The Living Sword

by Pemry Janes

  Leraine nodded. “They make our weapons stronger, or sharper. Without them we can't channel our tribe's spirit into our weapons. But each tribe uses their own symbols and I can't think of another instance where they were joined in one weapon. It is not done.”

  “You mean, it is forbidden?”

  “It is not done,” Leraine maintained as she could not recall any case where it had been tried. The loremistresses might, and they could have told her if it was allowed, but they were not here. Trying for another subject, she focused on the name of Rock's parents. “Your parents had proper names, clearly they were Mochedan. Is that why you travel then, to search for them?”

  Rock shook his head. “No, they died when I was very young. That's how I ended up with the san. But I am traveling to, well, your lands. I'm hoping I can find somebody there who knew them; that can tell me how we ended up where we did, and why.”

  “Then you have a long journey ahead of you. Didn't you hear? The Linesans have closed their border with Mochedan lands.”

  Apparently, Rock had not. “What! Why?”

  Leraine couldn't help but turn grim. She hadn't liked it when she had heard the news either. “They say it is to stop the raids, that there are more of them as of late. Or perhaps the soulless are preparing another invasion of Mochedan lands. They haven't tried in a while and it is what they do.”

  She leaned back in her chair, her spoon clattered on the bottom of the now empty bowl. “Of course, those are not our lands. They belong to Puma, or Bear, if you go further north. To reach my home you would have to travel south and around all of the Blasted Lands, through the lands still ruled by the horse people. Only then would you reach the lands of Snake.”

  “I still have to try. You said yourself that some of the markings on Misthell are from the Puma tribe, which means one of my parents must have been part of that tribe.”

  'And it means the other, Kaite no doubt, was a member of my tribe,' Leraine concluded. 'It is not unheard of to have parents from two different tribes, not at all, but in those cases one joins the tribe of the other. The markings on this blade seem to imply something else.'

  “This plan does make my own more difficult,” she said instead of sharing her conclusions. “I am not welcome in their lands. Certainly not uninvited, but you are my best chance at vengeance.”

  “I could offer to travel more slowly, but I honestly would be very glad if that Blood Lord never found me again.”

  “We will see what tomorrow brings,” Leraine offered.

  ***

  “Keep an eye out and yell if you think there is a threat,” Eurik told Misthell as he placed him against the wall. He'd been using the sword as a lookout ever since they'd left Linese, and Eurik saw no reason to stop with that just because they were sleeping in a room rather than a self-made shelter.

  “I know the drill,” Misthell assured him.

  He'd already stashed his pack away so now he turned his attention to what he'd be sleeping on tonight. Raised off of the floor by four stubby legs, Eurik gave his first bed an experimental poke. 'That's soft.' The headrest—pillow—was just as soft.

  Getting rid of his boots and clothes he laid down and sank into the bed. It felt a little weird, not feeling the steady flow of Earth chiri as he tried to go to sleep. When he searched for it, the energy was there, but the wood couldn't hold much of it.

  Turning, Eurik tried to find a more comfortable position. Moonlight streamed into the room from the open window. At least that was familiar. He wondered where they'd put the blanket. It was getting a little cold. He looked down at what he was lying on and felt a little foolish. Crawling under the covers, Eurik went to sleep. Tried to, anyway.

  ***

  “Eurik! Look out!” Misthell's cry woke Eurik up. He'd just lifted his head from his sleeping mat when a dark form flew in through the window and crashed into the bed. Jumping up, he grasped for Earth chiri only to find that there wasn't a lot there.

  With the intruder getting up, Eurik settled for grappling with him. He thought he'd seen some armor on the attacker, which should give him the chiri he needed to deal with this situation. When his hand grasped the intruder's shoulder, Eurik realized it wasn't metal the man wore. It was bone.

  It made no difference to Eurik, bone was as good a source of Earth chiri as your typical brick. And a good thing too, because the attacker pointed a white rod at Eurik just as he made contact and let loose a pulse of green energy. Eurik's skin tingled as the magical energy tried to find a way in, but it disappeared after a moment.

