"The Lundari Witch book 1: Diamageen's Shadows chs 2 &3" by Lundarigirl

1. In chapter one, a seventeen-year-old bounty hunter named Tobias arrives in Hercros, one of the largest city of the kingdom of Europa in the world of Ceaestene (pronounced See-es-teen). He goes to the Royal Knights Academy, the place where teenage boys are trained to be knights, to apply for a job retreving some missing persons from Diamageen Forest, home to a horde of seemingly invincible goblins and a place few have returned alive. Tobias has an aura of mysery about him, and is very cold towards all he meets.

2. We join Tobias inside the Royal Knights Academy as he waits for an interview with Sir Hayden Sacgara

3. Author's Note: A character is introduced in chapter three named Ankinon. His name is pronounced An-Keh-non.

4. Chapter Two: The Bounty Hunter and the Warrior Girl

5.             The courtyard was like the Royal Knights Academy itself—huge—and was subdivided into several squares, each devoted to the learning and practice of various fighting and weapons techniques. When Tobias followed one of the first-year pages, students who spent part of their time as servants, into the courtyard, he saw several other pages and squires, those who were in their final year of study before being apprenticed to a knight, taking advantage of the long summer day to sharpen their combat skills.

6.             Tobias slipped unnoticed over to a bench and sat down to watch the sea of purple-clad boys—both human and centaur—hack at each other with wooden practice weapons. It occurred to him that if his life had gone differently, he might’ve spent the last three years as one of them, and be spending his final year of training with a knight now.  Might have, if, during either his fifteenth or sixteenth year, he were to have displayed his fighting prowess to the Academy recruiter who visited his island home, he would’ve done so only to please his father. He never entertained any interest in being a knight—not in his younger days, and certainly not now when he had a more important duty to complete.

7.             A commotion on the far side of the courtyard jarred Tobias from his thoughts. The attention it gathered started off small then grew like ripples in a pond generated by a tiny splash. Before long, every student in the courtyard had dropped their weapons and congregated to the point of the disturbance to investigate its cause. Tobias, too, was curious to see what was going on. He pressed his way through the boys, and eventually beheld what at first appeared to be a lad with thick crimson curls cropped just below the base of his skull. Upon closer inspection, however, he realized that the tall, muscular figure with a broadsword belted at the hip was a girl, who looked no older than sixteen. She crossed her arms and cast an ugly scowl at five boys wearing the purple and white uniforms of pages. They were holding their sides and laughing heartily.

8.             “Listen here, lads,” a centaur youth announced between chuckles. “Bee here is playing a little joke on us. She says she’s here to attend the Academy.”

9.             The girl did not appear to be in a joking mood. “The name’s Bree, and I wasn’t joking!”

10.             Tobias doubted very many of the students heard her. He could barely hear her over the roaring laughter rolling through the crowd. He kept quiet, admiring the girl’s bravery. Women warriors were looked down upon in Europa, even among the centaur tribes who viewed females more equally to males than humans did. Tobias knew well the ridicule and shunning girls who preferred swordplay to sewing; his twin sister Hadassah once desired to be a knight, and was made the laughingstock of their hometown. Perhaps that was why the boys’ laughter angered him. They were brutes, just like the ones who’d tormented Hadassah had been.

11.             Tobias was torn between leaving and shouting at the boys to shut their gobs. He didn’t think he could stomach any more of the students’ merciless harassment, but he didn’t want to get involved. He made it a point to stay out of other people’s business and he still did not want to draw attention to himself. Besides, he didn’t see how he could help the situation any. 

12.             A boy wearing the purple and gold tunic of a squire held up his hand to get his fellows’ attention. “I think our red minx is serious.” To Bree, he said, “This isn’t a game, little girl. We train hard, day in and day out. It’s grueling and only the strongest make it through all three years. A weakling like you wouldn’t last three days.”

13.             “I’ve already lasted through seven years of battle training back home, and I finished first in my class,” Bree boasted. “I can take three years of this place.”

14.             “And who were your classmates, donkeys? Your teacher would have to be one to train you.”

15.             “Girls don’t belong at the Academy,” a boy in the crowd declared.

