Below the Peak (Sola)

by Juliet Lili

  Both were at full speed when they suddenly pulled their steeds to a jerking halt. Three rough looking elves wearing clothes that have seen better days, and carrying gunny sacks stood on foot in front of them. Calemir let his eyes run over them, two thin, dark haired elves one boring a scar on his jaw and one with red haired. All men. The description fitted perfectly with what their terrorized victim described. Behind their smudges of dirt and sleep, deprived faces were young looks. Younger than he thought.

  “What you got there, mates?” Calemir pointed with his chin toward the gunnysacks.

  “Get lost!” one of the dark-haired spat. Calemir leveled his gaze at him, giving him a once over. “I’m just asking kindly,” he lightened his tone and taking a passive act, “Not looking for trouble.”

  The red haired cursed, “It’s none of your damn business so get lost.”

  Calemir dropped the friendly façade, his voice hardening. “Did you three robe the house up there?”

  They jutted their chests and tried to stare him down, except their eyes betrayed their fear and anger. They had been caught and were now terrified what would happen to them.

  “Why don’t you drop everything you stole and run back to the mountains” he commanded.

  “You are in forbidden on these grounds” Leena warned them.

  They jutted their chins and stared at them with defiance. Calemir bristled. His irritation grew when the red haired drew a sword and ran toward them and causing the others to follow suit. He was on the ground in less than a second, not bothering to withdraw his own sword. In one strike, Calemir had the sword from the red hands into his. He looked at Leena from the corner of his eye, seeing the two boys ganging upon her. Fools! He pitied them from undermining her. Too terrified of him, they’d decided to attack someone they thought less threatening. His attention was caught back to the red head when the red head growled and attacked him with a kick. He dodged the kick and delivered a punch into the man’s stomach, knowing it was going to hurt badly. His attacker folded forward into his stomach, knees buckling to the ground as he groaned.

  “Scram” Leena hissed at the two boys sprawled on the ground. Stumbling and tripping on their feet, the two dark head boys scurried once when their knees stop buckling, leaving the gunnysacks behind.

  Anger surged in Calemir’s blood when the red head stumbled to his feet and reached behind him only to withdraw a dagger. “Do you want to die?” Calemir asked.

  “I do not fear death.” And it was the truth, Calemir couldn’t sense any fear in the boy.

  The boy’s lips curled and approached him again with new purpose, his jaw set and eyes narrowed.

  Calemir spared no punches this third time, no longer feeling merciful toward him. He struck at the boy. The boy hit back, and they went at it for a minute or two until when the boy struck the blade toward his head, managing to nip his ear as he dodged it, he butted headed the boy hard. The boy stumbled back, his back hitting the tree and slid down to the ground. Calemir strode toward him and crouched to his level. “Had enough?” his tone harsh.

  Body depleted of strength and bruised, feeling dizzy and eyes seeing stars, red head dragged his bleeding head up and looked at Calemir straight into his eyes, his face twisting in disgust as he did so. “Does it make you feel good to know the impoverish lives people live in the mountains? Hiding in caves like hunted animals?”

  A vein popped on Calemir’s temple as a sickly sensation crawled over the span of his skin and massive guilt knotted his stomach. Malice infused his voice when he said with a low voice. “I am not the one who decided to start a war, your fathers and mothers did and they have to pay the consequences.”

  Mouth twisting, the boy, spat at him. “Keep telling your conscience, it’s only thing helps you justify your killing of us,” and lifted another dagger he had been hiding behind him toward Calemir’s chest. Calemir blocked it with ease, catching the boys hand. Yet, the boy ground his teeth and using the last of his strength pushed back the dagger toward him. The distance between the two elves was just a few inches from one another.

  “You’ve lost, give up and run back to your friends” Calemir hissed as he kept the red head’s hand pinned in the space between them.

  “No” was the boy’s reply and like he was suddenly filled with new energy, he pushed up with his chest and hand back hard, managing to move the dagger near Calemir’s chest. Calemir grabbed him by the wrist and twisted the weapon back to him, and pressed it into his chest. The boy slumped back unto the tree, hand holding the tilt of the dagger as blood started to spread over his grey tunic. Calemir watched with hard eyes as the boy coughed and choked on his blood.

