by Brad Clark
Conner’s pace slowed a little bit as it became harder and harder to put one foot in front of the other. Ryshak’s pace seemed to increase, which sent a wave of anger through Conner. Could the Elf not see that he was moving too fast for all of them? It was almost as if the Elf knew what was ahead of them and he was anxious to get them there. A hot flash hit him as he realized what Ryshak was doing. Ryshak had been here before and knew what was ahead of them. Alone, the Elf had scouted out the forest, and now he was taking them right into the teeth of danger. Ryshak had proven that he was only out for himself and did not care about any of the others. It was as if he felt he could obtain the Spear of Salvation for himself. Conner knew it was intended for him and he alone would be the one to wield it and save the world. For all eternity, his name would be spoken with awe and reverence as the savior who defeated the Deceiver.
Coming to a stop, Conner drew his swords.
Nikki, instantly recognizing the sound of sword escaping sheath, snapped her head around. “What is it?” she asked, eyes scanning through the forest for whatever danger spooked Conner.
“Stop!” Conner cried out.
Ryshak stopped and turned. “You want to keep it down,” he snapped in a low voice. “We must be nearing the castle.”
“Of course we are!” Conner said, his voice still loud. “It’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re taking us right to them, aren’t you!”
Glaerion stepped towards Conner.
“Back!” Conner shouted. “You are with him, aren’t you? You were the one on watch when they came. What did you promise them?”
“Conner,” Glaerion said. “You are making no sense.”
Conner shook his head as a fog of confusion seemed to be surrounding him.
“We are headed right for the castle,” Ryshak said. “Just like we planned.”
“And what’s waiting there for us?” Conner shouted back. “The ghosts? Did you make a deal with them for our souls?”
Ryshak laughed.
Glaerion took another step forward, concern showing on his face. “Conner, you are not thinking clearly.”
“Oh, I’m thinking clearly. Maybe for the first time, I see things as they are. While Nikki and I were sleeping Ryshak went out and made a deal with these ghosts or whatever they are. And you knew what they were, but you weren’t going to tell Nikki and me. You lied about it, telling us they were wolves. And now we’ve followed you right into their trap. Or your trap! But we’re not going to go any further with you!”
Nikki looked from Conner to the Elves and took a step towards Conner. “I was thinking the same thing, too,” she said. “I just wasn’t sure about it.”
“Put your swords away,” Glaerion said. “We are friends, and no one is leading you into a trap. You are just tired and confused. Maybe it is time for us to rest.”
“Of course it is,” Conner said, eyes narrowing. His head spun around looking through the trees for the ambush that he was certain was about to come. “Is this where it’s supposed to happen, or did I find you out too soon?”
“Where what is supposed to happen?”
Conner turned to Nikki. “Are you with me? Or them?”
Ryshak, sensing the threat growing, drew his daggers.
Glaerion noticed and pointed at him. “Put those away!”
Ryshak shook his head. “Not while I’m being threatened. He wants a fight? He’ll get a fight.”
Nikki drew her swords and rushed to Conner’s side.
“Just like old times,” Ryshak said with a sneer. “Elves versus Humans. This time, though, we won’t be running away.”
Glaerion was directly between them and held up his hands. “Ryshak! Sheath your daggers! There is going to be no fighting! We are companions and friends, not enemies. What has gotten into you?”
“The Human started it,” Ryshak growled.
“And we’ll finish it, too.” Conner took a threatening step forward.
“Conner, this is not like you!” Glaerion said. “You were the one to convince me to trust you. You’ve never once shown any anger towards me or our kind.”
“Well, I’ve never had one of you betray me before!”
“Ryshak did not betray anyone!”
“Glaerion,” Ryshak said. “It’s time for you to take a stand. Are you with me, or are you with the Human?”
Glaerion looked from Ryshak to Conner. Both had their lips curved into snarls and looked ready to kill. Nikki stood next to Conner, stone-faced and ready to fight as well. If it came down to a fight between races, she showed that she would stand with Conner not only because they were both Human, but also they were both Hurai. He would not blame her at all for standing with one of her own kind. However, he was thoroughly confused at the anger that had suddenly popped up between Ryshak and Conner. Ryshak could be difficult, but he was honorable and trustworthy. Plus, he had always been fond of Conner. It was only Nikki that he had ever shown anger towards.
Glaerion turned his back to Conner and said to Ryshak, “Sheath your daggers.”
“Your Human friend threatens me, and you want me to put away my daggers, so I’m defenseless?”
Glaerion turned his head to look at Conner, and he replied, “Conner and Nikki will put their swords away, too.”
“Not a chance,” Conner growled.
Ryshak lowered himself into a defensive stance, preparing himself to fend off any attack from Conner or Nikki. Or both. Conner took the action as a threat and leaped forward, his swords arcing towards Ryshak.
Glaerion, at the moment Conner moved, shoved his hands out towards Conner and quickly spoke the words of a spell that he had saved in his memory. A stiff force struck Conner, sending him tumbling to the ground. With expert precision, Conner rolled over his shoulder and ended up one knee. His eyes blazed with anger. He ran forward again, but another wall was put up between himself and Ryshak. He bounced back a couple steps and let out a shout of anger. He ran forward again, this time bracing himself for the wall that he knew was there. With his shoulder lowered, he struck the invisible wall with as much force as he could muster.
