Wielder's Awakening (18 page)

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Wraith glanced back at the grave that had been made that morning.  Two people had been here during the day.  One of them must have been the young man from the caravan or the grave would not have been dug.  They had headed down the road to the west around noon.  Wraith grinned.  After no one had returned the day before, he had thought about not coming back to check, but he was always careful.  Once again his thoroughness had paid off.  He would find out who this young man was and what had happened with his stone.  He would head west in the morning and track him down.  No need to hurry.  Wraith made a fire in the dying light and after eating, laid down for the night.  He grinned as he stared up at the night sky with the sweet smell of death heavy in his nostrils.  Tomorrow he would be heading west.  West, where there were plenty of thieves to gather and create more turmoil.  He closed his eyes with a sigh and was soon dreaming of the pleasures of killing.

11

By the time Blaize finally veered off the road to set up camp for the night, it was all Traven could do to stay in the saddle.  It was already dark, and it had been a very tiring day.  When Blaize stopped in a small copse of trees not far from the road, Traven practically fell out of the saddle.  Blaize took Traven’s horse from him and took care of the horse while Traven slumped to the ground.  He tried as hard as he could to stay awake but almost immediately drifted off to sleep.  When Blaize shook him awake, a fire was already blazing and dinner was ready.  Traven took the food that was offered to him but was too groggy to really taste it or care what it was.  He quickly finished it and took a long drink of water.  No sooner had he finished the meal than his eyes were already drooping once again.

“I probably pushed you too hard today, but I wanted to see how much strength you had regained.  You’re actually a lot better than I thought you’d be.  I wasn’t going to start teaching you how to fight for another couple of days, but I think you’ll be strong enough by tomorrow morning for us to start.  As for now, you need to get some sleep, so I won’t keep you up any longer.  I’ll take care of everything around here.  When I’m done I’ll make sure that no . . .”

Traven knew he should be listening, but he didn’t care.  All that he wanted to do was sleep, and as soon as his eyes were shut, he was gone.  Sleep came fast and deep.  He felt it pulsating, calling to him.  Then he heard a noise and . . .  Traven shot awake as Blaize tapped him on the neck.

“Calm down there Traven,” Blaize chuckled.  “I’m just getting you up for your training.  Now hurry up if you really want to learn.”

Blaize walked away as Traven blinked the sleep from his eyes.  Was it morning already?  He felt like he had just closed his eyes, but he could see that the sun was already beginning to rise on the horizon.  He stood up and stretched.  Blaize had left the copse, so Traven followed to see what he wanted.  Traven was still tired and incredibly sore, but he didn’t feel weak anymore.  Maybe he was finally getting back to full strength.  As he emerged from the trees, he found Blaize waiting impatiently with his arms crossed.

“It took you long enough.  If you call that hurrying, I don’t know if I’m going to have the patience to help you out.”

“Come on Blaize.  I just got up, and I’m still tired,” Traven said as he covered a yawn and rubbed his eyes.

“I got up an hour ago and have already gone through my routine.  I only let you sleep in this morning because of your weakened state, but from now on you’ll be getting up when I do, before the sun rises.”  Traven groaned.  “You said you wanted to be good enough to beat master warriors didn’t you?”  Blaize paused and looked straight into Traven’s eyes.  “Or maybe I was just hearing things as we rode along yesterday.  I thought you said you would do what I told you to without complaining, but maybe I was mistaken.”

“All right, I’m sorry,” Traven mumbled.  “I’m just tired.  What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to draw that sword of yours and kill me with it,” Blaize said as he took the two swords from his back and threw them off to the side.

“What?” Traven asked confused.

“You heard what I said,” Blaize answered back.  “It’s not like you could do anything to me anyway.  I just want to see how bad you really are.”

Traven stood for a second looking at Blaize, but seeing that it was not a joke, he unsheathed his sword.  He could see that Blaize was now defenseless without his swords and did not know what to do.

“What are you doing sissy boy?  I told you to attack me.”

That was it.  Traven was tired of being called a sissy boy.  He would be careful not to do any real damage to Blaize, but the large warrior was going to be sorry.  Traven lifted his sword and lunged at him with it outstretched.  Blaize nonchalantly jumped to the side and yawned.  Traven turned and took a swing at him, but Blaize just ducked under the arc of the sword and stood up with a smile on his face.  Did he think this was funny?  Traven decided the time for being nice was past and charged at Blaize, swinging with his sword wildly.  All of a sudden, Blaize’s arms blurred as Traven’s hand went numb and his sword went flying out of it.  Before Traven knew what was going on, Blaize was behind him with one massive arm around his chest and a dagger pressed against his throat.

“What happened Traven?  Why is your sword lying on the ground over there?” Blaize asked tauntingly.

“I don’t know,” Traven answered, careful not to move for fear the dagger at his throat would cut him.  Blaize released Traven and slipped the dagger back underneath his shirt.  Traven took several deep breaths before he said anything.  “You almost slit my throat!  What was the point of that?  I thought you were going to teach me, not kill me.”

“I didn’t almost slit your throat Traven.  Calm down.  I said I was going to teach you, and that was your first lesson.  I want you to think about what happened, and we’ll discuss it later while we’re riding.  There are several things you should have learned from what just occurred.  Now I’ll start putting you through some basic exercises.  I can see that you have no idea how to use a sword.  I thought you were hired as a merchant guard.  Don’t merchant guards usually know how to use the weapons they carry at least a little?”

