“You tried to enter our forest,” said Llewdon, interrogating his prisoner. “Why?”
“I-I-I was only looking to explore,” said the woman. “Myank told us to gather knowledge in the world.”
“What is your name? And stop trying to struggle. These chains stop you from weaving. I can ask my Incisitor to return if you wish.”
“I am Tarra. I meant no harm,” she stuttered. Neenahwi surveyed the prisoner’s body with pity, seeing it crossed with cuts that had been roughly healed. Was this the work of this Incisitor?
“So, Tarra, you are an apprentice of Myank?” The woman nodded. “I don’t recall seeing you before, but you all seem so alike to me how does anyone tell the difference? What are the names of the others? How many of you are there?”
“S-s-six. Serenus, Ridwan, Kirjath, Wilpert and Jyuth.” Neenahwi’s ears pricked at the mention of her adopted father. She had only just discovered that his teacher had been this Myank person. A name she had never heard of before a few weeks ago. But there had been other students like her father?
“Were they with you?” asked Llewdon. The woman shook her head in answer. “Good. And it is fortunate for you that you are telling the truth. I can tell if you try to deceive me.” His lips parted in a manic smile, his voice softer. Suddenly, he snapped, “Where is Myank?”
Tarra closed her eyes and turned her head, refusing to answer.
“Tell me!” cried Llewdon. “Where has he gone?” Tarra shook her head, unable to look Llewdon in the eye now. Neenahwi’s magic eye, the part of her sensitive to the use of sorcery, saw a tendril of green leap from Llewdon like a sharp needle into Tarra’s breast, creating a connection into her life force. Llewdon channeled that energy into himself, taking it and weaving the threads of magical energy into a thousand tiny sharp nails that materialized and pierced Tarra’s flesh. Neenahwi saw the skin depress under the force of one nail until it ruptured, blood flowing around it.
Neenahwi’s hands went to her face in horror. The pain must be enormous.
With a small movement of Llewdon’s hands, the nails began to push downward, dragging long jagged rips in Tarra’s body. “You are nothing to me girl. I can steal your mana to torment you. Take your own life and use it to give you the most excruciating death you ever imagined. Tell me where Myank has gone, and how he did it.”
Tarra screamed, eyes bulging wide. Her head nodded in agreement.
The marble stone circle appeared again and Neenahwi’s head swirled at the changing scenery and what she had just witnessed. Llewdon was there, along with the other elves from the last vision, though the circle was bare of furniture now. She turned, surveying the edges of the forest, thinking that something looked different… and she noticed with a start that between the trees stood many more elves, keeping their distance from the conversations of their elders.
“Friends,” said Llewdon. “This is a momentous day. The day when we ensure our safety and our future.”
“Are you sure this will work, Llewdon?” asked Gabrial. “We have brought all of our people, even our children, for this undertaking. It can’t all be for naught.”
“I have spent the past year practicing, perfecting what must be done. I know it will work. Together, we will create a golden wall that will keep out all other races, and our home will be safeguarded. Will we step away from this opportunity to finally be protected from the wider world and the chaos it brings?” A chorus of ‘nays’ came in answer. “Good, then let us begin. Stand with your people. I will take only what is needed.”
The elven leaders bowed to each other before walking over to the forest circling the stone slab, taking their place in front of their people. Neenahwi slowly stepped back to the edge of the marble, sensing that something was coming.
Five threads floated out from Llewdon, like yarn on the breeze, attaching to the elders. The threads split thousands of times, arching into the air and snaring the other elves standing nearby until all of the elves were connected to Llewdon. And then he began to draw on the vast well of life force that Neenahwi imagined lived within all of these beings. What power! How could he use so much?
Llewdon shone with a bright white light. One elf fell to his knees. It was one of Thalander’s people, and he called out, “Enough, Llewdon. You take too much. Build the wall!”
“Do not worry, my friend. I take only what I need. When I become a god I shall bring you all back. When I am a god, I will be the ultimate protection for the elves.”
