by Philip Blood
Lor instantly put them up into a complex pattern and she was not even watching her hands.
Mara nodded in acceptance of the answer. "And throw them?"
Lor spun and one of the balls flew toward the wood pillar support for the balcony. It embedded itself into the wood half way on impact from the hard throw.
"Ouch," Aerin said, picturing a person in place of the wood pole.
"I like them! Thank you, Mara," Lor said with a genuine smile. Lor glanced at Katek, "Care for another round?"
Katek smiled, "If you agree to just quarterstaffs this time," then he preceded Lor onto the sand.
A few minutes later Aerin winced at the hard impact as one of his friends hit the sand.
This time, it was Lor's turn to nurse a bruised arm and a bruised ego.
As weeks turned into months the friends practiced under Mara's tutelage. Katek was ahead of the other students in pure weapon's skill but had much to make up in areas of movement, tactics and combined attacks involving multiple skills and non-traditional weapons. But the gap closed as all of them thrived under Mara's instruction.
Katek's ponytail was now three inches longer, though barely reaching the collar of his tunic.
Aerin noticed that Lor's clothing had changed over the months. She still hid her gender from the others, but due to the changes of puberty, she had to wear thick baggy sweaters that went past her hips. Aerin couldn't imagine how the others missed the changes but decided that part of it being obvious was that he already knew the answer.
Everything seemed to be going on as normal, and Aerin didn't think anything could change his happy existence until the day came that tragedy struck.
Aerin stepped out of the door from his room headed for the morning warm-ups in the practice yard when he saw Lor leading Mara out into the street. This was not in itself all that remarkable, but Aerin caught the trails of tears on Lor's face, and he had never seen her cry in all the time he had known his proud friend.
Aerin hurried to catch up.
Two streets later he neared the swiftly moving pair. Aerin had never seen Mara moving with such energy, it was as if she had dropped away some veil, along with her cane, and ran down the streets with the fleet-footed Lor.
Aerin sprinted at full pace to keep pace.
"What's wrong?” he called when he was near enough.
Lor looked back in concern, but it melted away when she saw Aerin alone. She hesitated, but then said, "It's my mother, she's sick."
Aerin realized that he should have guessed the answer; he knew the way to Lor's mother's house quite well. Over the months, he had continued to visit her and purchase flowers so that she had money to see doctors. Lor had never found out.
The three of them ran on toward the house.
When they arrived Mara spoke to Aerin, "You wait here."
Lor and Mara went in leaving Aerin out on the front steps.
Aerin waited a few minutes, but he was concerned about his friend. Over the time he had gotten to know Lor’s mother, Aerin had become friends with Renda. He moved up the stairs and slipped in the door quietly.
Lor knelt by her mother's side and held her old hand. Lor's head was bowed and she was crying softly.
Mara stood back a step. It was obvious to Aerin what had happened, Mara had been too late.
But then Renda's eyes opened, and she spoke, "Who has come in?"
Lor looked up through her teary eyes and saw Aerin.
"It is my friend, Aerin, mother."
"Aerin, come here, boy," Renda said.
Lor looked puzzled as Aerin came forward. Mara said nothing but just watched.
As Aerin passed his teacher he asked her softly, "Is there nothing we can do?"
Mara shook her head sadly, but it was Renda that spoke, "It is my time, Aerin, such is the way of things, but in this time of passing I find something to rejoice. I did not know you knew my daughter, let alone that she calls you friend. In the months that you have been buying my flowers, and helping me pass the lonely days with simple chat, I have come to find you a worthy boy. It eases the fear I have for my daughter when I have gone. Will you be the friend to her that you have been to me?"
Aerin stood on the other side of the bed and looked up at Lor, who knelt with wide confused eyes at the things her mother was saying.
"I am already her friend, and will always be, Renda. It is through her that I came to know you."
Renda's voice was weak, "Take care of Loretta, Aerin, for me."
"I will be with her and be there for her anytime she needs me, I swear," Aerin promised.
Renda smiled, "Good! And an old woman thanks you once again for your kindness."
"It is not kindness Renda, it is love. Lor is my closest friend in the world."
"Loretta, my daughter, I ask you to take care of Aerin as well. I always knew what the boy was up to when he bought all those flowers from me. Aerin is a kind soul and this world does not treat his sort well. You are a strong girl, and he will need you."
Lor's tears fell on her mother's arm and she spoke through her tears, "I will take care of him, mother, but I think he is stronger than you think, and even more of a friend than even I ever realized."
"That is good daughter," Renda paused and her breathing became more difficult.
"Rest, mother," Lor enjoined her.
Renda regained her breath and then held her daughter's hand. "I have one other matter I wish to discuss, I know you have been hiding behind the cloak of a boy to protect yourself, but the time where that was possible is coming to an end. I want you to be yourself, not playing the part of someone else. You are my daughter, be proud of who you are, and know that I will be watching over you. I love you."
Her last words came out in a whisper as her life slipped away.
Lor stiffened with the realization that her mother was gone, and tried to hold onto her emotions.
Aerin set Renda's hand down on the worn sheet of the bed and moved around to the other side near Lor. His light touch on her shoulder broke the dam, and his friend fell into his arms and wept outright for the first time in her life.