“Well, I haven’t really had a chance to practice with this new sword.”  Blaize just kept staring at him, and Traven decided he might as well tell the truth.  “Okay.  I’d never even held a sword before I bought one a few days ago in Kavar.”

“That explains a lot,” Blaize said shaking his head.  “Now Traven, if you want me to teach you, you have to be honest with me.  Don’t feel bad that you don’t know anything about using a sword.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  I will tell you this though.  If you do exactly what I say and work hard at it, you’ll be able to hold your own in a sword fight in no time.”

“Thanks,” Traven said, feeling relieved.  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I didn’t want you to think I was worthless.”

“You are worthless,” Blaize said while laughing.  “But after a week or two you won’t be anymore.  Right now I want you to watch what I do and copy it.”  Traven watched eagerly as Blaize bent down and retrieved his swords.  He sheathed one but kept the other out.  “First of all, when you grip the hilt, don’t hold it so tightly.  You want to have a firm grip on it, but if you hold it too tight you won’t be able to maneuver it as well and when you clash with other swords it will transfer the impact right up your arm.  Do you understand what I’m saying?”  Traven nodded his head and slightly loosened his grip on the hilt of his sword.  “I’m going to teach you some patterns to practice, so watch closely.”

Traven paid close attention as Blaize slowly swept the blade back and forth in front of him eight times and then lunged forward with the blade outstretched straight before him.  Blaize then turned around and repeated the same motions again lunging back to where he had started.  He looked at Traven to make sure he was paying close attention and then started another pattern.  This time he wove his sword in a sideways figure eight pattern in the air before him.  After he had done it several times, he stopped and switched to something else.  This time he did not swing the sword but pretended to block invisible swords thrust from both sides and then from in front of his face and legs.  He showed Traven several other things he wanted him to do and then told him to do each of the exercises for him.  Traven had been paying close attention and sliced back and forth through the air before lunging forward.  He then turned and repeated the action lunging back to where he had been standing.  He was about to start the next exercise, but Blaize stopped him.

“That was pretty good, but you’re still holding your sword too tight.  You also need to make sure that you stay on the balls of your feet the whole time you practice these exercises.  When you lunge forward, make sure you don’t put all of your weight forward or you’ll end up falling on top of your opponent.  Make sure you keep your weight directly in your center, not forward or backward.  I’ll teach you some exercises to work on your balance later.  Now show me the rest of the exercises.”  Traven began to weave his sword in the figure eight pattern but was stopped immediately by Blaize.  “Traven, I told you not to hold the hilt so tight.”

“I’m not holding it tight,” Traven answered back immediately.  “If I hold it any looser, it’s going to fly out of my hands.”

“I know that might be what you think now, but I guarantee you’ll be able to control it.  I want you to start doing this right now so that you’ll become comfortable with a loose grip while you’re practicing.  You’ll find that it’s not as bad as you think.”

Traven loosened his grip on the hilt and began to weave the pattern once again, afraid he would lose hold of the sword.  Surprisingly, the sword seemed to flow easier through the pattern and never came loose.

“You see what I mean?”

Traven nodded and continued through the rest of the exercises.  After being stopped several more times and shown what he was doing wrong, Traven finally made it through all of the patterns without Blaize interrupting him.

“Good job,” Blaize said when Traven finished the set of exercises.  “You’re a quick learner.  Now we need to get moving.  We’ve already lost about an hour.”

Traven followed Blaize as he made his way back into the copse of trees feeling pretty good about himself.  He helped Blaize break camp, and they were soon heading west along the road.  Traven reached down and patted his new horse.  He had decided yesterday that he was going to call the big stallion Pennon.  It was definitely a mighty horse.  Blaize said the horse might even be faster than his own.  Blaize had also said it was a trained warhorse and that Traven needed to make sure he was careful when he was around other people.  Traven was sad that he had lost Dapple but glad to have Pennon.  All he needed now was to learn to fight like Blaize.

“So Traven, what did you learn from our little encounter this morning?”

The question took him by surprise.  He hadn’t thought at all about what he was supposed to learn from the encounter and said the first thing that came to his mind.

“I learned that I stink.”

“That’s not a very good answer, even though it is true.  What else did you learn?”

“That, uh, I need to tell you the truth.”

“No Traven, I told you that after.”  Blaize sighed when Traven gave him a blank look.  “Okay, I’ll tell you what you were supposed to learn from that.  First of all I wanted to show you that things aren’t always what they seem.  You might think that an enemy is unarmed or harmless, but you never know.  You thought I didn’t have any weapons because I threw my swords down, even though I had shown you my dagger yesterday.  You have to pay close attention and be very careful when facing an opponent.  The other thing I wanted to show you was that your body can also be used as a weapon.  I didn’t need the dagger to kill you.  I jabbed my hand into your wrist to make you drop your sword and could have just as easily snapped your neck.  Even if you don’t have a weapon, you can still be lethal.  Always remember that.”

As Blaize retreated back into the silence that he usually held while they were riding, Traven thought about what he had said.  He had never thought of all of that when he had faced Blaize but saw that it was very true.  He watched the countryside for a while before retreating into his own thoughts of adventure.  They rode on in silence until midday when they pulled over to the river to water the horses and eat.  After eating, Traven unsheathed his sword to begin practicing, but Blaize told him to leave his sword by the horses because he was going to teach him some exercises to do without weapons.  These would help him work on his balance and agility.  Traven put his sword back in its sheath and left it by the horses as he made his way over to Blaize.