"Pay attention, would you?" This was accompanied by the smack of the flat of a sword against Lavitz's shoulders. He stumbled forward, nearly falling over.
"Cut it out, Kynan!" he growled. He swung his stave in Kynan's general direction for good measure.
"Come on, you haven't trained for days. You can't slack off like that." Kynan frowned. His black hair stuck damply to his forehead. He at least had been making use of his training time.
Lavitz's shoulders smarted from the blow. He was not in the mood to be doing this today, but he knew that was no excuse. Wars could happen when you least wanted them to. He raised his stave in a defensive stance.
Servi was Lavitz's official trainer, but when he wasn't around, Kynan gladly took the duty of teaching Lavitz. He had known Lavitz since he was a small child, and despite their tendency to constantly pick on one another, they were close friends. Kynan taught him the ins and outs of various weapons, how to move to avoid a strike without giving up good balance, and how to not hurt yourself when using a weapon. The last one was not usually a lesson taught to squires, as it was more of a common sense thing. Including it was Kynan's idea. He had been prone to doing such things when he first became a squire, and he still did it if he was ever required to use a weapon other than his favored sword.
It was an issue that Lavitz was beginning to have as well. Early on he had adopted staves, and its relative, the spear, as his weapon of choice. He still had to receive training in other forms of combat though, especially since he was still many years away from becoming a knight.
But today Kynan had allowed him to use his staves again. Kynan was, however, more and more often using the edge of his sword for striking, not the flat of the blade as was typical when sparring with younger squires. While he knew Kynan would never harm him--he was far too good a swordsman to accidentally cut off a fellow soldier's hands during training--it still scared Lavitz enough that he found himself actually thinking of how to defend himself.
That could be his whole reason for doing that, Lavitz thought to himself. Making me think about what I'm doing.
All the thinking had taken his attention away from the duel, and once more Kynan slapped him with his sword, this time on the side of Lavitz's head. It was in reality a gentle blow, but it startled him so much that he was soon sprawling on the grass, his head spinning and vision spotting black.
"And you'd be dead now if I had been an enemy soldier. Good gods, boy. Are you sure you're Servi's child?"
With a shout, Lavitz jumped off the ground, launching himself at Kynan. He managed to grab the knight around his knees. Kynan wobbled, then fell forward, right on top of Lavitz. For a moment, neither moved.
"That was pretty dumb, wasn't it?" Lavitz asked, his voice muffled as he spoke into the dirt.
"Very," was Kynan's reply. He managed to extricate himself from Lavitz's grasp and stood up. "I think...we'd better call it a day. You don't seem to be getting any smarter the longer we continue this."
"Fine." Lavitz brushed the dirt off his face but didn't bother with his clothes.
"If you really want to use martial arts that badly, you'll have to find someone else to teach you. The extent of my training in that area comes from bar fights, really."
"You're horrible."
Kynan grinned widely. "I know." Regaining a bit of a serious composure, he continued. "You need to go down to the training rooms and spend some time there. The poles won't knock you over. Well...no, you know what I mean."
"You mean that you were practicing there once and somehow you landed an attack wrong and you were thrown off-balance by it and fell down. Yes, I know."
"Oh...I've told that story before, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Well, you should still go."
"I will."
Kynan nodded, sheathed his sword, and left him. Kynan was often like that, outgoing and sarcastic one moment, withdrawn and cynical the next. Lavitz had never figured out why this was. He knew very little of Kynan's past beyond that it had not always been a pleasant one. He didn't feel it would be right to ask about it though. Better to just allow the man to have his moments and forget about it.
There was a soft noise from behind him, where a low wall outlined the boundaries of the training grounds, separating it from Indels' courtyard. Lavitz didn't bother to look. Mice and snakes tended to move about along the wall often, and they weren't worth the effort to look for half the time. Even if the snakes were great fun to let loose indoors.
"Teach me?" The voice was soft, but he recognized it instantly as Albert's.
"Teach you what?" He faced the king, his clothes looking even more dirty next to the boy's rich garb.
Albert jumped down from where he had been sitting on the wall. How he had gotten up there in the first place was the real question on Lavitz's mind. "Teach me to fight."
