Riss Cobalt, sorceress supreme, and her husband Fiore, have to guard a special sword.
Crouching Marissa, Hidden Fireball:
An Adventure in Sorcery
Two black-haired children – twin brother and sister about twelve years of age – stood inside the dim foyer of the tower. They wore simple traveling clothes and waited patiently at the door along with a handsome brown-haired man of about thirty who wore a green sorcerer’s robe, and a lovely blonde woman in a pale yellow dress who looked about eighteen. She had pointed ears and slanted almond-shaped eyes, denoting her as an Elf. The children had the same features.
“What’s taking them so long?” asked the man.
“I don’t know, Etienne,” the woman replied. “You’d think they’d be eager to see their own children off.”
“Maybe they’re reluctant to let them go, Arianna.”
“No, I don’t think that’s it, Etienne. It’s not like the children are leaving for good. It’s only a vacation. And it’s not the first time they’ve sent the twins on vacation to Alantara.”
“True. But why do they keep sending them to Alantara? Why don’t they let the twins go somewhere else on vacation?”
“Well, Elisha and Elyssia go traveling with their parents all the time. And besides, one of the twins will – hopefully – claim their birthright one day and take the throne of the Elf Kingdom. You know that, dear. So the children need to become familiar with Alantara.”
Etienne nodded. “Makes sense.”
Footsteps echoed down the dark hallway, heading towards the foyer. The children perked up. Then two people in their early twenties emerged into the foyer. One was a tall, handsome human man with long red hair. The other was a shorter, pretty human woman with long blue hair. Both wore blue sorcerers robes.
“About time you showed up, Riss, Fiore,” said Etienne. “The children were growing impatient.”
“Mother! Father!” said the children as they ran up to the newcomers.
The blue-haired woman hugged the children. Then the redheaded man did likewise.
Now, you no doubt are wondering, how could two humans have Elfin children? Well, their mother, Riss, has a very slight trace of Elfin blood, and she used some very powerful magic while she was pregnant. That effected the blood of the children, causing them to become full-blooded elves. And because they are elves, they mature quickly as children, so although they were born three years earlier, they are in effect twelve-year-olds.
“Sorry, Etienne,” the blue-haired woman said as she stood up. “Fiore and I, uh…”A small smile formed on her lips. “We…overslept.”
Etienne rolled his eyes. “Uh…right, Riss. Well, we’re ready to leave. We’ve been ready for the past hour. But the twins insisted on waiting to tell you good-bye.”
Riss turned her attention to the twins. “Sorry to have kept you waiting, Elisha, Elyssia,” she said. “I know you’re eager to get going with your Uncle Etienne and Aunt Arianna. Have fun in Alantara. And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Etienne scoffed at that. “Don’t you mean ‘Don’t do anything I would do’? Huh, Riss? You don’t want them to blow up the city with a modified Fireball if they get the least bit angry, do you?”
“HEY!” Riss said. “I’m NOT that bad! And I’m working on controlling my temper, too, Etienne.”
“With ‘working’ being the operative word,” Fiore said.
Riss elbowed him in the stomach, and he gasped and buckled over.
“Lay off!” Riss called to him.
Arianna and Etienne rolled their eyes.
“Well, they say love hurts,” Etienne said. “These two make a prime example of it.”
“They certainly do,” Arianna said.
Riss and Fiore ignored them and said their good-byes to the twins. Then the vacationing party left the tower.
Riss shut the tower door and turned to Fiore.
“Well, dear, they’re finally gone,” the blue-haired sorceress said. “So, what are we going to do for the whole two weeks they’re gone?”
“Oh, I have an idea of one thing we can do,” he said. There was a glint in his green eyes, and he grinned as he walked towards her.
She squealed in glee and laughed as he picked her up in his arms and carried her down the hall and upstairs.
The Teleportation spell deposited Riss and Fiore, now dressed in traveling clothes, on a dirt road going through a forest. They struck off heading north. They took their time walking so that they could enjoy the early autumn weather together and reminisce about how they had first met about four years earlier on a similar early autumn day.
They hadn’t walked for long before they came upon an obstruction in the road. The obstruction was in the form of a couple of bodies lying in the middle of the road along with a long, skinny, wooden box. A half dozen more people stood above the bodies, engaged in battle. Riss and Fiore immediately noticed that four of the melee fighters were bandits. And they seemed to have the upper hand in the battle over the two other swordsmen.
Riss and Fiore looked at each other and nodded.
“HOLD IT!” Riss called to the battlers.
