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"I understand. Take the next two days to forge your blade. It is good that you fought for the honor of the Riders."
"Thank you, Master." Florina said as he cut off the connection and she turned to walk off the field. Lifaen followed her.
"Florina, are you well?"
"Well enough, Lifaen. I just need a new blade."
"But Rhunön has made an oath."
"She will not be the one making it. I will be." Florina walked toward the tunnel of creeper draped dogwood and walked in. Lifaen followed her. She found the elf woman working on a mail corselet that hung on her anvil. "Atra esterní ono thelduin." She honored the woman. The elf looked at her. Florina noticed that her face displayed signs of age and she had a feeling that she was older than even Oromis. "Rhunön-elda," she continued when the elf didn't answer, "I would like to ask a favor of you." Rhunön noticed the shards of the sword in Florina's hands.
"I do not make swords. I know you have been told of my oath."
"I have. But I have not come to ask you to make one for me. I am asking if I can use your forge to make my own." Florina met Rhunön's gaze without wavering. Lifaen and Kuldra watched them silently.
"Let me see your hands." Florina placed the metal on the table and held her hands out to the elf. Rhunön examined them closely. "You have worked in the forge since you were young."
"My father taught me." Rhunön turned to the pieces of iron and silver on her table.
"What happened?"
"I was fighting another elf to protect the honor of the Riders. He delivered a blow strong enough to break my sword which I had hoped to use to block his blade and attack. My master has given me two days to forge a new one."
"And how do you expect to keep it from breaking again?"
"This blade was one of the first I made and had been kept in the cellar of our home. The one I favored was lost when I was captured in Dras-Leona and is now lost to me as it was a hasty rescue."
"And what properties did it have?"
"It was of middle length, maybe a little longer. It was slightly wider at the guard to give it more strength there. It had a straight blade and a hand-and-a-half hilt." Rhunön examined the iron closer.
"You cannot reuse this iron-steel. It is finely crafted, but years sitting in a cellar, no matter how safely kept, has brought impurities to it." She swept the metal, leaving the silver, into a pit across the way. "You will use iron that I have."
"Thank you, Rhunön-elda. I will repay you in any way I can." Rhunön waved her off and went into her forge, returning with a large chunk of pure iron.
"This will make a fine blade. I am interested to see your work at this age of your craft." Florina bowed and picked up the iron. Rhunön led the three of them to a low grotto. She sat against one of the poles supporting the roof and watched. Florina removed her over shirt and donned the apron that the elf had let her use. Florina first built a smelter, cutting the five foot pit into three sections with the use of bricks. She placed branches and kindling along the bottom and used magic to start the fire. She cultivated the fire, adding an oak log, until she had an even bed of coals. She picked up the iron ore and placed it in the middle trough and quickly added charcoal to fuel the fire. Then she went to the bellows on one side and began pumping, refusing Kuldra's help in heating it. It had been too long since she had been at her craft and she wanted to do it herself.
She kept an eye on the heat of the flame. Pure iron heated differently than iron-steel and she needed to keep a close eye on it. She felt Rhunön's eyes on her the whole time. Once she deemed the metal ready, she uncovered a third at a time, letting it cool before uncovering the next third while breaking the section before. Once all the metal had been broken, she examined each piece with a steady eye and sorted it. She worked through the night, the elves watching her every move. Once she had hammered the metal into plates, she further sorted out the metal and worked with the harder pieces first. She was barely aware of the elf woman walking up to the anvil and watching the hammering. Every time she did, she heard the elf singing and figured it was a tune the elf liked to sing while she worked.
When the sun rose, Florina slept for a couple of hours, allowing the elf to work in her own forge again, before going back to her own sword. She took the blank of the sword and used the rougher tools and shaped the sword the way she wanted it. All the while, she was aware of Rhunön's singing. Florina spent the morning tempering the steel, not once using Kuldra's fire. She stopped only once to eat at noon and then spent the afternoon using the finer grindstones on the blade. Suddenly, Rhunön was standing over her shoulder. The day was drawing to a close and Florina knew she still had a great amount of work to do as she had to make a new hilt.
"Stop," the elf woman said. Florina counted herself lucky as she had just laid the file she was working with down as she had been startled.
"What is wrong, Rhunön-elda?"
"Nothing. I have never seen this fine of craftsmanship before." The elf took the blade in her hands and examined it. "It rivals the work of the dwarves and can compare to mine. Sleep the night away."
"But,"
"Let this be my gift to you. From one master to another." Florina smiled and nodded, knowing what it meant to her as Hrothgar had done the same in making her armor. Florina bid them all goodnight and entered Rhunön's house and found the bed where Rhunön said it would be.
"Why did you stay, Lifaen?"
"What are you talking about, Rhunön?"
"The only time you have stayed in my forge this long was before I took my oath and I was making your blade. So, I ask again, why did you stay?"
"I….uh….I," Lifaen fell silent as an excuse failed to form. Rhunön looked at him, a knowing look in her eye. He looked away and the elf woman saw the blush forming on his cheeks.
"What is it about her?"
