The Way of the Shadow Blade: Prologue

The Way of the Shadow Blade: Prologue

The Way of the Shadow Blade


Prologue

They had brought Ruhanna to the Keep under the veil of a black night without moon or stars. The father, the famous mage Sherenaan qos Tanar, feared more and more the attempts of his treacherous brother Arenak to steal the girl and bleed her of all independent will--for as powerful as ordinary mages were, Ruhanna was the improbable daughter of both male and female mages, which bestowed upon her a rare potential--the kind Sherenaan's fraternal twin could bend to horrific destruction if he wrested her from his brother's custody.

After months of constant running, Sherenaan and his wife Alixis of Merinsaut reluctantly concluded that for Ruhanna's sake no choice remained but to place the four-year-old girl under the care of the only warriors in the known world capable of standing against a corrupted mage without themselves being mages: the Order of Guardians. A large contingent of the legendary Guardians dwelt within the vast, centuries-old, mage-crafted Erchandemur Keep, their strength and numbers unknown to those residing outside of the Keep itself; it was to them that Sherenaan would present his desperate petition.

The night sentry standing guard at the entrance to the Keep with lance in hand questioned the mages sharply upon their arrival. When Sherenaan explained that it was the Elder Michael whom they had come to visit, the sentry stridently summoned his comrades. They surrounded the family and tied their horses out of reach while the most junior conscript was sent in as a runner to consult the Guardians.

Sherenaan then spread wide his arms, giving the guards a clear view of his empty hands and the single dagger he wore at his side underneath his cloak. "I offer my life as surety for us both," he gravely declared. Although Alixis was sworn just as he was to use her powers to attack only when threatened, in this dangerous era he well knew that the royal guard had every reason to distrust. In times of yore, an Aramansch mage who took the oath of submission received the Mark--a ceremonial piercing to the right nostril that openly affirmed one's identity and principles. This decorative sign had once been bestowed with celebration, but as the dishonorable sort of mage had gained superiority in numbers, they began to slaughter those who bore the Mark as they slept. By the generation of Ruhanna's grandparents, it was a rare white-mage who underwent the piercing ceremony and now nothing outward remained to distinguish the righteous mage from his fellows.

The ranking sentry slowly approached Sherenaan, his comrades' attention fast upon the mage's hands, ears peeled for any whispered incantation. Once just within arm's length of Sherenaan, the sentry grasped the exposed dagger and slid it out of a leather scabbard adorned by a crimson-beaded cross. After the guard took a few steps back, Sherenaan plaintively whispered, "Please, at least do this out of the child's view."

"As he says," the sentry curtly commanded. Two of the soldiers closed ranks behind Sherenaan, obscuring Ruhanna's line of sight. Alixis fought to distract her daughter's attention from the sight...but the girl's silence gave Alixis little clue if she had succeeded.

Now disarmed, Sherenaan carefully sat upon the ground, cross-legged, mourning that it had come to this with his father's generation. Without the Mark's assurance of virtue, even a mage who chose honorably and declared himself for what he was could expect such treatment if he arrived unannounced--all the more so in the depths of the night.

The sentry took Sherenaan's dagger and placed its sharp edge against the mage's throat. He needed speak no words--Sherenaan understood immediately what this was: if either he or Alixis made use of their magic, Sherenaan's life was forfeit. In this pose they remained fixed for what Sherenaan judged to be twenty minutes, even though it felt as if years elapsed between each beat of his racing heart.

Word finally arrived that the Elder Guardian wished to receive Sherenaan and Alixis. The royal guards muttered their apologies; they well knew it would have been an act of lunacy for mages to enter such a large enclave of Guardians against their wishes, but when it came to the mages, they had their orders.

Sherenaan and Alixis, too, had a protocol from which they dared risk no deviation. With a resigned shudder, the senior guardsman steeled himself and his subordinates for the incantation and touch he understood they must receive--the touch that lulled them into a listless half-sleep as Alixis instructed their minds that the mages' arrival and impending departure were insignificant, unworthy of inscription in memory's official record.