The wall held, but Glaerion took a step backward as he felt the force of Conner hitting the wall. A second time, Conner rushed forward and crashed into the wall. He bounced off with a grunt of pain.
Nikki, watching Conner fail to push through the magical wall, shouted out, “Conner! You need to stop! You cannot get through, and you will just hurt yourself!”
“Let him through, Glaerion,” Ryshak said. “I’ll end this right now!”
Nikki could see that something was not right with Conner. For a moment she had thought that she was going to fight at her side against the Elves, but he was not coherent and had entered some sort of berserker rage. They still needed the Elves to help find the Spear and defeat its protector. Now was not the time to fight among one another. Maybe when they had the Spear, but not now.
She turned to Glaerion with panic in her voice, “Glaerion! Do something before they kill each other!”
“Don’t you see I’m trying?” Glaerion replied.
Conner took several steps back to a get a long running start. At full speed, he struck the invisible wall. Even though his shoulder was down, his head still struck the wall. He stumbled backward and fell on his back. His eyes were closed, and he was not moving.
Nikki ran to his side. She looked over to Glaerion, who was standing open-jawed. “Why would he do that?” she asked.
After collecting himself, Glaerion ran to Conner’s side and kneeled down to be sure he was still alive. His chest was moving up and down, but even a hefty slap across the chin didn’t wake him up.
“It was like he was out of his mind,” Nikki added.
“Yes,” Glaerion said. “I’ve never seen him like this. Anger was controlling him.”
“Will he be okay?”
“I’m sure he’ll have a huge headache when he wakes up, but he should be fi
ne.”
Ryshak walked over and stood over them. After realizing that Conner was not getting up, he sheathed his daggers. “We need to move on,” Ryshak said. “What do we do about him?”
Nikki spun on Ryshak and pointed a finger at his face. “You drove him to this! We can’t just leave him here, and you’re going to carry him!”
As calmly as he could make his voice, Ryshak said, “Maybe they’ll help.”
Nikki turned, and her heart skipped a beat. Glaerion slowly stood up, his hands itching to draw his daggers, but he knew it would be pointless and counter-productive.
Appearing out of the shadows of the forest, skinny men appeared. Their skin was gray and appeared almost translucent. Their arms were long, but their legs were short. None were taller than Nikki, and most of them were more than a head shorter. Their eyes were sunk deep into their skulls, casting shadows across their eyes so that they could not be seen. Scraggly patches of hair covered their bodies, but the tops of their heads were bald. Some had long beards; others had patches of facial hair, but none were cleanly shaven. They walked slowly, mouths tight and jaws clenched. Each held a weapon of some sort. A handful carried battle-axes with dull and rusted blades. Others carried thick clubs with spikes hammered into the ends.
They all came out of the forest in one mass but quickly spread to encircle the group.
“We could use Conner,” Nikki said softly.
“It may not make a difference,” Glaerion replied.
“How much do you have left?” Ryshak asked, referring to the strength to cast spells.
“Some, but not enough to hold for too long.”
“Maybe they’re not going to attack us,” Nikki offered. “They have done nothing threatening to us other than simply watching our camp.”
“They carry weapons, and it looks like they know how to use them,” Ryshak replied. “We must assume they are the reason that no one has ever come out of this valley alive. And if we don’t find a way to get out of this, we won’t come out of this valley alive, either.”
Glaerion stepped away from Conner and looked around at the men who encircled them. In his own language of the Elves, he asked for the leader to step forward. He turned his head as he spoke and repeated himself so that everyone who surrounded them heard him. Some heads twitched, but no one replied. Either he was being ignored, or he wasn’t understood. He let out a long sigh of frustration.
He tried again in Commoner but got no response.
The third time, he went deep into his memories to pull out words of the ancient Elves. Their language had evolved over time, but the original language had been taught to Elflings as a way for them to train their brains. It was a tough language to speak, as the sounds that made up the words were difficult to say. There was a reason the first language evolved because it was not only hard to speak, it was nearly impossible to write. He couldn’t repeat his entire question of asking for their leader, but he was able to produce enough words that might be understood.
If this were indeed an old tribe of Humans, maybe, just maybe, they would understand ancient Elvish. At one time, that was the only language that everyone knew. Humans had their language, but they knew how to communicate with Elves in their language. The language of Humans evolved into multiple different languages, one of which was Commoner, spoken by everyone.
When no one immediately responded, he turned to have Princess Nikki speak in her language, or in any language that she knew, but one single word was repeated back to him.
One of the men stepped forward and repeated the word. “Haktagarta.”
It was similar enough to how he pronounced it. He spoke it with a hard rolling ‘k’, but they spoke with a hard, sharp ‘k’.
Glaerion repeated the word and pointed at the man. The man nodded his head, touched himself on the chest, and repeated the word. Then he pointed at Glaerion and said the word, but in the obvious form of a question.
