The Dragon Prince - Book 1: Cold War

Descent

Callum and Rayla

Try as he might, Callum could not climb that tree. The rules of his teacher's challenge sounded simple enough: without the use of tools, he had to place his fake primal stone, Mr. Sunny, into the nest at the very top of the tree. Simple rules except for the fact Mr. Sunny weighed over fifty pounds. Even Rayla found it a challenge to reach the first few branches without using the hooks of her swords. She could do it easily enough with a running start but certainly not while holding a stone a third of her own body weight.

Rayla was able to show Callum how she made the climb and, in order to mimic her own effort, he created a detailed drawing of her scaling to the top. Rayla had been a trained assassin for most of her life so for her, climbing trees was second nature but for Callum it was like learning to walk all over again. Callum refused to back down from the challenge, however, as his teacher Zelmai would not train him any further in Sunfire magic. So Callum toiled late into the evening after his daily training sessions, strategizing alone or with Rayla.

Rayla was making little headway in her own plans of plying more information out of Nivin about where her parents had disappeared. Nivin was reluctant to talk about the tragic day other than to say that his father had survived the attack on the Dragon Guard but was so remorseful he had gone into self-exile.

The one positive in Rayla's life at the moment - other than Callum - was her bardic training. Her natural affinity with the Moon arcanum allowed her to conjure shapes, images and feelings with nothing more than the bardic cord and her sword. She had learned that the strands of the cord were made out of woven unicorn hair giving it strength to resist the elements as well as its magical properties.

It so happened, in Zelmai's garden late into one evening that Rayla was practicing a particularly challenging bardic routine called the 'March of the Sunfire Legion'. Rayla was finding Sunfire swordplay brutal and predictable unlike Moonshadow sword-work which was improvisational and flowing. Up until now, Rayla had been putting her own Moonshadow assassin spin on the Sunfire bardic routines but this particular routine required precision.

Rayla began practicing her routine at the exact moment Callum was about to attempt his one hundredth and seventeenth running jump for the lower branches. The moment Rayla's practice sword struck against the unicorn string, Callum felt a rush of energy flood his every muscle fibre. His entire body felt like it was suddenly being pulled back by the taut wire of a crossbow. He took off in a sprint so fast, he could hear his arms and legs whip through the air. He launched himself, feeling the cold wind pull back his hair and he very nearly passed over the branch completely. He embraced the trunk to prevent himself from falling over and gasped for air.

Rayla could only stare, doing a double take between her bardic instruments and Callum's miraculous leap.

    "Ha!" was the only thing Callum could muster in his excitement.

He climbed back down and ran back over to Rayla who was holding her arms open wide to embrace him. They hugged and jumped up and down together.

    "Great work, Callum! Ah' knew you could do it if ye' kept at it!"

Callum pulled away from their hug and gave her a quizzical look. "There's no way that was all me. Something in your song made me feel like I could run faster than a Cheetahger. Do you think you could do it again?"

Rayla nodded, going over her routine again in her mind. Her first attempt was sloppy, like when she first began training to be an assassin under Runaan's tutelage. She shadow fenced the routines a few times while Callum retrieved Mr. Sunny from out of his training satchel.

    "Ok, let's do this," said Callum looking focused while holding the heavy rock with both hands.

Rayla began her routine. She stepped forward with her right foot to pull the bardic cord out in front of her. Holding the practice sword with both hands, she struck the string, emitting a low note. She spun around, her momentum looping the braided cord around her horns. With her right hand on the hilt and her left on the sword's blade she made a parrying move against the cord emitting a lively cacophony of sound while blurring the air around her with a golden light.