The Sword Maiden

Our Betrayer

I burst out of the forest and straight into the fighting. All around me swords were crossing. It was desperately chaotic and dis-orienting.

I didn't want to fight, I just wanted to find mother or father. I tried to scan faces but suddenly a Ravager was in front of me. He swung his sword, intending to catch me by surprise. At the last moment my sword came up and blocked his.

I stumbled slightly and backpedaled beneath his repeated blows, unbalanced. He bore down on me, sure that victory would be easy.

I stole a quick glance behind me and realized he was backing me into a tree. I growled. My first fight and already I was in trouble.

That thought made me mad.

I thought of all the things the Ravagers had already done to me. How a night of celebration had turned into fighting. How fear had consumed me as I tried to keep my brother safe. How I nearly failed in that mission. Even how they had prevented me from tasting my first sip of Vinum.

It made me boiling mad and desperately cunning.

The next time I blocked his stroke I looked him in the eye. Deep in the eye. It unsettled him, and he glanced away.

That's when I struck. Fast and hard I rained down blows on him, just as he had done to me. He didn't backpedal but rather stood his ground. But I wasn't retreating anymore.

It was just him and I, dueling back and forth. The world faded away, all that mattered was us. His blows shook my sword, but I was quick.

We both were beginning to tire when I finally saw a chance. This move was one I'd only done a few times, but it just might end this fight. It would have to be at the right moment though.

His strike came, hard and fast. I blocked it and tried to line up against his blade for a head strike. Immediately sensing this he pushed my blade away, to the side. His push against it was strong, accentuated by his anger for not yet having defeated me. Now was the time.

I pushed against his blade, arms straining. Quickly I pulled my blade up along his. Now I was free for a strike.

With a yell I drove it forward. The impact jarred my hands and he dropped, dead. I pulled back the sword, panting, shocked at what I had done.

But I didn't have time to think over the horror of it all.

Because out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a face I knew.

I whirled, ignoring the battle round me. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be, but I knew without a doubt that it was him.

Up till now I'd been too busy running and fighting for my life that I hadn't had time to consider how the Ravagers managed to reach our village. But in the back of my mind I knew. Someone had betrayed us.

He was standing right in front of me, with his back to me. In the midst of the battle he dueled expertly despite his apparent youth. It seemed almost none could withstand him, but the valiant men tried their hardest. There were scratches and cuts on him, minor, but there.

Suddenly he turned, battling another man. The light from burning fires illuminated his face. I gasped.

Corban. It was Corban, with his handsome face and corn cob colored hair, there could be no doubt. Yet, in a way, he was not the Corban I knew. The Corban I knew was laughing, fun, and innocent enough to engage in a corn cob race. This Corban's face was carved from stone, looked like he'd never laughed joyfully in his life. He ran his sword through the man in front without mercy.

Wrath consumed me. It lit me on fire and burned away all reason. I remembered our conversation from before and let out a wild yell.

It caught his attention and he turned to me. I launched out at him with all fury. Something akin to mirth lit in his eyes and he easily fended off my attack.

"How could you! How dare you!" I yelled at him. "You betrayed us!" I was shaking with anger. "Why did you do it?"

He snorted. He snorted. "It's a long story Ravine, but I'm the better for it-"

"Better for it!" I shot back. "How is this better?" I motioned with my sword to the surrounding chaos. "Look what you've done!"

He shook his head. "Listen to me Ravine. It started about a year and a half ago. You remember, my mother died from a Luthar attack."

I didn't want to listen to his story. He'd betrayed us, brought about the destruction of all I'd ever known.I striked out at him with my sword but he easily blocked it, again.

"Tut tut Ravine, you ought to know better to interrupt a conversation like that," he chided. I was boiling mad, twitching with fury, but I knew I was going to hear his story, whether I liked it or not.

"Well, the truth is, is that it looked like a Luthar attack. The Ravagers took my mother, kidnapped her, to be exact," he went on smoothly. I gaped at him, but he didn't seem to notice.

"I was out in the woods one day, hunting, when they grabbed me too. As you can imagine I was rather frightened at the time. They said they wouldn't hurt my mother if I helped them. I didn't have a choice Ravine. If I told anyone, anyone at all, they'd kill her." His voice was still going on rather smoothly, seemingly untroubled.

"So Ravine, I did what they asked. As I did and as I meant with them, I discovered they're not that bad a people you know?"

"Long story short, you turned rotten," I again interrupted him. "Come on Corban. I can see this coming from a mile away. They convinced you, tricked you, lied to you, and now you're theirs."

I spat on the ground. "You're a traitor to Thathia Corban."

He grabbed me. "Am I Ravine? Am I? What if I wasn't even a Thathian at all?"

I stilled and stared at him. "Not... not Thathian?"

"I am Ravager," he said earnestly.

I yanked away. "No. No, you must be at least half blood. Your hair, eyes and skin, they're all the wrong color."

He snorted. "No they're not. You think Ravagers are that way because that's all you people have seen. We've made you think that way on purpose. Only warriors with that swathy skin and certain eye or hair colors were allowed to ravage."

He leaned towards me, his eyes sinister. "Those who didn't have that color of skin or eye or hair color were trained." He leaned back, obviously wanting me to ask the question, "Trained for what?"

I decided I'd take the bait. "Trained for what?"

"As spies. Like me."

I think the womanly instinct grabbed me by the throat and I ended up slapping him across the face.