Rise of the Citadel (The Search for the Brights Book 2) (35 page)

Kilen took the
one offered to him and drank a small amount almost spitting it out.

“I know, it is
horrid,” Bowie said covering his mouth not to laugh.

Ria cleared her
throat, and Bowie pulled back his cup. “You should probably drink it all
anyway,”Bowie said to his friend. Ria nodded with a small smirk on her face.

Ria made sure to
fill up Kilen’s cup to the brim again. “Master Kilen, what is it that is so
dangerous it can cause a army to stop invading?”

Kilen seemed
apprehensive to speak, when he did, it came out in a hush. “The Elder Wizards
have evidence that the Dark Army has returned.”

Ria almost
dropped the tea pot onto the table, “They said the “Dark Army?”

Kilen nodded,
“King Rekkan understood the need to pull all of the realms together to fight
against this before the army becomes too strong. I would still like to stop the
war because of the agreement made between realms not being followed by King
Atmos or his father.”

“Many people
have different perspectives of problems,” Ria smiled. “You are wise to know we
must have all parties in the room to meet upon an agreement. I am glad you’ve
held off on your judgement and come to set up this meeting between kings.”

Bowie seemed to
snap out of his disbelief and come back to reality, “I’m sorry, did you say the
Dark Army? I thought they were a myth.”

Kilen turned his
attention to Bowie, “It is a reality. The Dark Army was created by a soul
wizard. It seems that the Elder Wizards did not find all the soul wizards from
the last war. Most believe the stories of soul wizards to be fake.”

“What is a soul
wizard?” Bowie asked.

Ria interrupted,
“A soul wizard is one that works on fear and desperation to rip the souls from
their victim. The soul wizard then uses the soul as a sort of fuel to keep them
alive. As a result, the victim’s body becomes their slave. They are neither
alive or dead.”

Kilen
interjected, “The victim is not a slave so much as an empty husk of a person.
They follow the commands of the soul wizard, but have no feelings, remorse, or
willpower of their own. They are a shadow of their former life.”

Ria nodded,
“They are often referred to as zombies or the undead.”

Bowie gave a
small laugh, “Sounds like that story you told me you were reading about as a
kid. The one where you didn’t sleep for a week.”
            “It
is
the same, Bowie. That book was no story. It was a
historical account of the Dark Army. Twilix told me as much when we were in
Deuterium. If the Dark Army is rising again then the men that could potentially
die in this battle would be the men that could turn the tide of the war. We
must do all we can to prevent this war from beginning,” Kilen said staring into
his tea as if deep in thought.

Bowie watched
him turn the cup in his hand and felt as if the room became darker.
No
wonder my friend seems different, what has he seen?

“How do you
suppose we convince the king, Master Everheart?” Ria drank her tea like it
contained no bitterness at all. She seemed to pay no attention to the mood
emanating from his friend.

Kilen emptied
the cup to the back of his throat while Bowie tried to remember the tips Kilen
had given him about drinking his mother's bitter tea. “I know that we
can
convince the council. I hope they will do what they can to argue on our side. I
need to speak with Brent and Mary. I know Mica will probably disagree, and I
don’t know who the earth seat is.”

Ria scoffed, “A
stubborn woman sits in that seat. Although her stubbornness could be from her
magic, but it seems she has always been that way. Her name is Tildress. You
leave her to me, I have taught her a few lessons over the years and I may be
able to convince her.”

“I’ve seen
another problem that I tried to take care of when I arrived at the Fire Realm’s
fortifications. King Rekkan has allowed the Earth Realm civilians to aid in the
constructing of their defenses. He sent them away at my suggestion. It’s been
nearly four days since they left his camp. If the king finds out that his own
people are aiding in the destruction of his army, it could be very
detrimental,” Kilen said clearly worried as he stared into his tea cup.

Bowie sighed,
“We’ve already been attacked by a few on the way here. We did our best to make
an announcement to each village we passed through that any aid would be seen as
treachery. Mica also knows and has reported to the king.”

