by Wayne Meyers
He lowered his head. “Yes. My hopes were to watch over you here as you grow from child to man, keeping your assignments benign and your life safe. I owe that much to Bertrand.”
My eyes opened. “You owe my father? Why?”
Journeyman Krellus’ head snapped up and he spoke softer than usual. “He was retired, but I asked for his help anyway, relying on his skills and training despite his wish to put the peacekeepers behind him. I leveraged the friendship we’d shared during our apprentice days. We were roommates and as close as you and Spaldeer have become, only for years longer. In doing so, he lost his life and you lost a father. I can’t allow anything to happen to you as well.”
I could not believe what I had just heard. The blood pounded in my head like a hammer, and I had to put my arm out to avoid losing balance. I think my chin nearly hit the floor. My father had been peacekeeper before me! He must have trained here as well. “My mother never—”
“Your mother never knew, lad. She never knew. They met after he moved as far from Solace as he could get and became a farmer. Bertrand retired young, shortly after he was inducted as a protector and found his new world not quite what he had believed it should be. The shock was too much for him. It contradicted the core reasons he’d become a peacekeeper, much like it would do to Courtwright.” Journeyman Krellus heaved a heavy sigh. “Bertrand never should have become a protector but his fighting skills were exceptionally good, so High-Master Chendor decided to risk it.”
I sat down on the dusty floor, my feet dangling into the pit. This was a heavy meal to digest and I found myself unable to speak. Journeyman Krellus sat down next to me, placed a comforting arm about my shoulder, and waited.
I turned to him after a time. “Why have you told me all of this? Aren’t you afraid I’ll follow in my father’s footsteps?”
His smile was kind, although tired. “The masters would flay me, but I believe it’s better if you know what you’re heading for before you get there. I don’t think you will leave over this. You may be your father’s son in many ways, but in spirit you fancy your mother. Either way, I owe it to your father to let you decide for yourself.”
Shaking my head, I realized he was right. I recognized the need to sometimes work around the confines of basic law and order. The world was composed of many shades of gray, not black and white. To enforce the Scriptures there might be times you had to step around or over its contents. “What will the masters do if they realize you’ve told me all this?”
Journeyman Krellus clapped me on the shoulder as he rose to his feet. “I think the Circle would be too kind. If you leave the guild now upon learning this revelation, I fear parts of me will end up on many different streets in Solace. But knowing what you now know will help you understand why I intend to drive you as hard as I am and will continue to do so. Why I will teach you everything I’ve learned as fast as your perceptive brain can absorb it. Why I risk my standing here, if not my life.”
It was inevitable that I ask for I still do not fully comprehend. “Why?”
His voice sobered, and he assumed his usual cross-armed stance used while he watched me train. “To keep you alive. Your father, Bertrand, was a prodigy, Hofen. He mastered every technique with meticulous perfection just like you. Even though he eventually left, the skills he acquired while with us were far beyond a peacekeeper of his years. This is one of the reasons the masters decided to challenge you and accelerate your training, to see if you had inherited his fighting prowess. It is why the High-Master even entertained the notion of bringing you here before your tenth birthday when I begged him to consider it. He knew it would create a bureaucratic mess that would have to be dealt with at the highest levels. Bertrand may have left his guild-family, but we never left him.”
My father! Despite the mess of conflicting emotions now churning inside me, it was pride that rose to the top. If he had mastered these skills, then so would I. Even if he was no longer alive, I meant him to be proud of me. It made no rational sense but there was no use doing anything else.
Journeyman Krellus paused to take a deep breath, his forehead furrowed. “But still, even with his advanced skills Bertrand was slain. It wasn’t enough. He wasn’t ready to face Abrigus. I can’t let that happen to his son, too. If you are to become a protector, then you too will eventually face Abrigus and his warmakers.”
“I will kill Abrigus,” I said.
He chuckled coldly as he stared at me with a calculating expression, as though weighing my measure with his eyes. “Perhaps you will, then. But not if I kill him first.”
Chapter Sixteen—Reconciled
Alight rain drizzled across my back while I sat on the courtyard dirt with legs spread open, my elbows touching the ground. Only frequent stretching carried me through another day of jumping. Journeyman Courtwright was kind to grant me frequent breaks as my legs felt like sticks of jelly.
Besides the breathing exercises I had learned, Journeyman Krellus gave me special salves to rub into my legs and feet at night so I could sleep. The cramping and pain of my tortured muscles made standing unbearable no matter how long I stretched my aching legs. Yet, I continued my regular lessons during the day, sweat puddling about my body as I struggled to maintain basic stances and perform simple exercises.
After six weeks of jumping I had hoped mastering this technique would become easier, but if anything, it had become more difficult still. Pit three was shoulder height, and pit four over my head.
When I could jump from pit four and land on my feet, Journeyman Krellus moved me to pit five. Although much narrower, it was back to knee height and I almost burst out cheering with glee until I noticed the two metal rings bolted to the floor. Attached to each ring was a long, rubbery band, and at the other end of each band were manacles. My grin transformed into a grimace, and I had looked up at him beseechingly.
