by K T Durham
Kaelan grinned as he clapped along. “Well, I look forward to seeing Aron on the field,” he declared with a competitive twinkle in his eye. She clapped and whooped, sweeping her eyes over the arena for Aron. And there he was, being thrown into the air by his teammates. She laughed. He would probably celebrate with the team at the Dunharrow, where Arvellon’s archensoar players hung out after a victorious match, even though being under 24 meant that all they could drink was dragon-honey ale.
Kaelan looked at her, about to say something. She saw the serious look in his eyes, and she gulped and held her breath. His voice was earnest. “Listen, Elly, I want to—”
Then a voice as deep as the Ancient Wells resounded in her head. Ellanor, come at once. We are waiting. It was the voice of Blaine Isendor, the Vierran. Her tormentor. She groaned softly. “You’ve got to be kidding,” she muttered. Why was she being summoned to the Blue Room again? It was only just over two hours ago that she had emerged from the room feeling battered and bruised following that day’s training session. Grandpapa had given his word that she could watch this match in uninterrupted peace and head home afterwards.
Unless there was an emergency. Her heart clenched. Something must have happened.
Ellanor, do not linger. We must get to the Blue Room at once. You know the protocol.
Yes, I know, Greymore. Just a second.
She glanced up at Kaelan, who was looking at her questioningly, and she mentally pictured Blaine as a punching bag while she pummelled into it. Oh, why, why now? She just wanted to stay with Kaelan. “I’m so sorry,” she said reluctantly. “Umm, I just remembered I have to go and get something done right away. Can you meet me at the willows at the fifth hour?” Surely, she wouldn’t be expected to stay back longer than the fifth hour. It would be close to supper time …
Kaelan smiled. “Sure. Don’t worry. I’ll see you later.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze as if to reassure her that she wasn’t running out on him, then stood up and sauntered through the cheering crowd, half a head taller than most.
Surrounded by the deafening cacophony, Elly closed her eyes and wondered what might happen if she teleported to the Blue Room in front of the entire student body. But all citizens of Alendria had to be licensed to teleport, and elflings her age weren’t even supposed to have learned how to teleport yet. She had certainly jumped way ahead of her peers, thanks to the daily, two-hour training sessions which consisted of an intense combination of archery, sword fighting, sparring, flight perseverance, intra-realm teleporting, and enchantment drills that left her worn out by the end of each day.
In the first three months of training, she often broke down in tears from sheer exhaustion and despair during the sessions. Blaine the Vierran was relentless. “Try again, that wasn’t good enough!” he barked so many times that she would dream of him shouting those awful words at her. One withering look from the golden-eyed Vierran would melt her defiance into a puddle, prompting her to get back on her feet even as her muscles screamed at her to give up.
Blaine had not said it in so many words, but Elly gathered that it had taken her much, much longer than the average elfling to achieve the satisfactory level of what was expected of a decent archensoar player, for that was the standard the Order expected her to attain before she embarked on her mission. “We will not send you off to Gaya defenceless and unprepared, like a lamb to the slaughter,” Mr Huerin had said firmly, for once with a serious face.
Despite the physical strain, the exhaustion, the constant berating, Elly had finally begun to see that all the insanely hard work was paying off. Just yesterday, Blaine had duelled with her, and though she had lost (as usual), he said something that was closest to a compliment he had ever offered. “Not bad. You’ll probably survive in Gaya if you aren’t faced with too vicious a foe.” She had not been training in vain, after all.
Sometimes she still had to pinch herself to check that she wasn’t dreaming. Ellanor Celendis, outcast and klutz of Arvellon Academy, had been appointed to retrieve the four orbs of power to save the Tree of Alendria that had been keeping the Beast caged in the underworld. Who would’ve thought?
