The Discovery of an Assassin

by Brian Keller

  Chapter 20

  The following morning, in the Training Room, Mister Skran announced that Boyd had regained his standing in the Advanced group and partnered him with Rukle. Cooper was paired with Kolrem. The two of them had been partnered to practice combinations a few times, but had never fought. He was in the same sleeping bay as Boyd, but since the time that Cooper had beaten Boyd in unarmed fighting, he was one of the boys who’d drifted away from the bully. Kolrem was the third largest boy in the class. The second largest was Habbon, who was almost as tall as Boyd. The fact that Habbon was slimmer almost made him look taller. Kolrem looked to be nearing twelve years old, but was still at least an inch shorter than Habbon, but stouter. In fact, Kolrem was already developing some impressive muscles. He had dark, wavy hair and blocky features. His eyes were light brown, his nose and mouth were both straight and his chin was squared off.

  As Mister Skran gave the command to begin, Kolrem advanced a step. Cooper saw him shift his hips and lower his shoulder. As Kolrem extended into a lunge Cooper reversed his grip, swept his stick across his front to deflect the attack, and in so doing took control of the inside lines. As Kolrem brought his left arm up to block, Cooper’s backhand counterstrike with reversed grip caught Kolrem in the upper chest. Kolrem tried slashing across with his stick but Cooper had already brought his left forearm up to deflect that movement and he ducked under Kolrem’s extended right arm as it passed. As Cooper stepped though he slashed his stick lightly across his opponent’s ribs then gave his ribs a quick backhand tap as he rotated to face him. He was now looking over Kolrem’s right shoulder at the side of his head. As Kolrem started to rotate to face him, Cooper took advantage of his temporary blind spot and reached over his shoulder and tapped him across the cheekbone. Cooper then stepped fully away. The sequence was very similar to the way he’d handled Boyd except now he had a weapon and this time he hadn’t been trying to do harm. Kolrem had been completely taken by surprise. He raised his hand to rub the side of his face and spoke, “I knew Boyd had to be lying. You never kicked him in the balls. I never believed it, and now I know it.”. Cooper just nodded and resumed a crouch. Kolrem smiled grimly, then said, “Can you show me that again?”. Cooper nodded again and waved him forward.

  The next ten days went much the same. On days when he had no courier duties he’d often manage three illustrations, unless it was a longer day in the Training Room. In Mister Skran’s class he’d been devoting his efforts to precision. This slowed him down a little but he’d learned to read his opponents well enough that he usually had plenty of time to act or react. Several of his classmates didn’t seem to be improving much. Rukle was getting better though. He was learning to watch his opponents for signs and indications. His movements were already fairly precise but on several occasions his movements seemed forced.

  Mister Skran had started to use student matches to demonstrate points he wished to make. When he observed students displaying something of value, which could either be something exemplary or a mistake, he’d call for a stop and bring that pair of partners to the center. He’d then direct the remaining students to form a ring around them, and explain what he wanted demonstrated as they positioned themselves. He’d then tell the pair to start and maintained a running commentary leading up to the technique or flaw and then stop the pair in the midst of it to further explain. Cooper saw how everyone seemed to learn from this method of teaching but it also reduced the time they spent practicing.

