Path of the Specialist Read online

  Path of the Specialist

  (Path of the Ranger Book 6)

  Pedro Urvi

  Other Books by Pedro Urvi

  THE ILENIAN ENIGMA

  THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN GODS

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  Copyright ©2020 Pedro Urvi

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  Dedication

  To my good friend Guiller.

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  Contents

  Path of the Specialist

  Pedro Urvi

  Other Books by Pedro Urvi

  Dedication

  Contents

  MAP

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  ---THE END BOOK 6---

  Note from the author:

  Acknowledgements

  Author

  MAP

  Chapter 1

  Lasgol spread his arms and let the warm breeze caress his face. He shut his eyes and the breath of the Nordic Gods ruffled his hair, which was almost shoulder-length. He took a deep breath and savored the unmistakable scent of the Norghanian woods at the end of summer. The characteristic scent of his land reminded him of his childhood: his father Dakon teaching him to track in the woods to the north of their property in Skad. The blurred image of his mother on horseback came to his mind: waving at them, leaving them. Those memories filled him with bittersweet feelings: his father’s love, his pain at his mother’s departure.

  He was thoughtful there with the oak-wood in front of him. It was mid-afternoon and the sun caressed his pale skin, and he was grateful for the fact. He was beside the Cave of Oblivion, although at that moment he would have rather been beside his home in Skad, even now that his parents were no longer there. He would be enjoying the company of the unique Ulf, the ugliest and worst-mannered retired soldier in the entire realm, who deep down was like a puppy. And the faithful Martha, the best housekeeper in the whole North, would be waiting at his house. How he missed them. Both had had an enormous impact on his life and being unable to visit them was making him miss them.

  He sighed. They had passed the Harmony Test, and Sigrid, the Mother Specialist, had given them a week’s rest. She wanted them to get their strength back before the beginning of the second part of the year, which she had already warned them would be very complicated. At the same time, she had not given permission for anybody to leave the Shelter. Lasgol would have given anything to be able to visit Egil. Gerd and Nilsa too, though he knew it would have been practically impossible because they were at opposite ends of the realm. Perhaps he would soon have news of them and he would feel better knowing how they were and what they were up to – because knowing them, knowing the Snow Panthers, they would be involved in some trouble or other.

  “What are you thinking about?” Astrid said. She had come up from behind him and was fixing his hair a little in a gesture that was full of affection.

  “About my land... my parents... my home... friends...”

  “Nostalgia?”

  “A little. I love summer, and it’s coming to an end...”

  She gave him an ironic smile. “Don’t worry, it’ll be back in three seasons and you’ll be able to enjoy it again.”

  Lasgol smiled too and looked into her green, almost cat-like eyes, which pierced to his soul.

  “Smartass.”

  Astrid poked her tongue out at him and tousled his hair. “I don’t know why you say that. I’m all love and affection.”

  “Yeah, exactly. That’s why you got Assassin of Nature in the Harmony Test.”

  “The one thing has nothing to do with the other,” she said, and turned two somersaults and then took a leap with amazing agility and balance.

  “Are you sure that’s the elite specialty you want to get?”

  “Are you sure you’d be able to bear it if I did?”

  “Because you’re going to get it...”

  “Are you in any doubt about it?” she asked, and her gaze turned fierce.

  “No... none... that’s why I’m asking.”

  “I will achieve the elite specialty. And yes, it is the one I want.”

  Lasgol saw in her eyes that he would not be able to make her change her mind. He had no right to try, and he knew it. He had been debating the question in his mind ever since he had known that she would choose one of the Assassin specialties, which were the most difficult and also the most dangerous. He did not want anything bad to happen to her, not for anything in the world. And he knew that by choosing that path, she would not only be risking her life at every step, but her soul as well. The path of death would taint her with black even if she dodged all the dangers.

  “I’m proud of you,” he admitted, and bowed his head.

  She tilted her head to one side. “You could make the congratulations sound a little happier.”

  Lasgol knew it was the right thing to do. “I’m very proud of you,” he said in a strong, determined voice.

  “I believe you now,” she smiled with a glint in her eyes.

  Unconsciously, Lasgol put his hand to his neck, to his mother’s pendant. He stroked it and felt a little more at peace.

  “Lately you’ve been doing that more often,” she said, obviously intrigued.

  “Doing what?”

  “Stroking your mother’s pendant.”

  He looked at the object he was holding in the palm of his hand. “Am I? I hadn’t realized...”

