Ember (18 page)

I was bending over to look for another sheet,
when I heard a voice come from the other side of the counter.

“Hello, Sophie.” It was a boy's voice,
surprise, surprise. “Man, you really went to town with the desserts
today,” he said. “New cookbook?”

She shook her head, as I purposefully
extended my search for the cooking sheet.

“You think they
look
good,” said
Sophie. “Just try one of them.”

There was silence for a moment.

“Wow, that's fantastic,” said the boy. “You
didn't make these?”

She started walking off towards the pantry,
waving a hand in the air. “I wish.”

At this point I knew if I stayed on the floor
any longer it just wouldn't seem normal. So, trying to make as much
noise of warning as I could, I reached for the pan and stood up
regularly.

Despite my efforts, the young man still
seemed surprised at my sudden appearance. He looked at me, brows
raised, through steely, grey eyes.

“Sorry,” I said sweetly. “I didn't mean to
scare you.”

He waved his hands quickly. “No, no, it's all
good. You must be Evelyn, right?”

I squeezed the cooking sheet tightly around
my waist. “Yes.”

He was quiet for a moment, looking at me with
a large, toothy, smile.

“I'm sorry, I don't know you're name . .
.”

“Holdan,” he finished for me. “And you
shouldn't, we've only just met.”

I tried to keep my eyebrows from lifting at
his, seemingly unaware, mention of the obvious.

“Sorry,” he chuckled. “I'm a little tongue
tied. I just had one of these things—” he gestured towards a
chocolate filled pastry “—they're amazing.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

He pointed at me. “You made these?”

I blushed a little, regretting the giveaway.
“Umm, yeah.”

“Well, good job then,” he said.

I smiled once then set the metal sheet on the
counter and started to place dough on it.

It was amazing to me how different this guy
was from Jaden or Ikovos, so much more talkative. I guess everyone
here couldn't be the same though. I let out an unintended sigh.

Holdan started again. “So, can you come now,
or . . .”

I looked up at him. “Come where?”

He leaned forward casually. “I thought Thoran
told you,” he said. “I'm your weapons trainer.”

Again I was surprised. “
Oh.
Umm. . .
.” I looked around, then back at him. “Let me just ask Sophie real
quick.”

He gave me a thumbs-up.

As I turned around I made a dubious face,
definitely
a lot different than Jaden and Ikovos.

*

When I found Sophie she told me it was fine
for me to leave, and the next thing I knew I was walking down the
hall next to Holdan.

He was very tall. must have been at least
twenty. His slick, black, hair reminded me of Garret, only it was
cropped a bit shorter. All around he was rather good-looking. I was
beginning to wonder if there was something in the water here.

“So, have you ever had weapon training
before?” asked Holdan.

I shook my head back and forth. “Not exactly.
But I do know a few things.”

He nodded sympathetically. “Okay. We'll just
start at the beginning then and see how you progress.”

I smiled. I was very excited to start
training, if not a little nervous. To be honest I’d expected Jaden
or Ikovos to teach me.

That was stupid,
I thought to myself,
they have all these uber-important things to do.
I sighed.
Like now. Wherever they are, it must be awfully
significant.

“Something wrong?” asked Holdan beside me. I
realized we were stopped in front of a door.

“Nope,” I said in an attempt to sound
nonchalant. “Just thinking.”

He grinned and pushed the door open. “Okay,
then. Go ahead.”

I walked through what seemed to be another
side exit from the lodge. I wondered if I should stop calling them
that since there didn’t appear to be any large, front, doors in the
bunch.

As Holdan closed the door behind me I looked
around and realized where all, or at least most, of the boys went
after breakfast.

Stretching in every direction, rings of
wooden, fenced-in arenas scattered the forest. They were filled
with heavy instruments, straw or smooth dirt covering the ground,
but the amazing part was that each contained at
least
three
boys. Some fighting each other, some shooting targets with arrows
or swords. It wasn't even that nice outside, either. The rain had
stopped for now, but dark clouds still covered the sky completely,
and a strong wind was blowing in significantly cold weather.

