Rise of the Champion (The Sword of Kirakath Omnibus #1) (19 page)

“I see,” Caleb said as he released the hilt of the sword. “Thanks for answering my questions.”

With that, Caleb turned away from Lance and began to head back through the tunnels.

“Next time you’re in the area, stop by and see me again.”

Caleb just nodded his head absently.
Who says I’ll live long enough to come around again?

* * * * *

“So where’s Caleb?” Nicolas asked as he looked down at his cup of mead. He was sitting at one of the tables in the tavern of the Black Raven Inn across from Katie. Unlike him, she did not have anything to drink.

“He went to talk to Lance White,” Katie said, her eyes on her old friend. “Apparently, he’s the one who made Caleb disappear last time.”

“And you just let him meet with the man alone?” Nicolas asked in disbelief. It seemed so unlike her to him.

“It’s what Caleb wanted,” Katie said softly.

“What about what you wanted?” Nicolas asked with a raised eyebrow. “You know you don’t have to sacrifice your wants for anyone else, so why do you?”

“I want to be able to stop letting him down,” she said, her voice growing even softer. “I shouldn’t have paused when we met up with the griffin, and I should have been able to figure out a way to get around that barrier when he fought that specter.”

At those words, a look of bewilderment formed upon the young fence’s face. “Did I miss something?”

Sighing heavily, Katie began to tell Nicolas about everything that had happened during their journey to Draesa and what happened there.

It took nearly an hour for her to finish telling the story, though it seemed even longer than that to both of them.

At the end of the story, Nicolas just sat there as he tried to process all the information that Katie had given him. He was silent for what seemed like an eternity before he finally spoke again.

“It seems you two had quite the adventure.”

Katie laughed softly at that. It seemed that Nicolas truly did have a penchant for stating the obvious at times. “I suppose we did.” Looking back at everything that had happened, she found that she could not deny that it had been a surprising adventure.

“So what do you plan on doing once this is all over? You can’t tell me that you haven’t thought about it yet. Once I hear back from my contact, we will know where they are. At most, I’d say you have a week until your debt is paid in full.”

Katie was shocked by those words. The thought of Caleb’s quest coming to a close so soon had not occurred to her. One thing caught her attention most of all though.

“Your contact knows where they are?”

“He knows that they’re based too far away to hear any rumors, so we don’t have to worry about them finding out that we’re asking questions about them. This gives us an advantage,” Nicolas said with a small smile. “I should hear back from my contact by tomorrow.”

Katie leaned back in her chair and looked around the tavern thoughtfully. After a few minutes, she said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t risk getting him involved in my situation though.”

Nicolas nodded sadly. “I suppose you can’t. If
they
found you with him, it would cause problems for him.”

Katie pursed her lips as she looked down at the table. The situation seemed pretty grim to her.

Silence persisted for a few moments, only being broken by the sound of the door opening.

“It’s been a few days since I saw you,” Nicolas said with a smile as he faced Caleb, who entered the room, looking lost in thought.

“It has,” Caleb said as he broke away from his thoughts. “Have you heard anything about them yet?”

“Not yet,” Nicolas said with a calming gesture. “Just give me a little time. I’m going to leave so I can meet with my contact right now. I’ll be back later tonight.”

Caleb nodded and stepped to the side, allowing Nicolas to pass him.

With Nicolas gone, Katie asked, “Are you ready for this?”

“I am,” Caleb answered as he ran his left hand over his pommel. “As soon as Nicolas comes back with the information, we leave.”

“Then we better get some sleep while we can,” Katie said with a yawn. The prospect of sleeping in a bed again sounded like a great idea. She had never slept well while traveling.

“Agreed,” Caleb said as he rolled his stretched his arms out. “I’ll see you when he gets back.”

With that, he turned to walk out of the room, but Katie’s voice stopped him.

“I was hoping we could talk for a little bit first,” she said. She took his pause as a reason to continue. “What do you plan on doing after this is all over?”

Caleb turned to face her, frowning ever so slightly. “I don’t know. I’m still not sure that I’ll survive this.”

At that point, Katie frowned as well. “I see… I’ll see you when Nicolas gets back.”

Though confusion was evident in his eyes, Caleb turned his back to her and left the room, headed for the room he stayed at last time he was at the black raven inn.

Once he was out of the room, Katie sighed and picked up the half-full cup of mead that Nicolas had left.

“What should I do?” she asked herself aloud, speaking softly. Shaking her head at the question, she drank the sweet contents of the cup.

* * * * *

“Wake up.”

Caleb bolted up from the bed at those words, his hand already on the hilt of his sword as it was propped against the chest next to the bed. He eased his hand from the hilt as he saw Nicolas standing in the doorway. The raven haired man looked tired, but a smile was set on his face.

“Get ready and meet me in the tavern. I’m going to wake up Katie, and then I’ll tell you two what I’ve learned.”

With his piece spoken, Nicolas walked out of the room and shut the door.

As soon as the older boy was gone, Caleb jumped up and dressed, putting on his boots and clothes, along with attaching his scabbard to his belt at his left hip.

He began to walk towards the room at that point, but he stopped and looked towards the chest. Walking over to it, he raised the lid, revealing his knife and his quiver.

I’ll have no reason to come back here once this is all over with.

Making up his mind, Caleb removed his personal effects and attached them at his belt. Then, he left the room and made his way to the tavern.

Much to his surprise, Nicolas and Katie were already there.

I know I wasn’t slow, so how did they get here before me?

“Well, I’m surprised we beat you here. We thought you’d run straight here without bothering to even get dressed,” Nicolas joked with a grin. “Apparently, Katie was already awake and ready.”

