brushed the hilt carefully with the tip of it and frowned.
“Well?” Faith said, unable to help her impatience. Martha and Sibyl would have been driven to madness by now wondering where she was. She’d left them in the forest; they probably thought she’d been gored to death.
He flinched. “Okay, keep your hair on!” he snapped. Faith raised an eyebrow, waiting as calmly as she could.
“Right. Well, where I live, there has been a legend about this sword ever since anyone can remember. It’s said that there is a sword on this mountain which only a certain type of people can use, and sword that’s invincible.”
Eli wasn’t exactly story teller material, but the matter of fact way in which he told the tale contrasted sharply with the its content, and Faith found herself somewhat enthralled. Did the sword really have these powers, could it really be true? In the sunlight now, it certainly didn’t look invincible at all. It just looked like a piece of metal.
“When someone of the right type uses the sword, it will become like a sword of fire: a burning sword. No one who takes on the wielder of the burning sword will escape with their life.” Eli seemed to have come to the end of his tale, and Faith couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. She had been expecting a little more than this.
“And so… the type of person it’s for could be anyone? Anyone at all?” she asked, feeling slightly deflated.
“Yes,” said Eli. “We all thought that it probably wasn’t you mountain goats- don’t tut, you still call me a squatter- because otherwise we would have seen you with it. We thought maybe it was our type who had the power to wield it.”
“So you thought it was true?” Faith asked. None of the villagers had ever mentioned anything about an invincible sword to her.
“Well, we debated it,” Eli explained. “I thought it was true, others weren’t so sure. Can I have a go?”
Faith nodded, without thinking. Eli looked delighted, and swung it up. It looked awkward and heavy in his hands, and he swung it clumsily. It certainly didn’t look as light as it had when Faith had used it and it certainly wasn’t burning. It didn’t even seem to catch the light like it had when she had tried it out.
Eli sat down, out of breath from the exertion. He shrugged at Faith ’s questioning look. “We were obviously wrong,” he said, and he sounded fed up.
Faith took it from the ground, lifting it up. Immediately, it seemed to slot into her palm, and she twirled it round, slicing a slender twig neatly from a branch. The sunlight caught it, and it glinted merrily.
Eli’s gasp distracted her. She looked round at him, wondering what was wrong with him now.
“You!” he said, pointing a finger at her, and the finger trembled.
“Me?” asked Faith . “What about me?”
“You’re the wielder of the burning sword!” Eli’s mouth was open in surprise.
“I am?” Faith stared at him, wondering if he was mocking her. “But… shouldn’t it be burning?”
“It is!” Eli pointed at the sword again, and Faith took a closer look. Rather than glinting from the sun, as she had thought it had been, it seemed to be glittering and sparkling from its own source of light. As she held it to her side, the glow faded, but as she swung it up again, it shone brightly. She gasped. She was the wielder of the burning sword. It was her.
Chapter 7
Faith walked back to the village in somewhat of a daze. Light snow had abruptly begun to fall, swirling in flurries of white flakes which started to settle on the grass. The sword was still in her hand, and as snowflakes landed on it, they melted instantly.
As soon as they reached the village, Martha tore towards her, flinging herself at Faith , who chucked the sword at Eli to prevent it from goring her friend.
Hugging Faith with such a force that she almost toppled over, Martha buried
R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead)