Rise of the Champion
Sword of Kirakath Omnibus #1
by Ryne Billings
Books by Ryne Billings
The Sword of Kirakath
Through the Flames
The Shadows of Caldreth
The Blood of Kirakath
Prologue
Cain Fell drummed his fingers on the table before him as his eyes were trained on the piece of parchment that sat centered upon it.
His dark gray eyes took in the subtle penmanship of the words. A great deal could be learned about a man from studying the way he wrote.
He shuddered as he came to the conclusion that he did.
Word from him is never good, even when it sounds like it… like this.
Cain’s eyes rose from the parchment and scanned the contents of his large canvas tent. Everything seemed to be in place. His bed and the wooden chest next to it were untouched, as always.
Satisfied that there was no one hiding in the tent, his eyes returned to the parchment and he stroked his dark brown goatee. “So he finally wants to make his move, does he?”
The thought was not displeasing, though annoyance began to creep up.
I should’ve known he wouldn’t do it himself. He always hated getting his hands dirty.
He shook his head at his associate’s letter. He truly could not find it in him to be surprised by it, even a little. It was just his associate’s nature.
“Very well then,” Cain mused as he began to roll the parchment up. “The Black Crows will do your dirty work.”
I can’t say I know why you want us to go after such a backwoods little village, but that’s not a surprise. You always liked keeping secrets. Nonetheless, Kirakath will fall.
With that, Cain slid the rolled up parchment into his tunic and made his way to speak with his men.
Chapter 1
Caleb walked along the dry, rocky trail that had been carved through the dense woods south of the village of Kirakath. His left hand held his yew longbow firmly where black leather had been wrapped around it to form a grip. His right hand was steadied on the wooden shafts of the arrows that stuck out of the brown leather quiver that hung behind him from his waist.
As he walked along the trail, the sun shone through the trees to the west, casting light upon his short golden hair. The youth of seventeen years took his hand from his quiver and used it to block the sunlight from his sapphire eyes.
The subtle sound of footsteps brought his attention to the trail ahead of him. A smile made its way to his face as he saw his best friend, Gabriel. With his short black hair, his ever present set of dark clothes, and a sword at his hip, Caleb would have recognized him anywhere.
Caleb’s sapphire eyes met Gabriel’s gray ones as he walked up to him with a smile on his face.
“Your father told me you were out here practicing again,” Gabriel said, stopping a short ways from him. “Walk with me. I received some news today.”
A curious look appeared on Caleb’s face at that, but he nodded his head without any hesitation. There was no one he trusted more than Gabriel.
They walked alongside each other away from the village quietly. Silence reigned until they reached the clearing where Caleb practiced shooting.
Before long, the silence began to bother Caleb. It was unusual for Gabriel to say that they needed to talk, only for him to stay silent.
The pair came to a stop in the shade of the tingle tree that stood in the center of the clearing. Crude targets were cut into the trees surrounding the clearing, some of which still had arrows protruding from them. Most of the targets did not seem to have seen much wear, though that was to be expected. He was not the type to waste too many arrows, just for the sake of keeping his skills honed.
“It looks like you’ve added more targets,” Gabriel commented as he looked around the clearing at the targets.
Caleb had to suppress a snort as he shook his head. He had not done anything to the clearing in the last six months. Gabriel simply did not care enough about archery to pay attention to where Caleb practiced. “What’s on your mind?” he asked, making eye contact with his friend.
Gabriel shrugged. It was no secret that he found archery boring and had avoided Caleb’s practice range. It was also no secret that he always had a good excuse for avoiding it. After all, he was far from perfect at his craft, so there were better uses of his time. It seemed that Gabriel had no intention of starting the conversation.
Gabriel took a deep breath and looked to the ground before he started to speak. “You’re not going to like my news, but I need to be blunt or I’ll never get around to telling you. I’ve received a letter from Zabryan today. They’ve offered me a position in General Staloc’s army, and I’m going to accept it.”
Caleb’s eyes widened at that statement. He knew that Gabriel wanted to serve in the King’s Army after all that his father had told him about his time in service of the kingdom.
He also knew that Lucas Staloc was King John’s head general, but more than that, he was an old friend of his father’s back when he was still a soldier. They were supposedly best friends before his father’s term of service came to an end.
“Father helped you,” Caleb stated. There was no question or accusation in his words, but Gabriel looked as though he was stung by them.
“He might be your father, but he’s my teacher too,” Gabriel said with a heavy sigh. “Please don’t begrudge him for helping me in this. It’s no different than what your mentor would do for you.”