16.             The boys around him shouted affirmatively.

17.             “What’s the matter?” Bree asked. “Afraid I’ll show you all up?” She jabbed the blond boy’s chest with her forefinger. “Afraid I’ll someday kick your sorry behind?”

18.             “Hardly,” the boy laughed.

19.             “Show her, Rook,” one of the other squires shouted. “Teach her a lesson in respect.”

20.             “Put her in her place, Rook,” a page said.

21.             Rook flashed Bree an evil grin. “What do you say? Shall we see how you match up against a real warrior?”

22.             Bree smiled lopsidedly. “I’m game.”

23.             They agreed to a three-point match. Whoever scored three hits with a wooden practice weapon won. Rook chose two squires to be judges.

24.             “I should warn you,” Rook said as he twirled a wooden short sword in either hand, “I’m one of the best fighters in the Academy.”

25.             Bree brought her own wooden weapon to bear and said nothing. She charged at Rook, quickly putting him on the defensive. Rook laughed, amused, as he danced away from her attacks. He looked more like an acrobat then a fighter, and Tobias could tell he wasn’t taking this fight seriously. But as he dodged left to avoid one of Bree’s attacks, she kicked his leg out from under him and jabbed her weapon into his shoulder the moment as soon as he hit the dirt. The judges reluctantly gave her the first point of the match.

26.             “Are you going to fight me seriously now?” Bree asked.

27.             A scowl replaced Rook’s smug smile. He picked himself up and fought earnestly, coming at Bree fast and strong, his weapons becoming a blur of motion.  He quickly put Bree on the defensive. She swiftly and expertly blocked and dodged his two swords, and tried to keep them out of striking range with her longer weapon. Rook slapped it aside with one of his swords and lunged in with the other. Bree side-stepped out of its path, but not fast enough to avoid getting her shoulder clipped. In actual combat with actual blades, it would have been little more than a scratch. Tobias barely noticed the hit connect, and he doubted the judges saw it. Apparently they did, though, because they awarded Rook a point.

28.             Several minutes dragged by without either opponent scoring another hit, though Bree came close at least seven times. Only Rook’s speed saved him at the last second each time. The longer Tobias watched Bree the more impressed be became. Whoever trained her did a good a job. None of the bandits he’d fought possessed half of her skill, save for Jorgae.

29. Rook was no slouch either. The same instant Bree blocked his blow to her stomach on her sword, he jabbed his second sword at her chest. Bree grabbed the advancing arm and twisted the weapon out of its grasp, but not before Rook brushed her arm with its tip. The judges awarded him a point. The Academy boys cheered, and Tobias frowned. He’d participated in enough three-point matches in his younger days to know that such a glancing blow usually didn’t count.

30. Bree bared her teeth and her chocolate-brown eyes blazed with determination. She came at Rook low and fast. He darted backwards, out of her reach, but he put himself off balance. Bree kept coming after him, giving him no opportunity to regain sure footing. At last, he slipped and ended up flat on his back. He rolled to avoid Bree’s oncoming blow, but not fast enough to avoid it completely. Her sword grazed his back. The judges did not award her a point, and no one protested, except for Bree, who shot them a quick venomous glare, and Tobias, who kept his outcry of unfairness silent.

31. Rook returned to his feet with a spring lacking at least half of his usual speed. He panted heavily. He was tiring, Tobias realized, having put most of his energy into his speed. Bree showed no shortness of breath and no other signs of fatigue. If the two continued at their current pace, she would wear him down, and score the last two strikes she needed to win in a way the judges couldn’t deny.

32. Rook must have known it too, because his next thrust came clumsily and with obvious desperation. He clearly wanted to score his last point quickly to spare himself the humiliation of loosing to a girl. Bree pinned her sword arm between her free arm and her side, and spun him around so that both of the judges could see of them clearly. She raised her sword high and brought its point down hard on her helpless victim’s chest. All the while, she scowled at the judges, daring them to deny her a point for her hit. They didn’t, but neither they nor any of the Academy boys cheered for her. 

