Night Elves of Ardani: Book Two: Sacrifice

by Nina K. Westra

  When she’d been traveling with him, she’d grown accustomed to his otherworldly appearance. But now, surrounded by humans in the light of morning, he looked strange and out of place.

  Everyone stared, mostly in silence. A few people threw taunts and insults his way. Aruna didn’t look at any of them. Novikke watched him, half wanting him to look up and catch her eye and half hoping he wouldn’t. He didn’t.

  He went to the front of the group at the edge of the camp, where Captain Theros waited. Novikke was afraid something would happen when he reached him, but Theros only gestured for him to walk ahead of them.

  They left the camp as a group, with Aruna leading the way.

  They moved through the woods in a long train. There were thirty of them total. Two horses trailed behind them, carrying supplies, which was of note because no one ever brought horses into Kuda Varai. The land was too treacherous, the brush too thick, and there were too many things to spook them. Often they seemed able to sense things that people couldn’t—monsters or magic lurking somewhere just out of sight.

  Novikke could hear Theros asking Aruna questions every so often, but Aruna’s responses were too quiet for her to hear. She could see him pointing, directing them.

  At first, everyone was in good spirits. People were glad to have a task other than sitting at camp. But the closer night came, the quieter everyone got. People looked over their shoulders more often, watching the shadows that steadily grew among the trees. As they went farther into the forest, the plants got stranger. People stared at the black-leafed trees, at luminescent fungus growing on rocks and on tree roots, at dangerous-looking spiked vines, at mysterious glowing motes that floated in the air like tiny fireflies.

  Theros ordered a stop to their journey before the sun had set. Novikke began setting up her tent next to Thala and Kadaki.

  They’d stopped in a small clearing, not quite large enough for all of them to settle in. Theros ordered a few of the men to clear out brush to make more space. They hacked at bushes and saplings, tossing aside dead limbs.

  Aruna watched them, frowning. “You shouldn’t do that,” he said. Everyone looked up at him.

  “And why is that?” Theros said.

  “You know the forest protects itself. It will sense humans, who don’t belong here. It will sense violence, which also doesn’t belong here, especially from humans. Do you want to draw more attention to yourselves?”

  The soldiers chopping at the brush had paused and were glancing between Aruna and Theros.

  “Violence to trees?” Theros said blandly.

  “You’re talking about Ravi,” Kadaki said. Everyone turned to look at her. She straightened, mindful of all the eyes on her. “The Varai goddess of night. Also sometimes thought to be the spirit embodiment of Kuda Varai. That is what you’re referring to, isn’t it?”

  Aruna inclined his head.

  “Are you saying the forest is a conscious being?” Theros said.

  “Obviously it is,” Aruna said.

  Theros rested his hands on his hips. “The forest is defended by its power of misdirection and by the beasts that inhabit it,” he said. “You’ve solved the first problem for us, and we are more than capable of dealing with the second. We aren’t some lone unprepared wanderer; we are members of the Queen’s Army.”

  Aruna looked unimpressed with the captain’s confidence, but said nothing.

  “And I’m not concerned about Varai superstitions. Don’t waste our time with nonsense in the future,” Theros said. He waved to the soldiers at the bushes. “Carry on.”

  “A night elf lecturing about violence,” Vissarion muttered, lifting a pack off a horse’s back. “There’s something new.”

  Thala’s friend, Aleka, turned to Thala and Novikke. He looked less reassured than Vissarion. “Do you think what the night elf said is true?” he said quietly enough to keep his voice from the captain’s ears. “Wouldn’t he know?”

  “He’s trying to scare us,” Thala said. “He doesn’t want us here. Of course he’s going to try to convince us to leave. The forest isn’t alive. It doesn’t want things or have emotions.”

  “Why bring him along if we’re not going to listen to what he says?” Aleka said. “He’s supposed to be our guide, isn’t he? If he’s the only thing standing between us and whatever else is in here…” He glanced around at the trees, nervous.

  “Don’t worry, Aleka. I’ll protect you tonight,” Thala said with a toothy grin. Aleka’s face went pink.

  Novikke sat to the side as some of the others set about making a fire and preparing food. No one seemed to want her help, so she didn’t offer it. Vissarion, she noticed, was still staying near her, glancing over at her occasionally.

  She peered across the camp at Aruna, who was also silently watching the soldiers from where he sat. His ankle cuffs were back.

  She’d thought that he hadn’t noticed her watching him, but then his gaze slid sideways to lock onto hers. She stiffened, anticipating anger and judgement, but his face held no emotion as he looked at her. Whatever he was thinking, he’d guarded it behind a mask.

  ◆◆◆

  The night was uneventful. The fire crackled until dawn. No monsters came out of the woods to terrorize them, and there was a distinct sense of relief from the entire group when morning came and nothing had happened. It appeared to justify Theros’s dismissal of Aruna’s warning. The others were probably all thinking that it really was just superstition.

