The Swordswoman

Chapter One

A figure walked down the street of the small town, she wore a black cloak with the hood pulled down over her face and a suspicious bulge on her right hip. She walked quickly down the muddy road towards the inn. Though the inn was, in fact, a fairly small building it was still the largest in the town, like most of the other buildings it was mostly made out of wood and not painted.

The mysterious woman walked into the inn and headed to the front desk where a young man with black hair, hazel colored eyes, and tan skin sat reading. Behind him, the woman noticed a poster with a picture of a young woman and underneath it said, "Zaemir Salexor wanted on charges of desertion and murder. She is 5" 8' and has brown hair with brown eyes. Do NOT approach! She is armed and dangerous!"

"A room for the night, please," she said looking down to hide her face a bit more and handing the man several gold coins.

The man examined the coins for a few seconds before nodding his head and get a key from below the desk and handed it to her saying "room 6 ma'am."

"Thanks," she replied before quickly going upstairs towards her room.

She sighed as she walked into her room and sighed, it had been a long day. She had been traveling for the last three days with little rest and almost no food. She had hoped that she was far enough away from the Swordsmen that they would stop looking, but the poster downstairs showed confirmed her fear that they thought she might come this far out and that they would stop at nothing to find her no matter how far she went. And with that happy thought, she collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep, not even bothering to take off her armor.

When she woke up the next morning it was still dark out, she rolled out of bed, rebraided her messy hair and put on her black cloak. She was walked down the stairs and was about to leave when she heard a voice behind her say, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." She whipped around and saw the young man who had been behind the desk last night.

"What do you mean?" She asked suspiciously, not knowing whether or not to trust him.

"I mean that the Swordsmen came not long after you did last night and they're right outside that door," he said, the ghost of a smile on his face.

"And why would I care?" She asked getting a bit nervous.

"I know who you are, you're Zaemir Salexor. The greatest Swordsman in over a hundred years, and the most wanted. You're the only Swordsman to survive this long after deserting, most die in the first week but somehow you've managed to survive for almost two weeks!"

"But why are are you helping me?"

"Because we want the same thing, revenge on the king and the Swordsmen, so if you can give me that, I can prove very useful," He said smirking.

"Why do you want revenge on them?" She asked still not entirely sure she could trust him.

"The same reason most people do, this is conquered land and we're sore losers, both literally and figurately," as he spoke a veil of sadness came over him, he had obviously lost someone in the Slaughter of Hadoc, the slaughter that followed King Danthrag's rise to power.

"If I can't us this door then how am I supposed to get out?"

"Follow me!" He said going behind the desk, motioning her to follow him. Though she was slightly confused as to what he was doing she followed him. As she went behind the counter to her surprise she saw a trap door that the man had opened and was going down a ladder into.

"I never got your name by the way," she said as she followed him down the ladder and closing the trap door behind her.

"It's Narok," he said lighting a torch that had been on the wall in a brazier next to us. They were in a very old tunnel, it was damp and looked like nobody had been down there in years. But someone had to have been because the brazier was lit.

Narok led the way through the tunnels, Zaemir hoped he knew the way because these tunnels looked like somewhere that it both very easy and very dangerous to get lost in.

A/N Hope you liked the first chapter! And I would love to thank @DoceMary for both the idea for this story as well as the awesome cover! Votes and feedback are always appreciated!