Barius looked at Cara in shock. “Well…that’s different,” he said.
I sat up, unable to remove the grin from my face. “What do you mean, ‘different?’” I asked.
Barius looked at me, still clearly surprised. “It’s just that normally, when the Rune Holders first find out the terms of the magic, they’re upset. Dismayed, even.”
I laughed. “Yeah, well, I’ll bet most of them haven’t spent their whole lives wishing for something exactly like this.”
Cara was still looking at me oddly, but she’d resumed her normal, businesslike manner. “Indeed, my Lord. Now, I think it would be best if you clothed yourself before Darren returns with Greystone.”
That made me pause and look down at myself. I was stark naked. In the excitement of waking up, I hadn’t even noticed.
“Holy cow!” I cried, grabbing desperately at the bedsheets crumpled at the foot of the bed. I wrapped them around my torso. “What the…who took my clothes off?”
“They were removed as soon as you were moved into the castle,” Cara said with a wry twist to her mouth. “When new Realm Keepers first arrive, they have the clothes they were wearing on True Earth. However, there are traditional robes that are more appropriate to your station. Your old clothing has been disposed of.”
“The clothing gets more outlandish every time,” Barius commented from behind her. “That tunic you wore, with the picture of that bizarre helmet? Never seen something like that before.”
“Hey, that was Vader,” I said sternly. “Don’t diss on Star Wars, man. We can’t be friends if you do.”
Barius blinked and opened his mouth to reply, but Cara interrupted. “We’ll leave you to get dressed, my Lord,” she said. “You’ll find your robes in the dresser. Please come out as soon as you can. Greystone will no doubt want to speak with you.”
I stole out of bed as soon as they were gone, the sheets still tightly wrapped around me. I hit the latch to lock the door. I got the feeling that privacy wasn’t exactly a big thing around here, and I didn’t want anyone to walk back in when I was in the buff. Then I went to the dresser and pulled out the robes.
“Oh, no freaking way,” I breathed.
It was awesome. Cara had said we wore “robes,” but the navy blue garments in my hands weren’t robes so much as a full outfit. There were pants and a smoky white belt with a silver buckle. The symbol for air was pressed deep into the metal. There was an off-white undershirt and a navy blue tunic that had a long collar of off-white that matched the belt. The tunic looked like it hung to mid-thigh, probably meant to be tucked under the belt.
I quickly threw the outfit on. It was fit like it was tailored. It probably was tailored — they must have worked on it while I was asleep. I tried to ignore the more-than-a-little disturbing fact that someone had undressed me and then taken my measurements while I was unconscious. Maybe it was best to just appreciate the clothes.
I threw the latch on the door and stepped out into the hallway. Cara and Barius were waiting outside for me.
“These are so unbelievably sweet,” I said.
Barius cocked an eyebrow. “Sweet?”
“Awesome. Cool. Um…” I was such an idiot. They weren’t from America. They weren’t even from Earth. Why was I using slang? “I quite enjoy the look of these garments,” I said. It was the best I could come up with.
Cara nodded. “They certainly look better than those you arrived in.”
“Indeed,” Barius grunted. “You no longer look so…squishy.”
I laughed. “So, what’s taking Greystone so long?”
“I am here,” said a crotchety old voice behind me. “And after waiting so many hours for you to return, you should be grateful that I came as quick as I did.”
I rolled my eyes, smiling, and turned around. Greystone stood in the hallway behind me, and Darren behind him. The old man looked a lot better than when we had left; we’d barely escaped death from two battles in a row. Greystone had been scuffed, his hair had been a mess and he’d looked haggard. He still looked haggard, and his hair still stuck up all over the place, but at least his grey robes were cleaner.
He looked at me critically, eyeing me up and down. “Chaos take me, you’re tiny.”
I tried stretching to stand a little taller. “Hey! I’m average for my age.”
“Which is what? Six?” Greystone looked past me at Cara and Barius. “Where are the others?”
