Wielder's Awakening (19 page)

Blaize soon had him doing running dives and rolls.  After that he had him practice ducking and jumping.  Blaize then had him practice running and kicking into the air as he jumped.  He had Traven do several other things before finally deciding that it was time to leave.  Traven was sweating and breathing hard as he pulled himself into Pennon’s saddle.  Maybe all of this training was not going to be as fun as he had at first thought.  They rode until the sun had set.  When they stopped for the night, he was happy to finally get out of the saddle and rest, but just as he was making himself comfortable, Blaize stopped him.

“Come on Traven.  It’s time for you to do your exercises.  I want you to spend half an hour working on your agility and then spend half an hour working on your sword work.”

“You’ve got to be joking,” Traven said incredulously, thinking of all of his sore muscles.  “Don’t I get a break at the end of the day?”

“It’s not the end of the day until you’ve done your exercises.  And don’t cheat at any of them,” Blaize added.  “I don’t care if you don’t do them properly, because all you are doing is hurting yourself.  If you really want to become a good fighter, make sure you do all of them correctly.  When you’re done, I’ll have dinner ready and the camp set up.  Now hurry up and get started.  The sooner you start, the sooner you get to stop and rest.”

Traven trudged away from camp and started practicing the diving rolls and continued with the rest of the exercises.  When he was done with the agility exercises, he started over again and did them several more times.  When he figured he had been doing them for about half an hour, he got his sword and practiced the other exercises.  By the time he had gone through all of the sword exercises once, his arm and legs were shaking with the effort.  He wanted to quit, but remembering what Blaize had said, he continued on.  He continued going through the motions until Blaize finally called him back to the camp to eat.  He walked slowly over on unstable legs and slumped down next to the fire with a thump.  Blaize handed him his food which he ate immediately.  He then wrapped himself up in his cloak and drifted off to the world of dreams.

The next morning, Traven found that Blaize hadn’t been joking.  He was rudely awakened about an hour before sunrise by Blaize’s boot being jammed in his ribs.  By the time Traven began to go through his exercises, Blaize was already twirling from one intricate pattern to the next in the distance.  Traven wished he could work on a pattern like that instead of doing his dumb exercises, but he knew that Blaize would not teach him more intricate patterns until he had worked on the basics.  An hour later he trudged back to the camp, and they were soon on their way down the road with the sun peeking over the horizon at their backs.  When they stopped for lunch Blaize sent Traven to work on his exercises again.  He did them again but was noticing that already he couldn’t keep his mind on what he was doing.  The exercises were becoming easy enough that he let his mind wander while he worked on them.  When they stopped for the night, he immediately trudged off to work on his exercises before Blaize had a chance to tell him to.  Traven was extremely tired by the time he finished but was actually able to stay up after supper for a while and talk with Blaize before going to sleep.

Traven woke up by himself the following morning and had already started his exercises by the time Blaize got up and started his.  Traven followed the same routine as he had the previous day and was glad to find that his muscles now only ached slightly at the end of the day.  On the fourth day, the landscape began to change from the flat grasslands into rolling hills.  Blaize informed him that the beginning of the hills marked the halfway point between Kavar and Four Bridges.  The previously straight road began to wind around some of the larger hills.  Traven sometimes lost sight of the river for an hour or more.  They stopped a little before midday to water the horses.  Blaize said the road would not come back next to the river for another couple of hours.  Traven walked up a small hill to do his exercises and to his surprise was followed by Blaize.

“How are your exercises coming along?” Blaize asked.  “Are they getting any easier for you?”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t have to pay much attention to what I’m doing anymore.  It’s kind of boring how easy it is to do the exercises.”

“That’s good to hear,” Blaize said with a smile.  “One of the main points of working these patterns every day is so that you can do any of them immediately without even thinking about it.  I watched you this morning, and I think you’re ready to learn some more intricate patterns.”  Traven smiled eagerly.  “Don’t get too excited.  It’s not going to be anything like what I practice.  It’s just one step above the basics.  You’ll still be doing the same agility exercises for now, but I’ll show you some new sword patterns.”

Blaize unsheathed one of his blades and began to demonstrate the new patterns.  The first was merely a combination of what Traven had already been working on.  The pattern consisted of several blocks, then horizontal slashing, and then more blocks.  From there Blaize lunged forward immediately going into the figure eight stroke before returning to some more slashing and blocking.  It looked pretty easy to Traven, but the second pattern was a whole different matter.  It started with the blade poised above the head.  From there Blaize fell down onto his back keeping his sword in front of him.  He then proceeded to work different strokes back and forth in front of his body with his back to the ground before going to his knees and working the same strokes over again without breaking the rhythm of the strokes.  He finally was back on his feet working the same strokes.  The strokes really didn’t look that hard to do.  The problem was that he wasn’t sure that he could go from his feet, to his back, to his knees, and back to his feet with both hands on the sword and not break the rhythm of the strokes.  The next patterns were basically the same things he had been doing, but he was supposed to jump and do them while in the air.  The last pattern was another pattern that combined a bunch of the strokes together in a weaving pattern that he was supposed to do while only standing on one leg.  He was then to switch legs and do it standing on the other one.

