The Lundari Witch:

Diamageen’s Shadows

By

Charlene Krentz

Chapter One: Dangerous Employment

The grand city of Hercros did not impress Tobias. Its architecture, said by some to rival Europa’s royal city in exquisiteness, held no splendor for him. Its massive size did not awe him. It was just another crowded and noisy place that he would endure only as long as it took to conclude his business.

Tobias was thankful that Hercros was also a major seaport where travelers in worn and travel-stained clothes, such as himself, were a common sight. He did not want to stand out and he did not want to attract attention. Still, he did sense a few curious eyes upon him as he traversed the cobblestone streets. They were not drawn to him by his clothes, he knew, nor to his long, shaggy copper-brown hair. They were staring at the claymore strapped to his back. Such a huge sword didn’t appear often in Europa, not even in the possession of the king’s knights. Tobias ignored the stares, hoping nothing more would come of them. He kept his sea-grey eyes focused straight ahead, and paid no attention to the hustle and bustle of humans and centaurs shuffling around him. He walked briskly. He’d almost reached his goal, the colossal, amethyst marble towers spiking up from the center of the city into the late-afternoon sky. They were apart of a structure that any who didn’t know better would assume was the royal palace. It, however didn’t house any kings or queens, it housed students training to be knights of the realm. This place was the Royal Knights Academy.

At the main gates, Tobias found two men dressed in the blue and black tunics of the city guard. They fixed him with a suspicious glare as he approached the wrought iron bars that blocked the outside world from the Academy.

“Halt!” ordered one of the guards, a tight-faced man with a hooked nose.

The other guard, a younger-looking gentleman with a wide, rounded face spoke a bit more politely. “Sorry, young sir, no visitors are permitted into the Academy at this time. And anyway, you look a bit old to be applying for study. They only take boys who’re about fifteen or sixteen. You look to be nineteen at least.”

“I’m not here to become a student,” Tobias replied matter-of-factly. “I’m here to see Sir Hayden Sacgara.”

“And what would a ruffian like you want with Sir Hayden?” the hawk-nosed guard snarled.

“I’m a bounty hunter. I understand Sir Hayden is looking for someone with my skills.”

The hawk-nosed man snorted. “How good of a bounty hunter could you possibly be? You’re so skinny, I don’t think you can lift that big sword of yours, much less swing it.”

“Hold on.” The round-faced man pointed to the diagonal scar on the left side of Tobias’s lean, pointed face. It extended from just under his eye to his jaw. “That scar. The feared bandit known as Jorgae the Red gave the bounty hunter who brought him in such a scar. The Red was a skilled swordsman and one of the most ruthless on the king’s highway, or so the legends say. The one who brought him in last year had to be a master swordsman just to escape with his life, but to defeat him he must have had the skills of a dragon slayer and then some. And the incredible thing is, he was so young—only fifteen or sixteen, some said. That bounty hunter was entitled to the fame, glory and a place in the history books, but he only took the bounty on Jorgae’s head. He left town before word got around about what he’d done and didn’t leave his name. Tell me, are you him?”

“That isn’t your concern,” Tobias said bluntly. The last time someone recognized him as the one who’d brought in the Red, he’d had no peace for a week. Everyone who saw him wanted to talk to him. He did not want to repeat the experience.

Tobias shrugged his nearly empty pack off his shoulder and withdrew from it a glossy sheet of paper. “I’m here regarding this.” He held it up so the guards could see the elegant writing embossed on its surface.

To All Who Possess Excellent Fighting Skills, a Courageous Heart, and Seek Adventure and Reward

Under that, in smaller script was

Your services are desperately needed on a mission to retrieve or discover what fate has befallen an ambassador of His Majesty King Troy and his escort in Diamageen Forest. The mission is dangerous, but the reward is great for those brave enough to undertake and successfully complete it; honor, adventure and the sum of seventy-five gold crowns.

All who wish to apply, report to Sir Hayden Sacgara at the Royal Knights Academy.

The round-faced guard’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You want that suicide mission? Don’t you know that Diamageen is the goblins’ realm?”

“I do,” Tobias said.

“Then you know, surely, that it’s also a realm of dark magic. The goblins thrive on it. No man has ever been able to kill one within the confines of Diamageen’s trees because of it. But the goblins can kill, and that’s just what they’ll do to you, slowly and brutally, when they catch you. Twenty years ago, dragons chased all the villagers of Koraira into Diamageen and for weeks afterwards, the whole valley was haunted by their screams and weeping as the goblins tortured them to death. The king’s only son was in that village when the dragons came. The king sent his best knights into Diamageen to look for him, but none ever came back. Do you want to face the same end?”

