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Chapter I
You swing a staff until you’re ready to swing a sword. Then you go on all kinds of adventures — fighting monsters, casting spells and saving damsels in distress. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work, but I didn’t believe a word of it.
Maybe it really was like that a long time ago. But I didn’t remember my father ever saving a damsel, fighting a monster, or even swinging a sword. He didn’t even carry a sword, although he did help me swing a cane when I was younger.
So I swung my staff because I was supposed to, though I knew one day I’d become a diplomat like my father — using my voice and my mind instead of my muscles and my magic.
But I swung the staff for other reasons too. It helped me forget how people looked at me funny in the corridors of the castle, forget how lonely I was sometimes locked up in the study. It gave me a reason to wake up early every morning, even when I had nothing else to look forward to.
Today was different, though.
Today Giancarlo was going to let me swing a sword, even if it was only a wooden blade.
Maybe it was because I was finally sixteen. Maybe he thought I was ready to fight some of those monsters that I’d never seen and didn’t even believe in. I never got a chance to ask him.
Giancarlo helped me put on the hardened leather breastplate, codpiece and leggings. It is a little embarrassing to have someone help you dress. But if everything isn’t properly adjusted, you risk getting pinched somewhere tender when you’re swinging a staff. I’d learned that the hard way.
“Follow me, Anders,” Giancarlo said, finally satisfied. “We’ll spar down by the river, on the practice field.”
Giancarlo sped along, and I hurried after him. If it weren’t for the bobbing light of the lantern, I would have lost him several times. The armor slowed me a little. But that wasn’t the only reason. There were other problems with my body besides pimples and out of control black curly hair. Even though I had strong arms from morning practice, I was still out of shape. I had been thin and fast once, when I was younger. But that was before the magic, before I was cooped up in the castle.
So I jogged awkwardly, short of breath, feeling the armor pinch me a little, for all of Giancarlo’s fussing.
You could hear my sigh of relief as we arrived. I couldn’t help being jealous of Giancarlo. He was fast and thin, and seemed to glide effortlessly across the grass.
There were torches lit around the practice field. Seven torches, in a circle. The sky was still dark, although dawn was rapidly approaching.
I tried to catch my breath.
The river flowed by quietly. Insects were singing.
Everything else was asleep, or maybe just scared off by my noisy breathing.
Giancarlo put down his torch, and a long bag that hung from his shoulder. He opened the bag and pulled out five blades of different lengths and design.
“Pick them all up and see which one feels right,” he said. “You’ll need to learn to fight with whatever is handy. But it’s better to be armed with something that fits you. Look at them first, maybe, and see if one speaks to you. They don’t talk to me, mind you, but I’m no sorcerer.”
I looked at the swords, lying there in the dirt. On the dark packed earth their wooden fire hardened blades were barely visible. I couldn’t see anything special, but I was excited to swing something besides a quarterstaff or a cane.
I squinted at them, wanting to see something, or hear something, anything at all. One of the blades in the center seemed to glint a little, a sparkle of green around its silver pommel and wooden blade.
I bent over and grabbed the pommel.
Just like that, I heard this sweet girl’s voice in my head: gruss dich.
Whoa. Was this some kind of greeting?
I squeezed the pommel in return. This weird buzzing sensation ran up through the grip to my arm, shoulder, chest and then all through my body.
This was definitely a change. Things were looking up. I think maybe I even smiled a little.
The blade felt like a real sword in my hands. I swung it around some, feeling the balance. Could it really be just wood? The silver pommel tingled in my fingers. The wood was hard and dark.
I ran my finger along the edge, stopped suddenly. Ouch.
I sucked the finger, tasted blood. “Is there magic in this wood?”
Giancarlo shrugged. “Magic interests me little and I know less of it. There may be a bit of magic in these blades; they were made for sorcerers, and they almost never break. And they’re sharp, as you seem to have noticed.”
The silver pommel warmed in my hand, and I felt a throbbing pulse.
“This pommel, though,” I said. “There’s magic, here.”
Giancarlo cleared his throat. “That was your father’s. He refused to carry it, and your uncle wanted it; but now, it’s yours.”
My uncle was a taboo subject in my family. No one talked about him. It was like he had just disappeared from everyone’s memory back when I was little, just before we moved to Tuscany.
“What do you mean, my uncle wanted it? Did you know my uncle?”
“I thought I knew him,” Giancarlo said, frowning. “But I was mistaken. I trained him a little, when he was young, but I don’t think I ever knew who he really was.” Giancarlo shook his head. “Before you, it was your grandfather’s, and your great-grandfather’s pommel, that you have in your hand.”
Later I would wish I’d asked him more questions about my uncle. But Giancarlo didn’t seem to want to talk about him, and I never liked to upset my blademaster. He could get really moody.
“This same pommel?” I asked instead. “But didn’t they have a real sword?”
