Rise of the Champion (The Sword of Kirakath Omnibus #1) (12 page)

“For the life of me, I can’t remember what happened yesterday,” Caleb said after a few moments.

“Well, early yesterday morning, you went to practice at that range of yours,” Michael said thoughtfully. “While you were there, a messenger came with the letter to Gabriel. Immediately after Gabriel wrote his reply and the messenger left, he went to find you and tell you the news.”

“That’s right,” Gabriel said with a nod. “We spent some time at the range, and you showed me how skilled you’ve become with that bow. I have to say that I’m a little jealous of your ability.” Those words had Caleb frowning, though Gabriel did not seem to notice. “Anyways, we had a little celebration last night after I told Father that I’d be staying in Kirakath.”

This isn’t Gabriel,
Caleb thought without a hint of doubt. Gabriel might have rejected the opportunity to join the King’s Army if Michael had told him not to, but his friend would never have been envious of anyone’s skill with a bow. There was no way that Gabriel would have ever spoken a lie in front of Michael either, so he could not have been lying about being jealous.

I knew that this was too good to be true.
The bitter thought pulsed through his mind as he looked at the image of his father.

Caleb closed his eyes, remembering the sight of his dying father. “I’m not here to play games. I need the sword.”

He opened his eyes in time to see Michael and Gabriel fade into blue smoke. The smoke then formed a single person.

“Lance,” Caleb muttered with barely restrained anger.

“Why do you disrupt your own paradise?” Lance asked curiously. “This world is exactly what you want it to be. You could have your family and your home back if you wish. I suppose you could leave this world if you wished, but why choose an empty life of revenge over your paradise?”

This is a paradise,
Caleb thought in annoyance.
That explains why Kirakath is here, along with everyone else. I guess it also explains Hector being gone. I’ve gotten used to it. I don’t really think about him that often anymore.

“I don’t want this,” Caleb said as he broke away from his thoughts. “I want to go back to reality.”

“No, you don’t,” Lance said as he shook his head. “You want this world. If you didn’t, you’d still be in a field of blue smoke.”

Caleb nodded as he exhaled deeply. “You’re right. I want this world,” he admitted. “But, what I want doesn’t matter. My duty is more important than my desires. I will get the Sword of Kirakath and avenge Kirakath. I am Caleb of Kirakath.”

With those last words, Caleb’s clothing returned to what he had been wearing when Lance captured him and the room changed back to a field of blue smoke. Lance remained where he was, however.

With a smile, Lance said, “Congratulations on passing the first test.”

Anger gripped Caleb as he dashed towards Lance and punched him with every ounce of his strength. To his pleasure, Lance was knocked to the ground by the blow of the strike.

“I should kill you for using the image of my father,” Caleb said as his sword appeared in his hand.

Blood dripped from the corner of Lance’s mouth, despite the smile that was present. “You could try, but we both know that you can’t do it here. I’m not really here. The sphere that you saw me remove from my cloak grants me the ability to trap a person in a world of smoke. It also gives me the ability to interact with that world without actually entering it. Thus, I am nothing but smoke here.”

By the heightened anger in Caleb’s eyes, it was apparent that he had come to the conclusion that it was not really Lance. “What was the purpose of this test?”

Lance cocked his head sideways at the question. “You didn’t figure that out? Well, I guess I should tell you then. I had to test the strength of your character. If you had not chosen duty over desire, then you would have not been worthy of the Sword of Kirakath. You would have died if you chosen desire, but that’s a moot point.”

“How does that work?” Caleb asked, understanding all but the last part.

“I can’t get someone out of this world unless they want to, and a man will starve if he stays in this world indefinitely,” Lance answered as he rose to his feet. “Now, are you ready to return to your cage?”

Caleb clenched his fist at the question. “How long are you going to keep me in that cage?”

“The cage will be a temporary thing, but you’ll have to stay in it for the rest of today,” Lance said as he began to fade into smoke. “The next test will take place tomorrow. In the meantime, you can get some rest. I’ll get you something to eat too.”

Blue smoke once again engulfed Caleb. When it cleared, he was back in the chamber, but Lance was no longer present. For once, he welcomed the isolation.

Chapter 13

“I wonder what Katie’s up to,” Caleb pondered as he leaned against the bars of his cage.

From what he could tell, he had last seen his female companion two days earlier, and he found that he could not help but wonder how she was reacting to his absence.

“Would she actually be worried about me?” he asked aloud, honestly not sure of the answer. She had managed to confuse him ever since they met, so he would not have been willing to even make a bet on how she was reacting at the moment.

“Your companion is named Katie, I presume?”

Caleb’s eyes immediately went over his shoulder, catching sight of Lance. Apparently his captor had been standing behind him.

“How did you get there without me seeing you?” Caleb asked as he stood up. “There’s only one entrance into this chamber, and I would have seen you if you walked through the doors.”

“Unless I’ve been in here since before you woke up,” Lance countered with a sly smile. “Are you ready for your second test?”

“What magic have you brought this time?” Caleb asked, his muscles tensing. He had already come to the conclusion that the magical items that Lance used around him were not in his best interest.

Without saying a word, Lance pulled his hand back and tossed something towards Caleb. It struck the ground between two of the bars in front of Caleb and bounced towards the center of the cage.

A single glance told Caleb that it was a key.

“You’re free to get out of the cage. I can’t test you while you’re in there, after all,” Lance said as he walked around the cage and headed towards the doors. He managed to reach them before Caleb even picked the key up. “If you want to leave, go left through these doors. If you want to be tested again, go right. I’m not your captor. My only interest has been in helping the Son of Kirakath.”

