North sat on one end with a paper placed before him and a quill in his hand. Daniel took the seat across from him and waited for North to speak first.

  “Hello, Mr. Summers. As you know, I’m Captain North. I lead the ranger sect of the Dragon Guard. Have you ever met a ranger?”

  “Just one. Her name was Mila.”

  “Right, Ms. Den. How could I forget? Mr. Cross told me what happened. Her death is a great loss for the Dragon Guard. She will be missed.” There was a short pause before he continued. “Do you have any family, parents, brothers, or sisters?”

  “My mother and one brother.”

  “What are their names?”

  “Lilly and Jeremy.”

  He nodded and wrote on the paper again. “No father?”

  “He left when I was young. I don’t remember much about him.”

  He nodded again and made several more notes., Daniel was more confused than anything at this point. The questions didn’t seem relevant to becoming a Dragon Guard in any way.

  “Grandparents?”

  “I never knew them. They lived in Dalisia but my mother moved to Sapella when she married my father.”

  “Do you have any religious beliefs?”

  “Uh, no, I don’t.”

  North narrowed his eyes. “You hesitated.”

  “I just . . . never really thought about it before.”

  North jotted down another line on the paper as he asked his next question. “How much do you know about the history of Edaren?”

  Daniel had to think for a moment. “Not much, I guess. I learned a lot from Claudia on the way here, but aside from that there weren’t many chances for history lessons in Sapella.”

  The interview continued for several minutes. The questions seemed to be mostly about Daniel’s past and the people in Sapella—names and relationships, interesting landmarks in the area, or what happened there recently. Daniel wanted to come right out and ask what any of this had to do with being a Dragon Guard, but he felt that he wouldn’t get an answer.

  North finally folded the paper he’d been writing on and sealed it with wax, using a stamp with the ranger symbol as he spoke. “Well, thank you Mr. Summers, that will be all. You may send in Ms. Hart.” Both curious and confused, Daniel left the room to sit next to Aaron before sending Griffon in. Her interview passed quickly. When it was over, North had them follow him back to the stairs. They started down toward the ground floor and the main entry room, but then North turned into one of the side doors. After leading them through a maze of halls, North took the new recruits through another door that led to the back courtyard of the keep.

  At the moment, the area was empty, but it was clearly one of the main areas for exercises and training. There were rings carved into the ground and tal
l stakes with protruding arms sticking out. Further down was a row of squares covered in burlap and filled with straw that Daniel guessed were archery targets. Opposite them and tucked into the corner on the east side of the wall was a long, plain-looking stone building with only a few windows and two doors adjacent to each other. When Daniel turned to look down the length of the courtyard, he saw another building across the way that mirrored the first building.

  North led them to the structure on the east side and pushed open the door closest to the keep wall. Inside was row after row of straw beds with single-door wardrobes between them. Dotting the room were several boys and girls engrossed in conversations of their own. Only the two closest to the door seemed to take notice of the captain.

  A boy with shaggy gold hair and brown eyes stood and greeted them: “Good afternoon, Captain North.”

  “Mr. Thorn, wonderful timing,” North said. He gestured at Daniel, Aaron, and Griffon behind him. “These are our newest arrivals. Can I trust you to show them around and explain the rules?”

  “Of course sir, leave it to me.” Thorn smiled wide at Daniel and the others as North turned on his heel and left through the still-open door.

  The boy extended his hand. Aaron was the first to shake it. “My name’s Zachery,” the boy said. He gestured to the boy behind him, who looked exactly like him except while Zachery had blond hair, his was jet black. “This is my younger brother, Alan.”

  Daniel shook Zachery’s hand, next followed by Griffon. When they were all acquainted, Zachery motioned for them to sit on the bed across from him.

  “So here are the basics,” Zachery said. “Floors three and up in the keep are off limits. First floor has the kitchen and dining area, but other than that it’s mostly storage. Second floor has a library and the rest is personal quarters for the Dragon Guard and the few full-time workers, like the kitchen staff.” He bit his lip. “There was something else . . . ”

  Alan answered him without looking up from a box he held in his hand: “The curfew.”

  Zachery snapped his fingers. “Right! You can walk around the city as long as you’re back before sundown. You can’t leave here before sunrise.”

  Griffon tilted her head to one side. “That’s it?”

  Zachery shrugged. “That I can remember, anyway. Oh, and girls sleep next door.”

  Daniel looked around the long room. There was only one other door, at the far end where the corner of the keep wall would be. Small, unlit lanterns hung from the wall above each bed just below narrow shelves set halfway up the wall.

  Daniel turned back to Zachery. “So, how many people are here?” he asked. “Recruits, I mean.”

  “I think there’s fifteen going through training now,” Zachery said, “and twenty-two waiting to start, counting you three.” He looked over at the other recruits in the room. “The only guy here I’ve really talked to is Robert.” He pointed to a boy with short, coal-black hair and jade eyes.

  Alan spoke again without looking away from the puzzle: “He’s a jerk.”

  Zachery elbowed him hard enough to make him fall sideways. “Other than Robert, there’s Lace and Robin next door. They showed up with him, I think. They’re all from Silvum. Oh, there’s also Clara. She’s nice but you can barely get a word out of her, always has her head in a book.”

  “How long have you been here?” Aaron asked. “Where did you come from?”

  “Alan and I have been here about two weeks, came down from Dawnstone. How about you guys?”

  “I’m from Dalisia,” Aaron said. “Daniel is from Sapella’s Crossing and Griffon came from Forge.”

  Zachery whistled softly. “Wow, long way off. Hard journey?”

