Ivy's Tangle (Legend of the White Sword - Book 1)

Chapter 18 - Summer's End

"You've fought bravely boy," the woman said. "Well beyond your years. If you give me your name, I'll remember it, and grant you a merciful death."

That didn't sound like a very good deal. I tried to focus through the pain and blood loss; to remember what Mr. Ryan taught me. I looked the woman in her eyes.

"My name is Jack."

"A lie," the woman said. She looked even angrier. "Will you end your life with a lie upon your lips?"

"Please," Ivy said from behind me. "Let him go. He's just a foolish boy who tried to help me."

"The hour is late for that," the woman said. She looked back at me. "Your name?"

You might think I was scared. What with having my butt handed to me by demon wolves and this dragon lady. And sure I was afraid, but now, woozy or not, I was getting angry. So, full disclosure, as my mother would say—my name isn't Jack. I tell people it is, because the third reason I had no friends, on top of the moving around, and the bad temper... was my name. My stupid, stupid name. Other people have crappy names they dread having read aloud on the first day of school, but they all feel better at attendance time when my turn comes. Now, I was mad. It wasn't enough for this psycho to kill me in the forest with her creepy sword; she had to humiliate me in front of Ivy too. Fine.

"Jakalain Moonborn Talantial," I said through clenched teeth.

Ivy gasped, and the woman laughed. When she stopped laughing and looked down at me, I somehow knew she wasn't laughing about how funny my name sounds.

"So much vengeance in a single night," she said. "Well fought, Son of Talantial."

When she drew back the huge sword, I tried to cover Ivy with my body, but it was hopeless. I wouldn't even slow her swing. The white blade flew towards us with impossible speed, and in that instant I realised that Ivy's little hand was clenched in my own. The pale blade stopped dead a few inches from my face—caught by a silver one. Then, with a screech and a hail of sparks, Mr. Ryan pushed the bigger sword up with the library sword and threw the woman back a few paces. He moved to stand between her and us, sword at the ready.

I was caught somewhere between wanting to cheer and wanting to cry. Mr. Ryan was a guy you could count on. Without taking his eyes from the dragon lady, he reached up, removed, and tossed me the little headlamp he was wearing. Then he gave her his salute, the same one that both begins and finishes his katas.

Seeing the salute, the woman hesitated, looking Mr. Ryan up and down before attacking. You'll have to trust me when I say that no sword fight you've ever seen in a movie comes close to the spectacle Ivy and I watched in the stone circle. Mr. Ryan and the dragon lady ignored us completely. I knew Mr. Ryan was good, never having touched him with my sword, but dancing with the library sword in the moonlight, he was beautiful. It was very much a battle between raw power and grace, and the dragon lady brought crazy strength and speed to the fight.

Mr. Ryan is a strong man... I spotted him sometimes when he did bench presses in the gym, and he's strong. His strength didn't come close to the dragon lady's. Several times, when forced to block her attack directly, Mr. Ryan was literally thrown from his feet. He always found them again, like a cat, circling away and returning as good as he got. Even in my dim state, I recognised that I'd never be Mr. Ryan's equal. Not with a lifetime of practice. Watching him fight was like watching a racehorse run or an eagle fly. It was what he was made for. Stronger or not, the dragon lady wasn't a match for Mr. Ryan either. He fought her the way he'd told me to fight a stronger opponent—with his mind.

Then he disarmed her.

It was too fast and the night too dim for me to see how. The white sword lay at his feet, and the dragon lady crouched, several paces away, empty-handed. Mr. Ryan had won. Inexplicably, he flipped the big sword at the woman with the tip of his sword and took a step back. She caught her sword and stared at Mr. Ryan as though she was trying to see through him. I took my first breath in a while.