“At least give the man enough time to eat a decent meal and clean up, sis,” Ash scolded her gently from the doorway. “We’ve only just arrived.”
“Ash.” Ashlynn spun like a dancer before launching herself at her twin, hugging the man tightly around the neck. “You wonderful man! I need to send you out for things more often; you always come back with more than you’re supposed to.”
“These two were a fluke,” Ash protested, trying to breathe while his sister half-strangled him. He was smiling as he tried to win free.
“It always is, with you. I want your luck.” Bouncing back, she beamed at him. “So? Where’s this daughter-partner?”
“Cleaning up.” Ash jerked a thumb to indicate the closed door.
“Was it such a rough trip here?” Ashlynn darted a look at Broden. “I mean, if you greeted me at the door with a drawn bow, then—”
“You did what?!” Ash demanded incredulously.
“Did no’ recognize the footsteps,” Broden explained without apology. “Keep yer hair on, lad. I would no’ have shot her till I knew she be foe and no’ friend.”
Ashlynn sighed dreamily. “A man after my own heart. Maybe Edvard’s right and we really should be partners instead of you being my brother’s.”
“The fact that you two think alike frankly scares me,” Ash said in a thin voice.
Chapter Six
Ashlynn Fallbright was a firebrand. It took Riana all of a minute to realize it. The woman was sweet to look at, with an angelic face and voice, but she was the sort to throw a curse first and apologize later. She was so different from Ash, who approached life with more caution, that if not for the fact they looked akin to each other, Riana wouldn’t have believed they were kin at all.
Ash gave his sister a brief accounting of how he’d met them and what their abilities were, and she listened intently without trying to ask a single question. Only after he’d subsided did she turn those clear blue eyes to Riana. “So. You’re an archer of good skill like your father, eh? Are you better?”
“Depends,” she answered promptly, not at all flustered by the question. “Me eyes be sharper, so over long distances, I be the better. But if it be speed ye want, then Da be the one.”
“Just practice,” Broden stated with a simple shrug. “Give yerself another ten years or so, daughter, and ye will be just as quick.”
Taking this in, Ashlynn next asked the question that everyone usually wanted to ask. “So, how many arrows can you get in the air at once?”
“Now, lass, that depends.” Her da’s eyes got that twinkle that said he found the question amusing instead of irritating. “It be no’ a matter of quickness of hand, y’see. It be more a matter of distance. If ye give me enough distance, I can have three in the air at once.”
“I can only manage two at the moment,” Riana put in as an aside.
Ash’s eyes crossed. “Three? Well. If it were my choice, I’d prefer to take a few hours and spar with you, get a good feel for how you move. But honestly, I probably shouldn’t have sat down at all. Things are that hectic in the city.”
“Ashlynn.” Riana leaned forward, arms braced on her knees. “What be we up against?”
“Madness.” Ashlynn’s mouth twisted into a grim line. “You both have to understand, this was not what we intended when Edvard decided to claim independence of Iysh. We wanted to overturn the Bindings, certainly, but not all of them! Not all at once, anyway. After all, we had nothing to replace them with. Edvard and I went through the laws and struck out the ones that we felt were too heinous or unneeded, but some of them were sound. We were planning to modify the laws rather than come up with a whole new system.”
Broden grunted in understanding. “I hear a but hovering about in yer tone.”
“But,” she started dryly, “that wasn’t what everyone else expected. When we started getting people in, they all thought there were no rules. Some of them felt they could do whatever they wanted. When we tried to apply any of the old rules, they rebelled completely, and it was all we could do to subdue them.”
“Edvard has about five hundred guardsmen in place,” Ash picked up with tired resignation, “and they’ve been run ragged trying to keep everything peaceful. But even then, the situation only gets worse with each batch of people that comes in. Right now we’re working under a martial law that Edvard invoked, but that can’t last forever.”
No, it couldn’t. Riana could see both sides of the problem, and it troubled her. “Be Edvard writing laws now?”
