Free The Bowl of Souls: Book 01.5 - Hilt's Pride by Trevor H. Cooley

some heavy . . . incentives.”
     
    “What was going to convince her?” Beth leaned in close to him as they talked and Hilt could tell she was getting cold. He took off his overcoat and slid it across her shoulders.
     
    “Xedrion understood her reasons for leaving and had come up with a way to raise her esteem among her peers. I told you about Yntri’s bow earlier, how it is made of living Jharro wood. Well Jhonate already had one Jharro weapon, all the good warriors among her people have one. However Xedrion asked Yntri to make her another one. That is a rare honor among their people. Only Xedrion’s own elite force has two Jharro weapons and only her eldest brother was good enough to be counted among those elite.
     
    “So Yntri made her a Jharro bow and her father included a golden dragon hair bowstring, a priceless prize in and of itself . If Jhonate returned to her people with two Jharro weapons, the golden bowstring, and the training of the Battle Academy she would have all the respect she could ever want. Yntri was going to present the weapon to her himself and I came along to smooth things over with the academy and make sure that there were no hard feelings left behind. I was authorized to set up a warrior exchange program where the top students from the school would be allowed to come and train with the Roo -tan for a while, Xedrion had even agreed to open his kingdom to academy contracts.”
     
    “And she refused all that?” Beth asked in amazement, clutching his coat close around her.
     
    “Well, things didn’t go as planned. You see, she had been doing so well that Faldon the Fierce had offered her a one year contract, paying her to train his son, who was struggling to pass the tests necessary to enter the academy. She was all but ready to return with us, however the Roo -tan take contracts very seriously. Her year was almost up when we arrived and we decided to wait for her to complete it.
     
    “But then she took Yntri to check out her student, who was struggling with the bow. He’s the other person Yntri met this year with talent like yours. The boy was just too stubborn to listen to his archery instructor. This is when things went wrong. The bow that Yntri had brought intending to give it to Jhonate, bonded to her student instead. And when a Jharro weapon bonds to someone it is permanent.”
     
    “Oh my,” Beth said.
     
    “It wasn’t supposed to be possible,” Hilt said as he fed a few more sticks to the fire. “There is usually a whole ceremony involved. Before a warrior is given a weapon, he spends a night sleeping in the boughs of the host tree before it gives up the wood. Jhonate had already done so as a child, but her student had never seen a Jharro tree.
     
    “ Yhtri thinks it was because he spent so much time in contact with Jhonate’s weapon. Since both came from the same tree, it recognized him. Regardless, we could no longer use it as an incentive to bring her home. Yntri gave Jhonate permission to give it to her student and she gave it to him on his birthday, golden string and all.
     
    “At that point Yntri continued on his pilgrimage and I stayed behind, hoping that I could still convince her to return to her father. I worked out the details of Xedrion’s agreement with the academy and even helped Jhonate train her student. I must admit, he wasn’t a natural with the sword, but he impressed me with his determination.”
     
    Hilt shrugged. “Anyway Yntri returned just a few days early from his pilgrimage with news of problems with the Jharro grove. Xedrion wanted us to return right away.”
     
    “So she decided to stay behind?” Beth asked
     
    “Most likely.” Hilt said. “When we left, she was still unsure whether or not she was going to return, but I bet she stays. Yntri can still provide her a new weapon when she comes back and make good on her father’s offer, but her heart seems to be with the academy. She really wants to graduate and feels that by doing