The battles continued and Thad enjoyed the fighting and the glory of the arena. The days passed and Thad asked for a bout as soon as one was over but still time slipped by. Five fights Thad entered, and five fights Thad won without ever having to draw his blade. Many of the people who came to talk to his asked about the sword he wore to the battle grounds, but all Thad would say was that it was a god luck charm and nothing more.
After his fifth win, it was announced that his rank battle would happen two days later. It seemed that the other members in his rank were as eager to see him leave as he was to go. He had been a thorn in their side, as none of them wished to be his next target as they were sure to lose and risk having to start over in their climb to the top. Jessop, the man he had fought in his first fight, had been forced to do just that and Thad saw the man looking at him with hate filled eyes more than once since the battle.
Not everything was going well. With each battle, Thad drew more attention and while that might be good when he needed to gain the attention of the scion lord, it brought with it its own complications. No matter where he went, he found himself surrounded by people wishing to talk about his battles in the arena. Even at home, Thad found people watching him; meaning that the other people living there had to be careful and limit when and how they left the house. Thankfully, the house was at the edge of the city so only the most persistent of his fans followed him there and most of those had been women.
Thad had grown up in Farlan, a place where women stood above all others. He knew strong willed women, but that was not what he found in this land. The women reminded him of the tales he had read in the books at the palace. They flocked around him like birds singing to him sweetly. Thad knew that many men liked such women, but to him they were an annoyance. Even though he didn’t like the young girls who fluttered around him, there was little he could do about them without being rude.
Though his rank battle would only move him up one rank, Thad had started to spend time at the smithy. He knew it would take a long time to finish a proper sword and even if he started now he doubted it would be done before he reached a rank where he could keep it with him at all times.
Thad had thought that he would simply start working on the weapon, but it turned out that there was much more to it than that. The blacksmith was not sanctioned to make weapons, so first Thad had to petition for a new weapon and ask that the blacksmith of his choice could make it. He explained the unusual request by saying that the smith was a good friend and would be much cheaper than one of the sanctioned ones. In the end, the smithy was given a limited sanction to make one weapon.
When Thad returned to Seth’s smithy, he relayed the news to the large smith. Seth just grunted and stated that he didn’t care about making weapons; not for his own countrymen to kill each other with anyhow. Seth did joke that if it was for fighting the scions back he would have made them by the dozen for any who wished to brandish one.
With the annoying part of the process finished, the next was getting the best materials. The dwarves used the best metal and poured their magic into it while it was being processed. The best he could get was fine steel from Seth’s homeland. It was pure metal, but it still wasn’t the same.
After he got ahold of enough metal, Thad started on the sword. There wasn’t enough of the strongest metal to make a full sword, but the dwarves had showed him more than a few secrets. Though he wished he could spend most of his time hammering away at the metal the truth was his magical strength wasn’t enough to last more than a few hours.
At the same time Thad was working on the sword, Seth’s wife Lori worked with her husband to make leather armor to Thad’s specification. He had learned that in the higher ranks the fighters tended to wear armor and most of them chose to wear chainmail or plate armor. That might work for some, but those trained to fight in Farlan used leather armor with metal plates inside of it. They were light and might turn away a blade but little else, but they allowed one freedom of movement.
Thad was short for most men, and while his body held strength it was nothing compared to most the warriors, but what he did have was agility and speed and heavy armor would take that away.
Thad’s first rank battle quickly approached and to Thad’s surprise, the betting odds were still in his favor though only two to one. Thad had spent hours watching the fights and more time watching fighters train and with Jerrod’s help he had made a tidy sum with his bets. He didn’t always win, but he won far more than he lost. Thad used every last coin left to him, a full eight gold marks. He had much more a few days before he had to purchase the metal and leather, but that was life. If he won, then he would have twelve gold marks plus his new stipend to spend on what he needed.
Thad found Jerrod waiting for him on the stairs leading down to the arena waiting area. “Ready?” Jerrod asked, walking beside him.
“As ready as I can be,” Thad replied. “Do you know anything about the guy I am going to fight?”
“Yea,” Jarrod replied. “He is barely better than the rank two fighters. The reason he was chosen to fight you was because his record was the worst at the moment. If he loses, he will be fined three months’ pay. He has a bad gambling habit, where his luck is just as bad, so he can’t afford to lose this fight.”
“That is too bad for him,” Thad said as a small amount of guilt crept into his voice. “I can’t afford to lose this fight either.”
“Don’t let it get to you,” Jarrod said. “He used to be much better, but once he got to the third rank he started drinking and things started to go bad for him. That was two years ago and he has continued to make things worse on himself. Just remember my advice, give the crowd a show.”
“I don’t know if a show is a good idea,” Thad said with a grimace. “If I have to deal with one more flock of tittering ladies, I might just fall on my own sword during a fight.”
“That is the price you must pay,” Jarrod said with one of his barking laughs. “Speaking of tittering ladies, mine has taking a liking to you. As I told you, she is fond of the fights and she dearly wishes to meet you. After the fight, if you don’t mind, would you join us and her father for a meal?”
“I don’t want to steal your lady from you,” Thad said with a smirk.
