Crown of Steel (Chaos Awakens) (2 page)

Chapter 1

Cabin in the Fog

Haley's fist passed within an inch of the impassive face before her. Not close enough. Her opponent dropped a shoulder and swept a leg out between Haley's wide stance before she could do anything about it. Haley went down hard, hitting the ground with a loud expulsion of breath. A split second later the outer edge of a foot was resting against her throat. Haley grabbed the offending foot and kicked and spun her legs, using the twisting momentum to turn her attacker's weight off of her throat and to the side. For a brief second she was at an advantage as the other stumbled off to the side. Haley pushed herself back to her feet. She'd bought herself a moment, but it was clear that she was fighting a losing battle. Most people would have retreated at that point, but Haley wasn't most people. She was Xan's apprentice and she wasn't going to let him down so easily. Instead of falling back on the defensive, Haley leapt forward and lashed out with a particularly aggressive set of combat forms. They were newer forms that she wasn't yet comfortably familiar with, but she buffered her lack of style with an extra burst of ferocity.

Her opponent retreated a full two steps but never lost control of their form. Every executed block and slide of their feet was precise, smooth, and executed with the grace of one who'd lived or died by the strength their fight. These were the exacting skills of a trained assassin. Xan's precision movements and tried battle tactics were undeniably perfect. Haley's flailing blows were turned to the side effortlessly and before she saw it coming, she was struck four times quickly along her right shoulder and side. Each blow drove the assassin's apprentice further and further from her own center of balance. Haley was still trying to correct herself when her attacker closed to grappling distance. In desperation Haley dropped her head to use her forehead as a weapon, but that action was far too predictable. A strong left arm wrapped around her neck and with a solid kick to the back of Haley's leg, the young woman went down fast. There was no hope for recovery. She was pinned down in a tight hold. The fight was over. The blistering fast, perfect technique she was attempting to overcome was far too much for her. Her opponent was a killer, and Haley was just a killer in training.

Haley pounded her fist on the ground to signal that she was done and the pressure around her neck finally eased up. She stood up and dusted herself off. She was dressed in her work outfit, a set of gray and black leather clothing that were secured tight to her body with a crisscrossing set of belts and buckles. The clothes fit her like a second skin and gave her all the freedom of motion she could ever want while still providing a nice layer of protection from the rigors of abrasive physical labor. Xan had insisted the clothing be designed for her based on his own outfit, and Haley had to admit that it was the most comfortable suit she'd ever owned. Even with all the range of motion in the world, she'd been bested yet again. Her opponent was older than her, but was also shorter and less physically powerful. The fact that Haley was repeatedly bested during every encounter was frustrating to the younger woman, but it was also an important lesson on the importance of form over brute force. Xandrith would have found the lesson amusing, Haley was certain. Haley frowned. Kassa was everything she wanted to be now that she'd taken Xan's skills as her own. She was fast, deadly, precise, and still feminine and attractive. Haley was just a little burnt girl, and her continued losses only served to remind her of that.

"Winter Wind was shaky, and the transition into Pounding Rain was poorly executed. You need to spend more time on your forms." Kassa said, not even breathing hard from their practice. "I won't be teaching you any new techniques until you've at least become proficient with the ones I've already given you."

Haley stifled a groan. It was terribly unfair. Kassa had literally woken up one morning with an entire library of combat forms trained into her body and mind as though she'd spent an entire life working on them. Whatever Xandrith had done to bring her back from the void had also imparted her with his lifetime of combat expertise. She didn't have his hard earned strength to back up all that she suddenly knew, but her technique was flawless and she certainly wasn't weak.

"When you switch from technique to force, that's when you really defeat yourself. You don't need to prove that you're stronger than me, Haley. I'm aware of that. These fighting techniques don't rely entirely upon power to make them effective. They are two-tenths power and eight-tenths technique. Having our weight and balance in just the right place at just the right time is what makes this kind of fighting so effective." Kassa explained, as she had many times prior, and Haley stifled another groan. She sounded so much like Xandrith at times that it was painful to listen to her. Kassa constantly reminded Haley of just how much she missed the dry-humored assassin. It wasn't really her fault. Kassa hadn't adapted to the changes in herself with ease. There had been a week after her recovery in which she'd been a confused mess as she tried to pick pieces of herself out of the jumble that Xandrith had left of her mind.

