The Destroyer Book 2 by Michael-Scott Earle

victory.”
    I nodded and was about to speak when he continued.
    “Why did you come here to visit with me?”
    “I wanted to ask you about the eight years,” I fumbled over my words.
    “What about it?” His brows knit together. Entas never got angry, only a deep expression of concentration ever alerted me when he wasn’t pleased.
    “I lost track of time. I hadn’t realized that much time passed since you found us.”
    “Whose fault is that?”
    “It is mine, obviously.” I let out a deep breath and saw him smile slightly.
    “So why are you coming to me? Did you want to tell me how happy you are that the skills that took me hundreds of years to learn only took you eight?” His smile got bigger. He was always digging into my answers as if I knew something that I never told him.
    “No. I was upset that we had not made a major move against the Elvens yet. I was angry at you, but that is foolish. If I am going to get agitated, I should blame myself for not keeping track of time and preparing.” I smirked. It was almost worse that he never got mad at me
    I felt like even more of an idiot.
    “So go plan, if you want my opinion of your efforts come back so I can see.” He looked back to his book and scribbled more. This was him dismissing me. I looked over his hunched form and wondered how old my teacher actually was. He often hinted that he had been alive for over two thousand years. Sometimes, when he coughed for what seemed like an hour and spit blood out of his mouth I believed his tale. Other times when he was excited about something, he almost appeared younger than all of us.
    "Kaiyer," he said as I turned my back to leave.
    "Yes?" He had an unusual expression on his face.
    "Do you ever feel as if we have had our conversations before?" He squinted at me and coughed a little.
    "There are many lessons you've had to teach me over and over before they could penetrate my thick skull." I laughed at him, but he looked worried. "Why?"
    The old man sighed and turned back to his burning incense. Finally, he spoke again.
    "I never taught you anything you didn't already know. You were always the teacher." His voice was sad.
    He did this sometimes, speaking in riddles that never made sense to me. I used to lie awake at night and try to puzzle through his confusing references to our relationship. He'd given me the permission I thought I needed now, and I would act.
    I left the old man’s tent without another word. As I made my way to my own dwelling, the cool night air cleared my mind and eased the anxiety his cryptic words caused.
    “Kaiyer!” a voice called from a nearby campsite. I recognized Malek’s tenor, so I walked over to a group of his warriors that gathered around a small cooking fire. I remembered all of them by name and could recall the circumstances that brought each one into our group. Malek sat cross-legged near the flame. His gray-streaked hair was tied back in a ponytail; he was the only one I knew of who had experienced a change in his appearance after being changed.
    “Hello my friend,” he said softly as I walked over to his fire.
    “Malek,” I said to him in greeting. I turned to his group of five warriors, two women and three men, and nodded to them. “O’Baarni.” They nodded back and smiled nervously.
    Malek was the third commander to be promoted under me after Thayer. We rescued him six years ago when our small troop of magically enhanced warriors sacked a caravan, delivering a slave trade between the Elven tribes of Balist and Turring. We only had a small group of warriors at the time and had managed to kill the fifty Elven soldiers who protected the merchandise. Malek had impressed me then. As soon as the attack started, he found himself a sword and butchered a few of the guards himself, an almost impossible task for a human.
    “Did you eat yet?” he asked me.
    “I had a small meal a few hours ago, but I could eat again,” I responded. His warriors quickly disappeared and within a