by Logan Petty
Marta smiled and patted his hand as he rose from the table, “I’ll hold ye to that, young one!”
Sawain kissed Marta;s cheek and slapped Jatharr on the back, “You two stay out of trouble while I’m gone. If I’m late again, Nerelis will skin me alive then make me run twenty laps around the fort.”
He waved goodbye to his friends as he closed Marta’s door behind him and made for the training ring. Nerelis promised today would not be easy.
That evening, after training, he was saying his farewells to his friends and was heading to his room to sit down with a more advanced book, when he felt a small hand slip under his arm. It was Naralei. She grinned at him as she wrapped her arm around his. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks and tried to calm down. He returned her smile speechlessly. She spoke first.
“Hey, bookwyrm! Don’t tell me you’re going to lock yourself up in your room tonight! Don’t you know what day it is?”
He shook his head, “No? What day is it?”
She shook his arm playfully, “You Bog Imp! It’s the first day of Spring!”
Sawain’s eyes widened in shock. He was a year older and did not even realize it. Naralei began to pull him toward the front gate of the fort.
“You’ve never seen Alfhaven on the first day of Spring before. Come on, let’s go for a run! I’ll show you how beautiful the city can be!”
Sawain could not resist the pretty elf maid who tugged him along. He smiled and walked with her.
“A run? How do you have so much energy? We just finished a twelve hour training session!”
She giggled, “I’m young. So are you, so stop complaining! Besides, I thought you wanted to be the best on the team? You sure act like it.”
He shrugged, “I just need to be ready to fight the Grey King as soon as possible. It’s been six months since he attacked the Fells. There’s no telling how bad it is out there now. I only hope the other heroes can defend the Holds long enough for me to be ready.”
Naralei frowned and looked down at the ground, “It must be difficult to have such a burden on your shoulders.”
Sawain nodded hesitantly, “It is, and I have been scared stiff countless times in the past year. I’ve been beaten bloody several times, made a prisoner of war, and nearly killed more times than I would have liked. Two things keep me going: The knowledge that I am Hammerhold’s best hope of deliverance and the group of strong friends I have made along the way. They help me uphold my burden, even if they don’t realize it.”
Naralei smiled slightly and gazed up at him again, “I would love to be one of those friends, Sawain.”
He looked back at her and nodded, feeling the fond warmth in his chest, “You certainly are, Naralei.”
Naralei’s arm slipped out from under his. Her smile was broader now. They stood outside of the Rowan Circle Fortress, near one of the trees that the upper highway ran through.
“You can call me Nara, you know. We are friends, after all. Now, come on! You have to see this!”
Naralei turned and bolted at the tree. She used her momentum to run up the trunk for six strides, then landed nimbly on the lower hanging bough she was aiming for. Sawain was impressed, and a bit intimidated. He followed suit. He was amazed by his own natural talent. He bounded up the tree in three strides before he lost momentum. He was a foot away from the branch, so he launched out his hand and grabbed it firmly. He dangled for a moment, then recovered and pulled himself up into the bough, face to face with Naralei. She laughed at him.
“Almost didn’t make it! You need to work on your tree climbing! You are going to be Mirehawk’s leader some day, after all!”
She turned and continued upward, using the branches to keep her momentum until she reached the lip of the high road. Sawain felt embarrassed at her words. He knew that she was leader long before he arrived and he felt like he was pulling a rug out from under her feet. He mimicked her path, though not as gracefully. He pulled himself up on the wooden road.
“I thought you were Mirehawk’s leader, Nara?”
She snorted, “My dad doesn’t think I’m leadership material. You should hear how he dotes on you, though. He hated you when you first came to Alfhaven, now he brags on you like you were his oldest son.”
Sawain placed a hand on his hip and gave Naralei a skeptical look, “Like a son? He works me harder and finds more fault in me than anyone else on the team. He’s nearly broken me several times.”
