by J. T. Wright
Cullen grunted around the stem of his pipe. It wasn’t the first haircut he had ever given but damned if he could remember a Recruit so trusting that they didn’t wince at the Sergeant’s hands wielding a knife so close to their skin.
“It’s my fault, I suppose,” Cullen mumbled, cutting the hair around Trent’s ears. “Recruits that don’t already have them get the Trim and Shave Charms when their kits are issued.”
Cullen could practically see Trent’s ears twitch at the mention of Charms he should have. “Your training was improvised. You couldn’t wear the armor or lift the weapons of a Recruit, so we made do, and a few things fell through the cracks.”
Cullen separated the beginnings of a ponytail with a single slice, and the blue-ribbon Trent often forgot he wore fluttered to the ground. “You were so bleeding small. You wouldn’t know it looking at you now. I blink, and you've got a new set of weapons. Turn around, and you've outgrown the armor you’re wearing. Where'd you get this set anyway? It didn’t come out of the Bellrise Trial.”
Trent’s head was pushed forward, and he replied with his chin hitting his chest as Cullen began scraping his neck. While the Sergeant hacked and trimmed, Trent spoke of the Moonlit Forest. He kept his report short, dancing around details that he would rather keep from Cullen, at least until the man wasn’t holding a knife so near to his throat.
The knife returned to its sheath, and Cullen took his seat as Trent brushed loose hair from his shoulders and removed his cowl to shake hidden strands out of it. Cullen observed Dreq as Trent situated himself and cast Self-Clean to dispel the lingering itching sensation that hung about him.
“You’ve picked up a lot of Classes, Runt.” Cullen reached over and picked Dreq up by the scruff of his neck. He turned Dreq, who sensibly kept his tail tucked and his mouth shut, this way and that before saying, “But not Beast Tamer or Hunter. Why are you traveling with a Beast?”
“Dreq is a Dog,” Trent clarified, “and a friend, not a Beast.”
“You can call him a fucking daisy if it makes you happy.” Cullen set Dreq on the ground and ruffled his ears. “A completed Status, three Skills, and the fact that he can enter the Trials makes him a Beast. It doesn’t make him evil. You should know that after the Forest Trial and today’s stupidity. Beasts can be more reliable than Adventurers.”
“You’ve got more to tell me, Runt,” Cullen rested his forearms on his thighs, “but from the sound of it, you've decided to be an Adventurer yourself. Let’s see your Token.”
Trent’s hand closed around the disc in his pouch representing the way his life was going now. He hesitated to pull it out. He steeled himself for Cullen’s criticism before flipping the Token to the Sergeant.
“Copper already, huh?” Cullen said, catching it, “That might be a record.”
Was that approval in the Sergeant’s voice? Trent’s ears burned with a pleasant heat as Cullen flicked the Guild Token with a fingernail. A clear chime resounded though the field, silencing bird calls with its purity.
“Hear that, Runt?” Cullen flicked the Token again, one corner of his mouth lifting in a lopsided smile. “That sound means you’re doing it right. All these other markings, the ones that say where you've been and what you've done, don’t mean a damn thing compared to how your Token rings.”
“You meet a person whose Token thuds or twangs,” Cullen tossed the disc back to Trent, “well, they aren’t bad, but don’t expect them to think the way you do. You are facing the Trials; others merely delve them. You understand the difference?
“You will someday,” Cullen said when Trent shook his head. “It’s not a thing I can explain. You have to work it out for yourself. You’re not coming back with me.” Cullen kept his voice low to hide how he felt about that. “Why not? There’s still plenty you need to learn. There’s a lot I can still teach you.”
By way of explanation, Trent took the crystal sword, which was really a key, from his Storage and passed it over. “The Garden gave that to me. It says to go west.”
“The Trial says to go west, and the Runt goes west,” Cullen muttered, turning the short sword over in his hands. “This is a pass to a Warrior’s Trial. I don’t suppose you understand that either. Well, you will if you follow the directions. Be sure to check them from time to time. The damned things shift, not as often as field Trials, but they can keep you running.”
“West.” Cullen passed the sword back to Trent and stared at his hands. “Think you’re ready for that? Nothing except the Wilds and the unaffiliated from here to the ocean.”