  'Best not fight him here,' Eurik decided before lifting the attacker up and throwing him out the window. He could hear wood breaking in the next room as he went to retrieve Misthell. 'Broken Fang can take care of herself. I need to make sure my guy is down, and I'm more useful on the ground anyway.'

  He quickly donned his baldric to secure Misthell on his back and followed his attacker out the window. The shoulder belt chafed his bare skin. Eurik landed in a crouch, safe thanks to the chiri still in his body. When he got up, he found his attacker had also gotten up and was pointing his rod at him again. Eurik pulled up more chiri from the earth beneath his feet, this time the bolt simply bounced off.

  His opponent gave up on the rod and put it away, finally giving Eurik a chance to process just who he was fighting. The man wore some kind of harness of bone and there was a shimmering green glow around him. 'A Knight Scapular. At least now I know who is after Misthell, though I still don't know why a Bone Lord would want him.'

  The sound of a charging horse caused Eurik to look over his shoulder. Another Knight Scapular was coming right at him. His mount was a horse's skeleton, clad in the ghostly image of the animal, with glowing green embers for eyes. The knight had a shield lined with small horns in one hand and a beak-shaped axe raised high in the other.

  Lifting his own hand, Eurik put a wall between them before turning his attention back to his original attacker, who was now trying to charge him on foot. A palm-thrust sent a pillar of stone colliding into the knight, dropping him to the ground.

  Eurik didn't hear the beat of the hooves anymore, nor, he realized, did he feel the horse; because it sailed over the wall and Eurik in one silent, effortless leap. It landed and continued to run without missing a beat, before the knight turned it around for another try at Eurik.

  'Like I'll let you,' went through Eurik as he cast his awareness out. Instead of trying to raise a higher wall, he went for a different approach. Guessing where the knight would soon be, Eurik compressed and pulled the earth away from that spot leaving only a thin shell held up by his will.

  The moment the horse stepped onto it, Eurik let go and the dirt collapsed with the undead horse going down with it. Not wanting to risk that they could jump out of the hole, Eurik closed it again, but only caught the horse. The rider managed to get out by using his mount as a platform to jump out of the way.

  Movement on the roof of the inn distracted Eurik. The sight of two giant skeletal birds flying over on wings of light and mist was certainly an attention grabber, but he knew better than to stare with two enemies close by. He forgot all about them when he saw who was carried onto one of the flying mounts.

  Broken Fang was slung over another Knight Scapular's shoulder, limp, and apparently unconscious. 'That green bolt, that's what it is supposed to do. And Broken Fang doesn't know how to use chiri.'

  “Call it my consolation price,” a familiar voice said from up above him. Turning, Eurik was confronted by a grinning Rik perched on the earthen wall he'd put up. “Can't go back empty-handed again.”

  “How did you find me?”

  “What? No demands that I let her go? No threats, no warning that I've made a terrible mistake? Now hold on,” he told Eurik when he was about to collapse the wall Rik stood on. “I'll answer your question. Not a big secret, you just didn't hide well. Had some people keep a look-out for you at the gates and the harbor. When I knew you were coming this way, I knew I had you.”

&nbs
p; “But you didn't,” Eurik countered.

  Rik merely shrugged. “I got your girlfriend. Now, either you follow us to Darui and try to rescue her, or Lord Merin gets a new skeleton. They always need more bones there. And if you don't come, well, that just means you'll be all alone when I try again. With nobody to help you, nobody to watch your back, I'll have my moment.”

  “Why not now?” It was a stupid question and Eurik knew it the moment the words had left his lips.

  “Because I'm hoping you'll do the stupid thing and save me a lot of traveling. Oh, and better watch with what you eat and drink. You never know when someone might slip some poison in your soup.” The Blood Lord laughed as he flew away, flanked by the skeletal birds.

  On the ground, a third rider had finished picking up the Knights Scapular that Eurik had fought with, and they too left.

  “Aren't you going after them?” Misthell demanded.

  “No,” Eurik told him as he started to walk back to the inn.

