Child of Surprise
The boy still won't talk to me. He hasn't said five words since we left. He hasn't cried either. He has tried to run away a few times. I had to tie him up to get at least some sleep.
We're well away from anywhere he's ever seen by now, and he doesn't try any more. I think he might, though. Might just be biding his time. I never had any child so determined to go home, or at least get away from me.
But then, I rarely took anyone his age. It's not wise. They aren't so frightened and they fight much harder. The training is harder for them, too, much less time before the Trials. Maybe I shouldn't have done it. It's been decades since I last claimed a Child of Surprise. Even with the School in the state it's in, we still get enough orphaned children brought to us that there's no real need. War and famine see to it.
His father was all too ready to give him up. The mother wasn't but she didn't dare refuse. I could smell the bruises on her, fading and new. You know that scent, old blood under the skin. Could smell it on the boy, too. Maybe it would have been better to leave the man to die and come back for the drowners later. But I didn't know.
The walk back from the swamp to the hut was plenty to find out just how unpleasant that man is. He all but offered the boy to me. Maybe the woman will leave, now that there's no child to take care of. I hope she will.
I was right, the boy had been biding his time. He had a knife - not one of mine, maybe stolen from an inn. Wicked sharp, too. Sharp enough to slice his palm when he stabbed my leg with it and his grip slipped. He's persistent, I give him that. Even tried to run, but I'm not so old that I can't catch a child stumbling through the woods. He got me good and proper with that knife, but just to the calf and a Swallow took care of it.
It earned him a thrashing. I don't think it left much of an impression, he's too used to that and he's had worse for breaking a dish or missing a chore from his father, I'm sure. But what else am I supposed to do, ask him nicely not to stab me again?
I'm going to ask Eskel and Geralt to keep an eye on the boy once they're back. It will do them good. It's time they took some responsibility. And maybe it will help Lambert as well. He'll need all the help he can get to make it through the training and the Trials.
It's not good to get attached, I know that. When they don't die in the Trials, they die on the Path. It's what we do. But maybe, the boy will make it out of sheer spite. I would be glad to see it.