Order and Chaos

Chapter Ten

Four years ago

Stacks of books were piled atop the table like colorful, leather-bound mountains, obscuring Kymio’s view of Mae on the other side. Half of the books were flipped open to various pages, displaying an assortment of pentagram designs, spells inscribed in the Ancient Tongues, and pictures of rare potion ingredients.

“Have you found it yet?” Mae asked, exasperated. Although Kymio could not see her clearly through the maze of magic encyclopedias, he imagined her rolling her eyes toward the Stars in frustration.

The boy could not restrain a grin at the imagery. “Hang on a moment,” he laughed, seizing a deep blue volume from the mountain. Twenty other books were subsequently wrenched from their places on the table, and tumbled to the floor in a thunderous cacophony. “Oops,” he said, not sounding particularly apologetic.

A swift boot underneath the table clipped the nerve cluster under his kneecap, causing his leg to spasm. “It’s a simple enough question, Kymio. How do you disable an enemy twenty paces away using only a small bag of salt, a handful of yew berries, and a branch of pine leaves?”

“Give me an army, and I’ll outmaneuver five others,” the boy muttered, chagrined. “Give me one of Maethya’s original test questions, and it’ll stump me for a half hour.” The boot struck a second time, though Kymio could have sworn he heard Mae snort back a laugh.

A knock at the door relieved the boy of his studies for a moment. Ducking underneath the table, the slight Kauterian boy could make out Koyanda’s red leather boots standing at the doorway. “Thanks to you, I lost a set of perfectly good knives last night,” he complained, crossing the room to stand at Maethya’s shoulder. “Dropped them in the underbrush while trailing those brutish barbarians across the border.”

“And who’s fault would that be?” Maethya scolded, a smirk rolling off her tone. Koyanda grunted guiltily. “Just go back and look for it.”

“I’m not terribly gifted with directions, Mae.”

“You mean you got lost again?” Kymio chortled, amused, and was silenced by a playful warning glance from Mae. “Kymio, you were there last night. Where might Koyanda have dropped his knife?”

Kymio closed one eye, flicking back through last night’s events in his mind’s eye. “The route we took last night carried twenty-one minutes west, sixteen minutes northeast, seven back east towards the creek, three to follow the creek’s length southeast, nineteen running east along the northern border, four southward to double back for Koyanda, another four east again, and finally six north until we found the barbarian party sitting just south of our border.”

Koyanda was dubiously impressed. “Remember all that, do you, boy?”

Kymio smiled mischievously. “Mae hangs me from the roof by my wrists and uses my bare chest for archery practice if I misremember my directions.” The indignant boot lashed out a third time, but this time Kymio was ready for it. Lifting his own ankle to the underside of the table, he brought it down swiftly, timing his attack so the ball of his foot struck Mae’s exposed shin.

A delighted laugh escaped the Ikari woman, who in turn placed her feet against the rim of Kymio’s seat and dipped him backwards. He gripped the tabletop to steady himself, but otherwise allowed Mae to relish in her victory over him.

“Your reflexes are unparalleled, my young apprentice,” she intoned, her voice mockingly deep.

“Your breath is that of a dying horse’s, my dear master,” he teased, prompting Mae to bring his chair down forcefully. The momentum of the impact shook several more books from the table, which master and apprentice alike proceeded to ignore.