The Sword’s Vow

fending me. ”He didn do anything, this isn how our knights are supposed to function. It was self-defense, our knights take a pledge to- ”

”Enough, Eumaeus! ” shouted King Famir. ”Our knights have pledged to defend the crown, that young man posed a threat to us. It is a good thing that we are locking him away, trust me, child. ”

The person, Eumaeus, didn look very happy. I couldn blame them. I mean, they weren the one with a developing black eye but I understood why they would be upset.

They looked desperately at the King. ”At least allow me to tend his cut, please father. It will help

me with my studies. ” They added quickly.

”You may visit the prisoners after an hour, ” King Famir decided. ”Now, guards. ” He nodded, and the guard put away his sword again. Two of them grabbed each of my arms and led both me, and Ian, away.

Ian was silent the entire way down. He wouldn even look at me, I didn understand why. The walk down to the cellars was much shorter than I had anticipated. It was way shorter than the walk to the throne room. We walked down two flights of stairs, they had no banisters. I wondered how many stair related accidents there were in this place. Were there banisters on the stairs leading up?

The three guards put us in a cell together, maybe I could make friends with the rats if Ian still didn want to talk to me. The guards locked the door and left, clearly we weren dangerous enough to warrant being supervised. The cell was damp, the air was stuffy and hot. There was a window with iron bars near the ceiling and torches on the walls. On the ground, there were two large hay blocks covered with a piece of cloth.

Ian took the one on the left, he sat with his legs criss crossed and his arms folded over his chest. ”Im annoyed at you. ” He said, it was the first thing he said to me since we entered the throne room.

Now it all made sense. He wasn talking to me, or even acknowledging me because he was annoyed. ”Im sorry, what did I do? ”

”You got yourself hurt, ” Ian responded, his body relaxing and eyes softening. ”You
e so clever, whyd you have to do something so stupid. You
e going to get a black eye now, its already going purple. ”

”Yeah, I bet I look badass, ” I joked, trying to lighten the situation.

It seemed to work. Ian laughed. ”No, you look terrible. ”

”Kick a man while hes down, ” I said and sat down next to Ian. ”Its gonna be alright though. ”

I don know why I told him it was going to be alright. We both knew it wasn , I think I just told him what he wanted to hear, or maybe what we both wanted to hear. I was only now starting to regret my decision, it was only now that I could really feel the hurt. I wasn sure how Id go about explaining all this to my dad but it wasn like this would be the first time I came home slightly battered.

”Are you alright though? ” Ian asked, then gestured for me to turn to face him.

I did, and he took my chin between his pointer and thumb. He examined my face for a moment, I couldn imagine it looked good. The guy knew how to hit, plus he was absolutely decked out in armour and I wasn . Talk about an unfair fight. ”Whats the verdict, doc? ”

”You
e an idiot, ” he responded, still looking at me rather intensely. ”Not as bad as that time in August though, I reckon youll survive though. ”

”I survived August too, ” I pointed out.

He let go of my face and sighed. ”Yeah, but that doesn mean you have to go around doing shit like this. ”

”I don , ” I argued. ”I just always find myself in a situation where I do shit like this. I promise Ill stay out of trouble now, only for you though. ”

”Alright, fine, ” Ian smiled for the first time since we got here. He threw his hands up in surrender. ”Now go on, tell me all about the sword, I know you
e dying to say something about it. ”

He knew me a little too well. ”It was a xiphos, like think Ancient Greece. I wish I got a look at the handle though, it looked really well made- I bet they have a really good blacksmith. Youd never be able to buy that sort of thing online, not even for like a thousand euro. ”

”Not even for a thousand euros? ”

”No, this is the real deal. ”

”Well, youd hope so, ” Ian said. ”Seems like this is the kind of place with a whole army, it feels like weve gone back in time. ”

”We haven though, have we? ”

Ian shook his head. ”Nah, don think they had a universal postal service in the medieval times. ”

”I hope you
e right, ” I nodded. ”I don want to be late for dinner. ”