The Callindra Chronicles Book One - First Quest (9 page)

“
I don’t have sheaths for
them. You’ll just have to carry it for now.” He said, “It will give
you the chance to get used to the balance.”

She followed him into the courtyard and sat
to perform the first Korumn with him. As she breathed, the sword
began to tremble on her lap, singing with the Power that coursed
through her during the exercise. When she finished and opened her
eyes, Glarian was looking at her with furrowed brow.

“
I’m not certain that sword
will be able to survive the second Korumn; look how it is reacting
already.”

The sword was trembling violently, the tip
moving nearly a hand span. Callindra stood up and whipped the blade
as she had read a sword fighter might do to shake an opponent’s
blood off the end. When her arm and sword were fully extended the
vibration ceased completely and the sword silenced itself.

“
I think it will be just
fine Master, he’s flexible enough to handle it for a little while.
If I’m careful I think it will be OK.”

Before he could stop her, she began the
second Korumn. The blade quivered and sang but just as she had
hoped, it held together. When Callindra finished, the whisper of
wind that calmly dispersed from the tip of the sword seemed
anticlimactic. She didn’t feel like a cored apple this time though,
in fact she felt absolutely energized even though her left leg
throbbed from the effort.

“
Wow, that was amazing! Is
that how it always is?” Glarian was watching her carefully, a
mixture of pride and apprehension on his face.

“
Yes, these exercises are
intended to make you ready for the day and that includes a feeling
of exuberance. Shall we begin the day’s training?”

He led her a short distance to a small
meadow. There was a large pile of wood sitting next to a flat
stone.

“
I want you to split this
wood; however you must not hit the stone. Hitting the stone would
damage the blade. Allow me to demonstrate, pay close attention.” He
lifted a section of tree trunk onto the stone, took a step back and
drew his sword.

She watched him lift the six foot blade over
his head and bring it down with a savage motion, stopping just
above the wood, which shuddered and split in half with a sharp
crack.

“
What just happened?” She
asked, “Could you show me again?”

Without saying anything he put one of the
halves back on the stone. She intuitively schooled her mind and
started to see the other world he had exposed her to. The weave
gathered in an orderly and precise fashion around his body, in
through his nose and trickled down the blade of his sword from his
fingertips. When he stopped the sword over the wood, this time she
saw the magic continue to move, slicing it in half.

“
Wind! It’s wind! Of course,
I should have guessed, ‘Master of the North Wind’ isn’t just a
Title is it?” Her voice was tinged with awe, “You really are the
master of the winds aren’t you?”

Glarian nodded in satisfaction, “Split it
all. You’ll need to continue to perfect your control if you don’t
want to keep shattering swords.” He set a water skin and small
basket on the ground and turned back towards the house leaving her
to complete the task.

Her first try accomplished nothing. On her
second try she managed to slam the sword far enough into the wood
that getting it out was a ten minute endeavor. She sighed and blew
her hair out of her face. This was going to be harder than she
thought.

-

Glarian watched his apprentice from a
hilltop. The task he had set her to was nearly impossible without
proper training but he had to push her harder than normal. Maybe
she could find a way to cut some corners and teach herself. He had
to rely on her innate creativity to tame and shape the incredible
power that swirled just beneath her skin.

With her first few swings she appeared to
have forgotten what her task was and merely waved her sword at the
wood or got it stuck in it. After a moment she stopped and stood
quietly in the Ready Stance. Her shoulders relaxed and Glarian
could see the Weave begin to circle around her. When she raised her
sword over her head even at this distance he could feel wind rush
past his face towards her.

She was using too much, but if he interrupted
her now it might be worse. Callindra brought the sword down slowly,
as though making sure of her target and tapped the firewood. An
explosion of wind in a perfectly straight line cut a razor sharp
fissure through the center of the meadow, flowers, blades of grass,
stones and anything else that got in its way was sliced neatly into
two pieces. The firewood, however, was still in one piece.

The string of curses she let loose must have
come from her time in the keep, or else maybe from one of the new
books he’d just brought home. Either way they were colorful enough
to make him raise an eyebrow. Interesting vocabulary for a slip of
a girl; he wondered how old she really was. When he’d asked before
she claimed to be sixteen but if she was over twelve when he pulled
her out of the woods he’d be surprised.

“
Strange choice for an
apprentice Glarian.” He whirled, Sakar half out of her sheath and
found himself staring up at a massive hammer. “Hand off the hilt or
else I will smash your head like a grape.”

Glarian followed the hammer down to the hand
that was holding it which was connected to an arm the size of a
modest tree trunk. “Thaeran, they let you out? I thought Lord
Edlras locked you up and threw away the key.”

“
I have you to thank for
that, The Order sprung me when you started stirring up trouble
again.” The huge man smiled, “They even let me test for Master
again. You’re speaking to Hammermaster Thaeran.”

“
Congratulations, surely
they didn’t spring you for nothing though?” Thaeran had betrayed a
mission, assassinated a crown prince he was supposed to have been
protecting and been caught red handed.

“
Of course there’s a catch,
I have to keep an eye on you. My hammer is the only weapon in
existence that you can’t break. We know all about your aversion to
killing, so they figured I was the best bet for keeping you in
line.”

There was also the fact that Thaeran was an
Earth mage and his powers were physically stronger than any other
member of The Order and that Earth opposed Wind diametrically but
Glarian didn’t mention those.

“
So what are their terms?”
He asked, knowing he wouldn’t like the answer.

“
You are to stop training
this girl immediately, surrender your Title to the next challenger
and turn yourself in for breaking your oath.” Thaeran said with a
satisfied smile. Glarian had been the leader of the internal
investigation that had revealed his treachery and sent him to
prison for his crimes.

