Eden-South (12 page)

“We are honoured to meet you,” he said,
holding out his hand. Aiden reached out to shake it, but the King
grabbed his forearm instead, almost cutting off the circulation
with his strength. Aiden could tell this wasn’t the type of King
who sat on his throne while others fought his battles. He was
clearly a soldier, among other things.

“You’re quite a tiny thing, aren’t you?” the
Captain said, regarding him from head to toe. Aiden wondered if he
was expected to actually answer that.

“Now, Captain, he will need training—we all
knew that. No one comes from his world ready to fight our battles
right away. As I understand, Diana worked with you a bit before you
left?” Alistair asked.

“A little,” he said in a shaky voice.

“Excellent,” the King commented. “Anything
is better than nothing. Your training will start tomorrow; we don’t
want to overwhelm you on your first day here. We are all looking
forward, though, to seeing you achieve your greatness.”

Sweat was building under his collar as they
all looked at him. It was obvious how much faith they were placing
in him, and he couldn’t help but feel like it was folly. Did they
not realize that he was completely unqualified for this job?
There has to be a mistake,
he thought frantically.

“He looks like he’s twelve,” the Captain
commented again. Aiden felt his cheeks grow red, but he appreciated
that someone in the room was actually being honest here. He could
tell the Captain doubted his abilities just as much as he did.

“Turk, that is enough,” the King said
harshly. “We are not to discourage the boy. Aiden, my first advice
to you is to not listen to the insults this man will throw at you.
There will be many, and they don’t mean a thing. He does it to
everyone.”

Looking back at the Captain, he saw the man
smile and wondered if he really was just teasing him. Elisa was
smiling as well, which helped to calm his nerves.

“Elisa, bring him back to the dormitory and
get him something to eat. We will see you again tomorrow,” the High
Priest instructed. He watched her bow again, and both of them
turned to leave. As they walked down the hall again, Aiden let out
a huge breath of air that he felt like he had been holding the
whole time he was in there.

“Wait,” they heard someone shout. Both
turned to see the King running up. “May I have a word alone?” he
asked. That took Aiden off guard, having a
King
ask him
permission for something. He instantly nodded his head, and Elisa
walked up ahead to leave them alone. “I just wanted a chance to
tell you how brave I think you are for coming here and doing this.
I can only imagine how strange and frightening this journey has
been so far, and there is so much more to come. If you ever need
anything, and I mean anything, please do not hesitate to call on
me. I have instructed all my guards to let you into the palace
should you request entrance.”

“Thank you,” Aiden mumbled awkwardly.

“All right then,” the King said, taking a
small step backwards. “Off you go.” Aiden bowed his head and turned
to leave. “One more thing …” He reached out, grabbing Aiden’s arm.
“How is Diana doing?”

“Um, she is well?” he replied, making it
sound more like a question than an answer.

“Wonderful. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
With that, the King turned back toward the High Priest’s chambers,
leaving Aiden confused and alone in the hall.

“Aiden! Let’s go,” Elisa barked. Jumping at
the sound of her voice, he turned and hurried up to reach her,
thankful to be leaving the place.

When they returned to the dormitory, she led
the way to the main room, keeping Aiden close so he wouldn’t get
lost. Everyone was already there eating lunch. As they entered, all
eyes turned in curiosity toward the newcomer. Looking back at
Aiden, Elisa grabbed his arm and brought him to an empty table.

“Don’t let them intimidate you,” she said in
a low voice. “No one knows who, or what you are, and we should
probably keep it that way.”

He looked up at her questioningly, his face
pale again. “Why?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Alistair told
me to keep your origin a secret for now. He doesn’t want anyone
treating you any differently, whether that be for the better or for
the worse. Only we know where you came from, and my father and the
King. Other than that, he wants it kept quiet. We’ll tell everyone
you’re from a village outside the city walls.”

“Won’t people know I’m lying? Someone would
have seen me by now, no?” he looked around wearily at the other
tables. The other men were still watching them, making Aiden’s
shoulders drop.

