The Dragon Hunter and the Mage

by V. R. Cardoso

  Everyone agreed. The only person that even came close to her in marksmanship was Orisius, but he was on Ashur’s team, and even he had never come close to scoring as well as Clea in archery training.

  “Those are blind bombs too,” the Hunter above them said. “They’re mounted on an arrow, but they’re the same. Blind bombs are all you get in this challenge.”

  Aric nodded in understanding. Then, the wail of a horn echoed though the walls.

  “That’s the signal,” the Hunter told them. “You can leave your base now. Have fun.”

  Something about the way he said the last words made Aric shiver.

  Moving his arms like lightening, Aric handed out the bombs. Trissa received ten while everyone else had to settle for two.

  “Let’s go,” Aric called, dashing out. “Trissa, give them heck.”

  “Don’t worry,” Trissa said, lobbing a bomb in the air. “This banner will cost them.”

  They ran through corridors lined with flickering torches. At every turn, Aric expected to run into Ashur and his team. He decided to swerve and circle right, trying to avoid the most direct route. The strategy didn’t work.

  “There!” they heard someone scream. It was Jullion. He had several people behind him, but the distance made it hard to tell exactly who and how many they were.

  “Quick, this way!” Aric said, escaping through a narrow corridor.

  “They’re chasing us,” Dothea grumbled. “Those idiots are chasing us instead of going for our banner…”

  She was right. Aric could hear their footsteps and shouts. Boy, were they loud…

  “Crap!” Aric let out. “We’re wasting time.” He stopped, raising his hand, ordering the others to do the same. He clenched his teeth, struggling with what he had to do. “Damn this!” he exploded. “Leth, I need you to lead them away.”

  The Akhami boy stared back at Aric in silence, as if he needed to be sure Aric wasn’t joking.

  “You’re serious…” Leth said eventually.

  “I am.”

  Leth’s head fell lifelessly on his chest. “I hate my life,” he muttered, then he quickly straightened up. “Alright, boss. Here I go.”

  “Leth, wait,” Aric called. “Here, take these.” He handed Leth both of his blind bombs.

  “Are you sure?” Leth asked.

  “Of course I’m not sure. But take them anyway.”

  Leth stowed both blind bombs on the leather satchel around his back, nodded, then darted away. Moments later they heard Jullion shriek and the footsteps moved away, followed by the shouting.

  Silently, Aric signaled his remaining team to follow him and pressed on. They sprinted down a series of hallways, checking every door to make sure they didn’t miss the enemy base. Clearly, finding Ashur’s banner was going to be harder than he had anticipated. Occasional screams echoed every once in a while, and Aric pictured Leth torturing Jullion across the Gauntlet’s corridors. It made him smile.

  He could do this, he thought. He had to.

  A couple of turns later they ran into a dead end, so Aric backed away. His sense of direction must have gotten confused, because when he got to what he thought was the corridor he had come through, he saw an open door from which someone’s shadow stretched along the floor. Aric froze and shot both hands up, forcing his teammates to stop as well. Tiptoeing, they backtracked to hide behind a wall.

  “That’s they’re base,” Aric whispered.

  “How can you be sure?” Dothea asked, her voice just as low.

  “Has to be,” Aric replied.

  “Alright,” Clea said. “What’s your plan?”

  Aric thought about it for a while, then: “I didn’t get to count how many people were with Jullion when we ran into him, but I’m pretty sure Ashur will have at least four people defending his banner.”

  “Well, there’s four of us right here,” Irenya said. “Should we attack?”

  “No,” Aric told her. “It’s too risky. What we need is a diversion.”

  “What do you mean?” Irenya asked.

  “Dothea, Irenya,” Aric said. “Could you two draw the defenders away?”

  “Hmm.” Dothea didn’t look very pleased with that thought. “What happens if I say no?”

  “I’ll ask you to do it anyway,” Aric replied.

  “Then sure. We can do it.”

  Aric looked at Irenya for confirmation. The girl sighed but nodded as well.

