Venture Untamed (The Venture Books)

by Russell, R. H.

  He glanced from her to the men. Able was busy putting on the wagon’s winter runners, for he had supplies to pick up in town after he dropped Venture off at Beamer’s. Justice was trying to help while keeping an eye on Venture now that Jade had shown up. Grant was offering advice and trying not to be entirely useless. Venture tossed his bag into the wagon box, next to Lightning, who was barking eagerly. Then he jogged up the front walk to Jade.

  “You weren’t going to leave without saying good-bye to me, were you?” Jade shook back a would-be tear along with her long, disheveled hair, and threw her shoulders back proudly.

  “I didn’t think you were up yet, Miss.”

  “I wasn’t. I overslept.”

  She’d overslept because she’d been up most of the night crying; that much was obvious. Her eyes pleaded with him, their centers greener than ever, surrounded by redness.

  From the open doorway, Rose called, “For pity’s sake, Jade, come back in here and shut the door, please!”

  “The men’ll call us when they’re ready to go, Miss,” Connie said, appearing behind Jade. “So we can all come out and wave.”

  Mrs. Bright nudged Connie back. “Let her be,” she whispered.

  Connie caught the meaningful look Mrs. Bright was shooting her, and shut the door, sparing Rose the draft without dragging Jade back inside with her.

  Venture wanted to say something to Jade. Something about yesterday, about who she was to him, who she’d always be, but even though the women had left them alone, the men remained just a few paces away.

  Jade fiddled with her unbrushed hair. It looked as though she’d pulled on the first dress she saw—from the way it hung crookedly on her shoulders, without even fastening it up the side—and rushed to find him before it was too late. Venture couldn’t help being pleased by this, silly as it was. And the way she tugged at herself self-consciously—so unlike her, not because it was unladylike, but because she’d always had a confident lack of interest in worrying about the way she looked—he yearned to tell her what a beautiful mess she was.

  Instead he said, “I’m glad you had the chance to see me off.”

  Jade forgot about her hair and smiled. “I wish you all the best, Vent.”

  “And you too, Miss.”

  “You’ll be back soon, I hope.”

  She hugged her arms to her and shivered, and he entertained a fleeting fantasy of putting her in his coat before he forced himself to focus and respond.

  “Summer at the earliest. Maybe later.”

  “I see. Well. We’ll all miss you, I’m sure.” Her face fell, and she looked down at her feet. Bare feet, pale and red-toed with the cold of the icy stoop.

  “I’ll miss you too,” he whispered, purposely crossing the line of appropriate behavior with the deep sentiment of his tone. He paused, tempted to call her Jadie, but then he returned to his promise. “Miss Jade,” he finished unhappily.

  “Good-bye, then.” Jade bit her lower lip, driving Venture mad with wanting to reach out for her.

  All the doubts, which he’d struggled through the night to push down, came rushing back at him at once. He was too young. He was just a bondsman. He didn’t belong at Champions for so many reasons. He loved Twin Rivers, Beamer’s, the Fieldstones, Grace, even Justice. How was he going to make it through the most grueling training he’d ever experienced with only a tenuous friendship with Lance and Nick amid all the unfamiliarity?

  Jadie, he wanted to say. Tell me you want me to stay, and I’ll stay. I can’t go off and leave you. I can’t do this. I can’t do this all alone.

  “Vent,” Jade said.

  He looked at her questioningly.

  She reached for his collar, and her nimble fingers slid around his neck, under his scarf. He almost said something, almost reminded her that Justice was watching, that her father might be, too. But she found the leather cord and drew his pendant out from under his coat.

  “God be with you,” she said, resting her hand over the pendant, against his chest, just for an instant.

  As she pulled her hand back, Venture caught it briefly in his. It was trembling. Was he only imagining that it was more than just the cold?

  “And with you,” he whispered.

  He released her hand and she clutched her dress to her and hurried inside before he had a chance to do anything more foolish, before he could see her cry.

