by H. M. Clarke
“Where is Kimba?” The mage asked.
“I’m here,” came a voice from behind him. The Blackwatch group must have split to flank whatever was in the clearing. Dagan looked over his shoulder to see the mage step out from the reeds followed by a small group of men.
“By Bellus, what are you doing here?” The Knight Sergeant stopped a short distance from Dagan, staring at him and the dead Murgots around them shrewdly.
“I’m not here by choice Kuma. I heard the sounds of fighting and, stupid me, I came to help.”
“But this is a Proving. You are within the wards, Dagan.”
“So I was just learning from Cadet Weaver before we were rudely interrupted by these Murgots.” He gestured to the dead littered around them.
Dagan could feel Ryn staring at them both. He looked sidelong at her. She was still standing at attention, the point of her sword thrust firmly in the ground before her. It was a stupid thing to do, that was a good way to blunt a weapon. Someone will need to work with her to break her of some of these actions before they become habits. The woman also looked anxious and also itching to ask questions.
“You both fought well together. You would make an excellent Pairing,” Kuma said.
“I do not want to be a member of the Blackwatch. I don’t like taking orders-”
“But Knight Sergeant, you said that I was to pair up with Ryn…” The whiney voice drew Dagan’s attention to the slip of a girl that still stood leaning on her staff within the reeds lining the clearing.
The Knight Sergeant turned to the girl. “Only if Ryn didn’t find Donal. Which she clearly didn’t. Instead, she found someone else.” Kuma’s bright eyes turned back on Dagan.
“But Knight-”
“Shut it girl!” Kimba said from behind Dagan. “Banar is the nearest unpaired warrior. Move her to him.”
“Yes Knight Sergeant!” The Knight Corporal closest to the girl grabbed her arm and pulled her away followed by two more men.
“After what happened, I’d never thought to see you in a Proving Ground Dagan.” Kuma said as he signaled Ryn to fall out. The girl immediately pulled her sword from the ground, wiped it down and then slipped it back into its scabbard. She then moved to stand beside Dagan.
“After what happened, I was never planning to.”
“I take it you two have met before?” Ryn asked as she looked up at him.
Kuma didn’t answer, so Dagan did. “Yes, a few years ago when I was younger and stupider than you are now.”
“But we will not go into that tale right this moment,” Kimba cut in.
“I wasn’t planning to,” Dagan responded. Kimba had not changed in the few years since they had first met. Just as curt and abrasive as ever. Kuma on the other hand….
“I take it the Spell Wards are laid down?”
“They were finalized last night. I supervised their placement myself,” Kimba responded.
Dagan kept watching Kuma.
“And….. did they activate here?”
Kuma smiled, and Dagan had his answer before the man opened his mouth to reply.
“Yes. What did you think summoned us over here? You know that as soon as a Pairing is complete, the two are taken from the grounds so as not to interfere with others.”
“But I am not a cadet. I’m not even in any of your training schools.”
“And yet here you are on our Proving Grounds helping a cadet warrior defend against enemies. How gallant of you.”
“The Pairing in binding Dagan. Even if we wanted to reverse the spell, we cannot. You know that.” If he didn’t know any better, it sounded as if Kimba’s voice held a touch of regret and sympathy for him. If he didn’t know any better.
In his frustration, Dagan let his control slip and the glyphs on his staff flared to life again.
“Dagan…”
He felt a hand on his arm and turned to see Ryn staring compassionately up at him. He tugged his arm away from her and the glyphs faded back into the hardwood of his staff as his concentration was broken. There was no way out of this. Even now he could feel the presence of the bond beginning to grow. Even now he could sense her…
“There is nothing to be done. Especially not here,” Kuma said. “Let’s head back and wait for the others to complete their trials. Then we can discuss what happens next.”
Dagan allowed himself to give a simple nod and followed the group out of the marsh.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Ryn, Ryn!”
