Dragon Mage by ML Spencer

Author:ML Spencer [Spencer, ML]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781951452032
Publisher: Stoneguard Publications
Published: 2021-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

The next month passed agonizingly slow.

In the mornings, they trained in the Henge with the new weapons the Brausa brothers had lent them. The weighted broadsword they had loaned Markus had a long, double-edged blade attached to a hilt with a sturdy crossguard and a disk-shaped pommel. Aram had been given a dulled sword that resembled the beautiful star-steel weapon on the wall of the Brausas’ workshop.

In the afternoons, while Esmir worked with Markus on fundamentals he would need if he was ever to be a Warden, Aram returned to the never-ending supply of books Esmir was always providing him. They ranged in topic from anything to do with knots to mathematics to music and history. He applied himself to their study with an obsessive fixation, for he found them fascinating. Every day on the way to Esmir’s, he could feel his heartbeat pick up in anticipation of what he might find within a leather binding. Books, he was finding out, could be just as much of an adventure as knots, and equally rewarding.

So caught up was he in his studies that he began neglecting other things. His friends started chiding him that he was always occupied, and they started searching for ways to pry him from his studies. They also started getting on him about his appearance, teasingly at first, then with increasing concern. It was true that he found it increasingly hard to tear himself away from his studies to do things as boring and unnecessary as folding his bedsheets or scrubbing the stains out of his clothes. Both were an enormous waste of time, and, really, who could tell if he was a couple days late on changing his breeches?

“Look,” Markus said to him one night, pulling Aram aside. “I know you love your knots and books, but if you want to have any friends left, you’d better learn to break yourself away and spend more time with them. And start taking better care of yourself. You’re not a boy anymore.”

Red-faced, Aram glanced down at his rumpled, sweat-stained tunic, the same one he’d been wearing for the past few days.

“And you need to start shaving,” Markus insisted, prompting Aram to raise a hand to his face.

Feeling around, he discovered that he had somehow managed to grow patches of scraggly whiskers on his cheeks. He didn’t know where they’d come from or when they’d gotten there. He’d been sporting peach fuzz on his chin for months, but at some point, it had given way to the real beginnings of a beard—and he hadn’t even noticed.

“I don’t know how to shave,” he whispered.

So commenced his first shaving lesson, when he received his first-ever gift from Markus: a bone-handled razor.

After that, Aram became scrupulous about spending more time with his friends and making sure his clothes were always clean and his face recently shaven. He recognized that, while obsessing over things like knots and books might be a strength, it could also be another weakness. He could learn a lot by applying himself so obsessively—but he could lose a lot of friends doing that too.

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