The Weapon Bearer (Book 1) (31 page)

“I will need you to watch my honor. My name is Kilen and as a friend, that is what you will call me. Keep your ears open for my name. I will seek you out for information and any rumors that might find your ears. That is all I require of you, kind sir,” Kilen hoped that he had been respectful enough to Tom.

“I will make it so, as long as it does not interfere with my allegiance to my king.” Kilen nodded and walked out the doors into the garden. It was bright and open to the air with high walls that made it seem to be a roofless room instead of a balcony. The walls were covered with ivy and there was a narrow stone path that led through the plants and flowers. Kilen could make out every leaf and petal using the water vision. He found only one gap that the water vision would not touch. He assumed that there would be a fire wielder or large fire there, but instead found Twilix sitting on a bench reading a book. Her hood was pulled back and her long golden hair hung down over her shoulders. Kilen thought that she looked more innocent than his sister, but he chided himself to know she was a very dangerous and powerful wizard. At least that is what he had been told. He stood before her for a couple minutes before speaking to her.

“Wizard Twilix?” She held up a single finger, but didn’t look up. The finger went back to her place in the book and continued reading line after line.

She spoke while turning the page, “You made me wait for you so it is only fair that you now wait for me.” Kilen was a bit perturbed at waiting on someone as young as her, but realized that he should just keep quiet if he didn’t want to get on her bad side. He stood in front of her waiting as patiently as he could. He started to listen to the sounds that drifted over the garden walls from the courtyard, and examined every flower and plant using his water vision. He took careful note of all his surroundings before he looked back at the tiny girl sitting on the bench. She was looking up at him with her book closed and brilliant green eyes. He remembered that they turned an equally brilliant blue when she used her magic. He thought about the water vision and realized that he could now see her instead of the hollow space that was there before. When had she stopped using the magic, and how had she stopped him from seeing the water near her. She still sat waiting for something, and Kilen tried to scramble his thoughts to remember what she said.

Joahna spoke up,
She said nothing. Say something, stupid.
Great, the voices in his head were now calling him names. He really hoped that he had not gone crazy.
You’re just standing there you lout, say something.

“AHhh, reporting as ordered, Wizard Twilix.” Suddenly his mouth felt very dry. He wasn’t use to being under pressure.

“Just Twilix, as I told you before.” Kilen nodded back, because he was afraid of speaking and saying something else dumb. “You did not report as ordered, I told you to come as soon as you were done with dinner. It’s two hours past the soldiers eating time and almost dark. How will we train in the dark, Kilen?” She paused only long enough to let Kilen open his mouth, “I don’t think you understand the situation fully or you would have been here on time. I will not allow my pupils to be late, so you will promise me you will not let it happen again.”

“I promise that it won’t happen again,” he said promptly. She eyed him, and then finally patted the space on the bench next to her, telling him to sit. Kilen took his place and read the title of the book she was reading, “A Sundered Soul.” Kilen had read the book when he was bored in school. It was a book about a man who gave his body to the dark lord in exchange for his lover’s life. His mother wouldn’t let him bring the book in the house, which was fine because it had given him nightmares anyway. “I am sorry I was late, my servant brought my meal after he had had his with the soldiers, and then a guard gave me bad instructions here. I finally got some help finding the garden by a servant named Tom.”

“Tom is a good man, always looking out for his family. You needn’t apologize. You already said you wouldn’t let it happen again. Let us get as much training as we can before complete darkness comes upon us. Tell me what you have learned so far in your travels with Brent.”

“Well, I can produce fog, float water, use the water vision, heal people and animals, make water out of air, and I can subdue a fire wizard.”

“You make it sound as if you have learned very little. If these abilities do not impress you, perhaps you will be as skilled as me.” She paused, tapping her fingers on the bench as if trying to figure out where to start the training.

Kilen asked in the silence, “When I approached I couldn’t see you using the water vision. How did you do that?”