  Justice gave him a knowing look as he returned to the wagon, then just sighed and pulled him into a last, brief embrace. Grant shook his hand and didn’t put him through any further good-byes. The wagon was ready, and down at Beamer’s a carriage was waiting for him to join the other boys on their five-day journey to Farview, home of Champions Center.

  Able yelled for Bounty to run in and get the women. Venture climbed onto the wagon seat beside Able, and Lightning scrambled up beside him. He gave her a kiss on the soft spot between her eyes, then said good-bye to her too, and tossed her out, yelping. Herald, who’d come out with the women, tried to hold her back, but she growled at him and Jade ended up having to do it. Lightning knew better than to think she was going to get a ride into town. She sensed that this was more than a trip to town for Venture, or she wouldn’t have tried to get away with coming along as they careened along the slick, winding road down the hill, headed for the snow-covered roofs and puffing chimneys of Twin Rivers.

  There was too much waving and weeping for Venture’s liking as they took off, but finally they were on the road and it was just him and Able. Just quiet. Then Able shifted in his seat, and Venture knew he was working on saying something. They were halfway down the hill when it came out.

  “They’ll be just fine here. You have to do what you’re supposed to do. And this is what you’re meant to do, Vent.”

  That was all. When they reached Beamer’s, Venture jumped out of the wagon and shrugged his shoulders up, pushing his collar higher around his neck against the cold. He shook Able’s hand and said yet another good-bye. Able gripped his hand extra tight, and then he let him go.

  Lance left the huddle of boys in front of the center and approached Venture as he shouldered his bag. “Hey,” he said.

  “Hey.” Venture gave Able a wave as he drove away. “Thanks for yesterday,” he said to Lance.

  Lance shrugged. “It wasn’t right.”

  Venture nodded. He shifted his bag. “Lance, about the tournament . . . I’m sorry.”

  Lance shook his head. “You were right. You were better that day. But it was just one day, you know?”

  There was a flash of challenge in Lance’s eye that made the corner of Venture’s mouth turn up. This was the Lance he knew. “I know. You’re a fighter.” Venture extended his hand. “Okay?”

  Lance took it. “Okay.”

  A hand clamped down on Venture’s tight woolen cap.

  “Earnest.” He mustered a smile for his trainer. “You came to see us off?”

  Earnest gave him a look that said he noticed the strain in the smile. “Come here.” He led Venture aside, away from the others. He shoved his gloved hands into his pockets and looked at Venture with dark, serious eyes. “What’s the matter?”

  He’d had no intention of expressing any of his doubts aloud, but Earnest’s tone demanded it. “I only took second. I barely took second . . .”

  “So now you don’t think you have what it takes?”

  “No, it’s just . . .”

  “Too soon?”

  Venture nodded.

  Earnest paused. Lance called to him and he waved him away. “You’re right, Vent. You’re only just getting started. I don’t know how tough those guys are going to be there. Maybe they’ll be good enough to let you know you’ve got a long way to go. But you’ll handle it. You’ll keep getting back up, because that’s what you do, Vent. It’s what you’ve always done, from the first time you stepped on that mat.” He nodded at the center behind them. “You kept getting back up, no matter what. You never gave up.”

  Venture smiled a real smile. Get up,
or give up. That would be his choice at Champions Center, just as it had been at Beamer’s.

  “I won’t give up,” he promised. “I won’t stop until I’m Champion of All Richland.”

  <<< End >>>

  A Note from the Author

  Thanks for giving Venture a try! If you enjoyed Venture Untamed, you can check out my other books in the series. Read on after the acknowledgments for a preview of the sequel, Venture Unleashed. Venture Unbroken, the third novel in the series, is coming September 15, 2012. Want to know when more books are available? Subscribe to my e-mail list. You can also visit theventurebooks.com, or facebook.com/TheVentureBooks.

  I love to hear from readers! You can e-mail me at wordwrestler@ymail.com if you like.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  The ambitions, the struggles, and the triumphs of the fighters in the Venture books are inspired by the author’s involvement with combat sports. Eighteen years on the mat with talented young fighters have given R.H. Russell not only the experience to write about fighters in an authentic way, but a heart for the fighter in all of us.