“The unaffiliated?” Trent asked, settling the crystal sword on his knees and tightening his hands around the scabbard. “What’s that?”
“Gods! You’re so green.” Cullen relit his pipe and gathered his thoughts. “The unaffiliated is what they call it in my hometown. Here they say the Wilds and expect it to encompass it all. That’s misleading, which I suppose the Royals do on purpose.
“The Wilds, the ten thousand settlements, the warring factions, the name changes depending on where you’re standing, but it all means the same thing. Adventurers fighting Adventurers, all trying to make a name for themselves. The truly dangerous ones are trying to build something. They raise armies and build towns. A newly discovered Trial can spark a wave of killing that no King could ever match.
“That’s what you'll be walking into, Runt. There’s no avoiding trouble in the Wilds. There are laws in Al’drossford. Out there, the strongest fist is the only rule. Every town you walk into will have a different code. Most are no better than bandit gangs; the rest are worse. You sure that’s where you want to be?”
“You went there,” Trent said quietly. There was no doubt in his mind about his words. Men like Cullen couldn’t be chiseled out by the likes of Bellrise’s Trial.
“Damned right, I did,” Cullen chuckled around his pipe. “And damn me if I don’t envy you for going there now. A little, just a little.
“The world is a Trial, Runt. The Wilds are where you learn that.” Cullen’s dark eyes burned at the thought for a moment, but he pushed the gleam back down. “You don’t have to go. You can be a Soldier and an Adventurer. Blood and Ash! Looking at you, I've never seen a man more suited to being a soldier.”
“I have to go! I need to know.” Trent was helpless as he flung his hands up. “I don’t know why.”
“Because you’re built to be an Adventurer too.” Cullen nodded to himself. “A soldier fights for days on end to hold a scrap of ground. You have the Stamina and determination for that. An Adventurer’s battles usually last for minutes, and they always leave themselves an out. What makes an Adventurer great is the need to know. To know what’s over the next hill, what’s waiting in a strange place. A soldier can’t always afford that kind of curiosity.
“The thing you have to remember is that you can always come home, Trent. There are Soldiers and Adventurers who will say you can’t, but they are wrong. You have a place here when you want it.”
“Even though I've made a mess of my Status?” Trent said to break the stillness. Even the birds and insects had stopped their chatter in the wake of Cullen’s statement. The animals of the field went dormant almost as if they were afraid the Sergeant would mistake their noise for arguments.
“There are things that worry me in there,” Cullen acknowledged. “That title and Minor Regeneration most of all. You found the problem with Regeneration yet?”
“It’s hard to fight when it feels like your bones are moving and Ants are crawling under your skin.” Trent scratched at his legs in remembered discomfort. “It’s not enjoyable.”
“You'll need to watch that.” Cullen puffed and added, “Don’t let your mind wander because of it. As for the rest…
“A man makes his own decisions. You've chosen to carry enough weight that would crush a lesser man. You can probably handle it. There’s a story there, I suppose, a reason you thought it was necessary. I noticed you gained a year somewhere.”
It was an offer. Cul
len lent his ear as Trent talked. Soon Trent was surprised to find that he wasn’t reporting but conversing. He would share an experience, and Cullen would tell him about a time when he faced a similar problem. It wasn’t a conversation between equals, not exactly, but Cullen laughed at Trent’s mistakes and admitted to a few of his own rather than yelling or critiquing. Trent’s worldview was turned on its head when he realized there was more to be learned from Cullen’s boisterous stories than his rants and punishments. By carefully wording his questions, he even managed to draw out answers he had been seeking for some time.
“Fighting a Felpah that’s equipped to counter you? Tricky. Those sons of bitches are bruisers without equipment. They’re strong and hard to hurt but slow, really only dangerous in groups. If your weapon isn’t cutting, the best method is to get on their shoulders, grab them by the antlers and rip off their heads. That works on just about any Beast or Awakened.”
“What about a Dire Bear? Long weapons? Or is poison the best way to deal with it?” Trent tried to imagine climbing onto a Felpah's shoulders and managed that, but when it came to pulling off the creature’s head, his imagination faltered, and he decided Cullen, probably, wasn’t serious.
