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

mocking grin. They shook their
heads and turned away. They had not so much as one kind word for Thor. But he
hardly expected anything else.
    “Get in line, Legion! Now!”
    Thor looked up and saw several
more of The Silver crowd around them, pushing the fifty of them into a tight
line, double file. One man came up behind and struck the boy in front of Thor
with a large bamboo rod, cracking him hard on the back; the boy cried out, and
fell more tightly in line. Soon they were in two neat rows, marching steadily
through the King’s ground.
    “When you march into battle, you
march as one!” called out Kolk, walking up and down the sides. “This is not
your mother’s yard. You are marching to war!”
    Thor marched and marched beside
Reece, sweating in the sun, wondering where they were being led. His stomach
still turned from the ale, and he wondered when he would have breakfast, when
he would get something to drink. Once again, he cursed himself for drinking the
night before.
    As they went up and down the
hills, through an arched stone gate, they finally reached the surrounding
fields. They passed through another arched stone gate and entered a coliseum of
sorts. The training ground for the Legion.
    Before them were all sorts of
targets for throwing spears, firing arrows, and hurling rocks, as well as piles
of straw to slash with swords. Thor’s heart quickened at the sight of it. He
wanted to get in there, to use the weapons, to train.
    But as Thor made his way towards
the training area, suddenly he was elbowed in the ribs from behind, and a small
group of six boys, most of them younger, like Thor, were herded off the main
line. He found himself being split from Reece, being led to the other side of
the field.
    “Think you’re going to train?”
Kolk asked mockingly as they forked from the others, away from the targets.
“It’s horses for you today.”
    Thor looked up, and saw where
they were headed: on the far side of the field, several horses pranced about.
Kolk smiled down with an evil smile.
    “While the others hurl spears and
wield swords, today you will tend horses and clean their waste. We all have to
start somewhere. Welcome to the Legion.”
    Thor’s heart fell. This was not
how he had seen it going at all.
    “You think you’re special, boy?”
Kolk asked, walking beside him, getting close to his face. Thor sensed he was
trying to break him. “Just because the king and his son have taken a liking to
you, doesn’t mean crap to me. You’re in my command now. You understand
me? I don’t care about whatever fancy tricks you pulled on the jousting ground.
You’re just another little boy. Do you understand me?”
    Thor swallowed. He was in for a
long, hard training.
    Making matters worse, as soon as
Kolk drifted away to torture someone else, the boy in front of Thor, a short
stocky kid with a flat nose, turned and sneered at him.
    “You don’t belong here,” he said.
“You cheated your way in. You weren’t selected. You’re not one of us. Not
really. None of us like you.”
    The boy beside him also turned
and sneered at Thor.
    “We’re going to do everything we
can to make sure you drop out,” he said. “Getting in is easy next to staying in.”
    Thor recoiled at their hatred. He
couldn’t believe he already had enemies, and didn’t understand what he’d done
to deserve it. All he’d ever wanted was to join the Legion.
    “Why don’t you mind yourself,”
came a voice.
    Thor looked over and saw a tall,
skinny redhead boy, with freckles across his face and small green eyes,
sticking up for him. “You two are stuck here shoveling with the rest of us,” he
added. “You’re not so special, either. Go pick on someone else.”
    “You mind your business, lackey,”
one of the boys shot back, “or we’ll be after you, too.”
    “Try it,” the redhead snapped.
    “You’ll talk when I tell you to,”
Kolk yelled at one of the boys, smacking him hard upside the head. The two boys
in front of Thor, thankfully, turned back around.
    Thor hardly knew what to say; he
fell in beside the redhead, grateful to him.
    “Thank you,” Thor said.
    The redhead turned and smiled at
him.
    “Name is O’Connor. I’d shake your
hand, but they’d smack me if I did. So take this as an invisible handshake.”
    He smiled wider, and Thor
instantly liked him.
    “Don’t mind them,” he added.
“They’re just scared. Like the rest of us. None of us quite knew what we were
signing up for.”
    Soon