01 - The Price of Talent (10 page)

              And with that communication to the sword, I let the dummy have it. I struck with anger, I struck with full force, I struck with all my frustrations. Worse, I screwed up my eyes and didn’t look where I was swinging.

BAM!

              It felt like I completely missed the target and swung through into the ground. The sword meeting no resistance left my grip and struck itself halfway to the hilt in the ground. I fell over and rolled into a seating position. My headache forgotten, the cold forgotten, my anger and frustration forgotten. I looked up and could not believe what I was looking at.

              The practice dummy had been cut from its left shoulder to near the bottom of the stump holding it up. Just a clean slice strait through the rope, straw and foot thick hardwood stump.

              Worse, the straw was smoldering and I couldn’t see where the top ended up.

Now THAT’S more like it kid! Now pull me from the earth and finish it off!

No, I think we are done for now.

              And I was. I got up and looked at the area. The sword was embedded in the earth, the dummy was ruined, and the top half was smoldering twenty feet away near the archery targets.

Shit… I’m going to be in trouble for this.

Bah! It’s a sword dummy. It’s supposed to get cut up.

Not like this though. This isn’t normal wear and tear.

You worry too much.

I’m going to have to tell someone I ruined the practice dummy.

True, but the sooner you do, the sooner we get a new one to cut up!

              I cleaned up the area, put the top half of the dummy with the bottom half and made sure all the smoldering embers were out. Then I headed back to the longhouse.

              As I walked in, I skirted the kitchen area and put my sword away in my room. Really I was just stalling, just like I was when I was cleaning up the practice area. But when everything was in its place, and I had no more excuses, I walked back into the kitchen area.

              In the kitchen area Sapphire, Devlin and Ross were sitting around one of the tables and drinking a few pints before dinner. Moira had not yet come back.

“Tyr! Why the long face?” Asked Devlin as I shuffled my way reluctantly over.

“Um… Well… Um…” I stammered.

“Speak up lad! I can’t hear you.” Devlin responded.

“I may have… broken… the practice dummy…” I told him.

“HAH! I doubt it kid. That dummy is made of pretty stern stuff.” Devlin joked.

“Uh… Yeah… Even so… It’s broken.” I said feeling very embarrassed.

“You serious kid? Well, I’m in for a laugh. Sapphire, hand me my cane and let’s go see the damage.” Devlin said.

              With that we all four of us headed out to the practice field.

“Wow it’s cold,” Devlin said.

              Devlin was taking this better than I had thought. Ross and Sapphire weren’t speaking though. They both walked over to the dummy, now just a post with a large cut through it, and looked at it.

“You said you did this?” Ross asked quizzically.

“This looks more like a lightning strike…” Sapphire said.

“I’ve seen what lightning does to trees when they’ve been hit. It does tend to destroy them.” Devlin said.

“Yes… Lightning…” Ross said.

“Look here, the dummy has some charred bits on it. Definitely lightning.” Sapphire said.

“Wow, kid, you’re lucky to be alive having been that near a lightning strike,” Devlin said. “No wonder you looked so odd when you came in. Your hair was practically standing on end. We should get you some food and have Ross look you over after dinner to make sure you’re ok.”

“That… Sounds like a good idea actually,” Ross said as he finished looking over the dummy. He seemed especially intrigued by the diagonal cut through the post.

              So, with that out of the way, we headed back inside. I was so relieved that they weren’t angry I had not really been focusing on what they said. I also decided not to argue with them about the lightning thing. After all, what did I know? It was getting windy and cold out. Maybe it was lightning.

              Dinner passed much the way it normally did. Devlin, Sapphire and Moira, who had come in while we were outside, were all sitting around joking, drinking mead and beer and generally enjoying themselves.

“So then the kid here comes in all disoriented saying he had broken the training dummy.” Devlin said to Moira. “Turns out he had been out there practicing and the bloody thing had been hit by lightning! He’s made of sterner stuff than we thought eh?”

“Really?! Lightning? You’re lucky to be alive, kid.” Moira said with astonishment.

              The dinner conversation went on in this vein for quite some time. Meanwhile I was working on my second plate of food. All that practicing had made me quite hungry. But then, at fifteen, I was still a growing boy.

              After dinner Ross followed me back to my room to make sure I wasn’t still rattled or hurt from the supposed lightning strike. As he came in, he closed the door behind him and gave me a long appraising look.

“Sit down kid, we have some things we need to talk about,” he said.

“Uh… So are you not going to give me a medical exam?” I asked.

“Nope. We both know you’re fine. I’m more concerned with how that dummy got destroyed.”