Nara sprinted up the arching highway and Sawain followed after her. When he caught up, she spoke again.
“He’s just preparing you for the mantle of leadership. He told me it had to be you. He’s pointing out every fault in you so you can learn to fix them or guard against them. You are chosen of the gods, Sawain. I can’t compete against that.”
They reached the top of the arch. Sawain lost more momentum when he beheld the view of the city from this vantage point. Towering buildings rose toward the thorny dome ceiling by the hundreds. The city itself was a forest of towers, all made of living wood. The glowstools on the dome shone brighter than usual. They shifted from green, to blue, to purple every few seconds. It gave the appearance of a glistening sea of light, which reminded Sawain of the stream of light he could see in the night sky over Anvilheim.
Nara glanced at him with a grin, “Pretty impressive, right? Well, we’d better hurry. The real show is about to begin!”
She backed to the far side of the road, then ran headlong at the other edge, then jumped as hard as she could off of it. She soared through the air and down ten feet to one of the taller buildings. She tucked into a roll and bounced back up, making it look effortless. She turned and waved at Sawain. His heart sank. He was used to jumping from barn lofts, but he was at least fifty feet from the ground and had to make a six foot jump to a surface ten feet below. If he missed, he probably would not get another chance.
I have to try. Nara is watching. Besides, how can I ever be a leader if I’m too afraid to act?
He stepped to the far ledge, took a deep breath, and let it out, taking his fear with it. He poured all of his energy into his legs and let out a burst of speed. He hit the edge of the road hard and released all he had into the jump. He flew towards the quickly approaching building. His leap carried him over Naralei’s head. When he hit the building, he went into a roll and nearly went off of the other edge, but stopped a few inches from death. He was very impressed by his distance. Naralei clapped her hands.
“Look at you! You can’t climb, but you sure can jump! Come on, we still have some more of both to do!”
She ran at the ledge he stopped on and leaped for a much taller building. She caught the ledge of a window and reached over to a hanging vine. She used it to scale the tower-like building. Sawain swallowed his fear and backed up to get momentum. He dashed at the target and jumped hard again, then slammed into the window seal, much harder than intended. It was narrow and hard to hold onto. His grip nearly broke, until he found a crease in the wood around his feet. He stabilized himself enough to reach for the vine and follow Nara to the top.
At the top, she led him to the edge again. There was a series of buildings of similar height, only a few feet apart. She ran and cleared the gaps easily. Sawain followed suit, barely able to keep up with her. They leaped and climbed buildings for ten more minutes, until they reached the top of the tallest tower yet.
They were so close to the top of the dome, Sawain could make out the details of the glowstools above his head, as well as the razor sharp thorns. Naralei walked to the edge of the tower, then sat down and dangled her feet over the ledge. She looked over her shoulder at Sawain.
“Come sit with me and take a rest. The show’s about to start!”
Sawain nodded and sat down beside her, then dangled his feet over the ledge in like fashion. He was blown away by the view. The Arborhart towered to the ceiling only a few hundred feet away from them. He could see dozens of tiny dark specks below them. Soon, the light from the Arborhart and the glowstools
dimmed to an almost imperceptible glow. The city itself grew darker. Naralei leaned into Sawain and pressed her arm against his. She whispered excitedly to him.
“It’s starting!”
Suddenly, a blaze of red light lit up the darkened dome. Six brilliant red orbs of light with tails like comets shot into the air. They exploded almost eye level with Sawain, which caused him to jump. The trails of the exploding orbs arced through the air and created what looked like giant dandelions of bright red fire. Nara’s arm wrapped around Sawain’s again as seven blue orbs shot from the ground to the air, exploding in similar fashion, but making different flower-like patterns. Naralei spoke to Sawain as they watched the spectacle.
“They’re called Fire Flowers! A specialty bit of magic the druids cook up every spring to brighten this otherwise dark city. I come up here and watch them every year. They remind me of my mother.”
Sawain glanced at her, “You lost your mother too?”
