The Fall of Light - Chapter 2 - YA Action Fantasy Novel

The twins left the classroom and went into the great Scorvain Archives, with row upon row of bookcases, holding a variety of books, scrolls and charts. It was also considered a sacred place, which meant that everyone who came in, did so in silence and all conversations were had in hushed whispers.

“How does he do that?” Alesson said quietly to Linta.

“Do what?” Linta whispered back.

“See everything we’re doing without looking up from his books?” Alesson asked.

“I don’t know, but he didn’t punish us for not paying attention, did he?” Linta replied.

Alesson thought about it. “Maybe he knows that we know the stories inside out and backwards, and now he’s trying to get us to question those stories for some reason?” Alesson’s voice cracked again and a few of the nearby scholars turned to glare at him for disturbing them. Alesson cursed under his breath while his sister giggled, he grabbed her hand and hurriedly dragged her towards the exit.

Once outside in the corridor, Alesson looked at his still giggling sister and said, “Stop it.”

“But it shows your becoming a man, Alesson,” she said whimsically.

“I know, but it’s embarrassing,” he said and his voice broke again. This sent Linta into even more fits of giggles. Alesson scowled at her and stomped off down the hall toward their quarters.

He soon heard the patter of feet behind him and Linta said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh. You shouldn’t be so sensitive, brother dearest. Soon you’ll have all the young girls in the city swooning at the sound of your deep manly voice.”

Alesson looked over his shoulder at her with a hard stare and continued to storm down the passage. “Oh, will you lighten up, you’re being silly.” Linta shouted after him.

Rounding the corner, Alesson came to the doorway to the twins’ royal apartment and went inside, just in time to see the maids putting lunch on the table and scampering away quickly. Alesson sat down at the table and started to tuck in to his lunch, which was a bowl of spiced vegetable soup with some nice thick crusty bread.

His sister came in, sat down opposite him at the circular wooden table, and started to eat her soup too. They sat in silence eating their soup until Linta made a loud slurping noise as she brought the spoon to her mouth, causing the hot soup to go down her throat the wrong way and she started to cough and splutter.

Now it was Alesson’s turn to laugh. “Serves you right,” he said, and then he got up and rubbed Linta’s back until the coughing subsided.

“Thanks,” she said eventually.

“Not a problem Linny.” He said to her, still sniggering a bit. “So are you ready for today’s battle training lesson?”

“Not really,” she replied. “I’m not like you; I really don’t like fighting. I’m too small and scrawny.” She flexed her arms to show him that she had very little muscle. “I guess that’s why I’m in the lower group; they mainly teach us how to protect ourselves and our creatures.”

“That’s a good place to start.” Alesson said. “But we’ve been told that a long time ago there was a great battle stratagem that says, sometimes the best defence is a strong offence”

“That’s all well and good, if you have the strength and skill to back it up. My training seems to consist mainly of holding a shield and parrying blows, while trying to find the most opportune time to stick my dagger into the target.” She emphasized this point by stabbing her spoon at him.

“What about training with Lars?” Alesson asked.

“Lars and I are very similar, but he too is not very strong and most of his skills are to do with protection and camouflage,” Linta answered.

“The only reason I’m interested is because of that bit that Deltain said about guarding the crystal with our lives and hoping that I will be strong enough to do that.” Alesson asked after swallowing a mouthful of bread.

“You’ll be fine Al.” Linta said. “You’re being groomed toward being a warrior, just like our father, you’ve even been indoctrinated into thinking that fighting and training is the best thing in the world. Have you ever even thought about how you’ll feel when you kill another living thing?”

“No, not really,” he replied.

“I don’t think I could do it.” His sister looked away towards the window and continued speaking. “I couldn’t look into another beings eyes as I took its life away, I don’t like fighting and I don’t think I ever will.”

“What about fighting to protect those you love?” Alesson inquired.

“Oh I’d do what was necessary, but that doesn’t mean that I’d like it.” She said turning back to look at her brother with a fiery sincerity in her eyes.

“I see.” Alesson said, and then he broke eye contact to look down at his lunch. Once he had finished, he drank a cup full of milk and grabbed a crunchy apple from the fruit bowl, which he bit into noisily. His sister had also finished her lunch and had taken a pear from the bowl, which she started nibbling.

“Sorry” Alesson said. “I didn’t mean to put you on the spot.”

“It’s fine,” she answered quietly. “We better get moving, or we’ll be late for training.”

Looking out the window, Alesson saw that the red sun was approaching its zenith, which was when the training began. “Ok, let’s go.” Alesson said.

“I’ll catch you up; it seems that Lars is in the palace gardens stalking beetles again.” Linta replied with a hint of amusement on her face.