Glaerion knew it would be confusing if he were to indicate that they had no leader. He nodded his head, touched himself on the chest and repeated the word.
“What is that all about?” Nikki asked to no one in particular.
“Glaerion just told their leader that he is our leader,” Ryshak replied.
“You can speak their language?”
“Yes, well sort of,” Glaerion said. “They understand an ancient Elven language. At least some of the words.”
The man pointed at Glaerion, then at Ryshak, and spoke the word for Elven.
Glaerion nodded his head, repeated the word. He pointed at Conner and Nikki and spoke the ancient word for someone who was not an Elf.
The man rattled off a string of words, but Glaerion could not keep up with what was being said. Glaerion shook his head to try and indicate that he did not understand.
The man’s eyes narrowed in frustration. He touched himself on the chest, then waved his hand at his men and said, “Dahwarvinhollikan”
“Did he just say what I thought he said?” Ryshak asked.
Glaerion repeated the word exactly as spoken, and the man nodded his head.
“What does that mean?” Nikki asked.
Ryshak replied, “It means he is of a race of beings that only existed in ancient legends. The race of Dwarves.”
“Who are they?”
“They are a third race created by the One God. Legend says they walked the earth at the time when the Creator himself walked the earth. It was a time long when dragons flew the skies, and Humans and Elves co-existed. Even the eldest and wisest of Elves thought their race was just a myth passed down as children’s stories. It seems we were wrong.”
“What now?” Nikki asked.
“We need to hope that Glaerion remembers the language of the ancient Elves he learned when he was an Elfling.”
“Right,” Glaerion said, turning away from the Dwarves to look at his companions. As he opened his mouth to say more, the buzz of flying darts hit his ears. Before he could call forth a spell to deflect them, several dozens struck each of them. Desperately, each tried to pull out the darts, but before even two of them could be pulled out, blackness encompassed him, and he felt himself falling.
Chapter Seventeen
Elissa shivered uncontrollably as the heat Myllia gave the stones had gone away many hours ago. If she were able to process thoughts properly, she would have been able to figure out that she had not yet been in the cavern a whole day, but she could not put together coherent thoughts. Her stomach had stopped grumbling from hunger, but she felt an emptiness and weakness about her. If Myllia didn’t return soon with food and water, she would have to decide whether to brave the elements and escape, or just let herself die.
She gathered the strength to stand up and walk to the opening of the cave. Dusk was approaching, and the sun was right in her face. For a few moments she was warm, but once the sun dropped below a distance peak, the cold came back quickly. Looking down, the terrain was steep, but not straight down. She was sure that she could slide down and survive. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have warm enough clothes or fur-lined boots. She didn’t consider how she might find provisions or water. Anything must be better than just letting herself die in the cold, dark cavern.
Movement in the sky caught her attention. There was no moon out, but the skies were clear enough for starlight to give ambient light to the mountains. Some of that starlight leaked into the cavern, which allowed her to see the dark form of a large flying creature. A moment later, a rush of wind blew across her face, causing her to stumble backward and onto the hard ground.
Myllia landed right next to her, bringing with her a rush of cold wind. The dragon looked at her closely.
After a moment, Myllia asked, “You are in pain.”
Elissa could only respond with chattering teeth.
An explosion of light temporarily blinded her, but she immediately felt the heat from the dragon’s breath. The far cave wall glowed red and produced enough heat for her to feel it from where she sat. Forcing
herself to move her stiff muscles, she climbed to her feet and fumbled her way closer to the heated stones. As quickly as the chill left, her hunger returned.
“I’m sorry I was gone for so long,” Myllia said. “I brought you some food.”
Elissa, hearing that there was food suddenly had the energy to stand and move forward. Her heart dropped when she saw Myllia had brought. In the grasp of one of the dragon’s claws was the still form of a small deer. She let it drop onto the stone floor of the cave.
“What am I supposed to do with that?” Elissa asked, stuttering her words.
“Humans eat meat, right?”
“Not raw animals!”
Myllia tilted her head. “Oh?”
“We cook our food!”
“With what?”
“A fire, of course!”
Myllia used one of her sharp talons to slice a deep cut out of the deer’s flank. She then used her talon to toss the meat onto the cold stone floor at Elissa’s feet.
“I can make you a fire, but the stones at the back of the cave should be hot enough.”
Elissa was too hungry to argue or to contemplate what she was about to do. She took the cut of meat and carried it as close to the red-hot stones as she could and then she set it down. Instantly, it started sizzling, and the scent of the meat cooking caused her stomach to grumble.
By the time she pulled the meat off the stones, it was charred on the outside, but she didn’t care. The meat was cooked all the way through and satisfied her hunger. With renewed energy, she went to the cave opening and found a pile of snow that had blown in from the wind. Taking a handful, she shoved it in her mouth, not caring that it was painfully cold. She knew that it was not a good idea to eat snow when she was outside, but it was her only choice to quench her thirst.
“Thank you,” Elissa said.
“You have a child in you that you need to take care of. I cannot let you starve.”
Elissa had moved back into the cave and sat next to the heated stones. Pain came to her extremities as they warmed up. She rubbed her hands together to try and ease that pain.
