Page 16 of Swordheart
“Is this your relative with the clammy hands, lady?” asked Sarkis.
She peered over his shoulder. “Yes.”
“Halla, what in the name of heaven is going on?” cried Alver. “Why is this person here?”
“And your niece is fifteen, you say?”
“She is.”
Sarkis shook his head in disgust. “She could fight him without my help.”
Halla burst out laughing for the first time since her great-uncle had died.
“Alver?” shouted Aunt Malva. “Alver, what is happening?”
Cousin Alver drew himself up as tall as he could. Since he was still about five steps down, this brought the top of his head even with Sarkis’s shins.
“There is an intruder in the house, mother!” he shouted. “Stay in your room!”
“We were just leaving,” said Halla.
“You’ll do no such thing, cousin! If you think that I’ll stand by and let my betrothed be kidnapped—”
“We are not betrothed! I didn’t agree to anything! Iwon’tagree to anything!” Halla started forward, furious, and Sarkis had to shift hastily to one side to block her advance with his shoulder.
“Halla, you are overwrought! And clearly in danger! Go back to your room, and Roderick and I will deal with this… thisperson!”
Sarkis rolled his eyes, took a step forward, and lifted his sword. “Go back down the stairs, little man,” he said. “With your head or without it, it’s all the same to me.”
Cousin Alver’s mouth fell open.
“May I kill him now, lady?” asked Sarkis politely.
“Yes! No, wait, that’s not charitable of me. Can you just cut him? His mother’s really punishment enough.”
Alver leveled a trembling finger at Sarkis. “I don’t know who you are or how you got in here—”
“I am Sarkis of the Weeping Lands!” roared the servant of the sword, in a voice loud enough to shake the walls. “And you arein my way!”
Cousin Alver let out a squeak and nearly fell in his haste to get off the staircase.
“It is so gratifying when that works,” murmured Sarkis.
“Does it not usually work?”
“Not on actual warriors, no.” He started down the steps, one hand gripping Halla’s. “Normally they just yell back, ‘No one cares, come and die.’ Is anyone likely to come from above?”
“The servants go home at night. Silas wouldn’t pay for them to stay full time. It’s just attics now.”
Cousin Alver hit the landing where the stairs met the second floor hallway and really did fall. He landed at his mother’s feet and crabwalked backward.
“I knew it!” cried Aunt Malva. She held a candle in her hand, casting shaky yellow light across the scene. “I knew I heard a man in your room, Halla!”
“He’s not a man! He’s a sword!”
“I am actually both,” said Sarkis, sounding somewhat apologetic. “First one, then the other.”
“Sorry. No offense meant. It seems very complicated.”
