The Sword that Binds (Book of Worlds 1) (3 page)

“Is this how you treat royalty here in this run-down keep? Not even a bow for those above you?” The prince said while the sneer on his face deepened. “If it wasn’t for the fact that you promised me your daughter tonight I wouldn’t have even considered coming here. But how could I pass up a chance at tasting the famous warrior’s own heir?”

Everyone within the hall stared in shock at the prince. It was common knowledge that the Garland line was not required to bow to the royal family - the throne relied on them to keep it safe. Not even the prophesied hero could demand them to lower themselves before him, especially when the only part of the prophecy he had fulfilled was being the third-born prince. Yet the shock they felt from his lack of decorum was nothing compared to the words he said after that. Sarena stared at him with her jaw hanging open, dumb-founded.
Does he actually think my father would stand for him to say something like that? There may be no love between us, but I am still part of the Garland line.
She looked at her father expecting to see the familiar rage lighting up in his eyes, only to freeze in place.

Adralin smirked as he glanced at Sarena for a moment, then spoke to the prince in a calm tone. “Normally it would be improper to do such an act right after arriving, but since you two are to be betrothed tomorrow I think that taking her one night early can be forgiven.”

The prince turned and looked her up and down, lingering at her chest and leering the entire time. “Certainly not the best looking, but it could be far worse. The novelty of it will make it worthwhile I suppose. We’ll have to see about the betrothal though, it depends on how she does tonight after all.”

Sarena felt her face turn red, not from embarrassment, but from the sheer rage that was boiling within her. Her own father was betraying her like this? There wasn’t time to set this up after giving her the sword. He had been planning this all along. The walls seemed like they were getting closer as she stood there fuming. This
creature
thought she would just go along with him because her father said so? Not on her life. She would see him dead before he so much as touched her. Without her realizing it her hand had crept toward the sword along her waist for comfort. It was a habit formed from years of practice. Whenever she encountered a situation that made her worried or uncomfortable she would grasp the hilt as hard as she could.

The moment her hand touched the hilt her entire world changed.

She felt a tug on her arm for a moment, as if something had pulled it to the side, and the sound of a sword being drawn could be heard throughout the silent hall. Sarena’s face changed from anger to surprise as she stared at the sword in her hand, the sword that had moved on its own and pulled her arm along with it. The sword had sliced through the air so fast that nobody had been able to see it move. Horror began to enter her as she realized what had just happened. A thin line of red appeared around the prince’s neck. His eye’s betraying the shock he felt. His body collapsed, his head rolling off under the table. All around Sarena the world slowed to a crawl.

What-Did I just kill the prince? Or was it Heartseeker?
Sarena thought. Her eyes darted across the room as the soldiers drew their swords.
I have to get out of here!

Sarena knew her father would either have her killed or use her as a scapegoat to try and not be punished by the throne. With no other options she sprinted for the entrance to the great hall on the opposite side of the room. She could feel the world was still moving slowly around her, yet she felt lighter than ever before. The soldiers at the doors were the only ones able to get in her path in time, and Sarena prepared herself to fight through them. Without slowing down she charged straight into them. The sword in her hand flashed and knocked aside their weapons before they could react, leaving a glowing blue line in their vision. An opening appeared between them for a moment as they were knocked off balance by her lightning fast blade, and Sarena took the chance to slide between the two. Adrenaline was pumping through her, and she continued running down the hall toward the main entrance as she heard her father’s voice resounding behind her.

“Stop her! I don’t care if she’s dead or not, just don’t let her escape! Close off the keep before she gets out!” Yelled Adralin. His voice was deeper than usual and the words seemed to be drawn out.  Low-pitched screams followed from the rest of the hall as people began to react. Sarena could hear the bell in the north tower begin to ring, sounding for the portcullis and all entrances to the keep to close. The sound seemed somewhat distorted, as if it was coming from underwater, but she knew it still meant that she was almost out of time already.

