by R. J. Batla
“So, what is it?”
“Confound it, Royn, I thought you said he was intelligent? It’s armor, boy! A combination of metal and cotton – a brilliant little piece of work, I might add – it binds to the user’s skin when they put it on. Feel at your neck…you should be able to find the zipper now.” There it was, right above my sternum. “Your whole body is protected – the suit can stop almost all normal weapons, and many powers. But be warned – it’s not foolproof. Try to use your shield. The process for making the material is finicky, and all it takes is one little chink, maybe one spot getting hit too many times, and the whole thing unravels. If it fails, you’re gonna get hurt.”
“Do I have to clean it?”
“No, no, just take a shower and it’s plenty clean. You never have to wash it.”
“Wow,” I said.
“And now,” Leander said, turning back to the pile, and picked up what looked like a strand of rope. “A storage bracelet! Strap this on your right wrist,” he said, handing me the greenish-blue woven rope. It was flat – four inches wide and a quarter-inch thick. When I closed the clasp, it wriggled a minute, tickling my wrist, and then it shrunk slowly until it fit perfectly. “You’ll be able to store an enormous amount of energy in that thing. There are gems – tiny ones – woven into the rope, which is actually made of metal. Royn will show you how to store the energy, but you’ll be able to feel the power there, and access it at any time. Oh, and uh…be careful, it will be, uh…difficult to get off your wrist now. Just so you know. Stubborn little things, they are. Very temperamental.”
Sweet! And a little eerie…
“Finally, the last item,” Leander said, picking up something with his back to me. “Hmmm.”
“Uh…what’s a ‘hmmm,’ sir?”
“I, uh…it’s just, um…well, that uh…see…I didn’t realize there were any left.”
“What do you mean? This is your shop – wouldn’t you have known if there were any left?”
“I didn’t make this,” he said, not answering my question.
“Any left of what, sir?” I said, trying a different angle, straining to see around him to no avail.
“This sword,” he said, actually shaking. “This sword is one of only seven.”
He turned with his palms under the hand-and-a-half sword, holding it like a delicate treasure, like you would an armload of china or something. Brilliant gold cross guards and pommel with brown-leather-covered grips were on one end. The blade, slightly longer than three feet was two inches wide, and ended in a point sharper than any I’d ever seen, with a single, deep fuller running almost the whole length. It was so simple, and in that simplicity, it was beautiful. I wanted so bad to reach for it, but held steady. Just barely.
“Six were made for the original council,” the smith said. “They were all more ornate than this – jewels and gold inlayed throughout. They have also all since been lost.” Leander’s hands were really shaking now.
“There were only six members of the original council, so why was this one made?” Royn asked, eyes running up and down the weapon.
“It was made for Hammod Gardon himself – the first to ever have a Quantum Power. The first Ranger.”
“I never thought I’d see one…” Royn said.
“Hammod turned it down for some reason. It’s been passed from smith to smith for ages, waiting for it to present itself to someone. It was thought lost as well. I can’t believe it was in my shop!” the Dwarf exclaimed, with a proud look on his face.
He pointed at the sword, fully serious now. “This blade will never dull. Will never smudge, will never rust. Whatever you throw this sword at, it will hit – exactly where you visualize it. No matter the distance, it will rotate one time around, and hit the target. Mind, it can’t go through shields, and can be deflected. Barring that, it will always hit the mark. And it will always come back to its owner when he asks for it by name.” The Dwarf actually knelt, and raised the blade up with both hands, his head bowed. “Your sword, sir Ranger.”
“Thank you, Master Smith, thank you!” I said, and grabbed the handle – now this felt right. Perfectly balanced, it fit my hand like a glove, not like those practice swords back at Harlingon. I swear the sword was vibrating slightly, humming. Odd. Way lighter than I expected, it almost felt weightless in my hand.
Leander raised his hand and a single stone rose out of the ground about a hundred yards away. “Throw it,” he said.
“What?”
He sighed. “Do you question everything? Throw. The sword. At. The rock.”