“Treachery!” called Rananon.
“You are mad, Llewdon,” called Gabrial. “Stop this!”
“You mistake my greatness, Gabrial. But I forgive you.”
More elves fell to the floor, some unmoving, some shaking with the tremors, and still the energy flowed into Llewdon.
“I curse you, Llewdon,” cried Fionara. She screamed, and her nose and ears began to bleed. “You, who of all of us is so enamored with destruction. I curse you. Though you have my life you shall destroy no more!”
Calls of ‘I curse you’ swept around the wooded circle, elder and follower crying out.
“Enough!’ cried Llewdon and he pulled the remnants of their life from all who surrounded him, the power moving with such force and speed that Neenahwi felt her ears popping. She watched, distressed, as many thousands of elves tumbled to the ground, unmoving. Llewdon raised his arms in the air, his brilliance intensifying by the second. A beam of light shot into the blue sky, and then, he was gone.
Neenahwi found herself alone. It was eerily quiet. No animals or birds had remained to witness this slaughter. No mothers or fathers remained to keen their lost children. All were dead. She had never seen such a display of magic before. Or the depth of Llewdon’s trickery. She buried her eyes in her hands, hiding from the devastation, wondering why the vision had not ended.
Crack.
Displaced air buffeted Neenahwi. The noise echoed in the empty world. She took her hands away from her eyes, and lying in the center of the marble circle was Llewdon. Broken. Bloodied. And not looking very god like.
The forest closed in on her. The marble became bare earth. The circle was now the river stones she had spent so much time selecting. It had been night here a moment before. Now the sun was shining down from directly overhead. And the buffalo-man towered over her.
“History repeats itself,” he said. “Lessons are not learned. Now, Neenahwi, what will be your role? Do something. Do nothing. This is your choice.” The buffalo-man turned and walked into the undergrowth.
“Wait!” called Neenahwi. But the buffalo-man had gone.
She had lain curled up in her stone circle for some time after the buffalo-man had deserted her. At first her thoughts went back to the revelations around her birth and the possibility of Greytooth being her father. It seemed her father issues began earlier than she recognized? She knew that Sharef was still her father. He was the man who had brought her up. Greytooth had always been there for her too, like a favorite uncle. When they had both gone, Kanaveen took on the responsibility of looking after her and her brother, but it was different. He saw her as his chief, as well as a child he had to protect for the memory of his best friend.
Finally she had Jyuth, the ancient wizard who had done more than anyone else to help her discover her talents and to master them. Most importantly, he had been the one to rescue her from Llewdon when they had been captured, risking his life to save an unknown girl. And now he had gone too, slinking off to who knows where and leaving her with this mess of a world.
Neenahwi was struck by the memory of her mother’s face as she had shared the revelation. It was a look of horror. Was it the discovery of her rape by a close friend? Or was her mother now ashamed of her? Not the child of her loving husband as she had thought she was? These thoughts brought back the tears. She cried at the sheer unfairness of everything. Hadn’t she been through enough? Things had been getting better. She had been controlling her temper. Enjoying her studies. And in the space of a few months, her lif
e had been turned upside down once more.
Anger burned away her tears at the thought of the demon possessing Greytooth. Why hadn’t he fought harder? Pieces started to tumble into place. Only now did Gawl’s words make sense, from when they fought in Kingshold. You look so much like her. Damn, she should have left some part of him alive to find out why. Why did Llewdon have him travel so far to her tribe? What was special about them? About her? She should have spared him when he pleaded with her, but killing the destroyer of her people had felt so… right.
Llewdon. Thinking of the crazed elf sparked a burning fire in her empty belly, driving her to her feet. Her fists clenched by her side as she thought on how this had all started.
Jealousy.