Ryn looked up as she trudged through the gate and saw Donal running towards her. The excitement on his face did nothing to improve her own mood. She had watched Dagan follow both the Knights Sergeant to their camp table, still arguing about what had happened. This was not what she expected her Proving to be like.
“What happened? I waited at the spot I told you about but you didn’t show,” Donal said as he fell into step next to her.
“I got lost. I was lucky enough to be caught in one of the confusion spells that had been laid out and ended up in the middle of an empty swamp,” she said without much excitement.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I had a run in with some Murgots.”
“Really?”
Ryn did not want to discuss what happened right at this moment so she quickly changed the subject before Donal could ask about her Pairing.
“How did your Proving go? You must have Paired to now be back out here.”
Excitement again lit up Donal’s face. “Guess who I Paired with? Bet you can’t!”
At least he wasn’t upset at her for getting lost.
“One of the cadets from the other schools?”
“No, thank Bellus. I Paired with Ashe. Isn’t that something? We did pretty well as a pair too. He saved me from being clocked in the back of the head by one of our attackers.”
“Ashe can be pretty quick, and he’s good with a blade. At least if he’s Paired with you, I can still spar with him.”
“True enough. What about you? You’re out here which means that you Paired. Who was the lucky mage?”
A loud squawk abruptly caught both their attention and then in a flurry of black feathers, Peck landed possessively on Ryn’s shoulder giving her a whack on the head with a wing for keeping him waiting.
“I’m sorry Ryn, but he didn’t want to wait with the horses,” Ashe gave by way of explanation as he trotted up to them.
“It’s okay Ashe,” Ryn said as she rubbed her nose against Peck’s neck by way of apology for keeping him waiting. “If you didn’t let him go your hands and face would have paid for it. He’s not called Peck for nothing.”
Ashe gave her a pleased grin. “Did Donal tell you the news? I am sorry that you two didn’t get paired though.”
“Don’t worry about me. You should be more worried about having to put up with Donal’s bad jokes and snoring for the rest of your natural life.”
“Aww come on Ryn, you like my jokes.”
She gave Donal a crooked smile. “I notice you didn’t argue about the snoring.”
“I’m not nicknamed ‘Sleeping Bear’ for nothing you know.”
“Congratulations to both of you.” Ryn leaned forward and gave both the men a quick kiss on the cheek, fully intending to try to escape them, when she was surprised to see the startled look on Ashe’s face and then suddenly saw it flush scarlet.
“Ryn, you still haven’t told me who you Paired with.” Donal looked about them as if trying to pick the person out from the surrounding crowd. “Where are they?”
Ashe started to look about as well, though the hard, suspicious look on his face wasn’t what she expected.
Ryn looked towards the command area where she could still see Dagan ‘talking’ to Kuma and Kimba. “He’s over there,” she said nodding in that direction.
“He?”
Donal and Ashe both turned to look, and Ryn saw Ashe’s face harden even more under his red gold locks.
“The black haired man talking with the
Knights Sergeant?” Donal asked as he went up on tip toes to get a better look. “He looks a bit older than us. And what’s with all the dark get up he’s wearing?”
“Yes, that’s him. His name is Dagan Drake…. and he’s arguing with them to get out of the Pairing.”
“To get out of it?” Donal’s eyes immediately snapped back to Ryn. “What did you do Ryn?”
“Donal-” Ashe placed a hand on his shoulder, but Donal just shrugged it away.
“I didn’t do anything. He says he’s not a cadet, that he heard me fighting and came to help and was accidentally caught in the Proving Grounds–that the bond should not have happened.”
“He helped you fight off those Murgots?”
“Yes, he killed five of them in fact.”
Donal gave a low whistle, impressed in spite of himself.
“He’s a little stuffed then,” Ashe said. “Once the bond is active, it cannot be broken. Except by death.”
“So Knight Sergeant Kimba told him, but he’s still over there arguing the point. He and Kuma know each other I think.”
