M.J. Markgraf
patreon
Kingdom of Rust Chapter 17
🕑 Added 2022-04-11 11:30:23 +0000 UTC“Well, well, well… what do we have here?”
Startled by the sound of Teacher’s voice, I scramble to my feet. Weeks of practice honing the instinct into me, only to relax a moment later. “By the Mother, you scared me!” I sputter out.
“You should be scared, you filthy Father worshiping bastard,” Teacher growls.
Confused, I take a step back, then I notice he has his sword out.
…Oh…oh, no.
“Teacher, I think you’re confused, I’m your mentee. Why don’t you take a seat and rest until your memory recovers,” while I’m trying to talk the dangerous man down, I casually check my belt for my sword and mentally curse myself. I had removed it and set it next to my pack while I was clearing the cave out so I didn’t break it by accident. Now Teacher was between the fire and my pack. I doubted that was a coincidence. Battlefield positioning and awareness were something he drilled into me during sparing. Apparently, the lesson didn’t stick with me yet. If I managed to survive, I would take it far more seriously in the future.
“Uh-huh, I’ll admit my head is a bit fuzzy,” he said, tapping the bandage wrapped around his skull with the side of his blade, “but I think I would remember having a mentee. Hell, I’ll even give you a chance to prove this claim of yours.”
I sighed in relief, seeing my words were getting through to the man.
“Since you are my ‘mentee’ I must have told you my name since I only give it to people I like and I certainly wouldn’t train someone I didn’t like. So, mentee, what’s my name?”
FUCK!
Teacher smiled as a look of defeat crossed my face. “I gotta admit, that was a smart idea, trying to use my infirmity against me, but you gotta do better than that. So, how's this gonna go down, kid? You gonna die quietly, or do ya wanna give me a workout?”
I quickly dug the only weapon I had out of my pouch, the damaged throwing knife. I wasn’t stupid enough to rush in with only a small damaged dagger but maybe I could wound his leg or something and sprint to the far side of the fire before he caught me.
He smiled as he saw me pull the blade and I had barely enough time to remove the knife from its sheath and throw it as he cocked his sword back and toward the… fire. Oh, hell!
My aim might have been true if the knife flew straight, but it bounced past Teacher’s leg as he whipped his sword forward. We were still separated by about thirty feet but that didn’t matter as he pulled a stream of fire from the fire to his sword and threw it at me. I threw myself to the ground as the crescent of flame shot past me. I could feel my flesh sear from the heat and I let out a scream of pain.
My pain was quickly replaced by the frustration and anger that had built up over the last month of being ‘taught’ by this man. Why was Teacher out here in his injured state anyway? Reaching deep down to that same instinct I had when that woman attacked me in the cave, I pulled. Something clicked and I felt my damaged knife somewhere behind Teacher. I neededit back and it heeded my call… sort of.
The laughing form of my teacher was slowly walking toward me and just so happened to be between my knife and me. I heard him grunt and stumble forward.
“Gah, what the hell!” He whipped around, pulling another line of fire to his sword, and threw it into the darkness in confusion. As his back was facing me, I could see the knife sticking out of it and I gaped in surprise.
My former mentor turned enemy twirled around to face me again before stumbling to one knee. “You sneaky little fuck,” he spit out, yanking the bent blade from his back and nearly collapsing to all fours on the ground. Only the hand holding his sword was still pointing my way. “A fuckin Chosen Father lover, well, don’t that beat all. Kid, you might as well kill me now, because when I recover, there is no place you will be able to hide from me!”
I didn’t doubt that but even injured I wasn’t getting within striking distance of his sword. Without waiting around, I quickly ran around the far side of the fire, avoiding a weak slash of his blade but not the heat that accompanied it. I smelled more hair burn on my arm as I ran past but I ignored the pain and focused on getting the hell out of here.
“Get back here and fight me like a man!” He roared as I circled behind the dwindling fire and scooped up my pack and sword before I bolted down the path with as much speed as I dared.
“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck!” I kept mumbling to myself as raced down the path at a dangerous speed with only the moon to light my way.
This was supposed to be a simple trip to get some answers and correct a mistake I made, how the hell did it turn into being attacked by my mentor and me being forced to defend myself by leaving the man to possibly die from his injuries. I knew what he would say, he would have told me to make sure my enemy was dead. I may have not liked him but I didn’t want to kill the guy. Well, in my dreams I did but that was different.
