But making friends wasn’t at the top of my priority list.
There was only one problem with my training: my inability to use a shield. Physically, it was never a problem, but it never felt right to me, and it constantly kept me from doing my best. I expressed my concerns to Garridan, but he was steadfast — every soldier must learn how to use a shield, just in case. Periodically, there were monitored sparring sessions, with the other recruits, our training instructor, and even some knights in attendance. I always looked forwards to those sessions, as we were allowed to use whatever weapons we wanted and I always chose a sword for each hand. Under those conditions, I always thrived, and received a great deal of compliments from some of the spectators. I also gained some admiration for excelling at dagger-throwing, a practice that was encouraged, and one that I took to enthusiastically.
In addition to my stubborn resentment for shields, my reputation was further damaged by my tendency to turn away from my opponents while I was ducking their blows. Not only is it stupid to take your eyes off of your opponent, but most people viewed it as disrespectful, as if I was overconfident. Perhaps it was overconfidence on my part — I was beginning to feel like nothing could hurt me — but it was never meant to be disrespectful; it was simply a style I settled into. An unconventional, ill-advised style — but a style nonetheless.
Too bad if they didn’t like it.
There was only one dark spot to my new life in the military: the constant presence of Sir Norvin, the knight whose attempt to make an example out of me had inadvertently led to my training. It wasn’t long after my acceptance into the White Army that I began to notice him, watching me with a sneer on his face. Clearly he wasn’t pleased that I was now a member of the military, almost directly due to his drunken bravado. When I first noticed him watching me, I knew it wouldn’t be long before our paths crossed again, and I was right. He began to take advantage of my servitude to give me all kinds of ridiculous, personal jobs, including cleaning his armor. As angry as that made me, he was well within his right, and so I kept my anger to myself. When he gave me an order, I smiled and did exactly what I was told. I knew that one day I would get even, and accomplishing that task was as easy as sticking to my current goal — to be the greatest knight who ever lived.
***
As close as Derrick and I were, he always remained silent about his past, his family… even where his house was! This concerned me but out of respect for him, I eventually stopped pestering him about it. Then one day, I learned the truth.
I had been a recruit for a couple of months, and was beginning my tenure as a full-fledged soldier. It was such a breath of fresh air, knowing that I wouldn’t have to do personal jobs for that egotist buffoon, Norvin. I never minded doing anything for anyone else (because for the most part, I knew they appreciated it), but his jobs always irritated me, deep inside. Now that I was, for the most part, out from under his thumb, I was enjoying a new sense of freedom.
I was pondering my newfound freedom one day when I was on patrol in the city. It was a beautiful day, and the streets were packed with city folk going about their normal business. My patrol route took me through one of the Residential Districts, located to the northwest of the city. It was always normally quiet, but on this day, I could hear loud shouting coming from one of the houses. If it had just been standard arguing, I wouldn’t have got involved, but the predominant shouts were coming from an angry man — threatening somebody.
As I cautiously approached the plain, stone house, the man’s shouts could be heard clearly.
‘I know you have it! Where is it? Tell me or I’ll —’
At that point, I’d already heard enough. Shoving the door open, I stepped inside.
‘Is there some sort of problem here?’
Clearly, there was; the inside of the house was a mess, with shattered pottery in various places. A middle-aged woman was on the floor, cowering in fear of the large, rotund man standing in front of her. He reeked of ale. I could hear other whimpering, and quickly found its source; behind a small wall, a young woman, maybe a couple years younger than I, hid. She looked pale and sickly.
‘My “problem” is none of your business, soldier,’ the large man growled, spitting in every direction. ‘You turn your measly little hide around and march right back to your salted meats and your foreign wines.’
I stared incredulously at the man. Never in my life had I tasted wine of any sort (though salted meat had become a favorite of mine).
‘Sir,’ I said, trying to remain as amicable as possible, ‘you are scaring these ladies. I think it’s best that you —’
Without warning, the large man took one step forward, grabbed me by my shoulders, and shoved me backward, sending me crashing into a standing shelf. I collapsed to the ground on impact, and various cups and other crockery fell down on top of me.
The man was laughing.
That’s it! I thought to myself, shaking my head to clear the cobwebs. No more fun and games.
I pulled myself back up, brushing some dust and crockery off of myself. ‘As I was saying,’ I continued, trying to appear nonchalant, ‘I think it’s best that —’
The man attempted to shove me again, but my arms shot up, knocking his hands away. I followed this with an immediate shove of my own. Given the man’s girth, my shove did little to move him, but it did surprise him. He took a swing at me, a clumsy attempt, which I easily dodged and retaliated with an elbow to the face. Garridan’s training had stressed hand-to-hand combat, and at that moment I was very grateful.
The man collapsed backward, holding his face, then suddenly lunged forward and grabbed me by my throat with both hands. The move had taken me by surprise, and his hands were like iron clamps — almost immediately, I found myself desperately gasping for air —
All of the sudden, there was a jerking motion which sent me stumbling to the floor. Simultaneously, there was a loud crash, as if something heavy landed nearby. I looked up, and saw a hulking figure clad in silver armor.
