Daniel realized there was more strategy to this than he originally thought. In Claudia’s example, if Clara had not already eliminated someone on Griffon’s team before Griffon eliminated her, the rest of Clara’s team would mathematically be locked out of winning the exercise by the elimination option. They would have to resort to either capturing the flag or the other members of Griffon’s team.
Another question came to mind. He wasn’t looking forward to the answer but felt he needed to ask regardless. “How long is this supposed to last?”
“Until one team wins,” Austin answered.
“So we could be out here for days?”
Austin chuckled. “When I did this, it lasted two and a half weeks.”
“What do we get if we win?” Griffon asked.
Claudia and Austin glanced at each other with an uneasy look.
Austin sighed. “You get to stay.”
An air of confusion settled over the recruits.
As always, Clara was the first to voice her concern. “I’m afraid I don’t understand . . . we get to stay where?”
Claudia took a deep breath before addressing the recruits in front of her. “The winners get to stay at Vigil. The losers . . . will be removed from the ranks of the Dragon Guards and sent home with an escort.”
At once, the entire line of recruits erupted in a voice of opposition. Daniel’s head was swimming. They were going to send the losing team home. None of the recruits were happy to hear this. Austin attempted to quiet them before they were all hushed by a loud, shrill whistle from Claudia.
The scholar placed her hands on her hips and sighed. “I know,” she said. “It doesn’t seem fair to you right now. But life isn’t fair. These are the stakes. You win or you go home, there is no other option. This is a high pressure situation and you have to show us you can succeed in spite of that pressure. You want to be here? Prove you deserve it.” They were all quiet for a long moment. Claudia appeared to wait until she was sure they understood her before continuing. “Each fort has bedrolls, as well as racks of various sparring weapons and some gear. What you use depends on your personal preferences. You have the entire forest as your battleground.”
“What do we do if we’re eliminated?” Jane asked with considerable bite in her tone. “Do we just wait until the game is over?”
“If you are eliminated, we expect you to return to Vigil as soon as possible, where we will begin preparations to take you home should your team lose the overall exercise.”
“So how do we decide the teams?” Jane asked. Daniel could almost taste the bitterness in her tone.
“You don’t. Austin and I will.”
Austin was quick to make his first choice. “Griffon, stand with me.”
Claudia, without missing a beat, made the next pick. “Jane.”
They called out names so quickly that they must have discussed who would go where beforehand. When was all said and done, the ones Daniel knew on Claudia’s team were Aaron, Alan, and Jane. Daniel was on Austin’s side with Griffon, Zachery, Clara, Lace, Robert, and Robin.
Austin addressed the group around him: “Claudia’s group will be team one and we’ll be team two. Now we’ll show you to your temporary home.”
After a last look at their new opponents, the eleven members of Claudia’s team followed her into the forest. Daniel turned and started after Austin. As he went, he couldn’t help glancing at the towering trees above them. They walked a narrow path that cut through thick undergrowth. Beyond the path the forest was so dense that he wasn’t able to tell where the clearing actually was until they broke through the tree line and into the open.
The fort was right in the middle of the clearing. It was larger than Daniel had expected and resembled a log home, with two floors and a flat roof with a short railing. In the middle of the roof was a tall pole with a blue flag flying at its peak. Iron rungs were attached along the length of the pole, allowing a climber to either place a flag or remove one. The wall closest to them had a tall, wide opening that had probably once included a door.
Austin led them through the waist-high grass and stopped at the opening. “Welcome to your new home,” he said. “The game starts tomorrow at first light.”
Clara looked at the tree line. “Which way is the other team?”
Austin shrugged and said, “You know, it’s the strangest thing. I seem to have forgotten.”
Clara glared at him and crossed her arms. “You forgot.”
“Odd, isn’t it? Oh well, I suppose you’ll just have to take a look around.” He started off into the forest and back toward Vigil.
They all watched him go. When he disappeared, none of them really knew what do. It was the first time they had been left on their own for something like this. Without any real instructions they felt more than a little lost—especially with what was at stake. It seemed surreal to know that at any moment in the next several days they could lose and be on their way home.
Daniel eyed the fort. “I guess,” he said, “we should get our gear.”
No one objected, so the eleven of them stepped through the doorway. The first floor was for the most part empty. A coil of rope hung from a hook on a pillar in the back corner of the room. A set of racks was attached to the wall opposite the doorway, with various weapons and padded armor pieces hanging from them. Next to these were several woven baskets and linen bags. Finally, a ladder was set in the center of the back wall, leading to the second floor.
Zachery pulled down a wooden longsword from one of the racks. He tested its weight before placing it back on the rack and trying another. He repeated this two more times before finding one with a size and heft he was comfortable with. Griffon followed suit, seeming to choose the longest and heaviest sword she could find. Daniel let the rest of his team pick through the gear before taking one of the remaining few. He knew the one he wanted would be left on the rack. Out of all twenty-two trainees, only a few favored the short sword. The handle on this one was short enough that he could comfortably place the pommel under his thumb. Satisfied with the grip and feel of the leather-wrapped hilt, he pushed the blade through his belt and adjusted its positioning so the blade sat comfortably below his back.
