Chael's Luck (A Knights of Dorathan Novel) (2 page)

“Maybe he called him Chael because his mother
died giving birth to him.” Mac took a step back as I took a step
toward him. He held his hands up apologetically.

“Well, either he’s a bastard or he killed his
mother… either way the name fits, I’d say.” Caleb sneered at me
from his position on the ground, his hazel eyes darker than usual
next to the blood that covered the bottom half of his face.

I clenched my jaw. Dorathan’s honor, I told
myself mentally. Dorathan’s honor, Dorathan’s honor… I started to
walk away.

“Of course, if he’s a bastard that would also
make his mother a whore.”

Dorathan’s honor forgotten, I turned on my
heel, took five long strides toward Caleb and kicked him as hard as
I could in the ribs.

“Don’t you ever say anything like that about
my mother again!” I stepped back, ready to kick him again.

“Chael!”

I stopped mid-kick and clenched my fists at
my side, turning to greet the newcomer.

Caleb and Mac stood at attention as my father
rode up to us, his dappled grey stallion lathered from the run up
the hill.

“Sir James.” All three of us acknowledged
him.

He nodded his greeting then raised an eyebrow
at us. “What seems to be the problem here?”

“I broke Caleb’s nose.” I met my father’s
green gaze evenly with eyes that matched his. He turned his
attention to Caleb.

“Caleb?”

“He did.”

“And was that before or after you struck him
in the face?”

“After, but he punched me in the arm first.”
Caleb did his best to pull off an innocent look. “And then he
kicked me when I was down, sir!”

“Yes, I believe I rode up just as that was
happening.” My father’s jaw clenched and the gaze that held Caleb’s
hardened. “I also heard you calling my wife a whore.”

I managed to keep the grin off of my face as
the blood drained from my opponent’s face. My father dismounted and
strode up to us.

“If I ever hear of you insulting my wife
again, even if I’m nowhere around at the time, I promise you your
father will hear of it.” He took one more step toward Caleb who
stumbled backward. “Now, run along and have your mother tend to
you. I’ll be stopping by there this evening and I’ll be sure to ask
what story you gave your parents.” He sneered. “Try to keep your
lies to a minimum.”

Caleb’s eyes widened. “Yes, sir.”

My father turned his attention to Mac. “And
what about you?”

“Mac didn’t say or do anything, sir,” I
interrupted.

Mac shook his head. “Actually, I did sir. I
said you might have called him Chael because of the fact his mother
had died giving birth to him.”

My father frowned. “Is that what this was
about?”

“Isn’t it always,” I mumbled.

He grunted and waved a hand in dismissal. “Go
home, boys.”

Caleb and Mac saluted, mounted their horses,
and rode off. I rolled my eyes as my father took my chin in his
hands and inspected the damage to my face.

“I’m fine.”

He didn’t argue with me. “Where’s your
horse?”

“Where do you think he is? As soon as the
fight started, he spooked and ran off. He’s probably waiting
innocently at the barn doors as we speak.”

“He’s a good horse, Chael. He might even be a
better beast than his sire.” He patted his horse’s neck.

I grunted. “Klora will never be anything like
Klard. He’s a coward.”

It was my father’s turn to grunt. “He’s come
a long way since you first broke him under saddle. Do you know, Sir
Trent Burnd offered me two months’ salary for Klora three days
past?”

“You should have accepted the offer.”

“I told him he wasn’t my horse to sell and he
mentioned something about coming to talk to you.”

I looked at him, surprised.

He looked straight ahead as we walked down
the hill. “You seem surprised.”

“I’ll admit I am.”

“Chael, the Knight’s initiation ceremony is
in a week. You turned eighteen four months ago.” He glanced at me.
“It’s time I stop trying to protect you.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “If you’ve spend
the past eighteen years protecting me, I’d hate to see what being
hard on me would have been like.”

“It was necessary for you to train hard,
Chael, you know that.”

I nodded. “About the Shadow Knights…”

He stopped walking and turned toward me. His
green eyes met my own. “You were born to a long line of Shadow
Knights.” He mounted Klard and galloped back in the direction of
our cabin.

