“Dracla, you would like to try?” he asked.
Jessup tumbled off the platform. No one bothered to assist him, instead they backed away.
“My hand’s up isn’t it?” I said.
Carklay narrowed, but then he gestured to the platform. I jumped up amidst murmurs and head-shakes. As I brought my fists up, I wanted to look at Jessup, but something held me back. It was probably good—because Seraphastus didn’t wait a second to throw a punch at me. Unfortunately seeing it coming in slow motion didn’t help much. His fists broke through my block easily. I heard a crack in my own head and then the moan of the crowd.
Carklay’s voice came out distinctly as I shook my head clear. “Like I said before, men. If you don’t—”
His words were drowned out by gasps as I slammed my fist into Seraphastus’s unblocked face.
He took a step back, blinked, and stared at me. For a second I smiled, until he brought his fists back up.
“You’re dead, little goblin,” he hissed.
I couldn’t think of a comeback that didn’t involve complimenting his size, so I punched into his side instead. It didn’t seem to do much, except leave me open. He jabbed my head back twice like a bouncy ball. The third time I ducked and punched into his stomach, once, twice, three times.
He started faltering backwards. I heard the crowd roar.
I went for a swing at his face, but felt something hard hit my stomach first. His knee. I bent over in pain. He caught me with one hand to the shoulder and punched me so many times that I lost count. Every time he made contact with my face the crowd made a sound that fairly expressed the feeling.
Finally he stopped. “Had enough, boy?” he asked. He kept his fist right in front of my face.
I shoved it to the side and tried to hit him again. He dodged it easily, then punched. “Had enough?”
I went for the same maneuver, which obviously failed, but before he could hit me another time I heard Carklay’s voice. “Seraphastus! That’s enough. We don’t want him dead.”
The crowd made a collective moan of complaint. Seraphastus squeezed my shoulder hard, then let me drop. Without him holding me up, it was a straight shot to the red dirt. Lights danced in my eyes. Seraphastus started walking away.
Carklay went on to say something to the recruits, but I didn’t hear it. I blinked and managed to push myself up on my arms. When I spoke, everyone else got quiet. “Hey, Seraphastus,” I called.
Very slowly, he turned around.
I grew a grin and then I tapped my lip. “You’ve got a little something right there.”
I saw the look of surprise on his face as he touched his lip and felt the blood. And then I took a nap on the platform.
*
ELLIA:
*
“By the stars, what’s that?” asked a worker beside me.
It took a moment for me to tell that they were talking to me. We were standing in the firelight at our regular position along the sorting table. It was some time after lunch.
“What?” I asked.
The woman pointed to my hand, but before I could look there she gasped. “It stopped!”
“What stopped?” I asked.
She picked up my wrist. “Your hand… it was…”
I narrowed.
“Like smoke,” she finished.
The man across the table from us frowned.
“Do you mean it was on fire?” I glanced at the nearby torch and wondered if I could have become so accustomed to the heat that I wouldn’t have felt it if a spark had landed on my skin.
“No. It was clear,” the woman said. “I mean it disappeared; I could see the stones right through it. It looked like black smoke.”
My lips pursed. “Are you sure it wasn’t the coal?” I asked.
She shook her head violently, but then she released my wrist and shrugged. “I suppose it could have been coal. And the light. And the exhaustion.”
I frowned sympathetically. She went back to work and so did I. I wasn’t sure why but two of her words started repeating in my head.
Black smoke.
Black smoke.
It disappeared… like…
My mind took me far from the dark tunnels, to the old ruins on a mountain near Uldin Keep. It was the place Scholar Padril took me to practice swordplay. He was there, we’d just finished our lesson.
“Scholar Padril?” I asked, only a child at the time.
He took a deep breath. “Yes, Ellia.”
“Why… does father disappear?”
Scholar Padril laughed. “What?”
