The Eden Series: The Complete Collection (12 page)

“What is the matter there, newbie?” Wolf asked, smirking.

“Nothing,” Aiden mumbled.

“Did they make you give blood this morning?” Logan asked, his face a mask of disgust. Aiden nodded his head. “I hate that,” he said, shivering. “I’ve bled many times from cuts, but something about those priests doing it to me on purpose, and then keeping it in a bowl, makes me sick.”

Wolf laughed. “Stop being such a baby; it wasn’t so bad, was it, newbie?”

“No, not as bad as I thought it would be,” he answered.

“So what did they want?” Wolf asked, as both of them leaned in closer.

Aiden wasn’t sure how to answer. According to Elisa, he was sworn to secrecy. He wasn’t even sure if he was allowed to say who exactly he had met with. Before he was put in an awkward position, Elisa returned, coming to his rescue.

“Why don’t you just mind your own business?” she answered Wolf’s question, placing a bowl in front of Aiden. Whatever it was looked horrible, but it didn’t smell half-bad. His stomach rumbled in response. He picked up the spoon she got him and started shoving mouthfuls down his throat. It didn’t taste that bad, he thought.

Elisa and Wolf began to exchange sarcastic, snarky digs at each other, while Aiden took the opportunity to look around. The area was one large room, with high ceilings and ten long wooden tables. There were huge wooden beams running along the width of the ceiling, and multiple candlelit chandeliers hanging from it. The floor was old, worn wood, as were the tables and benches. A fireplace sat along the north wall, and beside it was the cook’s station. The obese man must have been the cook, Aiden concluded. He wore a small white hat over his greasy black hair. His face was covered in black stubble, and his eyebrows were like two huge skunks sitting on his face. He wore a permanent scowl, which was directed toward him when he noticed Aiden looking his way. Turning his head quickly, Aiden looked back down at the bowl and continued to eat.

All the tables were full of huge men, clearly fighters. They each wore leather or a plain riding suit like Logan wore. Wolf still didn’t wear a shirt, however, Aiden noted.

“All I’m saying is that the boy can speak for himself,” Wolf was saying.

“Yes, well, all I’m saying is that if you were supposed to be in the know, you would have been. Since you were kept out of the situation, maybe you should just stay that way.” Wolf looked suspiciously from Elisa to Aiden, his eyes narrowing. Logan looked too, but kept his face neutral. Clearly, they both realized something weird was going on, but Elisa put the kibosh on any further discussions regarding the matter.

“You training today?” Logan asked, probably trying to change the mood. Wolf’s face remained the same.

“No, I start tomorrow,” Aiden replied, thankful that their arguing was over.

“I hope you’re ready!” Logan laughed. “They kill you.” Aiden moaned, making Elisa and Logan laugh.

“Don’t worry,” Elisa said, placing her hand on Aiden’s arm. “You’ll do fine, and I’m sure my father will take it easy on you for the first couple of days.”

Wolf abruptly stood up, causing the bench to scrape loudly across the floor. A few heads looked up to see what the noise was about.

“I have to go … do … laundry,” he explained weakly. Nodding his head at each of them, he turned and left the room.

Logan started to chuckle. “Do laundry.” He laughed, shaking his head. “That wasn’t even a good one,” he snorted. Aiden couldn’t help but smile at Logan’s amusement. They probably didn’t even do their own laundry, Aiden thought. “He’s probably going to meet up with Louisa,” Logan offered, raising and lowering his eyebrows. “She was the feistiest of the three blondes you met the other night.”

“I need to go too,” Elisa said, standing up. “Can you find your way back all right?” she asked, looking down at Aiden.

“I think so,” he replied, shrugging.

“Don’t worry. If he gets lost, I’ll help.” Logan smiled.

“Great, thanks. I’ll see you later then.” She walked off in a hurry, her hips swinging from side to side as she strode. Aiden watched her retreating form in a daze, appreciating every curve of it.

“Every guy here does that,” Logan said, interrupting his thoughts. Feeling his cheeks grow hot with embarrassment, he turned back to Logan with a look like he had no idea what he was talking about. He laughed at Aiden. “Don’t be ashamed. She’s a beautiful girl. You’re not the only one who thinks so.”

Aiden looked around, and realized he wasn’t the only one who had been watching her. It didn’t surprise him that so many guys would like her, but it definitely made him feel a little more depressed. With that many options, why would she ever go for someone as weak and plain as him? She could probably have anyone she wanted.