‘I thought I told you to leave and never come back!’ Derrick screamed. He grabbed the large man by the collar of his tunic and lifted him to his feet (for Derrick, this cost him little effort), then threw him out of the open door, out into the street. Derrick then stomped over and stood over the man. ‘Now you listen to me, Father —’
Father?!
‘— because I am not going to tell you again. You’ve been worthless your whole life, and we don’t need you anymore. You leave this city, and never. Come. Back.’ He separated the last words to add emphasis.
Derrick turned and walked back toward the house. But just as Derrick passed through the door, the man was on his feet again, lunging for Derrick.
He had a dagger.
‘Derrick!’ I gasped.
Jumping to my feet, I sprung forward and grabbed the man by the arm, blocking his attempt to stab Derrick. I drove a knee into his ample midsection then, as he staggered backward, I connected with a side kick that sent him back out into the street.
Not giving him a chance to recover, I followed him and knelt down on top of him, practically sitting on his stomach. I was already angry, but now that I was starting to put a few pieces of this puzzle together, I was suddenly infuriated at what Derrick’s father may have put all of them through.
My face was inches away from his, and my voice was low. ‘You may be family to him, but you’re nothing to me. If you come back, I promise you… I will kill you. Do you hear me?’ I unsheathed one of my swords and held the blade across his throat. ‘Do you hear me?!’ My shouting quivered with rage and near-insanity, which was only half-acted.
The man was nodding emphatically and saying, ‘Yes, yes!’
I wasn’t done. ‘You will leave and never come back. You will not bother Derrick or his family again. Are we clear?’
The man was tearful. ‘Yes, I swear!’
I moved off of him and pointed. ‘Go. Get out of my sight and theirs. Your stench is not needed here anymore.�
�� I kept my sword aimed in his direction, in case he tried anything stupid.
Suddenly, I was out of breath, on my hands and knees on the ground. I was shaking with anger — I don’t think I had ever been so enraged in my life. I couldn’t help but think that if I hadn’t been so consumed with rage, I would have chosen my words better — but there was nothing I could do about that now.
Besides, it didn’t sound like he deserved that kind of consideration.
Derrick was behind me, trying to help me up.
‘Are you alright, Aidan? Did he hurt you?’
I had some small cuts, scratches, and bruises — nothing I couldn’t handle.
‘I’m okay,’ I said.
He was staring at me in disbelief. ‘You’ve got a temper on you, boy,’ he said in a mock-stern voice. ‘You need to keep it under control — although I don’t blame you in this instance.’
I chuckled, still trying to settle my nerves. ‘I’ve been treated that way — I don’t like to see it happen to other people.’
Derrick nodded in agreement. ‘I can’t believe he showed his face.’
‘That was your father?’ I asked.
Derrick hesitated before he answered. ‘Yeah… it’s a long story. I’ll tell you on the way back to the castle. What happened anyway? How did you find out he was here?’
‘It was a fluke,’ I answered honestly. ‘I was on patrol and I heard shouting coming from this — your — house. I heard him threatening them… I had to intervene.’
Derrick was silent for a moment, then he suddenly put his hand on my shoulder. ‘You are truly the brother I never had.’
This caught me by surprise, but I was extremely grateful for his compliment. And the more I thought about it, the more I realised that he was like a brother to me as well.
‘I’ll be back,’ Derrick said. ‘I need to check on my mother and sister. I’ll have you meet them later, under better circumstances.’
I nodded in response, then waited outside for a short time until Derrick returned.
‘They’re okay,’ Derrick informed me. ‘Just a bit shaken up. He didn’t hurt them.’
‘I’m very glad to hear that,’ I responded. ‘What did he want?’
‘Coin,’ Derrick answered snidely. ‘He knows I’m part of the White Army, and he thinks because he’s my father, it’s my job to fund his ridiculous habits.’
He was then quiet for a moment.
‘So are you going to tell me what happened?’ I asked him.
Derrick was silent a moment longer.
‘Yes,’ he said finally, ‘and you’ll be the first to know. I would appreciate it if this stayed between us.’
‘Of course,’ I responded.
After a short silence, Derrick started his story, as we began to walk back toward the castle.
‘My father is the biggest waste of space I’ve ever seen in my life — emphasis on “biggest.”’ He smiled at his half-hearted joke. ‘As far as I know, he’s never had a real job, yet he always had the coin for his ale. Me, my mother, and my sister starved throughout most of our lives. He bullied us — I can’t tell you the number of times he beat my mother and sister.’
He paused, and I could see his hands clenching into fists. I put my hand on his shoulder, to remind him that he wasn’t living in that time anymore. Derrick took a breath and continued.
‘He beat me too, but not nearly as often as he beat the women. One day, I finally realised that I was bigger than he was — that was about five years ago. I had always been scared to death of my father; he ruled by intimidation. But that day, I lost my temper. I never dreamed that fighting back on him would be so easy; all it took was one punch, and then I threw him outside, much like I did today. I told him never to come back, but he still showed up every now and again for the next three years. He hasn’t shown his piggish face for the past two years — until today. I guess he just got too desperate. Mother said he begged for forgiveness first, then blew up when she wouldn’t give him the coin.’
