“See you, Jennings,” James said, turning to head back home. He was pissed. What right did Jennings have calling him out like that? Was he saying that if he was in the same situation, he would just go through with it like a mindless idiot? As much as James’ pride was wounded though, he couldn’t deny that Jennings was right.
He would have to make his escape.
But he didn’t think running made him a coward. He just saw nothing positive about going through the Academy’s program. Even if he tried his best and ascended through the ranks, it would only bring him a quicker death as his graduation would send him straight to the battlefield. The only ones who never had to worry about anything were the King and Queen. All they had to do was survive their own birth. What else did they ever have to work for?
James made it home quickly, ready to go to bed early and face the next day as it arrived. But unfortunately, his father was already waiting, in the same position he had left him in—cooking on the stove. Probably ready to “share his wisdom” with his son.
Sure, James had his own beliefs and opinions, but he decided there was no point in relaying them to others. They’d either laugh and think that he was joking, or that he was really dumb. And it did sound ridiculous when it was said out loud.
Laziness as a way of life?
It made no sense to the logical mind. But James figured that it was better to stay still and wait for conflict to come to him than to go looking for it. People were too quick to act on impulse, to get themselves into messes they could’ve easily avoided. If only I had had the foresight to avoid this one, he thought.
“Hello,” James’ father said, with no hint of ulterior motive in his voice. James wasn’t fooled.
“Hey, dad,” he said flatly, taking a seat next to him as his father began eating a couple of fried eggs.
“Long day?” his father asked through bites.
“You know it…Jennings and the gang—we all had lunch in the meadow.”
“That’s good. Last moments together, huh?”
“More like last memories.”
“You’ll see them again someday.”
“Says who?” he raised his voice, wavering on the brink of disrespect.
“There’s no reason you can’t. When vacation break comes next summer, you can visit.”
“Nobody comes back over summer vacation, Dad. No one’s lived that long.”
“Just because no one comes back home doesn’t mean they all die. Maybe they go to the Academy and find something worth staying for. A sense of purpose.”
“Yeah, right,” James snapped. His dad gave him a glare.
“You believe what people say too much,” he said casually, keeping his gaze steady. “And you’re too lazy to see if it’s true. You fail to understand that anything worth knowing requires hard work. Not half stepping. I’m talking blood-coming-from-your-hands, sweat-blurring-your-vision kind of work.”
“Dad, Leidy cried today because I told them I’m leaving. She never cries. Never.”
“Crying when someone’s leaving is only natural.”
“Dad, but my friends—”
“—are overrated.”
“What?” James yelled back at him. He got up from the table and looked at his father angrily. His father barely moved.
“Friends come and go. When you go to the next grade in school. When you move. When you have a change in interests. There’s nothing wrong with friends. But you place too much value in them. When you leave, their lives will go on and slowly but surely, you will take up less and less of their thoughts. Someday you’ll understand, James. You have to be a man of principle, and live for yourself first. Get your act together. Then you can enjoy the pleasures of this life.”
“Just because you lost all your friends, that doesn’t mean I will.”
“I know…but like I said. Lives go on. Even if you’re still committed to them, they may grow well accustomed to life without you.”
“There’s no point in talking about this right now. We’ll see when the time comes.”
“Fine, but there is one more thing I wanted to talk to you about.”
“What is it?” James sighed through his restrained emotions.
“I know you’re not happy about this whole Academy thing, but I really do think it’s in your best interests to give it a shot. Don’t run away from this. This is an opportunity to make something of yourself.”
“Who says I want to be a soldier?”
“No one. But you may find the discipline and resolve necessary to carry you into what you actually want in life. You can be whatever you want to be, James. But you need to grow up.”
“That’s a lie all parents say, but it doesn’t line up with the conditions around us. It’s not reality.”
“It’s true.”
“What if I wanted to fly? That’s impossible.”
“Not necessarily. You might have to study the physics. Maybe understand how birds fly in the first place. After all, a lot of our inventions and infrastructures are based off of ideas that were taken from examining nature.”
“What if I wanted to be king?”
“Might have to become devoted to that goal completely. Pursue and devote your very life to a princess or queen. Show you’re the best man for the job and that you’re not in it for the wrong reasons.”
“What about the Maker?”
“…James.”
“What? I can be anything, right?”
“You might be able to convince some that you’re him,” his father sighed. “People tend to be gullible. But don’t be surprised if the consequences of such an act aren’t what you intended.”
“One more question then. If I can be anything…why are you nothing?”
His father laughed heartily. Not at all what James was expecting. But before he could recover from the surprise, his father leapt out of his chair and lunged at him. In a second, James was backed up against the wall. The force of the slam caused several spices and pots from the counter to fall to their feet as his father made him suddenly realize that under his grip, he was still just a child.
