Tin Thoughts (The Downfall Saga Book 2) Page 13

  He looked around the valley floor. Anything could be hidden beneath the dense mist. Not wanting to risk any unseen obstacles, he started along the path, keeping himself between the rows of hands. The path spiraled around to the back side of the hill where a set of stairs rose out of the mist. He slowly climbed the stairs to the top of the hill.

  As he neared the top of the stairs he caught sight of a marble statue to the right of the path. A cloak billowed around the figure as if caught in an intense windstorm. The figure was wearing a pendant, exactly like the one Donovan had found under Carrick’s Stand, around its neck. Donovan walked forward to trace the pendent carved out of marble with his finger. Donovan looked up into an eerily familiar face.

  His face.

  But not his face.

  It was how he thought he’d look in several years, fuller in the cheeks, with more texture around the eyes and on the forehead.

  He released a breath that he didn’t realize he’d been holding. He took a step backwards to take in the whole statue at once. The more he studied it, the more he noticed slight discrepancies. The statue was slightly taller than Donovan, and the ears didn’t stick out as much.

  He tried to tell himself that it was merely a coincidence, but he’d come across the symbol of Zeren in too many places to dismiss it.

  There was a second statue on the other side of the path. It was of an old man, with a stooped posture, holding a baby in his arms. He studied the face, and thought that it looked familiar. There was something about the shape of the nose and curve of the jaw which reminded him of the other statue.

  Donovan shook his head. He couldn’t explain the existence of the statues and wouldn’t figure it out by staring at them.

  He pried his eyes off the statues and continued past them to the bowl shaped depression. A flat, black disc lay at the bottom of the depression. The moon and the stars were reflected in its smooth surface, as if he was looking into another world deep below the ground. He started down the slope, and thought that the humming sound was louder here.

  He tentatively reached out to touch the dark disc in the ground. It was warm to the touch.

  He walked out to its center and sat down. He unwrapped the blanket from around his lute case and spread it out beside him. Setting the case on top of it, he opened the lid and lifted out his lute.

  His fingers quickly tuned it, while his mind was still locked on the statues.

  He started playing a simple tune to reawaken his fingers after months without playing.

  The humming echoed around him, embracing him, welcoming him.

  A ball of light exploded overhead. A Downfall had begun.

  Chapter 14

  “I’m leaving if they don’t get here soon,” said Caddaric.

  “You do that,” said Ravyn. “I’ll be more than happy to tell them that you’re no longer interested.”

  Caddaric had arrived at the room ten minutes earlier. He had hurried over, thinking that he’d be late, only to find that Headmaster Marrok and Osmont hadn’t arrived yet.

  They sat in a small room in the Administration Building. Cabinets full of paper lined the far wall. They’d cleared the loose sheets off of the table and piled them on top of the cabinets.

  Caddaric was sitting at a table with Ravyn, Gaarwine, Vala, and Ordman. He recognized Gaarwine and Vala from the previous year, but hadn’t seen Ordman before. Ordman had told them that he couldn’t afford the tuition, so he had to take a year off from Haven. They were the only five people who wanted to captain Haven’s team in the Paragon Prize Tournament.

  Caddaric shook his head. It was a sorry excuse for the best that Haven had to offer. Other than himself, Ravyn was the only one who’d shown even a hint of specialness. The other three were the type of people who you forgot about, even before finishing a conversation with them.

  “Hey, I almost forgot to tell you,” said Ravyn, poking him in the ribs with a sharp finger. “Kort finally did it.”

  “Huh,” grunted Caddaric, staring at the door.

  “I’ve been waiting for months for him to do it.”

  “Yeah, great.”

  “Hey.” Ravyn smacked the back of his head. “Are you listening?”

  Caddaric slowly turned his head and stared at her. He raised his eyebrows and waited for her to continue.

  “You’re as bad as him,” she said. “Now, where was I? Oh, right. He finally asked me out. We’re going on a date tonight. Isn’t that great?”

  “The two of you have eaten together many times before. Why is this suddenly special?”

  “You claim that you’ve been taught so many important things, yet you keep demonstrating that you really know nothing.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  The door opened and she didn’t have a chance to respond. Marrok entered the room, followed by Osmont who closed the door behind them.

  “This it?” Marrok asked Osmont.

  Headmaster Marrok looked awful. Caddaric had always thought that he looked like one of those grandfathers who loved to tell stories around the fire after a banquet. He had lost a lot of weight since the previous year. Loose skin dangled below his chin, and his dark, puffy eyes looked like they’d received a few punches.

  Osmont hopped up onto a cabinet and took in the room in a single glance.

  Caddaric averted his gaze. Osmont’s amber eyes reminded him of a wolf stalking its prey. He had an ageless face. The shallow creases beside his eyes told stories about the many things he had witnessed, both glad and mournful.

  “This is everybody who gave me their name,” said Osmont.

  “I wanted to talk to all of you before I leave,” said Marrok. “You five are the only students who expressed interest in captaining our team. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t disappointed, but all we need is one competent person as captain.”