“I don’t plan on it.”

“Not even a knight can defeat a goblin in its own kingdom,” the hawk-nosed guard said. “None of them are stupid enough to try. What makes you think you’ll fare any better than they would in the shadows of Diamageen, hmm?”

“That’s none of your concern. Now, if I may please see Sir Hayden.” Tobias met their eyes with a determined gaze, letting them know there would be no deterring him.

To his relief, the hawk-nosed guard called for the gates to be opened, announcing that there was a bounty hunter asking for Sir Hayden. As guards on the other side unlocked the gates and began to open them he said to Tobias, “A page has gone to ask Sir Hayden if he even wants to see you. You’re to wait in the courtyard for his reply. I hope he has the sense not to pay in advance.” He flashed Tobias a wicked grin. “It’s such a waste to give coin to a corpse.”

Without replying, Tobias quickly strode through the open gates.

“Reconsider, lad, please,” the round-faced guard called to his retreating form. “There’s no amount of gold worth wandering into that accursed forest. None!”

Chapter Two: The Bounty Hunter and the Warrior Girl

The courtyard was like the Royal Knights Academy itself—huge—and was subdivided into several squares, each devoted to the learning and practice of various fighting and weapons techniques. When Tobias followed one of the first-year pages, students who spent part of their time as servants, into the courtyard, he saw several other pages and squires, those who were in their final year of study before being apprenticed to a knight, taking advantage of the long summer day to sharpen their combat skills.

Tobias slipped unnoticed over to a bench and sat down to watch the sea of purple-clad boys—both human and centaur—hack at each other with wooden practice weapons. It occurred to him that if his life had gone differently, he might’ve spent the last three years as one of them, and be spending his final year of training with a knight now. Might have. If, during either his fifteenth or sixteenth year, he were to have displayed his fighting prowess to the Academy recruiter who visited his island home, he would’ve done so only to please his father. He never entertained any interest in being a knight—not in his younger days, and certainly not now when he had a more important duty to complete.

A commotion on the far side of the courtyard jarred Tobias from his thoughts. The attention it gathered started off small then grew like ripples in a pond generated by a tiny splash. Before long, every student in the courtyard had dropped their weapons and congregated to the point of the disturbance to investigate its cause. Tobias, too, was curious to see what was going on. He pressed his way through the boys, and eventually beheld what at first appeared to be a lad with thick crimson curls cropped just below the base of his skull. Upon closer inspection, however, he realized that the tall, muscular figure with a broadsword belted at the hip was a girl, who looked no older than sixteen. She crossed her arms and cast an ugly scowl at five boys wearing the purple and white uniforms of pages. They were holding their sides and laughing heartily.

“Listen here, lads,” a centaur youth announced between chuckles. “Bee here is playing a little joke on us. She says she’s here to attend the Academy.”

The girl did not appear to be in a joking mood. “The name’s Bree, and I wasn’t joking!”

Tobias doubted very many of the students heard her. He could barely hear her over the roaring laughter rolling through the crowd. He kept quiet, admiring the girl’s bravery. Women warriors were looked down upon in Europa, even among the centaur tribes who viewed females more equally to males than humans did. Tobias knew well, the ridicule and shunning girls who preferred swordplay to sewing; his twin sister Hadassah once desired to be a knight, and was made the laughingstock of their hometown. Perhaps that was why the boys’ laughter angered him. They were brutes, just like the ones who’d tormented Hadassah had been.

Tobias was torn between leaving and shouting at the boys to shut their gobs. He didn’t think he could stomach any more of the students’ merciless harassment, but he didn’t want to get involved. He made it a point to stay out of other people’s business and he still did not want to draw attention to himself. Besides, he didn’t see how he could help the situation any.

A boy wearing the purple and gold tunic of a squire held up his hand to get his fellows’ attention. “I think our red minx is serious.” To Bree, he said, “This isn’t a game, little girl. We train hard, day in and day out. It’s grueling and only the strongest make it through all three years. A weakling like you wouldn’t last three days.”

“I’ve already lasted through seven years of battle training back home, and I finished first in my class,” Bree boasted. “I can take three years of this place.”

“And who were your classmates? Donkeys? Your teacher would have to be one to train you.”

“Girls don’t belong at the Academy,” a boy in the crowd declared.

