The Living Sword (8 page)

“Right.” Throwing out his arm he sent a shockwave through the street knocking several of the attackers off their feet. Two of them, however, managed to jump over it. Both were holding clubs and now used them.

The wood splintered as it came into contact with his reinforced arms. Surprised, they reacted too late when Eurik buried his right fist in one of them before using that one to knock the other about. Dropping his impromptu, and now groaning, weapon, he proceeded to take out the ones regaining their footing. He shrugged off their blows, and their knives glanced off of him, so he made short work of them.

Broken Fang had no more problem than he'd had, though her opponents would never recover as they were bleeding out on the street. That left the Blood Lord.

***

With her left arm Leraine locked the Linesan's right, creating the opening she needed. His sneer turned to astonishment as her sword slid in and up. Now propping up a dead man, she pulled her blade out before letting him go.

Breathing a little harder, she turned to where her teacher still fought the blooddrinker. Her blade was a blur, as befitting the fighter who carried the name Viper. Its slender length danced in her hands, never letting up.

“This is great!” the blooddrinker crowed with a grin plastered across his face. He was matching Irelith's speed, but was only defending. A cut across his cheek, already scabbed over, showed he hadn't come through the fight unscathed.

He pulled back, and Irelith didn't follow. Leraine now noticed her teacher breathed a lot harder than her student was. “Name's Rik, what's yours?”

“I am Viper.”

“Of course you are.” His eyes scanned his surroundings. “Oh, that's just great. Didn't even last five minutes,” the blooddrinker grouched. “And they had the balls to call themselves professionals. Hah!” His grin faded. “Guess I'll have to cut this short. Too bad.”

He literally flew at Irelith, completely evading the pillar of stone that shot up where he'd stood. Leraine blinked and the blooddrinker no longer faced her teacher, but stalked towards Eurik. Frozen, she watched Irelith fall to the ground. “No,” she whispered in her mother tongue.

***

“And you're supposed to have defeated that san,” the Blood Lord said. “Must say, not impressed.”

'Don't worry, don't fear. Just do,' Eurik reminded himself as he flapped his hands to generate Wind
chiri
. Only fire, sunlight, silver, and a magical weapon like Misthell could kill a Blood Lord. He didn't trust himself to use the living sword effectively against Rik, and that left hurting him.

“Ha, shaking in your boots, I see.” Rik twirled his blades. “Feh.”

Pain screamed through him as the two
chiris
were forced into one body. But Eurik had expected it this time, he'd been ready for it. He moved. Rik was already reacting, bringing his swords together to cut him into pieces, but it was too late.

His first palm-thrust Eurik aimed for the Blood Lord's right shoulder. A spike of Earth
chiri
slammed through his enemy, splintering every bone it came into contact with. Rik stumbled back, and Eurik's second attack mostly missed, only snapping a rib or two.

“Damnit!” Somehow, the Blood Lord still managed to keep a hold of his weapon even though his right arm hung uselessly at his side. “That hurt!”

He knew he needed to move, that he had to attack now, but he couldn't hold on to the Wind
chiri
. It evaporated, his legs threatened to buckle.

Rik raised his good arm, then stopped and tilted his head as if listening for something.

A trumpet sounded, not far away. And through the Earth
chiri
Eurik could feel many feet running towards them. The city watch had noticed the fight.

Rik had come to the same conclusion. “Kill ya next time,” the Blood Lord vowed before shooting straight up into the sky. He vanished between the rooftops, ducking the last rays of the setting sun.

Broken Fang passed him by and knelt beside her companion. Viper lay there with empty eyes, her throat coated in blood. “Leave,” Broken Fang ordered.

“What?”

She looked up, her eyes bright even in the evening's gloom. “I don't want you here. And you don't want to be here,” Broken Fang bit out. “I am considered nobility because of who my mother is. You are nobody to them. They will lock you up, and that is not where you want to be when that blooddrinker comes at you again. Leave,” she repeated before turning her attention to her fallen friend. “Leave us.”

“Better do what she says,” Misthell advised.