  Daniel and Aaron both smiled at one another before Daniel answered: “You have no idea.”

  “What happened?”

  “Have you ever been to Grey Gate?”

  Daniel started recounting what had transpired to the best of his memory. From the moment they reached the gate and the welcome they were given to the venture into Market Level to find Barden. He skimmed over most of the details. When the story reached the point where they ventured into the den, Aaron took the reins. Daniel actually paid close attention once Aaron reached the point where Daniel had been knocked down the slope. He’d been told what happened in snippets when they were at sea, but not in this amount of detail. He hadn’t wanted to hear it at the time.

  “After Daniel fell into the darkness” Aaron said, “Kenneth reached Mila, grabbed the satlis by the tail, and pulled it away from her before driving his sword through it. Then he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder and we started running. Claudia fended off any of the smaller males that passed the fire she left behind. It didn’t take us long to reach the exit but by that time the whole horde was on us. Claudia had to collapse the exit with one of those orb things she carries around,” Aaron took a deep breath after he finished continuing his tale.

  He then told about how he met Griffon, and as before refused to answer when Daniel cut in and asked how exactly he’d secured their place on the ship. At this point it was Daniel’s turn to tell his side of the tale. When he was finished Zachery’s jaw hung open.

  “That’s incredible! You really killed one yourself?” Zachery asked Daniel.

  Daniel shrugged and blushed slightly. “Barely, and it was injured. Kenneth thinks it was one he’d thrown down the slope.”

  “That’s still really impressive!” Zachery said. “Biggest thing I’ve ever killed was a rat at the orphanage.”

  “Got it!” Alan exclaimed suddenly. He held up the box triumphantly.

  Zachery took it from him and examined the different sides of the cube as Daniel leaned in to see what exactly it was. It was a puzzle box. Daniel had never had one himself but he had seen them before. It was a simple metal and wooden box with a single lid. It had eleven small movable tiles on the lid that were nearly an inch thick with a space for a twelfth tile that remained empty. The goal was to line the tiles up in the correct order that allowed a long pin to slide through them like a key, allowing the box to be opened. Most often they were filled with sweets or a toy as a reward for the child that solved it.

  There were smaller tiles that usually came with it that were meant to make the game more challenging by adding more variation to the tiles.

  “I’ll make it a little harder this time,” Zachery said. He shuffled the slats back and forth, twisting the cube in a random manner until the three pictures were a jumbled, unidentifiable mess. He handed it back to his brother, who started to carefully slide the square slats around. Daniel watched him for a moment as he considered the movement of each piece.

  Aaron leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “You said you were in an orphanage?” he asked.

  Zachery replied as he watched his brother go about solving the box: “Yeah, our parents died when Alan was only a year old. The rest of our family lived in Volignis when Dragons Maw blew, so we didn’t have anyone left to go to.”

  “I’m, uh . . . I’m sorry to hear that,” Aaron said.

  Zachery laughed briefly. “Not as sorry as we were. That place was horrible. It smelled terrible and the food was awful. Actually, the food was probably the reason for the smell, now that I think about it.”

  Griffon leaned toward Alan to examine the puzzle. “So, what made you come here?”

  “They kick you out when you turn eighteen,” Zachery said, “so I’d only be there another two months, and I wasn’t going to leave Alan there by himself for another five years while I was here training. So he came with me since he just turned thirteen. Besides, this seemed like a better alternative to the Dawnstone city watch. They’ve never really been the nicest people.”

  “You made this one too hard,” Alan said. He furrowed his brow as he continued to fiddle with the cube.

  “Just keep working on it,” Zachary said. “You’l
l figure it out. You always do.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  30th of Sanya, 26th year of the Fourth Age.

  Daniel walked quietly down the halls of Vigil with his fingers laced behind his head. The keep was a hive of activity as the majority of the Dragon Guard was currently present at Vigil for the Autumn’s End Festival. Claudia had said the only members of the Dragon Guard absent from the festivities tonight would be those out on permanent assignments. Aside from them, everyone was ready to celebrate not only the New Year but the new wave of recruits joining the Order. Daniel sighed as he took another turn down a hall heading for the kitchen. He was trying his best not to think too much about the days to come.

  It had been two and a half weeks since he arrived at Vigil with Aaron and the others, and over that time he’d familiarized himself with the layout of the first two floors of the keep. He’d also spent a considerable amount of time in the city itself. He had learned there were three gates that led into the city, one each at the north, west, and east walls. Each of these opened onto a wide road heading straight through the city to the keep. The keep itself had only the one gate on the north wall. Several times, Daniel had nearly been caught past curfew on the wrong side of the gate with Zachery and Alan.

  But for the moment, he would be staying within the keep walls. He was heading for the courtyard on the west side of the keep, as he’d been doing almost every day for the last week and a half. The fastest way to do that would be through the chaotic kitchen and out one of the small side doors. He walked through open doors into the dining hall and stepped past large, dark, wooden tables set in long lines that faced a stage at the far end of the room. The room was lit with hanging chandeliers, each holding dozens of lit candles. In addition, braziers built into the walls surrounded the room.

  Daniel was actually quite excited about the celebration—mostly because of the food. Jonathan, the Vigil chef, was truly a master of his craft. Daniel’s mouth was already watering at the thought of the upcoming meal. He stepped through a curtained-off doorway leading to the kitchen. The moment he was inside, he encountered a wall of noise and waves of aromas that battered his senses in a wonderful way. Jonathan had his staff working overtime for the band ceremony that would take place in a little less than an hour. It was where the current novices would receive the bands they would wear around their wrists for a lifetime, the mark of a true and full-fledged Dragon Guard.