“Oh.” I reared back and threw it based on what I thought was the right distance. I was wrong. The sword landed, point down, several yards away from my intended target. I still didn’t know my new strength.
“Hmmm. We’ll have to try again. Call it back,” Leander said.
“Come back, sword,” I said, to which I got a slap in the back of the head from Leander.
“Call it by name.”
“How do I know its name? You didn’t tell it to me!”
“I don’t know it either! Think on it, son. You’ll know.”
I thought. Got nothing. Thought some more. Still nothing. I stared at the sword and my head got fuzzy. My arms felt heavy, my vision swam. I almost fell.
But I knew.
“Cor et anima!” I said.
I jumped, as the thing was now in my hand. Materialized from nowhere. Leander and Gilmer laughed, but Royn looked thoughtful, scratching at his chin. “Cor et anima? Where’d you come up with that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know – I was concentrating on the sword, and it sort of just popped in my head.”
“Hmm. Interesting. Heart and Soul.”
“Huh?”
“That’s what it means – in one of the dead languages – heart and soul.”
Heart and soul? Of what?
“Try again,” Leander said.
I threw the sword again and watched it.
Leander said, “Are you concentrating on what you want to hit?”
“Oh! Right! Sorry,” I said. The throw was clearly going to be long, but I then I concentrated on the center of the rock. The reaction was instantaneous – the sword, which had been rotating freely, now angled sharply down, rotating one time around, and struck, dead center of the rock. From a hundred yards.
“Wow,” Gilmer said.
“You said it,” said Royn. “That’s unbelievable.”
The sun was just starting to set as I looked at the amazing weapon I now held in my hands. “Well, now that that’s done,” Leander said, “there’s the small matter of payment.”
He held out his hand, and I gave him my whole bag – all the pay I’d received as a Ranger – I thought it was worth it. It was nice, for once, to not be worried about money. But he pulled a good amount out and gave the rest back. He did the same with Gilmer.
“Great doing business with you. Now, strap on that brown scabbard there, boy! Let’s eat!”
I obliged, sheathed my sword and belted it on. It felt like it was barely there physically, but I felt, like, a connection, a line of energy if you will, between us. Like it was alive or something. Holy cow, I couldn’t wait to show Leona. She was gonna flip.
We went down to the all-metal kitchen and had a nice meal. Royn asked the smith to bring a bunch of weapons to the front lines, saying we might need them, and Leander agreed in an instant.
After a round of dessert, Leander got up quickly. “Time for bed, my friends. Your beds are upstairs, Jay – the other two already know where theirs are. I’ll be through this door if you need me,” he said, pointing at a short door I hadn’t seen until now. “Will you be leaving in the morning?”
“Yes, as soon as the sun rises,” Royn replied.
Gilmer and I grumbled. No rest for the weary.
“Night, all!” Leander said, opening his door and starting down another set of stairs, stifling a yawn before the door swung shut behind him.
Gilmer and I followe
d Royn back upstairs, then up another set, our feet making odd noises on the metal steps. At the top, in a room that actually had windows, ten brass beds, each with their own dresser, were scattered around. I recognized Royn and Gilmer’s stuff on two of them. There was another door just to the right of the one we came in.
“Shower?” Royn asked.
I could smell myself without trying. “Absolutely. Is there a place to wash my clothes too?”
“Just stick them in hole in the wall, and they’ll be clean when you get out. You can go first.”
Picking a bed, I quickly shucked my duds and opened the door to the shower room. Looking around, I found the appropriately labeled “Laundry Hole” just to the right of the metal sink, with a curtain to the left for the rectangular shower. I stepped in, turned the knob, and let the hot water relax sore and stiff muscles. Forcing myself to emerge, although I could have stayed in there forever, I dried with a towel that had appeared on the counter next to the sink along with my clean clothes.
Stepping out, towel wrapped around my waist, Royn said, “Took you long enough,” and stepped around me to the shower.