“Still in slumber, Greystone,” said Cara.
Greystone’s eyes narrowed. “What? Why did you not wait for all of them to wake?”
Barius looked from Cara to Greystone, uncertain. “I…we thought you wished to be notified as soon as they began to rise.”
Cara smirked. “Perhaps you can start teaching this one, old man,” she said impishly. “At least until the others arrive.”
Greystone growled. “Will the others be here soon?” he asked me irritably.
“Doubt it,” I said, shaking my head. “I fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon. They probably won’t be here for five, maybe six hours.”
Greystone groaned.
“Hey, it’s cool, man!” I said. “We can get started right now. I want to know everything, and I have a ton of questions, like what happens to us if we — ”
Greystone waved his hand, cutting me off. “Stop. Please. Please, stop.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I…I wish to speak with all of you. At once. I do not like to repeat myself.”
Darren’s eyes lit up with a sudden idea. “Lord Greystone, why don’t I show him around the Hold? I can take him to the practice rooms.”
Greystone snapped his fingers. “Yes! Yes, an excellent idea, Darren. And it will allow me to attend to…pressing matters of, ah…of great importance. Cara, I wish to speak with you.” He turned and fled down the hallway as fast as he could go without running, Cara falling into step behind him. “And I’m not a Lord!” he yelled just before disappearing through a door. I turned to see Barius had also vanished.
I turned back to Darren. “So, um…is it something I said, or the way I smell?”
Darren cocked his head. “I don’t understand.”
“They all totally bailed on me. Do I make them uncomfortable?”
Darren shrugged. “Perhaps they’re unused to you. You do have a tendency to speak. A lot.” He smiled disarmingly. “And I don’t mind admitting to you that I don’t understand half of anything you say.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I’m way over most people’s heads.”
Darren looked confused. “But you’re so short.”
I sighed. “You were going to show me around?”
His eyes brightened. “Yes, of course! This way.”
He began to lead me down the hallway, which curved away in both directions. There were other doors, tall and ornate like the one to my room, every twenty feet; I figured they had to be for the others. We came to a door that was more plain, and Darren opened it to lead me through. It took us down a long, circular staircase that seemed to descend a hundred feet. There had been windows in the hallway above us, so I knew we were coming down from a height, not going underground. Just how tall was the tower we were in?
Eventually the staircase ended, and I found myself at the head of a great hall. There was a table in the middle of it. Around the table were eight chairs. Six of them were nice enough. The seventh was old and timeworn, so much so that the wood looked smooth enough to be polished, though it clearly wasn’t. The eighth chair was incredibly ornate, with gold working all over it and plump, soft cushions that looked freshly fluffed.
“Who’s the eighth one for?” I asked.
Darren stopped short, looking at me in confusion. “What?”
I pointed to the table. “There’s eight chairs. Six are for us, obviously, and I figure one is for Greystone. The worn old one there. So who’s the eighth chair for? The nice one?”
Darren looked away. “I’m…not sure how much I’m supposed to s
ay, and how much I’m supposed to let Greystone tell you.”
I gave an exasperated snort. I was pretty sure from what I’d picked up last time that I could order the Runegard to do things if I wanted to. But I didn’t think it would be a good idea to start busting out that authority right off the bat. I was obviously something new and unusual to these people.
“Fine,” I said. “Let’s keep going. Why don’t you tell me what you can tell me as we go?”
Darren looked relieved and started talking. “Well, for starters, the place you’re in is called Runehold. It’s not only the home of the Realm Keepers, but of the Runegard as well. Though Runehold can only house one legion, and the Runegard’s full strength is five. The rest live in their garrisons and stations throughout the Free Kingdoms.”
“How many in a legion?” I asked.
“Ten regiments to a legion,” he said. “Each regiment a hundred head. So one thousand souls to a legion.”
“Oh, wow, so like way less than on Earth,” I said, interested. “True Earth, I guess. How many people are there?”