Lavitz looked down at him. "Why? I thought you were all for peace and no confrontations and that stuff."
"I am. But..." His face took on a hard edge. "I don't want to be unprepared. I don't want to be at someone else's mercy if another attempt is made on my life, which is as good as given. I want to be able to fight back. I don't want to just sit and be able to do nothing when all else fails." He looked his friend in the eye. "I want you to teach me."
Lavitz blinked a few times. It was one of the most reasonable requests he had ever heard. Except... "I can't."
"Why not?"
"I'm only a squire. I'm not allowed to train anyone yet. Only knights can."
"And when will you become a knight?"
"I don't know. When I'm ready. Most of the guys were knighted around nineteen to twenty-one or so."
"I see." Albert was thoughtful for a moment. "When that time comes, will you teach me?"
"Why not ask my father? He's probably better at this than I ever will be."
Albert shook his head. "You father already has enough to worry about. And it's not that I don't trust him, because I do, I trust him with my life, but I know you better. So...please."
Lavitz considered this. "All right."
"Promise me that you won't forget."
"How can I? Even if I do, you'll be there reminding me."
The king smiled. "Promise."
"I promise."
-----
Even though Lavitz held true to his word and never trained Albert in the years that followed, the king did his own training. Every so often he would leave the castle to observe the knights as they trained, both individually and in maneuvers as entire Knighthoods of three hundred men. Lavitz knew he was filing the information away in his head, waiting for the day when he could learn to do such things. He assumed that Albert was also attempting some things on his own in the privacy of his room, as he occasionally heard of the castle servants having to deal with various things that had been knocked down or damaged in the king's chambers. When such things happened, Albert would usually disappear into the library for a few days, unusually absorbed in his lessons, even for one who loved to learn as much as he did.
Lavitz, on the other hand, was becoming more and more involved with the things his father did. His father would even ask for his opinion on some things every so often; Lavitz knew this was just to test him, to see if he knew how to handle different situations, but he offered his own advice eagerly. Sometimes, if he was really lucky, he was allowed to accompany his father when he visited various knighthoods that were stationed at nearby towns. Ever since Doel had fled from Bale after the failed assissnation attempt on his nephew, Serdio had slowly been splitting into two smaller states, Basil in the north and Sandora in the south, where Doel had taken up residence in the city of Kazas. The tensions arising from the split were becoming worse as Doel gathered his own knights. They usually stayed well away from Bale, but it never hurt to have knights out guarding the main passageways to the capital city.
No outright battles had been fought yet. So far, Doel seemed willing to just let things be. But Lavitz could see the strain in his father, and he knew that a real war was not too far away. It both excited and terrified him.
For now, though, things were calm enough that a quick trip to the knights' camp just outside the nearby town of Teren was safe. What surprised Lavitz the most was that Albert had somehow managed to convince Noish and the nobles to let him join them.
It was the longest journey Albert had ever been on, and he had slept most of the day after they arrived. But after that, he was always around, listening, asking questions...asking lots of questions... Lavitz was the one who bore the brunt of answering most of them. Albert didn't want to bother Servi, or any of the other knights who had come with him, and since Lavitz was his friend, that was how it worked out.
Their week at the camp was almost over, and because of this Lavitz was allowed some time for himself. It would have been for himself, at any rate, if Albert hadn't insisted he accompany him on some trek through the forest. He didn't say exactly where they were going, but Servi had still allowed them to go, as long as they took Hero with them. So the three of them set out from the camp after lunch one day, into the cool forest.
"Where are we going?" Lavitz finally asked.
"I don't know. Just looking."
"It's a forest. We have forests around Bale."
"But that's Bale. This...well..."
"You're hiding something again."
Albert didn't break his stride as he talked. He had come a long way from his first encounter with a tree. "Teren is an old town. But there was another town here before it. Not exactly on the same spot, but close enough. I didn't see any remnants of buildings or anything out on the prairie, so I thought maybe they were hiding in the forest."
Lavitz sighed. Once Albert got his mind set on talking about things like this, there was no point in trying to stop him.
"...I mean, surely they used stone for at least some buildings. That's all that would be left in a place like this..."
