“Tell us about the room and the men in it.”
That was something he could do.
“The room is on the fourth level of the palace, some hundred yards into the cliff from the main stairway. It’s about fifty feet square with a very high ceiling, at least forty feet high. There are five ways to access the scaffolding that crosses the room at the upper levels: three ropes, a metal ladder and a climbing wall. There are two levels of bridges that span the distance from wall to wall; the first is at about twenty-five feet, the second is almost to the top, maybe thirty-three feet. They are made of wood and metal and are wide enough for only one person, except for one at the second level, which is merely a beam. The ceiling has handholds build into it to simulate rock climbing; two appear to be broken. There are two vents in the wall, across the room from each other. The one on the wall above the door we entered in brings in the fresher air, although it’s not very pure, so I assume it is a long way from the outside. The second vent must go deeper into the palace. The walls...”
“Okay, tell us about the Blades,” prompted Rend.
“There were ten men in the room, including yourselves, plus Blade officer Leandra and one other in this room...”
“One other?” asked Leandra.
“Yes, a Kin man was here whose scent leads to the door behind me. His scent is fresh, some ten minutes old, I’d guess; there’s sweat, some hair oil, linen cloth, soap, his personal scent, some kind of masculine...”
“That’s enough. Very impressive. What about the others?”
“Ten men in similar dark blue uniforms, three with boots, two with soft shoes, five with another kind of shoe. One, Durn, didn’t have a belt. His stuff was tied to his pants with strings; the rest had belts, although one guy’s belt was tied differently when I came in, but tied the same as everyone else’s when he left. Three shirts crossed in the front and the rest were solid tunics, draped down. Only two guys had dark blue scarves on their heads. One had a strange hat I’ve never seen before, kind of pointy on three sides. They all carried at least one visible weapon on them, except for Rend; I detected hidden weapons on five of them. Mostly they had guns or knives of different styles. Two guys had some kind of throwing weapons strapped to their chests, arms and legs. One guy had some needle things in his hair. He was one of the few that didn’t have a dagger; he was standing by a long staff, though...”
“Anything important strike you about the men?”
“Well, one guy has a leg injury, sounds like an old one; Creed favors his right side, and might have problems with his shoulder, too. Two guys seemed nervous, sweating and agitated. One wasn’t a Blade, I don’t think...”
“Why?”
“Well, he didn’t laugh with the team, and he was standing with two other guys, but he wasn’t with them. He did have a visible stance, though, so I’d place him with the military, just not with you guys. Also, his uniform smelled like mine, fresh.”
“Could you name them?”
“I can name you guys, and, um, Ma’am, as well as Creed, Durn, Yemin, and Lex; one guy was called two different names, so I’m not sure about him, either Scold or Pride, and the others were not named.”
“Anything else?”
“I can tell you what groups hung out together to watch the sparring and what men were in which group when they left to go on their assignments.” He paused, thinking, before saying, “That’s about it, except for the boring things, like what they probably ate and where they sat or stood, stuff like that.”
“How exactly do you know that’s unimportant to me?”
Startled, Scythe focused on her. His calm frayed at the edges. He swallowed nervously before answering, “I don’t.”
“That’s right. I think that’s enough for now, Scythe,” Leandra told him, her face revealing cautious admiration for a quick second, before transforming into annoyance. Scythe, starting to feel the slow return of his body’s many complaints, followed her eyes to look at Rend and Smoke. With shameless pride, their faces boasted wide smiles.
“So,” she accused them with a narrow glare, “you’re taking the whole team with this little scam?”
Smoke grinned, “Yup, gonna make us a tight little bundle, thanks to a few years of preparation from long ago.”
Rend joined in, equally pleased, “And time off to boot; that was genius.”
“Yeah, I added that in last minute, like it?”
“You know I do.”
She interrupted their mutual appreciation society meeting, “Well, where you guys are concerned, it’s ‘Buyer Beware,’ so I won’t interfere. Anyone stupid enough to bet against you two deserves whatever they get, or lose, in this case.” She nodded in Scythe’s direction, “But, as the two weeks come to a close, and our boys start worrying about paying up, you’d better keep an eye on your friend here. Fifty is a lot for some of these guys...and the Human thing won’t help either.”
Smoke nodded, putting his arm around Scythe when he sent him a panicked look, “Don’t worry, Rend and I know how to protect our investment. Besides, this way, the team has to give him a chance, instead of just writing him off from the start.”
“Or shutting him down,” added Rend.
“True.” She addressed Scythe, “I remember when the monkey brothers here started with us. They were about your age, isn’t that right?”
She looked to Rend, who nodded, replying, “We were fourteen and fifteen.”
