by Wil Ogden
HEIR TO THE EIGHTH
As I walked into the courtyard of the Acies' Fortress, Two men drew swords and saluted me before returning the blades to their scabbards. I overheard their discussing me as I approached.
“He'll be a natural, His father was Gnur,” Lord Valkos, Heir to the First, said as I walked into the courtyard of the Acies' Fortress. I looked at him and tried to smile. But my head still hurt from celebrating my sixteenth harvest the night before.
The man standing beside Lord Valkos held a second sword by the scabbard. I didn't know the man but the sword had haunted me my whole life. It had been my father's sword and that day it would become mine - if I survived the bonding. I had long since dreaded the day I would be sent to join the Acies.
My father had been the greatest blade-master the kingdom had ever known. He had single handedly defended it on more than one occasion. His only failure occurred the day I was born. I never met him.
But I was the son of Gnur, my facing the trials and joining the order had been determined at my conception.
“Turn, Son of Gnur, Heir to the Eighth, are you ready?” The man with my father's sword asked.
I wondered what would happen if I said, “No, this is not my life.” But, I nodded and kept my silence.
“My name is Farros; I am the Heir to the Fifth.” As he turned and walked towards the northern tower of the Fortress, he said, “Follow me.” He led me into the tower and up the stairs. We passed several places on the walls where a sword would be displayed, three of them held swords.
“What are these?” I asked.
“Silly boy, can't you count?” Farros said. “These are the swords of the eight Acies.”
“But some are not here,” I said. “I only saw three.”
“Then only three are waiting for their heirs to come of age,” he said. I heard, “Three of them died before their time.” In truth it was four who died, but my father's sword was not on the wall of the stairwell.
We arrived at the top of the staircase in a room with just a candle.
He laid the sword on the floor by the candle then said, “When you are ready, you may pick up the sword.”
I nodded. I didn't know what he meant, but I didn't want to seem ignorant again. Farros looked at me with tight lips a moment then just nodded slightly as he walked away, down the stairs.
Alone in the tower chamber, I walked over to the sword on the floor. I nudged it with my boot, but I wanted to kick it away and follow Farros out of the tower. I didn't want to follow in the footsteps of a man who left a wife without a husband and a child without a father.
I sat across the candle from the sword. The scented wax lulled me as I wondered what I should do. The smoke from the candle seemed to thicken to the point where I could no longer see the walls of the room.
A breeze blew through and took the smoke away, but I still couldn't see the walls or the room. I sat on a rock overlooking a mountain pass. In the distance I saw hundreds of men with swords and spears raised in the air charging toward the pass. I tried to get up and hide, but I could not move. All I could do was watch the horde approach.
A single man stepped from behind a boulder and drew a sword. It was my father's sword. The man was my father. I knew him because he looked like my reflection with more of a beard. I was going to watch my father die. I tried to scream but nothing came out.
Spears flew through the air and I couldn't close my eyes. But my father dodged every shaft or cut them from the air with his blade. A dozen swordsmen broke from the pack and rushed my father. The narrow pass prevented them all from surrounding him. The sound as steel rang echoed to my ears. When it was quiet, one man stood in the pass, my father. I felt something I hadn't felt since I was a child: pride. As the rest of the horde approached my father he met them with his sword swinging. The whole battle lasted only minutes before the horde retreated in chaos. My father still stood, defending the pass.
I smelled the scented wax again and the smoke hid the pass and my father. When it cleared I sat in the rafters above a room inside a palace. I recognized King Alnak walking before a large tapestry hanging on the wall. On the tapestry was a map of the Kingdom. Two men, my father and Lord Valkos, followed the King as he pointed to various points on the map with a frail, gilded sword.
When the sword point landed on a spot outside the kingdom, my father said, “But, the Acies are Defenders of the Kingdom and the crown, we do not perform conquest.”
At that moment four men wearing leather and carrying swords ran into the room. They charged directly towards the King. My father and Lord Valkos drew their weapons and stepped into the attacker's path. The fight didn't last three breaths. Lord Valkos suffered a cut to his forearm, but it was minor. The four attackers lay on the floor in growing pools of blood. My Father cleaned his blade and sheathed it.
The king approached the bodies and said, “These men are from Glacia!” He kicked one of the bodies. “We must not allow this to happen again. We must take the border villages.”
“It seems sadly so. We will defend the kingdom.” My father took Valkos from the room as I once again smelled the smoke of the candle.
When the smoke cleared, I sat at the well of a village. The people around me wore strange styles of clothing I had never before seen. My father walked into the village, ignoring the women at the fountain and yelled, “King Alnak claims this Village. Bow in submission or send your warriors to face me.”
A man in a heavy wool drape stepped from the public house and drew a sword. Soon another, dressed in the same style of wool drape, joined him and then another. When a dozen men gathered outside of the public house, I saw the hard resolve on my father's face shatter.
My father fell to one knee and laid his sword on the ground. “I am Gnur, Heir to the Eighth,” he said.
The man who had first emerged from the public house stepped over to my father's side. It was quick. My father hadn't even tried to stop it. The cut was clean and I watched my father's head roll to the ground.
The man who killed my father picked up my father's sword and said, “I must return this to the Acies' Fortress in the Kingdom of Alnak.”
A woman rushed over to his side and pleaded, “They'll kill you. You cannot go.”
“This man could have killed us all. I do not know why he didn't, but he chose to die rather than kill us. I will return his sword to his Order.”
The man walked from the village and the smoke overcame me once again.
I understood my father. I understood why he did what he did. I reached forward into the smoke and wrapped my hands around my father’s sword - my sword. I drew the blade from the scabbard and the smoke cleared again.
I sat alone in the tower. I stood and walked out to meet my fellow Acies.
Farros was the first to embrace me. “Welcome to the Order of the Acies,” he said. Again I felt pride, but not only for my father, but for myself.
When Lord Valkos embraced me, I held him close a moment and whispered, “The men who attacked the King that last time in the map room, they were not from the border villages?”
Lord Valkos pushed me away and locked his eyes with mine as if he were looking for something inside me. His face softened and he broke eye contact with me and said, “No, we learned later that they were setup to frame Glacia. I still remember the man who brought back your father's sword. When I saw him, I began to suspect.”
“So, you didn't kill him?”
“No.”
I nodded. “You respected the honor of what he was doing in returning my father's sword.”
Lord Valkos laughed, “I wish that were the case. I didn't confront him because I figured if the man could kill your father, he'd have no problems killing me. He talked with me after handing me the sword and I learned all the details of your father's death. And I learned that no warrior of Glacia would willingly wear the hide of another living thing. Then I realized the truth. I believe your father made the realization too.”
&nb
sp; I had one more question for the Heir to the First. “Why do we serve a man like King Alnak?”
Lord Valkos took hold of my shoulders and his face grew solemn. He took a deep breath and said, “Kings come and go. Some are good some are less good. But the Kingdom is a greater thing. It is the kingdom we serve. When word of the return of your father's sword spread, no one would support a war against Glacia. Your father saved the King from carrying through with a poor decision.”
“By leaving me an orphan,” I said. Then I realized aloud, “But he saved hundreds, if not thousands of boys like me from becoming orphans if it had become a war.”
“Welcome to the Order of the Acies, Heir to the Eighth.”
About this story:
I’m told this comes across as some kind of personal message. This is not meant to be a commentary on my life and really has nothing to do with my life since my parents are currently both alive.
There is the blatant message about why soldiers leave orphans. I have always had a high regard for the military, having served four years myself.
Oh and ‘eighth’ is not as easy to spell as it should be. It doesn’t ever look right.