Undistracted, the fight continued.
Riss frowned. A small ball of fire appeared in her gloved hand, and she tossed it at the fighters while calling out, “Fireball!”
The ball of fire exploded on the ground behind the fighters, startling them. The fighting stopped and they all turned to look.
The two attacked swordsmen sighed in relief at the sight of Riss and Fiore. The four bandits, on the other hand…
“It…It…It’s HER!” called one bandit fearfully.
“The ruthless sorceress!” called another.
“And the scourge of all evil in Andor!” called a third bandit.
“Ma…Ma…Marissa Cobalt!” called the last bandit.
“In person!” Riss called with a big, evil grin on her face. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Now, if you don’t want a bigger Fireball or something worse tossed directly at you, I suggest you leave these people alone and get lost.”
The four bandits looked at each other and nodded.
“RUN AWAY!” called one bandit.
The four bandits scattered into the surrounding forest.
Riss and Fiore laughed and walked to the two swordsmen.
“Miss Marissa Cobalt,” said one man, a dark-haired youngster about seventeen years old. “Master Fiore Ferio. Thank Dumarh you two arrived when you did. If you hadn’t, those bandits would have gotten it.”
“Gotten what?” Fiore asked.
The other man, an older man in his late forties, bent down and picked up the box. “This,” he said, and handed the box to Fiore.
“What is it?” Riss asked.
Fiore opened the box. Inside it lay a beautifully crafted sword. The blade was polished silver. The hilt, golden and encrusted with jewels. Fiore whistled in awe.
“This is the Sword of Gollan,” said the older fighter.
Fiore looked at him in surprise. “Really?!”
“THE Sword of Gollan?” Riss asked, also surprised. “THE sword that belonged to one of the greastest swordsmen ever? THE sword that is believed to hold some sort of magic power because it has never lost a fight?”
“Yes,” said the young fighter. He motioned to the older fighter and the two dead bodies. “Lord Killan of the island kingdom of Istarrhn found it and sent us to deliver it to Lord Etain in Westover.”
“But, why didn’t Lord Killan just keep the sword?” Fiore asked.
“Lord Etain offered an enormous price for it, and the truth be known, Istarrhn needs the money.”
“Miss Marissa, Master Fiore,” said the older fighter, “would you kindly do us a favor?”
“What?” asked Riss.
“Would you deliver this sword to Lord Etain for us? We really should take our companions home for an appropriate burial.”
Riss opened her mouth to answer, but Fiore beat her to it. “Gladly,” he said, ignoring the vicious look from his wife. “We’re on our way to Westover anyway.”
“Thank you! Thank you!” the older man said as he pumped Fiore’s hand up and down in a furious handshake.
Once Fiore was free of the very grateful man, he and Riss went on their way with the box, leaving the two fighters to gather up their friends’ bodies.
As evening settled in, Riss and Fiore set up camp for the night in the forest. And after a brief meal of bread and cheese that Riss had stored in the magic pocket of her cloak, the couple curled up by the campfire and fell asleep in each other’s embrace.
While they slept, a man watched them from the surrouding trees. When it seemed to him that they were sound asleep, he crept out of the trees and up to the fire. He bent down and opened the wooden box. He smiled at the sight of the sword nestled inside. He closed the box and picked it up. Then he sneaked off into the forest.
“Well, you know my hearing is sharper than yours.”
“True. Which direction was it?”
“I’m not sure. I was sleeping. And it was really low sounding. But I think it was from the north.”
“Did it sound like an animal or a human snapped it?”
“How should I know?? A snapped twig is a snapped twig!”
“Uh…right.”
Riss sighed. “It was probably an animal, and nothing to get worked up over. Let’s just go back to sleep.”
“All right, Riss.”
The two settled back down, but just as Fiore was about to doze off, he noticed something.
“RISS!” he said. “The sword!”
“What about it?” Riss said drowsily.
“It’s gone!”
Riss was instantly awake. “WHAT?!”
“Look!” Fiore pointed to the spot by the fire where the box with the sword had been.
Riss stared at the spot, and frowned. “Dammit!” She stood up. “Come on, Fiore. Let’s go hunting. I’d bet my life that that twig snap was from the guy who stole the sword.”
Fiore stood up, and after putting out the campfire they struck off into the forest.
Riss pulled a staff out of the magic pocket of her cloak. With a whispered word, a dim blue light shone from the crystal atop the staff. Using that light, and her sharp eyesight, Riss led Fiore along through the forest, managing to pick out snapped twigs, crunched leaves, and footprints. They followed that trail.