“A sniveling, pompous little brat to the end,” he breathed heavily in his son’s face. James didn’t dare move. “You drone on and on about what you believe in but at the first sign of trouble I know you’ll run. Just like your mother. You stand there and say I’m nothing, but then what does that make you? So what if your father’s not what you want him to be? So what if your momma ran out on you? So what? You’re the problem. Just you. At the end of the day, we choose what we are, and what you are is a coward.”
James gulped down his fear and balled up a fist. His father looked down at it and then back up and into his son’s eyes, chuckling from within and giving him a smirk of superiority.
“Am I making you mad? Am I finally getting a rise out of you? Or are you too lazy to take action?”
He chuckled and let his son loose from his grip. Brushing himself off, James continued to stare at his father in disdain as the man marched away, still confident, and silently reveling in the fact that he was still the alpha male. James sneered and spat out the words he had been holding back for years. It was the only attack that could hit its mark with deadly, painful accuracy.
“She left because of you!”
His father stopped in his tracks, sighed heavily and turned his head, his lips barely visible as he spoke.
“Get out of my house…tonight. You have ten minutes to gather your things.”
“Where am I supposed to go?” James asked in shock.
“The Academy. You wanted to get there early, didn’t you?”
“I need more than ten minutes.”
“Any longer and your stuff goes in the burn barrel.”
And without another word, he stormed out of the house, giving his son the space to gather his belongings. James huffed as soon as the door closed, feeling like flipping the kitchen table over. So that’s going to be the good-bye of my old man, he thought. One last kick to the groin
.
“Fine,” he muttered to himself and headed upstairs to his bedroom for the last time. He was barely aware of what he was doing, just throwing a bunch of clothes into a satchel, too angry to think straight.
He finally stomped downstairs with his satchel over his shoulder, deciding to raid the ice box one last time, grabbing everything he could carry and making sure to break his dad’s precious eggs on the way out. He barely looked back when he headed out the door.
Thankfully it was still warm outside so he wouldn’t have to fight the climate, but where was he going to go on such short notice? Jennings’s parents were clinically insane and would probably end up giving him a beat down just for interrupting their beauty rest. Korey’s parents were no better and Leidy would hurt him personally, especially since she had to wake up early in the morning to open the store. She might forgive him this once and let him stay the night since he was on his way out, but he really didn’t want to bother her. Once more, his father’s words had gotten through to him…as they always did. Suddenly, he felt utterly alone.
There were no benches or conveniently flat boulders to lie on so James knew that he would have to settle for the ground, ladled with hay, mud, and hungry critters on the hunt…which also meant he wasn’t going to get any sleep that night. Best to just stay up.
But what was he going to do so late at night? What was his plan anyway? He had never actually thought about where he was going to go instead of the Academy. He had heard there were other Kingdoms but he had no clue of which direction they were in, and the people in the village were so scared of going outside the borders that he figured there had to be something dangerous.
Wouldn’t that be ironic? he thought. Abandon the Academy because I would get killed there, only to be killed because I didn’t go.
James sighed and started walking toward the carriage hut. Wherever he was eventually headed, it was best to start there. It was only a five minute walk, and it was well past dark so no one was up in the village to catch his movements.
No one to watch my leaving, he said to himself. No one to weep over my departure.
When he arrived at the hut, the driver was sleeping, snoring and nearly toppling over onto his horses. It must have been a light doze, however, for when James came near, he turned to him as if they had already exchanged pleasantries.
“Where to, young one?” he asked, steadying the reins in his hand. One horse neighed as if to wake the other.
“I’m not sure,” James said. “But I want to go somewhere far. Are there any Kingdoms you can take me to?”
“Now why would you want to go do a thing like that? Those other Kingdoms will kill you on sight, just for being part of Allay.”
“Why’s that?”
“I don’t know. The boss says I have to tell anyone that asks. Never been too far outside the walls myself.”
“Okay…so where can I go? What’s the farthest you’ll take me?”
“Edge of the forest. You’d be on your own from there though. It’s pretty dangerous. I hear there’s poisonous snakes by the thousands.”
“Okay,” James shrugged. Supposedly, no place was safe. “I’ll go there.”
“That will be hundred shell.”
“A HUNDRED SHELL?” he yelled. The driver twisted a finger in his right ear.
“That’s right. Times are tough. Nobody travels outside the village anymore.”
“That’s most people’s annual salary!”
“Well, I can drop it to eighty shell if that helps.”
“I barely have five.”
“Wow. Geez. Sorry, son. You’re out of luck then.”
“Where can I go for that price?”
“The Academy. It’s not that far from where we sit.”
“The Academy? Seriously?”
“It’s actually a free ride if that interests you. All those who sign up for the place aren’t charged. Got to be some perks to throwing your life away, right?…but, if you want to hand me the five shell anyways, you know, I do have a wife and child to feed.”
