IGNITE (The Heir Chronicles Book 1)

  IGNITE

  IGNITE

  BOOK 1

  THE HEIR CHRONICLES

  SHRETIMA BAHADUR

  Copyright © 2018 Author Name

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 9781792995965

  Shretima Bahadur © 2019. All rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. Any infringement of copyright is punishable by law.

  For Mom and Dad.

  PROLOGUE

  Hundreds of years ago, when our ancestors, Atras, Marac, Crudacius and Stilon, the Hinaks laid the foundation of our planet, they swore to protect the Clansh, the source of all the life.

  They were given different tasks by the Clansh. Some were the warriors. They belonged to the Marac Clan. Some were healers. They were called Crudacius. They were given the power that they could heal anyone or anything. The Atras clan were the most influential clan and was seen as God’s own clan. The Stilon clan were the magicians. They could master any art and created the most powerful spells.

  Then came the Heirs.

  The Heir of Fire.

  The Heir of Fire was gifted with the power of fire and winds. He or she could create fire and generate winds and command them as one wished.

  The Heir of Water.

  The Heir of Water was gifted with the power of control over water and nature. The Heir of Water can bend both of them to his or her will.

  The Heir of Time.

  The Heir of Time was gifted with the power of time and mind. The Heir of Time could see through people’s minds and bend time according to one’s will.

  I used to think that this was all a myth. Just fairytales made up for children. Bedtime stories my mom told me to get me to believe that good still existed in the world.

  But the thing is, I am one of them.

  As I battle my own inner demons and try to find my true roots, I am surprised at every step I take. Every lie comes to the surface and I realize who I truly am.

  It is up to me to save my family and each and every other living creature by defeating the power which poses threat to the Clansh and, realize that the danger doesn’t lurk beneath, but inside you.

  CHAPTER-1

  I am standing on the cliff of the waterfall when I hear the movement of feet. Due to my habit, I immediately reach for my arrow, aim it in the direction of the sound and shoot it.

  I rush toward the direction where I had shot the arrow and find that a boy, about my age with dark hair and light blue eyes is lying on the ground with my arrow holding my arrow in his hand.

  "Who are you?" I ask him in a threatening manner. Aviva keeps poking me continuously.

  "What is the matter with you Avi?"

  "He's the Prince of Illana." She says becoming frozen in her place.

  "What did you just say?" I ask, confused.

  "That I'm Prince Adrian of Illana." He says, getting up.

  I open my mouth to retort but there is another sound of crunching of leaves and, out of habit, I get into my shooting stance and am about to shoot the arrow when the boy who claims to be the Prince shouts at me to not shoot the arrow. I put arrow down and see as another figure emerges from the bushes. It is also a boy, about my age with dark blonde hair and greyish-blue eyes. He approaches the first boy and asks "What happened? Someone trying to impale you?" Motioning towards the arrow he is still clutching in his hand. "Oh, no, no, no, it was just a case of misunderstanding," the first boy says, motioning toward Aviva and me.

  He eyes us suspiciously but says nothing.

  I clear my throat to end the awkward silence and say "So, you said that you're the prince. I mean, the Prince? Really? The-" I am cut off by Aviva dragging me away from the boys and when we are finally out of the boys' earshot, she starts whisper-yelling at me "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" She literally grabs her hair and if she loved her hair as much as I did, she would easily rip them off right now, but she loves them about hundred or thousand times more than I do so she settles on just pulling them.

  "Why? What stupidity did I do now?" Then the realisation dawns on me. "Is this about that country's Prince wannabe?" I ask, cocking my eyebrow. "WANNABE?! HE IS THE PRINCE! He has been in tabloids and magazines and newspapers due to his upcoming coronation to the throne of Illana!" She exclaims.

  Well, I can admit that I haven't been reading the newspapers for quite a few days.

  “Where is this country, by the way?” I ask her and she shakes her head and I can tell that she is minutes away from tearing me to shreds right now.

  “It is an island country in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean,” she explains.

  “Wow, if you’d’ve studied that much during your school days, maybe you would’ve gotten at least a B+ in geography,” I say with a smirk.

  And now, as she is about to retort, the two boys from earlier approach us.

  The dark-haired boy extends his hand to me "I'm sorry, I wasn't able to introduce myself before. I am Prince Adrian and he," he motions towards the other boy who is still eyeing us suspiciously "is Drake, my best friend." I shake his hand and when I let go of his hand, he nudges Drake in his side and he hesitantly shakes my hand.

  "I'm Fena and she," I motion toward Aviva, who stands frozen in her place, awestruck. I nudge her discreetly in her side and bring her back to her senses. "is Aviva."

  "So, what are doing out here? Shouldn't you be up in your palace doing I-don't-care-what?" I say, eyeing him from top-to-toe.

  He chuckles and says, "Actually, I technically am doing my work," he says while I narrow my eyes at him.