After giving Lor some time to recover from her tears, they covered Renda’s body and prepared to leave. It was understood that Lor would be moving her things to one of the rooms at Mara's place. Mara assured Lor that she would take care of the funeral arrangements and that her mother would be placed in one of the graveyards outside of town. Lor still wept on Aerin's shoulder as they left the building, and so she didn't see Dono as he backed into an alley out of sight. Aerin saw him but made no mention of their friend's presence.
When they arrived back at the villa, Mara took Lor up to her room. Aerin decided to go and find Dono. The red-headed youth was not in his normal haunts, so Aerin went to the roofs. It took him two hours, but he finally found Dono on a high church roof overlooking the city.
Dono was a little startled when Aerin arrived and tried to hide his red-rimmed eyes from his friend.
"What's wrong with you?" Aerin inquired, sitting down next to him.
Dono looked away across the rooftops. "Nothing."
Aerin sighed, he knew Dono better than that. "Come on, spill it. I saw you watching from the alley at Lor's place."
"I followed you guys there," he admitted. "What happened?"
"Lor's mother died," Aerin explained softly.
"Oh," Dono said as if understanding something.
Aerin waited but Dono didn't add anything, he finally asked, "So, is that what has you upset?"
Dono looked down at his hands, wringing his fingers together.
"I don't know what is bothering me if you really want to know."
Aerin nodded, "I do want to know. When did this start?"
"After I saw you and Lor come out of that building. Lor was leaning on you and I knew that Lor is your best friend and… well, and you are Lor's best friend."
"Yes, that's true," admitted Aerin. "What's that got to do with anything?"
Dono looked ba
ck at his hands, "Well, you have Mara, and Lor has you and, well, I am just sort of a tag along. Nobody really cares about me. I don't have any family and..." he just trailed off.
Aerin considered what Dono was saying and the answers started to come to him. "Lor was your best friend, and now you feel I've taken him away from you," he stated to Dono.
Dono looked uncomfortable, and then sniffed and wiped his nose on his left sleeve. "That's part of it, I guess."
"Dono, there is something you have to understand. Being someone's best friend doesn't have to be exclusive. You are my best friend, too."
Dono looked up at Aerin, "But best means that one is above the other."
"True, and you and Lor and Gandarel are above all others to me, you are my best friends."
"You mean that?"
Aerin shoved him, nearly toppling his friend to the roof. "Of course, I mean it! Hey, have you ever known me to lie, even to save my skin?"
Dono thought about it, "No, but I could teach you."
Aerin laughed, "No doubt, you are one of the best liars I have ever met."
"Damn straight," Dono agreed, like it was a compliment.
Aerin grinned. "But there is more to this, Dono."
His friend's smile slipped. "What do you mean?"
Aerin face was now serious as well, "Mara is also your friend, and more than that, we are all family. When Lor lost his mother today Mara was there. She is taking care of things. Why? Lor is part of our family. And when you hurt your foot, Mara bandaged you, because you are part of our family."
Dono's face lit with an understanding and emotion he had been searching for since he was old enough to know he was abandoned. "Really, you think of me as family?"
"You are my brother and always will be," Aerin promised, putting a friend's arm around him.
"I feel better," Dono admitted simply.
"Good, I can't have all my friends down dragging in the mud today. Come on, we need to get back and be strong for Lor. I think that today's shocks aren't quite over yet."
Dono stood with him, but his face was puzzled, "What do you mean?"
"You'll see," he answered with a sly smile.
When Dono and Aerin arrived back at the house, Gandarel was there with Katek, though neither of the boys were practicing.
"What's up?" Gandarel asked when Aerin dropped down from the roofs with Dono.
"Have you heard about Lor already?" Aerin asked.
Gandarel shrugged, "Only what Katek told me, Lor's mother passed away."
"Has Mara come out since she took Lor into her room?"
"No, and I'm thinking that I better go back to the Seat soon," Gandarel informed him.
Katek looked up, and motioned with a nod of his head toward the upper balcony, "Here they come."
Mara and Tocor, preceded by a subdued Lor, came down the stairs to the practice grounds. Their teachers stood back as Lor approached her friends.
Lor stopped five paces in front of the four boys, with her eyes downcast. "I am here to tell you the truth, and to apologize."
Most of the boys were puzzled, but Aerin thought, I think she is finally going to do it.
"I would like to apologize for misleading you all, and letting you think I was something other than what I am. It has taken the last request of my mother, just before she passed away today, to give me the strength to come clean with you all. I beg your forgiveness for what I'm about to reveal."
"Oh just tell us, it can't be that bad," Gandarel stated impatiently.
Lor's face came back up with her familiar strength back in her eyes. With iron courage showing in the rigid set of her shoulders she looked at her friends. "What I'm about to tell you changes nothing about how you are to treat me. For reasons of my own I have led the life of a young boy, but I am not."
"What are you then, an old man?" Gandarel asked.
"No, I am a girl."
If Lor had told them that she was made of cheese, it wouldn't have shocked the boys any less.
"But..." Dono said, a hundred things flashing through his mind, answers fitting questions he hadn't even considered in the right light before.
