I fell heavily to the dusty ground and immediately rolled to my right, narrowly escaping the sword that crashed down after me. I jumped to my feet and looked for my weapon, my sword laid some five metres to the left of me, and my brain barely had time to register this before I was forced to dive in the opposite direction to escape my opponents sword from running me through. I rolled as I hit the floor, spun on my foot and leapt to my left towards my sword, I snatched it up and turned to face my adversary, flicking my blade up as I did. Good thing too, his blade came crashing down on it, scarcely missing my head. I managed to pull off a sky to ground sweep, before spinning my body around, twirling my blade as I did so, bringing it up and under my opponents sword to rest against his chin.

The instructor’s whistle rang out through the courtyard, and my opponent and I disengaged. We both turned to face the swords-master, Savor, we stood to attention, back straight, eyes to the front as he paced backwards and forwards in front of us. Finally he spoke, and he wasn’t happy.

‘Hayden, that was sloppy.’ He said coldly, ‘first rule of engagement, never drop your weapon. Your weapon is your life, if you throw it away, you may as well forfeit your life. If you ever expect to become one of the elitna than you must not, under any circumstances, lose your blade. Three days of being the arrack will hopefully remind you of how important the sword is to one of the elitna. Make sure you don’t forget it.’

‘Yes, swords-master,’ I replied, my voice expressionless.

‘You’re dismissed,’ he said shortly and turned toward Jador, my opponent.

Inwardly I seethed as I walked away from the training yard. The arrack was responsible for cleaning every single sword in the armoury and making sure the blades’ were as sharp as they could possibly be. Oh, what fun I was going to have. The armoury possessed hundreds of swords, and now I was expected to clean all of them. In my own time too. Brilliant.

Moodily, I headed up to my quarters in the apprentice section, where I came upon, Garen and Dean. Garen grinned mischievously at me. ‘Heard you’re now the arrack.’ He said wickedly.

‘How could you possibly know about that already?’ I asked satirically.

Garen smirked, ‘what can I say? It must be my amazing intuition.’

‘Yeah right, you wouldn’t know what intuition was if it hit you on the head. Anyway, aren’t you supposed to be in class with Bane?’

A look of dawning crossed Garen’s face, ‘oh… right, new I was supposed to be somewhere

Garen hurried off towards class and Dean shook his head at me, ‘idiot,’ he remarked at Garen’s retreating back and I snorted in agreeance. Dean turned and grinned at me, ‘so, what did you do this time, to get a punishment from our old friend, Savor?’

I sighed, ‘I dropped my sword.’ I said reluctantly.

Dean stared, ‘is that all?’ he asked.

I tilted my head slightly, ‘In battle,’ I admitted

Dean laughed at me. He laughed at me all the way to my quarters. Where I unceremoniously slammed my door in his face. He went off still laughing. With friends like these…

I spent the rest of my evening and night cleaning and sharpening the swords in the armoury; Dean walked past me once and grinned knowingly. I maturely made rude gestures at him. It was an hour before midnight by the time I’d finished; wearily I trudged back up the stairs towards my quarters where I gracefully tripped over my spare boots in front of the door and collapsed into bed.

I woke next morning to the bell that aroused the apprentices to breakfast. Cursing myself for sleeping in, I threw on my clothes and hastily smoothed the covers on the bed. Kicking a whole lot of spare clothes under the bed, I hopped madly for the door trying to get my boots on in the process. I fell forward and rolled, coming up next to the wall and managing to get my last boot on in the procedure. I slammed my door shut and raced for the mess hall; I just managed to make the last of the students walking into the hall. Walking quickly so I passed a few as to not look like the last person to get up, I retrieved my breakfast, turned and scanned the crowd for a familiar face. Several pairs of hands waved me over from the other side of the room. I made my way over and sat next to Bane and Dean.

Dean smirked, ‘have fun last night?’ he asked knowingly

I threw him a look of pure evil.

‘Why? Asked Bane, ‘what’d you do?’

‘He’s the arrack for three days!’ said Dean with a grin, ‘he dropped his sword while in the yards.’

Bane laughed at me until he choked on his breakfast. I pointedly stared straight ahead.

‘So, how’d you manage to drop your sword?’ Bane managed to ask with a straight face.

I sighed and said quietly, ‘I was fighting Jador,’ I said by way of explanation, ‘and I didn’t exactly drop it, he sort of… flicked it out of my hands.’ Jador was one of the best swordsmen at the school, apart from me of course.