They had been taught how to use a variety of weapons during their training and all of them had found ones they favored. Aaron usually chose a broadsword. It featured a wide, heavy blade, commonly used with a shield with a hilt meant for a single hand. Zachery leaned toward a longsword, similar to the broadsword but thinner and longer, with a hilt long enough for two hands if preferred. Griffon was the only one to use a great sword, longer and wider than both a broadsword or a longsword. Its hilt was half again larger than necessary, letting one move hands up and down the hilt for greater leverage.
Daniel, Clara, and Alan, however, favored the short sword—Clara and Alan due to its size, while Daniel preferred it due to the reverse grip, a style that Obadiah had said Daniel was a natural for. Holding the blade with the tip pointing to the ground and his thumb on the pommel, it provided new angles of attack that were unconventional and unexpected. It was best employed by a fighter who preferred to take the defensive rather than offensive. The strategy was to wait for an opponent to attack and use the blade to block along one’s forearm or to get in close to hamper an opponent’s swing.
Daniel glanced at the remaining pieces of armor and took what was left. A set of vambraces to cover his forearms, a pair gloves as well as a lightweight, padded chest plate. When he had finished, he turned around to see that most of the other members of his team had either gone outside or up. He decided to see what the second floor held, so he headed for the ladder at the back of the room. He found the second floor was lined with cots with bedrolls laid out on top of them. A path between the cots led to a second ladder that Daniel assumed ended on the roof.
It was a convenient setup. If the other team wanted to go through the fort
to get to the flag, they would have to fight through an entire room of their opponents. Daniel imagined that the other fort had a similar setup. He climbed the ladder and found the roof was clear save for the pole set in its center and supported by four thick ropes tied to each corner. Griffon and Clara were looking out over the clearing and into the forest beyond. Daniel walked to the railing to join them.
“So, how should we start?” Griffon said. She stretched her arms out behind her. Daniel heard her shoulders pop several times.
Clara winced at the sound. “Well, I noticed there’s no food here,” she said, “which means we have to find our own.”
Daniel ran his hand through his hair. “We’ll need water too.”
“I saw some water skins in some of the baskets by the racks,” Clara said. “There was a hunting knife too.”
Griffon frowned. “So who’s doing what?”
“Let’s see what everyone else is willing to do, I guess,” Clara said with a shrug.
Daniel could tell her mood had been dampened significantly by the nature of the exercise. Admittedly, so had his. This was new territory. The stakes required that everyone put everything they had into the fights to come. No one wanted to go home. They all wanted to be here. Some of them needed to be here. The idea that it could be snatched away from them was hard to grasp.
The three of them headed back to the first floor, where they gathered everyone and discussed who would go where and why. They decided to spread out in pairs in all directions so they would have better coverage of the whole area as they searched for food and water, as well as learned the lay of the land. Each pair was given water skins and a woven basket to carry whatever they might find. Griffon, Lace, and Zachery would stay at the fort to organize the inside and get a fire started outside the door.
Daniel picked up a woven basket and started to walk north, with Clara at his side. They were quickly out of the clearing and navigating the thick growth of the forest. Not far from the tree line they found an old game trail. As they walked, they kept their eyes peeled in hopes of spotting something useful.
Clara had her hands clasped behind her back as they walked. “You know,” she said, “we’ve been friends since you arrived, but other than your trip to Vigil I don’t really know anything about you.”
He shrugged. “There isn’t much to know.”
“That can’t be true. What about your family?”
“Just my mom and brother.”
“No father?”
“I don’t really remember much about my father,” Daniel said. “He left a long time ago.”
Clara seemed surprised. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be. I’m not. My brother and I turned out all right without him and my mother was able to support us just fine on her own.”
“Don’t you ever wonder where he went?”
“I used to. But after a while I decided that I just didn’t care anymore and that it didn’t matter where he went. He left. Clearly, he thought wherever he was going was more important than his family.” Daniel said the last few words with more venom than he’d intended to.
Clara nodded and was quiet for a moment before adopting a lighter, cheerier tone: “What sort of work does your mother do?”
Thinking of his mother standing in the kitchen, covered in flour, brought a smile to Daniel’s face. “She works in a bakery, has for most of her life.”
Clara looked up at him. “You miss them, don’t you?”
“Every single day.” He glanced at her. “What about you? You’re from Navia, right?”
“That’s right. My family moved there from Grey Gate just before I was born.”
“What made them move?”
“It’s Grey Gate. It would have been hard for them to find a reason to stay.”
“I wasn’t there very long, but I see your point. What do they do?”