Clenching his fists, Eurik started to walk. Then run.

***

Somehow, Eurik had found his way back to the Charging Anauceros. He'd declined dinner, had foregone the bath he'd been looking forward to not so long ago, and had headed straight for his bed. But sleep came slowly.

So when he woke up the next morning feeling miserable, it wasn't just the bruises and overstretched muscles that were the cause. He rose up from the hay and made his way down to where he'd secured his belongings.

'Chizuho mentioned something about people wanting me dead. It could be the same someone that sent the Blood Lord after me. I'm going to be safe from him for the next few days, until he heals, but that doesn't stop Rik's employer from sending someone else. I can't stay here, and I can't lead them to Patheos.'

But he wasn't going to leave the city right away. First, came breakfast and meeting Rolan. Hopefully, the man could give him some indication as to where he should take his search. And even if that weren't the case, Rolan could pass along Eurik's explanation as to why he couldn't make use of Patheos' hospitality after all.

Outside the inn, it seemed that Linese had already woken up. 'Or never sleeps,' Eurik thought as he recalled the incessant rattling of cartwheels last night. That was one aspect of the city he would be glad to escape from.

Entering the inn proper, he found quite a few people already enjoying breakfast. Rolan Ilad was there as well, though his table was empty of food and drink. The wiry Linesan waved him over. “Rough night?” he asked Eurik as the latter sat down in the chair across from him. “I hope you don't mind that I already ordered for the both of us.”

“Rough day,” he corrected. “People have been trying to kill me all day.”

Rolan smiled and shook his head. “I know the city can seem overwhelming for newcomers, but it isn't that bad.”

“I am not jesting. I fought in the Yellow Arena.”

“You fought the plant-man? That was you? Wait, I thought you grew up among them?”

“I did, that's why I went there. I wanted to—” Eurik stopped and sighed. In hindsight, he couldn't really say what he was thinking. “I thought it would be like a sparring match, but Chizuho got paid to kill me. And after the sun set, I was approached by a Blood Lord. He wanted Misthell.”

And a lot of people had died as a result. In one day, he'd seen more people die than he'd ever seen in all the years he had lived on the island.

“You're serious.”

Eurik nodded. “I hope you can tell Patheos why I have to leave. I do not wish to repay his kindness by bringing this trouble to his home. I'll be leaving Linese today, though I hope you can give me some indication as to what direction I should go.”

Rolan frowned in puzzlement for a moment. “Ah, you mean if I have found something regarding your parents.” He fished a piece of paper out of the leather bag that sat beside his chair. “I can't be sure, of course. Not every ship is insured, there's always a few that prefer to take their chances, but we keep track as best we can.”

Ilad folded the paper open on the table. “However, I think I found something. The time you specified happened to coincide with the tail end of a surge of pirate attacks. There was a pretty big convoy coming up from Volsom that got ambushed. Several ships were lost. They'd been blown off course and wound up a lot closer to San than they needed to be to get to Linese,” Rolan explained.

“I wrote their names down.” He looked up at Eurik. “You can read, right?” At his nod, Rolan slid the note over to him. “Of course, it's been seventeen years since those ships were lost. Finding people who might remember what passengers they had is going to be hard.”

Eurik gave Rolan a grateful smile. “That's alright. Even if I can't find such witnesses, this tells me something about where they were going and where they were coming from. Thank you.”

Rolan answered his smile and raised his hands up. “As I said, when the head of the family asks, what can we do but say yes? And don't forget, you're buying me breakfast. And you've been very generous,” he added as a steaming plate was set before him.

“Well, you make it hard not to be,” Eurik joked.

***

It was noticeably cooler inside the long gateway, though it was also more crowded as people on foot and on horseback navigated the steady stream of chariots, carriages, and carts filing in and out of the city. The sound echoing off the walls and ceiling threatened to overwhelm Eurik.

Emerging out of that tunnel and into the sun he had to sigh in relief. But there was no opportunity for him to stop and enjoy it as traffic pushed him along.