“Right, I’ll see you soon, sis,” he said and charged off to meet Frostbite in the courtyard below. Alesson sped out of the room and headed off round the winding corridors until he came to the stairs that led to the courtyard and stables. He jumped down the stairs four at a time until he reached the bottom and then flung open the gate to enter the courtyard; Frostbite was waiting for him, almost as if he had heard Alesson coming.

Frostbite was Alesson’s crystal creature and his best friend; he was a white wolf that was made from the pale blue-white ice crystals of Anectar. Frostbite’s ears were pointy and his frost blue eyes were alert. His snout was short and his teeth sharp. As Alesson came near he dropped to one knee and Frostbite bounded forward on his long legs and proceeded to lick Alesson’s face with his cold wet tongue.

“Ewww, your tongue’s as cold as ice, Frostbite.” Alesson said as he wiped his face with the back of his hand. Alesson then put together an image in his mind of the two of them heading off to the training grounds to get ready for today’s lessons. Once he had the picture firmly in his mind, he pushed the image toward the panting wolf. Frostbite nodded once and turned toward the far archway that led to the grounds.

They hurriedly walked to the training area’s gate and went inside to the changing rooms. Alesson went to a set of cupboards and removed his armour and helmet from a drawer with his name on it and then in the drawer below, he got Frostbite’s armour out too. The pair then went inside the first empty cubical they came to; Alesson took off his soft blue tunic and replaced it with some thick leather trousers and a coarse rust stained top. Next, he grabbed his lightweight chainmail vest, pulled it over his head, and squeezed his arms through the holes. Then he put his steel domed training helmet on and shifted it round until it felt comfortable.

Alesson then proceeded to put Frostbite’s armour on; it was a similar chainmail shirt, which fully covered the wolf’s brilliant white fur. Then Alesson put on Frostbite’s silvery helmet and secured the straps under the wolf’s chin. Then he formed an enquiring image in his mind to determine if his companion was comfortable and passed the picture on to his friend. Once again, the wolf bobbed its head and threw back an image to show he was ready.

They headed off past even more changing cubicles, passing other warriors and creatures as they continued down the wide corridor. Alesson recognised two of his friends, Damoh and Sarent towards the end of the corridor and they were deep in conversation.

“…And then we couldn’t see her until she was right on top of us and by then it was too late,” Sarent was saying. He was as tall as Alesson with blond hair but he was not as big. Sarent was covered with sweat and looked like he had just finished his training.

“Thanks for letting me know, I’ll keep an eye out and try to do better.” Damoh replied, seeing Alesson approaching, the tall skinny boy turned to face him and said “Ho, Alesson”

“Ho Damoh, Sarent” Alesson said, nodding in turn to each of them. “What’s afoot?”

“Sarent’s just been telling me about today’s training; it’s a tough one today.” Damoh said in his deep toned voice. “Do you remember the ring test against the moving targets?”

“Yeah, I sure do, I swear those targets knew when to change direction to avoid our attacks.” Alesson answered.

“It’s the same test again,” Sarent said as he took up the conversation. “But now you’ve got to do it blind!”

“Blind?” Alesson said in surprise.

“Yep, they’ve got a creature out there that’s putting out a lot of fog,” Sarent said as he gestured over his shoulder towards the grounds. “The test is to hit the targets using your instincts and perception. All the while you’re being chased in the ring by the creature.”

“Great.” Alesson said sarcastically. “Take a tough test and make it harder.”

“We better go get started.” Damoh said. “Thanks for the heads up, Sarent.”

“Yeah, thanks Sarent.” Alesson added. “Let’s go Damoh.”

The two boys and the wolf continued into the training grounds, the trio came to the end of the corridor and entered a large cavern. It was full of sand and was separated into lots of different training rings. The cave walls had many torches along the walls, which cast a dull orangey light everywhere and gave the cavern a sooty musky smell.

Each ring was more like a pit, enclosed with low sandstone walls and a gate to enter the ring. The boys passed into the middle of the great cave where all the rest of the trainees were gathering. Damoh moved to the creature waiting area, where he met his creature Namu. Namu was a stone type creature; he was twice the size of the boys and looked like a giant stone statue of a man with an oversized head. Damoh looked up at Namu and looked like he was concentrating on drawing an image to communicate with his friend.

Alesson looked around and saw that there were about forty trainees gathered about him. Soon the recruits would be split into different training groups; each person’s armour had a different logo on the sleeve to denote which group they were in. Alesson’s sleeve had a picture of a gold coin on it to show he was in one of the better groups. Alesson was not in the top group however, that group would be outside the city doing practical training in the real world and the image on their sleeves was that of a silver sword.

