Crown Tournament [Chapters 11-12]

Hey peeps!

I hope you enjoy more of Crown Tournament!

Shami

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“What’re we going to do, then?” I asked.

If we didn’t have a team, did that mean we couldn’t enter? The tournament only came around every ten years. If we didn’t join now, we’d have to wait another lifetime to participate.

Did Master Elias even know three other people? I never heard him say even a single kind word about anyone.

Elias rubbed his chin, his nails catching on some of his stubble. Then he ran a hand up his face and through his hair. The pepper markings at his temples flared a bit, giving him a very flustered demeanor. Then he snapped his fingers. “It’s fine. It’s fine.” He snapped his fingers a second time. “We’ll just recruit some arcanists from the town.”

Wren frowned. “Random arcanists?”

“Travelers from all over have come here.”

“Not to be judgmental, but I’m pretty sure a wet towel could’ve come up with a better plan.”

Maser Elias shot him an icy glare. My eldrin ducked behind my legs.

“There aren’t that many arcanists here,” I muttered. “And won’t they all have their own teams?”

I had been all over Morrumbi Town. While the town had an astounding five hundred people, they only had fourarcanists. That wasn’t much. And would they even want to join a tournament? I doubted it.

Master Elias sighed. “The prize for winning the tournament is—”

“The Crown of Ascension,” I interjected.

“—yes, that, but also one thousand star shards.” Master Elias waited for a moment, like he wanted a reaction from me, but I wasn’t sure how to react. Elias waved a hand around and frowned. “That’s more money than most people ever see, boy! That’s why most people enter the tournament. They don’t care about the crown. They don’t even know what the crown is or what it’s capable of.”

With a nod, I widened my eyes. “Okay. But I don’t understand. Do we need star shards?”

“No. We don’t need them. Other people do. We can recruit three other arcanists if—” Master Elias pulled me close and lowered his voice, “—we promise them the star shard prize.”

“And we keep the crown,” I muttered, piecing together his plan. “Do you think people will be interested enough to team up with us? And how can we tell if they’re good fighters? Will we give them a test?”

“It doesn’t matter if they’re good.” Elias pushed me away and huffed. “You and I are very capable arcanists. We can probably handle most of the tournament ourselves, especiallysince you’re a kirin arcanist. You have the ability to empower your magic far beyond normal limitations. The other three arcanists will just be names to fill the roster so we can participate.”

That all made sense to me, though I worried my master was being too arrogant.

Surely there were other arcanists who were as strong as we were? We didn’t even have dragon eldrin. Would my kirin abilities be enough?

“You really think we can win with just the two of us?” I asked.

Master Elias replied with a smirk. “How many times do I need to tell you? You’re a kirin arcanist. Kirins empower their master’s other eldrin. You’re not just a syrocko drake arcanist—you’re going to be an unrivaled syrocko drake arcanist. And I’m already a master of my fighting arts.”

“I haven’t learned any of those abilities yet…”

“We’ll practice. You’ll be fine. Trust me. Have I ever steered you wrong?”

I slowly shook my head. “What if we face five arcanists who are really talented?”

Elias waved my comment away. “Don’t worry. We need five on our team, but five never fight at the same time. It said so in the rules.

“Oh, really?”

“How many will be fighting?” Wren asked. He poked his head out from between my legs.

“At most, it’s three-versus-three.” Master Elias paced around the room. “And the majority of the time, it’ll be two-versus-two. Trust me when I say, we don’t need the other three arcanists. We’ll carry them to the finale.”

Now that Elias had explained it, excitement coursed through me once again. That sounded like a great plan. “Okay,” I said. “What should we do?”

He motioned to the door. “We’ll scour the town. Find some chumps who want money—lots of star shards to sell, basically—and then meet up at the registry.”

I nodded along with his words. “Excellent.”

***

I walked down the street with Wren riding on my shoulder. My drake eldrin was rather large, and he had to wrap his tail around my other arm in order to even hang on to me.