“Right, and they learned fast and worked hard, quickly making a name for themselves...a couple of names, if I remember...”
Scythe looked at his friends, who were sporting mischievous grins.
“I could not for the life of me fathom why Keyrin had put them in charge of working with a little kid, but, as an instructor, I saw immediately the benefits of their added practice. It was obvious that by teaching you, they were learning faster than they would have by going home at the end of the day. But, I still didn’t understand why he would even notice a young child, or attend to his education personally like that. It was unheard of. Now that I’ve met you, though, I think I might see something of what he saw in you. You have a photographic memory, right?”
Scythe nodded, even though it was more complicated than that.
“I thought so. The military does take in young men as early as thirteen, but they are usually spoiled, or distracted easily, or just stupid on a universal level; nearly all of them get sent to a junior program where they do preparatory training until they are older. A very few go into standard training. We’ve never had a Blade trained at thirteen.”
She paused, expecting a response, but Scythe didn’t have one, so he sat silently.
“Even with Keyrin’s ‘It’s not a request,’ I was hesitant, until I heard it was the same youth from Smoke and Rend’s early training. There is no doubt that you are in pathetic shape, but that is easily remedied with a few months of hard work; what can’t be patched up is poor mental aptitude. For now, I’m satisfied that, in that area at least, you will not fail miserably, dragging us all down into a pit of humiliation and degradation.”
His friends laughed openly, and Smoke reached over to grip Scythe on the arm reassuringly, which, aside from stinging his sore muscles, did very little to dislodge the butterflies in his stomach.
“That’s a joke, Scythe,” she prompted.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Alright, get out of here. Report here at seven tomorrow morning, Scythe.”
“Thank you, Ma’am, um...Officer...”
“It’s Leandra, now shoo.”
They got up, passed through the training room and, after a few turns, traveled down a long corridor that ended in a large, reinforced door. They exited the palace to find themselves in one of the side canyons where the military had set up an extensive outdoor training grounds. At a tent set up near the wall, Scythe was equipped with a pack. Then he began his run along the canyon floor like he had done first thing in the morning, with Smoke and Rend alongside him.
; The two men, easily taking up Scythe’s slow pace, lost a little of their lighthearted manner, scanning the terrain and people they passed as they ran.
“See him?” whispered Rend so quietly only the three of them with their excellent hearing could pick it up and only at such a short distance.
Looking around, Scythe, saw several men doing various activities, none of which seemed threatening. Two men were repairing some kind of generator, a group of soldiers were running drills on a larger version of the catwalk frame he had seen in the training room, three separate groups were doing calisthenics, and two soldiers that were faced in the other direction talked and pointed at a clipboard between them.
“Yeah, they didn’t waste any time.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have shielded him so quick with the bet.”
“Maybe he’d already be dead.”
“Okay, you guys are freaking me out.”
“Sorry, we were hoping it wouldn’t be this bad, but it is. So, now we’re dealing with it.”
“Are we talking about the same thing?” asked Scythe, hoping that he was wrong.
“We are, if you’re talking about your imminent death,” answered Rend, immediately crushing Scythe’s hopes. “When you meet with Keyrin, you’ll know why. There are a lot of Kin around here who want something Human to mangle these days. You are the only thing close, now that the raids are off.”
“But he said...”
“What Keyrin believes is not what everyone believes, especially when he’s not around. Remember that.” Rend held Scythe’s eyes until he nodded his understanding.
They ran in silence for a while until Smoke said, “Okay, this is a short run, so let’s turn back.”
“Yeah, I don’t like the look of that either.” They turned around, heading back down the canyon, but not before Scythe got one more look at the truck parked along the canyon wall with a few soldiers apparently taking a break in the shade nearby. One raised his hand at Scythe, an acknowledgement which a few others around him snickered at; most of the soldiers just watched without moving.
Scythe’s body had tensed up, making each step a jolt to his sore muscles. He felt extremely vulnerable suddenly. His eyes darted around and he checked every shadow on their way back to the main camp. Finally, he said, to fill up the silence that threatened his diminishing calm, “You guys could have told me about the bet.”
“No way, that’d be cheating. While we don’t mind stacking the odds in our favor, we won’t cheat outright.” Smoke paused, then asked, unsure, “Would we?”
Rend thought for a minute, “Umm, probably not, but our definition of cheat might be looser than someone else’s.”
“True. Anyway, the bet was only on if we saw the opportunity, and I did, when Creed started in on you. We know you’re going to be a great Blade, and we also knew you’d look like crap today, so, we were open to taking advantage of the situation.”
“How do you know I’ll be good enough?”
“Because we know you from long ago.”
“And because we’re gonna make it happen.”
“If you live.”
“Well, yeah...if you live.”