Bane grimaced in sympathy, ‘did you end up winning?’ he asked. Of course he would ask that, Bane was obsessed with winning.

I nodded in reply and didn’t offer any further explanation other than to stare moodily at my bread. Dean grinned over the top of my head at Bane, ‘I think our young friend here is slightly upset that he has to be arrack for three days.’

Bane chuckled, ‘I think you may be right.’ He replied with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes and stared sourly ahead.

‘Oh well!’ said Dean cheerfully, ‘just think. If we ever need someone to teach us how to sharpen swords, we’ll know were to look.’

I shook my head in disgust and finished my breakfast; I sighed and leaned back in my chair, scanning the crowd of student’s impassively. I spotted a familiar face coming through the mess hall doors; it was Gilden, my master-trainer. He caught my eye and motioned me over to where he was standing in front of Savor. I got up and made to go and join him but Bane caught my arm. ‘Where’re you going?’ he asked me.

I motioned towards Gilden, ‘my master’s here.’ I explained and both Bane and Dean glanced at each other. Usually masters’ didn’t come seeking their apprentices’ during breakfast unless it was a matter of immediate emergency.

I made my way over to Gilden and bowed my head slightly, ‘master?’ I asked questioningly.

Gilden’s ice blue eyes scanned over me, ‘Hayden, there is a matter that has come up and the eldura has decided to send you and I on it.’ He said dryly, ‘I’m afraid we must leave immediately.’

I nodded, ‘of course master.’ I replied, somewhat puzzled, I couldn’t understand why he didn’t seem to be looking forward to another mission. He appeared to read my mind and said, ‘I’ll explain everything on the way. For now, pack your things, we leave in half an hour.’

Savor turned to me with an unimpressed look on his face. ‘You will complete your punishment when you get back,’ he told me and stalked off into the throng of students. I turned around with a grin on my face, which vanished instantly the moment I saw the disapproving look on Gilden’s face. Guiltily, I shifted my feet.

He sighed and shook his head, ‘I think I’d be better off not asking,’ he commented. ‘Get moving Hayden.’

‘Yes, sir.’ I said and walked quickly past him in the direction of my quarters.

Arriving at my room, I pushed open the door and surveyed it for everything I would need for a mission I new nothing about. I grabbed my pack from a corner and started stuffing it with my main essentials including my spare boots, cloak, basic first aid kit and my varied assortment of weapons.

I headed down to the stables via the kitchen, where I grabbed some food and filled up my canteen. Down at the stables I saddled Shadow who whickered softly at my approach.

‘Hey girl,’ I murmured with a smile and rubbed her on the nose. She blew gently on my glove, and I smiled fondly at her. I heard Gilden approach from behind me and turned around, he examined Shadow thoroughly before turning his attention to me.

‘I suppose you’ll want to know what the mission is about then?’ he asked me.

‘Yes, master,’ I affirmed, trying not to sound to eager.

Gilden sighed, ‘the king’s daughter, Alianna has gone missing. She was out riding with a company of the king’s arms in the Sirdon Forest. She was due back sundown yesterday and when she didn’t come back, the king sent a scout out to look for her. All the scout found was the riderless horses and bloodstains on the ground. There were tracks leading away from them that looked as if they belonged to Alianna’s captors, and he followed them. From the tracks, he saw that another rider had come across her. Alianna’s captors’ tracks stopped there and all there was, was the trail from the rider, no one knows what’s happened to her or where she might be. The king decided to send us two to find her.’

I finally understood why my master wasn’t in the least bit happy about this mission. Alianna was his niece.

I nodded, ‘so, master, how are we going to find her if the king’s best scouts’ couldn’t.’

Gilden’s eyes’ glinted at me, ‘I’m sure we’ll find a way,’ he said softly, rebuking me for my lack of faith.

I winced slightly, ‘I’m sorry master, I didn’t mean to sound faithless, I was just wondering how we were going to go about it.’ Shadow bumped her head against my shoulder, looking for attention.

Gilden nodded vaguely, ‘Not to worry, I’ll think of something.’ He glanced at me, ‘are you ready to go?’ He asked.

I nodded, ‘yes, master.’

‘Right, let’s go.’

An hour into the trip and I shifted uncomfortably in my saddle, Gilden glanced at me and smiled, ‘not long now young one, another half hour and we will arrive at the king’s palace.’

‘Yes master,’ I murmured dutifully.