Return of the Stormcriers

CHAPTER 33 - MOONSHADOW

"If all goes well we should reach the Trensin Woods by this evening," Anthony called over the pounding hoofbeats of their steeds. Matt nodded silently, too exhausted to shout back over the thunder their mounts created.

  For two days, from sunup until sundown, they had ridden at breakneck pace; away from the safety of the mountains, up and down rolling green hills that rose and fell like the breaths of the land, and now across flower dappled flatland that stretched to the looming distant tree line. Dirt and dust covered every inch of Matt, thrown up from the riders in front of him. As much as he had readjusted to life on a horse, his hips and backside ached from the long hours in the saddle even worse than they had after the first days travel. His arms were sore and bruised as well, but that was a result of his nightly sword training with Cliff. The soldier seemed to take some delight in giving Matt a solid whack with his training branch whenever he left his guard down. The lessons were difficult, and somewhat painful, but Matt could already see marked improvement from his first day. He felt more confident in his movements, more solid in his parries. He was nowhere near proficient yet, but he was confident he could now survive for more than a few seconds if he had to engage in combat.

While the nights were spent training with Cliff, Matt's days were filled with training from Anthony, Sylvia, and Rachel. Continuing where they had left off in Riftwater they taught Matt to control his powers. He could now summon the electricity to his fingertips with ease, and focus his attacks without exerting all of his energy. Their teaching style differed greatly from Prince Nathan's. While he had spent more focus on breathing and clearing his mind, his new instructors were more concerned about the strength of his powers. It made sense, Matt thought, unlike his time with Prince Nathan he now had to learn to use his powers for combat, and being forced to train while in the saddle did not give him the space he needed to meditate and clear his mind. If he could keep a large enough distance from his enemies that they could not engage him physically, he now felt reasonably competent in his powers that he believed he could strike down several men before he would begin to tire. A far cry from his first attempts where the mere act of coalescing the sparks around his hand had driven him to the point of exhaustion. It intrigued Matt to no end to see how each stormcrier differed and compared in their philosophies and practices in their use of the same powers. It seemed that there was no 'one way' to activate or control your abilities any more than there was  'one way' to farm, or hunt. In this, Matt felt that he benefitted from being instructed by so many tutors before he became too set in any specific method of practice. The three nobles proved to be powerful stormcriers in their own right, though not as deeply knowledgeable on the philosophical considerations and applications as Prince Nathan had been. For the hundredth time Matt mourned the loss of his friend and instructor. His hatred for the princes' betrayal still simmered fresh and hot, yet oddly tempered by the disgust of the brutality in which Nathan himself had been murdered.

Will had taken to watching with interest as his brother and cousin instructed Matt, keeping pace alongside them with his mount so that he could listen to their conversations and instructions. Curious as to what combat applications Will's magic provided, Matt had eagerly asked his friend for a demonstration of his own style of combat. Seeming somewhat disheartened, Will had admitted that his mother had never taught him any magicks that could be used to attack or harm any living beings for as she put it,

"Verden has enough distrust towards sorcery without you becoming a battlemage." She insisted instead on filling Will's lessons on healing spells and helpful applications. Partially out of deference to his mother's wishes, and in part to a lack of spell books and tomes populating the library in Dragonfyre Keep, he had maintained his focus on the healing arts after her passing.

  While much more reserved in their observations than Will, the soldiers watched Matt's lessons with equal, if not greater interest. Their conversations stilled whenever the nobles began discussing or demonstrating their powers, as the men took the best, and quite possibly only, opportunity to witness a stormcrier up close. Only a month prior, Matt would have counted himself amongst their number. Even with the noble houses of Verden growing in members, stormcrying was still a rare enough gift that the majority of people would never see it used in person. Everything that Matt had known about stormcriers before he met Nathan had been legend and conjecture, and he had always assumed that was how it would always be.