“No. It’s just… a bit flashy. Makes me stand out too much.”
Sylene frowned and paused for a little bit. “Makes you stand out? What, are you trying to hide from someone?” she asked.
“Hide?!” What the heck kind of question was that? “No. I‒”
“That cuirass is the finest piece of equipment in this whole mountain. From this day forward you will wear it at all times, is that understood, recruit?”
“Yes, Grand-Master.”
“And what’s this I hear about you adopting some kind of desert creature?”
“It’s just a cat, Grand-Master.”
“It’s not a cat,” Saruk intervened. He was standing behind Sylene like a body-guard. “It’s a desert lynx.”
Sylene gave Aric a look of shock.
“He’s harmless,” Aric assured her. “Besides, Geric likes to hang out in the desert. He rarely even comes inside the fortress.”
“Yeah,” Ashur said, “but when he is inside, he likes to eat my sandals.”
Aric had to fight back a smile. “It happened once. And I punished him for doing it.”
“You punished him?” Sylene asked. “Let me get this straight. You named a desert lynx after a person and are trying to train it? Is that it?”
“I named him after my ancestor, Geric Auron, the conqueror of Saggad,” Aric replied.
“I know who Geric Auron was, that’s not the point, recruit! The point is a desert lynx is not a pet.” Aric was going to protest but Sylene raised a hand, silencing him. “I don’t care what you and your lynx do out in the desert, but he is not allowed inside my mountain, is that understood?”
“Yes, Grand-Master,” Aric replied, his eyes on the ground.
“And I better not hear about any missing goats from the pens or you’ll both find yourselves in serious trouble.” Without even waiting for a reply, Sylene turned and moved towards the next recruit, Trissa. A smile grew on her face. “Oh, I like this one,” she said. “There’s some fire in her isn’t there, Saruk?”
“I would say so, Grand-Master,” Saruk replied.
“Reminds me a bit of myself when I was her age,” Sylene added.
That managed to make Trissa grow a couple of inches taller.
“Let me guess,” Sylene said. “Akhami?”
“Cyrinian, Grand-Master. But my parents moved to Akham after the Purge.”
“Ah, Runium traders, I imagine.”
“My father was, yes.”
“I used to do Blood Runs before the Purge. Before I became…” She moved an arm around, indicating her study. “Maybe we did business back in the day. What’s his name?”
Trissa’s eyes narrowed. “His name was Pashet, Grand-Master.”
The smile on Sylene’s face faded. “I see. Forgive me, I shouldn’t have asked.”
“There’s nothing to forgive, Grand-Master.”
Sylene nodded solemnly and stood in silence for a bit, then turned and moved to Ashur.
“You, I remember well. I don’t get that many volunteers, after all.”
Aric and Trissa’s heads snapped, their eyes wide. Ashur was a volunteer?
“You know,” Sylene continued. “There are only three kinds of volunteers. The ones that come for the money; the ones that come for the glory; and the ones that are insane. The curious thing is, Dragon Hunting isn’t lucrative anymore, not since the Purge. So I wonder… exactly how crazy are you?”
“I… I just want to protect the Empire, Grand-Master,” he replied.
Sylene chuckled. “Of course you do.” She turned around and walked away. “But it doesn’t matter. You’re in the Guild now. Your past is gone. All that matters in your life now is the desert, this mountain, and your fellow Guildsmen. Nothing else. For now, however, the three of you must remain rivals. Saruk, if you’d be so kind.”
“With pleasure, Grand-Master.” Saruk took a step forward while Sylene leaned against her desk. “The next challenge will take place tomorrow. I like to call this one the Blood Raid, and it is quite simple. There are two crates filled with Dragon blood hidden inside two different caves in the middle of the desert. Two crates for three teams. Which means the team that fails to return to Lamash with one of them, loses. Out of the two teams that do return with the crate, the first one back wins.”
