Gods Of Blood And Fire (Book 1)
Page 20
The night had been a long one. Kian and Endra found a place to sit under the branches of a large oak tree, its leaves full and green after the hard rain. Endra thought the land around the little creek bed was a lovely spot. It would have been a good place to build a home or maybe a farm. The young woman knew she would never lead that kind of life, though sometimes she daydreamed about it.
Endra was glad K’xarr and the others had left for the day. She wanted to talk to Kian alone, and this was the perfect chance. Endra had planned out what she was going to say, but her nerves were getting the better of her. So they sat in silence for a while.
Her hands started sweating, she wiped them on her pants. Why was she so flustered? She needed to get this over with. She didn’t know when she would get another opportunity not have to worry about any unwelcome intrusions. It took a while for her to work up enough courage to do it but finally the words came out.
“Kian, I want you and I to be friends. I haven’t had a friend since I left my village and you have done more for me and the children in the short time we have been together than ... well anyone we have ever met.”
Kian stared down the dry creek bed, watching two squirrels play under a walnut tree. “I’m already your friend, Endra. I thought you knew that.” She put her hand on his shoulder and Kian turned and looked into her eyes, it made her forget what she was going to say. For a moment she wanted to kiss him and tell him she would like to be more than just his friend. What the hell was wrong with her? That could not happen under their circumstances, she had to stay focused.
“I know that you would like more from me, but it cannot be. I will be leaving soon and there are other reasons too, like…” She had known what she was going to say now with him so close she had forgotten everything.
“Well, I just think we should be close friends, that’s all.” She wished he didn’t make her get so tongue-tied. She had sounded like an idiot. Endra hoped that he didn’t think it had to do with what he was. Though she had been taught to view the whole Elven race with contempt, Endra had found out for herself that they were no different than humans, at least Kian wasn’t.
“I know what you are trying to say and I understand. I haven’t asked anything from you other than friendship and I had no intention of doing so. I’m sorry if something I have done caused you distress.”
Kian stood up and started to walk away. “You should get some rest, Endra. I will take first watch.” She watched him walk up out of the creek bed to where he could have a good view of the road.
Endra knew she had embarrassed and hurt him by blurting out she knew he was enamored with her. Then she exceeded that folly by telling him that she had no intention of returning those feelings. Endra thought about what she had said. Had she made it sound as if he was not worthy of her because of his race?
She was such a fool, she should have kept her mouth shut. Kian never would have pushed her for anything other than friendship. Instead of making things better, she had made a mess of the whole thing.
Endra didn’t know much about social etiquette, she’d had little contact with people since her village had been destroyed. She always just followed what her heart told her and she was blunt for a woman. This time she hadn’t listened to her feelings and she had done the wrong thing. What she had said to Kian had been out of fear, but fear of what? Was it her own feelings she was afraid of?
The rest of the day passed with little discussion. Both of them had napped. That night they ate a quiet dinner of potatoes and dried meat. “Are you going to tell us a story tonight, Kian?” Tressa asked.
“You must ask your mother.” Kian had gotten into the habit of telling the children stories to keep them entertained.
“It’s my turn to say what story we want to hear,” Payton said firmly.
“You are right, Payton, I believe it is you turn.” Kian looked at Endra for approval.
Endra smiled. “I would like to hear one too and I think it should be about you, Kian.” She smiled at him and sat down by the small fire with them.
“Tell us how you became a warrior, Kian, that’s what I want to hear,” Payton said.
I will tell you about my master, if that’s okay?”
“Was he a warrior?” Payton said with his eyes narrowed. The little boy always thought someone was trying to trick him.
“Yes, he was a very great warrior.”
“That will be fine then.”
“Very well, let’s see. When I was a young boy I sailed away from my home all alone on a ship called the Sea Devil. I had been told by my first teacher that there was a master swordsman that could train me, but he lived far away in the mountains. There was no harbor where I was going, so the captain of the ship dropped me off on the coast as close as he could get to the Blue Dagger Mountains.”
“How did you get off the boat?” Vinsant asked.
“Well, the captain said the coastline was too rocky and the water to shallow for his ship. He feared the keel would drag the bottom. He told me I would have to swim to shore.”
“Were you afraid, Kian?” Tressa asked with her pretty dark eyes wide with wonder.
“Yes, I was, but the ship’s captain ordered me to swim or stay on board. So into the water I went. After swimming a long way, I climbed up onto the rocky beach shaking all over, my legs were completely spent.
“So I sat down on the beach and let the sun dry me out and watched the sails of the Sea Devil vanish on the horizon. I stayed there awhile just watching the ocean. The water was much more beautiful than where I came from.
“I finally decided I better be about finding this sword master, his name was Gildor Singollo. Now at thirteen, this seemed an easy task, my former teacher had drawn a map for me. After all, how hard could it be to find a valley in the mountains?” I had no supplies and no weapons, and these were the first mountains I had ever seen.