  “Ok,” Aric said. “Go. Now.”

  After taking a couple of deep breaths, the two girls rushed out and Aric waited. His heart was pounding so hard he feared the others would hear it.

  There was a crash, like the sound of a plate falling to the ground, followed by shouts, curses, and heavy coughing. Dothea shouted something and Irenya replied, adding to the mess of sounds.

  “Where are they?” a rough voice asked from somewhere around the corner.

  “I can’t see squat!” another one complained.

  “I see them!” That was clearly Prion. “Quick, after them!”

  Aric peeked out from his hiding place and saw Nahir and Ergon chasing after a couple of fleeting shadows.

  “Prion stayed behind,” Aric whispered to Clea. “But I think he’s alone.”

  “What now?” she asked.

  “Ready your bow.” Aric steeled himself. “I am going to run, and I am not going to stop, alright? Whatever happens, I will keep going until I am out of that gate. Do you understand me?”

  Clea gave him a comforting nod. “You can do this,” she said.

  Aric wanted to believe that as well. “I need you to stay close and keep them at bay as best as you can.”

  “They won’t even see you,” she told him, then smiled. “Get it?” She motioned towards the blind bomb tip of one of her arrows. “They won’t even see you.”

  Aric had to muffle his own laughter with a hand. Then, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and reopened them again.

  I am not gonna let her down.

  And off he went. He galloped down the hallway so fast that when Prion finally saw him come, Aric was already halfway there. The sight stunned Prion, but only for a brief moment. Aric saw him reach for his belt and grab a bomb.

  This is going to hurt… he thought.

  But it didn’t. Prion never even had the time to swing it. One of Clea’s arrows flew past Aric and exploded on the wall next to Prion, swallowing him in a white cloud of dust. All that was left of the guardian was his desperate screams.

  Closing his eyes and holding his breath, Aric sprinted through the white cloud. When he reopened his eyes, he was standing in front of a red banner. It felt like conquering an enemy castle. Aric grabbed the banner and ripped it from the pole in one swift tug.

  “I was waiting for you, half-prince.”

  That voice made every bone in Aric’s body turn to frost. He swung around and saw Ashur, standing in a corner, smiling like a bird of prey. He dove toward Aric, his hands reaching for the banner, but he never got to either of his targets.

  Another one of Clea’s arrows exploded right between Ashur’s feet. This time, Aric was caught in the blinding haze as well. The burning made it impossible to so much as open his eyes, but he didn’t care. He could still remember where the door was, so he ran towards it. His shoulders brushed against what was almost certainly Prion, then he turned right and kept going. With tears running down his face, Aric ran for a dozen paces until he inevitably slammed, headfirst, against a wall.

  “Aric!” Clea shouted.

  “Where to?” he asked.

  “Left.”

  That was all he needed to know. Without slowing down even a bit, Aric obeyed and ran left.

  “Now right,” Clea shouted. She was following him closely.

  Using the banner as a towel, Aric cleaned his eyes as best as he could, stumbling from one wall to another, using Clea’s instructions to keep going. The problem was, were they headed in the right direction?

  Some shapes started to form as A
ric’s eyes cleared. Not enough to actually see what was in front of him, but enough to keep him from banging his head against the walls.

  He reached a gigantic, square hall, much wider than any room he had been in yet. At least ten different corridors fed from it, and Aric looked from one to the other.

  Panting, Clea finally caught up with him. “What happened to not stopping no matter what?” she asked.

  “I…” Aric was having trouble coordinating his breathing with his speech. “I don’t know where the gate is.”

  “There!” Aric heard someone yell.

  It was Ashur again. He had somehow trailed him.

  Cursing, Aric fled through a random corridor. Behind him, the sound of an arrow being fired was followed by the crackling sound of shattering stoneware.

  “I think I missed!” Clea shouted.

  “Hit them with another one!” Aric replied.

  This time, there were painful screams when Clea fired her arrow, and Aric allowed himself to stop again when he reached a bifurcation.