  “You should know, my father was there…” the boy gurgled. “When your brother died…he saw it all…” the boy gasped, struggling to breathe.

  “What of Tarron? what did your father see?” Leena questioned. The crunching of leaves told him she was drawing closer. Panic entered Calemir’s eyes, his skin growing cold “you-” he thrust the dagger all in and snapped the boy’s neck before he could finish what he wanted to say.

  “Why did you do that for?” Leena asked, annoyance evident in her tone. “He could’ve told us who killed him, perhaps the boy’s father knows who did it.”

  The hair on his nape stood, Calemir’s face paled with fear. Heartbeat pounding in his throat, he clenched his fist until his knuckles whitened with strain. He slowly rose from the crouch, keeping his back toward her so she wouldn’t see the guilt convicting him. He forced his face into a stoic expression as he struggled to maintain a grip on what he was feeling.

  “I ended his misery, spared him the slow suffering” Calemir spoke once he found his voice, marching toward the gunnysacks.

  “He clearly knew something, if you could’ve just let him finish what he wanted to say-” Leena retorted. Calemir frowned, hating her persistence at this moment. She never quit once she set her mind on something. A good trait of hers and one he despised at times such as how she was still in search of his brother’s killer. If only she knew the man responsible is the man she was currently talking with. However, the horrific reality was one day maybe not today, tomorrow or next day or hundreds of years from now, he knows the truth would be revealed. If he weren't going to do the honor after shame, pain, anger and guilt consumed him, then another person would. Might be his father, might be a stranger. Who darn know? There were hundreds of soldiers that day.

  “Then what happens when you find the murderer?” Calemir snapped, cocking his head toward her, “Have you never thought the killer might be dead, Tarron himself might have killed him before he died?” he let his anger out instead to hide the fear and lies he kept. “There were dead bodies around his body when he was found, and his killer could’ve been among them.”

  The air strained around them

  Leena’s face tightened, her eyes filling with pain that’s only caused by the intense grief of someone you loved. He realized he’d hurt her, so he focused back on pulling clothes from the gunnysack. Leena took a deep breath, “I know what my guts tell me Calem” she insisted coolly, swallowing past the pain of the wound he just inflicted deeper by his sharp words. “His killer is alive, and I’m going…”

  “I understand you cared for Tarron, and his death hurt” he interrupted her, “… but remember he was my brother and he meant a lot to me too. I want his soul to be at peace and what you’re doing isn’t letting him go” he said tiredly. She stared at him intently, brows burrowing and gaze dropping she murmured. “Forgive me, my selfishness makes me forget sometimes he was your family…just forgive me.” Calemir nodded grimly. Silently the two covered the boy’s body with the clothes he pulled from the gunnysack. Taking a step back, they murmured the light prayer. An elf receives light from Faethurin and when the elf dies, a prayer is said to return the light to the giver or else is the light is forever trapped in the vessel which is the elf’s body. A white light emerged from the boy’s body into the air, it lingered for several minutes then dissip
ated like smoke.

  Not a word to another, Calemir and Leena mounted their horses and continued to their destination.

  Home sweet home, Calemir thought without much enthusiasm. A house shrouded in darkness and loneliness was all he needed. Blackness and silence welcomed him when he pushed the oaken doors and stepped inside the house. Not needing light, he stomped up the stairs, straight to his room. Jarring the door open, his legs with their own mind dragged him to the cabinet at the far end of his spacious room. He grabbed the glass bottle filled with hard liquor. He moved to his bed and sat on the edge of it. Taking the wood stopper from the rim of the bottle, he tipped the bottle to his mouth. He gulped the sour and bitter liquid. His chest and throat burned. He gulped some more and more, welcoming the burn. He needed it to numb the torturous pain clawing in his chest and mind. He took several swigs until there’s nothing left in the bottle as he tipped for another drop. Cursing, he threw the bottle on the bed. As nausea rolled in his stomach, his whole skin, body felt alight as if someone dosed in him in oil and set him on fire, only that he was alight with terrorizing emotions. Anger, jealousy, shame, sadness, guilt, pain, hurt. It all antagonized him, crushing in drowning torrents. He brought his palms to his face and burrowed in them.