The boys around him shouted affirmatively.

“What’s the matter?” Bree asked. “Afraid I’ll show you all up?” She jabbed the blond boy’s chest with her forefinger. “Afraid I’ll someday kick your sorry behind?”

“Hardly,” the boy laughed.

“Show her, Rook,” one of the other squires shouted. “Teach her a lesson in respect.”

“Put her in her place, Rook,” a page said.

Rook flashed Bree an evil grin. “What do say? Shall we see how you match up against a real warrior?”

Bree smiled lopsidedly. “I’m game.”

They agreed to a three-point match. Whoever scored three hits with a wooden practice weapon won. Rook chose two squires to be judges.

“I should warn you,” Rook said as he twirled a wooden short sword in either hand, “I’m one of the best fighters in the Academy.”

Bree brought her own wooden weapon to bear and said nothing. She charged at Rook, quickly putting him on the defensive. Rook laughed, amused, as he danced away from her attacks. He looked more like an acrobat then a fighter, and Tobias could tell he wasn’t taking this fight seriously. But as he dodged left to avoid one of Bree’s attacks, she kicked his leg out from under him and jabbed her weapon into his shoulder the moment as soon as he hit the dirt. The judges reluctantly gave her the first point of the match.

“Are you going to fight me seriously now?” Bree asked.

A scowl replaced Rook’s smug smile. He picked himself up and fought earnestly, coming at Bree fast and strong, his weapons becoming a blur of motion. He quickly put Bree on the defensive. She swiftly and expertly blocked and dodged his two swords, and tried to keep them out of striking range with her longer weapon. Rook slapped it aside with one of his swords and lunged in with the other. Bree side-stepped out of its path, but not fast enough to avoid getting her shoulder clipped. In actual combat with actual blades, it would have been little more than a scratch. It might not even have drawn blood. Tobias barely noticed the hit connect, and he doubted the judges saw it. Apparently they did, though, because they awarded Rook a point.

Several minutes dragged by without either opponent scoring another hit, though Bree came close at least seven times. Only Rook’s speed saved him at the last second each time. The longer Tobias watched Bree the more impressed be became. Whoever trained her did a good a job. None of the bandits he’d fought possessed half of her skill, save for Jorgae.

Rook was no slouch either. The same instant Bree blocked his blow to her stomach on her sword, he jabbed his second sword at her chest. Bree grabbed the advancing arm and twisted the weapon out of its grasp, but not before Rook brushed her arm with its tip. The judges awarded him a point. The Academy boys cheered, and Tobias frowned. He’d participated in enough three-point matches in his younger days to know that such a glancing blow usually didn’t count.

Bree bared her teeth and her chocolate-brown eyes blazed with determination. She came at Rook low and fast. He darted backwards, out of her reach, but he put himself off balance. Bree kept coming after him, giving him no opportunity to regain sure footing. At last, he slipped and ended up flat on his back. He rolled to avoid Bree’s oncoming blow, but not fast enough to avoid it completely. Her sword grazed his back. The judges did not award her a point, and no one protested, except for Bree, who shot them a quick venomous glare, and Tobias, who kept his outcry of unfairness silent.

Rook returned to his feet with a spring lacking at least half of his usual speed. He panted heavily. He was tiring, Tobias realized, having put most of his energy into his speed. Bree showed no shortness of breath and no other signs of fatigue. If the two continued at their current pace, she would wear him down, and score the last two strikes she needed to win in a way the judges couldn’t deny.

Rook must have known it too, because his next thrust came clumsily and with obvious desperation. He clearly wanted to score his last point quickly to spare himself the humiliation of loosing to a girl. He ended up playing right into Bree’s hands. She pinned her sword arm between her free arm and her side, and spun him around so that both of the judges could see of them clearly. She raised her sword high and brought its point down hard on her helpless victim’s chest. All the while, she scowled at the judges, daring them to deny her a point for her hit. They didn’t, but neither they nor any of the Academy boys cheered for her.

The rules of a three-point match prevented Bree from making her third hit with Rook still pinned. When she released him, Rook stumbled, landing face first in the dirt. Bree patiently waited as he slowly picked himself up.

Something was amiss; Tobias could tell by Rook’s smooth and confident body language. He had something up his sleeve, something devious. Tobias spied the boy’s clenched, dirt-covered left hand, and immediately guessed what he was going to do.

“Look out!” he cried as Bree moved in for another attack.