“You can have her if you can take her,” Jarrod replied, laughing so hard his eyes were watering. “You have to take the kids as well as her father though.”
“No thanks,” Thad said, drawing back. “If they are anything like their father, I would surely fall on my sword within a span of weeks.”
“That I do not doubt,” his friend said, patting him on the back. “It was worth a try at least. You’re still not getting out of the meal though. I am not sitting there with my father-in-law without someone else to distract the oaf.”
“Not a very pleasant man I take it,” Thad said with a weary look.
“He is one of the main moneylenders in the city. Rich, but the man hates with a passion. Blames me for taking his little angle away.”
Thad’s reply was delayed by the opening of the door to the arena. With a nod of his head, Thad stepped through the door and onto the field. The man on the other side was well built and wore a very poorly taken care of chainmail shirt. He also carried a spear instead of the sword. It would be Thad’s first time to go against an opponent not using a sword in the arena, but far from his first time in battle against one.
After the crowds had died down, the two men approached each other. Thad could have sworn that the other man moved with the stagger of drunkenness, though Thad had been fooled before and didn’t let it change how he had planned to fight. As soon as they were close enough to fight, the other man merely watched Thad with weary eyes. With no other choice, Thad made the first move, a sweeping attack with his staff to the man’s midsection which the man blocked with ease.
Thad stepped back and took the man in again. From the smell on the man’s breath he had more than a little to drink before the fight, but it didn’t seem to be affecti
ng him much, if at all. Jerrod was right, the man was not much better than the other fighters, but he was better.
His opponent watched him closely, and just as Thad began to move in again, he quickly stepped back and struck at Thad with a short jab. Thad pivoted to the side and knocked away the point of the spear, but it was a close call. As much as he had told himself to be careful, he still almost let himself be taken by the spear point. The man was not a great fighter when it came to weapons, his body betrayed that, but there was more to a battle then how great one could wield a weapon. The man had knowledge and a keen mind. Thad was sure that his success early on in the area was due to that and had he been properly trained then he could have been a great fighter. Making a mental notation of this, Thad once again moved forward, this time though, a bit wearier of the point of the spear that was leveled at his heart.
Just as before, just as Thad started to move in for an attack, the point of the spear lunged for him, but this time he was ready for it and let his staff in position to guide the point away from him as he moved closer to his foe.
The spear was a good weapon and had its uses and was best used against men on horseback. It was also good to keep your enemy at bay, but once in close it was close to useless. A lot of soldiers would grip the spear and fight with its owner, but Thad knew the other man to be stronger, so he had other ideas. Just like the spear, the staff was little use as close as he was, but he had other weapons. Stepping to his side, Thad kicked out shattering the man’s kneecap.
As Thad moved back the man leaned heavily on his spear to keep himself upright and the crowd cheered. The fight thus far had been slow and few attacks made for a poor show. If it was to end this quickly, he would move up in rank, but no one would talk of his victory. All they would say would be that he beat a drunkard and didn’t deserve his rise in rank.
Knowing there was no other choice, Thad pressed the attack, forcing the other man to stumble backward as he parried Thad’s slowed attacks. The man’s eyes narrowed and he stumbled and pulled Thad in close. “End it, or are you enjoying making a fool of me boy.”
Thad let out a heavy sigh and pushed the man back. “Another enemy,” Thad whispered to himself and redoubled his effort, this time intent on putting the other man down. Though he was trying with his full effort the other man wouldn’t go down. His opponent was fighting hard, but with a lame leg there was little he could do against a superior fighter. Within moments, to the roar of the crowd, Thad struck a hard blow to the other fighters head, knocking him to the ground. The only hint that the man was still alive was a light groan coming from his lips.
Thad suppressed an urge to bend down to check on the man, afraid he had struck him harder than he had meant and left him permanently addled. The truth was Thad couldn’t show mercy to a defeated enemy; it was seen as the highest rudeness and so he turned and walked back toward the door as other men moved onto the field to check on the fallen man.
Just as with the other fights Thad found Jarrod waiting on him. “Good fight, though I think the crowd was wishing for a bit more.”
“I tried, but little I could do,” Thad replied. “He was far too deep in his cups to be much of a challenge.”
“Ah,” Jarrod said with a shake of his head. “Well that doesn’t change the outcome. You have moved up a rank and tonight you will dine with me and my family. It you feel robbed of a good beating, I am sure they can give it to you.”
“Lead on then,” Thad said with a slight chuckle.
“Oh no,” Jarrod said holding Thad up. “First you will need a bath and better clothes. My wife would have me sleeping in a pit if I brought you as you are.”
Jarrod led Thad to a small store where he bought a good set of clothes. With the clothes out of the way, they went to a public bath house where Thad was surprised to find that men and women shared the same bath. Thad would be the first to admit that he was more than a little put off by having women staring at him as he bathed, but he did his best to put it out of his mind.
After the bath, Thad followed his friend to the same place where he had been taken after his first fight. He had eaten here four time since then. The only fight he didn’t eat here afterward was the fifth one, mainly because he wasn’t sure how much of his coin would go toward making his sword. Things were expensive here since it all had to be brought over though the portal, and to Thad’s surprise it was only opened once a week. Thad wished he knew how it was opened and closed at will, but right now he didn’t move in the right circles to learn such knowledge.
