A Quest of Heroes (Book #1 in the Sorcerer's Ring)

over the breakfast table, already dressed in their finest. At his
words they jumped up and darted past him, bumping his shoulders as they ran out
of the house and into the road.
    Thor followed them out, and they
all stood there, watching the horizon.
    “I see no one,” Drake, the
oldest, answered in his deep voice. With the broadest shoulders, hair cropped
short like his brothers’, brown eyes and thin, disapproving lips, he scowled
down at Thor, as usual.
    “Nor do I,” echoed Dross, just a
year below Drake, always taking his side.
    “They’re coming!” Thor shot back.
“I swear!”
    His father turned to him and
grabbed his shoulders sternly.
    “And how would you know?” he
demanded.
    “I saw them.”
    “How? From where?”
    Thor hesitated; his father had
him. He of course knew the only place Thor could have spotted them was from the
top of that knoll. Now Thor was unsure how to respond.
    “I…climbed the knoll—”
    “With the flock? You know they
are not to go that far.”
    “But today was different. I had
to see.”
    His father glowered down.
    “Go inside at once and fetch your
brothers’ swords and polish their scabbards, so they look their best before the
king’s men arrive.”
    His father, done with him, turned
back to his brothers, who all stood in the road, looking out.
    “Do you think they’ll choose us?”
asked Durs, the youngest of the three, a full three years ahead of Thor.
    “They’d be foolish not to,” his
father said. “They are short on men this year. It has been a slim cropping—or
else they wouldn’t bother coming. Just stand straight, the three of you, keep
your chins up and chests out. Do not look them directly in the eye, but do not
look away, either. Be strong and confident. Show no weakness. If you want to be
in the King’s Legion, you must act as if you’re already in it.”
    “Yes, father,” his three boys
answered at once, getting into position.
    He turned and glared back at
Thor.
    “What are you still doing there?”
he asked. “Get inside!”
    Thor stood there, torn. He didn’t
want to disobey his father, but he had to speak with him. His heart pounded as
he debated. He decided it would be best to obey, to bring the swords, and then
confront his father. Disobeying outright wouldn’t help.
    Thor raced into the house, out
through the back and to the weapons shed. He found his brothers’ three swords,
objects of beauty all of them, crowned with the finest silver hilts, precious
gifts for which his father had toiled years. He grabbed all three, surprised as
always at their weight, and ran back through the house with them.
    He sprinted to his brothers,
handed each their sword, then turned to his father.
    “What, no polish?” Drake said.
    His father turned to him
disapprovingly, but before he could say anything, Thor spoke up.
    “Father, please. I need to speak
with you!”
    “I told you to polish—”
    “ Please , father!”
    His father glared back, debating.
He must have seen the seriousness on Thor’s face, because finally, he said,
“Well?”
    “I want to be considered. With
the others. For the Legion.”
    His brothers’ laughter rose up
behind him, making his face burn red.
    But his father did not laugh; on
the contrary, his scowl deepened.
    “Do you?” he asked.
    Thor nodded back vigorously.
    “I’m fourteen. I’m eligible.”
    “The cutoff is fourteen,” Drake
said disparagingly, over his shoulder. “If they took you, you’d be the
youngest. Do you think they’d choose you over someone like me, five years your
elder?”
    “You are insolent,” Durs said.
“You always have been.”
    Thor turned to them. “I’m not
asking you,” he said.
    He turned back to his father, who
still frowned.
    “Father, please,” he said. “Allow
me a chance. That’s all I ask. I know I’m young, but I will prove myself, over
time.”
    His father shook his head.
    “You’re not a soldier, boy.
You’re not like your brothers. You’re a herder. Your life is here. With me. You
will do your duties and do them well. One should not dream too high. Embrace
your life, and learn to love it.”
    Thor felt his heart breaking, as
he saw his life collapsing before his eyes.
    No , he thought. This can’t be.
    “But father—”
    “Silence!” he screamed, so shrill
it cut the air. “Enough with you. Here they come. Get out of the way, and best
mind your manners while they’re here.”
    His father stepped up and with
one hand pushed Thor to the