Mind Forged: Book One of the Enchanters of Xarparion (14 page)

She pulled the covers over her head
. “Alex, please leave me to die in peace.”

“
Not going to happen. We need to get some food in you and get you up and about.”

“
How many did I drink?”

“
Well, how many did you have before you got here?”

“
I think I had five glasses of wine...I think.”

“
Well, how many glasses are in a bottle?”

“
About five. Did I really drink an entire bottle?”

“
No.”

“
Well, that’s good then.”

“
You drank six.”

“
What? Gods help me, which means this is going to get much, much worse.”

I turned to Nia and she
looked at me with concern in her eyes. She turned back to Rosa who was clenching her stomach in pain. “I can’t watch this.”

“
Neither can I.”

I placed my hand on Rosa and performed the enchantment
. I also used one that Rosa taught me and put her to sleep. Once she was out, I repositioned her in the bed and covered her with the blanket.

“
What did you do to her, she looks happy?”

“
I did the same thing I did for you, but I also put her to sleep. I hope she doesn’t make a habit of this.”

A few hours later
, Rosa came downstairs and, as expected, was very hungry. After getting some food in her, she seemed to be doing alright; the worst of the hangover was gone. By now, it was getting late, so I got Rosa back into bed and used the same sleep enchantment that I had used earlier. Once done with her, I got myself and Nia into bed as well...I could use a good night’s sleep.

The next day
, I met up with Maya for our normal practice. But before I got there, I stopped by the forge and picked up a few of the sword “seconds” that I had practiced my enchantments on. When I got to the training grounds with my bag of loot, Maya was already there, dressed in her leather training armor. But with it being early and one of the more remote training circles, she had her training mask tied to her belt, so I could see her face. At the moment, Maya’s face was locked in concentration as she practiced strikes and blocks with her new sword, getting a feel for her. As usual, Maya moved quickly, with long-practiced precision, a sight I knew I could never emulate, nor get tired of watching. Finally, she acknowledged my approach and bounded up to me like an excited child.

“
Alex, she’s perfect! The balance is incredible and I’m not feeling the least bit tired from swinging her and I’ve been doing this for a few hours now.”

I
slid the bag off my shoulder and dropped it on the ground with a clang and a puff of dust. “So excited you couldn’t sleep, huh?”

She
stuck out her tongue at me and grinned, “Well, I did as you asked and we talked a lot yesterday, but we were just so excited to have this lesson that neither of us could sleep.”

“
I’m glad you two are doing so well together. And, Winya, I am proud that you haven’t tried to teach Maya yourself. I know how tempting that would be.”

Maya held the sword in front of her
. “Wait, you could have taught me everything? Why didn’t you? Because “he” asked you not to? Really, you’re going with that excuse?” Maya’s face suddenly darkened and her green eyes widened with surprise and embarrassment. “Now, that’s a low blow girl, and I’ll thank you to keep your observations about my boyfriend’s physique to yourself!” The glow of the writing on Winya pulsed with what I could only guess was laughter.

Really?
Do I need more elongated dwarf comments? “Well, where would you like to begin? Or do you already have a question?”

Regaining her
composure, she coyly walked closer to me. “Yes, she has already told me about how she came to be and all that. But what I would like to know is, why a sword?”

“
That’s easy, because you wouldn’t have been happy with a bracelet.”

“
Ok, fair point, but why one of Winya’s unique quality? I would have been very happy with any of the beautiful swords you make.”

I looked down and shuffled my feet for a few seconds
. “Perhaps, but I wouldn’t have. You are a special woman, so only a special sword would do.”

She took in a shallow breath and
looked away from me. “But this is still too much. I don’t deserve a sword like her. Alex, there are kings who would ransom their entire treasuries for a weapon like Winya!”

I walked over and gently
put my arm around her, moving her chin so she would look at me. “Yes, you do deserve her, and so much more. Ask her yourself, she would serve no one else. And I don’t want to be with anyone else.”

She kissed me quickly on the lips
. “All right, enough you two. I don’t want to melt right here on the ground.” She wiped away a tear that was forming.

“
Besides, I already made you a bracelet.” I said smugly.

“
You what? When?”

“
Look at your wrist.”

She looked down at her right wrist and found a beautiful white and silver
bracelet with an emerald at the center. She stroked it a few times. “Alex, it’s beautiful…wait...where is Winya?” I pointed at the bracelet. “You’re kidding me! Girl, why didn’t you tell me you could do that?”

“
Why do you think I never made you a sheath?”

“
I was wondering about that, so why didn’t you?”

“
Because I thought that if you were seen with her on your hip, she would draw a lot of unwanted attention. This way, you can have a regular sword on your belt for all to see, but really have Winya when the need arises. She also won’t hurt anyone who touches her as a bracelet; well, accidently, anyway.”

“
I can’t believe you thought about all that.”

“
What can I say, I listen to what you say to me and, in this case, I also listened to what Winya’s desires were too.”

“
Hmmm, a man who listens, I’m a lucky girl. Now tell me what else she can do.”

I leaned
against a post. “Well, for starters, she has four different forms that she can take: sword, dagger, bracelet, and the last one that we will get to later. But for now, let’s work with the sword. To get her to change back, all you need to do is mentally ask her to.”

