Rori took the left turn and ran down the hall. He dove into the training room and tumbled to his feet ready to dodge any waiting attacks, but with the exception of the sparring dummies in the corner, the room was unoccupied.

  He turned and ran to the open door on the left wall. This time instead of diving, he just picked up his speed and ran as fast as he possibly could. The long hallway beyond was also empty.

  Rori ran on.

  He slowed back to a normal pace and tried to hear if there was anyone waiting in the next room.

  Nearly two months had passed since the meeting and Rori was ready to be somewhere else. Hopefully somewhere the sun was shining and warm. Though it was now early summer, most days were still cold and overcast this high up in the mountains. He was tired of the weather and tired of what he’d come to think of as his cold, stone cage.

  After his conversation with Meredith, he hadn’t wasted the time he’d spent here. He had read everything he had pulled off the shelves when he’d first found the library. Then he had read everything he’d found after a second search and was now working his way through things collected on a third pass. He’d studied, practiced and memorized languages, skills and information on topics ranging from poisons to politics, from ancient history to more recent wars to monsters and other beasts.

  If the library had been complete, he probably would have filled in a lot of the gaps in his knowledge, but while there were a lot of books and information in the library, there were also a lot of holes in the collection. Particularly in the area of religion. It was almost as if the library was created to be intentionally vague and not favoring one deity over the other. Still, any new information is better than none.

  He’d also spent a lot of time training. Before leaving, Nolan had arranged a grueling daily workout routine and when Rori had gotten used to it, Nolan had returned and made up an even tougher one. That had happened three times now.

  There was also a lot of sparring. Which was Rori’s favorite part of the day because it was so varied and simply just a lot of fun. He would fight against whichever two people happened to be staying with him at the time. On any given day it could be Baxter and Wergen attacking with a polearm and an axe. Or it could be Ian and Honoria firing scores of arrows at him. Though mishaps were rare, they did occasionally happen. Fortunately, Rori wounds quickly healed.

  There was also running. And for Rori the running was the worst. In a large part because it was so boring. He normally didn’t mind the runs because he could take his mind off of them by looking at the surrounding countryside and letting his mind wander. There was no such view here. The gray halls all looked exactly the same. The layout of the rooms made a convenient circuit, but it was not particularly long, which meant that even a short run meant countless repetitions of the same uninteresting stone. To vary things up he began running the circuit in the opposite direction. That variation got old after two days. It got to the point where he’d run the loop so many times, he’d memorized the path. A fact he’d proven to himself one day by making five consecutive laps with his eyes closed.

  Eventually, a brilliant solution had been proposed by Wergen. They combined the sparring with the running. The two other people would hide at random points along Rori’s run. At any moment they could jump out from a doorway or from around a corner and attack. Rori was forced to be constantly vigilant as he ran. His objective was not to disarm or defeat them, but simply to get by without getting hit. Once he passed them, they could move up or back along the circuit, hide again and wait for Rori to circle back around.

  Today Honoria and Sean were the ones who were on the attack. He’d already passed Honoria so now Sean should be somewhere up ahead. He ran down the hallway into the kitchen and at first had no sign of Sean. Then he heard something coming from the next room. The door he would pass through next would take him into the dining room. Sean was likely hiding nearby waiting to pounce as he passed through.

  Rori smiled and veered his path slightly to the right, away from the door and towards the pass-through window. The shutters were currently closed but they were not latched. He could see there was about an inch gap between them. He couldn’t remember if they had been closed the last time he’d passed through this room.

  Rori aimed for the center of the window. He leapt headfirst with his hands in front of him. His momentum was enough to easily carry him over the counter and through the window. His hands hit the shutters, and they flew open as expected.

  He turned into a tumble, rolled once and sprang up onto the large table in the center of the room. But in mid leap he realized his mistake. It was not Sean waiting in the room, but Honoria. She had run back from their last encounter to await him here. Further, she had anticipated his jumping through the pass-through window. She had three arrows nocked at the same time and she let them fly. Her hands a blur, she followed them up with three more arrows in rapid succession.

  To avoid actual damage Honoria used arrows without points. Instead, the ends were blunt with wet paint on them. She and Ian both claimed that the lack of a point made the arrows substantially less accurate. As a tradeoff, if Rori ended with paint on anything except his hand it meant he’d lost. Rori leapt, spun and twirled in an effort to avoid getting hit. Though it was close he managed to avoid all six of Honoria’s shots by falling forward and rolling off the table and onto the floor on the other side. Except that was clearly what they were expecting him to do.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  As soon as Rori cleared the edge of the table, Sean, who was lying on the ground on the opposite side, shot him with a crossbow. The bolt struck him squarely in the chest, the blunt end didn’t pierce his shirt, but it still hit with enough force to hurt substantially.

  “Son of a . . .” Rori groaned as a he hit the floor and rolled over to the wall.

  “Are you hurt, Rori?” Honoria asked.

  “I’ll be fine,” said Rori sitting up with his back to the wall as he rubbed his chest. “The pain’s almost gone already.”

  “Yeah, but we got you! You definitely lose!” said Sean with glee.

  Rori laughed aloud. “I guess that’s true, but do you have to gloat about it so happily?”

  “You do not make it easy,” said Honoria. “Winning is rare with you.”

  “Also, Ian owes us ten gold,” said Sean standing up and offering a hand to help Rori up. “He said it wouldn’t work.”