“I’ve seen him, sometimes. It’s like parts of him vanish and there’s nothing there. The other day Vossler was calling for him in the palace halls. I was on the balcony, but no one knew that I was there. I saw father coming down the other way, with Countess Doline. Vossler had almost reached them. Father… kissed her once, and then vanished. Vossler found Madam Doline by herself. So it wasn’t just me—General Vossler couldn’t see him either. And Countess Doline acted like he’d never been there at all.”
Scholar Padril grunted; he knit his brow. “How very prudent of the king,” he scoffed, then he gave me scrutinizing eyes. “Are you sure you can’t forget you saw this?”
“Oh no, Scholar Padril, the curiosity would drive me mad.”
He measured my expression, then sighed. “You’ll know one day anyways….You promise if I explain what you saw, you’ll hold further questions until the time is right?”
“When will the time be right?” I asked.
“Not for many years now. But I cannot tell you all. There are ancient rituals to be adhered to.”
I took a long breath, and then nodded. “I won’t ask anything else. I promise.
He smiled. “Alright then. Your father was using a… power that your lineage possesses. You know that your family has always ruled Shaundakul?”
“Yes. Ever since we were given the dragons.”
“It is tied to the dragons,” Scholar Padril agreed, “It is a gift from the stars, a part of the earth’s deep mysteries. As is the way of our people.”
“A gift that lets you disappear?” I asked. “Will I have it?”
Scholar Padril smiled. “Oh, I have no doubt.” He snorted and dusted his robes. “So long as you don’t spend all your wit chasing after young Cyric.”
I grinned. Scholar Padril matched it until he wore dimples.
“But...,” I said, “I imagine it might be frightening to disappear.”
“No, not at all,” assured Scholar Padril. “Because you will always have the power to reappear sometime or another. Besides you never vanish completely. You become smoke.”
“Smoke?” I repeated.
“Yes…. Black smoke.”
I was drawn back to the present by a touch on my shoulder. The worker beside me nodded down the tunnels.
“Work’s done,” he said.
I blinked, then I pulled off my apron and followed the line out, wiggling and waving my hands the entire time.
~ ~ ~
CHAPTER SIX
CYRIC:
*
“What were you thinking boy? Only beasts attack another man like that.”
That’s what Jessup said to me the first time I saw him after my fist-fight with Seraphastus. The other recruits in my group made it pretty clear they had about the same opinion. Big surprise; they were from all Shaundakul—where people took things too seriously and unanimously hated me.
In the end I planned to never to get my face beat in for Jessup again.
It wasn’t a complete waste though. Word got around about it with the sergeants that worked as our instructors and they were big fans. It showed me that the Akadians weren’t just full of it when they claimed they valued power over everything. The fact that I wasn’t one of them and hadn’t exactly been following orders didn’t seem to matter. The fight got me enough attention to get nominated for recruit “finals”, which was a race used to determine who would move on to re
al training with the Akadian army and who would stay with the recruits.
I was the newest of the ten chosen. They all stood around me now. We were lined up in front of the obstacle course. To our left was a crowd of spectators. They were made up of soldiers mostly, though of course that meant handmaidens were hanging around them. I kept my eyes on the course, while Lieutenant Scanth, one of our instructors, told the crowd how the race was going to work.
“Hey, Shaundakul,” I heard beside me.
I thought about pretending that I didn’t hear. I knew very well that whoever it was was talking to me because I was the only one from Shaundakul racing. Plus, I was used to being called “Shaundakul.” No one ever ventured to say, “Hey, Shaundakulian.” For obvious reasons.
“Shaundakul,” he repeated.
With a sigh, I turned around.
“Are you the one that attacked Seraphastus?” he asked. He had dark hair and looked like he was probably from Birmha.
I glanced around at the recruits; they all moved to watch me for an answer. Then I pointed at myself. “Can’t you tell from the face?”
He laughed. “I thought there was a chance you had a run in with a mountain troll. What were you thinking, man?”
“To be honest, I wasn’t really.”
“I believe that,” he jeered.