“What is wrong with her and Wolf?” Aiden asked curiously.

Logan just laughed. “What isn’t wrong with those two? You want to leave here?” he asked, standing up. Aiden had finished his stew, so he nodded his head and the two of them left the room, with numerous eyes on their backs as they did.

“What weapon are you trained in?” Logan asked as they entered the training camp. He said no one was using it right now, so he thought they could practice a little bit before Aiden’s official training started the following day. At first Aiden didn’t want to, too embarrassed to show someone else how terrible he was, but then he thought maybe it would be better this way. At least it would just be Logan, and not the whole army. He might even be able to give him some advice.

“Um, nothing, actually,” Aiden replied sheepishly.

“Nothing?” Logan turned in surprise. “You’re not proficient in anything?”

“I’m all right with the double-headed axe.” Aiden shrugged.

Logan looked at him curiously. Slowly turning, he walked over to a wooden wall that lined the open arena, and picked up the axe from one of the pegs. The training camp reminded Aiden of the Coliseum. It was huge, round, and looked like a place where people would come to fight and die. There weren’t any seats around it, but the sand on the floor was darker in some places, and he knew it was probably dried blood. He felt a little sick. Along one of the walls were all the weapons they kept here for training, but he was sure most of the men had their own weapons to practice with.

“Here,” Logan said, handing him the axe. Aiden’s arms dropped a bit when he took it, forgetting how heavy the damn things were. Logan’s eyebrows rose questioningly. “Tell me, how does a small boy from out of nowhere, get accepted into the elite King’s army and not have any expertise in a specific weapon?”

Aiden’s cheeks heated. He shrugged his shoulders. “Luck?”

“Luck,” Logan repeated. His eyes narrowed as he looked Aiden up and down. “Well, how about we see just how lucky you are then.” Gesturing toward the middle of the area, Aiden walked slowly holding the axe feebly in his hands. He watched as Logan pulled out an axe as well from the leather pack he wore on his back. Walking back over to the side, he grabbed two shields and carried them over to Aiden.

“You … You use the axe too?” Aiden gulped.

“You’re looking at the best in the city.” Logan smiled confidently. “Let’s see how good
you
are.” He handed Aiden a shield, and walked back so there was a bit of room between the two. Aiden couldn’t believe how heavy the shield was. There would be no energy left in him to fight, after having to carry around these things. “Ready?” Logan yelled. Aiden gulped.
No,
he thought.

CHAPTER SIX

“Where have you been?” Wolf asked as Logan entered their room.

Smiling, Logan threw down his pack and flopped onto his bed. “Training with Aiden,” he said, laughing.

“Who?”

Sighing, he replied, “Newbie.”

“Oh! How was he?” Wolf sat up, interested.

Turning onto his side, Logan held his head up on his hand and looked at Wolf. “He wasn’t too bad, but he wasn’t very good either. His talents are raw, and clearly untrained,” he replied, replaying the last hour in his head.

“Surprising. Why is he in the King’s army then?” Wolf said, voicing what they were both clearly thinking.

“I’m not sure,” Logan answered honestly. “I was suspicious as well, but who are we to question the Captain’s decisions? I gave him a nice black eye, though. He snickered. Wolf laughed. “You should have seen him,” he cackled. “He was flailing all over the place—no control at all. He’ll get better, though. I can tell.”

“The Captain doesn’t normally take in boys that need that much work. You don’t think he brought him here for Elisa, do you?”

Logan sat up and looked at his best friend. “Would that bother you?” he asked.

Wolf laughed, shrugging off the implications as usual. “Not at all; it would be a relief to me. He can have that woman. She is too difficult for me.” Logan looked at him, unconvinced, but he didn’t respond. He was used to Wolf’s constant denials. “I can’t wait to see his welcoming present.” Wolf chuckled about Aiden’s black eye. Logan smiled too, remembering the look on Aiden’s face when his elbow smashed into his eye.

“It’s a good one.”

The meat was only slightly salted, and the potato was boiled, with nothing else on it. Aiden looked down at his plate and sighed. The meat looked like something that you would find on the side of the road. The food in this world definitely wasn’t anything like back home, he thought sadly. What he wouldn’t give for some Taco Bell, or Wendy’s right then. The other piece of meat he held to his eye was frozen, and from the black freezer burn on it, he guessed that it was from five years ago. It did the job, though.