I had to admit the sight filled me with
excitement, so much adventure, so much action.

I was pulled out of my examination when I
heard Holdan's voice behind me. “This is the training ground. Where
most of us spend our time.” He started moving forwards. “You'll get
used to coming here to see me a lot.”

I followed, but didn't pay much attention as
he continued to talk about each area we walked past. It was simple
enough for me to tell. We passed some where boys were shooting
arrows at impossibly far targets . . . and still others containing
different
varieties
of weapons, in these he boys were either
fighting each other or hay-filled dummies.

We
stepped into the latter type, and
Holdan walked over to the fence and picked up a simple sword.

“This is the first weapon you’ll learn to
use.” He moved closer to me. “Where people usually go wrong is in
the grip.” I nodded, taking it all in intently. “It’s like this.”
He showed me his hand and then placed it on the hilt in a distinct
manner before passing the sword to me.

My stomach was twisting with nervousness. I
really didn't want to make a fool of myself, but accepted it as the
probability anyways.

Wrapping my fingers around the metal, I tried
to imitate his form. “Like this?” I asked.

He shook his head then moved my fingers into
a different arrangement. He definitely seemed more focused now that
he was teaching.

As I tried to make a mental, memory-note of
the way my hands sat on the sword, Holdan grabbed another
blade.

“Let's try some basic sparring first,” he
said. “Just so I can see where you're at.”

I winced. For some reason it was a lot easier
for me to deny Holdan then some other people I know. “Could we just
try the practicing thing for a little while first?” I glanced down
sheepishly. “I feel a little too nervous to fight.”

He considered this. “Yeah, sure.” He winked.
“But you owe me one.”

I laughed once and put my head down. I wasn't
so sure I liked the sound of that.

After showing me how to stand properly we
began running through some different parries, thrusts, and blocks.
Two hours later he informed me it was time to stop for lunch.

“You're pretty good, you know,” said Holdan.
“Easy to teach.”

I swallowed the bite of sandwich in my mouth.
“Thank you.”

We were still outside, but over a few yards
near some wooden tables. Most of the other boys had stopped to eat
relatively close to us, but as of yet they had not made any
greetings.

I watched Holdan take a bite of his food. He
was a very exaggerated person. The inflections of his voice were
exaggerated, his hand gestures were exaggerated, even his eating
now seemed exaggerated.

“So are we done after this?” I asked him.

He shook his head, “No. We should go for a
little while longer.” He leaned back in the grass. “Why, am I
wearing you out?” He had his big toothy smile.

I forced a laugh. “No, I was just
wondering.”

He nodded to me. It slowly died out. “So, do
you like it here so far?”

I smiled. “I love it. I think it's absolutely
wonderful.”

He rested his head on his hand. “What about
it?”

Wow, loaded question.
“Umm . . .” I
considered it. I didn't really think I knew this guy well enough to
reveal my true feelings so I kept it simple. “The environment, the
people. Oh, and magic of course.” The last part came out
unintentionally.

He looked at me through icy eyes. “Magic,
really?”

I nodded, then looked down and took some food
off my plate. “Can you use magic?”

He sat upright, laughing. “I don't know who
you've been talking to, but besides the Masters there aren't that
many artisans.”

“So you're not?” I asked, looking up.

He shook his head. “No, I am,” he stated.

I couldn't hide the confusion on my face.
Why the long assertion?

He hopped up before I could
not
ask
because I was too wimpy.

“Let's get back to it.” He grabbed my hand
and lifted me up without mention. “We'll be done in a few
hours.”

*

Holdan was wrong about the few hours thing.
Unless by a
‘few’
hours he meant five. After apologizing
repeatedly, he started asking me to go to dinner with him. I used
the excuse that I was too tired, which wasn't completely untrue,
and headed back to my room.

Once I was there I let out a sigh and fell
backwards into the couch.