The trail eventually led to a small clearing. Riss turned off the light of her staff, and rom the shelter of the trees she and Fiore surveyed the scene. They saw several small campfires, and one large tent. A total of a score of bandits were scattered around the various campfires. The bandit leader came out of the tent. Before the tent flap closed, Riss saw the sword box sitting on the ground inside the tent.
“It’s there, Fiore,” she whispered.
“So what’s the plan?” he whispered back.
“Well, I just want to get the sword back so I can get back to sleep. So nothing elaborate. How about we give them a double whamy?”
“You mean, both of us attack at the same time?”
“Yeah. It’d be quick and effective.”
“All right by me. At least you don’t want to use me as bait this time.”
She gave him a small smile. “Maybe I’ll do that next time.” She turned back to the clearing. “Ready?”
“Yeah.”
She and Fiore stepped out of the forest and walked towards the clearing.
“Yoohoo!” she called.
The bandits all stopped what they were doing and turned to look.
“Marissa Cobalt?!” the bandit leader called out. “Get her!” he ordered his goons.
His men looked at him as if he were crazy.
“I said get her!” he said threateningly.
“Too late!” Riss called. “A word to the wise: Don’t steal from Marissa Cobalt and ruin her beauty sleep!”
A ball of fire appeared in her hand, and one appeared in Fiore’s hand. They threw them at the bandits.
“FIREBALL!” they called out, activating their spells.
The balls of flame exploded on contact, wiping out the entire bandit gang in one huge blazing inferno while also doing no other damage to the camp.
When the flames died down, Riss and Fiore crossed the camp and entered the tent. Except for a pallet on the floor, the box with the sword in it, and a chest nestled in a corner, the tent was empty. Fiore retrieved the sword box while Riss raided the chest. She found gold coins and jewels inside the chest, and liberally helped herself to most of it, stuffing handfuls into her magic pocket. After all, the bandits wouldn’t need the treasure anymore, she thought.
Fiore walked up to her as she closed the lid of the chest.
“What now?” Fiore asked.
“We’re going to Westover now. I want to get rid of this sword as soon as possible. I don’t want my sleep interrupted again by another thief taking it.”
So saying, she cast another Teleportation spell, and the two disappeared.
Riss and Fiore materialized inside the throne room of a castle, startling the guards who were the only people in sight.
“Summon Lord Etain,” Riss told a guard. “NOW!”
“Y…Y…Yes, ma’am!” the guard stammered.
The guard ran out of the throne room. Five minutes later, a pudgy man with grey-tinted brown hair and who wore a bedrobe walked in.
“What’s the meaning of this summons?” he asked as he tried to stifle a yawn. “Miss Marissa, what’s so important that you have to drag me out of bed at this hour of the night?”
“Fiore, give it to him,” Riss said, shoving her husband towards Lord Etain.
Fiore stumbled, but recovered and approached Lord Etain. He handed the long, skinny box to Etain.
“What’s this?” Etain asked as he opened the box. He stared in awe at the sword within.
“The Sword of Gollan, which you purchased from Lord Killan,” Riss said. She went on to explain what had happened.
“Ah. How fortunate you arrived when you did. Thank you for bringing it to me. How may I repay you?”
“Well, how about paying for our stay in Westover? We’re going to get a room at an inn, and pick up some supplies.”
“I suppose….” Not-so-fond memories of the bills he received the last time he had arranged to pay her expenses in the city while she resided there flashed through his mind. “How long will you be here?”
“Only a few days, I think. Not long.”
“All right, Miss Marissa. You have a deal.”
“Thank you, Lord Etain.”
“No, thank you, Miss Marissa. And you, Master Fiore. For delivering my sword.”
“You’re welcome,” Fiore said.
Etain took his leave, taking his sword with him back to his room. Riss and Fiore made their way out of the castle and to the dark streets of the port city of Westover.
“Let’s go find an inn, Fiore,” Riss said, taking his hand and giving him a suggestive smile. “So we can celebrate our good fortune.”
Fiore smiled down at her. “Sounds good to me, Riss.”
Born of their seeds, kingdom will rise against kingdom, one will hold great mysteries, one will turn the tide and one will not be bound. War is fought, not only on the field but also within the mind. Nothing is what it seems take nothing for granted.
Across the Forling is the fourth book in the fifteen book series, The Adventures of Lord Belmundus, a remarkable tale of others worlds, strange customs, beauty and warfare; and, in its grips, lands a young celebrity, who has the chaps to play the man