  The author also writes the Unicorns of the Mist series as R.R. Russell. Wonder Light (Sourcebooks 2013), the first of these novels for young readers, will be available in hardcover next spring.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I’m so grateful for my teammates, who’ve laughed and cried and sweated with me, inspired me, and forgiven me throughout the years.

  I’ve been surrounded by knowledgeable, generous people since the moment I first stepped on a mat. My first sensei, Eddie Stewart took me aside in his backyard dojo and told me he’d never give up on me. And my current teammates are always there to help me out. When I asked Jason Harai to help me come up with a good punishment for Beamer to put Venture through in chapter four, he came up with the perfect groundwork sequence, and Byron Redditt endured being the dummy as he demonstrated for me. P. Z. Mendiola helped me out with the peg board scene in chapter nineteen, and if he thought it was impossible, he never said so.

  A special thanks to my first readers, who all gave me invaluable feedback. In 2006, Jason Harai, Byron Redditt, Jenny Coppens, and Steven Russell all read early drafts of what became the Venture books. And my son was the first to read this particular manuscript, Venture Untamed.

  My mom instilled in me a love of books, and my practical-minded dad never told me that I should do something more sensible than writing and drawing.

  My family has loved and supported me through all the ups and downs involved in getting my books written and published, from my beautiful daughter who’s grown up crawling around on the mat and scribbling on the backs of old drafts of Venture manuscripts, to my son—who’s somehow ended up teaching me more than I’ve taught him over the years—and who helped me out with the original cover. My spouse, who’s made all of this possible in so many ways, continues to make my life a great adventure.

  I owe all of this and more to the Lord, the author of friendship and family, and the one who first used words and gave them power. He spoke the universe into existence, and he speaks to us still.

  Venture Unleashed

  CHAPTER ONE

  Winter’s Third Month, 655 After the Founding

  Venture jumped out of the carriage after the other boys from Beamer’s Center, onto a square paved in dark stone, which stretched from the road to the main building. The air was crisp and it felt so good to stand up, to really move again. Behind them, the sounds of the people of Farview coughing and calling their farewells as they hurried home at the end of the day weren’t so different from the noises he was accustomed to back home in Twin Rivers. But in front of them, Champions Center claimed several city blocks for its grounds, and the main building itself was like nothing Venture had seen outside of the capital. Three rectangular towers, five stories tall, joined a massive central section, whose three arched entrances each led to a different set of double doors.

  The boys stared at it in stunned silence, smiled anxiously, and clutched their bags tighter.

  Two men stepped out of the shadows of the central archway, into the waning winter daylight. One of them was small, probably a trainer. Venture almost dropped his bag when he saw the hulking, dark-haired figure next to him.

  Hands in his coat pockets, he approached the boys. “I’m Will Fisher,” he said. “I’m going to be your coach.”

  Will Fisher, the two-time winner of the All Richland Absolute Fighting Championship. Will Fisher, who several months ago, to all of their satisfaction, had lost his Championship title to his teammate, Dasher Starson.

  The other boys cheered out loud, their anxiousness turned to eagerness. But Venture couldn’t forget how nearly all the nation of Richland had rooted against Fisher winning the last Championship, couldn’t forget why.

  “So, you boys finally made it. How many is that now, Parker?”

  “Twenty.”

  “Twenty boys, all the best their home centers had to send. All who think they want to be champions. We’ll see who still wants to be a champion after we get started tomorrow.” He gave the smaller guy a sidelong smile. “We’ve made a lot of changes here, in order to help our new hopefuls answer that question. This is Parker. He’s going to be your trainer. He’ll show you to your room. I’ll see you in the morning, on the mat.”

  Venture joined the chorus of yes, sirs, but without the enthusiasm of the others.

  “This way,” Parker said.

