The Blade and the Bow: A prequel novella to The Cremelino Prophecy

  The Blade And The Bow

  A prequel novella to The Cremelino Prophecy series

  By Mike Shelton

  The Blade And The bow

  Copyright © 2016 by Michael Shelton

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations included in critical articles and reviews. For information, please contact the author.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Cover Illustration by Brooke Gillette

  http://brookegillette.weebly.com

  Map by Robert Altbauer

  www.fantasy-map.net

  Author Website

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  Books by Mike Shelton

  The Cremelino Prophecy:

  The Path Of Destiny

  The Path Of Decisions

  The Path Of Peace

  The Blade And The Bow (A prequel novella to The Cremelino Prophecy)

  The Alaris Chronicles

  The Dragon Orb (2017)

  The Dragon Rider (2017)

  The Dragon King (2017)

  Prophecy Of The Dragon (A prequel novella to The Alaris Chronicles) - forthcoming

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Books by Mike Shelton

  Map

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  About the Author

  Map

  Chapter 1

  Darius San Williams brushed the water out of his face and sat up in the back of the old hay wagon. He swept a piece of straw out of his brown bangs and squinted to keep the rain out of his grey eyes. Looking around, he was at first disoriented until he noticed his best friend, Kelln El’Han still asleep on the straw next to him.

  “Kel.” He pushed his hand into the side of his sleeping friend and was greeted with a grunt. “Get up.”

  Kelln, trying to pat down his disheveled red hair sat up and joined Darius in looking around. “Where are we?”

  Darius shaded his eyes in the late afternoon sun. “By the look of things, half way to Forest View, I would guess.”

  Kelln scrunched up his lightly freckled face. “Must’ve fallen asleep.”

  The two boys, both fifteen years old, were on summer break from their second year at the academy. Bored and with nothing else constructive to do, they thought it would be fun to hide in the back of a wagon going out of Anikari, the capital city of the Realm, and see how long it took for the wagon master to notice them. But after lying down among the straw, the two had been rocked to sleep by the steady swaying of the wagon. Until the rain woke Darius up.

  “The storm’s blowing harder,” Darius said. “We have to get back. My father’s going to kill us for sure this time.”

  “We’ll be fine.” Kelln waved a hand in the air around him. “We’ll find a ride going the other way and be back in town before anyone notices we were gone.”

  “Kelln,” Darius glared at his best friend. “My father always knows when we’re gone. More so now that he is the first councilor to King Edward.”

  “Yeah.” Kelln mumbled, “I forget about that. He doesn’t let you go anywhere any more. How are you expected to have fun?”

  “Fun?” Darius laughed. “You call this fun? I’m soaking wet now and miles away from home.”

  Kelln slapped Darius on the back. “Don’t worry. I got things covered.”

  Darius moaned. “How many times have I heard that?”

  “Jump,” Kelln said to his friend, as he dropped his feet over the edge of the wagon and hopped off. Darius followed closely behind.

  The road around them was clear for the moment; summer grass growing along each side. The dark outline of the Black Forest stood southwest of them. A smaller copse of trees stood a short distance away and the two friends ran up under it to take cover. Darius had his bow slung over his broadening back and Kelln’s sword dangled at his hip, smacking against his short legs as he lagged behind his faster friend.

  Standing under the trees offered a minor respite from the rain. The two of them wiped their faces off and caught their breath.

  Kelln looked over at Darius and laughed. Darius couldn’t help joining in. Kelln’s life seemed to revolve around adventure, and Darius’s more boring, staid life had been witness to Kelln’s exploits first hand more and more often of late.

  The two had met at the academy a few years earlier. Kelln, the son of the Anikari’s most famous sword maker, and Darius, the son of the noble Richard San Williams, councilor to the King. Now at fifteen the boys were inseparable.

  “I guess we better start walking back.” Darius pulled his burgundy cloak over his head and headed west on the road back to Anikari, the capital of the Realm.

  Kelln joined him, seemingly unaware of every mud puddle he stepped through. After an hour, the two were soaked to the bone and the warm weather made the humidity almost unbearable. Summer thunder storms coming off the Blue Sea were common this time of year and quickly passed over, leaving steam rising off the warm pebbles on the road.

  The trees began to grow thicker on the south side of the road, precursor to the Black Forest.

  Kelln stopped and examined the woods. “Did you see someone in there?”

  “No, I didn’t, Kel,” Darius answered back. “Stay focused on the road. No more adventures today.”

  “But what if it’s bandits?” Kelln drew his sword out of its scabbard. As son of a swordmaker, Kelln had been using a sword since he was a boy. He held it perfectly balanced in his hand, waiting for an opportunity to use it.

  Darius fingered the bow hanging around his neck and back, arrows in a small pouch at his side, but didn’t pull it off. “You’ve too much imagination, my friend.” He patted Kelln on the back. “Come on, let’s pick up the pace. I don’t want to get in trouble again.”