“I guess that takes care of that
conversation,” I mumbled to myself. As I walked back leisurely down
the long hill, I thought back to my confrontation with Caleb. I’d
been busy practicing my offensive skills with my slaggens, a pair
of short swords that were my weapon of choice, when the other two
knights in training had come upon me. Caleb had started his usual
harassment which included making fun of how small I was and then
starting in on the reasons for why my father might have named me
after the god of back luck. Of course, he wasn’t the only one who
liked to bring up that fact.

I looked up at the sky. “You know this is all
your fault, yeah?” I turned my gaze back to the path I was walking
on, not really expecting a response from Chael himself.

I grunted and smiled to myself. Whenever I
could feel the teasing start to get to me, all I had to do was
think back to the looks on everyone’s faces when the list of
potential Shadow Knights had been announced. My name had been the
first to be called out; being small had its advantages. The Shadows
were the assassins and the special duty members of the guard. To
pass the Shadow Knight testing was an honor not many received.

You haven’t received it, yet, I reminded
myself. The distant rumble of thunder reached my ears and I looked
across the plains to the west where the dark clouds were
assembling. I broke into a jog in an attempt to beat the rain
home.

“Blasted horse,” I grumbled. “You know,
Chael, you could give a man a break every once in a while. Eighteen
years of bad luck seems like a bit much. They named me after you,
for gods’ sakes. You’d think you’d be honored, not seeking out
revenge by making my life miserable.” I continued ranting to my
namesake as I made my way home.

By the time I walked into the front door of
the cabin, I was soaked. My father sat by the fireplace, a cup of
tea in hand.

“I put Klora away for you.” He didn’t look up
from the papers he was inspecting.

“You should’ve just let him run away. One
good crack of thunder would have done it.” I pulled my boots off,
set my slaggens against the wall, and made my way into my bedroom.
The room was clean; one dresser, a standing mirror, a bed, and a
bookshelf. On the dresser sat a picture of my mother. I picked it
up, smiling. She’d been beautiful. Though I’d definitely taken on
more of my father’s traits, the wide green eyes and the dark brown
hair, I still held some resemblance to her. I took a quick look in
the mirror as I pulled a dry tunic over my head and straightened
it. My left eye was swollen and blue and the knuckles of my right
hand were bruised.

“Chael, come have a look at this.” He moved
over on the chair so I could have a seat. I smoothed out the
map.

“Where are we going?”

“Nestle Lake.” He pointed to a small town two
weeks from Gleama, my home since I’d been born.

“What are you looking at, then? We’ll take
the Hallow Road and be there in no time.” I traced out one of the
secondary roads between the two towns. My father shook his
head.

“A runner came in yesterday from there. There
have been goblin attacks all along Hallow Road the past few
weeks.”

“Is that why we’re being dispatched,
then?”

Again, he shook his head.

“Alright, then, we’ll take Vil Road. It’s a
bit longer than Majorn Road, but we’ll be farther away from the
goblins.”

He nodded. “That’s what I was thinking.”

“When do we leave?”

“The day after the Knight’s initiation.”

I glanced at him and back to the map.
“Dad?”

“Hmmm?”

“Are you worried of what might happen? I
mean, if something happens and I get hurt during the Shadow
Knights’ test…”

He frowned.

“I just… up until now, this has been easy. I
mean, there are those like Caleb who like to think they know what
is going on, but once I’m Knighted, it will be harder, won’t
it?”

He was quiet for a moment. “Is it the test
you’re scared of?”

“Of course not. I’ll take the test and I’ll
pass. I was born to a long line of Shadow Knights, yeah?” I threw
his favorite line back at him and he grinned.

“Yeah.”

“I’ve just been thinking… what happens to you
if they find out?”

“They won’t. You’re my first born, Chael; my
only child. You’ll be a Shadow Knight and you’ll be one of the
best. After all of the hours you’ve put into training, you deserve
it.” He folded the map and went to his room, leaving me alone with
my thoughts.

*****

I lay in bed, listening to the thunder
rumbling over the hills. I grumbled and rolled onto my side,
pulling the covers over my head as another flash of lightning lit
up the room. Whisk, the large, grey, wirehaired hound my father had
given me as a sixteenth birthday present, raised his head, whined,
and stuck his face under my bed. The rain hit the window pane with
such force I had to look up to see if it would hold under the
pressure. The wind slowed for an instant and I heard the sound of
something hitting the barn wall. Whisk cocked his head at me.

