by Brian Keller
He pondered that question for over an hour. The lunch bell rang and everyone moved to the dining hall to eat. Birt had helped him select and arrange the food on his plate. Cooper remembered to get utensils this time. He was on his third forkful of the most delicious lettuce and sauce he had ever eaten, when he felt an elbow smack against his shoulder as someone walked by. The force of it pushed him against the boy sitting next to him who cried out, “What’s wrong with you!” and pushed Cooper back the other way. He felt anger swell up in him but he forced it down quickly, “Sorry, I got pushed.”, he said. He looked around and identified Boyd as he was taking his seat one table over. Boyd was surrounded by almost a dozen boys that were clapping on his back, shoulders and arms as if to congratulate him on a hard won victory. Boyd’s chubby face held a look of malicious glee. Cooper looked at Birt and said, “This isn’t going to just go away, is it?”. It wasn’t really a question. Birt took another bit of food and just shook his head, “hmm, umm.”.
After lunch Cooper and his classmates returned to their classroom, The Copyist’s Room, and he resumed trying to solve question #37. He tried working through it a number of ways and finally wrote, “#37. Using a compass to identify north and a secant to identify the North Star tells you how you line up with those two points. There must be some way to trace those lines backward to identify your location.”. He sat back and read what he had written and nodded, “I think that’s as close as I can get.”.
He finished two more questions before Master Worthan called for everyone’s attention. Everyone set down their quills and looked to Master Worthan. “This afternoon we will be working with numbers.”. There was a collective groan in the room. Master Worthan continued, “Everyone turn to page seventeen in your textbooks while I draw our multiplication tables on the board. Mister Cooper, please deposit your work on my desk, same as before, and collect the spare textbook I have laid out there for you. Starting tomorrow you will begin making your own copy of the textbook from that spare one.”. Cooper thought to himself, “So that’s what everyone else has been doing today!”.
Over the next few hours Cooper thought he’d never stop seeing numbers floating and swimming in front of him. He was still trying to make sense of which shapes meant which numbers. It was easy enough answering the list of questions from this morning, he could simply copy the number at the front of the question without needing to understand what it meant.
It seemed like a week had passed when Master Worthan finally said, “We will continue this tomorrow after lunch. Tomorrow morning you will all be copying your textbooks.” Cooper blotted the ink where he had just written and carefully placed his blotter so it wouldn’t slide off his table. When he moved to stand he felt a shadow fall across him, he looked up to see Boyd’s leering face over him. Boyd took in a long breath to make himself look bigger and a slight smile tugged at the corners of Cooper’s mouth. Boyd muttered in a low voice, but loud enough for those closest to hear him, “So, Birt’s got a new little special friend, I think I might just make you my little special friend!”. Again with the malevolent smile, this time punctuated with the cracking of knuckles. Cooper looked back at him calmly and said in a clear, innocent tone, “Well, I’m flattered but I’m not really looking for a special friend, but next year, once you’ve grown your tits maybe we can talk again and see how I feel about it.” Cooper smiled what he hoped looked like a genuine, friendly smile. Boyd looked like he might burst a blood vessel in his neck and as he sputtered his entire face went red. Cooper took this opportunity to turn away and walked quickly from the room. Birt jogged to catch up and was looking at him with open-mouthed amazement. “You’ve just made an enemy for life.”. He thought about that for a moment and decided, “It’ll be fine.”. Birt snorted, “Fine? Fine!?! He can crush you! You realize that, don’t you?” He responded, “According to what you’ve told me, he can’t do much to me without bringing the hammer down on himself as well.”. Birt replied breathlessly, “That may be true except that two weeks from yesterday we’re due to begin learning to fight in the Training Room for an hour or more a day!”. Cooper smiled and said, “It’ll be fine. I actually welcome that.”. Thankfully, Boyd’s bunk room was somewhere else in the facility so Cooper only had to see him in class and in the dining hall.
During the next several days, Cooper dealt with a steep learning curve. He had copied quite a few pages in what would become his own textbook. By simply copying, Cooper had been learning most of what the book was intending to teach and he was getting caught up. A few more days and he’d be copying the pages that Master Worthan was referencing for the current lesson. Birt had been showing him around the school so he would know where everything was located. Thanks to his earlier studies with maps, he was also learning his way around the city very quickly. He accompanied Birt on at least one, and sometimes as many as three, messages daily. Birt was still the courier accepting the deliveries, but he’d started asking him to lead them to the recipient. Cooper sometimes had to ask Birt to prompt him, but he was needing guidance less and less.
