Elf Doubt

by Bryant Reil

  “Heff!” Kyla’s body trembled with a mixture of fear, anger, and relief as she pushed herself to her feet. She stumbled and caught herself against a tree. Heff stepped forward to assist her, but she held up a hand.

  “I’m fine.” She pointed at Mokosh, who, between gurgling breaths, struggled to reach his good hand to the bloody stump of his opposite shoulder.

  “He can heal himself. Let me finish him off.” She picked up her rock and drew her arm back to throw it at his head.

  Heff stepped in her way. “This is not for you to do.”

  “What?” Kyla would have shouted, but she was still fighting for breath and her voice was tight and broken. “He made me into his slave. He beat me. He was going to kill me!”

  “You are a good little elf. Let the wicked take care of the wicked.” Heff turned and with a mighty swing separated Mokosh's ugly head from his loathsome body.

  Chapter Seven

  The Grootslang’s Lair

  “Please don't leave me here.” Heff laid Hajar on Mokosh's bed. She slid to the ground with a grimace from the pain.

  “But you have your own place. It's all yours now!” Kyla waved her hand around the room. “Look at it! A giant hut. An enchanted clearing that no one can find. You don't have to do chores anymore, if you don't want to. You could fit a dozen people in that bed. Make a bunch of friends and have sleepovers. You’ll have a blast! Come on Heff.” Kyla started walking out the door. Heff hesitated but soon followed.

  Kyla was halfway across the clearing when she looked back and saw Hajar hobbling behind. “I said stay here! You can’t come with us.”

  Heff snorted. “I don’t see the trouble. I can hunt for more food.”

  Kyla gave Heff an icy stare and spoke through gritted teeth. “She kidnapped me and made me into a slave.”

  “Hmm. Shall I slay her for you?”

  “What? No!”

  Hajar stepped forward. “You might as well slay me, instead of leaving me alone. I can't bear it.” She looked like she was going to cry. “Don't you want your magic ring? I'll give it back if you let me come with you. And I can take you to the Grootslang. You want the stone, right?”

  Kyla took a few steps toward the trees, her hands on her hips. “Crab-apples,” she muttered and kicked the ground. “Fine. Get me the ring and you can tag along. Just don't talk to me.”

  Hajar smiled, though her eyes were red, and a tear streamed down her cheek.

  “Come on!” Hajar ran toward the edge of the clearing.

  “Hey!” Kyla shouted before running after her. “Where are you going? Give me back my ring!”

  “I told you, I hid it in one of the trees when you were chasing me. Here.” Hajar stopped in front of a gnarled oak just outside the clearing. She dug a finger into a hollowed knot and extracted the ring, wiping it on her shirt before holding it out in her palm.

  Kyla snatched it and slipped it back onto the middle finger of her left hand. “Fine. Thanks. Now where’s the stone?”

  “Stone?”

  “The black stone, with the writing. You said Mokosh hid it in some cave.”

  “Oh! Yes. That. It’s in the cave of the Grootslang. I’ve never been there myself but—”

  “You’ve never even been there before? How are you supposed to lead us if you don’t know where it is?” Kyla turned away from Hajar. She wanted to scream at her, but Heff was watching and she felt compelled to be civil. It was very difficult, when dealing with Hajar. Kyla forced a smile. “Why don’t you just tell us what you can?”

  “Yes!” Hajar smiled. “The entrance is in the caverns, under the Monolith, near the great stone creatures. The Digans.”

  “How terribly convenient,” Kyla said through clenched teeth. “I guess that’s all we need from you, then. It was nice working with you.”

  “No! Please! I’ll sing for you. It will help you relax.” She looked at Heff. “Is he righteous? My music will hurt him if he is wicked.”

  “He’ll be fine.” Kyla dropped her voice below her breath. “Though I don’t know how you stand it.” She looked around. “Hey, Heff, what did you do with our stuff?”

  The minotaur gestured with his head toward the road. “Hidden. This way.”