Doubling her effort she sprinted through the halls and made it to the eastern courtyard in record time. She was surprised when she saw that the portcullis was just starting to lower, and it looked like it was crawling along at that.
Maybe I’ll be able to make it!
The portcullis was only halfway down when Sarena dashed through, turning to the south immediately and heading straight toward the forest. She would never be able to escape them on foot out on the plains, while the mountains were just a dead end. Her only hope was to hide within the forest until they thought she was dead, then try and sneak through the kingdom and escape to one of the neighboring countries. It was far from the best plan, she knew that, but it was all she could come up with in the short time she had. The only downside was that the forest was just as likely to kill her as anywhere else, but at the moment it was her only hope.

While Garland keep may boast the greatest warriors in the kingdom - if not the world - it was not a very prosperous land. Sitting right on the edge of the Godwoods, and with the White Mountains directly to the west, it was considered the most backwaters location in the entire kingdom. Without assistance from the throne they would never be able to survive. Practically everyone in the keep was a warrior of some sort, even the cooks could wield a weapon better than most ordinary soldiers. Creatures from the forest would often wander out and roam the areas within a few miles of the tree line, killing anything they encountered. If bears and wolves were the only problem it wouldn’t be difficult to handle, but the creatures of the Godwoods were never so simple.

Her grandfather used to regale her with tales of the creatures that emerged from the deep woods. He even boasted of defeating a reaver on his own during the prime of his life, but Sarena wasn’t sure she could trust that story. Reavers were notoriously malicious, even for the Godwoods. She had seen the drawings in the library. It was a lizard that three times the size of a man that stood on two legs, with four long arms in the shape of scythes. An ordinary Godwoods creature would require an entire squad of soldiers to subdue, but a reaver meant that a full company of one hundred veterans would be sent out. It was considered a great victory if even half of them made it back alive.

It was because of those creatures that nobody lived outside of the keep. Which meant that Garland keep was forced to import all of its food from other areas of the kingdom. At most there were five hundred people within the keep at any one time. The other five hundred were sent to work for the crown in the north.

And now her only hope of survival was to travel straight into the home of those creatures.

Suddenly the sword in her hand jerked itself free, sliding out of her grip with ease. There was a clanging sound behind her and the sword was suddenly back, as if it had never gone. Sarena stopped for a moment and turned, expecting to see a sword coming at her from behind, only to be surprised by the shattered remains of a crossbow bolt lying on the ground behind her. She stared at the sword in her hand while continuing to sprint towards the tree line. Heartseeker wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. It acted on its own
without her even holding it.
All the legends of her ancestors told of how it made the wielder unmatched with a blade, but it only enhanced what they had naturally. Never did it act out on its own.

Before Sarena even realized it, the sky darkened and she was surrounded by the trees of the Godwoods. It was eerily quiet and peaceful under the trees - almost silent besides the wind rustling the leaves and her own running footsteps crunching along the fallen branches and undergrowth. There were rarely any of the famous creatures this close to the edge of the forest. Only a handful were seen each year. Even that was enough to prevent anyone from living near the forest. She knew if she was going to hide she would need to go deeper, and the panic within her didn’t let her slow down at all.

For hours Sarena continued to run at full speed, the forest thickening around her to the point that it was difficult even to find a path to walk along. She had calmed down not long after entering the forest, at least enough to know that she shouldn’t have been able to keep the pace she had set for so long. Especially in a forest she had never set foot in. Every step seemed to find the perfect foothold, even in a forest full of roots and branches that would trip the most expert of woodsmen. It was only because of Heartseeker that she was able to maintain that breakneck speed for so long.

The light from above vanished, and Sarena was left in almost total darkness. In front of her all the undergrowth of the forest abruptly disappeared, as if an in invisible wall had decided to split the forest, leaving only massive trees that stretched hundreds of feet into the air, their branches so thick that no light could penetrate them. Sarena had read about this part of the forest in one of the book back in the keep. Supposedly it was a five day trip to reach it, deep in the forest, yet she had reached it in less than a day. That kind of speed shouldn’t have been possible, even with Heartseeker. Her heart seemed to tremble as she thought about what was ahead of her. The heart of the forest is where the creatures originally come from. Nobody had ever come back after entering it.