At times, she was sorely tempted to show off her new combat and magical skills in front of the Three Flamingos, who had been bothering her much less, but only because she wasn’t afraid of them anymore. In fact, they were now more a source of irritation than torment, as they had been in the past. Her experience in Gaya last year and all that had transpired since then had transformed her from a timid and stammering girl to … well, Elly wasn’t exactly sure what she was now, but she was certainly made of stronger stuff than before.
But the Order demanded that she keep a low profile and not breathe a word about her training to a soul, apart from the ones who were already privy to the situation. Besides, she had sworn on the unbreakable Oath of Silence, so she could not disclose anything of her mission in Gaya to others outside of that privy circle.
Now, in the deafening uproar of the arena, Elly glanced up at Lorelana and Morganai, who were trying to find Darrius. It was too bad that she couldn’t put them in their place with her new skills. So she walked through the crowd and out of the arena as calmly as she could.
Once she got away from the noisy arena and checked that the coast was clear, she leapt up and flew the length of the corridor all the way to the Blue Room. She smiled as she brazenly ignored the No Flying in Corridors sign. She had been building up her stamina for long-distance flying, and her endurance had improved significantly. If she had to fly all the way from London to the Dominican Republic, surely she would now be able to make it with only one pit stop along the way, without passing out from exhaustion. But then it occurred to her she wouldn’t need to fly; she would just need to teleport. She grinned to herself.
At the tall white doors of the Blue Room, she didn’t knock. Telepathy with members of the Order was yet another skill she had been honing. In the past, she had only been able to engage in telepathy with her family members, mostly her little brother, Luca, who loved teasing her and made sure her parents didn’t hear half the stuff he would say to her out loud.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. I’m here.
Come in. It was Blaine’s unmistakable voice.
She quickly looked left and right before pushing the doors open, which then closed silently behind her as she stepped inside. This time, the room was shrouded in shadow. The curtains had been drawn, shutting out the fading sunshine. The four members of the Order all turned towards her.
Grandpapa smiled and winked. But she could see the dark shadows under his eyes. Mr Huerin, jovial as ever, grinned and gave her a wave, and she smiled at him. Mrs Silverwinkle and the Vierran abruptly stopped speaking in low voices.
Elly bowed deeply. “Greetings,” she said respectfully, wishing she didn’t have to see them so soon following that day’s training session. They all nodded back. Then she frowned. “You didn’t watch the match at the arena?”
Mr Huerin chuckled and stepped away from the large oak desk, revealing the earlingrand that was levitating several inches above the wooden surface. He gestured to the shining, oval-shaped mirror. “It’s nowhere as good as watching the match live, but it was the next best thing. We’ve had to meet here for the duration of the match to consolidate the intelligence we’ve gathered.”
Elly blinked. “Intelligence?”
Mrs Silverwinkle – her heroine, Larabeth Goldberry, the most renowned female explorer in the history of Alendria, and the headmistress of Arvellon Academy – spoke up in her soothing voice. “We just received it, Elly.”
Her heart dropped to her stomach. Greymore rumbled with understanding. It is time for yet another adventure, Ellanor.
She swallowed hard. “You mean…”
Grandpapa nodded. “One of the Four Guardians of Gaya has finally responded.”
The High Council, which included members of the Order, had b
een sending signals to Gaya for the past year in hopes that they could reach the Four Guardians of Gaya who could help them restore the four poisoned luthains and restore the Tree to its former state. Meanwhile, the High Council had been channelling their own powers to keep the Tree alive. It was an enormous undertaking that would eventually kill them if the Tree did not get restored.
Elly bit her lip. “How long do I have?” she asked hoarsely, regretting she hadn’t just stayed with Kaelan at the arena. What did he want to ask her before she stupidly interrupted him? Her heart dropped further when she thought about Aron and her family.
Grandpapa put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You have to leave at the next full moon,” he said gently, as if trying to soften the blow. Having memorized the lunar calendar by heart, she quickly did some mental calculations and gulped. That was in two days!