While awkward, I loved having him close. His scales on the back of my neck felt warm. It reminded me of the Sunset Desert—my home.

With every step I took, my heart flew higher and higher in my chest. I couldn’t stop smiling. The citizens of Morrumbi Town waved and smiled back. I think they liked me. But instead of stopping to talk to the baker about what he does on a regular day, I decided to search for the arcanists.

More people were in the streets than normal.

They were likely travelers here to see the first few rounds of the tournament. Some of them were probably arcanists as well. Did they already have teams? It occurred to me that I could stop and ask if they wanted to join me and Master Elias.

I walked onto the market street—a whole half mile in length!—and kept my eyes open for any arcanist. They would have a mark on their forehead…

Wren clawed excitedly at my shoulder. His fingers were sharp, but the gesture was light and gentle—more of a scrabble than a genuine scratch. “What’s that?” Wren asked. “It smells delicious! Do you think we can get some of it?” He’d twisted his long neck around to stare at one of the stalls.

I glanced around, still smiling. A man with skin like ancient stone and a mustache with three colors sat beneath a large canopy. He tended blazing grill lined with a wide variety of meat. Most of it I had never seen before.

My nose wasn’t quite as good as Wren’s, but after walking a few more feet, I agreed with him. It did smell delicious.

“That’s a food stall,” I replied matter-of-factly. I was pleased at how quickly I was learning town life. “They usually sell things. This meat here is served with rice wrapped up in palm tree leaves.”

The words sounded strange coming out of my mouth. It’d been years since I saw anything like this. It was a little surprising, almost like I’d been transported back to a different universe. I’d lived in the desert so long.

“My mouth is watering,” Wren said with a grown.

I pulled out a coin bag Elias had given me. “Mine, too. Let’s get some.” The cloth pouch was just large enough that I could grip it in my hand, and the top was tied with a red string. I untied it, but that was the easy part.

I frowned as the coins tumbled into my hand.

There were sixteen in total—seven silver ones and nine copper. The coins were all different sizes—the silver ones were about twenty percent larger than the copper.

Behind the coins were several pieces of paper. I unfurled them and frowned. “What is this, Wren? Look. This paper says one rarik on it. What does that mean?”

Wren frowned. “No idea.”

I stared dumbfounded at the coins and paper in my hands. Master Elias had said I should pay for goods and services with coins. I had coins. I saw the meat. I wanted the meat. Did I just give the coins to the man behind the grill and take what I wanted? That didn’t seem right.

Wren growled impatiently into my ear. “Hurry up, Amir. I want to try some of that meat! What’s the hold up?”

“I don’t know how much these are worth,” I whispered.

“Just ask someone,” Wren whispered back, matching my tone.

“What if they think I’m uneducated or insane?”

Wren flared some of his red scales. “Don’t humans just know how to use money? Isn’t that one of your innate magical abilities? I feel like it should be…”

I stood off to the side and waited.

A woman ambled over to the grill and handed something to the man. Coins? I couldn’t see. Her hand was closed. Then the man grabbed two pieces of meat off the grill and handed them to her.

Ah. Now I understood.

Once the woman was gone, I stepped up to the grill filled with confidence. I put all the coins in my hand and shoved the paper into my pockets. Clearly, I didn’t need those.

I handed the man all sixteen coins in my tightly held fist. The man held his hand open, and his eyes nearly burst from his skull when I dropped everything into his grasp.

“Two meats, please,” I said.

Wren wagged his tail. “Maybe… threemeats?”

“Uh, I don’t think we can do that,” I whispered. The woman before had only taken two…

“O-Oh, no you can have as much meat as you want,” the man said with a smile that reached the two stalls on either side of him. “Take it all!” He shoved the coins into his own bag, practically giggling.

Wren gripped my shoulder with his claws, his mouth salivating. “What kind of meat do you think it is? Beef? Chicken? Hog? You know, I’ve had snake before. It’s pretty good, too.”