“Then the buggar should know that it is no use arguing with him.” Ashe continued glaring at the command area.
“Don’t worry Ryn. He’ll come around, it’s not like being in the Blackwatch is such a bad thing,” Donal said putting an arm around her shoulders and giving her a quick, reassuring squeeze. “After all, the Blackwatch is all daisies and sunshine isn’t it?”
“Speaking of daisies and sunshine, I heard Kimba say on our way back out here that Banar hasn’t managed to Pair yet.”
Ashe quickly stifled his laugh. “Just something else we have beat him at then,” he muttered.
Ryn smiled up at him. This was the most she had heard him speak in one session, and he seemed to be a little more confident in himself. She had heard that the Pairing can change a person but didn’t expect to see it in someone so quickly. Or maybe the confidence comes from no longer being considered a cadet.
“Come on boys. I’m hungry let’s go and get something to eat while we wait for the Proving to finish.”
∞∞∞
A low caw from Peck followed by an elbow nudged into her ribs from Donal gave Ryn warning.
Dagan was heading in her direction. His clothes were dark, maybe once black but now either faded or dusty. They made him stand out against the browns and greens of the Blackwatch cadets and he drew the eye of all the cadets around their fire as he approached. Her Pairing story had spread like wildfire through the waiting Pairs and they were now all eager to see what the next installment of the story would bring.
As he came closer, Ryn could think of nothing but a predator dogging its prey, the look on his face showed that he was not happy. His black hair was still tied back by a piece of black cloth and he had his staff and a backpack slung over his back, ready to leave.
Ryn slowly stood, though Peck still threw out a wing for balance, and turned to meet him. She felt rather than saw Donal and Ashe stand with her.
“Did you sort things out?” She asked when he stopped a few feet from her.
Dagan’s gaze ran over them, eyes bright and golden brown as a Mid-summer sunset. It was as if he were weighing them in his mind, and there was no sign on his face of what his internal scales told him. Ryn could feel every eye in the vicinity boring into her back. The man stood over a head taller than she which annoyed Ryn as she had to look up at him and did not much like the feeling.
“To a point,” he said though now the look in his eyes as he watched her was appraising.
“And… what was the point reached?” she asked slowly when it became obvious that he was not going to say more. Ryn tried to smooth her features so that the worry she was feeling did not show. She did not want to be remembered as the cadet who lost their partner on their Proving Day.
His eyes flicked again to all the expectant and waiting faces around the fire before coming back to Ryn. He pitched his voice louder so that everyone could hear. “You are to be assigned to me as my assistant.”
“Assistant?” Ryn repeated in confusion? “Assistant for what?”
“And,” Dagan continued over Ryn’s interruption. “I am to be temporarily transferred to the Blackwatch, but to still operate under my original orders.”
“Original orders? But you said you are a Wilder Mage?”
“I am.”
“But-” Now Ryn was really confused. What is all this talk of orders and assistants? Who was this man?
“But, I also need to make a living, so I work. That is all you need to know for now.”
“But-”
“Butt is what goats do. Now, you and your friends need to make room for me by the fire. We need to start getting to know each other a little better.”
Goats? Ryn looked at both Donal and Ashe as Dagan walked past her to sit on the log she had been using as a seat. Donal shrugged and followed Dagan, but Ashe laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be right here if you need me.”
“Thanks, Ashe.”
He gave her a small smile and went back to his seat. The others around the fire had turned away now that the show was over and went back to their conversations. Ryn turned and dragged her feet to resume her seat by the fire.
“I’m confused,” Ryn said as she sat beside him. Dagan had slipped off his backpack and staff and had leaned both against the edge of the log. He dug his hand under one of the flaps of his bag and pulled out a folded piece of parchment.
“Read this.”