33. The rules of a three-point match prevented Bree from making her third hit with Rook still pinned. When she released him, Rook stumbled, landing face first in the dirt. Bree patiently waited as he slowly picked himself up.

34. Something was amiss; Tobias could tell by Rook’s smooth and confident body language. He had something up his sleeve, something devious. Tobias spied the boy’s clenched, dirt-covered left hand, and immediately guessed what he was going to do.

35. “Look out!” he cried as Bree moved in for another attack.

36. Before Bree could react, Rook flung his handful of dirt into her eyes. Bree cried out and dropped her guard. With a roar, Rook plowed into her, knocked her off her feet, and struck a triumphant blow on her back.

37. The cheers Rook received from his Academy peers sounded empty, and unenthusiastic to Tobias’s ears. He could tell that they were glad their champion had beaten the girl, but didn’t wholeheartedly agree with his methods. It gave him some relief to know that the future protectors of Europa didn’t completely condone cheating, but angered him that none of them would stand against it.

38. “Cheater!” Bree howled as she wiped the dirt form her eyes. “*****-covered skunk!”

39. She stopped in mid-sentence when Rook snatched her real sword, still buckled to her hip, out of its sheath and dangled it just out of her reach.

40. “Temper, temper, my dear,” he taunted. “Let’s not be a sore looser.”

41. Bree leaped to her feet and lunged at Rook, but two dark-skinned squires grabbed her arms and held her back before she could reach him.

42. Before he knew what he was doing, Tobias surged through the mass of boys surrounding him, his desire to stay inconspicuous momentarily forgotten. Rook and his cohorts’ cruelty had gone on long enough.

43.  Meanwhile, Rook, unaware of the approaching danger, stepped farther away, admiring the stolen blade.

44. “Caltic steel,” he observed, rubbing his hand over the sword.

45. The metal looked like regular steel, but had a slight silvery sheen. Rook must have a good eye and knowledge of metals to be able to deduce that the sword was caltic, Tobias thought.

46. “Nice,” Rook continued. “Finley crafted, too.” He rubbed his thumb over the light-blue gem embedded in the pommel. It was about the size of the thumb’s top joint. “I like the topaz. It’s a nice touch.”

47. “Give it back,” Bree demanded.

48. Rook swung the caltic blade in a downward arch. “Hmm. I it only fair I keep this beauty as my prize of battle. It’s more suited … Hey!”

49. Tobias had broken through the crowd of Academy boys and seized Rook’s sword arm. Rook glowered at him, but it was no match for the cold, intimidating stare radiating from his steel-grey eyes. Tobias wanted to make it clear that he was in no mood for trouble, but if the squire wanted to cause any, he would make him regret it. Rook blanched and stepped away as far as he could. Tobias effortlessly yanked Bree’s sword from his grasp.

50. “Leave her alone,” he said evenly. He aimed his gaze at Bree’s captors. “All of you.”

51.  The two squires holding Bree released their prisoner and scrambled back towards their fellows.

52. Bree met his eyes with a look of surprise. Clearly she didn’t expect anyone to come to her rescue.

53. “Thank you,” she said, as her expression changed.

54. Her eyes. Tobias had faced assassins without flinching, yet her eyes unnerved him. If they were grey instead of brown, he would almost swear he was looking into his sister’s eyes. Hadassah would give him the exact same look of gratitude and joy whenever he stood up for her against the neighborhood bullies or comforted her when she was upset.

55. He practically dumped Bree’s caltic sword into her hands, and spun sharply away from her, tearing himself from the eyes that haunted him, while he dammed up the flow of memories and emotions spilling from the fragile shell he’d locked them behind four years ago. He pushed his way back through the crowd, hoping no one, especially Bree, would follow him.

56. Fortunately, they were all distracted by a piercing booming voice emanating from the courtyard’s entrance. “What’s going on here?”

57. All eyes fixed themselves on the new arrival—all except Tobias’s. He took refuge in the doorway of another courtyard entrance, and again became a silent observer.

58. Bree was bowing before a short man, barely taller than she, entering the courtyard from the other entrance. He wore an amber tunic bearing both a knight’s and the Academy’s coat of arms, identifying him as a knight and an Academy teacher.