“We don’t usually take boys from the smaller
villages outside the city, so no one here will notice. Most of the
men have come from families whose ancestors were in the army before
them, or at least from inside the city gates. There are men, like
Wolf, who are from the other tribes, which happens only
occasionally. We’re a select group.”

Elisa watched as Aiden’s body straightened
as he realized that he was a part of an elite group. She gave
herself a little mental pat on the back, knowing it had helped. In
all honesty, she felt bad for Aiden. Not only was he in a strange
place, and a new world that he never knew existed, but he had no
one here, and had more expectations on his shoulders than any other
fifteen-year-old boy. The weight of their world was literally
riding on him, and that couldn’t be an easy thing to handle. She’d
have to try her best to make him as comfortable as possible. Some
of the looks she caught were jealousy, and she knew some people
would mistake their friendship for something more. He would have
enemies right away because of that.

“I’ll go get us some food,” she said,
smiling down comfortingly at him. He smiled back, slowly nodding
his head.

“There he is!” Elisa heard Wolf cry out. She
turned to see the two idiots walking over to their table.
Great,
she thought, rolling her eyes. The intentions behind
Wolf’s friendliness were still a mystery to Elisa. She couldn’t
help but be suspicious. He wasn’t normally so forthcoming with his
companionship like this, especially with new recruits—or at least
he hadn’t been with her.

“I’ll be back,” she said, turning to Aiden
again. She walked off just as the other two arrived.

“Where is she going?” Wolf asked, nodding in
Elisa’s direction.

“She just went to get us some food,” Aiden
explained. He felt depressed, and scared. Everyone that morning had
looked at him like he was some gift from God, sent to save them
all. Now everyone was looking at him like he was the plague. It was
one extreme to the other. He couldn’t help but feel lost. There was
no way he could live up to the expectations of the leaders, and he
would undoubtedly embarrass himself in front of the other men here,
making him the laughing stock of the army. No one would want to
befriend him. Except, he thought, looking up at the two boys who
sat with him, Wolf and Logan seemed to want to befriend him. He
wasn’t completely alone, he thought reassuringly, and he also had
Elisa.

Looking over at her, he saw that she was
speaking with an extremely obese man, wearing nothing but a white
tank top and dirty brown pants, which seemed to have more food on
them than the counter in front of him. She held two bowls out,
while he filled them with something from the large steel pot. He
could tell she was trying her best to keep his mood up, which he
appreciated, but he doubted she understood how much stress he was
under. It was easier for her—she was this archer who was naturally
good, the best apparently, and he was this lanky boy from another
world, who had no skills whatsoever. How could he compete? Looking
at the other two, he knew they were probably great at their talents
too. He could tell just by how muscular they both were. All the men
around him were, except of course for himself. He sighed, wishing
he could crawl under a rock and hide.

“What is the matter there, newbie?” Wolf
asked, smirking.

“Nothing,” Aiden mumbled.

“Did they make you give blood this morning?”
Logan asked, his face a mask of disgust. Aiden nodded his head. “I
hate that,” he said, shivering. “I’ve bled many times from cuts,
but something about those priests doing it to me on purpose, and
then keeping it in a bowl, makes me sick.”

Wolf laughed. “Stop being such a baby; it
wasn’t so bad, was it, newbie?”

“No, not as bad as I thought it would be,”
he answered.

“So what did they want?” Wolf asked, as both
of them leaned in closer.

Aiden wasn’t sure how to answer. According
to Elisa, he was sworn to secrecy. He wasn’t even sure if he was
allowed to say who exactly he had met with. Before he was put in an
awkward position, Elisa returned, coming to his rescue.

“Why don’t you just mind your own business?”
she answered Wolf’s question, placing a bowl in front of Aiden.
Whatever it was looked horrible, but it didn’t smell half-bad. His
stomach rumbled in response. He picked up the spoon she got him and
started shoving mouthfuls down his throat. It didn’t taste that
bad, he thought.

