The Weapon Bearer (Book 1) (47 page)

“Stop it, I know what you are doing. You promised that you would not make an elemental.” She pleaded as she tried to freeze the form. In her weakened state Kilen found that she was still a match at his full strength.

Kilen heated the water as quickly as he could while he spoke, “I promised that I wouldn’t form one unless someone was here to teach me. You are here and you can instruct. I am forming the elemental, and it would be easier if you would stop fighting me.” Reluctantly she lets go and Joahna snapped into the form. He stood very still, waiting for Twilix to respond.

“That was devious. I feel betrayed Kilen. I think that I have given you a false sense of confidence with my training. You are still under my watch and care. It will take a very long time to regain my trust, if ever.” Her words cut him like a knife. He now saw her side of the events. In her eyes he could have killed himself or both of them in the creation of an elemental. He felt guilty and instantly regretful of his actions. He wanted to tell her about Joahna and Max but was afraid of what would become of him and Kara. He lay silently not saying a word with his eyes closed. Then he realized that Joahna had pushed on his emotions, now that he was gone from Kilen’s mind, the confidence he had to go against Twilix’s wishes were all gone. Joahna had influenced his mind to get what he wanted. Kilen grew angry, but could do nothing without giving away the presence of others in his mind. Joahna started slowly forming a large block of ice, then carved arms and legs under ice clothing, fingers, hair, and eyes with shades of frosted ice for the shading. When he was finished Joahna stood there not moving as a tear leaked out of Kilen’s face. He had been betrayed by Joahna and Twilix thought it was him.

Joahna let go of his form leaving it to look like Kilen. As soon as Joahna had returned to his mind, Kilen stood to face Twilix. He said nothing, he just stood there waiting to be chastised for his betrayal. “Do not think that because you are so skilled in even this skill that it will impress me enough to let go of your actions here. Tomorrow you will be facing Mary again for your training. I will have nothing left to protect you from her if you should lose. I will probably be too busy to even be present during the fight. Do not die Kilen Everheart.” It was a command from an instructor, not a request. She turned and walked away a little more energized than she had come. He sat on Twilix’s bench for a while looking at the image of himself and of his mother standing facing each other. He had left his mother behind, put his sister in a dungeon under the castle, and now betrayed his instructor. Kilen did not like the man he had become. Slowly he came back to his own mind, hearing Joahna and Max already screaming at each other about Joahna’s actions. “Silence, I don’t want to hear a word out of either one of you for the rest of the day. You betrayed me Joahna by altering my emotions, and Max you are no better for not letting me know what he was doing. Think on that while I can pretend to have my thoughts to myself for one day.” He felt a little like what he would think Master Crescent felt like when chastising Bowie and himself for pranks they pulled on innocent people.

He left the garden, leaving the two statues to melt in the noon sun. In his self loathing he couldn’t figure out how he had managed to find his way through the castle to the kitchen, but he didn’t second guess himself. He was there now. He walked through a sweltering kitchen to the back door and found Leroy cooking some meat over a low fire with a lot of smoke in the new cooker. Master Harvel was ordering servants to organize piles of stones all over the surrounding area. He noticed Kilen and rushed right over. “My lord, can you spare some time to build some cookers for my staff?”

“I hadn’t planned on it right at this moment but I guess I could spare enough time to build one.” The scrawny man motioned to where he had gathered piles of rocks in different locations. Small spots had been dug into the ground where he wanted the fire to be and the ovens to be built over them. He clapped his hands and shouted while waving his ladle. Soon fifteen scullery workers had been summoned to help in the building process. “Tell them what you want them to do to help, my lord. I will be near if there is anything I can do to help.”

Kilen smiled, knowing that none of these men cared to have the extra work to do besides their normal load of cooking for the army and castles occupants. “Actually, could you have your men fill those holes with the rocks that you have for the ovens?” The men took off to complete the task two to a hole, lifting the heavy rocks and arranging them inside the holes. “Could you help me with this one Master Harvel?” Kilen walked towards the only hole not being filled as Master Harvel looked to find another man to help. They were all busy doing the labor for the other holes. Reluctantly, he followed Kilen and both bent to pick up the first stone. The scrawny man couldn’t lift it. Kilen smiled and looked around at all the scullions looking at them, waiting for Master Harvel to do his share of the work. He looked up at Kilen, pleading for him to have someone else do the labor. Kilen still bent over the rock waited for Master Harvel to try again. This time the man put the full force of his back into it and Kilen saw the effort. He used the magic in his rings to lift the whole weight of the stone, giving the illusion that Master Harvel was lifting also. The scrawny man looked back and forth between the stone and Kilen as though to say, “thank you.” The men went back to working the stones. Kilen and Master Harvel said nothing while they worked to fill the hole and pile the rocks above the ground level. When they were done they noticed that all the holes were filled and a substantial amount of rock lay off to the side. Kilen cleared everyone away as Leroy approached. Kilen turned around and saw once again Chit and Brandon sitting in the soldiers tents for a meal all alone. Chit had bruises and small cuts on his body and looked as though he had been beaten severely. Brandon and Kilen met eye to eye as he looked around. He knew Brandon was going to watch him use his magic to build another furnace and say nothing about it. He decided that if Brent wouldn’t allow others to train him that he would have to do it himself. It was time to form an earth elemental. After all, he wouldn’t be breaking his promise to Twilix, Brandon was there to oversee his training if something went wrong. Kilen looked back and met eyes with Brandon one more time before starting to form a person’s form out of the extra rock pile. When the form was nearly complete he said to no one in particular, “Max.” With that he felt Max prepare himself inside of Kilen’s mind. He pushed and heard the familiar concussion as Max left his mind to enter the elemental. Max stretched as if waking from a long sleep and tested his rock muscles on a stone at his feet, crushing it and then absorbing the pieces like clams digging into the sand on a beach. Kilen observed him, using the water vision as Max moved towards the first pile of rocks. Standing very still he watched as Max formed the first oven. The speed at which he manipulated the earth dwarfed Kilen’s own skill. The minerals flowed like water through the stones, forming solid pieces and like clay moved to form a perfectly shaped oven. Kilen opened his eyes and turned to see Brandon standing at the table, mouth partly open.