The Grand-Master picked up three pieces of parchment from her desk. “These maps contain the location of both crates,” she said as she handed one of them to each recruit. “None of you, or any member of your team is allowed to leave the fortress before dawn. At first sunlight tomorrow, the sentinels will sound the fortress’s alarm and the challenge will start. Any questions?”
Ashur raised his arm. “If we’ll be competing for the same crates, are we allowed to fight?” he asked.
The question made Aric shift his weight from one leg to the other.
“This is the Dragon Hunter’s Guild,” the Grand-Master said. “I’m pretty sure that, by now, you have all realized the risks you face.” She paused and looked each recruit in the eyes. “With that being said, however, you are all brothers and sisters nowand are expected to act accordingly. So, if that is all I‒”
“Excuse me, Grand-Master,” Ashur said, raising his arm once again. “But that does not answer my question.”
“I was exceedingly clear, recruit,” Sylene told him, her eyes narrowed. “If you failed to understand my words, then I believe that to be your problem.”
“Grand-Master,” Trissa said. “I disagree. I think that is my problem. Ashur here has nine people on his team. I have three. If he decides to beat my team into a pulp, there will be little I can do about it.”
“As I’ve told you, recruit,” Sylene said, “all of you should be familiar with the risks you face by now. However, if team Ashur’s conduct, or any other’s for that matter, is deemed to be… outside the boundaries of reason, well…” Her head twitched in a most sinister way. “They will surely find themselves taking a rather long walk around the deep desert.” She looked straight into Ashur’s eyes. “The Guild might be in desperate need of manpower, but it has no need for thugs.”
This time, it was Ashur who shifted his weight.
“Now, as I was saying before,” Sylene continued. “You’ll want to sleep so that you are well rested tomorrow, but if I were you, I’d spend some time tonight studying that map and planning a strategy. Oh, and one more thing. The crates we use to carry Dragon blood are big and heavy. You won’t be able to carry them on your backs like a pitcher. For that reason, on this challenge, you are allowed the use of horses, as well as carts and other tools like rope. Good luck, recruits.”
When Aric returned to the empty room above the mage’s library, there was no sign of either Leth or Clea. The fight between Leth and the stone slab seemed to be over, and the floor had clearly won, as the worn tip of Leth’s pickaxe indicated.
With the next day’s challenge swimming aimlessly in his head, Aric returned to the Main Tower and found his teammates on a balcony a few feet away from the Company’s quarters.
“They can’t be serious!” Clea shouted after Aric explained the mission. “Ashur’s team is bigger than ours and Trissa’s combined. They might as well just send him straight to the last challenge.”
“Blame Tharius,” Leth said. “He’s the idiot who lost the last challenge and gifted Ashur with six additional team members.” He was laying on the balcony’s parapet, one leg dangling outside the fortress.
“We just need to figure this out,” Aric said, indicating the map Sylene had given him. “There’s obviously a right way to go about this. I’m pretty sure that’s what she was trying to tell us.”
Like lightening, Leth stole the map from Aric’s hands and looked at it as if there was a bad history between them.
“One cave is considerably closer than the other,” Leth said. “So either you risk going for the first in an attempt to be faster and win, or play it safe and go for the second, more distant one. The problem is, if everyone decides to pl
ay it safe, the second cave becomes the risky one and vice versa.” He handed the parchment back to Aric and laid on the parapet once more, closing his eyes under the warm sunlight. “Basically, this is a dilemma. There’s no right answer. They’re just toying with us, as usual.”
“So you’re saying the best strategy for this is no strategy?” Aric asked.
“No,” Leth replied. “I’m saying that trying to come up with a strategy for this is as pointless as the pickaxe I left in the Mage Tower.”
That didn’t convince Aric. There had to be something about this challenge other than randomness. The previous challenges had been tests on crucial skills like desert survival, Dragon tracking, and stealth. So the question was, what exactly was being tested in this particular challenge?
“I need to go for a walk,” Aric said. “Think this through.”
“I’ll go with you,” Clea said, standing up.
“No, I’d rather go alone.” The words left his mouth before he even realized it. Had he just thrown away a chance to be alone with her?