“So this is the warrior that won me a large deal of coin today,” a plump man sitting next to a dazzling young woman said, as he reached out a greasy hand toward Thad.
Thad took the offered hand and did his best to keep the look on his face natural. “This must be the lovely wife you keep talking about.”
The young lady flashed Jarrod a warm smile. “Yes, though I think you are lying for the sake of my husband. Now why don’t you sit down so that we can have a nice meal, and you can tell me all about how you and my husband got to know one another?”
Thad found Jarrod’s wife to be funny, beautiful and completely wasted on her husband. Life was seldom fair, but Thad was glad that this time it was the underdog that had won out. She was wasted on Jarrod, but seeing her on the arm of one of the dressed up fops would have been a true tragedy.
Her father, on the other hand, was as different from his daughter as could be. Thad had never had a father, nor a real father-in-law, and seeing the plump use of space across from him, he was silently glad of it. It took every effort to keep a smile on his face and from the looks of Jarrod and his wife, they understood the effort he was putting in.
As soon as the meal was over, Jarrod pulled him away from the table with an excuse about a young lady that was searching for the hero of the arena. The plump man scoffed and looked to his daughter and they took that as an excuse to quickly make their exit.
Thad said his farewells to his friend and made his way back home. Thankfully, the two would still be able to talk since rank two and three shared the same floor, though in different areas. Jarrod helped in both though he preferred the lower ranks. He said that it was before the fighters got too full of themselves. When Thad arrived home, they had already learned of his win. One of the benefits to being in the city was that magic could be used without fear of being overwhelmed, though the magic acted a bit different than normal and it had taken the gods awhile to get the hang of it. Now though, they could change the color of their skin by laying a thin layer of illusion over it and walk among the city.
Thad wasn’t in the mood for another celebration, so he retired to his room to work on one of his projects. He still had many ideas and wanted to start putting them to crystal and metal.
CHAPTER XXI
The days passed quickly to Thad. During the morning he trained and in the evening he worked at the forge. It didn’t leave him much time, but what little was left he used to work on enchanting.
The work on the sword was moving slowly. Thad had to fold the metal numerous times, but to make it harder he had to fold both metals, that in the end would become one, but that was still a long ways away. The one thing Thad didn’t like was that after arriving at a new rank, they wouldn’t let him fight for thirteen days and there had to be the same amount of days between each fight. It seemed that each rank had longer breaks between fights. That little bit of news would mean endless days of listening to Belaroan complaining.
Back at the home, things were going well as long as he didn’t have to spend too much time with Belaroan. Bren was starting to talk more, but it was hard to find much to talk about so Thad had nudged him to talk about his childhood which was one of the things Thad missed while he was stuck in the void. Thad still didn’t know what to think about his son, but he was starting to like him as a man, if not a son. Thad was proud of what he had learned about his son and felt some pity about how his mother had treated him. If anyone knew how controlling she could be, T
had did.
The days continued on and the fights still were easy. The biggest event was when he was afforded a chance to watch a fight between rank five fighters. Unlike the other fights, the ones between rank five and champions, you had to have a special pass to get into to, so that only the most prestigious in the city could watch, that was unless you wanted to rent one for five gold marks. The fight was great and after the show Thad wasn’t sure that he could have beaten either man without the aid of his magic, but that was something else he had learned. Magic was outlawed even among the fighters. If someone was found to have magical powers they were to be brought before the great lord and they either joined her service or were killed outright.
When Thad talked to Jarrod, he had to be careful not to give away that he wasn’t from their homeland. In the end, Thad had to get most his information from Seth and his wife who were more than willing to talk to him. It was the only place in the city that he didn’t have to keep his guard up all the time. Even at his house, he had to walk on egg shells as Belaroan would look for any reason to complain and sour the time for the rest of them.
The armor was finished, leaving Thad only having to enchant it and that would be a problem on its own. Thad had learned that the people of Seth’s homeland had magic, though it was different that his own. They didn’t enchant like he did. From what he learned, the magic smiths would soak items in ether while they chanted spells over it. Thad was sure that if he could train for a bit he could reproduce the effect, but he didn’t have time to experiment and if he messed up he might destroy the armor.
Thankfully, Seth had an enchanted hammer that had belonged to his father. It didn’t take long for Thad to understand how the enchantment worked. It made the hammer harder and added force to strikes that the smith made. The only real different was that it wasn’t so much enchanted, but enspelled, though Thad wasn’t sure how it stayed powered for such a long period of time. The main thing was that Thad had to make sure that any enchantment he made didn’t pulse, but kept a steady outlook of ether. He didn’t know if the scion lord had mages watching the fight, but he didn’t want to risk using the armor if it destroyed his plans. The second problem was how to explain how he had gotten the armor. Seth was able to give him a good reason for that. It seemed that during major crossings people were allowed to bring their possessions and Thad’s imaginary father, if he had been a soldier, could have brought them with him.
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