Son of Soron (2 page)

Ignoring the warrior’s attempt at conversation, Soron simply prepared himself. He lowered his body slightly, putting the weight of his large lithe body on the balls of his feet, relaxing his hands while keeping his eyes focused on the warrior.

The warrior smiled, this northern prince was no fool. He pulled out his ornate silver handled scimitar. Stepping sideways almost like a dancer, he moved rhythmically from side to side as he worked his way towards Soron. In an explosion of cat-like speed, the tribal warrior lunged at Soron, his blade slicing through the air. Soron’s sword adeptly blocked the attack, while the threat of Soron’s dagger kept the warrior from moving any closer. The men stood there trading parries, a flurry of attacks and counter-attacks that displayed the deadly skills of both men.

The tattooed warrior drew first blood, catching Soron with a quick strike that sliced a shallow but long cut across his thigh. Neither man slowed at this successful blow. The tribal assassin continued to press the attack, his scimitar sliced through the air only to find the cold steel of Soron’s blades blocking each attack. The warrior, thinking his opponent should be slowing soon, spun around in a pirouette. The risky maneuver brought him alongside the northern prince and should have ended with his scimitar in the large man’s back. Instead, the dancing blade found nothing but air. Soron had countered his maneuver with a spin of his own. His dagger found a home between the warrior’s shoulder blades.

As the assassin dropped to the stable floor, Soron slumped against the stable wall. His wounds were superficial, but the loss of blood and physical excursion of battle had exhausted him.

Velaina opened the door to the stall and reached out for her husband. Ignoring the bodies on the floor, she grabbed the assassin’s cloak off the ground. Taking Soron’s dagger from him, she cut the fabric into long narrow strips to secure his wounds. Silently she worked while her husband regained his breathe. With the bleeding stopped, they cautiously headed home, keeping a wary eye on the shadows for further danger.

Back in their cottage, Velaina cleaned Soron’s wounded shoulder and thigh, and then applied a salve. As she carefully worked on the small wounds, they discussed the attack. Velaina had sensed the men’s intentions during the walk. All five attackers had the same goal: death of her, her husband and their unborn child. She shared this insight with Soron. “Those men were hired to kill the three of us, I could read their emotions. My death was more important to them than yours Soron. They want to prevent the birth of our child.  Two attempts on our lives in two days. Someone wants us dead very badly.”

Soron sighed, he had feared as much. Someone had gone to a lot of effort; poison, then a group of four assassins with a fifth warrior as a backup in case they failed. Whoever wanted them dead was a dangerous enemy, and since they wanted Velaina dead to prevent the birth of their child, it seemed likely that the root of the attack had to do with the forbidden crossing of bloodlines. The question was whose. His father was a northern king, with many enemies. Her father was a Baltan king, in a land where magic and intrigue were commonplace. The threat could have come from either family. They had hoped living here in Venecia would keep them arm’s length away from the politics and superstitions of their families. That hope died with the attack. “We shall leave in the morning.”

“Where shall we go?” asked Velaina.

Soron looked at his royal wife with a sorrow filled gaze, saddened by the turn of events forcing them from their home. “East, we will go to the one of the small villages south of the Applomean Mountains. Those villages don’t belong to any kingdom. We shall go and live as commoners for the safety of our child.”

Velaina embraced her husband. To the east they would go. She placed a protective hand across her baby bump.

Chapter one

LYING ON THE COOL mossy forest floor, Nathan wondered what the heck just happened. One minute he had been running through the forest chasing his friend Ava, the next minute he was looking up through the trees into the blue sky above. While he sat there trying to regain his senses, he noticed how interesting the sky looked from this angle, sprawled out flat on his backside. The delicate white clouds deviously danced through the treetops while the sun wrestled with them, fingers of sunlight trying to push their way into the trees. Nathan would have stayed there a while enjoying the artistic display had not giggles and the shadow of the girl standing above him brought him back to reality.

“You okay?” Ava asked demurely, as she tried not to giggle. Her concern for his well-being was suspect. He detected a distinct lack of sincerity in her query.

