Champion Kevintor Neverloss's Arc

Chapter 19 of 42

They climbed at first light. Albert led, the shinguards strapped to his pack, his sword loose at his hip. The serpent bridge ran across a gap of empty air, its stone scales worn smooth by rain. On the far side, the path narrowed between two cliffs. A jewel the size of a man's fist sat fixed in the rock above the gate, a dragon's head cut from blue stone, eyes catching the sun. Albert stopped under it. "He sees who comes," he said. "He decides before you knock." A thin man in a gray robe waited on a bench beyond the gate. He did not stand. He looked at Albert once, then at Kevintor, then at the rolled scroll under Kevintor's arm. "You brought a stranger," he said to Albert. "And the stranger brought paper. I am not opening paper today." Kevintor set his pack down. He pulled out what he had carried across three provinces: a folded mantle of red silk and gold shoulder plates, the gift of the arena council the year he took his sixth belt. He laid it on the stone between them. "Six titles," he said. "Boxing, karate, judo, kung fu, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai. This is what the world gave me for them." The instructor looked at the mantle the way a farmer looks at a dead crow. "I know your name," he said. "That is why the answer is no. Take your cloth and go." Kevintor did not pick it up. He sat on his heels at the edge of the bench. "Then I have nothing," he said. "I came here with the wrong currency. I know it now." He pulled the locked scroll from under his arm and set it beside the mantle, the iron dragon-head plate facing up. "He carried this for forty years and gave it to a woman to give to me. He told her I would either turn back or come find you. I came to find you." The instructor's eyes moved to the plate and stayed there. Albert stepped forward before the silence closed. He unstrapped the golden shinguards and laid them on the bench. "You sent these back to me with no letter," he said. "I kept them anyway. I lost the duel because I looked at a woman. I know you heard. I am asking you to open his scroll. Not mine. His." He stopped. He did not finish what came next. The instructor looked at the shinguards a long time. Then he picked up the scroll. He turned the iron plate in his hand and shook his head. "I will not unlock this for a champion," he said. "I will unlock it for the boy who came back." He stood, the scroll under his arm, and walked toward the inner door. "Both of you. Inside. You will eat first. The key is not kept where guests can see it." Kevintor left the red mantle on the stone and followed.