Ryn took the thick parchment from Dagan and could feel something hard folded inside of it. She looked up at him and when he nodded for her to read it, she slowly unfolded the document. A red ribbon had been threaded to loop through a hole cut into the parchment and attached to that ribbon was what looked to be a brass coin. As she stared, her eyes widened as she quickly realized what exactly it was that she was staring at. Her fingers shook slightly as she used her free hand to pick up the coin from its nesting spot on the parchment. On it was a warrior astride a running horse, their sword held aloft as if calling everyone to arms. It was the Great Seal of the King Regent of Mrycea. She looked sharply up at Dagan who nodded again for her to read, this time with a smug smile.
Placing the seal carefully back on the parchment, she began to read. After a few lines, Ryn glanced up at him again, this time with a frown. “This is a warrant.”
“Exactly”
“For the apprehension of a man called Ben Henly.”
He continued watching her, waiting for more. Ryn looked again at the parchment. “It bears the Great Seal, so it’s a Royal Warrant. This man must have…” Her face suddenly drained as she realized exactly what she was holding. In her hands, she held the life of a man.
“Must have?” He prompted.
“Committed treason.”
Dagan nodded and held his hand out for the parchment. Ryn carefully folded it up and handed it back to him.
“You’re a bounty hunter then.”
“In a way. I’m a Mage hunter. There is nothing more deadly than a mage bought to bay.”
“A Magister?”
“Yes. Though I’m a special case, the reason why we will not get into now. I will leave that explanation to a later time when the ears around us are not that sharp.”
Ryn looked around the campfire and saw the surreptitious glances being thrown their way. The cadets were curious about this newcomer. As would she be in the same situation. Dagan was the first person that they knew of that had been Paired without first being a cadet.
“So, I take it that we are still going to be Paired then?” Ryn had to ask just to settle her own mind as Dagan had not outright stated this yet. The way he was talking, everything was temporary.
“For the moment. Yes.”
“For the moment?”
“Until we can work out a way to break the bond, you will be working with me.”
“But I’m Blackwatch!”
“As am I for the moment until orders from Kaldo
r tell me otherwise. Now you might as well introduce me to your friends.” Dagan gestured to the two men seated on either side of them.
Ryn pointed to her left. “That is Donal Fergus and,” she then swiveled her finger right. “That is Cornelius Ashe, though he’ll only answer to his last name.”
Dagan nodded to both men. “Nice to meet you both, and I see that Donal has stayed his hand at killing you, Kathryn.” He said with a smile to show that he remembered everything she uttered when they first met.
Donal looked questioningly at Ryn. She sighed. “I might have said something along the lines of that you were going to kill me for getting lost and leaving you to the mercy of fate.”
“I got Ashe instead, so I’ll let you live for now,” he replied with a grin.
Dagan laughed, a rich, deep sound that immediately set everyone at ease. “I’m sure Kathryn has both told you my name, but I will tell it to you myself. I am Dagan Drake, Wilder Mage, Magister and many other things besides.”
A cry rose up from behind them and those around the campfire turned to look towards the Proving gates.
“The last of the cadets must have come back out. I want to see if Banar was the last man standing.” Donal said the last with glee before trotting off in the direction of the gate.
Dagan looked at Ryn, eyebrow raised, but she just shook her head and stood up from her seat. Dagan followed suit and plucked up his backpack and staff and slung them over his back. “We were told this morning before heading out that we were a mage short for the Proving. With you showing up, that means everyone should have paired. I think Donal has forgotten that.” She turned to Ashe who had not moved from the fire. “You coming Ashe?”
Ashe nodded and turned to follow.
“Wasn’t Banar’s name mentioned when they sent that sniveling girl away?” Dagan asked as they walked towards the growing crowd.
“Yes, it was. By Bellus, I hope they were Paired. Banar’s an Ass, they deserve each other.” She looked askance at Dagan as a thought popped into her mind and a grin quickly split her features. “You’ve got a quick tongue, I hope he tries something with you. I want to see you put him down.”