Of another man’s achievements. And he was willing to sacrifice his entire people to attain them himself. Tens of thousands of elves died on that day, whole families brought together in the common goal of self-protection, candles snuffed out to make the bonfire bright. And for all that he had failed. His broken body testimony to that. Neenahwi considered the power he had absorbed, unable to process what would be able to withstand such an onslaught.
Neenahwi cursed whoever didn’t finish the job and kill him then. How her life would have been different.
The curse! A thousand curses from a thousand dying souls. You shall destroy no more. Neenahwi didn’t know what that meant, how that had impacted Llewdon; but maybe it had been enough to throw him off his stride at a crucial moment. Llewdon still lived, and he still destroyed. Maybe not through magic, but his armies and agents sowed salt around the world. She was evidence of this.
Two visions, of two different times. And only one thing connected the two. Llewdon.
History is repeating itself. The buffalo-man had said that. Jyuth had written that in his good-bye letter too. And she had a choice; stand by and watch whatever is repeating happen again, or do something about it. She had wanted a purpose. A meaning in her life. Jyuth had pointed her in this direction too, but it had felt like another instance of cleaning up his mess. Now she understood that this was something even greater than her father. She wanted a purpose. And now she had it, though she knew not how to proceed.
“On the spirits of my ancestors, on all of the gods of my home,” she said out loud, “I swear I will kill you, Llewdon.”
Neenahwi threw her head back and let out a great primal scream, a circle of force expanded out from her, breaking her circle, stones sent flying across the clearing.
The ceremony was over. Neenahwi was reborn.
The wolf sat on its haunches, watching Motega and Kanaveen spar. Both were stripped to their waist, the sweat shining on their bodies evidence they had been at it for some time. Both wielded steel shod wooden staves and the sound of parried blows had carried into the forest. The wolf had run with abandon, happy to feel the rush of the air in its fur, all the way to the edge of the trees and this little wooden house.
It trotted over to the two men. Kanaveen had seen the wolf, pausing to look more closely and allowing Motega to strike him in the gut. He doubled over.
“Ufff,” grunted Kanaveen. “Foul, little hawk. Look who returns.”
Motega looked in the direction that Kanaveen pointed and went into the wooden house, returning with a blanket.
The wolf’s image shifted and warped, the air turning hazy and distorted, and out of the miasma stood Neenahwi. Motega wrapped his naked sister in the blanket.
“Hello, sis,” he said. “How are you? Hungry?”
“I ate on the way back,” she said, the taste of bloody hare fresh in her mouth even after reverting back. But the sight of her brother and Kanaveen were a meal for her soul. “Been keeping busy?”
“You could say that. Kanaveen is still beating me five out of ten spars, even at his age.”
Kanaveen poked Motega with one of his sticks, breathing a little heavier than he used to after training. “Watch it. Next time I’ll actually try.”
Neenahwi felt the older man’s gaze on her but said nothing. Kanaveen nodded and then sat on the grassy earth cross legged, beckoning her to follow suit.
“Tell me. What did you see?”
Neenahwi had resolved not to share all she had learned during her time in the stone circle. In particular the revelations of who her father might be. Not yet. She had to… come to terms with it first. But she had questions that she hoped she could get some answers to. “Kanaveen, who is the buffalo-man?”
Kanaveen looked quizzical and shrugged his shoulders. “He was part of your vision?”
“No. He watched over me outside the stone circle. And he knew what the visions were. He was tall, half covered in tight curly fur, and his face resembled a buffalo.”
“I don’t know, Neeni,” said Kanaveen. “I have not heard of such a person before, though I have heard many strange stories of the Quana in the past. It sounds like he meant you no ill will though. Maybe it is a question that will be answered in time.”
“What about you, Motega, did he appear for you?”
“No. Just father. And he’s been bothering my dreams ever since. Did you see him too?”
“No. I saw mother,” she said, ending that line of conversation. “I also saw Llewdon.”
Motega tensed. It was not only her that had suffered at the elf’s hands. All three of them had been captured and taken to the emperor in his city of Fymrius. All knew who was behind the death of their family and friends. Kanaveen nodded, betraying no other reaction.