Sarena turned back from the darkness and walked toward the sound of water she had heard not long before. It didn’t take long to find it, being just out of sight from the inner forest, even though it was only a small stream that she could step across. She knelt down while sheathing Heartseeker, then held her hands under the cool water for a moment, cupping them together and bringing it up to her mouth to drink. After a few handfuls she leaned her back against a tree and drew Heartseeker again. The faint blue glow along the sword seemed to taunt her, as if gloating over destroying her life.

“Why! Why did you do that! Why couldn’t you have just been the same as always! Maybe my father would have recognized me then! If the prince was still alive I could at least try and fix this on my own! I didn’t need your help!” Sarena yelled at the sword, tears streaming down her face. While she may not have been loved by her father, she had at least had a place to call home. Her grandfather had always been there for her. Now she was left with nothing. Never again would she be able to see her grandfather, to spar with the keep soldiers as if she was one of them, to steal snacks from the kitchen and share them with the bookkeeper, her only friend in the keep besides her grandfather. It may not have been the perfect life, but she was happy there. Now she could never go back. The only way she could see her grandfather again would be from behind bars. All thanks to the sword in her hands. The sword she knew her life depended on. As nighttime fell she closed her eyes and fell into oblivion, the tears on her cheeks never stopped flowing until she passed out from exhaustion.

*****

B
eams of light were streaming down through the holes in the canopy above Sarena, one of which happened to be shining directly onto her closed eyes, causing her to wake up from her deep sleep. Standing up from her position of leaning against the tree, she was surprised to find she wasn’t sore at all. That position should have caused aches all over her body, but she felt as if she had slept at home on her feather mattress. Her eyes drifted to the sword at her waist, knowing that it was the cause once again. It continued to take care of her, even though she wanted nothing more than to destroy it in revenge. The only thing stopping her was the fact that without Heartseeker she was as good as dead.

She washed herself as best as she could with the small stream, then stood and thought about what to do next. Obviously her father’s men would track her here - she was no woodsman and had left a clear trail to follow. Her grandfather had taught her how to survive in the woods, but that didn’t include escaping pursuit from seasoned hunters. And there was no doubt they would continue to track her where ever she went. To the west of Garland Keep were the White Mountains, blocking any chance of escape there, while to the east was the mighty Agraven River, over a mile wide at its thinnest point, which also happened to be where the nearest bridge was at. No chance of using that - the bridge was on her father’s land.

Her only choice with any chance at all was to enter the deep woods and hope that the trackers were too afraid to follow. If she could stay near the edge and travel along it for a day or two she might be able to escape the trackers and sneak through to the north. The major problem she saw with that was that her father would undoubtedly have men throughout the kingdom searching for her, making that an almost impossible journey. The kingdom was over 400 miles across. To get through without attracting attention she would have to do it on foot, without running as she had the day before. Doing so would take weeks, especially considering she would have to go around every town and village. At some point she would have to cross the Agraven when it cut back to the west and merged with the White Mountains. No, while she was confident she could survive in a fight with Heartseeker, with an entire kingdom out to kill her she doubted she would make it very far in the open.

All of that left her with only one option. The one thing that scared her more than any other, but was her only hope of survival - no matter how slim a chance it was. She stared at the darkness within the deep woods, the only light being that of the glowing moss that grew on the sides of the trees further in. Nobody knew what was on the other side of the Godwoods, only that it stretched as far as the eyes could see, and nobody had ever returned after entering. Sarena couldn’t sprint through as she had done in the outer forest. It was simply too dark to risk breaking an ankle. Doing so was a death sentence within the embrace of those gigantic trees.