"I don't know. I just don't. It's not just because she is a Dragon Rider. It's something more. The first time I saw her in Ceris, she seemed so confident. She held herself without fear." Lifaen sighed and looked at Kuldra who was still sitting in the same spot she had been in when Florina had started. "It's complicated, Rhunön."
"I don't see what's so complicated about it."
"I have no idea if she feels the same way for me. She only knows that Oromis let me spar with her. She has no idea that I asked him for the opportunity." He looked into the dragon's eye. "Please do not tell her."
"You have my word. But when the time is right, you must tell her yourself."
"Of course, Skulblaka. You have my word." Kuldra snorted and turned to the elf woman.
"Why did you not let Florina finish her sword?" She asked, changing the subject.
"I knew from looking at her hands that she is a gifted smith. While she worked, I sang songs that I used to sing over the blades when I made them for the Riders. I want to give her a proper hilt with the silver. But I have plans that I can now fulfill without the interference of my oath. A gift from one master to another." Kuldra blinked, though she still did not understand why the elf woman wanted to finish the sword instead of letting her Rider do it for herself.
She was a spectator. But she knew the thoughts of everyone and everything in the room.
The dark haired woman was laying on a stone slab in a dark room. She could see the silhouettes of other torture devices. She knew he would be returning soon to continue the torture. She refused to join his foul servants. He was telling her that he would soon break her and then she would tell him all that she knew. But she refused. She would not give away the greatest secret she kept.
A figure walked in and stood by the fireplace, lighting it with only a single word. The burns from earlier had yet to heal. The person by the fireplace stood next to it, the poker in the flames. She thought about how many times she had watched her husband work. "Is he alive?" She wondered as the door opened and closed again. She knew it was him. He had returned. From his steps, she could tell that he was upset and would use her torture as an excuse to get it out.
She remained silent as he stood next to her and look down at her. She could see his dark eyes. She shuddered at how empty and cold they were. So different from her daughter's eyes which were full of warmth and love and innocence. She put thoughts of her family from her mind and placed them behind a wall of magical fire. If she were broken and those thoughts were out in the open, she would betray her daughter. He ran his fingers through her hair. He had burned it short. The smell was still in her nose. The figure by the fire shifted and she saw a red tunic. She had seen him before. He often came in with the king now unless he was attending lessons of some sort as the king had told her. She had a feeling that the young man was a Rider as well.
"Will you swear to me?"
"Never." She whispered. "You'll just have to kill me." He chuckled.
"My dear woman, my subjects mean the world to me. That is why I do what I do: to protect them."
"I fail to see how kidnapping me contributes to that end. Why not just invite me and my family?"
"Unfortunately, the rebels had their claws in your husband. He would have alerted them to my plans and then things would have gotten messy and your daughter would be parentless if not dead. However, if you do not swear to me, my men may just kill your daughter, if she is with the Varden."
"She would rather die with them than be protected by you." A slap rang through the air, though, she barely felt it. She didn't feel anything anymore. He had made her numb to pain of any sort.
"You are a brave one, to talk to me like that."
"You do not want us to lie to each other. So I speak my mind."
"Just swear to me."
"No," She screamed.
A scream tore through the still, pre-dawn air, waking the golden dragon from her sleep. Rhunön and Lifaen quickly entered the house and ran to the second floor. Kuldra knew her Rider had had a nightmare again. She hadn't had one since they had arrived in Ellesméra. She had hoped that the shadow had left her when they entered the city. The moment she was in sight, Kuldra swept Florina towards her with her front leg. Florina didn't fight it and let Kuldra hold her close as she shared the dream.
"That is not a dream that you have had before."
"I never saw their faces. They were covered in shadow, except for his eyes. But I knew their every thought, the young man's and my mother's. That has never been the case when I have only been the spectator."
"I don't know, Brave One. But all will be well, once we rescue your mother."
"Florina," the young woman turned to the elves and saw a golden sheath in Rhunön's hands.
"Is that my,"
"Yes. I made the sheath last night." Florina took the sheathed blade and looked at it. The hard leather was not painted gold, but seemed to be made of gold. Silver vines and flowers decorated the mouth and wound to the middle. She turned her attention to the hilt. The silver was wrought in a vine pattern that cupped around her hand when she held it, guarding it from blades that ran the length of hers. She grasped the hilt and drew her sword. A soft ring filled the air, followed by a gasp. The blade was gold instead of the iron she had left it as. A single vein of silver wrapped around the part of the blade close to the hilt. Florina looked at the elf woman and back at her sword. "If, after this war with the Mad King is over, you wish, I would like you to come and learn from me. The other two eggs may be males. Saphira or Kuldra could be the mothers of a new generation of dragons and Riders and they will need their swords."
"Thank, Rhunön-elda. I would like nothing better than to learn from you." The women smiled to each other a moment before Rhunön was kicking them out of her house. Florina looked at the sky and saw the sun starting to rise. She still had another hour before her alarm would wake her if she had reset it. "I will meet you at the fields, Lifaen." She said and Kuldra took to the sky, grabbing Florina at the same time.
What did you guys think? THere may be more romance in the next chapter as I plan to do the blood oath cleebration next. Any ideas for the special change that florina will receive? Thanks for reading and please review