Honourbound: A Progression Fantasy (Surgecaller Book 3)

by Todd Herzman

  The captain raised her chin. ‘Then perhaps we should make a stop before leaving the continent. We have no eye witnesses to this battle—having your and your friends’ accounts of the enemy… it would greatly help the King of Ganadon.’

  ‘You’ll take us?’

  The captain smiled. ‘You may only be a Knight, but you’ve survived much.’ Her gaze lowered to his binding once more. ‘And to have a binding like that? There’s more to you—and I imagine, more to your friends—than meets the eye. Come, let’s find your friends. You can tell me the story of your binding once we set sail for Ganadon’s capital, Horlana.’

  Huon nodded. He was supposed to meet Liona and Gale back at the docks in an hour, though to be honest, he hadn’t been keeping track of the sun’s passing. He hoped they hadn’t been waiting long.

  We’re doing it, he thought. We’re leaving the continent.

  More than that—this woman, this Legend, was going to train them. She seemed far more powerful than the other Legend they’d encountered that day. Like Master Inan, she was a Legend of the Third Order. Of course, Huon still didn’t understand what that meant, but he’d felt her strength.

  The last time he’d received instruction from a Legend, it had brought him to the rank of Knight in a month—how long would it take him to reach Champion?

  I’ve already gained so much with this soul binding, how much more would I gain were I to advance? Though he knew the journey to Champion must be a far longer one than to Knight.

  He followed the Legend back through the port town’s streets to the docks. As they walked through the press of people, surgecallers parted at the sight of the captain. Those thugs knew her name—and it had brought them fear. Huon wondered what this woman’s story was—who the Sea Guard were. He knew so little of this place, and Gale hadn’t been able to fill in many details. While nephew to the queen, his studies didn’t extend as far as learning about foreign military.

  Liona and Gale were sitting on a bench close to where Huon had left them. When they saw him with the captain, they shot up from the seat.

  ‘Huon?’ Liona glanced at the captain. ‘Did you find what you were… looking for?’

  That’s right, he thought. He’d been trying to contact the Celestial—trying and failing. ‘I found us passage.’ He smiled—he couldn’t help himself. This felt like it had when they’d decided to leave the Shurin mountains and venture out of the realm. Only more. He’d regretted that decision… but it had led him here. Besides, how long would they have lasted atop the Shurin mountains? The Honourbound army camped just beneath it only a few months after they’d left. They might have found us—sensed us somehow up there. The sense of adventure gripped him—and the knowledge that they were to be taught by a Legend? We have our freedom, and more than that, we have a path.

  Things were finally looking up.

  Chapter 26

  Being on a ship was an altogether strange sensation, like standing your ground when an earth surger was doing everything they could to make you lose your footing. Huon kept surging speed and strength to try and keep as steady as possible upon the deck.

  The ship had set sail soon after the three Knights had come aboard. Captain Avery hadn’t wanted their gold, so instead of giving it to her, they’d had a chance to get some supplies at the marketplace.

  Captain Avery told them not to worry about armour—she had an armoury on the ship. But there was more to spend money on than mere armour, especially in a marketplace like this.

  It would be foolish to spend all the gold in Gale’s possession—they had no idea if they would need it in the future, or even if they would be able to get more once they ran out. Being oathless in the wilds, then oathbound, thrown in arena… Huon had never had to think about money.

  They went back to the stall that sold cores. Liona, on their travels to Ganadon, had gained two unique surges of her own. Acute sight and barrage. Acute sight was self-explanatory—it worked much the same way as Huon’s hearing surge. Barrage, on the other hand, was rather amazing. It gave the surgecaller a quick burst of speed—one that lasted perhaps only two seconds, though Huon imagined that time would only grow as she became more proficient in it, and as she advanced.

  It seemed to almost double Liona’s speed. Which didn’t sound like much if it were just her natural speed it was doubling—but she could couple it with a speed surge. It only worked once, much like Huon’s sharpness surge only worked once, but Huon remembered what using Immortal-level speed was like—it didn’t take much to turn the tide in a fight. She’d already used it to overpower him during their sparring matches.

