A Thousand Heartbeats

I’d spent the entire day fuming. After all this time, this was how my Commission was going to go? And it wasn’t as if I could refuse. Not backing down was my finest trait. By late afternoon, my anger had abated enough that I could mostly think straight, and I sent word through some of the younger recruits to find the five people Kawan had assigned me. I waited for them on the edge of the field, far away from the eyes and ears of the castle.

Inigo and Griffin arrived together, and I spotted Blythe’s blond hair as she approached behind them. I’d balked when Kawan had said her name, but, to be fair, she was fast. Really fast. Griffin probably had redeeming qualities—I just didn’t know what they were. And though Inigo wasn’t my favorite person in the world, he certainly had a way with a sword. Or a fist, need be.

“What’s this about?” Inigo asked.

I sighed. “We’re still waiting for two more. I can see them.”

Griffin and Inigo turned, looking past Blythe. She followed their lead, and took in the two figures dressed in dark gray and black coming up behind her. She propped herself up on a boulder and tilted her head in acknowledgment of Inigo and Griffin; I got a long stare.

“You wanted to see me?” Andre asked nervously as he approached.

“Yes. And I assume you’re Sherwin?” I asked the stocky boy behind him.

“Yes. Sir. I mean, yes, sir.”

I sighed, crossing my arms. “Well, congratulations. Kawan has assigned you all to my Commission.”

At that Inigo straightened. “Assigned? That’s not how Commissions work.”

“And don’t I know it,” I replied. “But here we are. It seems that, if I am to truly prove myself, I should be capable of leading anyone into any situation.”

Inigo paused. “Wait. You still need to prove yourself to him?”

It was the first time he’d acknowledged the long list of my accomplishments. It might have been the first time anyone had.

I held my arms out. “Apparently.”

Inigo stared at the ground, his mind moving quickly. His eyes came to mine, clearly landing on the conclusion I’d come to before leaving Kawan’s room.

“Yes,” I said. “It’s a setup.”

“Why are you always so gloomy?” Griffin asked me, smiling all the while.

“No, think about it,” Inigo began seriously, drawing our eyes to him. “There’s usually a month or more between Commissions, but he’s making you go right after Aldrik so people will compare your conquest to his. On top of that, he’s not letting you build your own team or take time to plan. He doesn’t want you to prove yourself worthy,” he concluded, looking up at me. “He wants you to fail.”

I pointed at him. “Absolutely. Sherwin, I didn’t know you existed before this moment. Andre and Blythe, I know very little about your abilities, so I can’t put much faith in you. Griffin, I can’t take you seriously because you don’t take anything seriously yourself. And, Inigo . . . I think everyone already knows that there’s no love lost between us.”

Inigo smirked. “Yes, I’d rather throw you off Govatar Mountain than help you.”

“And I’d happily do the same. So you were assigned to me to drag this whole thing down. We were designed to fail.”

There was a moment of silence, a pause at the funeral of my greatest personal ambition to date. Then Blythe spoke up.

“Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t fail.” She said the last word with an air of disgust, and Inigo chuckled.

“She’s right,” he commented quickly. “Her aim with a bow and arrow is all but flawless, and, when it comes to perseverance, well . . . there aren’t many who have what she does.”

Blythe looked away. “Thanks.”

“Sure.”

“I can be serious,” Griffin said in a whine, which made everyone laugh. “Really! I can.”

“All you do is joke,” I said tiredly. “You flirt. You play.”

He shrugged. “Someone has to. Our lives are too dark as it is.”

Well, that was a fair point. Fine, then. Blythe was good with a bow and fast. Griffin . . . well, forgetting his relentless joking, he did a fairly good job in hand-to-hand fighting. And Inigo? There was practically nothing he wasn’t capable of if he decided to try.

I looked over at Sherwin. “What about you? What can you do?”

“Right now, I do a lot of farming. But Inigo is training me in combat.”

I looked back to Inigo, not needing to ask.

“He has potential with a sword. The bow requires more finesse. And as for Andre, he’s timid, but”—he looked over at him—“he can handle a sword better on a horse than on foot. It’s impressive.”

Huh. Kawan didn’t seem to even know what he had at his disposal. If he had, he certainly wouldn’t have assigned anyone with this sort of skill to me.

I looked back at Inigo. He was the only one who could really make the call.

“I have no intentions of failing,” he told me. “Not because of you, but because of me.”

“For what it’s worth,” I replied, “I did have a brilliant plan, but I’m going to let it go for the sake of something much more attainable, something where we’ll risk little but the potential payoff is priceless.”

“Is it better than more recruits?” Sherwin asked.

“Yes.”

“Better than six cows?” Griffin posed, making the group chuckle.

To my surprise, even I smiled. “Yes.”

“Then what is it?” Blythe asked.

I took a deep breath, thinking of the one thing we needed more than anything these days.

“Hope.”