Before Bree could react, Rook flung his handful of dirt into her eyes. Bree cried out and dropped her guard. With a roar, Rook plowed into her, knocked her off her feet, and struck a triumphant blow on her back.

The cheers Rook received from his Academy peers sounded empty, and unenthusiastic to Tobias’s ears. He could tell that they were glad their champion had beaten the girl, but didn’t wholeheartedly agree with his methods. It gave him some relief to know that the future protectors of Europa didn’t completely condone cheating, but angered him that none of them would stand against it.

“Cheater!” Bree howled as she wiped the dirt form her eyes. “Smut-covered skunk!”

She stopped in mid-sentence when Rook snatched her real sword, still buckled to her hip, out of its sheath and dangled it just out of her reach.

“Temper, temper, my dear,” he taunted. “Let’s not be a sore looser.”

Bree leaped to her feet and lunged at Rook, but two dark-skinned squires grabbed her arms and held her back before she could reach him.

Before he knew what he was doing, Tobias surged through the mass of boys surrounding him, his desire to stay inconspicuous momentarily forgotten. Rook and his cohorts’ cruelty had gone on long enough.

Meanwhile, Rook, unaware of the approaching danger, stepped farther away, admiring the stolen blade.

“Caltic steel,” he observed, rubbing his hand over the sword.

The metal looked like regular steel, but had a slight silvery sheen. Rook must have a good eye and knowledge of metals to be able to deduce that the sword was caltic, Tobias thought.

“Nice,” Rook continued. “Finley crafted, too.” He rubbed his thumb over the light-blue gem embedded in the pommel. It was about the size of the thumb’s top joint. “I like the topaz. It’s a nice touch.”

“Give it back,” Bree demanded.

Rook swung the caltic blade in a downward arch. “Hmm. I it only fair I keep this beauty as my prize of battle. It’s more suited … Hey!”

Tobias had broken through the crowd of Academy boys and seized Rook’s sword arm. Rook glowered at him, but it was no match for the cold, intimidating stare radiating from his steel-grey eyes. Tobias wanted to make it clear that he was in no mood for trouble, but if the squire wanted to cause any, he would make him regret it. Rook blanched and stepped away as far as he could. Tobias effortlessly yanked Bree’s sword from his grasp.

“Leave her alone,” he said evenly. He aimed his gaze at Bree’s captors. “All of you.”

The two squires holding Bree released their prisoner and scrambled back towards their fellows.

Bree met his eyes with a look of surprise. Clearly she didn’t expect anyone to come to her rescue.

“Thank you,” she said, as her expression changed.

Her eyes. Tobias had faced assassins without flinching, yet her eyes unnerved him. If they were grey instead of brown, he would almost swear he was looking into his sister’s eyes. Hadassah would give him the exact same look of gratitude and joy whenever he stood up for her against the neighborhood bullies or comforted her when she was upset.

He practically dumped Bree’s caltic sword into her hands, and spun sharply away from her, tearing himself from the eyes that haunted him, while he dammed up the flow of memories and emotions spilling from the fragile shell he’d locked them behind four years ago. He pushed his way back through the crowd, hoping no one, especially Bree, would follow him.

Fortunately, they were all distracted by a piercing booming voice emanating from the courtyard’s entrance. “What’s going on here?”

All eyes fixed themselves on the new arrival—all except Tobias’s. He took refuge in the doorway of another courtyard entrance, and again became a silent observer.

Bree was bowing before a short man, barely taller than she, entering the courtyard from the other entrance. He wore an amber tunic bearing both a knight’s and the Academy’s coat of arms, identifying him as a knight and an Academy teacher.

“Headmaster,” Bree said respectfully, “my name is Brianna Arengaren. I’ve come seeking admittance into the Royal Knights Academy.”

“The Academy has no need of servant girls,” the Headmaster began dismissively.

“As a student. I’ve been unfairly rejected by recruiters both this year and last because of my gender. I’ve come to you hoping, in your wisdom, you’ll look beyond it and see my value as a knight.” She reached into a purse hanging around her neck and withdrew a letter sealed with wax. “This letter is from my teacher, Cavin Thunderhoof, who’s trained many of the current knights in the king’s army. It vouches my worthiness to be accepted into the Academy. Of my class, I was the best fighter, and I scored the highest marks in every test Cavin gave me. Even the recruiter who rejected me this year said he was impressed with my skill. He would’ve admitted me if I was a boy.”

Bree pressed her letter towards the headmaster. The headmaster made no move to take it from her and read it.

