Free The Burning Sword by Emily Williams Page A

hours previously. “This is what I mean, Faith . You need to explain yourself.”
     
    Faith ’s head was spinning with explanations, excuses. They were teaching each other to knit? Not believable enough. And anyway, anything innocent wouldn’t explain why they had had to do it at night.
     
    She looked helplessly at Martha and Isabel. Martha bit her lip anxiously, as Isabel shook her head. Her only option was to tell them the truth, and this was not something she wanted to do. Not at all.
     
    The other mothers were gathering, some looking puzzled, others looking angry, dragging their daughters along behind them. Faith ’s own mother looked strangely emotionless as she surveyed her daughter.
     
    Faith stood up, wiping her hands on the back of her skirt. “First, could Isabel’s mother please help us sort her out? I think she’s the priority at the moment.”
     
    Isabel’s mother ran forward with a small shriek, taking her daughter by the shoulders, and looking at her pale face. With the help of Martha, they carried her towards their hut, leaving Faith to face Margaret alone. She was only alone for a second or two, however, as Sibyl shook herself free of her mother’s vice-like grip, and moved to stand next to Faith , Marian and Annie following suit. Before long, they all stood in a group before the women, even Eli joining with a guilty looking grin.
     
    “We’re an army,” Faith said, and her words seemed to echo around the group, cutting through the silence like her sword would. Her sword. It was hanging at her side, barely noticeable. She pulled it out of her belt, swinging it up into the air, watching the expressions of the women before her as the sparks arced out across the sky, lighting their faces eerily in the glow. It made the hollows of their eyes darker, only a glint from deep within the darkness revealing that they actually had eyes there.
     
    “Yes, yes,” Margaret muttered. “We’ve all seen your magic sword thing, but that doesn’t mean you can use it. What gives you the idea that you lot would be any good at fighting?”
     
    “Only women can use this sword,” Faith explained. “Why would a sword that only works for women exist if women couldn’t fight?”
     
    Margaret looked at her with an expression that clearly suggested that she thought that Faith was completely mad. “The sword only works for women?” she said, slowly.
     
    “Yes,” Faith said, passing it quickly to Eli. The sparks immediately stopped, and the sword looked awkward and too small in his hand. He passed it back, and the sparks started up again.
     
    “Okay, it works for women. But there’s only one sword, how are you meant to pass it round during a fight?” Margaret demanded, her eyes still on the sword.
     
    “That’s not the point!” put in Sibyl. “If women can fight, we don’t need a special sword to do so. Everything we’ve ever been told has been a lie- we can fight, we are as able as the men.”
     
    Margaret stared at her. “And you believe this?” she asked, her voice sounding hoarse.
     
    “I do,” piped up Marian.
     
    “Me too!” called out Daisy.
     
    Voices all started ringing out, as Faith ’s army stood up to the women.
     
    “And me!”
     
    “I do too!”
     
    “I believe it!”
     
    Margaret looked taken aback. Faith felt a rushing surge of pride for her army, pride that they were fearless, pride that they stood by her, even when faced by adversity.
     
    “What about you, Eli?” one of the other women asked, pointing at him. Eli’s glance flickered to Faith ’s fierce expression, then to Sibyl, Marian and Daisy, who gave him an apprehensive look, wondering what on earth he would come out with.
     
    “Well,” he said. “At first I thought they were idiots to think that all this practicing would pay off. But now, I believe what Sibyl just said. Faith has trained them hard, and now, well, I think they could take on a squatter army. I mean, err, the other villager’s