Tor heard a whistling sound, and suddenly, the tension in his neck eased and the blood rushed back. He sat up, coughing violently. Above him, the soldier stumbled back. A long stick protruded from his neck. It was a black arrow with brown feathers at the nock. Blood started pouring from the soldier’s mouth. Soon, another one penetrated the soldier’s back through the plate armour, and the man’s body stiffened as if struck by lightning.

The soldier kept blinking, agonizing softly, as two figures emerged from the foliage. Kassius was holding his bow and an arrow. Alana advanced next to him, wielding the rusty dagger.

Within seconds, the soldier’s head crashed against the ground.

Tor leaned his head against a tree, gasping and caressing his neck. He felt as if his throat had been contracted. His stomach turned inside.

Alana rushed toward him, her white and red tunic was already stained with dust and mud. Tor smiled like a fool, seeing Alana and how she cared for him felt like coming back home after a long day.

“Tor, Tor. Good thing we saw you! My gods, hold on,” Alana knelt by him and ran her fingers through his hair. “Are you okay?”

Tor squeezed his eyes.

“Did he hurt you badly?” Alana asked. Her hands slid down and lifted his chin softly, they were warm and soft. She examined him with her blue eyes wide open. Tor could see his reflection in them.

He nodded. He needed her attention. “Good thing you’re alright,” she stood up, her hands let go of him, and she turned her back on him. He wished he could ask her to stay a little more by his side.

“Boy,” Kassius scratched his messy hair, staring at the soldier’s dead body. “Now… What should we do about that?” He pointed at it as if it was a piece of decoration he had to get rid of for good taste.

Alana turned and stood up and looked into Kassius’ eyes.

“Let’s drag him to the river and let him sink,” Alana said.

“My gods…” Kassius said, then swallowed. “We killed him. Alright. Let’s go.”

“Wait,” Alana said, kneeling beside the body and opening up the winter coat.

“Look at this.” She unsheathed one of the swords the soldier was carrying. It was more like a dagger. Its blade was dark and curved, made of iron. “Amazing. Have you seen one of these before?”

“Never,” Kassius said.

“It’s been captured in the East,” she said, her eyes glittering with curiosity, running her fingers over it. “I’m sure. This is from Parzhia. It came a long way. Like us. And look at this.” Behind the captured sword, the soldier had been carrying his own gladius. She reached for the belt and untied it.

“My gods!” Kassius seemed bewildered. His eyes were wide open, and his face was red, his fingers still tangled between his hair.

“What’s wrong?” Alana asked.

“I’m just thinking. I just killed him… I...”

“Yes. You did,” Alana muttered

“Do you know what we’ve done! Now I’m officially a traitor. We’ve killed three people. If they find this one… Ala, for each of the dead, there'll be more days of torture for me.”

“As your father said. Kill or be killed,” she muttered.

“My gods… This is not right.” Kassius scratched his head once again. He looked around and gazed through the trees, as if looking for any movement in the village.

“What are you saying, Kasha?” Alana rebuked him. “You saved Tor. Look! Your book is there, on the ground. Look at what poor Tor went through for that. Now pick it up and tell us it was worth it.”

The book lay on a pile of leaves next to Tor. He picked it up, got up massaging his neck, and handed it to Kassius. Kassius dusted it off. “Thanks, kid,” he said, flipping through the pages. He rose both eyebrows, as if surprised by something, then put the book in his bag.

Kassius sighed.

“Now…” he clapped. “Let’s just get rid of the body, before anything happens,” he said. “Quick,” he commanded, grabbing the soldier by the feet and dragging him into the thick foliage. Tor helped Kassius and Alana. She had already tied the soldier’s belt around her waist.

***

“So…?” Alana raised an eyebrow. “What if we tie a rock to it. Rocks are heavy.”

“But it depends, you know?” Kassius dragged the body next to the creek and let go of it with a sigh. He stood straight, stretching his back.

“Depends on what?” Alana raised an eyebrow, as if Kassius’ words were absurd.

Kassius cleared his throat.

“I read somewhere that according to the type of death they suffer, people are more or less likely to float...”

“That’s nonsense.” She shook her head. “Tor! Get me that rock.”

“I don’t think that’s enough,” Kassius said.

“You think too much, Kasha. Don’t think, just do.”

“Well, that’s easier said than done.”

The rock was as big as a horses’ head, and denser than concrete. Alana tied it to his feet with the rope she had stolen, and the three of them pushed it into the creek. The body sank like an anvil, and the group hid the armour under a small rodent’s den. Then, Kassius finally sat down and opened the book on the first page. Alana and Tor stood beside him as he flipped through the fragile pages marked with small black letters she had never seen before.