At first, I thought the meat was just on the grill, but then I realized everything was on a stick. The man tending the stall grabbed everything, wrapped them in rice and leaves, and then handed them over, stick end down, so I took them without burning myself.

“We have chicken, rabbit, goat—it’s all yours!”

The man seemed really happy. Did he just like selling meat? Maybe this was his dream job.

I stepped aside to allow others to the stall. Then I handed a stick to Wren. My eldrin gobbled it all, barely chewing. He even consumed the stick, which surprised me.

Wren muttered something, I couldn’t quite make out what he was saying through all the chewing and wheezing. It sounded like he thought everything was delicious, though.

I smiled. The sight of the tiny syrocko drake inhaling the giant stake of food was ridiculous. Behind us, people pointed at him, murmuring and laughing.

I grabbed some of the chunks of rabbit.

It was just as delicious as I imagined it as a child. The rabbit was perfectly spiced and cooked to the perfect temperature. The rice was warm and sticky, and it clung onto my hands as I shoved the food into my mouth.

Things were looking up.

I hadn’t eaten much rabbit before living with Elias, but after staying with him, I loved it. He always brought it out for special occasions, like when I’d done a good job with my training.

Rabbit didn’t just taste like food. It tasted like growing stronger.

“Can I have some more?” Wren asked. “I need it to get bigger like Hyperion!”

I glanced at my shoulder in disbelief. “Did you really choke down the whole stick already?” I could have sworn Wren’s throat had somehow expanded after forcing the whole thing down. Then I laughed and handed him another stick of meat, rice, and palm leaf.

His tongue flickered in and out of his mouth as he ate it from my hand. “You know,” Wren said thoughtfully, “it tastes better when you take your time with it.”

The rabbit was so warm and satisfying. I pulled a prickly pear out of my backpack and plucked away at the spines. After finishing that meal, I wanted some sweet dessert to help it go down. “You want some?” I showed him the fruit. It wasn’t fresh—it had been in my bag for days—but it would still taste good.

Wren shook his head. “Syrocko drakes don’t really eat plants.”

Come to think of it, I’d never seen Hyperion try a prickly pear either.

Wren burped and then stared at our remaining meat. “I wouldn’t say no to more rabbit, though.”

People ran down the main market street. I tensed and whirled around. Was there trouble here in Morrumbi Town?

I didn’t see any warriors or fighters or thieves, though. I just saw a whole group of children storming down the street, each more panicked than the last. They were a few years younger than me—not yet adults, but big enough to bump into people and cause them to stumble.

A girl with long red hair that flowed like fire angrily shouted, “Hurry! We’re going to be late to school because of you!” She wore a black dress that fluttered as much as her hair.

A boy in front of her, his hair shaved close to his head, wore a black tunic and shorts. They seemed to be matching. “It’s your fault!” the boy protested. “You’re the one who wanted to double check her homework!”

The two of them—and three others—ran right by me.

I blinked, then grinned.

School?

Homework?

I remembered hearing about those things at Rosewood Orphanage. Housemother Mila would often say we would need to learn our classroom etiquette, and how to properly complete homework. I never understood what she meant, and Master Elias never used those words. Not ever.

I handed Wren another stick of meat. “I want to check this out,” I whispered.

My eldrin gobbled down the stick. He choked a bit, and punched his own chest to swallow everything. After a cough, he asked, “Aren’t we supposed to be finding arcanists?”

I nodded once. “Maybe they’re in a school?”

“Hm. Maybe! I say we investigate, then.”

Again, unable to stop myself from smiling, I headed down the market street, ready to discover something new about Morrumbi Town.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The red-haired girl and her friend eventually entered a large square building on the edge of Morrumbi Town. The walls were painted a pale orange, and the roof a bright green. It seemed strange to me, but when I glanced through the windows, I spotted children of all ages—some even close to mine.

“Let’s go in, Wren,” I whispered as I headed for the door.

