“He was a farmer from Eran,” Lee said quietly. “He was only nineteen, but he’d just gotten married to a beautiful girl named Lily. He was happy. One day Eldon had to go to the next village over; he used to trade his crops for beef. It took longer than usual—apparently they were arguing over the trade, so he stayed the night. And when he came back, he found out that the monsters had come out of the tunnels and raided his village.”
Eldon stabbed his sword through a fake ogre, driving it deep into the chest.
“The village had been burned to the ground. His parents were dead. His brother. Lily. His whole world was gone. But he told me that that wasn’t what truly broke him. When he found Lily, he went after the goblins. Headed straight into the tunnels alone. He was wandering there, screaming for them to face him, when a lone goblin scout spotted him. They fought, and Eldon lost. Took a rusty spear through the leg, and the goblin left him there to die. Eldon said watching the goblin walk away was enough to keep him alive, just so he could have his vengeance on the monsters.”
Eldon shot another arrow directly between a fake troll’s eyes.
“After that, Eldon just showed up at Arnwell and demanded that he be trained. When the last trainer saw the anger in his eyes, he made the first and only exception to the rule. Eldon is the first Sword from the Under Earth who wasn’t chosen, and he’s also the greatest Sword alive.”
Eldon finished the course again, sweeping his cloak around and tucking the sword into its sheath in one perfect motion.
“Can’t he just be a Monster Crusher?” I whispered.
Lee laughed. “The Monster Crushers have to be from the surface world. Those are the rules. But I would keep him close.” He glanced at me, casually brushing that thick black hair out of his eyes. I felt like I was cheating on Liam just looking at him, which was ridiculous for at least ten reasons. It was lucky Shal wasn’t here…she might have literally melted.
“I know you didn’t ask for this, Laura. None of us Monster Crushers do—but we all answer the call anyway, including you, by the way. It’s not fair that the others blame you for finding the elevator. But you’re here, and I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”
“Thanks,” I said. “It might be nice to have at least one friend.”
He smiled. “Better than none.”
“Laura!” Eldon called, stalking back to the front of the course. “Start again.”
I groaned and stood up. “Is he always this fun?”
Lee snorted. “This is him in a good mood.”
I just shook my head and started for the first batch of logs, feeling my legs burn as I leaped over them. I was just running over the last one when I caught my foot hard and stumbled forward, crashing into the ground. My cheek smashed against the stone.
I lay there for a moment, dazed, and Eldon appeared beside me.
“Do you know what’s happening right now?” he asked.
I sighed deeply. “I’m being killed by goblins.”
“Exactly. Now get up and stay on your feet.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes.”
I pushed myself up—ignoring the usual muted laughs around the courtyard—and started jogging toward the barriers.
“You know, you think you’d be nicer to the Monster Crusher,” I grumbled.
“I’m being very nice,” Eldon said. “I’m trying to keep you alive.”
—
I finally collapsed into my bed hours later, my entire body aching and throbbing. I hadn’t exercised that much in ever.
As I lay in bed, I thought about Lee’s words: you don’t live long in this job. Why would I possibly want to take it when those deadly warriors were being killed? I didn’t have a chance against trolls and giants and sea creatures. I couldn’t even run the Way.
But what choice did I have? Even now there were Swords watching my house from the woods to make sure goblins didn’t swarm into my backyard. If they wanted to, the Swords could just abduct me and bring me to Arnwell to train anyway. And there was no way to move from Riverfield without telling my parents everything, which apparently was a very, very bad idea. It was official: I was stuck with the world’s worst job.
As I started to doze off, something equally perturbing came to mind: Allison Black. I’d completely forgotten about our confrontation at school today. I had a feeling she hadn’t, which meant I was in for a rough day tomorrow. But really, what could she do? Sure, she’d have fat jokes and ugly jokes and clothes jokes lined up for me, but I wasn’t too worried. Those were a breeze.
I rolled over, sneaking a quick glance at my alarm clock. It was already four in the morning. I sighed and closed my eyes. Apparently Monster Crushers didn’t get a lot of sleep. I was out almost instantly, but my dreams were nothing but yellow eyes and teeth.
Chapter Fifteen
As I had kind of guessed, my days of avoiding Allison Black’s attention were over. I’d called her out in front of her friends, and I was now officially a target.
I’d also broken my own rule number one for bullied people: never draw attention to yourself. Let’s just say I looked a little dishevelled. I’d slept in so late that I’d had no time for a shower, which of course meant my chestnut hair was matted and greasy. Add to that no makeup—not even my usual dab of blush—and an old yellow long-sleeve shirt I’d thrown on that had probably fit better four years ago, and I might as well have been wearing a Kick Me sign on my back.
In fairness, I had spent much of my night running—okay, mostly walking—through an obstacle course and generally being mocked for my lack of physical fitness, but I couldn’t really explain that to Allison. As it was, she had plenty of material.
“I didn’t know the filthy-hobo look was
