Siege of Pailtar (14 page)

“How many different illusions do you want to see?” asked Aldwin.

“Considering one of you is practically a magical baby, just opening its eyes to the world, I only expect one illusion. However, you will be keeping the cloaks so learning to do more is to your own benefit.”

Kiana could feel Morvin’s eyes on her as he mentioned a magical baby … this was getting ridiculous. She would put some extra hours at home with her mother to get rid of this label as soon as possible.

“Okay, you all can go now. I expect those cloaks by the end of the week.”

Outside of the classroom, Kiana stopped and waited for Aldwin and Osmond. When they came to her, she asked what the rest thought of the class.

“I think it will be fun,” said Osmond. “Illusions can be very interesting.”

Aldwin agreed, “I am glad that we are focusing on illusions, it will allow me to score higher next year and get into a higher level magic course, maybe two. We are lucky Morvin is letting us combine the classes, me especially. I need to learn as much as possible in the next three years. You youngsters have a lifetime to catch up. Kiana, if you need help with your illusions, Osmond and I will give the as much help as we can.” Aldwin felt bad for Kiana being singled out in class for her lack of skills.

“Thank you, Aldwin, but it is my own fault. I ignored my magic studies for too long. I will study extra hard at home. I promise I won’t hold you two back.” Kiana vowed.

Aldwin smiled, “Ha, if you are anything like your mother, it won’t be long before you are miles ahead of us. Let’s meet tomorrow to see where we are on our cloaks, agreed?”

Kiana and Osmond nodded in agreement. Once again, Aldwin was taking the lead, his age and experience, along with his positive outlook, made him a natural leader for the group.

“See you tomorrow,” said Osmond as the three departed to find their next classes.

…

Kiana sat in the gym, still wondering how the heck she ended up in a combat class. She looked around, like the Applied Magic course there were only a few students here. Dylan, the winker, and two older boys were the only ones here.

The instructor walked into the gym and sat with the students on the floor of the gym. “My name is Rocco Poole. I will be your combat instructor. In this course you will become proficient in hand to hand combat and small weapons. For the first few weeks, I will be meeting you individually. After that, I will assign you a training partner, who you will meet with every day to train. Today, I am just going over a little of my own history, my rules and my expectations for you.” Rocco paused and looked at each of the students for a moment. “You four have been chosen for this class based on skill and personality. I will not train anyone who I feel likely to become a sell-sword. I am not training mercenaries, I dislike violence.”

Dylan raised his hand.

“Yes?” asked Rocco.

       
“Sorry, I am confused. You are the combat instructor, but you dislike violence? Is that not violence a natural part of combat?”

        
Rocco gave a small nod, acknowledging the validity of the question. “I have lived a life filled with violence. I grew up on the streets. I had a thousand fights before I became a teenager. Then an organization noticed me, and took me from the streets, trained me and sold me to a warlord. I spent my teen years fighting in every war on the continent. I have killed countless men. Only when the warlord was assassinated by a rival was I able to end my reign as a warrior. I moved to Pailtar and hoped to change my ways, but my only skills were those of combat. I ended up taking a job as a bodyguard for a thief who had grown wealthy and accumulated many enemies over the years. During the years that I served him,
I defeated over a dozen assassins in combat. When the thief died of old age, I was approached by Guild members to see if I would become an instructor. I agreed, under the conditions that I would choose the students and teach my own way. Now, to answer your question, violence is a natural part of combat. However,  that does not mean one needs to seek it out. A good thief can defend himself; a great thief never needs to. I will train you to be excellent in combat. But I will pray to the gods who smile on thieves that you never need my training.”

        
A pacifist combat instructor
, Kiana would not have bet money on that being a real thing. Perhaps this class wasn’t going to be as terrible as she first had assumed.

      
“One of the first things I will teach you is how to use throwing knives. Sometimes the easiest way to get past a guard is to kill them, being able to do it at a distance makes life much easier, and much safer.”

Okay, maybe pacifist wasn’t the right word.
Kiana had a hard time figuring out how one minute her teacher was discouraging violence and the next saying he would help them to become adept at silently killing guards. Rocco had some funny ideas about violence.

“Tomorrow, I shall start with you. From now one each of you is to carry a small dagger at all times. Have a good day,” said Rocco as he dismissed the students. As Kiana walked out of the classroom winker came and joined her.

“What did you think of that class?” Dylan asked her.

“It was different, that is for sure. Rocco has some strange ideas,” replied Kiana.

Dylan laughed, “That is for sure. You should not kill anybody, but it you do … do it quick and from a distance,” Dylan said in a voice meant to sound like Rocco’s.

Kiana smiled, winker, or Dylan, wasn’t a total ass after all. He was kind of funny, when he wasn’t being so cocky. “Did you apply for that class?” she asked.

“Gods no,” replied Dylan, “I was hoping for telekinesis or surveillance, even an Applied Magic course would have been better.”

“Interesting, I didn’t apply either. I guess he really does pick his own students.”

“Yes, I heard he almost never accepts students that ask for his class. Sometimes, if they can give a really valid reason, he will take one. But for most part, he avoids students who ask for combat class,” answered Dylan.

“Really? If I had known that I would have asked for the class,” Said Kiana.

“At least it’s not Guild law. I hear that is the worse class ever.”

Kiana groaned, “But it’s very important to know the difference between stealing from a high ranking nobility, and a high ranking nobility who pays his dues to the Guild.”

Dylan chuckled, “My parents made me memorize all the guild laws before coming to do the tests. I hated it, but not having to take the course was worth it.”

Kiana agreed with that. She, too, had hated studying for the tests, but was glad to avoid taking the course. Dylan was much more normal that she had originally thought. “I have to go now. See you around, Dylan.”