“You only ask me not to begrudge him,” Caleb said, surprised. “Why don’t you ask the same for yourself?”
“I don’t ask the same for myself because I don’t need it,” Gabriel said with a small smile. “You know you’ll forgive me before I even leave. You’ve always been like that.”
Caleb could not stop the small smile that appeared on his face as he heard his friend’s words. Gabriel had always been like the brother he never had, which made it impossible for him to be angry with the older boy.
“How long are you going to serve for?” Caleb asked with a heavy sigh.
Gabriel smiled and clapped him on the shoulder with his right hand. “It will just be five years. I’ll be back again before you’ve even found yourself a girl to marry.”
Caleb shook his head at that. Disregarding the mention of marriage, his thoughts were focused entirely on the term that Gabriel had chosen. Though it could have been longer, five years was a long time. He did not even know if Gabriel would be the same person that stood before him in five years time. “When do you leave?”
Gabriel’s expression turned somber at that question, which immediately told Caleb two things. The first was that it was a very important question, and the second was that he was not going to like the answer. He was right on both accounts. “I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning.”
“You can’t be serious!” Caleb nearly shouted. He knew that his life would be changing soon, but he had not expected it to change so much in such a short amount of time.
With a grim smile, Gabriel nodded his head. “I thought I’d have until the spring before I had to leave, but with the start of autumn only a few weeks passed, they’ve asked that I leave immediately so that I can begin my formal training.”
The thought of his talented friend undergoing formal training confused Caleb. After all, Gabriel had to be better than most new recruits. “They do know that you’re my father’s student, don’t they?” Caleb asked.
“They do indeed,” Gabriel confirmed. “From what your father told me, it is commonplace for every recruit to go through formal training under th
eir supervision, regardless of origin. I don’t know what to make of it, but it’s probably just a tradition or something.”
He nodded his head. He agreed with Gabriel’s assumption that it was just a tradition. It made sense to him. After all, his father had often told him that the King’s Army was rooted in tradition.
“So this is the last time I’ll see you for five years,” Caleb said quietly. The prospect of not seeing his best friend again for such a long time truly worried him. Kirakath had always been a small village, and Gabriel was the only person within five years of his own age.
“Don’t worry, my young friend,” Gabriel said as he draped an arm across Caleb’s shoulders. “You will get along without me. When I return, I expect to hear that you’ve become the greatest archer in all of Arcadia.”
Caleb smiled weakly at that. The knowledge that Gabriel did not really view archery very highly at all lessened the impact of his words.
“So how did your father take the news?” Caleb asked after a few moments of contemplation.
“I actually haven’t told him yet,” Gabriel said nervously.
Caleb nodded sympathetically as he heard that. He knew that Andrew Silver would not take that news very well. After all, he had lived in the village his entire life and was actually the village leader.
“I wish you the best of luck, my friend,” Caleb said with a light smile.
Gabriel groaned. “Okay, let’s head back to the village. I wish we could spend a little more time together before I leave, but I need to tell Father about this. Knowing him, he’ll insist that we spend the rest of my time here together.”
Caleb inwardly smiled at his friend’s attempt to make it sound as though he would rather do anything other than what was going to happen. For as long as he had known Gabriel, he had been very close to his father and had enjoyed spending time with him.
With that, Caleb picked up his longbow and they began their trek back towards Kirakath.
* * * * *
It took a little more than ten minutes to make the trip back to Kirakath, but it was much shorter than either of the two young men would have liked. Knowing that Gabriel would be leaving the village for five years made him wish it had taken much longer.
As he saw Kirakath before him, Caleb could not help but smile. He was not sure why it was, but something about the village always brought a smile to his face.
Despite the fact that Kirakath had been a village for close to five hundred years, it was more or less a collection of fifty houses that were all made of wood. The houses lacked paint of any kind, and there was no protective wall of any form around the village. Even so, Caleb could not see it in anything but a positive light.
“Well, this is where we part ways for now,” Gabriel said as he gave his friend a small smile.
Caleb nodded. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
He stood there as Gabriel walked towards his house to deliver the news that would surely shock his father.
Caleb exhaled a deep breath as he began to walk towards the other side of the village.
Before too long, he arrived at the simple wooden house that he had lived in all his life.
Entering the house, he saw his mother sitting at the table near the fireplace. The smell of soup cooking filled his nose.
