by Simon Archer
“This is Ishida,” Freyja said, pointing a long thumb at the other forest elf. “She’s the old friend of mine I told you about.” We all smiled at Ishida and introduced ourselves.
“I will take you to Amaka,” Ishida said once we had finished with our pleasantries.
“Amaka?” Marinka repeated. “Who is this?”
“Amaka is kind of in charge,” Ishida said, smiling. She seemed to have a pretty cheerful disposition, in contrast to Freyja’s gruff exterior.
“Kind of?” Nadeine asked. “What does that mean? Who is actually in charge?”
“Amaka is,” Freyja explained. “Kind of. I told you, we’re nomads. We don’t really do structured government like you.”
Nadeine grumbled something under her breath.
“What was that?” I chided.
“Nothing,” she said, but I could have sworn I’d picked out the word ‘savages’ in there somewhere.
We followed Freyja and Ishida into the center of the forest. I had been leading Nadeine’s lone horse by the reins, but I passed her back to Freyja as we walked. There were many forest elves inside the wall, but they didn’t bother us. Instead, they looked up and watched us intently as we passed. The trees within the wall were full of wooden structures I took to be treehouses. There was one on nearly every large branch, strewn throughout the center. Eyes of varying colors peaked out of the windows in the structures, watching us.
Freyja and Ishida led us to a huge tree in the middle of the area. It was even bigger than the trees we had slept in the last few nights, much bigger, in fact. Its trunk looked to be about the size of a large mansion. Its branches also held treehouse-like structures, bigger ones than those in the other trees, and the enormous tree trunk appeared to be hollowed out like the ones we had slept in. There were several holes throughout the trunk’s various levels from which light was shining out. Waiting for us at the front of the tree were two forest elves, a man and a woman.
“Welcome,” the woman called out as we approached, pausing to let us dismount. Once we were standing in front of her, she continued. “I am Amaka. This is my dear friend, Akash. We’re glad you’ve come.”
“I am Princess Marinka of the kingdom’s royal family,” Marinka said, bowing her head in greeting. “These are my companions, knights Nadeine and Bernsten, and mage Leo Hayden. We thank you for your kindness and your hospitality.”
“Welcome,” Amaka said again, bowing her own head in return. “Let’s talk. Join us in the great tree.” She motioned for us to follow her and the man inside a large opening in the front of the trunk.
“What about our horses?” I asked, running my hands through Bill’s hair.
“Ah,” the man, Akash, said, glancing around at our horses. “Will they stay here if you leave them?”
“I am not sure,” Nadeine said. “They are not used to being away from us, and this is a strange place for them.”
“Of course.” Akash looked around at the surrounding forest elves. “I’m not sure what to do. We have no animals like these.”
“I will stay, Leo Hayden,” Bernsten said, still perched atop his own horse. “I am unable to walk on my own, anyway.”
“Sounds good,” I said with a nod. “Thanks, Bernsten.”
“Are you able to handle the horses on their own should they become agitated, Brother?” Nadeine asked from beside him on the ground.
“Uh… that I am unsure of, I am afraid,” Bernsten said, looking around at the four horses.
“Then I’ll stay here, as well,” Ishida offered, then turned to Bernsten. “I don’t know how to handle these animals, but perhaps, if something happens, you could explain it to me?”
“Excellent,” Bernsten said. “It is settled then. Go, my friends. Assist us in our quest.”
“Have fun, buddy,” I called to him as we followed the forest elves inside the tree trunk.
“I will try, Leo Hayden,” Bernsten muttered, rubbing his injured leg. “I will try.”
The inside of the giant tree trunk was a lot cooler than the ones we’d slept in the last few nights. It didn’t smell weird at all, although that may be because the forest elves didn’t have any horses. It was full of winding, rickety stairs and had a rustic quality to it. The wood was finely chopped and finished, and there were levels with small wooden apartments full of forest elves all going up the trunk. We followed Amaka and Akash up the stairs and onto the first level of the trunk where we entered what looked like a conference room full of wooden benches.
“Welcome,” Amaka said as she took a seat on one of the benches and motioned for us to do the same. “As I said earlier, we’re glad you’re here. We’ve been waiting for you and hoping you’d come.” Akash moved to sit down beside Amaka. The forest elves looked similar, and both seemed to have taken the form of some kind of elk on top of their more human features.
“You have known of our presence in the forest?” Marinka asked as the rest of us sat down on a bench across from the two forest elves, facing them.
“Yes,” Amaka said, her expression darkening and her long lips setting in a thin line. “We heard of the attack on you your first night. We’re sorry that happened.” Akash nodded in agreement.
“We heard through the forest’s grapevine of your presence and purpose here.” Akash waved his hands as he spoke. “We hope that we heard correctly. You do intend to remove the mad kingdom elf from our forest?”
“We do,” Marinka began, choosing to take the lead in this conversation, given Nadeine’s testy history with the forest elves. “He has taken something important from us, and we intend to take it back. We will also remove him from your forest and offer our greatest apologies that we did not do so sooner. We did not know of his actions against your people until we arrived here.”
