The Sword Bearer

Chapter 25

When I woke up the Saives were already in their bubbles. They were already in a deep sleep when I went over to look at them. I gazed at them floating over the lake for a while then Daren and Marcus woke up and it was time to go. I sighed. There was hardly a time when we could stay in a place for more than a day. I could only remember staying at Twilya’s house longer than anywhere else but even there we had to leave faster than we wanted to. Hopefully after we found this sword we would be able to stay in one place for months and maybe even years if we got our way. I have had more than enough adventure for a lifetime I thought to myself but I knew I would want more as soon as I settled if I ever did. I grabbed the bags and just realized I had been carrying them the whole way without noticing it was on my back. I almost laughed at that. Daren was sleepy. He kept rubbing his eyes and yawning. Marcus looked tired too but I didn’t feel tired. Maybe the adrenaline of finding the sword was getting to my head. I let Marcus lean on me because I could see that Daren was way too tired to. There was a heavy weight on me now that I knew we had to find the sword but it was we could take as long as we needed. That was my encouragement. No one but us knew the location of the sword and no one else would find out except Marcus because he was going to come with us. The woman was at the back of my mind now. Wherever she was she couldn’t bother us anymore. We knew where the secret was and I was never going to tell her and the stone wouldn’t show its location unless it was Daren’s or my will to show her. I smiled happily nothing was going to get in our way.

That night I fell to sleep peacefully but my vision was far from happy. After many nights without these visions it felt weird to have one now. The woman paced around in the same room that I had seen in an earlier vision. Then a smile crept across her face and she called someone in. “The boy, Marcus, I can feel him. Is he back?” she said with a satisfied smile on her face. The guard that had come in had a confused look on his face, which made the woman falter. “Well…ummm… He hasn’t turned up,” he said scratching the back of his head. Her expression changed to one of anger. “What do you mean he hasn’t turned up? His loyalties lie with me. He has to come back” she fumed at the guard. “He will come around soon I guess” the guard said in a scared voice. I could see that the guard was clearly scared of what she might do if her anger got out of control. He quickly bowed and rushed out of the room. The woman opened her mouth to stop him but then she clamped it shut probably because she had thought better of it. “You will come back Marcus,” she whispered to herself. I could help but wonder why she wanted Marcus so bad. Sure he was a sweet boy but I knew she wouldn’t want him for that reason. He had lost his ability to turn into that creature. Such things happened when someone was transported to Earth and I was sure she knew that. Then why did she want him so badly? I had to ask Marcus myself but as I watched the woman pacing around the room I noticed that there was a tension. “Marcus, come back to me my son” she whispered and I thought I saw a tear prick at her eye but then it was gone as fast it had appeared. I resurfaced from shock. I woke up and looked at Marcus curiously. He was the woman’s son? He couldn’t be. He was way too different from her. He didn’t have that hate in his eyes and I could see nothing evil in him anymore especially since the monster in him was dead. She was making a mistake. Marcus wasn’t her son or at least in his heart he wasn’t and that was good enough to break ties.

The next day while we walked I started asking Marcus questions like where he was from. “Who are your parents?” I asked him in middle of our conversation. He stiffened and stoped walking for a second. “Nobody” he said blankly but I could tell he was lying. Was he lying because it was the woman or did he really not know? From the way he stopped I had a suspicion it was the woman because of the way he was shocked. “Are you sure?” I asked him biting my lip. I wanted him to admit it himself so I wouldn’t have to tell him about my visions. They were amild subject but if he wouldn’t tell me himself I would tell him that I knew. Daren started to stary ahead and I took it to my advantage. I walked closer to Marcus and told him “You can tell me” with a big smile on my face. “Well” he said pondering if he should tell me. Daren started walking slower when he noticed we were falling behind. “I know it’s the woman but we will talk about this later” I whispered in his ear. He looked at me shocked. He was wondering how I knew I thought gingerly. Daren had already stopped and he started urging us to walk faster. With my task done I was more than happy to walk by Daren. I didn’t need any explanation from Marcus but I would let him say whatever he wanted so he would know that I believe he is nothing like the woman. I would just have to wait until Daren was asleep to have over little chat. For some reason I didn’t think it was a good idea to tell Daren about Marcus’ mom. I knew that Daren would be quick to judge Marcus and I didn’t want something to happen that he would regret later. It didn’t mater anyway. What he didn’t know could hurt him right? I knew that the saying wasn’t true but I was just going to have to go with it until such time that I knew Daren would be able to handle the truth. If that meant I would never be able to tell him so be it but I had to protect Marcus for now. I walked beside Daren silently waiting for the night when I would find out more about Marcus than I ever imagined I would.