Splintered Fate (26 page)

“Cool. An all white wolf Aorra! He is very
regal looking.” The boy exclaimed.

Ardin turned his head to the side
while looking at the two of them. Kaiden thought he saw the wolf
smile, or make an expression resembling that of what Kaiden
imagines to be a wolf’s smile.

The three of them turned to the
Arena. In it stood a Madonian man moving like liquid with a blade
in his hand. It was as if he were one with the blade, it an
extension of himself. It was truly incredible to
witness.

Kaiden recognized the man, who had
brown hair and a mustache. The man had sat at their table at
dinner. Though he sat at the far end, speaking to Lana most the
night.

“Who is that?” Kaiden asked Jakobe.

“That’s Zorin.” The boy answered, as he too
watched Zorin in wonder.

“He’s an advisor to the council
right?”

“Yup.” Jakobe confirmed. “But he
is much more than that. He teaches everyone here how to fight with
a blade. He is amazing. I think he may be a descendent from the
gold army that used to be in Alogrin.”

“Is the gold army still around?”
Kaiden asked, hopeful that perhaps there were. If they could manage
to get a golden army on their side, then King Zakran and Arkhip
Dukran wouldn’t stand a chance.

“No, at least not that I know of.
But if they were then I would guess that Zorin is part of
it.”

After awhile of watching the
magnificent dance within the arena, the sword in Zorn’s hand
glimmered away into nothing and the crowd that had formed around
him cheered and applauded. Zorin took a deep bow. When he stood he
walked right over to Kaiden.

“Hello Ardin.” Zorin acknowledged
Lana’s Aorra. Lana and Zorin had sat together at the dinner so it
would have been easy for Zorin recognized the wolf, there was no
Aorra quite like Ardin.

He then turned to Kaiden. “I
apologize for not getting a chance to introduce myself sooner. My
name is Zorin, its a pleasure to finally meet Kaiden. I saw you at
dinner, you are a friend of Lana Casteel’s, correct?”

“
Yes. That was quite some skill
you displayed out there.”

“
Thank you, its just a little
something I like to do from time to time.” Zorin smiled. “Walk with
me back to the ballroom?” He requested.

Kaiden turned to the boy he had
just met. “I’ll try and introduce you to Alex tomorrow. See you
around.” The boy nodded and turned, walking away. Ardin too had
disappeared.

With the crowd dispersing, Kaiden
turned to Zorin.

The two of them slowly made their
way back to the castle. Zorin inquired of Kaiden’s past, how he
grew up. What his life was like. He also asked of Lana, what her
strengths were, if she were strong enough to create a sword. Kaiden
answered all of Zorin’s questions.

There was something about Zorin,
an air of greatness, but Kaiden couldn’t put his finger on it. Once
back at the fortress Zorin politely thanked Kaiden for walking with
him and left him at the entrance.

Kaiden began making his way back
to his room but he was not yet tired. So attempting to kill some
time, he wandered about the halls instead. There were so many of
them. They were vast, made of solid stone with engravings and
decorations on every wall. There was not a single hall that was
bare. Finally, amongst the plethora of halls he saw a familiar
face, Connor.

“
Connor!” Kaiden called out as the
boy approached. “Could you help me find Donn’s room?”

“
Sure.” Connor replied, taking
Kaiden down yet another hallway and stopping at a door. “This is
it.”

“
Are you sure?” Kaiden asked. The
hall looked exactly like the one he and Lana were on. He didn’t
want to knock on the door only to have Lana answer.

Connor smiled kindly at Kaiden and
raised his hand, knocking on the door. After a short moment the
door opened. Nadina stood on the other said, her eyes lit up with
her recognition of Kaiden.

“
Kaiden!” Nadina exclaimed before
noticing Connor standing next to him. “Oh, hi.” Nadina acknowledged
the boy.

“
Hello.” Connor said to Nadina
with a slight bow of his head. Nadina’s face abruptly turned
red.

“
Thank you, Connor.” Kaiden said
to the boy.

“
My pleasure,” He responded, his
eyes never leaving Nadina’s now tomato red face. Kaiden rolled his
eyes as he stepped in and closed the door.

“
Kaiden!” Alex ran into the
room.

“
Alex!” Kaiden exclaimed. “I found
a young boy your age who also likes archery, I will have to
introduce you tomorrow.”

“
Okay.” He simply replied. Kaiden
had hoped he would be more enthusiastic about having a friend to
practice with.

“
What in the bloody lands is all
the racket!? Get to your beds at once!” A raspy voice sounded from
the couch in the room. Kaiden hadn’t noticed that Donn was lying on
the couch near a fireplace. Both the kids jumped at the sound of
his voice, looking to Kaiden as if they were caught red-handed out
of bed.

“
It’s all right, go to bed. I will
see you two later.” He said as the two of them gave him a hug and
ran to the next room. Kaiden cautiously walked over to the couch
where Donn was.

He lay with an arm draped over his
forehead, his face flushed. He opened one glazed eye when Kaiden
approached, looking Kaiden up and down before shutting his eye. “I
have a terrible headache.” That was Donn’s polite way of telling
Kaiden to get out.

“
I wont be long. I just wanted to
apologize.”

“
Apologize?” Donn grumbled as he
lifted himself from the couch and sat up. He brought a hand over
his temples, rubbing them a moment before bringing his glazed eyes
up to Kaiden.

“
I did not trust you, when in fact
you were bringing us to Alogrin.”

“
I do not hold that against you.”
Donn stated, grumbling some more before his next coherent words.
“How was the Alogrinian council?”

Kaiden shrugged. “Fine, I think.
They have not agreed to help Lana with anything yet, but they have
been rather welcoming. They gave us rooms and clothes. Tonight they
threw a generous party for our arrival.”