When Blaize was convinced that Traven knew what he was supposed to do, they returned to their rested mounts and followed the road as it wound its way away from the river and through the hills.  When they stopped for the night, Traven did his exercises and struggled through his new patterns.  They were longer than the ones he had been working on, and he didn’t have the chance to practice each pattern as much as he had been able to practice the previous ones.  He returned to the fire to eat, frustrated with the problems the new patterns were posing.  After finishing his rabbit, he realized that he was not ready to go to sleep and decided to go back and work on some of the harder patterns.  An hour later he had overcome most of his problems except for the back, knees, feet pattern.  No matter how hard he tried, he could never switch bodily positions without breaking the rhythm of his strokes.  He yelled in frustration, and Blaize came over to him from the fire.

“What’s the matter Traven?”

“I can’t get this last pattern right,” he responded.  “It doesn’t matter what I do.  I just can’t do it.”

“You’re trying too hard.  You’re not supposed to be able to do all of the patterns perfectly right away.  That’s why you practice them every day.  Each day you’ll get a little better until you get to the point where you perfect the pattern.  You have to remember that I mastered that pattern a long time ago, but I did have to work hard to master it.  Just do your best and keep working on it.  You’ll get it sooner or later.  Now come on back to camp.  You need to get some sleep.”

Traven wasn’t sure if he believed Blaize about the pattern being hard for him to learn but followed him back to the camp feeling a little less discouraged than he had before.  They traveled through the rolling hills for the next three days following the winding road.   Each day Traven worked hard on his exercises and began to slowly improve.  They emerged from the hills at the end of the third day and made camp on the open grasslands once again.  Traven continued working strenuously on his exercises and by midday of the second day out of the hills, he had mastered all of his new patterns.  Blaize said that he would teach him some new patterns after they got past Four Bridges.  Traven figured that would give him a couple more days to practice his patterns, but just after sunset, Four Bridges appeared on the horizon.

12

By the time they actually got close enough for Traven to see what the city looked like, it was already night.  The light from the rising moon, however, allowed him to take in the surroundings.  The city sat perched between the massive Adrinavelle River and the almost as impressive Lithel River.  The Lithel emptied into the Adrinavelle just west of the city, almost doubling the size of the already mighty river.  From here until the Adrinavelle emptied into the sea near Calyn, there was no easy way to cross the imposing river.  The swift currents and jutting rocks that broke the river’s surface every so often made travel by boat next to impossible.  The river being a mile wide in many places cut the northern part of Kalia off from the southern part.  There were only two points where one could cross from the north to the south or from the south to the north and that was at Calyn and at Four Bridges.

Traven immediately saw how the city had gotten its name.  Before him were two great, stone bridges crossing the Adrinavelle next to each other.  Blaize said one was for traffic entering the city and one was for traffic leaving the city.  The bridges were supported by thick, sturdy columns of stone that rose from the ground beneath the river.  On the other side of the city, Traven could just make out two bridges spanning the Lithel.

“Some still call this city Two Bridges, and I’ve seen it called that on many older maps,” Blaize mentioned.  “But ever since the two newer bridges were built next to the older ones, most people started calling it Four Bridges.”

The city only had one side protected by a tall wall to keep invaders from entering the city from the east.  The city was protected by the natural barriers of the two rivers on all other sides.  The city covered more ground than Kavar had, but he could only make out a few buildings that were more than two stories.  Where Kavar had seemed almost cramped within its walls, Four Bridges looked open and spread out.  As they approached the bridge, Traven was surprised to find no one on guard and asked Blaize about it.

“Four Bridges lies in the heart of Kalia and is a very open city.  They let people come and go as they wish.  During the day they have patrols stationed throughout the city to keep crime and disorder down, but at night no one is on watch except a few guards at the north and south ends of the east wall.”  Blaize paused and gave Traven an adventurous grin.  “When you walk the streets of Four Bridges at night, it’s at your own risk.”

Traven just shook his head as they continued across the bridge with the Adrinavelle rushing beneath them.  The only sounds in the night were the horses’ hooves clinking against the stone bridge and the rushing of the river.  At the end of the bridge there was a small square.  All around the square roads branched off into different sections of the city.  Traven followed as Blaize turned down the road to the right of the square that paralleled the Adrinavelle as it made its way past the city.  After riding for several minutes in silence, Blaize stopped and turned to him.

“Stay alert Traven,” Blaize said quietly.  “I wasn’t joking earlier when I said that the streets aren’t very safe at night, especially the streets we’re going to be traversing.  I don’t know how much money you have, but I have a very small amount so we’re going to be staying at an inexpensive tavern.  The accommodations aren’t all that wonderful, but believe me, after sleeping on the ground for so long, any bed at all seems great.  Besides, the ale’s always cheaper, and there’s more excitement in the taverns.  I hope no cutpurses are stupid enough to attack us, but just in case, be ready.”

Traven followed as Blaize led the way down a narrow street that went away from the river and into the city.  He didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to attack Blaize but kept alert as they made their way down the street between darkened buildings.  Shadows from the buildings bathed the street in darkness, making it difficult to see much more than the lighter opening at the end of the street.  Blaize took a right at the avenue and then directly took a left down another dark, narrow street.  When they were about halfway down the street, two shadows suddenly separated themselves from the wall of a building about twenty feet ahead of them and moved to block the way.  Traven’s heart quickened as fear enveloped him.

“We’re here to collect your fee for trespassing in our territory,” the gruff looking man on the right growled.  “Unfortunate for you fellas that the fee is everything you have with you including your lives.”