  He must've seen the disbelief on my face and says, "You still don't believe that I'm the prince, do you"

  "No, I don't" I say in my usual confident voice and cross my arms over my chest.

  He chuckles and shows me his signet ring, a royal heirloom. I had studied about it somewhere.

  "Oookay now I think I believe your statement" I say and ask the most obvious question "So, what are you doing out here in the woods all unguarded?"

  They both look at each other and chuckle "I wouldn't say that I am I unguarded, and, as for your first question, I am out here searching for a potential candidate for my court in my Succession tour"

  "Your succession what?"

  Drake laughs and gives me a look that definitely says are you from another planet?

  "His Succession tour! Do you ever listen to a word I say?" Growls Aviva in my ear. "Um, technically not everything." I say. She literally talks so much that if you could convert all the energy that she uses in talking into electrical energy, the whole country would get free electricity for a whole century.

  She shakes her head in frustration and Drake finally bothers to explain me about this whole "Succession Tour"

  "See, so, I hope you know that Adrian's coronation is going to take place somewhat in about six months, so, before his coronation, he has to select the members for his court. So, " he pauses dramatically, joining his hands, "You see, he wants to have at least one civilian in his court and, about a week before, we had taken off on our journey to find the one perfect candidate for his court and that explains the first part," he stops and Adrian starts speaking "And when I find that candidate within the given timeline, that is, till the next week, all I have to do is train him in about two months like the other nobles have been trained their whole Lives be for the nobles actually arrive for the tour; and when the tour
is completed, I will select the members of my final court."

  “Did you say him? What if the person is a female? Are you going to just leave her because of her gender? Stupid patriarchy of the male gender,” I say, muttering the last part under my breath.

  “No, no. Absolutely not. It was just a slip of the tongue. Believe me, we have absolutely no intentions of letting a candidate go just because of his or her gender,” Adrian says.

  "Soooo, how are you guys doing on your whole 'searching the perfect candidate thing'? And why are you out in the woods without any protection?" I ask without any hesitation.

  "Um, we haven't made any such progress on the search and as for the answer of the latter part, I wouldn't say that we are out here without any protection, in fact, we are the most skilled warriors in the whole country," Drake says smugly.

  "Whoa, I bet you aren't the most modest people in the country" I mean, who do they think they are? the Prince and the bff? I mean they are but that isn't the excuse for their lack of modesty.

  "And well, if you both are really the best warriors, why don't you prove it. We both," I motion toward Aviva and myself, “versus you both." And I fold my arms across my chest contentedly.

  Adrian seems to consider the challenge and finally shakes his hand with me "accepted."

  CHAPTER-2

  Aviva drags me by my elbows into the bushes once again.

  "What is wrong with you?" She starts yelling at me again.

  "Well, technically everything," I try to be sarcastic but the look on her face stops me from making another sarcastic comment.

  "What do you think you are doing?" She says.

  "Um, showing those idiots how wrong they are about being the best in everything" I say while she continues to stare at me in disbelief.

  "Those idiots are the most respected and well trained people in the country. Who do you think you are challenging them to a duel?" Her voice gets higher and higher with each word she says.

  "You know what, if you don't want to fight alongside me, fine then, I will fight on my own and show the whole lot of you how wrong you are." And before she can say anything else, I turn on my heel and stormed off.

  "So, strategy decided?" Drake asks, of course sarcastically.

  "No, actually we decided that I alone was capable enough to take you both on so, I told her to just watch the match" I say.

  I can’t admit that even my best friend did not have enough confident in me to just stay alongside me. After all, she is my best friend.

  "Okay, well, but are you sure that you want to do this?" Adrian asks, as if giving me a last chance to back off, which if course, I won’t accept.

  "Sure. Bring it on boys,"

  We all get into our fighting stance. Drake and Adrian on one team and me on the other.

  I know that I can't attack them both together so I get defensive and let them play offensive. There would be at least one moment which can play as their chink in armour. I just have to look for that moment and take the advantage.

  Drake comes first.

  He runs toward me with his hands clutching the sword, raised above his head. Ah, the classic. I duck under his arm and when I stand up straight, I hit him on the back with my elbow, causing him to fall on the ground, face-flat. While I am doing this, Adrian approaches close to me, I can't duck, so I raise my sword and prevent the attack.

  Oh boy, he is a lot more stronger than I anticipated. Drake is also getting up. I have to think of something, fast.

  I twist around and try to kick Adrian in the stomach but he catches my leg in mid air and throws me to the ground. Both of them point their swords at my neck.

  "Accept it, we are better than you. There's no shame, After all, we were raised like this."

  I take the advantage of their underestimation of me and kick them both. Well, I have always been told that I have strong legs.

  They both are thrown off balance and I give them a roundhouse kick, which Adrian dodges, barely but Drake gets the full impact and, as a result, his sword goes flying in the air and I catch it.

  One down, one more to go. I turn around and see Adrian running toward me. One-on-one, I can play offensive this time. And so I do.