  Gale, to Huon’s surprise, only had one unique surge, and he hadn’t wanted to gain any more as they’d hunted beasts on their way to Ganadon. His instructors back in Landor had advised him to hold off from gaining more unique surges until he’d mastered the elemental and physical ones he already had—at least, mastered them enough for his level of advancement. It reminded Huon of the path the Immortals seemed to have taken, to specialising in one surge over many.

  Gale, despite his age, was still more powerful than Liona and Huon. He’d been a Knight for at least a year longer than them, and had been receiving personal instruction from Legends since he was born.

  Even so, he hadn’t been able to display the same level of versatility in his surges as Huon had—all his surges were stronger, but he couldn’t juggle them in the same way.

  As they were rationing gold, they decided to only purchase one unique surge each. There hadn’t been time to ponder it, as the captain had informed them the ship would be sailing in minutes, so Huon chose a surge that dealt with his senses. He still wanted to be able to enhance each one.

  The core trader only had one sense at Knight-level available—touch. Huon had been dubious about choosing that one, especially when there were so many others to choose from, but he picked it up anyway.

  Liona had chosen a sharpness surge, as she’d seen what it was capable of in Huon’s hand.

  Gale had been hesitant. All his training had been against gaining too many unique surges too quickly, but there had been excitement behind that hesitation—the first excitement Huon had seen in the boy Knight. He ended up choosing a unique surge called shock, which apparently worked something like lightning. The merchant said it could stun an enemy, as long as you were able to lay a hand on them.

  On the deck of the captain’s ship—dubbed the Strong Wind—Huon sat by the prow. His stomach felt somewhat uneasy. He surged a trickle of stamina toward it in a steady flow, but hoped the feeling would soon disappear the longer he was on the vessel.

  Holding the new core in his hands, Huon cultivated the acute touch surge.

  Once he had, he smiled, breathing in the smell of the ocean air.

  The ocean. When they’d been searching for a ship, he’d been too preoccupied to admire it. For as long as he’d been in the wilds, he’d avoided the coastline, never wanting to be spotted by a ship. He hadn’t realised it would be so… vast, unending. He thought the lake by Kamhaloth had been huge—but this? He stood, the new surge settling in his core, and leant on the rail, just staring at the expanse of blue.

  ‘It never gets old,’ Captain Avery said, appearing beside him.

  Huon glanced up at her. When he did, he could see Liona watching them. She had her new core in her lap, about to cultivate it not far from him. They hadn’t had much of a chance to be alone since coming to the port town. That made part of him ache for some reason—he wasn’t sure if they’d have much of a chance to be alone on the ship, either.

  ‘You said it was a long story.’ The captain nodded at his wrist. ‘Ganadon’s capital is a three week journey, that plenty long enough?’

  Huon stared at the Legend. She was different, to any Legend he’d ever met. The masters of the schools… they’d been instantly dismissive of him. Even Danieja had felt like training him had been a chore. The captain had dismissed him—and the others—at first… bu
t she’d been keeping an eye on them, too. And once she’d realised he’d had a soul binding… she hadn’t treated him like he was useless and weak. She’d treated him with respect. It was sad to think that for Huon, that was unusual.

  ‘We can chat in my cabin, tonight. I want to hear all about your encounter.’ She was no longer looking at him. Instead, she leant against the rail as he did, staring off at sea. ‘Your training will begin tomorrow. Wind and water, as you might imagine, are specialities for those aboard a ship—I trust you will keep your use of fire to a minimum, as protected as the Strong Wind is from flames, it’s not impossible for it to catch alight.’ The captain didn’t linger. She stepped away from the rail, disappearing to the other side of the ship.

  Huon looked at the deck, wondering what the training would be like. Wind and water. That made sense, though Huon hadn’t thought about it much.

