Prince of Time

Chapter Six - The Festival of Unity

Maple lounged in the chair, sword-belt lying on the floor beside her. Across the table, her trainer sat. Maple smiled a little proudly, triumphant in the black and red of a warrior. She was a novice no longer.

“I know you better than you know yourself,” her trainer sighed. “I’ve watched your mind over the years. You should know that I am proud of you.”

Maple hid the flush of pleasure well.

“My name is Eliseo,” he added.

Maple was startled. She had almost forgotten that the man might have a name of his own. It seemed strange to pin a label to him, just as it seemed too strange to look at him without a novice’s obedience.

 He was younger than she had realised, his face unlined. He might even have been handsome but the idea of looking at him like that was beyond her. He was her trainer. He had taught her everything about being herself. He was the most godlike person she had met.

“You’re a cadet now,” Eliseo continued. “I hope I’ve trained you well. If I am lucky, I will see you again but you are going to be busy now, being a warrior. You should know that you are one of my better pupils, Maple Greenberg.”

“I’m honoured,” Maple bowed her head, respectfully.

“Take your sword,” he urged, gently. “Stand proudly when they present you. I will be watching.”

Maple stood up. “I must go and join the lines.”

Her trainer nodded. “Go well, warrior.”

“And,” she hesitated. “Thank you. Eliseo.”

He smiled oddly. “The pleasure, child, is all mine.”

Maple stood in her new warrior’s garb in a short line of others. To her right, Pepper was looking triumphantly out of the crowd, head held high, a defiant line to her mouth. Both wore their swords publically for the first time.

To her left, two young magicians – a boy and a girl – waited in long robes. Beyond them stood three more, two boys and a girl, in the silver of unicorn hearts. To Pepper’s right were four boys in the leather jackets of dragon riders.

   The First Tier gathered in the square, a central meeting place for all four groups. Every year, this festival took place as novices became cadets. Banners and flowers hung in tangled clouds from roofs and torches burned rainbow colours under the quiet influence of magicians.

“Gather!” the Master of Dragons bellowed. “Gather!”

The crowd surged forward, the shouting noise decreasing to a murmur.

“The Festival of Unity!” the Master declared, “Is again begun!”