The crowd of spectators to our left cheered about something, drawing our attention. I turned back to the Birmian.
“The name’s Salthor,” he said, “Soon to be soldier of Akadia.”
He gave me his hand. I reluctantly shook it. “You sound excited,” I said.
“That’s how sure I am I’ll win this race.”
“You want to be a soldier so badly?” I asked. “Aren’t you from Birmha?”
“Who cares,” he replied. “The soldiers here live like gods. It’s a better life than I ever would have had back home. Not to mention, have you heard what the winner’s going to get?”
I looked at Lieutenant Scanth, and then back at Salthor. “A girl, right?”
“Not just a girl. A personal attendant. Palace district level. Commander Lox is putting up the prize himself.”
“Lox,” I repeated. “He was at Uldin Keep, wasn’t he?”
“You should know shouldn’t you?” Salthor said. “He was the mastermind behind the whole thing. That’s not the point though. The point is, he’s renowned to have an eye for the best handmaidens. His personal handmaiden is famous.”
I laughed. “For what exactly?”
Salthor didn’t look amused. “If you saw her, you wouldn’t wonder. But laugh if you like. I don’t mind if you don’t take it seriously; one less competitor for me.”
The end of his sentence was almost drowned out by the clapping of the crowd. It seemed like they were finally done. Scanth walked towards us. “Get ready men. You’ve less than a minute.” He went to talk to a guard down the course.
While the other recruits lined up, I nodded to Salthor. “Which one is Commander Lox? Is he here?”
“Aye. He’s the one at the front. Talking to Sergeant Carklay. Viscous looking man, isn’t he?” Salthor dropped into a startup position.
My eyes stayed on Lox. I’d had a feeling before I’d seen him, but he was definitely the Commander that had interrogated Ellia and I back in Shaundakul. He and Carklay were speaking intently, smiling a bit and pointing at the course. Surrounded by the other Akadians, he looked different then I’d first pictured him. He wasn’t as overwhelmingly tall. Not daunting. He seemed comfortable. I wasn’t sure that I agreed with Salthor that he was vicious looking.
“Alright, on my mark men,” Scanth said. He moved beside our line, then lifted his hand in the air.
I dropped into a running position.
“Remember, if you’re not in the top five, you’ll go back to being a recruit for another month at least. And you’ll be running this course for the rest of the day.”
Like he hadn’t said that enough times. The crowd began to clap to an even beat. I mentally ran through the obstacle course ahead, the parts that would be difficult, or a good chance to pass someone. I had watched soldiers run it many times.
Scanth dropped his arm and a horn blew. The crowd cheered. We were all off.
It wasn’t something I had done before—racing, or any sort of competition really. They didn’t do that in Shaundakul. I’d had a plan before we’d started to be in the top five, but not number one, for numerous reasons. But when I started running. When the crowd started cheering. When I heard the other men around me and my blood started pumping. Something took over. My plan went out the window. All I could see was the finish line and how I had to get there first.
I wasn’t sure of all that happened in the race—the crowd made a lot of reactions that sounded like painful things were going on. I didn’t see any of it because I was out in front the whole time thanks to one maneuver at the beginning of the course where I’d seen I could bypass a twelve foot wall if I got on top of the cage bars and jumped. I still ran as fast as I could, and I was out of breath when I got to the end, but I had a good five seconds on all the rest.
The spectators went crazy when I reached the finish. They hardly waited for the next competitor, Saltho,r, before they started crowding in.
Salthor slammed my back with a laugh. “Bloody goblin,” he shouted.
I smiled and coughed; I was bent over and gasping.
The next three to join us were not unexpected. Two from Carba. One more from Birmha. I noticed even after a minute three of the competitors didn’t show.
