Hanna Halfblood: A YA fantasy tale

by Robyn Wideman

  10

  Magical Hangover

  Hanna’s head pounded when she woke the next morning. She gingerly opened her eyes to notice the light shining through her window. She thanked the Gods for Anso letting her sleep past day break.

  Despite the pounding headache, Hanna was happy. The connection to her grandfather was fresh in her mind and she was grateful to finally have been able to hear what he was saying.

  “Did it work?” asked Anso as he handed Hanna a mug of water.

  She drank the entire mug at once. “Yes. I finally was able to talk to him.”

  “Excellent. Did you learn anything new?”

  Hanna paused. Had she learned anything new or had Thorodd simply confirmed what Anso, Koyo, and Zeka had told her about bloodstones? “Yes, there is a mage in Solotine that understands bloodstones. However, he didn’t know any more than we do about who killed him.”

  “I see,” said Anso. “Well, at least we’ve made progress. The next time you talk to him you can learn more.”

  Hanna frowned. “I’m not sure when that will be. It didn’t sound like he would be coming into my dreams as much now that we’ve connected.”

  “That is not surprising. But it will happen again. In the meantime, you continue your training. Have another glass of water before beginning your morning run.”

  “I may die today,” said Hanna. She felt horrendous. The idea of a run was terrifying, but perhaps a run would help remove some of the alcohol from her system.

  …

  After finishing her run and several stops to empty her stomach, Hanna started her stretching routine. This time Anso had specific instructions for her.

  “As you work on controlling your breathing and centering your mind, focus on the bloodstone. Feel its energy. Allow that energy to flow through your body.”

  Hanna was sure the only thing traveling through her today was vomit and alcohol, but she kept her thoughts to herself. She’d learned long ago not to talk back when Anso was giving a lesson. On more than one occasion she’d ended up doing twice as much running as necessary. Instead, she bit her lip and closed her eyes. She tried to picture magic flowing through her body.

  She couldn’t tell if the visualizing accomplished anything or not, but by the time she was done with her stretching she did feel slightly better, and if she wasn’t going crazy, the gemstone in her necklace felt slightly warmer.

  Grabbing the axe and shield, Hanna prepared to go through whatever progressions Anso wanted her to do. Yesterday she’d been clunky and slow in her movements. She was sure she could only do better today.

  By noon, Hanna found out she’d been wrong. Today was worse, much worse. She didn’t know if it was the alcohol from the previous night’s excursion into the city or if it was something else, but every time she attempted something more complicated than a simple block or swing of her axe her body seemed to be fighting her. Her balance seemed off and everything that could go wrong did. Several times she tripped and hit the ground while attempting a maneuver. Several were maneuvers that she’d performed a thousand times with a glaive, but now couldn’t seem to do at all. Hanna grew frustrated and was thankful when Anso suggested that they call it a day.

  “There is a small pond to the west, hidden by thick bramble bushes, but if you head to that tall tree over there,” Anso pointed to a tree, far off to the west but still easily visible, “you will find the bramble bushes. Follow the bushes south until you find the opening.”

  Hanna eagerly headed to the tree, and the bramble bushes just beyond. The bushes were thick, as thick as any she’d seen before and were easily ten feet tall. It was impossible to see through them, so she would have to take Anso’s word that there was a pond hiding on the other side of the bushes.

  A few hundred yards later, she found the opening. It was only a few feet wide and cut into the bramble bush at an angle. From a distance, you wouldn’t even notice it. Inside, to Hanna’s surprise and delight, wasn’t a pond but a hot spring pool. The slightest amount of steam rising off the water hinted at the pool’s temperature. Looking around, she noticed that it was surrounded by the bramble bushes. It was like a wall hiding nature’s treasure from the world.

  Discarding her damp and sweaty clothing, Hanna tiptoed her way into the pool. The water was warm, almost to the point of being hot. The heat felt good on her tired muscles. The intense nature of Anso’s training left her with sore and achy feet, but the heated water felt amazing. She found a large flat rock only a few feet into the water that was perfect to sit on.