”Ugh, my head hurts. What the heck happened?” Nathan had a sneaking suspicion that he knew what happened but waited for a reply anyway.

“You were running past that big cedar when you tripped over a stick,” said Ava.

Ava was not smiling but Nathan saw a look of mischief written all over her freckled face. The dimples were a dead giveaway despite her best attempts to look contrite.

Nathan, still lying on the ground, tilted his head back and looked behind him to the big cedar in question. Sure enough, a long stick sat at the base of the tree. He was sure the stick had not been there a few moments ago. “Where did that come from? I totally didn’t see that there at all.”

Ava broke into laughter, no longer able to hold a straight face.  “Well it may not have been there the whole time. I might have been holding it and accidentally lifted it when you came around the tree.”

Nathan groaned. Her lifting the stick just as he was running by certainly did not sound like an accident. “That is not playing fair, tripping and trying to kill me is not part of the game.”

Ava smiled to herself, getting away from Nathan was getting harder all the time; he was getting bigger and faster. Luckily, she could still outsmart him and was willing to play dirty to win. “Well you always catch me if I don’t cheat. Besides, you are barely bleeding. You are certainly not dying… I swear sometimes you are the biggest wimp ever.” Ava reached down and wiped a small bit of blood off his cut lip. “All better. Now let’s go, we are almost there and I want to pick flowers.” The ‘there’ Ava mentioned was a small meadow hidden within a fortress of thick pines. A gentle flowing creek sliced through the meadow and, at the bottom end of the meadow, ran into a small dark pond that was great for swimming and fishing. It was their special place.

“Since when do you pick flowers?” asked Nathan. He tried to picture Ava as a demure lady, dressing fancy and picking flowers, but the image didn’t fit at all. Ava was anything but ladylike.

“Oh shut up, I promised Rose I would bring her some flowers. It was the only way to keep her from tagging along,” said Ava. She didn’t mind bringing her little sister once in a while but sometimes it was nice when it was just the two of them.

Ava grabbed Nathan’s arm and yanked him to his feet. Side by side, they walked through the forest to the waiting meadow. It was a gorgeous sunny day and despite Ava’s commands to get moving, they were in no hurry.

While Ava picked through the assortment of wild flowers growing throughout the meadow Nathan carefully tiptoed his way across the top of a mossy log, which had fallen across the creek. Keeping his arms out wide for balance, he carefully walked one foot directly in front of the other over the slippery moss covered surface.

“If you fall in I will laugh so hard.” Ava said while she sat down beside the pond, placing the flowers at the water’s edge so the stems stayed wet. She gave Nathan a dirty look that warned him not to make any more comments about the wildflowers.  “Hurry up and get to your side of the pond. I am going to kick your butt.”  There really was no winner to this game but her competitive nature made everything a contest.

Nathan laughed to himself at Ava’s bold exclamation.
As if
, he thought to himself as he claimed his usual spot, parking himself beside his left over cache of pebbles. They were sitting on opposite ends of the pond playing their customary game of splash, a simple game of throwing rocks at each other’s feet attempting to get the other player wet without the rock hitting the shore, when mid throw Ava froze. Not wanting to make a sudden move, she slowly lowered her hand and spoke to Nathan in a soft deliberate voice. “Nathan turn around. There’s a wolf behind you.”

Nathan read the expression on Ava’s now pale face. This was not one of her normal jokes, which she often tried to play on him; there was a touch of fear in her voice. Slowly he turned and scanned the edge of the forest. Ava was not lying; a big grey wolf was sitting there looking right at him.

Nathan, surprisingly calm, looked back at the large predator. The wolf stopped its advance.  For what seemed like forever, the wolf and Nathan just sat there staring at each other. After several minutes, the wolf walked towards Nathan.

Now nervous and starting to get scared, Ava spoke, “Nathan-”

Nathan cut her off mid-sentence before she could suggest some plan involving him jumping into the pond and her throwing rocks at the large and potentially dangerous beast. “Shhh, it is okay Ava. He is not going to hurt me.”