“I didn’t think you would be home already,” she said with a kind smile as she rose to her feet. “Your father thought you’d be with Gabriel until we forced you to come home.” A mixture of amusement and sadness could be seen in her sapphire eyes.
“I thought about it,” he said with a smile of his own. “He needed to tell his father about his plans though.”
She walked over to him and patted him on the shoulder. “You’re a good friend, always putting Gabriel before you without complaint.”
“What do you expect? I am your son,” Caleb replied with a smile.
“That you are,” Sophie said with a radiant smile. She turned her attention back to the fireplace and went to stir the soup. “Your father decided to visit Andrew so that he could be there when Gabriel told him about it. Your father likes to help out however he can, after all.”
Caleb nodded his head in agreement with that assessment. “Mother, can I ask you something?”
“You can ask me anything,” Sophie reassured him.
“Do you think Father would have been proud of me if I had chosen to follow in his footsteps?” Caleb asked as he looked away, slightly ashamed to ask such a question aloud.
“Your father has always been proud of you,” Sophie said with the ever present smile on her face in full force. “He has every reason to be proud of you. You’re a great person, and you did not complain at all when your father insisted that you at least undergo some basic combat training back when you started your apprenticeship as a hunter.”
“He just seems so proud of Gabriel,” Caleb said with a sigh.
“Your father’s a complicated man,” Sophie admitted. “You only see him when he praises Gabriel, but he has repeatedly told me how proud he is of you when you aren’t around.”
“Really?” Caleb asked. He had never been given that impression before.
“Of course,” she said with a sharp nod. “Now, why don’t you get washed up. Dinner’s getting close.”
Nodding eagerly, Caleb left the kitchen to do just that. It seemed that it had always been easier to talk to his mother than his father.
Chapter 2
“You look ready,” Caleb said as he approached Gabriel the next morning. They were at the start of the southern trail with Gabriel’s black mare next to him.
“I am,” Gabriel said with a soft smile as he turned and faced his best friend. Leaving his mare where she stood, he approached Caleb and held out his arm.
Returning the smile, Caleb clasped Gabriel’s outstretched forearm with his right hand.
Gabriel returned the gesture with a silent nod.
“It seems that you two have decided to say your farewells before I could even show up.”
The two teens broke contact and turned to face the person who spoke.
Gabriel’s eyes brightened at the sight of the man before them. Dressed similarly to Gabriel and with the same color hair and eyes, Andrew Silver looked like an older version of his son.
Caleb’s eyes were not on Andrew though. They were instead on the man that was walking in their direction about thirty yards behind him.
Clad in brown leather boots, lighter brown pants, and an off-white tunic, he looked as imposing as an armored warrior. His father had always given off that impression. It was not much of a surprise though. Michael Sullivan was the only professionally trained warrior in the village, after all.
“Hello Father,” Caleb greeted with a smile. His father simply nodded in return, a hint of approval in his eyes.
Andrew glanced over his shoulder at Michael, allowing Caleb to see a hint of a frown trying to form.
I doubt he’s happy with Father. It was easy to understand where he was coming from in Caleb’s mind. He had never been pleased by Gabriel’s desire to join the King’s Army.
“It’s good to see you before I go,” Gabriel said, not noticing the tension between his father and his mentor.
“I could not let you leave without seeing you off,” Michael replied as he stopped next to Andrew. “We will all miss you.”
“I will miss all of you as well,” Gabriel said as he walked up to Michael and shook his hand. He then turned and gave his father a brief hug.
“Good luck on your trip,” Andrew said quietly when the hug was broken. “Be sure to write every once in a while, and we will see you when you return.”
Gabriel nodded before turning around and walking back to his mare. Stepping in the stirrup and swinging his leg over the horse’s back, he sat in his saddle. With the reins in hand, he let out a soft and nudged the mare into a trot. He did not look back until he was well out of sight.
Caleb’s eyes never left the trail, even after Gabriel was out of sight.
“Are you going to stand out here all day?”
Caleb’s head jerked to the side as his father caught his attention. He mentally noted that Andrew had already left.
“Sorry,” Caleb said softly with a noticeable inclination of his head.
“There’s no need to apologize, my son,” Michael replied in an even softer voice than he normally used. “Your best friend did just leave, and you know you won’t see him again for five years. I cannot blame you for being distracted.”
Caleb was unsure how to process his father’s words. They were quite unexpected. It was a side of his father that he had not seen in a while.
Rise of the Champion (The Sword of Kirakath Omnibus #1) Page 1
