Emily's House: Book 1 of the Akasha Chronicles

Chapter 33: The Sword of the Order

Chapter 33: The Sword of the Order

 When I woke I was in Madame Wong’s cottage, resting on the bed. My arm had been dressed in a white linen dressing, wound tightly. I saw no blood on the bandage so I decided to unwrap it even though I was scared of what I’d see.

I slowly unwrapped the cloth. As the linen slipped off my arm, I saw no blood, no puss, and no oozing sore. There was only the faintest of scars where a three-inch gash had been.

“Miss Emily come, take tea and stew,” Madame Wong croaked.

I sat at her small table and drank the cup of warm tea in one swallow. I devoured the bowl of stew like I was starving. She said not a word as she refilled my tea and scooped more stew into my bowl.

“Madame Wong, I don’t understand. How can I heal so quickly and completely here?”

“It is a world of no time and pure intention. We can have things exactly as we want them.”

“Then why did you bandage me?”

“Because your mind expects a bandage. You feel you must do something to heal rather than think something to heal. I gave you what you expected.”

I let her words sink in as I devoured the rest of my stew and tea. Every time she gave me an ‘answer,’ more questions rose from it.

“Look, I see how that may work here, in a place of no time.”

“And a place of no place.”

“Yeah, whatever. But when I go back to my world – the world where I have to defeat Dughall – well it most certainly is a place and has time. So none of what I’m learning here will apply there, will it?”

“If it didn’t why would I teach it to you?”

“Well that’s what I’m saying. It’s like I’m wasting my time here.”

“No time so no waste. Besides, all Madame Wong teaches works in human world.”

“So I can defy gravity and fly through the air and have whatever I want? I don’t believe that.”

“Then you’re not ready to return. Miss Emily, laws of universe same everywhere. Big or small. Here or there. No matter. Only thing that matters – your intention.”

“Then why can’t humans fly or just think of something they want and poof, it’s there?”

“Because humans do not believe they can do those things. Because your world is a place of time. Because of time, your creations do not happen instantly. And that causes you not to believe, bringing you back always to the first thing.”

“So when I go back there, I can do all the things you’re teaching me here if ... ”

“If you have belief and patience.”

I wasn’t there. I couldn’t believe I could sail through the air just by thinking it. Not in my own world. I didn’t believe I could conjure up a chair or any other object just because I wanted it. I wasn’t sure that I would ever believe those things were possible in my world, even if I stayed with Madame Wong a thousand years.

“You not believe. You not ready to go. But you are ready to fight, no?”

I simply sighed and instantly we were back in Madame Wong’s training room.

“Madame Wong teach about weapons. Miss Emily chose broadsword because it was shiny and pretty.”

“That’s not why.”

“Yes it is, and Miss Emily knows it. Not good reason. Warrior must play to her strength. Broadsword is weapon for a brute man, not a medium-sized girl.

“You need a weapon for finesse, cunning. Come.” She walked to the weapons rack. “Pick them up, swing them, listen to them. Choose the one that sings to you.”

Singing swords? I glared at her hard but didn’t argue as I picked up swords and lances and daggers and other objects of aggression. Most of them were too heavy for me or felt awkward to hold. Toward the end of the line, I saw a sword with a wood handle and a thin blade, much like Madame Wong’s. The handle looked well worn, its wood polished to a sheen by the sweat of the hands that had held it before me. The blade was only about an inch wide and could be no more than an eighth of an inch thick. The handle was about a foot long, maybe eighteen inches and the blade about two feet. The blade was not corroded but not shiny either and covered in what looked like Celtic knots.

When I picked it up, I felt a tingly feeling run up my hand and into my arm. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end like it had when I entered the Sacred Grove. I swung the sword wide, and I swear I heard a single musical note hang in the air. The handle felt like it had always been in my hand. It felt effortless to swing it in a wide arc.

“That blade sing to you Miss Emily?”

“Yes,” I answered in a whispered voice. “Madame Wong, this sword. Who owned it?”

“That sword have no owner but was used by last High Priestess of the Order of Brighid.”

“Saorla.”

“Yes, and many priestesses before her. Like the torc on your arm, it was crafted by the Fair Sidhe for the Order of Brighid.”

I practiced swinging, thrusting and flying with the beautiful sword in my hand. It felt like an extension of my arm, like it was a part of me.

“Miss Emily ready for next combat lesson?”

“Yes.” I continued to practice my moves.

“For a true warrior, life is sacred. A warrior with honor never kills unless she must. But when she must kill, a warrior is prepared to take the life of another – or to die – if honor requires it. Are you prepared to take the life of another? Could you kill Dughall if necessary?”

I hadn’t thought of that. Up to that point my mission had been a bit abstract. Kill someone? The thought hadn’t crossed my mind.

It’s not like I’m against a person killing another to save their own life or the life of someone they love, but I never thought I’d be the one doing the killing. Doubt crept through my blood like a cold, dark shadow.

“I don’t know Madame Wong. Honestly, I’m not sure I can kill someone, even someone as bad as Dughall.”

“Even if it were necessary to save the ones you love?”

A scream pierced the air, breaking the icy silence that defined the Netherworld. A high-pitched scream that was familiar but also seemed like it was from a long-forgotten dream.

Fanny.