For a while, Eurik let it until enough people had turned off the broad road he was on; only then did he step off the paved avenue to consider his destination.

Reviewing the maps he'd studied back on the island in his mind, Eurik once more pondered which route to take. Or more accurate, what destination to go for. The lands of the Mochedan were about two weeks away, and a lot closer than Volsom. But those lands were vast and finding people who might have known his parents would be difficult, and there had been Patheos' warning.

Volsom lay far to the south and would take more than a month to reach, probably two. Finding clues there might be no easier, but it was sort of on the way to Vanha forest. His parents probably learned how to make Misthell from the Immortal, though he might not wish to see Eurik, and it was far from the lands of the Mochedan.

And then there was the matter of the people that were after his sword. Eurik supposed he could have gone back to the
Ichiru
and ask for protection. Return home and tell Zasashi he wasn't ready to face the world. It was tempting.

'No, the only way is forward. I will go home when I am ready, not before.' He turned his attention back to question of which way to go. 'I'll have to follow this road all the way to Buce before I can cross the Endria again. Might as well wait with my decision until I'm there.' Nodding to himself, he spared a glance for the monuments that lined both sides of the road for as far as the eye could see. He could only see a few duplicates, but all contained writing of a similar meaning. Here lies such and such, who did this and that. Remember me. Graves, thousands and thousands of graves, and this wasn't the only road so adorned.

The san cremated the dead, just like Linesans did, but they spread the ashes out over the fields. They felt no need to commemorate their dead like this.

'I suppose I am human in this. I carry around a blade I don't know how to use, because it belonged to my parents.' He drew Misthell. His eye stared back at him. 'Strange. I never felt a need to visit a grave that was not there, but Misthell somehow brings them closer. It makes me feel connected to them.'

“Hey Eurik, do you blame me for what's happened?” Misthell asked.

“Why would I?”

“Because they're going after you to get to me,” the blade explained. “Even that Broken Fang-girl was interested in me, though she hasn't tried to kill you. Yet.”

“I can't control what other people want, and you can't either.”

“I suppose you're right, still ... I'm feeling a little useless here. You're taking all the risk here and I can't even help you out. If only I knew what my power is.”

“Hmmm, have you ever considered that you might not have a power? Not every living sword has one, you know.”

“No, no, I'm too awesome not to,” Misthell corrected. “I'm going to find out what it is, and then all our problems will go away. They won't dare to stand against me.”

Eurik fought to hide his smile. “Then I better hurry with learning how to wield a blade, I wouldn't want to embarrass you while you're being awesome.”

“Planning on learning from squirrels, like Ygren?”

He frowned, searching his memory for the name and coming up empty-handed. “I don't know that story.”

“Ah, well then, start walking.” Eurik did nothing to stop his smile as he returned Misthell to its scabbard. His feet hit the pavement again. “I will regale you with the tale of Ygren of Cosce and the Serpent of...”

Chapter 6

Bait

The sun was on its way down when Eurik heard a galloping horse coming up from behind him. It wasn't the first rider that Eurik had encountered, not even the first who'd ridden hard, but this one slowed down as it got closer. Curious, Eurik stopped and looked back. He did not expect the familiar face looking back at him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked Broken Fang.

Sliding off the spotted mare, she walked up to Eurik leading her horse by the reins. Another horse, tied to her saddle, followed behind. “Looking for you.”

He waited for Broken Fang to say more, but all he got was a hard stare. Rolling his shoulders, Eurik tried again. “Okay, but why?”

“The blooddrinker said he would come after you again. I intend to be there when he does.”

He blinked. “You want to use me as bait?”

“Yes.”

“But... what about your friend, Viper?” Eurik had passed enough graves today to know how important taking care of the body of a loved one was to humans.

There was a sharp intake of breath as Broken Fang's eyes became hard as emeralds. “Irelith's soul has returned, that is all that matters. The body is now just a body.”

Not really knowing what to say next, Eurik looked around but found no inspiration. “I suppose I can't stop you.”

He started to walk again, feeling her eyes on his back. A few moments later, leather creaked and the horses started to walk again.