  One of these occasions, Mister Skran called Cooper to the center and joined him by himself. Some of the other students had started using a reverse grip, as he’d been doing, but no one had used it against Cooper yet. Mister Skran began to explain that the reverse grip was highly effective in many cases but there were inherent weaknesses and he wanted to make sure everyone understood them before they began using that grip as their predominant method. He dropped into a fighting stance and held his knife in a reverse grip, calling for Cooper to advance and fight him. Mister Skran’s stance was different than usual, he held his weapon in his right hand, but his left side seemed to trail further to the rear. His feet remained oriented the same way but he’d shifted his hips and shoulders to make left side further out of reach. Cooper stepped back to consider this and Mister Skran stopped as well and asked with a knowing smile, “Why have you disengaged?”. He replied, “Sir, you’ve altered your stance to improve your defense.”. Mister Skran nodded, “Correct. What do you plan to do about that?”. Cooper asked, “Do you want me to tell you, or show you, Sir?”. The teacher shrugged and dropped back into a fighting stance. Cooper had assessed that there were two potential weaknesses in his instructor’s position, his ability to move laterally would be impaired slightly, but more importantly, because of the position of his shoulders, he be less able to reach to the outside. The shoulder only allows the arm to reach behind a little way, and by rotating his body the way he had, Mister Skran was potentially exposing his back. Cooper’s mind raced through hundreds of possibilities in seconds and he thought he had a plan. He advanced with a series of quick but easily blocked strikes designed to bring Mister Skran’s blade up. Cooper extended into a lunge and Mister Skran shifted his back leg to rotate his body to protect his back. While he did so he countered with a backhand at Cooper’s neck. Cooper turned his armed hand thumb down, raising his baton to block the counterstrike, then slashed his own weapon down across Mister Skran’s forward thigh. All of his opponent’s weight had been transferred onto that leg since he had shifted his back leg around to rotate his body. There was a collective gasp from his classmates, Cooper had managed to strike their teacher! Mister Skran stepped away, disengaging. He had a satisfied smirk on his face, “Not exactly what I’d expected from you but it can still be used to demonstrate the point I wished to make.”. Skran then turned to the class, “How did Cooper manage to strike me?”. Cooper thought he heard someone say “balls” and saw Boyd turn red but other than that there was an indistinct buzz of barely voiced answers. Mister Skran must have grown tired of waiting, “Cooper, explain your observations and decisions.”. Cooper had thought he was cleared of responsibility for a moment and now found himself the focus of attention again. He then explained what he’d noticed and knew how Mister Skran would have to move in order to protect his back. It was then just a matter of forcing the teacher to move the way he wanted so Cooper could strike. Mister Skran had been nodding as he explained. When Cooper had finished, the instructor paused for a few seconds and directed Cooper to return to a fighting stance. The teacher then demonstrated how to exploit the vulnerabilities of the reduced outside line defense once the distance has been closed. Cooper had seen it correctly but hadn’t fully understood how to exploit it. Now he knew, and so did everyone in the class. Now he had to devise ways to deal with that. As Mister Skran told students to resume practice he spoke quietly with Cooper, “Well done. That strike would definitely have injured me, but… had you struck me here instead, “, he indicated a point in the crease where his thigh met his groin, ”your strike would have been lethal. This is something you’ll likely learn in your third year, unless your Manifestation takes you somewhere unexpected.”.

  For the next week, Cooper continued employing techniques by trial and error, though in truth there seemed to be more success than error. If nothing else, he’d becoming highly adept at changing from standard to reverse grip and back, even in mid-attack or block. Mister Skran’s demonstration had provided him with several new challenges since now everyone had seen how to deal with an opponent using a reversed grip.

  At the end of the week, Master Worthan informed him that the next written test was scheduled a week away. It appeared that almost a third of the class would be taking the test this time. Aden had been here a couple months longer than Cooper and he’d be taking the test as well. Cooper decided that he’d finish a few more drawings and paint them. Then he’d spend the next few days copying the descriptions and finishing the pages. He wondered if Miss Camilla would want him to con
tinue to copy pages if he passed the writing test. He’d need to show her the completed pages in a few days anyway, he could ask her then.

  That evening Loryn looked like she was upset. She almost appeared to be pouting a little. Aden was speaking quietly with her. Cooper leaned in to see what the matter was. Loryn had heard that testing was in a week and she expected both Cooper and Aden to move away. Loryn had learned to read fairly well but in the meantime, she’d developed quite an attachment with Aden. Cooper suspected that the feeling was mutual. Outside of class, wherever you saw one of them, there was the other right alongside. Aden was telling her, “Copy your book. Learn all the material and take your test and catch up to me.”. Loryn might have even just sniffled a little. Cooper interjected, “Depending on how you Manifest, you might not stay together anyway.”. The look he got from both of them made him realize that he wasn’t helping. He just went back to his bunk and left them to console one another.