Elisa and Wolf began to exchange sarcastic,
snarky digs at each other, while Aiden took the opportunity to look
around. The area was one large room, with high ceilings and ten
long wooden tables. There were huge wooden beams running along the
width of the ceiling, and multiple candlelit chandeliers hanging
from it. The floor was old, worn wood, as were the tables and
benches. A fireplace sat along the north wall, and beside it was
the cook’s station. The obese man must have been the cook, Aiden
concluded. He wore a small white hat over his greasy black hair.
His face was covered in black stubble, and his eyebrows were like
two huge skunks sitting on his face. He wore a permanent scowl,
which was directed toward him when he noticed Aiden looking his
way. Turning his head quickly, Aiden looked back down at the bowl
and continued to eat.

All the tables were full of huge men,
clearly fighters. They each wore leather or a plain riding suit
like Logan wore. Wolf still didn’t wear a shirt, however, Aiden
noted.

“All I’m saying is that the boy can speak
for himself,” Wolf was saying.

“Yes, well, all I’m saying is that if you
were supposed to be in the know, you would have been. Since you
were kept out of the situation, maybe you should just stay that
way.” Wolf looked suspiciously from Elisa to Aiden, his eyes
narrowing. Logan looked too, but kept his face neutral. Clearly,
they both realized something weird was going on, but Elisa put the
kibosh on any further discussions regarding the matter.

“You training today?” Logan asked, probably
trying to change the mood. Wolf’s face remained the same.

“No, I start tomorrow,” Aiden replied,
thankful that their arguing was over.

“I hope you’re ready!” Logan laughed. “They
kill you.” Aiden moaned, making Elisa and Logan laugh.

“Don’t worry,” Elisa said, placing her hand
on Aiden’s arm. “You’ll do fine, and I’m sure my father will take
it easy on you for the first couple of days.”

Wolf abruptly stood up, causing the bench to
scrape loudly across the floor. A few heads looked up to see what
the noise was about.

“I have to go … do … laundry,” he explained
weakly. Nodding his head at each of them, he turned and left the
room.

Logan started to chuckle. “Do laundry.” He
laughed, shaking his head. “That wasn’t even a good one,” he
snorted. Aiden couldn’t help but smile at Logan’s amusement. They
probably didn’t even do their own laundry, Aiden thought. “He’s
probably going to meet up with Louisa,” Logan offered, raising and
lowering his eyebrows. “She was the feistiest of the three blondes
you met the other night.”

“I need to go too,” Elisa said, standing up.
“Can you find your way back all right?” she asked, looking down at
Aiden.

“I think so,” he replied, shrugging.

“Don’t worry. If he gets lost, I’ll help.”
Logan smiled.

“Great, thanks. I’ll see you later then.”
She walked off in a hurry, her hips swinging from side to side as
she strode. Aiden watched her retreating form in a daze,
appreciating every curve of it.

“Every guy here does that,” Logan said,
interrupting his thoughts. Feeling his cheeks grow hot with
embarrassment, he turned back to Logan with a look like he had no
idea what he was talking about. He laughed at Aiden. “Don’t be
ashamed. She’s a beautiful girl. You’re not the only one who thinks
so.”

Aiden looked around, and realized he wasn’t
the only one who had been watching her. It didn’t surprise him that
so many guys would like her, but it definitely made him feel a
little more depressed. With that many options, why would she ever
go for someone as weak and plain as him? She could probably have
anyone she wanted.

“What is wrong with her and Wolf?” Aiden
asked curiously.

Logan just laughed. “What isn’t wrong with
those two? You want to leave here?” he asked, standing up. Aiden
had finished his stew, so he nodded his head and the two of them
left the room, with numerous eyes on their backs as they did.

“What weapon are you trained in?” Logan
asked as they entered the training camp. He said no one was using
it right now, so he thought they could practice a little bit before
Aiden’s official training started the following day. At first Aiden
didn’t want to, too embarrassed to show someone else how terrible
he was, but then he thought maybe it would be better this way. At
least it would just be Logan, and not the whole army. He might even
be able to give him some advice.

“Um, nothing, actually,” Aiden replied
sheepishly.

“Nothing?” Logan turned in surprise. “You’re
not proficient in anything?”

“I’m all right with the double-headed axe.”
Aiden shrugged.