The Callindra Chronicles Book One - First Quest by Benjamin Fisher-Merritt Read Free Book Online Page B

he
wasn’t sure it would withstand what it needed to. She had to be
tested.
    “ Only the strong survive
girl. You’re useless to me if you can’t even stand on your own two
feet. Didn’t you say you wanted to be stronger? If this is all the
resolve you have you wouldn’t last one day under a true Master.”
She looked up at him through tear stained eyes. “I said get
up.”
    Staggering to her feet, she barely managed to
rise completely before the leg that had been shattered buckled and
she had to catch herself by grounding the tip of her practice
sword. Glarian shook his head seemingly in disgust. “Go back to
bed. You aren’t fit to walk on that leg, much less learn even the
most rudimentary stances. Females have no tolerance for pain and
limited ability to learn.”
    “ NO!” Callindra assumed the
first Stance, her left leg shaking from the effort, her face white
from agony as sweat began to drip down her forehead. “I told you
I’d do your damn training in two seasons and if you can’t stand to
see a girl in pain maybe you should get a nursemaid to help you
through your dotage.” Glarian’s eyes narrowed slightly, smoothing
out wrinkles on his weathered cheeks.
    “ Fine, I don’t want to hear
you blubbering all night long again though. I’m a light sleeper.
After you run the first six Stances ten more times there’s wood to
be split and water to be hauled. You’d better haul double if you
want a warm bath.” He turned and walked back to his small stone
house without looking back, his long steel-gray braid swinging like
an agitated cat’s tail.
    Wiping the sweat and tears from her face
Callindra ground her teeth against the pain and began moving slowly
through the Stances. “I’ll show him, if I don’t have talent I’ll
just have to practice harder. Just because I’m weak doesn’t mean I
have to stay that way. I will prove to him I’m worthy of being his
disciple. I have to.” Unaware of the eyes watching her intently
from the darkened window of the house, she moved through all ten of
the Stances Glarian had taught her instead of just the first
six.
    “ Damn. If I push her hard
enough she just might survive the testing. If she manages to
survive, perhaps she can carry my fighting style on. Maybe it won’t
have to die with me. She’ll need something unique though; she’s
just not strong enough to use the sword it calls for. In order to
unlock her true potential and to protect the blade itself from her
wielding it I’m going to have to bend the rules a
little.”
    Sitting on the hearth he drew his blade,
after meditating for a few minutes with the bared blade across his
knees he passed his hand over the mirror polished surface; calling
arcane letters to the surface with a whisper of wind. “Belach. I’m
calling in that favor. I need a Blade.”
    Forming an image of Callindra in his mind and
her potential, he raised the blade he blew the spell off the end,
completing the Sending. With a sigh, he sat back next to the fire
and packed his pipe with tac, waiting for a response from the
smith.
    The reply to his Sending came after a shorter
period of time than he’d anticipated.
    “ Glarian, you cocky fuck. Do
you really think you’ll get away with it? Whatever, I’ll make her a
sword; after all it’s a challenge and I owe you regardless. I’m
warning you though, it won’t last. That girl… she’ll destroy it.
She’s got too much power for that frame and she’ll take it out on
whatever sword you give her. Either that or it’ll kill her and you
along with her. If she was here for me to measure her potential
myself I might be able to pull it off, but that little whelp is
fucking dangerous, you’re nuts if you try to train her.
    “ In other words, I know
you’re training her you stupid bastard. Watch your ass and I’ll get
the sword to you in a year. Stay alive until then, and keep her
alive. I don’t want all this fucking work to go to
waste.”
    So it was bad then, worse than he