Chapter 4: In Trouble Again

“Yaaowch!”

The leather shoe fell to the ground and bounced, and Alcar rubbed his head where it had hit him just in front of the temple.

“What were you thinking?” roared his father. “We could be fined by the city. We’ve all been told again and again that Duke Frage wants to gain control over the lizardfolk to grow the power of the Imperial ar

my. You can’t got there on some hare-brained childish search for adventure.”

Bam! A second shoe hit Alcar, this time in the stomach, and he gasped and spluttered slightly, then glared back at his father, the tall, moustachioed cobbler, Beldin.

“This isn’t fair, Da! It wasn’t my idea.”

His father walked closer, wielding another leather shoe that he picked up as if it was a club. “That’s no excuse. You need to think for yourself.” The man grunted, apparently thinking for a moment. “Who were you with, anyway?”

Alcar knew that it would be hard to lie – the city guard had escorted himself together with his companions Olynka and Sprigg back to the poor quarter. He had no reason to cover for the pair, either. All the same, he just shrugged. “A couple of folk from my classes. I don’t know them all that well. One is pretty new, I mean.”

Beldin shook his head slowly. “Alcar! When are you going to focus on your studies and grow up? You are going to need that if you’re to get a decent job. I can’t support you now that you’re nearly grown.”

Alcar was nearly finished his period of mandatory schooling, a process that was not required by the Empire but had been introduced in the city of Katresburg under the Dathmiri royal family.

“I do focus on my studies, Dad,” lied Alcar. “I’ve been working hard. The teachers are really happy with me!”

“They’d better be...”

Although his father had never learned to read himself, and was paying nothing for Alcar’s eduction. Nonetheless, there was no doubt that the man felt very invested in the career of his only surviving offspring.

It had been a blast at times, cutting classes and roaming the streets alongside Sprigg and any other classmate who could be persuaded to come along. But now, at age 16, Alcar was ready to strike out on his own, like it or not.

He needed a plan.

“You know,” said Beldin, softening his voice slightly, “I could still do with someone to cut leather in the workshop. I’d even pay you a copper rigg per week, which is generous under the circumstances.”

“I’ll think about it, Dad.”

The tall man raised his hand again, another shoe held in it, and Alcar turned and ran for the doorway.

“And you need a wash, son!” his father’s voice rang out as he fled for the street.

***

Twenty minutes later, after dunking his head in a rain-barrel and scrubbing ineffectually at his face and arms to remove the worst of the swamp odors, Alcar clambered up onto the roof of the abandoned garrison in the poor quarter – a favorite gathering place for the other teenagers. Currently, though, only Olynka was there – the rest would be in class. The young woman was lying on her back and staring at the sky, apparently without a care in the world despite their recent arrest by the city guard.

“All right, Alcar?” she said, a broad smile on her face. “That was fun, right?” Olynka still had her bow beside her,

He shrugged and sat down, the early winter chill already beginning to cut through his damp hair and clothing. “It was, yeah,” he said with a forced smile. “But I might not manage another trip to the swamp for a while. My dad is really breaking my balls about this.”

“Parents,” she said, and then spat. “I can’t wait until I can spend all of my time adventuring. To live like Warlik, and go on quests.”

He smiled. “So that’s really what you want to do?”

Although Olynka seemed to have accepted him as a friend, the truth was that Alcar didn’t know her well – she and her mother had moved from an outlying village only recently.

“I sure do. In fact...” She paused and looked at him, brown eyes wide. “I think it’s my destiny.”

Alcar sniggered. “Perhaps I should have said that to my dad. I’m sure it would have gone down well.”

They both laughed.

“Yeah,” said Olynka, “I bet he would have kicked your ass. But seriously, my family have telling me for years that I should pursue magic. They think I should become a witch.”

“Really? Are you gonna?”

She shook her head, then picked up the bow. “No way. This is more my style.” She sat up, then reached over and picked up her bow. “Witchcraft is a lot of being at home, chanting over potions. I like getting out and about. And I don’t want to face monsters without a weapon in my hand.”

“Makes sense.”

“Yeah. I mean, obviously I need a better bow. This one was dropped by a goblin in the woods near Lorn, and my dad re-strung it for me. But more importantly, I need training.”

“Mmm.” Alcar nodded thoughtfully. He had realized earlier that all of them were considerably out of their depth. “But who will train you? I tried the city watch, but they don’t take people our age. They said ‘come back when you’re twenty one’, if you can believe that.”

She shrugged, her eyes gleaming as she looked at him. “If you’d asked me this morning, I wouldn’t have had a clue. But did you hear what Warlik said?”

“Uhm... about the lizard? Or his clan?”

“About Lox’aar. He called her the finest archer of his people. And he was going to see her this morning.”

“Right. Perhaps you should have jumped on behind him.”

She sniggered. “But seriously. He also said he would come to Katresburg. If he brings her with him...”

Alcar nodded with a slight shrug. It seemed to him to be a big ‘if’. But Olynka was welcome to dream.

“What about you, Alcar? What would you do – as an adventurer, I mean?”

“I dunno. Find treasure and stuff, I suppose.”

She chuckled again. “Right. But I mean, what would you actually do. Spellcaster? Scout? Healer? Fighter?”

“Oh, yeah. I mean – I’d do anything! Anything to avoid spending my years cutting leather for my dad. I’m not sure I’d make much of a fighter, though. Well, at least, Sprigg and I once tried it with wooden swords, and he whipped my ass. And if I can’t beat that big lump, well...”

“Perhaps you just need to practice, man. Like me and my bow.”

“Sure, sure. But I like the sound of spellcasting. It might be best to leave the weapon stuff to people who like that. Like you, for example.”

“Mmm. Sounds like we both need a master to give us the training. If we’re ever going to make it, that is.”

They sat in silence for a moment, and then Olynka got up and began to walk around the edge of the garrison roof, looking down at the milling citizens below. “You’d have to train for a long time, you know. To learn magic.”

Alcar nodded. “It surely can’t be as long as school. Or as boring.”

“Hey, come over here!”

Alcar complied, and when he reached her Olynka grabbed his arm, and then pointed with her bow towards the street below. “You see that guy?”

”The one in the robes? Sure, I see him.”

Olynka looked at Alcar, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “He’s a spellcaster, and a powerful one, too. And I think I know his name – Maluhk.”

“That... sounds familiar.”

“Right? He’s one of the group that Warlik spoke of. A former adventurer. I knew he was in the city.

“And?”

Olynka looked around at Alcar, narrowing her big brown eyes. “And... we were just talking about getting trained! He’s one of the best magic users around, and he knows Warlik. We should go and speak to him.”

“On you go, then.”

Olynka shook her head, staring down at the street again. “I’ve spoken with him once before, but he doesn’t much like my family, unfortunately. I’m not one hundred percent sure he’d recognise me, but...” She looked up at Alcar. “Come on – you should do this. It could work out perfectly for both of us!”