59. “Headmaster,” Bree said respectfully, “my name is Brianna Arengaren. I’ve come seeking admittance into the Royal Knights Academy.”

60. “The Academy has no need of servant girls,” the Headmaster began dismissively.

61. “As a student. I’ve been unfairly rejected by recruiters both this year and last because of my gender. I’ve come to you hoping, in your wisdom, you’ll look beyond it and see my value as a knight.” She reached into a purse hanging around her neck and withdrew a letter sealed with wax. “This letter is from my teacher, Cavin Thunderhoof, who’s trained many of the current knights in the king’s army. It vouches my worthiness to be accepted into the Academy.  Of my class, I was the best fighter, and I scored the highest marks in every test Cavin gave me. Even the recruiter who rejected me this year said he was impressed with my skill. He would’ve admitted me if I was a boy.”

62. Bree pressed her letter towards the headmaster. The headmaster made no move to take it from her and read it.

63. “The Academy only accepts boys who have the potential to be knights,” he said matter-of-factly. “We don’t have the time or the recourses to waste time on girls. They don’t have the strength or endurance to keep up with the rigorous training, or the ability to keep their wits during battle.”

64. “But I have all of those qualities! If you’ll only look—”

65. “And I don’t have time to waste on you. Begone!” He turned on his heel and marched out of the courtyard.

66. Bree sped after him, continuing to protest, but her voice was quickly lost in the wave of jeers the Academy boys hurled at her. Tobias anger boiled against them and their headmaster, but he did not move to Bree’s defense again. Nothing he could do would help her; the pig-headed males were too set in their ways to be swayed by him. He didn’t know why he’d acted on Bree’s behalf the first time. It violated his motto of staying out of things that did not concern him, and what concerned him right now wasn’t some girl, it was his business with Sir Hayden.

67. Tobias kept his eyes on the second entrance way, scouring for any sign of the page who’d gone to tell Sir Hayden of his arrival as the Academy boys dispersed and went about their business, some still laughing at Bree. He put the girl out of his mind, and focused on his objective. The minutes dragged by and Tobias began to wonder what could possibly be taking the page so long to bring him word from Sir Hayden. When he heard footfalls behind him, he thought he’d received his answer from the knight at last, but when he turned, he saw Bree coming towards him. Something about the way she quickened her pace and smiled when he saw her told him she’d been looking for him. What could she want? Whatever it was, Tobias hoped it was quick. He didn’t want to be bothered.

68. “Hi,” Bree greeted warmly.

69. Tobias didn’t answer her.

70. Bree extended a glossy piece of paper towards him. Tobias recognized it instantly as Sir Hayden’s advertisement.

71. “You dropped this,” she explained.

72. Tobias impassively slid the notice from her fingers and stuffed it back into his pocket. “Thank you.”

73. “Are you going to take the job?”

74. “That is my business, not yours.” 

75. Bree recoiled as if stung. Tobias didn’t mean to sound so cold towards her, but he didn’t want to give her the impression he wanted to make friends.

76. “Oh.” Bree bit her lip. “I suppose I don’t need to tell you how famous you’d be if you managed to pull this off—rescuing the ambassador from Diamageen, I mean—not to mention rich. Seventy-five crowns, that’s a king’s ransom.” She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms thoughtfully. “If I were to pull off something heroic like that, they’d have to let me into the Academy. The headmaster wouldn’t dare threaten to have the guards throw me out like he did this time. None of those idiotic bigots would make fun of me; they’d all realize how wrong they were about me. Blasted, *****-for-brains toads.” She kicked a pebble hard enough to send it ricocheting off the opposite wall. “Anyway, I wanted to thank you one more time for standing up for me. No one’s ever done that before. I wanted to get your name, too.”

77. Tobias’s first impulse was to tell her his name was also none of her concern, but he gave the matter a second thought, and decided there wasn’t much harm in giving her what she wanted. “I’m Tobias.”

78. “I’m Bree.”

79. “I know.”