“The Academy only accepts boys who have the potential to be knights,” he said matter-of-factly. “We don’t have the time or the recourses to waste time on girls. They don’t have the strength or endurance to keep up with the rigorous training, or the ability to keep their wits during battle.”

“But I have all of those qualities! If you’ll only look ….”

“And I don’t have time to waste on you. Begone!” He turned on his heel and marched out of the courtyard.

Bree sped after him, continuing to protest, but her voice was quickly lost in the wave of jeers the Academy boys hurled at her. Tobias anger boiled against them and their headmaster, but he did not move to Bree’s defense again. Nothing he could do would help her; the pig-headed males were too set in their ways to be swayed by him. He didn’t know why he’d acted on Bree’s behalf the first time. It violated his motto of staying out of things that did not concern him, and what concerned him right now wasn’t some girl, it was his business with Sir Hayden.

Tobias kept his eyes on the second entrance way, scouring for any sign of the page who’d gone to tell Sir Hayden of his arrival as the Academy boys dispersed and went about their business, some still laughing at Bree. He put the girl out of his mind, and focused on his objective. The minutes dragged by and Tobias began to wonder what could possibly be taking the page so long to bring him word from Sir Hayden. When he heard footfalls behind him, he thought he’d received his answer from the knight at last, but when he turned, he saw Bree coming towards him. Something about the way she quickened her pace and smiled when he saw her told him she’d been looking for him. What could she want? Whatever it was, Tobias hoped it was quick. He didn’t want to be bothered.

“Hi,” Bree greeted warmly.

Tobias didn’t answer her.

Bree extended a glossy piece of paper towards him. Tobias recognized it instantly as Sir Hayden’s advertisement.

“You dropped this,” she explained.

Tobias impassively slid the notice from her fingers and stuffed it back into his pocket. “Thank you.”

“Are you going to take the job?”

“That is my business, not yours.”

Bree recoiled as if stung. Tobias didn’t mean to sound so cold towards her, but he didn’t want to give her the impression he wanted to make friends.

“Oh.” Bree bit her lip. “I suppose I don’t need to tell you how famous you’d be if you managed to pull this off—rescuing the ambassador from Diamageen, I mean—not to mention rich. Seventy-five crowns, that’s a king’s ransom. I’ve never even seen one crown in my whole life. It’s said they’re made with only the finest and purest gold. Heck, they’d have to be; one’s worth a thousand doubloons, after all.” She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms thoughtfully. “If I were to pull off something heroic like that, they’d have to let me into the Academy. The headmaster wouldn’t dare threaten to have the guards throw me out like he did this time. None of those idiotic bigots would make fun of me, they’d all realize how wrong they were about me. Blasted, smut-for-brains toads.” She kicked a pebble hard enough to send it ricocheting off the opposite wall. “Anyway, I wanted to thank you one more time for standing up for me. No one’s ever done that before. I wanted to get your name, too.”

Tobias’s first impulse was to tell her his name was also none of her concern, but he gave the matter a second thought, and decided there wasn’t much harm in giving her what she wanted. “I’m Tobias.”

“I’m Bree.”

“I know.”

He turned his back on Bree, hoping she would get the message and go away.

“Is that a claymore?” she asked, obviously referring to his sword. “Wow. You must be some swordsman if you can wield that big thing. Funny, it looks like Samuel Rowan’s sword. You know who he is, right?”

Tobias said nothing.

“You must have heard about him. He’s only the most legendary dragon-slayer in history.” Her voice grew low and thoughtful, and Tobias could sense her extending her hand towards his sword’s gold and silver hilt. “His sword disappeared after he died, and he had a son, who’d be about your age now—”

Tobias turned on her sharply. “Miss Arengaren, I was happy to help you earlier, but I’m not in the mood for company at the moment, so I’d appreciate it if you would please leave me alone.”

Bree reeled backwards. Tobias guessed she couldn’t have looked anymore shocked or hurt if he’d punched her. He almost apologized for his words.

Behind him, he heard the sound of a boy clearing his throat. Relieved for the distraction, Tobias turned and saw the page he’d been patiently waiting for.

“Pardon my interruption,” the boy said. “Sir Hayden Sacgara requests your presence.”

Tobias nodded, and followed the page. He fought the urge to give Bree any parting words or glances. He wanted to discourage her from any further attempts at seeking his friendship. He’d discarded all of his desire for companionship the day he’d steeled his heart four years ago.

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