“And how many monsters?”
The smile disappeared from his face. “Countless.”
After that, he had ordered me to get right back to training. As I stumbled and tripped and sweated, he shouted out information for me to remember:
“There are sixteen tunnels in Riverfield that we know about—both those created by us and those created by the monsters. It is your duty to protect them all and discover the rest of the monsters’ tunnels as well. Unfortunately, I think there are many more.
“Ogres will always try to crush you with a club. They just prefer it.
“Monster Crushers must never show fear. If they do, the monsters will sense the weakness, and the battle will be lost.
“You must find strategies to get to the leader as fast as possible.”
The other warriors just watched me with a mixture of bemusement and disdain as I tripped on logs, toppled over wooden barriers, shot arrows wide, and awkwardly stabbed fake monsters with knives and spears and swords, all the while trying to pay attention to Eldon. A couple of times I missed the monsters altogether with my attacks…and the targets were stationary. That was not a good thing.
“Take a break,” Eldon muttered after another run through the course, obviously seeing that I was taking one either way. “We’ll start again in a few minutes.”
“Yeah,” I managed. “Awesome.”
I crawled over to the nearest wall and propped myself against it, feeling my cheeks burn as some of the other Monster Crushers whispered about me in the corners. I knew that Swords were guarding my house even now, while others were scouting the tunnels all around Riverfield, trying to find out how the monsters were accessing the surface. But as Eldon constantly reminded me, the tunnels were a maze that could take years to unravel. The entrances were all hidden in the stone.
The woman with the crimson hair was back, sharpening her recently bloodied sword in the corner and sneering at me. As I sat there, I started thinking about what I would be doing right now if I hadn’t found the secret door in my closet. I’d be sleeping right now, probably dreaming of Liam R. Kelp and me running along a beach together. Well, maybe not a beach. I didn’t like even fantasy me in a bathing suit.
Instead I was running around a walled stone courtyard jumping over logs and getting laughed at by grim-faced warrior boys, and all so I would be ready to fight trolls and giant spiders in pitch-black tunnels. Maybe Newcastle hadn’t been so bad after all.
“Hey,” someone said.
I looked up in surprise as a boy dropped down beside me. He might have been only fifteen or so, but his arms were lined with hard muscle. His raven hair was full and a little curly, and there were a few small scars on his cheeks, white against his deeply tanned skin. His eyes were a soft brown, and he didn’t seem as grim as the others, flashing me a smile of the whitest teeth I’ve ever seen.
“Having fun yet?” he asked, tying his running shoes.
I tried not to stare at his arms. He must really like bicep curls.
“Oh yeah,” I said, flushing. “I think the falling is my favourite part.”
He smirked. “It’s not fair to expect you to do all this this quickly…you’ve only been here for two days. Not to mention you’re…different. How old are you, anyway?”
“Thirteen.”
He looked surprised. “You’re quite big for a thirteen-year-old…” He paused, as if he had just realized what he’d said. “You know…tall.”
I waved a hand in dismissal. “I think we’re past that. I’m an ox.”
“Hardly,” he said. “You’re stout. Good for fighting monsters.”
“Except I don’t want to fight monsters,” I replied glumly. “I can’t even hit the fake ones.”
“It takes time to find our strengths. Lee, by the way. I’m one of the Monster Crushers from Canada. I figured you were an American…can’t talk to a lot of the people here, obviously. They speak English in Derwin and a few other realms, but a lot of the Monster Crushers are from other countries. Most can speak a little English, of course, but they aren’t all overly chatty anyway. Figured you might like to talk to someone.”
He smiled again, revealing those sparkling white teeth. He smelled like sweat, but not in a bad way, which I thought was impossible. I guess not when you look like that.
“Definitely,” I said, flustered. “Nice to meet you. Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
I looked around the courtyard. “How come so many of the Monster Crushers and their Swords are young? I would think the elite warriors would all be adults.”
Lee’s smile disappeared. “You don’t always live long in this job…especially the Swords. Not unless you’re Eldon.”
I followed his gaze and saw that Eldon was doing the Warrior’s Way. He flew over the logs like a bounding gazelle, somersaulted under barriers, and landed his arrows right between the eyes of every target. When he stabbed a creature, he buried the sword right to the hilt, and then wrenched it out in a continuous motion. I watched in amazement as he flicked a knife at the last target, sticking it right into a fake goblin’s chest.
“Who is he?” I whispered, while trying to discreetly wipe my brow. I glanced at Lee. Did he even have pores?
Lee lowered his voice. “He’s the exception to the rule.”
“What rule?”
“Every Sword from the Under Earth was chosen as a child. They don’t even have a choice. They are selected as the best warriors and brought to Arnwell to train.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“It’s not,” Lee said. “But in their world, it’s a great honour to be a Sword. So they were all chosen—except for Eldon Rein.”
I watched as Eldon ran the course again. He was even faster this time. His hair billowed out behind him with his cloak, and his blue eyes flashed in the