  “I’m down to my last one,” Clea said as she caught up with Aric once again.

  “What do you say, left or right?” Aric asked.

  They had to be close to the exit now. They had to.

  “How should I know?!”

  “Just say one at random.”

  “Oh, Goddess damn this,” Clea complained. “Alright, left.”

  Aric grabbed her hand and darted left.

  This corridor was much narrower than the previous ones. It snaked left and right a couple of times until it turned into a straight line, at the end of which stood the grated gate that led outside the Gauntlet.

  That was it. One final sprint and he would win.

  Aric let go of Clea’s hand and raced forward, his fuzzy eyes completely focused on that gate alone. Until he caught movement from the corner of his eyes.

  His heart sunk for a moment, but then he recognized Leth. The Akhami had come through one of the several doors leading to the hallway and stopped midway between Aric and the gate. He looked at Aric, then over his shoulder.

  “Oh, crap!” he said.

  The meaning became instantly apparent. Jullion and the others were still chasing him, and he had just led them straight to Aric.

  I’m not stopping for anything.

  Roaring, Leth turned around and rammed Jullion to the ground, dragging Orisius and Athan with them. An instant later, an arrow landed next to them, wrapping the group in a thick white blob.

  “I’m out,” Clea shouted. “Run!”

  But she didn’t have to say it because nothing on this side of the sun or beyond it would stop Aric. He zoomed past the pile of blind recruits and saw the gate slide open.

  Three more steps.

  He tripped, lost his balance, and crashed spectacularly.

  It didn’t matter, however. He was already outside.

  “You were incredible!” Clea said, her eyes glowing.

  Aric was surrounded by the entire Company, getting everyone’s congratulations. Well, maybe not everyone’s, but, at least this time, Ashur wasn’t barking at his own teammates for congratulating Aric. Even Prion and Jullion shook his hand.

  “Good job,” Leth told him, winking.

  “Good job, yourself!” Aric replied. “That was brilliant!”

  Leth shrugged. “Well, you know me…”

  The two of them laughed, slapping each other’s backs.

  “Settle down,” Saruk demanded, his hands in the air. “You’ll have plenty of time to celebrate. In fact, you all get the day off.”

  The whole Company howled as if a pile of gold had just been handed to them. Saruk asked for silence again.

  “As I said, the celebration can be done later. Right now, your new Captain needs to be sworn in.”

  “What does that mean?” Irenya asked.

  “It means Aric needs to fill in an entry on the Guild’s record about himself and the Company,” Tharius said before Saruk could answer.

  “Wait,” Jullion said. “You mean he has to write? What if Ashur had won? He can’t write.”

  All recruits burst out laughing, except Ashur, who punched Jullion on the shoulder.

  They all hopped out of there, the mood far brighter than it had been on the way down.

  Tharius had been right. Aric was escorted to the Grand-Master’s office where he was handed a massive tome. When he opened it, every page was blank. The only thing written on it had been engraved on the leather cover:

  LOG

  TWENTY THIRD COMPANY OF DRAGON HUNTERS

  FOURTH BANNER

  UNDER CAPTAIN ARIC AURON

  “Start by filling out the date,” Sylene told him, handing him a quill and some ink. “Then state your name, date, and place of birth, and, since you are a noble, ascendancy, rank, and place in line for the throne.”

  Aric started scribbling quietly, but fast. Everyone was celebrating his victory and he was stuck in here.

  “State that on this day you won the right to Captain the Company, then briefly describe each of your Hunters.”

  Aric’s quill stopped. “Briefly describe?” he echoed. “What exactly should I say?”

  “Ideally? Everything you know about them.”

  What?!

  This was going to be a long day…

  “This log is now your most important possession,” Sylene said. “Upon your death, it will be taken to the Guild’s Records in the lower levels and added to our accumulated wealth of wisdom. You must register all of your experiences as a Company. Omit as little detail as possible. You never know how many lives your words may one day save.”

  “Yes, madam,” Aric replied, writing furiously fast.

