SeaJourney: Arken Freeth and the Adventures of the Neanderthals, Book 1

Chapter 1: The Rock Test

Mother, I weep for you each night. Our enemy's campfires seem to number more than the stars in the sky. Their soldiers drum and chant all night, tormenting our sleep. I fear the worst for my people, for I cannot read the Necklace of Tol to see the Time to Come.

—Diary of Princess Sharmane of Tolaria

Thirty boys surrounded Arken in a circle, waiting for him to lift the rock.

"Class, form a seated square around the post and stone," their instructor Lar ordered. Arken's task was simple: lift the heavy stone and leave it balanced and still on the post. But he had never lifted such a heavy stone.

Arken's classmates carried sparring swords and wore bronze armor over their white, knee-length tunics. Bronze helmets shielded their faces from the blazing sun. Their armor rang with the music of bronze as they joked around and took their places sitting cross-legged on the courtyard clay.

It was easy for Arken's classmates to laugh. Having already passed their tests, they were in a happy mood. Being the youngest in the class, Arken was the last to reach his fourteenth birthday and take the test. Arken stared at the heavy round stone lying on the red clay of the courtyard next to the post. If he passed the rock test, he would graduate from the Lantish Military Academy and join his class at sea for their moonth-long training mission.

If he failed the test, he would be held back and repeat his last year's training. He didn't want to be held back; he was ready to go to sea and begin his career as an officer.

Well, there is a way to graduate, thought Arken, but that would be harder than lifting the rock. He could defeat Gart, their class salcon, or leader, in a sparring match, which was nearly impossible, as Gart was a year older and a head taller than Arken, who was the shortest student in the class.

"Arken, it's hot. Quit staring at the stone and lift it!" Lar ordered. "Then we can get out of the sun."

"Yes, sir." Arken stepped toward the rock as he scanned the second-story classrooms several hundred feet away across the courtyard. Girls in the Queen's Trackers often visited the Academy for training and, being scouts, they had good eyes. He didn't want them to see him fail.

But no girls watched from the openings in the gray stone walls. Even the tower guards weren't looking, probably because their midmeal had left them sleepy.

Arken turned toward Tok, the name given to the rock five hundred years earlier when the test began. "Don't forget the warrior's creed," Lar reminded him.

"Sir!" Arken recited it. "Fear none in battle, nor death at sea, nor those who wish to torment thee, with Kal in mind and sword held high, fight until you win or die."

"Good! Now win your fight with that rock," Lar ordered.

Arken reached down and grabbed some of the red courtyard clay and rubbed it on his palms to improve his grip. Then he rose and stepped before the rock. Waves of heat from the midday sun shimmered off the surface of the rock. It is going to be hot as well as heavy, Arken thought.

A swordtooth's scream split the air. The class turned as one toward the sound coming from beyond the north wall. The high-pitched tone dropped to a long, low rumble that made Arken's neck hairs stand up.

"Remain calm, class," Lar ordered. "That swordtooth is far away. I promise, if it draws close enough for the guards to kill, we'll go up on the wall and watch."

The boys all talked at once about the swordtooth and seemed to forget about Arken. He wiped sweat from his face that had run down despite the gastag leather strap holding back his long, blonde hair. He felt grateful for the swordtooth because it bought time to get his nerves under control.