  “Forgive me Tarron” Calemir cried silently.

  A shadow hovered in his doorway. Calemir froze and stared at the shadow almost touching his boots illuminated by the moonlight spilling from the un-curtained window of his room. A small wave of panic rippled through him. Had he said too much? Did the intruder hear his confessions?

  He drew a shuddering breath then lifted his head, finding Nara standing by the door. Surprise flickered in his eyes. What did she want? His eyes traced over the traces of her long raven soft hair, round face, smooth skin, soft lips and beautiful honey eyes. He noted the tensing of her shoulders, clearing making her uncomfortable yet his eyes continued their journey down to her blouse and trousers and stopped at her bare feet. His eyes crinkled at the corners as they lingered to admire her feet. He surely must be drunk that he found her feet pretty. He lifted his gaze back to her face, finding unblinking piercing eyes looking at him. There’s bravery in them like it had taken everything in her to hold his gaze. Her eyes were also invasive, unnerving as if they knew every dirty deed he has ever committed. It made him feel ill. “What is it?” his curt cut through the blackness in the room.

  “How do you kill the cursed spirit?” Nara asked.

  “You come into my room uninvited, and you ask me such question?” he stood, taking the bottle from the bed.

  What should she ask?

  “I’m sorry, the door was open, so there was no reason for me to knock” Nara began to apologize, her gaze following him as he strolled to a cabinet and placed the glass bottle in. He closed the cabinet, and moved toward her and posed just an arm’s reach away from her. She regarded the way the harsh white light of the moon painted his strong jaw, sharp nose and thick eyebrows. With his fair hair pushed back behind his ears, he seemed taller and broader than ever. His green eyes held a predatory light as they peered at her. Nara’s stomach fluttered.

  “Why do you want to know?” His brow arched slightly.

  “I want to kill them” she spoke honestly.

  He chuckled humorlessly. “You’re not serious.”

  “I am” Nara deadpanned.

  Calemir’s pressed his mouth into a hard line, his expression inscrutable. He felt the bleakness fighting for him slowly. “You’ve finally decided to return back to your home, and you’re planning on how you’re going to get through the border?

  Nara frowned. Cannot he just tell her?

  Fed up already living in this haunting house with a murderer? Calemir bitterly mused, taking her non-response as a reply. Somehow Calemir felt disappointed that she wanted to leave. Her choice shouldn’t affect him knowing the human never wanted to be married to him in the first place nor reside with, but it did. “You believe that you can take them down on your own once you know how?” Calemir said cruelly, purposely letting her feel the meanness in words. How pathetic she sounded.

  Nara’s mind reeled back in time, eleven years ago when she had felt small. Small because of the sneer that had been thrown her way by Baz and the rest who’d bullied her. She wasn’t going to be thrown back inside the blackhole of insecurity. She won’t allow him to subdue her into inferiority. Nara’s nostrils flared. Nara clenched her fists on her side, gaze narrowing in rage.

  “What I do is none of your concern. Now tell me!” Nara gritted, her breath coming out harshly. Her teeth clanked violently when his sensuous mouth twisted into a sinister grin. “Or what?” Calemir taunted her. “What are you going to do if I don’t?” he goaded. The dark side of him that he locked deep within reared its depraved head growled and snarled. It wanted to retribution for being punished for transgressions he had seen no wrong of committing. He wanted someone to punish. The human posed to be one sweet prey.

  “Why are you cruel?” Nara demanded. She didn’t understand where this nastiness was coming from. So far, they had been living together civilly despite their differences, respected his personal space and life. She hadn’t done anything to procure this spite.

  “Have you mistaking me for something else?” Calemir’s low, eerie voice sent a shiver down her spine. Calemir smacked his lips, tilt his head to the side, his darkening eyes devouring her. “Ah little human, so naïve and stupid.”