“Where?” asked Darren with a blank look.
“Everywhere,” I said, holding my arms wide. “In all the world. How many people?”
Darren blinked a few times and shrugged. “I don’t know. How could you ever count them? Why? Is it important?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, I’m just still getting used to the differences between home and here. Back home, we know how many people there are to within a few million.”
“A…a few million?” Darren said, looking shocked. “How many people are there?”
“Almost seven billion,” I said. “Or just over seven billion. I forget.”
Darren’s face went pale. “I think…I think I may want to sit,” he stammered.
“Why?” I asked, confused.
“How do you live with that many people around?” He said, his voice dropping almost to a whisper.
“Well, they’re spread out over the whole world, don’t forget,” I said, laughing. “The world’s a really, really big place.”
“How big?”
“Well, it’s twenty-five thousand miles around, and it’s a globe, so that’s…” I thought for a few seconds. “About two hundred thousand square miles. Is that right? Yeah, I think so. Of course, a lot of that is oceans, and some of it is land that you just can’t live on — frozen tundras, that sort of thing. But it’s a big world.”
Darren looked at me, seeming utterly lost. “You are a scholar.”
“Me? What? No,” I said, scoffing. Then I reconsidered. “Well, yeah, a little bit. But most people just think of me as a dork.”
“Dork.” Darren tried the word out. “Is this an honorific title?”
“Pretty much the exact opposite,” I sighed. “Let’s just keep moving.”
Darren led me down a hallway. “The room we just left is your great hall. It is where the Realm Keepers confer. In most castles it would be the throne room, but the Realm Keepers have no thrones. You are all equal.”
“And where are we going now?”
“The practice rooms. There are several of them. They are where the Realm Keepers begin to learn how to use their powers.”
“Awesome. Like the Danger Room.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Never mind,” I said. “It’s something from a comic book. A…book of pictures, back on True Earth.”
“Yes,” Darren said with a small smile. “One of the last Realm Keepers, a woman named Reiko, told me about them.”
“Really?” I said, surprised.
“Yes, she was quite fond of them,” Darren said, chuckling. “She said they told stories of powerful wizards, ones who saved the world again and again. They were like Realm Keepers, but different. They had different powers, some of them ridiculous. Magic is powerful, but it doesn’t let people climb walls, or shoot light from their eyes, or turn into metal.”
Something clicked. “Wait, that’s the X-Men.” I looked down at myself, pieces beginning to fall into place. “Did this girl — Reiko — did she wear this outfit?”
Darren shook his head. “No. She was the Keeper of Water. Like Sir Miles. But it’s interesting you mention your robes. Reiko designed them.”
I burst out into a long round of laughter. Darren looked confused. “Oh man,” I said. “That’s priceless. Our clothes were designed to look like superhero costumes. I can’t even…that’s the best thing ever.”
Darren shook his head. “You are a confusing young man.”
“So I’m told. Constantly.”
We arrived at a great iron door. Two Runegard stood guard at either side of it. They saw me and immediately fell to one knee.
“Welcome, Rune Holder,” one of them said solemnly.
“Guys, guys, stand up,” I said. “Come on, that’s not necessary.”
The Runegard looked at me uneasily.
Darren leaned in. “You’d better get used to that,” he said softly. “It’s ceremony. We are sworn to serve you. It’s polite to simply thank them.”
I grimaced. “Um…thank you. And greetings. Please rise.”
The Runegard shot to their feet. One of them nodded and swung open the broad iron door to the room. I nodded to them uneasily once again before allowing Darren to lead me inside.
The room was around twenty feet tall, made entirely of stone and perfectly round. Weapon racks lined the walls. A large circle of red stone formed the middle, with a six-foot rim around the edges. It reminded me of a battle arena or a wrestling ring, except there were no posts or ropes. Aside from the weapon racks, there were wooden training dummies. Some of them were fixed in place, others could be wheeled around. There were also shelves of small objects, like plates, cups and pitchers. They were made from wood or metal; no glass was in sight. That made sense; I had the feeling that any glass in the room would have been shattered a long time ago. The room had no windows, either — probably for the same reason.