“He’s trying to come up with something, yes,” Ash affirmed. “So far, though, he hasn’t had a spare hour to really turn his mind to it. Between Iysh’s attacks and the estate’s upheaval, he’s been running around like us, putting out fires. Some days we’re so busy we’d borrow a cat’s paw if someone offered it.”
“Which is why Edvard appointed me temporary Sheriff.” Ashlynn smiled like a gambler with a winning hand. “And no doubt, Broden, why he assigned you to me. Our job is to crack down on the lawbreakers so hard that no one dares to cause any trouble.”
“Aye, lass, that might work short-term. Long-term, though, it be asking for trouble.”
“Short-term is all we need,” she informed him smugly. “Edvard’s asked for two weeks of breathing space so he can at least come up with new laws to put in place. He feels sure that with solid rules to follow, people will fall more in line again, and that will give him the breathing room necessary to come up with a government.”
Seemed like a sound enough plan. Whether the two of them could pull it off, well, that would soon be seen. “Ash? What be the plan for us?”
“We’re building.” Ash smiled as he said this, a light of excitement in his eyes. “The reason why I have all that lumber is to build a defensive wall, after all. Ashlynn will come get us if she needs help subduing any trouble, but right now, our main focus is that wall.”
“And me to guard yer back while ye work, eh? Fine, fine.”
“Sounds like ye’ve been given the easier task, daughter.” Broden sounded slightly relieved, and she knew he hadn’t wanted her dealing with criminals at all. Half his desire to leave Cloud’s Rest was to find a safer place for her to live.
So she flashed him a smile. “Aye, it does. Have fun knocking skulls together.”
“But first,” Ashlynn rose to her feet, gesturing them out the door, “sparring.”
Ashlynn led the way to a small, enclosed courtyard to the side of the castle that she called a training ground. It seemed a nice enough place to spar in, although half of the things Broden had no notion what they were meant for. The paving stones were flat and smooth, giving a man solid footwork, but what were those wooden poles sticking out of the ground meant for? They were set at intervals along the walls, perhaps a dozen of them altogether.
As they entered, several people looked up and called out welcomes. Most of the faces were young, of an age with Riana, but not all. One face looked worn in, like his own, hair greying a tinge at the temples, but he wore a sharp grey uniform that looked almost new.
“Bragdon!” Ashlynn called, waving the man over.
He came to them with a quick, ground-eating stride and offered a duck of the head in greeting. “Ash, Ashlynn, who’s this?”
“Broden and Riana Ravenscroft,” Ash introduced, a mile-wide smile on his face. “Our partners.”
Bragdon blinked, mouth dropping open slightly. “You’re jesting.”
“I’m not.” Ash turned and gestured toward the man. “This is Jim Bragdon, Captain of the Guard here. He’s also primarily in charge of training new recruits.”
“Mostly because I’m the most seasoned man in the guard,” Bragdon explained wryly. “Miss Ravenscroft, Master Ravenscroft, I greet you.”
“Harmony find ye, Captain.” Broden studied the man curiously. Truly, he looked the solid, dependable sort.
“Ash has fought alongside these two before,” Ashlynn explained to him, “but I haven’t. And I want to get a feel for
what they’re truly capable of before I go into the city with Broden. Can you clear the field for a few minutes while we spar?”
Bragdon’s eyes took them in, noting that the only weapon either sported was a bow, and his eyebrows climbed as he answered slowly, “Certainly. I can do that. Give me a moment.”
The man turned and trotted back to the younger men, who had stopped waving their swords about when their commander got distracted. Broden kept an eye on them, watching as they retreated to a roofed-off area, even as he asked, “So, how do ye want to do this sparring business?”
Ash glanced between the two archers. “Actually, I’m really curious of how you two would fare if you were pitted against each other. You kept saying things like ‘I’m better at this, but she’s better at that’ the entire way here. Can we have you two compete with each other for a while?”
Riana shrugged acceptance. “If ye’d like.”
