By The Sword - Homepage

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I stared down at my sword, watching the afternoon light glint off its silvery surface. I grinned a wide, confident grin as I balanced the bowed blade in my hand. The black grip felt perfect in my hand, and the blade responded readily to each steady, subtle movement of my wrist.

Jason grumbled in front of me, mumbling one complaint or another out under his breath. The sound was just barely audible over the commotion around us, but I heard it anyway. I traced my eyes up to the bored swordsman, watching him pace back and forward with his hand gripped tightly on his sheathed sword.

I adjusted my stance, stashing my blade back in its magnificent scabbard. My metal boot made a soft scraping noise on the cobblestone road as I took a step backward and leaned against the wooden building. My eyes flicked around the town, watching the blur of commotion and trying to catch any new details.

Throughout the street, people were taking down their market stalls, one after another. With the arrival of the new Lord today, they couldn’t have the street being cluttered up with dozens of different stalls. Most of the vendors knew this, but they had still put their stalls up in the morning. The Lord wasn’t supposed to arrive until late in the afternoon, and the morning rush was just too good for them to pass up.

Person after person rushed past us in the street, going to help out with one thing or another as the town’s decorations continued to go up. Banners, ribbons, and all kinds of other ornaments were being put up throughout the town. Even the least enthusiastic residents at least put up a ribbon with Sarin’s symbol on it: a dark green cloth with the simple picture of a twisted tree.

Looking around the town, I recognized dozens of faces and didn’t recognize dozens more. From the looks of their clothes and the way they clumped themselves up into groups, I could tell that some of the people in town weren’t usually there. Most of them were farmers, I guessed, the ones who lived farther out into the plains and only had a vague relationship with the town proper.

Despite the fact that I’d never met most of them, I did recognize one couple. Well, I only recognized them by the way their son avoided them in the street, but I’d still figured it out all the same. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Arl was hiding from when he quickly ducked behind a stall just to avoid a peaceful couple walking down the street.

A soft chuckle escaped from my lips as I watched the town. The light-hearted, homey feel was returning to me more and more as the days went on. The further back the ‘incident’ got, the more accepting—or forgetful—people became of seeing me out in public. And with the town’s new Lord on his way into town, they had better things to worry about than some nameless ranger.

Some nameless ranger that killed their town’s lord, I reminded myself. I cringed at my own thoughts, nearly putting my face in my palms. Even with the amount of time that had passed, I still got the occasional look or curse thrown my way, and it still hurt. The memory of that night was, at this point, a scar in my mind and each off-handed look, or stubborn word was only like someone picking at it to see if it would reopen.

The wind ruffled through my hair, blowing strands of it into my eyes. I took a deep breath, letting the memories fade back into the past. Today was a special day, I told myself again. It was the day that I got to meet Arathorn’s replacement, and it was the day the town got to meet him too.

I didn’t know much about the new lord and, from what I’d heard, neither did most people. When I’d asked Jason what he knew, he’d only given me a half-hearted shrug and told me information about him that I already knew.

He was from one of the mountain states—but none of us knew which one. He had a connection with Arathorn—but none of us knew what kind. And he’d apparently expressed a lot of interest in becoming Sarin’s lord—but none of us knew why.

The entire town was basically setting up and decorating for a man they knew nothing about. And the fact that we knew nothing about him was probably the reason there were rumors going around.

From what I’d heard—which wasn’t much—multiple people were already skeptical of the commanding man that they’d never met. Since they knew so little about him, they already assumed he was hiding something. Maybe it was just a vocal minority in the town, or maybe it still came from the fact that Arathorn was secretly a kanir, but either way, the new lord hadn’t even arrived and people already didn’t trust him.

Jason grumbled again, this time turning to me. “Well this is boring, isn’t it?”

The arrogant swordsman’s voice was missing most of its standard qualities. It seemed that the pure boredom of standing around and waiting for the other rangers had kicked all of the confidence out of him. Staring at him with one raised eyebrow though, I was sure it was only temporary.

“Lorah told us to be here early, we have to be ready to represent the rangers when he arrives.” I recited the order Lorah had given us the day before, hoping that the word of our leader would stop his grumbling.

“Right,” he said dryly. I fought back a snicker. “And yet she doesn’t have to be here waiting around like the rest of us.”

“Yes, because she,” I emphasized the word exactly like he had, “has other duties to attend to and is going to meet up with him at the town hall.”

I saw Jason trying not to roll his eyes. “Other duties? Like what?”

“I don’t know,” I said, offering him a simple shrug. “She didn’t say, and I didn’t ask.”

Jason’s eyes did roll this time as he turned around. A sharp breath of amusement shot out of my nose. If he’d wanted to know, he should’ve come to the meeting with me. Instead, he was off in town talking with the blacksmith about a new sword. He didn’t even have as good of an excuse as Myris did.