She smiled, “I’m glad you asked. It’s great you have a desire to learn everything. I pushed the moisture away from my body forming a very thin line of water that you could not see past. It’s like putting a wall between us. I’m very glad you noticed the bubble. Would you like to try it?” Kilen nodded his head, “Good, step away from me, feel me with the water vision and watch as I push the water away, forming a space around my body.” The space opened, but Kilen could still see the water inside her body. “Next you form the wall of water connecting the water and letting it form a thin solid wall. The wall will be so thin that you can still see through it with your eyes but the magic will hit it like a barrier.” Suddenly she disappeared from his water vision. Kilen pushed the water away and tried to form the barrier but had trouble. She removed the barrier and brought it back a couple times before Kilen saw the intricacy of the water in the air. They seem to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. He tried again a couple more times before he was able to form the barrier. “Very good. This was one of the harder skills to master. Not many of my students even notice that I’m not in their water vision. You should be proud.”

“I am not finding these skills hard to learn. Using the sword as a regular blade is what seems hard.” Twilix smiled a wry smile and gave Kilen a mischievous look.

“Then don’t use that one as a blade, use this.” She held up her hand. Kilen watched as water gathered into a tight formation in a long length in front of her. Suddenly the water snapped into a solid structure, a clear blade of ice. She waved it around and lifted the front of her skirt to give her room to fit into the fighting warrior stance. With her other hand she held her blade above her head with its tip pointing at Kilen. “Well, form your blade, weapon bearer.” Kilen liked her teaching style and gathered the water into a form identical to the blade in the sheath. He tried to make the form solid, but it wouldn’t change from water to ice. “You’re thinking about it wrong. Ice doesn’t flow. The water in ice doesn’t move at all.” She said it so matter of factly that the idea struck him as if he should have figured it out ages ago. All he had to do was stop the water from moving.

Kilen made the water stop and it snapped into the form of a blade. It was not as sharp as his blade, but it would work for what they were using it for. Twilix struck at this blade and the two collided. Kilen’s blade shattered and fell to the ground. “That’s the problem with Ice swords they just don’t stand up to a hit. If you are fighting ice blade against ice blade you will have to reinforce the structure at the exact point they are to hit each other. It’s a hard skill, but with practice you will be able to manage it.” She let her blade hang in the air, melt, and disappear. “What else have you learned from that bit of a fight?”

Kilen thought of several things he had learned, “I will always have a second blade with me wherever I go.”

“Well you’re thinking too narrowly. You will always be able to form any weapon from ice, an arrow, an axe, a spear, and even be able to throw them using the magic.” She formed an ornate dagger of ice in the air. It appeared quicker than Kilen could follow. The ice dagger zipped past him and into the wall, shattering under the force and speed. When Kilen looked back at Twilix she had formed three more and hovered them in the air around her. The daggers moved with precision and rotated around Kilen’s head with points inward. They spun around him and Kilen suddenly felt too afraid to move.

Speed up the water around your head and rotate it in the opposite direction. DO IT NOW!!
Joahna all but shouted in his head. Kilen closed his eyes to see only through the water vision and did just what Joahna was screaming for him to do. The faster he spun it the faster the daggers melted and joined the water he had started with. Soon Kilen had a ring of steam spinning around his head and he started to sweat. He moved the spinning water above his head. He then saw that Twilix was forming more daggers into the air. The two stood only five feet apart and she could skewer him in an instant. He moved the spinning ring of steam in front of his body and flattened it into a wall, gathering water into it, to make it thicker. She threw the daggers at full force into the ring and the daggers melted instantly and splashed warm water onto Kilen’s chest, where the daggers should have landed. Kilen kept the wall spinning and formed daggers of his own behind Twilix. Flames leaped out of the air to melt his daggers as he made them appear. The flames melted his ice before he could form more, and the woman that had been following the Kapaly man stepped out from behind a wall of plants. She threw fireballs into the wall of steaming water. Kilen noticed a void in the water vision behind him and turned to see a small pillar of flame forming behind him. She was trying to distract him with fire balls.