She nodded, “About the same time your mother went missing. Dad told me they were best friends. Nearly inseparable. I was really young when mom disappeared, probably around five or six years old, but I can still remember coming up here with her.”
Sawain sat in silence for a moment, watching the Fire Flowers explode into colorful blooms. So many questions formed in his mind that needed answers.
“Nara, how is it that your dad knows my mother?”
Nara hesitated for a moment, then gave him a smile, “They were cousins.”
Shock ran from the base of Sawain’s skull, down his spine, and into his limbs. He sat there for a moment, processing this new knowledge.
“Wait, so I’m related to him? That means… We’re cousins too, doesn’t it?”
Naralei smiled broader, hugging his arm tight, “Yes, well second cousins, but yes! We are blood kin, Sawain! I’ve known for a few months now, but my father didn’t want you to know yet. That means it stays between us for now. I’m just so happy to know that there’s someone left from our clan besides me and dad!”
Sawain’s head swam with all of this information. He took a deep breath and tried to sort it out. He was both excited and disappointed. He was thrilled to finally find some living relatives, but was forced to forget about having a chance with Naralei.
“So, we’re all that’s left of our family? What happened?”
Naralei’s expression turned to one of sorrow, “You haven’t heard the war stories?”
Sawain shook his head. Naralei sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, they glistened with tears.
“I guess you should hear them then. First of all, this is just the short and simple version. There’s a lot more to it than this, but it will hopefully answer some questions about your past and your mother. First of all, your mother was a very young elf when everything started. My father was not very old himself, only a hundred or so, but your mother was actually closer to our age. She was the baby of the family. She was a full fledged ranger by sixteen, and led her own team when she was eighteen. They called her a child prodigy. She manifested druidic powers when she was in her early twenties, making her one of the youngest druids ever.
Well, Alfhaven law says when one manifests the druidic gifts, that person must enter into training immediately. The only problem with your mother was she was already an established and accomplished ranger. Our entire clan was ranger by tradition. Well, Skalda did as she was expected and left her post as a ranger captain to enter into the solitary life of a druid.
She trained under an elder for a year, honing her skills and her magic. Where most druidic magic manifested as a sort of shield, made for protecting the forest, your mother’s shaped differently. She was a ranger by birth. Her vision of protecting Alfhaven was a more active, offensive approach.
She abandoned the life of a druid, not able to agree with or bend to their world view. She returned to her station as a ranger captain in our clan. The rest of Alfhaven saw this as an outrage, and some even as heresy. Our clan was always fiercely protective of its own and welcomed her back with open arms. That was about the time the war started with Jordborg.
It began over border disputes, as usual. They set up lumber mills along the edge of the forest and were cutting down our trees to fuel their war machine. The real dispute was between Jordborg and Anvilheim. The Triumvirate did not want to get involved, but Skalda, already ostracized as it was, was not content with sitting idly by as the southern forest was destroyed.
She had a lot of political pull within the clan. She was a sharp tactician and a fierce warrior. Our people would follow her to the grave, which most did. She formed a small army of elves they called the Outriders. They rode out from the forest like raiders, sacking and burning the mills in the night.
Jordborg retaliated with massive force, but the Outriders were fast and powerful. Skalda fused her druidic magic with her fighting style, earning the name Briaredge. Skalda Briaredge became a living legend. She killed Jordborg’s men by the hundreds and destroyed all of the mills, which saved the forest. Unfortunately, near the end of the war, our people fell into a terrible trap.
Jordborg planted false intelligence about a new mill under construction and set up a walled wooden gate. The outriders took the bait and raided it one night. When they burst into the camp, a hundred trained soldiers and fifty hired thugs were laying in wait. It was a slaughter. Not even Skalda’s magic could save them. We were all told by the triumvirate that everyone was killed. My father, who was an outrider, did not go with them that day, because he was wounded in an earlier battle, and my mother stayed behind to tend to him while he recovered. It’s the only reason they didn’t die that day too.