“Hmm, but targets….” Ash looked about until he spied something on the far wall. “Oh. That’ll work. Hold on a moment.” He trotted over to a post that was lying on the ground and knelt next to it. With a spell and a motion of his hand, the post promptly fell apart into dozens of disks. Picking one up, he tossed it to Riana. “Will these work?”
She caught it handily before flipping it this way and that, looking it over. It seemed to be no more than a quarter-inch thick, as big as her hand, and the perfect size for throwing. “Aye, it should be.”
“Good.” He picked up a whole stack and carted them over. “Now, what shall we do first?”
Broden knew exactly where to start. “I told the lass earlier that I can put three arrows into the air at once. Best I prove that here and now. We’ve got enough distance, I think.”
Picking out three arrows from his quiver, he flipped one around in his hand so that he could nock it. Aiming for the far post in the training yard, he let it fly. Before the bow had even fully released, he was twirling another one about in his hand so that he could nock that one as well. Within two seconds, he had all three in the air, although barely. The first one he’d fired hit the post just as he got the last one airborne.
Captain Bragdon came to stand at his elbow, letting out a low whistle. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen an archer good enough to do that.”
With a shrug, Riana also took three arrows from her quiver, holding them in her hand and flicking each one about as she needed it. She aimed for a spot just higher than her da’s on the same post, firing with quick precision. Broden could not fault her technique—she was perfect in the way she drew and released, it was just speed and practice she lacked. The first arrow hit the post a second before she could get the third one in the air.
“You were right; you can’t get more than two in the air at once,” Ash agreed. “But you’re very, very close to managing it. Well done, both of you.”
Broden saw his daughter openly beam at this praise and felt his own cheeks flush a bit, too. Archery was not something praised in Cloud’s Rest, no matter how good an archer might be.
“Now, moving targets.” Ashlynn shifted so that they faced a wall that no one was nearby to before taking a good dozen of the wooden disks from Ash. “Who’s going first?”
“Just toss them,” Riana and Broden said in unison. Then they glanced at each other, sharing a smile.
Ashlynn’s eyebrows rose at this. “How fast?”
“Fast as ye can manage, lass.”
“Alright then,” Ashlynn agreed slowly, clearly thinking that they were biting off more than they could chew. With a slight shrug, she picked one off the top and slung it into the air so it provided a good, flat profile against the sky.
Broden and Riana fired at nearly the same time, his arrow hitting a split second before hers. Ashlynn took them at their word and threw the second one up as soon as she had the first in the air. Broden hit that one too, but Riana got the next before he could get an arrow into it.
They hit all fourteen that Ashlynn threw, not one touching the ground that did not have at least one arrow in it. Most had two.
Ashlynn actually clapped. “I shouldn’t have doubted you, not with the way Ash was singing your praises. Now, what else can you do? Run and fire?”
“Be more challenging than that,” Riana chided her, eyes crinkled up at the corners. “Da, shall we have a little game of catch?”
Broden knew exactly what she was asking, and felt it was the best way to showcase what they could really do. “Aye, that be a fine idea. Right or left, daughter?”
“Right be fine by me.”
“Fine, fine.” He took a single arrow from his quiver and nocked it, but did not draw it fully, waiting for her to go to the other side of the yard. Looking at the wizards and the captain, he cautioned, “It’d be best if ye stood against that far wall. Riana and I have done this afore, many a time, but there still be moments when an arrow escapes us.”
With quick nods of understanding, they scampered to the far side and put their backs to the wall, standing alongside the spellbound trainees.
Riana stood in profile to him, knees bent, bow in her left hand. “Ready, Da?”
“Ready!” So saying, he raised the bow and fired at her.
He heard someone gasp on the far end but paid it no heed. He knew the arrow would never land.
Riana caught it handily, then she started moving, going at a slow jog. She raised her bow and fired at him in turn, never stopping.
Broden was in motion as well, running at the pace she’d set, and he caught the arrow aimed at his chest with a quick snap of the hand. Flipping it about in his fingers, he raised it again and fired back at her. As soon as the arrow left his fingers, he tossed the bow into his opposite hand.
