An Ogre Mage. An Army of Goblins. A Group of Young Warriors. And a Curse.
Ushganore and his horde of goblins are resurrected once a century. The barrier signifying their return is fading. War is only a sunset away. If they manage to reach the village, Elantrus is doomed. To stop Ushganore from raining terror on their land, one hundred warriors must enter Elantrus Castle and delay his reawakening.
A hero will be born after the bloody battle. But becoming the village's savior carries a hefty price.
An Ogre Mage. An Army of Goblins. A Group of Young Warriors. And a Curse.
Ushganore and his horde of goblins are resurrected once a century. The barrier signifying their return is fading. War is only a sunset away. If they manage to reach the village, Elantrus is doomed. To stop Ushganore from raining terror on their land, one hundred warriors must enter Elantrus Castle and delay his reawakening.
A hero will be born after the bloody battle. But becoming the village's savior carries a hefty price.
Akren stubbed his toe on a chair leg, cursed, and slipped on his fallen practice sword as he bounced around the room, trying, and failing to put on his trousers.
āMaster Nuk is going to have my head,ā he said, bumping into a wall. He was late for training again.
At last, after a hard-fought battle, his trousers yielded. Yanking his tunic from the edge of the bed, he shrugged it on, realized it was backwards, fixed it, then slipped on his wooden practice sword once more. Cursing, he stuffed his feet in a pair of boots, hefted his training weapon from the floor, and barreled out of the tiny home. By the time he reached the steep incline leading to the practice square, he was already winded.
His legs and lungs were on fire when the hill finally leveled out. The only thing stopping him from collapsing to the damp grass and catching his breath were the hundred pairs of eyes staring at him, and in the middle of two groups of warriors, with a weathered face twisted in a scowl, was Master Nuk.
āSorry,ā Akren said, hands on his knees as he heaved in air. āI overslept.ā Scanning the warriors, he noticed the group on the left carried no shieldsāonly practice swords.
They must be playing the role of the goblins.
āIām guessing you must be so talented, training to save our village is beneath you,ā Master Nuk said to him, earning a few snickers from the warriors. āStand next to the team on your left.ā
Akren nodded vehemently, glad the reprimand hadnāt been worse, then turned to do as commanded.
āOh, donāt bother bringing your sword; you donāt need it,ā Master Nuk added. āNot the great Akren.ā
More snickers followed, and with a groan, he let go of his weapon and jogged over to his group. When Master Nuk gave the instructions, then the proceeding order to begin the session, Akren, without the aid of his practice sword, was beaten to a pulp by the opposing side.
Afterward, they switched to one-on-one combat. Akren was glad to retrieve his weapon until he saw who Master Nuk had paired him with. Standing before him was a tall, heavily muscled man. Akren gave the man a slight dip of the chin as he posed in a fighting stance. His opponentāEriusādid the same, then charged.
Akren repeatedly found himself knocked on the ground, but he continued to get up, refusing to let his shortcomings dissuade him. Erius sprinted toward him, and Akren stumbled back, narrowly missing getting struck with the wooden practice sword. He lunged, ready to plunge his weapon into his opponentās chest, but the large man proved nimble for his size. Erius sidestepped the attempt, then performed a high kick. Akren held up an arm in time to block the strike, but the pain that followed was more than heād anticipated. Distracted by the discomfort, he allowed his opponent to set his feet for another attack. A straight kick to the chest sent Akren flailing to his backside, causing him to drop his sword.
āYouāre moving too slow off the counter,ā Master Nuk said, pounding the tip of his staff on the ground as he stomped toward him.
Akren winced as he got to his feet.
āThatās why Erius continues to disarm you,ā Master Nuk went on. āItās not because heās better than youāāErius, who stood across from Akren, frowned in disagreementāābut because youāre letting him beat you to the punch.ā
Akren wiped the dirt from his trousers and tunic, then hefted his sword from where it had fallen. Master Nuk reached out, clutched Akren by the collar, and pulled him close until they were nose to nose. For an old man, he was surprisingly strong.
āThose goblins in the castle will eat you alive if this is the extent of your skill set, boy,ā Master Nuk said, spittle flying onto his bottom lip. āDo you hear me?ā
āOf course, Master Nuk,ā he stammered.
Master Nuk let go, then turned to the rest of the men. Akren quickly wiped the spit from his lip with his forearm. āI have been molding you all to be warriors since childhood to complete the most important assignment an Elantrean could have!ā Master Nuk bellowed over the noise of clashing weapons. Knowing their master expected their attention, the warriors stopped training. The one hundred men, Akren and Erius included, backed out of the practice square. āYou will enter the castle, defeat the goblins that lie within, and delay Ushganoreās return for another hundred years.ā
The tale of Ushganore, the ogre mage, was well known in the small village of Elantrus. Even as a small child, Akren had heard of the ancient tale about how the ogre mage, along with his horde of goblins, stampeded into Elantrus Castle, decimated the residents, and murdered the king. Ushganore then declared himself the ruler of the land, but a villager rebelled against the ogre mage, gathering as many men as he could, and fought against the intruders. It was a long and bloody battle, but in the end, the villagers prevailed.Ā
The village of Elantrus has a history like no other. Every one hundred years, Elantrus Castle is filled with carnivorous goblins and an ogre mage who promises to decimate the village if heās allowed to escape. In order to stop him, one hundred young soldiers are unleashed on the castle to defeat him once again. Wielding a magic sword, the one who vanquishes the mage will live for the next one hundred years, training the soldiers who are chosen for the next battle with the mage.
My first impression of Akren was that he was a young, somewhat clumsy kid who gets flustered easily. Being one of the soldiers destined to fight to the death in the castle, you might imagine heād have a large build and a thirst for the goblin blood heās sure to spill when the ogre mage reawakens. But Akren isnāt the stereotypical hero weāve come to expect. Heās a scrawny young man who oversleeps during training, takes Master Nukās taunting with his head down, and wishes more than anything he could just survive the battle so he can win the girl he loves. He doesnāt want to be a hero, he just wants to be alive.
I really enjoyed following Akrenās journey, all the way up to the battle at the castle that didnāt leave me wanting for action. While I admired this story, however, it wasnāt until the end of the book when the kingās secret was revealed that my attitude changed from liking the story to absolutely loving it. What can I say? Iām a sucker for twisted endings. It gets tiring to constantly read books whose ending can be predicted a mile away, and The Kingās Secret broke the mold in that department. I think the author earned the right to replace āthe endā with āmic drop.ā
Because of the short length of this story, I felt robbed of missing details and scenes that I thought wouldāve made the book more complete. The plot was too big to confine to such a short length, and I think the story deserves to be expanded. This was the main reason I only awarded 4 stars instead of 5. If Johnson decides to rewrite The Kingās Secret and turn it into a novel, you can be sure Iāll be one of the first to read it.
I would recommend this book to readers of fantasy and short fiction, and anyone who loves ironic or surprise endings.Ā