  Novikke doubted it, though.

  “I bet you think the Varai is right about the forest, don’t you?” Kadaki said suddenly.

  Novikke looked up from the bag she’d been packing. Pale sunlight shone through the trees, coating the world in a promise of safety and calm. Kadaki stared down at her, her gaze taking on that eerily penetrating quality that it so often did. Neiryn stood beside her.

  “Neiryn and I were talking,” she went on. “Ravi is the counterpart to the Ysuran sun goddess, Aevyr. Neiryn believes Ravi is real, and that she is known to affect the mortal plane. Personally, I’ve read many accounts of highly unusual magical activity in this place. Magic sometimes spontaneously reacts with itself when it occurs in uncontrolled high concentrations. On the other hand…” She shrugged one shoulder. “It could very well be the hand of the divine taking shape.”

  Novikke looked up at Neiryn, who gave a faint, smug smile. He’d looked quite comfortable lately, ever since his leg had healed. Novikke had seen him and Kadaki talking earlier, as if it were completely normal for an Ardanian mage to be holding casual conversations with her Ysuran prisoner.

  But then, maybe it was. Novikke hadn’t been around many prisoners. No one was treating Aruna like that, though, that was for sure.

  “I don’t know,” Novikke said carefully. “I don’t know much about that kind of thing. And he’s a night elf. I’m sure he’d tell us anything to get us out of here.” She lowered her voice, leaning forward. “But I bet I’ve spent more time in this forest than anyone here, and I can tell you, strange things happen here. It gets stranger the deeper you go.”

  Kadaki’s eyes widened slightly, but she looked more intrigued than frightened.

  “Not that anyone else here cares about my opinion,” Novikke said, gesturing toward where the captain strolled about, giving orders. “That’s been made clear.”

  “Well, we’ll have our answer soon,” Kadaki said. “One way or another.”

  ◆◆◆

  The next day, Aruna led them to a river. A line of blackened splinters of wood spanned across the water.

  Novikke exchanged a glance with Neiryn. It was the same burnt bridge they’d seen on their way out of the outpost. There was no reason to have brought them there other than to waste time.

  “What is this?” Theros growled.

  “It used to be a bridge,” Aruna said, as if he hadn’t expected to find it in this state. “It seems that the Ysurans have been here recently.”

  “Is there another way across?” Theros said
impatiently.

  Aruna nodded. He started downriver—the opposite direction he’d led Novikke and Neiryn last time they’d been there. Neiryn raised an eyebrow at Novikke. Neither of them said anything.

  As Aruna passed Novikke, his eyes twitched over to meet hers for the first time that day. He might have been asking her not to say anything, or fearing she would, or just thinking about how much he resented her. She couldn’t tell.

  Then he’d passed, and it was as if she didn’t exist to him again.

  They followed Aruna farther down the river, and after another hour they reached a spot he claimed was shallow enough to cross. It was significantly less shallow, Novikke noticed, than the crossing he’d led them to the other day.

  The water was waist deep, and moving quickly enough that crossing was dangerous. They each carried their shoes and packs over their heads and waded across. Kadaki, who was short enough that the water was up to her chest, clung to Neiryn and Thala, then closed her eyes and whispered either the beginning of a spell or prayers all the way across. A few people tried to form chains by holding hands in the hopes that it would help stabilize them, but it had the opposite effect.

  Everyone made it safely across, but multiple packs were soaked through, one was lost completely, and another fell open, losing half its contents in the current. Drying everything off afterward was another long ordeal. Aruna leaned comfortably against a tree as all of this went on, examining his fingernails.

  A few miles further on, the night came on very suddenly, growing dark unnaturally early and quickly. It could only have been a sign that they were getting deeper into the forest, and deeper under its influence.

  They camped for the night. Again, they’d cut away bits of the forest to accommodate the size of the group, and hacked at trees and brush to use as fuel for the fire. Aruna didn’t protest this time. He didn’t speak anymore unless someone addressed him.

  This time, they could hear things moving around them in the dark every so often. Every time Novikke was almost asleep, a twig would snap somewhere, or a bush would shudder with movement, or an unfamiliar animal would cry out in the distance.

  When it had been just herself and Aruna, those things hadn’t bothered her as much. But now, with him angry at her and with a group of trespassing humans accompanying them, she worried. There were things in the forest that might find them. Things that didn’t want them there.

  Halfway through the night, something spooked the horses. One of them thrashed, broke free of its tether, and disappeared into the trees.

  When the morning came, the sun’s light didn’t seem to penetrate all the way into the woods, as if some miasma of darkness was filtering it away. The entire group was groggy and wary, and morale had plummeted since the previous day.