“STOP!” Twilix shouted, while forming a wall of ice between Kilen and the flame. Kilen let go of the wall of rotating steam. It rushed out in every direction causing Twilix to bring up a shield of water. Kilen’s skin burned when the steam rushed by him and he let out a scream. The fire wielder stood in the blast with no recognition of the heat. Twilix placed herself in front of Kilen. She faced the woman and held her hands out for the woman to stop. The woman stood with one hand raised, holding a ball of fire poised for assault. She was looking at Kilen with a hatred.

The flames died out and the ball of flame in her hand did as well. The fire of hatred in her eyes still burned as she spoke. “He was going to attack you. He had ice daggers behind your back!”

“We were only training, Mary. I was doing more to him moments ago. Besides when have you ever seen a trainee best me in battle?”

“That is no trainee. Only veterans use those kinds of attacks. Especially more than one form of magic at once. No, you might think he is a trainee, but I say he was sent here to kill you.” The ball of fire appeared in Mary’s hand again.

“He is a trainee. I was just teaching him those moves. The fact that he can use more than one form of water magic at the same time is brilliant so early in training, but it’s not unheard of if you remember what I could do.” Mary slowly let the fire dissipate, but still looked very angry. “Kilen, this is Mary Krape. She is the fire wizard councilmen for King Atmos.” Kilen was moving very slow as to not irritate the skin that he had just scorched with his own ring of steam. Twilix finally remembered that he had been hurt by the steam and rushed to kneel by his side. “Ohh let me help.” She put her icy fingers on his neck and Kilen winched at the touch. He felt as if his skin was still aflame. She let the cooling waves of healing pass into his body and relief flooded him. “That will teach you never to let go of the water until you can handle the aftermath. You could freeze yourself into a block of ice or steam yourself to death. Next time slow the water before releasing.” Kilen nodded in understanding and made a mental note not to do that again.

He finally stood and walked to Mary with an open hand held out in greeting. She made no move to take his, but stared defiantly at him. “So you’re the weapon bearer that Brent was talking about. He wanted me to look in on your sister from time to time.”

“You’ve seen my sister?” Kilen hadn’t seen or heard any sign of fire wizards since he had been here, let alone word on his sister. He had been concentrating on making sure that he was able to pass the training to pay for her welfare.

“Why should I do this task when I receive nothing in compensation? No, I refused to check in on her. She is not my responsibility. If you wanted to guarantee her safety then you shouldn’t have brought her here.”

The fire magic controls her emotions still. Be wary of her Kilen,
Joahna whispered in the recesses of his mind.

Kilen spoke without much thought into proper protocol of rank. “Is there anything that I can offer you to perform the task that Wizard Brent asked?”

“You have nothing to offer me, weapon bearer, unless you can channel dead souls so that I can talk to my parents again. They died while I was in my training. You have nothing to offer me, weapon bearer, unless you can help me to control my emotions and leave this place to return to my brothers and sister. You have nothing to offer me, unless you can strip me of this fiery burden!” Flames had started to trickle up her arms as she spoke in a more irritated voice. “Can you do that weapon bearer?”

Calmly, Twilix moved to place a single hand on Mary’s shoulder, which singed and hissed when she made contact. “I think that he may have something to offer both of us Mary. We will discuss that more in the morning, Kilen. If you don’t mind, I would like to try again at our training, only this time I’ll meet you tomorrow promptly after the morning meal on the wizard’s training ground outside your barracks.”

Kilen bowed his head as he answered which seemed strange to bow to a child, “As you wish Twilix.”

“Go and get some rest, you may need all of your strength tomorrow morning.” The touch Twilix had made on Mary had seemed to calm her both mentally and physically. They both turned to walk away through the garden. Kilen stood on the darkened garden path not feeling tired at all. He started to slowly make his way back to his room. He wandered the hallways and was stopped by two sets of guards before he showed his blade to let him pass. He didn’t ask them directions, but proceeded to lose his way twice before he finally ended up in the kitchen.