Rise of the Champion (The Sword of Kirakath Omnibus #1) (38 page)

“I appreciate any help you could offer,” Caleb said with gratitude radiating from his voice.

“Think nothing of it. Your ancestor arranged for us to aid you, after all,” Eric said with a smile.

“Sir Edmond really is my ancestor, isn’t he?” Caleb asked with a frown.

“Yes, though he never went by such a name in life,” Eric said as he looked down the hall. “You have made it abundantly clear that you do not have enough time to listen to long stories, so I won’t go into the tragic tale of Edmond Sullivan. All that you need to know is that his name really was Edmond, he became a knight, he wielded the Sword of Kirakath, and he is your ancestor.”

“Why wasn’t he called Sir Edmond then?” Caleb asked with a frown. “Isn’t that a name for a knight?”

“Ask him when you next see him,” Eric said with a shake of his head. “I don’t like telling part of a story without telling the whole thing.”

“Fine,” Caleb said with a reluctant nod. “So you can heal me?”

“Yes,” Eric said as he placed a hand over the center of Caleb’s chest.

The sensation that filled him in the next moment was like nothing he had ever experienced. It felt like a combination of having cold water poured over him on a hot day, waking up after sleeping for half a day, and finishing a hearty meal after a long day of hard work.

All too soon, the sensation disappeared. When it did, all soreness in his body, along with his fatigue, vanished as well.

“Whoa,” Caleb said as he moved his right arm around without feeling the slightest bit of discomfort. “You’re pretty amazing.”

“It is minor magic,” Eric said with a shake of his head. “I’m nothing compared to the great mages.”

“I don’t know much about mages or magic,” Caleb admitted. “The only mage that I’ve ever heard of before was Archmage Kyran.”

“No mage has ever been greater than he,” Eric said reverently. “He was one of the few archmages in history. His power was so vast that he could heal someone from the brink of death as easily as I healed your cut.”

“I guess there’s much that I don’t know about this world,” Caleb said quietly.

“There is,” Eric agreed. “But there is much that I do not know either.”

“But what you do know… is it possible for you to remove that taint that you were talking about earlier?” Caleb asked.

“No,” Eric answered with a frown. “The taint is beyond me. Only your predecessor would know how to remove the taint… or at least how to find out how to remove it.”

“That’s a shame,” Caleb said with a frown. “So was there anything else you needed to talk to me about?”

“Yes,” Eric said as he leaned against the wall. “When he asks you to accept his teachings again, you must not refuse. You have a great destiny before you, and you will need what he possesses if you are to become the hero that you are meant to be.”

“Again with the hero crap?” Caleb asked with a frown. Inwardly, he could not help but wonder if Sir Edmond had spoken with Eric. Eric even knowing about the offer did not make sense otherwise.

“Hero or villain… there is no middle ground for he who wields the Sword of Kirakath,” Eric said firmly as he waved his hand, making the glyphs fade away. “Now, we should go and meet up with your friends. You will have to move tonight or tomorrow night at the latest. Otherwise, Count Clovis stands a good chance of learning that you two headed this way.”

“Right,” Caleb said as he followed Eric back toward the chamber where his friends waited for him.

* * * * *

“It’s a little too convenient,” Katie said carefully. “I cannot fathom a reason why the tunnels would lead to the castle.”

Roughly an hour had passed since Caleb and Katie had arrived at the White family’s underground base. At the present, Katie and Eric were going over a possible plan for the infiltration of Castle Caldreth and the assassination of Count Clovis while Nicolas and Caleb fought off to the side with wooden swords.

“They don’t… not really,” Eric said with a chuckle. “The tunnels meet up with the tunnels of Caldreth’s dungeons. They don’t use the lower most levels because the doors to the lowest levels are jammed. Since they never fill the higher levels up all the way, they’ve never had a reason to call a mage in to see if they could open the doors. If they had, they would have realized that I cast a spell to keep them sealed shut when I was your age.”

“So we’ll have to go that way, open one of the four doors, go through one of the dungeon tunnels, leave through the magistrate’s office, sneak into the castle, make our way through the interior of the castle, enter the courtyard, sneak to the keep, and make our way to the count’s chambers before we can kill him. Then, we have to get back to the dungeon tunnels and make our escape with an army at our heels… did I miss anything?” Katie asked with a raised eyebrow.

“There is a secret escape tunnel in the keep that will take you outside Caldreth, so your escape will be fairly easy,” Eric said with a shake of his head. “But you are correct on what you must do to get there in the first place.”

“Can’t we just take that secret tunnel to get there right from the start?” Katie asked. She was not even going to ask how he knew about the supposed secret tunnel.

“The doors only open one way. Jackson Averill was a paranoid man, so he had the tunnel constructed so that it could not be used to enter the castle,” Eric said patiently. “Lance and I will be on the outside of the tunnel’s exit, waiting. If he flees when he learns of your purpose, we will stop him. Otherwise, we will heal your injuries once you escape if need be.”

“I guess that’ll work,” Katie said with a frown. It still did not sit easy with her that she had to trust two people that she had never met before. She knew that Caleb trusted them- or at least Lance- but she did not. He was far more trusting than her though.

That was to be expected, given the difference in how they grew up. Whereas Caleb could easily trust everyone around him, Katie had been forced to adopt a far more cautious approach.

“But the odds are very much against us from the looks of things,” Katie said with a sigh. “Even if Caleb uses the Sword of Kirakath, we’re talking about hundreds of guards and about a dozen knights. Taking the worst case scenario into consideration, we’re between a rock and a hard place.”

“You’ve summed it up nicely,” he said with an amused smile. “But you’re not fighting a war. You either need to sneak to the keep without drawing attention or run faster than your enemies can. You might just make it out alive if you do that.”

