NexLord: Dark Prophecies (16 page)

Nearly two years passed without much outward
change, five days out of each week the Guardsmen brought Gandarel
for two hours of instruction at Mara's hand.  Soon
Gandarel found himself looking forward to the teaching, fidgeting
in his other classes as he
waited
to escape the confines of the Seat of Stone so he could be with his
friends.  And because the change was gradual the boys
didn't see it, but they were learning far beyond their
years. 

It was a Threesday and summer had come again
when Mara walked onto the sand and faced Aerin in the
practice square
.  All of the boys took
note; it was the first time they had seen Mara enter the fighting
arena.

She smiled at the surprised boy, he had been
sparring with Lor during warm up when Mara had tapped his friend on
the shoulder and swapped places.

Aerin was puzzled, and he asked, “Did I do
something wrong, Sen Mara?”

Her eyes glinted and the ghost of a smile
peeked out of the corner of her mouth.  “Not at all,
Aerin, in fact, today is your chance to move on to the next
level.  I think you are the first to be ready.”

Aerin’s chest puffed out with pride.

“Don’t get a swelled head or you might end up
with a real one,” she noted.  “Today you are going to
spar
with
me.  I’ll give
you a word of advice, remember everything I have taught you,
everything.  Your skill with that weapon will not be
enough.”

The young boy lost his prideful look and the
familiar worried frown he wore when concentrating appeared.

Gandarel plopped down onto the ground outside
the sand square as if a spectator at the Gladiator finals and said,
“You can take her, Aerin, she’s old.”

That got him a dirty look from both Aerin and
Mara.  Aerin replied, “Hey, you don’t have to get her
riled up!”

Mara brought her attention back to Aerin and
stepped forward into the center of the square.  “All you
need do to win the bout is force me out of the square, or onto the
sand.”  With
that,
she
casually set the end of her cane in the sand before her and crossed
her hands over the top.

Aerin held his staff in the two handed
fighting grip he had been taught, the shaft at a
forty-five-degree
angle from the
ground.  He approached cautiously, sliding one foot
forward before following up with the second to keep his balance
ready for a sudden attack or for a lunge at his adversary.

When he closed the distance to striking range
Mara casually lifted her cane in her right hand.

Aerin jumped back three feet, and his
watching friends guffawed.

“She nearly got you there, Aerin; you nearly
jumped out of the square in fright!” Lor said with a smile.

Mara remained quiet while watching the young
boy before her.

Aerin moved forward more firmly and again
reached striking range. 

Mara waited.

Aerin made his move.  His
quarterstaff blurred in an attempt to strike from the lower left
toward Mara’s thigh.  It met wood as Mara rotated her
cane clockwise striking his staff and driving it to the side away
from her.  As her cane came around she poked it straight
down and smacked Aerin on the top of his extended right foot.

“Ow!” he yelped and jumped back, but he kept
an eye on Mara and brought his staff back into defensive position,
lest she
follow
up with a more
serious attack while he was in pain from his foot.

Mara followed and seemed to glide forward
across the sand.

With the distance between them closed, she
again waited.

Aerin feinted low and spun his staff into a
quick shoulder attack, and again wood met wood
solidly.  Within seconds Aerin's staff licked out in
swift strikes, each time smacking into Mara's cane
solidly.  The end of the flurry of blows was almost too
fast to see; Aerin’s last deflected blow made his staff ride a
little high and Mara jabbed the end of her cane into his
stomach.

The air whooshed out of him and he nearly
fell
backward
onto his rear, but
he managed to stagger and keep his balance. 

There was laughter from his watching
friends.

“Come on, Aerin, she is only a girl,” Dono
exclaimed.

Lor elbowed Dono in the ribs, “I bet she can
take you!”

Aerin readied his staff again and moved back
into combat range.  
This
time,
he waited in defense.