He felt a tug at his arm and saw that his sister had arrived, she was wearing a thick breastplate over her top, which displayed the logo of a shield on the sleeve, and she was also wearing the same leather trousers as Alesson. Around her shoulders was Lars. Lars looked like a snake that was made out of a twisted coil of thick vines; his head was encircled by pale white lily petals that would close up when he slept. His eyes were a bright yellow colour and occasionally he would poke out his bright red tongue to taste the air.

“Hey Sis, you found Lars then?” Alesson said.

“As expected he was in the gardens.” She looked down lovingly at the coiled vine snake that was draped around her neck like a scarf. “He would much rather be outside exploring than be here.”

“As you said earlier, you two are very alike.” Alesson said softly.

She looked at him and stuck her tongue out at him to show her distaste. Damoh then came over, looked at Princess Linta, and bowed his head to her. “Hello Princess.” He said. “You look well.”

Linta turned to him and fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Hello Damoh, are you going to keep my brother out of trouble today?”

“Of course I will, Princess. I’ll look after him like he was my own brother,” he replied formally.

“Thank you noble warrior,” she said and then she smiled to bring her dimples into play.

“Will you two stop that?” Alesson said.

“Stop what?” they both said at once, grinning foolishly at each other.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” He looked at both of them in turn, Linta just continued to smile, but Damoh looked away from the Prince’s eyes and his cheeks starting to glow red.

Linta looked at Damoh and giggled then skipped away towards some of her other girlfriends nearby. Damoh looked back to Alesson and said, “I’m sorry Alesson.”

“Don’t worry Damoh; I’ve known that you’ve liked my sister for a long time now. You’re both so obvious about it; you should just get over the formalities and ask her out.” Alesson said.

“Do you think she would say yes?” Damoh asked hopefully.

“I sure do; in fact, I think that if you don’t ask her soon; she’ll probably start chasing you until you do. Look!” Alesson directed his friend to look over at the group of girls where Linta was. She was looking over at the two boys and when their eyes met, she ducked behind her friends and the whole group of girls erupted into giggles and side long mischievous glances at the boys.

Looking at his friend, Alesson saw Damoh’s cheeks were now bright red, so he decided to try to distract him away from his embarrassment. “What do you think we should do about today’s test?” he asked.

Looking away from the girls, Damoh regained his composure somewhat. “Err I don’t know. I had great difficulty first time round, the targets were too quick and Namu is not very fast, I think I only hit one target.”

“I know what you mean, Frostbite is quite nimble but even he had difficulty catching up with them.” He did not mention that he had gotten six out of eight of the targets, so as not to gloat over Damoh.

Alesson was just about to make a suggestion when the trainers arrived. They would call out a group name and direct them to a training ring. As each set of trainee’s were called, they moved off to their assigned practice ground, until only a few groups were left. Finally, Alesson heard his group called, “Gold coins, ring eight,” a voice bellowed so loud that Alesson’s ears popped. He recognised the voice as Commander Garlent, the head of the Scorvain Protectors and his father’s chief military advisor. Alesson cursed, Garlent always worked his trainees hard, no wonder today’s test was so hard.

Arriving at the viewing platform above ring eight, Alesson caught sight of the Commander and his creature. He was a huge man, he wore full armour that seemed to shine brighter that all the torches in the training cavern. From the rear of the armour, Garlent had a long blue cape flowing down his back. Garlent was not wearing his helmet, but instead had it in the crook of his arm, his face was thick and his eyes looked cruel and contemptuous. His jaw jutted forward and running up the left side of his face was an angry deep red scar, which ran from the corner of his mouth over his cheek and up to the base of his baldhead.

Stood next to Garlent was Razza, the big brown stone bear. Razza was slightly taller than the Commander was and the bear’s shoulders were just as broad as the armoured knights were. Unlike most of the other stone creatures, Razza was quite intelligent and fought with a strong sense of tactics, just like his partner.

“Greetings Trainees,” Garlent said in his deep menacing voice. “Today’s training is all about trust. Over the past year, you’ve all learnt how to fight with your creatures well. However, the training has always been about assessing, directing and overcoming. There is much more for you to learn.”

Garlent then waved his hand and beckoned forward another man in black armour. “This is Lieutenant Kershaw and he’s going to be helping with today’s training.” Kershaw was a much smaller man with sharp angular features; he stepped forward and addressed the trainees.

“Hello Trainees, you all show great promise but you need to learn to use your creatures senses as well as your own.” The Lieutenant said in strong but gentle voice. “What you can’t see, hear or smell with your own wits, your companion might be able to. Trust their judgement and you will go far.”

