Читать книгу Element. Flame of Elisar онлайн

By that point Tonar had already had the I-am-the-happiest-of the-boys smile all over his childish face, being absolutely sure I was extremely impressed.

“I won the sword tournament yesterday! Now am here the whole week,” he replied happily.

“Atta boy!” I tried to look fascinated. “Just go on that way and one day I’m going to see you the junior squad commander.”

The smile on the guy’s face got even broader, while he also got his shoulders straightened up thus showing he was up to that kind of change in his life.

Yoos often arranged fight contests in his squad, and a couple of times he even put me against his soldiers, but each time they made short work of me. Yes, it’s hard to stand long against someone who stands two heads taller and is twice as large.

“Met Yoos today? Any idea where I could see him?” I asked as I threw my bag onto my other shoulder.

“Well, this morning he was out in the training field. Looked quite out of humor, by the way. Got everyone up before dawn and has been riding them hard since then, non-stop. Poor guys must be dying now.”

“Is that so? I see…” now I could feel absolutely nothing to make me go there.

And step after step it got even worse.

“Hey! Keep your chin up,” he shouted and threw me a small bag. I already knew what was inside. Tonar was the son of Mr. Kold, the bakery owner in Karun.

As I took the bag I was overwhelmed with the smell of fresh cinnamon rolls that I really loved. As he knew this, Tonar often brought a couple to treat me after training.

“Without me today,” he smiled.

“Thanks!” I replied and dragged my feet to the drill field with no single trace of the enthusiasm I had had before.

Passing through the barracks where the guards were dwelling, I ended up in an open ground with about thirty people standing there.

The place was full of sounds – beats, clash of weapons, groans of the trainees; somebody was fighting hand to hand, while others used their swords, a couple of guys only working out to build some muscle.

Everyone was naked waist up, all tanned, tall and handsome. The selection procedure for such squads was a tough one, so you would never see any mama’s boy or a milquetoast there. The service there was very prestigious. On top of all that, it paid rather well since those merchants wanted their carts to be always under reliable protection.