“So, Jay, how do you like your weapons?” Gilmer said.
“They’re great, and you? I can’t wait to show Leona and the rest.”
“Speaking of Leona...”
I waited. He didn’t say anything. “OK, I’ll bite, what about her?”
“How would you feel about me asking her out?”
I had been leaning down to put on socks. I tried to stand upright quickly and banged my head hard against the bed as the shock of his question hit me. “What?” I spat, rubbing the spot.
“You heard me.”
“Well,” I said, trying to calm myself down. “I guess you’re free to do what you want.”
“Oh, come off it, man!” Gilmer said, grinning and throwing a book at me, which I stopped in midair with telekinesis and threw back his way with a flick of my fingers. He dove out of the way. “I’m not going to do that; I’m trying to get you to admit you like her.” I shrugged sheepishly and he rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you tell her?”
I didn’t look at him and sighed heavily. “What good would it do? I mean, I’m on this impossible mission, with a good chance of dying. How is that fair to her? Plus she probably doesn’t even like me.”
Gilmer rolled his eyes. “For someone with the Ignis, you sure are blind. She’s in love with you already, man. I’ve seen her look at you, and I’ve seen you look at her. This should be a no brainer.”
“Even if you’re right – say I tell her how I feel and we get together. Then what? Can I even date someone on my own squad? And then we have to risk our lives to travel to the West Side, where we could die at any point. And then I have to fight in the tournament, where I have an even better chance of dying at any moment. Yet it’s a good idea to get involved with a girl, just to have her grieving in less than a year?” I gave Gilmer my most pitiful look. “I’ll ask again: how is that fair? How selfish would that be of me? I can’t hurt her like that, Gilmer. I won’t.”
“Life’s not fair, Jayton Baird. You should treasure all the good things that come your way, any time they come your way. And Leona is one of those good things. Wouldn’t it be better to have known love, than to let it sit in front of you unsaid? Unchecked? Unrisked?” I didn’t have an answer for him, and he shrugged. “Just my thoughts. Night, Jay.”
“Night, Gilmer.” But not even Leona could keep me awake for long after staying up all night, and I was asleep before Royn finished his shower.
We woke the next morning as early as Royn had threatened, ate breakfast in the kitchen, and were back at the metal wall by daylight.
“Well, I guess this is goodbye,” Leander said, as he started shaking hands. “Thanks for visitin’ me shop. Gilmer, don’t panic when you figure it out.”
“Oookay,” Gilmer said.
“Jay, keep your wits about you. And…think about what matches when you are out of options. It’ll lead the way,” Leander said as he got to me.
What the heck was he talking about?
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” I said.
“And Royn, tell Councilman Talco I’ll be there. Just give me time.”
“Will do, Smith. Thanks as always.”
“T’was nothing,” Leander said, though he looked pleased with himself. “You three get now.” As Leander spread his hands and pushed them down, a section of the wall in front of us sank into the earth. We quickly stepped through it into the forest, and the wall reappeared as soon as we were through.
“Odd things to say at the end,” I said, falling in line behind Royn, who marched off as soon as the wall went back up, Gilmer falling in line behind me.
“The old metalworker is a bit of a prophet,” Royn said. “You’d do well to remember what he said.”
“Will do, whenever I figure it out,” Gilmer said, and I laughed.
Royn led us for the rest of the day without much talking and no excitement, until the sun was just starting to hit the western horizon. “All right, I think that’s far enough. You ready to be back at Harlingon?”
We both nodded.
“Then let’s go,” Royn said, grabbing our hands, barely giving us time to take a breath before the blue light and pressure consumed us.
Chapter 33
Ugh. Emerging right at the base of the East Tower, I said, “Man, Royn, how do you do that all the time? My head is killing me,” I said, as we made our way to the familiar staircase that led to our room.
He shrugged. “You get used to it, I guess. I’ll see you two in the morning again for training – we still have a lot of work to do,” with a wave and a nod, he turned and walked away from us.