  They rounded a small bend, then back behind them they heard the unmistakable squeaking of a wagon coming closer. Kelln turned to Darius and smiled.

  “Maybe we’ll be home quicker than we thought,” Kelln said. Both boys turned around and headed back around the curve. They would wait there for the merchant and ask for a ride in his wagon.

  The bulky covered wagon came closer – obviously full of goods coming into Anikari to be sold. Two men sat up front driving the horses forward.

  Without warning a group of bandits rushed out of nearby trees and attacked the wagon. Kelln and Darius glanced at each other.

  “Told you,” Kelln said.

  Darius scowled. “We should help them. They are defenseless.”

  “And you complained I wanted adventure,” Kelln pointed out. “These men are not playing games. These are real robbers.

  “All the more reason to stop them, Kel.” Darius took the bow off his back, grabbed some arrows and took off jogging toward the troubled wagon.

  Kelln followed behind, sword already in hand.

  Cries came from the w
agon drivers as their horses were stopped. One of the men secured the drivers, while two others went around back to see what goods the wagon held.

  The man upfront noticed Kelln and Darius approaching before he could warn the other two. Darius notched an arrow, focused and let it fly through the air toward its intended target. It hit the robber in his left shoulder, exactly where Darius had aimed. His father taught him how to use a bow and arrow mechanically when he was younger. Yet all of his life, he had the additional and uncanny ability to focus through all distractions and shoot his arrow further than most anyone else.

  The man screamed and drew out a knife, bringing it closer to one of the wagon drivers. The two men poked out from behind the wagon to find out what was going on and Darius in quick succession let go two new arrows. One arrow hit a leg, and the other by sheer luck, in the case of the other man, caught on the man’s shirt pinning him to the wooden frame of the wagon.

  Kelln was close enough now to jump into the fray. One of the men pulled himself free from the arrow and drew a sword. Circling around Kelln, he figured his size gave him the advantage, but Kelln’s agility had saved him many times from bullies in the past, and did so once again. The man thrust forward, and Kelln bent his waist to the side, and then brought his left foot around behind the attacker. When the man stepped back, he fell to the muddied ground, splashing dirty water all over Kelln.

  “Stop or I kill the man,” the attacker next to the driver yelled, knife held to his throat. The other man slowly slid down the bench from him.

  “Kelln, stop,” Darius yelled.

  His friend looked at him with questioning green eyes. “What about these two?” He pointed, one man down with an arrow in his thigh, and the other on the ground under Kelln’s sword point.

  “They aren’t going anywhere,” Darius said.

  Kelln kicked the sword on the ground further away from the man and motioned for him to stand, keeping his own sword out in front of him.

  Darius turned back to the front of the wagon. “We’ll let you go, if you don’t hurt the driver.”

  The robber laughed, showing a few missing teeth on his dirtied face. “What are two boys going to do?”

  Darius gazed at his friend, the drivers, and the robber, trying to think of what to do. His dream was to join the army and fight to protect the Realm. His father wanted him to follow in his steps as a counselor, but he hoped to change his father’s mind by the time Darius graduated from the academy in three more years.

  “Darius’s father is Councilor Williams,” Kelln offered up to the men.

  Darius groaned inside. He didn’t want to use his father’s name. He wanted to figure it out on his own.

  “Is it true?” the lead bandit asked, looking more afraid.

  Darius nodded.

  The bandit who had been shot in the thigh started to moan louder on the ground. A pool of blood formed under his injured leg.

  Darius started walking back toward the man when the lead bandit jumped down off the wagon bench and brought his knife point now to the back of Darius.

  “Where are you going, boy?”

  “To help your man there.”

  “Why would you do that?” The lead bandit shook his head in confusion.

  “Because he has lost a lot of blood and might die.”

  “But you shot him,” The second bandit said from the other end of Kelln’s sword tip.

  Kelln laughed. “If Darius wanted to kill him, he would have. He doesn’t miss.”

  All three of the bandit’s eyes opened wider. The lead bandit motioned his head for Darius to go and help his fellow thief.

  Darius ripped off a part of his cloak-the cleanest thing he could find. He pulled out the arrow and the man howled and almost passed out. Darius wrapped the cloth around the wound, doubling it up, and tied it off.

  Kelln still pointed his sword at the men. His weapon was larger than anything they had brought with them. Without warning, the lead thief grabbed the second driver, a smaller, older man, and held him tight in a headlock.

  “He comes with us as far as the trees, and then we let him go,” the thief ordered.

  Darius nodded. They didn’t seem to have much choice.

  The first driver stood along with Kelln and Darius watching the three robbers move away with the other driver. When they reached the tree line, the robbers glanced back at the wagon. The leader brought his sword up in the air, and Darius realized he wasn’t going to let the driver go.

