The Cold Light Fades - Book 1 of the Crystal Chronicles

Chapter Two - Battle Practice

The twins left the classroom and went into the great Scorvain Archives, which contained row upon row of bookcases, holding a variety of books, scrolls and charts. It was also considered a sacred place, which meant that everyone who came in, did so in silence and all conversations were had in hushed whispers.

"How does he do that?" Alesson said quietly to Linta.

"Do what?" Linta whispered back.

"See everything we're doing without looking up from his books?" Alesson asked.

"I don't know, but he didn't punish us for not paying attention, did he?" Linta replied.

Alesson thought about it. "Maybe he knows that we know the stories inside out and backwards, and now he's trying to get us to question those stories for some reason?" Alesson's voice cracked again and a few of the nearby scholars turned to glare at him for disturbing them. Alesson cursed under his breath while his sister giggled, he grabbed her hand and hurriedly dragged her towards the exit.

Once outside in the corridor, Alesson looked at his still giggling sister and said, "Stop it."

"But it shows your becoming a man, Alesson," she said whimsically.

"I know, but it's embarrassing," he said, and his voice broke again. This sent Linta into even more fits of giggles. Alesson scowled at her and stomped off down the hall toward their quarters.

He soon heard the patter of feet behind him and Linta said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. You shouldn't be so sensitive, brother dearest. Soon you'll have all the young girls in the city swooning at the sound of your deep manly voice."

Alesson looked over his shoulder and stared hard at her, while he continued to storm down the passage. "Oh, will you lighten up, you're being silly," Linta shouted after him.

Rounding the corner, Alesson came to the doorway to the twins' royal apartment and went inside, just in time to see the maids putting lunch on the table and scampering away quickly. Alesson sat down at the table and started to tuck into his lunch, which was a bowl of spiced vegetable soup with some nice thick crusty bread.

His sister came in, sat down opposite him at the circular wooden table, and started to eat her soup too. They sat in silence eating their soup until Linta made a loud slurping noise as she brought the spoon to her mouth. This caused the hot soup to go down her throat the wrong way and she started to cough and splutter.

Now it was Alesson's turn to laugh. "Serves you right," he said, and then he got up and rubbed Linta's back until the coughing subsided.

"Thanks," she said eventually.

"Not a problem Linny," he said to her, still sniggering a bit. "So, are you ready for today's battle training lesson?"

"Not really," she replied. "I'm not like you; I really don't like fighting. I'm too small and scrawny." She flexed her arms to show him that she had very little muscle. "I guess that's why I'm in the lower group; they mainly teach us how to protect ourselves and our creatures."

"That's a good place to start," Alesson said, "but we've been told that a long time ago there was a great battle stratagem that says, sometimes the best defence is a strong attack, or something like that."

"That's all well and good, if you have the strength and skill to back it up," Linta said sourly. "My training seems to just consist of holding a shield and parrying blows, while trying to find the most opportune time to stick my dagger into the target." Linta emphasized her words by stabbing her spoon at him.

"What about training with Lars?" Alesson asked.

"Lars and I are very similar, but he too is not very strong and most of his skills are to do with protection and camouflage," Linta answered.