“
Do you know what will
happen to her if she stops learning?” Glarian asked gliding closer,
“She will destroy herself and likely take anyone or anything that’s
in the area with her. You look at her and see a girl trying to
learn to wield magic, but I see a girl fighting for
survival.”

Thaeran laughed, “I don’t much care Glarian,
it’s your fault she started learning so her death will be on your
head.” He shifted his grip on the hammer that he still had poised
overhead and in that moment Glarian sprang forward, slamming his
shoulder into the other man’s chest.

Thaeran stumbled back, but before he could
recover, Glarian had swept Sakar from her sheath and called the
Weave to his aid. The blunted tip of the sword whistled through the
air, first to the four points of the compass and then to tap
Thaeran gently between the eyes. “You will report back that you
believe I am breaking Oath but that you cannot prove it yet. You
will feed them useless scraps of information to string them along
and keep them from sending backup. You will tell me the moment they
send another to replace you. You will not do violence unto myself
or my apprentice.”

The spell was completed with the fourth
command and Glarian held his blade at the ready, just in case the
big man somehow managed to withstand his magic. Thaeran shook his
head as though trying to clear it, then shouldered his hammer and
trudged off in a seemingly random direction.

“
If they’d sent someone a
little more adept I would have been on the losing end of that
encounter. It’s a good thing I have made a little bit of a name for
myself shattering weapons; they’re hesitant to send their most
capable and instead release criminals to do their dirty work.” He
muttered to himself.

Looking back at the meadow where he had left
Callindra, Glarian frowned. “I’ve been pushing her but I need to
push harder, we’re running out of time. I didn’t expect them to
react so quickly but I guess breaking all those weapons made them
angry.”

A black butterfly floated down and landed on
the tip of Sakar with a distinct clink of metal touching metal.
Glarian felt a tremor of Power rush through his blade and Belach’s
voice came from the steel insect.

“
I’m bringing her sword in
two weeks. Had to burn some time in the forge but after speaking
with her yesterday I decided it needed to be done sooner rather
than later. I’d bring it today but the damn thing’s taking an
ungodly long time to cool and that’s the only part I can’t rush.
Have a care, they let Thaeran out to come get your title. He
brought that monster Darangar in to make sure it was ready to smash
whatever stood in his way and of course I had no choice but to
inspect him.”

The butterfly flexed metal wings and soared
on unseen thermals, spiraling high into the air. Glarian sat on a
large, flat stone and leaned Sakar against his shoulder. So he had
Named his hammer. Darangar, was that ‘Soul Crusher’ in Dwarven? He
thought so.

Glarian looked back at his disciple, she had
a stack of kindling piled in a neat row on the left side of the
stump. He blinked and looked again. Callindra was more than halfway
done with the wood he’d left her and working quickly through what
remained. She had actually managed to gain control over the Weave,
even though she was using an old sword he’d only kept for
sentimental reasons. He grinned, this was going to be a lot of fun.
The Order was in for a big surprise.

“
We just might make it. It’s
a slim chance but I’m betting on your skills Belach. By the icy
gales of Njordi, if there’s any chance of this working the sword
you send her must be absolutely perfect.”

-

Callindra was hauling water.
She had gotten into the habit of filling the cistern early
in the morning, that way it was full and she
wouldn’t have to do it after a hard day of training. She paused,
looking at her reflection. A much different person than she
remembered stared back at her. Face with hard lines and more than a
few scars. Hair that had been cut for function, short and uneven,
causing it to stick out at strange angles. She smiled, wondering if
any at the Keep would even recognize her.

Something wasn’t quite right, she could sense
it as she was coming close to the edge of the forest. Setting the
yoke down as quietly as she could, Callindra drew her sword and
slunk towards the house on the balls of her feet. Peering through
the leaves. She could see a tall, broad man leaving the house. He
looked familiar. She had seen him in a vision, but he had been
holding a hammer and standing in front of a forge.

As the man left Glarian bowed low from the
waist, saying something unintelligible from this distance. The man
laughed loud enough for her to hear, then seemed to fold in half,
sliding sideways into nothing. When he vanished, a cloud of
fireflies seemed to erupt from the spot where he disappeared
from.

Forgetting about the water, she ran towards
the house with her sword still in hand. Glarian looked her
direction long before she was visible at the edge of the tree line
and patiently waited for her to arrive.

“
Who was that Master?” She
asked, out of breath.

“
I have told you that rash
action will lead to your undoing Callindra. If you ran thus to a
swordfight you would find your opponent’s blade sheathed in your
guts! I will thank you however, for pointing out that I must add
some additional endurance training to your daily
regimen.”

Callindra calmed her breathing and waited for
him to answer her question; barely refraining from grinding her
teeth. She swore the old bastard winked at her.

“
Good. So you can be patient
when it is required. That was an old friend of mine who owed me a
favor.”

“
Why would a smith owe you
favors?” She smiled, he hadn’t been expecting that.

Glarian raised an eyebrow, “Very perceptive
apprentice, his name is Belach. He is the finest smith in the known
realms.”

“
He was making something for
you, what was it?” Both his eyes widened sharply and a smile played
at the corners of his mouth.

“
Do you know what day it is
today?” She shook her head, “Today is the anniversary of you
becoming my disciple. I thought I’d get you a little present to
celebrate.”

Callindra followed him inside the house, what
could he mean? On the table there was a bundle wrapped in soft
suede. She looked up at him and he nodded. The leather revealed the
most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The blade was a full pace
long, gently curved with a single edge that looked sharp enough to
slice the wind.

Her hands trembled as she picked it up. The
hilt was long enough for both her hands although the blade felt
balanced for one handed use. The guard swept back over half the
hilt on the edge side and swept up over the back of the blade on
the other, making a neat mirror image. Although it looked like it
might get in the way, Callindra found it was perfect.