  Heff did prove righteous enough to bear Hajar’s singing. The music softened the hard lines on his face as they walked. Kyla too found herself letting go of her hatred for Hajar, despite clutching at her anger as best she could. Time lost meaning while she was wrapped in the melodies, and when the music stopped suddenly the sun was creeping behind the mountains. The familiar peak that marked the entrance to the Digans’ domain was ahead to the left, standing alone on a treeless landscape of boulders that had long since shaken loose from quakes.

  Hajar stood ahead, looking back and pointing forward. “There it is! The mountain, you see? There’s an entrance on the north side to get to the Digans!”

  Kyla nodded. “Yes, I’m familiar with it. Is the Grootslang dangerous? What will it want in exchange for the stone?”

  “I’ve never seen it, but it is a deadly creature. A giant snake, with the tusks and ears of an elephant, or so I’ve heard. Mokosh seldom spoke of it, but sometimes I overheard the giants tell tales. It eats them, on occasion, if it catches them alone, so they must take care when their caravans go by.”

  Kyla shrugged. “I don’t think so. Inga camped here and didn’t have any trouble.” She remembered the attack by Dunkin at this very site. “I mean, not from Grootslangs.”

  Heff snorted. “I shall manage the beast.”

  Hajar smiled. “You slew Mokosh, and he didn’t fear the Grootslang. Though I hate to think such a wonderful beast should be slain. We may find a way to sneak in and take the stone.”

  There was another snort from Heff. “Right.”

  Kyla forced herself atop one of the larger boulders and scouted the stony field with a hand protecting her eye from the setting sun. “How do we find it? Do we have to head down to the Digan lair first?”

  Hajar shrugged. “The Grootslang’s lair is somewhere on this side, I think. I heard in Varis there is a large opening that comes up from the ground, but only visible once you are upon it.”

  “We should camp the night and search in the morning,” Heff suggested, pulling supplies from his bag.

  Kyla nodded, though she wasn’t happy about sleeping so close to the lair. “There’s a giant fire pit we can use just over those trees. It’s where Lug and I stayed the night with Inga the last time I was here.”

  ***

  Marik glanced about Sophrosyne’s chamber as he approached her chair at the center. The decorations were still rather spartan. Four pillars rose from a dais at the center of the room, carved from the same stone as the walls and floor. Garlands of moonflowers wrapped their way up the pillars toward the ceiling. He used to enjoy the aroma, but it was becoming tiresome. The scent now only made him think of Sophrosyne.

  “I apologize. I didn’t realize my odor troubled you so,” she laughed.

  Her mind-reading was becoming an annoyance. He expected a snide comment, but Sophrosyne said nothing.

  “What do you want?” he asked. “I have a lot of paperwork to do. And I thought I was done with my service to you.”

  “Have you already forgotten? I promised you a reward for your help against Erebus.”

  Marik’s heart pounded. Had she done it? He had refused to believe it entirely. His hand caressed the hilt of the sword at his side, which was carved into the shape of the woman he had once loved.

  “You…you brought her back?”

  Sophrosyne rose from her seat and extended her hand. Marik stared at it, wondering if she wanted him to kiss it.

  “No, you twit. Take it.”

  Marik grabbed her hand and she led him to the wall directly behind her chair. She touched her finger to the wall and traced a pattern on the stone with her finger. As she dropped her hand back to her side, a section of the wall slid back several inches and then rumbled to the side, revealing a doorway
. She pulled him into a small room lit by a light orb. Shelves covered in odd artifacts lined the walls. There was an engraved golden horn, a codex of round metal plates, and a few familiar black stones that looked much like the one Kyla had turned in to Elial last year. Other fragments of the same stele.

  There was a door on the opposite side of the room to which Sophrosyne pulled him. He wanted to look at the strange fragments, but the realization what she was offering recaptured his focus. Sophrosyne opened the door and bade him walk ahead. He stepped into a back room lit with a blue light. A white bed, obscured with a veil, lay across the opposite side. On this bed was a woman. A familiar woman. A beautiful woman, with platinum hair cascading over her shoulders, and unblemished skin glowing in the dark light. Her eyes glistened silver-blue. She sat up as Marik entered.