Lavitz had his hand on Hero's neck. The dog obediently walked alongside him. Every so often she would wander away to check out something, but she would always return a few minutes later. Why his father had insisted they take her along, Lavitz didn't know. She was old, older than he was, and tended to move slowly and not be very aggressive at all. If there were wild animals here, they would probably stand a better chance against them if they ran, rather than wait for Hero to defend them.
'Hero'. Kinda an ironic name, huh?
The dog wandered away again.
"Whoa."
Albert was staring intently at something. After a few moments of looking, Lavitz could finally see that the vine-covered stones in front of him were actually stone blocks. Old blocks that had fallen from some old building.
That old building was what Albert was staring at. It was further beyond the lone blocks on the forest floor. The front wall of what might have been at one time a church, now halfway crumbled. He couldn't see much beyond the front wall, from the shading of the trees and foliage that covered it.
I don't like this. Something was wrong. He just knew it.
Albert was scrambling over the fallen blocks, going straight for the dark entrance to the church. "Come on!"
Lavitz hesitated. Something's wrong. Why do I think that?
"What are you waiting for?" Albert stood atop one of the blocks, looking back at him.
"We shouldn't go in there."
"I just want a look around, that's all." Then he disappeared inside.
"Albert, wait!" Lavitz hurried after him. If something happened to Albert... He didn't want to think of the consequences.
Inside was cool and damp. Several rooms branched off from the one they stood in, each one more foreboding than the last.
"Amazing..."
"Yes, okay, we've had a look around, let's go now."
"Not yet." Albert was investigating the weathered writing above one of the doors. He mouthed the words silently.
"We shouldn't be here," Lavitz said.
"Right you are."
Tense as a cat, Lavitz spun around. Closing in on them were three men, not of the friendly sort. Thieves, or some of the nomadic peoples that roamed Serdio, Lavitz decided. Neither was the kind of person he wanted to deal with. He inched to the side until he was standing between them and Albert.
"What do you fellows think we should do with trespassers?" one of the men said.
"Trespassers?" Albert hissed softly. "This is--" Lavitz had clamped a hand over his mouth.
"This is our territory," the man said. "Therefore, you are trespassers." Calling to his friends, he said, "What do you say?"
"They're just kids," said another of the group. "I say we give them a good what-for and leave it at that."
"They're still invading our space," the third growled. "Invaders get one treatment, no exceptions."
Lavitz had released Albert, as he was now concentrating more on not shaking.
"That's the way I was leanin'," the first man said. He was close enough to lean forward and hold an old scarred knife blade against Lavitz's neck. "Now it's just a question of how long we make this last."
That was all Lavitz could take. Before he realized what he was doing, he swung his arm around and landed a hard punch to the man's nose. His hand throbbed painfully, but he ignored it. Whirling around, he pushed Albert in the only direction they could go: into the dark room.
Albert needed no more encouragement than that. He was off into the room, Lavitz hot on his heels. They both missed a short flight of stairs, which they fell down. Lavitz hit the bottom hard, the side of his face scraping along the rough stone floor. He scrambled to get himself on his feet again, but someone had grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him upright.
The first man's face was twisted into a snarl, his nose bleeding badly. "You little bastard." He threw Lavitz back against a nearby wall. Lavitz's head snapped back into it painfully. The outlaw was coming for him, his two companions running to catch Albert, who was by now on the other side of the room.
Then came a glorious sound. The angry growl of a dog. The man who was running toward Lavitz stopped, looking at his comrades. One had been knocked over by Hero's sheer size, the other had his arm caught in the bearhound's iron jaws.
Lavitz didn't wait. He took off running again, though there was a sick feeling in his stomach when he heard Hero yelp in pain.
He caught up to Albert easily enough, and he knew that it would not be long before the thieves had caught up as well. Glancing around quickly, he spied a small opening near the top of the wall, where a stone had fallen out long ago and the forest had not blocked with vines and branches yet. An opening small enough for a child to fit through. Thankfully, there was also a thick, twisted vine growing inside the room, right up the wall. It looked strong enough to hold quite a bit of weight.
It was all they had to go with. There could be more thieves waiting beyond the hole, but they had no choice. "Albert, up there!"
The king saw where Lavitz was motioning to and ran to the vine. Lavitz gave him a boost up, then waited to make sure the vine would hold. It wasn't moving. He hurried up after Albert.