My mother was delirious. She left us one night not a week later to look for Skalda. We never saw her again. My father assumed she was captured and killed. I always imagined she would go down fighting. We were all that was left.
That was the story, anyway, until you showed up. When you claimed to be the son of Skalda, my father nearly unraveled on the spot. That night, he cried for the first time since the destruction of the Outriders. He cried for hours. Your appearance has given us hope, Sawain. There’s a chance that others were taken captive by Jordborg as well, even my mother,”
Sawain listened silently to the story Naralei told him. Tears spilled down his cheeks as he learned of his mother’s legacy.
“When I came here and appeared before the Triumvirate, they approved the creation of a new Outrider army for my crusade against the Grey King. Now I see that it was, to them, simply a delayed execution, one they saw fit for the son of Skalda Briaredge. Well, I’m going to disappoint them. I will proudly take up my mother’s legacy, I will make it my own, and I will succeed in my quest, to restore her honor and that of our family, as well.”
Naralei leaned over and kissed Sawain on the cheek, “I will gladly ride with you, cousin. You know that all of Mirehawk would follow you to death’s door. You’ve proven yourself a capable leader countless times in the short time you’ve been here. Everyone loves you, even Banthan, though he’ll never admit it.”
Sawain blushed, “Thank you, Nara. I’ll need all the help I can get. I’ll finish my training, then I have to go find someone important to my quest who lives in a dangerous part of Alfhaven. I would be honored if Mirehawk would accompany me.”
Naralei grinned, “Count me in! You know you have Tobi’s vote too. I can also tell you that you have Loraleth’s vote too,” she winked.
Sawain looked at her curiously, “Why would you say that?”
Naralei punched Sawain’s arm, “Can’t you tell? She’s always at your side. She’s offered you, and only you, knife throwing lessons, she even talks about you all the time. That girl really is in love with you!”
Sawain felt embarrassed that he did not notice it. When he thought back over the last few months, he realized that Nara was right.
“I guess I was so wrapped up in training, I didn’t notice.”
Naralei sighed, “Well, b
e careful, Sawain. The last thing you need on your team is a heart-broken girl. She’s likely to get us all killed.”
Sawain nodded and felt incredibly stressed now. He looked up at the fiery blossoms still erupting in the sky.
“I’ll keep it in mind. You know, this time last year, I was making a birthday wish for freedom from thralldom, now look at me. I guess my wish finally came true.”
Naralei rested her head on Sawain’s shoulder and smiled, “Well, happy birthday. I hope it was a good one.”
Sawain nodded as he reflected on it. It was his first birthday as a free man, he found the family his heart was longing for, he found out more about his mother, and he got to share an amazing night with a new best friend.
“Yeah, it was a good one.”
Chapter 9
The days continued to pass quickly to Sawain as his training intensified. Captain Nerelis was absent more frequently than ever. Lady Tirinele would spend a week at times drilling Mirehawk in more advanced tactics, as well as her usual regime of arcane defense. Sawain’s mind felt wracked beyond consciousness from time to time, but he began to resist her mind games more often. Mari got to the point within a month that she could easily counter even a higher level spell with her countersong, so Tirinele had her sit out during these sessions so she could prepare the others for situations when Mari was out of commission.
Nerelis began to show his favor toward Sawain more openly. He would keep Sawain later than the others when he was at the Fort. The Captain instructed Sawain in the finer points of being a leader at dinner time. Sawain wondered if this would cause problems with the others, especially Banthan. He always complained about every decision Sawain made. Whenever he was given an order, he would find some way to contest it.
Sawain grew tired of the confrontational elf’s attitude. He tried his best not to lash out at Banthan, but it was as if Banthan dared him to take the swing. Every time his self-proclaimed rival irked Sawain, he simply blew him off as a nuisance. This clearly invoked ire in Banthan. Tension between the two grew stronger every day.