Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale - Colin McComb

anks of the Knights Faithful, valuable recruits, and the Houses of the Empire paid well for their
services. The Knights Elite were answerable only to the king and those he chose to speak for him,
performing the tasks necessary to maintain the Empire, but the other orders traveled among the
Houses, every two years delivered by dirigible to those who had asked for their aid. They
returned to Terona at the end of their term for training in the rugged terrain to the north of the
city, and as long as the Houses paid their leases, the Houses retained the services of highly trained
and most deadly warriors. The knights’ loyalty was to the Empire first, to their brotherhood
second, and to their adopted Houses last, so when no external threats materialized, they fought
against one another in the many internecine battles between Houses great and small.
This mattered little to the young men and women who sought the slots. The knighthood’s
regimen had driven ordinary ambition and emotion from them. They struggled now against one
another, a competition among near-equals, for their place in legend. They believed that if they
could achieve Elite, their struggles would be against the heroes of the past. For now, though, they
trained, they studied, they marched hard miles under the blazing sun and under the torrential
mountain rains. They fought in muddy trenches, across fields strewn with mountains of dirt and
shreds of metal. They trained with swords and spears, bows and siege engines, and other, more
esoteric devices created by the Archmagus and his acolytes. They spent a month alone in the
wilderness, living off nothing but their wits.
Through it all, they were observed by a cadre of Knights Elite, to whom the duty of
training this raw flesh would fall. Pelagir’s witness, Lieutenant Caltash, took a special interest in
his charge and set him a variety of tests to gauge the boy’s reactions. Caltash liked what he found.
He liked it very much indeed.
At the end of the fourth year, one of ten. This letter went to the Knight Assessors, who oversaw
the training and advancement of the young candidates:
By order of the Commander of Knights Assembled,
On this, the third day of the month of the Eagle, of the year Crystal, of the cycle Strength,
commonly known as the 581 st Clasping Year, let it be known that Pelagir Amons has
surpassed our expectations. Let it be known that he has been judged and found worthy.
Let him be borne away to Devilsfoot on this night. Let him be delivered to the tower of
Colin McComb Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale
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