“Devlin thinks it was a lightning strike…”

“We both know that wasn’t a lightning strike kid,” Ross said. “Hell, even as you came in you said that you had broken it. Also, lightning doesn’t make a clean cut through wood. It tends to shatter it or rend it apart.”

“I… See…” I said.

“So let me ask you something. Did you have a headache when you were out swinging that sword around?”

“Yes… How did you know?…” I asked a little dumbfounded.

“Remember when we first met and I asked you then about your past?”

“Uh, yes…”

“I asked you if you were prone to headaches and you said ‘yes’,” he said. “I think I am starting to get a better understanding of what brought you here than even you do yourself.”

“Oh… Wait what?” I asked, still dumbfounded.

“I’m guessing you have been prone to headaches for most of your life. That they have been generally getting worse as you have gotten older and that, when they get really bad, bad things tend to happen.”

See, I told you he was not to be trusted. Now he has you trapped in your little room and he is asking some pretty ominous questions. But OH NO! You didn’t listen. Now we’re in trouble.

NOT NOW!

“Uh, I guess so.” I said noncommittally.

“I thought as much. Kid, do you even know why the Inquisition was after you?” He asked.

“Uh… no?”

“I think it’s because they suspected you had the talent for magic.”

“Wait, what?”

“Kid, the Inquisition plays a lot of roles. They are church policeman, they are demon hunters, and they are, above all else, wizard and witch hunters. They go all over the land, or at least they used to, and look for people with magical talent.”

“Why would they do this?” I asked.

“What do you know of the history of Pandanu?”

“Not much really. Just that the church had some sort of big war which established the empire a few hundred years ago.”

“Well, that’s about the gist of it, but you missed the most important parts of the story. Let me fill in the details for you. You might as well take a seat, because this will take a few minutes,” said Ross.

“OK.” I said, finding a seat on my bed.

              There wasn’t much furniture in my room. Just my bed, a stool a wardrobe for my clothes and a chair in the corner that I used as a place to prop up my sword. Since I had taken the bed, Ross took a seat on the chair and we made ourselves comfortable.

Oh sure, have the ominous guy who knows far too much about us sit next to me… I see how it is.

Shut up! I’m trying to listen to the story.

“Well, I might as well start from the beginning,” said Ross. “We don’t know much about this land from the time before the first pilgrims of the church sailed here 500 or so years ago. What we do know is that the pilgrims were sailing north from the southern continents due to religious persecution. They eventually found a likely landing point at what we now call Neucester, a small farming village located on the central western coast. Over the years the pilgrims basically over ran the town and started settling in both Tannerton and Dunesburg, which are towns to the North and south of Neucester. As these towns filled and expanded with the newly arrived pilgrims. The church became more and more the center of town and the center of daily life. This did not sit well with the de facto rulers of the land during this time.”

“Wait, someone ruled this land before the church?”

“Yes, it isn’t much talked about as the church likes people to believe that they have always ruled here. But the reality is that they were not always native to this land. And the natives at the time all paid tribute to local lords.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense. You always need some sort of central authority.” I said.

“Exactly. What is even less well known than that is that these lords were actually powerful wizards and witches. They tended to leave the villages and towns alone, so long as the towns provided tithes of food or whatever else the mages needed. Details get a little sketchy because the church long ago suppressed most of the books and knowledge from before the time they arrived. But in their own secret libraries, the true histories still exist.”

“Wait. Is this why you had to leave the church?” I asked with a sudden insight.

“How perceptive of you. Yes, this is exactly why I had to leave the church. You see, I love a good story. And rumors of the church’s secret libraries became a bit of an obsession of mine while I was studying to become a healer and working in the brewery. Unfortunately for me, I was persistent and found a way into these libraries. I tried to cover my tracks, but, the walls have ears and eyes they say. So when it was discovered I had been trespassing in these libraries, I had to beat a hasty retreat.”

“Oh… Why fear these old stories?” I asked.

“Fear is the wrong word, kid. But there is something you have to understand. Knowledge is power. While, yes, that is a bit of a cliché, it is also absolutely true. If you control knowledge, you can shape the thoughts of the people who learn it. It’s not enough to tell people to believe something, you need to indoctrinate them into it. So when you control all the schools, all the libraries and the like, you can raise kids believing your version of history. Your version of facts. You can make yourself the hero after the fact and in a few generations no one will be the wiser.”

“I don’t get it. Isn’t that fear?” I asked.

“No, it’s not fear. The church controls the military and local police. But it is a lot easier when people follow you because they believe your stories. If you can write a compelling enough history and make everyone believe it, the populace will believe you have the right to run the country and will accept your rule. That frees up a lot of resources for other projects.”

“Oh I see, so if you make yourself the hero, and everyone believes you, you get to actually be the hero and run things.” I said.