What the heck is wrong with me?!
“Are you sure?” Clea asked. “It’s our job to help you. You don’t need to figure this all by yourself.”
“Yeah, I’m sure… It helps me think when I’m alone. I’m kinda used to it, really.” At least that last part was true.
“If you say so…” Clea said, sitting back down.
Awkwardly, Aric turned around and left, running up several flights of stairs until he found himself on a level he had never visited before. As soon as he started to walk around the empty hallways, the strange discomfort in his belly was gone.
He wandered around for hours. Lamash was so big, and the number of Hunters left was so small, that it was possible to roam around without bumping into anyone for ages. It was perfect, even better than the Citadel.
He tried to think about the challenge and the two caves dilemma but had no success. At first, all that came to his mind were the thousands of ways he could have handled the conversation with Clea better. He eventually decided that Leth was right, and he was an idiot.
The problem had no solution, which meant he could have taken the opportunity to spend some time alone with Clea. There were lots of amazing places with breathtaking views in the fortress where he could have taken her, like the small turret in the west wing near the abandoned quarters of the seventy second Company. The turret had a small vertical garden of purple desert roses. Someone took care of those flowers religiously, but Aric had no idea whom it was. What he did know is that it would have been the perfect place to take Clea, maybe even gift her one of the roses.
Hours went by and the honey colored sunlight pouring through the windows slowly turned red. Aric ventured into the inner corridors of the topmost levels and the thoughts about Clea and that infuriatingly weird challenge vanished, replaced by images of the countless Hunters that had once lived in these halls. Aric found rooms filling with sand and dust around dozens of weapon racks. Some had had their blades removed – probably the Glowstone ones – while others had become rusty and blunt. One room, in particular, caught Aric’s attention. It was nearly as wide as the dining hall downstairs, and its walls were draped with the tattered banners of what he assumed were extinct Companies. Each banner had its own set of colors, a number, and a name. Some names were hilarious, like the ninety eighth Company Drunk Mules. Others were a bit scary, like the nineteenth Company Polished Skulls.
Eventually, Aric reached the highest level in Lamash and immediately headed for the outer corridor. The view up there had to be unbelievable. Only then did he realize that night had fallen and the moon had climbed to the sky.
What time was it? A sudden growl from his stomach told him it was much later than he thought. Still, there was no point in wasting the view.
He took a deep breath. It was a cold, silver night. It reminded him of home, except instead of shining down on the thousands of rooftops of Augusta, the moon shone above the wavy dune tops. What has Fadan been up to lately? Aric wondered. And what about mother? She probably missed him like crazy…
Then, an image of his father, locked behind bars, came to his mind and the whole desert beneath seemed to spin. He gasped and took a step back, fearing he could fall.
Shaking his head as if to throw the thought away, Aric turned around and returned to the stairs. It was best not to think of those things.
He ran down the stairwell, not stopping on any floor. When he finally recognized the floor of the twenty third’s quarters, he was gasping and his head was swirling. He had to stop and rub his eyes just to make sure he didn’t stumble.
“Can’t sleep?”
Aric looked towards the voice, his sight blurry and covered with stars from the rubbing. It was Ashur. He was standing on a small balcony, the same where he had met Leth and Clea earlier that day. The bright moon behind him made him look like a shadow, but the contours of a bottle were clearly visible in his hand. Ashur took a sip, and black drops rolled down his chin.
“Just out for a walk,” Aric told him. “Helps me think.”
“Nah,” Ashur said. “You have trouble sleeping. You always had. At least, ever since you got here.”
“You’re drunk,” Aric said.
Ashur chuckled. “Not even close, half-prince,” he said. “It’s alright, though. We all have our demons. I get that. I bet you miss your palace or something.” He chuckled and took another gulp from his bottle. “At least, we have that in common.” He looked around. “I hate this place. The heat. The sweat. That freaking instructor.”
“Why did you volunteer then?”