Lieutenant Scanth raised his hands to calm the crowd. “We have our new soldiers,” he shouted. It got them started again. A girl draped her hands over my neck. Another kissed Salthor square on the mouth. “And a clear victor,” Scanth went on. He patted me on the shoulder—Scanth—I could hardly believe it. “You men will never be sorry for your victory today,” he said. “You have joined a great army; the greatest of all the kingdoms. Today you will feast with the rest of the soldiers. You will bathe. You will see your new quarters. And for you,” He pulled me up. The girl hanging onto me frowned and latched over to someone else. Scanth walked me a few feet. “May I introduce you to one of the three great Generals of the Akadia army, Commander Malatos Lox.”
My smile died as I slowly looked up into Lox’s face. His expression was grim. I was sure he recognized me and I thought it might be all over.
“Commander, this is Cyric Dracla. From Shaundakul,” said Scanth.
Sergeant Carklay still stood beside him. I was surrounded by three large Akadians, each of them staring at me.
“I believe we’ve met before,” Lox said darkly, then he suddenly grew a grin and held out his hand. “Welcome to the Akadian army, Cyric Dracla.”
I took a glance at Scanth and Carklay, then put my hand in Lox’s and shook it.
*
“You’ve done very well for yourself in such a short amount of time,” said Lox.
We were walking in the midst of the crowd headed up to the palace district. There was a lot of shouting and cheering going on around us, but Lox was holding my attention. I couldn’t figure out why he was talking to me. I hoped it didn’t involve my past attempt to kill him.
“I’ve just been going where I’m told,” I replied.
“Quite a change of attitude from the one you had back in Shaundakul,” Lox laughed.
I shrugged. He went on without hesitation. “But you realize the ones you joined Akadia with haven’t come so far, you must be doing something different.”
“I’m good at training,” I said.
“Training?” He scoffed. “No one in Akadia ever got an award for training. You’ve surpassed the others because you are better than them. You are stronger. You must know this?”
My brow creased a little. Before I could think up a reply, a man passed us and Lox swung around to address him.
“Ho, Tobias.”
We were on the steps before a building, already inside the palace distric
t. Tobias, as Lox had called him, stopped and turned around. I recognized him immediately as the man who’d spoken in the square the first day I’d arrived in Akadia. He had short brown hair and wore a tunic instead of armor.
“Leaving already?” Lox continued, with a smile. “The men are about to celebrate. What could be your hurry?”
Tobias hesitated. The crowd started to pour into the building ahead, oblivious to us.
“No hurry, Commander,” Tobias said. “I’ve just already eaten, and I have plans to run my squad through some drills tonight.”
“Committed as ever,” Lox replied.
Tobias smiled congenially.
“I just want to be sure that none of my captains are roaming the streets at night,” Lox added. “There have been rumors of late, of dissensions in the high court. Whisperings and treasons against the army. I wouldn’t want you to be the victim of a misled attack.”
Tobias waited without response.
“In such cases, assassination is not uncommon…,” Lox added, dipping his head.
Tobias swallowed, then put on a smile. “I’ll take extra precautions.”
“Good man,” Lox said.
Tobias bowed. And then he walked off into the street. Lox turned to the building ahead, but instead of entering, he said, “Go on. Enjoy yourself. We’ll talk more later.”
I looked inside. Dozens of recruits were sitting around a table; a few handmaidens were on top of it. “You’re not coming?” I asked.
“No. I have work to do. And your prize to find,” he added.
Oh right, the girl. I remembered then that Lox had been the one to put up the prize.
He didn’t say anything else before he left. I watched him go. Then I turned to the crowd inside. I had a feeling I was about to experience something very new.
*
ELLIA:
*
“What is this place?” I asked.
Tobias stood beside me, leaning on the ledge of a high wall. He had taken me to a secluded courtyard in the palace district. It had a small fountain at the center of it and in the dimming afternoon all the loudness of the city was behind us. I’d been nowhere so peaceful in all of Akadia. But the sight to see was ahead. A flat stretch of dessert that went on for miles before hitting more mountains. Where it was closest to the city it had deep crevices into the earth with smoke coming out of them that I could only imagine led to the underground tunnels.
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