 At twenty-nine years of age, Kassa wasn't exactly a young woman any longer. Before she'd become involved with Xandrith she'd been a captain of the watch, an expert swordsman, and an upstanding citizen who prized herself on being a pillar of justice. She wasn't gorgeous, but she had warm brown eyes and long dark brown hair that framed her somewhat angular face in a pretty fashion. Her body was generously curved, but not overtly so, and she was leanly muscled and strong. Haley was actually somewhat jealous of the captain's looks. Kassa might not have been gorgeous, but in comparison to Haley's scarred visage she was doing quite well. Haley was only thirteen, but she was exceedingly tall for her age and the feminine curves she did have were slight. Worse yet, beneath her fine leather outfit those signs of femininity were a scarred mess of burned and mutilated flesh. Haley would never be alluring. She'd decided not to bother trying. Her dark brown hair was cut short, though slightly longer on the top. She kept what little of her chest that existed bound back so that it wouldn't interfere with her fighting. On top of that, Haley was strong. Even without her cursed axe to aid her strength she could pull herself up onto a ledge with just one hand and climb a tree as easily as she walked down the road. Xandrith had been insistent that she learn how to move with ease and grace, and she'd taken that to heart. Haley was proud of the muscle definition that lined her body and the lithe way she could move through any environment. Beauty be damned, she felt as though she could fly.

"Your favoring offensive strikes, but your defensive recovery is being under emphasized. That kind of barrage might work on an untrained opponent, but anyone who can keep their head through your initial flurry of attacks is going to be in a position to deliver a deadly repose. After you finish with Shawl tomorrow we'll run through your forms again. This time we won't quit until you either perfect them, or the sun closes the day." Kassa grabbed her pack from the ground and replaced her sword on her hip. She still insisted upon wearing the long steel despite the fact that she was more effective without it. The sun was hanging low in the sky and the day was just about out.

Haley sighed, too exasperated to groan. She understood the importance of forms, but there was little that was more dull than repeating the same motions over and over again as someone pointed out that your hip was a finger's width too far to the right, or that your foot wasn't turned out at quite the correct angle. It had been three months since Xandrith's disappearance, and Haley's life had devolved from an epic adventure to a non-stop barrage of training and tedium. Her mornings were spent with Johndin Shawl learning the secrets that would let her tap the latent magic abilities she possessed. These were stressful hours spent in quiet study and meditation reaching for intangible goals. She'd finally gotten to the point where her talents were fully awake and she could see the glow of magic when it was being used, but that felt like a very small step forward. Haley had made what Shawl assured her was incredible progress, but it didn't feel like it to the young girl. Worse, Haley was only too aware of the cost of her lessons with Shawl every morning. Every time she tapped into her magical talents, she was draining Shawl's already well advanced years. He insisted it was necessary for her to understand how to grasp the power and control the flow of her magic. He wouldn't let Kassa take any of the burden, so his own life was the price paid for Haley's lessons. Shawl assured her that they weren't doing anything that would significantly impact his lifespan, but Haley's conscience worried at her.

Sometimes she wondered if her constant rush of activity wasn't intentional. Since Xan's disappearance the others kept her in a nonstop cycle of training, never giving her time to sit idle and grow bored. Her work was tedious, but it kept her engaged. Did the others think that she was truly distracted from thinking about Xandrith and what had happened to him? Shawl wouldn't say what he believed had occurred on the night Xan vanished, and Kassa honestly didn't seem to remember much. Haley couldn't stop thinking about it. Somewhere her friend was out there, possibly fighting for his life, and there was nothing she could do to help him. Perhaps her training was supposed to distract her from that fact, but it didn't. Haley lay awake for hours after the others had fallen asleep at night thinking about Xan and what he could possibly be doing. How had he gotten off Dreamer's Isle? Where had he gone? Shawl seemed to know something, but he wouldn't say. Kassa seemed just as lost as Haley, but she was so difficult to talk to. It wasn't that Kassa refused to talk to Haley, or was tight-lipped, or anything like that. Haley just couldn't bring herself to really talk to the other woman. There was an unspoken tension between them. It sometimes burst out in their sparring matches, and things would become exceedingly heated, but they never spoke of it.

