Sword Bearer (Return of the Dragons 1)

I nodded, and Cullen handed me the hammer.

“When you strike your blade, you should hear the one true note. The note you’ll hear in battle, when your blade strikes an enemy.”

And if the blade didn’t ring true?

The hammer felt heavy and cold in my hand.

What was I doing here? How could anyone believe a sixteen year old with no friends and bad skin was their long-awaited prince? The whole thing seemed suddenly ridiculous.

I held the hammer tightly, ready to put it back down.

I heard a noise behind me.

I turned back. Woltan stood at the doorway.

Woltan smiled a thin smile.

“Go ahead, Anders, strike,” he said. “I just want to watch.”

I looked at Cullen. He nodded. I looked at Kara and Kalle. They nodded, hand in hand. Everyone was waiting for me. I hoped I wouldn’t disappoint them.

I lifted the hammer and struck the blade.

The note was pure and low and it resonated throughout my body.

The blade didn’t move.

Instead the ground and the armory shook as the blade stood still.

The note seemed to resonate forever. Finally, it quieted.

There was a very short moment afterward in which everything seemed to stand still.

Then the armory was full of people. Loud people. There was a great deal of rejoicing and lots of pushing, until everyone who had been waiting quietly outside for the end of the forging entered. I felt strange and embarrassed.

Everyone seemed to be trying to get a look at me and at my new sword. I almost blushed.

But when I concentrated on the one note, still ringing in my ears, the embarrassment went away. Then my mind and heart were clear.

Although I was still very hungry.

I concentrated on the note, and it grew louder within me. The sound rose until my ears hummed with it, and blocked out everything else. All my confusion about what I was doing here. All my confusion about Kara and Kalle. About my blood.

Instead there was nothing but the note.

When I looked then at the sword with my third eye, the blade called to me, its voice high and fluid like quicksilver, and I held out my hand.

The blade leaped into it.

The song coursed through me and I felt a wild urge to scream out words in languages that rushed through my blood. Finally the song died down for the second time. Nothing more than a strange buzzing sensation remained on my skin. I let the sword fall into the scabbard at my hip.

Everyone was looking at me.

Cullen, Kalle, Kara and Woltan stood apart from the rest.

Everyone was silent. Cullen suddenly smiled and clapped me on the shoulder.

“Well, lad, if ever two people have earned a hearty breakfast, I think that would be us two.”