“What are those things?” Alana asked. “Those are not runes, nor Itruschian letters.”

“This is the Hellenic alphabet,” Kassius said. “Adapted from the ancient Cananic.”

“Can you even read it?”

“A bit,” he answered, but looked confused as he skimmed through it.

“It’s boring. It doesn’t even have pictures,” Alana scoffed.

“No, there are some. Look at this.” Kassius got to a page that had the fading picture of a bird and a fiery city underneath.

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“Oh… That’s the firebird of legend, is it not?”

“Yes,” Kassius said. “And the story is quite well explained, I think. The author copied it from a good source.”

“Is there a…?”

“Alana… Thank you for your interest, but I need to concentrate. So if you don’t mind, give me some time. I don’t think the instructions for finding the sword will be as clear.”

“Fine,” Alana said, looking at Tor. “Hey, boy. Do you want to train for a bit?”

“What?” Kassius raised his head and asked with a raised eyebrow. So much for needing to concentrate, Alana thought.

Alana unsheathed the gladius from her belt.

“You’ve been looking at this sword since you got here,” she said to the young boy, as she offered him the handle. “Here. It’s yours.”

“Be careful,” Kassius complained. “Those are not toys.”

Alana chuckled. “Don’t worry, we know how to do it.”

Kassius kept reading, but he was curious, or worried of the development of the sparring session, because he kept looking.

“I think you ought to be practicing with sticks,” he said.

Alana stood on guard with the knife forward and brandished her dagger toward the front, faked a parry with a blocking motion, and lunged forward.

“Not bad,” Kassius said, unable to concentrate, and Tor had dropped his new gladius to clap his hands.

“Thank you.” Alana said stroking her hair. “Uncle Jovus used to teach me. Once Father found out he went crazy and yelled at my uncle,” she giggled, but after that, she let out a sad smile. “He didn’t let me touch a sword ever again after that.”

“Well that wasn’t bad for a few lessons,” Kassius said, bobbing his head and squeezing his lips.

Tor quietly imitated her movement. Alana rushed toward him. “Good,” she said. “But… I think you should bend your knees a bit more… Like that! Perfect!”

Alana pretended to attack him, and Tor clumsily blocked the blow.

“Good job,” she said.

Alana was proud of that moment. Holding a real weapon in her hand and knowing it was hers made her feel powerful, but she knew that it was not enough. Even the basic training she had was nothing against a soldier. She needed to improve and become the best she could be.

“Alana,” Kassius yelled behind her. His tone had changed, and he had a wide smile on his face. “This book is astonishing. It has all the steps to become an initiate and a priest of Aranus’ order. These… these rites have been passed from generation to generation.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked, helping Tor with his posture.

“Yes…” Kassius looked back at the manuscript, flipping through more pages. “Astonishing! I really need to start practicing these rites!”

“And what does it do?”

“It will awaken the ability to see visions.”

“Oh, that’s amazing.”

“Ala, this is astonishing… Just… Astonishing. I’m so honored. Grandfather has chosen me. This is a sacred text.”

“Well, considering there’s no one else left.”

“By Saturn’s beard! It even has the genealogy of my ancestors from my mother’s side.”

“Well now that’s interesting,” she said. When Kassius mentioned ancestry, Alana wished her father was with them. He would be a great guide and teacher. If he had the time and the will, he could have turned her into a warrior like the ones of the legends. She imagined the wide steppe, wearing his old plated armour like the scales of a dragon, a round shield, and a sword of iron. “What does it say about them?” she asked.

“It goes all the way back to the East, about six hundred years ago. That’s when we rode up into the northern steppes.”

“Amazing,” Alana said, opening her eyes wide. She wondered what kind of weapons they used. Father used to say ancient people built their weapons from bronze by mixing copper and tin.

“Indeed,” Kassius said.

Alana turned toward Tor.

“Alright, boy. You know what?” She sheathed the dagger and removed the belt. “He’s right. We’re restraining our movement too much.” She strode toward the small den and extracted both the dead soldier’s breastplate and his helmet.

“Here.” She put the armour over her shoulders and the helmet on. It moved from side to side in her head; her skull was not thick enough to fill it. “One day we’ll take my father’s armour from the workshop. Now, I will practice defense and you will practice your striking. Sounds good?”

Tor nodded happily. Alana looked around for suitable branches. It was a game, like those she used to play as a child, but its use would be proven useful for grown up things. Tor stood in position and attacked with a clumsy technique.