"Let's go get some supper." Kassa said as she started off down the path that would take them to Shawl's cabin. Haley gathered up her own gear, fastening on her axe and the dagger Xandrith had given her, and followed the older woman down the winding trail back to the cabin. Haley wasn't looking forward to stew again, but it seemed to be the only thing that the old mage cooked. It made Haley wish she'd spent more time with her mother learning the basics of running a kitchen, anything for a mild chance of pace. At least they had fresh supplies coming again. It had taken Kassa some time to find a captain willing to deliver food to the isle. Shawl's previous provider refused to help because he steadfastly believed Shawl was some kind of evil wraith risen from the dead, which hadn't helped Kassa's cause as she argued on his behalf. If the people of Terrial weren't already superstitious enough, Kassa's insistence that Shawl was in fact still residing on the island and had not been eaten by the fairies seemed only to convince the people of Terrial that Shawl was indeed some kind of undead demon. Now he wasn't simply the crazy hermit who lived among the fairies, but the haunt of the crazy hermit who had once lived among the fairies. Kassa had returned home many nights completely furious. Johndin Shawl seemed to find the whole matter hilarious, but he always declined to take the boat to shore himself to handle the problem. Haley didn't always understand the old man's sense of humor. It was a little more difficult to read than Xan's dry, dark jokes that she'd come to be quite fond of.

Haley slipped through the door behind Kassa and headed for the stew pot simmering over the fire place. It was definitely another stew, but she was hungry and so it would suffice. Kassa was already spooning out a dish for herself by the time Haley had recovered a bowl from the cupboard and made her way to the pot. Johndin had eaten already and was seated in his rocking chair, smoking a strange mix of herbs from his hand crafted wooden pipe. He lit the material in the bowl with a piece of wick, took a draw from his pipe, and then covered the herb again with a wooden stopper before letting the smoke out in a deep, slow exhale of puffy white smoke. The old man sighed and Haley scrunched her nose, which tugged at the ugly burn on her face. Haley wasn't certain what benefit the old man got from his smoke, but the stuff didn't exactly smell pleasant.

"How was the day's training?" He asked as the women took their seats and began to eat.

"Haley's getting better every day." Kassa said the same thing just about every time she was asked. It was all part of the repeating routine that Haley was becoming fed up with.

"Good, good! She's a clever girl." Shawl replied with a smile before taking another puff from his pipe. Silence fell for a few minutes with the only sound being that of Haley and Kassa finishing up their stew. It was far too quiet. Haley cleared her throat.

"It has been nearly four months now since Xan left. I think we should go after him." It had taken a lot of nerve to build up to this topic again, but Haley thought it was long overdue. They couldn't wait forever for the assassin to return. What if something had happened to him? Xandrith was incredibly skilled, but he was only human.

The smile fled from Shawl's face in a rush and he sat up straighter in his seat. "I don't think that's such a good idea. It's dangerous out beyond the isle. The plague has spread and the Drayid have moved further south. I've received word from some of my contacts that they're wearing plague masks as far south as Rewolla. No, Xan asked me to look after you, and I think it's best that we stay here." He went to light his pipe again as if the discussion was finished, but Haley wasn't having it.

"Do you really think Xan can save the entire world on his own? He's just one man. He needs his friends. I've been training constantly for months. What is the point in all of this work if I can't use what I've learned to help Xan?" Haley growled, trying to keep the anger burning in the back of her mind at bay. Lately that had been getting more and more difficult.

It was Kassa who spoke up next. "We have nowhere to start looking, Haley. Don't you think I'd want to go help him as well? Things aren't that easy."