“Do you know if Myris is coming?” I asked.

Jason twisted around, the corners of his lips tugging upward as the conversation once again gave him something to do. “I don’t think he is. He was still out in the forest when we left, right?”

I nodded. Myris had still been in the forest, and he probably still was. Every day since my first encounter with the terror, Myris had been out scouting for the source. At night, he had to take a team with him because it was too dangerous for him to go alone. So missions like the one him, Jason, and Carter had gone on a week ago were still few and far between.

But ever since that night, Myris had become obsessed. When the other rangers had assignments—even if I didn’t, Myris would go out searching during the day, on his own. And each day was more of the same. Myris always came back to the lodge frustrated, exhausted, and with nothing to show for it.

“I’ll find it one of these days,” he always said whenever I’d asked him about it. After that, he shut his mouth and went back to ignoring me. Even after he’d become obsessed with finding the source of the creatures that fed off of our fear, he was still essentially the same person. He still boasted whenever asked but kept quiet when he wasn’t. He still trained all the time, making sure the newer rangers—besides me of course—knew how it was ‘supposed to be done.’ And he was still an asshole.

“He needs to take it easy with the hunting though,” Jason said offhandedly, ripping me back to the present. “Their scourge came early this year, but it’s not as bad as I thought. At least they haven’t come into town yet.”

My brow furrowed. “What? They normally come into town?”

Jason nodded, his eyes quickly scanning our surroundings. “Last year, for example, one of them strayed far enough from the tree line that they got into someone’s house. The damn thing fed on that poor person’s nightmares and could’ve killed them.”

I froze my gaze on him, my breathing quickening with every word of his story. I already knew the feeling of being manipulated by a terror while I was awake. I couldn’t even imagine the kinds of horrors I would see if I’d been a victim while I was asleep.

“What happened to them?”

Jason’s eyes met mine. “Luckily, they were okay because someone was there to save them.” The corners of his lips curled into a smirk, and my earlier statement was instantly proven true.

I dropped my brow, realizing exactly why Jason had told me the story. “You saved them?”

His grin deepened and he straightened up. “Of course. I’m a hero to this town for a reason.”

My hand unconsciously moved toward my blade and I made a vague, dry sound of disagreement. I didn’t believe for a second that the town, at any time, saw Jason as their hero, but I didn’t want to spend the effort arguing with him so I just left it be.

“They haven’t arrived yet?” a voice asked, one that definitely didn’t belong to Jason. I turned my gaze, watching Carter crossing the distance in front of town hall toward us.

Jason and I shook our heads in unison, earning a slight chuckle from the brown-eyed ranger. “Well, it looks like Sarin is definitely ready for them.”

I nodded again, looking over the now-empty street. They’d cleared out almost all of the stalls in extremely short time. While dealing with Jason’s oppressive arrogance, I hadn’t even noticed their efforts.

“It’s more commotion than I expected, that’s for sure,” Jason chimed in, watching the people still moving in the street. “Maybe they’re just excited for things to go back to normal.”

The words played back in my head and I let out a chuckle. Looking around at a town that I now called home and that was also one I hadn’t even known existed until just a couple of months ago, I couldn’t help but laugh. The memories of my old life were falling farther and farther into the past and no matter what happened, I doubted things would ever truly go back to normal.

“Where is everybody?” Carter asked, his eyes scanning over the town just like ours.

“Scattered,” Jason replied quickly. “I saw Tan and Elena over by the stalls a little while ago, and I know that Lionel and his group are in the town hall…” Jason trailed off for a second, his lips ticking up. “And, of course, Myris is off galavanting somewhere in the woods.”

Jason’s comment made me snicker and earned much more than that from Carter. He let out a laugh so loud that it drowned out the commotion around us for a moment before he calmed himself back down.

Carter came back with an amused smile. “Lucky for him though, huh?”

Jason only nodded at that.

I tore my eyes off the town, watching back toward the pathway that led into town. They were supposed to arrive on that path, that’s what Lorah had told me. And, feeling the afternoon sun beating down on my neck, I knew they should’ve been here already too.

My eyes glided over the scene again, watching desperately for something new. The cobblestone path in front of me extended only a few dozen paces away from the main street next to city hall before it turned off into the plains. The building that I’d been leaning against cut off my view so I couldn’t see any further.

“Yeah,” Jason started again. “The old man won’t have to deal with whatever knightly bullshit that we’ll have to experience.” My neck tensed at his words and I clenched my fist, fighting the urge to look back.

For the first time, just above the commotion, I heard a rhythm in the distance, one that I recognized quickly. The footsteps were heavy and coordinated, making a deliberate rhythm of thuds as they beat down on the dirt path.

Knights, I realized with a smile.

“You really don’t like dealing with that do you?” I heard Carter ask from behind me, obviously oblivious to the approaching group.