He had not made it far before someone grabed his ankle and jerked him down. He fell, landing on his back, wincing. Someone kicked him in his side. He cried out softly, tried to get back up so he could at least attempt to fight back. He managed to do so, but he found that his odds were not good. Each man carried a blade of some sort, ranging from the first man's old knife to a nasty-looking curved short sword. Lavitz clenched his teeth. There was no way he would make it out of this alive. No chance.
"First you, then your bastard dog. Someone has to pay now, might as well be you. Don't worry, we'll find your little friend and deal with him later."
Someone was coming. Lavitz's eye flicked to the doorway he had just come through. The three outlaws had enough sense of mind to follow his gaze. Then they scattered, but not quickly enough.
Servi descended on them like a hell-born fury. His lance flashed in the few beams on sunlight that made it through the thick leaves above. The men alternately screamed in pain and backstepped, trying to escape the enraged newcomer.
Lavitz had collapsed against the wall, and now sat on the cold ground and shook. Traces of blood were being thrown against the walls and floor and leaves of the plants. It was the first time he had ever seen such a thing in person. He felt sick.
The First Knight had backed the men into a corner and held them there with his lance braced against the two walls. He leaned forward to talk to the frontmost thief, the rage in him covering his face with a shadow. "How dare you." He spoke barely above a whisper, but the force behind his words made the outlaws cower. "It is good for your sake that I don't believe in making children watch someone be killed, even dogs such as yourselves." The anger in his glare could have scared even the demons of hell. He stepped back, withdrawing his weapon. "Get out of here before I change my mind."
The men fled, limping in various degrees of pain.
Lavitz was still shaking. He didn't bother trying to hide it now.
Albert had been slowly climbing down the vine and softly stepped to the ground next to Lavitz.
The First Knight strode over to them. Lavitz couldn't make himself look up, but when his father stopped in front of him, he found that he did. He had to.
He really wished he hadn't.
"Dad..."
"Let's go." A simple command, yet it sounded as if he would be leading the children to their deaths. Without waiting for them, he stalked out of the room. Albert reluctantly followed.
It took Lavitz a little longer to be able to stand again. Whenever he saw the blood on the walls, still fresh, blood that had been inside someone only moments before, he felt sick again. Sick in body and mind. He finally just closed his eyes and ran in the direction of the door.
-----
Nothing had been said on the way back to the camp. Albert had been escorted to his quarters, Lavitz and Hero to the healer's tent, and then Servi had disappeared. That was fine with Lavitz. He had never seen his father so enraged before...enough to kill a person. Even though the First Knight had refrained from doing so, the mere knowledge that he could have just as easily done away with the outlaws right then was enough to terrify Lavitz. He knew what his father's job was, what all knights had to do, yet he had never really understood it until he had seen it for himself.
He wasn't sure what scared him most, the fact that his father killed people for a living, or that he himself would be doing so some day.
Hero was treated first, as she had suffered the most. She was missing a few teeth now and in their place had several deep gashes along her neck. The doctor said she would survive, but Lavitz doubted his father would ever forget exactly who had put the marks on his dog. Or why she had been near those people to begin with.
Unfortunately for Lavitz, Servi returned to the tent just as the doctor was examining the scrapes on his face. The sudden pain from the medical salve and the fear of his father's wrath hit him all at once, and he began shaking again.
"You could have been killed," Servi growled. "You could have gotten Albert killed. What were you thinking?"
Lavitz didn't answer at first. He thinks...he thinks I was the one who decided to go in there. Finding enough courage to speak, he said "I don't know." But why would he think Albert made that choice? Of course the king wouldn't do something like that. Nobody would believe me if I said otherwise. And suddenly Lavitz found himself hating the boy once again. But I'm supposed to protect him from harm, right? I don't want to think about what my father's going to do to me once we get back to Bale. I'd hate for someone else to have to go through that.
He knew his father's silence was due to him trying to get his angered thoughts in order enough to say something. In the end, Servi simply turned and walked back out.
Lavitz was still shaking.
-----
Albert knew exactly why he hadn't seen Lavitz for over a week, and it tore him up inside. Someone else, his best friend, was being punished for something that wasn't his fault. It wasn't right.