I understood Derrick’s anger, could feel it in my heart. I silently thanked the gods that I hadn’t grown up in a situation like that.
‘That’s why I crack jokes all the time,’ Derrick continued. ‘I found one day that laughing made me forget about my problems at home, at least temporarily. I started trying to make my mother and sister laugh, and now it’s the way I am. Laughter is the answer to pain.’
I smiled inwardly — it was something we shared in common. ‘I never thought you could be so philosophical.’
‘Don’t tell anybody,’ he replied. ‘I want them to think that I’m stupid.’
We both smiled.
After a pause, Derrick went on. ‘I’d never wanted to be in the military, much less be a knight. I joined for the steady income, so I could take care of my mother and sister. Suddenly, it was my career — I don’t really have any other skills, since my father never taught me anything.’
‘Is there… something wrong with your sister?’ I asked hesitantly. When Derrick didn’t answer immediately, I quickly added, ‘I’m sorry if that’s too forward — you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.’
‘No, no,’ Derrick said, waving his hand in the air. ‘I now consider you a brother, and I don’t mind telling you.’ I smiled inwardly at the thought of having a brother. ‘Yeah, she’s been sick for quite some time. No one really knows what’s wrong with her. I’ve been trying to save up the gold to get her to a really good healer. I would have the coin by now, but I constantly had to have things fixed — as well as buy new things — around the house due to my father constantly showing up and destroying things.’
We were quiet as we passed through the gate leading to the castle. I remember very clearly what it was like when I first saw it, on the back of Garridan’s horse, and it never ceased to take my breath away. I always took the time to appreciate it whenever I saw it; I had never had the time on that day of battle. The sun was lowering in the sky, and beams of pink light were piercing their way through the sparse clouds. The air was comfortable, on the verge of getting cooler.
‘Derrick,’ I said suddenly, ‘if you ever need anything, you let me know, okay?’
Derrick looked at me and smiled. ‘Thank you, Aidan… that means a lot to me.’
‘Don’t be afraid to ask me,’ I continued, ‘because I would hate to have to humiliate you in front of everyone. You’d have a tough time explaining how the upstart soldier with the two puny swords beat up someone who was twice his size.’
Derrick glanced at me with narrow eyes. ‘You think you can take me?’
‘Sure,’ I shrugged. ‘My first move would be to stomp on your toe… works every time.’
Derrick laughed all the way to the castle.
CHAPTER 6
When I first began my formal training, it was difficult for me to get used to the fact that I wasn’t the most popular soldier in the White Army. I would try to strike up conversations with my fellow soldiers, only to see them comment snidely and walk away. I didn’t understand why at first, until I heard some soldiers talking one day about how I was the General’s “golden boy”. After that point, it no longer mattered much to me what the rest of the soldiers thought. I knew they were talking about me behind my back, and I didn’t care.
But anyone who thought that I had it easy because Sir Garridan had taken me under their wing was clearly out of their mind — if anything, that made things a great deal harder than it probably would have been. Since Garridan had discovered me, and taken me in, he paid much more attention to what I was doing, and I was under even more pressure to perform to the best of my abilities. But that was fine with me — I was determined to thrive under any conditions, and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was worthy of Sir Garridan’s attention, as well as anyone else’s.
One day, while I was in the barracks, Derrick approached me and told me that Garridan wanted to see me. This drew a great deal of snickering and spiteful remarks from those around me — I heard
the term “bootlicker” uttered more than once.
Ignorant fools.
Letting their meaningless ramblings roll off my back, I nodded to Derrick and followed him out of the armory.
Garridan wasn’t at the castle — he was in the Industrial District of the city, having his sword tended to. Derrick and I conversed during the walk to the blacksmith, who worked in the Western Business District. Garridan was watching the dwarven blacksmith work on his sword. The shop was hot from the burning forge.
‘You wanted to see me, sir?’ I said, addressing Garridan formally.
Garridan turned his head toward me, a small smile on his lips. ‘No need to stand on ceremony, Aidan, this isn’t a formal meeting.’
‘Understood,’ I said, relaxing a little. ‘Is everything okay?’
‘Indeed,’ Garridan answered, standing stoically. ‘I just wanted to inform you that a problem has arisen in the west, in Boulton, and we’ll be sending soldiers over there.’
I looked at him expectantly. ‘I know you’re not informing all of the soldiers like this — what’s the catch?’
Garridan sighed deeply. ‘I am needed here, so I won’t be going. Sir Norvin will be in command.’
I smiled derisively. That figures.
‘I know you two don’t like each other,’ Garridan went on, ‘but on the battlefield, you do have to follow his orders.’
‘I have no problem with that,’ I answered confidently, ‘but every time he makes me clean up after his horse, I will remember it.’
Garridan shook his head. ‘The knights may be in command, but that authority is not to be used to make the soldiers their own personal handmaidens. I will have a talk with Sir Norvin.’
‘No, don’t,’ I said, putting my hand up. ‘That won’t help my relationship with the rest of the army.’
Garridan was confused. ‘What do you mean?’
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