“My father works as a barkeeper at one of the inns. My mother”—Clara rolled her eyes—“is a very successful advisor to Councilman Milton. It gives her a lot of control over decisions that affect the city, which she just loves.”
Clara clearly held no fondness for her mother’s job, so he tried to change course. “What made you want to be a Dragon Guard?”
“Spite.”
Her quick response surprised him. “What do you mean?”
“My mother. She thinks that I need to be a ‘proper’ lady so I don’t embarrass our family. She controlled everything about my life, from what I wore to the people I could talk to.”
“So you came here to get away from that.”
“I wanted to control my own life, make my own decisions for once.”
“I take it that hasn’t gone over well with her?”
Clara grinned. “She was furious when I left.”
“Well, for what it’s worth,” Daniel said, “I think you fit in perfectly here.”
She smiled widely at him. “Thank you.”
Chapter Nineteen
6th of Landring, 27th year of the Fourth Age.
Griffon stood on the roof of the fort looking out over the moonlit clearing. A breeze caused the shin-high grass to roll like waves. She had awoken only moments earlier, but she was already fully alert and tapping her foot rapidly stay that way. She glanced over the edge of the railing and saw Zachery hunched over the fire he’d built just outside the open doorway the night before.
The previous night, after everyone had returned from their rather lucrative foraging expedition, they had all discussed and formed the basic outline of a plan. They decided to split into two groups. Five would scout the other team by making their way around the north side of the forest before looping back the long way. The remaining six would stay at the fort to guard against any attempts to take the flag. Griffon didn’t expect anything to happen quite yet. It was the first day of the exercise, so chances were good the other team would do just as they were, taking it slow for the first few days to gauge how the other team would react and operate. They would all be waiting for someone to make a mistake. No one wanted to be the first person eliminated and give the other team an advantage.
Griffon stretched out her arms before turning on her heel and heading down the ladder to meet the others on the first floor. Zachery and Daniel were just outside the door preparing food for everyone while Clara warmed her hands by the fire. Griffon sighed and looked around the room. Most of the team was eagerly awaiting the morning meal. She didn’t know all of their names, not well at least since she rarely spoke to most of them. But during their time at Vigil they had become her family. They were a better one than she could have ever hoped for back in Forge. She did have to admit that she missed her brothers in spite of how awful it had been back home. She only hoped that they were all right. Her father wouldn’t have been in the most reasonable mood after her departure.
She worried the most for Richard. He was far too gentle to stand up to their father or brother. She just hoped that her father’s rage over Griffon’s departure wouldn’t be directed at her brother.
It had taken some hard thinking, but Griffon had finally figured out her end goal. She didn’t just want to learn how to properly defend herself. She also needed to get to the point where she’d never have to rely on people again, where she would never be stuck with someone like her father because she had no choice. And she wanted to be able to protect Richard. She’d already decided that when she finished her training, she would approach Commander Hall about the prospect of moving her brother here. Maybe there would be a place for him at the keep to work as a chef or cleaner—anything to save him from his current life. She wasn’t going to abandon him.
Daniel and Zachery stepped away from the fire and into the fort with two heaping bowls of grilled mushrooms. The room soon filled with a wonderful, earthy aroma that for a moment banished Griffon’s worries about her brother. Daniel and Zach
ery passed food out to everyone gathered. They all ate quickly and happily in the quiet of the early morning.
After nearly a minute of silence, Zachery spoke: “Think we can win?”
Griffon sighed. “We have to.”
As usual, Daniel attempted to lighten the somber tone. “If not for ourselves, at least for Austin,” he said. “He probably put a wager on our team.”
The group shared a halfhearted laugh before everything drifted back into silence. Austin. Griffon bit her lip as she thought back to Forge. He hadn’t told her so, but she was certain he was the ranger who rescued her. She’d recognized his voice the moment she heard him speak in the library several months earlier. The fact that his gaze had lingered on her several times since only reinforced her suspicions. She wasn’t sure if she should bring the subject up with him. If she was wrong and the reason she’d left Forge came to light, it could cause serious problems, even threaten her opportunity to become a Dragon Guard. She hadn’t been completely honest with Captain North at the time of her interview, though she had a feeling he knew she was lying to him. At the moment, the only people who knew she was wanted in Forge for murder were the people of Forge and the ranger, Austin. None of that was important at the moment, so she pushed it to the back of her mind.
The sun slowly started to illuminate the world outside, letting light spill through the doorway, indicating that it was time for everything to start. Griffon grabbed her wooden training sword from the floor beside her as several others did the same. She took one of the drawstrings from a linen sack and tied a slipknot at the hilt of her sword, and again around the blade, to form a makeshift strap that allowed her to carry the sack across her back. Several of the others with larger weapons, such as Robin, followed suit. The rest of them let their weapons hang at their belts. Griffon stepped outside with the other four who were going to be on the scouting run: Daniel, Zachery, Lace, and Robin.
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