  The Grand-Master slammed the palm of her hand on the table in front of Aric. “I’m serious,” she said. “This is one of your most sacred duties as a Captain.”

  Aric held her stare. Her eyes were burning.

  “I understand, Grand-Master,” Aric said. “I do.”

  “Good,” she said, slowly retracting her hand.

  “Is this enough detail?” Aric asked. He had just finished describing Leth.

  Sylene inspected the paragraph and snorted. “How did he react to your orders as your teammate?” she prompted. “How was his overall performance in each challenge? Does he eat a lot, wake up on time? Come on, Captain. Be specific.”

  Oh, dear Goddess…

  This was going to be worse than any class he had ever had in the Citadel, and it was, if not worse, certainly longer. By the time he was finally done describing the Company to Sylene’s liking, the sun was already setting. The day – his day – was gone.

  He closed the log with a sigh and Sylene sent him on his way, finally congratulating him for the victory as she closed the door to her study.

  Aric rushed to the Company quarters, but instead of a large, ecstatic welcome, all he got was a white banner hanging from Skully’s teeth. It said: Welcome to the twenty third Company – The Half-Princes.

  “You like it?”

  It was Trissa. She was in the common room, but she could see Aric standing in the lobby from where she was sitting.

  “Have we been officially named?” Aric asked, joining her in the common room. To his disappointment, there was no else in there.

  “No,” Trissa replied. “But that’s what most of us think we should be named. We took a vote. ‘The Desert Farts’ nearly won.”

  Aric chuckled. “Sorry I left you alone out there.”

  “Are you kidding me? You guys did all the work, I just stood there.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “No one came, Aric,” Trissa said, smiling. “I just stood there waiting. The whole time.”

  “You’re kidding me!”

  The two of them burst out laughing.

  “I’m serious,” Trissa said, wiping away a tear. “I just sat there holding ten blind bombs and nothing happened.”

  “Oh, goddess…” Aric exhaled, gasping from the laughter. “Where is
everyone?”

  “Most of them have gone to sleep,” Trissa said. “Dothea made Tharius drink an entire bottle of wine by himself. The poor guy passed out hours ago.”

  Aric grimaced. “What about… Clea and Leth?”

  “Hmm… I think I saw Clea on that balcony outside.”

  “Oh yeah, I know the one.” That was perfect. He could still give her the daisy. Tonight would be the perfect night to do it – His night. “There’s this thing I need to discuss with her.” Aric was already on his way out.

  “Sure,” Trissa said. “Hey, Aric?”

  He turned. “Yes?”

  “Congratulations.”

  Trissa smiled, and Aric found himself smiling back. He had never been this proud of himself.

  With his chest swelling, Aric sauntered out of the Company’s quarters and headed for the balcony down the corridor. He tried to picture the moment and rehearsed his speech a couple of times. Carefully, he removed the daisy from the small pocket he had kept it in. The tiny flower had flattened a bit, but with some careful prodding, Aric restored the daisy to its former beauty. Clea would love it.

  As he neared the balcony’s threshold, he stopped, straightened his clothes and ran his fingers through the curls of his hair. Finally, he cleared his throat and crossed out to the balcony.

  The sight stopped him dead in his tracks, and for a moment, it was as if all the air had been sucked out of the world.

  Leth and Clea were in each other’s arms, lips touching.

  A hand reached inside Aric and ripped out everything inside his chest. His whole body felt like a hollow casket.

  At first, Leth and Clea didn’t notice him, and Aric was too shocked to do or say anything. When the two of them finally noticed him, they caught the fright of their lives. Leth nearly fell off the balcony.

  “Aric!” Clea squeaked.

  “Ava’s mercy,” Leth said, gasping. “You want to kill us?”

  “I…” Aric’s mouth moved but nothing really came out. He put his hand behind his back and crushed the desert daisy between his fingers. “I’m sorry.”

  If Leth and Clea said anything else, Aric did not hear it. He just spun around and disappeared.