  An hour passed, and Hanna felt a hundred times better than she had that morning. The alcohol and whatever herbs Anso and Zeka had put in her drinks had finally worked their way through her body and now her tired muscles were relaxed. She leaned back, letting the warm afternoon sun wash over her, feeling its energy. The last few weeks had been physically and emotionally draining and the hot pool and an afternoon of relaxation was exactly what her body and mind needed.

  Hanna thought back to her childhood. There was a natural hot spring like this one only a few hours from Irontide. Her parents had taken her one fall day. It had been a great day. She missed her father, and now she was missing her mother as well. It would be good to get home and see her. Anso was like family, but it just wasn’t the same.

  Sometimes a girl just needed her mother.

  Reluctantly, Hanna left the pools and returned to Anso’s cottage. He was inside and had a hot mug of tea waiting for her.

  “Thank you,” she said as she took the tea and headed to the sitting room. She sat in the comfortable leather chair and sipped her tea in contemplation before looking over at Anso. “I did worse today, and I don’t think it was from the drinking and whatever else you gave me. Something else was throwing me off.”

  Anso nodded. “Yes, I suspected that would happen, although I wouldn’t completely discount the effects of the herbs. But yes, you are going to have difficulty learning with this training.”

  “Why?” asked Hanna. She had a sneaking suspicion she knew the answer but it was too strange to say. She waited for Anso to tell her.

  “The spirit stone, or bloodstone as your grandfather would call it, isn’t just a connection between you and your grandfather; it can also act as a gate. His spirit can enter your body. That feeling you have like your body is fighting you, that is Thorodd.”

  It was as Hanna had suspected. Her body was being shared like some sort of spiritual vessel. “Can he take over my body? Can he control me?” Hanna trusted her grandfather, but this was his spirit, not the man himself. Did she trust his spirit the same way she had trusted him?

  “No, you would willingly have to give him control. It isn’t that Thorodd is trying to control your body; it is that he instinctively wants to help you. The training that your father and I gave you is different than how Thorodd would fight. Therefore, you move differently, you react differently. Those differences you feel are when he would do it differently than you.”

  “I don’t want to give up control of my body,” said Hanna in a firm voice. “Even to grandfather.”

  “Then don’t,” said Anso. “However, you can use what you feel to learn. Thorodd Stoneblood was a great warrior; he spent a lifetime using that axe and shield. Countless battles, hours upon hours, years upon years of training. I am an excellent teacher, I have knowledge and skill in many types of weapons and fighting styles, but I’ve never mastered a skill the way Thorodd mastered the axe. That mastery comes from a lifetime of learning and focusing solely on one weapon. Let his spirit flow through your body. Feel how he would move, learn to move like Thorodd. Not only will the magic guide you, but his spirit will make you stronger.”

  Hanna ran a hand through her hair as she absorbed Anso’s lesson. Everything he was saying made sense.

  Anso continued. “You should have already noticed how much lighter his axe and shield feel. That isn’t solely from the muscles gained through glaive training, but because the weapons were Thorodd’s they will feel l
ighter to you. His strength will flow through you even with your old weapons, but his mastery of the weapons won’t. You have skills exceeding his in the glaive and in the daggers. But the axe, I doubt there is a man alive who has the skills Thorodd had. Not many warriors who’ve seen as much battle as Thorodd lived long enough to reach that level of mastery. Some of us are blessed to have lived full lives and escaped death on the battlefield. Thorodd’s spirit is a blessing, once you understand and accept it.”

  Hanna took a deep breath. It was much to absorb, the idea that her grandfather’s spirit was entering her body. It was one thing to talk to him in her dreams, but to share a body? That was something else entirely. But if Anso was right, and she could learn to fight like Thorodd… It was something to consider.

  11

  Attack

  The next morning, Hanna woke on time, and she smiled as she exited her bed, dry. Silently she dressed and headed outside. The sun was not yet up, but she knew the route of her run well enough to get started without the benefit of sunlight. The pre-dawn grey was enough to mark her way.