Watching him go, Gilmer asked, “Where do you suppose he lives?”
“Probably with the officers or something.”
We made it to the room, finding it surprisingly empty, so Gilmer and I hit the sack. I think that teleportation drained some of our power. I couldn’t tell you why, I just thought it did.
I didn’t move until wake up time the next morning, to a still empty room other than Gilmer, so we made our way to the training grounds. Weird. We got to the grounds. No Royn. Even weirder. So we walked out to the middle, where we saw a couple of Rangers talking. I thought about asking if they’d seen our group.
We’d brought our new weapons with us – Royn said they weren’t to leave our side anymore, that we were done with the trainings ones except in extreme circumstances.
Then the ground opened up, and we were falling. I reached out with my hand, then pulled inward, the earth responding as a rock bridge forming under Gilmer and me, bringing us to an abrupt stop.
Fire followed straight down at us in a huge plume; Gilmer put his hands together and reached out above his head, pulled them to the sides, separating the flame harmlessly to either side.
Energy was screaming from our left, a barrage of ice spears from the right.
“This is ridiculous,” I said, and grabbing Gilmer. “Earth Catapult!” and we were in the air. We had to get out of the hole – we were sitting ducks.
Of course we landed right in the middle of eight masked swordsmen, one of which was a huge freaking guy, so we drew our weapons and commenced to fighting. Parry, parry, thrust, thrust, fire burst, earth burst, mud slide – that was a new one. These people threw everything at us, but Gilmer and I kept our backs together and fended them off brilliantly. In my opinion.
Until someone snuck water through the ground, then brought it up and froze us in place. Didn’t see that one coming, so there we were, stuck at odd angles with only our heads out of the ice. Then the attackers stopped and laughed.
I had to yell to be heard. “You OK, Gilmer?”
“Yup, you?” came the reply from the other side of the iceberg, along with strained breathing and a slight shiver.
A loud crunch and the berg moved, evidently split in half, to where Gilmer and I were facing the same direction, right toward our a
ssailants, who now numbered nine, each with a mesh fencer’s masks.
And now that they weren’t attacking us, most of them looked pretty familiar.
“You guys did better than I thought you would,” said a familiar voice as red spikey hair emerged from one of the fencing helmets. Morgan. Explained the fire.
“Nice job getting away from the energy,” Euless said, slapping me gently on the cheek.
“And the hole,” Anton added.
Royn now joined the group. “Yeah, but they still got caught.”
Wait – I recounted. With Royn that made nine – Morgan, Euless, Celeste, Katy, Leona, Anton, and two others I didn’t know. The big dude stood on the far left.
“Who’s the big guy that got us with this stinking ice?” I asked.
“Well-reasoned, young Ignis,” said the tallest member of the group in front of us, removing his helmet to reveal long, snow white hair, the squarest face I’ve ever seen, and dark blue eyes. He had to be over nine feet. “I am Arp Bardwell, of the Helion,” he said, stepping forward, releasing the ice and shaking our hands. Well, I tried to shake his hand, but they were so big they wrapped up half my arm. “I see you have been trained well – it was only by joining forces with Anton that we were able to sneak the water past you.”
“How did you –” Gilmer started, but Royn cut him off.
“Later, Gilmer. You go with the group; I have to work with Jay for a while. Everyone, let’s meet up tomorrow, five a.m.,” Royn said. They nodded, turned and walked away. Anton gave the dude nod, Katy and Morgan flashed smiles. Leona waved. Gilmer shrugged and caught up, shaking everyone’s hand and laughing. Hey, how come he got to go with everyone else?
“Jayton,” Royn said. “Jayton!”
“Sir!” I shouted back.
Royn shook his head, pacing slightly. “You’d better get your head in the game, son. You have to go in the ring, remember? Not Gilmer, not anyone else – you. No one can help you when you’re in there. You’ve only got a few months left to train, not to mention the perilous journey to get there. You stand to lose your life, in addition to the fate of the free world. You might want to remember that. Get your head on straight.”