“What’s with the meat?” Elisa asked from behind him. He took the meat away to look up at her with both eyes. “Wow! What happened to your eye?”

“That pleasant fat man over there gave me this meat to help,” Aiden answered her first question. “As well as this delicious dinner,” he continued, looking down with a sigh at the plate in front of him.

Elisa chuckled. “That’s Tiny. He’s been the chef here for years,” she explained.

“Tiny, eh. That’s fitting …”

“He’s not the best cook, as I’m sure you can tell.” She smiled, looking down at the menu for the night. “Unfortunately, however, he is the only person around here that can actually handle cooking for this many people three times a day. Now, do you want to explain to me what exactly happened to you, to make you need a frozen piece of meat on your face?”

“I was training, sort of,” he started. “Logan thought it would be fun if we went to the training grounds and practiced a bit before I officially started my training tomorrow. Needless to say, I’m not as fast as he is.”

Elisa held his chin in her hand, tilting his face in different directions. “Elbow?”

“Yeah, how did you know?” She shrugged her shoulders, letting him go and sitting down across from him. “I’m going to be the laughing stock of the whole place—I hope you know that. I’m not prepared for this.”

“Don’t worry, Aiden. You have the best of the best teaching you, and you have the rest of us to help you out if you need any extra help after training. Despite my feelings toward Wolf, he is one of the best fighters we have, and would be a great asset to you if he tried to teach you a thing or two. Logan is also very good, as I’m sure you had the chance to see. With people like us around, there is no way you can fail.”

“You sure do think highly of yourself.” Aiden laughed. She smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

“Just being honest—why lie about it if it is true?”

“It’s called modesty. You might want to try it once in a while.”

The bench he sat on shook as a body plopped down beside him. “Wow!” Wolf smiled, his face only inches away from Aiden’s. “That
is
a good one!”

Logan sat down beside Elisa on the opposite side. “Why, thank you.” He smiled, bowing mockingly.

“Shut up.” Aiden sighed, placing the frozen meat back over his swollen black eye. It was already so bad, he could only imagine how it would look tomorrow. The King and the Captain would see him and realize right away their mistake. He let out another sigh, and tried to cut the dried-out piece of meat that lay on his plate.

The training earlier that day had gone pretty much as horribly as he expected. Logan had been extremely fast in his movements, whereas his were slow and clumsy. The weapons were extremely heavy, and the heat of the afternoon had made it hard for him to catch his breath. Logan had gotten a few good blows on his sides in before he actually started to make use of his shield. Logan had complimented him on that, saying he was already showing improvement by using the shield to its advantage. The problem was, once he put his focus on blocking the hits coming from his opponent, the other hand that held his weapon just hung there. He couldn’t do both at the same time, so he got no attacks in from his side. Logan told him he had to use both weapons as if they were extensions of his own body. Both movements had to be graceful and fluid, each working with the other, each complementing the other. It was, however, easier said than done. Thankfully, the others around him couldn’t see the bruises that were already forming on his body as well. Logan probably knew they would be there, but he wasn’t saying anything. The black eye was mortifying enough for him.

“Captain Turk is going to have a field day with this.” Wolf smirked.

“There is nothing wrong with a black eye,” Elisa said, defending him. “It just shows that you’re in the process of learning, which is good. Everyone will take a hit once in a while; you just have to take that hit and learn from it. Now you know better than to ignore the rest of someone’s arm, even if there’s a weapon on the end of it. Warriors will use every possible bone in their bodies to attack an opponent.”

All three boys listened to her in awe. When she spoke about fighting, it was like she was just one of the guys, but she wasn’t. She was a girl, and that made her exponentially different from everyone else there.

“Why are there no other girls?” Aiden blurted out. Elisa looked at him in surprise.

“Um, I don’t know?” she answered wearily. “I guess none of the other girls want to be in the King’s army, and if they do then they must not have the skill to do so? I was born into it. I didn’t really have a choice. My father didn’t have a son, so I had to pick up that responsibility.” She shrugged indifferently. “Every Captain has had his child enter into the army after him, but my father never had a son to do so, so he made sure I did. It was unconventional, but everyone accepted it after some time. I had to prove myself,” she continued, looking down at her plate. Aiden could only imagine how hard it would have been for her, being the only girl to probably ever have entered the King’s army, and to have to go up against the sexist minds of all the men here. “We can’t all be lucky enough to come here and instantly be a star,” she said, casting a hard smile across the table at Wolf.