Wren flicked his tongue out. “Arcanists have to be older. Mystical creatures—which is me, so I’m the expert—don’t want to bond with babies. This is a waste of our time.”

“But… I’ve never seen one before.” I made my way to the front of the brightly-colored building and touched the door handle. Master Elias would be angry if he found me goofing off. “It’ll just be a short moment, okay?”

My eldrin offered a low growl that originated in his belly. He said nothing else. I took that as acceptance. I pushed open the front door and strode into the schoolhouse, my heart pounding.

The school’s interior was built like a street through town. There was a single wide central hallway, like main street, that branched out into several smaller rooms. I ambled down the hall, my eyes wide. Each room was nearly identical to the last. Children sat at desks while a single teacher stood up at the front, lecturing. The rooms divided the children based on age range. The younger ones in the first room, slightly older in the next…

“Check it out, Wren,” I whispered. “Look at all these students. This is awesome.” I grabbed him and set him on the floor next to my feet. Then I hurried to the next room.

One teacher, her hair kept tied down with a long bandana, shot me a glare as I walked by the door. “Hey, you! Get to class this instant. You’re rude and disturbing the others. For shame.”

I waved my hand in apology. “S-Sorry. I’ll be on my way.”

Wren followed me closely as I went to the next room. Instead, I spotted something exciting. Bones. So many bones. They were kept in cabinets with glass doors, allowing me to see the contents without physically sifting through each one.

The bones…

I walked into the room. Unlike the others, it was empty. No desks, just tons of cabinets, each filled with something different. One contained bright feathers, ranging in all colors, and another had weapons. Knives, short swords—even a spear.

Wren rushed into the room, staying close to my feet.

I went straight to the cabinet with the bones.

“Those are pieces of mystical creatures,” Wren said as he hopped up and down. “Again, I’m an expert, so you can trust me. Definitely mystical creatures.”

Another cabinet had larger bits of mystical creatures. I spotted the gossamer wings of a fairy, black metal chunks from a knightmare, and the long peacock feathers of a phoenix.

But my attention drifted to the spear. It wasn’t like the ones I had seen while living with Master Elias. All hisspears were wooden with sharp points at the end. This spear was different. There was a blade at one end, like someone had attached a sword to a long wooden pole.

“Hm?” Wren asked as I stepped around him.

I went for the cabinet, opened it up, and grabbed the shaft of the sword-spear. A piece of parchment was wrapped around the outside. I unfurled it read:

Revolution

This spear was once wielded by the powerful arcanist, Landis Bu. He and his pyroclastic dragon, Red Death, never knew defeat.

“By the shifting sands,” I mumbled. “This is a legendary weapon.”

Wren lifted his head to get a better look. “Really?”

“That’s what this says. The spear is called Revolution.”

“How did it get here? Are the teachers secretly great warriors?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“Well, then, what’re you waiting for? Test it out!”

I glanced around. “You think so?”

“We will definitely win the tournament if you’re wielding a legendary weapon.”

I held the weapon close. The shaft was emerald green, and the sword at the end seemed sharp. It all felt light, though. Too light. Even the training weapons Master Elias gave me were heavier than this. Was that part of its awesomeness? It was lightweight, to wield easier?

Ingenious.

“Okay,” I whispered. “Stand back.”

Wren scooted away, his head still lifted, his eyes wide. When he snorted, some embers took to the air.

The center of the room was empty and open. I moved to the middle, held Revolution with both hands, and took up my offense stance. With my feet apart, and my grip firm, I slowly swung the spear. It was so light, I feared I would accidently hit something.

“Test it out,” Wren said. “Stab a cabinet!”

“I don’t know…”

“Do it! Do it!”

He was practically hissing the last words. I knew if Roux was here, she wouldn’t like any of this. But maybe, if I showed him Revolution, Master Elias would forgive me for messing around.

I turned my attention to the nearest cabinet. And then I struck—hard and fast, like razor wind. The spear was so easy to move through the air, I struck the cabinet with surprising speed and stabbed the blade straight into the wood.