“
Of
course
he
would
have a party on the day I am not functioning.” Donn spoke under his
breath. Kaiden had no idea who he was referring
to.

“
Tomorrow we are going to have
some sort of sword fight at the arena, to show off our
skill.”

“
Of course you will.” Donn
muttered. “Well, I should be healthy enough to at the very least
attend that.”

“
What’s it going to be like? Any
ideas?”

“
You will most likely be in the
Arena with Zorin. Everyone around here thinks him something
special. You will show your skills and then it will be over.”
Donn’s brows furrowed, “Now go, I need to rest, my mind is a thick
nauseating fog. I would like for it to be cleared by
morning.”

“
See you tomorrow.” Kaiden
murmured to Donn who returned to laying on the couch, his eyes
shut.

Kaiden walked from the small room
back into the hall, shutting the door behind him. Turning down the
dimly lit hall, he headed towards his room. Restless feelings
rustled around him, he was not at all tired, but tomorrow was going
to be a day that required focus. Tomorrow called for a need to get
some shut eye.

Yet when Kaiden’s eyes did finally
shut, he could only see her, only think of her. She was everywhere
in his mind. He even thought he still smelled her, but that was
unlikely, this was all just in his head.

Chapter

Thirteen

Lana entered the grassy arena with
Ardin by her side. Her body felt sore from the past several days
and her eyes were tired from the restless night. Her mind
relentlessly raced through thoughts the entire night, keeping away
any form of sleep.

Once the early sun began to
brighten the world outside her window, she forced her body to move,
getting out of bed. In the beautiful wooden wardrobe she had found
suitable clothing to wear for physical activities such as
swordplay, a tan tunic with brown pants, which she wore with her
laced up boots. Her brown hair was pulled back in a fishtail braid.
Lana wanted to do a normal braid but Lola stopped by in the morning
and insisted on doing something special for the event. Her mothers
butterfly hair clip held black a few loose strands.

Upon her arrival to the arena Lana
saw Kaiden standing off to the side, speaking with Clyte. As if he
could feel her watching him, he looked up, momentarily locking eyes
with Lana. A jolt ran through her and quickly she turned her gaze
away. She tried to focus on what was going on and the task ahead,
that’s was what she should be concerned with. Yet she couldn’t help
but wonder what Kaiden and Clyte were talking about.

A familiar wet nose nuzzled her
hand.

You have nothing
to worry about.
Ardin said, his blue eyes
watching her.

Speak for
yourself, look at all these people.
Lana
scanned the arena, it was packed with people standing all around
its edges, and she could see even more people approaching from the
distance.

Just focus on your target. Watch
him, learn the way he moves and don’t underestimate your
opponent.

I don’t think I
would underestimate anyone here.
Lana said
as she took in the scene.

The arena was a large oval and for
the most part cleared of trees except for three that scattered
around the center. From the side she saw Cale walk into the center,
heading towards them. He wore clothes similar to those Kaiden had
on last night, this was not clothing someone would wear if they
planned to have a sword fight. Disappointed that she would not have
the opportunity to try and embarrass him in front of all his
people, Lana watched him approach with a slight frown. Cale raised
a hand, waving them forward as he strode towards them.

Here we
go.
Lana thought as she and Ardin made
their way towards Cale. She could see Kaiden in her peripheral
moving towards them.

Avoiding Kaiden’s gaze, Lana kept
her eyes on Cale. She hated that she felt such a foolish way or
found it suddenly difficult to look at him. A part of her hoped he
wasn’t angry with her from last night. To look at him might confirm
her fears so she opted to avoid a glance, at least for now. She
would deal with him after this was over. First she needed to get
past this obstacle.

Are you all
right?
Ardin asked, probably sensing her
feelings of frustration.

"I'm fine." Lana replied in a firm voice, with
what Ardin would recognize as a hint annoyance. Her cheeks flushed
as soon as she realized that she replied out loud.

"So what are we doing?" Kaiden
asked, the sound of his voice caused Lana's pulse to quicken. She
was beginning to get angry at the way she was reacting to him. This
was not something that was supposed to be happening. He was her
friend, even being that was dangerous. For them to become anything
more would have been foolish. Yet her body didn’t seem to be
connected to her mind.

Being near him
sent a flutter through her stomach. Her eyes pulled to look at him,
to glide over the muscular tanned body. Her breath wanted to mingle
with his and her heart threatened to break through its ribbed cage
and run to him. There was a severe disconnect within her and Lana
wasn’t sure when it happened. Her mind screamed
, no you’ll ruin him, it will end in blood
. Yet her body said,
I don’t care, I
demand him.

"You fight.
Ladies first, are you ready
Princess
?" Cale said with a wink at
Lana, answering Kaiden.

Rumbling in the crowd sounded the
arrival of someone new to the arena. "Ah, and here comes your
opponent. Good luck." Cale added, nodding to the side. He then
walked away to get a good spot to watch.

Lana turned to see her opponent
moving graciously towards her. It was a tall thin man wearing
leather-fighting clothes. From the distance his brown hair and
mustache instantly gave him away.

"Zorin?" Lana blurted out with wide
eyes.

I can’t fight him!

It's not a real fight, no one will
get hurt, he will just test you. He is the one most skilled with a
blade and Madonian strength here in Alogrin.

But he is the
only person I have connected with in this place and now I have
to... Wait why does this not seem to be news to you?
Lana turned to Ardin whose tail quickened its
pace at her stare.

Last night while I was exploring I
learned he was much more than just an advisor to the Council... He
is quite talented, I saw him practice, it’s quite
remarkable.

Lana wanted to strangle her Aorra
for not sharing this sooner.