His voice was firm. “Yes, put them on each ankle, and jump until I say stop.”
I did as he instructed, cursing him under my breath.
That had been the day before and my legs were suffering the abuse this morning worse than usual. My usual stretching routine barely countered the tightness and pain. Journeyman Courtwright scrutinized me with his lips pressed tightly together.
“Take a ten-minute break from sparring, class,” he called out. “Free time. Do as you like.”
There was a cheer from the apprentices, and they drifted apart into knots of chattering white robes while I sat there and suffered alone.
“Does it hurt much?”
It was Babette’s voice, but I had to see her face before I dared believe she had talked to me. I squinted upward, shading my eyes from the bright morning sun to drink in her face. “Babette.” It was all I could think to say. There was too much anger, resentment, and yes, jubilation, to trust myself to say anything more.
She knelt next to me. “They’ve been working you so hard.”
It was impossible not to be sulky. “Like you care.”
Her face contorted with pain before she smoothed her expression back into something neutral, but moisture leaked from her eyes. Her voice lowered. “This has not been easy for me either. What else could I do?”
My face scowled even as my heart melted. Spaldeer had counseled me that Babette would need to handle her feelings for me in her own way, so perhaps I was being unfair. “I don’t know.”
“Can we be friends again? Are we past making any silly mistakes?”
There was a brief pause as I ran my jumbled, convoluted thoughts through my head. If I told her how I truly felt and that we’d make this work despite the guild rules, she’d ask me “how” and my tongue would go still. What answer could I provide?
My mind knew how difficult it would be to keep any romantic relationship a secret from the guild, yet my heart ached for her so much it was more difficult to deny the chance. If she did agree and we tried and were discovered, bad things would happen. We might be ejected from the guild. We might be punished and separated. Both of us w
ould be disgraced and my chances at special advanced training would definitely end. There was even the possibility of the Circle for so blatantly defying High-Master Chendor’s strict rules regarding Babette.
“I have things under control,” was all I said, with great effort taken to contain the intense passion my conflicted thoughts provoked. It wouldn’t do to scare her off now that she was willing to become friends again.
Somehow, though, I had to convince her we could make this work. Before I could push this on her, the “how” had to be laid out carefully enough to persuade her to try. If I bided my time, another moment would come, strong enough to convince Babette we were worth taking the risk. In the meantime, I’d come up with some kind of plan to appeal to her more practical nature.
She sat on the floor with one leg extended, effortlessly touching her cheek to knee while her smile blazed at me. “Good, because I’ve missed you. None of the others are quite like you, and I see that now even clearer than before.”
“Hey! You two are friends again?” Spaldeer sat down across from us, grinning from ear to ear.
“We never stopped being friends,” Babette replied in her matter-of-fact tone. “We were just on a break.”
Spaldeer snorted. “Well, I’m glad break time is over, because he’s been miserable to live with.”
Babette’s mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. “Miserable? Him? Impossible!”
And just like that, things went back to normal. Or, perhaps better to say things were back to the way they had been before, which were far from normal.
Somewhere within my heart I promised myself that I would have both the guild and Babette. Somehow, some way, it would happen. For now, however, this was enough. It was still a mystery to me what “more” actually meant though. The memory of her lips against mine filled me with the strangest and sweetest conflict of peace and longing. If only I could talk to Journeyman Krellus about it, but if I did, he’d simply fulfill his vow to separate us and that would be the end of my dilemma.
Later that day, however, I wanted to strangle him.
Back in pit five, the manacles tightened about my ankles and the rubbery band stretched taut as I leaped up before pulling me back.
“Again.”
I launched myself up again as hard as I could, feeling the bands tighten just as my feet cleared the edge of the pit. Bracing myself on level ground, I was able to remain standing against the pull of the bands. I shot Journeyman Krellus a triumphant look.
“Continue.”
Scowling, I let the bands yank me back into the pit before launching myself up again. The tension in the bands pulled hard against my momentum, jerking me backward before I reached the top. Concentrating harder, I pushed off with more strength and made it. Back in, up and out. Again. Again. Again. My mind tuned out everything but the sensation of the bands clawing me backward against my resolve to move away from them.
After a time, a strange shift in energy radiated from my lower midsection and I found by focusing my will into this unexpected reserve it presented me with newfound strength. My body rocketed from the pit with renewed vigor and greater ease. It was a strange sensation that is difficult to explain. I became both energized and exhilarated.
My sudden improvement was not lost upon Journeyman Krellus. “Excellent! You’ve unlocked your chi. Now be sure to focus upon it with every jump.”
“My…chi?”
He waved a hand. “You’ll learn more about chi when you’re further along. Suffice to say, everyone possesses an internal energy source that is normally unused and scattered throughout the body. Always present.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Think of your legs. If you didn’t learn to walk, your legs would still be attached to your hips, but you would crawl everywhere. You learn to walk through practice and determination. Then you learn to run. You could live your entire life walking and never run. What do you say to that, boy?”
I laughed even as I continue to jump in and out of the pit, enjoying this newfound excitement. “I say I’d be late for dinner a lot.”