Ten days had passed and everyone was enjoying lunch in the dining hall. The boys were using their forks to trap some kind of noodles that were the main course when the entire dining hall went silent. Cooper looked up and saw Felis standing across the table from him. A few students sitting on the bench on the other side started scooting to get out from in front of him. Felis sat down in the newly vacated space and centered his gaze on Cooper. Birt was frozen in place with a partially chewed mouthful of noodles and a forkful hanging suspended in his hand halfway between his plate and his mouth. Felis put his elbows on the table and leaned forward, “So, do most of your peers know who you are by now?”. Birt snorted, almost losing his mouthful of noodles. This shifted Felis’ attention to him and Birt decided that his plate of food was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world to him. Felis turned back to Cooper with an arched eyebrow, but didn’t repeat the question. Cooper replied in a quiet voice, “Yes, sir. I believe so.” Felis asked, “Has anyone requested to see your token?” He answered, “Yes, sir. Master Loril asked to see it, but no one else. In fact the only people that have seen it are Master Worthan, Birt here,”, he gestured towards Birt, “and Master Loril.” Felis considered that and asked, “Are you prepared to return it to me? Or would you prefer to retain it a little longer?” Cooper thought Birt was about to choke for a moment, but then he seemed to get himself under control. Cooper replied, “Sir, I think I’d actually prefer to return it to you. I haven’t shown it to anyone since my first day, and frankly, it could be a greater responsibility than I want right now.” As he said this, he was sliding the token across the table toward Felis. Taking in the full meaning of what Cooper had said, Felis nodded and snapped up the coin and put it in his pocket. Cooper stood up, thinking he should add, “Master Loril let me take these,”, sweeping his hand over the belt, pouch and blade, “once he saw that I had been given your token. He spoke well of you. He said I didn’t have to pay him back, something about it being ‘on account’, or I could pay him later if I thought I needed to. I think that I have you to thank for that, somehow.” Felis had a strange expression on his face and then his terse expression returned, “Thank you for telling me that. Young Birt, here, can probably explain what ‘on account’ means, in case you don’t fully understand. I need to go speak with someone now.”. As he stood to leave he tapped his pocket and said, “What I took from you in exchange for the token…? (He winked) Half the value of one of those is yours. You have an ‘account’ with the Guild.”.
As soon as Felis was no longer visible the dining hall erupted in a buzz of conversation. Many curious older students came up all at once and Cooper was faced with a flurry of questions, “What was that?’, “What did Felis want with you?”, “Who are you?”, and so on. Cooper put his palms on the table and took a breath. Everyone went silent for his reply. “Felis simply came to reclaim his token.”. This brought fresh buzz of conversation, several variations of, “Felis recrui
ted you?” from many different directions all at once. He felt very uncomfortable under the sudden scrutiny of so many. A few minutes ago he was an anonymous first-year student carrying a rarely-seen token hidden away. Now, he didn’t have the token, but had lost his anonymity. He got up to leave, and as he did so, his gaze came across Boyd, who was still glaring at him with contempt but also now with a little uncertainty.
As they were returning to the classroom, Cooper could hear Boyd’s voice ringing out from up the hallway, “Little mister Cooper must be so frightened that he felt he needed to contact Felis to handle me.” He laughed too loudly at his own joke. The crowd around him laughed a little, but it sounded rather half-hearted. Cooper realized then that Boyd’s grip on his audience had weakened. Cooper could hurt him now and likely remove him as a valid threat until Boyd could rebuild his power. Then again, even if he ‘won’ today, Boyd would become an unpredictable individual threat. There was also the distinct possibility that he could fail and make his situation even worse. As long as Boyd thought he had an audience, his actions would remain predictable. Boyd was a bully, that much was readily clear. He knew that the best way to defeat a bully was to dismantle him, in front of his audience. But how does a nine year old kid from Batter’s Field accomplish that?
