Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

This was it. Once again Trance almost felt destiny at the door as he rode Odin back to the start for this joust. He knew that even if he lost now, he had made a very respectable showing here at the tournaments. He knew better than to lose his focus and concentrated on this joust like he had every joust leading up to this one.

The crowd noise was deafening when the boys collided and the Samurai was unhorsed by Trance. In relief he looked up and said a silent prayer of thanks. It was not thanks to the fact that he had won. It was rather thanks to the fact that he and his team were doing well, in fact very well. It was more than that. Trance felt a need to humble himself and acknowledge that it was a blessing that he was here at all. He knew that he would have still more work to do to get to be where he wanted to go and be what he most wanted to be, and that was to become a Golden Griffin and serve his kingdom and planet.

Late that afternoon all of the individual jousts were finished and Trance learned that he would be in the third group out of eight to joust in the All Weapons Joust. Gracer had told Trance, “Usually in the past this event will come down to the lancers.” Trance was then surprised that he was able to make it to the next round by defeating a lancer while the vast majority of the lancers won and advanced. Trance didn’t feel the pressure as he did in the Swordsman’s Joust so he did his best to relax and enjoy himself as he made it to the fourth round. Trance found himself against another boy with a lance. When he lined up he just had a feeling that this wasn’t going to be a good round for him. Moments later as he struggled to his feet he almost felt relief that his jousts were over and that he could now relax and watch the rest of the jousts and cheer on his friends and Corena.

Trance took Odin back to park him in his stall and then went to the locker room and changed. Minutes later he was with his family in the stands and cheering as the jousts continued. Gracer only made to the next round but Zam advanced two more rounds. Trance’s friend Hamon actually advanced two rounds more than Zam. Trance particularly yelled and cheered as Hamon faced Rex and raced toward him and with one great swing of his hammer blasted Rex right off his horse. Then the same boy with a lance that had knocked Trance out of competition unhorsed Hamon in the next round.

Trance really cheered as he watched Corena advance one round after another. To Trance it was amazing watching her as she jousted with her bow and arrow. She was one of the very few archers jousting. Her aim was straight and true even from the back of her horse. Trance smiled, he loved her more than any girl he had ever known. She was beautiful, vivacious, intelligent, brave, and courageous. He admired her skill as a knight. She was an excellent swordswoman as well as being rather good with her ax, but how could he describe how good she was as an archer. She had such an easy natural ability to shoot that her arrows just went right where she wanted them to go without her really aiming at her targets.

As Trance watched the next couple rounds of both the boys and the girls’ jousts he noticed that both were coming down to lancers. There were a few exceptions, such as Corena as an archer. At the quarterfinals there was still one boy with an ax. But all of the rest of the remaining competitors carried lances. The semifinals were only lancers, and the boy that won was the same boy that had unhorsed Trance.

On the girls’ side Corena was the lone girl competing with a weapon other than a lance. Trance leaped up and down and cheered with his family as Corena made history by becoming the fifth girl in the tournament’s history to win the girls Every Weapons Joust in back-to-back years and only the second to do it with a weapon other than a lance, the first archer.

King Maximus hosted a small party for the boys and girls and their families of the Gray Mountain Warriors. Trance and his family had a great time as they celebrated Corena’s victory. Trance danced with Corena all evening. The party didn’t go too late since tomorrow would be the last day of the tournaments. The ultimate competitions would be held and the top awards would then be handed out. Trance was excited for Corena since she was leading the girl’s standings. Trance was now in fourth position for the boys.

Chapter 25

Noble Stand

Trance stood on the wall of the very large fort. In his sheath was one of the two back-up swords that he had made this year. Knowing that it would be possible that his first wooden sword could be broken, he had taken the time to make a couple more swords just in case. In the fort behind him were half of the teams in the tournaments. He had had a rather rough morning. His thoughts rolled back as he recalled the events of just three hours ago. When he had arrived at the field that morning he was in for a couple of surprises.

The first surprise was when he found out that the White Knights would be on the same side as the Gray Mountain Warriors. The second surprise was that in a very close vote Rex was selected the captain of schools from the Western Constellation Schools. Trance just knew that with Rex as captain he and his teammates were probably as good as eliminated from the event. However, he