All Ruhanna understood was that she was in great danger--and worse, her parents were preparing to leave her. The only sound that alerted her to the approach of the Guardians from inside the great fortress was the light swish of bare feet upon stone. Then in the dim glow of the hallway torches she beheld three blindfolded men in white robes trimmed in the deep blue of twilight, approaching with sure, steady steps, their swords drawn. She did not cry out lest she attract their notice, for she had seen strange things in her parents' work...but this simply made no sense.

"Elder," said her father in a deep, steady tone, "I've come to make a grave request of you...do forgive me this. I would never ask but that the situation grows dire."

The lead Guardian reached out and unerringly clasped her father's shoulder. "With your permission, Sherenaan..."

"Very well."

The white-haired Guardian touched the tips of his fingers to the side of Sherenaan's neck, the movement purposeful but seeming to lack the barely-restrained lethality of the sentry. After barely a second, his wary demeanor shifted completely. "My dear Sherenaan--it is you!" he cried out with undisguised joy as he wrapped his arms around the man he could not see. "We highly doubt he could deceive us, but it was necessary to check for your scar." While Sherenaan and Arenak would never have been mistaken on sight for identical twins, let alone thought to be of the same nationality by some, the brothers had been said in the days of their youth to speak with nearly the same voice. Thus even in Alixis' presence the Elder dared not omit the tactile confirmation. "You have to understand," he warned as he released Sherenaan, "we've heard rumors about your twin's pursuit; you'll need to make best speed on your way out lest he realize you've deviated so far from your established course. And I'm sorry if we've upset the little one," he remarked as he sheathed his sword, the other two following suit as soon as they heard the sound of the first blade slipping into its scabbard.

Ruhanna's breath caught. How could they have known? Against all her reason, the blindfolded Elder Guardian approached as if he could see her perfectly. Suddenly he knelt down, pushing back the tip of his scabbard as he went to his knees. "You've nothing to fear," he said with a smile. "Come put your hand in mine. I won't do anything, I promise..."

The Elder Guardian's soft, kindly voice stirred the memories of her sainted maternal grandfather: 'a mage and a man of honor,' her mother had said. She cautiously drew closer--but well beyond arm's length. "Go on, Ruhanna," whispered her father, his voice choking with tears. "I trust Michael with my life...and..." The great mage could not finish his sentence.

He stepped to the side to speak furtively with the two middle-aged Guardians as Ruhanna watched out of the corner of her eye. One of them took from Sherenaan a satchel containing her few belongings from these desperate months on the run.

"My apologies about the swords, Ruhanna," said the Elder Guardian. "There are some bad people after your family, and I had to be sure who I was talking to." Finally she was close enough to take stock of the older man knelt before her. In spite of the white cloth hiding his eyes from view, his scrutiny was readily apparent. Though that was disconcerting, his visible features were really quite gentle. There was a striking, childlike honesty about his unguarded expression that coupled with the evident wisdom in his voice inspired an immediate confidence Ruhanna could never have defined. Rue reached out and gingerly placed her hand in his. "There you are, dear!" he grinned, delicately shaking the proffered hand as though receiving a royal dignitary. "You can call me Grandfather Michael, or just Grandfather if you like. So...how old are you, Ruhanna?"

"I'm five," she replied softly, inflating her age in the heat of the moment.

"...wants her too badly; we just can't keep her safe anymore. God, I hate to do this to you, Thorn...it breaks my heart," mumbled Sherenaan. Ruhanna glanced back and saw her mother weeping. She burst into tears herself; the Elder Guardian pulled the girl close, knowing exactly what she had heard.

Gently stroking her hair as she buried her face in his soft robe, he said, "I'm so, so sorry this had to happen, Ruhanna...don't you ever forget, your parents love you very much, and they want you to grow up somewhere safe. I have been a friend of his for many years, and believe me, I know how much he cares..." She sobbed uncontrollably and he began humming a sweet, soft, wordless tune. For a moment, she very nearly forgot that this was not her mother's father, but the Elder Guardian...Grandfather Michael?