“Sweet,” I said. “So…what do we do here?”
“You practice,” Darren said. “This is where new Realm Keepers learn to use their powers. There are several others just like it; after a few training sessions, the rooms usually need to be repaired and cleaned up. Due to the damage.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “Yeah, give me a few days in here and I’ll be good as gold.”
Darren looked surprised. “Days? Realm Keepers usually take a year before they are allowed to fight.”
“A year?” I asked, shocked. “Dude, we can’t wait for a year. Some dude is commanding the armies of Chaos out there right now. We’ve got to take him down.”
I saw his face darken. “Yes, we do. But you cannot face him before you are ready. Chaos has taken back the summoning circle. They cannot breach it, but if any new Realm Keepers were to arrive, they would never be able to leave safely. To lose even one of you would be a disaster.”
“Who is that guy, anyway?” I said. “He looked human.”
“He isn’t. Not any longer. He…” Darren trailed off and looked away again. “I’m sorry, Sir Calvin. I am sure that Greystone will tell you everything soon.”
I sighed and shrugged. “Fine. Let’s see what I can do. Bet I can give Storm a run for her money.”
“What?”
I shook my head. “Never mind. It’ll probably be best in the future if, when I say something you don’t get, you just nod and say, ‘Of course,’ or something, because I’m going to talk about a lot of stuff from True Earth that isn’t going to make any sense over here.”
Darren hesitated. “Of course, Sir Calvin.”
“There you go.”
I looked around the room. It would probably be best to start small. One of the small objects on the shelves should do it. I strolled over, perusing them. A small wooden goblet caught my eye. I picked it up and put it in the center of the room, then stood a few feet back.
“So…any tips?” I asked Darren, who was looking at me with intense interest.
He stared at me blankly. “Er…no. I’m sorry, Sir Calvin.”
I waved it off, then held my hands up in front of me.
Wind.
Nothing happened. I looked at Darren nervously. “Just, uh…just warming up.”
He nodded and kept looking at me eagerly. I felt like a monkey in a cage, with him waiting for me to do something funny.
I held up my hands again and closed my eyes. I tried thinking back to the pillars, when I’d summoned a tornado. There had been something inside me. I remembered reaching down into it, like I was pulling it out of my gut. I tried reaching for it again.
Wind.
A tiny little breeze fluttered through the room. The goblet rocked slightly on its wide wooden base, then settled back to stillness. It was practically nothing, but I broke into a grin just the same. I mean, it was magic!
“Did you see that?” I asked Darren excitedly. He nodded like a kid at a circus.
“Okay,” I said determinedly. “I’m going to knock it over. Here we go.”
I closed my eyes and reached deep within myself again. I found the something within me, the power waiting to come out.
WIND! I shouted in my mind.
A gust erupted from my outstretched hands. I could see it in the dust motes that swirled in the light from the torches on the walls. It flew around the room. A weapon rack slammed over, spilling blunt metal across the stone. Another one toppled as the wind continued — this time right behind Darren, who was suddenly buried under a pile of wood and metal.
The goblet sat innocently in the center of the room, untouched.
“Sorry, sorry!” I screamed, running over. Darren was trying to shove the weapon rack off himself. I grabbed it and heaved, but it was too heavy. “Here, I got it!” I said, standing back and holding out my arms.
“No!” Darren shouted.
The wind slammed into the wall, bounced off and caught the edge of the weapon rack — and Darren. Both of them went flipping end over end, slamming into me and knocking me on my butt. Weapons flew everywhere; thankfully, all of them were blunted. Darren’s body was on top of mine, our limbs entangled. The weapon rack crushed us both into the cold, uncaring stone floor.
“I think,” I wheezed. “I think I can lift it off us.”
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