  After she finished her stretches, Anso joined her. Standing silently, arms crossed, he waited for her to go through the previous day’s progressions. They wouldn’t do any new lessons until she was comfortable with the last day’s teachings.

  Now that she knew the problem wasn’t her understanding of the progressions, but that she had a spirit in her body fighting for control of her movements, Hanna felt strangely at ease with yesterday’s failures. Taking a deep breath and centering herself, Hanna focused her thoughts on the bloodstone and her own magic. Then she began her training. The first things she practiced were simple blocking and bashing with the shield techniques. Her movements still felt off and awkward despite the movement only being a simple thrust forward of her shield arm. Why would Thorodd be fighting her on such a simple maneuver?

  Hanna closed her eyes and relaxed and tried to feel the moment when the movement felt wrong. After several attempts, she realized it wasn’t the movement itself that was wrong; it was the speed at which she was doing it. The slower she moved the more resistance she felt. The harder and more aggressive she did the movement the more natural it became. Hanna smiled. It was the first time since she’d started training with Anso she felt comfortable doing one of the movements. It wasn’t much. There wasn’t anything simpler than a shield bash, but it showed that Anso was right, she could learn by paying attention to when Thorodd’s spirit moved in different ways than she wanted to.

  …

  The next week was a blur of frustration and repetition. Hanna couldn’t believe how much time it was taking to learn the simplest progressions of attacks. Progress had started as a trickle, hours spent on the simplest moves, was now slowly increasing to the point where she could see improvement, but there was no way she was going to master the new weapons any time soon.

  Anso seemed unperturbed by the speed of her progress. “Thorodd spent a lifetime learning to fight this way; did you honestly expect to learn everything he knew in two weeks?”

  “No, but I thought perhaps it might be a little quicker. I mean I thought magic would make it quicker,” said Hanna.

  Anso snorted. “Magic can be just as slow and tedious to learn as weapons. Perhaps I should make you learn a spell or two just so you can learn the value of patience when it comes to magic.”

  Hanna wasn’t sure that would be a good idea. In fact, she was positive it was a terrible idea. She was already spending her entire day focused on her training, and adding hours of frustration from trying to learn other aspects of magic would be even more draining. “Perhaps we should save spells for later. Learning to deal with spirit magic is difficult enough on its own.”

  “A wise choice,” said Anso. “Now get back to work. Block, drop and pivot, side step into axe thrust.”

  Hanna groaned. This attack sequence was killing her. How had a man as big as Thorodd learned to move so gracefully? Hanna had always associated her northern warriors with power and force, but Anso’s training was showing that Thorodd had possessed deceptive agility and grace. She shook her head, took a deep breath and focused on relaxing and letting her energy flow to and from the bloodstone. She was getting much better at letting the magic flow. She could now tell when Thorodd’s spirit grew stronger in her body. When she wasn’t concentrating on it, the connection between her and Thorodd’s spirit was like a little thread that connected them, barely there and almost invisible, but when she relaxed and focused on the connection it grew stronger.

  As Hanna worked on the attack sequence, a stranger approached the yard. Anso was the first to notice the stranger, but when his eyes went to the man, Hanna noticed the way Anso’s hands flexed around the staff he was holding. As Hanna finished the attack moves, she casually turned to look at who was approaching.

  The stranger was average height, wearing a simple commoner’s tunic and pants. At first, Hanna didn’t notice anything unusual about him, but as he drew closer, she noticed his necklace. He had a gem like hers. Hanna’s brow furrowed as she looked into his eyes. The man was focused on her and was walking forward at a determined pace.

  “How can I help you, friend?” asked Anso as the man drew closer.

  The man ignored Anso and kept coming forward towards Hanna.

  Hanna watched as the man’s eyes suddenly went black. The man roared and pulled out a sword. Hanna instinctively brought her shield up as the man’s sword crashed into it. Hanna couldn’t believe the speed and power of this stranger with the black eyes. She barely had time to adjust before the next attack came.

  The next attack sent her shield off to her left, exposing her chest. The stranger then slammed his empty hand into her, sending her crashing to the ground.