With those words, Lance opened the doors and walked through, moving right as the doors shut.

What does he mean by ‘the son of Kirakath?’
Caleb thought curiously as he kneeled down in front of the key.
First it was Father and his talk of the ‘blood of Kirakath’ over the years, and now it’s this Lance guy with his talk of the ‘son of Kirakath.’ I’ll never understand these guys.

Shaking his head away from those thoughts, he picked up the iron key that was before him. It felt as cold as ice, but he ignored the chilling sensation as he rose to his feet with the key in hand. He walked the few feet to the door of the cage and slipped his hand through the bars with the key. It only took a few seconds to get the key into the lock and turn it, causing the lock to creak as it unlatched.

It worked,
he thought with relief. He picked the lock up and tossed it to the ground, the thick iron lock impacting the stone floor loudly. He then pushed the door of the cage open, his eyes on the doors to the dimly-lit chamber.

Why can’t I figure anyone out?
I thought I understood Gabriel, Hector, and Father, but then I meet people like Katie, Nicolas, and Lance. None of them are easy to understand. I just don’t understand it.

Breaking away from those thoughts, Caleb made his way to the large doors and pulled them open with a small amount of effort. When he did, he saw that a long hallway stood before him with torches lining the walls.

His eyes never went to his left as he stepped through the doorway. He had to get the Sword of Kirakath. There was no consideration required. His father’s last request was the only thing that mattered.

As the doors came to a close, Caleb made his way down the hallway, following Lance’s instructions.

The only things that Caleb saw as he walked down the hallway were stone were walls with a torch on both sides every ten feet, along with a medium sized metal door that sat at the end of the hall.

A few hundred yards later, Caleb reached the copper-colored door and placed his hand on the metal ring that stood in place of a door handle. Grasping it and pulling the door open, Caleb saw another chamber, and it was just as large as the one that he had been kept prisoner inside of.

If not for the fact that Lance was standing in the center of the room and torches lined the walls, the room would have been empty.

As he entered the room, Caleb took note of something that he had not expected. Lance looked different than he had before. Instead of a black hooded cloak, he wore a pair of black leather boots, black trousers, a fine crimson tunic, and a black leather belt that had two swords hanging from it. The sword at his left hip was Caleb’s sword, and the sword at his right hip appeared to just be a simply made longsword, though it was sheathed in a finely made scabbard.

“I’m not surprised that you are here,” Lance said as he unhooked the sword at his right hip from his belt. “Your second test will be rather simple. All you have to do is fight me. For that, you’ll need a sword though.”

Caleb’s eyes lighted up in understanding, though he could not help but frown. “Why are you removing that sword from your belt then? Shouldn’t I get my sword back?”

“You’ll get it back when you can prove to me that you’re worthy to pursue the Sword of Kirakath,” Lance said without a hint of sympathy in his eyes. “You don’t know the first thing about the sword that you came with here, do you?”

“You already told me about the magic that it carries,” Caleb countered.

“I did,” Lance agreed. “There are things I didn’t tell you though. I didn’t tell you that it was wielded by the last person that wielded the Sword of Kirakath. I didn’t tell you that it is five hundred years old. I didn’t tell you that it was forged by one of the greatest smiths in history. There are many things you don’t know about that sword.”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed at Lance, but he did not say anything. There was nothing to say. After all, he could tell that Lance was right. He knew very little about that sword. That did not mean that he agreed that Lance should keep the sword, however.

“Catch,” Lance said as he tossed the second sword to Caleb.

He was not sure how he managed it, but Caleb caught the sword by its scabbard with his left hand and immediately grasped the hilt with his right hand.

“You might want to unsheathe that,” Lance remarked as he held out Caleb’s unsheathed longsword.

Shit,
Caleb thought as he drew his sword.
I didn’t even hear him unsheathe it.

With his loaner sword unsheathed, Caleb tossed the scabbard off to the side and held the sword in a firm two-handed grip. He immediately noted that it had the same weight and balance as the sword that Lance held.

Caleb’s eyes widened as he looked at Lance. The man was a short ways away, starting to swing the sword towards him in a swift, horizontal arc.

Reacting solely on instincts, Caleb brought his sword down and blocked the strike, but that action caused him to get thrown back into the metal door as Lance’s blow pushed him back.

“I’m a master swordsman,” Lance remarked, still holding the sword in one hand. “I recommend that you be very careful. I’d hate to cut you up.”

“How am I supposed to beat you if you’re a master swordsman?” Caleb asked between deep breaths. “I’m not even an apprentice swordsman.”

Lance just smiled as he took a few steps back.

Anger filled Caleb at the sight of that smile.

How dare he mock me?
With anger clear in his eyes, he suddenly dashed forward with his sword and delivered a powerful downward cut.

With incredible grace, Lance sidestepped the blow and delivered a pommel strike to Caleb’s left shoulder, forcing that hand to leave the sword.

“You’re not too horrible,” Lance noted as he yawned. The yawn lasted only a moment though as he was forced to drop to the ground when Caleb attempted to cut his head off with a single swing of his sword.

“Are you sure you’re not an apprentice warrior?” Lance asked with a sly smile. “You seem like one… well, you seem like a thirteen year old one, at least.”

Without any sign of warning, Caleb kicked Lance in the shoulder with all of his strength, knocking the man to the ground. He then flipped his sword backhanded and attempted to bring the tip of the blade down over Lance’s heart, but it made contact with the stone floor instead.

A cursory glance over Lance told Caleb that his sword had been parried just in time for the sword to completely miss.

“You’re ruled by anger, aren’t you?” Lance asked rhetorically. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you that it’s not good to be controlled by your emotions?”