Winya
quickly changed back into a sword right in Maya’s hand. I went over to the pack that I brought and selected a sword that Darroth had made.

“
Ok, this is a regular sword, nothing magic about it. Now, I’m going to hold it out and you are going to strike it with Winya.” She nodded and I held out the sword with a firm grip. With a gleam of light, Maya slashed Winya at my blade and the metal parted, the front half of the blade dropping cleanly to the ground between us.

I
smiled and whistled, “Wow, you are going to be expensive to spar with from now on!”

Maya stared a
t the ruined sword in disbelief and dropped to her knees to cautiously pick up the sword part from the sand and examine the edge. “I cut it clean through. How is that even possible?”

“
That’s one of her enchantments, but don’t worry; most of the time, she will behave like a normal sword. When you need her to, though, she can cut through almost anything. Just destroying an opponent’s weapon can result in a battle being avoided.”

She nodded understanding
and hopped back on her feet.

“
Now, as a dagger, she won’t be able to do that; but she can adjust her color to match any background, making herself almost invisible.”

“
That could be useful, so what’s the fourth form?”

“
A crossbow. “

She
seemed a bit confused. “You’re serious, a sword that turns into a ranged weapon?” But Winya had already turned into a small hand crossbow. Within seconds, Maya was bouncing around with glee. If I knew she would have had this reaction, I would have told her when she was still wearing the dress!

“
One-hand crossbow bolts not included.”

She
calmed down to look over Winya in appreciation and to line up a few practice shots. “So I need to carry bolts with me, now?”

“
Yes, and not just any bolts; they have to be my bolts.”

“
Why?”

“
Regular bolts would explode.” She looked surprised, and then I glimpsed a bad idea forming in her mind. “Explode in your face, not at the target.” That idea was forgotten in a hurry.

“
Not to doubt your warning, but I’m curious why would they explode? It’s a hand crossbow.”

“
Another enchantment…even at her diminutive size, she has the force of a heavy crossbow. Normal wooden quarrels these sizes aren’t made for that kind of stress. But don’t worry; I brought some special bolts with me.”

I handed
Maya a small pouch of bolts that was meant to attach to her belt. The belt pouch itself could hold fifteen bolts, which should be more than enough for most situations. If she needed more for a full-out battle, I had some other ideas for her armor to help with that.

She
quickly loaded a bolt and took aim at a twelve inch thick training pell about fifty feet away. When she fired, there was almost no sound from Winya, but the bolt blasted right through the solid oak beam and buried itself deep into the hill behind…no getting that one back without a trained dachshund and a bag of cookies! I had a feeling that I would have to volunteer to make her new targets that could stand up to her new toys.

“
Winya, you are so perfect. I’ve always wanted a crossbow.”

“
Well, she will take some getting used to; she isn’t like a normal crossbow in operation and she re-cocks herself automatically.”

“
That’s great, but I guess I need to practice with her now.”

“
Speaking of practice, I brought some of my other blades that should stand up against Winya for a little while, so what do you say, practice duel with your new sword?”

She
smiled, “What, no war hammer?”

“
I thought I would take it easy on you and use a sword today. Besides I have a whole sack of swords,” I grinned.

We spar
red for over an hour, and Maya loved it. I could tell that the two of them, Maya and Winya, were getting a lot better with each other because half-way through our session, I was forced to use my mage sight to predict her movements.  Even then I was almost always on the defensive. I also got the feeling that Winya was coaching my girl as there were a number of maneuvers that I didn’t remember Maya ever using, that popped up in our match. During the course of our session, Winya broke three of the swords that I made without even augmenting her sharpness. I was using the last one, and it wasn’t looking so good.

As my last sword disintegrated under Winya
’s final onslaught, Maya laughed and taunted, “Ha! So much for your paltry weapons, Sir Knight…do you surrender? Or shall I leave your broken body on this hallowed field of battle?”

“
My Lady, I surrendered the first time I saw your face in my kitchen,” I bantered back. I started to clean up the broken sword pieces thrown all over the place. But as I was cleaning up, Maya marched right over to me, grabbed me, and pulled both of us to the ground kissing me deeply. Time slowed down as we had our arms around each other, exploring each other. A few minutes passed before I came up for air, and she nuzzled me softly.

“
Well, if this is how you intend to treat my broken body on the field of battle, my new motto is ‘never surrender!”

“
Oh, I think you will.” She winked, got up, and pulled me back to my feet. “It’s time to get you back on schedule.” As we were heading back to the main training area, Maya donned her usual trainer gear with mask.

“
Alright, where’s the bloody sword!”

We both looked over in surprise at the
very annoyed dwarf marching across the training fields. I looked down at Maya with a mischievous smile, and she patted me on the back in agreement; we had an idea. When Darroth finally got to us, we were standing side by side, looking casual.

“
Alright, let’s see it. I was promised that it would look completely different the next time I saw it, so you had better make good on your promise.”

Maya held out her wrist to show off the
bracelet. “Look at the wonderful bracelet that Alex made for me, isn’t it simply stunning!”

“
I don’t care about a bracelet, where is the sword?”

Maya
slipped her arms behind her back and brought out Winya as a dagger, but used her powers to make it look gray. “How about this magic dagger he made for me?”