  “That’s awfully harsh,” said Ordman.

  “Don’t expect you opponents to bring themselves down to your level,” said Osmont.

  “Enough,” said Marrok. “If you don’t like the truth, then leave now and we’ll be better off for it.”

  Marrok watched them, waiting for someone to say something. Finally he sat down at the table.

  “Right, so why do you want to be our captain?” asked Marrok.

  Ravyn responded first, as was a habit of hers.

  “This is an opportunity that I never expected to have,” she said. “We’ll get to visit Kern, and learn about their culture and how they instruct their students on the use of magic. There will be so many opportunities to exchange information with the other students.”

  Marrok opened his mouth to reply, but paused for a moment before finally speaking.

  “Is anyone here actually interested in being captain?” asked Marrok.

  “I’m the obvious choice, sir,” said Caddaric. “I’ve been groomed from a young age to take on a leadership role. Few, if any, of the other students know the things that I know. I am the best combination of knowledge and ability, and the only real choice to lead the team.”

  “Do you other three have anything to add?”

  “We’re just as capable as Prince High and Mighty over there,” said Vala. “At least people will want to work with us.”

  “If you do what I say, then I’m an easy man to work with,” said Caddaric.

  “This competition is important for the reputation of Haven,” said Marrok, wiping sweat off his forehead with a white cloth. “After the events of the previous year, we need something positive to happen to help rebuild our reputation. I will be taking a personal involvement in the competition this year. I will ensure that we select the finest representative of Haven to captain our team, and they will receive whatever assistance they need. Do you have any questions?”

  “Do we have to go to Kern?” asked Gaarwine. “Why couldn’t we host it here?”

  “The simple answer is that the dwarves enjoy these competitions,” said Marrok. “We used to rotate through each nation and with a differ
ent age group each year. After the elves did a poor job hosting a few too many times, things fell apart and the competitions stopped for a while. The dwarves prefer hands on instruction to classroom learning, so they continued to regularly test their students with similar challenges. A couple decades ago, they wanted to compare their students to the other races, so they offered to bring back the annual competition, except they would host it each year.”

  “Do you still want to be our captain?” asked Osmont.

  Gaarwine slouched down in his chair and looked around the table before answering. “Yeah, I guess.”

  “What will the competition be like?” asked Ravyn.

  She had taken out a sheet of paper while Caddaric was watching Marrok, and was filling it with a copious amount of notes.

  “I have no specific information at this time. Past competitions have been held in the wilderness, far away from any distractions. Whatever it is, you should expect it to test your physical, mental and magical abilities.”

  “Can you tell us about the previous competitions?” asked Caddaric.

  Marrok turned his head to look at Osmont who was still sitting on the cabinet.

  Osmont slid off the cabinet with the grace of someone half his age and landed on the stone floor without making a sound.

  “Each one is different,” said Osmont, pacing back and forth behind Marrok. “The difficulty is adjusted to suit the ages competing. We don’t allow our first year students to compete, so you will be facing one of the easiest challenges.”

  He stopped his pacing and resting his hands on table.

  “The competition is usually split into stages, each focused on finding or overcoming an obstacle. In the early stages, the focus is on finishing quickly and not worrying about the other teams. The final stage is all about who can complete it first, and teams are encouraged to impede each other’s progress. Other than that, things vary greatly each time. You might have to navigate a maze, solve a series of riddles, or retrieve a key from a nest of vipers. One thing that I want to stress is that the competition is dangerous. People get hurt every year and occasionally someone dies despite our best efforts. Do not enter if you’re not ready to face the consequences.”

  “Don’t let Osmont scare you,” said Marrok. “We need our best students to compete, and I expect our best students to proudly represent us. I’ve talked to your professors and it seems evident to me who the forerunners are. Don’t get discouraged though. We will be spending more time directly observing all of you, and will sit down to talk to each of you before we make our final decision. I’ll be travelling to Kern to help develop this year’s challenge, but I’ll be back in time to select our captain in December. Captains will be expected to have their team in place before the winter break, when we will begin our training. Have some preliminary discussions with the people who you’d want on your team in case you’re chosen. Osmont is in charge until I get back, so direct any questions that you have towards him.”

  “One final thing before we let you all go,” said Osmont. “Teamwork is essential. Pick the people who will make the best team, not necessarily the strongest individual members.”

  Chapter 15

  Kort stood inside Tony’s Place, his favorite eatery near the Complex, drumming his fingers on the counter as he waited for his order.

  Tony’s Place occupied what must have once been two small classrooms. A hole was added to the wall in between them so they could pass food from the kitchen to the eating area. The tables were packed with students, as they always were, but Kort didn’t care.

  “Hey, you said it would be ready five minutes ago,” said Kort to the man behind the counter.

  “It’s ready when it’s ready,” said the man. “If you don’t like it, go somewhere else.”

  “If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t still be waiting here.”

  “Keep your pants on. Although, in your case you might smell better without them on.”