“A Dire Bear? You want to know how I would fight one? Cause there is no fucking way you should be within a hundred miles of one. Not a lot of Skills, but they make up for that with buckets of HP and Strength. You come across one, don’t try to run. They'll chase you down fast and snap you up. The trick is to stay near; they aren’t as nimble up close. Duck and bob and hope they get bored and amble off. Now, why would you think poison would work on them?”
It was the Hill Troll all over again. Trent carefully explained how and why he had ended up using poison to kill a Dire Bear, and Cullen congratulated him on a stunning display of stupid luck.
When Cullen stood and put his pipe away, Trent wanted to reach out and drag him back down. Blood and Ash. An ending. Night’s approach and Cullen’s rise were endings of their own and, to Trent, far less welcome.
“Build up the fire, Runt,” Cullen stretched his back and twisted at the waist. “Your friends are on their way. You taking them west with you? You could do worse. On the other hand, you could do better.”
“I don’t think they’ll want to go.” Trent stood and looked toward Bellrise. Whatever it was that gave away Kerry and Felicia’s arrival, he couldn’t see it yet. “If they do… the Trials can be lonely…”
“It’s your business, and theirs. I'd run them through a couple of local Trials for a few months, personally, but I'm a patient man. You young people don’t know how to pace yourselves,” Cullen paused and seemed to weigh a decision before tossing a small object to Trent.
“The Duke wants you to have that. I didn’t agree when he gave it to me to pass on to you. Now…” Cullen scratched his throat and grimaced. “Now I still don’t know if I do. It makes you a Lieutenant in the Duke’s Regulars and gives you the right to form your own team. The hawk is the symbol of Lewis’s house. We have Scouts out there in the Wilds. Show that to them, and they’ll back you. Show it to the wrong person… be safe, Trent.”
“Not a hawk.” Trent ran his ringer over the feathered Beast on the emblem Cullen had given him. “Dragon. Firstborn of the ancient. Symbol of the Clan Dross. It should be cast in red gold, not steel. Red for the fire, gold for the First King.”
He spoke to an empty field. Cullen was gone. Looking around, he found Dreq staring at him with wide, serious eyes. “Rylarth.”
“What?” Trent shook his head, coming out of a trance. His hand closed around the emblem, hiding it. “What does Rylarth mean?”
Dreq cocked his head to the side, one floppy ear standing at attention. “Firstborn of the ancient. Rylarth.”
Dreq’s eyes pleaded with him to understand, but Trent just blinked. “Where’s the Sergeant?”
“Gone.” Dreq’s ear wilted. Trent had brought the Firstborn up. Why did he look as if he had never heard of the famous dragon before?
“Kerry coming,” Dreq lifted a paw and pointed to where a figure in battered armor could be seen cresting a hill. Two more figures, one dressed in robes and the other hidden in a cloak, came into view behind Kerry and Trent heard the sound of teasing laughter.
“Bring them with us?” Dreq prodded, trying to drive away the empty look on Trent’s face. “Kerry not bad. Felicia maybe good. Other no good.”
“Kerry isn’t bad,” Trent corrected woodenly. “Felicia is maybe… Felicia could be…”
He stuttered to a halt and scrubbed at his face, trying to banish the cobwebs that covered his brain. “You might have gotten that one right.”
“Bring them with us? West?” Dreq repeated, crossing to Trent and leaning against his leg. He wanted to make it clear that whether the others would be allowed to go or not, he would not be left behind.
Trent turned to the west to face the setting sun. He squinted at the scorching brightness and admired the pale pinks and oranges that painted the sky. “They might not want to go. I'm not sure I want to go anymore.”
It was a lie. He knew it as well as Dreq did the second the words left his mouth. A pass to a Warrior’s Trial, a journey through the Wilds. How could he turn that down?
“We will go,” Dreq huffed and moved away to kick a few sticks of wood into the fire Trent had built hours ago.
“Yeah, I guess we will.” Trent’s hand tightened around the emblem he still clutched. He pinned it to his shirt, underneath his armor before he turned to stop Dreq from putting all the wood into the pit at once. “We will, and someday we’ll come back. We can always come home.”
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Fourty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