“Would you have come if you did know?” Amaka looked into Marinka’s eyes pointedly, but the princess looked away.
“I would like to think that we would have,” she said, her voice even softer than usual, “but I must admit that I do not know anymore.”
“Well,” Amaka said, her face softening slightly, “let this meeting act as the start of a new age of cooperation between our peoples.”
“We would like that.” Marinka met Amaka’s gaze again. “May we stay here in the center of the forest while we prepare for the rest of our journey? One of our number is injured.”
“Of course,” Akash said. “We will be happy to provide you with shelter and your friend with medical care.”
“Thank you,” Nadeine and Marinka said together, and I nodded in agreement. There was noticeable relief in Nadeine’s voice.
Now that the logistics were taken care of, we needed to get as much information as we could about our enemy. “What do you know about Viktor?” I asked to get straight to the point.
Amaka’s face darkened again. “The mad kingdom elf took control of the entire northern side of the forest in the years after he arrived here. Most of my people don’t remember a time when they were free to roam that area free from his influence. However, until recently, he left the rest of the forest alone. Now, he’s making inroads on the other side, as I’m sure you noticed. He’s draining the whole forest of its resources somehow, though we’ve been unable to discover how. Only the center is now free from his influence.”
“You trust your people here?” Nadeine asked. “None of them are working for Viktor?”
“Of course I can’t promise that,” Amaka said, “but I am as certain as I can be that no center forest elves are under the mad kingdom elf’s influence.”
Nadeine’s tone was incredulous as she asked, “You cannot vouch for your own people?”
“Need I remind you that it is one of your own kingdom elves that has invaded our forest?” Amaka looked down her long nose at Nadeine. Nadeine didn’t seem to have an answer to that, so Amaka continued. “Look, we have a very loose governing structure here. That is our way. My people are free to come and go as they please, and many of them do, but I know much of w
hat goes on in this forest. I’ve heard nothing of this kingdom elf extending his reach into the center, though I’m sure he desires to.”
“We understand,” Marinka hurried to say before Nadeine could respond. “We are trying our best to accustom ourselves to your forest and our differences. We thank you for your kindness and your aid.”
“Thank you,” Amaka said, nodding to Marinka. “We would be lying if we claimed that we were free of these problems before the mad kingdom elf showed up. We dealt with hunger, exposure to the elements, lack of organization, and scarcity of resources long before he arrived. But he’s made all of these problems much worse for us. We are grateful for your help, as well.”
After that, we bid Amaka farewell, and Akash led us up to a higher level in the trunk to a small empty apartment.
“We’ll figure out something to do with your horses,” he said. “I’ll go see if we have someplace to keep them.”
“Thank you,” Marinka said, bowing her head to him. “They only need an enclosed space of their own. They will behave themselves.”
Then Akash left us to settle into our new temporary home.
22
Viktor
Blind, red rage filled me from my core. This time my chair did make physical contact with my insufferable servant, causing him to yelp and cower in the corner of the room, making a series of whimpering sounds. I have never been able to tolerate the weak.
“How?” I demanded, stalking over to him and staring down at his pathetic, skinny form as my voice echoed off of the walls.
“I… I don’t know, sir,” he sobbed, rocking back and forth now. Pitiful. “The mage, he is far more powerful than we expected. There was no way to stop him.” I had not thought my rage could grow any greater, but that certainly did it.
“There was no way that you cared to think of, you mean,” I snarled, reaching out a leg to kick him in the stomach. He fell sideways on the floor after that, whimpering and clutching his stomach where my steel-toed boots plated in gold had made contact.
“I’m so, so sorry, sir,” he whimpered after several moments of silent cries. “I don’t know what else I could’ve done. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know…”
He continued on like that for some time as I paced about the room, trying to figure out what to do next. This was turning out to be more than I had bargained for when I left the kingdom. What was I to do?
“How did he stop you?” I spat, turning back to my servant, who was still muttering apologies, tears streaming down his sunken furry face.
“H-he was too powerful, like I told you, sir,” he sobbed, his eyes closed so he didn’t have to face me. I could see large purple bruises forming on his abdomen under his tattered, holey garments. “He was too powerful. I’m sorry, sir, so, so sorry…” He continued on with his stream of tearful apologies.
“You already told me that, you pathetic imbecile,” I roared and kicked him again, right in the same spot where I knew it would hurt the most.
“Aaaahhhrrgg,” he screamed, clutching his stomach and sinking his claws into his abdomen in an effort to block out the pain with even more pain. I had really gotten him this time.
“What. Spell. Did. He. Use?” I growled, leaning my face down to his as I articulated each word slowly and curtly.
“Oh, yes, sir,” he stammered, sensing my presence down next to him and opening his eyes, revealing sunken sockets and red veins pulsing in fear and fatigue. He shut them again tightly at the sight of my deformed face mere inches from his. “Yes, of course. It was daggers, sir. Golden daggers in the air. That’s what they told me anyway… I’m sorry, Sir, so sorry.”
“And. What. Did. It. Sound. Like?” I continued, gritting my teeth.
“S-sound like, sir?” the servant asked, still holding his eyes shut tightly.