Caleb looked at Katie curiously at that.

“I only needed to sleep for a few hours,” she commented. There was no reason to doubt her words, Caleb realized. She looked as though she was fully rested.

“Very well then,” Caleb said as he walked over to the pair. “What did you find out?”

“You’re looking for a band of bandits that call themselves the black crows. It’s a band composed of no less than twenty-five outlaws, and they’re led by a man by the name of Cain fell,” Nicolas said immediately. It was easy to see that Caleb was not interested in small talk. “Their camp is situated in the Shadowpeak Mountains. I was a bit skeptical as to whether they were the ones responsible or not because of the distance, but my contact told me that Cain was spotted north of Umbridge three weeks ago.”

“What do you know about this Cain guy?” Caleb asked with determination clear in his eyes.

“Cain fell is a master swordsman. He has quite the bounty on his head for a number of things,” Nicolas answered. “He’s wanted dead for killing his trainer when he was in Zabryan. He was actually a recruit in the King’s Army. From what I understand, he ended up killing a dozen other men when he fled. Everyone who has since gone after him has ended up dead.”

“I guess I get to kill him then,” Caleb said as he stroked the hilt of his sword. “I won’t fail.”

“I doubt you will,” Nicolas agreed. “And to help make sure you don’t, I have a gift for you.”

Stepping aside, Nicolas revealed a cloth wrapped bundle that had been placed atop the bar. He carefully removed it from the cloth for Caleb to see.

Caleb’s eyes widened as he saw what it was.

A longbow, easily recognizable as being made from the wood of a yew tree, sat atop the bar. It was made of simple design without any engravings or tooling, but it also lacked any knots of any kind. It was easy to see that it was made of the finest yew wood around.

It’s even nicer than the one Hector gave me.

Caleb walked up to the bar and picked the bow up, the feel of the smooth wood against his skin refreshing. It seemed like he had not touched a bow in a long time, despite the fact that it had been less than two weeks.

As he held the bow, he noticed that it was not strung, but that was not even an annoyance. He glanced at his quiver with a smile.

“Thank you,” Caleb said as he offered his right hand out.

“Anything for a friend,” Nicolas said as he shook hands with the blond.

Friends?
Memories of his friendship with Gabriel silver and his interactions with his master, hector green, came rushing to the forefront of his mind. With their current statuses, the memories were a little bittersweet, but they were special nonetheless.
I like the sound of that. Nicolas seems like a pretty good guy.
There was a bit of irony to that thought, and he knew it. After all, his opinions regarding Nicolas had not been too positive initially.

Breaking contact with Nicolas, he said, “So it looks like this is where we part ways.”

“It is,” Nicolas agreed. “My door is always open to you. If you want to pay a visit when you’re finished with your quest, I’d be more than willing to accommodate you.”

“That means a great deal to me,” Caleb said with a sincere smile. Inside, he did his best to suppress the thoughts that he would never see Nicolas again after that moment. It was not exactly a wonderful thought, after all.

“Good luck,” Nicolas said as he withdrew a rolled up piece of parchment from his tunic and handed it to the blond. “My contact was able to get me a map with the black crows’ base marked. With Katie’s help, you’ll be able to find the camp pretty easily.”

“I owe you,” Caleb said as he took the map from Nicolas.

“No,” Nicolas said, shaking his head. “Katie gave me five crowns back when you two first showed up. Consider my end of the bargain complete.”

“We should get going,” Katie interrupted, eyes intent on Caleb as he had begun to open his mouth to speak. “We have a fairly long journey ahead of us.”

Caleb frowned for a moment, but he nodded his head regardless. “Very well then, I’m ready when you are.”

“Then let’s go,” Katie said as she made her way out the door.

Caleb glanced at Nicolas once Katie was gone. “What’s up with her?”

“I suppose something’s eating at her,” Nicolas said with a shrug. “I’ve learned not to let little things like that worry me.”

“You’re no help,” Caleb muttered as he followed after her. He could hear Nicolas laugh as he left.

Caleb never did get Katie to tell him what was bothering her.

Chapter 21

“So how are we going to do this?”

Caleb looked over at his companion as she rode alongside him on her mare. They had left the black raven inn five days earlier and were only a few miles away from the place that had been marked on the map as the base of the black crows.

“What do you mean?”

Katie raised an eyebrow at the question. “It’s a pretty straight forward question. What’s the plan?”

“We’re going to kill them,” Caleb said simply as he swung his leg over the saddle and hopped to the ground from his stir-up. “That’s the plan.”

“You aren’t one for subtlety, are you?” Katie asked sarcastically. “Seriously, what kind of plan is that? We just walk in and attack them? We are outnumbered by at least twelve to one.”

“If they want a fair fight, then they’re going to need to get some more men,” Caleb said with a shrug as he tied his horse up and pulled the rolled up map out from one of the pouches of his saddle. Giving it a careful look over, he nodded. He quickly rolled up the map, returned it to its place, and freed his bow from where he had tied it to the back of his saddle.

“Please tell me you have a somewhat decent plan. This can’t be it.”

“I need to see the camp first,” Caleb said as he began to walk through the forest, his eyes already adjusted to the darkness that accompanied the night.

Sighing, Katie pulled her horse to a stop, slid off of it, and tied it up before she followed after him.

When she caught up with him, he immediately began to speak.

“Okay, so I’m going to need you to stay out of sight when we get there. I don’t have much of a plan, but I do know that they need to think I’m insane.”

“You aren’t?” Katie countered.