  “Carmin!” he breathed. He wanted to run up to her, and embrace her, but something held his feet in place. She couldn't be real. Carmin had died years ago, and this woman was the same age as he had last seen her. Yet Nyx - Sophrosyne - had great power, and he did not know the extent. Desire for what he now saw tried to convince him of the miracle, though his mind was hesitant to fully believe.

  “You are Marik,” she said in a voice like wind chimes. “I remember you. You took me to Lake Kalesh, and to the Valley of the Lark. I have only a few memories of my life, and you are in all of them. Sophrosyne says you will help me remember the rest.”

  Marik choked as Carmin sat up and swung her feet over the side of the bed. He took another step, so that he was close enough to reach out and touch her, but he did not. He was afraid his hand would only meet air and destroy the illusion.

  “Carmin?” was all he could manage to say.

  “Yes,” she smiled.

  He threw his arms around her and kissed her. He sat on the bed and took her by the hand.

  “You look just like I remember you. More beautiful, even.”

  Their eyes met and lingered, but Sophrosyne broke the trance.

  “Kyla’s friend Eunoe has a spare bed in her room. I’d ask her if Carmin can use it for now.”

  Marik frowned. “Why should she stay in the dorms? She’ll stay with me.”

  “There are some things she’ll need to relearn that are best left to another woman.”

  Marik stood over Sophrosyne. His hand moved to the hilt of his sword by habit, though of course he no intention of striking the goddess. “She shall stay with me.”

  “She shan’t. Now stop whining and get her some dinner.” Sophrosyne pressed a coin into his hand. “You know what she likes.”

  ***

  Kyla awoke to the smell of smoke and roasting meat. Hajar was jabbering on to Heff about her life before Mokosh. She had cared for a spring in the woods before her capture and tended to the many frogs and ducks that dwelt there. Heff listened patiently, turning a trio of rabbits on sticks as they cooked over the fire.

  “Good morning!” Hajar chirped as Kyla ran her fingers through her hair. Kyla said nothing and sat up, grabbing a sip from her canteen before crawling out from her blanket and heading into the trees.

  “Where are you going?” Hajar called after her.

  “I’ve got to lay some eggs.”

  She overheard Hajar ask Heff what this meant.

  “Elvish idiom for defecation.”

  After several minutes of solitude, Kyla returned to Heff and Hajar eating their rabbits. Hajar handed Kyla one with a smile: a charred, hairless bunny on a stick. Hajar was still chattering, now asking questions about Heff’s family.

  “What’s your calf’s name?”

  “Minette.”

  “Pretty! And your wife?”

  “Mika.”

  “I’d like to meet them. Maybe we can have dinner when we get back. You want to come, Kyla?”

  Kyla shrugged. She didn’t want to commit to anything with Hajar, but she was getting tired of being left out. “We should get moving. Stone isn’t going to find itself.”

  Hajar furrowed her brow. “Of course not. How could it?”

  They proceeded to pack. Kyla crammed her blanket and pillow in her sack and handed it to Heff. She was bruised and sore but chose to lead. She had, after all, been in the area before. She clambered over the rocks, intermittently looking back to make sure Heff and Hajar were still in sight. They were quiet now. Heff was not sure-footed on the boulders, and his pace was slow. Hajar kept peering into the many nooks and watching as birds and butterflies flew past. Only Kyla seemed the least bit interested in watching for the Grootslang.

  Kyla didn’t see the cavern opening until she was upon it. She was certain it was the right place. There was a hole dug through the stone that curved downward, and in the mouth lay fragments of bone. Dank air wafted from the mouth, carrying a deathly stench. Kyla placed the collar of her shirt over her nose and mouth and motioned for Heff and Hajar. They crept forward, and on seeing the opening Heff readied his axe and took the lead. Kyla fished her light orb from her bag and tapped it on, following behind, and Hajar took the rear. They dropped into the pit to see a mound of bones piled on one side of the cavern’s mouth, topped with a pair of long ivory tusks.

  “Oh no!” Kyla gasped. “Inga’s mammoth.” She felt sorry for the animal, and sorry for the giantess’ loss as Denzig had killed another one of the mammoths when he, Eunoe, and Aspen had rescued Kyla several weeks earlier.