“They attacked
you? King Rekkan told me he denied them in joining his army,” Kilen said.

Bowie continued
after smacking his lips, “They told us much the same. After he rejected them,
they decided to revolt on their own. Just like in Humbridge; they’re tired of
not receiving help against bandits and robbers, and having to cater to the
occasional passerby from his army.”

Kilen visibly
slumped, “It cannot be helped now. Turning on your king is something that I
don’t think I can defend against. Even though I would probably be one of them
if I lived here, there are bigger issues at stake.”

Ria patted his
hand, “We’ve all done what we could to keep them from harm. They made their
choice.”

They sat in
silence a moment to grieve for what was to come. “
You
are a great weapon
bearer already,” Ria said as she leaned back in her chair.

Bowie rolled his
eyes, “If you keep talking like that his head will be bigger than the rumors
about him.”

Ria turned on
him with a pursed face clearly irritated, “Bowie, a True Weapon Bearer is sort
of like a judge. Just like the weapon bearers of old; he seeks out wizards, kings,
tyrants, bandits, and trouble makers to bring them to justice where others
cannot. He does not simply pull away because of money, politics, or lineage. He
is the embodiment of justice. Your friend already seeks justice for three of
the four elemental realms. I myself hope he lives long enough to accomplish his
task.”

Bowie tapped his
finger on the table a couple of times, “I hope so as well. So we are going to
get King Atmos to agree to this meeting? We will do what we can.” Bowie
swallowed down the refilled cup of tea in one swallow, smacking his lips as he
headed outside.

“Master Weapon
Bearer, could I ask for your assistance in training Bowie to use his wind
magic. He has not been properly trained. I see that you can control a wind
elemental, so perhaps you can teach him a couple of things?” Ria asked.

Bowie stopped
with the door half open. Although Bowie didn’t want to think of his friend as
superior he had to admit the boy had trained with wizards and could probably
help him.

Kilen turned on
his stool looking at Bowie looking back. “I believe I can. I could also help in
rejuvenating any of the soldiers here and supply any water needed. I’m going to
try to do as many things at once with my elementals for my own practice. You
may see them wandering around without me beside them. The more I do at once,
the better I will be in battle. If it comes to that.”

“I would like to
see that very much,” Ria smiled. “I will let you two catch up a bit now.
Sergeant Crescent, remember you only have a part of a day to practice before
the king arrives.”

**********

Kilen finished
his tea and started for the door before turning around, “Thank you for the tea,
Wizard Ria. It was very nice to meet you.” He gave her a half bow before
closing the door behind him. He stood for a moment and thought about how his
life had changed so much that he almost forgot the pleasantries his mother had
taught him.

Bowie was
standing a few feet away looking around the camp. Kilen looked up to see Mica
from across the camp take to the wind. Within a few moments he was nothing but
a spec in front of the clouds.

Bowie adjusted
his hat, “Well, that’s one less problem I have to worry about.” He turned to
face Kilen and smiled, “The Elder Wizard’s town, eh?”

“Yeah, Idleton.
Not quite as exciting as I thought it would be,” Kilen replied.
            “Really? The name of the town sounds fascinating” Bowie said
sarcastically. “I figured they would’ve had a lot of books to stick your nose
into.”

Kilen laughed,
“Yeah. They had plenty of books, but I wasn’t allowed to read any of them. It
was a lot quieter than I thought it would be. It was kind of like being at
home. Everyone in town had their job, garden, and home. I didn’t even see much
of the Elders because they were rarely outside. The month I was their was spent
mostly training with other weapon bearers.”

“You were with
them a month?” Bowie asked.

“Yes, it only
took me three days to find it. The travel time here only took me a week and I
spent the last few days training with the Fire Realm’s elite weapon bearers
called Crimson.”

Bowie stopped
walking and turned to Kilen, “So while I have a wizard that promised to teach
me and still hasn’t stopped flying around to keep his promise, you’ve trained
with weapon bearers, a Kapal, Crimson warriors, and Elder Wizards?”

Kilen nodded in
response and stepped in close, “Who is the girl watching us?”