  Without thinking, he reached behind him and grabbed an arrow out of his leather quiver. Faster than the blink of an eye, he brought the bow up, notched the arrow, drew back on the string, and sighted his shot. Instantly everything came into an unbelievable focus. Later he would swear that time stopped for him.

  He let the arrow go and watched as it sped forward, impaling the wrist of the thief’s sword arm. The man yelled and dropped his sword. Holding his bleeding wrist with his other hand, the man took off into the forest with his friends.

  Darius and Kelln raced up to where the other driver still stood. Darius put his arm around the man’s shoulder and began to walk him back to the wagon.

  After only a few steps, a streaking light caught his attention out of the corner of his eyes.

  “Darius,” Kelln pointed into the trees. “Did you see that?”

  Darius nodded. “What was it?”

  “That was fantastic.” Kelln’s eyes opened wide.

  Darius gave a questioning look to his friend at the use of one of his favorite words.

  “Magic.” Kelln took a step back toward the trees. “It was magic, Darius. I’m sure of it.”

  “Who would be crazy enough to use magic this close to Anikari, Kelln?” Darius motioned his friend to follow. “Come on, we need to hurry back home. My father is definitely going to be mad.”

  Kelln continued to stare into the forest for a moment, then with a flip of his red head, shrugged his shoulders and followed Darius back to the wagon.

  * * *

  Chapter 2

  Darius stood in his father’s office. Kelln shifted his feet at his side. Upon entering the gates of the city, they had been taken by the guards and hauled off into the castle. Their clothes hung on them, wet and muddy, with splotches of blood. Darius ran his fingers through his hair, which was dry, but stiff from the dirt and rain.

  The castle was the home of King Edward Dar San Montere, and his father, as first councilor to the king, had a significant office on the third floor. Glancing out the window, Darius saw the farms and rolling fields outside of the city, with the Superstition Mountains looming faintly in the distance. Darius enjoyed the openness of the farmlands, but his father did not allow him to go out there much as that is where the “outsiders” lived. People his father and many of the nobles thought to be of a lower class than those in the noble ranks.

  Darius’s father, Richard San Williams, sat at his rich mahogany desk. With his dark hair, short beard, and broad shoulders, Darius still stood a few inches shorter than him. His father glanced up once, scowled, then continued writing something on a piece of parchment.

  Kelln elbowed Darius and tilted his head toward a new piece in his father’s office. A painting now hung on a side wall between two windows. It was a picture of a dragon breathing out fire, with a rider on top of him.

  “Looks fun.” Kelln mouthed.

  Darius rolled his eyes. Everything looked fun to Kelln. That’s why he found himself time and time again standing in this exact place in his father’s office. Though in the previous years, it had been a smaller office downstairs before his father had been elevated to the second most powerful position in the Realm. Looking at a map on the wall, Darius saw the outline of the Realm consisting of the major cities of Sur, Mar, Denir, and Belor, with Anikari in the center. It bordered the Blue Sea on the east, the forgotten lands to the north, the Kingdom of Arc to the west, and the Empire of Gildan to the south. It was a stronghold of power and influence in the western lands and Darius was prou
d to be a member of such an esteemed kingdom.

  His father cleared his throat, awakening Darius from his reminiscing’s. Holding the now rolled up scroll in his right hand, he took three sizeable steps and landed himself directly in front of the two boys. Tapping the scroll against his left hand, he scowled at his son.

  “Darius, this has got to stop.” His grey eyes flashed at Darius. “Look at you two.” His father spread his arms out encompassing the boy’s appearance. “You are a noble, not a dirty outsider.”

  Darius opened his mouth to defend himself. He hated it when his father talked bad about those living outside the city. They didn’t have any choice.

  “And you, Kelln.” His father now rounded on Darius’s best friend. “Your father is a highly dedicated and talented sword maker. What would he think of this?”

  Kelln blushed, his cheeks becoming as red as his hair. His sword hung by his side, dirty and soiled.

  “But father, bandits attacked a wagon and we only did what was right to defend them.” Darius’s voice cracked and his face became as red as Kelln’s.

  “But what were you doing there in the first place? You were miles from the city.” Richard glared back and forth between the two boys.

  Darius peeked at Kelln from the corner of his eye, and his father turned toward his friend. “Kelln, you do seem to have a knack for trouble.”

  “It wasn’t him, Father.” Darius jumped in to defend his friend. “It was me. I decided to get in the back of a wagon and we fell asleep.”

  Kelln opened his mouth to rebut Darius’s words, but Darius continued talking. “It wasn’t his fault. I take full responsibility for it.” He stood up as straight as he could, trying to appear older, but it didn’t help much.

  “Be that as it may.” Richard stared hard at Kelln, and Kelln, who was much shorter than the councilor, looked down at his shoes. “I have something for both of you.” He tapped the recently written scroll on his hand one more time then handed it to Darius.