"...it's done, then." Sherenaan's words dropped like a sword blade and even Ruhanna knew the ring of inevitability. Grandfather Michael expertly scooped up his new charge, cradling her in his arms as he strode over towards her parents. "Ruhanna...Rue, I'm so sorry, Mama and I are both so sorry...but this is the only way to keep Arenak away from you. Michael is a very, very good man, and he'll do so much for you..."

"Daddy?" Ruhanna gasped through tears. "Will you come back?"

"Oh, God...I hope so, Rue. Mama and I have something we have to do before it's safe, and I don't know how long that will take--but we'll do our best. I promise with all my heart. Until then...will you be good for Grandfather Michael?"

Ruhanna nodded.

"Could you tell him that?" Sherenaan prompted. Rue suddenly remembered his blindness as she whispered to him that she would.

Daughter and parents exchanged their mournful goodbyes. Grandfather Michael lingered in the passageway until Sherenaan and Alixis were out of sight--and a moment longer until even the sound of their retreating footsteps had receded. Then, with Ruhanna securely tucked in his arms, Grandfather Michael turned towards the deeper passageways within the Keep. The other two Guardians--Thorn and Erik, as she would learn the next day--immediately followed suit and kept pace just slightly behind and to the sides of the Elder.

"Let's find you somewhere to sleep," he whispered softly to the still-weeping child in his arms. Michael contemplated giving Ruhanna over to Erik and his wife, Leah. Perhaps it's best that she have a 'mother' and a 'father' if this is to be a long-term arrangement, he thought. Then Rue shifted and he instinctively rearranged her weight to allow him to pat the small of her back with one hand. Something ached longingly within him then at the thought of relinquishing Rue's care to another, and it echoed across his face with a furrow of the brow. "This has been a long night."



"What are we going to do with her?" Thorn pressed the Elder Guardian after Ruhanna had been put to bed in the quarters of Erik and his wife for that first night. There the girl had immediately drifted off from exhaustion and heartbreak.

"Her parents might come back soon," Erik offered hopefully. Erik had one of those deep voices that often rumbled with effervescent laughter--but right now his tone was grave. "With luck, being freed from the burden of a child will let Sherenaan and Alixis turn and take Arenak."

"I wouldn't count on that," retorted Thorn. Tall, powerfully but lithely built, and with a loud, sharp tenor, Thorn was among the most imposing of the Guardians and one of their most talented strategists, perhaps in that regard even exceeding the eminent Elder Michael. "Arenak is powerful indeed. If anything, Sherenaan's remaining attachments to his twin will make him vulnerable. I'm not sure the two of them can defeat him."

"If they fall, the last two mages on our side will be dead," Erik realized.

"And we truly will be the last line of defense, just as it was foretold," Michael said. "We can only pray that this is not the time. But for now, Ruhanna's care is entrusted to me. And here is my suggestion: we begin her in the early instruction. She is the daughter of mages, and she needs a direction for her inborn power, especially at a time like this." Indeed, mage-children, even those never trained to release their powers, tended towards exceptional prowess in one way or another--such aptitudes could be physical, intellectual, artistic, or any combination of the three. Without magic as a release, dangerous restlessness, depression, or even delusion set in depending on the child's temperament, if he or she was not vigorously challenged in other ways.

Thorn made a low noise of disapproval. "I appreciate that, Elder, but you know very well what it could mean if she reaches the age of initiation with us. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"There is no easy solution to this," Michael acknowledged, "though as always, your candor honors us."

"I suggest we offer her a second route," Erik interjected. "Perhaps Zarine could teach her the healing arts. But with luck, she'll never need to choose."

"But if she does, then there is something for her to do if the Spirit leads her away from the path of initiation. That's the least we can do. Thank you, Erik...I'll speak to Zarine tomorrow and see what I can arrange." Michael paused for a moment. "Does that meet with your approval, Thorn?"

"It does..." he said, but for the duration of those two words, the firmness fell away from his voice. He sighed. "Pray for the girl," he intoned, that declaration very nearly a command.

Michael assented. "Lead us, Thorn." All three senior Guardians knelt in their meeting room as the strategist began a long series of blessings and pleas for Ruhanna and her beleaguered parents--the chief among them being, "Return Sherenaan and Alixis safely here...soon."