A Second Rider? (Eragon X Reader) [Book 1]

Chapter 42

(Y/N) POV

   I flew up from my spot against the wall as I felt something shake my shoulder. I was met with Eragon's brown eyes as my gaze finally focused. He was trying to surpress a smile. "We should go", he said as he stood up from crouching. I stood up and my sight was momentarily covered in darkness before I blinked it away. We jumped up on Saphira after grabbing our swords and then we took off.
   We met up with Orik in one of the four main entrances. We started to question him about Nasuada. "An unusual girl", Orik answered as he looked with dislike towards Zar'roc that was hung on Eragon's hip. "She is dedicated to her father and spends all her time helping him. I think that she does more for Ajihad than he realises. She has a few times put his enemies against each other without ever revealing her part of it." "Who's her mother?" "I do not know anything about that. Ajihad was alone when he came with a new born Nasuada to Farthen Dûr. He has never told anyone where he and Nasuada came from." Eragon shook his head. "I'm restless. It will be nice to move around. Where will I go for this "test" that Ajihad wants me to do?"
'Be careful not to reveal anything to the people in Farthen Dûr, especially the Twins. Their behaviour is not normal. Snakes.'

'I know. Will we leave if they would find out or stay and fight?'

'If the whole of Varden knew then there wouldn't be very long until the Empire knew as well, so what point would there be in hiding?'

'I think so but-' I got startled by the sound of metal against metal and saw that we had arrived at the training field.
'We'll continue this conversation later.'

'Alright.'

   "Knurla Orik. You have been gone for too long. There's no one here to train with me anymore." The man in front of us had some armour on and some skin from an ox. He had a sword over his shoulder that was probably as tall as me which was an unpleasant thought. Orik only smiled at him. "Oeí, it's because you give everyone bruises from head to toe with your monster of a sword." "Everyone except you", he said. "That's because I'm faster than a giant like you." The man looked at Eragon. "My name is Frederic. I have orders to find out what you can do. How strong are you?" "Strong enough", Eragon answered. "You have to be to be able to fight with magic." Frederic shoke his head. "Magic has no place here. If you haven't done army service then you've probably not been a part of battles that have lasted for longer than a few minutes. We want to know if you can hold on in  a battle that will last for hours, maybe even weeks if it's a siege. Can you use any other weapons apart from sword and bow?" Eragon thought about it. "Just my fists." "Good answer!" Frederic said while laughing. "Well, we'll start with the bow and see how good you are. Then, when we've cleaned up on the field, we'll try-" He stopped and looked past Eragon with a face of disliking. We turned around to see what he was looking at. Walking towards us, were the Twins. Orik muttered something in dwarvish and took his axe from his belt. "Didn't I tell you to stay away from the training area?", Frederic said while taking a few threatening steps forward. The Twins only looked at him. "We have orders from Ajihad to test Eragon's abilities in magic - before you tear him apart while smashing a few pieces of metal against one another." Frederic glared at them. "Why can no one else test him?" "There's no one else strong enough", the Twins complained. Saphira let out a muffled growl and looked at them. They didn't even look her way as a plume of smoke came out of her nostrils. "Come with us", they said as they walked towards an empty corner of the field. Eragon shrugged his shoulders and started to walk along with Saphira. As the rest of us stood there Frederic started to talk to Orik. "We have to stop them from going too far." "I know", Orik mumbled, "but I can't interfere again. Hrothgar made it clear that he can't protect me the next time it happens." I had already caught up to Eragon when they finished talking.

Eragon (POV)

   I tried not to worry too much. The Twins probably had more technique and knew more words than I did... I still remember what Brom said to me: a Rider has greater magic powers than normal humans. But would that be enough to stand against the united force of the Twins?
'Don't worry too much: I will help you', Saphira said. 'We are two as well.' I put my hand on her leg and felt a smile taking its shape. The Twins looked at me and said: "And what is your answer to us, Eragon?" I didn't care about the surprise on everyone's faces, but just said: "No." The Twins frowned. The moved so they were obliquely from me, bent down and drew a big pentagram on the ground. They stepped into the middle of it and said: "Let's begin. You will do the tasks that we assign you... that's all." One of the Twins reached inside their cloak and took out a polished fist-sized rock and put it on the ground. "Lift it to eye height."
'That's not hard', I said to Saphira. "Stenr reisa!" The rock swayed and then steadily rose from the ground. When it had barely lifted to my knees, it met some resistance and stopped there. A smile was quickly on the Twins faces. I stared at them in rage - they're trying to make me fail! If I run out of power now it will be impossible to finish the more difficult tasks. They were obviously convinced that their united forces can tire me without problems. But I'm not alone either, I growled at myself.
'Now, Saphira!' Our minds melted into one and the rock jerked upwards until it stopped at eye-level. The Twins' eyes narrowed and they got a mean look in their eyes. "Very... good",  they hissed. Frederic seemed to become nervous by the magic. "Now move the rock in a circle." I once again had to fight against their tries of stopping me, and succeeding again to their visible disliking. The tasks quickly gained difficulty and became more complicated, to the point where I carefully had to think about what I said. And every time I had to do it with the Twins trying to stop me. I could only hold my ground thanks to Saphira. In a pause between to tasks I asked Saphira:
'Why are they continuing with the test? It was clear what we are capable of when they searched through my mind.' She bowed her head as she thought.
'You know what?', I said annoyed as I realised what was going on.
'They're taking the opportunity of finding out which ancient words I know, and maybe to learn a few new ones themselves.'