  Now that he did, it made complete sense. When he closed his eyes, he couldn’t feel earth essence at all out here. And fire essence… well, setting fire to a ship was definitely a bad idea. The surgecaller sailors must be considerably stronger in wind and water than anything else. Looking at the size of the deck, he wondered how effective it would be training here—there didn’t seem to be much room to spar. Many of his sparring matches had involved earth and fire—he couldn’t rock the ground here, couldn’t create walls of earthen armour. And throwing fireballs? That seemed like a very bad idea, as the captain had said.

  Training starts tomorrow.

  Huon turned to look back at the land slowly disappearing behind them. There were two sailors by the sails, surging wind into them to make the ship travel faster. The prow cut through the water, splitting it in two beneath them. Whenever Huon looked over the side, he wondered what lay beneath those depths—at all four sides of the ship, there were what looked like ballistae. The captain called them harpoon guns.

  Liona walked up to him, she turned, looking at the port town that was disappearing behind them. Huon wondered if she were surging her acute sight—she could see far farther than he could with it.

  ‘We’re really doing this.’ Liona leant back on the rail. ‘When we left Glenhaven… I never expected us to go this far.’

  ‘Neither did I. I wanted to advance… but I didn’t know where it would take me.’

  ‘How long do you think it will take?’

  ‘Our journey?’

  Liona shook her head. ‘No. To reach’—she waved a hand—‘Celestial.’ She stared at the deck of the ship. ‘I want to do this with you—I want to become as strong as I can.’ She raised her left hand, making a fist. ‘I never want to feel trapped ever again. But do you really think we can do it? The Immortals have been around… what feels like forever, and they’ve never broken through.’

  Huon’s forehead creased. ‘I can’t have room for doubt. I have to believe this is possible.’

  ‘It’s not just about revenge, is it? For your mother?’

  ‘I don’t know if it was ever just about that. What happened that day… it wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. For someone to have so much power, and use it to keep others down, instead of bringing them up? And now he wants to spread that even farther? No. It’s not just revenge—it’s the right thing to do.’

  ‘Is that why you saved me… because it was the right thing to do?’ Liona was looking at him now. Huon was almost a head taller. Her chin was raised, staring into his eyes.

  ‘I—’ Huon cut himself off. You’re my friend didn’t sound like enough. He bit the inside of his cheek, once again wishing he had some of that fearlessness essence. Why was he afraid of telling her the simple truth? ‘I wanted to make sure you were safe, and… I missed you.’

  Liona smiled, then. It was a bright, beautiful smile. Not only did it light up her eyes, it lit something inside Huon—something that made him smile back. She sidled a little closer to him, leaning against his shoulder. They’d never stood like this before. They’d hugged—but, having her this close…

  ‘I’m starting to believe it, you know. That we can do this, together.’ Liona shifted—Huon worried she was going to walk away, worried the closeness would end. But instead of walking away, she took his arm.

  They didn’t talk after that—they just stood there a while, until the ship rocked, making them part.

  It was the best moment Huon had felt in… forever.

  ~

  Captain Avery’s cabin was far larger than the one she had provided for the three Knights—in fact, they hadn’t been provided with a cabin at all, they’d had to share with the other sailors, sleeping in bunks in one large room. Huon hadn’t tried to sleep on the ship yet, but he hoped the constant rocking wouldn’t keep him up.

  It won’t be the rocking of the ship that keeps me awake. He was excited, his heart racing still. Not just about the training he was about to do—training under another Legend, now as a Knight—but at what was happening with Liona. He didn’t know if she… liked him, the way he was realising he liked her, but standing there together, leaning against one another…

  ‘Take a seat, Huon.’ Captain Avery motioned to a free seat on the other side of her desk. Huon was reminded of the few times in his life when he’d sat opposite someone in places similar to this. In Crowley’s office. In Inara’s. The warden’s…

  This felt altogether different. He was here of his own free will—and she wanted him here because of something he’d done—not because she wanted him as a slave.

