Read Online Guardians of Magessa (The Birthright Chronicles Book 1) by Peter Last - Free Book Online Page A

been. She had wanted to get into the contest so that she could
win. She hadn’t even considered the fact that there were nineteen other
contestants that wanted to win just as much. And now, here was a young man that
had the skill to win and it didn’t matter to him. Whether or not he won made so
little difference that he didn’t care if he got beat by a girl. Slowly, Senndra
raised her sword in salute and stood there for
several seconds. She finally pulled her sword back down into a defensive
position and prepared for an attack. Now that she had nothing to prove, she
began to actually enjoy the fight. Her opponent lunged at her, and she sidestepped him . He spun on his heels, bringing his
sword back around toward her, and she was able to block it with her sword.
Again the two cadets began to exchange blows, neither of them moving so much as
a foot. Suddenly, with a move that Senndra couldn’t quite see, her rival swung toward her chest, but pulled his blade down at
the last minute. Senndra was unable to drop her blade in time and felt his blade contact the back of her knee. The
joint buckled, sending her to the ground. When she
felt the sword point at her throat this time, she knew it was to finish
the match.
    Senndra rolled over once the pressure was
relieved and climbed to her feet. With a deft move, she pushed her sword into
its scabbard, took off her helmet , and turned to face the only person who had been able to defeat her. He had also taken off
his helmet and revealed his features. Though Senndra had estimated him to be at
least eighteen, she took one look at his face and decided that he couldn’t be
more than fifteen. He had short, red hair, but the thing that held her gaze the
most were his eyes. He had red eyes—not as though he hadn’t gotten enough sleep or what would come from crying, but truly red
eyes. A red circle, instead of a blue, green, or brown one, stretched around
his pupil, making his eyes quite unnerving. Senndra shook his hand again then
pulled her sword out and saluted the crowd. Timothy did so as well, and the
cadets in the stands went wild. Senndra and Timothy
slowly let their salutes fall and headed back for the contestant box. In that
moment, Senndra knew that she had gained a friend for life.
    ******
    Josiah stood out in front of the ranks of
his soldiers. One thousand cadets were in perfect formation, waiting for
inspection. Josiah could tell that the sun was already bothering them, but they
were doing their best not to show it. A commotion came from behind, so he
turned around. Approaching him was the grand admiral of the academy, along with
several other high ranking officers.
    Josiah turned to his troops. “Attention!”
he called, and immediately the cadets became even straighter than they had been
before. Josiah spun around to face the approaching officers and saluted them.
The officers lost no time covering the remaining distance. They returned
Josiah’s salute, and as they passed, Josiah fell in behind them. The officers
came to a halt only a few yards from the first rank of cadets, and their eyes slowly traveled up and down the rows looking
for flaws. Several minutes passed as they scrutinized the cadets before
them, then the grand admiral turned to Josiah.
    “Your troops are again in perfect order,
Commander Pondran,” he told Josiah. “You will receive your instructions in
short order, so don’t let your men get too comfortable.” Without another word,
he turned and began to walk away. One of the officers following the grand
admiral paused when he reached Josiah. He pulled several pages from a binder
and handed them to Josiah.
    “Here are your orders, Commander Pondran.”
Though the words were nothing out of the ordinary, the tone
revealed that the speaker would have been happy if Josiah had dropped
dead where he stood.
    “Thank you, Superior Officer,” Josiah
responded in a monotone. For the life of him, he could not figure out why the
man hated him so much, but he