Noish had been watching him silently from his seat in the library desk, where he had been writing some letter or another. "You seem rather melancholy today, Albert," he said softly.
Like the weather. He watched the rain as it hit the nearby window.
"What's on your mind?"
"Something's happened that shouldn't have."
"Oh?"
"...I'd rather not talk about it." He turned his full attention to the window.
"This doesn't have to do with Lavitz, does it?"
Albert didn't answer.
"Hmm." Noish knew what that meant, though.
They sat for a while, the only sounds being Noish's pen scratching across the paper and the rain against the window.
"Noish?"
"Yes?"
"The next time Servi's in the castle...would you let me know?"
"Of course."
Just thinking about confronting the knight was scary enough, even when the man was in a good mood. There was something inherently intimidating about someone who was trained to kill, even if to protect others.
-----
It was nothing compared to actually doing the confronting.
He knew he had nothing to fear from Servi, but the memory of what he had done to the thieves was still very vivid to Albert. But he had to do this, so he steeled himself as he walked through the halls of Indels to where Noish had told him Servi would be.
The knight was alone, though obviously on his way somewhere. For a moment Albert considered just letting him continue on his way. No. This must be made right. "Servi?"
The First Knight stopped, turning towards Albert. "Your Majesty?"
Albert forced himself to keep walking until he was within good conversation distance. He wasn't sure how to approach the subject; Servi waited patiently for him to speak. "It wasn't Lavitz's fault."
"What?"
"What happened in Teren." Albert took a shaky breath. "It wasn't his fault. It was mine."
Servi was silent for an awkwardly long time. "What do you mean?"
"I'm the one who wanted to go into the old church. Lavitz told me to stop, he knew something was wrong. But I ignored him. It's my fault we went into that place." He forced himself to look up, to look Servi in the face.
The man stared back, his dull green eyes not registering any emotion that Albert could decipher.
"I'm sorry."
Again, no answer.
"I'm sorry for what happened to you dog, too."
For a while, Albert thought that Servi was never going to speak to him again. Then the knight said softly, "It wasn't the dog I was worried about."
-----
He came up here often. It wasn't hard to get to, he just had to pull the library's ladder over to the window, then it was just a matter of climbing up and not leaning too far to one side. The roof was not slippery, unless it had rained recently, so walking around on it was not much of an issue.
Lavitz had spent most of the evening sitting in his favorite spot. His 'treasure,' he called it. From this place on the roof, Indels Schloss was clearly visible, rising above Bale on its hill, catching the last rays of the setting sun. Normally, Lavitz would have looked upon it as some representation of what he wanted to one day become. His father worked in that castle...he had wanted to be just like his father, a knight respected by the people.
Tonight, though, he hated it. His father spent most of his time at Indels, all because the country was now in the hands of a king too young to know what to do. He hated it because he now knew exactly what it meant to be a knight, what abilities he would have to learn to earn that title. Because it wasn't fair that other people had to suffer for things that weren't their fault.
He drew his knees to his chest and blinked a few times. To his surprise, a few tears slid down his cheeks.
I hate this.
He heard the front door open and close. No sound from Hero to announce Servi's return--the dog tended to do little more than sleep her days away ever since their return from Teren.
Why her? More tears. Why?
Someone was in the library, climbing the ladder. Lavitz didn't look to see who it was. He knew already. His mother never dared to come up onto the roof.
His father stepped across the shingles with care, then sat next to Lavitz. Nothing was said for several minutes, and Lavitz never looked at his father.
"Why didn't you tell me the truth?" Servi asked.
"About what?"
The knight didn't answer. Lavitz already knew what he was talking about, he just had little desire to discuss it.
"You wouldn't have believed me."
A hestitation. "I..." Servi sighed.
Lavitz knew that to mean it was true. You would have believed that story instead of your own child. That hurt even more than Servi's anger had back in Teren.
"I'm sorry."
Lavitz was trying not to cry again.
"Albert told me what happened. You did the right thing."
They were silent again, watching Indels fade from sight as the sun disappeared beneath the horizon.
"You'll be a great man some day," Servi said. He stood and climbed back down into the library.
He didn't stop his tears this time.