As they walked he asked Birt, “What did Felis mean when he said I had an account?”. Birt said, “Well, I can’t be sure exactly what he meant, but having an account means that you have money here that belongs to you that is being held for you by the Master of Coin.”. Cooper stopped walking, “You mean to say that there is money that belongs to me and someone else has it?” Birt had stopped to face him. He sighed and then rephrased his answer, “There is a Master here who keeps a count of all the money that flows through the Guild including the coppers that we bring in daily, whatever the thieves acquire, the income from the brothels, the tribute from the Houses, the fees the Assassins receive from their jobs, and so on. He manages all the money. Your money is safer with him than it would be in your pouch. If you want it, all you have to do is go to him and tell him. He’ll write you a receipt that you take to the cashier, and they’ll buy your receipt for the amount written on it. Every day the cashiers give their receipts to the Master of Coin. So that day, when the Master of Coin sees your receipt, he’ll then subtract that amount from the money that he’s holding for you. See?”. Cooper thought about it for a second, “Alright.”, and resumed walking to the classroom. Birt said, “Wait a minute, what did Felis mean when he said you had an account? You got here two weeks ago and I’ve been with you the whole time. Did you give Master Worthan some coin when you first arrived?”. Cooper shook his head, “No.”, he replied. Birt was getting flustered, “Well then, how do you explain having an account?”. He replied, “No idea. Unless Felis set it up for me. I will have to ask.”. He kept walking, leaving Birt in the hallway with his mouth open but nothing more to say.
The boys were two days away from going to the Training Room for their first exposure to Guild combat training. Of course, most of the boys were bragging about all the fights they’d been in and all the monsters they’d slain. A few of the boys didn’t participate in these discussions, and Cooper and Birt were part of this minority. Predictably the conversation quickly gravitated to who was the toughest and who would be beating whom. Any time this conversation arose, Boyd would always turn and try to locate Cooper so he could glare at him and form a fist with one hand to punch the palm of his other and then grind them together. Cooper just shrugged it off. Birt kept telling him to try to stay away from Boyd when the day came for them to enter the Training Room. He just shrugged at that as well, “If I try to keep away from him, he’ll think I’m running away and give chase. I’d rather just deal with whatever happens rather than fret over something that might never happen.”. He wished it was really that easy, he’d been going through options in his mind for almost a week now. He wasn’t losing any sleep, and it certainly wasn’t affecting his appetite, but it was always there nagging at him.
Chapter 8
When the day finally came for their Training Room classes, the students filed in and stood along one wall. The boys arranged themselves with some nudging, cursing, pushing and jostling. Boyd actually shoved one boy, cursing him for stepping on his foot. Before things had a chance to escalate, a lean man with a medium build stepped out of the shadows just to the right of where the boys had lined up. He had been there the entire time.
The man was dressed in a suit of what looked like stiff, leather plates. His shoulders, chest, belly, and thighs each had separate plates of what looked like stacked sheets of boiled leather. The spaces between the plates looked like tanned, flexible leather. He had a longsword strapped across his back, a short sword on one hip and a dagger on the other. Cooper could see some kind of handles jutting out behind him just above each hip. He was wearing bracers that looked like they had small blades, or darts, or both, strapped in place. He had a hood drawn over his head which, in this light, covered his face in shadow except for his mouth and chin. The man’s mouth was drawn in a tight line.
The man’s sharp voice cut through the room and each boy froze in place, “If you children are done screwing around, we can start teaching you to fight”, he gestured toward the door where the boys had entered. All heads turned and Cooper saw Master Loril enter the room. Cooper couldn’t help comparing the two men. They seemed exact opposites. Master Loril was dressed just as he had been before. In fact, it looked like he’d just set down his smithing hammer at the forge and walked straight here.