“Both of those options are easier said than done,” she pointed out.

“I can’t argue with you there,” he said with a chuckle. “But rest assured that you will have help in this quest of yours. Under no circumstances will you actually be alone and surrounded by superior forces.”

Though she wanted to question him as to what he meant by that, she decided not to do so at that moment.

* * * * *

“You’ve improved,” Nicolas said as he parried a powerful strike from Caleb’s wooden sword.

“Katie’s a good teacher,” Caleb said with a shrug as he jumped back. “My father taught me the basics to using a sword, so the experience I’ve gained in the last year and Katie’s training has only helped me improve.” His eyes narrowed as a frown came over his face. “Of course, that still only puts me at your level when you’re holding back.”

“If neither one of us held back, I doubt I’d be winning,” Nicolas said with a grin.

Caleb sighed. After getting back to the chamber earlier, he had told Katie and Nicolas the little that he knew about the Blood of Kirakath and the Sword of Kirakath. He had not actually revealed that he was related to Sir Edmond, but he knew that Katie made the connection instantly.

“I told you that I can’t use it without being overcome with bloodlust,” Caleb said with a frown. “I’d have to make sure that I couldn’t see you or Katie when I use it. Otherwise, I could attack you against my will.”

“I’m not too worried about that,” Nicolas said with a sincere smile. “I trust you unconditionally. Isn’t that what friends do?”

The resemblance is way too close.
Caleb closed his eyes, the image of Gabriel Silver flashing before his eyes. Gabriel and Nicolas were as different as night and day from each other, but they did look remarkably similar. It was not until that moment that Caleb actually realized it though.

“Yeah,” Caleb agreed as he placed his wooden sword down on the nearby table.

“I come bearing gifts,” Lance suddenly said as he entered the room, turning Caleb’s attention to the door.

Lance was holding a fairly good sized crate in his arms as he entered the room. When he put it on the ground, Caleb was able to tell that it was fairly heavy.

“So, is
it
ready?” Eric asked.

“Yes Father,” Lance said with a nod. He then turned his attention to Caleb.

“I do not agree with this quest of yours,” Lance stated flatly. “I believe that you only stand to degrade your very character by plotting and carrying out an assassination. However, I can respect that you want to protect your friends from someone who would try to have them killed. I must ask a question though. Does any part of your being wish to kill him because you believe that he ordered the Massacre of Kirakath?”

“I would like to see him cry for mercy as the last dregs of life are squeezed from his wretched corpse in repentance for ordering the Massacre of Kirakath,” Caleb said matter-of-factly. “However, I have no intention of assassinating him out of vengeance. To be frank, I don’t care about him one way or another. I could never forgive him for what he’s done, but I’m not the same person that I used to be. I’m not about to go and hunt someone in revenge or spite. No… I want the bastard dead because he tried to have Katie killed and will probably try again once he learns that the Night Blades were almost completely wiped out.”

“You’ve grown,” Lance said with an emotionless expression on his face. “Very well then, we better get you guys prepared.”

As he said that, Lance removed his sword from his hip.

“What are you doing?” Caleb asked with a slight frown. That sword was the one that he had entrusted to Lance several months back. It had been one of the swords Sir Edmond used in life and was one that his father had inherited.

“I’m giving your sword back,” Lance replied. “I have a sneaking suspicion that you need it close by in the near future. If you don’t want to take it, then maybe Nicolas should. He needs a good sword, after all.”

Caleb looked to Nicolas at that. “Do you want to use it?”

“I’d be honored,” Nicolas said with a slight inclination of his head.

Lance passed the sword to Nicolas at that.

“Next, I have something for the angel we have in our midst,” Lance said with a smile as he looked at Katie, who rolled her eyes. He opened the crate and removed a belt that had two short swords attached to it.

Katie took it curiously, removed the belt she was wearing, and put the new one on. Sliding the swords from their scabbards, she saw that they were finely crafted and were perfectly balanced.

“And for Caleb, I have this,” Lance said as he removed a recurve bow and a finely made quiver that held twenty arrows.

“I can’t accept this,” Caleb said carefully as he glanced at his bow.

“Caleb, don’t attach too much sentimentality to the bow I gave you,” Nicolas cut in. “Even I can tell that the bow he is offering you is of better quality. Don’t let your attachments to a nonliving object risk your life.”

“I guess I better take it,” Caleb said with a chuckle as he took it. “Thanks.”

“Don’t think anything of it,” Lance said with a dismissive wave. “Now, we have the most important things.”

With that, he removed something that appeared to be a quilted vest.

Caleb immediately recognized it as a coat of plates. It was actually a fairly effective piece of armor.

“I have one for each of you, along with a black hooded cloak,” Lance said. “One will protect you, and the other will help hide you.”

“When did you even have time to arrange this?” Katie asked curiously. “Your father never told you to get this stuff. We’ve been here the entire time.”

“I had time to arrange everything when I was gone,” Lance said with a smile. “And you presume that my father must verbally speak in order to instruct me to do something. Any skilled mage can speak to someone with their mind.”

“That would be awesome,” Nicolas said under his breath.

Chapter 16

Hours had passed since Lance gave Caleb and the other supplies for their quest, and they were walking down through the tunnels. They were all wearing a fresh change of clothes, their banditine cuirasses, and their black hooded cloaks.

At the moment, Caleb was curious as to where Lance and Eric were taking them. Eric had claimed that he had one more thing to give them before they could go, but he had not actually told them what he meant.

As if on cue, Eric said, “There is no way that you can make it to the dungeon tunnels on your own. If I told you how extensive the tunnels underneath Caldreth are, you would not believe me, so I won’t bother. But still, you’ll need a guide to lead the way, so I had Lance check up on an old friend.”