A day had passed since Aida had departed, and as Kenric trained with Elizabeth’s help the next morning, Elizabeth said, “I thought you were my age. I didn’t realise you were one year older than me.”

“You are eighteen then,” Kenric said. He vaguely remembered reading her age in the report on her.

“That’s the age we graduate from the Royal Academy,” Elizabeth said, “Speaking of age though, where will the ageing ceremony be conducted? Is there a church in Blaidd?”

“There is,” Kenric said, “Although, it’s not a very large one, so many people gather outside to get a glimpse of the priests.”

“And how many priests do you have?”

“Only two. One for the Mother and one for the Father,” Kenric looked at her, “I believe nobles receive special privilege and have their name read no matter what.”

Elizabeth nodded, “It was that way back home as well.”

Kenric performed a few more swings before glancing at the sky and stopping, “Come, that’s enough training for now.”

----------------------------------------

Aida stared at the vast expanse of green in front of her, adjusting the spear slung on her back. She had avoided taking the road, so she couldn’t be sure, but she had the sense that she had finally left Kenric’s territory, and was now in Alain Aubet’s domain.

She pulled out the map given to her, and headed in the direction of the village she had been making for all this time. She had been given no carriage to maintain the secrecy of her mission, so her own two legs were the only form of transport she had.

When the village in question came into view, she breathed a sigh of relief. She’d been walking since before the sun had even come up. The village was a common one, with houses made of clay, and farms, and livestock covering the land.

Aida approached a couple who were attending to their pig pen as the villagers pointed and whispered to each other about the newcomer.

“Hello, excuse me, can I talk to you for a moment?”

The couple turned, dirt on their clothes and faces after having presumably worked all through the morning. They looked at her suspiciously, with the man saying, “Yes? What do you need?”

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

“I’m a wandering warrior in search of foes to defeat,” Aida lied, “I’ve heard this land is plagued with bandits. Do you know anything about them?”

“Bandits?” The woman asked, “You’ve come to the wrong place then. It’s true, bandits have come to this land, but they wreak havoc down south. They haven’t attacked us yet, thank the Parents.”

“We’ll ask you to move on now,” the man said brusquely, “We don’t want any of your kind here, especially with you inviting trouble the way you are.”

“I understand,” Aida accepted. She nodded in thanks and set off. She thought on what she’d just learned; if the bandits were harassing the southern portion of Alain Aubet’s fief, then their staging ground was probably somewhere there too.

The sound of soft footsteps behind her stopped her in her tracks. She looked back and saw a small boy covered in dirt. He was carrying a stick and had a defiant expression on his face. Aida was almost out of the village, so she looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “What are you doing?”

“Coming with you. You want to take down bandits, right? So do I.”

Aida looked around, there were still villagers staring at her, but no one came to take their kid back. “What?” She asked the boy.

“I hate bandits,” the boy said. And yet, he sounded perfectly calm and emotionless, “So I want to help you kill them. I need to come with you to do that.”

“I don’t think your parents will be very happy about that.”

“My parents are dead.”

He spoke matter-of-factly, too matter-of-factly. Aida frowned, “Bandits killed them?”

The boy nodded.

“Who do you live with now then?” Aida asked.

“My aunt and uncle.”

“Well they won’t be very happy then.”

“My aunt’s right there,” the boy pointed to a woman in the whispering crowd. When she saw the boy pointing at her, she slinked behind a few other people, “They don’t want me here. I’m just one more mouth to feed.”

“If you come with me, you’ll die,” Aida said.

The boy shrugged, “Maybe.”

Aida stared at the boy, something seeming to string her insides up tightly. She knelt to get eye level with him and put a gentle hand on his dirty black hair, “Look. If you come with me, I’ll do worse against the bandits because I’ll have to protect you as well. You don’t know how to fight, do you?”

The boy slowly shook his head. Aida gave him a soft smile, “Stay here with your aunt and uncle. Grow up strong and live well. Let me deal with the bandits.”

The boy, who had been so impassive this whole time, finally trembled under her touch, and he looked up at her with watery eyes, snot beginning to drip from his nose, “You’ll beat them up, right?”

Aida’s insides tightened further, and she forced a grin, “Of course!”

Suddenly, the woman the boy had pointed to was there, and she grabbed the boy’s hand, “Thomas! Stay away from her! You’re not going anywhere!” The woman looked on the verge of crying as well, and the act of coming here had clearly strained her, judging by her flushed face.

“Wait,” Aida said. She grabbed a few coins from the pouch on her belt and forced a handshake with the woman, surreptitiously handing them over. She said quietly, “This should cover most of the boy’s costs until the harvest.”

The woman looked touched, but she was wise not to thank her out loud. She gave the tiniest nod she could and ran off with Thomas in hand. Aida watched them go for a bit before she too turned and exited the village.

The boy’s tearful gaze burned itself into her mind, and her heart felt twice as heavy. She had made a false promise. The guilt swirled within her; her mission was to recruit the Hog, not to kill him.

She tried not to dwell on it. If she did, she did not think she would be able to take another step.