Then the spear shaft broke.

Just… in my hands.

Broke in half.

I leapt away, my eyes wide, my heart pounding faster than before.

“What the gobble?” Wren exhaled smoke as he rushed over to me. “You broke it! You must be the strongest arcanist in all history!”

Oh, no.

My mind raced, my vision tunneled. What if we needed this weapon, and…

Then I took a moment to study the spear shaft in my hands. It was hollow. This wasn’t a proper weapon—it was just some fake. Was it a replica?

I threw the spear shaft to the ground. It clattered across the stone floor. “That wasn’t a legendary weapon. It was just something to display.”

“Oh. Right.” Wren held up a claw. “They teach people here.” He said the word awkwardly, as though it tasted wrong. “This is all making sense now.”

“They probably use it to teach history.”

“Uh-huh. Well, this weapon is history now.” Wren opened his mouth and breathed flame across the broken bits of spear.

A loud scream broke all of my thoughts. I whirled around, my hands clenched into fists. A woman stood at the door, her short brown held back with string, her black dress matching the uniform of the students. She was older than the kids, though—and obviously terrified.

“What’re you doing?” she screamed.

I glanced down. The spear was on fire. A cabinet was a broken. Another one was open. What was I doing? It would’ve been a long and stupid explanation. In my embarrassment, I couldn’t manage words.

All I managed to do was shrug.

“Thief! Vandal! Someone, come quick! This villain is burning down the schoolhouse!”

“Uh, I’m s-sorry,” I stammered.

Wren flared his scales. “Don’t tell this desert bug you’re sorry! What’s she doing yelling at you, huh? No one yells at my arcanist and gets away with it!”

The woman screamed louder than ever before. And while I appreciated Wren’s loyalty, this really wasn’t the time. The woman was clearly just confused. She would understand if I explained myself.

I stomped on the small bits of flame. “Everything is okay. I was just looking around, and—”

“Help!” the woman screamed again. “This lunatic needs to be dealt with.”

Wren huffed. “How dare you? He’s not a lunatic! He’s a powerful arcanist!”

“A powerful arcanist is burning down the schoolhouse! Call the city guard! This criminal is dangerous!”

Criminal?

This was getting out of hand. I was a criminal now? Master Elias would be so upset and disappointed. And didn’t they put criminals in things called jails? Or cells? Or something? I vaguely remembered something like that in my history lessons. What if they killed Wren and Roux because I was now a terrible criminal? What if I never saw Master Elias again? I didn’t know what was going on!

This was all an accident.

In my panic, all I wanted to do was get away.

“I wasn’t here to hurt anybody.” I tried to rush by the woman, but she stared at me with eyes that grew to the size of silver coins. When she screamed, I backed away from her.

“What’re we going to do?” Wren asked, his voice almost lost to the screaming.

I grabbed him, hefted him onto my shoulder, and then dove for the window.

The glass was much harder than I thought it would be.

I hit the window, crashed through, but lost all the air in my lungs from the terrible collision. I tumbled onto the ground outside, rolling through the broken bits of glass, Wren still in my arms. When I managed to get to my feet, my head spun. The woman was still screaming, and now people were funneling out of the schoolhouse.

“Oh, wow,” Wren muttered as he squirmed out of my grasp. “I think they’re calling for an arcanist!”

I rubbed my temple and glanced back at the broken window. Why did I do that? Panic was never the solution. Master Elias had taught that to me, and now I knew why. I should’ve remained calm.

“This is perfect,” Wren said.

“You have a weird definition of perfect,” I quipped as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“An arcanist is coming! And boy does he look mad. Maybe he’ll want to join our team.”

“Are you crazy?” I stumbled away from the schoolhouse. “He’s going to throw me in jail. Or the stocks. Or a cell—whatever they have here. I’m a criminal now. That’s how it works. I think…”

“It does?” Wren tilted his head. “Oh. Well, then, I think we have a fight on our hands. Here comes the arcanist to arrest you.”