Mara noted his change in posture and gave him
a slight nod to acknowledge his challenge.  Her cane
moved in an obvious strike for his head, but when he went to block
she pulled the end of her cane back.  The expected impact
did not take place and for an
instant,
Aerin’s center of balance shifted too far to his
left.  Mara whirled the cane in a tight arc that came in
low on his right.  Aerin had no choice but to spin his
quarterstaff clockwise to try and block, shifting his weight even
further out of
center
.

Mara’s cane slid off his
parry
and came up under his right armpit in a
stinging blow.  She pulled the cane back and slammed
around in a sweeping arc that headed for his
shin
.  He couldn’t get his staff
around in time to block, so he attempted to jump the
cane.  It caught his shin while in the air and he did a
quarter turn, landing hard onto the sand.

At this
point,
Mara turned her back
to
the fallen boy, placed the end of her cane back on the
sand and bowed slightly to his laughing and cheering friends
sitting at the edge of the square.

On the
ground,
Aerin felt his face flush with
embarrassment.  Not only did his body hurt, but his
friends were also laughing, and Mara was rubbing it in by taking a
bow!  Anger surged in his mind.  Her unprotected back was
right in front of him.  
Smarting
from the blows that would bring him ugly black
bruises, Aerin got to his feet with his staff held ready to strike,
but then he remembered his teachings and recognized his
anger.  He paused a moment and then relaxed, his anger
fading. He cleansed the area with thoughts of care for this woman
who had taken him in when he had lost everything.  He
decided he was big enough to swallow his pride and let her have her
victory.   He knelt to one knee in the sand behind
her as Mara turned to face him.

“Mara, I admit defeat and I thank you for
your lesson.  I will try not to fail you again the next
time you test me.”

The self-satisfied smile vanished from her
lips as if it had never been there, and she regarded the young man
before her with fondness.  “Aerin, what makes you think
you have failed?  Today you have proven to me that you
are ready to go on to the next level.”

“But you won!  You told me I had to
knock you down or drive you from the square.”

“True, I said that would win the bout, but
winning the bout didn’t have anything to do with passing the
test.”

Mara knelt down in the sand facing the
puzzled boy and put her hands on his shoulders, looking right
through his eyes into his soul.  Her next words were soft
for his ears alone.  “Please forgive my little act, it
was necessary.  The test was not in winning the fight,
but what you did after tasting defeat and
humiliation.  What would you do with your anger... or
hate.  Skill is all well and good, but if you cannot
control your emotions, if you cannot overcome that most evil part
of us that hates, then your power will only feed the
Wraiths.  I am proud of you today, Aerin, and I can feel
the friendship you have for me, it is a gift I prize above all
else.”

Aerin did not understand completely, but he
knew he had Mara’s respect and it filled his heart with
joy.  His eyes misted over and he nodded to her in
gratitude.

Mara gave him a last squeeze with her hands
and then stood and faced the other boys.

“Aerin has passed the first level of
discipline...”

“PASSED!” Gandarel ejected in disbelief.

“Yes, he is ahead of all of you, I am very
proud of him.  I will begin to teach Aerin the next
level.  Soon some of you will be ready to take the same
test.  I will tell you when I think you are ready,
however,
today belongs to Aerin,
and tonight we are going to celebrate his achievement by going out
to dinner.”

“But he lost!” Gandarel exclaimed.

“I will be the judge of his skill, not you,
Gandarel,” Mara said curtly.

Gandarel looked a little sullen about Aerin’s
achievement, but all three of his friends pounded Aerin on the back
in congratulation.

The tavern dining room was only sparsely
attended as Mara,
Tocor,
and the
four boys took their seats at a long table with six chairs, three
to a side.  Mara sat directly across from Aerin at the
end of the table.   Four burly off-duty merchant
bodyguards were drinking and griping about life at a table to their
right.

“Mara, what was that you said about the
Wraiths today?” Aerin asked.

Her lips pouted slightly for a moment as she
marshaled her thoughts.  “You have read a great deal
about the wars, haven’t you?”

