Page 12 of The Study of Magic
Now that was impressive. “Noted.”
“It’s just a matter of time,” Janco muttered.
“What changed your attitudes about each other?” Valek asked them.
“Janco’s tenacity. He doesn’t know how to quit. We once tracked an enemy for days because of him. Didn’t matter that, once we caught up, our enemy turned out to be an elk and he wouldn’t shoot it for dinner, he still considered it a win.”
“Shecould have had elk puppies waiting at home for her,” Janco interjected.
“Calves. They’re called calves.”
“Details.” Janco waved it away.
“And that brings me to my other point, his view on life is completely different than mine. I see dinner after a grueling six-day hunt and he sees a family,” Ari said. “Plus, out of all the people in our unit, no one else could touch his skills. If I aim to be the best, then I need to have the second best by my side.”
“Ha! You wish,” Janco said.
“I know.” Ari sobered. “He’s the brother I wish I had.”
For the first time since Valek had known Janco, the man appeared stunned. He opened and closed his mouth several times, but no sounds escaped.
Ari ignored him. “I grew up in MD-4. I’m the youngest of three boys. The runt of the litter.” He smiled, but then it faded. “My father and brothers were soldiers for the King’s army. I was twelve when the growing resistance arrived in our town. Since I was much younger than my brothers and they were well known as soldiers, they asked me to attend Ambrose’s somewhat secret meeting and report back. Honored and excited about spying, I agreed.”
Valek sensed where Ari’s story was headed, but he kept quiet.
“Except, Ambrose’s speech made sense. He was well spoken and obviously intelligent. Every point he raised matched what I’d been thinking about the monarchy. The corruption. The greed. My father and brothers would never be promoted since they had no connections in the upper ranks. They didn’t even earn a living wage. We all lived together, scrimping even though my father worked two jobs. And yet…”
Now it was Ari’s turn to stare into the flames. “Yet, when I told them about what Ambrose planned, what he intended to fix, they rejected his ideas. Claimed he was just another charlatan; duping idiots like me. What did I know? I was twelve. But I couldn’t dismiss his ideology so easily. Ambrose moved on to the next city, but he left a group behind to continue recruiting supporters. Without telling my family, I started helping the resistance in my town. Small things like delivering messages or tipping them off about raids.”
“How long before your family found out?” Valek asked.
“Not until after the Commander successfully took over Ixia. I was thirteen, and my father and brothers were given the choice to switch sides. They were offered double their salaries. My brothers could have afforded to live on their own, get married, have children. I couldn’t believe it when they stubbornly remained loyal to the monarchy. I argued with them, but all that did was get me disowned. They were arrested and incarcerated for a few years before being assigned menial public works jobs. They considered themselves heroes.”
“Thirteen is rather young to be on your own,” Valek said, remembering when he’d been disowned at the same age. At least, Valek had a purpose. A goal.
“I would have been living on the streets, scrounging to survive if the King had been in charge. But the Commander kept his promises. His people found homes for all the kids on the streets. And since I helped with the resistance, I was adopted by Ohin, the captain of the patrol.”
“A good man with no sense of humor,” Janco added. “None. We don’t get along. That shouldn’t be a surprise.”
It wasn’t.
“While most people were still reeling from the change in politics, the change in everyday life, and having to readjust biases that had been based on bloodlines and wealth, Ohin understood the ample opportunities the Commander’s military offered to everyone. He started training me right away,” Ari said. “I enlisted as soon as I turned eighteen and worked my way through the ranks. Unlike Janco, it took me two years longer to get promoted to the Commander’s garrison.”
“That’s because single-minded determination doesn’t work,” Janco said. “You’d think it would, but it leaves no room for imagination and invention. Again, Ohin is a great man, and his fighting technique is textbook. So textbook that it’s predicable. I had to work on Ari to embrace the crazy. Took me forever just to get him to crack a smile.”
“If I had no imagination, how did I manage to beat you all those times?” Ari asked.
“I didn’t say you didn’t have it. It was buried under all that rule-following seriousness. Choked by the conviction that this job is too important to have any fun. My antics were what brought out your wild side that you needed to win.”
“Or those textbook techniques actually work, especially against an opponent who didn’t bother to read the textbook.”
“Textbook, shmeck-book,” Janco said. “When we started working together, Ari quoted rules and regulations to me all the time. And, yeah, sometimes following a certain protocol worked, but I began to suspect that deep down there was more to Ari than a boring grunt. I’ve since discovered he’s the brother I didn’t know I needed.”
Valek was glad these two found each other. He had a few other agents who clicked and worked well together, but it was rare for two people to sync so well and balance each other out—one’s weakness was another’s strength. Was it like that with him and Yelena? He’d like to think so, but they’d only had such a short time together.
“Okay, so we spilled our guts, what about you?” Janco asked.
Surprised, Valek asked, “Me? Everyone knows my story.”