  The following day Mister Skran spoke with him. Apparently he’d heard that he’d be taking his writing test at the end of the week. Winter was nearing its end. Mister Skran had remembered that Cooper’s name day was in the spring and depending on which month, Cooper should be turning ten in a month or three. Mister Skran explained that if Cooper continued to progress at his current pace, within a month or two, there would be little else for him to learn in the beginner’s class and it would be time for him to test. Passing both writing and training room tests would place Cooper firmly as a second year student, as he turned ten. That would leave him two, actually three years on average, before he could expect to Manifest. As a second year student, passing a few classes would earn him the rank of Apprentice in the Guild. Cooper didn’t know many particulars, but he knew that Apprentices received a clasp to be worn high on the left side of their chest, a sort of badge of rank or something. Apprentices also no longer acted as Couriers, they performed other functions for the Guild.

  Mister Skran directed the students to begin fighting with non-dominant hands. There were 4 Adept assistant teachers in the room for the first two days, indication that Mister Skran expected injuries. There were a few but nothing that would require a healer.

  After practice, he rushed through lunch, gathered his materials from his footlocker and hurried to Miss Camilla’s classroom. He needed to show her his progress and find out if she expected him to continue copying the book.

  Miss Camilla was taking the contents of one vial and adding a couple drops at a time to a collection of two dozen or so vials arranged in a rack. He stood quietly to one side and watched her. The vials standing in the rack were all different. Some contained different volumes of liquid and most were different colors, although several were clear. A few of them changed color as she added the drops to them. Any time a vial changed color, she made a short notation. When she had finished adding drops and making notations she nodded, “Talgrit root, and potent too; but there’s something else. Also plant based… this may take a few more tests to determine.”. She turned to Cooper, “Hello Mister Cooper, I suspect that an herb has been added to speed the heart rate as well, but I cannot let my suspicions guide my tests.”. Cooper was searching his memory of anything he had read, “Talgrit Root… best harvested just before sunrise in autumn, or early winter before a hard freeze. Once the root has been frozen it loses most of its potency, the same can be said if it were allowed to grow past ripeness?... That’s all I remember.”. Miss Camilla was nodding, “That’s actually quite good, Mister Cooper. You’ve been reading.”. He nodded, “I came by to tell you that at the end of the week, Master Worthan is having me take my writing test. I can continue copying the book if you want, but I don’t know what my schedule will be after this week.”. Miss Camilla thought about it, “You’ll likely have several classes that you’ll attend, and some of them might not be held every day. Depending on what your test indicates, you might even spend a several days a week, or even a few hours every day, with me in this room.”. He replied, “In that case, miss, it makes sense for me to continue copying the book. Would you like to see what I’ve done so far?”. He held out the pages and she accepted them. She slid her stool away from the space where she’d been working and began looking through the pages. She began to nod, speaking to herself, “Hmm, clean lines, colors look right… or right enough to be able to recognize the plant if you saw it.”. She turned to face him, “Not exactly right, but for making a copy and having never seen the actual plant your drawings and colorings aren’t bad. And it sounds like you’re learning much of the material as you go, so Master Worthan was right again. Each of us is gaining from your work.”.

  He rushed back down the halls to the classroom to study his copied textbook. Then that evening before dinner he and his classmates returned to the Training Room for another two-hour session. And so went the next few days. By the end of the week, Cooper felt he was prepared for his writing test and had already begun using a reverse grip with his left hand.

  The morning of testing day arrived. There was a nervous tension amongst several of the students during breakfast. The boys who were testing had managed to band together in the dining hall for breakfast. A hush fell across the dining hall all at once and he didn’t need to look up from his plate to know what had happened. He turned to face Mister Felis and said, “Good morning, sir. It’s been awhile.”. Felis was almost smiling, almost. With a smooth, swift movement Felis leaned forward and placed both hands on the table and in a hushed tone, quickly offered a single bit of advice, “Write quickly, even on the brief questions at the beginning.”. He stepped away, gave Cooper a slight nod and left the dining hall.

  Once in the classroom, Master Worthan began passing out booklets and sheaves of paper to the boys that were testing. When he reached Cooper he paused briefly, “Have I heard correctly that Mister Felis stopped to see you in the dining hall?”. Cooper only nodded. Master Worthan continued, “I had not realized that he had returned from his task. He is always full of surprises. I’ll expect to see him shortly then. I am certain that whatever he had to say to you must be valuable information… yes, valuable indeed.”.