“Maybe he’ll get hung up in some ropes and
hang himself,” I grumbled. Whisk whined and I rolled my eyes.
“Fine. Let’s go see how he’s doing.” I put a pair of pants on under
my nightshirt, pulled on my boots, and grabbed an apple from the
fruit basket.

I opened the door and was pushed backward
with the force of the wind. Whisk went to sit behind my father’s
chair.

“What? This was your idea!” I raised an
eyebrow at my dog. He lay down at my objection. “You’re lucky I
don’t make you sleep outside!” I whispered loudly. When that didn’t
seem to faze him, I closed the door behind me and bent my head
against the gust of wind that met me outside.

Lightning flashed.

One, two, three… My count was interrupted by
the booming of the thunder. I swung open the barn door and closed
it behind me. The pounding of Klora’s panicked struggles in his
stall echoed within the dark building.

“Hush now, boy.” I lit the lamps and stood by
his stall. The black stallion shied at the sound of my voice,
turned away from me and kicked out with one hind leg. The wood
resounded with the impact and I sighed, frustrated.

“I came to see if you’re alright and you try
to kick me. Come on, now. I brought you an apple.”

Klora ceased his pacing, his nostrils
flaring, his ears turning constantly as they took in the sound of
the rain hitting the barn.

“There you are.” I opened the stall door and
quickly closed it should he get the idea to run. He pawed at the
straw under his hooves. “Klora, easy now.” I made sure to keep my
voice smooth and quiet. “You have to calm down. Look at you. You’ve
worked yourself into a sweat and you’ve barely room to move in
here. You should be trying to get some sleep. I should be trying to
get some sleep. How are we supposed to pass the Knights’ test if
we’re dropping from exhaustion?”

I took a step toward him. When he didn’t try
to kick, paw, or bite, I took another, still talking. “You know,
Dad says you’re a good horse. Personally, I think you’re a little
high strung.”

His eyes rolled back to show off the whites
as another burst of thunder rolled over the countryside.

“Easy now. Don’t you want the apple?” I
brought my hand up slowly and ran it gently up and down his face.
“You know, it’s not going to be easy tomorrow. It wasn’t going to
be easy to start with, but now that it’s been raining for a week,
the testing area will be a swamp. That means you’ll have to try and
pay a bit more attention where you’re stepping and not so much
attention to the crowd that will be there to watch.” The gods only
knew how he was going to react to all the cheering that would be
happening. If Klora was his usual self, it was most likely I’d end
up in the muck before I even had a chance to fight.

“Do you know, Dad asked me if I wanted to use
Klard tomorrow.” I looked to the big grey sleeping three stalls
away from the one I was in. Klora pushed against me with his nose,
insulted by the fact I’d stopped scratching behind his ear. I gave
him the apple to make up for my lapse of attention.

“Do you want to know what I told him? I told
him no. And do you know why?”

Klora nodded his head as he chewed the apple
and I smiled. “I told him no because you do have one thing going
for you and that’s the fact that you can run. Now, don’t go getting
any ideas. It’s not something I’m particularly fond of when you
decide to do it and I’m not on you, but we’re going to need speed
to get through the race. So you see, I need you to get some sleep
and to quit wearing yourself out.”

The thunder exploded over us and I gave Klora
an extra good pat on the neck when he didn’t jump out of his
skin.

“What do you think?” I asked him. “Do you
think we can do it?” I didn’t wait for his answer as I slipped out
of the stall and latched it shut. Klora put his head through the
opening. His long ebony forelock fell into his eyes and I brushed
it back.

“I still remember the day your dam dropped
you. You were the first foal I’d actually gotten to see born. You
were so small and gangly.” I smiled at his snort. “Well, now, look
at you.” I felt my heart drop just a fraction and my smile slipped.
“You’re the only black horse in the land. No one can ever remember
seeing a black.” I remembered the looks on my father’s and uncle’s
faces when the colt had shed out of his foal hair, but instead of
giving way to grey like the rest of the foals, the dull black had
given way to the shimmering raven color that now stood majestically
before me.