James sighed and closed his eyes, weighing his options. He could always walk to wherever this forest was…but, he honestly had no idea what lay in store. The driver did say it was dangerous…so maybe, just maybe, the Academy was best…for now. It would have a bed and some food waiting for him if he went, and that didn’t sound so bad. Perhaps he could stay for a month or so and then try his hand at the forest. No one said he had to stay at the Academy against his will. And in the meantime, he could find out more about which direction the other Kingdoms were in.
But was this really the right answer?
“To the Academy it is,” he found himself saying. The driver nodded and motioned for him to get into the stagecoach.
“I hear there’s a storm coming in, so I hope you don’t mind if I take it slow. Should be there in no more than a few hours.”
“Thank you,” he sighed and then he climbed into the back of the wooden structure.
For the first time in his adolescence, there was no flood of thoughts rushing into James’ mind once he laid his head down.
But it might have been because he had no pillow.
James moped over the previous day’s events as he stepped lazily off the carriage. The horses whinnied towards him, as if they were annoyed with his hesitation, and he suddenly understood why. The climate itself had transformed completely over the course of their journey. Warmth had completely succumbed to violently strong and cold winds, howling like banshees all around them—cutting through his clothes like they were made of string and shrieking in his ears like raging ghosts.
The horses whinnied again. The longer he stayed in the wagon, the longer they would have to endure the skin-piercing winds, mysteriously cutting through their thick hides. At least when they were moving, they found some solace. James rolled his eyes at them and half-stepped, half-jumped onto the wet slush below.
Wait. Snow? When did that happen?
“How long was I asleep?” he asked the driver. It was still dark so it couldn’t have been too long of a ride.
“Just a couple of hours. I know things look strange, but the weather’s different over here.”
“I see,” he said. James handed him the five shell. It was the least he could do.
James clutched the collar of his coat and tried blowing a ring of vapor from his mouth as the driver nodded in his direction. With barely a wave, the driver snapped the reins and wasted no time in heading back to the village. James didn’t blame him. Being in the presence of the Academy itself had to make anyone uncomfortable, and he was doing his absolute best to not think about its intimidating presence.
He blew another ring of vapor, still in awe over how cold it had gotten. Then he decided to blow another, and for a moment, he mused over what the record for blowing vapor rings was when he suddenly shook his head to get rid of the thought. He couldn’t afford to be distracted, not at a place like this. He had to learn how to focus and stop playing so much.
He looked around, realizing for the first time how still the atmosphere was. There was no welcoming party. No one to greet his arrival. Not even a doorman. Just the eerie feeling that he was being watched. The wind died down as he glanced up at the colossal steel door towering over him.
He grabbed his satchel and adjusted it over his shoulder until he was comfortable, his thoughts already trailing off. He tried to decide whether to enter the Academy doors looking scared or like he was a force to be reckoned with. After all, first impressions were everything.
He could probably get some sympathy by looking like the scared new kid, but then again, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t be made fun of, so that option was out.
Bad boy it is, he decided.
He lowered his eyes to appear bored and tensed his jaw as if he were constantly angry. Swinging his satchel over his other shoulder, he tilted his head slightly to the left. Pushing the rusted steel door entrance door to the side, he stepped through, trying not to snicker at the tho
ught of what he must look like.
I’ll just need a chump to be my lackey and I’m good to go, he thought as he surveyed the empty courtyard beyond the doors, flat and barren with only the slush providing contours in the landscape.
Enormous pillars made of white stone extended down to the main Academy building in two parallel straight lines, lanterns hanging from each one, barely lit. Though the yard had no roof over it, it was somehow darker than when he had been outside its doors, creating an effect that screamed out it was haunted.
Suddenly he was thankful no one was there to greet him. They might catch the fear creeping onto his face.
At least he thought that no one was there.
He didn’t see the open palm swinging toward his mouth.
As it struck, he cried out in shock, swinging his satchel in retaliation at the attacker, but missing horribly. He heard the culprit snicker from the shadows as he grabbed James’ satchel with little effort. James stood there dumbstruck, and watched as the mysterious attacker used his own possessions against him, swiping his legs from underneath him and forcing him into the wet slush below. The attacker chuckled from underneath his coat as he stepped further into the light.
“You would have gotten more of a welcome acting like the new kid.”
The stranger was tall and skinny, but not lanky. Jet black hair flowed down from the crown of his head like it had life of its own, with a thick layer of hair covering his left eye as if he was trying to hide something in the retina. The eye that did reveal itself was piercing, intense, and full of life, but not of excitement. It was searching for something, with an intensity that advised caution to anyone who stepped in his path. And James had no doubt that this stranger sought to match his wardrobe with the darkness in his stare. A long, black coat draped his body, finely pressed and only accentuating his cold demeanor. With the dark fabrics clothing him, the stranger’s right eye was only further intensified as it was the first thing anyone saw beyond the black void.
“Who are you?” James demanded cautiously. This was not his father. He couldn’t just say anything that popped into his mind.
The Complete Seven Sorcerers Trilogy Page 55