  With a roar, Anso attacked the man. Anso moved with a speed that belied his years. But the stranger moved even faster. Faster than any man Hanna had ever fought. She jumped up to rejoin the battle. Together, Anso and Hanna attacked the man but his speed and ferocity was more than equal to the two of them. Hanna winced as his blade slashed her leg. The man then landed an attack on Anso, who was knocked to the ground. The stranger smiled and turned his attention back to Hanna.

  Hanna knew she was in trouble. She needed to do something or the fight would soon be over for her and Anso. Suddenly she could feel Thorodd’s spirit connection growing stronger. She knew she wasn’t a match for the stranger on her own. Perhaps Thorodd was a better match for the stranger. Desperate, Hanna relaxed and focused on the bloodstone, putting as much energy into it as she could. The bloodstone started to feel hot on her chest and she could feel Thorodd’s spirit.

  The stranger attacked again.

  Hanna could feel Thorodd’s spirit willing her body to move. She let her own control over her muscles go. Thorodd’s spirit took over. She felt his spirit now more than she ever had. She could feel his rage at the stranger and his battle lust. Thorodd wanted to destroy his enemy. Hanna felt herself moving with more speed and power than she ever imagined. Her axe slashed the chest of the stranger warrior, but he didn’t even flinch. He kept coming forward, pressing the attack. However, Thorodd could meet his attacks, matching him move for move. Finally, Hanna felt herself using the attack Anso had been teaching her earlier: block, drop and pivot, and then side step into an axe thrust. Only Thorodd didn’t thrust, he whipped around, bringing his axe through the neck of his enemy. The warrior’s head bounced and rolled away from Hanna. She swore the black as night eyes stared at her the whole time it rolled away.

  With the stranger dead, Hanna felt Thorodd’s spirit diminish. Hanna resumed control of her body, rushing to check on Anso. Her old teacher was sitting on the ground, his face was white as a sheet and his chest was covered in blood. Hanna pressed her hand against the wound.

  Anso held her hand. He smiled up at her. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a real battle. I forgot how much fun it is.”

  Fun? Hanna thought. There was nothing fun about this. Her mentor was dying
in front of her. Tears started to well in her eyes as she held her old friend.

  “Don’t shed tears for me,” said Anso. “I’m an old man. Dying with a weapon in my hands, fighting beside you, is an honor. From the first time that I met you I knew you’d be a great warrior. You were a small little thing, but you had so much spirit and fire. Stubborn as a mule and yet eager to learn. You’ve come a long way, Hanna Halfblood.”

  “Don’t leave me, Anso. I need your guidance. I can’t do this alone,” said Hanna as she fought back the tears.

  Anso smiled. “There is a way for me to continue my guidance if you choose.”

  Hanna didn’t understand what he was saying. “Tell me how, Anso. What do I need to do?”

  Anso grunted. “What have I been teaching you? You have magic, use it. You defeated that demon warrior using your magic. Allow my spirit to continue to serve you.”

  Spirit? Anso was suggesting a connection like the one she shared with Thorodd. Was it possible? Could the gemstone be a connection to multiple spirits? If it was possible Hanna was going to make it happen. She hated that Anso was dying. If she could have a connection to his spirit it was a risk she was willing to take. “I’d be honored to have you watch over me, Anso.”

  Anso smiled and placed his hand, covered in his own blood, on Hanna’s chest, covering the bloodstone. Hanna watched as his face relaxed and his eyes closed. The gemstone on her necklace grew warmer and his body grew colder. She watched as her friend and mentor passed from this life and made his way to the beyond.

  Hanna cried, despite her mentor’s request for her not to. She couldn’t help it. Anso had been like family. She then remembered the conversation she’d had with Thorodd in her dream. Thorodd wasn’t unhappy in the spirit world; he was content and his spirit form was a young version of himself. She wondered what Anso’s would look like. Would he share the same spirit world as Thorodd, or did Creytan warriors go somewhere different than those from Solotine? Perhaps Thorodd or Anso, maybe even both, would one day explain it to her.