“By Saturn’s...” Kassius kept interrupting their practice. “It’s describing the sword! Alana! All the information is here. Wait...” He started reading out loud, slowly, and in that strange language she did not understand.

“What are you saying?” she asked, shaking her head and fearing he would accidentally summon a soul-eating demon.

“I’m describing the sword… It says… It was black in colour, its handle, it’s crosshead was black like the night, and extended for… Well, this doesn’t make sense. It says it extended for ten cubits. This doesn’t make sense. It’s like five yards.”

“Oh, well. I don’t think we can be carrying that around.”

“And it says it flew through the sky. I’m not sure what these people were inhaling in their vapour baths. Well, maybe it’s an error in translation like grandpa said.”

“If there’s such an error in your book, how can we be sure we can trust it?”

“Well you just talked about believing and doing, didn’t you?”

“I just don’t really trust your book. Especially now.”

“Well, let’s assume he means inches. That would make it regular-sized, wouldn’t it?”

“It would. So, what else does it say?” Alana asked, lowering her branch-wielding hand for an instant.

“It says… It says it had two jewels over its black crucible, a jewel taken from the crown of each god. Each of them represented their sun. One for the Green Light of Venus, another one for Ares himself; a piece of his Red Sun. It says that... when he approached Venus to get the jewel… That her hair was unruly, she had been chained by the giants, and when she escaped, she let her hair loose and it fell over the ground and created mountains and rivers. The Allfather had to calm her down. And then she cried, and the tear that dropped from her cheek turned into a green jewel. It fell from the heavens with a mighty thunderbolt and tore mountains and lakes.”

“Wait, wasn’t it taken from her crown? That’s what you just said.”

“Eh… Yes, I did.”

“So?”

“That’s what it says.”

“It’s mixing everything up,” Alana complained.

“Yes, but… Well, maybe we don’t understand it completely.”

“Do you even understand, Kasha? Are you sure you can read that language?”

“Of course I can,” he said. “Alright. Just give me some time, I’ll keep reading this, and...”

“Fine,” Alana said, turning her back on Kassius and facing Tor again. “On guard!” she said to the boy, and he immediately adopted the fighting stance. “Come on, kid, show me what you’ve got.”

Tor lunged forward and attempted a lateral cut. Alana blocked it quickly, her long hair covered her eyes for an instant.

“Try to stab me,” she said, thinking of how she didn’t know how to block that kind of attack. Tor attempted an attack, and Alana found that a swift circular motion could be helpful. “Again,” she insisted, and blocked Tor’s attack once more.

“Now try to do a combo,” she said.

Tor did the exact two attacks he had just learned, a lateral cut and a frontal thrust. Alana blocked easily.

“Try something different,” she said. “Improvise, adapt, overcome your challenges.”

Tor nodded and lunged forward again, and this time, he aimed for Alana’s neck. Alana barely blocked. Tor crouched and hit her under the thigh.

She moaned like a puppy and collapsed to the ground.

“Auch,” Alana clenched her teeth and massaged her own leg. “You hit me in the knee!”

Tor dropped his wooden weapon, and he worriedly rushed toward her.

“I’m fine!” Alana said, squeezing her eyes and rolling to her side.

“Astonishing! Simply astonishing!” said Kassius, apparently oblivious to Alana’s pain. “So, the magic rocks that they put in the sword could produce an enormous amount of energy. The green tears of Venus could deliver a lightning bolt so powerful it could reduce enemies to dust. And that’s not all. Ares himself removed his heart and put it on the sword. Consequently, he died to make the sword. But he came back to life and used it to inter the giants of the earth. The power of the Red Stone could call on the stars and bring them down from their places in heaven and create great havoc on this realm. Thus, it says, he created lakes and gorges when he poured his fury on the giants.”

“Amazing, so what happened to the sword?” Alana said, slowly raising to her feet with Tor’s help. The pain in her knee was still numbing, and she recoiled in agony as she stretched her leg to walk. Tor walked by her side to support her and helped her sit on the overgrown roots of a willow.

“He needed to use the sword’s full power and a sacrificial spell to defeat and bind the giants for two thousand years,” Kassius said solemnly.

“So? Did you get to the part where it says where the sword is?” Alana said, squeezing her brow and rubbing her knee.

Kassius kept reading until his expression changed from awe to horror.

“What? It cannot be,” he said, as his eyes opened wide. “This means...”

“What is it, Kassius? Boy, you look disappointed. What is it?”