The Swords

Chapter 1, The Liar

Ashleigh Nix never lied. It wasn't that she couldn't, she knew for a fact that she could lie better than anyone in the kingdom. When she was young she could talk her way out of anything. She would race around the castle making trouble with a kitchen boy named Puer. Stealing treats from the cooks, and playing pranks on the cranky old court men.

No one was ever the wiser. But when Ashleigh turned fourteen, her older sister, Naava had taught her to see through people's lies, and soon she became disgusted by them. The lies the wealthy aristocracy told, the secrets they kept. They were filthy tricks that made her sick. So Ashleigh vowed to never tell lies.

ASHLEIGH

The snow fell like petals from a flower, landing palace grounds in sheets of cotton. The cold was harsh, and biting, nipping at Ashleigh's ears, and nose. Her steps left footprints in the deep snow, as she stomped along towards the castles gate. Her brain hurt with cold, her breath frosty in the air.

"Wait up!" Ash finally looked behind her, Puer trailed aimlessly after her "This is crazy," Puer whined, as he tried to to catch up to her. "I'm going to freeze to death out here." Ash rolled her eyes, can't he ever just shut up?

They had been traveling the barren wilderness for four days now, with nothing but snow and ice for miles. Cold ate away at their endurance, and the food was hard, and stale. It was miserable, but it had been a necessary journey. At first, things hadn't seemed so bleak, the hovercrafts had still been functioning, and there had been several guard that had been traveling with Puer and Ashleigh. Now there was one, Gizmo, who had been leading the way silently for over 13 hours. 

"You took that risk yourself," Ash's shivered, her lips blue, "I didn't ask you to follow me, in fact wish you didn't."

"Don't be so rude," Puer said, finally catching up with Ash. "You wanted me to come."

"If I did I would have asked you," Ash sighed, sometimes Puer could be difficult. But whenever she and Puer got in a big fight, she simply thought of all the other people she could be friends with. The spoiled aristocrat kids, the stuck up Lords and Ladies, and their awful children, they all seemed terrible compared to Puer, even if he was a kitchen boy.

So Ash had run off with the servants kids, Puer always being her best friend. Her fathers didn't approve, but they didn't stop her. Aidan, her older father, had simply ignored that fact that Ash would come home dripping in melted snow, her hair a mess, her dress ruined. Her other father, Sylvan, would fixed her up, telling her that, "Everyone has their eyes on you Ash, you can't mess up, or we'll all be blamed."

So of course, Ash adapted, using the logical way out. She would change before seeing her father's, she would watch out for her clothes, she was careful, but of course she still never lied. Keeping a secret was different from lying, she knew that. At the moment however, as she trudged through the snow, she didn't worry about about her dress, or her shoes, or her hair.

"How much longer until we reach the dome?" Puer asked, falling behind again, "I can't stand this cold."

"Complaining won't help." Ash snapped, "so please just be quiet."

Puer mocked Ash under his breath, groaning, "Fine."

Good, thought Ash, but after a short pause she added, "it's not far I promise." It was under a mile to the entrance of the Swords Palace, and after what they had trekked, it seemed like nothing. So Ash picked up the pace, much to Puer's dislike.

They snow, the white, the cold, the numbing feelings that swam through Ash's mind as she walked. Just another mile, but the mile seemed to stretch out like the southern sea. And soon the sky darkened, not in a sky of peaceful sleep, but rather, a storm. The grey clouds swam overhead, threatening to erupt.