Blaine nodded, reading her mind. “Your griffin is all set to leave with you. We had to get him prepared, so he can get accustomed to his new form before he goes off to Gaya.” At this, he retrieved something from a wooden box behind him. He opened up his hand, and there sat a very grumpy-looking hamster with light brown fur speckled with darker patches. The hamster was glaring straight at her, its little paws clenched at its sides, looking utterly disgruntled.
Elly gasped. “Marlow!” she cried. In response, her griffin-turned-hamster attempted to growl, but what came out was a high-pitched squeal. Upon hearing his voice, the hamster turned pale and turned his back on Elly in a huff. Marlow was considered a deviant griffin, as he was mute; had been from the time he was found in the Celestan Forest by her papa, Sereth. Marlow had insisted on accompanying Elly on her next mission to Gaya, even if it meant he had to bear the insult of being transformed into a lowly hamster.
Dumbfounded, Elly stood there staring at Marlow the hamster as the reality of what was happening slowly started sinking in. The wheels had been set into motion. And she had to go along for the ride, whether she liked it or not.
CHAPTER FIVE
Partings
It was all happening too fast.
It had only been three days ago that Elly was wondering when she would be summoned to Gaya. Every day this past year had been the same: the tension, the expectation, the temporary relief, and then mounting tension again. And always, growing more insistent all the time, hovered the question of why nothing had happened yet. Why had the Four Guardians of Gaya not reached out to them?
Elly had been secretly proud of the idea of being chosen for such an important mission, excited about the idea of going back to Gaya. But now the reality was upon her, and it was the last thing she wanted.
She was absolutely terrified.
Grandpapa tried to address her endless questions. “Blaine suspects a vast army is being bred in the underworld. If this is the case, the Beast will be summoning all its powers to do so. But there is a trade-off, which works to our advantage – if the Beast has indeed been summoning huge power reserves to breed a vast army, then it would be regenerating even slower. Hence, it will take the Beast longer to overcome the Tree by force.” He smiled. “Even the Beast cannot have its cake and eat it too, as the popular human idiom goes.”
“You mean, the Beast can’t simultaneously breed a large army of goblins and regenerate at the same rate?” she asked, frowning.
Grandpapa nodded. “Yes, Elly. Great power often comes with great sacrifice. For the Beast, strengthening its offence may be foremost on its mind. After creating an army large enough to help it annihilate Alendria, the Beast may then focus fully on regenerating.” He paused. “But we have not been idle in the past year. On the contrary. What we may lack in numbers, we will make up for with our weaponry, defence, and strategy. You shall see.”
Elly didn’t want to see. War was the last thing she wanted to befall her homeland, her people.
Truth was, the Order had not expected it would have taken this long for the Four Guardians of Gaya to make contact. In hindsight, the past year had gone by in a blur. She had anticipated to be summoned to Gaya much sooner. But now she was glad that hadn’t been the case. She really needed that time to gear herself up for the task.
The High Council had issued a public announcement that Elly would be sent off to Gaya on an expedition as part of fulfilling her special scholarship as an explorer in the making. “It’s important to nurture young talent early on,” they announced grandly. It was all a charade, of course. To keep up the pretence, Elly was supposed to take her qualifying exams just like every other student. “But what if I can’t make it back in time to take the exams at the end of the school year?” she demanded, thinking that she had no idea whether the Four Guardians of Gaya would restore the orbs in a timely manner. Perhaps even the first Guardian she was about to seek out would elude her for an entire year or longer …
But Mrs Silverwinkle had smiled in her reassuring way. “Do not fret, Elly. We’ll deal with it when we cross that bridge. For now, it is vital to keep up appearances. To the public, you are being sent off to Gaya for an educational purpose. It is common knowledge that explorers are far and few between. We need people like you to serve Alendria. As long as the public is given a feasible explanation, they shouldn’t question what we’re doing with you. They’re in no position to complain, really. Would they send their own children off to become explorers? Would they take up the task themselves?”