The two men walked along the edges of the room and lit some lanterns that were hanging on the walls. Once the room was more fully lit, the boys could see that there were weapons piled up on tables along the far wall, and there was a titter of conversation as each boy pointed at the table. Master Loril and the other man each picked up a couple of weapons from the table and walked back to where the boys were standing. The lean man spoke again, “I am Mister Skran.”. He paused for a moment and then gestured to the much larger man, “This is Master Loril. He has been kind enough to take time from his day to assist me.”. Mister Skran turned to face Master Loril, nodded his head and said, “Master Loril, if you would be so kind.”. Master Loril nodded in response and both men unsheathed the pairs of short blades they’d gathered from the table and let the sheaths drop to the floor. They both dropped into a crouch and fairly flew into each other, their arms and blades became a blur. The room was filled with the sound of steel ringing on steel. It happened so fast and with so little fanfare that it took the boys more than a few seconds to register what had just happened, and then a few seconds more before they had adjusted enough to be able to actually interpret what they were seeing. Master Loril would seem to press an advantage and Skran would withdraw slightly, never disengaging but just enough to gain some space. There were occasions when it seemed Master Loril was in a position to deliver a fatal blow and Skran would anticipate it and either duck under or slip away and resume fighting from his new location. Master Loril simply turned and continued to press. After several minutes of this, neither man seemed to slow or even show any signs of fatigue. Each appeared to be breathing normally. Master Loril was covered in sweat, but that was the case before he ever entered the room. Mister Skran suddenly pressed the attack, whether he’d seen an opening or just wanted to try to put Master Loril on the defensive was unclear, but Master Loril took only one step back and then held his ground. The boys could barely see the blades, only the flashes of reflected light as they were being swept in short, quick arcs or swift jabs. Just as suddenly Mister Skran jumped back and disengaged completely holding his hands down near his hips and bowed his head. Master Loril let his arms hang down and he bowed his head in response. Both men turned to face the students and stepped more fully into the light. Master Loril’s leather sash had been slashed deeply a few times very near his heart and a few other times along its edge high on the center of his chest. Cooper couldn’t speak for anyone else, but he’d
never seen the strikes that could’ve caused those marks. Mister Skran, it appeared, might need to replace a few leather plates. The portion over his heart had been deeply gashed a number of times, one of the pads covering his belly looked to be still hanging on, but only just barely, and both thigh pads had deep gouges cut into them. Mister Skran turned again to Master Loril, bowed his head and said, “Thank you again, Master Loril.”. Some of the boys found their voices and there was a hushed buzz of conversation. Master Loril faced Mister Skran and bowed in return. He then turned and faced the boys, “Before you believe that Mister Skran must be the lesser fighter, since he appears to have taken more damage than I, I’d like to point out that it isn’t where he has struck me during our short exchange, it’s where he elected to withhold his strikes. Mister Skran, I thank you for your discipline and restraint. It couldn’t have been easy.”. Master Loril bowed his head again to Mister Skran and he turned and left the room. A couple of boys apparently didn’t comprehend what Master Loril had said and a low chorus of, “huh?” and “what” could be heard through the small crowd. Birt spoke quietly, “Master Loril said that Mister Skran beat him.”. Birt’s comment must’ve been loud enough for Mister Skran to hear because he stated in a strong, clear voice, “Master Loril didn’t lose, he was merely thanking me for striking him only where he was wearing leather.’. He continued, “Now, I do not expect any of you to ever achieve the fighting skills you’ve just seen displayed, but perhaps some of you might. And before you complain amongst yourselves and think that I am too proud of my fighting skills, I’ll say this. I passed my written testing many years ago and to this day I can barely divide one number into another and if I tried to steal someone’s pouch I would soon be pursued by the City Watch. I am not saying that these things are not important, what I am saying is that I am good at combat and little else. Though I am stealthy enough that you didn’t know I was in the room until I stepped out, I am not stealthy enough to be an Assassin. I could be an Enforcer for the Guild, but the Guild has decided that I can better serve as an instructor. So my function in the Guild is to help each of you reach your potential as fighters, whatever that potential may be.”. He stopped for a second as he looked at each boy in turn. “In this room I will give you many instructions. I expect you to follow those instructions immediately and completely. Fail to do so and you’ll be punished. If I hit you but it doesn’t really hurt, then I am just trying to make you pay attention. If I hit you and it hurts, then you have failed to pay attention. If I hit you and it knocks you down, stay down until I have finished explaining why you have found yourself on the floor. Is any part of that unclear?”. There was a series of low murmurs, “Nope”, “No, sir” and such. Mister Skran raised his voice at the class, “I asked if any of that was unclear!”. As one, the boys answered, “No, sir!”.
