The Lightning (Ebook)

Fredric St. Cloud stood at the head of a line of three hundred and twenty warlords. Soon the Master of the Citadel would arrive and call his name. He was graduating at the top of his class. Lucky for him since his father, Dornkirk, wouldn’t have accepted anything less. The son of the King’s Champion had to live up to high expectations.

Not that he held himself to a lower standard than his father, if anything it was the opposite. He pushed as hard as he could then kept on going. He knew some of his fellow students thought him obsessive in his training and they had a point, but if you didn’t want to go all out, why bother at all?

He looked up and let the bright sun warm his face. Fall still held sway, but soon enough the bitter winter winds would howl down out of the north. Fredric despised winter, but his feelings did nothing to lessen the cold.

His gaze darted around the courtyard where he’d spent so much time training over the past five years. The gathered seniors waited at the edge of the shadow cast by the towering black walls. Behind them the keep loomed as hard and unyielding as the masters that trained them.

Though he held himself at silent attention, behind him the faint whispers of his classmates came to him. Fredric used soul force to enhance his hearing.

“Where do you think we’ll get deployed?” He didn’t recognize the voice, but he knew the sentiment. Everyone wanted to know where they’d end up tomorrow.

“I don’t care, as long as it’s somewhere warm,” another unfamiliar voice said. Fredric generally kept to himself, so there were only a handful of students he knew well.

“I suspect I’ll be going to the capital,” Crown Prince Andrew said.

That bright, warm voice was one he’d come to know well over the past five years. In addition to completing his own training, Fredric had been assigned to keep an eye on the prince. No one really expected anything to happen, but better to be safe than sorry Father always insisted. To his surprise Fredric had come to both like and respect the future king. Andrew lacked the arrogance you often found in the sons of the nobility—most of it anyway.

A feminine laugh sent lightning racing through Fredric’s veins. He’d know that voice anywhere. Helena Kort was the most beautiful girl in their class, not to mention the strongest. She wielded a spear like an extension of herself and her soul force was amongst the densest. Only Fredric and a handful of others defeated her on a regular basis.

Andrew liked to joke that knocking a woman on her ass wasn’t the best way to court her, but Helena was different. If he went easy on her it would show a lack of respect for her as a warrior. Nothing else he might do would offend Helena more than that.

At last, Commander Connor emerged from the keep with two of his lieutenants, one of whom carried a box containing the newly minted warlords’ medallions. They wore crisp, blue and white uniforms with swords belted at their waists.

With his enhanced vision Fredric spotted a handful of older warlords watching the assembly. He put them out of his mind when the commander stopped a few feet away.

“Fredric St. Cloud!” the commander called.

Fredric stepped up, the commander pinned a silver medallion on his chest, and he moved to one side. That was it. All their work, all the years of training, and the only acknowledgement they got was their name called and a simple silver sword pin stuck through their uniform. The whole ceremony took less than an hour.

When the last warlord received his pin Commander Connor said, “The rest of the day is yours. Report tomorrow morning for your first assignments.”

They all saluted and the commander took his leave. It was a relief to have the technicalities over with so they could begin their true work. Fredric had barely taken a step back toward the keep when Andrew threw an arm around his neck.

“What do you say we go to The Inn Between to celebrate?” the prince said.

Fredric wasn’t much for celebrating. “I don—”

“Helena’s coming,” Andrew added.

Maybe a little celebrating would be okay. Not to mention the inn was constantly crawling with visiting warlords, so it should be a safe enough place to relax.

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