“What a fool I was, even with my former teacher’s directions, it had been quite an undertaking. It took over two months to even find the right valley, and I almost died several times looking for the place. If it had not been for luck and a few kind people in some of the mountain villages, I never would have made it.
“Those two months had taught me a lot about surviving and never giving up. I wanted to be an Elven warrior more than anything and I wasn’t about to let the mountains beat me. Never surrender children and never quit, if you want something bad enough and you work hard, you will get it.”
Vinsant closed one eye and looked at the Half Elf. “Did your master live in a cave?”
“No, Vinsant, he lived in a beautiful valley. It was a very strange place for a boy who had been raised in the streets of Thieves Port. I will never forget when I first walked down into that valley or the first time I laid eyes on Gildor.
“He was high up in a tree standing on a limb with his hands behind his back looking out over a beautiful lake. Beside the lake sat his small cabin. I walked over and looked up at the old man. I hoped I had the right place; he didn’t look like a sword master.
“I waited for him to speak, but the old man said nothing. So I spoke first, confused by the man in the tree I said the first thing I thought of. ‘What are you doing up there?’
“The old man replied, ‘Not falling.’ I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I sat down and waited for the old man to come down. It had to be soon, he couldn’t stand like that for long, so I thought.
“When night fell the old man was still standing in the tree. I was so weary from my travels that I fell asleep.
“The sun had awakened me the next morning reflecting off the calm lake water. I looked up and the old man was still standing in the tree.” Kian feigned a look of surprise that made the children laugh. “I couldn’t believe he had stood there all night. I was so curious that I had to ask, ‘What are you still doing up there?’
“The old man looked straight at me and said, ‘I have already answered that question once. Have you forgotten or are you just slow witted?’
“Once the old man had swung down from the tree I gave him my old teacher Elu’s letter, and after reading it he told me that he wasn’t taking any new students and hadn’t had one for two hundred years.
“He started to walk away saying something about Elu thinking everyone was a progeny. I ran up behind the old man and told him I thought he should know Elu had died. Gildor did not speak again for hours. I waited, not knowing if I should stay or go. I was very upset. I had come so far and nearly died in the mountains only to be turned away. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
“How did your old teacher die?” Payton interrupted.
“He was very old, it was just his time to pass on.” Kian looked at Endra, she didn’t speak but he could tell she had grown interested in his story.
“Finally, Gildor spoke. He said he would train me as a last favor to his old friend. He told me that I must understand there was only one weapon that I would be trained with and the sword would become my life.
“Gildor was tall for one born to the Elven race, almost six feet. His hair was snow white and he even had wrinkles on his face. Only very ancient Elves have wrinkles. So I knew he had to be very, very old, but you could not tell it when he had a sword in his hand.
“I had never seen anything so graceful as Gildor going through his morning engagements. That’s what he called his morning training. He used to say, ‘No morning engagements until one has their morning movements.’” The children giggled at that, but Endra looked at him with one corner of her mouth turned in a half smile and shook her head. “You are all smarter than me, it took me days to figure out what the great master meant by that.
“When my training began I thought that the old man was mad. For a year all he had me do was run or clasp heavy rocks in the palms of my hands and hold my arms out to the side for as long as I could. I did all manner of exercises when we began. There was the acrobatics, at least that had been fun. Then there were the strange things. Squat on my haunches for hours, stand on one foot and hop from first light until dark. I did all kind of things that just seemed insane. He would tell me, ‘Balance, Son, is the key to victory.’
“I was not even allowed to touch a sword for the first year. After that it had been only a wooden one. I had already spent years training with Elu, but I found I knew nothing. Gildor taught me things I thought impossible to do with a sword. ‘Become the blade, Kian, and let the blade become you.’ I heard that so many times I thought about it all day and dreamed about it at night. For five years that is all I did. I never left the area around the cabin, even when Gildor went to buy supplies from the mountain villages. I stayed and practiced, and the years just seemed to slip by. Kian realized he was telling Endra his story as well as the children, he wanted her to know what he was and who he was. It was Gildor more than anyone that had shaped him. His old master had made him the man he was.
“When I was eighteen I was given a real sword and the sparing began. It was terrible, the old man made me look foolish day after day. At the end of the day’s training Gildor always taught me what I had done wrong and how to improve.
“Many nights after we ate supper, Gildor told me stories about Elu or the old Elven Empire, or he would show me old maps and tell about the human Kingdoms. He even taught me to read and write as well as history and mathematics, but what the old man never talked about even once was the Elven wars or his own exploits.
“Once I had asked about the wars and the Reaper. All he would say was, ‘I couldn’t beat death, Son, no one can.’ I could see the pain in the old man’s eyes. The awful memories he must have. I never asked him about the wars again. In the beginning, we had been master and pupil but as the years went by we were more like a father and son.
“I grew to love the old man. He had taught me everything I know right there in that little valley. It was a beautiful place, nothing like Thieves Port. My old home was becoming just a memory. I hadn’t forgotten the family I had left behind and thought of them often, but the sword had become my here and now. The years seemed to pass by one after the other before I knew it I was twenty-five.
