The Path of the Sword by Remi Michaud Page A

toward the other, each boy raised a fist and they seemed like two knights preparing to duel over an insult.
    Frantically, for he thought he could feel the ground start to fall away, Jurel tugged at Darren's sleeve as he watched the unfolding horror with wild eyes.
    “I thought you said we were just going to talk.”
    “We did. They don't want to listen.”
    A new voice began screaming, NO! NO! NO! Jurel almost turned to search for the new voice before he realized it was his own and it was in his head. He blinked. Somehow there was water in his eyes and it stung like...like sweat. But it was not hot enough for sweat, was it? If his breakfast had not been so far away, he was certain he would have lost it then.
    “Well in that case,” the drunken boy began but the voice was hollow and seemed to come from the other side of the pond.
    Instead of finishing his thought, the boy swung a wild fist at Valik and although Valik reacted quickly, it was not quite quickly enough. The fist caught him solidly in the shoulder and he cried out. Simultaneously, Trig and Darren responded, lunging forward. Like him or not but laws, even unspoken ones, had to be obeyed.
    Jurel could not make his feet respond.
    Come on! My friends are in trouble.
    NO! NO! NO!
    Please.
    NO!
    His mouth worked wordlessly and he watched helplessly with blurred vision as the battle was well and truly joined. Arms swung like clubs, bodies writhed. Voices yelled angrily when fists were hurled, and howled in pain when they landed.
    Still Jurel stood rooted to the spot, motionless except for the trembling that shook him like a sapling in a gale.
    NO!NO!NO!NO!
    The drunken boys attacked furiously, seemed unaware of the blows they took so fortified were they by whatever they had been drinking. He watched and he saw. Darren went down under a flurry of fists falling like an axed tree, Trig's head snapped back and he stumbled as blood sprayed from his nose glittering in the sun like rubies from a broken necklace. He saw all of this and still his feet would not obey him.
    There was a growing pain behind his eyes, like an iron band stretched too tight and in his ears, he heard an unearthly ringing like a hundred crystal bells struck over and over. In that ringing, he heard sorrow and loss. But there was more: he heard fire, rage, and longing.
    “Jurel! Jurel, come on!”
    Valik's voice reached him from far away, so far away that it could have been from the other end of the world, beyond a chasm of falling ground, and even the sight of him seemed obscured as if he looked down a metal tube and through dirty glass. He blinked, tried to clear his eyes but instead of clearing, he...
    Blinding light flashed , seared his eyes, like a bolt of lightning that struck too close.
    His father stared at him. Not Daved. No, his father . Gram. He was wide-eyed with fear as he gazed at Jurel. The acrid stench of burning clawed at him, made him gag.
    Another bolt, a second flash! and Valik punched someone in the gut. He was holding his own but there was an angry gash along his jaw. It reflected the angry glare in his eyes. Trig pulled someone off Darren and spun him, punched him in the cheek. He knew the voices still yelled, he saw their mouths working with it. But it all seemed lost in the insistent pealing of the bells in his ears.
    But that was not quite right. He did hear screaming. It was not the screaming of children fighting. No, it was the screaming of men dying, forlorn, bereft of hope, full of loss, emptying of blood. There was another voice too. A keening voice, thin and reedy. A tormented voice that he dimly realized was his own.
    Flash!
    He cowered under the wooden table in the tavern. Even at his young age, he knew he was only moments from dying. A glance toward a darkened corner revealed his mother staring at him but she did not see him. Her mouth hung open as though surprised by something and a silken thread of blood dripped from her lip to the floor.
    He averted his gaze, back to