80. He turned his back on Bree, hoping she would get the message and go away.

81. “Is that a claymore?” she asked, obviously referring to his sword. “Wow. You must be some swordsman if you can wield that big thing. Funny, it looks like Samuel Rowan’s sword. You know who he is, right?”

82. Tobias said nothing.

83. “You must have heard about him. He’s only the most legendary dragon-slayer in history.” Her voice grew low and thoughtful, and Tobias could sense her extending her hand towards his sword’s gold and silver hilt. “His sword disappeared after he died, and he had a son, who’d be about your age now—”

84. Tobias turned on her sharply. “Miss Arengaren, I was happy to help you earlier, but I’m not in the mood for company at the moment, so I’d appreciate it if you would please leave me alone.”

85. Bree reeled backwards. Tobias guessed she couldn’t have looked anymore shocked or hurt if he’d punched her. He almost apologized for his words.

86. Behind him, he heard the sound of a boy clearing his throat. Relieved for the distraction, Tobias turned and saw the page he’d been patiently waiting for.

87. “Pardon my interruption,” the boy said. “Sir Hayden Sacgara requests your presence.”

88. Tobias nodded, and followed the page. He fought the urge to give Bree any parting words or glances. He wanted to discourage her from any further attempts at seeking his friendship. He’d discarded all of his desire for companionship the day he’d steeled his heart four years ago.

89.  

90. Chapter Three: A Grieving Shadow

91.             “Sir Hayden is currently in conference,” the page explained as he and Tobias reached a set of closed oak doors. “He asks that you wait here and he will see you as soon as he is finished. It shouldn’t take long.”

92.             Tobias nodded and sat down on a cushioned bench across the hall from the doors as the page left him to endure another wait. The hallway was empty save for the many painting occupying the walls. A five foot tall and ten foot wide mural caught his attention immediately. A great battle, waged over a thousand years ago, was frozen on its canvas. An army of humans, centaurs, elves, and dwarves smashed into their enemy ranks like a great whirlwind. Dragons assaulted the enemy with fire, claw, and fang from above. Merpeople cast spells from the ocean waves that cut down all who were unfortunate enough to be on their receiving end. All of them waged their melee against the same enemy: a horde of green-skinned goblins, and other, more fearsome creatures of various twisted shapes and sizes. The hideous foes were being soundly trounced and their leaders, a man with the head of a vulture, and twelve lovely, tall, and slender elf and human women were fleeing the battle, looks of unparalleled terror on their faces. They were the evil Dread Warlock and his Lundari Witches. They once ruled the world with their horrifying creations: the goblins and the creatures called gratzki. The battle depicted on the mural had brought their reign of terror to an end.

93.             Tobias touched the human Lundari Witch with copper hair, the same shade as his own. She should not have been in the painting. She was not at the battle, and had not been killed with her former master and those she’d once called her sisters. She, Esther Airiashe, had risked everything to deliver to Marstan Warstaff, the human highlander who had united the people of Ceaestene and commanded them, the enchanted cherry juice that would strip his foes of their magic and immortality.

94.             The dragons, too, were in the wrong place on the mural. Dragons were cruel and vile creatures that destroyed villages and killed for sport. Tobias was certain that they didn’t fight with Marstan; they most likely fought on the Dread Warlock’s side.

95.             There was one other inaccuracy in the mural, but it didn’t bother Tobias as much as other two did. The Dread Warlock did not possess a vulture’s head, though he may have worn a vulture mask, or the mask of some other bird of prey. His race, the bedriene, was very vain. They wore bird masks whenever they left their floating island, Enchantell because they did not deem the other races worthy of beholding their true faces. No one knew for sure what became of them after the Dread Warlock died. Some said the entire foul race had been wiped out, others claimed to have seen them flying in the night sky.

96.             A click and a creak broke the silence of the hall as one of the oak doors swung open. A boy, no older than Tobias, stepped through. He appeared to favor black for that was the color of his neatly combed slightly-shorter-than-shoulder-length hair, his shirt, leather jacket, pants, and boots. One of his long, slender hands rested nonchalantly on the hilt of a sabre hanging on his belt, while the other brushed a strand of hair out of his deep-green eyes. A bronze band on his left hand caught Tobias’s attention. Several tiny black stones were set in its surface in a peculiar pattern.