Nathan did not know how he sensed it, but he was certain that the wolf posed no threat. Even as it continued walking closer and closer, Nathan did not panic. Finally, the beast was right in front of Natthan— so close he could reach out and touch the magnificent beast. The wolf had golden eyes, glossy healthy fur and glorious black and grey markings. The animal was now near enough to Nathan that he could hear its breathing. His heart pounded with excitement. Nathan was fascinated by what was happening. The wolf stopped and sniffed at Nathan then studied Nathan’s face. Nathan could tell the wolf was curious about him. He was not sure why, but it was almost seemed like he could understand the wolf, as if he could read the thoughts of the creature. Seconds passed before the wolf turned and walked back into the forest, looking back only once, as if it too was unsure of what to make of this meeting.

Once the wolf disappeared back into the forest, Nathan turned and looked at Ava. Some of the color had returned to her face. He gave her a confident grin. “See I told you it was going to be okay.”

Ava could not believe what had just occurred. Nathan was not normally that brave. He had just sat there while the wolf came right up to him. “I can’t believe that just happened! Weren’t you even a little scared?” asked Ava.

“No,” Nathan said before pausing for a moment. That wasn’t totally true, he thought to himself. “Well, I was scared when you said there was a wolf behind me and your face turned white, but when I looked at the wolf the fear went away… I just knew it was going to be okay.” Nathan’s face showed he was just as bewildered by this as she was.

Nathan and Ava walked back to the village discussing the strange event that had just taken place. “It was so weird Nathan. Like the two of you were talking to each other. I’ve never heard of a wolf walking up to a man like that before.” 

Nathan agreed that he had never heard of such a thing either. And to himself he admitted that yes, it had kind of felt like the wolf had been talking to him. But that wasn’t right either; it wasn’t talking to him as much as connecting to him. Strange… strange indeed.

Chapter two

SORON SWUNG HIS hammer, striking the hot metal sitting on the anvil. He enjoyed the work. The methodical pounding of the iron was soothing to him. Soron took pleasure from turning iron into useful tools, or when the opportunity presented itself, into artistic creations. Elderwood was a small village. If not for the traders passing through, he would not have enough business. Luckily, the traders who frequented these roads sought out his talents. He had a reputation as a creator of fine jewelry and tools.

Soron created items favored by traders for their black color and exceptional quality. Despite his being a foreigner, any question of his origins had long ago been forgotten by the long years he and his family had spent in the village.

Today, Nathan joined his father in the workshop. Nathan at fourteen was just now growing bigger than the other youths in his village, a marker of his northern heritage inherited from Soron. But one look at his blue eyes gave away that, while his father came from the north, his mother came from even farther away. Velaina’s blonde hair and blue eyes stood out as much as her husband’s size. Her beautiful blue eyes hinted at her lineage being from Balta, a kingdom in the continent of Mithbea.

Soron handed the pair of tongs, which held the metal rod, to Nathan.

Nathan eagerly took over. He loved watching his father work, but much preferred it when he got the rare chance to put his lessons into action. He jumped at the opportunity. The biggest challenge with using the forge was the intense heat.  Once the metal turned a dark orange, Nathan knew it was time to take it out of the heat. Next Nathan carefully sprinkled graphite and phosphorus dust over the molten hot iron rod. He then placed the rod on the anvil and hammered the metal.

Soron watched carefully as his son worked on the metal. He frowned for a moment as Nathan let the metal twist. He did not interrupt his son, as he was curious to what his intentions were.

Nathan rarely pushed the limits of his skills as he did today. As the metal continued to twist, a pattern emerged. An intricate pattern of folds appearing to look like braided metal formed. The process was slow and tedious. Sweat poured off his brow as he took a metal chisel and engraved the final touches on his work.

Soron said nothing while Nathan put the bracelet into a bucket of water. The water steamed as the metal cooled into its final shape. Finally, after a few minutes Nathan brought out the bracelet and nervously handed the finished product over to his father.

Stepping outside of his workshop, Soron held the bracelet to the light to examine it closely. The bracelet now looked like woven vines with tiny leaves along the side
. Impressive,
Soron thought as he inspected his sons work. “It is beautiful,” Soron told his boy as he handed back the bracelet.