“That does not surprise me, Neenahwi,” said Kanaveen. “What did you learn?”
“I have to stop him. He killed all his own people trying to become a god. The buffalo-man said history is repeating itself. I have to stop him.”
“What is he going to do?” asked Motega.
“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t know. We have to work that out.” Neenahwi looked directly into her brother’s eyes and reached out to hold his hand. “Motega, get ready; it’s time that we had our revenge.”
Glossary
Groups
Higher Guilds:
Engineers
Law
Merchants
Money Changers
Shipwrights
Weavers
Hollow Syndicate (Unofficial Status)
Lower Guilds:
Artists
Bakers
Brewers
Butchers
Craftsmen
Doctors and Druggists
Ironworkers
Saddle Makers and Tanners
Stonemason
Twilight Exiles (Unofficial Status)
Kingshold Districts and Supervisors
Fishtown - Eldrida
Warehouse - Gonal
Central Market - Aldo
Docks - Colbert
Garden - Hertha
Cherry Tree - Jules
Fourwells - Win
Golden - Geary
Lance - Row
Redguard - Ifig
Whiteguard - Garet
Inner Narrows - Dyer
Outer Narrow - Lud
Four Points - Lowell
Garmond - Yetta
Bottom Run - Denley
Woodton - Odam
Randall’s Addition - Nara
Arloth’s Acre - Paine
Beggar’s Point - Medwyn
Cast of Characters
AIOLA: Sister of Florian
ALANA: Palace maid, sister to Petra
LORD AMPHREY : Former friend of Eden
ARGO: Student at the Hollow House
ARTUR DANWEAZEL: Merchant, dealer of under-the-table wares and giver of extraction jobs to Motega, Trypp and Florian
AYMER: Dyer’s friend
BARRAG: Student at the Hollow House
BEKAH: Fence and dealer of fine objects. Resident of Carlburg
CARLISS: Pirate in charge of the galley slaves aboard The Scythe
LADY CHALICE : Managing partner of the Hollow Syndicate, rescuer of Neenahwi
and Motega
CREED: Wannabe pirate, friend of Karr
DIBBLER: Purveyor of pies
DORIEN: Student at the Hollow House
DUBH: Pirate of The Icicle
DUKE OF NORTHFIELD: Brother of King Roland, Pienzan duke
DUG: Squad member of the Ravens
DYER: District supervisor for The Inner Narrows
LORD EDEN : Savior of Redsmoke, war hero, richest man in Edland
ELIZA: Wife of Lord Eden
FINABRIA: Originally of Ioth; student at the Hollow House
FIONARA: An elf
FLATHEAD: Squad member of the Ravens
FLORIAN: Friend to Motega and Trypp, originally introduced by Jyuth. Veteran of foreign wars, including the liberation of Redpool, mercenary for hire
FOLA: Leader of a cleaner squad
FORGER: Elected leader of the dwarves of Unedar Halt
GABRIAL: An elf
GARRELONT: Sheriff of Stableford
GAWL TEGYR: Bearer of Light, Bringer of Peace, Ambassador of Pyrfew
GILSTRAP: Captain of the pirate ship The Icicle
GREYTOOTH: Shaman of the Wolfclaw clan
LORD HALTON : Former friend of Eden
HRODEBERT: Necromancer and entrepreneur
JILESA: Student at the Hollow House
JOE: Squad member of the Ravens
JULES: Owner and landlady of the Royal Oak
JYUTH: Wizard, founder of Edland, adopted father of Neenahwi
KANAVEEN: Wolfclaw champion and protector of Neenahwi and Motega after the flight. Lives in the wilderness of Edland.
KARR: Pirate
KOLSEN: Pirate King
KYLE: Chiseler of Unedar Halt
LLEWDON: Emperor of Pyrfew, wizard, ancient, elf
Tales of Kingshold Page 23