  I too, run towards him and strike his sword with both of my swords with so much force, that sparks fly everywhere.

  "How's that for being the best."

  He turns around and I start to chase him while he continues to avoid my strikes, again, barely.

  I continue on sending him backwards until we reach the waterfall.

  Suddenly, a pair of arms come from behind and wrap around my neck. Drake. He'd have been following the fight of Adrian and me and searching for the perfect time to strike.

  I writhe but of no use. He is a lot stronger than me. So, I use the other tactic. I elbow him in the stomach, hard. And just as I thought, his grip loosens and I escape.

  I turn and see Adrian running towards me. Again. Don't they learn any other tricks?

  I kick Drake in the back. So hard that I didn't even think that a kick that hard was even possible and as a result, he lands on the ground. Again. But, before I can regain my balance, he grips my wrist and I too, land on the floor. Due to my reflexes, I turn over and get up and, great timing, I think to myself. Adrian is close enough that he could easily swing his sword and get me, but not that close that I don't have enough space to duck and avoid his attack. I position myself in front of Drake to lead him to believe that I am playing offensive, while in reality, I am playing defensive.

  Adrian comes closer and swings his sword and just in the nick of time, I duck, and he lands on top of Drake. I laugh but I feel a hot liquid pour down my hand. Blood. He cut my hand. Let it be, I've had a lot worse cuts than this and so, I ignore it.

  "So, let me teach you a lesson, never forget modesty and the second one, never underestimate your opponent" I grin and then help both of them up.

  "Wow, You took us both out. That's something new." Adrian says, his eyes full of amusement.

  "Yeah, even your style was a little difficult to understand." Drake adds.

  "Well, my dad taught me about all the fighting skills that I know, and I am really glad that he did. He told me not to stick to only one tactic, You can improvise and act according to your opponent and the situation," I am really, really glad that my father taught me what he taught me, because if he hadn't taught me the fighting skills, then I wouldn't have been able to teach these knuckleheads a lesson on modest which, they both clearly lack.

  "Well, this means that we both still have a lot to train." Drake says.

  "Yeah well, You do" I say.

  "You know, the only reason that I accepted your challenge was that, no offence, but, I thought that how hard could it be to beat a girl in a duel. Turns out, it's a lot harder than I thought" Adrian admits and we all laugh. "Well, You both sure did get a good lesson on modesty."

  We all chuckle and head out the woods.

  CHAPTER-3

  I look around for any sign of Aviva. I think that I might have overreacted that time although I will never admit it to her face.

  "Who are you looking for?" Asks Drake.

  "Aviva," I reply absentmindedly, still surveying the woods for any sign of her.

  "Aviva!" I shout in the woods. It's then when I notice the sound of a whistle. The warning call. Oh no, this can't be good. We both had devised a special whistle which we would use if we would be in trouble. Till now, we hadn't had to use it, so I'm guessing that this is pretty bad.

  "Oh no," I mumble as I go off in the direction of the sound.

  "Wait, where are you going?" Michel says, catching up with me.

  "Well, pretty boy, let's just say someplace that you don't want to go."

  I run as fast as I can and what I see in front of my eyes is completely shocking.

  The Hinak tribe.

  Oh no.

  I freeze in my place and sweep the place with my eyes until they land on Aviva. Her hands and legs are tied, although her mouth
is uncovered.

  I put a finger on my lips to indicate that she stays quiet.

  "What the hell?" Murmurs Drake, causing me to visibly jump.

  "What the hell are you," my eyes glance toward the other figure," and you are doing here,"

  "We saw that you were worried and thought that maybe we could help."

  I roll my eyes and turn my eyes back toward the Hinaks.

  They are the thought to fiercest fighters in the stories my mother tells me. It is said that they are present everywhere in the world, scouring the earth for potential magicians and bringing together the three Heirs. Some people also say that they are the masters of evil magic and, as a result, it is forbidden to enter their territory. But, I will have to break the rule. Eh, I'm not such a sticker for rules after all.

  I stand up and aim an arrow on the opposite direction of Aviva. This way, the most of the tribals' attention would be diverted from Aviva and, in the meantime, I would shoot and arrow, which hopefully would slit the ropes binding her hands.

  I look around for a possible target. "You two just stay here and avoid any weapons and if necessary, run as fast as you can. I can't risk the lives of the two most talented people in your country." I don't know, I just can't refrain sarcasm even now."If I would need your help, I will call for you"

  Of course I won't need their help. I am well-trained to deal with situations like these.

  I get in the shooting stance and spot a tree branch with a beis-wasp nest. They are a rare kind of wasps found in this part of the forest.

  "What are you doing? Would you care to tell us?" Adrian asks, his eyebrows contorting with worry.

  I get an idea. I know it's stupid, but it's the only way out of here.

  "You both are good archers right?" And they both nod in agreement.

  "Well, as much as I hate saying this, I need your help."