Kershaw stepped to the side and a creature came forward, it was half as tall as the man was and it had a squat body that was divided into three different round sections. The first section was the creature’s head with many different sized blue eyes and from the central section sprouted eight long spindly legs.

“This is Aramack,” said Kershaw. “She’s an Air Spider. Unlike most Air types she can’t fly, but she can manipulate air in a different way.” He looked at the spider, she hunched down, and a steady cloud of mist seemed to rise out of her pale purple body. Soon the ring beyond the platform was full of the mist and Alesson could barely see anything inside the training pit.

“Her other skills are stealth and traps.” Kershaw continued. “Show them your webbing my friend,” he said to the spider. Aramack turned towards the trainees, lifted herself up on her long legs and then she twisted her bulbous abdomen under her body, and launched a sticky strand of webbing towards the ground at the trainee’s feet. The trainees all jumped away from it but then edged forward to inspect it. The substance was incredibly sticky as one trainee found out when he touched it, the webbing stuck to his fingers, and as much as he shook his hand, it would not come loose.

Garlent’s dark figure stepped forward through the mist and his much louder commanding voice made many of the trainees jump. “Inside the ring are the spinning targets which you had faced before, but this time you will have to use your creature’s senses to detect the targets and avoid the traps. Good luck”

The trainees lined up ready to face this new challenge and Alesson found himself second in line, the trainee in front of him, a big lad called Jamson took a deep breath and walked into the ring with his creature at his side.

After what seemed like an eternity, Garlent raised his hand and three guards ran into the pit with their swords drawn. Alesson feared for a second that something had gone wrong but soon the shadowy forms of the guards re-appeared and they were carrying Jamson and his companion out of the ring. Jamson looked ok but he was covered in so much webbing, which made movement impossible.

“Jamson almost got one target.” Kershaw said to Alesson. “See if you can do better.”

Alesson walked forward, picked up a short sword from the rack, and clipped it to his belt. He constructed an image of Frostbite using his pointy white ears and blunt nose to try to sense the targets in his mind. He passed the message to his friend and tried to convey a sense of complete trust with it. In response, he got a picture of himself with his eyes closed and an open window in his head. Alesson took this to mean that Frostbite would guide him to the targets while the white wolf tried to distract the spider.

The pair was now in the pit, the mist was so thick they could barely see each other as the thick fog swirled around them. A low growling noise started and the air around them began to move a bit. Alesson thought that must be the sound of the targets beginning to spin.

Alesson drew his sword and felt its reassuring weight fill him with a bit more confidence, and then he sent Frostbite the instruction to break further to the right as he went left and to try to detect the targets. Frostbite responded affirmatively and the pair broke at a run away from each other and towards the edge of the pit where the targets were.

Alesson had taken no more than five steps when he heard a squelching sound come from behind him, so he ducked his head and lunged to the right. A buzzing sound passed him and through the mist, he could just about see a pool of the sticky webbing in the spot where he had just been.

Scrambling, Alesson continued to charge toward where he thought the edge of the ring was. He pushed an image of himself with the spider chasing him out into the mist and Frostbite responded by howling loudly. Then another sharp image flashed in Alesson’s mind, a warning. He dropped to the ground in a bone-churning roll but it was too late, a thick strand of webbing hit his left leg and stuck fast, pinning him to the ground.

Anger flooded into Alesson, how could he be stuck already, this test was impossible. Then Frostbite was there, he bit into the sticky webbing and tore it enough for Alesson to get free and jump to his feet. Then Frostbite was the target of the spider and webbing rained down on him and he fell to the floor in a sticky ball.

Alesson moved to his friend with his sword drawn to try to free him, but another warning image flashed and Alesson’s sword was dragged out of his hand on another strand of webbing. Frostbite raised his head meekly, pointed his snout off to Alesson’s right, and showed him the image of the target.

Alesson spun round and made a mad dash in the direction Frostbite had indicated. He heard more squirting noises coming from behind him, more webbing hit him on the shoulder, and he stumbled forward. Alesson waved his hands in front of him in an attempt to keep his balance and somehow try to push the mist out of his way.

Alesson managed to stay on his feet but he was suddenly aware of another sound, the rumbling sound of the targets, he pushed forward and more webbing struck his right knee and he started to fall forward right into the path of the spinning target.

The target was a thick bristly bag full of sand travelling very quickly, the sandbag hit Alesson hard on the top of his head spinning him round awkwardly and knocking him off his feet. Alesson hit the ground face first, pushed down by the force of the blow, he felt blood gush from his nose and then everything went black as he passed out.