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EVER SINCE HADLEY BROUGHT him into The Tunnels, as the other boys called them, everyone treated Crispin differently. He’d been pampered at Lord Sylvester’s manor, and treated as an only son to the baron, though he never saw much of the man. Here in the bunkers, he never saw the baron at all, which didn’t bother him. He hadn’t seen much of his father either these last few months. They put his sister in a different bunker, one for girls. He accepted the separation. Growing up meant breaking away from family. That’s what the baron said. Who better to help him than the “brothers”? He lived in the bunkers now with the other boys. Boys older than himself. Soldiers in the baron’s army! Jeremy, Hadley, Stephan, and Derek were their names.
This morning he smelled breakfast cooking before Hadley shook him. He lay on his top bunk enjoying the comfort of his bed, the aroma of salted pork on the spit, and the sense of belonging. He reveled in being with so many other children his age. He hadn’t ever enjoyed so many friends before.
Hadley stepped on the lower bed and peeked up at him. “Get up! This is the day!” he said. He always said today was the day but that’s because it was. Every day something new happened, something to get excited about. Crispin swung his legs over the bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“Get dressed and bring your bow. It’s initiation day. They want to watch us release a few bolts, and then we’re getting our coats. You should see them! They’re new and made from deer hide. Stained with walnut oil. Warm too. Ever have a deerskin coat?”
Crispin shook his head. He never had anything deerskin. “No. Father used to tan goatskin, but the leather always went to pay bills.”
Hadley slapped him on his knee as his legs dangled over the top bunk. “No more poverty for us, Crispin. They’ll be paying us now. No more begging and stealing.”
Crispin looked him in the eye. “I’ve never begged or stole.”
“Lucky. You were never an orphan. But you will be when this war is over. And I can tell you now, that’s going to be a good thing because then we get to make the world the way we want it. That’s what the baron says.”
Crispin jumped to the ground and grabbed his shirt from a pile of clothes on a bench along the wall. The bunkers weren’t fancy like Lord Sylvester’s bedrooms, but they were comfortable. Crispin shared this bunker with the four boys on his team. Two bunk beds and one single for Jeremy because he was the boss.
“And that’s what we need to be thinking about. How do we want the world to be?” Jeremy asked as he rolled out of his blankets and scratched his dark unkempt hair. “We’ve got to start planning because those days are going to come sooner than you think.”
“Me, I’m going to have Lord Sylvester’s horses,” Hadley said confidently. “I’ll just live with them in that big old barn and talk horse talk. That’s all I want.”
“I don’t think Lord Sylvester’s going to let you have his horses,” Stephan said, also grabbing his shirt off the pile.
“I’m going to travel.” Derek pulled on his boots. Derek didn’t mess around much like Hadley and Stephan. Sometimes Crispin thought Derek should be the team leader because he had more sense. Besides, he stood a good thumb taller than Jeremy!
Derek buttoned his gambeson. “But that’s not what Lord Sylvester means when he says things are going to be the way we want. What it means is we’ll have to fix things. Make things different.”
“What things?” Stephan asked.
“You know how there are kings and emperors and people that live in castles and eat fine food and wear fancy clothes? Then everyone else has to do all the work? Well, we have to fix that. We can’t live like that when we grow up.”
“How do we fix it?”
“First we have to destroy the castles, get rid of the people that cling to the old way. That’s what this war is all about. Then we set up our own system.”
“Lord Sylvester has a castle,” Crispin noted, buckling his belt.
“That’s different,” Stephan said.
“What’s different about it?” Crispin asked. He’d been listening to everyone’s plans for a while now. Some of them made sense, some of them didn’t. There were a lot of people in this world, all from different villages. He wondered how he and his friends could change people’s lifestyles once they won the war.
“It’ll all get fixed,” Derek assured them.
“How do we fix it?” Stephan asked again.
Derek shrugged.
“No one knows,” Jeremy answered and stood, dressed and ready. He took his bow down from its spike on the rock wall. “We have to discuss it. Pick delegates and have a meeting. That all comes later. Meanwhile, we have work to do! Our first assignment as the Browncoats comes this afternoon. Let’s show them how good we are!”
“I wonder what they’ll have us do,” Stephan mumbled.
“We’re going traveling. We’ll be rounding up the rest of our team, taking wagons and horses to do it. We’ll get to be outside this time, out of The Tunnels,” Hadley said.
“I thought we were never getting out of the tunnels.,” Stephan mumbled.
“The Tunnels are just the training grounds. There’s a lot more we’ll be doing, too. Like fighting. They’ve got a Dark Squad the baron is building from the best of his soldiers. The front line people. The ones who will be storming the fortresses when the time comes.” Derek looked up at the other boys with a grin on his face. “I aim to be part of that. High honors.”
“What about you, Crispin?” Hadley asked. Crispin shrugged.
“I don’t know, maybe.”
“I will,” Stephan jumped up, ready for the day.
Jeremy ruffled his hair. “We’ll see. Only the bravest get to be part of the Dark Squad. It’s what will separate the men from the boys. For now, let’s get our coats.”
Stephan threw his fist in the air and with a grin, shouted, “Huzzah!”
The others joined him in the rally, fetched their swords, bows, and quivers, and marched down the hall—a team ready for action.