  “What?! Don't tell me you are going to leave her with those monsters! Are you insane?”

  “Not at all. But there's no way I'll overtake those fliers, so I'm getting my stuff first. Then we go after them,” he said grimly. “And end this.”

  Chapter 7

  Bone of Contention

  “Half the inn is destroyed,” Campan's captain of the guard snarled at him. His men had apprehended Eurik when he'd tried to leave the inn. He'd gone into Broken Fang's room to see if the knights had left anything behind. There had been nothing, they'd even taken her weapons with them, though not her armor. Irelith's sword, however, had not been taken. Knowing how important it was to Broken Fang, Eurik had picked it up along with her pouch from the wreckage of the bed.

  Now he stood in the street where he'd fought the Knights Scapular, surrounded by a growing crowd as the sun's first rays lit up the sky, and several half-dressed soldiers aimed their spears at him. Off to the side stood the innkeeper, looking none too pleased himself.

  The captain had stopped talking about what Eurik had done to the street after he'd returned everything to normal. Figuring he'd give the captain something else to be angry at, Eurik had brought the skeletal horse to the surface in the same move. He'd kept its legs trapped to make sure it couldn't flee; not that it had helped much, because the captain seemed to be doing his best to ignore the undead creature.

  Eurik tried again. “My companion and I were attacked.” He didn't even try to point out again that it was really more like three rooms that had gotten trashed. The inn itself was still standing. “By Knights Scapular.”

  “This far from the border?” the captain scoffed.

  “Yes,” Eurik replied as he nodded towards the horse.

  “Captain, captain!” Someone yelled as he tried to wrestle his way through the gathered Linesans gawking at the skeletal mount. “Boros, Vip,” a guard managed to get out between breaths. “They're dead. That must be how they got into town without being noticed.”

  “And what they would that be?” the captain asked slowly.

  The guard, an older man, blinked. “Uh, you know, they. It's all over town that there were actual, real, Bone Knights that attacked the town. Is-Xerven swears he drove them off!”

  “He did?” the captain did not sound happy and his expression grew sour at the guard's emphatic nod. “Of course he did,” the captain finally sighed. “Is-Xerven's valor is well-known. If he says he fought a Bone Knight, then it must be so.”

  Finally, Eurik got it. Someone, a patrician judging by the name, had just confirmed that the Knights Scapular had attacked the town. He could no longer disbelieve Eurik's story without calling this is-Xerven a liar. If he remembered his Linesan politics correctly, that was not something a poorly connected captain could do. Not without paying a price.

  The captain turned to Eurik again, looking thoughtful. “I thought you said you drove them off?”

  “If is-Xerven says he drove them off, then it must be so,” he replied echoing the captain's earlier words.

  “I want you out of this town, now,” the captain of the guard growled.

  “But what about my inn?” the innkeeper burst out. “Look at it!” The only damage that could be seen from the outside were two windows with broken shutters.

  Eurik was becoming impatient. Every moment counted and these people were wasting too many of them. Fishing a gold piece out his belt he flung it over to the innkeeper. “I hope this will cover the damages.”

  It bounced off his shirt before he caught the coin. Eurik could see his eyes widen when he caught sight of the gold. The innkeeper held the gold piece up to study it. “Uh, yeah. Barely,” he added with an afterthought.

  “And how—” The captain broke off. “Never mind. The sooner you are gone, the better.”

  “Thank you,” Eurik said as he bowed. Turning to the guard that had inadvertently forced the captain to let Eurik go, he asked, “Do you know which direction the Bone Knights went?”

  “Across the river.” He scratched his cheek. “Ran straight over the water like it was solid ground, that's what I heard.”

  Thanking the man with another bow, exactly as deep as the one he'd given the captain, Eurik made his way through the crowd and started to jog south. On his way out of Campan he came across several groups of people, all of whom stared at Eurik as he passed them.

  He ignored them. Just as he ignored the fence ringing one of the farms between him and the Endria. He couldn't ignore the river itself, but Eurik had a solution for crossing it. When he reached the Endria's shore, he jumped onto a boulder and flung it into the air, taking Eurik with it. It flew over the broad river and when it was about to hit the ground, Eurik jumped off and skidded to a halt.