  “You can’t talk to a customer that way.”

  “I’m pretty sure that I can. Let’s check and see. You smell worse than the rotting corpse that you stole that shirt from. See, I can talk to a customer however I want.”

  Kort ground his teeth but didn’t reply. It wasn’t worth the argument. He turned around and watched the entrance while he waited.

  “Your food is ready. That’s what happens when I insult my customers.”

  Kort carefully packed the food into a box which he’d brought for exactly this purpose.

  “Thanks for nothing,” said Kort, turning to walk out of the eatery.

  “Anything for my customers.”

  Kort navigated the tunnels to the rear entrance of the Administrative Building. He walked through the building, the box held tightly to his chest, and out through the front doors. He stopped to look around, but couldn’t see her anywhere. He set the box down on the top step and sat down beside it, his arm resting on top of it to guard against mishaps.

  The Nexus was lovely as usual. The green grass and blooming flowers were a stark contrast to the grey rooms where they spent most of their day.

  “Where is she?” he mumbled to himself.

  Ravyn was supposed to meet him on these steps ten minutes ago, but still hadn’t shown up.

  “If she doesn’t get here soon, then I’m leaving,” he said, knowing full well that he wasn’t going anywhere.

  Ravyn came walking down the path running beside the stairs. Kort hurriedly gathered up the box and started down the stairs to greet her.

  “Hi,” said Ravyn. “Sorry I’m late, but it took me longer to get ready than I expected.

  “I didn’t even notice the time,” said Kort. “Did you do something new with you hair?”

  “I can’t believe you even noticed.”

  She gave Kort an awkward hug around the box of food.

  She had some shiny metal baubles in her hair, and was wearing simple earrings which sparkled in the starlight. Her lips looked redder than before, or maybe he just hadn’t noticed. She wore a dark blue dress with white flowers on it. The dress barely came down to her knees and the neckline fell just past the point where he could see the fabric swelling outwards. She had a heart shaped locket hanging around her neck which nestled in—.

  “Hey, my eyes are up here.”

  “I was just admiring yo—”

  He stopped when her teeth disappeared between clenched lips and her eyebrows dropped dangerously low.

  “Is that a new dress?” he asked. “It looks lovely.”

  “I see you have our meal with you,” she said in a flat tone. “Have you decided where we’re going to eat?”

  “I have the perfect place picked out.”

  He watched her eyes slowly drift over his physique. He was wearing an older set of clothes that had been passed down from his brother Kean. They were worn and patched in many places, could probably use a wash, but they fit him like a second skin and showed off his muscles. He turned his head the other way to hide his grin as they started along the path across the Nexus.

  They crossed through the narrow throat, where Kort steered them off the path. They walked up a slight rise to a flat, grassy area, surrounded by flowers.

  “Here we are,” he said.

  “You think I’m sitting on the grass in my new dress? This dress is not getting stained tonight.”

  “Let me see what I can do.”

  He set the box down on the grass. He glanced at the ink stains on his hand from doing his homework earlier, but there was nothing that he could do about it now. He took off his jacket, which he wore when he was working out in the rain on the farm, and laid it down beside the box.

  Ravyn wrinkled her nose, before giving Kort a smile and sitting down on the coat.

  He emptied the dishes from the box and flipped it upside down to use as a table, before beginning to set the table for the two of them.

  “I’m so glad you agreed to join me tonight,” he said.

  “I’m pleased that you finally worked u
p the nerve to ask me.”

  “I was terrified that you’d say no, and then what would we do?”

  “You should know that it wouldn’t change anything.”

  “Except the number of pieces that my heart’s in.”

  She turned away to look at the flowers, but he thought he saw a smile on her face.

  “Do you want to eat now, or should we talk for a bit?” he asked.

  “I normally eat before the stars come out.”

  “So you want to eat?”

  When she gave him no sign of a response, he began to dish up their meals. He poured two glasses of cold cider. They each got a large scoop of egg salad, garlic mash potatoes, and a part rack of ribs dripping with sauce.

  “I hope you’re hungry,” he said, picking up a forkful of egg salad.

  “A toast,” she said, picking up her glass.

  Kort set down his fork and picked up his glass.

  “To new beginnings,” she said.

  “May the lows never be too low, and the highs soar with the eagles.”

  They clinked glasses and sipped their cider.

  “We already know so much about each other,” he said. “What’s something new that we can talk about?” Kort mumbled to himself for several seconds while he thought. “Did you have any nicknames as a kid?”

  “No. I didn’t have any friends and my parents wouldn’t indulge me with a nickname. What about you?”

  “I was called many things by my brothers, but they wouldn’t be appropriate to say right now.”

  Ravyn took a small bite of her potatoes and made a face when she tasted how heavy handed Tony was with the garlic.

  “You got to see a glimpse of my life this summer,” said Kort. “What’s it like living in Chaylse? Do you get to spend time by the ocean?”

  “My mother says the oceans are dangerous, so I try to stay away from them. I spend my days following the lessons that my mother prepares for me.”