  “I had,” she said with her mischievous smile. “I keep an eye on you.”

  “It must be a subconscious act... when I think of her...”

  “Couldn’t it be something else?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like the ring,” she said. She pointed to the ring he was wearing on his right hand.

  “Oh... you think it has power?”

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  “But I would...”

  “That’s what I think.”

  “I haven’t studied it. I haven’t tried to interact with the pendant...”

  “
Because of her?”

  “I think so...”

  “If she gave it to you it must have been for a good reason, not a bad one.”

  “She gave it to me in her last moment of life.”

  “All the more reason why it must be important.”

  “You think I ought to study it? With my Gift?”

  “I think so. It’ll be good for you to find out what it is and why she gave it to you. Or else you’ll always be wondering about it.”

  Lasgol smiled. “You’re right.”

  “Of course I’m right,” she said, and gave a leap, followed by a pirouette, which left him with his mouth hanging open.

  “You needn’t show off in front of me. I already know how amazing you are.”

  “And that’s why you love me?” she asked in a honeyed voice, trying to draw a ‘yes’ out of him.

  “No, not because of that,” he said. He did not want to fall into the brunette’s trap.

  Astrid took out two knives and threw them with great force at an oak ten paces away. They buried themselves in the bark, in parallel, with a sharp, deadly impact. She looked back at him with half-closed eyes.

  “You were saying...?”

  “I... well... I love you for your other qualities... the lethal ones don’t attract me so much...”

  Astrid smiled from ear to ear. “You look very handsome when you blush.”

  Lasgol realized he could not win with her. Every time he tried to hide his feelings, she brought them out into the open, leaving him embarrassed and as red as a tomato.

  “When I’m a Beast Whisperer, I’ll have an enormous bear with me, and he’ll take care of those tricks of yours.”

  “He’ll surrender to my charms too, or my knives,” she said, and walked to the oak, her hips swaying sensuously.

  “You’re impossible.”

  “We all are in Expertise.”

  “That’s very true.”

  She looked around. “And Camu? Where’s he?”

  “He’s inside the cave. We’re experimenting to see how far I can communicate with him, or him with me.”

  “Isn’t it the same thing?”

  “Well, the first thing we found out is that it isn’t. It turns out that I can communicate with him at the most from a hundred paces away.’

  “That’s far enough.”

  Lasgol looked annoyed. “No, it isn’t...”

  “As far as I know mages can cast spells up to two hundred paces away... shouldn’t you be able to use your magic as far as that too?”

  “No... my power doesn’t go as far as that.” He already felt bad at being less than a sorcerer or a mage, even if he had the Gift just as they did. “I’m not as powerful as one of them, my magic’s more limited... in power, reach, in the offensive skills I can develop...”

  The expression in Astrid’s eyes showed that she regretted having asked. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to annoy you. I didn’t think –”

  “Don’t worry. It’s the truth. That’s the way things are. I’m a Ranger, not a Mage. All the same, Camu can communicate with me from more than two hundred paces away. We’ve managed to get him to send me messages from twice that distance on flat land. It’s really surprising”

  “Because Camu’s a magical creature, and he’s powerful.”

  “Yes... because of that... You say it as if it were nothing, but it’s an important discovery. Egil will die of envy when he finds out.”

  “I already knew.”

  “What do you mean, you already knew?”

  “The little one has a lot of power, and as he grows, his power’ll grow with him.” She shrugged. “You don’t have to be a scholar of the arcane arts to realize that.”

  “Maybe you have a sixth sense.”

  “Maybe. I call it plain common sense.”

  Lasgol laughed. “Yeah, that.”

  Can’t, Camu’s message reached him.

  Lasgol looked toward the entrance of the cave. There was his little friend on his four legs, pointing at Lasgol with his long tail.

  Can’t you send messages from in there? Lasgol asked.

  No, underground can’t.

  That’s interesting. I wonder if it’s only in underground places or rock buildings too.

  Not know, Camu replied, and put his head to one side.

  Off we go, then, we’ll go on tomorrow.

  Camu set off, and by his third step he was already bouncing. He loved to bounce. He came toward them, then suddenly saw a moose in the woods and changed course in midair.

  Where are you going?

  Moose. Play.

  The moose doesn’t want to play with you.

  Yes, he does.

  No, he doesn’t, you scare him.

  Yes, he does.

  Camu ran into the forest, and of course frightened the moose, which ran away. He set off in pursuit of it.

  Lasgol shook his head. “He doesn’t pay any attention to me.”