“Okay, I don’t think it’s that funny.” Scythe changed the subject, “These aren’t Blades here...”
“Nope, these are the troops, standard military. The Blades won’t touch you, ‘cause of the bet. They can’t win if you’ve been killed. You have to quit, or die trying.”
“I’m not gonna do that,” said Scythe, hitching up his pack and hoping it was true.
“That’s right.”
“Easy money.”
Rend said after a quiet moment, “You know, if you die trying to be accepted into the Blades, you’ll earn some grudging respect.”
“Absolutely.”
“But, we’ll be pissed.”
“Yeah, hopping mad.”
“You guys are...”
“Impressively built?”
“Handsome?”
“Loyal?”
“Innovative?”
“Nice one.”
“Thanks.”
“No, you guys are in-stinking-sane,” interrupted Scythe. When he was young, their manner of speaking had been untraditional, but it had become even worse since then.
“Oh, just that?”
“That goes without saying, especially since we’re tying ourselves to a gigantic target like yourself.”
“Might as well kill ourselves now.”
“Well, after lunch.”
“Good thinking, after lunch. Speaking of which, here, take this.” He handed Scythe two dense meal bars. “You are needing some protein and salt right now. These are available at supply so make sure you stock up. You are going to be needing to eat correctly if you’re going to win Ass Kicker of the Month.”
“Thanks,” said Scythe, tearing into the bar and accepting with a nod a bottle of water. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“I...I’m not sure how to say it…” He was hesitant about bringing it up, because it might upset them, and he didn’t want to do that. On the other hand, it was like a little bee buzzing around him that he wanted to wave away whenever they talked.
Their habit of speaking in half and sometimes outright lies was something that he had become used to when he was younger, because they had been doing it for as long as he knew them. As a child, he had just assumed it was normal behavior for them. After all, he had been very sheltered and had been exposed to few people; it was a small sample to build an opinion of what ‘normal’ was. Now that he was older and more experienced, he had some questions about the things he used to accept blindly.
“You probably shouldn’t, then.”
“Yeah. You’ll make a mess of it for sure.”
They dropped off his pack and headed back into the palace, this time making for their rooms on the second level.
“Is it about the rumors you’ve heard about us, because, we didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“Nope.”
“And even if we wanted to throw a barbecue on one of the restricted balconies, we’d never find a way up there past the ingenious Red Guard.”
“No way. They are just too good for the likes of us. Besides, to get there, you’d have to do something crazy, like maybe repel your way down from the top of the cliff, and we don’t have equipment like that.”
“...that you will ever find on us.”
“And we don’t have any illegal fireworks either.”
“Nope. Not anymore.” Smoke grinned at Scythe and then said, patting him companionably on the shoulder, “Just ask, Scythe.”
Feeling the weight of that friendly gesture even after Smoke’s hand was gone, Scythe really didn’t want to take the chance of offending them. That--and the fact that his throat had become tight suddenly--made him shake his head. He decided to ask them another time, or maybe he’d just figure it out himself.
Whatever the reason for Smoke and Rend’s choices, it was clear that what he had been told as a child about lying wasn’t universally believed among the Kin like he had thought. Maybe it was like the Human tradition of playing imaginary games with their kids. Maybe he was being naive about it because he had left the Kin before his parents had had a chance to reveal the whole picture to him.
But, thinking about his father and the sincere way he had always spoken to him, Scythe had a hard time believing that the man had lied to him about that. His father was adamant that a person’s word was his connection to the world. A false word was the sign of a tainted character.
Maybe how close someone followed the Kin beliefs was just a personal choice that each Kin made. Scythe nodded to himself. That had to be it. He had seen proof of that already, in his acceptance by the Blades and by Keyrin. No one who followed the Kin ways treated a halfblood as well as they had. So why was he so slow in understanding that lying, too, was something that could be taken lightly?
His shoulder hitched up involuntarily at the
thought. His father’s teachings were too strongly a part of him. It wasn’t right, not for him, anyway. Even though Smoke and Rend’s particular habits seemed harmless, even entertaining, it wasn’t something he was going to be able to do easily, not with his father stinging him like that all the time.
As they approached his room, Scythe asked, “What is that smell?”
Rend’s brows pinched together, considering, then smoothed out as he glanced over at Smoke and grinned.
“Snake,” replied Smoke, shaking his head.
“I think it’s more accurate to say snakes,” added Rend. “I’ll get a bag.” He crossed to their room and went inside.
Smoke put his hand out to stop Scythe from entering his room, “Wait. Congratulations, you’ve had your first assassination attempt.” However, instead of looking concerned, he looked almost relieved.
Scythe just stared at him, then at the door to his room. “In my room?”
Halfblood Heritage Page 9