Crispin walked with the boys, but he didn’t share their excitement. He was, in fact, scared. He had heard Derek telling Hadley the night before that he wasn’t ready, that he hadn’t gone through all the drills and lessons that they had. Derek said Crispin wasn’t prepared to be a Browncoat, much less an assassin. Hadley just shrugged it off and said there wasn’t enough time to change things. So here Crispin was, marching with boys ready to do damage when he wasn’t prepared. Oh, he could release a bolt as quickly as any other, and he was a better marksman than most. He had made a promise to the baron and to Hadley that he’d do what needed to be done. But there was this little worm squirming around inside of him saying something wasn’t right, saying his heart wasn’t in it.
He entered the arena with the others. Strangely, the massive cave was empty, save for them. Their footsteps echoed against the stone walls as they walked into the room. Crispin regarded the chamber. Five targets had been set up in the middle of the room, a fresh pile of cut grass in five separate mounds, each covered with a deer hide coat. A good distance away a line had been drawn in the dirt where they were to stand. Crispin didn’t see the men at first, not until they stepped out of the shadows, and when they made their presence known, he swallowed the lump in his throat.
All five of the men were sorcerers and they were dressed in their long black cloaks that had red ties hanging from their waists that gave the appearance of tendons torn from a dying animal. They looked more like the Influencers than men, for they had painted their faces white, and they wore gauntlets made from pale goat hide. Their shoes were pointed and stuck out from under their robes like dragon claws.
“What’s this?” Hadley turned his back on them and whispered to Derek. No one in the bunkers liked the wizards. They cast spells on people constantly. You couldn’t get on the good side of them, and Crispin thought their only purpose in the Neverworld was to do harm. They were there to punish the children if they misbehaved. They seldom spoke to anyone and if you dared to ask them a question they would answer with a spark or a wave of heat in your face.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but surely not this,” Jeremy returned.
“This is a test of your loyalty, bravery, and nerves. Take your places. Now!” one of the sorcerers said. He was large, a good hand higher than the others and he paced back and forth in front of the boys, his hands folded behind his back, his eyes fixed on each of them as they lined up. Crispin cringed when he met his eyes, a darkness emitted from the man’s very soul.
The other men in black backed away from the targets as the sorcerer talked.
“Under one of these stacks of hay is a boy much like you,” the sorcerer told them. “Only he’s not one of you. Not today. We are imagining him as the enemy. A spy. He’s been put under a spell, so he won’t budge until this test is over. I want you to shoot at your target as if you know he’s there. I want you to kill him if he is. You have until the hay burns to empty your quivers and rescue your coats, therefore you have only seconds to respond before he gets away.”
Crispin’s face heated and he looked to his friends with wide-eyes. No one else seemed to be reacting the same as how he felt, except for Stephan, who gaped, his mouth open as he stared at the sorcerer.
“Any hesitation on your part puts you in jeopardy. We’ve entrusted you the duty of assassins, and potential Dark Squad leaders. Show us your worth. Show us your leadership. You were hand-picked for this assignment.”
Jeremy set his jaw and aimed. Derek glanced first at Hadley, then Stephan, and then him. He let out a laugh that seemed more nervous than amused, and raised his bow. Hadley shrugged and wet his lips, pulled a bolt from his quiver, and marked his target. Stephan looked at Crispin with fear in his eyes. He wasn’t ready, and even though the youngster’s hands trembled, he nocked his bolt.
Crispin took a deep breath. He’d marked targets all his life and never thought twice about hitting any of them. Why should he? They were never alive, but today his heart pounded in his chest.
“What’s keeping you, boy?” a wizard asked Stephan. “This is what war is all about.”
“What if he’s a friend?” Stephan’s voice quaked. “What if we know him?”
“Your enemies will be people you know. You’re a soldier now. You don’t see your enemy as people, you see them as something to annihilate. This is what you’ve been training for. If you can’t do this today, when will you?”
Tears rolled down Stephan’s cheeks, and his hands shook. His bolt fell on the ground, and he stooped to pick it up.
“Useless! It’s over for you.” Another sorcerer rushed from the shadows past Crispin and grabbed the boy. “We should put you under the hay. Or is the island calling your name?”
Stephan didn’t scream though Crispin thought he should have. It was as if the boy wanted someone to pull him away. The wizard, holding onto Stephan’s hair, shoved him down the hall and out of the arena.
Crispin suppressed the same inhibitions that Stephan displayed. He had no desire to kill one of his friends nor did he want to injure any of the children in the bunkers. His face heated as his heart pumped faster than it ever had before.
“Let loose! Now!” another man ordered, causing Crispin to jump. The four boys released their bolts one after another. The thud of arrows slamming into leather and hay resounded in the room. Grass flew into the air, and the wizards ignited the haystacks. At first they smoldered while the boys loosed bolts until their quivers were empty. With the sweep of a sorcerer’s hand all five stacks burst into flame. Jeremy raced to his coat and grabbed it. The others followed. Crispin swung his crossbow over his shoulder and ran to get his just as a young boy hiding under Stephan’s target rolled out of the burning pile of grass and dodged out the door.
The hay burned to a crisp leaving a thick layer of smoke in the chamber. The sorcerers disappeared into the shadows and Crispin followed Derek, Jeremy, and Hadley out of the arena—their leather coats slung over their backs like trophies. On his way back to the bunkers, Crispin caught a glimpse of the fleeing boy who had almost died and hoped that the baron and his sorcerers would forgive whatever misdeed he had committed. He also hoped Stephan’s punishment wouldn’t be too severe.