Journeyman Krellus laughed with me. “Indeed. Well, chi is no different, save most people never know it’s there. Peacekeepers know and develop our chi to its fullest strength to help us achieve many of the techniques we master. We have advanced beyond crawling, walking, and running.”
“Incredible,” I said, impressed by this new knowledge.
His voice turned serious. “You can reflect further upon the wonders of chi while you jump into pit six.”
“Six, Sir?”
“Yes, and move along quickly. I haven’t all day to coddle you.”
I undid the manacles from my ankles and decided to show off. Let him see how close I was to mastering this buoyancy technique. I jumped from pit five and over the short length of floor directly into pit six, which again was waist high, and with the same rubbery bands fixed to the floor as in the previous pit.
My antics failed to impress him. “Stop horsing around. You’ll be jumping from pit to pit soon enough.”
Chapter Seventeen—A Troubling Conversation
Over the next few months I did jump between pits, even from the deepest. First, I jumped with the bands attached to my ankles and floor, and later with free weights, until my legs were tough as iron bars. Journeyman Krellus added weights to my wrists, so I jumped with those too. Over time my body strengthened, and I found myself able to maintain my stances in basic classes again.
It was difficult not to jump over my classmates’ heads when sparring, but I’d been warned to prevent such antics at all costs so practiced limiting the height of my jumps, similar to how one would hop over a puddle instead of leaping over a stream. It was important that no one else become aware of how advanced my training had become, though the other apprentices were told I’d been singled out for a trial accelerated program. They only expected me to complete my training sooner, not master journeymen techniques. Even the journeymen would not like that. Whenever someone asked me about what I was studying when away from regular classes, my response tended to be vague and ambiguous.
To my great disappointment that strange sensation Journeyman Krellus called chi did not return, which he said was perfectly normal as I was still quite young. It would come when it was ready in response to the specialized training they put us through.
High-Master Chendor was present when Journeyman Krellus allowed me to practice as I pleased without weights or bands. By applying my powerful leg muscles, I easily bounded from one pit into another. I even managed to throw in a mid-air somersault or two, something we were learning in regular classes over thick matting. The two activities seemed made for each other. By redirecting my upward motion forward into a spinning maneuver, I covered quite a distance.
The High-Master said nothing to me before he turned and left, but Journeyman Krellus was smiling. “Well done, boy, well done. The High-Master is pleased with your progress.”
Still panting from the exertions, it took me a moment to reply. “He didn’t say anything, though.”
“No, he did not, which is a good thing.”
This perplexed me. “Why is that?”
Journeyman Krellus wrapped a hand about my shoulders and squeezed. “Because the High-Master seldom distributes praise but speaks out against fault to help you learn. If he could find no fault, he would say nothing. That is the greatest compliment he may concede.”
“Ah,” I said, smiling. “Then that is good, indeed.”
He turned to face me gripping my shoulders in either hand. “He told me while watching you that you are to be allowed a day in Solace tomorrow.”
“What!” My face lit up with joy. The masters had stopped all apprentice city visits after Babette had been taken. Many apprentices were put off having bits of coinage from doing odd-jobs for some of the masters and journeymen and nowhere to spend it.
Journeyman Krellus chuckled. “Some older apprentices were granted leave to visit the city. You may go as well a
nd select two classmates to accompany you.”
I bowed, sweat dripping from my forehead and down the middle of my back beneath my shirt. “Thank you, sir.”
Journeyman Krellus held up a hand. “No need to thank me. If it wasn’t your birthday tomorrow, I’d keep you here and wring some more training out of you. But you’ve earned this excursion all on your own through hard work and dedication. I could not be prouder.”
His compliment warmed my heart as I realized the date. My birthday was indeed almost here, and I was to become fifteen. Of course, I would take Spaldeer with me and now that Babette had returned to her senses, she would come too.
“Finally, justification for the time and patience I’ve invested in our friendship,” Spaldeer said when I told him the good news.
Babette laughed. “Looks like we made up just in time, dear, does it not?”
I chose not to respond, too happy to mind the teasing my friends delivered. We had an entire day to ourselves to roam the streets of Solace. Best of all, for the first time in months I would not have to practice jumping from the pits.
The peacekeeper gates swung shut behind us as we munched on sweetbread for breakfast. The late spring sun cast long shadows across the streets between the buildings as it rose over the Great Wall to our east. Although it was early, the streets were filling up with bustling shopkeepers and guild people of all ranks and varieties, the sidewalks blossoming in a rainbow of colors from their guild-colored robes. The tan robes of the hospitality guild, the light-yellow of the tailors, the dark green of the carpenters—and many more. You could tell who the apprentices were because their robes were a shade lighter than their journeymen, and the bodies were usually smaller. Only peacekeepers had bright crimson-red journeymen, white apprentice robes, and black master robes. If a peacekeeper’s help was needed the red-robed journeymen would stand out in a crowd, and a citizen would not confuse them with a white-robed apprentice.
There were even tourists from other cities, their robes contrasting from those of Solace by means of differently patterned brocades and trim around the edges of the sleeves, hem, and hoods.