  With only one horse to carry supplies, they were forced to divide the excess among them, which further slowed their speed. It felt like they’d made no progress at all by the time they stopped for a break at midday.

  “How much farther is it to the ruins?” Theros said to Aruna.

  Novikke raised her head in surprise. They could only have been talking about the Auren-Li ruins. That was where Aruna was taking them? That was the location of the magic energy Kadaki had mentioned?

  She listened, picking their voices out of the several other conversations going on around her. Theros kept his voice low, not wanting to involve the entire group in the discussion.

  “Two days,” Aruna said.

  “You said it would be two days when I asked you yesterday,” Theros growled. His temper was shorter today. Novikke had seen him snap at people several times already.

  “We’ve slowed down,” Aruna replied. He was looking down at the strip of dried meat they’d given him, peeling off a chunk of it. “Kuda Varai is dangerous for humans. I told you that.”

  “I’m losing patience, elf. You’ve not been much help so far. If you can’t get us to where we’re going in one piece, you’re of no use to us, are you?”

  Aruna ignored the threat. “The forest will continue to try to push you out. Failing that, it will kill you. I must again recommend that you leave now, before you can’t.”

  “If we leave, we’re taking you with us.”

  “Do what you must,” Aruna said. It sounded like this was a conversation they’d had several times already.

  Theros made a disgusted sound, then left.

  Hours went by slowly.

  They came to a sparser part of the forest where the trees were spread far apart, opening the canopy to let the sky in.

  “What’s that?” Vissarion said abruptly. He’d stopped in the middle of the trail.

  Everyone looked up.

  A black fog was rolling in through the trees.

  It covered the ground, floating over their feet, and then grew, reaching over their heads and blotting out the sun. The entire clearing darkened.

  “Night elf!” Theros said, spinning in Aruna’s direction. “What is this?”

  The darkness was closing in faster, as if it knew it had been noticed. Novikke could barely see Aruna as the fog thickened, obscuring her vision. He looked confused. That couldn’t be a good sign.

  “I…don’t know,” Aruna said.

  The darkness was still growing. Soon they wouldn’t be able to see anything at all. There was a frantic murmuring among the soldiers. A few people drew swords, watching the trees for enemies. No one knew what to do or how to prepare. How did one fight darkness?

  A sound came. Like wind or rushing water, quiet at first and then louder, like something was coming toward them. The voices of the soldiers grew panicked. A sudden chill fell over the clearing, as if night had fallen.

  Novikke hurried to a tree, not wanting to be stuck adrift and untethered in the sea of black. As she put her back against it, the blackness became complete.

  The rushing sound roared all around them, and the cold and dark pressed in. Their remaining horse made distraught sounds somewhere nearby.

  Novikke moved against the tree and bumped into someone. She heard the scraping of metal chain links.

  “Aruna?” she said.

  There was a pause, like he was deciding whether to answer. “Yes,” he said finally, breathless.

  “What is this?”

  “An attack.”

  “It’s like those patches of fog we saw. The ones you wouldn’t let me go near?”

  “I’ve never seen them move before. This one seems like it has a mind of its own.”

  Something unidentifiable but cold as ice brushed against her side, and she flinched. She reflexively reached out and found Aruna’s hand, then clung to it. She was surprised and relieved when his fingers quickly curled around hers.

  “Can you see?” she asked.

  “No.”

  That answer somehow frightened her more than anything else had.

  Something approached her. A presence. She could not hear it or see it or feel it, but she knew it was there. She could sense it looking at her. If she could have seen anything, she was sure she’d have seen its eyes right in front of her, inches from her face.

  “Something is here,” she whispered.

  “Something?”

  “Someone.”

  She could almost feel it touching her, creeping over her skin with ethereal fingers. It pulled at her with an invisible force, reaching into her and tugging at the inside of her. It was going to drag her away. She dug her feet into the ground.

  “Aruna—” she gasped, clutching at him. His hands pulled away from her, and a jolt of panic went through her. But then she felt his arms reach over her head and come down around her back. He hugged her against his chest, and the thing’s pull on her weakened.

  She closed her eyes, listening. She could still feel the thing near her. Its touch softened. Its invisible gaze on her was less harsh.

  The presence became almost warm, more like an embrace and less like an attack.

  She felt it leave, and she opened her eyes to blackness.

&n
bsp; “Did you feel that?” she whispered.

  “Feel what?”

  The rushing sound intensified, as did the chill, until both of them were shivering. There was a sound that might have been screaming, or might have been part of the strange roaring wind taking over the clearing.

  Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more cold without getting frostbite, the roaring softened. She blinked. The darkness was fading, and she could make out dim shapes around her.

  Aruna pushed her away, and when it was light enough for her to see him, he was standing a few feet further away. The dark fog rolled away, the roaring quieted, and in a matter of seconds, everything was as it had been.