“Yes,” I hissed through my teeth, spraying some spittle in his face. He winced but did not dare move to wipe it away.
“Th-they said that it was long,” he stammered, still not looking at me. “He played a long song… I think they said it was different from the others… I’m sorry, sir, so sorry…”
The idiot continued with his tearful apologies as I shot back up into an upright position. This could not be. If what the servant said was true, the boy now was learning advanced spells. Already, after such a short time.
I clenched my fists. I had never even mastered a basic spell, not in hundreds of years of practicing. It was not fair. Nothing was ever fair.
In a burst of energy and clarity, I began running around the room, gathering all of my essentials and throwing them into the empty packs that had been sitting on the ground for centuries, waiting for me to go on the run again. I could not be found. They could not come here.
I filled one pack with clothes, another with survival supplies, and another with three light gray orbs, the coloring swirling like clouds inside the spheres, from a stack by the wall. Once the packs were filled, I turned back to my servant, who was still lying on the floor, rocking back and forth and crying silently while clutching his stomach with his clawed hands.
“Get up,” I yelled. “Now!”
“Y-yes, sir,” he stammered. He did so, scrambling on the floor to rise despite his injuries. He stood in a lopsided position now, leaning against the wall and continuing to clutch his stomach.
“I am leaving,” I told him, and his eyes grew wide. Then I pointed at him with such force that my finger dug into his sternum, “Do not tell anyone this. I will know if you do, and I will come back and kill you. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes, sir,” he said. I had never bothered to learn his name. I had never bothered to learn any of their names. “B-but, sir, where will you go? You can’t go back--” I cut him off, digging my finger deeper into his chest through a hole in his tattered shirt.
“The forest and the kingdom are not the only realms in this world,” I snarled. “Other than that, you need know nothing of my whereabouts other than that should you reveal my departure, I will end you.”
A trickle of blood emerged from where my nail dug into his skin now, trickling down his chest and pooling to darken his shirt. The forest elf’s eyes widened to an even greater size, bugging out over his large, bulging cheeks. His shift animal was some kind of wolf or coyote or chipmunk or something. I had never bothered with learning such things either.
“B-but, sir,” he said, his surprise overcoming his fear. “You won’t survive there. The mountains are deserted.”
“That is none of your concern,” I snapped, pushing my finger into his wound one last time before I turned back to my things.
I gathered the packs up in my arms. I needed little. My journey would be difficult, but I was confident I would survive undetected. He would not find me. Neither of them would.
“Here,” I said, stuffing an empty pack into my servant’s arms. “Fill this with food and water and bring it back to me.”
He hesitated as if he was still wondering if I was serious.
“Now!” I screamed, spraying him with spittle again, and he scrambled out of the room, his hands trembling as he turned the doorknob.
I resumed pacing about the room as I waited for him to return. I had no horse, so I would have to make my way on foot. But I had always done so since I first was arrested, and I had made it this far. I would not be destroyed now. Not by the kingdom elves and their new mage, and not by him. I had come too far to be struck down now.
“S-sir,” my servant’s voice echoed, intruding on my thoughts. I turned around to face the door, but it was not the same servant, but a different one I did not recognize. Not that I took care to remember their faces. “Sir, I have a message for you.” The young man winced as if expecting a blow, but one never came. I was too busy processing his words.
“A-a message,” I said, stammering myself now. “From whom?”
“I don’t know, Sir,” the servant said, his voice trembling. He was still a boy, by the look and sound of him. Not that it mattered. He he
ld out a piece of tattered parchment to me with a shaking hand. I took it from him.
“Thank you,” I said quietly, forgetting I was speaking to a mere servant. The boy looked shocked, but relieved, departing as quickly and quietly as he came.
I read the parchment, wadded it up, tossed it into the fire, and began to unpack.
23
It turned out Freyja was right about the center forest elves’ medical care, and Nadeine was wrong. But she was certainly happy to be proven so. Bernsten was taken to a room on the first level of the giant tree trunk where we had met with Amaka and Akash, where he was given a sedative made out of some kind of herb and treated by the forest elves’ best medicine men.
“He will live,” one of them told us when we were finally allowed to visit our friend two days after we arrived. “It’s good you got here when you did. His leg was starting to get infected. Another day without treatment, and it would have been too late.” Nadeine sighed in audible relief.
“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you very much.”
“So, he’ll be good as new?” I asked.
The medicine man narrowed his beady owl-like eyes. “I do not know,” he said, and his voice really did have a kind of hooty tone to it, like the owls I’d been listening to every night in the forest since we arrived. “His leg is very damaged, broken in several places. He’ll live, to be sure, but whether he will ever walk the same again is another matter.”
I looked around at Nadeine and Marinka, and they looked just as upset as I felt.
“You are saying he may not be able to walk?” Nadeine asked incredulously. “Ever?”
“He may be able to walk,” the medicine man said, “but with a limp. And it will take quite some time for him to reach that point. I’m sorry this isn’t the news you were hoping to hear.” Then, he gestured to Bernsten’s unconscious form lying on a bed. “He will not wake up anytime soon. You should come back later.” We all nodded and moved to leave in a daze.
