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that
the pupil out-did the teacher, William then emphasized
endurance.
    Those who can fly higher can fly faster due
to less air resistance. And those who can fly faster, can fly
farther. Before, the parents needed Billy to keep up. Now, the
parents needed to keep up with Billy.
    They moved frequently, changing identities
every time. Often they’d pass themselves off as English. Billy
picked up languages easily, so they hired tutors on the safe
assumption that he’d need language skills. The family knew they
spent too much time in one place when they had trouble sleeping at
night.
    Constant travel also give William an
opportunity to teach Billy geography. He collected aerial images
like other fathers collected bad habits. Together they developed a
system to organize the images they kept on their wands.
    They kept returning to the hordes because
bounty hunters never looked for them there. Ironically, they were
safest from Liz’ enemies by hiding among William’s enemies.
    Because his birth certificate said Billy was
eight instead of six, he had to keep up with the other boys in
horseback riding, archery, and wrestling. This toughed Billy up,
and William wanted Billy as tough as possible. While other kids
played, Billy trained.
    William put a priority on tactical sense.
He’d outline a scenario and walk Billy through it. Then he’d change
something that forced a different strategy. Rage and terror drove
most fighters, but William wanted Billy to foresee how any given
situation would play out before engaging. William collected video
montages of every battle he could, and together they analyzed who
did what right and wrong.
    “Win your fights before they start,” dad
would tell him. “The better you plan, the less you’ll bleed.”
    William made a living dueling. Liz feared for
him every time he entered the arena. However, killing a few
thousand Mongols a year boosted his wand power and made him enough
to give Global Bank the capital it needed to expand
internationally. All too soon he had several thousand of his wife’s
relatives on the payroll.
    The catch to dueling was getting killed by a
better dueler, like a millennial -- those with one thousand proven
kills. Proving a kill is easy since a wand records everything it’s
used for, from starting fires to moving furniture to blasting
enemies, although that memory can be lost when passed to a new
owner. Everyone feared millennials because their goal was not
money, but longevity. The more powerful the wand, the more years it
provided. The Empire made dueling the national sport, pastime, and
obsession so kids would grow up dreaming of living forever with
wealth, fame, and glory. The best duelers could effectively live
forever, although the price of immortality was endless war.
    "Good morning," the horde's leader greeted
them. "Tomorrow we’ll move north along the Irtysh River for better
grazing for the animals."
    "We’ll catch up if we’re not back in time,"
William assured him pleasantly, eager to maintain good
relations.
    The leader smiled down at Billy. "Beriakh
says you almost fly faster than him, and he’s the fastest that I’ve
ever seen. Maybe soon you can represent us in the summer games. I’d
love to see those arrogant fools beaten by someone half their
size."
    Once the leader left, William smacked the boy
on the back of the head. "You raced the regional speed
champion?"
    "What?" Billy demanded. "I let him win!"
    “I’m counting on you to continue my line,”
his father told him for the millionth time. “Don’t get killed until
after you’ve reproduced.”
    The trauma of hearing her husband fighting
for his life while Elizabeth gave birth triggered uncontrolled
bleeding that made her unable to have more babies. Liz would never
forgive her Uncle John for preventing her from having more
children.
    As always, the family flew as high, fast and
far as possible. Today they went north over the vast Mongolian
Plateau to the Siberian forest to visit some