“Yes, my father had books about the old
wars.”

“So tell me what you know about the
Wraiths.”

“They are evil men who wield vast magical
powers.  They live in the wastelands and rule over the
Togroths.  They want to kill everyone in the
Kingdom.”

Mara smiled, “Is that it?”

Aerin was a little indignant at her question,
“I could tell you the full history of the final war.”

Mara laughed and Aerin
felt, even more,
ire
.  At his look she put a hand on his to calm
him, “I’m not laughing at you, Aerin, but at the fools who named it
the ‘Final war’... final indeed.”

Aerin relaxed, mollified.

“I’m sure you could recite the entire, uh,
history of the sordid
affair
if I
requested, but that is not what I meant.  I want to know
what you know of the Wraith’s power.  What is their
power?  How are they created?  Where do they
get this magical power of which you speak?”

Aerin considered for a
moment
and then said, “Well, I always assumed it
was hatred.  They hate everything and their hatred is
used to form spells.”

Mara shook her head, denying what he
said.  “That is not quite right, Aerin.  You
see one person’s hatred is not enough to do more than petty damage
in the world.  One man might hate enough to kill another
man, but that is little evil compared to the Wraith's power."

They pondered her words for a moment and then
Aerin asked, "Is there any way to resist a Wraith's power of
hatred?"

Mara nodded and replied, "It isn't
easy.  If they can find any hatred in your heart then
they have a hold on you, but a strong mind that can keep focused on
another emotion can resist their power.  
However,
it takes training and will power to
withstand a Wraith's attack on your mind.  You see they
leach
the power of hatred and
gather it up.  They are a deadly foe, for the more you
hate them, the more powerful they become.  But you were
correct when you said they hate everything. To become a Wraith and
wield the cumulative power of hate it must be the foremost emotion
that rules your life.”

“Is this cumulative power true of other
emotions as well?” Aerin asked.

“Ah, now you touch on an underlying
truth.  Yes, all emotions have power, though not all
manifest in the same manner.  Emotions power your life
and every choice you make.  There are many emotions and
some types are stronger than others.  Hatred and fear are
amongst the strongest, but jealousy can be a deadly force as
well.”

Aerin considered her words, “I have heard of
Wraiths and the Dreadmaster, they use hate and fear.  Who
wields the power of jealousy?”

“Jealousy is too hard to control, many of
those afflicted by it are or were in love and this combination is
too volatile to control easily.  
In the end,
jealousy leads to hatred, which is the root
of that power.”

“What about love?  Isn’t it a
powerful emotion?” Aerin asked.

Mara nodded, “Indeed, at times too
powerful.  Love is a power that can cause great joy and
great anguish; it is probably the most dangerous emotion to deal
with.  Still, great evil and good have been done with it
and in its name.  Take the case where a man loves a
woman, but she loves another man as well.  Jealousy is
fueled by the power of love, and that, as I've explained, leads to
hatred.  Great deeds of evil may then be done in the name
of love, although years later when the jealousy and hatred have
dulled only the regrets for what they wrought remain.”

Aerin considered all the emotions he could
think of for awhile.  “If hate and fear are the most
powerful evil emotions, what is the most powerful good
emotion?”

“No guess?  All right I’ll tell
you, friendship.  It is the most constant, runs the
deepest and lasts the longest.  Hatred can come on strong
and be so powerful it ruins a person’s
life
but given enough
time
it dulls.  Fear can leave you quivering
unable to move, but strong fear cannot be easily
sustained.  Fear too much for too long and your heart
will just give out.  Fear is the second most powerful
emotion, but it never runs as deep as friendship.  You
can lose your fear in a moment, even if it has been with you for
years, but friendships are not so fickle.  In friendship
there is an invisible bond; one friend can help sustain the other
through this bond.”

“Like NexLords!” Aerin exclaimed, “They have
close friends that bond to them.”

Mara nodded with a twinkle of amusement in
her eye.