“Of course not,” Jason said easily. “They’re too stuck up with their code, I think. And despite spending all of their time training, I could still probably beat any of them in a duel.” The footsteps got louder as whatever procession contained the Lord of our town neared the bend.

I heard the sound of Jason’s blade coming out from its sheath. “I am the best swordsman in town after all.” His words were aimed at me, I knew that well, but I didn’t turn around. The soft fiery crackling sound that I recognized all-too-easily told me everything I needed to know.

Just around the corner, a glint of shining armor caught my gaze. My eyes widened as two knights in silver plate armor lined in blue walked around, a person who looked like he could’ve been the new Lord of Sarin following in their wake.

The tall, black-haired man looked confident walking into town. His confidence didn’t feel like the arrogance Jason exuded when he was trying to be annoying though. No, his confidence felt earned, as if the permanent lines of tension at the corner of his eyes and the bronze fist-shaped emblem that adorned his light armor proved his worth tenfold.

His dress looked familiarly expensive—similar to the kind of clothing I’d seen Arathorn wear—but it was much more practical. The fancy cloth garb that flowed up from his boots and onto his torso was decorated with light plate armor, but only in the most vital of places. Only his shoulders, on his arms, and sparingly down his legs did the armor show, but on each piece, the shiny bronze emblem radiated the same power that he did.

As the man marched into town, flanked by the knights in blue trim that I instantly recognized as Knights of Norn, the commotion of the town around us started to die down. Then, feeling my hand still clenched tightly into a fist, I got a wicked idea.

“Jason?” I asked, hoping he hadn’t turned around. “Do you really think you could take any of the knights in a duel?”

His response came back quickly and without any thought. “Of course! They’re too concerned with raw power and protection. I’d dance circles around them before they even got a single strike in.”

The town around us went almost perfectly silent as the new Lord of Sarin walked up to us. He cocked one of his eyebrows as he stared at me. No, he wasn’t staring at me, he was staring past me. He was staring at Jason.

“Is that so?” he asked. His voice instantly reminded me of the battlemaster from my king’s barracks back in Credon.

Jason froze and his face paled. I didn’t look around to watch it happen, but I could just tell that it was exactly what was happening. An unsure sound escaped from Jason’s mouth, one immediately followed by a swallowed chuckle that escaped Carter’s. I had to fight the urge to laugh right then and there, but the presence of the slick, battle-hardened man made it easy for me.

“Well…” Jason started, his words dying off quickly. The fight with my own laughter became much more difficult. I’d never heard Jason speechless before.

A few long, painful—at least for Jason—seconds passed in silence before the man laughed. “Good spirit!”

I jerked my head back a bit, caught off guard by the pleasantness of his tone. From the corner of my eye, I saw almost a dozen people watching our interaction with bated breath.

The man spoke again. “I’m almost certain you already know this, but I’m Marcel Gairen, the new Lord of Sarin. You can call me Marc, for short.” I furrowed my brow, the name registering somewhere in my head. He offered us a small smile, but one that wasn’t guarded at all.

“Agil Novan,” I blurted out a little too quickly. The man’s smile wavered a hair, but it didn’t drop. I glanced backward at the two stunned rangers standing behind me. “And that’s Carter, and that’s Jason.”

Sarin’s new Lord, Marc, nodded at each of them as he heard their names. “Good to meet some of the rangers I’m going to be working so closely with.” His smile stayed, but his tone was all business. “I was supposed to meet with a woman names Lorah once I arrived. Do you know where I can find her.”

I blinked, staring blankly for a second before the ability to speak rushed back to me. “She’s waiting in town hall with a few of the other rangers.” I pointed to the large, sweeping wooden building in the center of town. The man’s smile grew a sliver and he nodded at me before abruptly walking off, his two knightly escorts following quickly in his wake.

The commotion of the town started up again as murmurs spread through the crowd. Whatever kind of parade, or introduction they’d expected, was not happening. And that was made completely clear as Marc walked briskly through the streets, offering little more than a simple smile and a practical nod at some of the people that were now his citizens.

I shook my head and tore my gaze away from the poised man walking away from me. My eyes quickly moved over the town, the ribbons, decorations, and ornaments no longer interesting me. As I looked back over where Marc’s procession had entered the town, a new interest on my mind, I found exactly what I was looking for.

Still wearing their standard ranger uniforms—the metal plated boots, the blue cloth pants and tunic, the shoulder pads, and the silver emblem that accented it all—the rangers from Sarin that had gone to retrieve the Lord just stood idly.

I watched each of their faces, noting the exhaustion in their eyes. I even recognized all of them, even if I couldn’t put a name to each one, but I was really only focused on one. The tall, smirking brown-haired ranger with her bow strung on her back nodded to me a smile instantly sprouted on my face.

“So,” she started. “Did you miss me?”