97. The stranger met Tobias’s gaze with a friendly, lopsided smile before swaggering past him and down the hall. Tobias did not have much time to wonder who he was or what his purpose was behind the oak doors, for another figure emerged from their threshold. This one was a grey-haired robust man whose right arm ended at the elbow. His tunic bore only his coat of arms, for he was not a teacher at the Academy. A familiar T-shaped scar adorned the right side of his forehead just above his eye.

98. Recognizing him instantly, Tobias bowed. “Sir Hayden.”

99. “Yes,” the knight acknowledged. “Are you …” His eyes widened and his expression changed to that of disbelief. His hand drifted slowly towards the hilt of Tobias’s claymore.

100. “May I?” he asked.

101. Tobias withdrew the sword from its scabbard and held it out for Sir Hayden to examine. The knight ran his fingers gently over the two metal dragons—one silver, and one gold—that made up the crosspiece as if to prove they were real and not an hallucination.

102. “I know this blade,” he said. “It’s saved my life many times, and the man who wielded it was one of my best friends.” He smiled at Tobias. “Could it be his son that now stands before me?”

103.             Tobias nodded. He knew it would do him no good to hide his identity form the man who’d visited his family every summer for the first thirteen years of his life.  “It is.”

104.             Sir Hayden gave an overjoyed, hearty laugh and threw his arms around Tobias in a fierce hug, causing the bounty hunter to drop his weapon. “By the blessed saints! Ah, you’ve changed so much, it’s no wonder I didn’t recognize you at first. Oh, but I should have. You have your father’s eyes.”

105. Tobias tried not to squirm. He wasn’t accustomed to being greeted in such a manner, and he found it awkward. “Yes, so I’ve been told.”

106. Sir Hayden finally released him. “Well, come in, lad, come in. Take a load off your feet. Do you still like lemonade? I have a half a pitcher left over from my last meeting. It’s still cold.”

107. Tobias scooped up his sword and followed Sir Hayden into his office. The knight was already pouring lemonade from a glass pitcher for his guest and himself. Tobias sat in a chair that had been placed near a large desk, one of many elegant pieces of furniture in the spacious room.

108. Sir Hayden handed Tobias his drink. “Look at you, all grown up into a strapping young man. You must be, what, sixteen now?”

109.             “Seventeen,” Tobias replied.

110. “Seventeen, eh? That’s right; it’s been four years since last I saw you.” His voice grew solemn.  “When word reached me of the deaths of your parents and sister, I came to get you and take you in as my own. I owed it to your father. But when I got there, one of your friends told me you’d gotten yourself a job as a cabin boy on a ship and had already sailed away. I tried to find you, but my duties to the king wouldn’t allow me to make a long search. Then, I start hearing stories of a teenage bounty hunter bringing in highwaymen and other scoundrels that the local were too afraid to touch. When I heard that said bounty hunter carried a very familiar claymore, well, I knew it had to be you. No other boy you’re age could bring down criminals like Jorgae the Red unless he was trained by Samuel Rowan, and inherited his stubbornness and craziness. 

111. “And while we’re on the subject of craziness, maybe you could clear up a rumor I heard when I searched for you. Your friend told me that you’d gone mad with grief after your parents died, and in your madness, you convinced yourself that Hadassah had been taken by dragons. You’d told him that you were going to the Realm of Dragons and get her back. Is this true?”

112. “It is.” Tobias’s insides churned. He didn’t like talking about his quest, didn’t like thinking back to that night when dragons burned down his home with his parents inside. Everyone in his hometown had assumed Hadassah had died with them. No one but he knew what had really happened to her.

113. “And? What have you found?”

114. “Nothing that was of any help.”

115. Tobias had scoured countless libraries and talked to numerous sages and scholars, but none of these had revealed to him the location of the dragon’s hidden kingdom.

116. “With all due respect, Sir Hayden,” Tobias put in quickly before the knight could utter another word, “I didn’t come to reminisce about the past, or talk about my search. I came to inquire about this.” He put Sir Hayden’s advertisement on the desk and let the knight look it over while he took a long sip of lemonade. “Is the position still open?”