  Master Worthan announced to each of them that they had four hours to complete as much of the test as they were able. They would be told when to begin and the lunch bell would mark the end of their time period. He would try to let the boys know when each hour had passed and further let them know when only thirty minutes remained. The answers need not be neat, but they must be legible in order to be given credit. An illegible answer counts the same as a wrong answer. He’d have their tests graded by dinner time tonight. They’d need to come back when they had finished eating to receive their new schedules. “Your placement and classes for your second year depend on your answers. If you get everything wrong but your writing is good then you’ll be a scribe. Wrong answers written illegibly, well… we can still use a full-time Courier.”.

  When Master Worthan told them to begin, Cooper turned his booklet over and began reading, “1. What color is a ripe cherry?”. He couldn’t help chuckling while shaking his head in disbelief. He was done in less than three hours. He took the time to write legibly but quickly.

  Chapter 21

  He had an hour or more before lunch. He could go back to the sleeping bay and he could finish most of the next drawing from Miss Camilla’s book. That got him thinking. Miss Camilla had been testing some poison that turned out to be Talgrit root. Surely there were some books devoted to poisons. If he could learn more about poisons, then he’d be able to help with things like that. He made his way to Miss Camilla’s classroom. He stopped and listened before walking right in. He had heard Miss Camilla’s voice and then one or two others. ‘She has a class in session right now’, he thought. He’d be foolish to interrupt the class on a whim. He’d need to find a new opportunity. If he ended up taking a class with Miss Camilla then the notion would likely take care of itself anyway.

  Master Loril and Mister Skran had both fought dual handed in the demonstration. If Master Loril
wasn’t busy, perhaps he could take a few minutes to show him a few things. During the demonstration on the first day, Cooper hadn’t understood enough to know about stance, balance, or technique. Just like all the boys, he’d been entranced by the flashing of the blades and the sound of blades on blades. As Cooper approached Master Loril’s shop he again heard the ringing sound of metal on metal. Cooper was wondering if he ever left the forge for anything but meals and to occasionally help out in Mister Skran’s class. Master Loril looked like he was hammering out a short sword. The smithing assistant was lifting bricks made of metal…’ingots’, Cooper remembered reading that somewhere, from a small cart and stacking them on a low shelf. There appeared to be a number of small stacks of ingots. They all looked the same to Cooper and he wondered why they were being separated.

  Without looking up from his work Master Loril called out, “Mister Cooper! Shouldn’t you be in class right now?”. Cooper wondered, ‘How does he do that?!’. He shouted his answer to be heard over the din, “Sir, I took my test today and have some time before lunch”. Master Loril didn’t pause his hammering and his words almost seemed to keep time with the silence between strikes, “And how well…do you think…you did?”. Cooper had been thinking about that. He’d even wondered about how well anyone could be expected to do. Of the last twelve questions, five were Theory and seven were more Philosophical. Cooper voiced that to Master Loril. The big man simply said, “Three minutes.”. Cooper suspected that Master Loril was speaking both to him and to his assistant. The assistant immediately donned his leather apron and knotted the ties and pulled on thick leather gloves. He began searching frantically, pushing tools around on a bench until he found a pair of tongs. He took a deep breath and exhaled quickly and stepped up to the forge to assess what Master Loril needed him to do. Cooper looked on with a sharp realization of how much can be communicated while saying so little. Control of the workpiece was transferred with seamless dexterity and the assistant placed the future blade into the coals for reheating. Master Loril walked over to a barrel filled with water and dipped a ladle into it. Instead of drinking from it, he poured it over his face and let it run down his chest. He then held the ladle out to Cooper, who dutifully took it. Master Loril then said, “Dip another ladle full and pour it over my hands.”. It was then that he realized that Master Loril had not been wearing gloves at all. Once Master Loril had given himself a brief, cooling scrub he turned to face Cooper and with a slight grin said, “I can’t imagine you not having some kind of answers for the Theory and Philosophy questions…?”. Cooper nodded. He knew he was being teased a little, but a couple of the questions bothered him, “Well, sir. Scholars have debated and argued some of those questions for years and it really seems to boil down to opinion, not an actual answer.”. Master Loril was now looking closely at him, all mischief gone from his eyes, “Those opinions are more important than any actual answers. Your opinions describe how you see the world, and often defines your place in it.”. It was then Cooper realized what it was about those questions that bothered him and wondered how Master Worthan could possibly provide a score for anyone’s answers.