The Sunblade Chronicles Ch. 00-01

Mari saw the unspoken question in Aran's face. "They got here not long ago, while you were off with Jillia," she told him quickly. "I thought they wouldn't come at this hour, that they'd wait for tomorrow. There is something different about them, this year. They are... darker than I remember them. It is time for you to be gone, my boy."

He couldn't go yet! He still had to talk to Jered, and hopefully give Jillia a kiss. To be truthful, he was planning on skipping the midnight meeting with the note-writer in order to spend more time with Jillia. His problem really did seem lesser now that he'd shared it with her.

Again, he almost got his mouth open before Mari interjected. "There will be no arguing this one, Aran Sunblade," she hissed softly, her eyes fierce. She seemed to loom in the darkness, making her seem taller than she truly was. "It is dangerous for you here, tonight. The Heralds will be looking for anyone... different."

Something in the way she said that made Aran forget his protests. "There is a pack made up for you just inside the front door," Mari said hurriedly, staring past him, toward the square where the voice was still droning on as the Herald recited the Tenets.

Suddenly her arms were around him and she was hugging him tightly. "I love you, son," she whispered in his ear. She pressed something into his hand as she released him. It felt cold, and had sharp points, but she kept her hand closed over his so he couldn't see what it was.

"Love before hate," she said, her face somber.

"Always," Aran replied automatically. "What is this?" He asked, looking down at where her hand covered his.

"It's yours. It belonged to your father, and he wanted you to have it."

Now Aran though he might scream in frustration. Now she wants to talk about his father? Now? "Can't I just stay a little longer?" He pleaded. "Long enough for you to tell me what's happening? What all this means?"

A shouted order drifted from the square. "Line them up for inspection! You three, check the houses! Make sure everyone is in the square!"

What in the world was happening down there? "We're out of time!" Mari urged. She pointed behind her, to the west, toward their house. "Go now! And do not come back to Korrin, you understand? Not until it's safe!" Her voice cracked, and a tear streaked its way down her cheek.

Aran's feet felt rooted to the dirt. He was not to come back? When would he see Mari again? Or Jered? Or Jillia...

"Aran, please!" His mother begged, her face now painted with fear bordering on panic. Suddenly the sound of horseshoes began to wind up the street, accompanied by voices. A powerful force rippled through Aran, bringing with it an impending sense of danger that shook him to his core. The force was urging him to fly like the wind.

"What about you?" He asked frantically. "What about the others?"

"We'll be fine," Mari answered hurriedly. "They won't keep us long. They're looking for you! And it's crucial that they do not find you, boy! Now go!" The last came out in a hushed shout, and she left, walking quickly toward the square.

Aran took one last look at his retreating mother's back before he bounded off like a hare before a wolf pack, the strange power lending him speed he'd never had before. He hurdled the low gate in front of his house easily and covered the path to the front door in two strides.

Snatching open the door, he seized the leather pack his mother had left just inside and slung it slantwise over his shoulder. It felt heavy, but he didn't take the time to open it; the force inside him was more urgent than ever before.

"RUN!" A voice seemed to scream from inside him, and run he did. The clopping of a trotting horse was approaching his house as he leaped the front gate again. He didn't stop to wait for the mounted man in a red-lined yellow cloak peering at the houses on either side as he rode along. Aran sped off to the west, quickly clearing the village and putting himself on the dirt tracks that ran between farms, and he kept running until the fields of crops were gone and there was only the ever-rolling Sorral Plain between him and the Emerin Forest.

*

Aran ran longer and harder than he ever had in his life. The farms had long since become the vast plains, the knee-high grass swaying gently beneath the moonlight, parting easily as he plowed through it, not caring if he caught his foot and tripped, or fell in a hole and broke his leg. His lungs burned, his legs felt heavy, and his heart ached.

He was running away from everyone he cared about, leaving them to whatever was happening with those Heralds in the square. What had his mother meant when she said the Heralds were darker than before? Why had she chased him away with such urgency? The near-panic on her face at the end had frightened him.

Finally, he stumbled to a stop, panting. He bent double to rest his hands on his knees, and realised he was still clutching the object his mother had handed him. Opening his right palm, he winced at small pricks of pain; it was a small gold sunburst, the rays of the sun made by sinuous lines with sharp points. Those points had dug into his palm while he'd been running, but he hadn't felt it until now. A silver chain hung from a small loop in the gold; it was meant for wearing around the neck.

Aran didn't know about such things, but he thought the piece carried a sense of age and great value. He mentally debated wearing it, but after a moment he found himself slinging the chain over his head and tucking the medallion beneath his shirt, where the cold metal rested against his chest. Strangely, it felt like he'd been wearing it his whole life.

Next time I see you, Ma, you're going to answer every bloody question I can think of. He started forward again, and almost tripped when he realised he was only two hundred paces from the outlying trees of the Emerin. That was impossible! There's no way in the Hells he could have run twenty miles already!

"I don't know what's happening to me," he muttered to himself as he started forward, his jaw set. "But I'm going to find a way to stop it."

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END OF CHAPTER ONE

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