Dravenswood

Chapter 1

                The young female crouched behind the dense foliage of the forest near the edge of Dravenstown. The forest, which separated Dravenstown and Gilgath, was land that warriors from both towns had shed blood to claim. Simply walking through the woods was no simple task since Lord Draven’s men had triumphed just three years earlier, but Auriel was no ordinary soldier. She was Gilgath’s finest: trained to move from place to place without the slightest sound. Auriel, now hidden behind a mass of trees and bushes, stared out into Dravenswood with her piercing blue-green eyes.  A gentle breeze blew through the forest and caught her dark brown hair sending it flying in wisps. The wind felt good on her face and kept her smell from Draven’s hounds.

                A small stone building was situated just yards from the edge of the forest. Auriel knew that she would never be able to get past this building to her ultimate destination without being spotted. There were over twenty guards standing post inside the building and another five highly armed guards surrounding the building. The gray overcast sky had an ominous feel about it, and each guard took notice. It was as if Beealla, the mighty god of Draven, warned of her presence.

                Auriel inventoried her weapons: two small daggers, one sword, a bow, and twenty arrows. She shut down her other senses and focused on the sounds of the guards. Fifteen paces from one wall to the other…eight feet tapping the pavement in perfect rhythm…what did it all mean? The wheels of her mind began to turn as she whispered, “One guard is stationary, four guards walking from one side of the building to the other, and no chance to drop one of them without another noticing. Draven, your men are well-trained”.

                Not one soldier had seen her. Her duty was done for the moment, and she would travel back through the forest to her depleted village to recruit four more soldiers. That was the only way to possibly take out all five guards at the same time.

                Auriel picked her way stealthily among the foliage, careful that her feet didn’t snap any twigs or crunch upon the few fallen leaves strewn about the wood. This task would have been much harder in the cooler months of Shatter Leaves, as the children of her village were prone to call the time surrounding the autumn harvest. Personally, she thought the leaves to be more shriveled than shattered, but that was an argument best not had with a six-year-old.

                She kept her breathing shallow and even, allowing deep intakes only when the breeze rushed hard enough to sweep her breath inconspicuously with it. A secret smile slipped onto her lips as she crept away from her post as smoothly and easily as she had reached it. Well-trained soldiers, yes. Infallible, no.

Eventually, the high roof of the only temple in Gilgath could be seen above the low-lying trees about her village’s border, and Auriel grew relaxed, uncurling from her half-crouch. She would not be completely safe until within Gilgath’s bounds—though “safe” seemed to always be a loose term for her—but it was a rare thing that soldiers ventured so far unless in pursuit of a quarry.

And she made certain that she was no quarry.

A shadow peeled away from the wall of the nearest building as soon as she entered the village. She had scarcely flitted a glance towards the lean figure before she murmured, “Falcon.”

“Sharpest eyes and ears in all the land, I do declare.” The young mercenary shook his head, tossing about dark curls that made him look rather childlike and innocent. Until one looked him straight in the eye and felt the harsh gaze of a killer; a pair of mischievous gold orbs that had given him his name since he either refused or truly didn’t know his actual one.