  Kyla banged her knee, and something scattered along the floor. Stumbling forward she saw it was a large canteen, sized for a giant. She saw Heff’s eyes wander to the side, and Kyla followed his gaze. Next to the pile of mammoth bones lay another skeleton. It looked to be that of a giant.

  “Inga?” Kyla wondered aloud. Her eyes welled.

  She felt Hajar’s hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah. It’s nothing,” she growled and shook her shoulder free. “Let’s go.”

  The cavern led into a corridor which was tight and cold and dank and bore the stench of death. This Grootslang must be the most horrible sort of creature.

  “We should have brought Denzig,” she muttered.

  Heff pressed onward. Kyla had to have faith in his strength. He seemed at home here, lurking in caverns.

  “I have an idea!” Kyla whispered as they turned a corner. “Hajar, you said your singing hurts the wicked, right?”

  “Yes! Would you like me to sing?” She seemed strangely perky.

  “Yeah.”

  Heff growled. “You will alert the beast.”

  “Well, sure. But we’ll hurt it. Anyway at least it might make some noise, so we know where it is.”

  “Don’t be a fool. Most creatures are silent when they hunt.”

  “Right. Well, there’s three of us. If we stand back to back to back, we can watch in every direction. When it comes out, we’ll smack it.”

  “We? I’m the one who has to fight it”

  “We’ll call it out for you and you can chop it in the head.”

  Heff snorted. “I can see you have no experience in combat.”

  “I took out…let’s see…an orc, a dwarf, and a human!” She had defeated each with a kick in the kneecap.

  “You have never fought a creature such as this.”

  “Should I sing or not?” Hajar interrupted.

  The blood drained from Kyla’s face as a pair of yellow eyes slid toward them through the darkness. “Might as well give it a shot.”

  “It’s not working! Just run!”

  The Grootslang, neither repelled by nor appreciative of Hajar’s singing, emitted a bellow through its trunk. The proboscis seemed an uncomfortable appendage for a creature whose head was so low to the ground. Mammoths, at least, were tall enough that their trunks had space to hang, but the Grootslang, with its snake-like body and bulbous floppy-eared head, had to raise its trunk as it moved.

  Kyla ducked around the corner. Heff hefted his axe with one hand. The other grabbed Hajar by the arm and pushed her around the corner to safety. Her melodic song was replaced with
gasps and frightened mews.

  “Oh no!” she gasped. “I never knew it was so big. I never saw it. Mokosh was never afraid of it.”

  Heff growled and took a swing with his axe. Kyla couldn’t see the Grootslang from around the corner but heard the disappointing sound of the axe not hitting its target.

  “This place is a labyrinth. We’re going to get lost.” Kyla held her orb behind to see the corridor split to the left and right about twenty paces back. “It may connect to the Digans. We should go farther in.”

  “No, we should get out of here,” Heff grunted with another swing.

  “The way is blocked. You’d have to kill it. Then we won’t need to flee anyway.”

  “You two can run past while I fight it.”

  Kyla dared a peek around the corner. There was a foot or two of space between the Grootslang and the wall. A small shift and its serpentine body would crush her.

  “No, thanks. Do you have an extra knife or something? Maybe I could let it swallow me and then cut it open from the inside, like in the Amazing Tales of Dugger Den.”

  Hajar peered at Kyla through squinted eyes. “I fear that would be harder than you think.”

  Heff was not so tactful. “Don’t be stupid.”

  Kyla knew it was a stupid idea as soon as she said it but was a teeny bit incensed at having it pointed out. “Fine. Then we just keep running down the corridor.”

  Kyla headed for the right turn, but Hajar waited for Heff to disengage from the Grootslang before following. Heff trotted backward, his axe at the ready, as the Grootslang’s great yellow eyes protruded from behind the stone wall.

  “A log!” Kyla shouted back. “I know where we are! We can climb up here.” Hajar came up to Kyla’s right side. “I used this log as a bridge over the chasm. Dunkin fell here. Odd that the Grootslang didn’t eat him.” Though Dunkin had been one of Erebus’ Avowed, same as Mokosh. Perhaps the Grootslang knew to avoid them.