As I made it to the bottom of the cliff, I found my horse and his horse but he had removed the tack from both animals and scattered it around, making it impossible for me to quickly slip away. I could still hear him screaming obscenities from above but they were getting closer.
Cursing him under my breath, I grabbed the nearest gear I could find and tossed it over my shoulder. I slipped the bridle on my horse so I could at least walk it out and for good measure, slapped his horse on the rear, causing it to kick out and run into the forest. It didn’t go very far though but I had no more time to screw around. I started walking my horse as I set the pad across its back, then threw the heavy leather saddle on top. Adjusting the straps so they wouldn’t chafe the animal would have to wait until I was farther away.
I stuck a foot into the stirrup and threw myself on the horse's back just as I heard cursing coming from the clearing a few hundred feet behind me. It seemed that he noticed his horse missing. At most, it would give me a few minutes' headstart but it should be enough.
Urging my old farm mare into a trot, we weaved through the tight trail in the forest. It was dark and I didn’t want to risk pushing the animal any faster for fear of it coming up lame by stepping in a hole or twisting its leg in a bundle of roots.
The Mother must have been guiding my horse's steps as we came out of the forest and I urged my mount into a gallop across the open field outside of the elves' village.
The moon was not full but it cast enough light in the cloudless sky that I could see the treeline leading to the valley entrance in the distance. My passing drew confused and concerned yelling from the few townsfolk that were awake as they didn’t know who it was, only that someone was riding fast out of the forest.
I didn’t bother to look behind me or slow down until I got to the path that led out of the valley. Not being able to see the trail, I slowed my horse to a canter but kept my eyes forward. If my former mentor caught up with me, I was as good as dead so I focused all of my attention on moving as quickly as I could.
The horse was huffing and puffing, not used to being ridden this hard but I kept the pace up for another five minutes before I slowed it to a walk and found a game trail that led into the thick woods outside the valley. Even if my former mentor caught up now, he wouldn’t be able to see the tracks in the darkness.
I couldn’t do much about blocking my body heat except by getting far off the trail or behind some hills.
Three hours later, I came to a stop. My horse had been protesting and refusing to walk any longer. I tried to soothe the irritated animal but she wasn’t having it, tossing her head about and stamping the ground. Sighing, I dismounted and removed the saddle and blanket. It took some time to calm her down and I could see why after the saddle was off. The straps had dug into her skin and rubbed it raw in some places from moving around too much. I didn’t have any ointment or powder for the irritation so I would have to walk her for the next few days while she healed.
It was safe to say, I was jumpy for the next day or so. Any noise or creak in the forest set me on edge and had me drawing my sword. I didn’t know what the Order did to traitors but I imagined it wasn’t anything good. I couldn’t stay around here or even near Roddan.
For a brief moment, I had a crazy thought of ridding hard to Roddan and telling Gabrielle what happened. But she didn’t know me but for a brief exchange. Who would I believe in this situation? If she took my former mentor’s side – which seemed likely – that would leave me in the hands of two powerful Chosen. It didn’t take much imagination to figure out what happened then.
No, I was now essentially a fugitive. All because of some dumb misunderstanding caused by a mentally handicapped Chosen that had come to the cave to do what? Double-check his work? That’s the part that I didn’t understand.
Maybe I would figure it out later, for now, I needed to decide where to go. I had some money, but not a whole lot. Although, I knew where I could get more. The thought soured my mood but my father would welcome me home. He also had contacts that could get me off the mainland. While it meant crawling back to the man and admitting defeat, It was really the only option left to me. I didn’t know anyone outside of my hometown except the few people I interacted with on my journey to become a Chosen. And I made it, sort of.
I could still help people, I had a calling. Given time, I could learn to use the gift as intended and strike out on my own to help people. It would be dangerous but at least I would have some way to defend myself from my former mentor if he ever caught up to me then.
With my mind made up, I set off toward the west. Home was a long way off but I would get there long before the Order figured out where I had gone. I only hoped my father was home. If not, I couldn’t afford to wait for him. I would have to seek out Gan’s help and it felt wrong to get him involved with this mess.