  Still, he didn’t know if he’d ever feel altogether comfortable in a position like this.

  Huon sat. He stopped his gaze from venturing around the cabin—it was sectioned into two parts. One side held a bed and a wardrobe, and nothing much else, but the other was full of bookshelves, a desk, and even a full-sized dining table—at least, as full as one could get on a ship this size. It would probably hold at least six people.

  ‘I tend to find myself eating at my desk a lot, these days,’ the captain said. ‘There’s a surprising amount of research that goes into an expedition like this.’ She tapped a stack of books beside her on the desk. ‘There are accounts of people spotting Celestials going back hundreds of years… but none have been confirmed by a credible source. Some speak of soul bindings, but…’ Her eyes flicked toward his wrist. ‘Tell me, Huon, why you?’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘I’ve been trying to contact a Celestial since I was younger than you—since I became a Knight myself. I’ve meditated on it—communed with the universe. Offered… everything. Yet none have ever come to me. So, Huon, what makes you so special?’ She didn’t say the words with any malice—her voice was calm, even curious. Though Huon got the distinct impression she was… jealous?

  Huon pulled up the sleeve of his shirt, revealing the perfect circle, completely filled in. ‘I don’t know. I…’ He shook his head.

  ‘There must be something about you.’ The captain tilted her chin up. ‘Something the Celestial saw—perhaps it’s the same thing I see.’

  ‘What’s that?’ Huon asked.

  ‘I can’t put my finger on it. But you’re different, somehow.’

  Huon remembered when he’d been chosen by Inara—when she’d seen something in him at the arena, despite him being a lowly Page back then… he wished someone would be able to explain what that something was.

  ‘I just wanted to be free.’

  ‘Tell me everything.’ Captain Avery took a longnecked bottle from her desk drawer and two glasses. She poured what looked to be some sort of dark wine into both—all the way up to the rim. ‘And tell it to me from the beginning, Huon. You did say it was a long story, and I’ve got all night.’

  Huon bit the inside of his cheek, wondering where he should start…

  So he started at the beginning—the day his village had been attacked, the day the Immortal of Fire had killed his mother.

  Chapter 27

  In the three weeks it took them to travel to Horlana, the capital of the King
dom of Ganadon, Captain Avery put the three Knights through their paces.

  From dawn till dusk, they trained on the Strong Wind’s deck. On the night Huon had told the captain about the soul binding, she’d been very interested in his unique abilities—the way he was able to surge not only elemental essences at once, but unique essences as well. Apparently—as Gale had said—it wasn’t something most Champions could do as well as Huon, and it was unlikely for a Champion to even develop the ability until they were nearing their advancement. It was one thing to surge the physical essences simultaneously, and add on an elemental surge or a unique surge on top of that, or quickly switch between the two… but what Huon was doing? It required a level of skill that went deeper.

  Huon felt like… like he was cheating, somehow. At least, he’d felt that way until the three Knights started cultivating their essence. Even with all he’d learnt from Danieja, he was two thirds as fast as Gale—and half as fast as Liona—when it came to cultivating his physical essence. He hadn’t realised just how much essence the Celestial had been taking from him.

  ‘This is going to make advancing harder for you in the long run, Huon,’ the captain said. ‘At least, that’s how it appears. You won’t be able to advance in your individual surges as quickly as the next Knight, not with that drain on your cultivation.’

  The captain had told him that on the first day—that if he wanted to reach Champion, he’d have to work twice as hard as the others—he’d have to forego sleep for as long as he could.

  And so he did.

  For the first time since he’d been in the forest with Bern, he felt like he was free to train under his own will. Captain Avery was a hard task master, but Huon wanted that. The more he trained, the more he felt his mind adapting. The more he cultivated, the more he sensed that connection with the Celestial.

  It won’t take me longer, Huon thought. He remembered how fast he’d advanced under Danieja, that it wasn’t just about hard work, it was about working smart.