Flame Forged: First of the Nature's Sword Series

Prologue

A life living on borrowed time is only good for being beaten and ordered around.

That's what I always thought. That's how I grew up. My mother died at child birth, but she was supposed to have been dead long before that. The cause? Me.

I am always told she was very beautiful, even in death. That's how they found me. A baby in a dead woman's arms. We don't look like anyone from near here, and no one ever tried to claim me as family. So the king adopted me, and I became his ward.

His son hated me, because his father doted on me. Doting wasn't really the right word for it though. Grooming, perhaps. To be a weapon. His weapon. No one would suspect a woman, and the king's ward to be the culprit behind a murder.

So I became his diplomat at the age of eight, occasionally killing some duke or lord who dared defy him. I did not mourn when Theomas died. He was no father to me. His son took the crown, always belittling me, constantly asking if I wanted to avenge his father. I remained mute. Alextair hated that.

He hated a lot of things about me.

I wasn't surprised when he tried to have me killed.

He was surprised when I lived.

I respectfully asked him for a grant of leave from the kingdom. I was eleven then. He granted it without thought. I'm told he regrets that now. That he regrets his behaviour towards me. I don't know whether to believe those rumors.

It's be nice if it was true.

I think he just wants the power I bring with merely my name.

My name is Naer Le Sciatháin.

This is my tale.