The Warded Man

taking the crowd’s attention with him as he snatched his lute and quickly launched into another song.
    “Why don’t you shut it, hey?” a burly apprentice growled. The boy was half again Arlen’s size, and all were older than he and Jaik.
    “Keerin’s a liar,” Arlen said.
    “A demon’s ass, too,” the apprentice agreed, holding up the hat of coins. “Think I care?”
    Jaik interposed himself. “No need to get angry,” he said. “He didn’t mean anything …”
    But before he finished, Arlen sprang forward, driving his fist into the bigger boy’s gut. As he crumpled, Arlen whirled to face the rest. He bloodied a nose or two, but he was soon pulled down and pummeled. Dimly, he was aware of Jaik sharing the beating beside him until two guards broke up the fight.
    “You know,” Jaik said as they limped home, bloody and bruised, “for a bookmole, you’re not half bad in a fight. If only you’d pick your enemies better …”
    “I have worse enemies,” Arlen said, thinking of the one-armed demon following him still.
    “It wasn’t even a good song,” Arlen said. “How could he draw wards in the dark?”
    “Good enough to get into a fight over,” Cob noted, daubing blood from Arlen’s face.
    “He was lying,” Arlen replied, wincing at the sting.
    Cob shrugged. “He was just doing what Jongleurs do, making up entertaining stories.”
    “In Tibbet’s Brook, the whole town would come when the Jongleur came,” Arlen said. “Selia said they kept the stories of the old world, passing them down one generation to the next.”
    “And so they do,” Cob said. “But even the best ones exaggerate, Arlen. Or did you really believe the first Deliverer killed a hundred rock demons in a single blow?”
    “I used to,” Arlen said with a sigh. “Now I don’t know what to believe.”
    “Welcome to adulthood,” Cob said. “Every child finds a day when they realize that adults can be weak and wrong just like anyone else. After that day, you’re an adult, like or not.”
    “I never thought about it that way,” Arlen said, realizing his day had come long before. In his mind’s eye, he saw Jeph hiding behind the wards of their porch while his mother was cored.
    “Was Keerin’s lie really such a bad thing?” Cob asked. “It made people happy. It gave them hope. Hope and happiness are in short supply these days, and much needed.”
    “He could have done all that with honest word,” Arlen said. “But instead he took credit for my deeds just to make more coin.”
    “Are you after truth, or credit?” Cob asked. “Should credit matter? Isn’t the message what’s important?”
    “People need more than a song,” Arlen said. “They need proof that corelings can bleed.”
    “You sound like a Krasian martyr,” Cob said, “ready to throw your life away seeking the Creator’s paradise in the next world.”
    “I read their afterlife is filled with naked women and rivers of wine.” Arlen smirked.
    “And all you need do to enter is take a demon with you before you’re cored,” Cob agreed. “But I’ll take my chances with this life all the same. The next one will find you no matter where you run. No sense chasing it.”

CHAPTER 11
BREACH
321 AR

    “THREE MOONS SAYS HE HEADS EAST,” Gaims said, jingling the silver coins as One Arm rose.
    “Taken,” Woron said. “He’s gone east three nights running. He’s ready for a change.”
    As always, the rock demon snuffled about before testing the wards at the gate. It moved methodically, never missing a spot. When the gate proved secure, the coreling moved to the east.
    “Night,” Woron cursed. “I was sure this time he’d do something different.” He fished in his pocket for coins as the shrieks of the demon and the crackle of activated wards died out.
    Both guardsmen looked over the rail, the bet forgotten, and saw One Arm staring at the wall curiously. Other corelings gathered around, but kept a respectful distance from the giant.
    Suddenly, the demon lunged forward with just two talons extended. There was no flare from the wards, and the crack of stone came clearly to the guards’ ears. Their blood went cold.
    With a roar of triumph, the rock demon struck again, this time with its whole hand. Even in starlight, the guards saw the chunk of stone that came away in its claws.
    “The horn,” Gaims said, gripping the rail with shaking hands. His leg grew warm, and it took him a moment to realize he had wet himself. “Sound the