117.             “It is.” Sir Hayden set his cup aside. “I assume you are aware of the dangers of facing the goblins on their own land.”

118.             “I’ve heard the legends. They say no goblin can be killed in Diamageen.”

119.             “And they don’t scare you?”

120.             “No. They’ve just made me cautious. I plan on avoiding a direct confrontation with them. I’m just going to go in, do what I need to do, and get out.” Tobias took another drink of his lemonade.

121.             “And if you do have to fight them?” Sir Hayden asked.

122.             “Then I’ll fight them,” Tobias said. “I don’t believe the goblins are unbeatable. No one’s found a way to kill them yet, that’s all. But I’ll find a way if I need to.”

123.  Sir Hayden smiled. “If it is possible to beat them, I don’t think you’ll have too difficult a job of it. Not if half of what I’ve heard about you is true. I’m curious, though; is there a specific reason you’re so eager to accept this mission?”       

124. “I need the money,” Tobias blurted matter-of-factly.

125. That was the only reason why Tobias was reluctantly seeking employment from Sir Hayden. He had nothing against the knight, but he was a reminder of his past, something Tobias wanted to distance himself from as much as possible.

126. “There are a lot less dangerous places to acquire coin, m’boy,” Sir Hayden pointed out. “It strikes me as odd that a person searching for his sister would take such a perilous detour.”

127. Though Sir Hayden’s prying made Tobias feel uncomfortable, he didn’t snap at the old knight to mind his own business like he would any other overly-curious person. Perhaps it was because of the knight’s past relationship with his family that he decided to explain his actions.

128. “I’m going into Diamageen anyway, whether I get this job or not,” he said. “I might find something there that will lead me to Hadassah.”

129. “In the goblin’s realm?” Sir Hayden asked.

130. “Why not? The goblins and the dragons are cut from the same evil cloth, maybe the goblins know where the Realm of Dragons is. If I find something, or if I don’t, I’m going to need money to continue my search, which is why, for the reward, I’ll look for your missing ambassador while I’m there. What do I do if I find that he and his party have already been killed by the goblins?”

131.  Tobias hoped that this time Sir Hayden would stay on the topic of the mission. He had talked more than enough about his personal affairs for one day.

132.             “You would need to take over their mission and deliver an important letter from the king to the King of Hearock,” Sir Hayden said. “I have a copy of the letter for you, so you don’t need to track down the original.” He finished his lemonade and set the cup aside.

133.             “Hearock?” Tobias asked. “Last time I looked, no roads to there went anywhere near Diamageen Forest.”

134.             “I know. The ambassador, Heach, and his party were supposed to stay on the main road, but decided to take the shorter route through the goblins’ realm to cut down on traveling time and to impress the dwarves by being the first humans to emerge from that forest alive. At least, that’s what a farmer who saw them enter the forest told my messenger.”

135.             Tobias was shocked but not surprised. The odds were pretty good that at least one arrogant idiot who thought he was invincible would end up in the ranks of the king’s soldiers or ambassadors.

136.             “They should have known better,” Sir Hayden continued. “Their mission was too important to be taking a foolhardy risk like that.”

137.             “What was so important about that letter they were carrying?” Tobias asked, suddenly curious as to why the king would want to make contact with the dwarves of Hearock. The dwarves and Europa had been on unfriendly terms for years, and nine summers ago, the short, stocky folk had closed their borders and announced that outsiders were no longer welcome in their kingdom.

138.             Sir Hayden’s expression turned grave. “Have you heard of the recent attacks on the elves?”

139.             Tobias shook his head.

140.             “One of our navel ships found a human merchant on the coast of Aldawen. She was half-crazy, and kept babbling something about monsters and an attack on the city she was in. The soldiers found the city, or rather what was left of it. It had been burned to the ground, and the only elves found among the ashes were corpses. They found several more cities in the same condition all along the coast. The captain sent a search party to see how far inland the destruction had spread. They never returned.”

141.             “Sounds like dragons’ work,” Tobias said.   