“I could hold my own with Gildor now. At thirty, I was beating him about half the time. By the time I reached fifty, I could beat the old man easily every time we spared.
“One day after I had finished my morning swim in the lake I got out of the water and sat down in the grass beneath the tree where I had first seen Gildor. I remember the air was cool and I was unhappy because I knew the approach of winter would end my morning swims.
“The old man had called me to the house. I went into the cabin, and this Elven long sword lay on the table.” Kian pulled the blade out and held it up in the fire light. He told me it was the one he carried when he was the Sunblade First Sword to King Celebrindal. “I was the greatest swordsman the Elven lands ever knew and I have only been beaten once by a student in nine hundred years”
I asked the old man, “Of all the students you trained none ever bested you? Not once?”
Gildor shook his head. “Only you, Son. Now the blade belongs to you.”
“So you see, if a poor Half-Elven boy like me can make good, I’m sure you children will grow to make your mother proud.” He didn’t tell them about his departure from the valley, it was a memory he wanted to keep for himself.
Kian remembered it like it was yesterday. He had picked up Gildor’s sword, it felt like it was meant to be in his hand. Then he put it back on the table. “No, I can’t take your sword, Master. Besides what will you train the next apprentice with?”
The old man’s lip had begun to quiver. “I will never train another, Kian. You are my greatest achievement. I am like a smith that has forged a perfect sword. Any he makes after would never live up to his masterpiece. You are my masterpiece, Son, my greatest creation. There will never be another like you, boy.” A tear had rolled down the old man’s face. Kian had never seen his master cry in all the years he had been in the valley.
Gildor told him, “It is time for you to meet the world, Kian, and it to meet you.” Kian could remember the tears that had filled his eyes when he had embraced his master.
“You have been more than a master to me, you have been the father I never knew.”
Gildor pushed him back and looked him in the eye. “And you have been the son I had always wanted.” They both smiled. “Now, boy, come here, I have some other things for you. We can’t have the new Sunblade sally forth wearing rags.”
Gildor had outfitted him well, black-leather shirt with the sword arm bare. A black leather bracer reinforced with steel for the bare arm, leather pants, and a good pair of boots. He still wore them now, only the black-hooded cloak he had been given was lost when the boy Julian had been injured.
He had hated to say goodbye, he told his master he would stay awhile if he wanted him to. Gildor had told him the valley was for forgotten old men. The world outside the valley was for the young and he must go.
He remembered what Gildor’s last words to him were as he walked out of the valley. “Use what I have taught you for what is right and good, Kian. You are the Sunblade now and the First Sword of the realm. Always fight the darkness, never let evil creep into your heart. Where ever you go, Son, I will be with you.” And Kian knew it was true. The old man would always be with him, riding in the scabbard on his hip.
Kian looked down, Tressa had fallen asleep in his arms and the boys were yawning. “Did you like the story, boys?” Kian asked. Both nodded.
Endra shooed the boys to their bed rolls and Kian laid Tressa next to them and covered her with a blanket. Kian and Endra both sat down near the fire. “You know they have taken a liking to you, Kian, especially Tressa. It’s very unusual for them, they are ordinarily very wary of people.”
“They are fine children, Endra, you have done well by them. They couldn’t ask for a better mother.” Endra felt her face
flush, no one had ever told her she was a good mother.
“You see them as good children, most people we have run across don’t and they are not always this well behaved. I think they feel safe for the first time in their lives, thanks to you.”
Kian looked into the fire. “While I live no one will harm them or their mother.”
Kian stood up and adjusted his sword. “I’m sure the others feel the same way as I do about the little ones. I will take watch, get some rest.”
“Wait, Kian.” Endra stood up. “I am sorry for what I said before. I don’t think I explained what I wanted to say. I mean, I could have said it differently. What I mean to say is…”
He picked up his cloak and pulled it around his shoulders. “You need to say nothing more, my friend, I have put it to rest. You’re a fine woman, Endra Korlest, and very, very beautiful. You knowing that is enough for me. You owe me no excuses or explanations.”
Endra just stared at the man, she could not find words for what she wanted to say.
“I am going to have a look around, I will wake you later.”
She started to follow him. Endra wanted to stop him and tell him what she really thought but she froze. “Goodnight, Kian,” was all that came out.
He nodded to her and smiled then walked out into the darkness. Endra walked over near her children and loosed her sword belt and threw it down. She spread out her cloak on the ground and laid down with a huff, sleep would be long in coming.
Kian stood on a small rise above the creek bed. He could just make out the glow of their fire. His thumb rubbed back and forth on the pommel of his sword. He had made Endra uncomfortable, he should have kept his thoughts to himself. He was afraid he had been making a fool of himself. He just couldn’t help it. Endra’s beauty made him do and say stupid things.
At least the others were not here to torment him about her rejection. They had been giving him a hard enough time ever since he talked K’xarr into letting her come along.