Kilen started to move towards Brandon as Chit stood to see what was going on. Kilen saw in his water vision two more piles of rocks start to take the form of ovens, then three. As each one finished another would start up. Kilen stood still until Max was complete with forming every pile of rock into an oven. Everyone in the area was now watching silently as what seemed to be Kilen’s elemental came and stood beside him. The rock pile took on Kilen’s appearance in every detail and then stood perfectly still. Kilen felt the concussion of Max re-entering his mind which was followed promptly by his speaking,
That ought to advance your classes a bit
. Brandon left the table. Chit was surprised and raised to follow. The two very quickly disappeared into the castle through the nearest kitchen door. Kilen looked at his statue as Master Harvel was saying something to him. Kilen ignored it as he left for the second time today, his likeness standing for all to see.

The day was moving too quickly for Kilen’s liking. He had alienated the one wizard that wanted to spend time with him. He had let Max show more skill than he possessed at manipulating earth magic, and he humiliated Master Harvel by making him do manual labor. He needed somewhere quiet to relax, somewhere he could sit and think quietly to himself. He usually did his best thinking when he was at the schoolhouse, so that’s where he thought he would go. Sitting in on a boring lecture would be good for his mind, or so he thought.

Nearly the whole building was empty, except for a couple classrooms. He was happy to find a large classroom with no one inside. Kilen walked in a found and chair near the back corner so that he could see though the film covered window. He didn’t want to speak to Joahna, but he knew that he would be listening to everything he said. “Max, if Brandon doesn’t teach me I think it would be best if you did. You seem to know a great deal about how to use earth magic.”

Earth magic is the only other type of magic that the Fire Realm possesses in bounty. I had four pieces before I was chosen to receive a piece of fire armor. I am well versed in how to use earth magic. I can try and teach you if that is what you want.
Kilen didn’t answer. He thought that his answer was already voiced and he didn’t feel like talking to anyone today. Soon a man in a fine tunic walked into the room and set some maps on the table at the front. He sat down in a chair towards the front of the room and finally noticed Kilen sitting in the back.

“Excuse me, I didn’t notice anyone was here or I would have started earlier,” the man said. He smiled as he moved closer to Kilen, “Most people tend to take the more exciting exams during the first weeks of their training. You know sword fighting, jousting, archery, and if they are able magic classes. I don’t usually get anyone in this class so soon.”

“I’m sorry I just needed a quiet place to think, sir.” Kilen rose to leave the man in peace, “I should have just joined one of the other classes.”

“It’s not that my class is boring, but most don’t need it unless they plan on being a scout or commander.” Kilen’s curiosity peaked and for the first time since the incident he wasn’t thinking about Twilix.

“Sir, what class is this?” The man moved back to the large desk at the front of the room and unrolled the scrolls to reveal maps.

“Map reading and navigation, my boy. I can teach you now if you want?”

Kilen thought for a moment, it would be nice to get his mind off of what had transpired, and he would need the class anyway. He nodded to the man, who seemed to beam at the chance to teach the class. “My name is Lieutenant McClanahan. You can call me Bill or lieutenant while we are in this class. Have you any skill in map reading?”

“I have received some instruction in it in my schooling, lieutenant.”

Bill patted Kilen on the back as he unrolled a very large map on the desk’s top. “What can you tell me from this map then?” Kilen looked the map over with much scrutiny as he tried to find as much detail as he could. The map was of a town and surrounding area. There was a river and trees drawn with measurements of depth and width. Points of interest such as inns, marketplaces, mayors home, were all detailed on the town. Kilen knew that it must have been a map of a small town to be giving such detail of the city. It was much like Humbridge in set up. The town’s road was set up to run to and from a nearby river. Supply routes from other towns went through the main streets and farmland surrounded the outskirts of the town.

“It’s a small town, and very detailed. Here is the market, mayor’s house, and the river. This here is the main route through the city.” Kilen didn’t know what the Lieutenant wanted for him to describe about the map.

“Good, very good. Some new recruits tell me that it’s the inside of a city and not the whole city. All this is just basic map reading. Now let’s look at some that are more advanced.” Bill rolled out the same map, only this one had a lot of circles, numbers, symbols, and scales. “I will ask you to answer a few questions about this map. Just answer as best you know how.” Kilen nodded and waited for him to start asking questions. “Are there any hills on this map? If there are can you point them out to me?” Kilen searched the map and found the symbol for hills and pointed it out. “How about the best place to have horses cross the river?” Kilen found the smallest width on the map but the drawings were not to scale as the measurements were different at different locations. Just because it looked like the widest and shallowest place on the map didn’t mean it was the shallowest. He traced his finger across the map and found the shallow place in the river, and pointed it out. The lieutenant smiled, “Where would be the best place to find a thief?” The question took Kilen by surprise and he thought for a moment where a thief would make the most out of a small town.