Dylan gave her a smile, “See you later.”

…

“How was your first day?” asked Lilliana as Kiana came through the door.

“Hi, Mom, it was … it was interesting. I got Applied Magic and Illusions, but was given Surveillance and Level three Combat as my mandatory classes.”

       “Ah, Rocco’s class, you’re a lucky girl.”

“Lucky? How is getting stuck in a combat class lucky. I don’t want to be a warrior. I want to be a thief,” replied Kiana.

“Why do you think we spend so many hours doing wrestling and fighting practice at home, my dear?”

“You told me it was because it was good exercise.”

Lilliana smiled. When they had first started the physical training, Kiana had resisted the idea altogether. Only when Lilliana told her that they wrestled and fought because it was a great source of exercise and helped to improve her flexibility and muscle coordination, had she decided that she would participate. “Do you really think an armbar is the most efficient way for us to improve flexibility? I wanted you to be able to defend yourself. If you want to be a great thief, you will end up putting yourself in dangerous situations. You won’t always be able to hide or run away.”

Kiana thought about this, it did make sense, and combat classes were better than guild law. “Okay, but Rocco is still weird.”

Lilliana laughed, “Without a doubt. But he is also a great teacher. He will teach you more about combat than I ever could. It is a good class for you to take.”

“Okay, by the way, I really need to get up to speed on my illusions. I was totally picked on today. I am the worst student in the class and if I don’t improve the rest of the students are going to suffer because of it.”

“Go, do your reading, then after supper, I will help you with it. What is your first assignment?” asked Lilliana.

“I have to put my own illusion on a cloak.”

“That is not so bad. A good cloak is invaluable. Do your reading and start thinking about what kind of illusions you want and after supper I will give you a hand.”

Kiana was relieved, sometimes her mother made her struggle through things on her own until she figured them out. This was one of the times she was willing to give Kiana a hand first. “Thanks, Mom.”

Kiana settled into her bed and started reading. Illusions were an interesting subject, but the textbooks were kind of boring. After an hour of reading, she thought she had the basic idea down. Like her ring, the idea was to create an image that everyone would see and believe to be real. The key was making sure the details were good enough that the illusion seemed real. Kiana had an idea. She jumped off her bed and ran to the door, poking her head out she looked for her mother. “Mom?”

“Yes, dear?” came the reply from the kitchen.

“Does an illusion have to change the cloak, or can I modify the cloak and make the illusion that it hasn’t changed?” asked Kiana.

“You can do either. You might find it easier to change the cloak and make the illusion that it hasn’t changed. Making an illusion of something that you can see and touch already is much easier than getting the details right of something that you are imagining. It takes a lot of practice to mentally picture all the details, the color, the texture the feel. A quick illusion might work well at a distance but fail as someone looks close. Ideally, no one should be able to tell the difference. Before you change the cloak, really study it, know everything about it, use all your senses, then change one small detail and make an illusion to hide that change. Keep doing that until you have a different looking cloak, but the illusion stays the same as the original.”

Kiana was excited, Not only has she come up with a good idea, but she actually understood what her mother was talking about. Instead of blah blah blah, she comprehended the ideas about magic and making an illusion. She was making progress!

...

Kiana was tired, she had stayed up way too late working on her cloak and morning had come much too early. Today was her first day of Surveillance class. Surveillance went hand in hand with Cat Burglary. Kiana has spent a lot of time casing houses with her mother and was pretty comfortable with her skill level. Instead of a classroom, the students were all instructed to meet down at the docks. This class was a little larger than the other ones Kiana was in. Instead of four students this class had six, by Guild standards a large class.

Kiana was glad to see that Aspen was also in this class. The two of them had gotten along well during the testing, and as the only girls, it was natural that they should help each other out.

Aspen smiled as she came up to Kiana. “Nice, I was hoping we would have a class together. Osmond told me you were in his Applied Magic and Illusions classes, so the odds seemed against it. This will be fun.”

Kiana agreed it would be fun.

“How are you finding your magic classes? Osmond said the instructor was a little hard on you?”

“Actually it wasn’t that bad, I mean your brother is two years younger than me and knows more about magic than I do. I needed to get my butt in gear. I think I will enjoy that class. Having your brother and Aldwin there makes it easier. They are very helpful, and I’m doing extra work at home to catch up.”

“Oh that is good, I am sure you will catch up to Osmond very quickly. He gets distracted too easily to be great at illusions. It might take him a couple years to get used to focusing and paying enough attention to details to become really good at it,” said Aspen.

Keyon suddenly appeared behind the girls, “I don’t know if I would rush to call this class fun. Surveillance can be a very mundane task, and the Guild lets customers pay to have surveillance done.  As it happens, I have two customers looking for work done and I will be sending you all out on these critical and important tasks. Aspen, Kiana, and Ethan, you three will be working together.
 

15

The desert

EVERET AND SHARON WALKED their horses. It was mid-day and they were approaching an oasis, one of the few year-round sources of water in the desert that separated Pailtar from the rest of the continent.

Only the oasis was not empty.

Meron soldiers were standing guard beside the water.

“As we get closer, fall back until you’re a few feet behind me. Keep yourself between my horse and the soldiers,” said Everet to Sharon. Meron soldiers did not normally patrol this far into the desert. 

Sharon said nothing in reply, but her pace slowed just slightly and as they got closer to the desert oasis she was falling back.

“Halt,” said one of the soldiers as Everet and Sharon approached them. “There is no water here.”

Everet looked past the soldier to the water, “Looks like there’s water to me.”

“Perhaps you didn’t hear me,” said the soldier. “There is no water here for you.”

“It’s been a long couple days and our horses are thirsty. I think we’ll be having some water,” replied Everet.