A smile twisted Ashur’s face as if he was about to jump on an easy prey. “That must really mess with your head. The possibility that I might be a better person than you.” He chuckled again. It was a rough sound, almost like a growl.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Aric said.
Ashur’s smile disappeared in a flash. “I don’t answer to you, half-prince.” He brought the bottle to his lips.
“Maybe not yet,” Aric said. “But you will.”
Ashur drank three long, loud gulps and finished with a satisfied ‘Ah’. Then, slowly, he laid down on the parapet, just as Leth had done earlier, and closed his eyes. “Not even you believe that, half-prince,” he said, cradling the bottle. “Not even you.”
That night, Aric had a feverish mess of a dream. He was walking around Lamash, hand in hand with Clea. The best thing he had ever felt was blowing in his chest when all of a sudden the floor cracked and the ceiling began to crumble. Aric tried to run, but Clea held him down, squashing his hand so hard it turned white. He screamed that they needed to get out of there, but when he looked into her eyes, it wasn’t Clea after all.
Eliran!
The witches’ face was as gray as a corpse’s, a silent scream frozen on her cracked lips, and her hair bursting into flames.
“The skies will bleed!” she hissed.
Then the entire wall behind her collapsed, revealing the desert outside and a gigantic red Dragon falling from the sky, spewing fire towards them.
Aric woke up covered in sweat, breathing heavily. Around him, the rest of the Company was already up and getting dressed.
“Hey, you’re up,” Leth said. “I was going to wake you, the alarm should sound any moment now.”
Rubbing his eyes, Aric stepped out of his bunk. “You could have woken me sooner,” he said.
“It was really late when you came in last night,” Leth replied. “I figured it was better to let you rest.”
Leth was right. He still felt exhausted.
“Thanks,” Aric said. “We should hurry, though. Get our equipment.”
“No need.” Leth leaned into Aric and whispered, “I’ve taken care of it.” Then, he winked.
What was he up to?
“Alright…” Aric said, his eyebrows raised. “I think.” His stomach grumbled, reminding him he hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday’s lunch. “In that case, I
’ll rush to the dining hall and fetch some food for us. I’ll meet you guys by the main gate.”
With Leth’s approving nod Aric left, and a short while later he was arriving at the fortress’s gate with a satchel full of cinnamon biscuits, flat bread, and dried ostrich meat. He was just in time too, because the alarm had just been given, signaling the start of the challenge.
“What is that?” Aric asked, indicating a chest in Leth’s hands. “And where’s everyone else?”
“Oh, they just left,” Leth replied. “They were in such a hurry‒”
“Crap!” Aric smacked his own forehead. “We need to go!” He was climbing onto one of the horses but Clea held him back.
“Relax,” she said. “By the way, did you manage to come up with a plan last night?”
“Uh…” That was embarrassing. “No, not really,” he admitted.
“No plan?!” Leth shrieked. “What now?”
“I’m…” Aric’s eyes darted left and right as if a plan might be laying around somewhere. “Don’t worry, we’ll…”
“Stop it,” Clea was talking to Leth and laughing. “It’s ok, Aric. Leth had an idea.”
“You did?” Aric asked him.
“Indeed, I did.” Leth held up the wooden chest. “And here it is.”
“Huh… what is it, exactly?”
Instead of replying Leth opened the chest, revealing two finely gilded leather cases. “Ta-dah!”
“Tracker-Seekers?” Aric asked, confused. Then, his eyebrows jumped. “You didn’t.”
“Oh, yes he did,” Clea said amusedly.
“This is the key to the whole thing really,” Leth said. “Think about it. The only way to make the right decision in this challenge is if you know what cave your opponents chose. So… now we do.”
Looking exceedingly proud of himself, he placed the chest down and opened the cases. The Tracker arrows were gone. Only the Seeker necklaces remained inside.
“Well, yes,” Aric replied, scratching his head. “If they go for the same cave that solves our problem, but what if they don’t?”
“If they don’t, we ambush them on their way back,” Leth replied.
The Dragon Hunter and the Mage Page 23
