The Cor Chronicles: Volume 02 - Fire and Steel by Martin V. Parece II

giving them a sunken in look; combined with the pallor and coughing fits that all Dahken shared, it made Geoff look even more like one of the walking dead. He spoke little, but Keth knew he saw all.
    Geoff almost never wanted to rouse himself in the morning, at least ever since they reached Byrverus and Dahken Rael showed up. In the flight from Losz, he had been very helpful, even responsible, but now he undertook every task asked of him with lackadaisical effort, if not grumbling disdain. Keth was sure it had to do with the training; Geoff had shown no aptitude at swordsmanship at all and had no success with using his blood, as opposed to Keth, who advanced nicely to the point that he and Rael now fought with live steel, under the watchful eye of Western guards.
    Keth had no doubt that Geoff resented him.
    “It is time,” Keth said, merely poking his head through the crack between the door and its frame. He knew Geoff was awake, though the boy lay on his side facing the wall. “You need to get up.”
    “Why?”
    Keth sighed, “Because it is time. Dahken Rael wants a short training session, and have you forgotten? Today we leave for Fort Haldon.”
    “I’d rather just stay here, and I don’t much see the point in having Rael bleed me some more,” Geoff responded as he rolled onto his back and sat up. He lay naked in his bed, and Keth saw dozens of small scars on the boy’s arms and chest, most of them fully healed. A few were fresh.
    “Geoff, its there, its in you. You just have to find it.”
    “Maybe I couldn’t care less. Did anyone consider that?” Geoff asked, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.
    “I don’t have time for this today,” Keth said. He pushed the door all the way open and turned to leave, but thought better of it for one moment. “Remember, Cor freed us from Taraq’nok, and he gave us the choice to come with him and learn. I am sure the other choice is still open to you.”
    Geoff watched as Keth stalked off down the hall. He clenched his jaw as he sat staring at the cold stone floor of his room. He should just leave; no one would stop him, but then he would probably spend his entire life running from Loszians and Westerners for the power they thought he had but didn’t. Geoff closed his eyes and sighed, slumping slightly. He then pushed himself up from his small bed and dressed himself.
     
    * * *
     
    Keth burst shouting into Cor and Thyss’ room in the late morning. Cor almost never slept late, as Rael typically would not allow it, but today was their last day in Byrverus. Thyss had kept him up late, well past midnight, in a furious session of lovemaking. While she chaffed at the inactivity over the last several months that had kept them well into the winter, Cor thought she would miss the plush pleasures of Queen Erella’s palace soon enough. Not that she would ever admit it.
    “Lord Dahken!” Keth shouted as he charged into the room, startling the couple awake in their bed.
    Cor bolted upright, inadvertently yanking the warm down blankets off of Thyss’ naked body, who only growled and rolled over for the trouble. Keth stood doubled over with his hands on his knees, gasping and trying to catch his breath while his eyes fixed inadvertently on the bare skin of her back. It seemed he had sprinted a good distance.
    “Keth, what’s wrong?” Cor, also naked, slid out of the tall bed to plant his feet on the cold floor, and Keth yanked his eyes away from Thyss.
    “You must… come see… Geoff in… in the practice yard,” Keth wheezed out.
    Cor yanked on a cotton tunic and breeches, the same he had discarded at the foot of the bed the previous night. He ran from the room, leaving Keth gasping and coughing as Thyss slowly crawled from the bed without any sense of modesty before the young Dahken.
    Rarely would Thyss move hurriedly in the morning hours, and Cor knew she would move especially slow with the knowledge that she would soon be in Rael’s presence. The two had no