  Astrid smiled. “Well, I do.”

  “And a good thing too,” he said, and returned her smile.

  “You’ll manage to go on getting better with Camu, don’t worry.”

  “I have to go on experimenting with him.”

  “What’s worrying you? You’ve turned very serious all of a sudden.”

  “Experimenting... it reminded me of what Sigrid said.”

  “She let you stay, and Camu as well. Everything’s all right, isn’t it?

  “Not completely. She let us stay, but on one condition.”

  “Experimenting,” Astrid said, understanding what was worrying him.

  “That’s right. She’s going to want to experiment with me and with Camu. I don’t mind her experimenting with me, I’ll get over it. But with Camu... I’m worried they’ll hurt him.”

  “They won’t, they’re honorable Masters.”

  “It might not be what they mean to do, but accidentally... they might wound him, or worse...”

  “Take it easy, talk to Sigrid and tell her your fears. She’ll understand.”

  “Depending on the mood she’s in. It’s as if that woman had two personalities.”

  “That’s true. And one of them isn’t very nice, but to keep order in the Shelter, she has to be hard.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “And you need to worry about yourself too.”

  “I already do...”

  “Not enough.”

  “My magic, my Gift, I don’t think that experimenting with me can hurt me... unless it was to my head.”

  “That might fix a thing or two,” she teased him to cheer him up a little.

  “You could be right. Maybe that’s what I need.”

  She put her hand to her chin. “Hmm... a Ranger with magic... that makes you a very special Ranger.”

  “Yeah, I can see the allure...”

  She smiled roguishly. “And more than that... very brave, honorable and handsome.”

  “What was that last one?”

  Astrid came up to him, put her arms around his neck and kissed him long and passionately. Lasgol lost himself in feelings of love and passion which enveloped him from head to foot.

  “For the love of the Ice Gods!” came an acid voice. “Can’t we leave you for ten seconds without you falling into each other’s arms?”

  They both looked in the direction of the voice and saw Viggo coming toward them, with Ingrid.

  “You caught us,” Astrid said. She moved away from Lasgol, but not before winking at him in a promise to finish what they had started some other time.

  “What are you doing here?” Lasgol asked.

  “We’ve come to see Camu now that we’ve got a break,” Ingrid said.

  Lasgol looked down to the valley below with concern. “And the others?”

  “Don’t worry,” Viggo said, “we dodged them.”

  “We sent Luca and Erika to catch river crab to make a celebration dinner this evening.”

  “Molak as well?”

  “He’s gone hunting,”
Ingrid said. “But he knows the dinner was an excuse to send them off so we could get away,”

  Viggo shrugged. “Captain Fantastic doesn’t like it when we keep secrets.”

  “Don’t call him that. It’s logical for it to bother him when we don’t tell him what we’re up to. I’d be annoyed too.”

  “Well then, break up with him,” Viggo said with a smile.

  She clenched her fist at him. “I’ll break up your nose!”

  “You’ll have to wait till we pass the end-of-year test.” Said Lasgol.

  “I don’t understand why we have to look into the future,” Viggo said.

  Ingrid rolled her eyes. “Idiot, it’s proficiency not prophecy.”

  “I knew that, I was joking.”

  “Yeah, yeah... I don’t believe you.”

  “They say it’s extremely difficult,” Astrid said.

  “As it should be,” Ingrid pointed out. “That’s the only way we’ll be able to prove our worth and get as far as the elite specialization.”

  “I’d rather it was something easier,” said Viggo. “Better to avoid unnecessary suffering.”

  “It really is necessary,” Ingrid assured him.

  “From what Sigrid said the other day,” said Astrid, “the training will be different this second part of the year. The lessons will be more one-to-one with the Elders and there’ll be more flexibility, so that we can even skip physical instruction or the daily chores.”

  “If Sigrid allows us to skip the daily chores that can only be bad news for us,” said Viggo. “It’ll be because the training’s going to be really tough, or else take more than one day.”

  Ingrid nodded. “Yeah... this time I have to agree with you. I’d go along with that.”

  “You agree with me?” Viggo said in surprise. “My heart’s going to burst out of my chest with the excitement!”

  “You scatterbrain.”

  Viggo smiled and made love-struck faces at her.

  Ingrid cursed the gods who had put Viggo in her path one day.

  “It’s going to be a very tough second part of the year,” said Astrid. “We need to prepare ourselves for the idea.”

  “I’m prepared,” Ingrid said.

  “I hope I’ll be up to it,” Lasgol said without conviction.