Ever since Elly had returned from her adventure abroad, she was treated less like a leper and more like an oddball outcast. Even the Three Flamingos had stopped tormenting Elly with the mention of her grand-uncle’s name, Idril Gailfrin Celendis, who allegedly betrayed the elves to the goblins during the War of Wrath five hundred years ago. But Darrius still liked to call her Raven, the black bird of ill omen, as an allusion to her ties with her notorious grand-uncle …
The Three Flamingos had been throwing her dirty looks at school in the past two days. Darrius, flanked by Morganai and Lorelana, had approached her during break time yesterday with a scornful look as she leaned over and whispered, “So, you think you’re something special now, don’t you, Raven? Don’t go deluding yourself into thinking that the High Council thinks you’ve got some special talent. It’s just that nobody wants to become an explorer. It pays so poorly.” She laughed, followed by a cackling Morganai and Lorelana.
Elly had just raised her eyebrows at them. Getting snide remarks from Darrius was the least of her problems these days. So Elly responded by snubbing them, a silent “I don’t care!” She stood up and calmly walked away, ignoring the Three Flamingos’ indignant stares as she glanced around for Kaelan, who was nowhere in sight.
Two days ago, after the meeting in the Blue Room, she had to cut short their meeting at the weeping willows. Breathless from her sprint to the willows to meet him at the fifth hour, she had tried to explain. “I’m so sorry, but an urgent matter has cropped up, and it turns out I have to go home right away. Can we talk later?” She was worried he would be offended for running out on him a second time. But he merely nodded.
“Don’t worry, Elly. Whatever it is, just tell me later.” Gratefully, Elly had promised to meet him the following day. She wondered if anything ever fazed Kaelan. He always seemed so calm, so unflappable.
Telling Aron had been the hardest. At the Meridien Meadows, he fell silent when she broke the news to him. Since they were children, he had always been an open book to her. “Why so sudden?” he asked, kicking a pebble across the grass.
She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t have any control over when I have to depart to Gaya. The High Council says it’s time to go – it’s time to go.”
His face was stony. “But at such short notice. They should at least give you more time to say goodbye,” he muttered.
Elly didn’t know what to say. Then, after a few moments, Aron started talking about the archensoar match against Lorne and his victorious granduin, and how he would surely “beat that Kaelan off his high
griffin.” Bewildered, she went along with the conversation.
For a long time, Aron had sensed there was something Elly wasn’t telling him. Though the better part of him knew he should give her space and accept she had to keep certain things discreet for a good reason, the other part of him – the part that stirred up strange feelings he could not quite understand – hated that his best friend kept secrets from him. If only she knew how hard he had worked to improve his archery skills, to get to where he was now as a hawk-eye for Seaul … to be a worthy rival of Kaelan, who was touted as the best hawk-eye Arvellon had seen in over a century.
Elly didn’t like keeping secrets from him. But she had sworn on the Oath of Silence before the Order, a powerful, binding enchantment that only the ranks of her Grandpapa and the Vierran could cast. The Oath ensured she would never tell a soul about her true mission to Gaya. Her family, by turns, also had to swear on the Oath. Even innocent Luca, who had little idea about what was going on. They just could not risk anybody finding out, as the truth would cause an uproar in Alendria. “When your homeland is thrown into panic mode, very little can be constructive. We need to maintain the illusion of peace for now, and behind the scenes we must do what it takes to win back real peace for good,” Grandpapa had said when Elly asked him why the citizens of Alendria had to be kept in the dark.
Last night, Elly was going through her Royan to double-check that she hadn’t missed equipping anything when she heard an unmistakable “Psst!” She smiled even before she darted to the window and saw Aron looking up at her from twenty feet below. They had been next-door neighbours since they were born, and they would often sneak into each other’s rooms at night if either one was burning to tell the other something, whether it be a joke one had forgotten to share during the day or juicy news one couldn’t wait telling.