Catching the arrow with her left hand this time, she flipped it about and fired before tossing the bow from right to left.
They did this two more times, firing at each other, catching the arrow, and then tossing the bow into the opposite hand, fully displaying that they could not only catch an enemy’s arrow in flight, but could fire with either hand without a problem. Eventually, they ran out of room and stopped before they could run into a wall. It was only then that Broden dared to look at his audience.
Ash seemed speechless, mouth hanging so low it nearly scraped the ground. The trainees were gibbering to each other in nonsense, not even able to form words. Bragdon had his hand under his chin, no doubt to keep it from dropping open like Ash’s, his eyes narrowed in speculation.
Only Ashlynn could manage any words. “You. Are. Both. AMAZING.” She pointed to their bows and then threw her hands up, excitement radiating from her. “I’ve never seen anyone that can do that. I’ve never even heard of anyone that can do that! Bragdon. We’ve got to get them to teach your archers. They’d be far better instructors than whichever slob is doing it now.”
“That would be me,” Bragdon responded mildly. “But I agree. Any spare minute that the two of you have, I want you here teaching my men. How long will it take before their skills are developed to that point?”
“Years,” Broden replied honestly. He felt flushed and light with all this praise they were heaping upon him. If they did not quit soon, it’d likely go straight to his head.
From that look on Riana’s face, it’d already gone to hers.
Ashlynn shook her head, a wide smile on her face. “Well. I was going to suggest sparring for a good hour to get a feel for each other, but it seems to me that if you two can see it, you can hit it. That’s enough information for me right now. Broden, let’s go to work instead.”
“Aye, lass, that be fine. Just give me a moment.” He turned and started collecting the arrows he’d fired.
Riana was right there with him, even as she asked Ash, “So, straight to the wall?”
“Yes,” he responded. “You’re welcome to fire arrows in a line to keep me from building it crooked, too.”
She gave him a wink. “Aye, that I will.”
Broden stopped a moment and looked at that happy expr
ession on his daughter’s face. He’d rarely seen her like this—cheerful and glowing, secure with the people about her. Normally she looked wary, on her guard, and for good reason. Aye, following Ash down here to Estole was the right decision, if only to have moments like this.
Satisfied he’d made a good choice for them both, he put the last arrow in his quiver and nodded to Ashlynn. “Ready.”
“Good. Let’s go out into the city, then.”
Chapter Seven
Ashlynn put her tracking mark on Broden before they left the castle. She confided cheerily to him that the place was growing so fast even her head spun from time to time, and she did not want to turn a complete novice to the city loose without being able to find him again. Broden merely grunted at her, but was secretly relieved to have the mark.
The castle alone made his head spin.
They went out the same door he’d come in, but took a different path through the grounds and to a side door that led out into a crowded street. Ashlynn barely had the gate open when the scent of the street hit him like a sledgehammer. His nose wrinkled at the smell and he nearly gagged, it was so putrid. What was that? It was like dung and rotting fish and a tannery’s stench all mixed together.
“Taranis take these idiots!” Ashlynn swore, her hand covering her mouth and nose.
Broden blinked at her in surprise, not expecting such an oath to cross a well-bred woman’s lips.
“I tell them time and again not to dump their sewage here, and still!” She drew a quick, simple pattern in the air and then spoke a word, it sounding harsher than the other magical words he’d heard. In a split second, the garbage that had been dumped on the street was washed clean, as if it’d never been. Several people yelped as the spell hit, their feet nearly knocked out from underneath them. Ashlynn, not caring about them, nodded in satisfaction as she lowered her hand. “There, better.”
He looked up and down the street, confused. It seemed a nice enough place—the buildings no more than two stories tall, all in good repair, with markets running up and down the side of the street. Cloud’s Rest was not half as nice as this. “Why would they throw out garbage?” he wondered aloud, bemused at why they would not take care of the place.
Arrows Of Change (Book 1) Page 6