It was the morning of the fourth day after introductions. Just like each day before, Cadmar returned from his run exhausted. Both suns had risen, sand had invaded his shoes, and his joints still ached from the hour-long sparring session the night before. He barely got six hours of sleep, but he needed to run—he ran four days a week. His father, Corrigan, ran six, but he was an elite like his father, Caerul, before him and second in command in service to Lady Aprah of Gar. Cadmar looked up to him like a bird would the sky—because it was the only thing that made sense to him.
In fact, his father was the only person Cadmar had left. His mother left when he was nineteen, after he killed his first man and almost made his family lose everything. Now Cadmar wasn't anything. Not yet.
Cadmar noticed the estate bustling now, more so than last night and this morning; he wondered how long Eirek had trained after him. He found it odd that the culchie trained during the grave of night. But who was he to judge.
Cadmar walked past Eirek, who was oblivious to his presence, engrossed in a piece of paper in his hand. On his own door was a crimson envelope with his name in golden lettering. Another letter. It wasn't there when I left. Cadmar plucked it off the door and turned it around to see a dragon, with wings outstretched, breathing fire.
"What be this?" Cadmar broke the seal.
Just as he read the first word, Eirek's voice made him stop. "The first trial."
That made Cadmar read it all the faster.
Dear Contestants,
This morning Luvan Katore completed the last preparations of the first trial. This trial aims to test your partnership. As guardian, you will need to work with your conseleigh and will need to interact with the lords and ladies of Gladonus. Information for this trial will be given tonight at supper at seven. Luvan Katore will be in attendance to answer questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Guardian Edwyrd Eska
"Did you just get done with the sparring arena?"
Cadmar's ears perked, and he stopped reading momentarily as Eirek walked over to him. "No, I ran." Cadmar sized the culchie up and down. "How be your session last night?"
"Okay." Eirek shrugged. "The one I use back home is nowhere near as sophisticated as this one."
"My aul man has one for him and me back home. Which model you use?"
Cadmar noticed Eirek's frantic search for an answer. He didn't expect the culchie to actually have a habitat arena—country boys could hardly afford it. Eirek was trying to fit in; Cadmar couldn't blame him. Everyone needed someone to identify with. Cadmar had been trying to fit in his whole life.
To help Eirek out, Cadmar expanded on his question. "The HA One Hundred, Two Hundred, Three Hundred, Four Hundred, or Five Hundred?"
"Oh, yes," Eirek said. "The HA One Hundred."
"No wonder. You still be using the first model. Every two years, a new model be on the market. No doubt this one here is the newest. At home, we got a HA Three Hundred. Works fine."
"What are you doing for the rest of the day?"
Cadmar's stomach growled. "Going to lunch."
"I'll walk with you."
"Naw. I'll meet you there. After I shower." Cadmar could sense a glimmer of hope dying within Eirek, who skulked away to his room. He thought the request odd. Did the culchie really need someone to walk with him? Why? Cadmar remembered how he waited for him before introductions. Had he ever been a part of something? Cadmar furrowed his eyebrows and entered his room.
At lunch, the talk at the table was of the trial. The food was croissants, tossed greens, and mixed meats, including pork, snake, and frog legs. Guardian Eska and his conseleigh were nowhere to be seen, but they never had lunch with the contestants, only supper. Cadmar sat between the dark-skinned man, Zain, and Eirek. Both were scrawny. In fact, everyone at the table was smaller than Cadmar, with the exception of Senator Numos. And Numos had no muscles to show. Cadmar had seen plenty of people like that on Gar in the inner city of Visis, named after the leader of their revolt against Sereya. Ever since freedom from Sereyan rule, Gar excelled in technology. Unfortunately that technology now made them lazier than the frostbitten Sereyans or the water-washed Acquavans.
"So what do you think this partnership trial will be?" Eirek asked him.
Cadmar considered the possibilities. Only one thing came to mind—a part of the test done to become an elite. "To help each other climb a mountain without rope."
"I hope so, Garian. I am quite good at that. I would not need a partner."
Cadmar narrowed his eyes on Hydro. Since the trip to the Core, he had refused to call Cadmar by name, only by the nationality of his people. That man is a caffler. If he represents all Acquavans, it ruins my taste for visiting the waterlands.
"What mountain have you climbed, Hydro?"
Cadmar smirked at the question the other prince posed. Acquava was waterlands; there weren't any mountains there.
"Mount Tyld, the second largest mountain in Acquava."
"That mountain be more like a hill compared to ours. Mount Volan be the second tallest in all of Gladonus," Cadmar commented.
"What's the tallest?" Eirek asked.
"Mount Klaff, Commoner. But I hardly think we will be climbing that."
Did he refer to anyone by name? The man he killed had been one of the prince's type, one whose arrogance overrode his confidence.
"Why is that?"
The gingernut prince spoke, "Because it is suicidal. No one has ever finished the climb."
"Guardian Eska holds the record though. I heard that after he climbed the first level of the mountain and saw yet another ahead of him, he turned back."
Cadmar looked at the paunchy man who sat to the caffler's right. A glass piece sat in his eye and attached to a device that clamped onto his ear. A cane of black wood leaned against his spot, the top carved to resemble the head of a mockingbird. It must have been his favorite bird, because he also saw the mockingbird as the sigil on his garb of white silk. The man looked like an obese ghost with his milky skin.
"What if it's a riddle and we have to find something?" asked Eirek.
The culchie had an imagination on him. That was for sure. He was the only one ever suggesting anything—perhaps the others thought if they talked it might give information away. He noticed Gabrielle and Zain still had not said anything. Zain didn't even appear to be aware of the conversation, constantly playing with his food, but Cadmar noticed Gabrielle's eyes dart back and forth between speakers.
"Then I hope I'm not paired with you, Commoner."
Cadmar glared at the caffler. He was the type of person who caused Cadmar's mother to leave, who almost cost his father his rank. Being Acquavan only added ice capping to the mountain. "And I sure hope my partner not be you."
"Why is that, Garian?"
"Because Acquavans be slimy. They be from the sea."
"And Garians were carved from the earth and mountains."
"So our stories go."
"Water erodes mountains, Garian."
"Fire topples mountains. Not water. How much fire can an Acquavan produce?"
"Palo," Hydro said.
Before the word was even finished, Cadmar saw the glare given by Hydro. When his lips started to move, he knew what the caffler was doing. "Vesi."
Water from the glass in front of him and fire from the candelabra near the middle of the table collided, cancelling each other out. Everyone was now riveted in their chairs and looking at the two of them glare at each other.
"Enough. Both of you," Senator Numos said.
"Save it for the Trials, Hydro," Cain advised. He had stood up and tried to lower Hydro back into his seat.
"Why are all men so barbaric?" Gabrielle asked, her arms folded across her chest.
Only princes are barbaric, Cadmar wanted to correct, but he didn't want to lose the duel of glares that continued for a few more intense seconds. Throughout it all, Cadmar remained seated, but then Zain and Eirek beside him got up from their chairs.
Hydro didn't sit down; instead he threw the golden linen he held onto the table and stalked away—the first and only one to leave. It was a small victory for Cadmar, but he had learned to accept them when he could. The greater triumph would be becoming something greater than an elite or an apprentice—it would be becoming Guardian of the Core.