A Royal Fate

Chapter 3: The Search

The Search

I awoke to the sound of birds singing and a ray of sunlight shining in my eyes. I tried to sit up, but a firm hand pressed me back down. "You need to rest and to heal." William said, "You have a great many pulled muscles and bruised joints." I felt a cold cloth being dabbed on my forehead, "You nearly gave me a heart attack when you hit the wall and didn't get up. I knew you had the Soul Saber, but I was afraid you had died in getting it." I head him chuckle, "To think that you were able to reach the sword. I wasn't even able to crawl, let alone walk. You definitely are a royal, because you have the stubbornness that only comes from being around nobles all the time." He dabbed my head again with the wet cloth, "I know you can pull through this, because if you can pass a test that challenging, this should be child's play." I heard him get up and walk away, most likely to do some other chore around camp.

It took only three days for me to heal enough to walk. I hurt like I had been trampled by a herd of cattle, but I knew we had to get moving as soon as possible. I healed remarkably fast, given the extent of my injuries, but within the end of the week I was stretching and running around camp with reasonable ease, but there was one thing I had still not dared to do.

Lying against one of the trees in our camp was the Soul Saber I had recovered. Somehow it had created a scabbard for itself from the earth itself, William had told me. It had been sitting on the ground when it was as if the ground took on a life of its own. It turned to liquid and wrapped around the sword, changing color and shape until it had formed a leather scabbard with silver metal trim on the end and at the cap ring and a strap that would let it be worn across the back.

I had not touched it since I had retrieved it inside the cave. I was afraid of the powers it possessed, and I knew if I couldn't control it, I could very well kill both myself and William. But, I also knew that if I didn't learn to control it, it would be no help in the battle against my uncle. I walked over to the tree that it was laying against, and picked up the scabbard that held the ancient blade.

It hummed lightly at my touch, and as I drew the blade, the hum grew until William could hear it across camp. I made a few quick strokes with it, and I felt the power of the blade slowly seep into myself with each swing. It was as if by practicing with it, I was absorbing some of the blade's power so that in future use I could control it better. Even as I made more challenging moves, I could see William watching me with wide eyes. He knew I had never so much as touched a sword, let alone used it, and yet I was making backhand sweeps and lightning thrusts as if the blade was part of me. I knew that practicing too much at one time with anything was a bad idea, so I reluctantly sheathed the sword and placed it once again against the tree. I power I had felt flowing into me from the sword not flowed out into the ground, as if returning to the source from whence it came.

We saddled Snowshoe and galloped away from the cave and its sunken entrance. The Soul Saber was strapped across my back, and I knew that we were going to need food and better shelter supplies if we were going to spend most nights in the woods. I checked my map that I had bought at a local market, and saw the nearest town was only a few hours away. We rode for the last part of the evening, and arrived at the town of Newport just as the sun was setting. Newport was a land-locked town, without even a major river nearby, so I had no idea how they had come up with the name, but it would serve our needs of food and tents. Our bedrolls were soft enough, but I never liked being out in the open should a storm pop up and soak us to the bone. William felt much the same, and I had already forbidden him form stealing anything while we were in town. "If you start lifting things without paying for them, than we both might get caught because a store owner reports you. No stealing unless we have to do so in order to escape from somewhere. And that is not just a request as your friend Gwen, that is an order from your Princess."