Chapter 1

Caleb walked along the dry, rocky trail that had been carved through the dense woods south of the village of Kirakath. His left hand held his yew longbow firmly where black leather had been wrapped around it to form a grip. His right hand was steadied on the wooden shafts of the arrows that stuck out of the brown leather quiver that hung behind him from his waist.

As he walked, the sun shone through the trees to the west, casting light upon his short dark blond hair and his face. The youth of sixteen years removed his right hand from his quiver and used it to block the sunlight from his eyes.

The subtle sound of footsteps brought his attention to the trail ahead of him immediately. Peering forward, he could see a young man no more than two years older than him approaching.

Caleb knew who the person approaching was on sight. With his gray tunic, black leather boots, black leggings, and black gloves, the young man fit the description of only a single person that he had ever met. It was Gabriel Silver, his best friend.

Caleb’s blue eyes met Gabriel’s green ones as the raven haired young man walked up to him with a smile on his face.

“Your father told me you were out here practicing again,” Gabriel said when he was about ten yards away from the younger boy. “Walk with me. I received some news today.”

A curious look appeared on Caleb’s face at that, but he nodded his head without any hesitation. There was no one he trusted more than Gabriel.

Gabriel walked towards Caleb once again and placed his right hand on the younger boy’s shoulder briefly. Without saying a word, he continued to walk past his friend.

Immediately understanding, Caleb turned around and followed after his friend. Because of his friend’s slow pace, it did not take him long to catch up to the older boy.

Silence reigned between the pair as they walked to the basic archery range that Caleb had set up about a mile south of Kirakath. From Caleb’s perspective, it seemed that Gabriel did not actually wish to talk, which puzzled him to no end.

Why would he tell me to walk with him if he isn’t going to say anything? His inquisitive mind could not contain itself at his friend’s unusual behavior. They were generally very open with each other, after all, and Gabriel had said that he had news.

When they reached the clearing where the archery range had been set up, Gabriel looked around at Caleb’s handy work. It was a grassy clearing with a single tree in the center of it. Crude targets were cut into the various trees around the clearing by the blade of a dagger. The tree in the center, in addition to bearing less autumn leaves than any of the other trees around, did not have any of the marks of the crudely carved targets. It did have ordinary targets that were nailed to it, however.

“It looks like you’ve added more targets,” Gabriel commented.

“No, I haven’t,” Caleb said dryly. “You just haven’t been here since I first set this place up.”

Gabriel shrugged. It was no secret that he found archery boring and had avoided Caleb’s practice range. It was also no secret that he always had a good excuse for avoiding it. After all, he was far from perfect at his craft, so there were better uses of his time.

“What did you want to talk about?” Caleb asked, seeing that Gabriel was making no attempt to start the conversation.

“Let’s talk under your tree. It’s a bit warm today,” Gabriel said with a ghost of a frown upon his face as he pointed to the tree in the center of the clearing. He then glanced at Caleb’s weapon of choice that was still in his left hand. “There’s no need for you to continue holding that bow of yours either. I’m sure it’s uncomfortable to carry it in your hand for so long.”

Caleb had already begun to do as his friend suggested before Gabriel was done speaking, though the last part had him looking towards his friend with a raised eyebrow. Holding his longbow tired him no more than it tired a soldier to carry a sword. It was almost second nature to him.

He shook his head away from the mental questioning of Gabriel’s suggestion. It would not have done him any good to verbally question Gabriel’s intent, so he simply walked under the tree, where he carefully laid his bow down. He made sure to lay it against the tree so that Gabriel did not accidentally step on it once he was over there. The raven haired boy was not exactly known for being careful, after all.

Finally coming face to face with Caleb under the brown-tinged leaves of the tree, Gabriel said, “You’re not going to like my news, but I need to be blunt or I’ll never get around to telling you. I’ve received a letter from Zabryan today. They’ve offered me a position in General Staloc’s army. I’m going to accept it.”

Caleb’s eyes widened at that statement. He knew that Gabriel wanted to serve in the King’s Army after all that his father had told him about his time in service of the kingdom.

He also knew that Lucas Staloc was King John’s head general, but more than that, he was an old friend of his father’s back when he was still a soldier. They were supposedly best friends before his father’s term of service came to an end.

“Dad pulled some strings for you,” Caleb stated. There was no question in his words.

“He might be your father, but he’s my teacher too,” Gabriel said with a heavy sigh. “Please don’t begrudge him for pulling strings for me. He was only doing what he felt was best for me.”

“You only ask me not to begrudge him,” Caleb said, surprised. “Why don’t you ask the same for yourself?”

“I don’t ask the same for myself because I don’t need it,” Gabriel said with a small smile. “You know you’ll forgive me before I even leave. You’ve always been like that.”

Caleb could not stop the small smile that appeared on his face as he heard his friend’s words. Gabriel had always been like the brother he never had, which made it impossible for him to be angry with the older boy.

“How long are you going to serve for?” Caleb asked with a heavy sigh.

Gabriel smiled and clapped him on the shoulder with his right hand. “It will just be five years. I’ll be back again before you’ve even found yourself a girl to marry.”

Caleb shook his head at that. Disregarding the mention of marriage, his thoughts were focused entirely on the term that Gabriel had chosen. Though it could have been longer, five years was a long time. He did not even know if Gabriel would be the same person that stood before him in five years time. “When do you leave?”

Gabriel’s expression turned somber at that question, which immediately told Caleb two things. The first was that it was a very important question, and the second was that he was not going to like the answer. He was right on both accounts. “I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning.”