Of them all, Gandarel was the only one angry. To his credit, he held onto his anger in deference to Lor's emotional state from the loss of her mother, but inside he felt anger and even dismay; Lor's skills in some areas were better than his. He had always had a hard time with Lor's abilities in acrobatics; her coordination and speed were incredible. Knowing that she was a girl made that knowledge even harder to take.
Katek frowned at this development as well, but he was not angry, just puzzled at reconciling a simple fact, which he immediately stated in his outspoken way, "Girls should not fight."
Lor bristled; her emotions were running on a short leash as it was. "I dumped you on your butt the first time you tangled with me, and I'll do it again if I hear such nonsense, and that includes any of you!"
This is what Mara had been waiting for, so she stepped forward.
"I am the teacher here, Katek, and I decide who I will teach. Lor is gifted in her own ways and tougher mentally than many of you at this point. In my youth, women fought just as much as men and were usually tougher, meaner and more ruthless. Just because the ‘sport’ of gladiators does not include women, doesn’t mean that a woman can’t fight. Don't insult Lor with your pity, or your overprotection."
Aerin spoke up at this point, "Yesterday we all considered Lor our friend and our companion in arms. Does learning that she is a girl change her into something new today? Her skills, her pride, her courage are still the same. If you think about it, this news doesn’t really change anything, she's still the same old pain-in-the-butt she's always been."
Lor gave him a look of mock anger, "Hey, I'm not sure if that helps or hurts."
Katek shrugged, he had said his peace.
Gandarel swallowed his anger and said nothing more.
But where Gandarel had felt anger, Dono felt hurt. He spoke quietly, "Couldn't you have told me? I was your best friend, once."
Lor’s forlorn smile was sad with the regret she felt for deceiving her original friend in the world, "You still are my best friend; my being a girl doesn't change that. I didn't keep this from you because I didn't trust you, Dono, I just wasn't ready to admit I was a girl to anyone," and Lor’s voice dropped to almost a whisper, “not even myself.”
Dono nodded in acceptance of her answer, though he did not completely understand.
Mara placed a hand on Lor's shoulder. "Now, young lady, you couldn’t wait to do this, so against my better judgment, I have let you get it over with now, however, it is time for you to keep your end of the bargain. I want you in your room resting for the rest of the evening."
Lor nodded dutifully, "Yes, Sen Mara."
Mara bid the four boys good-bye and took Lor to her new room.
Chapter Nine
"And I saw that for the son of the Warlord to be the savior of the world, he MUST stand prepared before the Wall of the Chamber without fear while the siege of his city still stands."
- From the Prophecies of Gold
Their quarterstaffs beat a frantic tempo of wood smacking wood, as the two boys circled around the courtyard. Gandarel smiled as he nearly scored on Aerin's right shin, but Aerin's riposte made Gandarel spring backward and wiped away the brief smile instantly. They were well matched.
"Enough for now," Mara exclaimed, as she got to her feet. She wore one of her simple dresses today, but her gray and black peppered hair was done up in a tight bun to the back of her head, a sure sign they were going out into the city.
Tocor smiled at the boys. "A good display, though you were suckered in on that opening, Gandarel."
Gandarel looked crestfallen, but when Aerin started to smile Tocor fixed his bronze gaze steadily on the young boy. "But you failed to finish your ploy off, Aerin, and so squandered your only advantage."
Aerin deflated.
Tocor smiled at them. "Still, I see some promise in you both; we
won't toss you in the street to be beggars, yet. I want you two to go through that whole sequence again slowly and tell me where you made your mistakes."
The two boys knew better than to argue with Tocor, so they started from the beginning.
A few minutes later Mara and Tocor walked out of hearing range to talk.
"You are working them hard today, what do you think of their skills?" Mara asked.
Tocor pursed his lips for a moment and his bronze irises were like whirlpools to his mind. "They are good, Mara."
"Just good?"
"The best I have ever taught. Even they don't know how good they are since they have only been measured against themselves and of course, Yearl and me, and you know our advantages."
"Yes, I concur; not only doesn't it surprise me, I expected it. You realize that it was inevitable? For almost three hundred years people have been gathering and believing in the coming of these children. The world doesn't know who they are yet, but most of the people in this world believe in their coming. There have never been humans with the talent and potential that these five youngsters possess. They pick up another weapon or discipline like a child picks up a game."
"When they finally discover their supremacy, will it go to their heads?"
"It's up to us to be there, and make sure that they learn to use their skills with restraint."
Tocor nodded. "I will do my best, but I worry, they are so young to know the ways of such deadly battle."
Before Mara could answer the two boys interrupted, they had finished going through their last bout in slow hits. Gandarel called out to Tocor.
"Are we going to do sword practice now?" Gandarel still favored the sword.
Mara headed for the door that opened out into the city streets from their courtyard. "Not today... come along, I have a new lesson for you to learn."
The two boys looked at each other in consternation, when she started talking like this they never knew what to expect, but they put up their staffs on the rack and quickly followed their teacher.
Aerin looked around but saw no sign of Lor, Dono or Katek. “Should we wait for the others?”