  “You are an arse” Nara hissed, despising him with every fiber of her being. She glared, eyes shooting daggers in his direction. Angry at him. Mad at herself for being a fool to forget the evil nature of the elves. Suddenly, it started as a fever would, a light tremor, heating of the body, her skin flushing. A red haze swirled in her skull, making her momentarily dizzy. Her muscle tightened as a sudden rush of anger washed over her. She wanted to hit something, inflict pain and kill. She was mad at him but this anger…rage… it bored no reason nor a cause she could attribute to. It felt invasive and foreign. It was dark, dark like the jealousy she had felt when she had encountered the nykr.

  “Stop!” Nara hissed at him. “Whatever you are doing to me, stop it!”

  Calemir blinked, stunned at her perceptiveness. He indulged in the torment he was causing her. Her suffering to control the rage he was feeding into her mind. His eyes glazed in pleasure, his skin heating as the vein on his neck pulsated.

  “I’m not afraid of you.” Nara snarled, nostrils flaring. “I will hurt you if you don’t stop this now!”

  Calemir didn’t stop, the monster in him wanted more after being deprived for so long. Hence he unleashed his unbridled hunger, enjoying the fury displaying on her face and body. Caught up in irreverent indulgence, he didn’t see the fist she had thrown until it hit him square in the jaw. His head whipped to the side. He blinked, the haze leaving his gaze. Calemir flexed his jaw before shifting his eyes to the brown depths of hers. Perversely her sudden attack quenched his dark desire and made him stop.

  Nara stepped back, her pulse overworking as she felt the fury oozing from her pores, leaving her body. Chest heaving, Nara spun on her heels and left his room. Shaking her head in disbelief, she stomped into her room. She couldn’t believe she had given the benefit of the doubt that he was different and not devious as the tales spoke of the elves.

  ****

  Calemir stared at the opened door, a hollowness burrowing in his chest.

  *****

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  After the night, the following two days Nara stayed clear of Izza’s presence. When the friendly elf talked to her, she shortened their conversation in curt and almost rudely reply. Nara stood and left when the she-elf joined her in the parlor. She refused to engage in the elvish language lessons when Izza offered, citing she wasn’t in the mood to learn. After that Izza only frowned but muttered nothing. Izza also distanced herself, only alerting her when the food was ready and when she was leaving for her home in the evening. The hatred she had of the kind had rekind
led. Nara couldn’t look at the elf without seeing Calemir and what he had done to her. Her body shuddered. He had hurt her in what she considered to be worse than physical assault. To have no control of your own emotion is threatening but having the power to manipulate is dangerous.

  At night, Nara couldn’t sleep, she no longer felt safe, living under the same roof with him, knowing he was only one room away from hers. She dreaded what he might do. Hence she slept with a sword beneath her pillow. Sleepless, she began to suspect Izza too. Her friendliness, was it even real? Or was Izza hiding her vileness behind that warm smile and eyes? Nara remained apprehensive as she rested with one eye open through the nights.

  The next day went by in the same slow boring and monotone pace. Nara had been heading to the stable when she caught a glimpse of Calemir entering the house with Finn and Leena. They hadn’t spoken or seen each other since you know incident, but Nara had heard his voice and knew Calemir was around and hadn’t left all two days. Izza had taken food to him both two times of the days. Nara wondered if he was avoiding her, then stopped herself in speculating more into his behavior. She was still pissed at him.

  Back from her ride in the evening, Nara warily entered the house, expecting to see Calemir’s friends lounging in the sitting room or hear them somewhere in the house, but fortunately, they weren’t there. Nara walked into her room and stayed there. She had just finished dressing after taking a bath when Izza knocked on her door softly.

  “I’ve left dinner in the kitchen. I’m leaving” Izza informed her, standing at the door.

  “Thank you.” Nara clipped.

  “Until tomorrow” Izza bid her with a smile then left.

  Izza sucked in her bottom lip, feeling a tinge of guilt of being rude. It wasn’t right for her to take her frustration on someone who hadn't done anything wrong but had been kind at her from the very start. She blew a breath and trudged downstairs to the kitchen.

  She was eating in the dining room when the slight shift of air happened. Nara’s shoulders tensed for a second before relaxing. Nara continued eating the delicious vegetable rice as Calemir stood on the other side of the table. Calemir dragged a chair out before lowering himself on it.