  His legs protested the abuse, but he ignored it and drew more chiri in to overcome the discomfort. He needed a moment to figure out where exactly he'd go. 'I could follow the river up to Lake Bandar Ebon and then head south along its shore until I reach Darui. Or I can avoid the route that is sure to be guarded and head straight in the direction I think the city is. That should save me time, if I guess correctly.'

  Closing his eyes, Eurik remembered Rik's words. 'I'll just have to guess correctly then,' he resolved as he started to run with a loping gait he knew he could sustain for the rest of the day. 'Enough people have died already for this murky affair.'

  ***

  The rabbit bolted into its burrow, thinking it brought safety. It found out it was mistaken when the earth took a hold of its head and gave a twist. Grimly, Eurik retrieved his meal for the day. He was still in Linesan territory and didn't want to start using his provisions until he'd reached the Blasted Lands.

  He'd read that those lands still suffered from the Rift War, that there was still some sort of corruption affecting the land. It might also mean that it wouldn't be safe to use the Earth chiri there, but that was a risk he had to take.

  Holding his catch by its hindlegs, Eurik resumed his journey. It was already the second day since Broken Fang got captured, and he still hadn't reached the border. He comforted himself with the thought that the kidnappers had to rest as well, even if their mounts did not. Eurik might not be able to catch up to them, but he was sure he'd be able to reach Darui sooner than Rik had counted on.

  ***

  A series of watchtowers and forts lined the border between Linese and what was now known as the Land of Bone, from the Endria in the north to the Varen in the south. There were even sections that had been walled-off. And that was just the Linesan side of the border. On the other side, armies of skeletons, both animal and human, were supposed to roam the land.

  Eurik wasn't sure how the Knights Scapular had managed to slip past the Linesans; he could only hope it was time-consuming. 'Of course, if Rik is content to leave his ground forces behind he can fly over the border. Provided they use the clouds to hide themselves or a mage will just shoot them down'

  That danger, at least, Eurik avoided by using his own method to remain undetected. It had been
the obvious answer for someone that knew Rise of the Mountain: dig a tunnel. He'd closed the entrance behind him, though even a cursory examination would reveal the disturbed earth, and had just crossed the border.

  He hadn't yet detected anything amiss with the chiri and didn't expect to feel anything soon. While the corruption still lingered in the Land of Bone, it was only in that part of the country closest to the now closed rift. Indeed, these past four centuries the Bone Lords had strived for the expansion of their territory because it gained them lands that were unaffected.

  And yet, for some reason, they didn't live there. The Bone Lords, and many of their people, continued to live in lands they knew to be cursed. Eurik didn't really understand the why, and right now he didn't care about it either.

  Grunting, his body shaking a little for having been saturated with chiri for days on end, Eurik punched and created another ten paces of tunnel. Walking forward, he planted himself down and got ready to do it again. And again, and again, until he was sure it was safe to surface.

  ***

  Bound by the wrists and ankles, Leraine was dumped onto the unforgiving stone floor. Biting back a yelp, she got up on her knees and sat straight while giving the blooddrinker's back a murderous look. They faced a large window looking out over the Dark Lake and in the distance was the feint glow of the infamous rift. In front of the window was a throne made of bone, with some sort of creature, also made of bone, standing beside it.

  “I am fairly certain that this is not a sword,” the man sitting in that throne said in Irelian. He wore a blue velvet robe, with bejeweled rings on several of his fingers and a necklace of engraved plates of bone resting on his chest. This had to be the person that the blooddrinker worked for.

  “You know,” the Bone Lord went on, as he started to pace. “I ignored the concerns of my peers when I took you into my employ, Sharverik. I shielded you from the ire of Sarvayna. And this is the results you deliver. You attacked a Linesan village, losing two horses and Sir Benevir in the process, and all you bring me is this,” he bit out as he waved at Leraine. “The fact that I tolerate your little quirks does not give you permission to act as you please.”