Bowie glanced
around and finally found Auburn with her bow ready a couple tents away, “Yeah,
sorry about her. She just got an imbuement of earth magic and now she thinks
she has to protect me. I can’t get rid of her.”

“Not that you’d
want to, eh?” Kilen nudged Bowie with his elbow while he stared at Auburn. His
friend usually liked anything that would give him a spare moment or dance.

Bowie cleared
his throat, “It’s not like that. She’s cute and all, but not my type. Besides,
she said she would kill me if I tried.”

They both
laughed a bit and started walking around the camp again. Kilen followed Bowie,
still unsure of where it was they were going. He soon found he was standing
amongst soldiers and workers cutting out thin slices of wood and using clay to
draw circles on them. The thin slices of wood were then attached to tree
branches and Kilen realized they were targets. Bowie stepped out twenty five,
fifty, and seventy five paces, sticking an arrow in the ground at each interval.

Watching Bowie
work, Kilen took a moment to look around the camp beyond the red haired girl
watching him. Each man looked happy and prideful. Each person running to do as
Bowie had commanded. He knew that Bowie had truly become a commander of men.
They trusted his judgement. They strived to do the best they could do because
he required it.

The tents had
all been erected. Campfires burned hot, surrounded by men not idly lounging
around; arrows were being made and food was being cooked and passed to those who
could not eat at the fire. Training was being conducted in bandages, fletching,
archery, and even surgery. The whole camp seemed to buzz with activity, passing
Kilen in their chores as if he did not exist. The troop only stopped to glance
at the elementals that shadowed him. Here, Kilen was an outsider.

Kilen began to
wonder where he did belong. The people of Humbridge would never look at him the
same. Because of the trial, the nobles of Deuterium would not allow him to live
without looking over his back. The Elder Wizards would not accept him until
they felt he had fulfilled his duty to the world. He belonged nowhere.

He pulled the
chainger out of his shirt to examine the two large rings his father had willed
him. Each with its own imbuement of earth magic, these rings had altered his
life and his plans. No, the choice to
accept
these rings had altered his
life. He abandoned his mother and hometown. He had given his best friend over
to a life of a soldier. His sister resting in a castle dungeon would be sentenced
to a life of anger and flame. He had killed two men, taking them from the
world. Another man had given his life to try and help him escape, and still he
had disobeyed the order to run.

Kilen knew that
the decisions he had made were the right ones at the time, and he wouldn’t have
changed them. He had put every effort into protecting the ones he cared for,
and this is the only thought that made his choices justified.

Bowie walked
over to where Kilen was standing.” Everything okay?”

“Yes, I was just
thinking about how we ended up here.” Kilen looked Bowie in the eye. He knew
that Bowie had accepted his choices with confidence and knew he must do the
same. “Shall we get to training you in wind, or do you have other obligations?”

Bowie shook his
head, “I think I’d better do all I can now.”

Kilen nodded,
“You said the girl had an earth imbuement?”

“Auburn, yes.
Ria has been teaching her to renew the troops and grow plants. She picks it up
quicker than me.” Bowie waved the overprotective girl over, “Auburn, remember
me telling you about my friend, the weapon bearer? I would like you to meet
Kilen.”

Reluctantly, the
red headed girl relaxed the tension on her bow and bit her lip as she held out
a hand. The arrow was still knocked on the string at the ready in her off hand.
Kilen carefully grasped her hand with earthen imbued strength, trying not to
crush her. He always tried to remember his strength could crush rocks.

Without letting
go she stared into his eyes, “Are you a friend or an enemy?”

Kilen was unsure
how to answer the question, “I’m not sure we can ever be one or the other. I am
sure there will be something you don’t like about me. You can trust me that I
mean no one harm here. I already have too many demons in my head to control.”

Her eyes
narrowed but she seemed to accept his answer as a friend.

“Auburn, can I
teach you a way to use your new earth magic? It will help you to protect my
friend,” Bowie asked.

“I would like
that very much, but I have to train the troop here.”