Gwaynn held the High Tar’s eyes. “Yes Sir,” he answered.
“Good,” Amon said, somehow knowing he could believe the boy standing in front of him. “If you wish you may stay on the Island for a time. Becoming a student, of course, is out of the question, but I will set you up to serve Tar Kostek’s quarter.”
A great weight suddenly lifted from Gwaynn’s shoulders, and he could not help but smile at the Old Tar before him. Amon smiled back. “You will report to Leek. His family has been in charge of that quarter for nearly three hundred years. He is expecting you, a distant cousin of the family.”
“Thank you,” Gwaynn said, meaning it.
Amon nodded. “Keep to yourself, attract no attention and you should be able to live reasonably well.”
Gwaynn nodded.
“So, we should be getting back,” Amon said and started to rise. He stopped as Gwaynn stepped forward and took hold of his arm.
“I would like to know if you discover anything about the High King’s motives,” he said, the intense look back on his young face, and it was Amon’s turn to nod, wondering how they had overlooked this boy. Royalty rarely came to them on the islands, but Gwaynn was the youngest of three male children born to the Massi. The High King would have approved such a proposal Amon was sure. It was a shame.
They began their walk back in silence, but after a short way Gwaynn turned to him. “I was wondering if Executioners ever visit Noble Island.”
ǂ
Leek was an old man, a grandfather, and a quiet man. He took to Gwaynn almost immediately, and he was thankful for the help in his quarter. He had three sons himself, but only one, Lane, the eldest, had chosen to stay on the island. Another was aboard the trading vessel Ari Baan, which came to port nearly every year, and his youngest was a merchant in Caul, a port city in Cassinni. Leek’s lone daughter did not survive childhood, but Lane and his wife Shari gave him four granddaughters. Their ages ran between six and seventeen years old, so female help around the quarter was not a problem.
For his part, Gwaynn was surprised to find that he actually liked the physical labor, working around the quarter with Leek and Lane. Both were reserved men, but hard working and patiently showed Gwaynn how to perform all manner of odd jobs from replacing tiles on the roof of the dormitory, to fashioning a hinge for the broken shutter on one of the kitchen windows. He learned to tend the garden, and to feed the livestock under the families care. He found he loved to work outside, and felt a great sense of accomplishment at the end of nearly every day. He was especially proud of the hinge he helped to fashion, and even went so far as to work on several additional hinges in his spare time. So they would have spares, he told Leek, who agree it was a sensible course.
Gwaynn worked hard and spent nearly all of his free time exploring the island. Noble Island was nearly ten miles wide and just over fifty miles long. It was the second largest of the Temple Islands, second only to King’s Island. The island was distinctly shaped, low, flat, sandy land on the western side, but as you headed eastward the land rose higher and higher, became heavily forested and finally culminated in the magnificent Mount Erato, on the extreme eastern end. From a great distance, when the island was very near the horizon, it looked like a great boot sitting on the water, which explained why nearly all of the local fishermen and sailing merchant men referred to it as Boot Island, though never when they might be overheard by a Tar.
The flat sandy western side of the island housed the school, and was split into quarters, each overseen by a local family, and run independently by a single Tar. They were the Mele, Mneme, Aoede, and Clio quarters, but why they were named such was lost in the ancient history of the island. Leek and his family were assigned to the Mele quarter, and had been associated with the group for over ten generations now. Master Amon himself had come out of the Mele quarter, which was a great source of pride for Leek and his family.
Each quarter contained eight students with a new student arriving each year and another one graduating every year. The number of students was always the same, and had been for over four hundred years. The Mele were located on the extreme south of the island. The main hall, adjacent to where Leek and his family lived, was the gathering place for all the students at the end of the day. There they would eat, visit and entertain themselves. It was surrounded by numerous out buildings including four which constituted the students quarters, two students to a building. Gwaynn slept in the loft of the Leek family house, which had a small window that overlooked the walkway leading up to the main hall.
For nearly a month, Gwaynn was quite content, though never truly happy. His work distracted him sufficiently so that he did not dwell on his recent past, and he absolutely loved the isolation of exploring the island in his free time. He traipsed all over the western half of the island going from the southern port town of Hymnia to Euter, the northern port town and back in a single day, twenty miles round trip. Both towns were small; just over a hundred inhabitants lived in each, and were kept small by the Island’s council who had to approve any and all new citizens. Most applicants were encouraged to find livelihood elsewhere, but the towns were necessary to the life of the school so were tolerated, but strictly segregated. Any violation of this separation by the students or the townspeople was dealt with harshly. Students could be expelled from the school and townspeople could be banished. Such rulings had occurred in the past, but they were extremely rare. Gwaynn, however, was not a student, but part of a serving family and thus could safely go from town to school without any repercussions. In fact, the only area of the island off limits to him was Erato, the extreme eastern side of the island, where the old Masters lived in meditative isolation on the surrounding slopes of the dormant volcano.
Of course his travels eventually led him deep into the forests of central Noble, but he never had the time to go any farther. But this was just as well, since to go any farther was forbidden. It was said that Tar Nev lived and practiced on the slopes of Mount Erato. Tar Nev was a legend both on and off Noble Island. He once was the Weapons Master to the High King himself; a Tar of exceptional ability, and it was claimed, the best swordsman the island had ever created. One day, without explanation Tar Nev left the service of the High King and returned to Noble Island. Such a thing had never happened before and it was thought that the King may unleash the Knights on the masters of Noble
Island in order to find and kill the disloyal Tar, but nothing of the kind happened, fueling Tar Nev’s legend even more.
Gwaynn had no desire to see the old Tar, or meet him; he just enjoyed the freedom and isolation of his long hikes. For many weeks he was satisfied with the arrangement he’d made with Tar Amon, but one windy afternoon, after his chores were completed, he happened across Vio, Krys, Tam and B’dall practicing with their katas on the beach. A kata was a baton about three feet in length and made of wood; each student wielded a pair, one in each hand, and used them with mind numbing skill.
The four students were down close to the water, where the sand was mostly level and wet. Gwaynn, coming from inland was above them, high on a grassy dune. He stopped immediately and watched them practice moves so intricate that it would take years to master just one. He dropped to his knees, fascinated. Vio worked with Tam, another girl, even younger, while Krys was paired off with B’dall. Each pair moved with grace, skill and speed, but for some reason Gwaynn’s attention kept returning to Vio. She moved like no one he knew, not even Master Sath could have matched her grace. She moved with such ease, such elegance, that it looked to Gwaynn as if she were made of liquid, flowing this way and then that to counter an attack or initiate one. For a while, Tam held her own, but then Vio moved past and through her defenses. Once Tam was touched, they would stop and Vio would talk to the younger student, Gwaynn guessed it was to give some instruction, and then they would return to their original positions and start over with their forms.