“You can’t be serious!” Caleb nearly shouted. He knew that his life would be changing soon, but he had not expected it to change so much in such a short amount of time.

With a grim smile, Gabriel nodded his head. “I thought I’d have until the spring before I had to leave, but with the start of autumn only a few weeks passed, they’ve asked that I leave immediately so that I can begin my formal training.”

The thought of his talented friend undergoing formal training confused Caleb. After all, Gabriel had to be better than most new recruits. “They do know that you’re my father’s student, don’t they?” Caleb asked.

“They do indeed,” Gabriel confirmed. “From what your father told me, it is commonplace for every recruit to go through formal training under their supervision, regardless of origin. I don’t know what to make of it, but it’s probably just a tradition or something.”

The blond nodded his head. He agreed with Gabriel’s assumption that it was just a tradition. It made sense to him. After all, his father had often told him that the King’s Army was rooted in tradition.

“So this is the last time I’ll see you for five years,” Caleb said quietly. The prospect of not seeing his best friend again for such a long time truly worried him. Kirakath had always been a small village, and Gabriel was the only person within five years of his own age.

“Don’t worry, my young friend,” Gabriel said as he draped an arm across Caleb’s shoulders. “You will get along without me. When I return, I expect to hear that you’ve become the greatest archer in all of Arcadia.”

Caleb smiled weakly at that. The knowledge that Gabriel did not really view archery very highly at all lessened the impact of his words.

“So how did your father take the news?” Caleb asked after a few moments of contemplation.

“I actually haven’t told him yet,” Gabriel said nervously.

Caleb nodded sympathetically as he heard that. He knew that Andrew Silver would not take that news very well. After all, he had lived in the village his entire life and was actually the village leader.

“I wish you the best of luck, my friend,” Caleb said with a light smile.

Gabriel groaned. “Okay, let’s head back to the village. I wish we could spend a little more time together before I leave, but I need to tell Dad about this. Knowing him, he’ll insist that we spend the rest of my time here together.”

Caleb inwardly smiled at his friend’s attempt to make it sound as though he would rather do anything other than what was going to happen. For as long as he had known Gabriel, the raven haired boy had been very close to his father and had enjoyed spending time with him.

With that, Caleb picked up his longbow and they began their trek back towards the village of Kirakath.

* * * * *

It was about a ten minute walk from the archery range to the small village of Kirakath, but it had been much shorter than either of the two young men would have liked. On Caleb’s side, the walk was too short because he had enjoyed spending time with his best friend. On Gabriel’s side, the walk had been too short because he was not eager to tell his father the big news.

As they entered the large clearing that Kirakath was built in, Caleb could not help but smile as he always did upon seeing his home.

Despite the fact that Kirakath had been a village for close to five hundred years, it was more or less a collection of twenty houses that were all made of wood. The houses lacked paint of any kind and there was no protective wall of any form around the village, but in Caleb’s eyes, it was grand.

“Well, this is where we part ways for now,” Gabriel said as he looked to the right of the village where his house was located at.

Caleb nodded. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

He stood there as Gabriel walked towards his house to deliver the news that would surely shock his father.

Caleb exhaled a deep breath as he began to walk towards the other side of the village where he lived with his parents, Michael and Sophie Sullivan.

He arrived at his house in a matter of a few minutes. Like most of the houses in the village, it was a single story wooden house with a thatch roof. It was composed of a living room and two bedrooms.

Entering the house, he saw his mother kneeling before the fireplace where she was baking some bread. As usual, she wore a light brown dress and had her long brown hair tied back in a pony tail. She turned as she heard Caleb and looked at him with her brilliant blue eyes.

“Oh Caleb, I didn’t know you’d be home already,” Sophie said with a kind smile. “Your father said you’d probably be with Gabriel for a little while longer.

Caleb walked over next to his mother and sat down on the floor next to her. “I’d have liked to, but he needed to tell Mr. Silver about his plans.”

Sophie placed her left hand on Caleb’s head and ruffled his hair. “You’re a good friend, always putting Gabriel before you without complaint.”

“What do you expect? I am your son,” Caleb replied with a smile.

“That you are,” Sophie said with a radiant smile. She turned her attention back to the fireplace just in time for her to remove the bread as it finished baking and deposit it in the basket that she had sitting next to it. With that task complete, she once again looked at her son. “Your father decided to visit Andrew so that he could be there when Gabriel told him about it. Your father likes to help out however he can, after all.”

Caleb nodded his head in agreement with that assessment. “Mom, can I ask you something?”

“You can ask me anything,” Sophie reassured him.

“Do you think Dad would have been proud of me if I had chosen to follow in his footsteps?” Caleb asked as he looked away, slightly ashamed to ask such a question aloud.

“Your father has always been proud of you,” Sophie said with the ever present smile on her face in full force. “He has every reason to be proud of you. You’re a great person, and you did not complain at all when your father insisted that you at least undergo some basic combat training back when you started your apprenticeship as a hunter.”

“He just seems so proud of Gabriel,” Caleb said with a sigh.

“Your father’s a complicated man,” Sophie admitted. “Every time you’re around, he praises Gabriel, but you’re the one he praises when you aren’t around.”

“Really?” Caleb asked. He had never considered such a possibility before.

“Of course,” Sophie said with a sharp nod. “Now, I need to start on dinner or we won’t have anything to eat tonight. Are you going to help or not?”

“Of course,” Caleb replied with an easy smile. He inwardly sighed as he thought about how easy it was to talk to his mother as opposed to his father. Such thoughts were quickly dismissed as his mother began to tell him what she needed him to do.