  “It worked,” said Rori, “but it won’t work again.”

  “That’s okay. We’ve got a couple other things planned out as well.”

  “Well, you’ll have to try them out tomorrow. I’m spent for today. I’m going to take a bath and try to soothe my aching body and my wounded pride.”

  “What are you doing in here? Thinking of giving up Meredith and picking up a sword?” asked Nolan as he walked into the large storage room full of weaponry that was attached to the training rooms. The longest wall in the room had a floor to ceiling weapons racks that held a great variety of weapons.

  “No, nothing like that. Sometimes I come in here just to think. I can’t say why but it seems to clear away the distractions. Or at least quiet them down some,” said Rori. “Also, Wergen said if there was anything in here I hadn’t seen before, either he or Sean would try to use them the next time we practiced.”

  “It’s not that big of a collection. It looks like most of it is pretty commonplace.”

  “I think you could say that about this entire place,” said Rori turning to face Nolan. “Good selection of weapons, but nothing too unusual. Good selection of books, but all pretty basic. Nice temple, but nothing that could offend anyone. It’s almost like it is trying to be something for everyone but in the end, it ends up being not quite complete for anyone.”

  “That’s a good assessment. Part of the problem is that this place has been held and used by a lot of different groups over the centuries. When a new group moves in, they keep what doesn’t bother them and add in what they need. Since getting things up here is not an easy task, instead of trying to take back the things you don’t like, it is simpler to literally throw it out the window. If something isn’t essential, it isn’t brought. And if it is essential, it is taken back when you leave. The result is this,” Nolan said with a sweep of his hand.

  Rori thought it over for a moment and finally said, “I think you’re leaving something out.”

  Nolan smiled and instead of answering said, “Did you find any weapons in here you weren’t familiar with?”

  “Only this. Assuming it is a weapon,” said Rori picking up a length of chain with sharp barbs along it.

  “It’s a spiked chain. Not a creative name, I suppose. It’s difficult to wield. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can end up cutting yourself up more than the person you’re attacking. If you do know what you’re doing, it can let you attack those near and those outside of your normal reach. It can also be used to trip and disarm. I know Wergen cannot wield it and it’s doubtful Sean can either. Dade might be able to swing it without tearing himself up, but if you want to actually defend against someone who can fully utilize it, we’ll have to find someone trained in its use.”

  “If you think it is important. Seems like it is something we’re unlikely to come across.”

  “It will stay unimportant until you do encounter it,” said Nolan with a smile.

  Rori dropped the chain back onto the weapons rack and moved down to the end of the rack where most of the larger weapons were stored. He ran his hand along the wooden hafts of the polearms and the scabbards of the bigger sword before letting it fall back to his side.

  “Why else do you come here?” asked Nolan.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve figured out a bit of our puzzle. Answered a question or two. I should have seen it while everyone was talking at the table, but I was distracted by something else. In short, I believe I know why the phren want you dead. It’s because of the sword.”

  “The sword? But they already have the sword.”

  “True, but you had it first.”

  “Only for a short period of time.”

  “It only takes an instant for an artifact to bond to someone.”

  “What do you mean by that? Bond?”

  “I love that the part you struggle with is that some magic items bond to their user and that you didn’t bat an eye at the word ‘artifact’.”

  “We knew the sword had to be something special. They can bond to you?”

  “Not physically like sticky paste. But some artifacts become magically attached to their owner. Once that happens nobody else can get the full use of the item until the current owner dies.”

  “Or is killed.”

  “That would count as dying and it explains why the phren don’t need your body. The instant you die, the sword becomes unbound. They would likely know before the person who killed you was sure themself.”

  “But I only carried it out of the cave.”

  “Yes, but you pulled it free, you held it in your hand, and you carried it, strapped onto your back. Different items bond in different ways. Perhaps in this case that was enough. In fact, if you remember you even commented that it ‘feels good in my hand’ and that, ‘it feels right, like it’s my sword.’”

  “That would explain a few things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like why I sometimes dream about it.”

  “You dream about a sword?”

  “Mostly it’s just a replaying of the day we got it.”

  “Why didn’t you mention it before now?” said Nolan. “We might have figured this out sooner. These wouldn’t be the first dreams you’ve had that were important.”

  “True, but these were different than my conversations with Meredith. Those don’t seem like dreams at all. These were like any other dream. Hazy and incomplete. That day was stressful. It’s not surprising it would show up in my dreams. And it’s not like I don’t dream about other things too. Do you want to know all my dreams?”

  “Not hardly,” said Nolan. “You said it explained a ‘few things.’ What else does it explain?”

  “Why I’ve been wanting to take this ever since I saw it,” said Rori picking up a bastard sword off of the weapons rack.

  “You’ve wanted a different sword?” said Nolan in confusion.

  “Not the sword,” said Rori as he pulled the weapon free and set it back on the rack. “For some unexplainable reason I’ve had this desire to carry an empty scabbard. Based on what you’ve said, I guess the sword wants me to have something to carry it in.”

  “Okay that takes things to a whole new level. The sword is bonded to you and in some hidden way you’ve known it all along.”

  “I don’t know about that,” said Rori strapping the scabbard onto his back. “But I do know that this just feels right. What does it mean?”

  “It means that sword is much more important than we thought. And it means I need to talk to some people,” Nolan said as he turned and left.