What a day.
I started to think about
Holdan and what I had learned, but it was a poor attempt when my
thoughts were so fixed on only one thing . . . or two, as it
were.

My eyes wandered to the green fire on the
table. Instantly I hopped up. The last thing I wanted to do was get
stuck staring at
that
for the next three hours.

Pacing momentarily, I decided to grab a book
and try to find something more on offensive magic. I bent down and
traced my finger over the tomes. I was rather surprised to see one
called ‘
Conjuring Fire from Thin Air’
after just a few
checks.

I slid it out from the shelf and went back to
sit on the couch. Before I did though, I decided to check outside
to see if it was dark yet.

It wasn't, and it didn't appear to be raining
either so I lifted the glass to let some air in.

As soon as the window was open a black,
furry, ball screeched and leapt towards it. I screamed too, afraid
that he had jumped to his death. It appeared that he had
successfully latched onto the frame.

Before I could reach for him he started
scurrying up the trim and onto the outer wall. I quickly stuck my
head out the window and looked up. It was going for the roof. I
pulled my head back inside.

“Well, I'm not going up there to get him,” I
mumbled to myself, loud enough so the fuzz-ball could hear of
course. But even as I said it an image of broken, little,
fur-covered, bones popped into my head.

With an exasperated sigh, I poked my head out
the window again and looked up and down. I was surprised to see a
sturdy looking wooden ledge a couple feet below.

I began to climb through the window. “I can't
believe I'm doing this to save a squirrel.” I dropped onto the
ledge with both feet. “It lives outside. It would have been
completely fine.”

I looked up again and saw the last inch of
puffy tail disappear onto the roof. I quickly searched around for a
way to get up. If I couldn't even catch up with the little guy I
was going to feel
very
stupid. To my right I noticed a
secure spot and climbed up successfully to the rooftop.

The piece I was standing on now was sloping
drastically. Beyond that the top of the building was sectioned off
into various levels and angles.

I could see the little critter a few feet
away from me, he seemed apprehensive to explore the roof. I didn't
blame him, not only was the space daunting, it was also
ridiculously cold up here.

I tried to take a few steps forward, but
balance was not really one of my abilities. I almost fell twice and
after the third time I plopped down for stability, huffing
loudly.

Great, now I have the blood of an innocent
little animal on my hands.

I was facing the forest at this point. Before
I could look back at the chipmunk, positive that he must have been
gone by now, I felt soft velvet rub my open hand.

It was him, the . . . whatever it was and he
was running circles slowly in my palm. I got a chance to study him
better now. He definitely wasn't a squirrel, or a chipmunk. Much
too small, almost mouse-sized. He was covered with black, brown,
and grey fur that puffed out on his long cat-like tail.

I lifted my hand up a fraction and he seemed
not to take notice, so I brought it further to the front of my
face. He let out a few worried chirps at first, but then just
stared at me with
huge,
black eyes. They had to be the most
irresistibly adorable eyes I had ever seen.

I rubbed the top of his head gently with my
free finger. “Hello, there.”

He just kept looking.

“What are you, little guy?”

He chirped at me once.

“Oh, is that so?” I continued to pet him.
“You caused me a lot of trouble, you know.”

I froze as he suddenly reached out with one
of his thin-nailed paws and climbed onto my face. I twitched a bit
as he skittered fast as lightning down into the outside pocket of
my coat.

I smiled. “Just trying to get warm?” I hugged
my arms around me tightly, against the frosty air. “I don't blame
you.”

For the first time I looked out ahead. The
trees rustled loudly, their tops almost directly level with me. The
sky above was full of a flat landscape of clouds. They looked dark
enough to hold rain, but the air felt sufficiently dry. A slit of
the yellow glow from sun showered through the trees on the
horizon.

I glanced down at the large-eyed creature as
he stuck his head out of my pocket and squeaked.

“Beautiful, isn't it?”
This is why I love
the rain, much better than an empty blue sky.
I looked back up
as the crisp wind blew my hair softly.