  Instead of leading them under those archways, to those massive doors that seemed to hold back such promise, to claim such importance, he led them across the icy square, onto a path, through a snow-covered expanse that must have been a lawn, to a cluster of cast-off wooden buildings. Venture stopped in his tracks. His whole body tensed.

  Parker opened the door to a long wooden structure that looked as though a gentle push on the walls would make them fold in on themselves—if the heap of snow on the roof didn’t send it crashing in first. Venture would’ve gladly moved into his master Grant Fieldstone’s chicken coop before this oversized shack.

  “Welcome home.” Parker’s thin face turned up in a twisted smile. “You’ll be rooming with five guys from Frost’s Center—and me, of course.”

  It was only a test. It had to be. Lance stood there next to him, stunned. No one spoke. Venture gave Lance a reassuring slap on the back and moved past him to follow Parker into the building. He’d worked hard against all the opposition stacked against him—the first bondsman to compete in the Youth Championship of the Western Quarter, let alone place high enough to be admitted to this fighting center. If it was a test, he wasn’t going to fail.

  The next morning Venture woke up in his shallow bunk, to a shrill whistle and Parker smirking at them in the predawn darkness.

  “Let’s go!” Parker smacked his palm against the rickety wall. “No sweat, no breakfast.”

  “What?” Nick said groggily.

  Lance shoved Nick, his and Venture’s longtime teammate from Beamer’s Center, in the side.

  Venture pulled off his night shirt and took his work-out clothes out from under his pillow, where he’d tucked them the night before. “We’ve got a workout before breakfast,” he whispered. “Just be quiet and let’s get it done.”

  “I’m not just going to get it done,” Lance said. “I’m going to show them what I can do.”

  He was right. They’d been looking forward to this for so long. Venture got dressed and stuffed his feet into his boots, then grabbed his coat and hat as Parker banged on the wall again and cursed at them.

  A flimsy breezeway connected the back of the dormitory to a small training room, in no better condition than their sleeping quarters. The floor was ice cold, and there was no fire, and no hope of one, for there was no hearth either. The boys pretended not to notice the rips in the worn-out canvas or the damp, moldy patches on the mats.

  “Grab a partner for warm-ups! Hurry up!” Parker said. There was no sign of Will Fisher so far.

  “Lance?” Venture said.<
br />
  Lance shrugged and gestured for Venture to bend down so he could start the drill, jumping over him, then diving under him. They were the first pair done, and so they started the next drill, carrying each other across the mat, back and forth, back and forth. Venture was glad to move quickly, just to be warm again, but Parker and the other trainers kept up a steady stream of complaints the whole time.

  “You guys think you’re fighters? This has to be the most worthless bunch of sissies we’ve ever seen. Why don’t you just leave now? Just go home. You don’t belong here.”

  Venture tuned out the trainers and focused on getting done, just getting done so he could eat. They were finishing up two hundred squats when Fisher showed up. Sunlight was pouring through the cracks in the walls, streaming in through the narrow, high windows. He must’ve come to wrap things up, maybe to give them a pep talk or a talking-to before they went to breakfast.

  Instead he ordered them down for push-ups. Fine. They’d do their push-ups and then they’d eat. Venture made sure his were perfect, made sure he kept up with Parker’s count.

  As Venture did his push-ups, Fisher’s hairy feet approached. They stopped right next to him, right in front of Lance.

  “What,” Fisher said, “do you think you’re doing?”

  Venture glanced up, but Fisher was looking right at Lance. He looked back down and kept going.

  “Push-ups, sir,” Lance said.

  “That’s a push-up,” Fisher pointed at Venture. Fisher blew the whistle and everybody stopped. Though most of the boys stayed in the up position, a few collapsed. Parker kicked one of them, a boy from Frost’s, hard, and Venture jolted.

  Fisher nudged Venture roughly with his foot. Venture flinched, then quickly made his face unreadable.

  “Do it again.”

  Venture pushed up, then down.

  “Like that!” Fisher said to everyone. “Again.”

  Venture pushed out another one, while all their eyes burned into him.