Free The Brotherhood: Blood by Kody Boye Page A

animals, it’s not as though she couldn’t have had a conversation before.
    Being the most prevalent of the magics still existing within the human realm today, it was quite likely that someone like him had stumbled across the wolf’s territory—alone, on their horse with nothing more than a few short rations to guide them—and managed to converse with her. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities, considering that a few choice individuals managed to be blessed with such Gifts, and while he couldn’t help but dwell on that basic concept, Odin eventually began to simmer on the fact of how ignorant he was of his abilities.
    I’m only fourteen and I don’t even know the full extent of my gifts.
    Had he been born into a royal family, then surely he would have had the training he so desperately strived toward, wouldn’t he?
    I can talk to animals and set things on fire, he thought, raising his hand to count down just what he could do on his fingers. I can also stitch things up.
    What else could he do, he wondered, and what powers lay hidden beneath the surface just waiting to be discovered?
    It wouldn’t be much longer now before he broke free of the forest and the castle rose into the distance.
    Once he arrived, he would seek out a teacher and have him or her examine his skills.
     
    It seemed to tower into the sky forever and more. Tall, ancient, vast in its scope and even more dazzling in its appearance—like his father had once told him as a child dreaming of one day entering into the Ornalan military, it sparkled like gold and silver and even the faint luminescence of molten pearls and echoed across the landscape a signal of triumph within the three human kingdoms. Such an awe-inspiring site was to be reveled—and, of course, dwelled upon—and while he now sat no more than a mere hundred feet away from it, each and every moment brought him one step closer to the very place he would soon be calling home.
    Even from such a distance—which, to Odin, seemed like nothing, given the fact that he was now closer to Ornala than he had been in the past few days—he could see upon the surface of the outer wooden gate a pair of guards making their way back and forth between the two watch towers that flanked the southern wall. Occasionally, one of them would look the horizon and likely point out something they saw—how, Odin wondered, they couldn’t see him he wasn’t sure—but for the most part, they continued their back and forth pace, almost as if they had nothing more in the world to do.
    You’ll be there soon, Odin thought. Stay calm.
    However true that sentiment rung, he couldn’t help but feel within his chest a growing sense of panic that started first in his fingertips and eventually slid throughout the entirety of his being. A series of shakes—which, at first, began as nothing more than a slight tremble—soon turned into a full-out hysteric fit. Why he cried he couldn’t necessarily be sure, as he felt not an ounce of sorrow or even a shroud of indecision, but as he drew closer to the gate, he began to lose all sense of feeling within his body. Even his hands, bound tightly to the reins before him, remained numb and dead, as if he’d sat or pressed them against the base of his skull for far too long.
    It took little more than the fading eclipse of the afternoon to come within the next few feet of the gate.
    Odin closed his eyes.
    Above, one of the two guards appeared with his crossbow in hand and trained the weapon on Odin from a distance. In response to this action, Odin raised a hand, signifying peace even if it seemed that were not the case.
    “What business do you have?” the guard called, gesturing to his companion with a single wave of his hand.
    “I’m here to enlist in the military!” Odin cried. “I ran ahead of the Felnon caravan to make sure that the path was safe!”
    “Where is your father, boy?”
    “Further back, with the group!”
    Though it was much too far up and away for