The Stolen Prince (Blood for Blood Book 1) by Tom Wright, K.L. Gee Page A

Skeet, pulling his head into a tight headlock and throwing him to the ground before he could get footing to vanish. Skeet raised his hands in surrender.
    Hakon looked around, and the others gathered burst out in laughter. They had all lost to Hakon. Skeet had lost twice. Hakon was still the best dueler among them. Gage had made sure of that.
    “Good.”
    Hakon looked up and saw Gage, watching. How much had he seen? Gage turned to his nephew.
    “Skeet, you will be Hakon’s second?”
    Skeet’s smile disappeared as he looked at Gage. He looked annoyed that he had even been asked the question. “Of course,” he said.
    Gage inspected the others in the tribe. “Chief Tip and I have decided. Should Hakon win the duel of decision, we will be charged as a tribe to accompany him. We will be his escorts after a second and third are named.”
    Hakon looked at his fellow brothers, the ones he had grown up with his entire life, fought and hunted with. They all looked confident and proud in that moment—there was no doubt in their eyes. Once again, Hakon felt a swelling of affection for the Terra, especially the tribe of Kaldin. They believed in him.
    “Hakon, let’s walk.” Gage said.
    Hakon nodded, putting his sharper weapons back into his furs. He glanced back at his fellow warriors before he left. Skeet was already telling a story, which got the rest of them laughing. Hakon followed Gage away from their tribe.
    “Do you think I’m cruel, Hakon, for separating you from my family?”
    “I understand it, Guardian. You never wanted me to forget who I am.”
    Gage was leading him to the tunnels they had walked through on their first day here. They were soon walking among the dark hallways lined with images and carvings. “Not just that. It is important for you to be like a guardian, separate from any attachments, like a family. Do you know why this is?”
    Hakon had always wondered why guardians were not allowed to marry or have children. “So you won’t have favorites in your training?”
    Gage shook his head. He turned to face Hakon, pausing in the darkness beside a torch. “One day, perhaps soon, you will have to make decisions about who lives and who dies. These cannot be decisions of the heart. Your affection for your mother, your fellowship for Skeet, even your respect for the Terra. All this will be tested. Skeet may be your enemy one day.”
    “Never,” Hakon said. Wasn’t that the reason he was raised among the Terra? So that he might never call them his enemy?
    Guardian bowed low underneath an entryway to a cave. They wandered through the darkness of the passage toward the torches ahead. His voice reverberated across the walls. “You haven’t met your father. You do not know what he will make you do to test your loyalty.”
    “Never,” Hakon said again. His honor would not allow him to be a traitor.
    “You do not understand the depth of hatred, Hakon. How much our people hate the air people. And how much they hate us. It has been bred in us for centuries.” He paused, having reached the carvings and paintings on the walls.
    Hakon felt like shouting. “You don’t think I understand that hate? You don’t think I’m bitter? But it’s my own people I hate, not the Terra.”
    “They are both your people.” He picked up a lit torch and held it higher so Hakon could see. “You mustn’t forget who you are, on both accounts. You are divided, but by understanding both sides, you can become a bridge.” Gage pointed to the strips of cloth that hung from the ceiling along the walls, dividing the paintings and carvings like pauses in a story.
    “This is the legend. The story the guardians tell.” Hakon peered at the drawings on the walls, recognizing some of the images of a man. But they were crude and old. Hakon had forgotten the stories, but they hardly seemed important now. Why had Gage brought him here?
    “All of these drawings and carvings were discovered or written here when the Terra escaped into