“You will not mind if I have you sign the contract in blood, will you?” he asked as he pricked one of Teryn’s fingers with the tip of the pen.
Teryn winced and instinctively withdrew his hand. He stared down briefly as a small bubble of blood formed on the tip of his index finger. It was an odd sight, much different from the hissing, aching wound from the Maktuul blade.
Though he’d been in combat recently and had seen years of training injuries on others, he’d never actually stared at his own blood before. It was simultaneously alluring and sickening. He looked back up to see that the king had not moved and was still holding the quill pen, tainted with his own blood, out to him. Hastily, he snatched the pen and signed his legal name to the contract.
Once he finished, the words of the contract flared briefly and solidified. Suddenly, they were much easier to read. Teryn started to read the words of the contract for the first time and didn’t like what he saw. There was an oath in there that forbade anyone in his party from harming the king or his entourage in any way. The wording was so vague it could be bent to incorporate almost anything. He tried to read further but Christopher snapped his fingers and the scroll leapt out of his hands and back under the king’s robes.
The young mage felt a little bamboozled, but it was his own fault – he had assumed a king known for hating magic as much as this one would not use a magical contract.
Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now.
“There you go,” Teryn said. “Now I believe you owe me one Sword of Power.”
“I certainly do,” Christopher replied, getting up from his throne and walking over to the west wall. He took a rather large, rune-coated longsword from the wall and handed it over to the young mage.
Teryn greedily accepted the blade and eyed it with a sense of wonder. Experimentally, he took out his Sword of Wisdom and compared the two. The Sword of Power looked to be a good half a foot larger and was definitely heavier, but the fine lines of the runes and the craftsmanship were quite similar.
He put both swords away in his magic holding bag. He would perform the binding ceremony later when he was far away from the king. He didn’t want to give up any of his secrets to such a tricky person.
“And now I think you have a mission to continue, do you not?” King Christopher added. “You still need one more sword by my count.”
The king’s words broke Teryn’s train of thought and brought him back to the task at hand. “That I do,” he replied. “I guess we better be going, then.”
Teryn, Valeria, and Talon turned to leave.
“Just a minute,” the king called after them. They all stopped in their tracks. “My personal priest, Lyrad, will be accompanying you as well. Just in case anyone needs healing or something.”
The young mage glared back at the king. He sincerely doubted this sudden turn of goodwill. More likely, the priest was some sort of spy. But he didn’t figure he had any choice in the matter, so he nodded and turned to leave, paying the priest no heed.
“I do so hope you will be successful, after all,” the king added, a slight sneer on his face.
Lyrad stepped down from his place behind the king and joined the three heroes. He offered a hand in greeting, but it was refused. Wordlessly, the four left the throne room to set out on the next leg of their quest.
* * * * * * * * * *
Though it seemed to them to take days, it really didn’t take long at all for the four companions to exit the maze of a castle they had entered just a short time prior. It certainly took longer to leave than it did to go in, however, but that was mostly because Valeria insisted at stopping every so often to look at the pretty tapestries, vases and decorations again.
Teryn sighed at this, but only a little. He had no idea when they’d see such luxury again. It wouldn’t be for a while, at least.
At any rate, with Lyrad guiding the way, they didn’t get lost and managed to make it out of the main castle before the night ended. As they passed by the gatekeeper, the old man mumbled something to them that they couldn’t hear or understand.
Teryn didn’t bother to have him repeat it, though; he didn’t want to go through that scenario again. His cheeks grew hot just thinking about it.
They continued on past the gatekeeper and went to the stables. Teryn started to object, but Talon told them the king had given them horses, so he relented.
After mounting and heading back out of the stables, they practically ran right over an oddly-dressed group of twelve wizards who looked at them expectantly. It didn’t take long for Teryn to realize these were the wizards King Christopher had promised would help him.
He frowned briefly. He had thought the wizard contingent would be supplied later after all the preparations were complete. He wasn’t prepared to handle them now. Still, he supposed the more help he could get, the better.
Teryn dismounted and motioned for the others to do the same. In the meantime, he looked over the twelve wizards to see what he could find out.
“Alright, let’s start off with the basics, shall we?” Teryn said to the group of wizards in front of him. “My name is Teryn, an accomplished wizard, and this fine woman over here is named Valeria. Next to her is General Talon, and Lyrad, the king’s priest. But you probably knew them already. Now, what are all of your names? First names will be fine.”
The man on the far right side of the twelve took a small
