The Royal Thief

Chapter Sixteen: Apprentice

"I'm ready."

"No you're not."

"I bet you let Wes fight when he was my age."

"It's got nothing to do with your age."

"So you did!"

"He did," Gordan confirmed, and Jaden shot him a glare. "I mean... Jaden knows best. If he says you're not ready, you're not ready."

It was the same conversation from the night before, when I had met Lord Luca. Jaden insisted I wasn't ready to fight in a match, and Gordan agreed with everything he said. I'd tried pulling Wes into the argument but he refused to be riled. It made me wonder if I had been wrong about their relationship. Gordan had made it sound as if, like me, Jaden had only been Wes's teacher. But why had he needed a teacher? I was a guardian; I needed to be trained as a thief. Wes had only been a fighter from the lower city. So why had he needed Jaden? I'd wondered if perhaps he had been a nephew, or even a son. Yet it was clear that in the time before Wes had left for Maenar-- apparently without Jaden knowing-- something had happened between them. Wes had entered the Glory Duels, despite Jaden's warnings, and after that Jaden hadn't heard from him. And, from what I gathered, hadn't tried to find out why. 

His conversation with Brock had been interesting. Wes had gone to Maenar and, at least it seemed, connected with some people Brock had used to know. People who were reluctant to pass along information because "Once you're gone, they don't know if they can still trust you."

Musing on all this information, I walked behind Jaden and Gordan, under the sign of the Black Horse with its mysterious feather, into the inn. 

"How were the fights?" Beck inquired, twisting around in his chair. As always, his gaze went first to me in that disconcerting way of his. Some people watch without processing, hear without realizing. But just from meeting Beck, I had known he always saw what he was seeing. If that made any sense.

"Fine," Gordan said. "The knight is shaping up. He's got a clever way of fighting."

That was certainly true. I thought I knew why Luca had held back in our match in the training yards. He was afraid of showing all the techniques he had learned at the match house. The sort of back-stabbing moves that were acceptable there. The guards fought with a strict set of rules, and the fighters of the match house had no rules. Except, I suppose, not to kill the opponent, unless it was during the Glory Duels. 

"Humph. I don't think I trust him. He's got a bad feeling to me," Jaden said.

"You don't trust anybody," Gordan chuckled. "He's a good man. So he keeps his hood down-- lots of people do. Maybe he's trying to avoid attention from any law-people."

He certainly was, but probably not for the reasons Gordan suspected.

Beck looked up at them. "I've never gotten to see this knight fight. Will you sit down? I'd like to hear."

"Gordan will. Morane and I are leaving early."

"We are?" I asked.

"Yes. You haven't realized this yet, but you're not invincible. You need sleep."

"Oh, yes," I said lightly. "Sleep. And then I will be invincible."

He couldn't cover the his smile, although he tried. Gordan laughed out loud. "And you said you were finished with Wes. Face it, Jaden. You've chosen the only lass in the city who's as much like him."

Except that Jaden hadn't chosen me. He'd been chosen by the Sage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His hand was big and tight around my small one, and my stubby legs scurried to catch up with his long strides across the damp grass. It was very dark, but I didn't mind much. What I did mind was that I was alone with the big, scary man in the green hood.

"Where are we going?" I asked, bossily. "I want to know!" 

Well, not that scary to me, I guess. I was a demanding child.

"Shush. I'm bringing you to your new teacher."

I groaned. Another one? I didn't like the men who said they were my teachers. They scolded me when my eyes wandered, when my attention wavered, when my work was sloppy. They got angry when I talked back or arrived late or didn't know an answer. Mummy had never raised her voice like that when she sat me and my brother down for lessons. My conclusion was simple: they didn't like me. I became even more sure of this when I saw that they didn't yell at Nemia, or even frown at her. In fact, she was mostly ignored. That was my first experience with how some people thought a danger would go away if they pretended it didn't exist. But Nemia refused to evaporate.

The Sage lead me through a complex of wood buildings that I had seen from a distance in my window. In the center was the large space with fenced off rectangles where the guards trained. But there were no guards there tonight. Only a single man in a black cloak.

"Jaden Eyro."

My little self gasped. When someone used your full name it was a bad sign. What had this man done?

Slowly, almost lazily, the man pulled himself to attention, facing the Sage, and met his eyes squarely. "Tobias Waywood."

The look on the Sage's face would have made me shake, but Jaden didn't flinch. 

"You will address me as Your Lord Sage."

Flicking his fingers in a gesture I couldn't recognize, Jaden said coolly, "Seeing how you called on me, I think I'll address you how I please."

And that's how I knew that no matter what he had done to me and my family, the Sage wasn't the scariest person in the world, or the most dangerous. Because that was Jaden. And I knew viscerally, instinctively, that we were on the same side.

The Sage's lips tightened. "This is the Thief. You will teach her whatever you see fit for her to know in order for her to complete her duties as a Guardian." And then he left with a swoop of his cloak.

Kneeling so he could look me in the face, Jaden asked, "And you are?"

"I'm Morane." I thought for a moment. "Apparently."

"I am Jaden. And I am going to be your teacher."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I went outside to get the horses from the stables in the back. The stars were bright and crystal-sharp in the black sky, huge and far away in a way that made me dizzy if I looked at them for too long.

"No! Stop! Let go of me!"

The sudden burst of sound knocked me from my trance and I spun around. There was an alley just down the street and I could hear scuffling, something that sounded like a blade being drawn. Without thinking, without considering that Jaden wouldn't know where to find me and that I was alone, and had no idea whatsoever of what I was getting into, I sprinted down the street and skidded into the fight.