142.             Sir Hayden shrugged. “Perhaps. If it was them, this would be the first time in two years they’ve launched an attack, which is strange; they don’t usually let so much time pass between raids. King Troy believes that whatever attacked Aldawen might attack Hearock and Europa in the not too distant future. He also believes that the two nations would stand a better chance against this threat if they were allied. The letter was a request to the king of the dwarves to agree to such an alliance. Heach was supposed to try and talk them into it. He was a teacher here, but he’d worked for the king as an ambassador briefly, because he felt teaching was his true calling. He was very learned in dwarven culture, and a very gifted speaker. The king knew of no other man who would have a chance at securing an alliance. He sent me to deliver the message to Heach, and now, for the sake of Europa and perhaps the world, the ambassador must be rescued. No knight would go after him, that’s why I offered the reward, but so far that’s only secured the aid of yourself and one other, the young man I was talking to before you came.”

143.             “I work alone,” Tobias insisted.   

144. “You’ll want his help. You need another pair of eyes to watch your back. And anyway, he’s traveled through Diamageen Forest before; he knows the area.”

145. Tobias raised an eyebrow. “Really? With all due respect, sir, a boy walks in and tells you he’s ventured into a land no one has escaped alive and you believe him?”

146. “Not at first. And, for your information, some have escaped from Diamageen Forest. My aunt not only survived that place, she made a map of it. She … she died of her wounds days after she was found, and never interpreted any of the symbols she’d drawn on it.  Anyway, the boy—Ankinon is his name—has a ring that he claimed he found in Diamageen and the pattern of stones on the band matches a pattern of dots on the map, and he knows things about the forest only someone who’d been there could know about.”

147. “Or has seen your aunt’s map,” Tobias put in.

148. Sir Hayden shook his head. “The map has been sealed here in the Academy vaults. No one’s looked at it in over twenty years save myself and Heach. You and Ankinon will have a copy of it when you leave tomorrow.” He smiled. “Don’t look so glum, Tobias. Ankinon’s a very charming young man, and very adventurous, not unlike someone else I know. I’m sure you two will get along fine. That is, if you still want this job.”

149. Tobias almost said no—the last thing he needed was some boy prying into his private life and getting in his way—but his complaining stomach reminded him how desperately he needed the seventy-five crowns. He’d be lucky to find food and lodging for the night with the two doubloons and five farthings he had in his pack. His boots were nearly worn out and would need replacing soon, as would two knives he broke in his fight with Jorgae the Red, and his sharpening stone. His chain mail shirt and steel knuckles, which he now carried in his pack, needed oil before they rusted.

150. “We set out tomorrow, you said?” Tobias said dully, evening his tone over his displeasure.

151. “Yes, at first light,” Sir Hayden confirmed. “There is very little time to delay. Heach and his party’s chances of survival swindle by the hour.”

152. Tobias nodded. “Then, if there is nothing else, I beg your leave. I want to find an inn before it gets dark.”

153. “You’re welcome to stay at the Academy. The headmaster can find you a room, and I can have a meal brought up here if you don’t feel like eating with the students. It would give us a chance to talk.”

154. Tobias shook his head. If he accepted Sir Hayden’s offer, sooner or later, the conversation would inevitably turn to his family, and he didn’t want to discuss them with anybody.

155. “I appreciate your generosity,” he said, “but I couldn’t impose.” He stood quickly and almost ran for the door. He knew he was being rude, but his sudden desire to escape the office and the Academy was overwhelming.

156. “You still grieve for them,” the knight stated.

157. Tobias paused, his hand on the doorknob. Had he been so obvious?

158. “Your family wouldn’t want you to carry such a burden for so long, lad,” Sir Hayden continued. “They’d want you to think of them and smile, not to be this brooding shadow of your former self.”

159. Tobias stepped out of Sir Hayden’s office without a word. What Sir Hayden had said echoed what many of his neighbors on Windbluff Island had said to him four years ago. He wanted to smile, he wanted to remember his former life without pain, but he couldn’t, not yet. All he could do was burry his grief, and fight its effort to resurface. It was the only way he could go on.

160.  

161.